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Headcount - wglb
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2010/02/11.html
======
ehsanul
_At one point I entertained the quixotic and, retrospectively, stupid idea of
requiring every employee at Fog Creek to be a programmer..._
The converse (and less stupid) idea is to require every employee at your
software startup to do sales/marketing/customer service. There are a bunch of
great examples of this, but what comes to mind is how the employees at Wufoo
rotate the customer service position daily (mentioned here:
<http://mixergy.com/wufoo-kevin-hale/>).
~~~
illumen
Expect to lose staff if you do this suddenly. I've been at a place where this
was implemented... and in a few months a bunch of people had left. Many
developers at companies just want to do development... and not sales and
support. As usual, changing a culture of a place should be done in
consultation with everyone there.
~~~
ehsanul
Good point. The other, probably better way to do it is to have that kind of
culture from the beginning.
~~~
skmurphy
If you make it clear it's formal part of everyone's responsibility during the
interview process you will likely get a self-selection for the development
team that you are looking for.
------
siculars
What Joel should argue, in addition to "don't outsource programming", is that
one could augment sales and marketing. A sales and marketing team in a major
region like China or Russia could multiply good coding done at home.
If code is the analogue to manufacturing in the digital age, why would one
outsource the manufacturing of the new industrial revolution? It would be like
Henry Ford contracting with Mexico instead of building factories in Michigan.
------
netcan
_US software companies can’t expect to get sustainable advantage by offshoring
software development to cheaper countries. If a developer in Russia, India, or
China costs 50% as much as a developer in Seattle, San Francisco, or Boston,
but software development is only 10% of your costs, you can only get a 5%
advantage from offshoring development._
I assume he's talking about some specific class of company. Anyone know what
it is?
~~~
ordinaryman
For whatever class of company, I am puzzled why is it wrong to assume
marketing and sales cannot be outsourced. Marketing allows work to be done in
flexible timings, for sales and support one will require employees to be awake
at odd hours, specific to their customer's time zone.
And, I have personally seen it being done successfully - not in an outsouring
company, but in an India-based product company.
I believe that as long as there is going to be considerable cost arbitrage to
be taken advantage of, there will be outsourcing. Development / sales /
marketing - anything that does not require direct visit to customer premises.
~~~
dagw
For marketing to be really effective it needs specialist knowledge of both
field and geographic location. There are countless examples of marketing
failures where people simply assume that what works in country A will work
just as well in country B. I wouldn't trust a marketing firm halfway round the
world to know what works and what doesn't in my home market.
------
kiba
The marginal uillity of programmers have an inverse relationship to the
quality of the codebase.
The sale force's marginal utility increased in relative to code quality.
However, all else being equal, it is probably best to hire the best developers
and salespersons you can for your money.
I think this sum up the blog post? Maybe I got the explanation wrong?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Why is .NET often avoided in the startup world? - yulaow
I am a devops who love to explore almost any platform in which I enter in contact and, for this and others reasons, I ever prefer to work in a startup environment and not in a corporate one.<p>So in the last months i was exploring for my first time .NET using c# and, wow, it's an amazing platform! Then I started to look for a job in a startup in which I could learn it better and with more motivation but... it seems no one is using it. I also looked for some startup based on mobile platforms thinking that, thanks to mono, someone is starting to use xamarin products to target the three main mobile os (android, ios, wp) and share some code. But it seems also in the startup world they prefer to have a team for each language/os rather that using that solution.<p>So, after a month of research i am curious to get the real reason behind it. It's because no one like Microsoft 'cause it seems no cool? License costs? Support? Community?<p>I would like to hear your opinions<p>edit: I forgot to say that, in contrast, in the corporate world, i found a lot of jobs in which .NET is used. Almost as many jobs as those who require java knowledge.
======
HillRat
License costs are definitely an issue -- at the enterprise level and in
regards to internal development, there are strong institutional biases towards
MSFT for a variety of reasons (the key driver being that all your employees
have Windows desktops, so adding Windows servers, SQL Server, SharePoint, etc.
isn't much of a leap).
Second, .NET is generally seen as a heavyweight technology that slows
development (the MySpace guys are _still_ flogging that dead horse). Anyone
who experienced multi-megabyte pagestate data with ASP.NET is probably going
to be extremely gun-shy, especially since everyone these days starts out
trying to build "web-scale" apps before they get their first ten customers.
But Stack Overflow proves that you can build huge, responsive, hyper-
trafficked sites on MVC.
Having said that, C# is an absolute beaut of a language; the library support
infrastructure is top-notch; NuGet has filled most though not all of the roles
performed by Maven, &c.; the MVC* frameworks are a joy to work with; and MSFT
initiatives like SignalR are fantastic. As long as your pet technologies
haven't been EOL'd by Server & Tools ( _cough_ Silverlight _cough_ ), then
there's no technical reason _not_ to use MSFT. (For me, there's definitely a
productivity value -- whenever I have to drop back to pure Java from Scala or
C# I feel like I'm trying to run through waist-deep mud.)
The licensing costs are still a significant problem for any startup
(especially since MSFT is crippling lower-priced versions of SQL Server these
days), but if you're a startup the BizSpark program goes a long way to
ameliorating costs for a few years. Perhaps more serious is the fact that many
of the key infrastructure projects such as NoSQL data stores treat their
Windows forks and .NET bindings as second-class citizens at best, and running
them on Windows always feels a bit ... precarious to me.
~~~
alipang
Regarding the nosql, RavenDb is awesome in my experience, using it for a
passive income project that does ok. It's not prohibitively expensive to
license even for me.
~~~
junto
Another up vote for RavenDb from me. I also like MongoDb as well though.
------
aespinoza
We are using it. We love C# so much we built a platform around it. But as a
startup owner, .Net gets expensive because of the Windows dependency. And even
thought mono is out there to run C# on Linux, the company behind it (Xamarin)
only cares about Macs and Mobile right now.
The ecosystem for Mono is also not there, meaning that most solutions focus on
favoring other frameworks like Python's Django, Ruby on Rails, etc. People
prefer to invest more time in open source frameworks and platforms, specially
in the startup world.
In other words, it is easier to create startups in frameworks that have a rich
community and focus on open source. It is not easy (not impossible though) to
create a startup based on a technology that is limited to one platform,
specially when that platform is expensive to operate.
~~~
twotwotwo
So here's an idea: it's in Microsoft's interest to buy, or clone, Xamarin, and
make it work on WP8/Metro as well.
That's because, frankly, platform lock-in is killing Microsoft's chances now
that they're the distant third-place touch app ecosystem, for the same reason
it helped them as the strong first-place desktop OS. App makers will target
the top platform or two, and only those, as long as it's much extra work to go
broader. Solid, free-as-in-beer tools to target WP, iOS, and Android all at
once make it less work to support WP so more devs will do it.
Having built or acquired the tech to run .NET off Windows, maybe they should
release some more of their ecosystem to make it viable for more startups to
use .NET. Someone small using some free compilers/libraries and MySQL may
eventually be a prospect to buy VS and SQL Server. (And whether they ever sell
these startups anything or not, folks releasing .NET libraries make the
ecosystem more attractive.)
Who knows; they decided Azure should support Linux and Office should be on
every platform, so anything's possible. Times have changed and maybe the
argument for closing off ("fully integrating") their dev ecosystem is weaker
now.
~~~
groundCode
>>maybe they should release some more of their ecosystem to make it viable for
more startups to use .NET. Someone small using some free compilers/libraries
and MySQL may eventually be a prospect to buy VS and SQL Server
And there's the thing right there - I don't think Microsoft really cares much
about startups - after all, the success rate is fairly low for startups and it
probably doesn't seem worth it to them to "invest" in businesses that are,
more often than not, going to fail. Putting their marketing budget behind
large corporations and governments is far more lucrative for them.
~~~
junto
Cough...
[http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/](http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/)
~~~
Avalaxy
Not to mention Microsoft Ventures
[http://microsoftventures.com/](http://microsoftventures.com/)
------
staunch
It has numerous _major_ disadvantages (expensive, proprietary, closed-source,
lock-in) and virtually no advantages over a number of other open source
technologies.
I suspect there are very few people who have extensive experience on both
sides of the fence and would choose the Microsoft route for their own
startup/company. It tends to be almost exclusively people who lack experience
with open source alternatives.
~~~
jamespcole2
100% agree, I have extensive experience with both and I would never recommend
.net to anyone. Unfortunately many of the larger companies I do work for will
only use it. In general the SOE of an organisation is usually defined by non-
tech people and "no one ever got fired for recommending microsoft". So I find
that these larger organisations are hobbled by using sub-par tools, hopefully
this will change in the next 10 years or so though.
------
ayers
The startup that I work for is built on .NET using C# and ASP MVC. Licensing
costs were not a barrier/concern as we were part of the BizSpark[1] program.
This gave us free access to all the Microsoft software we needed. We only
recently graduated out of that so it will be interesting to see what affect
that has on some of our future tech decisions/directions.
Visual Studio is an amazing IDE and C# is a top notch language. The price you
pay for that is worth it and shouldn't be an issue for a profitable startup
(which you should be by the time you graduate the BizSpark program). Like
others have said, the bigger issue is that it ties you down to all the other
Microsoft licenses such as Windows server.
I know of other startups that are using C# and .NET and run a mix of Windows
and Linux(Mono) servers. This has forced some decisions for them though, such
as rolling some of their own frameworks/tools that work nicely with Mono.
[1]: [http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/](http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/)
------
mataug
It is mostly because of the ecosystem, due of the proprietary nature of the
.NET Framework not many are willing to put in their personal time to build
libraries and other supporting software around it which results in the lack of
any real community.
Most startups today are well connected with some community or other and to
them .NET is mostly invisible. On the other hand if a person from an
enterprise builds a startup and if they have a .NET background that is when
they try to get into bizspark.
------
speeder
Funny, and I was wondering why so much people still insist in using .NET ...
Personally I avoid .NET like the plague, after learning it first of course
(not for servers, I don't do server side stuff) because of its horrible
windows dependancy, and mono is NOT a adequate substitute.
~~~
Zigurd
About 13 years ago I was writing mobile apps in C# with a toolchain that
didn't crash as often as Eclipse and, at the time, ran about 20X faster, and I
was running those apps on a device with something like a modern smartphone
form factor, although the phone was separate, and using a real-ish browser,
over GPRS, with Windows CE and NETCF.
It's not .NET technology that sucked in the years between when I was doing
that and when Android was released. It was the failure to capitalize on .NET
in mobile.
WP8 still isn't as architecturally elegant as Android. Android's userland is
all based on instances of the Dalvik VM. The CLR does not play that kind of
central role in WP8.
~~~
_random_
Another fun fact is that CLR (well Mono) runs faster on Android then Java.
~~~
Zigurd
Be careful of those comparisons. I expect a port of Hotspot to ARM would beat
the snot out of Dalvik on any synthetic benchmark. It would also use up your
battery doing it.
Dalvik was designed for small battery powered devices from the beginning. In
early versions of Android the advantage it held over Java VMs is that Dalvik
bytecode is (claimed to be) half as big and twice as fast to interpret
compared to Java bytecode.
A useful comparison would have to, at least, take into account battery
efficiency, if not space efficiency, how much you can get away without using
native code, etc.
Then there are issues of how the VM is used. The CLR in Windows Phone is,
AFAIK, not used for a middleware layer the way it is in Android. That is, a
lot of the Android APIs are implemented in Java and run in a Dalvik VM
instance.
------
hkarthik
Simply put, because Microsoft lost two generations of progammers; first to the
web and then to mobile. These are the platforms of choice for most startups
today.
A programmer in his/her early 20s back in 2007 might have cut their teeth on
PHP, while the same age programmer today may have hacked on Android or iOS.
Both are familiar with using Macs or Linux and open source tools that work
with both.
I spent years only writing .NET and the tooling is pretty incredible. But when
I switched to open source the first thing I noticed was how quickly I went
from being the youngest guy in the room to being one of the oldest.
------
jamespcole2
Having been a dev for 10 years, 5 of which were almost exclusively using .net
and the other half using open source web tech I feel like I can add something
to the discussion. I've recently got back into .net for a couple of recent
projects after a few years away from it. First off c# is awesome, it's a great
language.
The main problem I have have with it is the clunkiness of the tools. Windows
itself is pretty poor as a server OS and dev environment(IMHO), it's
unnecessarily heavy, has too many useless features, is difficult to automate,
and more. Powershell is ok but not really as simple/powerful/portable as bash.
SQL server I guess is ok as a db engine but using it is clunky(again feature
bloat really hobbles it). I find getting an environment set up with vagrant,
capistrano etc. with windows much more complex than it needs to be.
Also one of the really noticeable differences is the overall quality of the
community. It's much harder to find good answers to problems when using
.net/Windows than with other environments and platforms in my experience. In
general I find .net devs more interested in maintaining the status quo than
exploring new ideas and tech(massive generalisation but I'm sure I can't be
the only one to notice this). Also nearly every tutorial about modern web tech
is written for *nix environments as the general community support and interest
in .net/Windows seems to be non-existent.
An observation that I've noticed lately when attending tech events and
conferences is that Windows just isn't even on the radar. It's not that people
actively dislike it or openly criticise it, it's just not even considered or
discussed, it's old tech, it's boring, it's clunky.
------
electrichead
There are quite a few startups that use MS but they are largely using it
because of the bizspark programme. I think it is largely to do with cutting
costs and thinking down the road.
It also possibly has something to do with the type of person that decides to
branch out to working in a startup - its my opinion that vested .net
developers are more oriented towards working in the enterprise than in a
startup.
~~~
aespinoza
You have a point to a certain extent. I think the biggest problem is that when
you look into launching your startup, you become more practical and some of
the disadvantages of .Net push the advantages out far.
I know a lot of .Net developers that do launch their startup, but they prefer
to learn a new framework and platform if it is cheaper to operate. Basically
my point is: It is not a type of person that decides to branch out to work in
a .net startup, it is about accomplishing a goal without focusing on
technology.
------
jister
>> it seems no one is using it
or maybe you're just looking in the wrong places like, for example, here in
HN? Here is a list of startups using .NET:
[http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/partners/Startups.aspx](http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/partners/Startups.aspx)
------
joshanthony
I work in a startup that chose .NET for our product and admittedly we only did
it because one of our developers had a lot of experience with .NET. I
definitely wouldn't use .NET a second time, mostly because as a startup I
value open tools and freedom. I started working in startups to get away from
corporate bureaucracy. And now with hindsight I now know that "just because
your dev has experience" is never a good idea to do anything.
On that note - I'm working with PHP's Laravel framework for my next project,
and despite the performance tradeoff it's an absolute dream to work with.
~~~
krapp
What sort of project, and how bad is the performance?
I've got a couple of things cooking with Laravel 4 myself but haven't finished
anything yet. I'm curious about your impressions.
~~~
joshanthony
I don't have any proper metrics but I can say it's not bad at all - only when
compared to C# :P
I built a small system for internal communication (sort of like a an internal
twitter/facebook)
I could not say enough good things about Laravel. It really is the future of
PHP.
The only issue I've had with it is in deployment - because of composer it's a
bit fiddly - I ended up using the PAAS Engine Yard for testing deployment (and
I will use them for proper deployment) because it was super easy with them
(just more expensive).
------
AznHisoka
For me, it's not .NET that I want to avoid, but Windows and other Microsoft
technologies. I feel much more productive hacking in an Unix shell. Simple
things like grepping is a burden in Windows, but an ease in Unix.
------
sahil_videology
I worked for a start-up that was a Java shop. A .NET shop acquired it. Our new
big projects are moving away from .NET and to Java on Linux to avoid the
Microsoft licensing costs. We use hundreds of AWS instances, and the extra
cost of Windows instances adds up.
Personally, I prefer not using Windows simply because I love using the *nix
shell, and I don't see the point in using something like Cygwin when I don't
need the MS stack. However, Outlook on MS365 is quite good.
------
knocte
This has already been discussed in the past [1], and most people agreed that
the reasons are bullshit because, yes, Mono [2] is alive and kicking.
[1] [http://www.aaronstannard.com/post/2010/07/03/NET-Culture-
Sho...](http://www.aaronstannard.com/post/2010/07/03/NET-Culture-Shock-Why-
NET-Adoption-Lags-Among-Startups.aspx) [2] Not Xamarin.
~~~
knocte
s/Not Xamarin/Xamarin too/
------
dpmehta02
Hiring is also a consideration. Young, talented engineers often pick the
latest "trendy" language/framework as their first, so if you're starting a
company and want to hire young talent, you will be at a disadvantage if you
don't use Node.js, Rails, Go, etc.
------
rektide
I get a kind of jQuery feel from .NET, but I haven't been following along for
9 years. By jQuery feel, I mean a fairly uneducated developer base that is
happy to be well served by rote practice and already-engineered tooling. It's
not an engaging or creative work environment, it's a get things done world
where you kind of wade through "solutions" until you cross paths with some
existing code that does whats needed, and use that. There's a bazillion people
around all kind of muddling through with various backgrounds who pop up to
regurgitate whatever tidbits they themselves have picked up. Both jQuery and
.NET do a decent job of providing some componentizing, so you can pull stuff
in without having to understand it. You certainly don't have to understand the
target platform either: the web. RoR has a lot of similarities too in being a
culture that remixes the available, and in hiding the real workings, within
and of the target.
Before losing my sense of place in .NET, I was heavily enjoying alt.net stuff,
largely owing to Boo (Python-alike .NET language with fantastic
metaprogramming, AST, macros). Rather than take the normal webstack with Boo,
I was using CastleProject's MonoRail (Ruby Sinatra alike) + Jayrock
(old+excellent JSON omnibus lib) and Spring.NET to build json rest web-
services. For me, it was easier investing in my client side and web
application skills than it was learning how to dive into the engineered
WebForms and ASP.NET and prototype-era ASP.NET MVC work to make them exhibit
the behaviors I wanted. It was a great environment to code in, I liked the
toolchain I'd come to use, but it was far afield the large .NET world and I
had only scattered groups of practitioners (in these various techs I'd elected
in) to work with & no overarching place to for myself as a developer of this
Boo+MonoRail+Jayrock+Spring.NET thing I liked doing and thought fine.
I tend to believe ASP.NET MVC is probably in great shape by now and serves
getting shit up very quickly. At the same time, I think culturally MS- alike
jQuery, RoR, and let's throw in Apple- remains monocultural, with people
invested heavily in fixed technologies that already define a huge amount of
the experience and whose use won't port "out," (monoglot) and there's not a
creative community base that celebrates those striving & seeking less beaten
paths, the polymaths. The intellectual level of engagement is, in short,
pretty shit, and the community is at end to help the far-ranging. Too many
end-developers (end-users of dev kind), not enough well-motivated, working-
for-it journeymen, and mastercraftsmen far removed and few between, with too
few to sound out the practice with broadly and not situated for helping the
weirder polymaths below experimenting with weird shit. Tall organization, huge
fat base with low minimum bars to entry, and monocultural to boot: death.
Or rather, undeath: sustained, undying yet no longer alive quite either.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
4 Reasons On Why Google Buys Companies - alaskamiller
http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-02-25-n19.html
======
tim2
I'd add one more and split "product" out from "technology." For example,
youtube was simply a better product for the market than google video -- even
though the back-end technology was supposedly worse.
Perhaps there is the assumption that the product can easily change once
google, with its massive resources, acquires the company. Evidence though,
shows that buyouts and success tend more to feature-freeze products.
Oh, one more: legal protection. Again refer to youtube and the liability of
some court ruling against the legal protections that online video sites
currently use.
~~~
mixmax
"For example, youtube was simply a better product for the market than google
video -- even though the back-end technology was supposedly worse."
I know I'm going to get hammered for saying this - but I don't think back-end
code is as important as a good user interface, a well designed site, and a
clear vision. Your users don't get to see the back-end code, and they don't
really care how it works. And servers and bandwidth are cheap, so it doesn't
matter much that your code isn't well optimised.
What does matter though is that you have a clear value proposition to you
users, and that they will understand this within 5 seconds of arriving to your
site. This is much more important than nice and clean back-end code.
I have a bit of experience with this - I started thinking about doing a web
based project management tool around a year ago, and since I didn't know any
good hackers that weren't already occupied with something else I thought I
would learn how to code and just do it myself. And interestingly I found that
the hard part was not the coding, but the usability and flow of the site. The
coding part is basically just getting stuff in and out of a database. But the
flow is really hard to get just right.
------
ALee
The 4th reason es muy importante. So instead of working at Google, get Larry
and Sergey to respect you in the morning when they buy you.
"Buying startups also solves another problem afflicting big companies: they
can't do product development. Big companies are good at extracting the value
from existing products, but bad at creating new ones."
<http://www.paulgraham.com/hiring.html>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Physics of Alice in Wonderland - waterlesscloud
http://www.geekweek.com/2010/03/this-one-makes-you-bigger-this-one-makes-you-small-the-physics-of-alice-in-wonderland.html
======
nevinera
>You see, whenever an object increases in size linearly, its mass increases
exponentially.
Polynomially? I see your exponential equation below, but it doesn't make sense
(and I have no idea where it came from; what's a "mass differential
equation"?) - quadrupling in height should be a volume (and therefore mass)
multiplier of 4^3, or 64. That does put us past 7000 pounds, as you say.
There are hundreds of other physical reasons such size changes are unworkable,
many of them _much_ more fundamental than this. Conservation of mass would
seem the obvious place to start..
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: unix subprocesses for Erlang with reading with backpressure - dozzie
https://github.com/dozzie/subproc
======
slysf
I considered messing around with your project, then immediately gave up due to
lack of documentation. Sure I could spend the time reading through all your
code, but one of the benefits of using a library by someone else is I can
treat it as a module, learn just the interface, and be productive. Check out
the mongodb driver for erlang for a great example of documentation:
[https://github.com/comtihon/mongodb-
erlang](https://github.com/comtihon/mongodb-erlang)
~~~
dozzie
> [...] then immediately gave up due to lack of documentation.
_What_? I paid _special attention_ to the quality of EDoc documentation, and
now you say I _didn 't provide any_? Not to mention that the application you
gave as a role model is documented in a sloopy way, with many functions not
described at all, missing argument names left and right, all private exports
and modules included in published docs, and lack of formatting on top of that.
~~~
slysf
My apologies, and why I linked the other project. README goes a long ways,
cause at the end of the day you're trying to release a project in an ecosystem
where (for better or worse) that's what gets shown to users looking at your
project.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Exoframe – self-hosted alternative to Now.sh - diego-vieira
https://github.com/exoframejs/exoframe
======
diego-vieira
Medium article + video demo
[https://hackernoon.com/introducing-exoframe-beta-self-
hosted...](https://hackernoon.com/introducing-exoframe-beta-self-hosted-
alternative-to-now-sh-80643f96b84b)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Theranos Trouble: A First Person Account - jackgavigan
http://www.mondaynote.com/2015/10/18/theranos-trouble-a-first-person-account/
======
bedhead
I manage money for a living and I always get fascinated with frauds and
"bullshit businesses" for shorting. This whole flap is so funny to me because
about a year ago after reading a few things about Theranos and hearing a few
anecdotes from people in the lab business, I thought to myself, "Man, I wish
this company was public so I could short it." There were just so many of these
little red flags.
Anyway, in these situations the response from the company often gives the best
indication of how genuinely dire things are. In my experience, Theranos'
response has been really, _really_ worrisome. The hasty Cramer appearance (Mad
Money??? Uhhh, this isn't a public company). The lawyered-up non-denials and
general evasiveness. The editing of the website. The world's most expensive
attorneys. The threats to the now-deceased co-founder (realize this was not a
response to the WSJ, but still). The reluctant bending to FDA requests.
If this company was public it would be my largest short.
~~~
saryant
This is why I think shorts provide a valuable service to the economy. They
have an incentive to snuff out fraud and deception in publicly traded
companies and act as a bulwark against that sort of behavior.
Sadly we don't have an equivalent for privately traded firms.
~~~
Maarten88
Why is it not enough when all private investors just loose their money if it
turns out this company is worth much less that they hoped and payed for? What
would it add when a short-seller makes a profit on the loss of the investors
who took on the risk trying to create a business. Who would pay the
shortseller's profit?
In general, I think all derivatives should be taxed the equivalent of casino
tax, because that's what it is: betting in a zero-sum game for society. Of
couse we know that betting provides very good predictive information, but that
does not seem like a good reason to treat financial betting different from
other form of gambling.
~~~
troydavis
To your question of "Who would pay the shortseller's profit?": in most cases,
shorting a stock isn't causing more cumulative loss[1]. There's no additional
"payment" or transferred gain. Shorting lets the market incorporate the
collective doubt earlier than it could otherwise, but it's the same "payment"
(share price change).
One could make a strong argument that shorting prevents some shareholders from
taking a much bigger loss. Some shareholders would have purchased in this
hypothetical run-up that short sales would soften. When "it turns out this
company is worth much less that they hoped and payed for," those shareholders
would lose more because the difference between what they paid and what it's
worth would be larger.
That's particularly true for the quintessential long-term retail investor who
fundamentally believes in the company. That person is likely going to own it
until the company's product is proven or disproven, and the fluctuations in
between aren't going to affect them (other than as above, if they bought at an
inflated price).
Shorting also creates an incentive for skepticism. One could argue that, if
Theranos' technology doesn't work, making it harder and more expensive
(dilutive) for them to raise money is a service to society.
[1]: an arguable exception is shorting solely to make other investors lose
confidence (rather than due to a negative view of the company). However (a)
that's not the case here, (b) often it's actually the undiscovered seed of a
real issue (someone has to be first..), and (c) shorting enough of a stock to
meaningfully depress it is much, much tougher to do than it sounds, since the
short investor will need to purchase/repay shares at some point, the possible
exposure when they do is unbounded, and they'll need capital to cover their
unrealized loss in the interim. This is not a trade anyone takes lightly.
------
srunni
This Theranos story just keeps getting more and more bizarre. George Church
publicly criticized its board in a remark to the WaPo
([http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/10/15/th...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/10/15/the-
wildly-hyped-9-billion-blood-test-company-that-no-one-really-understands/)).
Considering that Holmes is on the Harvard Medical School Board of Fellows,
while Church is one of its most prominent researchers, why is he suddenly
speaking out? If someone like him was concerned about Theranos, how did she
end up on the Board of Fellows in the first place?
Then Michael Moritz of Sequoia specifically pointed to Theranos as an example
of the 'subprime unicorn' boom
([http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/91063628-73f5-11e5-bdb1-e6e4767162...](http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/91063628-73f5-11e5-bdb1-e6e4767162cc.html)),
which is a pretty odd choice, considering the vast majority of unicorns are
software companies with very different risks from what Theranos faces. DFJ is
one of Theranos's investors
([https://www.facebook.com/dfj/posts/10101511622019206](https://www.facebook.com/dfj/posts/10101511622019206)),
and I can't imagine Moritz would want to publicly antagonize them.
And why did the Murdoch-owned Journal publish the original article anyway,
despite the Theranos board being stacked with Republican heavyweights? What's
the point of having Henry Kissinger and George Shultz on your board, if not to
prevent these sorts of incidents?
~~~
noname123
> Considering that Holmes is on the Harvard Medical School Board of Fellows,
> while Church is one of its most prominent researchers, why is he suddenly
> speaking out?
I think Dr.Church's lab is very prominent in the field of synthetic biology;
if I have to guess, his lab's work funding comes from lots of federal research
grants outside of Harvard Medical school. So financially and politically, I
don't think his hands are tied at all.
Also on principle, as a tenured faculty in academia, I don't think he is bound
by the same rules/expectations as a FTE at a regular company.
~~~
srunni
I'm not saying that I'm surprised that he spoke out - I mean the timing of it
is unusual. Why didn't he say something when Holmes was appointed to the Board
of Fellows, or when the company first started its PR blitz in late 2013?
Theranos's unusual board has been in the news for a long time:
[http://fortune.com/2014/06/12/theranos-board-
directors/](http://fortune.com/2014/06/12/theranos-board-directors/)
------
wamatt
As someone that's used Theranos a few times, I too have wondered about the
accuracy and contemplated doing something similar.
However, if one is going to make comparisons, I think it's better to use the
same draw of blood for both lab companies. Or at least within an hour of each
other.
There are too many variables at play, and numbers can change between morning
and afternoon even on the same day depending on the test.
Repeated tests and obtaining standard deviations would also be a good idea.
~~~
neurotech1
Everyone seems to criticize Theranos but I'm 99% sure other labs have similar
variances in results without a WSJ story. The FDA should investigate Quest and
the other labs. With the Electronic Health Records, relying on a single lab
result could be problematic.
~~~
semi-extrinsic
It appears that most tests done by Theranos are using the same techniques as
any other lab, so naturally the variances would be similar. The only test
their Edison machine is FDA approved for is herpes simplex. They have caught
some flak, however, for allegedly diluting blood samples before standard
analysis.
~~~
djhn
What ends would diluting it achieve?
~~~
jkimmel
They take smaller blood draws from finger tip pricks that aren't large enough
in volume to run on a standard machine from Siemens et al.
To get around this, they supposedly dilute the samples to a point where the
concentrations of analytes are well below the machines minimum operating
specifications.
~~~
dekhn
Theranos responded that they use the exact manufacturer dilution protocol on
their volumes. I don't know of any fact-based article saying they were
operating the machines below their minimum specs.
------
danso
edit: site seems to be down, here's a mirror
[https://archive.is/C6arp](https://archive.is/C6arp)
> _I write the CEO with facts and figures (and supporting documents), and
> request a response...You can guess what happened: Nothing, no response. I
> shrugged it off and went on to other topics, but the question nagged at me._
If a former Apple executive who works down the road from Theranos can't get a
reasonable response, makes me wonder if Theranos ever addressed
customer/client concerns?
~~~
larrys
"If a former Apple executive who works down the road from Theranos can't get a
reasonable response, makes me wonder if Theranos ever addressed
customer/client concerns?"
A few possibilities (in all fairness to Theranos)
1) Elizabeth Holmes doesn't know who Jean-Louis Gassée is..(noting her age).
2) She gets a ton of email and didn't see who wrote the email. So it could
have been from anyone and unless for some reason she had noted the name in the
reply address (and it was more than "jlg@") she would have just passed on it.
3) She forwarded it for someone to handle (given 1&2 above) and they haven't
acted on it yet.
Noting JLG says "You can guess what happened: Nothing, no response." but
doesn't specify if he waited 1 day or 4 weeks.
~~~
Pyxl101
This is why senior leaders have executive assistants. C-level execs of large
companies get a lot of email and don't read all of it themselves, at least not
initially, especially if the email is from someone they don't know.
Emailing a large company's leader from the outside is and should be tantamount
to emailing a part of their customer service team, if you are a customer. At
least, that's how they need to arrange it if they want to be responsive and
are failing to be. Good customer service will also escalate complaints
internally so that they're properly dealt with, not just responded to (though
they might be escalated to a subordinate of the person you intended to
contact, rather than the person themselves). If someone emails your CEO, it's
a fair bet that they're either really happy, or really unhappy and need
attention, versus contacting frontline support.
Companies that have good customer service typically have an "executive
customer service" team made up of their best CS reps, who have good judgment
and can handle unusual situations. Executive CS would for sure research and
discover who sent the communication, and consider that fact as part of their
response, and how to escalate it internally.
To summarize, if a company cares about providing customer service, they can
certainly do so, and they should look at email sent to their public
figureheads as an extension of their customer service responsibility, or a
delegated responsibility to the CEO's assistant. There is no excuse for the
lack of response.
This is also true for internal communication within a company, by the way.
It's routine for assistants to respond on behalf of the person they support
for matters that are within their area of responsibility. One of the marks of
a higher grade executive assistant is that you can trust them with all of your
communication, and can trust them to decide on their own what they can
properly respond to on your behalf.
------
noname123
Also somewhat tangential, but completely related, I'm curious peeps in
biotech, what are your guys' opinions on Oxford Nanopore MinION?
IMHO, MinION is even more exciting than Theranos in that it is a real-time
USB-stick sequencer that sequence a whole complete genome or the metagenomics
inside a person's blood or guts (currently < 6hrs, in matters of minutes for
detecting viral genomes in blood such as ebola since you can feed the
sequencing data in a real-time pipeline to a BLAST to the viral genome
reference database). Due to the early access program, there are quite a few
papers published on its protocol attesting its pro's and con's.
Illumnia, the current king of genome sequencing has more its stock price than
10x since it has beaten out its NGS competitors as the "sequencer de-jure".
MinION, IMO like PacBio won't beat Illumina ever in read-error rate; however,
can open up a new market in sequencing patient samples in clinical settings -
which may be an order of magnitude bigger than academic sequencing. However,
the argument against it is that there are already RT-PCR blood tests that can
detect reliably in clinical settings different viral infections; also
sequencing may be real-time, but you still need technicians to do the sample
prep (e.g., extract the DNA and prep it for the NGS adapters).
Would love to hear people's opinions on the viability of nanopore sequencing
here.
------
rcurry
This is like the fourth or fifth article on Theranos making the front page of
HN in the last week or so.
It's kind of like living on the San Andreas Fault and noticing your dog is
starting to get really nervous...
~~~
saryant
Reminds me of the rise and fall of Enron. Endless puff pieces about how
amazing Ken Lay is and how they're revolutionizing the energy industry until a
few reporters actually looked at their financials and published their
concerns.
Enron was dead eight months later.
Substitute Lay for Holmes, financial fraud for medical concerns and that WSJ
article on Theranos for Fortune's _Is Enron Overpriced?_ and there you go.
------
joshu
Anyone know what the error bars on all these tests are?
------
bhaumik
Well this piece certainly wasn't "on the broader topic of lab exams and other
healthcare mysteries". She might've replied if she knew it would be called
"Theranos Trouble".
------
murbard2
Totally tangential question, but does the "too many blood cells" translate
into greater endurance and stamina for you?
~~~
jane_is_here
In polycythaemia vera, it translated to strokes and heart attacks.
Just like it does for the Tour De France. Rob Goris was a recent example
[http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/07/news/goris-30-dies-
of...](http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/07/news/goris-30-dies-of-heart-
attack-at-the-tour_227637)
~~~
murbard2
Yes, I understand it's primarily a health concern. I just wonder if, just like
for the Tour De France, it also affects stamina. I don't intend to imply that
it would a silver lining, I'm merely trying to test my understanding of some
biological mechanism.
------
frozenport
A great reminder that Theranos is not vaporware!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Any rich programmers that don't have to work but coding for fun? - ertucetin
Are there any rich programmers that don't have to work for a company just writing code that what they want to write?
======
TAcoding4fun
(created throwaway for this)
Thank fucking GOD I find myself in this position right now! Through some
random luck and the sell of an old startup I am now able to take a few years
off and just like think and sleep all day and have inappropriately long
lunches.
At present I am writing crypto currency trading shit just for fun, having a
blast, and most importantly, not having to worry about any meetings or
struggling for progress on the HUGE PILE OF UNIMPORTANT BULLSHIT THAT WAS MY
TODO LIST.
A forgot password form? Gimme a fuckin break. A build script??? HAHA.
I recommend it highly.
~~~
godot
Since you've made a throwaway for this, I figured I'd ask more intimate
details: How much money did you make off of that sale that you consider it
good enough to take a few years off but not retire completely? $1 mil, $2 mil,
more, less?
I ask since amount of money needed to live without work for a few years in
silicon valley/bay area (assuming you're in it) is typically enough money to
retire forever in a place like Thailand/Chiang Mai, and so would follow up and
ask why won't you do that :)
~~~
TAcoding4fun
About 2-3 times my yearly salary (which was pretty comfortable as it was). I
have a lot of room to slash my expenses. I'm just looking for some breathing
room to get back to what I love about computer science.. I don't mind working
again in a few years! :)
------
mindcrash
Notch. Made a shit ton of money selling Mojang/Minecraft to Microsoft. Now
basically spends his life partying, playing games and coding games for fun.
Oh, and shitposting on Twitter. Ofcourse.
~~~
acct1771
He does a bit better than shitposting sometimes.
------
Antoninus
My company pays for my rent and living expenses which allows me to save
roughly 50k a year working remotely. I tried working less hours but found
myself bored with going to the gym 3 hours a day and working by the pool. I'd
rather be in stinky room surrounded by white boards and joking around with
other devs. I found that 5-6 solid hours of productivity is better than 8-9
hours 5 days a week.
------
zerr
Non-rich programmer: works on CRUD apps to feed the family.
Rich programmer: works on compilers, OS dev, DB internals, in-house 3D
engines/games, AI, etc... to have fun :)
------
SirLJ
In a team lead role for a big telco, (build my wealth trough stock trading
robots, can retire anytime) and every year cannot get myself to leave and
retire early...
Too much fun, interesting projects and great team to lead (also working from
home helps a lot)...
Maybe next year :-)
~~~
chris11
I"m curious, whats the amount you are investing, what's the profit, and what's
the risk? I've always been a little bit suspicious of day trading as a way of
making money considering the type of ads I see, the fact that I'm an
unsophisticated investing unable to access the advantages professionals have
(like fast trade execution and much cheaper trading costs), and that slippage
means I won't be able to set a hard limit on how much I am willing to risk.
How do you deal with those things?
~~~
SirLJ
The amounts are 6 and more digit accounts, average profit per year double
digits (last year was the first with tipple digits return, manly because of
one trade, probably won't repeat itself)... The miracle of compounding is that
what is working for you in the long run...
EDIT: I do have losing days, weeks, months and years as well, it's not a
smooth sailing by any stretch of the imagination...
I am not day trading, you cannot win against HFT shops, and forget about the
ads for trading gurus, coaches and mentors, no one will sell you a winning
trading strategy, because the more money/people are trading it, the less
effective is going to be and eventually will be arbitraged away...
If you trade high quality/high volume stocks, there is basically no slippage
(few cents at most), so you can easily calculate the risk for your strategy
using tools like Kelly criterion - half Kelly is a good start and you go from
there...
------
OneDayMaybe
Throwaway for this. I'm virtually there, although not quite: I will inherit
~$1M cash, arguably within the next 1-3 years.
I never thought too much about it and did what I thought would interest me
anyway; I thought I had to get a sense of what a modern capitalist society
really is. I ended up starting a somewhat successful career in CS (I’m in my
late 20s), did the 9-5 thing for a few years… but I got to the point where I
simply don’t care much anymore. Call it a quiet burn out if you want. Sure,
coding can be fun, but I don’t see how “becoming a better programmer” will
eventually make me happy. It will at best keep me busy - and most likely won't
make me contribute with anything too positive for the world at large.
I’m not ruling out the fact that I’ll keep writing code in my life for one
reason or another; I’m simply not interested in having a career anymore. I
feel incredibly lucky to have a safety net that will allow me to decide how to
best spend the rest of my life. I also feel the responsibility to do something
truly positive with it, and not just for me.
~~~
rozenbor
Typical programmer in Valley will make much more then $1M in cash, so it's not
enough to not care about money
~~~
zzzzzzzza
You can retire for life with under half a million in lots of places if you're
willing to live (very) frugally (and single/have no dependents).
------
malux85
Im not rich, but my company affords me this luxury - my basic income is taken
care of, and I'm free to work on what I want to -
[https://ramm.science/](https://ramm.science/)
------
mkj
Justin Frankel comes to mind. Though REAPER might be profitable, not sure.
------
matchmike1313
I don't know about rich but I code for my few side-business projects and I
decide when to take on more work or when I want to do a project for myself
that intrigues me.
~~~
enkiv2
For sure.
I'm far from rich, but I'm comfortable enough that I can afford to stop caring
about my employer's bottom line at quitting time.
I nevertheless spend a lot of my free time coding, and enjoying the freedom of
not having to worry about anything I make being profitable. (If you've never
written a big complex project alone for your own enjoyment rather than for
someone else / as a resume padder, I highly recommend it. It's freeing to
write code that you wouldn't want to put on a resume and couldn't sell.)
------
ioddly
I don't know if I'm rich (actually decidedly not), but I freelance and save a
large proportion of my income, and when I'm not working on client projects I
just work on my own, which can be for weeks at a time. My day pretty much
looks the same whether I'm working for a client or myself, but with way less
emails/Slack/whatever taking me out of flow.
It's a very enjoyable way to pass the time.
------
4k
A friend's friend. Working in Amazon for 15-16 years (still not manager). His
stock would easily make him a millionaire. He puts minimal effort just enough
not to get fired, doesn't care about promotions, works 6-7 hour days and has a
good life. My friend asked him why doesn't he quit? He said this job gives him
something to do.
~~~
maxxxxx
I have never been in that situation so maybe I can't judge. But it makes me
sad that people when given freedom to do whatever they want to do, need some
corporation to tell them what to do. Again, maybe I would be the same if I was
in that situation.
------
everdev
Yes, and it's far more enjoyable now but it's harder too.
With clients I had deadlines that forced decisions. With only artificial
motivators I've found it too easy to follow my passion rather than launching
something.
But, I do get to explore what I want to now.
~~~
brucephillips
Can I ask how you made your money?
~~~
everdev
I ran a website design company in Silicon Valley.
------
stuaxo
Did this for a year. Saved £30k - enough to go to Asia, but not live like a
backpacker, actually live in places and spend roughly working hours on my own
projects.
Just need to win the lottery now and do it full time.
------
rozenbor
My friend worked as a teacher of computer science to a guy who is a local bank
owner(over 30mil$ fortune) retired at his 70th and studying software
development as a hobby. He payed not much btw
------
yesenadam
Are you assuming only rich people do that, or only interested in rich
programmers? (Whatever 'rich' means exactly. Whatever definition you have in
mind, I mean.)
------
ainiriand
I don't believe that you have to be rich for that. But I get your point. It is
not my case unfortunately, but I believe that some can be doing just that.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why Privacy Matters Even If “You Have Nothing to Hide” - LinuxBender
https://write.privacytools.io/privacy-simplified/why-privacy-matters-even-if-you-have-nothing-to-hide
======
Jon_Lowtek
Lack of respect for the human right to privacy by governments and corporations
will lead to mass surveillance, gamified control and microtargeted propaganda.
Every one of these is dangerous, but gamified control is by far the worst of
these, as it directly attacks the concept of equality which many human rights
are fundamentally based on. "Equal access to public service"? Well sure you
_had the chance_ to have a good enough score to be allowed in this part of
town. It is your own fault that you are a bad human. Giving up privacy will
place governance in the hand of unthinking uncaring algorithms. If you the
think the human bureaucrats were bad, wait until you experience the automated
ones. But even worse: these three mechanisms empower authoritarianism and are
easily abused to reinforce power of a ruling caste.
Modern technology makes it easier to ignore the basic human right to privacy
than to respect it. I therefor would not compare privacy to free speech, like
Snowden does. Free speech is easy. In my opinion it is far more reasonable to
compare privacy to the right to a fair trial: having fair trials is
significantly harder than despotism. And in a similar way, most people care
very little about fairness in court, unless they are directly impaired, and
many are willing to throw it away if they believe some evil is using it to
hide from justice.
------
Silhouette
A simpler argument:
It is unlikely that you truly have nothing to hide, but it is even more
unlikely that every single person who has any influence over your life has
nothing to hide. Protecting their privacy prevents exploitation that could
hurt you too.
~~~
Jon_Lowtek
This is a wonderful rhetoric, a nice example of eristic dialectic. I love it.
It avoids implying the person argued with has a taint, which would make them
defensive, but instead allows them to pick a straw man from their monkey-
sphere and create a vague threat against themselves where the best defense is
agreeing with the pro-privacy argumentation. There is one way out: "everyone i
know is a saint, and if someone is not, i am a saint and would rather get
smeared for acquaintance than protect the devil." but it is unlikely any human
will react in this way, because it is almost never true.
However your argument is fundamentally flawed, even if it works emotionally:
It accepts the narrative that privacy is about hiding something evil, which is
the primary attack vector against this basic human right and should be
refuted, not reiterated.
Privacy is not about hiding vileness, it was (19th/20th century) about not
allowing a totalitarian government to read your private correspondence in
search for what they consider dissident opinions. Many people are very lucky
that they find this hard to grasp.
Privacy has changed, it had to change because of the "data is the new oil"
paradigm. 21st century privacy is _your right to choose who can process your
data for what._ Example: You would never agree that your data is processed by
an organization with the purpose of changing your opinion to theirs without
ever telling you they are engaging you at all. Yet that is happening, it is
called microtargeting.
