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Why Don't Computer Scientists Learn Math? (2016) - 0xCMP
http://lamport.azurewebsites.net/tla/math-knowledge.html
======
ajarmst
In Lamport's defence: (1) He's Leslie Lamport, so his comments about academic
Computer Science should be at least considered before they are dismissed. (2)
His audience (and the target of his critique) was not an arbitrary set of
self-taught programmers, hackers, and vencap enthusiasts. It was
_mathematicians and computer scientists who went to a Leslie Lamport talk_.
Ability to read basic set theory notation isn't exactly something that's weird
to expect in that environment. (3) The notation he is using is not at all
complex or obscure in academic CS. You literally would have trouble reading
even rudimentary papers and summaries of basic theorems in CS if you couldn't
follow that notation. He's pointing out that he's seeing a lot of people who
claim to be CS people that have the sort of disability that a "physicist" who
doesn't know what a matrix or determinant is would have. Without those
rudiments, they just can't follow the discussion. If you can't follow the
duscussion, you can't contribute to it. CS != Programming.
~~~
outworlder
He is correct in the sense that computer scientists should be able to
understand that. I'm one, or at least my diploma says that, even though I'm as
far away from the academia nowadays as it gets.
So, I watched the lecture on youtube. Speaking as someone who was glossing
over the mathematical notation and essentially deferring to the speaker for
correctness, I could not do it from the time he called it into attention to
the time he asked for hands up. I wouldn't have put my hand up, had I been at
the audience then.
Had he asked "are you able to understand this notation", then I'd put my hands
up. Scanning to see if anything unfamiliar is there takes hardly any time at
all. Actually reading and being confident that you understand what it means
and all the implications takes time, for someone who doesn't do that on a
daily basis.
Using a very silly example: e = mc^2. Can you read it? Certainly. Do you
_understand_ it?
------
excalibur
It's not the mathematical concepts they're struggling with in this example,
it's the notation. As someone who majored in math while an undergrad, even I
would have difficulty deciphering it were it not for an elective course in
Symbolic Logic.
~~~
majkinetor
Meh, its like saying that somebody who doesn't know to read doesn't struggle
with concepts, but with understanding letters...
That is basic, I didn't touch math 15 years and still now that.
~~~
krmboya
Meh, any competent programmer can understand sets..
I got the meaning presented in the article because I've practiced the notation
presented, but wouldn'nt have figured it out instantly otherwise.
We have different programming language syntaxes for a reason.
~~~
olgeorge
These are not programmers though, but rather computer scientists, a big
difference
------
Karrot_Kream
While I can't comment on this situation in particular (a room of computer
science researchers who couldn't understand basic notation), I can offer an
anecdote about the lack of mathematical knowledge in industry.
Yesterday one of my coworkers submitted some code to perform an upsert to code
review. His logic for calculating the diff set was extremely complicated, and
subtly wrong, filled with comments. To me the idea was incredibly simple,
because I only needed to think of the upserts in terms of set notation. So in
review, I wrote the set notation implementation of the upsert, and then
offered code to implement the idea.
My coworker was taken aback at how simple this set based implementation was,
despite it being very basic set mathematics. While this was just an anecdote,
I find that a lack of basic mathematical fluency peppers codebases with
unnecessary complexity and myriads of edge cases that could easily be tamed
with a slight application of mathematics.
~~~
user5994461
Is it a web startup by any chance?
This thing doesn't happen in finance. Or generally speaking places that
require a hard degree, and in extreme cases test maths aptitudes.
~~~
Karrot_Kream
We're a web shop, but not a startup. I don't mean this to knock on my
coworker: he loves learning and when presented with a new idea, takes his time
to digest it and really apply it to his thinking.
------
fdupoo
I was really interested in learning math. Was. i continue to be interested in
math, I'm discouraged by the total lack of good and available instructional
material on something as basic and essential as notation and set theory
notation. There is a ton of great material out there for total beginners and
people who have recieved formal instruction of advanced math. The in-
betweeners get a bit shafted.
I dunno if things have changed since I last pursued this, but 5 years ago it
was absurd.
CS, on the other hand, has a lot more material readily available for self-
study. I find the subject itself also lends itself to being more accessible.
Furthermore, unlike math, the practitioners of CS related fields seem to be
concerned with readable notation.
So, mathematicians: acessibility is key! Math is fascinating, but inaccessible
even to a large part of the intelligensia.
~~~
xelxebar
Pick up and typical math text and you can find an index of notation in the
frontmatter or appendices.
All these complaints about mathematical notation seem really uninspired to me.
It's like if I went around complaining that programming shouldn't require all
this horribly baroque textual input.
You may or may not have a point , but either way it's certainly not one that's
helping you at all.
If you find yourself frustrated at a seemingly nasty piece of notation, often
this is a (helpful!) signal that you're not fully grokking things. Make use of
that confused feeling to dig deeper.
Admittedly, compared to programming there are considerably fewer online
resources for hacking together some maths knowledge. However, in book form
there absolutely are tons of excellent materials!
Pick a subject, Google around for text recommendations, and then go raid your
local university's library. There are even pretty good IRC channels for
various math subjects! Try hitting up #math on freenode.
~~~
rnet85
I think you just proved his point. Yes, one must invest time and energy to
gain fluency, but making the whole process more accessible will always make it
easier and welcome more people.