~~~
coldtea
> _However your argument is fundamentally flawed, even if it works
> emotionally: It accepts the narrative that privacy is about hiding something
> evil, which is the primary attack vector against this basic human right and
> should be refuted, not reiterated._
Such a distinction doesn't matter much.
Evil is in the eye of the beholder. E.g. for Southern racists in the 50s, the
fact that one supported and funded black rights would seem "evil" as well.
As long as what X (= you or someone you know) said or did appears evil to
third parties (government, society at large, their boss, private interests,
etc), and leaking this could have negative consequences against X, that's
enough to justify the argument made.
Whether the thing is actually evil or good is not really relevant (that
implies some fixed moral order for eternity and for everybody within a certain
time).
~~~
Jon_Lowtek
I like your explanations of "right to hide something". Thank you.
Here in germany the "nothing to hide" argument is mostly used by the
spokespeople of the ministry of state security with an implication of crime as
defined by the law as written. But let's not focus on the finer points of
morality. More important: even if we go from "right to hide some thing evil"
to "right to hide some thing" we are not even close to privacy. Because
privacy is not about hiding some information about oneself, it is about the
right to have some level control about personal information.
A level at which almost everyone suddenly understands privacy is sexuality: no
matter if you want to keep your sexuality hidden or not, no matter if you
publish on pornhub or not, privacy is the right to not be filmed in your
bedroom without your consent. Privacy is not about hiding.
------
biolurker1
The argument is incorrect. I may want to say something in the future but I may
not want to hide something because one is legal and other is illegal unless
there is a dictatorship.
~~~
coldtea
> _but I may not want to hide something because one is legal and other is
> illegal unless there is a dictatorship._
There's no democracy vs dictatorship binary. It's a spectrum.
There are all kinds of things that are legal but the public sentiment is
against them, so you want to hide them to protect your social life/career/etc.
Being gay in the 70s was one of them. Or a communist sympathizer in the
McCarthy era. Many things in 2020 too from both the left and right side (e.g.
it's not like the right wingers are safe. For example, news that he donated
against a popular progressive cause cost someone his CEO position at a major
tech company -- and that's despite the fact that the majority of his state
voted in the same vein).
There all also things that are nominally legal but the government/law/local
authorities will hold against you in a democracy. Being a peaceful human
rights activist would still get you a large folder at the FBI, and in Southern
towns could get you harassed by the police.
There are also things you want to keep hidden because you just don't want them
public, like your sexual preferences of BDSM or "golden showers", your sex
tapes with your partners, your gossip mails or chat against a colleague or
boss with a third party, and so on.
If you are in any position of relative power or even small influence (that
could stop something, or speak out, etc), then people with interests (from
government, industry, etc) can blackmail you with your private information on
any of those categories, to vote or do something in their favor or look the
other way.
Democracy always progresses through people working against certain laws and
customs and cultural ideas. Child labor, women's rights, universal vote, black
rights, gay rights, etc. And since those things are established, those people
work against laws/majority opinion/powerful interests/etc.
So they do have a need to keep their ideas or moves or who sympathizes
secretly, etc secret while they work towards their goal (plus anything else
that could be used to blackmail them or hurt them, even if not relevant to
that cause - e.g. MLK's affairs had nothing to do with his cause, but they
could still be used to discredit him at the time).
And since people are people, even a very good person, working towards a very
legit cause, or wanting to prevent some bad from happening, could still have
illegal activity of his own that he doesn't want to be made public and hurt
them. E.g. they could be doing psychedelic drugs.
I don't see why someone in the US e.g. can be so self-congratulating on
"nothing to hide in a democracy", when they had Jim Crow until the 40s,
segregation until the 70s, McCarthy, Hoover, Watergate, modern mass
surveillance, frequent police abuse (from Serpico to Rodney King to today),
lots of scandals and abuses that came into light only by whistleblowers
(corporate, governmental, etc), often themselves prosecuted or abused for it,
and so on.
~~~
biolurker1
I agree and this is a very sound argument that I would like to see in the
article.I am pro privacy and I also like arguments to be solid otherwise they
are not convincing enough to turn public opinion. I hope more people read your
comment
------
beyondcompute
In my opinion, this does not mention the main point. Individuals (plus
families, small communities, small businesses) loosing their power (privacy in
this case) means corporations and governments get (even) more power. I’ll live
it as an exercise to the reader to see why the latter trend might not be so
good in the long run.
------
sdumi
It is a good reminder, which needs to happen more often. Only a gut feeling
(no real proof), but it seems like the younger generation does not care
because they're so exposed from an early age to all kinds of social media,
influencers, streamers, etc. The older generation does not seem to care
because they're a bit technologically impaired and it's hard enough to try to
keep up. There are exceptions though, and depending on the bubble you live in,
the number of exceptions will differ a lot.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ruby Hacking Guide - speednoise
http://rhg.rubyforge.org/
======
MrBra
I guess this is a fundamental step for the Ruby ecosystem.
I've heard many times people complaining that Ruby's internals are not well
documented yet or if they are it's been mostly done in japanese only.
Will this serve the cause and finally break the barrier between occidental and
oriental sides of Ruby code development?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Cyberland-an experimental forum that can only be interacted with through an API - yur3i__
https://cyberland.club
======
joeth
cool
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Howww.to – Code & Design Courses Reduced to 5sec GIF's - jibly
http://howww.to/index.html
======
jibly
Recently launched, experimenting with a different format for quick-learning
the basics of a particular topic. Love to get some feedback.
~~~
kingkong83
very interesting idea!
------
jibly
course requests are also welcome :)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
California’s new law bans schools from starting before 8am - dpflan
https://qz.com/1727790/californias-new-law-bans-schools-from-starting-before-8am/
======
meristem
Unfortunately, the school systems still rely on one parent at home. It is not
just drop off and pick up times: school activities, parent-teacher
conferences, etc. For example, in the SF Unified District, school tours for
parents of kids entering kindergarten, middle school and high school are
during the school hours, mostly in the morning. It is all built around the
expectation of a parent at home or a job structure that allows parents to have
time off and not be penalized for it. Neither of those are necessarily
representative of a family's current reality.
~~~
_coveredInBees
I understand the frustration, but I think it is absurd to expect teachers and
school administrators (who are woefully underpaid, especially in the Bay area)
to accommodate working parents by working extra hours just for the parent's
benefit. It's a hard enough job as it is, what with the poor pay, large
workload, dealing with entitled, helicopter parents and the diminishing
societal appreciation for their contributions and importance to society.
~~~
rdlecler1
There’s a 20:1 to 30:1 ratio so are you suggesting it’s better for 20-30
working, single parent families? Maybe the government should pay teachers more
and pay less on defense and we’d have a more productive society.
~~~
cobookman
I've read multiple studies that the biggest influence in a kids success in
school is their parents involvement.
Don't make the assumption that throwing more money at teachers will improve
our schools. Zuckerberg tried that with little success, as have many before
him.
I'd rather a focus on ensuring every kid has a healthy meal at the table. A
support group who's invested in tbe individual kids success. A family that
encourages and supports during the best and worst of times.
Arguably the "advantage" well to-do middle class families get.
~~~
emiliobumachar
I don't doubt your main point, but your main example does not support it. How
much of Zuckerberg's money trickled down all the way to teachers? From what I
remember seeing reported, most of it went to consulting and administration.
------
socalnate1
My high school started at 7am. I also took the bus; which picked up around
6:15am; so I usually woke up around 5:45am during the week. I would often nod
off during my first or second period; and routinely took 2-3 hour naps when I
got home from school; which screwed up my ability to fall asleep early at
night or get much homework done. I sometimes wonder what my academics would
have been like if I was actually awake during those first two periods.
(This was in the 90's)
~~~
non-entity
I've always been confused by TV shows showing kids leaving for school and it's
bright outside with the whole family awake. Growing up, it was dark when we
got up for school and just barely sun up (depending on the season still dark)
by the time we left to get on the bus.
~~~
rz2k
On the shortest days of the year in Los Angeles[1], there is civil twilight
around 6:30am and full daylight before 7am. Maybe the writers, who even have
children, live close to the schools they attend.
[1] [https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/usa/los-
angeles](https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/usa/los-angeles)
~~~
widforss
Wow, this really gives you perspective. My corresponding times are 8:21 and
9:55.
I would give the world for the opportunity of sunlight evenly distributed over
the year.
~~~
ghaff
The thing with evenly distributed sunlight is that, if you work in an office,
you're not going to have a lot of free time to be outside and not commuting
while the sun is out during the week.
With a big skew between winter and summer hours, it's dark in the winter but
you don't actually lose that much in-the-sun free time while you gain a huge
amount of light during the long summer evenings.
------
dsalzman
School children are sleeping on average 1 hour less than theirs peers did 50
years ago. This has been driven by earlier and earlier school start times.
Sleep deprivation in school age children has been linked to lower test scores,
lower knowledge retention, higher rates of "trouble making".
Really happy to see these laws getting put in place!
~~~
briandear
> This has been driven by earlier and earlier school start times
What about later and later bed times?
~~~
Alupis
> What about later and later bed times?
This is the real factor. When I was a kid - it was in bed, lights out and go
to sleep at 9pm the latest during school nights - strictly enforced by my
parents.
Now I regularly see small children (< 10 years old) out at the store past 10pm
or 11pm on school nights.
~~~
arcticbull
This is also anecdotal. While it will of course vary from person to person,
it's been conclusively shown teenagers circadian rhythms are shifted later
than adults. Sleeping later and waking up later in teenagers is biological and
it doesn't do anyone good to fight it.
~~~
Alupis
While what you say is true, does pushing the start time of class back 30
minutes or 1 hour make any difference? I'm skeptical.
When I was a teen, on weekends with no where to be, I'd regularly sleep until
noon, 1pm, sometimes 2pm or later. Should we push school back until, say, 4pm
through 10pm-12am? Doubtful that's good either.
On some level, it teaches kids that they have to be someplace at a certain
time, regardless of what they might want... You know, obligations and
responsibility.
~~~
slykat
> While what you say is true, does pushing the start time of class back 30
> minutes or 1 hour make any difference? I'm skeptical.
Did you read the article? They have done several studies to show a
significance difference in academic performance with a slight shift. That's
the whole reason for this change.
"One three-year study (pdf, p.1) of 9,000 high-school students across three
states, for example, found that academic performance, “including grades earned
in core subject areas of math, English, science and social studies, plus
performance on state and national achievement tests, attendance rates and
reduced tardiness show significantly positive improvement with the later start
times of 8:35 AM or later.”
~~~
Alupis
Like I said - why not push it to a start time of noon or later then? Was that
studied too? Or are we just basing policy off a half-baked idea, here in
Calunicornia?
I can be skeptical this will have any real impact, despite the findings of one
survey-study.
The cited study was a survey students voluntarily completed... which opens the
door for response bias. The study was only conducted over a single school
year, and no two schools had the same modified schedule. Nor did they repeat
the study for a second school year to ensure they didn't observe anomalies,
nor go back to the old schedule to see if a simple schedule change - not the
late start time - is what prompted the changes. Nor did they follow students
through their student career, maintaining the altered schedule to see if
performance results were consistent.
The 9,000 students might sound impressive - but this is not actually a good
long term study... far from it.
------
btilly
Wonderful.
Now can we pay attention to all of the research saying that homework creates
stress but doesn't work, and have schools stop assigning so much?
More precisely, the research shows that homework done right helps, done wrong
hurts, and the result is that more homework increases the correlation between
parent's socioeconomic status and student performance. But on average is
approximately net neutral for learning.
But there is one very strong correlation. More homework means more conflict in
the home...
~~~
light_hue_1
You are misinformed about research on homework. Even when you control for
socioeconomic status homework has a large positive impact. [This is a nice
review of many papers]([http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-
leadership/mar0...](http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-
leadership/mar07/vol64/num06/The-Case-For-and-Against-Homework.aspx)). The
only place where homework is questionable is for very young children, like in
kindergarten.
~~~
jacobolus
The paper by Cooper cited positively in your link claims:
> _For elementary school students, the effect of homework on achievement is
> trivial, if it exists at all_
> [https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=86753143098932071...](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cluster=8675314309893207133)
Which is diametrically different from the “large positive impact” you
described in your comment. Maybe by “very young children” you mean to include
5–10 year olds?
(For what it’s worth, I don’t find Cooper’s arguments that arbitrary amounts
of homework are beneficial for secondary students very convincing. But we
should at least not mischaracterize the claims about primary students.)
------
carapace
All this commotion around _what time_ to begin soul-crushing conformity
factory amuses me grimly. Studies show children are slightly less
psychologically crippled for life if you let them sleep in for an hour before
putting them in the electric Skinner Box. Terrific.
~~~
polynomial
We're gonna need a box tightener over here, someone is thinking outside it.
------
awillen
I didn't even realize schools started before 8... I believe that's when my
high school started. Thinking back to the useless slug that I was in the
mornings as a teenager, I can't imagine this will do anything but help
learning.
If only there had been a law saying college classes couldn't start before 11am
(or 2pm on Fridays) when I was there...
~~~
grawprog
I used to have both a technical math and a statistics class that started at
7am in college. Fridays if i remember right for the math class. That was
always a 'fun' way to start the day.
~~~
thrower123
Foreign language drill classes at 7 AM was quite possibly the worst thing I
dealt with during college. Rapid-fire German when it is dark and frozen and
you are hung over is very rough.
------
topkai22
This is a great move by California. My family engaged with school district
officials a few times on why we started school so early, when there is so much
research showing it is harmful for teenager. The answer we got was... buses
and sports. And little kids.
Basically, the district needed to make sure that elementary school kids
weren't walking to school or waiting for buses in the dark, so they had to
start around 9a at the earliest. Since they needed to share the buses, they
couldn't start all grade levels at the same time.
The reason why they went 725a, 750a, and 9a instead of something like 8a, 9a,
930a is that if you started Jr high or High school at 930a, they wouldn't
start after school activities till 4p and would go after dark in the winter.
This always seemed an insane argument to me, but was said multiple times. My
home district looks to still use the same bell schedule too.
~~~
skissane
As a non-American I find this interesting, that school start times would be
decided based on availability of buses.
Here in Australia, most schools don't own their own buses (I see a few
expensive private schools do). Buses are provided by private bus companies
and/or by a government-owned bus company (depending on who provides regular
non-school bus services in the area). The bus fare is either paid by the
student's parents, or else by the government, depending on factors like how
long it would take the student to walk, how old the student is, whether they
have a disability, etc. The government subsidises buses for all school
students equally, irrespective of whether they attend private schools or
government-run schools. I don't know how exactly schools decide their start
times, but I doubt bus availability would have much to do with it. Bus
availability is something for bus companies to worry about, not schools.
~~~
ApolloFortyNine
>Bus availability is something for bus companies to worry about, not schools.
If you have all 3 classes of students going to school at the same time, your
bus costs are going to be 3 times as high. It doesn't matter if it's public or
private, that's just how it works.
~~~
shakna
> If you have all 3 classes of students going to school at the same time, your
> bus costs are going to be 3 times as high. It doesn't matter if it's public
> or private, that's just how it works.
In Australia, it is also normal that all 3 classes of students also start at
around the same time. (8:45-9:00am).
This doesn't seem to be a problem that the public transit system seems
incapable of handling.
~~~
irrational
What is a public transit system? What a quaint idea.
Seriously though, public transit is such a joke in most parts of the USA
(especially the rural areas) that this is basically a non-starter.
I live in a part of the country that does have a pretty good public transit
system, I just checked on taking public transit from my neighborhood to my
son's high school and discovered that it's not possible. There is no public
transit (bus, light rail, tram, trolley - all of which we have) within 2 miles
of the high school.
~~~
thanatropism
People say "flyover country" as metonymy of the two different realities that
are both called "USA", but "transit country" and "SUV country" may be better
images.
Outside the USA, 80% of what we see on TV shows is NYC. Sometimes I have this
acute FOMO that I should be miserably scraping by in NYC just to be in the
Navel of the World. It's just a mindfuck to us unamericans how big the US
really is and how empty and boring.
~~~
irrational
Empty, yes. Boring? No. The empty parts are where the national parks are like
the Grand Canyon, Bryce, Zions, Canyonlands, Arches, Yellowstone, Crate Lake,
etc.
------
jelliclesfarm
I don’t know what to say..I grew up in India. My mom would wake me up at 4.30,
make me a hot beverage and go back to sleep. I would study in the early hours
because she believed that early morning is the best time for the mind to
absorb and retain what I study.
Go for a brisk walk at 6.00 and leave for school by 7.15-7.30. School was from
8.30-3.30. 8.00-8.30 was morning assembly which was mandatory.
Extra curricular activities like music or dance or outdoor sports till
sunset(6.00). My grandmother won’t let me in before 6.00 because she thought
that outdoor play was important and in the sun. Freshen up and homework till
8.00. Dinner and then TV time. Reading and to bed by 9.00-9.30.
In high school, less play and more classes. But these tutoring classes were
outside. And I would leave by 5.00 to catch the bus to get to them. I was old
enough to travel by myself. I loved school. I loved my teachers.
My math tutor from 1989..we keep in touch and she is now teaching me Indian
classical music by whatsapp video chat thrice a week. I call her once a year
and this year I told her I am joining a neighborhood music group. She made me
sing. Entirely disapproved my technique and we started classes immediately.
If my teachers asked me ‘jump’, I would. My school years were the best years
of my life. I don’t think I would have had this experience had I grown up in
CA in this time and age..and gone to public schools here. Case in point: The
public school teachers in my Bay Area city recruit parents and students to
strike in their support during their union wage negotiations. It’s a travesty.
I think children should wake up earlier. It’s delightful to wake up before
dawn and have a goal. The rest of the day at school becomes easy peasy.
~~~
arcticbull
Studies show children don't perform as well in the early morning which is why
this change was made. I don't want to de-value your experiences because they
sound fantastic. However. Anecdota is not a substitute for science. I suggest
skimming the summary by the Centers for Disease Control [1] which references
numerous studies in support of schools starting later than 830am. You are of
course welcome to wake your children up at any time, should you disagree with
the CDC's findings, or you know, if they're morning people.
[1] [https://www.cdc.gov/features/school-start-
times/index.html](https://www.cdc.gov/features/school-start-times/index.html)
~~~
jelliclesfarm
I did begin my reply with ‘I don’t know what to say’. It was intended to be
anecdotal.
------
mcv
> _" one-quarter will need to wait an additional 31 to 60 minutes to get
> going."_
So one quarter of Californian schools were starting between 7 and 7:30? I'm
surprised there haven't been revolts in the streets about that. That's
completely ridiculous.
Apparently this is to accommodate parents who need to leave for work at
ridiculously early hours, but if you want to accommodate parents, why only
those, and not the parents who prefer to get out of bed a bit later?
My wife and I have arranged it so that she works early (she often leaves at
7:15 when the rest of the family is barely out of bed) and is home in time to
pick the kids up from day care, while I take the kids to school at 8:30 and am
usually home a bit too late to pick them up (though I work fairly nearby and
can still pick them up if I have to).
But if this isn't an option for whatever reason, why not take your kids to
pre-school care? Leave early, drop the kids off at pre-school care, go to
work, and when school starts, pre-school care ensures the kids get there on
time.
~~~
udkl
> why not take your kids to pre-school care?
That’s a very privileged view. I would imagine most of the country cannot
afford any sort of paid external care.
~~~
mcv
So what do working parents do after school? Schools starting early also end
early, I assume. If kids can't go to school on their own, I guess they can't
come home on their own either.
------
WillPostForFood
Weird thing is the assumption there is a single one-time-fits-all solution.
Give some flexibility to kids and families on start time. Optional period 1
paired with optional period 8(or 7 or 9).
~~~
conanbatt
Thats not how public schooling works: its mechanics are rules on rules.
------
collyw
I am going to ask this again, as I never receive a satisfactory answer when
this subject comes up.
Isn't time all relative? Its just a number, which we adjust by an hour twice a
year. It takes us a couple of days to get used to it. Can't people just be
more disciplined and go to bed an hour earlier if they need an hours extra
sleep? That's effectively what we do in spring when the clocks change.
I came to this conclusion travelling from Chile to Peru, going pretty much
directly north. One country had daylight saving for summer the other didn't
and on top of that there was an hour difference for time zone - so in total
two hours difference. As I say, it took a couple of days to get used to it.
Can anyone give me a decent rebuttal to this argument?
~~~
x3n0ph3n3
No, not all time is relative and the presence of light has profound impacts on
our biological circadian rhythm. Even DST has shown negative health impacts.
[1]
1\. [https://www.businessinsider.com/daylight-saving-time-is-
dead...](https://www.businessinsider.com/daylight-saving-time-is-
deadly-2018-3)
~~~
collyw
Ok, that's a fair point, but don't certain countries effectively rise a lot
earlier than others? (Greenwich meantime for example passes through London and
also through Spain, yet there is an hour difference in the time zone). Is
there evidence that that affects these countries differently? Plus we have
light bulbs in this day and age, so lighting is not affected by the sun in the
same way that it used to be.
------
haywirez
I think this doesn't go far enough, there should be a ban on starting before
10 am. During high school I recall frequently falling asleep around 3-4 am and
having the alarm go off at 6:30.
------
malchow
California: everything is either banned or required.
~~~
arcticbull
Ultimately the buck for public education in US states stops at the state,
therefore, this amounts to an administrative change. They set the curricula,
is it a stretch to say they should also decide when that curriculum is
administered?
------
trezemanero
Here, in Brazil, when my classes was in the morning, it started 7:00AM. To be
at class on time, i was off the bed at 6:00AM, took a breakfast and walked 20
minutes to the school. It was rough.
They had 2 classes shifts, a 7-11:30AM and another 1-5:30AM, depending of your
grade and the school, it could be on the morning or the evening shift.
Edit: I forgot to mention that i live in a city with 80k habitants, a small-
medium city. At the biggest cities here, like São Paulo, the kids usually have
to wake even early to take the bus.
------
ijpoijpoihpiuoh
I wonder how the policy discussions looked when considering the impact on poor
parents who have to be at work. Maybe the thinking was that the start time of
7:30-8AM was already too late to save these folks, so 8:30AM would not make
them much worse off? Or maybe there are fewer people in these circumstances
than I fear?
~~~
secabeen
This law is only for grades 7-12, so most affected kids can get themselves to
school, or don't need direct supervision between when parents leave for work
and when the bus arrives.
~~~
kenperkins
My 7 and 9yo kids start school at 8:50am, and don't get off the bus until
4:30pm. It's ridiculous. They're young and need time off but because the
district moved everyone back to make room for the High Schools now elementary
kids aren't home until half past 4.
Not enough time for them to play in the afternoons now.
~~~
vonmoltke
Either their elementary school is in session for an awful long time (mine was
6 hours), or they have a really long bus ride home.
------
war1025
School K-12 started at 8:30am where / when I grew up. I assumed that was just
the universal time school started everywhere.
I have a feeling we're in for quite a shock when my daughter starts school in
a couple years. Our current routine has her waking up sometime between 7:30
and 9.
------
epmaybe
I'm extremely oblivious to what the benefits to starting later are, and how
stable the benefits will be over time. Anyone care to explain?
I'm particularly concerned that this will incentivize students to just stay up
later, negating many benefits of increased sleep.
~~~
mLuby
That assumes sleep(2100, 0500) == sleep(2300, 0700), which anecdataly is
false.
~~~
epmaybe
Could you elaborate? I think you mean that there are benefits to waking up
later due to the effect light has on circadian rhythm, but I don't want to
assume.
~~~
mLuby
That, and that some people are naturally early birds and others are night
owls.
------
yellowapple
I have a couple questions/concerns about this:
\- Does this only impact "regular" classes, or does it also impact optionally-
early schedules (a.k.a. "0 Period", as the middle and high schools called it
where I grew up)?
\- Has there been any consideration on the impact from students having less
time to do homework every night if school starts (and therefore ends) later?
------
avischiffmann
Of course this happens after I leave California
------
dillon
My mother works for a school district in California. There was an open hearing
around moving the starting school time from 8:00 am to 7:00 am. There's been
countless research showing that this is generally bad for children to wake up
this early (I'm sorry for not linking a reference).
At the hearing, there are some words that go something like "Children come
first" printed on some wall in a large font. My mother made her case that
starting so early isn't a good idea, and is bad for children and they may as
well remove those words. The reason for the change is that teachers generally
live pretty close to the school they teach at. They also have a car. So, for
them they can wake up at 6:30 and make it on time. Whereas kids, especially
poor kids, might live further and may be taking a bus where the bus pick up
times could be as early as 6:00 am so the kids are waking up even earlier just
to make it. An early starting time, generally, benefited the teachers as they
can wake up later and they get out of class around 2:00 pm. The after-school
programs then rake in cash by keeping kids longer since most parents don't get
off work until 5:00 pm.
tl;dr the early starting times were to make teachers happy. Good on California
to put students over teachers. Now, if only we can raise teacher's salaries.
~~~
topkai22
I'm also pretty sure at the higher grade levels (Middle to high school) it is
partially about keeping other professions out of sports coaching. If high
school starts at 930a and ends at 4p, an awful lot of working professionals
could still be there by 415-430p to coach. When high school let out at 245,
it's a lot harder.
------
jdkee
[https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/data/yrbs/pdf/2017/ss6708.p...](https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/data/yrbs/pdf/2017/ss6708.pdf)
------
pier25
8am is still too early for teenagers. Not only their brains need more sleep
than adults (9+ hours) but their clocks shift which is why it's common for
teenagers to go to bed later than adults.
------
sologoub
A lot of the comments are focusing on the burden for the parents, but there is
also negative impact on the kids from less wealthy backgrounds.
My last 2 years of high school, I went to 7am first period to be able to get
out early enough to put in 6-8 hours of work and still have enough time for
homework. That extra hour and a half was critical to making it work.
Without the work and extra cash, I probably would have had a lot different
experience and may have not stayed motivated for college/grad school/etc. But
more importantly, this income let me feel on the level around much wealthier
kids who didn’t work or worked for their parents businesses. Confidence is
priceless at that age!
------
Dowwie
School may start at 8am but morning begins at 5am in an industrious household.
Even one solid hour of daily morning practice before school is a great gain.
------
baby
Some classes in my uni started at 7:45am. I never went.
------
fortran77
Shouldn't the school do what's appropriate for the local community it is in?
Now they won't be able to.
------
Raed667
My High-school started at 8 and university at 9.. I thought it was too early
for both!
------
duxup
Does this allow for before / after school care at schools to start before 8?
------
devm0de
Why not elementary schools too? :(
------
vinniejames
Great, now just add a law banning parents' workplaces from starting before 8am
and we are all set
------
35787
Public schools are a cancer. They are worse for your intellectual development
than just being left alone. They actually damage your mind by suffocating you
of free thought and experimentation. And in the name of doing this, they pile
on the stress and expose you to viscous bullies. The kids run these schools
now, they are closer to day-care centers or zoos than schools. The teachers
just watch idly while their students succumb to the horrible circumstances
that they are forced into. I know because it happened to me. American public
schools in particular are a disgrace. And to top it all off they woke me up at
6AM 5.5 days a week which was never necessary and has been shown to be
detrimental to students wellbeing. God damn if there is one thing in this
world that I resent it is the mother fucking public schools. God fucking damn
them.
~~~
armenarmen
They’re the only place that most people will ever experience physical
violence.
~~~
35787
This is true for me. Public schools are so horrible that it drives me insane
just to think about it. And people brush it off because of some vague notion
that there’s no other choice. Look at billy eilish. She’s fantastic and very
successful and she was homeschooled. Palmer luckey who founded oculus and is
now worth something like 500 million dollars, homeschooled. “I can’t afford
homeschooling. I have never even tried to assemble a budget or think
critically about it but I just know it would be too expensive and would not
work because nobody was ever successful after homeschooling. I guess I’ll just
throw my child to the lions and hope they don’t become a shooter.”
~~~
whymsicalburito
Of course there are exceptions, but most homeschooled people I've met have
displayed some sort of social deficiency. I wouldn't support a blanket
statement that the solution is more home schooling.
~~~
barry-cotter
Homeschooling and the Question of Socialization Revisited
[https://www.stetson.edu/artsci/psychology/media/medlin-
socia...](https://www.stetson.edu/artsci/psychology/media/medlin-
socialization-2013.pdf)
This article reviews recent research on homeschooled children’s socialization.
The research indicates that homeschooling parents expect their children to
respect and get along with people of diverse backgrounds, provide their
children with a variety of social opportunities outside the family, and
believe their children’s social skills are at least as good as those of other
children. What homeschooled children think about their own social skills is
less clear. Compared to children attending conventional schools, however,
research suggest that they have higher quality friendships and better
relationships with their parents and other adults. They are happy, optimistic,
and satisfied with their lives. Their moral reasoning is at least as advanced
as that of other children, and they may be more likely to act unselfishly. As
adolescents, they have a strong sense of social responsibility and exhibit
less emotional turmoil and problem behaviors than their peers. Those who go on
to college are socially involved and open to new experiences. Adults who were
homeschooled as children are civically engaged and functioning competently in
every way measured so far. An alarmist view of homeschooling, therefore, is
not supported by empirical research. It is suggested that future studies focus
not on outcomes of socialization but on the process itself.
------
aidenn0
Don't worry, we'll work around that law by switching to year-round DST.
------
withinboredom
On which day and timezone?
~~~
kccqzy
On schools day, in the time zone in use in California (PT).
------
pjkundert
Ah, meddling central-planners preventing hard-working families from doing what
it takes to achieve their dreams...
Don’t you just have to shake your head at people who’ve literally never had to
accomplish anything life-and-death in their entitled little lives, making
rules to protect us?
It brings a tear to the eye.
~~~
arcticbull
Nope, it's science ([https://www.cdc.gov/features/school-start-
times/index.html](https://www.cdc.gov/features/school-start-
times/index.html)).
~~~
conanbatt
Science says 8:30, law says 8:00, so the state is not following the state's
recommendation.
Also, what is best for an ideal scenario for the idealized kid is not the same
as what is best for the parents.
Finally the biggest perpetrator of sending kids early is precisely public
schooling, private schooling has variety that suits the parent's choices.
What is the best public policy then? school vouchers, and let parents decide.
~~~
arcticbull
> What is the best public policy then? school vouchers, and let parents
> decide.
That may work, it does in Sweden apparently, but your conclusion certainly
doesn’t follow from your premise. This feels like classic junior engineer
baby-with-the-bath water thinking. It’s easier to throw a system out and start
over than make the modifications to your existing system but somehow it never
does turn out exactly right, more like a ruined fresco meme.
------
newnewpdro
I used to get up well before the sun rose for private school, it wasn't a big
deal, we just went to bed earlier than most.
It was nice to have more time to myself before parents got home from work.
It seems strange for the state to be meddling in this.
~~~
cylentwolf
A bunch of studies came out saying that students are better with more sleep
and generally waking up after 7 is best so we get this law. The problem here
is that I am betting that the kids still get home before their parents from
work and now they will have to start after their parents leave for work so it
will put an economic crunch on dual working parents.
~~~
newnewpdro
Why don't kids just go to sleep earlier?
Isn't part of raising children teaching them self-discipline? Things like
putting down the electronic gadgets at night, not consuming stimulating
food/drinks in the evening, etc.
It's shit like this that makes California look so ridiculous to the rest of
the nation.
~~~
arcticbull
No, it's biology.
------
colordrops
The implied assumption in all this discussion is that everyone stays up late
so 7am doesn't work. Perhaps the question should be why society is so geared
for waking hours shifted partly into the night. Perhaps people should wake
with the sun and sleep soon after dark. But so much entertainment is scheduled
during the evening, and everyone is so deeply entrenched in their habits.
~~~
theptip
I don't think that is the implied assumption; the stated reason for this
change, FTA:
> The American Academy of Pediatrics, which backed the bill, said in 2014
> policy statement that getting too little sleep puts teenagers’ physical and
> mental health at risk, as well as their academic performance. The
> organization cited research that shows that biological changes in puberty
> make it difficult for the average teenager to fall asleep before 11pm, and
> that teenagers need between 8.5 and 9.5 hours of sleep to function at their
> best.
~~~
colordrops
Did they give a cause as to why it's hard for them to sleep before 11pm? That
doesn't contradict what I said in the slightest.
~~~
theptip
> The organization cited research that shows that biological changes in
> puberty make it difficult for the average teenager to fall asleep before
> 11pm
I didn't follow the citation, but that would be my suggestion for the first
place to look if you want to understand their theory better.
------
jimbob45
This seems to flagrantly ignore the parents' need to be to work on time. I
think the kids will ultimately be the ones suffering because the parents will
struggle that much more.
No, the bus is not always an option, nor is leaving your kid alone at home for
any amount of time.
~~~
crooked-v
Given that this will be a job-negotiating concern of literally every parent in
California, businesses will just have to adapt to the new normal.
~~~
jimbob45
It's the lower-class parents who can't afford babysitters or who might be
divorced that will be the most affected by this. Coincidentally, it's those
same parents who have the least room to negotiate in their positions.
------
kgwgk
If the objective is for people to get more hours of sleep probably it would
have been better to pass a law dividing the day in 32 hours... Kids will sleep
the same amount of time in all cases, but it would be 50% more hours.
------
DenisM
The "early wakeup time makes people groggy" story always looked puzzling to
me.
I mean, when DST kicks in everyone adjusts in day or two. What prevents one
from setting up their own personal DST and getting up earlier still? Certainly
not biology.
~~~
topkai22
Every time this comes up, I recommend "Internal Time" by Till Roenneburg. It
is wonderfully written, and it demolishes this concept quite thoroughly. It
really is biology.
Summary of the book as relates here though: People really do have internal
clocks and preferred awake/sleep cycles. These internal clocks vary between
individuals, and are there is most likely a genetic component. These internal
clocks vary with age- in particular, teenagers and young adults clocks are
generally shifted much later than kids or older adults. Shifts to people's
schedules (such as DST) that cause them to leave their preferred sleep/awake
cycle mitigate with time, but do not fully go away.
Outside that book, there are plenty of studies showing that a non-standard
hours shift work is biologically harmful.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Game of Books now has Reader Cards. Earn XP and level up by reading books. - KristySur
http://gameofbooks.com/level_up
======
DreamWithMe
You can at least slow down cheating by having some sort of automated questions
that the user has to answer in order to claim a book. Like, "Which of these
characters is from the book you just read," or something of that sort. That
isn't hard based on what the Book Genome Project can do, which is where the
"big data" behind The Game of Books is coming from.
There are other methods, but that's at least a starting point in the balance
between ease and function. :)
Somewhat like the accelerated reader programs, or summer reading programs at
libraries. Just a thought.
(Disclaimer, btw - I work on both The Game of Books and the Book Genome
Project) - was thrilled to see someone submitted this to Hacker News. :)
------
robotico
Interesting idea, would have to figure out how not to let people cheat though
- a test or something?
I like the whole genre-specific experience thing, maybe it could be used with
an actual game that you would play when you're not reading? Maybe that would
somewhat defeat the point...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Use The Wrong P-value, Go To Jail - yummyfajitas
http://wmbriggs.com/blog/?p=9308
======
PeterisP
Same story as 9 days ago in
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6486333](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6486333)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Personal Experience As An iOS Freelancer - lookup
http://skylarrudolph.blogspot.com/2014/03/what-i-learned-about-freelance-ios.html?m=1
======
skylar613
Yeah, I think charging per feature is fundamentally better than charging per
hour. For you to start your business up, you need to ensure your clients get a
fair price for what they want.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Hyperloop: Not so fast - cju
http://blogs.mathworks.com/seth/2013/11/22/hyperloop-not-so-fast/
======
jcchin41
NASA engineers have also released an optimization framework for the Hyperloop
concept as well. It's completely open-source and written in Python. Docs here:
[http://openmdao-plugins.github.io/Hyperloop/](http://openmdao-
plugins.github.io/Hyperloop/)
Their baseline optimization focuses on 5 subsystems: Compressor Cycle
Analysis, Pod Geometry, Tube Flow Limitations, Tube Wall Temperature, and
Mission Analysis
Initial results indicate that the concept is still very viable. However, due
to very tight coupling between the tube and vehicle size, the tube size will
need to be around twice as large as originally proposed by the Tesla/SpaceX
team to reach the proposed speeds.
Feel free to download the entire analysis and play with it yourself, without
purchasing several expensive toolboxes from MATLAB!
~~~
justingray
As one of the authors of this work, I would like to add that our goal was to
provide an open source foundation for modeling the hyperloop system. Our
initial work focused on the pod itself, but we want to expand it to include
trajectory analysis as well as cost modeling.
~~~
omegant
Hi Justin, do you have an email to reach you or some body else at the team?
~~~
justingray
you can reach me at justin.s.gray@nasa.gov
------
bane
I remember hearing an interview with a civil engineer about why highways have
all these "unnecessary" curves in them. Why can't engineers build highways
that are more direct and straight?
After going on a bit about requirements for different kinds of terrain, the
kind of strata the road needs to go on etc. and how those were difficult and
expensive to surmount (so curves were often chosen to deal with it instead of
a more expensive solution). He lamented that the _most_ difficult and
expensive aspect of new road construction was right of way through existing
developments and other properties. Most of the curves we experience on
highways are apparently the result of somebody, or a block of people, simply
not wanting to give up their land.
~~~
BrandonMarc
Fatigue, boredom, and monotony are a factor, too. I watched an episode of
Modern Marvels on the History Channel [0] which gave interesting details about
the highway system. They mentioned something they called "highway hypnosis"
[1], a trance-like state which they wanted to avoid. There's been some
discussion of whether this phenomenon is to blame for the train derailment in
New York about a month ago [2].
_Most of the curves we experience on highways are apparently the result of
somebody, or a block of people, simply not wanting to give up their land._
Nor should they have to, if they don't want to (or disagree on the price).
\----------------------------------------
[0] [http://www.history.com/shows/modern-
marvels/episodes/season-...](http://www.history.com/shows/modern-
marvels/episodes/season-3) ... see "Paving America" for the episode
[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_hypnosis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_hypnosis)
[2] [http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/12/05/deadly-new-york-
train-d...](http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/12/05/deadly-new-york-train-
derailment-could-be-case-highway-hypnosis/)
~~~
ivanca
>Nor should they have to, if they don't want to (or disagree on the price).
This is a real issue in many places now; when building a transportation system
the government should be able to pay you whatever the house is valued and give
you no saying on that, why? because the mobility of millions is more important
than your emotional attachment to the house.
~~~
gizmo686
I don't know how it actually works, but I would hope if the government uses
its right to force you to sell your land, which the US (and likely others)
does have under eminent domain, that they would pay above market price. Market
price would cover the cost of you purchasing an equivelent home, it would not
compensate you for moving expenses, time, possible lost wages, ETC.
~~~
deelowe
The government's "market prices" and the real value of a property are two
totally different things. There is downward pressure to keep the government
assessments low due to property taxes. Where I live, for example, the prices
are generally off by a good -10% to -20%. Then you have to add interest,
closing costs, escrow, and establishment of utilities on top of that.
You also have to factor mobility into the equation. If I own property that I'm
using for a special purpose (let's use an extreme example of a hazardous
chemical disposal company), and I'm told to relocate for the "market price" of
my property, then I'm stuck paying tons of money and dealing with regulatory
hell in whatever I choose as my new jurisdiction to do this. This would quite
literally put me out of business due to the insanely high cost of relocating
everything.
Also, you have the legal roadblocks that often come up (this is the more
common reason property can't be acquired). For example, the property might be
owned by a trust, which was granted it's powers through a will. Since it's a
trust, the beneficiaries are unknown. The person who maintains the trust isn't
returning your calls. Who do you write the check to? You can't just take it
from the trust, it doesn't work that way (for good reason, without getting
into specifics). There are ways to go about it, but the legal proceedings can
take years. We're actually dealing with this exact problem now trying to
expand an intersection in my local town.
Unfortunately, it's not as simple as just buying the land/structure and moving
the occupants. More often than not, there's a reason why this is difficult.
~~~
mapt
It seems like the price of the various measures that avoid invoking eminent
domain ends up being so extraordinarily high (hundred-million-dollar bridge
trusses and the like), I do not quite understand why offering market plus 100%
or something isn't a solution. Not an extortionate rate, but one sufficient to
make it a financially favored course of action for all involved landowners.
Eminent domain is for the irrational holdouts, not for "offering pennies on
the dollar" as opponents say, or for getting just-slightly-submarket-prices.
~~~
gizmo686
The problem is that the only people who can say how much money is necessary is
the landowners themselves. However, they have an incentive to lie if doing so
would allow them to get a higher price. Additionally, different landowners
would value their own land at a significantly different rate relative to the
market. For example, if you live in a custom built house, with a treehouse
that your kids built themselves, that is within walking distance to the school
and your place of work, you would need significantly more compensation them
most people to move out of your house. I don't see any solution other than
letting cases where an agreement cannot be reached go to court.
~~~
mapt
There are three people are well-placed to say how much money is 'market
value':
1) The owners themselves, by self-declaring asset values for taxation purposes
(on pain of having them vulnerable to eminent domain seizure if they under-
declare)
2) Independent assessors who do value assessment for property tax purposes
already
3) The sellers that granted the owners possession for a certain value
------
kinofcain
Passengers are much more sensitive to vertical acceleration than horizontal.
Repeated 1g swings from -0.5 to 0.5 g would make this thing a vomit comet.
Would be interesting to see this analysis done with normal limits for high
speed rail design, instead of Elon's chosen 0.5g limit.
Edit: HS2 in Britain, for instance, is being designed with a maximum of around
0.01g vertical acceleration. If Elon's has figured out how to get passengers
to handle 50x that much, he could save them a lot of money.
~~~
morsch
Vertical acceleration refers to acceleration in the direction of the tracks,
right?
Some other figures I could find:
Shinkansen: 2.6 km/h/s = 0.07g
ICE (German HSR): 0.5 m/s2 = 0.05g
S-Bahn (metro transport): 1 m/s2 = 0.1g
Makes sense that metro transport has higher acceleration, as high speed rail
spends a lot of time "cruising" at certain speeds, while metro transport is
basically always either accelerating or decelerating. I'd guess subways also
feature relatively high g-forces.
Also interesting:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orders_of_magnitude_%28accelera...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orders_of_magnitude_%28acceleration%29)
~~~
lmm
Vertical as in up-down. You're much more comfortable accelerating forwards-
backwards or left-right.
~~~
cma
Then change the orientation of the seats? Without a reference frame you can't
tell.
~~~
modoc
Gravity?
~~~
dspeyer
Include that in the calculations. There's a certain absolute sideways g-force
(decreasable by slowing or straightening), and a certain absolute downwards
gravity. These add up to a single total force. So long as the magnitude is at
least 1g, there exists a seat orientation such that the passenger feels 1g
toward the seat and something on the back.
How much you can spin the seat without _those_ movements causing problems is
an open question.
Airplanes are an encouraging precedent. They often make quite sharp turns at
extremely high velocity, but tilt into them such that there's almost no
perceived lateral acceleration.
------
skj
Despite the headline, which I'm going to assume was added by an editor, the
article is positive about the hyperloop prospects.
~~~
jasallen
It's a pun, not actually a 'negative' headline.
~~~
JTon
To me, it's read as both a pun and a negative headline. I'm surprised others
don't see it that way as well
~~~
protomyth
"not so fast" is generally a nice way of telling someone to stop and consider
what they are doing because they are about to do something unwise. I do
believe you are correct to take the headline as negative.
------
melling
Maybe someone can convince China to develop the technology. They already have
6,200 miles of high-speed rail, on their way to 10,000 miles.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-
speed_rail_in_China](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-speed_rail_in_China)
Their Shanghai Maglev only cost $1.2 billion.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Maglev_Train](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Maglev_Train)
China is clearly interested in building a 21st century transportation
infrastructure. Beijing to Shangai is 800 miles. Perfect for 700 mph
hyperloop.
~~~
us0r
Shanghai does not have the prevailing wages CA has.
~~~
illumen
Shanghai is extremely wealthy... even if you don't account for the accounting
tricks played by china with their currency. Have you ever been? It's like
being transported into the future.