------
binarymax
I bought this book [1] a couple years ago to help with the notation, and it's
awesome. I've been able to walk through papers that I never would have
understood without this rosetta stone.
[1] [https://www.amazon.com/Mathematical-Notation-Guide-
Engineers...](https://www.amazon.com/Mathematical-Notation-Guide-Engineers-
Scientists/dp/1466230525/)
~~~
badtuple
Thank you! I looked for something similar a while ago and came up empty.
Whenever I asked math friends the answer was always "there's too much
variation so a book couldn't tell you everything", which is probably true but
even common things would help.
Someday I'd love to see a similar thing that's simply an operator to function
index where you can read in code/pseudocode what an operator does on a
(bounded for ease of reading) datatype.
~~~
binarymax
A tool that parses equations in CS papers and outputs pseudocode is an amazing
idea!
------
strictnein
I learned all of that while I got my CompSci major. Had I filled out some form
I would have had a math minor upon graduation. But I could hardly tell you
what any of that meant 15 years later, because it never comes up in anything I
do.
~~~
jly
Same thing for me. I took an extensive array of mathematics and physics
courses while pursing an engineering degree. More than 10 years as a
practicing software engineer and I remember very little of it today since most
never comes up in my daily use. Back at graduation, I could have discussed a
lot more maths intelligently than I can today.
~~~
newbear
Phew. I thought I was the only one that got a degree only to not remember it a
few years later. I find that when I relearn the topics it does come a lot
easier. The memory might be hard to retrieve but it's in there somewhere ...
------
jfv
Sure, but how much time did he give them to respond? The CS people maybe need
a few seconds to "load" first-order logic into memory and may have been
thinking about it before he gave them time to put their hands up.
He could have instead asked:
"Raise your left hand if you can interpret this formula, and raise your right
hand once you've determined that you wouldn't be able to do it without
consulting a resource."
After a set timeout he'd have a better sense of where people stood.
That sounds complicated though. Maybe people just prefer simple consensus
algorithms, even with imperfect results.
------
abarrett
Provide this legend with the formula. Now how many people understand it?
∈ = is an element of
∀ = for all
∃ = there exists
~~~
stuartd
What does the colon mean?
~~~
tnecniv
As others have said, "such that." It's worth noting that some people use a
vertical line instead to mean the same thing.
------
bjourne
"I had already explained that [1..N ⟶ 1..N] is the set of functions that map
the set 1..N of integers from 1 through N into itself"
As a programmer, I would read that as if he is defining a set of function
objects. And the domain and codomain of the those function objects must be
integers in the range 1..N.
Come to think about it... Isn't the size of the set exactly the number of
permutations from 1..N? In other words N^N? If so, an audience of computer
scientists would probably have understood the following better:
import itertools
list(itertools.product(range(N), repeat = N))
~~~
pron
> If so, an audience of computer scientists would probably have understood the
> following better
I'm a very experienced programmer (>25 years) and I don't know the language
you're using in your notation (Python maybe?). The kind of mathematical
notation Lamport is using is much more universal (at least after he explains
its particular peculiarities). Also, reading your notation, I assume that
you're describing a list, while he's describing a set.
~~~
bjourne
Yes, it is Python. Python has become a lingua franca in the programming world,
and you'd be well-advised to learn it. It creates a list but that is
inconsequential. Here is the fixed code (to actually generate permutations)
and examples:
>>> from itertools import *
>>> [s for s in product(range(2), repeat=2) if len(set(s))==2]
[(0, 1), (1, 0)]
>>> [s for s in product(range(3), repeat=3) if len(set(s))==3]
[(0, 1, 2), (0, 2, 1), (1, 0, 2), (1, 2, 0), (2, 0, 1), (2, 1, 0)]
>>> len([s for s in product(range(4), repeat=4) if len(set(s))==4])
24
>>> len([s for s in product(range(5), repeat=5) if len(set(s))==5])
120
~~~
pron
> Python has become a lingua franca in the programming world
I don't think so. Probably depends on your section of the industry. In mine,
C, Java and Matlab are all better known than Python.
> you'd be well-advised to learn it
I did; a few times, actually. I just keep forgetting because I never get an
opportunity to use it. Once you've used well over 10 languages, you don't even
try to maintain your skills as that would be a waste of time. You just relearn
the language next time you need it, especially as popular languages come and
go. Standard mathematical notation, however, has been with us, pretty much
unchanged, for about 100 years now.
In any event, you can't express in Python nearly everything you can express in
standard mathematical notation, unless Python has gained some features that
allow it to express uncomputable objects since last time I used it. Does the
itertools library support infinite sequences? How about uncountable sets?
------
partycoder
At least they don't rediscover calculus and get citations for it.
[https://fliptomato.wordpress.com/2007/03/19/medical-
research...](https://fliptomato.wordpress.com/2007/03/19/medical-researcher-
discovers-integration-gets-75-citations/)
------
bluetwo
I sigh every time someone tries to explain a complex concept using a formula
in that manner.
In the name of efficiency it is kind of being exclusionary, which I kind of
resent.
I love math but it is not the only way to express complex concepts.
I depend more of the concepts from statistics than higher level mathematics
courses.
Is this data nominal, ordinal, interval or ratio? OK, let's work with that.
~~~
shas3
Richard P. Feynman (who else!) had a scathing critique of this:
[http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/2362/1/feynman.pdf](http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/2362/1/feynman.pdf)
To quote him, in reference to new mathematics of the post-Sputnik era,
"In regard to this question of words, there is also in the new mathematics
books a great deal of talk about the value of precise language - such things
as that one must be very careful to distinguish a number from a numeral and,
in general, a symbol from the object that it represents. The real problem in
speech is not precise language. The problem is clear language. The desire is
to have the idea clearly communicated to the other person. It is only
necessary to be precise when there is some doubt as to the meaning of a
phrase, and then the precision should be put in the place where the doubt
exists."
~~~
bluetwo
Thanks for sharing.
------
FullMtlAlcoholc
Im pretty sure that Topics include proof techniques and logic; induction;
sets, functions, and relations; etc. is a requirement to understanding Turing
Machines, and NP-Completeness.
That they probably forgot all of it immediately after the final is probably
indicative that they're interested in a career in software engineering not
research
------
shas3
I think we should look at the correct operation T on the set of all computer
scientists. If T is an operation that restricts the set to computer scientists
in the field of theoretical computer science (TCS), then the opposite seems to
hold as mentioned in this post, which talks about TCS math being more rigorous
than applied math: [https://windowsontheory.org/2014/10/12/applied-
mathematician...](https://windowsontheory.org/2014/10/12/applied-
mathematicians-vs-theoretical-computer-scientists/)
If, loosely speaking, T maps you to 'average computer scientist', then the
situation is different. And so on.
So depending on the type of T, subset or groups of computer scientists or
metrics you are looking at, Lamport's observations hold water.
------
smueller1234
How come so many are complaining about this being a notation issue? It is as
standard a notation I've ever seen for expressing this. It's perfectly okay to
be an engineer/developer and not read that on the spot. But if you're a
graduate student or young faculty member doing research in computer science
and give that as the explanation, I think that's just being defensive.
When I took CompSci 101 15 years ago, basic mathematical notation like this
was necessary to pass.
------
gmfawcett
I suspect that some of them were just intimidated. Lamport is a well-known
researcher in his field, and is giving a recorded presentation. Even a young
postdoc might hesitate to suggest they fully understand something, only to
have Lamport single them out and correct them on camera. In a different
context, like a non-recorded seminar, you might see a more confident response.
------
LeanderK
That's very weird. Located near Heidelberg is Karlsruhe, where i am a CS
bachelor student (university is KIT). This is very basic and we are absolutely
required to understand this without thinking twice.
~~~
codethief
> Remember, these were specially selected, bright young researchers from
> _around the world_.
[Emphasis by me]
------
dogma1138
In quite a few institutions CompSci is effectively math, undergrad compsci and
mathematics degrees may only very in a few courses.
When I did mine we didn't have a single "programming" course in the degree you
were expected to learn the language a corse utilized on your own.
Math and physics were at the undergrad level of their respective BSc. Degrees
and the coverage was nearly the same.
As far as notations goes then it was covered in one of the first 3 "101"
courses you take, your first program was effectively handwritten in this
manner.
------
legulere
I think the problem here really is that permutations are defined as
bijections, which is rather unintuitive. Now even though I learned that in my
undergraduate curriculum I already forgot about that again.
Now think of it as a sequence and you get something like this: {(aᵢ) i∈[1..N]
| aᵢ∈1..N, ∀i,j : aᵢ ≠ aⱼ}. Probably already easier to understand.
Or leave it off totally. Formal mathematical definitions don't make sense when
they are harder to understand than words and when you do not use them actually
later on.
------
Rampoina
I can read this formula and understand it, I just need a little bit more time
than the mathematicians. I'm pretty sure that was the case for most computer
scientists there.
------
kensai
These [1] are the current ACM recommendations for CS among related fields.
In all of them, math plays a major role. But is math notation necessary to
understand/communicate math in an ORAL way? I understand this is critical to
write a paper in a terse way, but orally?!
[1] [http://www.acm.org/education/curricula-
recommendations](http://www.acm.org/education/curricula-recommendations)
------
maglite77
One area I would argue benefits greatly from this type of formal treatment is
the specification of business rules in software. I can be quite insightful to
formally spell out requirements from the business, and then apply
converse/inverse/etc. analysis to drive out missing cases.
Admittedly, most of us can do this in our head quickly (for easy cases), but I
find the formal evidence lends itself well to more complex scenarios.
------
thiht
There's kind of a bias here. Does the author mean "computer scientists in
America"?
In France, I definitely learned mathematical notation. Actually, I learned ∈,
∀ and ∃ in __high school __. And I had set theory courses in the first year of
my master 's degree (I mean first year after high school), among other
mathematical courses.
------
leecarraher
totally readable to this lowly cse graduate. that said, the notation is overly
verbose and specific, if you could have defined it in less rigorous
notation(unless you truly needed it), more people would have understood and
engaged in your presentation. Mathematics is a language like many others where
the fundamental goal is to communicate ideas.
~~~
pron
> the notation is overly verbose and specific
That's what _formal_ notation is like. The advantage of a formal notation is
that it is both succinct and fully precise, and can, therefore, be used to
perform formal proofs, possibly using a mechanical proof checker. Formal
proofs are especially important in computer science, where theorems about
programs are not mathematically deep but do have a lot of details that can be
easily overlooked when reasoning informally. Lamport's talk was precisely
about that: formal reasoning about algorithms. In that context, the ideas must
not only need to be communicated so that they are intuitively or roughly
understood -- as is good enough for math -- but made absolutely precise.