Apparently 20-30% cheaper than places in CA for most things, but to buy an
apartment it's more expensive.
Wages are 75% or so cheaper in Shanghai, but purchasing power is 66.36% lower
too... [http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-
living/compare_cities.jsp?coun...](http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-
living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=United+States&country2=China&city1=Oakland%2C+CA&city2=Shanghai)
~~~
throwaway_yy2Di
_" Shanghai is extremely wealthy..."_
Seriously? The mean household income is US$4,700/year [0] (nominal
conversion). Your link claims it's $12,000/year for an individual, but if you
investigate further, that's the mean of the high-income expats _who visited
that English-language website about international costs of living_ and filled
out a survey. The very existence of this large expat population skews the
mean; I'd guess "typical", median wages are a lot lower than $4,700.
[0] " _Average annual income for a family in 2012 was 13,000 renminbi, or
about $2,100. When broken down by geography, the survey results showed that
the average amount in Shanghai, a huge coastal city, was just over 29,000
renminbi, or $4,700, while the average in Gansu Province, far from the coast
in northwest China, was 11,400 renminbi, or just under $2,000. Average family
income in urban areas was about $2,600, while it was $1,600 in rural areas._ "
[http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/20/world/asia/survey-in-
china...](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/20/world/asia/survey-in-china-shows-
wide-income-gap.html)
~~~
Vardhan
Being wealthy isn't just about income, it's about what you can do with your
income.
~~~
xorblurb
$13000 "brut" in Shanghai is approx $20000 PPP according to
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_administrative_...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_administrative_divisions_by_GDP_per_capita)
Income of $5000 would be approx $7700 PPP. Not exactly extremely wealthy by
developed countries standard...
------
cju
Another article of the blog is about the modelisation of the Hyperloop
vehicule (+environment):
[http://blogs.mathworks.com/seth/2013/11/07/hyperloop-
model-a...](http://blogs.mathworks.com/seth/2013/11/07/hyperloop-model-
architecture-we-want-your-feedback/) It can be read as an introduction to
Model Based Design. It shows for instance the interest of handling variants to
test either different hardware concepts or different level of
representativity.
------
mrfusion
Personally I'm still worried about the claustrophobia issues. And I'm not even
really claustrophobic.
There's just something about being in a small seat in a concrete tube with no
exit for 100's of miles that really freaks me out.
~~~
jonknee
Are you afraid to fly? An aluminum tube with no exit for thousands of miles
and a much longer time in the seat.
~~~
ceejayoz
Planes have windows and the ability to get up and walk around to some extent.
Likely makes a difference for most claustrophobics.
~~~
blowski
Does the design of Hyperloop make it impossible to walk around?
In terms of no windows, sounds similar to the Channel Tunnel. You're typically
in the tunnel for close to 30 minutes.
~~~
deletes
Yes, in the passenger version you can't even stand up.
You would probably have a huge interactive flat screen in front of you to ease
the tension.
------
dangerlibrary
Article assumes that the hyperloop can/would follow existing highways.
Considering the cost of diverting traffic during construction, it seems
unlikely you could build it for anything close to the advertised $6 billion
while following existing highways.
Also, the structure would need to be tall (or short) enough to bypass highway
bridges and overpasses...
~~~
sargun
The Hyperloop design paper states that it would be along existing highways.
~~~
dangerlibrary
I missed that! Thank you.
~~~
dasil003
Did you change your original comment because this thread makes no sense.
~~~
dangerlibrary
I did not change anything. I was nitpicking about something implied in the
linked article, without realizing it was in Musk's original spec/budget.
------
pbreit
A fun article and exercise but a bit suspect since the only image of a
difficult turn is not one the hyperloop is actually scheduled to take (the
design document linked shows the route continuing straight along HWY 238 at
that point). But the next turn north along 880 looks tricky (it looks like
there might be some room at the school, cemetery and empty lots to smooth it
out a bit).
------
penrod
My only objection to Hyperloop is that it's so damned _ugly_. What ought to be
an inspirational feat of engineering looks, under the proposed pillar design,
like an elevated oil pipeline. I can't imagine anyone wanting to look at it,
let alone having it blight their property.
It's a shame they haven't proposed a graceful cable-stayed structure.
------
NAFV_P
This reminds me of the Red Bull X1 out of GT5. I remember going round a
hairpin at 250km/h, that's bound to snap your neck.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Would this method work to split equity of a startup? - Envec83
I am a developer/entrepreneur, and a couple of weeks ago I went to see a friend of mine who owns a chain of stores. I asked him what problems he was currently facing while managing his business, because I wanted to see if I could solve them with software. Out of this discussion came the idea for a B2B software that will solve a big problem for him and potentially for many other stores.<p>Since the idea looks promising, I said I would start developing it right away, and he said he would like to join me as a co-founder, saying he wants to help with the sales part, and that he is OK with me having the larger equity.<p>We didn't discuss specific percentages yet, and I am also not sure how much he will be able to contribute, as he owns and runs 10+ stores as his full time job.<p>I am trying to come up with a fair way to split the equity, and here's my idea:<p>1. We say that developing the product is 50% of the job, and selling it is 50%.<p>2. Since I'll be developing it myself, I already own 50% of the product, so we just need to figure out how to split the remaining 50% (i.e., the sales part).<p>3. Once we start selling the product, we track how many sales each of us will generate during the first year. I expect that he will mainly sell via his network of contacts, while I will focus on selling it online, so we wouldn't duplicate efforts.<p>4. After one year we split the 50% sales equity according to the percentage of sales generated by each one. For example, if we sell similar amounts each one gets 25%, so I end up with 75% of the business and he with 25%. If he outsells me 4 to 1, he gets 40% and I get 60% (50% + 10%).<p>I believe this could be fair and even productive, as it would stimulate each of us to give our best trying to market the product.<p>Do you guys think this would work?
======
alain94040
Bad idea. The fact is that he will never work full-time on this startup. Treat
it has such. Since he probably doesn't need a salary (he already has a job),
just treat him as an advisor (a few percent of stock), and a huge commission
for any sales he brings (30% of profit for his leads).
You don't want to have conditional/future equity based on some formula. You'll
spend the next year arguing about what the formula should have been, why
things that were not planned should be taken into account (or not), etc. Just
don't. You can't forecast the future enough to make fair deal.
------
tptacek
As long as both sides agree that the percentages are OK, you're fine, as long
as:
(a) You VEST EVERYTHING (including your own shares)
(b) You know how you'll legally handle control after one of you leaves
(c) You have a serious conversation about responsibilities, one that confronts
all the ways you can see things not working out; at this stage in my career if
I was doing this I'd turn that conversation into a simple, bulleted MOU
(d) You remain observant about what the equity split is doing to morale.
Frankly, sales of a new product is very hard, and it's more likely that
vesting and termination are going to be your problems, but if they do really
_well_ , you need to remember that, again, sales is hard, and you don't ever
want to lose someone who can perform in that role because they think they're
getting an unfair deal.
~~~
Envec83
Very good points. Thanks for the feedback.
------
brudgers
You have a product idea, the skill to develop it, and a potential first
customer. Charge the customer, don't pay him with equity for the privilege of
working on his problems.
If you get the problem solved, then think about scaling with a sales person.
Keeping in mind that someone who has a full time job and may be seen as a
competitor to future sales leads may not be the ideal candidate. Though if the
candidate has an extensive _track record closing B2B software sales_ , that is
worth considering.
The fact that you don't think a fifty fifty split is fair and that your friend
does not want to commit to the success of the venture to the same degree as
you indicates there is a misalignment of interests.
------
sharemywin
What happens if he sells 4 to your 1 and never does anything else? is that
worth 40% to you? You also need to work out some kind of salary arrangement
for either of you that goes full time once the sales can support it. Also your
not leaving any equity for the first full time sales person you have. Plus
your going to need 1-10k to turn it into a busness with lisences etc.
------
lucio
Sounds better to decide % upfront. So you both know, who owns what form the
start. About sales, just set a commission per sale. Note that he's bringing
into the startup the know-how about the problem you're solving. I bet you'll
be consulting him as the "expert" in the matter. This is a valuable part of
the equation.
~~~
Envec83
What if we decide he should get 30% upfront in exchange for helping to sell
the product, but he ends up not selling much because he is too busy managing
his current business. Do you think this is a risk I must take?
------
josephschmoe
Unless he's giving you money, why would you give him any equity before the
sales phase?
------
sharemywin
Also you need to validate this with customers that aren't partners.
~~~
Envec83
We definitely will. I am lining up a couple more pilot customers.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Amazon to Offer Kindle Checkout System to Physical Retailers - jjallen
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303743604579351123788256930?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection&mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702303743604579351123788256930.html%3Fmod%3DWSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection&fpid=2,7,121,122,201,401,641,1009
======
stevewilhelm
Are they going to call it Circle?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: LessPhone – A minimal Android launcher to reduce phone use - aswinmohanme
https://lessphone.app
======
ignoramous
Personally prefer an open-source, no-phone-home launcher. I settled on
Lawnchair [0], a clone of Pixel's launcher that's highly customizable and
pretty much works on all major OEMs flawlessly:
1\. Let's you hide apps.
This is important to me since I usually firewall apps that I can't disable but
have no use for, esp the ones that are pre-installed. Also, I don't want to
see them or accidentally launch them.
2\. Remove Google search bar and Google feed.
3\. Dark mode that's gorgeous on AMOLED screens.
Lawnchair doesn't track usage nor does it, to my knowledge, phone home to any
server.
LessPhone, NoPhone, Siempo [1] et al do have their places, but feel a bit
forced and unnatural to use, esp for someone like my mom or my dad, who are
used to traditional Android launchers with icons.
A feedback: Not meant as a slight on LessPhone or the others, but I guess, the
key to building something for the 2 billion strong Android ecosystem is to
abide by the existing UX standards and not surprise the users.
[0] [https://lawnchair.app/](https://lawnchair.app/)
[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17126771](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17126771)
~~~
jtl999
> Lawnchair doesn't track usage nor does it, to my knowledge, phone home to
> any server.
Open source too. Assuming you audit the source and either a) manage to produce
a reproducible build that matches the existing binary and they don't later add
any tracking or b) use your own build, you should be good.
[https://github.com/LawnchairLauncher/Lawnchair](https://github.com/LawnchairLauncher/Lawnchair)
------
siphon22
When I see stuff like this, it always makes me cringe and I get this visceral
feeling that humans(including me) are really dumb. People spend almost a
thousand dollars on some phones, and at first it's always magical and they use
it as much as they can while it's still shiny, then they use stuff like this
to NOT use their device anymore, or at least crippling the full potential of
it. It's absurd to me. On a similar level, it is like the idea of buying a 500
dollar smartwatch in order to avoid taking out your 1000 dollar smartphone out
of your pocket as much. What the hell people? Seems like a huge waste of time
and money. Both on the part of the makers and the consumers. /rant
~~~
the_pwner224
People buy ridiculously powerful computers to play games at 4k@144fps and to
train machine learning models. Then they install software to prevent malicious
mind-control-equipped actors like Facebook from taking over their thoughts.
Preventing your computer from using popular internet services isn't crippling
it, because you do it to be able to use the computer more effectively.
There are are a number of features that are present in higher-end phones which
are not available on lower-end ones (though some have started disappearing
from high-end models or have become standard, more are always being invented):
IR blaster, NFC, wireless charging, AR/VR capability, camera quality, fast
charging, battery life, fast wifi, USB-C, OLED display, voice detection
coproessor for OK Google / Siri, creating a WiFi hotspot to share WiFi
(wireless card can get internet from a network _and_ make its own network -
this saved me from a big headache once). And also a fast processor which makes
everything faster and improves the user experience.
Blocking usage of certain applications or services from your phone does not
reduce the helpfulness those features and does not cripple the device.
Or, to put it another way: most phones these days contain software that
exploits weaknesses in your brain to make you do things which do not serve
your best interests. This launcher is intended to limit that. Doing so does
not cripple your phone; it makes it more useful.
> buying a 500 dollar smartwatch in order to avoid taking out your 1000 dollar
> smartphone out of your pocket as much
Here you're assuming again that people buy hardware in order to use it. But
that's not true; we buy computers because of their capabilities. A good device
should add maximum value to the user with minimum time and money investment
possible. An ideal device would give you those benefits without you ever
having to waste time 'using' it. Smartwatches let you see notifications
without having to use your phone, that's the entire point (aside from
health/fitness tracking). That makes it an effective device for those who want
that, but that doesn't mean it makes the phone any less useful. You may still
want an excellent phone for when you do need to do a phone.
Your argument is like saying we buy tablets to _not_ use laptop/desktop
computer. Their uses may intersect, but each has areas that it is specialized
for.
~~~
siphon22
I think we're talking about two different types of people.
>Preventing your computer from using popular internet services isn't crippling
it,
Right, but that's different from people who are trying to escape from using
their $1000 phone as much as possible due to a fear about social media
addiction and such things. I don't think these people are the power users like
you describe. Power users would figure out how to work around things without
crippling their user experience.
>Your argument is like saying we buy tablets to not use laptop/desktop
computer
Not at all. Tablets can be a comfy hand-held experience while laptops/desktops
are totally a different form factor. They have different contexts. And what
I'm complaining about in essence is about people blowing so much money on
their fancy phone, and then they end up buying a watch so they can avoid
looking at their phone as much because it's oh so tiresome to take out their
phone. I'm not saying the devices are useless for the record.
~~~
s_y_n_t_a_x
I will say a smart watch is probably the best impulse buy I've ever made. It
is tiresome to check your pocket every x minutes. With a watch you get a
little vibrate on the wrist, check the notification, and if you need to act on
it, then get your phone. It's kind of like a pager.
~~~
mendelmaleh
Ironically, my smart watch is pretty much my only impulse buy over 50$ (250$),
and its easily one of the worst choices I made. I bought it for the same
reasons as you, except I was thoroughly disappointed at its (under-)
performance.
------
barbwire
Is this what is considered a product page these days? One vaguely non-specific
sentence and 2 embedded videos.
They have all the information and images they need available on the play
store, so why are they not presenting it on their own site?
(grumble, grumble)
~~~
aswinmohanme
I wanted a minimal aesthetic since it would match the minimal style of the
launcher. Also I thought the videos gave sufficient explanation, will be
improving the page in the meantime :D
~~~
johnchristopher
> I wanted a minimal aesthetic since it would match the minimal style of the
> launcher.
Words are more minimal and efficient than voice (think of the passage from
oral civilization to writing civilization).
After the introduction "So the thing I have been thinking about a bit
recently" with the classical youtuber voice tone I just stopped the video
(didn't want to check out if you - or the other guy, I don't know, don't care
- were going to show me the product or spend 7 minutes on storytelling) and
went to the play store to see what it actually does (since a quick glance to
the page didn't show any screenshots or explanation).
Now I am installing the thing :).
~~~
thaumasiotes
> Words are more minimal and efficient than voice (think of the passage from
> oral civilization to writing civilization).
While text is certainly more efficient than voice, I think the (very large!)
differences between oral civilization and writing civilization are more down
to the fact that text is more permanent than voice.
------
bvinc
I like this idea. I went looking for an Android launcher for this purpose. I
settled on "niagra". It doesn't really limit anything, but it allows me to
hide the app menu visually. I just have 7 apps on my main screen. And there's
no "recommended" or "recently used" apps, and there's no google search bar and
no browser on my main screen. I like it. I've simply forgotten about a lot of
apps over time. Out of sight out of mind.
Another interesting thing that I do: I use uBlock Origin to gimp websites and
hide recommendations to limit my browsing, without limiting my use of the
actual website.
I want all my actions to be purposeful, no aimless browsing, no
recommendations.
~~~
SLIB53
Also nice about Niagara is that you can hide apps from the full list of apps,
but allow them in the search. This adds another level for burying
distractions.
------
rflec028
Repost. See KISS launcher on F-Droid for a good alternative.
~~~
microcolonel
I used to use an old launcher that was mostly just a search box (with
automatic favourites, generated from how frequently you select certain apps),
KISS Launcher seems like a much more refined version of that.
------
postscapes1
I use this in combination with turning off Google's automatic News page on the
phone to drastically reduce my *get on the phone for something specific and
proceed to get sidetracked rate (barring Twitter where I am a degenerate
addict..)
------
visiblink
I have this... in the form of a Bold 9900. It calls, it texts, it has great
simple apps for calendar, tasks, memos, podcasts and music.
The browser sucks. The camera is a joke. There are almost no other apps. And I
can't circumvent the limitations.
It's perfect.
~~~
LeSaucy
The last 3 BlackBerry phones I had for work would randomly power cycle, often
during calls. If you need an occasional call I could live with that, but
dropping out of conference calls is quite embarrassing.
~~~
visiblink
That would be annoying. Fortunately, I have never experienced call drops/power
downs like that. If I had, I'd be using a different device too.
------
broahmed
I've been looking for ways to cut down my phone use. FocusMe[0][1] is one of
my favorites on Android for blocking apps and URLs, Cold Turkey[2] for the
same on computers. As for your launcher LessPhone, I downloaded it and
immediately paid the single dollar for dark mode. I think paying also allowed
me to adjust the number of apps (up to a max of eight). I was delighted to see
how few permissions your app required. Love it and keeping it!
[0]
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.focusme.an...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.focusme.android&hl=en_US)
[1] FocusMe version direct from developers that has uninstall protection:
[https://focusme.com/android/](https://focusme.com/android/)
[2] [https://getcoldturkey.com/](https://getcoldturkey.com/)
------
wtdata
What I think it would help me (personally) was a way to block certain web
addresses (for all apps) at certain time periods (with no easy way of
disabling it).
There are a couple of apps that supposedly do that, but they all fail more or
less miserably (one of them is easily defeated just by pressing Android's back
button for instance).
~~~
broahmed
Check out FocusMe:
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.focusme.an...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.focusme.android)
It supports what you're looking for: you can block both specific applications
and URLs in all applications. It's worked well for me. They also supply a
version on their website that includes uninstall protection:
[https://focusme.com/android/](https://focusme.com/android/)
------
fridgamarator
But what will I do while I poop?
------
vackosar
I have written OSS launcher similar to this. It is search based and you can
also hide apps you don't want to see
[https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.vackosar.searchbasedlaun...](https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.vackosar.searchbasedlauncher/)
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vackosar.s...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vackosar.searchbasedlauncher)
------
luismedel
This reminds me of my last months as a Windows Phone user. Text interface,
limited apps and browsing...and a lot of jokes from my work colleagues.
------
piotrkubisa
I would say there is worth noting alternative called UltraStamina mode that is
available in Sony phones. In this mode you have only limited number
applications that are mostly non-internet consumers, removes animations,
multiple desktops and also help to last few days more on battery (5-7 days on
built in ~3000mAh battery).
------
reificator
I can't set Google Voice as the default Phone or SMS app, which is obviously
Google's fault, but it means I can't really justify using this launcher the
way it is.
If there was a way to change the Dialer link in the bottom left to open Google
Voice, that would make it a lot easier of a sell.
~~~
Apotheos
I believe you need to install Hangouts Dialer and use that as your primary
dialer.
~~~
reificator
That's what I used to do, but I was naive and tried out the Google Voice app
after it updated. If you're not grandfathered in, I don't think you can go
back to Hangouts for voice/sms anymore.
------
em-bee
i don't have any games or other entertainment apps on my phone.
maps, ride share, audio player, call, sms.
and messaging. but here the problem starts. i am counting 5! messaging apps,
and they all contain work contacts. because everyone is on a different app. so
that's 10!
and, unfortunately, the distractions are also in those apps. if there were an
app that is a distraction only, then i could just remove it from the phone.
notice i didn't list the browser. that's there, but it's rarely really needed,
mostly for entertainment. but most of the messaging apps have builtin browsers
and/or the ability to open a browser from within.
so nope, i am afraid i can't cut out the distractions. they are forced upon me
against my will.
------
tfolbrecht
I use a very similar launcher called "Doorways Launcher."
This looks much more refined with extra features.
Thank you!
------
fekunde
This looks like the way to go for people like me who have used everything from
uninstalling apps (then resorting to the browser) to installing usage
trackers. Just eliminating the ability to do anything but the minimal.
------
rutierut
I've been using Befor Launcher for the past month, it's pretty similar,
LessPhone wasn't a good fit for me. I've been absolutely loving the
experience, this is a good concept.
------
perfect_wave
I like the idea of this, but I have one non-negotiable - I have to be able to
use Spotify on my phone. I have yet to see a minimalist solution that allows
me to use my music player.
~~~
bussierem
I am the same way with Google Music, and I was experimenting with the various
minimalist launchers. The one I found is "Before Launcher", which lets you
pick 6 apps to have on the home screen. I just added Google Play Music app to
that list along with my others, and it seems just fine, outside not having a
home screen widget for easy controls.
~~~
johnchristopher
I installed it today, following that comment, and 20 minutes later... my
pocket was burning :D. I spent the next half an hour trying to reboot it and
remove the launcher since it was really slow (and hot). Just before leaving
work of course and when I wanted to listen to a podcast. Oh, well. Don't try
out new things at 4 o'clock when you need them at 5 :D.
------
ryanolsonx
I've been using Slim launcher lately. These sort of launchers definitely have
a place and have helped me stay distraction-free.
------
mendelmaleh
In reality, this app is really underwelming. I'd recommend Niagara launcher,
or Before launcher.
------
throwaway876198
Does anyone an opensource equivalent of this? I do not like closed source apps
anymore.
~~~
siphon22
I don't know if it's the same, but KISS launcher has been amazing for me. I
have only like 4 or 5 utility stuff on the small favorites bar and everything
else is hidden. If I truly need something that isn't in my favorites, I need
to actively think about it and search for it by swiping up on the homescreen
to open the KISS search bar. I no longer open my phone and see a cluttered
mess and procrastinate by opening random stuff that seems appealing at the
time.
------
johnchristopher
So, only three apps allowed ? More in the paid version ?
------
nsilvestri
I wanted to give this a shot a long time ago, but putting dark mode behind a
paywall was the only thing keeping me from using it. I do not enjoy getting my
eyeballs fried every time I go to home.
~~~
sgarrity
This is literally a $1 problem.
------
ChrisArchitect
reminds me of the approach/minimal interface that tiny PALM comeback phone was
pushing
~~~
ChrisArchitect
wait, this is the same thing? And is it called NoPhone or LessPhone ....what
is going on here? also, this is from 2018?
------
pjmlp
It seems quite strange that people get so addicted to their phones that they
need this kind of external help.
What is so hard about self control?
~~~
frankbreetz
In a world where thermostats and refrigerators have to go regular software
updates, this hardly seems like overkill. Someone made something to help
people, I think we should appreciate it.
~~~
em-bee
it's a fair question. why even install distracting apps in the first place?
just remove them from the phone. the problem is apps that mix business with
pleasure and that can't be uninstalled or avoided.
~~~
ialexpw
Exactly this. And if it's really so bad that you'd need this, just buy a
simple phone with simple apps.
~~~
frankbreetz
How is buying a new phone easier than installing an app?
------
feiss
I need 5
~~~
quazar
You can choose a number of allowed apps between 1 and 8 in the full version,
which costs $1.
------
jeena
Interesting that people seem to have that problem, I guess I just sit in front
of a real computer most of the day so it's easier to do the things on it.
I almost feel guilty that my job gives me the most expensive phone every year
and I'm basically only use it to listen to podcasts on the train while
commuting, otherwise it's mostly both at work and at home just laying on the
qi charging station the rest of the day.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Did you code in the 1980s? Which language(s) did you use? What for? - azuajef
======
stevekemp
Only for my own personal amusement. I received, along with my sisters, a ZX
Spectrum 48k for Christmas in 1984 or so.
The machine had a dead tape-deck on arrival, which meant that we couldn't play
with any of the games in the bundle (10 IIRC).
My sisters lost interest pretty much immediately, but I read the manual and
started entering the simple BASIC programs.
Over time I learned BASIC pretty well, eventually moving on to z80 machine
code.
I stopped programming for a few years, instead preferring to play games, but
then I wanted to get extra-lives so I started "hacking". Slowly learning how
to by-pass the loaders on commercial games, so I could examine the programs
and tweak them for infinite lives, timers, & etc.
I got a few POKEs published in UK magazines at the time, you'd write a little
BASIC program that POKEd in machine-code to load the game from tape, patching
it to return to your control, before modifying the game-code and jumping to
the entry-point.
That occupied me from 84-90 or so.
------
informatimago
6502, z80, 6809, BASIC, LSE, Pascal, COBOL, 360 assembler, S35 assembler,
68000, Microsoft Basic, LightSpeed Pascal, C, Modula-2, Object-Pascal, 8086,
FORTRAN IV, Smalltalk, sh, csh, awk.
Some to learn, some to work, some for a hobby.
At work on that period, I've used 68000 assembler, S35 assembler, Microsoft
Basic, LightSpeed Pascal, C, Modula-2.
In the 90's personal computers became more powerful, internet became
accessible, and therefore the gamut of accessible programming languages became
much wider and much more interesting (Lisp, scheme, prolog, ML, Ada, Modula-3,
Oberon, etc). But that's not your question.
~~~
vkuruthers
Quite an extensive list there :)
------
vkuruthers
Yes, started in 1984 with BASIC on my 8 bit home PC. Used that to learn
programming, explore the machine & make a few primitive games.
Then moved on to Z80 assembler (massively faster, and that's where you really
get to understand how the computer works).
At the end before going to University also used some Pascal, but not that
much.
Didn't know about C back then, wish I had.
------
osullivj
Basic & Z80 ASM on the ZX81 and Camputers Lynx at home, for fun. Basic &
DBaseII on PC-DOS as my first paid gig in 83. Then Fortran, C, x86 & 68000 ASM
for mech eng software on DOS, Windows, VMS and Xenix [1] from 1985 to 1990. I
wrote a Xenix device driver for a PC AT 386 hosted 68000 powered graphics
card. That was fun :) Also did some C & Fortran on Intergraph's Clipper based
Unix workstation.
------
rpeden
I was young, writing very simple games in Color BASIC on a TRS-80 hooked up to
the family TV.
It didn't have a floppy drive, but it did let you save your programs to an
audio cassette tape so you could load them up and reuse them later.
This was a highly unreliable way of storing programs, as my sister would often
record audio over my programs because she liked watching the needles on the
tape recorder move back and forth as she spoke.
------
joedunn
6502 assembly - we were building the Acorn BBC machine (!) BCPL - the "before
C" language at Cambridge University Pascal, SNOBOL - just because Modula 2 -
because it was sooo cool (and we were using a variant of our own with all
kinds of neat stuff - like exceptions!)
------
cabalamat
Z8 BASIC, ZX80 BASIC, BBC BASIC, Sinclair QL BASIC, loads of other varieties
of BASIC. Turbo Pascal, C, C++, Smalltalk. Z80, Z8 and 6502 assembler. Ladder
logic.
Several others that I've forgotten.
------
wslh
Only for fun, games and experiments
TI-99/4A: Logo and BASIC
Apple II: Applesoft BASIC and 6502 assembler
Commodore Amiga: BASIC, ARexx, assembler, Pascal, Aztec C.
------
opendomain
Basic, Assembly (6502, 8088), Pascal, Fortran
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Firefox 6 - WebSockets are back - thefox
http://hacks.mozilla.org/2011/05/aurora-6-is-here/
======
riobard
Firefox 4 ditched WebSockets for security reasons. Does anybody know the
justification to add it back now? More specifically, do they fix the security
issue of WebSocket, or do they just give up to the popular demand?
~~~
wmf
Yes, the security concern has been fixed using masking.
[http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-hybi-
thewebsocketproto...](http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-hybi-
thewebsocketprotocol-07#section-4.3)
~~~
palish
Maybe someone could explain the original security concern, and how masking is
able to address that concern?
~~~
tptacek
In the original protocol, it was possible to get two endpoints to transact
over Websockets even if a middlebox between them didn't perfectly enforce the
protocol. This is bad because it potentially confuses the middlebox about
which parts of the stream are HTTP/1.1 requests or not, which can allow
attackers to poison caches.
In the new protocol, Websockets traffic is (trivially) encoded so that it (a)
can't accidentally be interpreted by either endpoint as something other than
Websockets and (b) can't confuse middleboxes.
Basically, "new" Websockets has custom Websockets encryption that nothing
other than Websockets will be speaking, so, if you're talking Websockets, it's
because both endpoints consented to do so.
~~~
tomjen3
That seems like a horrible solution - now we have to wait until all companies
update their proxies to support websockets.
~~~
mbrubeck
No, just the opposite - this change was necessary to get WebSockets to _work_
with old, broken proxies. Previously those proxies might interpret part of the
body of the WebSocket traffic as an HTTP header; now they will correctly just
pass the traffic through.
------
nkassis
That's good news, WebSockets is probably the second coolest thing to come out
of the HTML5 movement, right after WebGL I think. Everything else is cool and
all but those two are major changes.
~~~
david927
I'm also happy and couldn't agree more, but I would make it more generic:
Canvas/WebGL is the huge change. And I would add Local Storage as a distant
third to WebSockets' strong second. The rest is fun but not game changing.
~~~
palish
Local Storage is limited to 5MB, which cripples the ability of indie game
developers to effectively use WebGL as an alternative deployment platform.
~~~
nextparadigms
It has unlimited storage if you use Chrome's Webstore. I suppose it will just
take a while before the other browsers can figure out how to implement it the
right way for more than 5 MB of storage.
~~~
asadotzler
Other browsers have figured it out. Other browsers had it figured out before
there was a Chrome Webstore.
------
mbrubeck
In case you're wondering what _"this API will be temporarily namespaced"_
means, see <http://bugzil.la/659324>. Before Firefox 6 is pushed to the
release channel, the constructor will will be changed to "new MozWebSocket()".
Once the JavaScript API is stabilized, it will be changed back to "new
WebSocket()".
------
boazsender
Rwaldron has some good coverage of this over at
[http://weblog.bocoup.com/javascript-firefox-aurora-6-and-
eve...](http://weblog.bocoup.com/javascript-firefox-aurora-6-and-eventsource-
api)
Funny, I just posted this link to Rwaldron's coverage right before you posted
to the link he is responding to.
------
trizk
IE does not inherently support WebSockets, so apps with worker threads will
block. You can support WebSockets in IE clients using this hack:
<http://bit.ly/irM6XV>
------
huetsch
What are some potentially practical uses of WebSockets?
~~~
MostAwesomeDude
Anything that Comet or other long-polling techniques provide, really.
The advantages of WebSockets include constantly changing specifications which
are neither backwards- nor forwards-compatible, a lack of proxy traversal, an
arbitrary and unreasonable limitation on binary data transfer, and lack of
unified browser and server support.
~~~
daeken
I've held off on using WebSockets until binary frames are supported. I'm
amazed they haven't been so far.
~~~
yesbabyyes
Ericsson has a working implementation for this, they do voice and video
browser to browser with Webkit:
<https://labs.ericsson.com/apis/web-real-time-communication>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2600585>
------
jrockway
I still don't understand "web" sockets. I mean, to get a web page, I already
have a TCP connection. TCP connections are bidirectional. All we need is for
the browser to write stuff to the socket and read stuff from it.
Yes, I understand that proxies may assume HTTP is request/response... but
that's fine. My app breaks when you use that proxy. I can live with that.
The future-proof fix is to add some Cache-control header that says, "hey, this
response is infinitely long! don't cache!".
------
code_duck
Also, the 'Web Console' developer tools are interesting. Somewhat rough at the
moment, but it has some useful features.
~~~
yahelc
I am completely in love with the persistence of the console between pages;
Really, really helpful for a whole bunch of hard-to-debug cases.
------
kunjaan
Do you guys know of good tutorials on WebSockets?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why solution-to-market fit matters more than product-to-market fit - liquidnewsroom
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmPI64B4_Ls&feature=youtu.be
======
liquidnewsroom
Nice talk by PagerDuty's Jennifer Tejada, who shares insights on how to build
a customer focussed business. Instead of focussing too much on product-to-
market she actually proposes to search for solution-to-market fit. She advices
entrepreneurs to keep an eye on "big market," "big territory," and "ownable
territory" to be successful. Her presentation was hold at "Scale Together," a
conference in 2017.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Jimmy Wales: This is super cool. "I started to learn python..." - benn_88
https://twitter.com/jimmy_wales/status/359640425268649984
======
dade_
I suggest reading the article before making a comment.
Jimmy Wales tweeted, "This is super cool!" about a girl presenting her
Raspberry Pi story, "I started to learn Python...".
~~~
Cthulhu_
Which makes me wonder, why is Wales' tweet linked here as the news, whilst
it's the original article that should be linked and upvoted?
------
Caketh
For the commenter's applauding Jimmy Wales' new language skills, he's
referring to the story of Amy Mather and her adventures with python and the
Raspberry Pi. Linked video:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a35XINnYFtA](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a35XINnYFtA)
------
booop
I don't share his enthusiasm about this. Doesn't everyone interested in
computers/computing start programming things that are actually useful at
roughly that age?
Also, is an early start a guarantee that someone will choose a career in
computing?
~~~
malux85
Nope! But it would be great if the general population had some proficiency in
programming, even if they don't choose a career in computing.
My partner is an aspiring film maker, but knows how to parse a CSV in python
and do pattern matching, he was looking for funding and needed to pull all of
the "x.com" domains out of a giant spreadsheet .. for him, simple, export as
CSV and string match the email field.
This simple skill alone, put him miles ahead of the other film makers in his
class, the others were using "find" in excel and copy pasting, he was done in
15 minutes, the others took hours.
There's so many examples where account managers, secretaries, business
analysts, chemical engineers etc benefit from simple data matching. They're
not going to write the next facebook, and are not interested in a
"programming" / "computing" career, but data extraction and simple programming
is becoming a basic skill like reading and writing, and it's all good I say!
~~~
44Aman
Do you have links to any good tutorials about programming (in any language)
for this purpose?
~~~
goldfeld
Though I haven't read it (I'm a programmer myself), I've always liked the idea
of this book:
[https://leanpub.com/scrapingforjournalists](https://leanpub.com/scrapingforjournalists)
------
progx
Really important Hacker News. I started to learn node.
------
xr09
Jimmy Wales is a role model, you must have modesty and defined objectives to
build that humongous platform and refuse to monetize, his quotations of "The
Fountainhead" made me read it, awesome, the man really is a Howard Roark.
~~~
gnosis
Jimmy Wales did not build Wikipedia. Thousands upon thousands of unpaid
volunteers did.
As for Howard Roark, who is supposed to epitomize Ayn Rand's "virtue of
selfishness" ideal, I don't remember him being any kind of philanthropist. If
anything, he (like Rand) has nothing but contempt for the masses.
Wikipedia would be the antithesis of what Roark would want to build. The
Encyclopedia Britannica would be more to his liking, except that even it would
require too much cooperation and would be made to help others and instead of
himself.
Rand's ideal is the lone visionary designing his brilliant artwork for his own
pleasure, and to the gnashing of teeth of the ignorant horde who are jealous
of his genius.
~~~
AdamN
Hmm, I don't know. Seems like much of Wikipedia is by smart people for smart
people (like NPR). We all think of Wikipedia as the commons but it's far from
it. Most people are on perezhilton.com all day.
Anyway, Ayn Rand was more against the falseness around giving and the betrayal
of the recipient when he is given something he could never earn.
~~~
pekk
Are we talking about smart people, or rich people? Because they aren't the
same category.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Christmas: Brought to you by chinese slave labor - meadhikari
http://owni.eu/2011/12/21/christmas-brought-to-you-by-chinese-slave-labor-mattel-disney-china/
======
fragsworth
There is a major flaw in economic logic here. Yes - Chinese labor conditions
are bad. Unfortunately, if we boycott companies that use Chinese
subcontractors, there will be less demand for Chinese labor, which will reduce
the number of available jobs, thus reducing their salaries, and making their
labor conditions even worse. A shitty job is better than no job.
If we spend _more money_ on foreign-made goods, we provide more demand for
their labor, and effectively increase the available labor options for
foreigners, which improves their labor conditions.
~~~
seagaia
Hm, this sounds tough then. So what would be a more viable mode of action?
What do people currently do to work on improving these labor conditions?
I'll admit my first thought was "I'm just never going to buy these toys for
so-and-so ever!", but unsurprisingly it's more complex than that.
------
usaar333
I really dislike these hyperbolic titles.
Yes, there are labor rights abuses in China, but nowhere does it come close to
slave labor.
"According to him “the workers can not earn more than 154 euros a month, so
they need those extra hours.""
Tossing around numbers means nothing. Chinese is a middle income country. 154
euros per month works out to be roughly half of China's GDP per capita, which
is a pretty reasonable number. No you aren't going to be getting your own
apartment on that, but it is a lot higher than say working on a farm.
If anything, the developing world's outsourcing so much low-end factory work
to China has resulted in more people getting out of poverty faster than ever
before in history.
That's not to say there aren't plenty of violations, which should be
corrected, but I would hardly consider these workers to be systematically
exploited.
------
mwhooker
Surely China is more culpable than Amercan consumers and corporations?
~~~
sp332
If SOPA is getting this much flack for supporting a bill that threatens free
speech, I think corporations that fund slave labor should be taken to task as
well.
------
DanielN
To be clear, from what I could tell nothing described in this article is
honest to goodness slave labor.
------
Mz
I am reminded of discussions I have had on health lists about errors being
made in US hospitals which can lead to patients dying. One of the things I
noted: I think more mistakes get made where I work during crunch times, when
more work is coming in than we can handle in a timely manner with only working
regular hours, so we get pressured to work faster, put in overtime, etc. Of
course, no one is likely to die if someone in my department makes a mistake.
I've had a class on workplace hazards, eons ago. Even at my job, where I work
for a company with an excellent reputation as a fantastic place to work,
people bitch about overtime, there is risk of winding up with carpal tunnel
from doing your job, and so on.
I'm not saying there aren't real problems here, but a) almost everyone bitches
about their job (and would bitch more if unemployed)and b) work will always
entail health hazards (and not working is generally worse). I do think there
is room for improvement in these things and I don't want to discourage people
from discussing that, but vilifying employers like this makes no sense to me.
Just like the factory workers take these awful jobs because it's better than
the alternative (starvation and homelessness), the employers are also working
within the constraints of real world limits.
At my job, we get asked to produce more during crunch times (and work overtime
and all that) because a) turn around time impacts customer satisfaction, so
not meeting the expected turn around time is a threat to the company health
and welfare b) high demand is periodic/seasonal, so it does not make business
sense to hire more people (hiring more people would hurt the bottom line,
shorten turn around time further during non-peak times, thus raising customer
expectation to this newer shorter turn around time, thus leaving the company
in the same boat during certain seasons when demand is high but with increased
overhead), c) when we get backed up, things snowball because more customers
call in to complain about the turn around time, so rush requests and the like
get sent over and so on which results in even more work and urgency and all
that. Ironically, rush requests take more time and slow down production even
more and in many cases if they left us alone, they would get it about as fast
because we would get more done generally but the customers neither know that
nor care, they just want their own needs met. The best way to deal with all
this is try to keep things within the expected turn around time -- which means
crunch times happen, like it or not, and it's not because the company is run
by evil overlords or some crap.
I did write a proposal at work with intent to try to resolve some of the
systemic issues and improve both company performance and the quality of the
work experience for the people in production. It got met with excited
enthusiasm and then promptly butchered and bastardized into something
unrelated to the analysis I wrote. So if someone can come up with a better
answer, a path forward to more humane conditions in these factories, and also
find some means to effectively get the word out so people will, in fact,
implement it, I am all for that. It's easy to bitch and criticize. It's hard
to come up with real solutions that genuinely improve things -- which is
exactly why the people running these factories aren't doing a better job of
treating people more humanely and all that. And even if you can do the
analysis and come up with an idea with potential, you still face challenges in
"selling" it, in getting the word out so it actually gets done. Conversations
like this tend to be long on vilifying people and short on exploring "what
would actually work to improve things?" That never goes over all that well
with me (not that anyone here is obligated to care what I feel about it, just
sayin').
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Moon - edj
http://typesetinthefuture.com/moon/
======
louthy
This is great.
I remember the first time I watched Moon and felt like I recognised the style
of the design. Then later in the film when I saw the vehicles I thought to
myself "That looks like massively like Gav's design"; referring to Gavin
Rothery who I'd worked with a number of years earlier at a games company
called Pure Entertainment.
We both worked on a title called Lunatik, which was a futuristic space game -
I did the Playstation 3D graphics engine and he worked on the concept models
for the spaceships, cities, etc. Very bladerunner-esque.
When I left the company we lost touch, so it was very nice to see his name up
in lights on the credits 10 years later - and to just recognise his style
without knowing that he'd worked on it.
------
biot
Just a warning: if you haven't yet seen the movie, the article contains
significant plot spoilers. Moon is a fantastic movie, so go watch it on
Netflix then read all about the typography afterwards.
~~~
grey-area
This is a great film, but I'm not sure why knowing more about the plot or the
background to the design would ruin it for you? Do you also worry about
spoilers for works of literature or films from the past? What about spoilers
for young people on the entirety of human output?
I agree everyone should go watch this film, as it was really fascinating and a
probably far more realistic take on living in space than most - the boredom,
paranoia and drudgery were very effective - I feel compelled to stop
discussing it here though in case I violate your no spoilers rule! I think
I'll watch it again sometime, and I'll probably enjoy it more, not less,
having read some of the discussion here and knowing more about it, and having
seen all the twists of the plot already. Those are the least enjoyable and
least important parts of the enjoyment of the film, and a focus on them omits
all the other fascinating parts of this story (the repetition, the model-
making as a way of escape, the corporation that controls his life, the
convincing drudgery of space etc).
If you really don't like spoilers, don't click on discussions which purport to
be about the film until you see it, or stop reading them as soon as the film
is mentioned. That's really the only solution for you, and more effective than
calling for no spoilers. Where did this recent obsession with spoilers come
from?
A great story should not need the prop of plot-twists to be enjoyable - there
are so many facets of entertainment which don't depend on plot (character,
narration, allusions, themes, language, even setting and typography as here!).
Stories like The Odyssey or Julius Caesar are not ruined by knowing the plot,
because the pleasure is in the telling (and sometimes the retelling) and
worrying over spoilers shuts down any sort of significant discussion of a film
or story. To me shutting down all that discussion is far more damaging than
any potential loss of momentary surprise when something happens you didn't
expect.
~~~
icambron
I disagree. Even without plot twists, a movie is often a process of discovery.
You explore the character, narration, allusions, themes, and language in the
order they're shown in the film. And Moon in particular is such a carefully
paced movie. So while I agree that the plot spoilers may not matter much in
this case, I think you'd have a much different and likely inferior experience
watching Moon after reading this because of all the other stuff it reveals.
So what Biot said: go watch Moon and then come back and read this excellent
blog post.
~~~
grey-area
If you do consistently find things spoiled by foreknowledge, there is a simple
solution - just avoid reading articles or discussions which mention the film
before you see it (stop reading at the word Moon!), no need to call out
_spoilers_ because every meaningful discussion of this film will be a spoiler
in some sense, and many people enjoy discussing films and books online after
or before they see them. I'm not sure where this cult of _no-spoilers_ has
come from, but it damages public discussion - all content could be spoilers
for someone so reviews become a cryptic set of hints instead of a full
discussion with examples and no-one can speak frankly about stories without
hearing 'spoilers'. The responsibility for avoiding exposure should fall on
the person who doesn't want to know things, rather than on everyone else.
It's interesting, because I find more pleasure sometimes in rereading a book
or watching a film again than the first time, specifically because of having a
deeper understanding of it, the background to the characters, other films like
it, and perhaps noticing things that were missed the first time round. Broader
knowledge (from others or from previous experiences) actually helps further
enjoyment in many cases, because it deepens your understanding when you are
exposed. So I'd say go ahead and enjoy reading about things beforehand, you
may well find it actually improves the experience - in some cases like James
Joyce, or to a lesser extent Shakespeare, it becomes almost essential.
~~~
andyjohnson0
Like you, I often re-read books or re-watch DVDs. But I find the enjoyment
that I gain from this is different the first reading/viewing, and I'd prefer
to experience both. Spoilers would detract from this.
~~~
twocows
Different strokes. I find that spoilers make me more interested in how the
story unfolds, personally. But yes, I understand that a lot of folks don't
like them.