~~~
leecarraher
as was part of the comment, unless "needed". Otherwise I've fallen into the
trap of breaking out the most precise notation from the depths of the annals
of mathematics to write slick looking, ultra concise pseudocode in latex
(algorithm2e) for submissions to ieee and acm journals, and almost every time
i get one or two reviewers saying that the notation is needlessly complex.
~~~
pron
Yes, but Lamport's talk was about _formal_ specification and verification, and
we're not talking some arcane stuff here: set membership and first order
logic. CS graduates should know how to read that.
------
jbmorgado
It's not about the math, it's about the notation. Mathematic notation is
archaic in many ways. We keep using notation that is millennia old in some
cases and centuries old in almost any other case.
To make things more difficult, any mathematician opposes vehemently to any
change in notation or to use easier notation to pass the same concept.
------
smdz
Its just the notations that they might not have recognized immediately, its
not the math.
~~~
lacampbell
How can you get beyond first year in undergrad maths without knowing that
notation though?
BTW as an anecdote I recognised the symbols but didn't derive the correct
meaning, as you can see elsewhere in this thread.
~~~
smdz
If they are not used to the notation quite often, they are likely to forget
it. I surely learnt all those notations, passed the math exams and don't
remember some of those notations.
May be related - Even with 15 years of programming, I tend to forget certain
syntaxes while programming - but that doesn't mean I don't know programming
------
grandDesigns
In {f ∈ [1..N ⟶ 1..N] : ∀ y ∈ 1..N : ∃ x ∈ 1..N : f[x]=y}
What does the colon : mean?
It used to be that:
| = given that
, = and
but, I have never seen a : used in math.
~~~
AstralStorm
It is TLA+, not quite typical math notation. Lambda and list comprehension
notations are more common.
------
colordrops
Can't we also say that mathematicians don't learn computer science? I don't
understand what the point is.
~~~
2_listerine_pls
The foundations of CS, ML, Cryptography, Algorithms, etc... are expressed in
mathematical terms. If you are unable to understand Them... well. Programming
is not computer science.
------
mactron
RWTH Aachen Computer Science Master student here and I know how to read it and
what it means.
------
Cyph0n
There was a discussion on this a few months back if I remember correctly.
------
bananabill
"Why aren't people experts outside of their field?"
~~~
jerf
No, I'm going to agree that that is 100% within the field of academic computer
science. I literally covered all the relevant notation in my freshman year.
What I'm wondering is whether or not there was some other factor going on,
because I'm trained as a computer scientist and found nothing particularly
objectionable about the formula, other than the f[] application notation. (And
as a polyglot programmer, I've long since made my peace with that sort of
notation mutation.) And I am by no means well-practiced in that sort of thing;
I've been out of school for 14 years now, and only dabble on the side in this
sort of thing now. The "forall y there exists an x such that" pattern in the
middle is an extremely common recurring pattern, and what surrounds it on
either side is also extremely simple.
~~~
bananabill
'Outside their field' was poor wording on my part. I meant more that it's not
the sort of thing that most CS engineers see day to day. People forget things
they don't use often.
~~~
thearn4
> CS
> engineers
I think it's important to realize that these are two different things. One is
a formal research science, the other deals with practical problem-solving and
implementations.
Your typical software engineer likely has a CS degree, but CS researchers and
software engineers are two separate populations. Sometimes the same person
will do both, but usually not at the same time in their life or for the same
organization.
edit: for example, you don't even need a computer to learn computer science
fundamentals. A notebook or deck of playing cards will do fine.
~~~
jerf
As I write this, thearn4's post is fading into the grey, but it's true. That's
why I qualified my post with _trained as a computer scientist_. I have a
Master's degree in the field, and I try to keep up with it to some extent, but
what I am now is an engineer. Degree or no, I can not currently say "I _am_ a
Computer Scientist" with a straight face.
------
AstralStorm
The two misnamed sort algorithms shown are bogosort and bozosort. Must be mr
Lamport's idea of a joke.
------
andmarios
Engineers learn math...
------
arekkas
> "people don't understand my notation"
> They don't know math
ok, let's move on to the next thread.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
China's Xi could rule for life, as two-term limit set to be scrapped - anthonyleecook
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/with-a-dash-of-putin-and-an-echo-of-mao-chinas-xi-sets-himself-up-to-rule-for-life-/2018/02/26/ddae5e3e-1ad7-11e8-8a2c-1a6665f59e95_story.html?utm_term=.6e9b977fc2ef
======
dang
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16457998](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16457998)
------
scandox
Once again it seems to me that Ai Wei Wei's quote about China is pertinent:
“Can China be a global power? I don’t think so. It can gain an advantage,
that’s true. But it doesn’t have soul. It doesn’t have heart. It doesn’t trust
its own people. So it has no self-identity in the sense that it has never
accepted human rights as common values. No freedom of speech, no independent
judicial system. If those don’t exist, how can you have creativity? How can
you be a country? So forget about China. China is an illusion. It’s there,
it’s large. But nobody can tell you what it is.”
We live so much with representational democracy - so close to it - that we
take it entirely for granted. We imagine that our situation would be somehow
replicable with other forms of government. That we could have a benign
autocracy and everything could be the same. People talk about China as if
they're just a slightly different version of us. But instead of a mirror or an
aspiration they ought to be a warning.