------
dmazin
Something I excitedly noticed I've never been able to tell anyone because it's
too specific:
Moon (2009) opens with the line "Where Are We Now?," the title of the first
single off Bowie's new album (2013).
David Bowie is, of course, Duncan Jones' father.
~~~
ericd
Damn, that's a really cool easter egg, thanks for sharing.
------
Pxtl
I notice a recurring theme of '80s retro-futurism in Moon. It all looks like
the way we imagined the future at the peak of the Space Shuttle, but with
little nods to modern technology to avoid obvious anachronisms. Brilliant
design.
For example, the black-backgrounded GUIs with wide text on them remind me of
old DOS-era applications, but they're displayed on modern high-resolution
flat-panel displays.
The T-shirt is also painfully '80s, as directly noted. The only music
mentioned is an early-'90s song that was hokey the day it came out. The
Flowbee and the magazine are other noted '80sisms.
The rescue-crew-manifest with poor-quality black-and-white images on a color
screen? That could've been lifted directly from the '80s-era Alien films.
Which really, all makes sense - the '80s were the end of the space race. For
space-travel nostalgia, that's where you go for modern Gen X movie fans.
~~~
dave_addey
Very interesting! My follow-up post to _Moon_ is actually _Alien_ , and I've
come to a similar realization. I reckon the main reason that _2001: A Space
Odyssey_ hasn't aged half as much as _Alien_ , or _Silent Running_ , or other
70s/80s sci-fi, is that in _2001_ , all of the monitors are flat-screen
displays, not curved CRTs. Ironically, this is only because they didn't have
the computing power to generate the HAL graphics on an actual computer, and so
it was all hand-animated on film and then back-projected onto a flat display.
This combination of flatness and high-resolution animation means that it looks
just like the retina displays of today.
~~~
Pxtl
It's worth contrasting against contemporary SF films that don't stylistically
tie themselves to the past - look at Sunshine with its touchscreens, or
Children of Men with the hyperflat TVs, or minority report with the gesture-
driven holograms.
------
kitcar
This is a phenomenal Easter egg:
[http://companycheck.co.uk/company/06346944](http://companycheck.co.uk/company/06346944)
(A corporate Id number for the fictional space mineral extraction company is
flashed on a screen in the movie - a search on that corporate Id in the UK
database shows its in fact a real registered corporation!)
~~~
dave_addey
Yep – turns out Lunar Industries Ltd. was the name of the production company
they set up when they made the film, and that is indeed their registered
company number.
------
shmageggy
> He’s keeping count of his days on the Moon with a dry-wipe marker on the
> bathroom wall. By my reckoning, this is 146 days and counting – not quite
> the nearly-three-years mentioned in the plot:
No, but 3 years is remarkably close to 146 weeks.
~~~
Patrick_Devine
There are actually 156 smiley's on the wall, which is (of course) exactly 3
years.
~~~
dave_addey
Good spot, sir! Turns out I miscounted. I've updated the article to include a
correction.
------
catmanjan
The haircut machine in Moon blew my mind, I can't believe it actually exists,
and on such a prestigious domain name!
www.haircut.com
~~~
beachstartup
if you're a child of the 80s you'll also recognize:
[http://www.flowbee.com](http://www.flowbee.com)
~~~
Crito
I've actually used one of these once. Once.
If I cared that little about how my hair looks, I'd just get some clippers.
~~~
pbhjpbhj
I thought Flowbee was just clippers - the thing I hate most about cutting hair
is the hair getting everywhere, especially short clippings. That's exactly the
pain point being addressed with vacuum haircutting isn't it.
~~~
Pxtl
The vacuum also provides suction to pull the hair straight, I think. Notice
how a barber pulls your hair out straight with a comb to see the length while
cutting? The suction gets you that service.
------
taliesinb
That was a fantastically entertaining analysis!
Not a typographical Easter egg, but one I noticed while reading: could the
Eliza rescue team be a reference to the early 'robotic psychologist' ELIZA?
That would fit with the other playful human/machine blurring in the movie.
~~~
zhs
Hahaha I didn't think about that but that would also be clever. Another
possible explanation is the Eliza Protocol which I understand is involved in
protein breakdown – not unlike the way his body breaks down.
[http://www.piercenet.com/method/overview-protein-protein-
int...](http://www.piercenet.com/method/overview-protein-protein-interaction-
analysis)
~~~
robbiep
More protein identification rather than breakdown
~~~
sigmaml
That is ELISA (with an `S'), if I understand what you mean correctly.
------
ChuckFrank
Simply astounding. Wonderfully done. The wealth of typographical research into
various movies is almost Limitless. Twelve Monkeys couldn't pull me away from
this. Regardless of what Her's got to say about it.
~~~
bherms
Gene?
------
jmduke
What an absolutely wonderful idea for a blog.
I'd beseech you to do _Metropolis_ , but I feel like that'd be a relatively
short post, so to speak.
~~~
Intermernet
There's a very short article on the typography of _Metropolis_ available here:
[http://www.scribd.com/doc/21906884/Artistic-Typography-in-
Me...](http://www.scribd.com/doc/21906884/Artistic-Typography-in-Metropolis)
I too would love to see a more detailed blog post on Typography and
_Metropolis_ as it's a hugely important part of the film's style and sense of
"future".
------
CoffeeDregs
Before this post, I was thinking about watching Moon again. It's such an
incredible and unknown film. I will watch it again.
If you haven't seen Moon, then the following song will not make sense, but the
sense of desolation and uncertainty rhymes with the film. The ending of the
song captures the denouement @ 7:20.
[http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/Downfall/2VQtYZ](http://grooveshark.com/#!/s/Downfall/2VQtYZ)
Moon was fantastic.
~~~
_mulder_
Clint Mansell's original soundtrack is absolutely fantastic. I read they
managed to get him involved in the film because it was during the writers
strike 07-08 (remember that?!) and Hollywood had ground to a halt, hence
Mansell and ilk were looking for projects to keep them active.
I like your song, but it's a different vibe. To my ear, it sounds a bit too
military to be Moon. I do like the vintage synth sounds though!
~~~
lcrs
I remember hearing at the time that the reason they were able to build such a
big set for the moon base was because the stages were mostly empty, also due
to the writers' strike.
------
timClicks
Two posts in and already my favourite blog. The editorial rigour, attention to
detail and depth of knowledge are outstanding.
------
biffa
Moon's score written by Clint Mansell is perfect.
Here's a link to a section often used in documentaries:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lUgqeO1ZxM&feature=player_de...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lUgqeO1ZxM&feature=player_detailpage#t=22)
~~~
girvo
I haven't seen Moon, and stopped reading the OP when it got to spoilers.
Finding out about Clint Mansell doing the score from your post has completely
convinced me to watch it!
~~~
sneak
Oh, Moon is absolutely fantastic. See it immediately, and use headphones.
------
jmount
Love Moon, here is my article on Gerty [http://www.win-
vector.com/blog/2011/07/gerty-a-character-in-...](http://www.win-
vector.com/blog/2011/07/gerty-a-character-in-duncan-jones-moon/)
------
mcguire
I'm not really a font nerd, but I disagree with:
" _Moon uses an interesting angular typeface for its location-establishing
shot... This typeface is OCR-A, which was designed in 1968 for use in optical
character recognition systems.... Moreover, it looks like THE FUTURE, and so
it makes a perfect choice for on-screen interstitial positioning shots._ "
OCR-A does not look like THE FUTURE; it looks like the future in 1968. To me,
it looks like bitterness and cynicism. Apparently, it looks that way to
others, too, since it or something similar is used in the same way for every
other similar movie.
I haven't seen the movie. Is that message typed out on the screen, complete
with teletype noises? That _has_ to be one of the weirdest anachronisms ever
adopted as a trope.
~~~
sevia
> I haven't seen the movie. Is that message typed out on the screen, complete
> with teletype noises?
It is. I think it's necessary in this case - it's used as a mechanism to
distinguish it from the credits, which are being displayed at the same time
(e.g. [1] from the next shot). The typing noise and animation causes the
audience to pay attention to it, even if they weren't paying attention to the
credits.
In most other cases, it's just foley - audiences expect to hear futuristic
computer-clicky noises to accompany their space-text, so it feels weirder to
leave it out than to leave it in.
[1] [http://i.imgur.com/hrsqgoA.png](http://i.imgur.com/hrsqgoA.png)
------
derefr
Another good blog on a similar topic:
[http://www.scifiinterfaces.com/](http://www.scifiinterfaces.com/)
------
morsch
Read this! I feel like having to rehydrate after all that dry wit. Here's a
spoiler (seems only fitting) that illustrates the writing style:
_Maybe I should go and have a lie down for a bit, and come back when the
conspiracy theories have subsided. It’s a shame sci-fi films don’t have
intermissions these days. Let’s transplant the one from my 2001: A Space
Odyssey post, and go and have a cup of tea while the [characters] work out
what to do next._
<embedded
[http://typesetinthefuture.com/postfiles/2001/2001_intermissi...](http://typesetinthefuture.com/postfiles/2001/2001_intermission_full.jpg)
>
------
lcrs
I worked on the post-production of Moon, particularly the titles and the
screens in the base and Gerty's face. Pretty humbling to have someone pay so
much attention to what we did!
It's funny to hear about the Microstile/Eurostile differences - when we had to
replace type that was on the real set we made new elements using Eurostile, so
there are probably some inconsistencies.
The Bank Gothic/gradient fill/outline choice definitely haunted us for a while
after - it was already a bit of a scifi poster trope but it's got out of
control since. I've cringed a few times seeing posters on the tube and wished
we'd picked something slightly different. I remember being keen on an
outlandish faux-Cyrillic face at the time but it wasn't legible enough. I did
win the argument about colour though - my boss at the time did a bunch of
concept frames with translucent orange type for the main credit lines...
there's a little interview with him here:
[http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/moon/](http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/moon/)
Maybe it's too obvious to bear mentioning but there's a big foreshadowing in
the shot where Sam Rockwell's credit appears - a second copy of his name
dissolves up out of focus further back inside the base...
The OCR-1A type was set by me, in a slight hurry as I recall, type-on effect
and all. It had to look different to the Bank Gothic credit lines, and I'm
sure we tried the obvious Eurostile and it wasn't readable or was too heavy
for that amount of text. It feels a bit of a case of too many faces in
succession, in retrospect. I love machine-specific typefaces. I think I first
got into them after reading The Computer Contradictionary, which mentions E13B
a couple of times, the type used for the numbers printed in magnetic ink on
cheques:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_ink_character_recognit...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_ink_character_recognition).
That book is worth a look if you appreciate a bit of cynical tech humour...
[http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=tZKCZje8178C&printsec=fro...](http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=tZKCZje8178C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false)
The dot-matrix background on the text fields of the "big board" with the
countdown on it was probably my bad also... we replaced that whole board
wherever it appears in the film because the real prop had light leaking into
the four harvester status lines and you could see they were acetate. We
definitely tried having the letters formed by the actual dots but they weren't
legible enough, and making the dots smaller made them not legible enough.
Sense of nerd embarrassment. I guess it's some kind of future display
technology with... big dots? Err...
Trivia: the postcard reading "wish you were here" was inserted in post because
we had to cover up the real one which couldn't have its rights cleared ;)
More trivia: there was a spelling mistake on one of the panels on set, the one
which says "satellite uplink" when Matt Berry is yelling at Gerty. It was
caught by QC and I have some memory of fixing it for that shot since we'd
inserted the video into that screen anyway, but it might be visible in other
shots. It had "satellite" spelled "satelite".
Looking forward to more from that blog. I've thought of starting something
similarly one-track, favourites being "over-obvious ND grad filters in film"
or "non-circular lens vignettes done badly in post through the ages" or "10
worst skies graded without highlight rolloff" ^_^
~~~
dave_addey
Wow – that's some cracking trivia! I spotted (but chose to ignore) the
‘satellite’ typo – I think it's actually ‘sattelite’ when it appears on
screen.
Please do post this as a comment to the original blog post as well – I'd love
for people to be able to read it after they've finished reading my article.
And thanks for the kind words about the blog – there's plenty more where that
came from :)
------
dangayle
I love it when fellow font nerds come out and proclaim their love of
typography with wild abandon. People who are into type are _really_ into type.
------
Ntrails
Just FYI there is a mildly NWS image in here, (a shower scene bum). Not the
end of the world, but my scroll timing was suboptimal :(
~~~
pbhjpbhj
The internet approved acronym is NSFW.
~~~
itsameta4
Not if you've been around long enough to be a regular on Slashdot,
SomethingAwful, or Fark.
~~~
randallsquared
As someone with a five digit /. uid, I feel I've been around long enough. NSFW
won some time ago.
------
_nato_
I was really jazzed when this came out. For me, it fell flat. Perhaps it needs
a second viewing. Kudos for the use of models instead of cgi for this
filmmaker, though -- pretty awesome decision. The results speak for
themselves. Striking visuals!
~~~
stevejalim
I saw a post-screening Q&A with Duncan Jones and co-creators a few years back
and he mentioned that when they were prepping to make Moon, it was around the
time of the Hollywood writer's strike, so there were lots of productions on
hold, which had the happy side-effect of meaning there were some awesome old-
school FX people available to work on Moon.
~~~
_nato_
No kidding! I recall that strike, and had no idea. Thanks for sharing.
------
bwhmather
For similar stuff, don't miss the link at the bottom to the blog of the
designer behind the film:
[http://www.gavinrothery.com/moon-blog-
index/](http://www.gavinrothery.com/moon-blog-index/)
------
arc_of_descent
Beautiful beautiful movie! Sorry didn't read the article though. I'm going to
watch the movie again today. Work can wait!
------
gerjomarty
My favourite thing (among many) about this article is finding out that Lunar
Industries Ltd. is actually a registered company. Duncan Jones is indeed
registered as a company director.
I'm not sure when filming started, but the company was registered just about
two years before the film was released.
It's those small touches that make me really appreciate it.
------
chiph
Can I nominate the _Aliens_ franchise for your next post? The Weyland-Yutani
logo looks similar to Eurostile, but the W is much broader.
------
sogen
The "friendly rescue crew" have names like Rap _14_ and Dop _1_ , so they are
clones too!
------
beachstartup
moon was a great movie. it was the movie oblivion could have been.
------
Corvinex
Soylent is in this film! Predicting today's Soylent future food.
[http://soylent.me](http://soylent.me)
I wonder if this is how Rob came up with the name for his future food.
~~~
robertdobbs1
Good god I hope you are kidding and not an idiot.
~~~
bestdayever
Not knowing random pop culture references makes you an idiot these days,
interesting.
~~~
robertdobbs1
No calling Soylent future food repeatedly is. But based on their follow up
comment they were kidding.
------
untilHellbanned
looks like Dogecoin just got another font
------
personjerry
TO THE MOON!
~~~
bestdayever
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUySpaNRypw](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUySpaNRypw)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Foursquare Alternative? - vowelless
I like swarm / foursquare for logging locations I visit. What I used to like is that I could subscribe to the foursquare iCal feed and see my checkins on my calendar.<p>Foursquare has stopped supporting this feature. I have tried using other options (like IFTTT). But nothing works well.<p>Are there alternatives to foursquare, in particular, that support “subscribing” via calendars or let me visualize the time series of my checkins easily?
======
catacombs
In this day and age, is it a good idea to constantly share your location to
the public?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Death of the Salesmen? If software is great, salespeople aren’t needed - raajam
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/new-relic-death-of-the-salesmen-07012011.html
======
zaccus
...so Apple wouldn't need Apple retail stores if only their products were
better. Right.
If your product is new to the market, chances are that nobody woke up this
morning dying to try it out. It doesn't matter how great or intuitive a
product is. You still need someone to sell it. This has been true since
Sumerian times.
~~~
raajam
New Relic, zoho, 37signals are in the same camp of not wasting money on sales
force. Cost of their service is incremental and not requiring approval from
CTO/CIO. Most companies targeting enterprises have to invest in sales force
because its big ticket and the enterprises are used to do business that way.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Bitcoin would be a calamity, not an economy - edward
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/610783/bitcoin-would-be-a-calamity-not-an-economy/
======
zamalek
> total number of bitcoins is capped at 21 million [...]. This makes Bitcoin
> appealing to many people because something that will never increase in
> supply is more likely to hold its value.
A deeper problem is what happens when the economy grows to more than what
Bitcoin can represent. For example, what happens when a piece of bread is
worth less than 1 satoshi? With a fiat currency, you can simply print more so
that said piece of bread can have its value accurately represented. You can't
do that with Bitcoin.
To make matters worse, if a whole bunch of [flames, edit: money] goes up in
flames more can be printed to replace it. If Bitcoin goes missing[1], it's
gone for good.
Currency was formulated to replace barter (precisely because of indivisibility
problems: you have one cow, but I only have three bread to trade).
Cryptocurrency is not a currency because it specifically aims to reintroduce
problems that currency solves. It could be an alternative solution to the
barter problem if a novel workflow is formulated (such as Ripple carrying
information and not value), but buying stuff with it is unsustainable in the
long run.
[1]: [https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-
tech/ne...](https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-
tech/news/bitcoin-value-james-howells-newport-landfill-hard-drive-campbell-
simpson-laszlo-hanyecz-a8091371.html)
~~~
abbasaamer
> For example, what happens when a piece of bread is worth less than 1 satoshi
That does not seem to be an imminent danger. The price of Bitcoin would have
to increase literally 1.4 million times for a satoshi to be worth a penny.
> To make matters worse, if a whole bunch of flames goes up in flames more can
> be printed to replace it. If Bitcoin goes missing[1], it's gone for good.
Isn't that the same with paper cash? If by a "whole bunch" you mean enough to
cause a worldwide issue, then there are solutions to that. Maybe not great
solutions, but there are some. Worst case, a hard fork. That's essentially
what led to Ethereum vs Ethereum Classic, isn't it?
~~~
paxys
If you mail a torn banknote to the Treasury they will send you a brand new
one. There is no recourse if a hard drive or electronic wallet containing a
bunch of Bitcoin is destroyed, for example.
You can say "tough luck", sure, but the end result is that the amount of money
circulating in the economy will be decreasing every day.
And how does a fork solve anything? You can't just say, hey throw away all
your existing Bitcoin, we're starting from scratch and using this new one now.
~~~
abbasaamer
> If you mail a torn banknote to the Treasury they will send you a brand new
> one.
Torn, yes. Lost/destroyed, no. I don't think the torn analogy represents the
scenario being discussed.
> And how does a fork solve anything? You can't just say, hey throw away all
> your existing Bitcoin, we're starting from scratch and using this new one
> now.
That's exactly what Ethereum did. The old one was essentially "thrown away"
and became known as Ethereum Classic. A small group of people stuck with the
old one, but it's not the main one we think of when we say "Ethereum" these
days.
~~~
paxys
> Torn, yes. Lost/destroyed, no
They still will, if there is a way to verify it (e.g. stuff in a bank vault).
------
kashif
The article doesn't say much other than state the current reality of central
banks shaping a lot of market forces in todays paradigm. I disagree and think
that the Central bank has inserted itself in things that economic forces would
have otherwise managed anyway.
~~~
toss1
The history of massive boom-bust cycles before central banks says otherwise.
These cycles haven't been completely eliminated, but the cycles are much more
moderated than the way they were before fiscal and monetary interventions.
It seems that the best would be for a currency to automatically detect the
conditions needing faster or slower creation and algorithmically adjust (as
they adjust the hash rate), keeping political adjustments out of it.
------
ttul
“The problem is that in the event of a crisis, there would also be no way to
add liquidity to the system, since you can’t “print” more bitcoins.”
Arguably, because the rate at which BTC is printed is algorithmically fixed,
it makes no difference that there is a cap of 21 million at some time in the
future. The fixed rate of issuance is a curiosity. Since everyone know that it
exists and how it will play out, this is entirely reflected in the price.
If BTC replaced fiat, then yes, there would be no way for anyone to issue more
BTC to help provide liquidity. In this way, BTC is just like gold, and we know
that backing a currency with gold is a poor idea because it similarly ties the
hands of government.
However, if governments bought massive stocks of BTC, they could release it
when needed to absorb shocks. This would be more like a fiscal stimulus than a
monetary stimulus, but in any case I think the article overlooks it as a
distinct policy tool if BTC hits the really big time.
~~~
solotronics
I think backing all the global currencies with absolutely nothing is a
relatively new experiment and we have yet to see if it works out.
------
dumbfounder
It's not going to supplant the fiat of the world's strongest economies for a
long time, but it hopefully will soon for the weakest. For the weakest, the
central bank is often the problem, not the solution.
------
nontechdude1
Bitcoin is an economy for illicit things.
It is a store of value for early adopters trying to get people to basically
put money in their pocket.
The only thing people care about is its value against USD. That alone refutes
the possibility of it as a currency. USD is clearly a great currency.
Blockchain has some interesting applications; for example, medical records
being secured, and maybe other applications.
------
dpc_pw
This article is soo not worth reading. Nothing new or of any insight there.
The argument about fixed supply is soo old, and argued with million times
already.
Don't worry. Noone is forcing anyone to use Bitcoin. Keep your fiat, enjoy
your inflation and central bank always ready to print more of it. :)
------
israelsonbj
Forking creates too many issues for general public adoption.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Mark Cuban is bullish on America - vaksel
http://blogmaverick.com/2008/11/05/proud-to-be-an-american/
======
david927
I don't even think about President Elect Obama being black, and I'm shocked
that people factor it in to his message of hope, as if that's partly what it's
about: that a black man can be president. It's nothing of the sort.
What inspires me is that he'll actually change things. Nearly all politicians
will give lots of lips service to lots of things and in the end keep
everything the same. I (and many others) strongly believe he's different.
That's why people are in the streets. That's why they are excited. That's why
this is big.
It's not about the color of his skin but the content of his character.
~~~
adrianwaj
To me, Obama is a half-black half-white, non-practicing Muslim - not that I
think him any lesser for it. When a fully black or fully devout Muslim
candidate wins the election, that would be very interesting. It is not fitting
to congratulate Obama on the race card just because he's different to his
predecessors.
~~~
ibsulon
Except that he's explicitly Christian, not Muslim.
~~~
jonas_b
I liked Colin Powells take on that one:
"I'm also troubled by not what senator McCain says, but what members of the
party say - and it is permitted to be said - such things as "you know that
Obama is a muslim". The correct answer is that he's not a muslim, he's a
christian, he's always been a christian. But the reallyright answer is: what
if he is? Is there something wrong with being a muslim in this country? The
answer is no. That is not America. Is there something wrong with some 7 year
old muslim american kid believing he or she can be president?"
~~~
olefoo
I think it more likely that Americans would elect a Muslim than an atheist. We
still have a long ways to go in overcoming our prejudices.
------
comatose_kid
"While I prefer lower taxes, I can tell you that no entrepreneur or CEO worth
a damn in this country gives up or works less because of a change in tax
policy."
~~~
hugh
Really? I'm considering moving back to Australia in order to start my company
when the time comes.
I moved to the US because it had lower tax rates, but if that gets reversed
then the US can say goodbye to my income.
~~~
vaksel
you are counting your chickens before they hatch. In this country we tax
profit. Which means until your startup starts making you that 250K/yr in
profit, you won't be affected one bit by any increases Obama makes. Actually
you'll probably benefit during the early stage under Obama.
And its not like Australia has a super low tax rate, you'll still pay 30% in
taxes. So ask yourself this, is the extra 5-10% in profit worth it to you to
lose x% of your customers who don't want to do any business with a company
outside United States?
I see the additional tax rate under Obama as an investment. I lose a little
bit off the top, but I'll get more than compensated by my users actually
having money to spend.
~~~
brianlash
"customers who don't want to do any business with a company outside United
States"
Wait. When have you ever not done business with a web services company on the
grounds that it was located outside the US? Do you think that kind of thing
actually goes on? And that the problem is so endemic it should be cause to
stick around, lest you lose all your US-based customers?
It may be so with a brick-and-mortar, or with a business that involves high-
cost shipping. But for a traditional web services company -- Freshbooks
(Cananda), Netvibes (France), Problogger (Australia) -- I don't think that
argument holds any water.
~~~
vaksel
Sure if you have some freebie app its not a big deal. But the second you ask
your users to pull out a credit card your location becomes a big deal to most
people.
~~~
brianlash
I get where you're coming from, but in terms of trust I think people check a
few things:
1) Is my connection secure and encrypted, 2) Is either of Authorize.net,
PayPal, or Google acting as a payment gateway 3) Is the site established, and
does it have verifiable feedback from people I trust, 4) Does a Google search
show other people talking about the site, What are they saying, 5)Does the
site's content converge to norms I've come to know and expect from credible
companies I've patronised
And 6) Is it located in the continental United States (if Yes that's icing on
the cake... nothing more). I won't speak for _most_ (I don't think you should
either) because I have no grounds for basing an assumption of the "most
people" magnitude.
But I think there are a lot of measures people check before swiping the credit
card on a virtual transaction. The US/non-US piece is one consideration, but
that's my point: It's just one item on a list of important credibility checks.
------
siculars
I agree with Mark. The promise of hope in America trumps virtually all policy
decisions. I didn't even vote for the guy and I'm actually happy he won. I
really hope the next four years will be an amazing time to be an American and
that President Elect Obama can deliver on his message of change.
------
martythemaniak
"our amazing country once again reinvigorated the dream that any child in this
country, no matter what circumstances they are born into, can grow up to be
anything they want, including President of the United States."
Yeah, tell that to Arnold and all the other first-gen immigrants. :\
~~~
jimbokun
Governor of California's not a bad consolation prize. 7th largest economy in
the world, and all that. :)
------
charlesju
Every time Obama speaks, an angel has an orgasm. - Daily Show
------
jmatt
Voting for Obama because he is black essentially defeats the purpose of the
civil rights movement. The whole point of the movement was the color of your
skin doesn't matter. I voted based on my principles and issues.
It's sad to see so many dissenting opinions downmodded just because the
majority disagree. Yes some of them were deserving of it, but others made
legitimate points.
------
smakz
It's so stupid everyone's concentrating on race... seriously. You're just
making the situation worse rather then better. Racism will only be gone once a
minority is elected president and no one cares to mention the fact they are a
minority.
Also, he's as much white as he is black. Everyone is pretending like the one
drop rule from the slavery-era south is still in effect.
Come on people!!!!!!!!!!
~~~
jhancock
I don't think race is the only thing people concentrate on. And I do not think
that is at all what enabled Obama to become the Democratic front-runner
earlier this year.
It is clear that race is still a factor. Obama has no problem discussing race
issues openly. I don't either. I think it is healthy and about time we start
talking more openly about race issues, it may enable us to make further
progress. I feel race issues have stagnated the last 30 years. Its gotten a
little better, but crawlingly so relative to what it could be.
------
dustineichler
from the article "In this country you work harder to achieve your dreams and
goals." exactly... !! respect.
------
mattmaroon
I am bullish on Mark Cuban.
------
patrickg-zill
Apparently Cuban's reasoning is that with a black President, suddenly inner-
city wannabe gangsters will start writing Rails apps.
~~~
fallentimes
Even if it seems sort of trite and artificial to many people (including
myself) having a black President with a name that sounds like "Osama" is a big
achievement.
~~~
LogicHoleFlaw
I had a long discussion a few days ago with a close friend about racism in
America. It's real and does exist, but it really warms my heart to see the
nation come together in spite of that to elect their new President.
~~~
hugh
What about the point of view that Obama won partially _because_ of pro-black
racism?
Both among blacks and whites, there were people who admitted voting for him
_because of his "race"_.
Now, I myself don't believe in this "race" concept that other people seem so
obsessed with, but I still find that a disturbing thought -- just as
disturbing as the thought that some people were voting against him for his
"race".
~~~
rw
Call it affirmative action. There isn't a problem with so-called "reverse
racism" when it is being used to repair centuries of injustice.
~~~
fallentimes
People of today shouldn't pay for the crimes of people of yesterday (even if
it does end up happening a lot). That's why AA/Title9/etc are great in theory,
but pretty awful in execution. If only we were all color blind...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What if JavaScript isn't the solution to everything - londondev45
It's starting to feel like the JavaScript 'ecosystem' is broken. Especially npm and the proliferation of small libraries written by inexperienced developers. When is the industry going to move on? Angular is a behemoth.<p>If the idea is to simplify with modules, I think they miss the point. The 'old' server side libraries, flask, ror, even .net MVC look elegant and simple in comparison.<p>When will this stupidity end?
======
psyc
If you stop thinking like a front-end web dev, and take a step back from the
whole thing, the status quo is truly insane and embarrassing. A many-billion
dollar, world changing industry has been exclusively constrained to _one_
dynamically-typed, weird language cooked up by one guy in a hurry, over 20
years ago.
How can such a phenomenon even exist, without programmers falling over
themselves to create a development ecosystem with compilers and multiple
language paradigms? The best answer I can come up with is that the history of
web development is rooted in a culture that cares only about product design,
user experience, and making a million dollars fast. It took a long time for
systems programmers to get interested enough to provide the perspective of,
well, a systems programmer.
It _could_ be argued that not rocking the boat, and just accepting JS as the
standard unconditionally, helped the web succeed. I don't agree with that. I
don't see how having a good execution environment in the browser in 2004 could
possibly have hurt the web.
~~~
speg
Because it would have only worked for half the users. HTML/CSS/JS support
parity across the browsers is a relatively new thing. If IE had python support
and Firefox supported Ruby, what would have all the websites been written in?
It's kind of a messy miracle that that didn't happen and we got to where we
are today. Now, with established standards support WebAssembly might be the
next step you're looking for.
~~~
true_religion
I may be the minority but I don't consider it a burden to need more than one
app for something. Even today people have installed a half dozen chat apps to
keep up with friends on different networks. If half the sites require Firefox
and half Chrome then that's still only two apps enabling dozens of web apps
for daily use.
~~~
progval
It wouldn't be half/half, because many websites would then abstain from using
a scripting language at all. Maybe more something like 90% pure HTML/CSS, 5%
Firefox, 5% Chrome?
~~~
douche
> 90% pure HTML/CSS
Like in the good old days
------
tumblen
The javascript ecosystem is feeling better than ever to me right now.
The only reason that people are getting "javascript fatigue" and complaining
that JS is being used for everything is because _so many_ people are working
so hard to improve and innovate the language/ecosystem... and so many people
are actually finding applicable benefit to that work.
I've built several native iOS apps in Ruby with RubyMotion - no one was upset
about Ruby fatigue or that Ruby is being used in a new context... Because why
would they? There's nothing to complain about! It's just a product created by
people working hard to provide value in a new way.
And that's what people are doing in the JS world too. There's just way more of
them and way more people using and applying that work, so it starts to feel
overwhelming. But that is not the fault of the language or the community.
No one is forcing anyone to use any language or framework. No one is forcing
anyone to use any particular software. Pick the ones best for your needs — why
pull down all the people working so hard on JS along the way?
~~~
ZanrielJames
The job market right now is pretty heavily skewed towards the whole JS stack,
so your last comment is almost like "nobody's got to use the internet".
------
jwdunne
Well, with Webassembly en route, there is a future where we can use whatever
language we like if the can target WebAsm.
Currently, there is only support for manual memory management but there are
plans to expand with GC.
There is certainly a horizon for expansion. We are already seeing this with
languages that compile to JS. Perhaps WebAsm will provide the substrate for
better engineered languages and code.
------
carsongross
Javascript is always dramatically overused at the top of every market cycle:
DHTML in 1999, Web 2.0 in 2008, Angular/React/etc now. This too shall pass.
And then reappear, worse.
If you are truly sick of javascript, I have something for you:
[http://intercoolerjs.org](http://intercoolerjs.org)
------
k__
What if it is?
JS isn't that bad, the ecosystem big enough to avoid the small libs written by
n00bs and easy to acces s thanks to npm. Npm isn't perfect, but better than
what most languages have.
Many people already know JS and it's pretty much the easiest language to get
started with, you just need a browser and an editor.
Most people don't use the best solution for a problem because often nobody
knows what this would be, so they use what they know and make things work.
English is certainly not the best language for the world, still most people
speak it and make things work.
~~~
danieltillett
Any suggestion on which human language is better than English?
~~~
atfd
By certain measures, one might say 'German'.
------
pryelluw
No language or technology is the solution to everything. In fact, they all
suck in one form or another. Your job is to pick those that fit the problem at
hand well. That's why learning multiple languages, and designs. _You_ are the
one size fits most solution. Study and learn and the feeling of everything
being stupid should be reduced (never gone but thats good).
------
hasenj
Madness never ends. You can be sane and stick to few well engineered libraries
and ignore the hype.
------
mdholloway
You can avoid the marginal libraries written by inexperienced developers, you
know.
------
sitkack
I'd probably have to re-evaluate all of my life choices. This question is just
too hard to consider.
------
fidz
Why this was flagged?
~~~
Can_Not
OP thinks pretends like Angular is the only JS library, obviously did zero
research (expressjs is like flask), then baits further with "When will this
stupidity end?"
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: A WebGL-based Complex Expression Parser and Plotter - brandonpelfrey
https://github.com/brandonpelfrey/complex-function-plot
======
Keyframe
Heh nice, here's a rotozoomer: [http://brandonpelfrey.github.io/complex-
function-plot/?expre...](http://brandonpelfrey.github.io/complex-function-
plot/?expression=eippXigxK3QpK3oqdA==)
edit: a nicer rotozoom: [http://brandonpelfrey.github.io/complex-function-
plot/?expre...](http://brandonpelfrey.github.io/complex-function-
plot/?expression=KHoqNCkqaV4oMSt0KSsoeipwaSkqdA==)
------
BenoitP
Very nice!
I have spend the last hour trying to display the Poincaré disk[1], but to no
avail.
I have z * ( cos(1.57 * (a^2+b^2+1)^(1/2)) / sin(1.57 * (a^2+b^2+1)^(1/2)) ),
which project the coordinates to the infinite on a circle. But this is only a
fancy zoom, straight lines are not projected to circles.
[1][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poincar%C3%A9_disk_model](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poincar%C3%A9_disk_model)
~~~
marcosscriven
From the docs:
"It's important to note that When rendering with these infinitely-tiled
images, the mapping that is rendered is actually the inverse of the function
given. This is because it is prohibitively expensive to compute images of the
function itself. (In fact, we are rendering a kind of "pull-back".)
Specifically, when rendering a pixel in the image, the location of that pixel
in the complex plane is passed to your function, which produces a complex
value. That transformed value specifies a location in the original image. This
procedure is fast, but plots the inverse of the function given. So, if you
want to plot e.g. log(z), then you should instead put in e^z."
~~~
brandonpelfrey
Yeah, this seemed kind of "unfortunate" when I started this project, but it
still turned out to be an interesting/fun toy.
The issue is that when you compute where f(z) sends each point in the complex
plane to, you would need to color in the pixel corresponding to that
transformed point. f() is user-defined, so it could be a very weird function
that could cover some portions of the image we're trying to draw but not
others, etc. Moreover, even if I had some kind of procedure for determining
which x's to sample so f(x) lay inside the image we're trying to draw, it's
not amenable to GLSL. This is typically referred to scatter vs. gather-type
operations.
------
arcatek
Note that you can apparently use the `t` variable to express time.
Ex: t*z
~~~
brandonpelfrey
I should probably try to find a way to make it clearer what all can be done,
or make it more obvious where the documentation is ("t" is mentioned there.)
------
VikingCoder
z ^ z
I love thinking about this, as it goes negative.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: I have 3 months of free time, what should I do? - tww103
Hi HN,<p>I'm an dev in Europe with about 7 years of experience, mainly in web development (front-end and back-end) and I have a master in CS. For various reasons, I happen to have 3 months of free time (6 to 8 hours during daytime) from now until August (I can live without earning money during those 3 months).<p>I figured it might be good to broaden my knowledge in another IT field and start doing something else than webapps... or not(?)<p>I'm considering a few things to do and invest my time in during those 3 months and I can't really choose what would be best to secure a path for the next 5 years of my career:<p><pre><code> - take some MOOCS to try to land a job in Data Science/ML (is 3 months enough time?)
- learn as much as I can about blockchains (is it really worth it?)
- learn modern JAVA and its current ecosystem (my last contact with JAVA was at uni 10 years ago)
- sit back, relax and enjoy doing nothing, for once (and only? no mortgage, no children, for now)
</code></pre>
What do you guys think a good investment would be?
======
borplk
Here's my arbitrary suggestion,
\- Sit back and relax and enjoy yourself for 1 month and recharge
\- Get back to work after 1 month and do your other things in your other/usual
free time
This kind of unpaid 3/6 month breaks are rarely worth it.
------
libx
Get some adventure in your life!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Inside Oyster’s Tech Stack - julien_c
http://blog.underdog.io/post/103208090007/inside-oysters-tech-stack
======
julien_c
Some interesting nuggets:
“Oyster’s backend was originally written in Python, but we’re in the process
of transitioning to a service-oriented architecture backed by Scala and Akka.”
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Please Don't Steal My Focus - german
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001011.html
======
spolsky
The problem is more complicated than it seems. Apps have to be allowed to take
focus otherwise a newly-launched app wouldn't have keyboard focus. You'd click
on a link in your email and the web browser would come up but then you'd have
to move the keyboard focus to the browser yourself.
Usually these bugs are caused by someone fixing another bug. It seems even
wronger when a dialog box or some other new window comes up, and the focus is
not on it. This gets reported, and the programmer fixes the problem by taking
focus.
~~~
bk
How about this:
_User_ triggered apps/windows/dialogs are allowed to take focus, because it's
clearly the user's intention to open/use that app. This does not hold true for
automatic updater windows, such as update boxes, new chat messages, etc.
OS X for example gets this half right, with the play sound and bounce dock
icon features. The perpetually bouncing icons can drive me crazy, so the best
solution would be if cmd-tab automatically put apps demanding user attention
first in the open apps list, so that as soon as there's a dock bounce, I can
get to it with one quick cmd-tab. That way I can get to it fast and I don't
run the risk of the spacebar-ok|cancel disaster (which in minor forms has
happened to me before too).
------
tx
Yeah... And nearly everybody (as always) complain about "stupid windows
_unable to stop_ apps from stealing focus". Actually this stuff is
configurable, there isn't a standard UI for it, but little freeware "Tweak UI"
tool lets you do just that, see the screenshot:
<http://kontsevoy.com/tweakui.gif>
~~~
oconnor0
Wow, thanks. That's sweet. The Windows XP link is about halfway down this
page:
[http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppow...](http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx)
------
qaexl
On the other hand, on Linux I use a terminal called tilda. The newer window
managers have focus stealing prevention. It prevents tilda from stealing the
focus like it should. Focus stealing prevention has interrupted me _far_ more
often than focus stealing ever had.
"Apps should never steal focus" is a pretty broad generalization that's not
always right. Then again, most Linux apps do not randomly pop up dialogs
trying to alert you of something.
------
bayareaguy
OSX apps don't always get this right.
Happened to my wife yesterday - she was trying to use the BART website to
print herself a one-day parking pass. She was using an OSX 10.4 powerbook with
Firefox and choose Save As PDF. Unfortunately something went wrong with
Firefox at that moment and another modal dialog appeared.
This dialog unfortunately obscured the first one but for some reason did not
have the focus. She freaked out because now she couldn't safely quit the
application and she was afraid that she wouldn't be able to get back to the
site without having to pay again.
Luckily the number for her parking pass was visible on the screen so she
recorded that and called the help line.
I don't think this is a browser issue, and I think the only solution is to
insist that all modal dialogs implement the ESC key as Cancel. The vi editor
got this right 30 years ago: you should always be allowed to press ESC to get
out of whatever mode you're in.
~~~
earthboundkid
The problem is that Firefox on Mac is a second class citizen, and it uses
modal dialog boxes.
As for the Esc thing, I can't recall a case where a Mac native application
didn't press "Cancel" when I hit escape. I think there might be problems with
ported applications though.
------
JeffL
What I dislike is when I launch a program like Photoshop, which initially
opens up it's window, but it then has to hit the disk for about 10 seconds or
so before it can really load, so of course, as soon as I launch it, I alt-tab
away to a browser window or something else, but then when Photoshop or
whatever else it was that I launched finishes loading, it steals focus back
from me. It should wait quietly until I'm ready for it, or better yet, when
you run a program, it should load whatever it needs to load into memory before
opening up its window at all and then when it's ready to give me a usable
application, then open up.
------
rontr
When I moved from reddit to hacker news, I was hoping Coding Horror wouldn't
follow.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
[Ask HN]Is there a ballpark on how much $ to allocate to build an MVP? - AshwinRamasamy
======
sprobertson
Ideally you can launch your "absolute minimum" while spending nothing except
your own time. Put up a free landing page with some enticing copy, and/or set
up a free blog and start writing about your subject. You'll end up learning
how viable your product is before you even have to build it.
Once you're ready to get a "functional minimum" developed, check out a firm
like Prontotype <http://prontotype.us/> that specializes in MVP development.
You'll probably spend 5-10K at this stage, depending on how simple your idea
is. You can also try the outsourcing or freelancing route, but the cost and
quality can often vary quite wildly.
------
sharemywin
Agile sprints are 2-4 wks long. Work for 2-4 wks then put it in front of
customers. Collect your list of changes/new features. Repeat. You don't have
to release it but people other than the people working on it need to see it.
------
briandear
Yes.. As little as possible. Read the Lean Startup for some examples of MVPs
without even writing code.. As far as ballpark examples of cost, the standard
can be expressed by this formula: Target Cost = how much you think you need/2;
the corollary being Actual Cost = budget*4
~~~
AshwinRamasamy
I ran a survey on some FB Startup groups giving a few number ranges. People
gravitate towards <1000 $ (indicating as less as possible) and when I ask them
what they ended up spending, they pick (5000 - 10000 $). People spend their
way to realize that they could have done a lot better by defining 'minimum'
and 'viability' in the context of solving customer pain!
------
recursive
What does mvp mean in this context?
~~~
AjJi
Minimum Viable Product
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How to build a web app for a non-tech savvy client who wants to modify? - JacobIrwin
My client needs a site that can integrate eCommerce (Shopify), membership accounts/privileges, and a YouTube-embed carousel/slider. The client desires the ability to add/delete/modify sections after my development work on the project is completed (without any programming). Client needs, example: “I want to be able to add one, two, or three columns containing pictures, videos, text, on pages/regions in the future.”<p>I already tried using WordPress Business Plan and it didn’t work out as there is not enough flexibility with plug-ins to achieve main goals. Self-hosted WordPress seems to be the next alternative; yet, this would almost definitely require programming for client to make changes in the future.<p>Are there any free/open source recommendations? Or, paid recommendations? …this could be an existing platform or app, or a concept for development altogether (holistic; combination of technologies). Thanks HN
======
bigiain
Check out Concrete5 - I haven't used it for a few years, but it worked pretty
well for exactly that kind of use case for me a few years back.
~~~
JacobIrwin
This might be the ticket - thank you bigiain!
------
charliepark
I haven't used Squarespace
([http://www.squarespace.com/](http://www.squarespace.com/)) myself, and don't
know the platform well enough to know if it meets your client's needs, but it
sounds like what your client wants is pretty close to what Squarespace does.
Might be worth looking into.
~~~
JacobIrwin
Thanks for the recommendation charliepark, squarespace looks good... but
doesn't appear to support YouTube-embedded carousels nor membership
accounts/privileges.
------
throwawayuname
Have you heard of Spree ?
[https://github.com/spree/spree](https://github.com/spree/spree)
~~~
JacobIrwin
Spree is a complete open source e-commerce solution for Ruby on Rails.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Train Your Brain Like a Memory Champion - prostoalex
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/09/smarter-living/train-your-brain-like-a-memory-champion.html
======
jakubp
There's a bigger story hidden behind the achievements of memory champions. The
groundbreaking result from the past few decades is not that there is a way for
a human to memorize a thousand numbers, or that a particular method of
memorization (say, memory palace) is the way to do it. It's nice, but not that
relevant for everyday life and not applicable to most life problems.
The true achievement is recognition and verification, across many disciplines,
that: 1) there are better and worse ways to improve skill 2) anyone can
improve any skill [if they do it the right way] 3) mental representations are
key to high performance. Some are better than others. 4) one should study how
to learn a given skill, or get someone who knows that to teach, e.g. to study
people who are best at something - to find out their training regimen, their
way of structuring the information/skill/work/memory/... - this is likely to
work _everywhere_ 5) If that doesn't help, i.e. little progress is made, one
can still figure out, discover, create their own ways of practice to advance.
6) the upper limit of skill is way way higher thank we think 7) Many fields
don't have clear criteria for success, so little feedback is available on low-
level performance details, which limits the progress of training methods.
If you're interested in all that, I recommend reading the book of a renowned
scientist who actually discovered a lot of this stuff and who worked with
early memory champions, provoking them to push the boundaries of what was
thought possible -- Anders Ericsson, "Peak: Secrets from New Science of
Expertise".
~~~
kordlessagain
> At your left, there’s a map of Minnesota, dangling precariously from the
> wall. You’re certain it wasn’t there this morning. Below it, you find a
> plush M&M candy.
> If none of this makes sense, stick with us; by the end of this piece you’ll
> be using the same techniques to memorize just about anything you’ve ever
> wanted to remember.
No, it won't ever make sense and it may continue to come as a surprise to many
that not all of us have the ability to form visual based imagery in our minds.
A common term for this is Aphantasia.
Not everyone thinks the same way. Any attempt at mass producing some means to
know something better/faster is probably not going to work on a subset of the
population.
I was able to use the Memory Book's number to letter technique a few years ago
to memorize short lists of objects, but my recall for that is pretty good
anyway so it's not worth the time taken to memorize stuff using the process
(which itself requires memorizing certain objects for the numbers). For those
who visualize, I would imagine such techniques could be quite useful.
~~~
yayana
I've had stronger and weaker Aphantasia at different points in my development
and in different learning/work situations.
Given that styles of learning has largely been debunked, I would suspect that
the vast majority of us actually have roughly the same capabilities and they
are just unexercised, exercized to fitness or from too much stimulus to
exhaustion by our specific environments, diets, motivation levels, etc.
------
melling
After I read “Moonwalking With Einstein”, I pretty much think it’s a gimmick
and still a lot of work. Spaced repetition is probably a better technique.
The main idea that seemed to work is the visual association. The visual of
Moonwalking with Einstein, for example, was one of his mneumonics.
~~~
prostoalex
It seems hard to apply spaced repetition to numeric information or names of
people you've just met at a party.
~~~
jacobolus
> _It seems hard to apply spaced repetition to numeric information or names of
> people you 've just met at a party._
Spaced repetition is one of the only ways to learn names in my experience. If
I learn someone’s name and then don’t see them again for 2 weeks, chances are
I will have forgotten. Even if I see them once a month for a year, there’s a
good chance I will forget each time.
If I see them the next day after I learned their name I will remember. If I
see them a week after that I will still remember. If I see them a month after
that chances are I will still remember.
If I had first e.g. read the person’s academic paper or a few of their blog
posts or the like, there’s a good chance putting a face to the name once will
be sufficient.
* * *
If you can get a photo of the person, then you can work learning their name
into some kind of deliberate flash card routine, and that will be more
effective overall than relying on chance encounters and less embarrassing than
repeatedly asking.
I would recommend that teachers of lecture courses put a few minutes a day
into doing spaced repetition of students’ faces/names, starting before the
start of the term: teachers who can remember students’ names make a big
impression.
------
DarthMader
So the main tool that memory champions rely on is essentially
'visualizing/picturing' fake situations. Now, I have a solid memory outside of
this. But when I picture things, it's pretty hard for me even for most
familiar places like my home. Any memory experts with actual advice to see
more vibrantly? I feel like I'm always fighting against the natural tendency
to see black (as is natural with eyes closed) versus trying to focus on what
I'm picturing.
~~~
mrmyers
'visualizing' isn't just 'seeing'. Try to think back in your mind to the house
in you grew up in. Do you remember where the kitchen, bedrooms, and/or
bathrooms were? Do you remember which way the beds/furniture were facing in
most of the rooms, which side the sinks and counters were in the bathrooms and
kitchens? Do you remember where in the house any other furniture, such as a
desk, couch, television, or coat rack was? Most people can remember these
things, even if they can't conjure forth before their mind's eye a vivid
mental picture of their house.
Try answering all of those questions about, say, any of your neighbors houses
growing up which you may have been in once or twice. About a recent home,
building or room in which you may have only been in once, sometime within the
past 6 months to a year.
While it's not perfect, and some particular facts might elude you, most people
will find it surprisingly easy to answer most of these questions, even about
buildings they may have only been in once or twice a decade or more prior.
Yet, if they were to try to, say, answer detailed questions about a painting
they may have seen around the same time, most will struggle.
We seem to have a certain kind architectural/location memory which is used for
remembering the relative layouts of places we've been, and this sort of memory
seems to have some different properties compared to just visual imagery. It
seems to be retained long-term fairly effortlessly, with very little time
actually spent 'memorizing' it.
This is the basis of a lot of the tricks used by memory champions:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci)
~~~
krackers
> even if they can't conjure forth before their mind's eye a vivid mental
> picture of their house
It should be noted that there's also a small percentage of people who
physically don't have a "mind's eye":
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphantasia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphantasia)
------
grnde
If you want to run through some pre-built memory palaces to get a sense of how
they work, I recommend you check out
[https://www.memorypalace.com](https://www.memorypalace.com). They have a
platform where you can build them and post them for public viewing. I use
memory palaces all the time and it really does take some practice, but they
help me store things into long term memory. Part of the trick I feel is that
you can review frequently in your head without accessing a book or digital,
and so you can repeat it often to yourself so you can make that jump from
short term to long term memory.
~~~
drieddust
Thanks that seems interesting. What kind of information you are learning with
this method and how exactly you go about doing it? I feel brute force learning
is very important before diving deep.
I am trying to evolve my personal framework and I feel us starting with "Why"
type questions is counterproductive and frustruating. Trying to ask why is
something before even asking what is something is poor use of time.
To understand the complex system, I feel going from what to how to why makes
much more sense than asking why questions and just getting overwhelmed.
\- What Phase Once we know how things work on mechanical level. Asking what
each component is build of and what are its parts.
\- How Phase This phase is like taking a leap of faith and comitting the steps
to memory. At the end of this phase a big picture of how various components
work and hang together.
\- Why Phase This phase should be reserved for things we want to deeply
understand.
------
paulpauper
Despite all the media attention about memory training, there's actually little
evidence this stuff works.
[https://greyenlightenment.com/bullshitting-with-
einstein/](https://greyenlightenment.com/bullshitting-with-einstein/) Either
memory is a direct function or IQ or due to 'savant abilities' and not
something that an be replicated. There are no reputable studies controlling
for IQ that replicate this.
~~~
EForEndeavour
The author started losing me pretty early in the post, starting from where he
implies that IQ is an "innate, biological trait." Notably, he (intentionally?)
completely misses the point of a memory palace:
"Using a mnemonic device (such as a ‘memory palace’) still requires one
memorize the mnemonic. If I ask you to memorize ten historical dates, a trick
may be to associate these dates with a mental visualization, but you must
still remember ten associations, which is still not easy."
It sounds like the author has not even once run a self-experiment to test the
efficacy of mnemonic devices. It's patently easier to memorize these
"associations" that he criticizes than it is to directly memorize an equal
number of bland, meaningless digits, for example. Memorizing the mnemonic is a
one-time, up-front investment of effort. Once you've written the mnemonic
(encoder-decoder machinery) into long-term memory and become fluent in its
use, you can fire it up at any time and encode meaningless sequences into
highly meaningful and memorable equivalents.
------
formatkaka
Check out Alex Mullen's site where he explains this in more detail -
[https://mullenmemory.com/](https://mullenmemory.com/)
------
fastbmk
There's a great app to train your memory:
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.doggoapps....](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.doggoapps.smart&hl=en)
------
iambateman
Having read Moonwalking with Einstein (which is fascinating and worth the
read), I think of these skills as similar to studying chess - effective for
the discipline but probably not generally helpful.
Memory experts sold their discipline as if it would radically transform an
average person’s daily life, which has not been my experience.
------
budadre75
I want to know if these champs can do like 20-back or higher(the n-back
trainer) with three or more different types of inputs. If they can achieve 80%
success rate, that will be super impressive.
------
1024core
Do such techniques work for mathematical stuff, like equations or formulae?
~~~
yjftsjthsd-h
Sure; you just need a mapping of math symbols to memorable
objects/colors/verbs/whatever. Mnemonics are just symbol mapping.
~~~
1024core
So say I want to remember what Tallagrand's Inequality was
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talagrand%27s_concentration_in...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talagrand%27s_concentration_inequality)
. How would one go about it?
~~~
probably_wrong
Unfortunately, no one can give you a way that would work for you, because
that's kind of the point: you adjust your internal representation to your
strengths. But here's an example of how I'd map it to a memory palace, based
on what I did for my driver's license test.
In my case, I'd walk into the living room of my old house and I "see" that
someone wrote "ct24" on the floor. That's all I need to remember that I'm
trying to reconstruct that pr[A].pr[A^c_t]<=e-(t^2)/4, because I know I'm
reconstructing an inequality, exponents of e are often negative, and I know
that I need to parse that text as [][ct][t24] (which are the exponents and
sub-indices I need).
I then picture that a guy comes to me and says "Hi, I'm Paxton", and he's
wearing a t-shirt with an Omega symbol. With that, I can reconstruct A_t={x in
Omega|p(A,x)<=t} (in case you didn't catch it, I map p(A,x)<=t to "Paxton").
And so on. Note that I can take some shortcuts here because I'm playing to my
strengths of being used to equations, and therefore I don't need to memorize
that the second step defines A_t because it comes naturally.
For a completely different approach, you can picture a kid trying to say
"Practice", but he mumbles instead "Pra... Pract...et... 24!", which you can
map back to the equation ("Pract" = Pr[a^c_t]). The fact that the "24!" at the
end comes out of nowhere only makes the scene more memorable, and therefore
easier to remember.
~~~
1024core
Thank you! I just wanted an example so I could conceptualize what this system
was talking about.
------
jamisteven
"Others may contain misspellings and factual errors. It doesn’t matter. This
system is designed to create rich imagery, not accurate representations."
Wait, what?!
~~~
sowbug
That's right. The system isn't a lossless compression algorithm. It's designed
to give your brain a bunch of hooks to hang interesting snippets onto, which
you can use to reconstruct the short story that unravels into a phone number
or whatever. For this reason a misspelling or impossibility is just as a good
as any other notable attribute, because it makes the story element more
memorable.
Taking the article's examples, you might construct a story like "toilet paper
is used as socks in Minnesota." It doesn't matter whether that's true. It only
matters that it makes it incredibly easy to reconstruct the number 190732.
------
anotheryou
Does it work for less well structured Data?
Digits of pi you can translate to characters and twine a story, but loosely
associated facts are more tricky.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
We Need to Find Out If We Are Living in a Simulation - rcam123
https://onezero.medium.com/we-need-to-find-out-if-we-are-living-in-a-simulation-1ae70919505b
======
AnimalMuppet
I find it really ironic that _atheists_ are so obsessed with the idea that we
live in a simulation.
If we live in a simulation, then someone made the simulation. Now you have a
Creator, or Creators.
That Creator might have something like a debugger that they could attach to
the simulation. They could use the debugger to change data inside the
simulation. When they do, it really changes in the simulation, for no cause
that can be discerned from within the simulation. Now you have miracles.
The Creator could even plausibly communicate with entities within the
simulation. Now you have divine revelation.
I can see why a theist or deist could believe this. But why do atheists buy
it? Don't they see that they're going right back to a (virtual) deism?
------
ChrisGranger
It seems self-evident to me, although I'm willing to admit I'm wrong about
this, that if the creators of the simulation we find ourselves in didn't want
us to figure this out, we couldn't. The rules could be set up to prevent us
from discovering the truth, and they could have caused a "blind spot" in our
reasoning that prevents us from even realizing it.
~~~
AnimalMuppet
Only if they're perfect.
~~~
ChrisGranger
I don't think _perfection_ would be required to set hard limits to a simulated
being's ability to reason, although perfection would certainly seal the deal.
I'm just thinking that concepts _x_ , _y_ , and _z_ could be forbidden, such
that we couldn't think about them, nor even realize that we couldn't think
about them. A circle around which our knowledge could expand without ever
dipping into.
------
m_a_d
This is not a new idea or concept. Let us not forget the Allegory of the Cave.
Plato Was discussing this same issue long ago.
~~~
DonaldFisk
The article does mention Plato's Cave.
~~~
m_a_d
This is what happens when I speed-read. I end up looking like an idiot. :P
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Facebook listening to conservations? - iamjdg
Today in our office my colleague was telling me how his dream would be to work in the maritime industry designing boats (he is a mechanical engineer). I have never searched for maritime related technology and have no interest in it. Tonight I have this suggested post from Facebook: http://www.bluewaterrigging.com/team/andrew-macdonald/
======
dotmanish
There's another possibility:
Your friend searched for it or read articles about it @ office. You two share
the same geolocation and IP address @ office. Facebook figured out you _might_
be interested in the same topics as what others in your office are searching
for. Facebook shows you potentially related articles @ home.
No audio listening required.
I'd be surprised if Facebook Product Managers haven't been doing the above.
This is basic.
~~~
Spooky23
I don't know why in these threads people always go to great lengths to
discount the possibility of this happening.
Facebook A/B tests all sorts of stuff, all of the time. I had 2 or 3 incidents
like this happen until a year ago when I eliminated use of their app for good.
When Facebook addressed this question last year, the answer was: "[Facebook]
does not use your phone’s microphone to inform ads or to change what you see
in News Feed". That's not a denial.
------
brudgers
Well there's this:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14459417](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14459417)
But that's legally plausible as just monitoring phone orientation to improve
user experience.
------
singold
How possible it is to reverse the app looking for syscalls to the microphone
api or something?
You should probably discard user initiated audio recording if available but
looks doable for someone with the knowledge.
Disclaimer: I know almost nothing about reversing
------
dialupmodem
I would pay good money for a study on this.
Ex: Choose a hundred random subjects and assign them irrelevant, obscure
keywords to speak loudly into their phones while the messenger app is open.
Report back with resulting ads displayed over the following week.
------
gtirloni
There have been numerous threads about this:
[https://hn.algolia.com/?query=facebook%20listening](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=facebook%20listening)
------
roshan_arhsim
Yes they are listening!!! there are enough discussion about it in the
/r/technology and even here at HN
------
zhte415
conservations?
conversations?
~~~
owebmaster
conservatives?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Cease & Desist on using the word egress. Sign it away for eternity? - new23d
I'm a small time founder of a TLS firewall. It is published on AWS and GCP marketplaces as 'secure egress gateway' and allows outbound/egress VPC traffic to be filtered by TLS versions and hostnames (which are set through the parameter store in AWS for example.) It's DPI and not a proxy.<p>Last month, received a C&D from lawyers of a co that holds trademark over the e word. So far, I have agreed to remove all use of the word except in a descriptive context and the time has come to sign an agreement with the other co.<p>The proposed agreement is perpetual. My lawyers strongly suspect the other co would refuse to agree to include a term that the agreement terminates after a set period of time, or if they were to lose all of their registered trademark rights in that word. Lawyers are funded by an insurance policy I had luckily taken out and bill every 6 minutes of their time.<p>Should I push back on the perpetuity of this agreement? Should I get a second opinion?
======
thaumasiotes
What are you getting out of this agreement? They already can't stop you from
using a word descriptively. They can sue you and lose, but they can also do
that after you sign the agreement, on exactly the same theory they'd use
anyway ("this use isn't descriptive").
Also:
The product name "secure egress gateway" is obviously a descriptive use of the
word (it's a gateway for egress traffic), and therefore cannot violate a
trademark. Are they asking you to avoid non-descriptive use of the word ("for
your email security needs, contact Egress Software Technologies!"), or are
they asking you to avoid using the word in product names regardless of whether
the use is descriptive?
~~~
new23d
It's about the use of that word in the name of a product.
------
tothrowaway
If you don't mind sharing, what kind of insurance policy did you obtain? It's
surprising to hear an insurance product would cover your legal fees for
something like this.
~~~
new23d
It's a professional indemnity insurance for business in the UK. Covers defence
costs as long as they can arrange the defence and everything is done with
their prior approval, and the area of intellectual property infringement is in
scope.
------
EVurja
Egress is such a generic word in technology. Wonder if anyone can even
trademark a generic word.
~~~
thaumasiotes
[http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=87289033&caseType=SERIAL_N...](http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=87289033&caseType=SERIAL_NO)
> Mark Literal Elements: EGRESS
> The mark consists of standard characters without claim to any particular
> font style, size, or color.
> For: Computer software and mobile device software for application and
> database integration; computer software and mobile device software for use
> in data security, namely, email and data classification, email and data
> encryption, secure file transfer, secure automated file transfer, secure
> online collaboration, secure access to encrypted email and data, secure
> email and data management, and secure email and data backup, archive and
> recovery
(I guess you'll have to redo the search for case number 87289033 yourself. I'm
so glad the government keeps up to date with modern single-page-web-app design
principles for what is literally just a document store. >_> )
------
rckoepke
I wonder, when www.egress.com picked the name Egress, did they have a
discussion where they decided it would be a normal part of their business plan
to sue unrelated companies ad infinitum, for the life of their business?
------
DrScump
Is it too late to sue P.T. Barnum?
[http://www.ptbarnum.org/egress.html](http://www.ptbarnum.org/egress.html)
------
stargrazer
Can you state who this company is?
Isn't "secure egress gateway" descriptive as well?
~~~
thaumasiotes
I assume OP is running
[https://chasersystems.com/](https://chasersystems.com/) , and he's being
threatened by [https://www.egress.com/](https://www.egress.com/) .
But yes, obviously "secure egress gateway" is descriptive and can't violate a
US trademark. Both companies are located in the UK; who knows what their
trademark law says. Maybe there's a bakery over there with exclusive rights to
the word "biscuit". But I doubt it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Facing disengagement with work/company – what are some best practices? - DigiMortal
======
Cypher
leave, sometimes jumping ship is better than mutiny or walking the plank
------
ctrlaltdev
Contemplating your paycheck and do what you like on the side - that's my way
of coping with contractor work.
But I know it can't be long term though.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Is There a Shopify Equivalent for Services/Marketplace? - dinisp
======
provlem
You mean something like - FreelancerCV.com?
Custom Domain-based Service marketplace -
[https://codecanyon.freelancercv.com](https://codecanyon.freelancercv.com)
[https://freelancer.freelancercv.com](https://freelancer.freelancercv.com)
[https://golang.freelancercv.com](https://golang.freelancercv.com)
and so on...
~~~
dinisp
More so a model where if I say own a business, want a pool of independent
contractors I've vetted to view jobs, and give them an opportunity to pick up
and perform a job. Example is something like Handy.com but more niche for a
solo business.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
In Defense of the Dark Ages - dangoldin
http://rushkoff.com/2009/04/20/in-defense-of-the-dark-ages/
======
baddox
In summation: the "Dark Ages" weren't dark at all. Health and wealth
increased, although more slowly than during the Renaissance. But the
Renaissance was actually a step BACKWARD because it comprised a population
move toward cities, increase in the idea of private property, European
centralized monetary and business policy, and caused the plague. That's right
--caused the plague.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Porting the Unity Engine to .NET CoreCLR - benaadams
http://xoofx.com/blog/2018/04/06/porting-unity-to-coreclr/
======
drawkbox
CoreCLR will be nice for Unity with the 2x performance improvement.
I wish Microsoft had moved to it quicker and Unity wouldn't have had that lull
on Mono 2.x .NET and had to build IL2CPP.
When IL2CPP was being rolled out it was quite impacting to build size and
actually making iOS builds for a while in 2015 from like March to summer was
not workable for months. Now they have Android on it and it works well but
keeping all that up to date is cumbersome for a smaller tech/engine team.
I still would love a C++ engine/lib like they were going to do back when Apple
was forcing AOT instead of JIT languages around 2010 [1], but having a C#
engine that can be comparable in performance is killer.
As long as this update is smooth and is truly faster that would be welcome. It
was harder to trust Microsoft before during the Mono/.NET disconnected period
so Unity treaded carefully but after Microsoft bought Xamarin and went .NET
standard/core it seems like they are embracing and not extinguishing.
Microsoft's new focus is Azure and .NET core/standard help expand that as well
as its use by Unity (always a C# champion) and even Unreal Engine possibly
which some have attempted [2]. If Unity switches to .NET core/standard
possibly Unreal Engine will be compelled to add it natively.
[1] [https://blogs.unity3d.com/2010/07/02/unity-and-
ios-4-0-updat...](https://blogs.unity3d.com/2010/07/02/unity-and-
ios-4-0-update-iii/)
[2] [https://mono-ue.github.io/](https://mono-ue.github.io/) or
[https://github.com/xiongfang/UnrealCS](https://github.com/xiongfang/UnrealCS)
~~~
doomlaser
They put up their editor source code on Github recently
([https://github.com/Unity-
Technologies/UnityCsReference](https://github.com/Unity-
Technologies/UnityCsReference)), and originally it also included the full
source to their runtime garbage collector, which ended up being the standard
open source C++ boehm collector
([https://github.com/ivmai/bdwgc](https://github.com/ivmai/bdwgc)) from the
90s.
Unity should replace it with a reference counting object management system, or
update to a newer garbage collection technique to minimize the inadvertent
sweeps that cause huge choppy frame rate drops.
~~~
pcwalton
I hope they don't use naive reference counting. It would reduce throughput and
would not eliminate pauses. A standard incremental or concurrent generational
tracing GC would be a better choice. In games you have a lot of knowledge
about timing that you can use to help schedule GC: you always know (or should
know anyway) how much time there is until the next VBLANK, so you can use that
to bound pause times for your major collections.
~~~
doomlaser
Large parts of iOS and its ecosystem use automatic reference counting, and it
has a reputation for the interface being noticeably smoother than Android,
which uses Java's garbage collector.
~~~
pcwalton
Android doesn't use the HotSpot garbage collector.
------
sanxiyn
> But also, you will notice lots of work related to ARM32 and ARM64, including
> corporate work from Samsung for the Tizen platform
It's nice to see this recognized. Source: I worked on open source at Samsung.
~~~
voltagex_
Hopefully I can use some of the postmarketOS work to run Tizen on some more
devices. The ghost of the Nokia N900 lives on!
~~~
pjmlp
Actual Tizen has nothing to do with Nokia N900 spirit, other than using a
Linux kernel.
------
disordinary
I wonder if Unity regrets using Mono / C# as their scripting language, it
seems like they have so many workarounds and hoops that they jump through that
it must be a nightmare to maintain.
~~~
kevingadd
I don't think they had any better options available to them at the time.
Embedding and integration for an engine like Unity is just a tremendous
challenge no matter what stack you use. I've done this sort of integration w/
various languages (python, lua, vbscript, c#, actionscript, javascript, etc)
and C# is one of the most reasonable choices, if only because it was designed
with native interop scenarios in mind. There are pointers, there are structs,
etc.
Also keep in mind Unity did offer multiple scripting solutions - they had Boo
for a while (eventually dropped), and there's UnityScript, though I'm not
super familiar with how it works... C# is the one that won.
~~~
coldacid
Wasn't UnityScript just Unity-flavoured JS, like ActionScript was for Flash?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
2-factor authentication on Ubuntu using Google Authenticator - endeavor
http://blog.theroux.ca/security/ubuntu-2-step-authentication-with-google-authenticator/
======
endeavor
I thought this was relevant given the Mat Honan attack reports: 2FA isn't only
useful for Gmail. I was able to set this up in about 10 minutes on my Ubuntu
and Mint boxes.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Airbnb and the Problem of Data - sdabdoub
http://techcrunch.com/2015/06/11/airbnb-and-the-problem-of-data
======
spenrose
Great piece. Quotation #1:
"Cities need to understand whether short-term rental inventory is expanding
faster than they can produce housing stock and whether that is impacting the
availability of housing to long-term residents. Put another way: you would not
A/B test changes to a software platform or interface without data, so why
would you ask city policy makers to A/B test regulatory changes in the dark
when it comes to the “platform” of their finite physical space?"
~~~
spenrose
Quotation #2, from the conclusion:
"Lastly, it’s important to remember that technological change breeds changes
in the way that we travel. … it’s [not] accurate to call what is happening
“tourism.” It’s an entirely new market that isn’t really competitive to
traditional hotels. … an emergent and more globalized and mobile population."
~~~
untog
I agree don't agree with that part. Hotels don't just cater to "tourism", and
AirBnb is absolutely replacing them. I don't doubt that some AirBnb
experiences live up to those seen in the ads (OMG I'm living like a local!)
but for me and everyone I know, it's a cheaper, more convenient alternative to
a hotel.
~~~
nostromo
It's a hotel replacement, but it's also more than that.
Airbnb works really well for the awkward space between short-term and long-
term. For example, if you're spending three months in Bangkok -- you'll want
to have the features of an apartment (full kitchen, laundry, etc.).
The other niche is rooms for rent. This is primary used by young and cash-
constrained folks -- but it's a surprisingly large number of bookings on
Airbnb.
Personally, I think having more travel options for young people and the less
wealthy is a hugely positive development.
~~~
mc32
It's both good because it creates opportunity and provides opportunity to a
new class of traveler but it's bad because it expands the number of people who
can travel and thus negatively impact the environment.
Not much different from wanting to eliminate poverty from the world, however,
we know full well a middle class person had greater impact on the environment.
They consume more goods and waste more.
It's neither good or bad but something we must keep in mind as we can't wish
the consequences away.
~~~
beambot
Mobility and consumption don't need to be correlated. If the middle class
family is away on vacation, they can relinquish their home for the duration
and obviate the need to build big hotels. That's a lot of saved embodied
environmental costs! While a bit extreme: That means you could bulldoze all
hotels to make open green spaces since their vacant rooms are unnecessary.
It's similar for automobiles. Take a look the overall carbon footprint for
automobiles. Last time I looked it up, at least 1/3 of the car's lifetime
carbon footprint was due to initial manufacturing -- for an asset that (as a
personal automobile) has sub-1% utilization. Share the car, and we have fewer
cars and tolerate >30% more individual travel for the same net carbon
footprint.
~~~
mc32
Travel and the increase in travel does add environmental pressures. One must
get somewhere one way or another (and increased travel means more train or
plane passengers). You're also buying things to adapt to the destination's
weather, etc. It all adds up.
Also, at the destination, more people puts pressure on the ecology there.
Imagine everyone being able to afford going to Antarctica, or let's say, the
Grand Canyon or Mt Fuji. It's be environmentally disastrous. We'd eventually
have to regulate access as is currently done for places like Antelope canyon.
------
fraserharris
The author makes an error here: "But it’s problematic to price breakeven rates
off of market-rate rents, because only 10 percent of the city’s housing stock
is market-rate."
At the time the landlord has the decision of whether to rent out their unit or
put it on Airbnb they will get market rate for it. Rent control limits
_future_ increases in rent. Illegally evicting a tenant has a similar
financial pressure for market rate.
------
geebee
Data would be really useful.
Everyone has an opinion about airbnb. Here's my big worry.
San Francisco's population of children has plummeted in my lifetime (I grew up
in SF in the 70s). In this time, I think it has gone from about 22% to a
current rate of 14% or so.
I guess it's just important to me that SF continue to be a place people are
from, rather than a place where young people move prior to having families, or
(increasingly) a place where empty nesters move and enjoy the city after
having families.
Here's the thing, I consider this to be a very economically vulnerable stretch
of life. I have two kids, in SFUSD, and I'm starting to see just how colossal
a disadvantage a family with two kids would be in a bidding war against
someone who intends to put the extra bedrooms in a SFH or a 3 bedroom
apartment on airbnb instead.
It's no secret that housing is in short supply in SF, and that the price of a
house or apartment in SF reflects what the highest bidder is able to pay. It's
also probably not surprising that kids are very expensive. A two income family
(pretty tough to live in SF if you aren't) means daycare - and daycare costs,
conservatively, over $2,000 a month per kid. Even if they're in SFUSD
("free"), after care at school and summer camps will run you $8,000+ if you're
doing things the inexpensive way.
Now, imagine that a family with two kids now has to compete against a bidder
who plans to put the "spare" bedrooms on airbnb, and who factors that into the
bid. The family has two very expensive, non-revenue generating children. The
airbnb buyer has a massive advantage here, and I see it as another factor that
could potentially put massive new pressures on an already collapsing
population of families with children. It could also reduce turnover - someone
who no longer needs the extra bedrooms and might have in the past downsized
(opening up a SFH for a new family) now rents the bedrooms out full time on
airbnb.
Sure, these problems could have existed with permanent, long term tenants, but
I do think that it was less likely. Airbnb definitely makes it far easier and
more profitable to do this - this is one big reason why the company is so
large and profitable itself.
Is this happening? I don't know, I don't have the data. Until then, it's just
a fear, though not (in my opinion, obviously) an unfounded one. But if they
company won't open up the data and recognize the possible danger, my guess is
that the public will support strict regulations.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A hackathon exclusively for women - vivekprakash
https://www.hackerearth.com/women-hackathon-2015/?utm_source=hn&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=women
======
kakkou
I can imagine the backlash if the title read "A hackathon exclusively for
men".
------
ectopic_cheeto
but what about a hackathon for men? WHAT ABOUT A HACKATHON FOR MEN? also, why
isn't anybody encouraging men to take teaching, childcare, or nursing jobs
(which pay less than software development)? there have i hit all the squares
in the HN reverse-sexism-concern-trolling bingo card?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A perpetual motion machine - jayshahtx
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlx2PgESXhs#t=43
======
Joyfield
The magnets would loose their power over time which makes this "just" a large
battery. Imagine all the energy put in making this machine, that is the
"charge".
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Screencast + Blog: Multi-Cloud Deployment with Docker - nickstinemates
http://nick.stinemat.es/#screencast
======
nickstinemates
In this blog post, I discuss the recent screencast I did with the Docker team.
It was a ton of fun.
This may give you a sense of how I use containers, how and why I find them
useful, and a practical example of doing deployment a different way.
Candid feedback (please, don't hold back!) is appreciated.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Hashlife - mabynogy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashlife
======
zimablue
The reason why this is interesting to me, game of life is like my mental
shortcut to the idea that there are simple rules that lead to computations
that can't be effectively shortcut.
Turns out that this one can, kinda.
~~~
saurik
Simple rules also often lead to simple outcomes that happen to be optimizable,
and those simple outcomes are often the most likely... until someone or some
process accidentally discovers complexity and it takes over the game, as
happens when a god takes advantage of the turing completeness capable in that
physics or would naturally happen if true life--not just a replicator, but a
higher level replicating entity capable of evolution--took hold in a world run
by this ruleset... so please do not discount your original conclusion as it is
entirely true.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
What the iPad means for the future of video games - dreemteem
http://features.techworld.com/personal-tech/3219659/what-the-ipad-means-for-the-future-of-video-games/
======
cjkundin
Will be interesting to see how app gaming progresses, especially with the big
players getting even bigger. This will definitely make it harder for your
average entrepreneur?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The new car-sharing scheme that could put Paris streets ahead. - npsi
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/02/le-bluecar-car-share-scheme-paris?newsfeed=true
======
nodata
I hope the cars aren't silent, blind people won't know they are there.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
On the Usability of Editable Software - todsac
https://flak.tedunangst.com/post/on-the-usability-of-editable-software
======
johnday
There is a large field in which this is practically a solved problem: computer
games.
To be sure there isn't a single pattern, and proprietary consoles do go out of
their way to make the process as difficult as possible. But the modding scene
in video games is huge, and some of the big hitters in the field (Cities:
Skylines, Minecraft[1], Garry's Mod) have flourished because they made
provided an exposed base and they, or the community, filled in the rest.
The real case study I would point to is Cities: Skylines. It adopted this
highly customizable model early on in development. Not only has this helped
them release content regularly through downloadable content (free and paid),
but the DLC predominantly uses the same integrations that are exposed to the
modding community, who can modify almost everything about the game.
[1] Minecraft did not actually make it easy to provide mods, but the sheer
bloody mindedness of the community got it done anyway. Mojang later created a
"hackable" version which employed Python.
~~~
sansnomme
You have to give Minecraft some credit for Mod Coder's Pack (which they
allowed to exist and currently hires the founding developer) without which
stuff like Forge would have been a lot more difficult to maintain. They also
didn't go out of the way to make modding impossible either.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Does SearchWiki show that Google is running out of good ideas? - technologizer
http://technologizer.com/2008/11/21/so-when-does-google-run-out-of-ideas/
======
okeumeni
Google is trying hard to keep love in the romance; the love story should
continue.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
ASP.NET with SPA (NG2, React) and Node.js - doczoidberg
https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/ASPNET-Events/ASPNET-Fall-Sessions/ASPNET--Spa#c635828376460833547
======
doczoidberg
Nice to have Node functionality in ASP.NET. Nevertheless I switch from the
Microsoft stack. No need for ASP.NET any more. NG2, Node, Firebase is more
productive (and cheaper) for me.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Altruism Isn’t Always Attractive - EndXA
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/8/27/20829758/altruism-morality-molly-crockett-study-dating-do-gooders
======
EndXA
The main study which prompted this article is available here:
[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002210311...](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022103117308181)
Abstract:
> Previous work has demonstrated that people are more likely to trust
> “deontological” agents who reject harming one person to save many others
> than “consequentialist” agents who endorse such instrumental harms, which
> could explain the higher prevalence of non-consequentialist moral
> intuitions. Yet consequentialism involves endorsing not just instrumental
> harm, but also impartial beneficence, treating the well-being of every
> individual as equally important. In four studies (total N = 2086), we
> investigated preferences for consequentialist vs. non-consequentialist
> social partners endorsing instrumental harm or impartial beneficence and
> examined how such preferences varied across different types of social
> relationships. Our results demonstrate robust preferences for non-
> consequentialist over consequentialist agents in the domain of instrumental
> harm, and weaker – but still evident – preferences in the domain of
> impartial beneficence. In the domain of instrumental harm, non-
> consequentialist agents were consistently viewed as more moral and
> trustworthy, preferred for a range of social roles, and entrusted with more
> money in economic exchanges. In the domain of impartial beneficence,
> preferences for non-consequentialist agents were observed for close
> interpersonal relationships requiring direct interaction (friend, spouse)
> but not for more distant roles with little-to-no personal interaction
> (political leader). Collectively our findings demonstrate that preferences
> for non-consequentialist agents are sensitive to the different dimensions of
> consequentialist thinking and the relational context.
~~~
CSSer
For those who have studied Philosophical Ethics in High School or Undergrad,
you'll probably be familiar with the term "deontological" (lit. 'derived from
god') but are perhaps not used to the term "consequentialist" or
"consequentialism". Per the study, "consequentialism" is Utilitarianism, which
may be more familiar to you.
> "...said to be making a “consequentialist” (or “utilitarian”) judgment in
> line with consequentialist ethical theories (Bentham, 1789/1983; Mill,
> 1863)."
~~~
jfengel
Strictly, there are other forms of consequentialism besides utilitarianism,
though utilitarianism is perhaps the most familiar.
Consequentialism means (duh) judging your morality based on the consequences
of your actions. Utilitarianism means making that judgment in terms of some
quantifiable "utility" or "value". But there are other ways to make that
judgment, including applying intuition or even applying some kind of
deontological deity-given rules.
The utilitarian framework is so broad that it can be extended to cover all of
this, and to cover deontology for that matter ("utility is defined as
following the rules of X ethical framework").
~~~
gowld
For example, a deontological ethic might say "you must not drive drunk" under
a theory of negligence, and "you must not negotiate with terrorists", but a
consequentialist ethic might say "you may drive drunk but not kill someone
while driving" and "you should acquiesce to terroristic threats to prevent a
murder". And a utilitarian ethic would measure how many lives would be lost
under each choice, and perhaps assign variable value to those lives (by age or
health or potential future productive output)
------
whatshisface
Deontological agents are the most predictable because they can tell you their
moral rules, and if they aren't too complicated, you can "compute" them
yourself if you're wondering what they are about to do. Consequentialists
aren't predictable unless you know them so well that you can forecast all of
their utility calculations, value judgements, and mistakes. Being able to
predict someone's behaviors makes them a lot more trustworthy.
~~~
dlkf
Nailed it. I'd go so far as to suggest that mere reliability - and not
deontological ethics - is probably where all the effect is coming from. In the
article's example, the problem with the anti-hawaii-trip partner is not that
they care about victims of malaria, it's that they seem to be reneging on an
agreement.
------
ranie93
A related piece from Jeremy Waldron on the topic of "moral distance":
"The parable of the Good Samaritan, as it has become known, is cited most
often by moral philosophers to open a debate about the duty to rescue [...] We
all agree that it was wrong for the thieves to attack the man, and that it
would be equally wrong for the Samaritan, the priest, or the Levite to join in
such an attack. The hard question is: do the Samaritan, the priest, or the
Levite also have an obligation to help the man who fell among thieves?"
[https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/menonfall16/files/2016...](https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/menonfall16/files/2016/08/Jeremy-
Waldron-Who-is-My-Neighbor.pdf)
~~~
gowld
How is that Waldron's commentary and not the original parable?
------
tarkin2
People look for mates who will care for them. If you value the group over the
individual then that's less likely.
The ideal, surely, is someone who looks after themselves, their partner and
their friends foremost and the group after that.
When those two things come into conflict, however...
~~~
Ididntdothis
Exactly. I know altruists who don't take care of themselves but instead need
help from others. They are sort of generous but I always wonder if they are
really generous if in turn their lifestyle is not self sufficient. For example
if somebody helped somebody else with a big vet bill but now I am being asked
to buy a car for that person I feel that actually I am the real giver and the
person that thinks she is generous is not giving anything of her own but
basically is giving away my money.
I have come to believe that the first duty of an adult is to be self
sufficient. Only then you can be truly generous or altruistic in a sustainable
way.
~~~
TheOperator
I've been taking money from government, family, or wealthy friends most of my
life. Yet I've also given more than I've received to most of the friends I've
known. I've thought much about how selfish or generous I was. You can get
really cynical and say that altruism doesn't exist at all if you really get
cynical and that people are just trying to fire off pleasure receptors in
their brains.
Ultimately though yes people who give to others are altruistic. Some people
you will give money to will keep every penny, some will give away every cent
they can. The former are selfish the latter altruistic and there is no need to
overcomplicate things.
I've only become more self-sufficient over time and today am a net "giver".
Did I just become less selfish over time? No I've actually started valuing
selfishness MORE over time because it became more appealing as I became
stronger. Focusing on results confuses things because people in bad situations
CAN'T be as giving as somebody in a good one. Somebody in a good situation can
be generous enough to change people's lives without any meaningful personal
sacrifice.
A person who is a taker and has no desire to stop being one is not truly
altruistic though. Selfishly taking from others and being performatively
charitable is selfishness in the veil of altruism. The desire to be seen as
the "real giver" is also selfish.
------
JulianMorrison
They are probably _not_ a utilitarian. They are probably suffering distorted
deontology of an anti-self sort.
Pure consequentialism is _computationally implausible_. There are seven and a
half billion humans. How can you consider them equally? How could you even
have enough knowledge to try? I think that people who try to be
consequentialist are emulating it and generally poorly.
~~~
Throw_Away_6389
You can't know exactly what is best, but you can act to the best of your
knowledge. Just because you can't do something perfectly doesn't mean you
shouldn't do it as well as possible.
~~~
AstralStorm
The fun stuff happens when deontologist meets conflict between their moral or
other laws...
It always happens and is a fact of life. That's how you can gauge how "lawful"
someone is - using simple D&D model of morality.
The other axis is altruism vs egoism.
So lawful good is deontological altruist, while chaotic evil is non-
deontological egoist. There are decent stereotypical descriptions in SRD.
[https://open5e.com/characters/background.html](https://open5e.com/characters/background.html)
------
michalu
Nothing that new. It's been established the attraction is rather heavily
linked to the dark triad traits:
[https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/psychology-
uncove...](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/psychology-uncovers-sex-
appeal-dark-personalities/)
... one of them being narcissism and the rationale is that self-centered
people have higher chances of survival, therefore they're a good "genetic
match."
~~~
AstralStorm
I'd add "are perceived" to that statement. Agents never have actual knowledge
of survival odds and we don't even have statistics like that...
------
wongarsu
There was some interesting discussion on reddit about this
[https://www.reddit.com/r/philosophy/comments/cx7me3/morality...](https://www.reddit.com/r/philosophy/comments/cx7me3/morality_study_we_admire_dogooders_we_just_dont/)
------
kstenerud
It comes down to trust. You trust those who are in your group, and whom you
believe will consistently act in the interests of your group.
Consequentialists are distrusted because they deliberately choose to disregard
social group weighting and circles of loyalty in their moral decisions.
That's not to say that all consequentialist actions are disliked; only those
that come at significant cost to your group (of any size - even 2).
The article says that people like a consequentialist political leader, but
that's not entirely correct. They like a political leader who is
consequentialist for entirely "in-group" decisions. The moment he prioritizes
outside peoples welfare at a high cost to his own, no matter how much
objective "good" it brings, he'll soon find himself out of office. A leader
who is too deontologist with his in-group decisions will be seen as corrupt
for helping out his cronies.
In fact, this whole "consequentialist vs deontologist" kind of misses the
point. Deontologists ARE consequentialists for entirely in-group decisions,
and that's how social creatures like it, and how evolution would have shaped
social animals.
Trump's appeal comes in a large part due to his motto: "America First", even
if it's at the cost of everything else.
~~~
Throw_Away_6389
Also note how the label "do-gooder" is particularly often applied to people
who care too much about foreigners or animals, but rarely to people who care
too much about their friends.
------
marc_abonce
> Yet consequentialism involves endorsing not just instrumental harm, but also
> impartial beneficence, treating the well-being of every individual as
> equally important.
I think that impartial beneficence applies as much to deontology as it does to
consequentialism though, doesn't it? If I'm not mistaken, impartial
beneficence is categorical under the Kingdom of Ends. Conversely, the
assumption that consequentialism always leads to altruism mainly applies for
utilitarianism, but not necessarily for all forms of consequentialism.
So I don't think it's a good idea to conflate deontology with in-group
favoritism and vice versa as the article seems to imply.
------
reportgunner
I haven't read the article yet, but what is this title? I thought that one of
the characteristics of altruism is that it's _not_ attractive.
Definition of altruism:
_> unselfish regard for or devotion to the welfare of others charitable acts
motivated purely by altruism_
_> behavior by an animal that is not beneficial to or may be harmful to
itself but that benefits others of its species_
edit after skimming the article: Perhaps they meant to say "Altruists are not
always attractive"
~~~
kazinator
I feel you're splitting some sort of grammatical and/or semantic hair there.
Like, for instance, what is the difference between "obesity is unattractive"
and "the fat are unnatractive", really.
In "altruism is unattractive", it looks like there is a rhetorical device
being used known as _metonymy_ : referring to a subject indirectly by naming
an attribute or adjunct of that subject in its place; it in fact means
"altruists are unattractive".
------
caymanjim
Altruism is almost always false. It's usually selfish. People do things which
are, on the surface, selfless and benevolent. But they do them because it
makes them feel better in some way, or to assuage guilt, due to peer pressure,
or increasingly due to pathological virtue signalling.
It's not necessarily bad when someone does something "altruistic" for these
reasons, but the people who are the most visible and vocal about it are the
ones who are the least honest about it. They are gaining (or at least think
they are gaining) the most social credit, and they expect the most
reciprocation. If you do something "kind" but expect or demand recognition,
you're not altruistic; you're just taking your payment in other ways.
This manifests in myriad ways we've all seen: church bake sale tyrants,
celebrity cause-o-holics, corporate misdirectors, activism tourists, etc. It's
only altruism if it costs you something and you gain nothing in return. Even
if you quietly and anonymously help others, but in turn sleep better at night
and feel beatific, you're gaining something. If you think it'll get you into
heaven or some other incorporeal reward, you're being selfish.
In almost all cases, this is a good thing, but true altruism doesn't exist.
------
neilv
Update to het. male dating best practices: Be tall, confident, _and
deontological_.