~~~
tomca32
"It doesn’t have heart. It doesn’t trust its own people. So it has no self-
identity in the sense that it has never accepted human rights as common
values. No freedom of speech, no independent judicial system."
All of this was true of the USSR and yet it was a global super-power for half
a century.
~~~
tabtab
It was a military super-power, yes, but that was about it. With the possible
exception of having some great classical-style composers, it otherwise was not
an inspiring country. You sided with them to have big weapons on your side,
not for any other reason.
~~~
tomca32
It also inspired half of the world and had a massive cultural, artistic and
sports influence across the whole world. Space program that was well ahead of
the US for a good period time.
Classical composers as you mentioned, literature (Russian realism), opera &
ballet. Russian academies in those areas are still considered the best in the
world.
~~~
tabtab
There was a brief period from about 1957 to 1965 where they seemed to be
gaining steam; but other than that, it was mostly other dictators that tried
to emulate and/or side with them, not general populations.
------
mortenjorck
I don't know if WaPo changed the headline or if this was an attempt to shorten
it for HN, but the article currently has "could rule for life" rather than "to
rule for life."
The latter may well happen, but at least for now, it's only the former.
~~~
seanmcdirmid
We really won’t know until Xi dies in office. Seeing as the NPC is just a
rubber stamp congress, there are no other checks and balances on the core
leader’s power except what happens between old men in smoky rooms. What will
happen is entirely opaque.
~~~
coldtea
> _We really won’t know until Xi dies in office._
We would also know if he is replaced 5-10 years down the line while still very
much alive.
~~~
seanmcdirmid
Sure, I was talking about the if true happens case.
~~~
Jesus_Jones
It's at least true for the foreseeable future that he'll be the leader. Just
like you don't know if a current relationship will persist through the end of
your lives until one of you dies. :-)
------
Glyptodon
I don't really understand why power obsessed people don't seem to recognize
that at some point retirement is graceful. (Thinking of Robert Mugabe, for
example.)
~~~
subway
Fear that the new power won't overlook the misdeeds they (the old power)
undertook while in power.
~~~
neverminder
I've heard someone say that Putin is at the same time the ruler and prisoner
of Kremlin for exactly this reason.
~~~
makmanalp
I've read something that Yeltsin resigned to Putin in exchange for
forgiveness, whatever that entails:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Yeltsin#Resignation_2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Yeltsin#Resignation_2)
------
alexnewman
Paywall someone wanna translate?
------
d1ffuz0r
good thing - he will be able to finish all planned his reforms
~~~
AnimalMuppet
That presumes that his planned reforms are in fact a "good thing". That's
possible. It's possible that they aren't, too... and, if that turns out to be
the case, nobody can stop him.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Compiled tips 'n tricks guide for PIC microcontrollers (2009) [pdf] - segfaultbuserr
https://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/devicedoc/01146b.pdf
======
analog31
The 8-bit PIC microcontrollers won the love of hobbyists for a number of good
reasons. In particular, the PIC16C84 and PIC16F84 chips had EEPROM/Flash
memory that eliminated the need for an ultraviolet erasure stage. They were
available in DIP packages that were easily handled. The documentation and
programming tools (just an assembler at first) were approachable. The
input/output pins were fairly robust, so the chips were hard to kill. The
power supply voltage range was forgiving, and allowed for easy operation from
batteries.
The 8-bit PIC architecture lacked some features that frustrated writing a
proper C compiler for the chips. But that wasn't a problem if you moved up to
the 16- and 32-bit processors, which also had some lovely peripherals such as
a 12-bit A to D converter.
I programmed my first PIC16C84 chip using a programming circuit that I built
myself through the parallel printer port of my MS-DOS computer, using a
program that I wrote in Turbo Pascal. I was hooked.
Those were the days. Since then I've moved on to chips and boards that can be
programmed using the Arduino tool chain.
~~~
zokier
> The 8-bit PIC microcontrollers won the love of hobbyists for a number of
> good reasons.
And I'd argue lost it with lack of open source compiler support.
> But that wasn't a problem if you moved up to the 16- and 32-bit processors
Microchip is selling XC licenses ($1500 and needs a dongle) for 16 bit PICs,
because there is still no gcc/clang available. This in a universe where
msp430, avr, and arm (and many others) all have good upstreamed gcc support.
So I say it's still a problem.
32-bit PICs are just MIPS cores so they have at least some degree of support
via that.
~~~
analog31
Indeed, for me, I moved from 8- to 16-bit PIC mainly so I could write in C,
even if I didn't always need more power. But the added cost was not an
obstacle for my uses. Eventually the ability to use GCC moved me away from the
platform altogether. And it wasn't like I had a problem with the Microsoft
tools per se, but didn't want to invest my brain cells in something that was
likely to be a dead end.
------
kens
I thought an old document on the PIC microcontroller would be entirely
pointless to read, but most of these tricks are applicable to microcontrollers
in general.
~~~
leggomylibro
PICs are also very low-power and low-cost.
They still have a bit of a niche in the world of modern microcontrollers,
unlike _some_ popular 8-bit MCUs that I could name...
------
amelius
Anybody succeeded in using open source tools to program PIC microcontrollers?
Is it easy to create a USB (slave) interface through this route?
~~~
Zardoz84
There is a Arduino clone using PICs. Pingüino Is called. all open source. I
made one using the older not PIC32 version and worked very fine.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
VCs Congratulating Themselves - philshem
https://twitter.com/vcbrags
======
celticninja
the lack of self awareness is astounding. the guy bigging himself up for
leaving a 200% tip is one of the worst. do something good to do something
good, not to brag about it on twitter. but the guy suggesting it was VCs who
were raising the alarm about the pandemic is the grade A idiot.
------
Antoninus
oof.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Use your time wisely - drojasug
http://reinventingsquares.com/2013/12/09/user-your-time-wisely/
======
visakanv
Nice to see you go down this path, but it's probably too simple an insight for
anybody to find interesting/useful. (Read, talk to people.)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The PayPal Mafia - uladzislau
http://fortune.com/2007/11/13/paypal-mafia/
======
kuharich
Prior discussion:
[http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=79713](http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=79713)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The new Apple TV 4k - chrisked
https://techcrunch.com/2017/09/12/the-new-apple-tv-gets-a-4k-upgrade/
======
ben174
I'm especially excited to get my hands on the new 4k Aerial screensaver
videos. The 1080p ones are all easy to download:
[http://benjaminmayo.co.uk/watch-all-the-apple-tv-aerial-
vide...](http://benjaminmayo.co.uk/watch-all-the-apple-tv-aerial-video-
screensavers)
~~~
Grazester
So I guess the most exciting part of this device is its 4K screensaver?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: A good open-source implementation of multi-key-value db? - liuliu
I used redis, memcachedb & tokyo cabinet. They are all key-value database implementation. Is there any multi-key-value database c implementation with open-source? The question is to maintain correspondence of tag and per image. In the special case, I am doing a larger framework in c/c++, so it has to be low latency or just a naive algorithm implementation.
======
joshu
what does "multi-key-value" mean?
This problem description is nearly incoherent.
~~~
liuliu
a key has multi-value, multi-key point to the same value.
You can regard it as a efficient implementation of undirected graph.
Relational DB can do it very well with something like:
create table image2tag ( varchar image, varchar tag, primary key (image, tag),
index (image), index (tag) );
------
Maro
I'm not sure what your problem is. Do you mean multiple keys pointing to the
same value, like key1=>value key2=>value?
You could use indirection:
key1=>valueID key2=>valueID valueID=>value
------
JimmyL
SQL and a JOIN?
Not what you asked for (and certainly not what the cool kids use), but why
not?
~~~
joshu
tags + sql = bad
~~~
silentbicycle
Could you expand on that?
Searching for the intersection of a set of tags' references seems like the
epitome of a set/relational operation to me.
~~~
joshu
You want an inverted index.
Finding intersections with tags are multi-way joins, which are painful as all
hell. At least on MySQL. Perhaps other databases do better.
Note that I built probably the biggest platform of this type around.
~~~
gojomo
So the tags are terms, and each 'document' is...
\- a target (such as an URL in delicious)?
\- a [target, user] pairing?
\- a [target, user, tagging-event] tuple?
Would you recommend using any of the off-the-shelf open-source inverted-index
implementations? (Lucene, ferret, sphinx, [hyper]estraier, etc.?)
~~~
joshu
It depends on what you need, obviously.
I think Lucene or Sphinx will take you a lot of the way. I don't know about
the others.
------
dantheman
I don't know if this will fit your needs, but couchdb is pretty fast. It's
under active development and still alpha, so things do change. As for multi-
key, it's a yes and no sort of situation.
If you want to do an intersection you can, unfortunately it's in a sorted
order. for example: [key1, key2, key3] won't match [key2,key1, key3]
If you're trying just get all images matching a key so your structure looks
like:
{img (url, binaray, etc), tags: [tag1, tag2, tag3, tag4]}
you can run a simple map function over the data
function map (doc)
{
for each (var tag in tags)
emit (tag, null);
}
which will allow you to then get all images by tag:
key=tag
It doesn't have a c++ api, but it uses http as its interface so you can use
curl..
~~~
mahmud
_It's under active development and still alpha, so things do change._
CouchDB is great, but that's just one description you don't want your
_database_ server to fit. Go for boring, stable and tried and true.
~~~
dantheman
I agree, but it depends on the nature of the project. That's why i included it
in the brief description.
------
silentbicycle
Framework _for what_? You'll probably need to give us more details. For
starters, will it be a mostly read-only or write-heavy database? What relative
priorities are you placing on speed, data consistency, ease of ad-hoc queries,
etc.?
Based on the few details you've given, I'd consider SQLite
(<http://sqlite.org/>). It's relational, but very lightweight and runs in-
process. It's also open-source, quite mature, simple to use, and interfaces
very easily with C.
~~~
russell
SQLite is suitable only for single user cases. "redis, memcachedb & tokyo
cabinet" imply his needs are way beyond the capabilities of SQLite.
~~~
silentbicycle
Not necessarily. If he's doing a lot of concurrent writing, that's true, but
that's unspecified. Either way, I would say "only up to a couple dozen
simultaneous users", which is _very_ different from "only a single user". He's
also asking specifically for something with low latency and (implicitly) a
simple implementation.
For all we know, he's using the above because he doesn't like (or understand?)
SQL/relational theory, or because of vague stuff he keeps hearing about MySQL
not scaling. I'm not assuming he's ignorant, but we don't know _why_ he
started with memcachedb, et al, and those reasons are worth ruling out first.