~~~
cookieswumchorr
if you tell girls that you are deontological they will think you have money,
because, you know, those dentists are expensive
~~~
sebastianconcpt
Hypergamy don't care about definitions but says that she liked what you
suggested there.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
An interactive way of blogging about JavaScript - viebel
http://blog.klipse.tech/javascript/2016/06/20/blog-javascript.html
======
tolmasky
We share a similar vision at Tonic that code snippets should be completely
runnable. With Tonic embeds (
[https://tonicdev.com/embed](https://tonicdev.com/embed) ) your code is
automatically connected to every version of every one of the 300,000 library
on npm (just require("library") or require("library@version"), its already
pre-installed). Additionally, the code is run in an actual container, so you
can use filesystem examples, spin up a web server, whatever you'd like:
1\. Example that spins up an express server in the example you can actually
hit:
[http://blog.tonicdev.com/2016/03/09/snapshots.html](http://blog.tonicdev.com/2016/03/09/snapshots.html)
2\. A blog post I wrote about hacking JSX with many runnable examples:
[http://tolmasky.com/2016/03/24/generalizing-
jsx/](http://tolmasky.com/2016/03/24/generalizing-jsx/)
3\. Node's fs docs with the examples converted to embed:
[http://capicue.com/fs.html](http://capicue.com/fs.html)
~~~
diggan
Good to see Tonic Dev is still alive, not sure what you guys are doing though
because there have been no new features/fixes for as long as I can remember
and performance and bugs are still bad and highly visible.
For other people: Is there anything like Tonic Dev (notebook kind of thing)
that runs locally? I want to love Tonic but without offline support, that will
never happen...
~~~
tolmasky
Lots of stuff in the pipeline, any specific feature requests in particular?
With regard to performance, are you by chance using Firefox? We have some
known issues there.
------
ghinda
I built something very similar a while ago:
[https://github.com/ghinda/jotted](https://github.com/ghinda/jotted)
I'd say it's more lightweight by default (it's not mandatory to use an editor
like CodeMirror) and more flexible because of the plugin system (there are
plugins for using Ace or CodeMirror as editors, or for compiling ES6,
CoffeeScript, Less, Stylus, Markdown).
It also has a Console plugin, like the one in devtools, that makes it work
like klipse.
[https://twitter.com/ghindas/status/697790917302996993](https://twitter.com/ghindas/status/697790917302996993)
There are a bunch of demos on the site:
[https://ghinda.net/jotted/#demos](https://ghinda.net/jotted/#demos)
~~~
fahimulhaq
Shout-out to @ghinda for creating Jotted. We've been using it for our startup
[Educative]([https://www.educative.io](https://www.educative.io)) and are
pretty happy with it.
------
kens
Very nice. I may use this the next time I blog about JavaScript.
One inconvenience. I entered "while (1) {}" and the page locked up and needed
to be reloaded. An infinite loop could easily happen unintentionally, and it's
not user-friendly to hang, especially when the goal is an Alan Kay style
educational/interactive system. It would be nice to have a "stop" button so
the user could continue editing, rather than losing the page. Unfortunately I
don't see any way to do this within existing browsers.
~~~
AgentME
I've watched people use "learn to code" websites with this sort of auto-
running javascript trip up on infinite loops and get frustrated as the page
freezes. A sure-fire way for a user to accidentally do this is for them to
make a `while(true)` loop first before trying to add a `if(x) break;`
statement inside of it, or when they're trying to make a recursive function
and mess it up.
The problem is that the page is just having the browser execute the javascript
directly. Javascript in the browser doesn't have ways to directly debug itself
or enforce resource limits. It would be nice if there was a javascript
interpreter (yes, in javascript) that could enforce step and resource limits
and have debugging support that pages could interactively embed.
------
jarcane
The same site has also done similar plugins for ClojureScript:
[http://blog.klipse.tech/clojure/2016/06/07/klipse-plugin-
tut...](http://blog.klipse.tech/clojure/2016/06/07/klipse-plugin-tuto.html)
And Ruby: [http://blog.klipse.tech/ruby/2016/06/20/blog-
ruby.html](http://blog.klipse.tech/ruby/2016/06/20/blog-ruby.html)
------
Lerc
The Alan Kay quote struck me as interesting.
There is no reason why Wikipedia couldn't do that.
I wrote a MediaWiki plugin to do pretty much this for JavaScript. I use it for
helping teach kids JavaScript.
[http://fingswotidun.com/code/index.php/Main_Page](http://fingswotidun.com/code/index.php/Main_Page)
The difficulty arises when you want to extend the abilities of the wiki to do
things like this within the revision/revertible mechanism that Wikipedia
supports.
~~~
whatever_dude
It is indeed something that makes sense. But I think it opens up a can of
worms that is not just related to revisions.
Now that articles are not just text and images, they need a standard on what
they can support. What version of Logo will they use? Do they have an
emulator, or a transpiled JS VM? Who created that? Will that support mobile
devices? How do you enter text on those? What are the licenses involved? OK,
Logo is a given, but what else will they support? JavaScript? Processing? C++?
What version of the compiler? Do they host it themselves or use a public
service? It gets blurry. What about the article about an old computer, will
they also embed an emulator? Those exist. And a game if it's public domain?
It's a computer, after all, right? Where do you draw the line?
I agree with the sentiment, but there are big logistical and political
problems related to that. Just look at how weird their audio/video support is
already because they wanted to make sure they're using free players, free
codecs, free assets.
I realize I'm only listing problems, but it's important to think of those.
From my perspective, I think it's a lot more about WikiPedia picking their
battles and focusing in textual information (with tidbits of other media)
rather than "never thinking about that".
Actually letting people play with the technology is an awesome thing, but I
wonder if WikiPedia is the place for that.
Good thing sites like
[https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos_games](https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos_games)
exist.
~~~
yoz-y
It is also worth mentioning that a vast majority of code snippets is not
runnable. They are fragments of large programs, might require additional files
(going far beyond some standard libraries that one can pull, etc.).
All in all it would help, but only with trivial snippets approaching hello-
world complexity or self-contained examples better suited for tutorials rather
than encyclopaedias.
------
hkjgkjy
Very cool indeed. I would implement it as a React component - and then in any
view just have to
<Javascript>
[1,2,3].map((n) => (n+1))
</Javascript>
But the of course requires you to implement the page using react, which isn't
what everyone is doing.
~~~
colordrops
Could use web components, which are supported in some browsers, and can be
polyfilled in others.
------
Secretmapper
Jeff Atwood also has a very great writeup of something similar to this on his
blog[1]
I also have something similar going on with my blog. It focuses on game
development, so I actually embed an iframe with a canvas to let the users play
around with the code as they learn.
I really think that interactive interfaces like this for blogs and tutorials
will be more common place in the future.
[1][https://blog.codinghorror.com/our-programs-are-fun-to-
use/](https://blog.codinghorror.com/our-programs-are-fun-to-use/)
~~~
avckp
Link to your gamedev blog please
------
reikonomusha
Nit: using highlighted monospace for every language name and proper noun is
both wrong and distracting.
~~~
ukyrgf
Yeah if that's another new way to blog about JavaScript then I'm out.
------
petercooper
This is really cool. Another similar system I saw recently is
[http://www.joelotter.com/kajero/](http://www.joelotter.com/kajero/) which
aims more towards the data visualization side of things by including native
support for D3.
------
femto113
Unless approached very carefully this has some frightening XSS implications:
innocent looking HTML entered into comments could suddenly become
automatically executed JavaScript.
~~~
AgentME
A smart thing to do would be to run it in an iframe with the sandbox attribute
so that it doesn't get access to the page's or origin's data, but that
wouldn't protect from local denial-of-service attacks against the browser that
infinitely loop or allocate tons of memory.
~~~
Lerc
When I made my MediaWiki Plugin I don't think the sandbox attribute was not a
thing.
What I did was run code in a worker with events and drawing commands passed
through messages.
[http://fingswotidun.com/code/index.php/Naughty_Bits](http://fingswotidun.com/code/index.php/Naughty_Bits)
There's probably still a few more things to do to make it properly secure, but
at least you can't just kill the page with while(true);
------
xerophyte12932
This is actually pretty cool. One of the major things that actually help
learning JS is how easy it is to test out a piece of code before writing it to
your main code base. Simply pop open a JS console on any browser and test that
line out that you aren't sure would work.
This works in the same vein and lets you play around with the code you are
learning. I am definitely using this the next time I blog about code or
algorithms
------
franciscop
On mobile it works horribly: I try to delete some characters and it gets
autoupdated and recovers those characters, so deleting becomes impossible.
------
amasad
I agree with this sentiment but why stop at JavaScript? With repl.it you can
embed dozens of languages (albeit not yet editable in the embed). Here is a
quick demo on my blog [http://amasad.me/2015/04/09/hello-
world/](http://amasad.me/2015/04/09/hello-world/)
~~~
viebel
The problem with embedding iframes is that each iframe runs on a separate
context. For instance, you cannot define a variable in one iframe and access
it from the other one.
------
ozten
It's not that Wikipedia devs can't imagine it, it is the social pressures of
the project that make it impossible for someone to realize a change of that
scope.
Mediawiki plugins or Greasemonkey scripts pave the way for what takes years of
"project work" to integrate.
------
cwarrior
Does Medium support this?
------
joshkpeterson
Worth mentioning that you can embed CodePens. But yeah maybe this is nice for
some things, like demos of pure logic that don't need markup/CSS.
------
aerovistae
I like it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How 9/11 Changed My IT Consulting Career | ZDNet - carols10cents
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/perlow/how-911-changed-my-it-consulting-career/18415
======
carols10cents
Does this strike anyone else as a bit crass? There's no mention of "I'm so
glad I was sick that day; I could have died." He does mention he's happy to
have career...
And the part where he says "But if I could erase everything that happened to
my world and to my industry on that sunny September morning and go back to my
old life, just as the way it was, I’d do it in a heartbeat." Well, don't a lot
of people, especially those who lost loved ones? He's complaining about the
loss of his more extravagant lifestyle, really??
I wish he'd have left out the personal bemoaning of the loss of all his
consulting gigs that made him lots of money and delved deeper into why larger
companies became dominant in the financial IT sector rather than independent
consultants after 9/11.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Hidden Tribes: A Study of America's Polarized Landscape [pdf] - Melchizedek
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5a70a7c3010027736a22740f/t/5bbcea6b7817f7bf7342b718/1539107467397/hidden_tribes_report-2.pdf
======
PostOnce
The linked report is WAY more interesting than the article. Covers much more
ground (not just 'PC culture') and in a better way.
I just started reading it not knowing what I was in for, somehow both easy to
digest but still broad and not that shallow. Infographics, survey responses,
profiles of 'typical' people in each segment of the political spectrum, etc.
Quite an enjoyable presentation.
[https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5a70a7c3010027736a227...](https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5a70a7c3010027736a22740f/t/5bbcea6b7817f7bf7342b718/1539107467397/hidden_tribes_report-2.pdf)
~~~
dang
Alright, let's switch to that, since most of the thread below is just
semantics about the term 'political correctness'. All: I'm sure we can do
better than that, so please try.
(The submitted URL was
[https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/10/large-
majo...](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/10/large-majorities-
dislike-political-correctness/572581/?single_page=true))
~~~
Melchizedek
Do you really think most people have the time to read a _160 page_ report?
~~~
PostOnce
I got to page 38 before I even thought to look at how long it was, it's kind
of engrossing, and because it's mostly quotes and infographics, it doesn't
take long to go through a page, it's not Mochizuki's proof of the abc
conjecture or something.
It only took ~15 minutes to get that far? What's the difference between
spending 15 minutes reading hn and 15 minutes reading a report? It's still 15
minutes.
Open it up, I bet you'll find it interesting and get further than you think in
a short amount of time.
------
bdz
>But since the survey question did not define political correctness for
respondents, we cannot be sure what, exactly, the 80 percent of Americans who
regard it as a problem have in mind.
~~~
rntz
I agree it would be nice to have a clearer picture of what anti-PC folks think
of themselves as being against (and what pro-PC folk think of themselves as
being for).
However, it's also useful to know people's feelings towards a phrase _without_
defining it, to understand what they feel about the term as _they_ interpret
it. This gives a sense of the political atmosphere surrounding a term, which
can be just as important as what the term actually means.
This isn't how things would work in some "ideal", perfectly rational world;
but that's politics for you.
------
tiniuclx
This article makes me think about the disdain some people might have against
the 'liberal elite', and according to the article political correctness does
seem to be a trait of that particular class.
I think the key is to understand the reason why many Americans reject PC
language and culture. Is such language overused due to a fear of being accused
of *ism?
Or is it because people believe that communication should be empathetic by
default, and doesn't need sanctimonious words to show it off? I generally
assume there is no malice in someone else's words, which is especially helpful
on the (mostly text-based) internet, where there aren't any para-verbal cues.
~~~
emsy
I found charitable interpretation a good indicator of whether someone is
virtue/tribal signaling or interested in intellectual exchange, finding truth
and acting moral.
~~~
YorkshireSeason
I've repeatedly found that the ability to paraphrase and summarise the
opposing positions in a way that the opposition can agree with, is a good
indicator of whether someone is interested in, and able to have a meaningful
discussion in a controversial subject.
It might be illuminating to compare this heuristic to the requirement of a
decent scientific paper to summarise _related work_ properly.
------
whack
> _One obvious question is what people mean by “political correctness.” In the
> extended interviews and focus groups, participants made clear that they were
> concerned about their day-to-day ability to express themselves: They worry
> that a lack of familiarity with a topic, or an unthinking word choice, could
> lead to serious social sanctions for them_
The problem is that _everyone_ is hyper sensitive to specific things, even
where they claim to oppose political correctness. For instance, most "devoted
conservatives" dislike political correctness, but made a big issue out of
Obama's passing remarks about "you didn't build that" and "cling to guns and
religion". They took great exception to Clinton's comments about "basket of
deplorables", but didn't have a problem with Trump's "rapists and drug
dealers".
Ie, when the other side says something that offends you, it deserves to be
made into a big issue. When the other side is offended by something you say,
political correctness has gone too far.
~~~
cannonedhamster
The difference between Republicans and conservatives used to be minimal. I'd
say that conservatism swung so far right that most long term Republicans
didn't even realize it. The vast majority of people who vote Republican or
Democrat do so nearly without any understanding of a particular candidate's
positions apart from the general party platforms and only votes on one or two
issues that are personally important to themselves. With how gerrymandered the
country is, especially in many Republican controlled states, the middle ground
for centrists Republican and Democratic candidates is gone.
This was started by a concerted effort in the 1980s to turn the country more
conservative, which was very successful and backlash to the liberal culture
expansion of the 1960s through the 1970s. I don't however believe that the
architects of that plan foresaw the damage that would come from polarization.
America has a large reckoning coming as we must learn and define what we want
our national image to be. It's certainly no longer the shining city on the
rock. We're far closer to the loud, obnoxious uncle at the dinner table
talking about what we did in the past. Unless we can find common ground as a
country, we're destined to fade in global power far quicker than we should
have.
Edit: Typo
------
a_humean
"Political correctness" is almost always used as a pejorative. So saying that
surveyed Americans dislike it its about as surprising as saying that Americans
think racism is bad in principle in surveys - it does not mean that Americans
don't on-mass practice it even if in principle they violently oppose it. The
only "political correctness" people identify is the language of their
political opponents.
Political correctness is most often used as a criticism of the politically
sensitive language used by different groups. As a very American example, you
just need to look at the terms "Pro Life" and "Pro Choice". From the
perspective of the opposing groups "Pro Life" amounts to "Pro subjugation of
women at the cost of their individual health and political power", and "Pro
Choice" amounts to "Pro infanticide sinful hedonists". Both groups have
significant political power in American, and wielding that power they demand
respect behind these "PC" labels.
Political correctness isn't new or some kind of distinct ideology, its an
exercise or attempted exercise in political power to shape the language and
outcomes of our politics. Its our basic civility and the structure of power.
What is new maybe is the pace of social and political change of the past 100
years that has made people notice the exercise in new political power more
often.
~~~
crispyambulance
The term "politically correct" started its life in the 60's and 70's when
leftist groups used it IRONICALLY to criticize other leftists who were
excessively dogmatic.
Somehow in the early 90's the term got lifted by the hard right to describe
_anyone_ who they believe promoted progressive ideas. I remember when Rush
Limbaugh was in his peak, he used the term "PC" constantly. Since that time it
has come to be used exactly as you describe by the hard right and
increasingly, the mainstream, which happens to also be shifting to the hard
right.
Whatever the history, "politically correct" has always been an insult. While
there certainly are people who think they're 100% correct in politics, no
reasonable person wants to labeled by others as "PC".
Unfortunately, there's been some developments which make me wonder whether
some are actually embracing the term without irony. That's disturbing and it
is a sign that really, really bad stuff may be coming.
~~~
goliatone
What I find troubling is the recent trend of people feeling they have to be
“ideologically correct”. I started to notice that attitude as the right united
under a common party discourse against Obama, even when some of that discourse
was obvious bs. I guess media could have played a big role, bubbling up a
single “voice” (What a weird world this is today, where I find myself missing
John McCain)
------
07d046
Two thoughts:
1) "Political correctness" has always meant "excessive language policing from
the left" rather than anything more concrete—it was a pejorative term even
before it was introduced to the general public in 1990 on the pages of the New
York Times—so it's no surprise that it has a bad reputation.
2) It's kind of ironic to use a research paper by a group called More In
Common, who seek to counteract polarisation, to slam a particular political
group.
~~~
hyperdunc
I don't think it's ironic. If that political group is not receptive to this
reasonable attempt to show them how they're going wrong, that's on them and
rather reinforces the article's gist.
~~~
Brakenshire
The point is who will not say they dislike something defined to be a
pejorative?
------
PunchTornado
> Among the general population, a full 80 percent believe that “political
> correctness is a problem in our country.”
From experience that's more or less correct. I'm on the left and the majority
of my friends are also on the left and we make fun of PC.
Why are so many people easily offended by language? I remember when Larry
David did a funny bit about holocaust and people gone mad, "you can't joke
about the holocaust". I think this is the PC that most people hate.
------
RickJWagner
This article gives me hope. I like the idea that we're more alike than it may
seem at times.
------
batrat
PC = political correctness. What is wrong with people that invent a new
abbreviation every second? Good CB (click bait)
~~~
RandomInteger4
Huh? PC isn't new. That abbreviation has been around since the 80s or 90s.
~~~
gsich
Personal Computer is probably what most people think, especially here.
~~~
mlazos
Indeed, the main reason I clicked on this was genuine curiousity as to why
Americans hate PCs!? What kind of underground PC culture exists to hate?
Suffice to say I was a disappointed.
~~~
aswanson
I got a chuckle out of that. Thanks.
------
d2j
Thankfully, Google exists. Let me help you:
[https://www.google.com/search?q=political+correctness&ie=utf...](https://www.google.com/search?q=political+correctness&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b)
~~~
izacus
Your answer is condescending and you failed to even attempt to understand what
the study said.
Just because you managed to Google ONE definition of PC culture, it does not
mean the people answering the study poll had the same thing in mind. Which is
a bit of problem for methodology and the result itself. Especially in such a
wide social topic like political correctness.
~~~
d2j
That's like saying "this study of people saying they like the red colour is
worthless because they haven't defined what the red colour is"
PC has one definition, but of course you can make up others
~~~
andybak
> PC has one definition
And definitions are never complex, multifaceted or problematic, eh? Thank
goodness language is so simple and clear.
------
JohnStrangeII
Since "PC Culture" is primarily intended to protect minorities, that shouldn't
be surprising at all.
Bear in mind that any working democracy _has_ to actively protect minorities,
because otherwise it would decline into a tyranny of the majority.
_Edit: There was a bit of a misunderstanding here, I 'm afraid. Please see me
other post about it. In a nutshell, you need to take the actual victims of
discrimination seriously or have a lot of empathy, otherwise it will be
difficult to judge the many arguments for and against some particular form of
PC._
~~~
gaius
_Since "PC Culture" is primarily intended to protect minorities_
I am a minority. No it isn't. It is simply one faction of the dominant caste
using us as pawns in its war on another faction.
~~~
pasabagi
I don't know what this is being downvoted for. I'm not a minority __, but it
's also obvious that a lot of PC stuff is virtue-signalling, combined with a
implicit reproach towards minorities for being sensitive. I mean,
realistically, nobody gives a damn if you use the wrong word for a disability.
Disabled people care that they're not accounted for in political decision-
making that whole areas of wealthy countries are basically impossible to live
in, whole careers that would be perfectly viable are closed, and so on. I'm
not black, but I'm pretty sure nobody black is angry about people using the
wrong words. I'm pretty sure they're angry about the fact that police
basically have carte-blanche to imprison and murder their children over
bullshit.
__PS: I am actually mildly disabled. But then, that 's the thing, isn't it?
Everybody is going to be a minority at some point in their life, if you're
old, if you have kids, if you have an injury - then you get the hard side of a
society that caters for white able-bodied men.
~~~
gaius
_virtue-signalling, combined with a implicit reproach towards minorities for
being sensitive_
Indeed. Here's a concrete example of PC culture banning a word _and_ shaming
people who actually have the condition
[https://www.epilepsy.org.uk/press/facts/brainstorming-
offens...](https://www.epilepsy.org.uk/press/facts/brainstorming-offensive)
_93 per cent of people with epilepsy did not find the term derogatory or
offensive in any way and many felt that this sort of political correctness
singled out people with epilepsy as being easily offended._
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
I am tired of making crap, who's with me? - kentf
http://kent.io/post/66892209965/the-end-of-mediocrity?r=hn
======
unclesaamm
This is a really vacuous article. I don't mean it in a bad way, but this is
probably the kind of attitude that leads to making "crap" in the first place.
What makes something good is almost certainly unclear in the beginning, and
requires a degree of persistence. You can't just throw some shit on the paper,
post it on HN, and call it a day. That's crap.
~~~
kentf
First off thanks for the comment!
Totally agree, was a quick blog post and re-reading now, not the best I have
ever written.
The sentiment I was trying to get a across was more the intention / attitude
when making things.
I have spent a lot of life working for clients that didn't have a strong
vision. I took the work, because I have a mortgage to pay and told myself that
I could TRY and show them that we didn't need to build this mediocre thing.
That they were better than that. That we could do more together.
Often times, that wasn't the case. I got paid to make a crappy website or app,
and I did it.
I have a new found feeling that I will simply choose not to do that anymore. I
work at an amazing startup and luckily have an exec team that lets me make un-
crappy things. But I speak to a lot of people who aren't so lucky.
I just want us to re-calibrate.
I feel that a lot of founders, hackers, marketers example are looking for the
quick buck, the easiest way to fame and fortune even if that means not really
doing something worthwhile.
I am ranting again... I will stop. I do appreciate the feedback though. All
the best.
------
jaggederest
A) Unsuccessful on the first try - this is a crappy blog post. It's like a
blog post that says "I think people can fly, you're not limited to the ground!
Start flying!" \- cool, but how?
B) That's the exact opposite of what I took away from Ira's sentiment - just
because you're making crap doesn't mean you are forever going to be making
crap, because every bit of practice makes you better, so keep at it.
~~~
kentf
Hey!
I totally agree w/ B). I know that there are a lot of people out there that
'think' they are making crap, but they aren't. In fact,that's the creative
process. They are on a path and it's getting better and better.
What I meant to bring across in this post was the intention of making crap.
I know people that intentionally make crap. This crap makes a lot of money.
They know it's crap but they don't care.
Sort of akin to these amazingly smart mathematicians and physicists working
for Goldman Sachs rather than trying to solve the 'big' problems.
I used to get paid by companies to make apps, websites that had no vision. No
real purpose other than to make money.
I see so many other people trying to find shortcuts to success, so they make
crap. I just wish or want to live in a world, where people understand B). They
see that they are on a process, that its okay for something to be crap, as
long as the intention behind it is good. That's what Ira is saying. He wants
to be good, but he isn't good yet, but it's the WANTING that makes the
difference.
Does that make sense? Anyway, thanks for the comments. I will try and flesh
this out more before posting next time.
------
TheZenPsycho
All good things start out as crappy things that are then refined. To declare
that you will stop making crap is to remove the only path to making quality
things, and resigning yourself to making nothing at all.
~~~
kentf
Hmm sorry, the point of the article didn't really come across then.
It's the intention of crap that I am rebelling against. I want to make
beautiful and amazing things, but often times I end up making crap. That's
okay, because I have my sights set on greatness, like Ira said.
What worries me is that I am seeing a lot of people that don't have their
sights set on greatness. They know they are making crap and they are okay with
it. There is no intention for growth.
That bothers me.
It's the intention of wanting to do something great that makes all the
difference. You clearly have that, but so many people I meet don't. Almost
like they have given up and resorted to making crap.
That's what I am rebelling against. Does that make sense?
~~~
TheZenPsycho
I suppose I do but it's a phase I've gone through and grown out of many years
ago. what other people do is their business. you can try and inspire them
sure, but you don't know their struggles, you don't know why they've resigned,
there's many things I don't know about the world and about other people and I
accept that.
for some people, they just do not have the ability to move beyond "making
crap" because it's not important for them. Something else is more important,
like their children, or their mental health, or their drug habit, or their
real hobby.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Aconitine Insurance Murder - nayuki
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-most-sophisticated-crime-ever-committed/answer/Ko-Inagaki?share=1
======
gwern
There don't seem to be any English-language sources on this aconite poisoning
case, unfortunately.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Hide in Plain Sight, manage secrets alongside your code - mqnfred
https://github.com/mqnfred/hips
======
lionyo
I like git-crypt for this: [https://github.com/AGWA/git-
crypt](https://github.com/AGWA/git-crypt)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Redundancy and Power - DanielRibeiro
http://www.paulgraham.com/redund.html
======
DanielRibeiro
It felt very appropriate with all the Dart announcement:
_In this The greater the probability a random string is a valid program, the
harder it is to report errors well._
and
_Type-checking depends on redundancy_
Even though I am generally wary of static typing[1]
[1]
[https://metaphysicaldeveloper.wordpress.com/2010/06/30/the-i...](https://metaphysicaldeveloper.wordpress.com/2010/06/30/the-
issue-with-static-typing/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Hubble captures new image of two colliding galaxies - sndean
http://www.astronomy.com/news/2018/03/hubble-captures-new-image-of-two-colliding-galaxies
======
woliveirajr
> (...) destined to spend millions of years colliding into each other before
> finally merging into a galaxy all their own.
> (...) about 350 million light-years from Earth.
So, they are already together, the problem is that light is just _too_ slow so
we cannot see it yet. :)
------
netcraft
Same thing is going to happen to us (the milky way) and Andromeda in about 4
billion years.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda%E2%80%93Milky_Way_co...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda%E2%80%93Milky_Way_collision)
~~~
clayt6
For more on the Andromeda/Milky Way collision:
[http://cs.astronomy.com/asy/b/astronomy/archive/2018/02/08/t...](http://cs.astronomy.com/asy/b/astronomy/archive/2018/02/08/the-
great-galactic-mashup-what-can-we-expect.aspx)
------
ChuckMcM
"... an exciting galactic collision is underway." Seriously? Think about the
civilizations that are about to be wiped out, the life forms that no one will
ever know about, the ginormous black hole that will just get bigger.
Ok, so I'm only kind of serious. In the scheme of things all things change. I
expect time is limited to less than a megayear for the systems on the edges of
the arms like ours is on the Milky Way.
~~~
mikeash
I don’t think a galactic collision is a particularly serious event for life.
The stars are so sparse that the galaxies basically pass through each other.
Their large scale structure is disrupted, but that won’t kill anything living
in a solar system.
~~~
briga
If anything I suspect a galactic collision would be a driver of increased star
formation, and thus a catalyst for galactic recycling and chemical evolution
within that Galaxy. It could even be something that leads to higher rates of
biological evolution.
And like you said, the distance between the stars is what prevents this from
being a total catastrophe.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The solution to gun violence is clear - kunle
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/fareed-zakaria-the-solution-to-gun-violence-is-clear/2012/12/19/110a6f82-4a15-11e2-b6f0-e851e741d196_story.html
======
armored_mammal
Switzerland has guns all over and doesn't have much of a problem, with a gun
crime rate that's similar to many countries with tough restrictions. Norway
has much tougher regulations than America's and still had Anders Breivik.
I don't think the solution is so clear cut or so simple.
It also doesn't help that articles like the one linked completely ignore the
inexorable march of technology - regardless of laws about guns, such laws will
soon be as meaningless as copyright law. 3-D printers have arrived and will
only improve.
I find most of the huge outpouring of punditry and emotional wailing going on
right now to be surreal and out of touch with reality. Nobody likes a mass
shooting, and even less the mass shooting of young children, and they are
horrible, but they pieces of the puzzle don't add up as clearly as everyone
seems to think.
Many of America's laws are reflections of misguided emotional states, whether
it's laws about drugs, the mortgage interest deduction, or the fact that
'silencers' are restricted (many countries with much more restrictive stances
on guns consider them safety devices for hearing protection) among many
others.
It might be time for a conversation, but let's not pack it full of over-
simplified reductions. Mental health is probably a good place to start, but
when it comes to guns, which very well might need to be part of the
conversation, please remember we keep approaching the Star Trek world...
Replicator, make me a phaser.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Android on the HP Touchpad (Alpha Release) - hebejebelus
http://forum.cyanogenmod.com/topic/33227-alpha-cyanogenmod-7-for-the-hp-touchpad-v710-alpha-13-oct-2011/
======
jackson71
Installed it on my 32GB Touchpad last night; here are my observations so far
(YMMV).
Pros:
\+ It's an alpha, but impressively stable. No more than a couple force quits
all night. No random reboots.
\+ It feels a world faster than webOS already.
\+ Battery life isn't optimized, but wasn't horrible, either.
\+ Touchstone worked for me; even had a chime when docked.
\+ Many apps I restored to the device worked wonderfully.
\+ Did I say apps? I'll say it again: Apps.
Cons:
\+ Obviously, not all apps work perfectly.
\+ Wi-Fi was flaky on 802.11n (5Ghz). Turning on and off a few times fixed it.
\+ Market reported being offline when everything else on the unit was
connecting fine. See above Wi-Fi fix.
\+ Market is filtering many apps, but here's a fix:
[http://forums.precentral.net/other-tablets/303534-how-
guide-...](http://forums.precentral.net/other-tablets/303534-how-guide-get-
cyanogenmod-7-1-0-alpha-1-a.html#post3206800)
\+ Unexplained slowdowns from time to time. It's Alpha. It happens.
\+ Will wipe your /media/internal directory for repartitioning. Back it up
first.
Overall, I'm really impressed with the speed and result of the CM7 Team's
effort although I find myself missing the multitasking/switching component of
webOS (but not the slowness).
~~~
angryasian
webos user here. App switching, do you mean the card system ? I think its
terrible in comparison to holding down the home button on any android. Hold
down the home button and it shows you all the recent apps.
~~~
jackson71
There's pros and cons to both systems; it's merely a preference of mine after
having a mixture of both Android and webOS devices for a couple of years now.
~~~
haridsv
A lot of people don't know that you can move the cards around so that you can
arrange two cards to be right next to each other, if you could speed up your
workflow that way. I also don't like how you have to keep the home button
pressed pon android, may be it is just my phone, but I would rather have an
instant response to pressing home button rather than a timed one.
------
blinkingled
Using it for a day now - it is surprisingly smooth for an Alpha. Some rough
cuts here and there but nothing bad at all.
The boot time is fast. Apps launch fast. GPU seems to be doing its job - no
sluggishness. Google Apps install and work fine. Wifi hasn't dropped.
Browser/Flash works as well as it does on any other Android phone.
Haven't tested battery life yet but for the few times I tested disconnected
from power source for a hour or two it did not seem to drain abnormally.
If you install moboot - you can conveniently choose between
recovery/webOS/CM7.
BUT the webOS UI has different richness and cohesiveness to it - it goes
closer to Apple experience than Android. But on the other hand it is dog slow
in loading apps.
Once ICS based CM port comes out - the $99 TouchPad will be the best thing I
ever bought! Till then it's a great hacking machine.
~~~
angryasian
does sleep work on it ?
~~~
joenathan
Yes, but not perfectly, it has the occasional sleep of death, the power
management isn't all there, and wifi my not come back on without turning the
wifi off and then back on.
~~~
recoiledsnake
For the wifi, turn off wifi sleep in the advanced wifi settings.
------
joenathan
I'm running this on my TouchPad, it's a little rough around the edges but
miles above WebOS in speed and usability.
Screenshot of my home screen <http://i.minus.com/ix1hOWz4bdIsi.png>
~~~
tdoggette
Speed, maybe, but whenever I use my iPhone or Droid Incredible for web
browsing and multitasking, I miss the WebOS app switching interface something
terrible. It's the best handling of multitasking on a mobile device, period.
~~~
tiles
I can deal with having a less consistent, less beautiful interface than WebOS
had, but I honestly find it very difficult to go back to Android/iOS's form of
multitasking. Handling tabs in browsers makes no sense, I can't switch between
applications quickly enough, and worse yet if I'm trying to copy information
from one application to another (and copy/paste doesn't cut it).
I remember seeing a jailbroken iOS version with WebOS-style multitasking, that
I'm going to have to look into once my Pre bites the dust.
~~~
minalecs
| Handling tabs in browsers makes no sense
Opening new links in a new card is by far one of the worst user experiences I
have ever seen. Also a pressing another button to switch to different windows
( default android and mobile safari) is not any better.
As someone else said, maybe the shortcut isn't obvious, but holding down the
home button allows you to see a recent apps and switches apps (Android) must
faster than scrolling through cards.
How is copy and paste different in WebOS (haven't found a use for it yet)
~~~
tiles
This is where we differ then :) For me, it's akin to how each application on
PCs implement tabs, but in a slightly different way (Chrome v. Firefox v.
Nautilus). Because webOS has a consistent interface for handling multiple
pages (and WebOS 2+ has card grouping), it makes for less mental effort to
expect that is going to happen.
Holding down the home button is as fast as scrolling through cards in my
experience. You're right, that is a comparable interface for going back and
forth between applications. I like how in webOS there is an infinitely-
scrollable list of tabs, whereas in Android OS/iOS it is "most recently
opened" applications, the state of each application is hard to tell just from
their icons, etc. webOS better mimicks the PC model.
And I was unclear about copy/paste on webOS; I meant situations where you
can't just copy and paste (like consulting a map for nearby cities or roads,
and you have to perform manual entry). But I'm skilled in the webOS switch,
others in Android/iOS. YMMV.
------
codeslush
This was actually relatively painless! Got it installed in a matter of a few
minutes, with the multi-boot option.
I downloaded a few apps and was happy to see Netflix work! Angry Birds too.
Facebook doesn't even show up from the market - not sure if other people are
experiencing this or not. I assume the facebook app will not work on it, but
strange that it doesn't even show up from market searches.
Would like to get swype on here somehow.
No problems with my wifi, at least not yet.
Very impressed!
EDIT: I see from a link lower down there is an update for the market apps not
all showing. I'll install that later!
------
xarien
Just a note, if you have the sync turned on and own an android phone, it'll
automatically grab the apps. This can be viewed as a pro or a con depending on
the apps.
There's also an issue with the usb mounting when copying over large chunks of
data. It'll randomly disconnect from time to time.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Rackspace cloud beats Amazon EC2, by a lot - davewiner
http://scripting.com/stories/2011/04/14/rackspaceBeatsEc2ByALot.html
======
jread
I've conducted extensive benchmarking of rackspace cloud, ec2 and about 38
other iaas providers. Rackspace cloud is definitely not faster than ec2 by a
long shot. Rackspace cloud utilizes homogonous infrastructure, AMD 2374 to be
exact. All instance sizes are burstable, so you typically get about the same
CPU resources on a 1GB instance as you do on a 16GB instance according to our
benchmark results. Ec2 on the other hand scales CPU much better all the way to
dedicated dual quad X5570s with the cc1.4xlarge. Both this and the rackspace
sponsored bitsource study compared an ec2 m1.small. Any study that does this
should be immediately discounted as that is about the worst possible
performing ec2 instance size. Adrian cockroft from Netflix refers to these
types of studies as benchmarketing. They do not accurately depict the
performance capabilities of ec2.
[http://blog.cloudharmony.com/2010/05/what-is-ecu-cpu-
benchma...](http://blog.cloudharmony.com/2010/05/what-is-ecu-cpu-benchmarking-
in-cloud.html)
------
AngryParsley
I think EC2 and Rackspace Cloud serve two different groups. EC2 is the only
provider on which I've actually been able to boot 50 nodes, have them come up
in a few minutes, use them for an hour, and kill them all off. That sort of
thing would be a giant pain on Rackspace Cloud, since they e-mail you the root
password when you boot an instance. Also, Rackspace Cloud accounts are limited
to 50GB of RAM usage unless you contact them to increase the cap. (Rackspace
only mentions this in their API docs:
[http://docs.rackspacecloud.com/servers/api/v1.0/cs-
devguide-...](http://docs.rackspacecloud.com/servers/api/v1.0/cs-
devguide-20110112.pdf) See section 3.8.2: Absolute Limits.)
Still, most small and medium-sized companies would do best to go with
Rackspace, Linode, or something similar. You'll get better support from them
and it's not often that a 10 person company needs a ton of servers for a short
period of time. Even then, you could use both: short-lived instances on EC2
and stable, well-supported, long-lived stuff on Rackspace.
~~~
dolinsky
It's actually quite easy to spin up multiple servers from a pre-existing
Rackspace image via the API. The initial POST to create the server returns the
password, which your script could either capture, or you could send a PUT
command to the /servers/id URI to update the root pass to be whatever you want
it to be.
~~~
AngryParsley
I didn't know that. Thanks for the correction.
That's not my only reason for preferring EC2 for lots of short-lived servers.
I left out some anecdotes.
Four months ago, one of my coworkers booted 12 cloud servers in DFW. I later
discovered that 3 of them were on the same physical hardware. Two months ago,
about 55 of 60 servers actually came up in ORD. Others were inaccesible or
hung. Not even hard reboots helped. We had to kill them and start new ones.
I've had a total of 2 EC2 instances die on me. I admit my usage of the two
providers is quite different. The stuff on EC2 is shorter-lived. But I'm
pretty sure that high turnover on other providers would cause a lot more
grief.
~~~
lepht
I've seen literally dozens of unresponsive and defective EC2 instances over
the last year. This was spawning 100s of medium and large instances per day,
with an average instance lifetime of around 3 hours.
From what I've read during my usage of AWS over the last couple of years, this
is more the norm than the exception.
~~~
AngryParsley
I think we agree then. Dozens out of 36,000+ instances is a very low failure
rate. I haven't had nearly that volume so I've only experienced 2 failures on
EC2.
------
gfodor
For what it's worth, I ran a trivially complex system on Rackspace cloud about
a year ago and it was a total clusterfuck. My machines were rebooted all the
time and I would receive e-mails saying they were rebooted by Rackspace
because of infrastructure issues or maintenence. I'd say this happened once
every 2-3 weeks and I was only running 3 servers. This was a hobby project so
to have to drop what I was doing every 2-3 weeks to reinitialize a server was
a huge pain. I eventually shut it all down and switched to Linode just so I
didn't have to worry about them randomly rebooting my machines all the time.
I've ran much larger clusters on EC2 over the last several years (50+ servers)
and can count on my fingers the times that machines have been rebooted. And
when they have, it's due to a lightning strike or a AWS failure that's
reasonably explainable.
------
cylo
Rackspace lets you burst CPU, whereas Amazon EC2 does not. It's not terribly
surprising that Rackspace is performing better in that area.
What you need to be careful about is the fact that EC2 and Rackspace Cloud are
currently in two different leagues when it comes to controlling your
instances. Amazon has a far better control panel (not to mention the API) for
exercising granular control of your instances. Hard drive space is dynamically
scalable on Amazon whereas it is not on Rackspace (their solution of mounting
Rackspace Cloud Files via FUSE is unacceptable).
The monitoring system for EC2 is also far better, and completely non-existent
on Rackspace unless you pay them $99/mo out of pocket on top of your hourly
usage charges.
All in all, my Rackspace experience left a very bad taste in my mouth when
dealing with their support, and it was a culmination of the small and simple
things that left me frustrated (the lack of pv_grub support out of the box,
etc., etc.) and kept me on EC2 despite the lack of CPU bursting.
~~~
aidos
I've used both fairly extensively now and there are definitely pros and cons
to each. I haven't done any solid benchmarking, but RS feels faster. It's also
much easier/faster to get up and running whereas AWS has a bit of a barrier to
entry. While at times I've been given incorrect info from them it's great to
be able to get support staff on the live chat.
I wouldn't necessarily choose it for all applications though. The AWS
architecture is far more flexible in general. Elastic IPs are invaluable when
it comes to creating a system that can grow over time (seamlessly switch from
a single instance to several fronted by a load balancer in a couple of
minutes). Being able to take complete snapshots of your system on an hourly
basis could well save your business one day. Being able to make a couple of
API calls to attach an extra 1 TB drive to your instance? That's worth losing
a little horsepower over.
It all depends on what you're after; with Rackspace you probably get a faster
machines, but that's at the expense of being able to build a more robust
generic solution for your needs.
------
jfb
We're on Rackspace, and getting murdered by a couple of things:
1\. Not being able to idle a system, or to restore from a system image (some
persistent bug on their side w/r/t setting netmasks on external interfaces, of
all things);
2\. Not being able to buy disk independently of RAM.
We were moved from DFW to ORD and since then, we haven't seen the random weird
outages that had me pulling out my hair. It hasn't been bad enough to make me
want to move to EC2/some other hosting company, but I do look longingly at,
say, spot instances, which would be a perfect tool for some of our problems.
I'd love it if FreeBSD worked correctly, but I'd also like a pony, so what the
hell.
~~~
seats
#1 doesn't sound right to me. You should be able to create Cloud Files
persisted backups and use them to launch new instances even after the original
parent is gone.
Granted there could be some extenuating circumstance for your specific setup,
but I think typically that scenario is supported out of the box.
~~~
jfb
It's a fairly specific case, yeah. We've automated image construction, but
it's still a PITA compared to just spinning up a new instance.
That said, there are always bigger fish to fry.
------
jcsalterego
When Cloud Servers work, they work great.
The pricing and build-out structure is linear when looking at RAM & disk
space, so this may or may not fit everyone's requirements. There is no EBS-
equivalent, and load balancing has just been introduced formally into the
control panel recently. The persistency is something I've taken advantage of,
compared to EC2's ephemeral nature (unless one employs EBS).
As for cloud servers going down randomly, Rackspace Roulette can be tough, and
the only silver lining is it provides a good incentive to build (or at least,
to think about) applications which work around failure.
There is one other lesser known gotcha which is max RAM capacity per account;
I think the default is something like 50GB and if you require more (for burst
perhaps), you have to get this amount pre-approved. Apparently this is to
safeguard against (accidental) abuse of the Cloud Servers API, but it's
probably also a good mechanism for capacity planning on their side. At any
rate, I've seen/heard the turnaround to be about a couple of business days.
One the flip side, there was a very active thread a while back about how
Mixpanel moved away from RS: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1884685>
EDIT: One more note about RS -- resizing cloud servers. It's a great ability
to have, but it can be slow. It tends to take longer the more data you have
(not too surprising). A good practice is to wipe unnecessary log files before
resizing, as I've been told that each resize action actually causes the cloud
server to jump to another physical host. Don't quote me though, I'm just on
the Internet :)
------
DarkShikari
_I chose the cheapest option on Rackspace, a 1GB 32-bit Windows 2003 server
that costs $0.08 per hour, which works out to $59 per month. Significantly
less than the $90 a mini-server costs on Amazon._
Is that supposed to be cheap? I used EC2 for some compute tasks a week ago; it
was 23 cents per hour for an x86_64 8-core 2.16Ghz i7 system with 8 gigabytes
of RAM -- which sounds way more than 3 times as powerful as the system they
mention.
Running on "burst CPU" doesn't sound like a very useful strategy when I need
to load a few dozen cores for a few days.
~~~
lreeves
Choosing Windows on either Amazon or Rackspace adds quite a bit to the cost,
and it rules out using the very cheap instances (micro and what not).
~~~
danhak
Windows 2003 micro instances have been available for quite some time now on
EC2.
~~~
lreeves
Ah, didn't realize that.
------
latch
For one of our sites, we ran unixbench on EC2, Linode and StormCloud
(LiquidWeb)..and I can tell you that EC2 wasn't the best value with respect to
price/performance (not by a lot).
I can also tell you that having not picked EC2, I have, more than once, wished
for Feature X offered by Amazon. Maybe Rackspace Cloud offers a comparative
list of addons/products, so my point might not be too relevant. But, my point
is that price/performance shouldn't be the only determining factor.
------
acangiano
An in-depth performance comparison published by an independent third-party:
[http://www.thebitsource.com/featured-posts/rackspace-
cloud-s...](http://www.thebitsource.com/featured-posts/rackspace-cloud-
servers-versus-amazon-ec2-performance-analysis/) Rackspace Cloud appears to
perform much better than EC2 in the States.
~~~
jread
This study was sponsored by Rackspace. It is based entirely on 2 benchmarks -
iozone and linux kernel compilation time.... not exactly a thorough study. It
also only tests m1 instances and ephemeral storage. Not a great study imo.
------
psadauskas
The biggest reason I've stuck with EC2 is that no other provider provides many
hundreds of GB of disk space like EC2 does. Even the smallest "tiny" EC2 node
can have 1TB of EBS attached to it.
~~~
moe
Yes, this is indeed a big deal and (as far as I know) unmatched so far.
EBS has been getting a lot of bad rap recently (most of it deserved), but
being able to juggle detachable, snapshot'able 1TB-volumes for $100 a shot has
still been a game-changer for many companies.
------
staunch
Honest question: could this just be because no one is on Rackspace?
~~~
seats
There is definitely a different target customer and that matters. Rackspace
customers are more likely to be classically architected n-tier web sites/apps
and AWS customers are more likely to be fully "cloud architected".
The result of this difference is that a Rackspace cloud physical host is not
going to be as heavily taxed resource-wise (at least on average). Add to that
the cpu burst by default versus cpu cap by default and cpu is definitely the
one area where differences will be widest.
One thing I will say though, and many may disagree with this, but I have yet
to see a benchmarking study that I'd trust. Real world operating performance
of a server is just a very complex thing and any attempt to distill it down to
single parameter comparison is going to compromise some element of that
complexity. I can show you comparison studies that show any of the cloud
providers to be better than the others, including AWS, Rackspace, Linode,
Joyent, etc. So take these things with a grain of salt.
~~~
calpaterson
> ny attempt to distill it down to single parameter comparison is going to
> compromise some element of that complexity
This is extremely true not just of this but of comparison in general. Turning
something complicated into a natural number below 100 and then using > and <
is pretty limited.
------
nicpottier
My practical experience does not agree. I've actually started moving off of
Rackspace cloud because I find that sometimes it is super slow. No such
problems with EC2 in three years of use.
The new Micro instances on EC2 make it a no-brainer.. really.
------
mjs
I more or less understand the reasons, but I do think it unfortunate and weird
that the companies offering cloud services price them on some combination of
RAM, disk space and bandwidth--CPU performance doesn't really figure, except
occasionally in vague terms, and neither does disk access speed.
RAM is important, sure, but there should be some way to quantify the expected
CPU performance as well.
------
mike_esspe
Can anyone explain why cloud hosting is so expensive? I can get i7 quad core
with 8 Gb RAM for $60/month from dedicated servers providers, but i can't find
comparable price with cloud hosting.
~~~
SergeyHack
Could you share where you get these prices?
~~~
mike_esspe
Hetzner: <http://www.hetzner.de/en/hosting/produkte_rootserver/eq4> (you
should be outside of eurozone to get -19% VAT from the price)
Server4you: <http://server4you.net/root-server/> (haven't tested them yet)
~~~
SergeyHack
Thanks.
BTW, server4you have a lot of horrible stories. Hetzner reviews are better,
but it's important to understand that this deal hardware is of "desktop
quality" and not as reliable as "standard server" one. And it is in Germany.
~~~
mike_esspe
Brand servers won't get you reliability, only failover and replication will :)
In US servers are a bit more expensive, but you can get similar configuration
for around $100/month (e.g. burstnet)
~~~
SergeyHack
In fact I think so too. But I suppose there are some cases for some people
when the brand hardware would be better.
------
TillE
Tangentially, I was just looking at the possibility of hosting a file on
Amazon S3, and it's astonishing how expensive it is. They want $0.15/GB for
bandwidth.
In contrast, Linode sells bandwidth for $0.10/GB, and that comes with a whole
VPS. So if I pay $160/month, I get 16TB of bandwidth on a VPS with 4GiB of RAM
and 128GiB of storage (oh, and Linode pools your bandwidth across all nodes).
On S3, $160 will buy me a little over 10TB of bandwidth, nevermind storage or
anything else.
I understand that these cloud services are the most convenient way to scale,
and probably the best way to absorb an unexpected spike in usage. But they
seem to charge a roughly 50% premium for every resource, as compared to a
reliable VPS provider with great customer service, an API that lets you set up
temporary servers, etc.
~~~
KrisJordan
Linode to S3 is not apples to apples. If you want to compare to S3 you would
need multiple linode boxes and a system for redundancy in the face of image
corruption or hardware failure.
One of the things you are paying for with S3 is a pretty solid guarantee that
your files will A) not get lost and B) always be available.
~~~
moe
_B) always be available._
That's a relative term, though. While complete outages are rare, there are
frequent, prolonged periods of abysmal performance (latency in the >300ms
range, throughput approaching <50 MBit/s) and the average performance without
CloudFront isn't stellar either.
However, for many use-cases the sheer convenience and low cost of entry trump
these issues.
------
simonhamp
<http://www.lesslettuce.co.uk/> is running on Rackspace cloud and we've not
had any problems whatsoever with it. Got nothing to compare it against though,
haven't tried EC2. But this makes me glad we went with RS in the first place!
~~~
mtogo
There's one of these every week. Someone is using either Rackspace or EC2,
switches to the other, and talks about how the original is terrible.
It seems pretty split as to who likes which provider. Don't let one blog post
sway your opinion too much.
------
prakash
At Cedexis, we compared cloud performance using 15 billion measurements from
actual end-users in 220 countries and 23,800 networks between:
\- Amazon, Rackspace, Joyent, Google App Engine and Azure and
\- How do EC2's East, West, EU & APAC zones compare
<http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1898990/76-marty-kagan.pdf>
Drop me a note if you are interested in additional information, a similar test
for your website -- prakash at cedexis.com
------
justinwi
Shameless plug: we recently launched a service to help folks discover and
evaluate different cloud computing offerings. In addition to Rackspace & EC2,
you might consider Linode, GoGrid, SoftLayer and a small pile of others.
It's free and includes benchmarking and pricing data into it's
recommendations.
[http://www.oncompare.com/categories/cloud-
computing/decision...](http://www.oncompare.com/categories/cloud-
computing/decisions/new)
------
jjm
How does Rackspace compare with say Joyent? I'm cross shopping for some more
CPU. I've been a very long EC2 user/developer.
------
djjose
I've used both and performance-wise my team didn't see any drastic
differences. We switched to EC2 mostly because of RightScale (which now also
runs over top of RackSpace). It's not cheap, but running on RightScale has
made server maintenance and scaling a breeze for us. If this is a pain on your
team, I recommend them.
------
JonasH
Does anyone have experience with <http://www.cloudsigma.com/>? They seem like
a nice alternative for european companies. It would be interesting to see a
comparison with Amazon and Rackspace.
~~~
cloudsigma
Please have a look at:
<http://www.cloudsigma.com/en/our-cloud/how-we-compare> (feature comparison)
<https://cloudsleuth.net/web/guest/global-provider-view> (select Europe for a
comparison of our cloud performance against other providers)
------
StavrosK
I'm considering a server provider for a new startup I'm working on, but the
recent EBS issues of Amazon have put me off it entirely. Would you suggest I
reconsider? What are your experiences with AWS?
~~~
jread
You also have the option to use ephemeral storage if you prefer not to deal
with EBS. All instances provide ephemeral storage with the exception of
t1.micro.
~~~
jjm
If he's dealing with EBS he probably doesn't want to use ephemeral and the
fact that not persistent.
------
epynonymous
wait a minute, i've been using a fedora instance on rackspace with 256 MB
memory, it's much less than $60 a month.
------
jonursenbach
Just guessing here, but the reason Rackspace Cloud is probably more performant
than EC2 is probably because EC2 is more utilized than Rackspace.
------
jsprinkles
There was a comparison about a year ago that tested performance over a week
span. Linode performed better than Rackspace Cloud and that fits my
experiences. No Windows so not helpful to Dave but worth looking at.
<http://journal.uggedal.com/vps-performance-comparison/>
------
imagetic
Isn't the word "cloud" is just an expensive way to sell shared hosting?
~~~
ceejayoz
If you're on a shared host that provides root access, I suggest you find a new
host.
------
bkmrkr
no comments?
~~~
jcsalterego
waaaait for it...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
More Bad News for ObamaCare - ytNumbers
http://stream.wsj.com/story/campaign-2012-continuous-coverage/SS-2-9156/SS-2-413181/
======
STRML
Bizarrely, this article is cut off both in the stream version of WSJ and in
the direct article link. But, if you go from the Google link, you can see the
whole article. Shady behavior on the WSJ's part.
[https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&c...](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CC8QqQIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304020704579278472445817540.html&ei=SOi5UoGWFenE2gX9vIGADA&usg=AFQjCNGDZDXFfbNAVMFqT1pbqd-
gClsNiQ&bvm=bv.58187178,d.b2I)
------
ihsw
I have a personal policy of upvoting an article before reading it, and after
careful consideration I'm going to change that (at least for wsj.com links).
------
tzakrajs
Paywalled articles should be banned.
------
perlpimp
what is with the paywall?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Which game would you go for? - kkfguy
I'm making a game and can't decide of a title..<p>"SuperDash" or "Speedy Doggy"<p>Which game would you go for if all you had are those 2 titles?
======
sanswork
Which one has the better screenshot?
------
roddux
I'd play "Speedy Doggo"
------
andriesm
another +1 for speedy doggy
that title will definitely catch my eye a lot more
just make sure it achieves 5 stars next to it's name too ...
good luck!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Leetcode Is Like Gymming - sidthekid
https://www.siddharthasahai.com/leetcode-is-like-gymming/
======
bradknowles
What is “gymming” in this context?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ardour 5.5 Released (A free and open source digital audio workstation) - ristic
https://community.ardour.org/node/14093
======
ristic
There are a number of exciting projects in the Linux audio that may be of
interest here. I'll just name a few, in no particular order, that have tickled
my interest.
setBfree - A DSP Tonewheel Organ emulator.
[https://github.com/pantherb/setBfree](https://github.com/pantherb/setBfree)
alvdrums.lv2 - a simple Drum Sample Player Plugin
[https://github.com/x42/avldrums.lv2](https://github.com/x42/avldrums.lv2)
The rest of the x42 suite:
[http://x42-plugins.com/x42/](http://x42-plugins.com/x42/)
The zam-plugins suite:
[http://www.zamaudio.com/?p=976](http://www.zamaudio.com/?p=976)
giada - your hardcore loop machine
[https://www.giadamusic.com/](https://www.giadamusic.com/)
Helm - a great sounding (to me) software synthesizer
[http://tytel.org/helm/](http://tytel.org/helm/)
ZynAddSubFX's new GUI [http://zynaddsubfx.sourceforge.net/zyn-
fusion.html](http://zynaddsubfx.sourceforge.net/zyn-fusion.html) An amazing
software synth even without this new GUI.
Guitarix - a guitar/bass amp and effects modler
[http://guitarix.org/](http://guitarix.org/)
Bitwig Studio - A proprietary DAW available on Linux
[https://www.bitwig.com/en/home.html](https://www.bitwig.com/en/home.html)
u-he plugin suit available on Linux
[http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=424953](http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=424953)
I'm sure there are a few more that I'm forgetting right now.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Connected Papers: Explore connected papers in a visual graph - blopeur
https://www.connectedpapers.com/
======
larksimian
Related lesswrong thread:
[https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/kjQXzkTGuixoJtQnq/we-ve-
buil...](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/kjQXzkTGuixoJtQnq/we-ve-built-
connected-papers-a-visual-tool-for-researchers)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Which database stack to use for distributed offline db scheduled sync - Aheinemann
Setup: Master Database with local offline copies on mobile device which will be synchronized eventually when network connectivity is reestablished.<p>Access to Application is via HTML/Javascript (UI in browser on notebook, tablet, mobile phone ), mobile Database on Windows Notebook serving locally connected devices, accumulating writes and eventually synchronizing with master Database in the Cloud (via VPN, Master Database inaccessible from the internet).<p>Which Database Stack / Template Engine would support this kind of setup (Windows OS) best ?<p>Problems:
<i>Sync of conflicting writes by different offline Databases to master regarding the same record<p></i>would like to avoid complex software stack (WAMP / LAMP) because PHP-Files & database would be locally accessible at the offline-nodes. Would Prefer a windows service (or combination of services) which would include web-server, database and sync to master database without application logic accessible (and possibly altered) at offline node.<p>Have been looking at simple c# Webserver demos (seems doable) (on request: send html+forms, post+get, send resources (image, css, js, cookies), processing forms in c#, using SQLLite for local storage.<p>Database schema would have each database copy identified by Unique ID such that the master database can track which local database last updated a record and when, also keeps history of all updates per record for compliance.<p>A local database can only overwrite a record at the master db if the old value updated at the offline database was still current with the master (e.g. nobody else had written that record since the last sync). Otherwise there would be a conflict which i have no idea how to resolve (last write wins ?, could loose money or limb)<p>I am looking forward to any hints...
======
ColinCera
Have you looked at CouchDB and its mobile accomplice PouchDB? ->
[http://pouchdb.com/](http://pouchdb.com/)
That seems like a good place to start.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
HTML5 Security Cheatsheet: What your browser does when you look away... - tshtf
http://html5sec.org/
======
phoboslab
I don't get it. This page basically shows all available event handlers and
other attributes for HTML elements and says "you can put JavaScript here".
Well, thanks.
Letting your users write HTML/CSS (or not escaping input) is a bad idea to
begin with.
~~~
benmanns
Sometimes you have to allow some user input, like <b>, <font>, or <i> tags in
those WYSIWYG editors. This is a reference for what you should remove from
your whitelist or add to your blacklist.
~~~
Adirael
Still, OP's right. If you need to let them use plain HTML (it's better to use
markdown or something similar) just parse it and remove any attributes and
tags not on your whitelist.
~~~
TeMPOraL
Or make them use Markdown, org-mode syntax, BBCode or s-expressions ({b text
in bold {i and italics}}). User formatting should never go directly to the
browser, without being reinterpreted by the website.
------
TazeTSchnitzel
Some of these are ingenius. Placing an input box far down a page, setting it
to autofocus, and then reacting to body onscroll? I'd never have thought of
that. Glad these references exist!
I have exploited the embedding of Flash to do XSS before. It's funny that
while the site I was on heavily filtered any JS input in its rich text editor,
you could easily upload a Flash file (served from the SAME domain!), and XSS
it.
~~~
vog
_> Some of these are ingenius. Placing an input box far down a page, setting
it to autofocus, and then reacting to body onscroll?_
Although this sounds quite clever, I don't see the value in this. If your HTML
whitelist contains "on..." attributes such as "onscroll", you have deeper
issues than this clever trick. Almost certainly you are vulnerable to stuff
like "onclick", too.
Except if you use blacklists where you added "onclick" and forgot to add
"onscroll". But in that case, if you are using blacklists instead of
whitelists, you are almost certainly doomed anyway. (see
<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4794745>)
------
olliej
I'm not sure what this is saying. If it's talking about things the browser can
be made to do my response is "so? that's intentional".
If it's about things that can happen if you embed user (read: attacker)
provided content in your page then you have already lost. There's never a time
that you can safely embed content from an untrusted source in your page - no
blacklist or whitelist based approach to content is going to be safe. The
correct approach to user provided content is to parse the content, drop
anything you don't understand or recognize exactly. Then escape all of the
left over content, and reconstruct at the end.
You could use markdown to do this for you, or you could do it manually if you
want you own rules (and/or <>-like syntax).
Filtering content is just not sound and every time I see something that seems
to imply that it is, it makes me cry.
(A example of this taken to its extreme is WebGL shader parsing. A correct +
"safe" implementation of WebGL must at the very least: 1\. parse the shader
itself, dropping all comments, etc 2\. perform strict semantic analysis on the
result of <1> (especially as many GL drivers don't) 3\. take the result of <2>
and turn that back into text 4\. throw the result of <3> at the gl engine
This is necessary to ensure that not only is the shader correct (in the terms
of webgl), but also to ensure that no parsing oddities can get through (e.g.
something seen as a comment terminator in the driver but not the validator -
bugs like this have happened with multiple validators in multiple contexts
over the last few decades)
------
danielweber
This page could be much better with just a little bit more prose.
------
Groxx
Quite a list. Kinda makes me feel bad for all the people writing HTML
sanitizers :(
~~~
anykey
It's really not that difficult if you use a parser + whitelist. You don't have
to care about this sort of thing if you limit people to using certain
tags/attributes in WYSIWYG editors and other inputs.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: HNResources.com: directory with HN resources - yatsyk
http://hnresources.com/
======
yatsyk
Hi hackernewsers! HNResources.com is my approach to create directory of
content and applications for HN. Site is hosted by GitHub and uses Jekyll
generator, Compass stylesheet framework and Discuss commenting system. If you
think I miss something fork repository and send me pull request, open ticket
or just leave a comment. Your ideas how this site could be improved, structure
changed, etc are welcome. Most of topics is not filled enough so consider this
submission something like MVP.
------
jacquesm
see also:
<http://resourcey.com/site_details/2/news.ycombinator.com/>
~~~
yatsyk
thank you! noted
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Social Ties Between Autism and Schizophrenia - mcone
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-social-ties-between-autism-and-schizophrenia/
======
Powerofmene
It is actually very likely that an individual with a diagnosis involving the
central nervous system or brain disorder or injury involving sensory
processing will have an axis diagnosis of some form of mental illness. It is
common for an individual with intellectual disabilities to also have a
diagnosis of autisim, OCD, ADHD, etc.
It is sometimes very difficult to determine which disorder or diagnosis
occupies Axis I or Axis II. While generally not that important, it can be very
important when it comes to obtaining limited supply governmental waiver
programs and clinical trials.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
JsDOSBox - franze
http://jsdosbox.appspot.com/
======
whichdan
<http://sourceforge.net/p/jsdosbox/home/Home/>
For anyone interested in the source.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
US Consumer Credit Shows Steepest Contraction in Over 5 Decades - gasull
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2009/08/us-consumer-credit-shows-steepest.html
======
biohacker42
I'm not so sure about deflation, since we've replaced private credit with
public credit. But it's nice to see data indicating hyper-inflation is not on
the horizon.
And it's interesting to think what the world will look like when Americans are
savers and someone else, Asians?, are spenders.
------
martincmartin
So is this good or bad overall? Because people are giving money to banks,
rather than spending it, it should be raising bank's capital. Right? So the
Fed won't need to give as much money to the banks, because people are giving
it to them to pay down their debt?
OTOH, if people aren't spending, then unemployment goes up, which is bad.
Unless people aren't paying down their debts, but rather going bankrupt and
the banks are writing them off. Then we're in trouble.
~~~
gnaritas
People should be paying off debt, better yet, they shouldn't be living off
credit to begin with, it's unsustainable. Getting Americans back to living
within their means is not trouble, it's the long term solution.
~~~
dmitri1981
While previous credit levels were too high, a reduction in credit means a
reduction and consumption and hence demand. Overall, this further shrinks the
economy, reducing income and thus savings.
~~~
martincmartin
Ah, but in the current climate, where everybody is worried about banks
failing, another big bank failure could freak everyone out and cause another
catastrophe. So perhaps propping up the banks increases sentiment more than
increasing consumption in 2009?
~~~
gnaritas
If a sustainable level of consumption can't support the number of banks
currently in operation, then some of them need to fail.
------
zargon
Looks like consumers had too much credit.
------
BearOfNH
This can be good news for startups. In a deflationary world theoretically VCs
won't need as big an ROI, meaning more funding for startups. Well, assuming
the startups are doing things in line with the economy. In this case that
would be things like bargain shopping, DIY repairs, productivity enhancement,
etc. Been done a thousand times before? Then help folks figure out who does it
best.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What's not to like about Marketo/Hubspot/etc? - jrpt
I am considering marketing automation software for auto-emailing and reporting. What are your thoughts on what each service does well, and perhaps more importantly, can't do as well?
======
amac
I've demo'd Hubspot. It works as described and rolls up a lot of marketing
tools e.g email marketing, analytics, crm etc into one solution.
That said, the alternative, piecing together individual applications e.g
mailchimp for email marketing, ga/mixpanel for analytics etc might be more
effective.
It depends I guess on your resources, both developer and marketing.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Apple Wants To Block You From Using Your iPhone Camera At Live Events/Concerts - gmatty
http://www.redmondpie.com/apple-wants-to-block-you-from-using-your-iphone-camera-at-live-eventsconcerts/
======
rimantas
> A new Apple patent will put an end to recording events
Patent does not put an end to anything. First it must be implemented, second,
even if implemented this will only work at these events where technology is
actually put to use.
And patenting something does not imply company really _wants_ to do that. I
guess some stuff got patented exactly just to stop others from doing
something.
------
akronim
Bit of a difference between patenting something and it actually turning up in
iOS as a "feature"
------
ggchappell
Consider another use for this idea: it would allow governments to prevent all
those photos/videos of rights violations that we've been seeing a lot of
lately.
~~~
bobbles
How about another?
It would mean I can stand behind people at a concert or other live event and
actually be able to see the act rather than 3000 phone screens lighting up the
arena
~~~
redtwo
Nope, not everyone has got an iPhone. Androids will blow your arena.
------
antihero
> something that could cost more than just letting people record the event
> itself and sharing it on their websites.
What, $1+ ? Honestly the only people that lose out from you taking a shitty
mobile recording of a concert are those who are standing behind you.
But yeah, DRM on your camera? Awful precedent and a great reason to
root/jailbreak if ever there was one.
~~~
X-Istence
Why root and jailbreak? The whole premise is based upon IR light being
received and interpreted by the phone. IR filters are easy to come by, get an
IR filter, stuck it to your phone, problem solved.
~~~
antihero
True, true!
------
orionlogic
Some weeks ago world's famous best living drummer Jack Jack Dejohnette gave a
performance in my city which i also attended. Somewhere along the second song,
he suddenly stopped and wanted from audience to stop recording/filming by
saying: " Please respect the artist and their work".
There are some use cases for this, but like in every new feature of technology
its open to misuse. My vote is against adding that kind of feature because
artists already earning most of their money from concert attendees not losing
from non-attendees.
Or may be Apple made an app store type control system for Event/concert
organizers. For example an organizer can apply for a specific venue/time/place
for switching off all ios devices (via icloud) and Apple do the job for them.
~~~
redtwo
Nope, this way, your photo app would be dependent on the internet, wich is a
really stupid idea Apple would never do. In other words, what if I switched
off the internet from my iPhone before the organizer applies for the "event
store", do you think my photo app will tell me : "Oops no internet connection,
you can't take photos, we don't know if this place has applied or not for the
block"
------
andrewreds
How long after release do you think it will take for IR filters for the IPhone
will be on sale by 3rd parties?
~~~
Flenser
Or IR dongles that can be programmed to add spam messages to photos.
------
gaius
As a regular concertgoer, I support this 100%. I went to see the show, not the
back of 100 phones held aloft.
~~~
buro9
So what you actually want is a way for a camera on a phone to be fired without
lighting up the screen.
~~~
gaius
And also, without people holding it up in front of me.
It's not just a problem with gigs. Here in London we have a thing called
Secret Cinema, who organize showings of classic films in unlikely locations.
It used to be cool. Nowadays it's full of people who are only there so they
can Tweet about being there, they aren't engaged in the experience at all, it
feels like being in a room full of zombies, and not in a good way. If people
have forgotten how to live in the moment, they need to be reminded.
~~~
redtwo
I understand you completely, but this is an apple patent, so it's likely that
this feature will only be available for iPhones. And again, who the f __k is
apple to tell me I can't take photos if I want to.
~~~
gaius
In this scenario Apple aren't telling you anything. The owner of the venue
and/or the performer are.
~~~
redtwo
It's the iPhone who is preventing you, because Apple made it possible, so
here's the scenario : "Organizer : Hey apple, block this guy from taking
videos of my event" Apple : Oh no problem, he'll just see dead fish instead
ROFL"
If the organizer does not want you to take videos, you should still be able
to, but if you do or don't, it should be your decision not apple's. So who is
telling you what to not film?
------
gte910h
Actually patent means _they control the right to do this_.
It doesn't mean they're implementing it. Hell, they could be _suing people who
try to do this_ and making it less likely to be used by others.
It could be just a random defensive patent.
------
allochthon
More worrisome, it could be used to block political speech and the recording
of embarrassing or retaliatory actions taken by regimes around the world. I
really hope Apple is merely filing a defensive patent here.
------
X-Istence
It won't be long before someone starts selling ghost armour with an IR filter
in it. Cover the entire phone and infrared is no longer an issue.
------
itg
Has anything of value been posted from this spam site with its troll
headlines?
------
redtwo
So now I'll use their API to create my infrared device, and block all of you
from taking photos of the eiffel tour.
------
drivebyacct2
No, no, no. I thought we'd killed this at reddit and assumed it wouldn't be
reposted here. It's just a patent. This happened last week or earlier and has
already been discussed here. :/
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
What are the News.YC rules of startups? - bmaier
With all the lists floating around I'm interested to see what everyone thinks are the golden rules of starting up.
======
jsjenkins168
Everyone has their own beliefs, but in general I would say: Build something
users want, release early and release often, and spend as little money as
possible in the process.
------
twism
Build something you would use too. That way, you would also have that vested
interest to improve upon it.
~~~
thomasswift
I agree. Build it for your need, but pay attention to how others use it and
possibly tailor it for them as well.
Also, maybe, work on some sort of business model so you might be able to
continue working on it.
------
Mistone
build...sell...retire (just kidding)
Building a Product People Want (seems like PG's single golden rule)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How do we end the divisive mindset? - christofosho
Society today is wrought with divisiveness. It's shown in the rhetoric that the media uses, and is ever present in our own thoughts and conversation. Even applications such as Facebook cater to this divisiveness with their content bubbles, supporting our confirmation bias and failing to properly educate us in critical thinking and analysis. I want to know what the community at HN thinks we can do to help end the divisive rhetoric and "information combat" that is occurring.
======
throwawaycopy
Throw your smartphone in a lake, quit social media, stop reading the news,
move to a mixed-race neighborhood and then join a bowling league.
You might only just need to go outside and walk around talking to people about
their interests.
The world is a wonderful place when you're not being frightened and primed to
make unnecessary consumer purchase s.
Absolutely stop thinking there is some technical solution to these problems.
------
oblib
Great question. Here's what I think...
It's a lot easier on the personal level than at the societal level.
The big hurdle for society to leap over is the profit to made off of promoting
division by reinforcing people's fears. The leaches that sell fear based hate
and political division have a constitutional right to spew and there's not a
lot we can do to change that, nor should we try.
We can, however, influence people's desire to seek it out by using targeted
media campaigns to counter the divisive messages they produce with those that
invite cooperation.
The hurdle to do that effectively is the cost of the effort. "We" don't own a
big media outlet, or have the budget to produce quality content and distribute
it. To be fair, this is being done to the extent it can be with current
resources available to those who are working on it, but not in a focused way.
There are media sources that do work on producing unbiased content but not
really unity by looking for and exposing common ground.
Since before the elections last year, on a personal level, when I have
interacted with either "Liberals" or "Conservatives" I have purposely tried to
find and expose common ground and there's actually a lot there.
As an example, when I talked to Trump voters about "the wall" it was easy to
find common ground by pointing out the expense and ineffectiveness of a wall
in comparison to enforcing existing regulations and reducing incentives for
illegal immigration, and for making legal immigration easier for seasonal and
temporary workers, which all my "liberal" friends would support.
When I pointed out that "Big Corporations" have an obligation to help maintain
and improve the communities they sell their products in they agree with that.
We all agreed that government waste is out of control and needs to be reeled
in.
So, there is common ground and a lot of it, but no money and little effort is
being spent on cultivating it.
~~~
christofosho
Thank you for the response. I do agree that money is a large component to this
situation. I also do think some people actively discuss the existence of this
divisiveness. So then, is the problem a lack of discussion around methodology
and how to implement solutions? You mentioned that the effort is the largest
cost in deploying positive solutions. Specifically, those solutions would be
used to educate individuals on what divisiveness looks like and how to combat
it. How to recognise bias.
I do think you are right, and that we need more resources supporting the
efforts to bring us together instead of pulling us apart.
------
gumby
Is it any different from how it was before? Perhaps the same diversity of
opinion was always there, but some people simply didn't have a voice -- and
now they do.
I don't know if I even believe this hypothesis, but I haven't seen any
systematic study to prove/disprove it. Simply many assertions that people are
more divisive.
~~~
christofosho
Thank you for the response. My original post wasn't meant to specify that the
climate is /more/ divisive, but to ask the community what kind of ideas we can
implement to make the community /less/ divisive.
Also, a friend recently sent me this article which might support the idea that
climate has indeed become more divisive, even if this wasn't my original
post's reasoning.[1]
1\. [http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/how-big-data-
broke...](http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/how-big-data-broke-
american-politics-n732901)
------
skybrian
I'm not sure, but within the context of social media, I think fewer memes and
more actual conversations would help.
------
Viralsneezer
I think the question really is: can the tech community come up with do-able
ideas that can a) reach the population at large, b) use crowdsourcing and
artificial intelligence to identify and tag/mark fake news and unfounded
opinions c) possibly use blockchain for tagging/marking crowd-classified
news....So that fake news, divisive propaganda, trolling, etc. are quickly
identified and indelibly marked as such....This will not entirely solve the
problem (artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity), but it
should contribute towards reducing its effects
------
spcelzrd
Censorship. I know this doesn't fit with the techno libertarian mindset, but I
think it's a viable solution.
Let's say I'm about to share an article that claims the holocaust never
happened. (This might be illegal in certain places, but let's say it's legal
in your country). The platform could warn me that this is not factually
accurate. It could flag my post for others as not accurate. Or it could
prohibit the share.
------
mvpu
By spreading truth and facts. The anti Trump media and anti media Trump are
destroying the core fabric of news consumption in this country and that's
what's causing the divisiveness and hatred.
Stop hatred. Spread the facts. Learn the facts.
~~~
partisan
What is the truth anymore? Who do you trust to provide the truth?
~~~
mvpu
Truth = Unquestionable facts. Independent organizations like fact check.org.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Free legally-valid timestamps for your intellectual property - craze3
https://www.claimby.com
======
craze3
Hey all,
I’d like to share a decentralized app I built a couple days ago as part of the
#24hrstartup challenge on Product Hunt + Twitch.
Claimby helps you protect your intellectual property by creating a blockchain
timestamped proof of existence for any file or piece of text. Basically, it
generates a unique SHA-3 hash of your file & writes it to the Ethereum
blockchain. While it isn't the same as filing a patent or copyright, it is
still proof that you possessed that file or idea at that exact moment in time.
This can be useful evidence in any type of intellectual property ownership
dispute. As of recently, China and many U.S. states (Arizona, California,
Ohio, Tennessee, Wyoming) have ruled blockchain timestamps as court-admissible
evidence & valid e-signatures. Many of these ruling are recent (within the
last 2 months), so it seemed like the perfect time to build this.
Hope you like it!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
PointDNS / Copper.io experiencing DDoS – services down - anu_gupta
https://twitter.com/copperio/status/464736925912686592
======
alexcason
[http://www.digitalattackmap.com/](http://www.digitalattackmap.com/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Genes and backgrounds matter most to exam results - abhiminator
https://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21739574-type-school-less-important-genes-and-backgrounds-matter-most-exam
======
noemit
Like the conclusion of most studies on intelligence: We don't really know
anything.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss - prostoalex
https://medium.com/@eligoldstone/meet-the-new-boss-same-as-the-old-boss-aff0a3dd132e
======
angersock
Some good quotes:
> _In reality the semantics of this arrangement frees companies from any
> social responsibility._
> _The app also makes service requests for users casual, fun, and — crucially
> — impersonal. When a customer reviews the service they have been given, the
> real life implications of that action are far from their mind._
This is kind of the original sin of all "sharing economy" businesses: they
help people abstract away the sometimes-unpleasant problem of treating service
providers like human beings, in exchange for "sharing" (read: extracting)
wealth from local communities.
------
DrScump
<In reality the semantics of this arrangement frees companies from any social
responsibility.>
Being free of _consequences and liability_ is not the same as being free of
social responsibility.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
14 Revealing Signs You Love Your Startup Job - weisser
http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/98577/14-Revealing-Signs-You-Love-Your-Startup-Job.aspx
======
orangethirty
That read like one of those "10 Signs that let you know your boyfriend loves
you" articles in Cosmopolitan. I will love any startup job as long as they:
\- pay. \- pay on time. \- dont have me meet every 2 hours. \- have reasonable
hardware to work with (read: A computer from this millennium, running an OS
that did not come out during the Clinton administration).
Anything else, is just gravy.
~~~
dshah
That's a really low bar. The market (at least here in the U.S.) for talent is
so competitive that a company has to go well beyond the basics of paying on
time and providing great hardware.
~~~
orangethirty
Well, that does it for me. Like I said, anything else is gravy. In fact, I
just moved on from my current contract today, because they were not paying on
time. I was their lead engineer, and basically did all of their stack alone.
I'm currently accepting offers if anyone is interested.
------
hoffsam
Nice list! I kinda think that these apply to all jobs, not just start-up ones.
I also like how the articles points out that these are signs that you like
your job, it's a nice reminder that the onus is on the employee to be in a
mindset where they enjoy their work.
~~~
dshah
Indeed, like other relationships, it has to go both ways. No fun being in a
relationship where the love is unrequited.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
'We Were Wiped Out’: New Yorkers Preyed on Chicago Cabbies - pseudolus
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/04/nyregion/taxi-medallions-chicago.html
======
bpatel576
What I don't understand, is why someone would be willing to buy 15 medallions
at an "inflated price." My point being, you should have some basis on the PV
of cashflows you can generate with each medallion. It doesn't seem like an
extremely complicated financial problem in my eyes. At some point, you're
cutting into any investment return you receive through cash flow and you're
now expecting your returns to be generated through the appreciation of the
medallion. That's probably where I would stop and think, I don't need to buy
15 of these things.
~~~
rolltiide
The people that borrowed to get them were greedy speculators too, and they
just aren't talking about it.
They just forgot that “when your taxi driver is talking about investing, its
time to sell” and they were the literal taxi drivers in the adage.
The blunt reason is because they are the bottom/edge of society’s universe of
investors, so there is nobody else to sell an asset to at a higher price.
The same result would have happened eventually, the arrival of Uber & Lyft
exacerbated the outcome much faster.
------
darawk
The NYT is such garbage these days. Some speculators lost money to other
speculators. That's how speculation works. Nobody is being 'preyed' upon. This
article is unbelievably disingenuous.
~~~
matdehaast
I keep seeing this statement but not sure what other sources to consume. What
is a good alternative?
~~~
nradov
The Wall Street Journal is generally more accurate and even handed on business
and finance stories. Although they do have some bias on other topics.
~~~
NotSammyHagar
Wsj opinion is irrational crazy town. The news side has managed to be
impartial.
------
bko
This article is baffling. It's full of very loaded language (e.g. prey, seized
control, squeezed, etc). And the evidence and explanations they provide is
even more baffling and contradictory.
> Some adopted an especially aggressive approach, according to documents and
> interviews. First, they purchased medallions at bargain rates and
> established big fleets of cabs. Then, they pumped up medallion prices.
> Finally, they sold their medallions to their drivers and to rival fleet
> operators just before the collapse.
Take each claim one by one:
> First, they purchased medallions at bargain rates
How did they get them at bargain rates?
> Then, they pumped up medallion prices.
Again, how? Did they somehow drive the population increase in NYC?
> Finally, they sold their medallions to their drivers and to rival fleet
> operators just before the collapse.
Did they sell the medallions or finance them to drivers, because earlier in
the article it says:
> They inflated medallion prices, provided high-risk loans to buyers and
> collected interest and fees before the bubbles burst and the markets
> collapsed.
If they financed them, the drivers defaulted and the collateral was worth a
lot less than originally valued at.
The whole article is a weird hodge-podge mess of trying to find victimizers
and victims. People who bought medallions between certain years are
victimizers but those that bought them after the peak are victims and New
Yorkers (?) in Chicago are especially bad.
~~~
exhilaration
The article does explain how they inflated the prices, they sold them to each
other at increasingly higher prices, which kept bumping up the recorded last
sale price. At the risk of violating HN rules, I have to say that you didn't
read the article.
~~~
bko
I doubt that would make sense financially. Prior to 2017, there was a 5%
transfer tax on medallion sales [0]. I believe they would also have to pay
either a capital gains tax or treat the gains from the sale as income. It
would be a very expensive strategy to get a paper uptick in the last recorded
sale price that you may or may not benefit from. And there are all sorts of
other regulations that manipulate the market and distort sales. For instance
prior to 2017 owners of single medallions were limited to selling to someone
who doesn’t already own one [0]. The sales from one member to another could
have just been a family business arrangement where one group of individuals
brings in another business partner.
Instead of some bizarre conspiracy theory about unnamed group of individuals
that can manipulate prices, lure just the right speculators at the very peak
and move on, why can't it just be that there are some speculators that did
well and others that entered too late and lost out? Why does everything have
to be viewed as a victim/victimizer paradigm?
[0] [https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-much-is-a-nyc-taxi-
medallio...](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-much-is-a-nyc-taxi-medallion-
worth-these-days/)
------
DennisP
Artificially limiting the supply of taxis seems like a silly thing to do in
the first place. It's not surprising that it didn't work out well.
~~~
Wowfunhappy
Well, I can think of at least one good reason for a medallion system: it helps
limit the number of cars on the road. (Let's ignore Uber and Lyft—they are
taxis and _should_ need medallions, but we're not enforcing the law properly.)
Of course, it would help a great deal if the medallion system were combined
with limits on private vehicles...
~~~
lotsofpulp
It’s a terrible way to limit the number of cars. A variable toll would be a
much better way of limiting the number of vehicles.
~~~
ineedasername
I hate the idea of "congestion pricing" tolls. Bridges & tunnels into NYC run
$15. $300/month for daily commuters. I'm sure that's manageable for some
commuters, but poorer folks are disproportionately impacted and it
significantly raised bus fair as well: About $260/month for most routes that
are only 10-15 miles outside of NYC. I think better mass transit options are a
better option to reduce congestion, and therefore the need for congestion
pricing.
~~~
admax88q
Congestion taxes/fees incentivize taking public transit options. I don't think
anyone arguing for congestion tax is along arguing against mass transit, the
two go hand in hand.
~~~
ineedasername
I haven't seen either a decrease in congestion or an increase in mass transit
infrastructure spending in NYC as a result of congestion pricing. And
congestion pricing applies to busses as well, increasing mass transit cost. So
commuting to NYC by car costs about $300 a month, but busses are still about
$240 a month. Really not enough to strongly incentives mass transit.
Maybe what it boils down to for me is that congestion pricing, in theory, may
be a valid option. But in its implementation it accomplishes very little
except increasing bloated budgets for organizations that focus too little on
their actual mission.
~~~
lotsofpulp
Exactly, make the car cost $3,000 and you’ll start seeing some changes.
~~~
ineedasername
That's probably true, but then there needs to be a rapid coinciding ramp up of
public transport like doubling or tripling the fleet of busses. Which could
work! And it would have the added benefit of ever so incrementally reducing
emissions from vehicles.
------
jshaqaw
I used to follow the primary public company in this space - MFIN - fairly
closely. This article seems off base and to disclose I have zero investments
in the area. The issue here is that when taxi fleets were a regulatory
rationed monopoly then the medallions were worth a lot. When tech disrupted
hail cabs that collapsed. There really isn’t a private sector “villain” to pin
blame on for this. And yes for many years the big owners of medallion fleets
had excess influence over the regulators due to classic influence wielding.
That blew up when residents of places like NY were vocal that they like Uber-
Lyft versus the old system.
~~~
rconti
This article, as well as many others about the industry, have pointed out that
the collapse was not due to so-called "ride sharing" companies. I think one
analysis said that was less than 50% of what caused the crash. This article,
and others, state that the crash would have happened _regardless_. One of the
pieces of evidence is the massive runup of medallion values. It was a classic
bubble that was not supported by fundamentals.
------
ineedasername
It seems like some intermingled flavors of market manipulation and cartel-like
monopoly mixed with a pump-&-dump scam.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Review My Weekend Web App - calminferno
http://bookmrk.net
======
calminferno
Bookmrk is a simple web application that allows you to easily save and
orginize your bookmarks via tags. You may choose to make your bookmarks
public, which allows other to enjoy what you have already found.
It is an experiment to play with redis. I'm using the phpredis extension as
well. It's pretty basic but was a fun little weekend project.
------
christiancoomer
I arrived at your home page and found nothing that indicates that it's any
different than something like Delicious.com. This caused me not to register
since I already have an account on Delicious.
I'd mention on your home page what makes your app different than your
competition.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Diff optimized for comparing text files containing prose - rhythmvs
http://www.gigamonkeys.com/tmp/test-diff.html
======
rhythmvs
The library (Common Lisp) is on Github:
[https://github.com/gigamonkey/monkeylib-prose-
diff](https://github.com/gigamonkey/monkeylib-prose-diff)
------
macmac
google-diff-match-patch will produce some very nice prose diffs, especially if
you tune the defaults a little to look further back/ahead.
[https://code.google.com/p/google-diff-match-
patch/](https://code.google.com/p/google-diff-match-patch/) \- it is availabke
in Java, JavaScript, Dart, C++, C#, Objective C, Lua and Python.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What are good freelancing chat communities? - muzani
I'm looking for a kind of chat room to idle in with other freelancers. I would like the social presence of similar people, but co-working spaces don't suit me.<p>Ideally not a forum or reddit subgroup - I want to just socialize without writing walls of text in response to old forum questions.
======
ioddly
Here are two that I enjoy participating in.
Reactiflux: [https://www.reactiflux.com/](https://www.reactiflux.com/)
Not freelancing specific but there's a lot of pretty knowledgeable people in
#jobs-advice, plenty of banter, and sometimes I get a technical question
answered too. It's probably the most active chat-style programming community
out there.
And here's a freelancing specific one:
And this one: [https://www.jasonswett.net/the-secret-alliance-of-
freelance-...](https://www.jasonswett.net/the-secret-alliance-of-freelance-
programmers/)
~~~
muzani
You seem to have missed out the second link
~~~
ioddly
Whoops, I didn't sleep much last night. Just meant it to be the one all the
way at the bottom.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A Fast x86 Implementation of Select (2017) [pdf] - espeed
https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.00990
======
ot
The authors claim their algorithm is novel, but it actually had been a well
known folklore technique for quite a while. For example it was used in Folly
as early as Jan 2016:
[https://github.com/facebook/folly/commit/b28186247104f8b90cf...](https://github.com/facebook/folly/commit/b28186247104f8b90cfbe094d289c91f9e413317#diff-666bb7d0944159a9ea430bd54196be4a)
~~~
stephencanon
Yeah, I definitely saw this technique in Intel sample code demonstrating use
of BMI before HSW was released. Probably 2011, maybe 2012.
That said, we worry too much about who the first person to have an idea was.
Any idea worth having is come upon independently by many people, and putting
the idea to work and communicating it to others are more valuable
contributions anyway.
------
Veedrac
> Recently, Pandey et al. [15] gave a new implementation of machine-word
> select, which we call PTSelect.
It's worth noting Jukka Suomela had this PDEP idea late 2014, and I've used
the trick a few times from that source.
[https://stackoverflow.com/a/27453505/1763356](https://stackoverflow.com/a/27453505/1763356)
------
lostmsu
Quick tip: this is about relational algebra's select operation (which is
basically row filtering; choosing columns is called 'project' there).