~~~
liuliu
the reason why not using sql is that the thing I am doing is more about using
a "library" (like what tokyo cabinet c api provides). SQLite may be good for
this purpose but still, I guess there will be a simpler implementation
specially for attacking this kind of problem. MySQL/PgSQL is not suitable
because of the authorization mechanism.
~~~
silentbicycle
SQLite is a C library, and is called in-process. It's probably the best
fitting relational database for your problem, as I understand it. You've
painted a pretty incomplete picture, though.
The constraints on the problem (how much simultaneous r/w access, size of the
data set, etc.) will have the most impact on what to choose, but it doesn't
seem like you've fleshed that out anywhere else in the thread.
~~~
liuliu
in my scenario, it is a read-heavy database with occasionally writes. As
average about 3 tags for 500,000 images, it should supports 1.5 million in-
memory records on one computer. for performance, I expect ~100ms to retrieve
100,000 records.
------
catch23
Couldn't you just emulate multi-key with tokyo cabinet? You'd just have to
write the code to union sets of data... it's what databases do anyway.
------
richcollins
<http://www.dekorte.com/projects/opensource/tagdb/>
------
vicaya
What you need is a full text search engine with faceting features. Solr or
Sphinx should fit the bill.
------
liuliu
I finally settle down to use tokyo dystopia as the tag db which is very
satisfying to my need. Thank you all for the help
------
stevedekorte
Make the key the tag name and the value the list of image ids.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Hackers Daily – Get all Show HN posts emailed to you daily - singer
http://www.hackersdaily.com
======
singer
I often don't have time to check out Show HN posts in real-time. So, I built
this app to email myself a daily list of yesterday's Show HN posts. It's
ordered by points, easy to read via email, and links directly back to HN for
easy access to the posts I want to learn more about.
------
2ndgreen
Looks nice Is this a personal side-project or is this going to be a business?
Any other features expected? thanks
~~~
singer
I don't have any long term plans right now, but I'm always open to
investigating all business opportunities. I'm not working on any new features
at the moment. Those will most likely come about as people start making
suggestions.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
24 year old Ogilvy China employee dies from 'overwork' - jentulman
http://shanghaiist.com/2013/05/15/24_year_old_ogilvy_china_employee_dies_from_overwork.php
======
kayoone
Sudden cardiac arrest can, in theory, happen to anyone at anytime, its just
that its an extremely rare occurrence.
Most of those cases can be traced back to a previously unknown heart disease
though. In general, the probability of you dieing in an accident on your way
to/from work is alot higher.
The fact that i read about 3 cases of sudden cardiac arrest in very young and
seemingly healthy people on HN in a rather short period is a bit discomforting
though.
------
patio11
For anyone who thinks death from overwork merits scare quotes: I really,
really can't recommend becoming a salaryman, but it would change your mind.
~~~
ChuckMcM
The article says 600,000 people a year die from "Work Exhaustion" (their
quotes not mine). That reminds me of the conditions that lead to the rise of
labor unions, although in looking at various sources it seems that China
already has unions of one form or another? Clearly not doing their job if that
is the case.
~~~
scarmig
Chinese unions are pretty close to what were called company unions back in the
day. Organized and controlled by the people sitting at the opposite side of
the table. In the case of China, government officials who benefit personally
when industrial interests in their domain are really profitable.
------
akamaka
“Hard work never killed a man. Men die of boredom, psychological conflict, and
disease. They do not die of hard work.”
-David Ogilvy (from _Confessions of an Advertising Man_ , 1963)
~~~
derleth
Nonsense. If you do more work than you take in calories, you will eventually
die of that work. If you work through injury, the injury will get worse and
may well kill you.
~~~
chc
> _If you do more work than you take in calories, you will eventually die of
> that work._
No, you'll die of starvation. If you're not taking in sufficient nutrients,
you'll die even if you do no work at all.
~~~
dubfan
Your body is doing work through basal metabolism even while sitting idle.
Starving to death and being overworked to death are basically the same thing.
------
ig1
There's plenty of people (in every competitive industry from startups to
consulting) who work until 11pm everyday without having heart attacks,
presumably there were other factors at play here.
~~~
craigching
I didn't see it mentioned in the article, but it could be due to the type of
work he was doing. Until I know what sort of work he was doing, I'm not going
to judge or compare it to me working on software until 11pm every day.
~~~
ig1
He works for a creative PR agency, it's not as if he's going to be hauling
steel.
------
denzil_correa
It seems over work a serious problem in China. 600,000 Chinese workers die
from overwork annually. That's quite huge.
[http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-
cnt.aspx?cid=110...](http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-
cnt.aspx?cid=1103&id=20121029000069)
------
venus
This is so common in Japan they have a word for it. Which came in useful for
naming our group at a previous company: "Team Karoshi".
~~~
hawflakes
I think they use the same term in Chinese. It's "过劳死" which in pinyin is
"guo4lao2si3" (over work death)
~~~
venus
Ah, it's the same in Japanese - 過労死 (mandarin has the simplified characters).
------
mellotron
Any statistics on US deaths like this? I couldn't seem to find anything
particularly useful.
I just mean to say that China is an enormous country, and statistically these
things are bound to happen. Does anyone else perceive this type of media
coverage as part of a greater strategy of propagandizing or is the
oversturation of news outlets just hungry for enything sensationalist to grab
eyeballs? Both?