~~~
asdfasgasdgasdg
I didn't get that impression at all. This is "get me the rank (index) of the
first occurrence of x" in a succinct data structure. Nothing to do with
relational algebra AFAICT except to the extent I suppose that some relational
algebra implementations may use such data structures under the hood.
~~~
cmrdporcupine
Yes, but 'select' is the name of that operation in the relational algebra.
Which confuses some people whose first exposure to that model is through SQL,
where the keyword implies a combination of 'select' and 'project'. I think the
commenter's intent was to clarify that.
~~~
espeed
Yeah, succinct data structures aren't something taught in most intro to data
structures courses, and the concept may even be unfamiliar to oldhats since
SDSs are relatively new on the scene -- the public datasphere only started
becoming conscious of the idea in 1988 when Guy Jacobson introduced them in
his CMU thesis. And I have yet to find a digital copy of it online so for
those who want to read the original thesis, you may have to order a paper copy
of one or go to the CMU library to read it.
[https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=guy+jacobson](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=guy+jacobson)
But, there's been a lot of development on succinct data structures since, and
this post on the fast _select_ algorithm was in-part a continuation of a
conversation from a post yesterday on succinct data structures in general and
the open-source lib SDSL 2.0. So if anyone wants to learn more about SDSs in
general, there's a bunch of links to videos and reference material in the
comments of yesterday's thread...
SDSL – Succinct Data Structure Library 2.0
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18204432](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18204432)
------
purplezooey
I thought this was about select() with file descriptors, which also needs to
be fast. :)
------
derf_
I wondered why they used TZCNT instead of BSF. If their algorithm has
correctly located the word with the jth bit set, the output of PDEP shouldn't
be zero, and these should be equivalent (but BSF doesn't require a dependency
on BMI1 support, though if you already require BMI2 for PDEP, maybe this
doesn't matter).
But then I found
<[https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=50168>](https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=50168>).
~~~
BeeOnRope
Aside from that bug, it's like you said: might as well use tzcnt from BMI1 if
you are already using BMI2 since there are no CPUs implementing the latter but
not the former (and IIRC the reverse is even true).
Using tzcnt in principle is faster than bsf in many cases since bsf always has
a dependency on the output register (due to the zero input case), but tzcnt
doesn't. In practice tzcnt had a false dependency anyways, at least until
Skylake where that was fixed (again IIRC, I recall that one of these bit
manipulation didn't have their false report fixed, but the rest did).
~~~
nkurz
What did you think of their explanation of "memory parallelism" in section
4.3? I read it quickly, but thought it was pretty accurate. I liked that they
made explicit the link between the number of instructions and the degree of
parallelism. I was a little disappointed by the final statement that they
"suspect" that the CPU is capable of only 8 parallel requests.
~~~
BeeOnRope
The analysis looks exactly right to me (they don't explain how they calculated
MLP, but the numbers look about as expected for x86 ROB sizes/FB sizes).
One thing they don't mention is that the low MLP isn't _inherent_ in the other
algorithms! With the default/obvious implementation of a benchmark loop using
each method you hit this issue, but in principle I think you could re-write
almost any algorithm which is "instruction count MLP limited" like this into
another one that isn't. A simple sketch is to simply do a batch of N loads up
front, storing them into a temporary buffer, then do the computation part.
The loading part will have maximum MLP (after all, it's pure loads) and then
the computation part will get all L1 hits unless you picked N wrong.
It loses a bit because the loads aren't as effectively overlapped with
computation, but if the loads time "dominates" as presented here, it would
work well.
A more sophisticated approach would still try to overlap computation and
loads, at max MLP. You could do this by inserting additional prefetches or
actual loads into the computation stream, enough to get the required MLP. This
is actually kind of complicated and more dependent on the actual hardware
parameters which is why I mentioned the other way first.
------
0xFFC
Stony Brook University is one of those special universities which although
from an academic perspective not that famous, but in Systems software, they
are top-notch university.
~~~
aportnoy
Their grad math program is pretty good.
------
skissane
I was confused by the conference this is submitted to: "42nd Conference on
Very Important Topics (CVIT 2016)." I couldn't find any such conference with
such an odd name.
Eventually I worked it out. I think they are planning to submit this as a
conference paper, but at the time of creating the preprint weren't sure which
conference. So "Conference on Very Important Topics" is just a placeholder for
where the actual conference/proceedings info would go on the article first
page.
------
kolderman
Oh that Select. Yawn.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Hardware Managed Thread Concurrency for Irregular Apps [pdf] - Katydid
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ac6a/c7ffa46605203fcd8b511dc06a84d009f3b9.pdf
======
webaholic
A really interesting idea. Taking feedback from the current execution to drive
future scheduling is prevalent in software. Makes sense to push it to hardware
too. I wonder how apple is doing hardware managed thread scheduling in the
latest processor.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Being on HackerNews, One week on - beck5
https://www.sharelatex.com/blog/posts/hacker_news_one_week_on.html
======
Peaker
9000 visitors a day averages about 0.1 visitor per second.
Let's say that the peak is 100 times more frequent than the average, so that
would be about 10 visitors/second.
Being a systems developer, and not a web programmer, I work on software that
handles tens of thousands of requests/sec. I don't understand why around 10
visitors/second would be a difficulty with semi-modern hardware. How many
requests does that translate to?
This is a genuine question, can anyone explain what is it that takes so much
work in handling a web request?
~~~
unconed
Web servers used to serve just static pages. So when dynamic web applications
were invented (e.g. CGI), they tried to slot in as transparently as possible.
The web server would invoke a process, pass in the HTTP request, and get back
the appropriate HTML to send to the client.
Languages like PHP follow the same model, and as a result, every single page
request is processed independently. All the raw data is retrieved from the
database, is processed appropriately for output (e.g. turning content into
HTML), is run through a templating engine, and assembled with the right CSS
and JS so it can be served. This is attractive from a rapid development point
of view, because you can deploy changes instantly and can scale it out
horizontally just by adding more servers, without any additional work.
However from an efficiency standpoint this sucks, and this is why the most
common fix is to place a static HTML cache in front of it (e.g. Varnish) as
well as opcode caches, object caches, etc. This only works if all your
visitors see the exact same thing (e.g. a HackerNews discussion thread). If
you use 'write through caching', then you can control the rate of updates
independently of the amount of traffic you receive, and you can handle traffic
pretty well.
If your pages are dynamic, you need a different approach. You'll want to cache
all the static chunks of each page, and assemble them together with the
dynamic parts on-demand. The extreme example is Facebook: everyone sees
something different. The only way to scale this out is to parallelize
everything, with your first tier of web machines making many simultaneous
requests to a farm of servers behind them, delivering all the pieces within a
relatively constant time.
The problem is that such a parallel architecture is both unnecessary for a
small web app, as well as involves a leap in complexity and know-how that is
undesirable for small teams. Hence, there is an increasing technological gap
between what hobbyists/start-ups do, and what the giants are doing.
Edit: it's also important to realize that the web loves 'inefficient' dynamic
languages not because they're dumb, but rather because development is very
rapid, very experimental, involves designers, UX experts and marketers, and
you don't want to be forced to make long-lasting decisions early in your
development process.
------
___Calv_Dee___
I feel like this would be a common mistake when getting caught up in the
moment of completing a dev project. You're so anxious to launch the site/app
that load balancing factors could be overlooked. This seems like it could be
really detrimental as you're pretty much canning your first impression when
your backend crashes. Anyone up for sharing their horror stories of launching
before their backend could handle the traffic? I feel like it could provide
for some good insight in regards to patience and thought when it comes to
launching.
------
verelo
I love this traffic graph, looks very similar to past HN type analytic graphs
ive seen.
I would say a big lesson people should learn from you and others is, use load
balancers. At least if traffic spikes, you can add another server (provided
you have an image sitting by waiting and your code doesnt mind being load
balanced).
~~~
beck5
Makes sense when you get a bit bigger, for me a load balancer would just about
double my hosting costs at the moment. Probably the difference between a
weekend project like ShareLaTeX and a startup of 4 people.
------
shaka881
Collaborative typesetting is indeed cool, but the domain name promised far
more excitement than it delivered.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Best cloud host? - ltamake
I'm in the process of launching a startup and I've decided on cloud hosting. I tried out AWS and I really like it so far, but I was wondering if anyone had any better choices. Cost isn't too much of a problem but I'm most worried about reliability.<p>Thanks in advance!
======
nesbot
I have had a great experience with <https://www.stormondemand.com/> so far.
They offer both shared and bare-metal dedicated and they always seem to be
cheap compared to others. They were rated quite high by the cloudharmony
benchmarks. Not to mention their support twitter account, when needed, are
really responsive.
------
rawsyntax
I tend to use heroku's free plan for testing out ideas. I wrote a post
detailing how here: [http://rawsyntax.com/post/8737142015/host-your-side-
project-...](http://rawsyntax.com/post/8737142015/host-your-side-project-for-
free)
------
sktrdie
App Engine has a real solid infrastructure. I find it that it's extremely good
at hiding implementation details - I don't care whether my database is Mongo
or MySQL, I just want it to work and scale. The APIs never break and it's
really cheap.
------
AdamGibbins
You need to define your interpretation of "cloud host". It varies a lot. Are
you looking for a virtual machine host with a decent API? Or are you looking
for someone to manage the stack of your software? In which case, what is your
stack?
------
detour
We've been using dotcloud (<https://www.dotcloud.com/>) and are quite happy
with the results in testing. Haven't gone to production yet though so we'll
see how they pan out in the long run.
------
planetjoe
It should be noted that many of the services that have been mentioned (heroku,
dotcloud) are built on top of AWS, so they'll be no more reliable than AWS.
Other big players in the cloud space are MS Azure and Rackspace.
------
fuzzythinker
Trying out ep.io now. Docs are lacking a bit, but support seems superb. Ask
again or contact me in a few weeks, I should have more to say then.
------
goshakkk
If project is written in Ruby, take a look at Engine Yard and Heroku (it also
supports node.js, Clojure and Java).
------
masonhensley
We've been trying out pagodabox and love it. (PHP)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Phoenix – Elixir Web Framework - areski
https://github.com/phoenixframework/phoenix
======
chrismccord
Phoenix creator here. I would be happy to answer any questions. For those that
want an overview of the framework, my ElixirConf talk would be a good start:
[http://www.confreaks.com/videos/4132-elixirconf2014-rise-
of-...](http://www.confreaks.com/videos/4132-elixirconf2014-rise-of-the-
phoenix-building-an-elixir-web-framework)
~~~
saosebastiao
What is the reason for requiring the absolute latest minor tick releases?
Elixir is pretty cool, but the default solution to installing it (from the
erlang-solutions repo) gives me a version that doesn't work with Phoenix. I
don't really want to build the language from source, as that makes deployment
just that much harder and error prone.
~~~
rubiquity
Version managers do exist for Elixir to make upgrading Elixir easier. One such
is exenv[0] and elixir-build[1] which should be familiar to you in use if
you've ever used rbenv and ruby-build. If you're on OS X, homebrew usually
gets updated with the latest version of Elixir minutes after a release
happens.
0 - [https://github.com/mururu/exenv](https://github.com/mururu/exenv)
1 - [https://github.com/mururu/elixir-build](https://github.com/mururu/elixir-
build)
~~~
darkof
I use kerl - [https://github.com/yrashk/kerl](https://github.com/yrashk/kerl)
and kiex - [https://github.com/taylor/kiex](https://github.com/taylor/kiex).
They also work very well.
------
klibertp
I tried using Phoenix for a simple web app I wrote last month. It was a couple
of static html/js files and a single WebSocket connection, so nothing fancy.
Unfortunately, I found the documentation lacking, and the framework much too
"magical" for me to quickly understand and make use of. I have no experience
with Rails but rather with Django, so that may explain a lot. Anyway, in the
end I used Erlang and Cowboy instead. I checked out Cowboy from github master
which is "almost 2.0" now, and I had no problems at all setting basic project
up. Defining routes was straightforward and explicit (which I like), upgrading
connection to websocket and handling incoming data was simple and explicit
too. I added eredis and jiffy to the project and that's basically it, it did
everything I wanted it to do splendidly, with little magic and very little
overhead.
Now, I know Erlang much better than Elixir, and I worked with Cowboy before
and I needed to make this app quickly, which resulted in me not spending too
much time on learning Phoenix. Between controllers, routes, views and channels
I got an impression that Phoenix has too many moving parts and that it would
take me too much time to fully understand what's going on. Especially because
I really didn't need most of these, just a static file server and a single
WebSocket.
However, I see Phoenix potential for more complex projects, where investing
the time to learn it is going to be worth it. It looks like Phoenix provides
an awful lot of conveniences and makes a project much better structured than
my "a couple of files in a single directory" approach.
I guess what I want to say is that I almost used Phoenix this time and that I
would probably use it if it had better docs - especially a solid tutorial(s)
for use cases similar to mine. And that, while I didn't use it this time
around, I'm certainly going to keep an eye on it and consider it next time I
have to write something similar. It looks very promising and - like Elixir
itself - very interesting, I hope for it to only grow in the future :)
~~~
sntran
This. I can not put my words any better than this.
I used to dislike Rails, since it seemed to be too much abstraction that would
require time to learn. I now have the same feeling about Phoenix. I could put
up a simple web app quickly with Erlang and Cowboy. With Phoenix, I needed to
read documents and the source code to figure out what all the imports are
doing.
~~~
krick
For me it's not even about "time to learn", but the fact that I never can be
sure I know how something like this works. Even that little detail about how
`resources` automatically defines so many routes… yeah, it's kinda convenient,
but I would be more comfortable if I'd have _all_ of my routes explicitly
defined somewhere, at least in a framework with scaffolding. When an app
written like that grows, and I'm not the only developer, and that guy before
me was clearly using drugs — well, that really becomes scary much quicker than
in a simple Flask-style framework.
~~~
josevalim
Curiosity: is that a concern only with routes? Or would you also like to have
a explicit control of which middleware you are using too?
Because if the latter, it feels like a web framework isn't for you. But you
should definitely consider Plug ([http://github.com/elixir-
lang/plug](http://github.com/elixir-lang/plug)), which has all the pieces and
you just need to put them together (a simple router, a bunch of "middleware",
etc).
------
rozap
My experience with Phoenix was super positive. I built
[https://www.vuln.pub](https://www.vuln.pub) with it while learning Elixir (no
erlang experience..) and it couldn't have been easier. Everyone was very
helpful on IRC if I did run into problems, and the framework itself is
extremely well documented and the source is quite readable.
Definitely would recommend trying it out if you haven't. It was a breath of
fresh air from where I was in node.js/python land.
~~~
lectrick
What did you like about it vs. building the same thing on the Rails stack,
assuming you are/were a Rails guy?
Also, how's your test suite? :)
~~~
rozap
I have no rails experience, but have written a lot of python stuff in django
and flask, and some node stuff in express.
I guess compared to django (and rails..), it's absolutely a smaller framework,
so it's easier to reason about what's going on, and when you don't understand
the source is much easier to follow. Diving into the django source to figure
out a problem was a nightmare.
In terms of actually using it, the biggest strength is the concurrency model.
It handles blocking much better than rails or django where you typically have
a fixed number of workers, and if you block and fill up those workers then
you're SOL. Yea there are workarounds here, but they're pretty ugly. python
and ruby don't really have nice solutions for this, which brings us to node.
In node, you always need to be actively thinking about handling async IO with
callbacks or promises or whatever, and you can quickly end up in callback hell
if you aren't careful.
In elixir (and erlang), BEAM handles all that hard stuff. The result is your
code is easier to write and read. Every phoenix http request is in its own
elixir process. There's no weird request context like you get in flask, no way
to abuse request state, and no callbacks to deal with. You can block a process
all you want and throughput will be the same. The code looks like it executes
sequentially, even though it doesn't.
For a small app like the one I wrote, it also has the advantage of being able
to start a bunch of little services in the background to handle longer running
tasks (which would typically be handled by a message queue with django/rails)
and they're super easy to deal with since it's just standard elixir process
messaging. These services handle things like performance logging, emailing, as
well as (in the case of my app) looking for vulnerability disclosures and
resolving them to package specs.
Anyway, sorry for the rambling response, but I hope it gives a general
overview of why elixir and phoenix made building something way more pleasant
than what I'm used to.
Why do you ask about the test suite? Did you find a bug? :)
~~~
lectrick
> Did you find a bug? :)
No, but there may be one already, lying hidden, unless you have a good test
suite haha
~~~
rozap
I have a lot of tests, but tests and bugs can and do live in harmony together.
------
rubiquity
It's really awesome how Phoenix has come a _really_ long way in a really short
period of time. Chris and José (and many others) do an excellent job of
carefully considering features and how those features get implemented. While
many refer to Phoenix as a "web framework" I don't think of it that way in the
traditional sense of web frameworks like Rails. I find it closer to a "web
library" that does an excellent job of handling Web concerns such as routing,
WebSockets, rendering HTML/JSON and internationalization. I think this is a
good thing in this day and age of having very diverse model layers.
If you have time and want to see a very well run open source project in
action, I recommend you read through present and past discussions on the
Phoenix GitHub project:
[https://github.com/phoenixframework/phoenix/issues](https://github.com/phoenixframework/phoenix/issues)
------
dynjo
We are a pretty big Rails shop (30+) devs and are getting pretty excited about
Elixir. We are currently writing a series of blog posts about our Elixir
journey, first one here [http://blog.oozou.com/why-we-are-excited-about-
elixir/](http://blog.oozou.com/why-we-are-excited-about-elixir/)
------
lobster_johnson
Elixir is great. I just wish its syntax was more appealing; some of the design
choices are a little idiosynchratic. Using "do..end" is natural in Ruby for
blocks, but Elixir uses it for everything, and it looks pretty odd:
Enum.map [1, 2, 3], fn(x) -> x * 2 end
or:
receive do
{:hello, msg} -> msg
{:world, msg} -> "won't match"
end
The "do" syntax is in fact syntactic sugar for keyword arguments, which is
suprising and a little disappointing, especially when you realize that
constructs like "if", "case" and "receive" are in fact implemented as
functions. Sacrificing syntactic elegance for consistency ("everything is a
function") might be clever, but is it an improvement over hard-wiring this
stuff into the language as first-class keywords? I personally don't think so.
It's a minor point, and not major enough to make me not use Elixir, but when
someone goes this far in putting a nicer skin around Erlang, it's
disappointing to find newly-invented blemishes that are as weird as the ones
it aimed to smooth over in the first place.
~~~
Cyranix
Does that syntactic choice make it easier to understand the connection between
normal expressions and their quoted forms? ([http://elixir-
lang.org/getting_started/meta/1.html](http://elixir-
lang.org/getting_started/meta/1.html))
As a newbie coming into Elixir without either Ruby or Erlang background, I
didn't find anything in the syntax to be a real pain point (although
understanding optional parenthesis usage in CoffeeScript did help).
~~~
lobster_johnson
Sure, if everything (including control statements like "if" and "case") is a
function, it means the underlying data structure is simpler. That design in
itself doesn't preclude other syntaxes such as a more familiar brace syntax.
~~~
josevalim
The language designer here. There is literally no escape from such perception
coming from somewhere regardless of the choice. :)
I have mentioned before this is often the most unrewarding aspect of designing
a language because, it doesn't matter what you do, you will always get an
opposing opinion. Here are some examples of what I have heard or read multiple
times throughout the years:
* Using the brace syntax is seen as catering to common languages (like C and Java) which would arguably cause a lot of confusion when added on top of a functional language
* Going with Lisp is always a matter of love or hate. Some people will love it and some people is going to really hate it
* The same with space-based indentation. A lot of people praise its conciseness, a lot of people curse the code being extremely hard to move around (this was honestly my second choice but it would get complex inside quoted expressions)
* The do-end blocks gets some praise for being readable (less punctuation characters) but also a bad rap for being verbose
To be clear, I am not calling you out, the point is exactly that everyone will
have their preferences and if I was not writing this comment to you, I'd
definitely be writing it to someone else. :)
~~~
lobster_johnson
Of course; you can't make everyone happy all the time.
However, it's quite obvious that you are hugely influenced by Ruby's syntax.
What I don't understand is why, in copying Ruby's overall flavour of syntax,
you decided to make it a little worse.
My hypothesis is that you discovered that this syntax allowed an elegant,
unifying structure to the internal implementation, which is fine — but as a
user, it comes across as an annoying wart. The parser should know perfectly
well that after "def" comes a function name, so why does it need the "do" to
demarcate the function body? It would have been just as ugly in Ruby, which
goes for terseness in the common case (eg., "if" can take a "then").
Criticisms aside, I should add that this is the only thing so far that has
annoyed me about Elixir.
~~~
lancehalvorsen
My $0.02.
Elixir's do/end blocks actually enhance the syntax it inherits from Ruby by
making it very, very consistent. Defining any type of entity takes a do/end
block - def, defmodule, defmacro, defprotocol, defimpl, and probably some that
I have forgotten.
------
joshsharp
I've been following Elixir closely and recently built a super-simple chat app
using Phoenix and websockets. I agree with other comments here that the docs
could use some work, and as I also come from a Django background, rather than
Rails, I found it a little magical for my tastes. However, once I understood
how things go together, it was pretty trivial to get up and running. The
included phoenix.js library makes the websocket pub/sub stuff ridiculously
easy.
I'm really interested to see where Elixir is going, and to try building
something real with it. I'll probably use Phoenix, just because it's the most
active, mature framework. (I like the look of Dynamo -
[https://github.com/dynamo/dynamo](https://github.com/dynamo/dynamo) \- but
not sure how active it is.)
~~~
notduncansmith
According to the Dynamo readme:
> Dynamo is currently in maintenance mode for those who are already using it
> in production. Developers who seek for an actively developed framework are
> recommended to look for other alternatives in Elixir.
------
davidw
I don't see "database" mentioned anywhere on that page. What direction are you
going to head in with that?
~~~
joshsharp
Ecto and PostgreSQL seems the most mature option, though there's a Redis
library and of course Mnesia. I haven't been able to find any support for
MySQL.
~~~
HashNuke
Someone was trying to add MySQL support - [https://github.com/elixir-
lang/ecto/pull/193](https://github.com/elixir-lang/ecto/pull/193)
It is possible to write an Ecto adapter for Riak, with some workarounds. I
tried it once, but the motivation to continue...
------
polskibus
Is providing helpers for authentication and authorization (for example like
ASP.NET MVC attributes) anywhere on the roadmap? It would be helpful not to
reimplement authentication routines from scratch in every project.
~~~
chrismccord
There are no plans to provide authentication, but since the Phoenix Router and
Controllers are just Plugs, we should se e the community produce a handful of
first-class auth solutions as things mature. I don't think a generic auth
solution that works for everyone is easily done and would prefer third-party
packages. The nice thing about Plug is these solutions should be relatively
easy to add to yours stack.
~~~
Ixiaus
What Python's Pyramid web-framework did well in that area was to provide the
scaffolding around _Access Control Lists_ in the application. You figured out
authentication and provided a really simple function and DB table for
resolving roles and permissions and the app did the rest.
I think most frameworks should follow that model: provide a flexible ACL
system but let the developer figure out auth.
~~~
chrismccord
Interesting. I'll take a look at the ACL system. We're planning a Resource
protocol and something along those lines could integrate nicely.
~~~
Ixiaus
It worked particularly well for Pyramid with it's resource hierarchy object-
model. The ACL would cascade down the tree and as it was traversed it could
pattern match the permissions against the tree-node acl.
I actually think the model it's better suited to a functional language. I'm
working on a similar extension to the Haskell snap framework.
------
insertion
This looks pretty elegant, but it's a shame that Elixir uses the Ruby-style
multi-line code blocks with do end. Looking at those code examples, 'end' take
up around 25% of the lines with code. Does anyone know if they considered
taking the Python approach? Would be curious to hear the arguments behind the
decision. I've noticed that most people seem to favor the Python approach
after trying it, but that it's rarely used in new languages.
~~~
adamkittelson
Here's a link to a discussion on the mailing list that touches on why Python-
style significant whitespace wasn't used:
[https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/elixir-lang-
talk/u6P...](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/elixir-lang-
talk/u6PXqsfX1HQ)
------
jacktang
Wow, glad to see the news. Now we just embed rails web application into cowboy
server by using cowboy-rack adapter.
------
codexon
Is Elixir production ready now?
~~~
Havvy
Elixir is currently at v.1.0.2 and following SemVer. I'm guessing that counts
as production ready by your definition.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Genghis Khan: history's greenest conqueror - ubasu
http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0120-hance_mongols.html
======
atgm
I went in thinking I'd read about Khan's reforestation plans or something, but
instead it's just a side effect of stability... Internet, I am disappoint.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Mugged by a Mug Shot Online - digisth
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/business/mugged-by-a-mug-shot-online.html?pagewanted=1&ref=business
======
kcorbitt
I found out about a month ago that one of these sites had an arrest record for
someone with my same first and last name. As luck would have it he also is the
same race and approximate age as I am. We don't really look alike but there
are plenty of people who might google me based on a resume or something
without knowing what I look like and confuse me with him.
The site was high on the first page of results for my name and it was
extremely frustrating. I'm about to graduate and look for a job and it was
embarrassing to think that that's what potential employers would first see.
And yet there was nothing I could do about it -- heck, the person wasn't even
me.
I'm all for freedom of information and those sites have a perfect right to
exist. However, I'm glad that Google also has recognized that their business
model doesn't serve the majority of its customers and pushed down the results.
After reading the article I checked the results for my name and verified that
the offending site disappeared from the first two pages. It may seem like a
small thing but I honestly feel more comfortable talking to recruiters now
than previously.
~~~
mistercow
A general solution for this kind of problem: get other content above them in
Google. This is not hard; mugshot pages and the like have very little PageRank
mojo. The only reason they're at the top of the results is that there's
nothing else with your name to compete.
All you have to do is make a few interesting things (blog posts, github, etc.)
with your name on them and post them to sites like reddit, and they'll easily
beat any data-combing reputation smear site.
~~~
gaius
According to the article that isn't true, mugshot sites have high Google
scores because people tend to linger on them.
And you are rather missing the point that 99.9% of people don't have
GitHub....
~~~
mistercow
>According to the article that isn't true, mugshot sites have high Google
scores because people tend to linger on them.
I can only speculate about causes, but I also have someone in another state
with my name (even a matching middle initial) on mugshot sites, and the
tiniest other references to me (my wedding registry for example) knocked it
off the top Google results page immediately.
As for 99.9% of people not having a GitHub account: so what? I was giving a
suggestion relevant to a typical HN user, not advice for the general
population. The general advice is to do things _like_ that. The point is that
if a wedding registry on theknot.com (Hell, I'm not even sure I made that
wedding registry; it might have been auto-gen'd from our Amazon registry) can
outsell the undesirable sites on Google, you can easily make ten results
happen that knock it off.
GitHub just happens to be an exceptionally good one for an HNer, since it's
the kind of thing that an employer is likely to actually want to see.
------
leephillips
There seem to be two distinct issues here: the fact that these websites
publish mugshots, and the fact that they solicit payment to remove the
pictures and information.
The first issue is clear, at least to me: this is public information and they
have a right to republish it, like it or not.
On the second issue, I don't understand why this is not extortion. Obviously
this is because my understanding of what constitutes extortion is faulty. Can
any lawyers here explain?
~~~
jrockway
Here's why I don't think it's extortion. Imagine you have a neighbor that
hates bicycles. You agree to stop riding yours if she pays you $100,000. Is
that extortion? Obviously not: you have the right to ride your bicycle
regardless of whether or not your neighbor likes it, and you have the right to
sell your professional services (not riding a bicycle, in this case) to
whomever you like.
(Perhaps she wants to sell it to a like-minded buyer, and you're therefore
devaluing the property. Too fucking bad, right?)
A problem that I could see the mugshot sites running into is that they imply
guilt, when the mugshots were only for arrests. Intentionally misleading
someone seems a lot like libel.
~~~
hso9791
"Not doing something" as a professional service?
~~~
shabble
"We put the Pro in procrastination!"
------
Anechoic
One of the local NPR media shows brought up this issue a while back, in
regards to both mugshots and arrest records, and the embarrassment these
public records can cause to people who were exonerated, or may have been
guilty but turned around their lives. The show clearly came down on the side
of the press to be able to publish public records, but the hosts were
sympathetic to the concerns of people who wound up having their records
published and available on Google for All Time.
I always thought the solution was simple - unlike the printed page, web
articles don't have to be static. The publishers should allow the subjects of
these articles to provide updates to the beat reports (subject to verification
of course) to document the disposition of the arrest. You could imagine an
article might say "June 1, 2003: Jane Doe arrested for drug positions (insert
mugshot/arrest record" followed up "Update Feb 1, 2006: Jane Doe indicated
that the case was dismissed, which was verified by court records. Ms. Doe has
not been arrested since and documents provided by Ms. Doe (and authenticated
by this publication) indicate that she graduated with honors from XX college
and has been successfully employed as a mechanical engineer to positive
reviews."
That may not help with the extortion racket problem with the mugshot sites,
but one would hope that the media outlet websites would rank higher than the
mugshot sites on search engines.
~~~
casperc
The thing I don't understand is why the mugshots are being published in the
first place in the US. Like it or not, the internet is a permanent record so
that mugshot of you at your worst time (but not convicted of anything), will
be out there forever in some capacity if it gets published.
~~~
AJ007
A little common sense trumps all of these other elaborate comments.
Why are mugshots publicized? To intimidate people. It means the police can
coerce someone in to doing something with the threat of an arrest.
The NYTimes seems to be blaming private site owners who have added a little
SEO juice, whereas county and government websites usually are written so
poorly as to barely be crawl-able. The police are the ones publishing these
mugshots online, the other sites are just re-organizing them to be a little
more Google bot friendly.
------
csandreasen
I didn't see mention anywhere in the article regarding why the police releases
the mugshots - I'm told by people working in legal professions that it's
actually a means of ensuring that the police aren't overstepping their bounds
and that people aren't disappearing into jail without a valid conviction in
court. By making all of the information public regarding who they arrested the
police can't deny arresting them later on; by releasing the information about
why he or she was arrested, the public can verify that the police are
arresting people for legitimate reasons. This is useful to the public, but I
think it's implemented in too naive a fashion. It takes sensitive data about
me and broadcasts it out everyone, any one of which could store it
indefinitely and rebroadcast it indefinitely.
You can't just not release the information for the aforementioned reasons. You
can disallow rebroadcasting the information - if I can't release it to others,
then the police could potentially take the information down after a few days,
make you disappear, and then we're back at square one.
I think in this case the danger of misuse by third parties outweighs the
danger of police abuse. Maybe there's a better way of keeping the police force
accountable?
~~~
MichaelGG
First, some counties publish special lists of, for instance, men attempting to
or procuring prostitution services aka "johns". So there's probably a fair
amount of shaming and threat they get from this. Police are known to threaten
arrest because even if they drop all charges just going to jail (especially on
a weekend) can be an unpleasant experience, and there's little blowback for
them.
Second, if the police want to disappear people, they'll just not save that
arrest record. The publishing of a log only is only useful for cases where the
police decide to "disappear" you after they've arrested and processed the
subject. Even then they could release someone, document it, then pick them up
around the corner for "disappearing".
------
lettergram
It seems to me that this is the fault of employers not doing the proper
research. I know if I was in HR or was looking to hire an employee I would
pretty much forgo looking at those sites.
For example, what would this website tell me? Potentially, someone with the
name of the person (same or not the same) applying for a particular position
has had a mug shot. All that tells me is they have been arrested (if it's even
the same person), that does not mean they were convicted, they didn't do some
minor offense, or they did not as in this case "do their time."
The point is an employer should probably look at confirmed data, if the
mugshot is not confirmed, it should really be tossed aside.
~~~
itchitawa
I agree. People need to assess whatever information they find before acting on
it. The more well-known these become, the less influential they should be on
any one individual.
------
spindritf
Please, upgrade the link to the single page one
[http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/business/mugged-by-a-
mug-s...](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/business/mugged-by-a-mug-shot-
online.html?pagewanted=all)
------
Brandon0
Funny story. I went to a conference earlier this year where I met a very
attractive sales rep for a company we were considering working with. She
emailed some information a few weeks later and I was going to see about
connecting via LinkedIn, so I Google'ed her name. First picture that came up
was her mug shot from a DUI. From a professional standpoint I'm sure it haunts
her.
~~~
judk
Confirmation that salesperson drinks heavily doesn't to provide much new
information. The most threatening aspect is probably that the mug shot didn't
have her wearing makeup.
Also, you were being creepy.
~~~
Brandon0
Not creepy, just lazy. Googling is faster than using LinkedIn's search.
But not going to lie, we all Google people's names. Still nothing creepy about
it.
------
itchitawa
Good luck having them removed from the Wayback Machine too!
[http://web.archive.org/liveweb/http://www.florida-
mugshot.co...](http://web.archive.org/liveweb/http://www.florida-
mugshot.com/Counties/Hillsborough-County/Arthur-Murray.1214743.html)
~~~
judk
It is public record. Search rank is what matters, not binary availability.
------
ColinWright
Single page:
[http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/business/mugged-by-a-
mug-s...](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/business/mugged-by-a-mug-shot-
online.html?pagewanted=1&ref=business&_r=0&pagewanted=all)
------
error54
Looks like Google is finally doing something about this.
[http://blog.codeguard.com/google-cracks-mughshot-
sites/](http://blog.codeguard.com/google-cracks-mughshot-sites/)
------
nu2ycombinator
Now because of hackernews "Maxwell Birnbaum" record is viewed 90 times in last
one hr.
------
nonchalance
for a long time, the Bill Gates wiki page had a picture of his mugshot as the
primary photo (now it's relegated to the middle of the page)
~~~
bsullivan01
Sure, do what Bill gates did with Microsoft, charity and make north of $100
billion and then others will laugh at a 40+ year old traffic arrest.
Now if you're trying a job and they are another 100 applicants....
~~~
judk
Actually Bill Gates had to do was get a few million dollars from his rich
parents, to put his past behind him.
------
tmsh
I believe having the photos linger after they are no longer relevant or
applicable is libel. Even posting the mugshots originally can be construed as
libelous. IANAL, but I would hope the technology will adapt (ie sites only
publish if the mugshots are 'current' and that is subjective but not too
unclear -- when a record is expunged they cease to be useful v. their damages
as defamation; and sites be able to delete them when they are not current
immediately - even automatically). Otherwise I see no reason why are not
liable. Sue them, justice then legislature will follow in a decade or so..
Seriously though I think that's how it works..
------
geuis
No ones hitting this from what I consider to be the right angle. Let me
digress for a moment.
I was arrested in Miami in November 2003 at the FTAA protest in Miami. Spent a
night in jail, and eventually all charges were dropped. Read this if you want
more info,
[http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_model](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_model).
The point is that in my case, I was arrested and I am proud of that. I'll
grant that "protestor" sounds more admirable than "had drugs on them". But I
think they are similar in some ways.
The first and most obvious similarity is the overly-militarized police force
in the US. This is the essence of the Miami Model, a now 10-year old strategy
of approaching domestic protest movements militaristicly at the local police
level rather than as citizens movements. By applying the same tactics to _all_
law enforcement, we end up with situations of over prosecution for things like
possession of drugs and paraphernalia that continue to haunt people for years.
For what are minor issues (had a joint or some pills on them, throw em in
jail) peoples lives are ruined.
So to the point I want to address is that it doesn't matter, of at least it
shouldn't and it's getting better.
Yes, I expect to be Googled and screened when working at a new job. That
happened so long ago that no reference really pops up in reference to @geuis
(though no doubt it will now) but for me it doesn't matter since it was a
protest/civil rights issue that I freely talk about).
But just how the stigma of smoking weed in the past doesn't really matter for
jobs that matter anymore, the same thing is increasingly true for other
recreational drugs. You did E and acid for a bit? Ok, but what kind of
engineer/sales/etc person are you? If anything, I think exposure to certain
drugs makes people more valuable because you can't help but learn something
from it. I know I did.
My questions would be like, "So I found this and this, can you talk about that
a bit?" This is to determine if they are detrimental addicts (no hire) or just
recreational/past users.
I'll admit that my vision is blindered because I live in SF, lived in the
Miami area, am a liberal, and work in technology. But I count myself as a bell
weather of sorts. If the rest of the US is flagging behind in a modern
mindset, then eventually they will catch up.
Anyway, I guess I'll wrap this up by saying that if someone has a record or
doesn't fit into the ordinary pegs and holes, consider other factors when
people look for work. Who knows what things you might have in your own past
that you were lucky to avoid being arrested for.
~~~
notahacker
It's less about "modern mindsets" and more about simple decision making
heuristics. If you've got a stack of resumes for apparently competent
candidates and 10 seconds of Google-fu turns up blog comments and OS code
commits for most candidates with reasonably distinctive names and
MugshotsOnline for another one, you're probably not going to invite the latter
candidate in to explain their views on occasional recreational drug use.
------
itchitawa
If it really is public information then it's perfectly OK to publish it.
Complain to the politicians if you don't like arrest records being public. If
you're supposed to have a "clean" record then you should just lie to your
employer and say "I wasn't convicted". That's what a cleaned record does
anyway. Mr. Birnbaum would have been telling as much of a lie by not
mentioning his conviction like he'd hoped to.
------
Glyptodon
The thing that's especially repugnant is how the money changers can collude to
do deny access to the financial system based on their arbitrary morals.
Companies that collect payments should not be able to stand in for a court in
determining if the activities of their clients are lawful or allowable.
Though the mugshot stuff is kind of lame, too. Taking care of it might be as
simple as not making the record public unless there's a plea or guilty
verdict.
------
joeevans
Google is under no freedom of information restrictions; it is a business. They
can choose to rank mug shot sites high. They can choose to accept or not
accept AdWords money for mug shot related businesses.
~~~
MichaelGG
They shouldn't be _choosing_ to rank mug shots highly. They should be
following algorithms that return results that people want.
On the second part, sure, they could decide mugshot sites are not eligible for
AdWords, but it's not great to have Google deciding who can make advertising
money. OTOH, they're already doing this so I suppose they could take some sort
of ethical stance here.
~~~
joeevans
I generally agree. It's interesting, though, to think how much they in fact do
probably alter results. I'm sure people "want" things that don't appear on the
first page, because there'd be a general freak out if they did. I think they
probably have more cultural latitude in determining which ads they'll accept
than which results they'll display.
Another option they have is to simply set the cost of mug shot related ad
clicks higher. Since their pricing determinations are somewhat mysterious, it
would be harder to critique them for that. Ultimately, it would probably come
down to an ethical stance for them, because they would just be making less
money as a result of what I would consider to be a more ethical decision. As
it is, they are making money off of a system that appears to be wrecking
careers.
------
Aloha
When I see stuff like this, I feel so very very fortunate to have an extremely
common name. It is extortion however to charge to remove images as far as I'm
concerned.
------
andor
Those revenge porn sites that were just banned in California had the same
business model.
~~~
makomk
More interestingly, the main lawyer fighting against those revenge porn sites
was doing so on behalf of a company with the same business model. Smart tactic
on their part - they got a bunch of free positive advertising in the press
whilst helping to shut down the sites which were most controversial and
therefore most likely endanger their business model.
~~~
judk
One of the sites covered here wasn't even a lawyer, the perp was
impersonating.
------
ivanbrussik
one day, somehow, the bastard behind ripoffreport.com will get the karma ass
fkng that he deserves.
if anyone will burn in hell, it will be him.
------
warmwaffles
Isn't this extortion?
~~~
jpatokal
From the friendly article: "But it can’t be extortion as a matter of law
because republishing something that has already been published is not
extortion.”
------
Erwin
Here's an Evil Idea for a open source equivalent: foss-testing.org. Innocuous
name, but it chains together user identities with checkins they've made that
were 1) style violations 2) turned out to be bugs 3) turned out to be later
security issues.
What do I care whether I have a style violation? Well, it's about using the
dark patterns to make your "user page" (collected from publically available
information so legally proof) sound as bad as possible. Similar to the
consumeraffairs deal where every review is bad. So your prospective employer
searches for "Bob Bobson" and sees a nice, professionally designed page that
claims:
Bob Bobson has trouble following best practices for code styling, which could
indicate a problem with following corporate standards: link to 37 instances of
inconsistent naming/indentation/brace style on github
Bob Bobson has 7 github repositories where he has checked in 90% of the
source. This may indicate a "lone wolf" that does not play well with others
Bob Bobson has 14 open issues in github trackers. This may indicate lack of
following through on a project
Bob Bobson has closed 41 github issues immediately as "wontfix". This may
indicate a technologically orientated user that is insensitive to user and
customer needs
We've analyzed Bob Bobson's commit messages, and assigned it a English
Comprehension Score of 4 (out of 10). This may indicate a communication
problem.
Failing anything else, you can smear Bob Bobson by the projects he associates
with.
Bob Bobson has contributed to TOR. The TOR tool is associated with child
pornographers and drug traffickers.
Bob Bobson has contributed to KDE. The KDE project has 523,123 outstanding
bugs. We're not directly saying it's Bob's fault, but you know...
Of course, you can't start off writing all negative smear about everyone. You
want to start out by being positive, writing cool blogs about how your company
analyzes OSS. Maybe buy some licenses for expensive static analyzers and share
the results. Make some cool pages about Linus' or Guido's checkins. Maybe even
sponsor a few OSS projects or OSS people.
How does this make money? Well, Bob Bobson does not like to be known as a team
player. Would Bob Bobson like to dispel that conclusion based on publically
available data in our proprietary algorithms? Well, as it happens we also sell
a "TeamWork Evaluation Survey", where if you think your team work skills have
improved you under go a comprehensive psychometric test (signed off on by our
team of psychometric specialists) that verifies your team work skills. Of
course, such a test is expensive, but isn't the $199 worth it to be given a
prominent "Team Work: Gold Badge" score? All that other stuff we said about
you being a bad team player will go away.
------
bsullivan01
_> >He added that the sites do, in fact, run afoul of a Google guideline,
though he declined to say which one_
BULLSH*T. Everyone is guilty and Google chooses when to use the hammer for
profit or good press. That's how much integrity their results have. Google has
known about these sites for ages, yet after NYT writes all of the sudden they
are not relevant for users. Total BS.
Also the business of asking MC, VISA and Paypal to terminate services stinks,
we saw this with Wikileaks.
Their business is repulsive, personally I'd favor a $5 wrench
[http://xkcd.com/538/](http://xkcd.com/538/) removal service over this.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
We’re Getting It Wrong - kohsuke
http://weregettingitwrong.com/
======
kohsuke
Personally, I don't feel all that strongly that we are collectively getting it
wrong, certainly not to the extent of getting a domain name just for that! I
think most developers do indeed talk to their users, and they rather enjoy
doing it, too. I've once worked in a place where developers are more detached
from users, but that was an exception, not a norm.
There's also a difference between the opinion of one user vs the collective
opinions of users as a whole. In most software these are conflicting goals.
For example, iOS can't just add random features willy-nilly to satisfy an
individual's feedback. So the product management needs to come in between
developers and users to aggregate user demands. You'll have to make everyone a
little bit unhappy to make users collectively happier. One of the reasons I
like extensible software is that those two goals are no longer conflicting.
Hopefully you know what I mean when you see Jenkins ([http://jenkins-
ci.org/](http://jenkins-ci.org/))
I do share the joy of "caring about your users," there's something very
special in knowing this one person/user, understanding his/her needs, solving
it, and making him/her happy. We obviously do that through software, but this
drive is universal.
------
apwashere
_> For example, in my entire carrer in this industry, I can honestly say
without any exaggeration that I have never met a single person who was
obsessed about proving P != NP._
Fair point - an example related to inventing new datastructures would probably
have been slightly more realistic ;-)
I certainly agree with your point about "the challenge of the collective user"
from a PM perspective. I've worked on quite a few teams where this "collective
user" was more of a product of the marketing or PM team's imagination than
actually representative of real users, though - and even if you cannot please
all users all of the time, in my experience the more of those users are real,
the more motivated you are to try to please as many of them as you can.
Overall, very glad to hear there are lots of parts of the industry that are
doing a lot better than I have experienced!
Regards
ap
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
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