~~~
objclxt
Sudden cardiac arrest is quite common amongst the population as a whole
(<http://www.sca-aware.org/about-sca>). What's rather uncommon is it to happen
at a young age, but it's not unknown. In the four years I was at college two
students suffered fatal arrests, both thought to be healthy with no prior
symptoms.
------
lefstathiou
I am a bit surprised this happened. While working until 11PM every day is
mentally frustrating, I am curious as to the physical toll it actually takes
on your body. Said differently, is there a difference between being awake
until 11PM every night and being at the office? I've watched analysts and
associates in investment banking keep up this schedule for years at a time...
Now, if you told me he was getting in at 9 and leaving at 5 every day for 6
weeks, this would make sense and I can see how this would be problematic for
Ogilvy. With what we have in this article, I think he suffered from a heart
condition.
~~~
GFischer
I live in Uruguay, and the kind of medical checks most of the population has
are so superficial, most people who have a heart condition won't know about it
until it hits (I haven't had a good checkout in years either !! I should,
after reading this).
I know of a case here, the guy was one of 3 managers at a toxic company, the
other 2 guys quit, and he took on their burdens. He died of a heart attack, at
age 34. He thought he wasn't able to quit because of his children, but the
result was obviously worse for them.
------
iamjason89
Kira! Where are you L. We need you now!
------
maeon3
I think the key to solving the root of the problem here is understanding that
there is such a thing as: "Cooperative compliance disorder", which is the
other end of the spectrum of "Oppositional defiant disorder".
So the question becomes: How did this person get to believe that when the
desires of other men are of higher priority than your own physical health.
Like cell in your own hand, it did not object when the mind decide to send the
hand through the fire, he gave his life so that the whole might complete its
objective. Cooperative Compliance disorder.
~~~
potatolicious
We really don't need to pathologize everything. In a sufficiently perverse
environment, choosing to sacrifice your own well being for the good of someone
else can be a rational decision - it can be the _only_ rational decision.
When gatekeepers control access to wealth, stability, and a good life - and
the alternative to working for the gatekeepers is poverty and disease - you
basically will do anything the gatekeepers want, because the alternative is
nearly as good as death itself.
Without knowing more about this incident, it strikes me as a symptom of a
broken system, not a broken man.
~~~
maeon3
If Oppositional Defiant Disorder gets a spot in the mental illness book to be
medicated, than Excessive Cooperation to your own detriment should also be
medicated.
I believe women suffer from this mental illness a lot more than men. The fact
that one end of the spectrum gets to be a mental illness and the other end of
the spectrum is just someone choosing to be a doormat illustrates a big
problem. Either they are both mental illnesses, or they are both just ways of
going about things.
Humans who always cooperate or always defy to the detriment of their own life
means that the module in their brain which decides when to comply, and when to
resist, is a malfunction to be corrected by available means.
~~~
Centigonal
This is not my opinion on the point you and Potatolicious are debating, but
rather my opinion on the way you replied.
You present an idea (that it might benefit people for society to consider
excessive cooperation a treatable mental illness). You posit the parent
article as evidence for this idea.
Potatolicious replies, expressing his doubts. He presents an idea (that the
system the man was working in caused his death, not an innate psychological
condition). If valid, his idea eliminates the evidence for your idea, making
it less credible and no longer relevant to the article.
What I see as a rational response to this is to either point out a flaw in
Potatolicious's idea (if one exists) or to introduce information that would
make it so that Potatolicious's idea doesn't invalidate yours.
Instead, you restate your initial point (albeit in greater detail), and
introduce a kind of argument from continuum ("if people who are excessively
oppositional are medicated, why shouldn't the other end be as well?"), which,
although not invalid, doesn't do anything to refute Potatolicious's point
about the relevance of your argument to the parent article. Furthermore, you
introduce a new opinion, which is not related to your previous points or
supported by evidence, and only serves to polarize people.
I'm trying to explain this in the hope that we as a community can move toward
more directed and effective debates. I hope that helped.
~~~
maeon3
I'm playing a cat and mouse with ideas a few layers deeper than your logic
structures are outlining. (perhaps getting lost in the weeds and losing the
main point as a result).
Potatolicious is right, that the system is partially responsible for his
death. And if most of the responsibility ends up on the evil system, then it
could be said his excessive compliance should be praised and admired. That
compliance isn't an illness at all. He was just eaten by a larger critter than
he, and used as fuel for ulterior motives.
But his claim does not invalidate mine because suppose this evil corporation
is 100% guilty, and they used all the Jedi mind tricks to brainwash him into
working himself to death for their own gain. He complied when he should have
defied. They were offering him money, the lack of which may be as bad as death
to the victim, but ultimately the source of the error was when an instruction
which results in destruction was followed by the unit.
If the unit had said: "I would rather be unemployed than deal with this
terrible situation", he may be alive now. He's removed from the gene pool
anyway, so evolution agrees with me, whatever that subunit did, it is to be
destroyed.
I'm suggesting we destroy the faulty subunits in his mind during school, by
labeling "Cooperative compliance disorder" as a real thing that can remove you
from the gene pool.
------
michaelochurch
When things like this happen, names, pictures, and home addresses of
responsible managers should be posted on the Internet so that the good fight
can start.
~~~
Samuel_Michon
That is really not OK. People who publish such information and call for
vigilante justice should be found and prosecuted to the maximum extent of the
law.
Even if we knew with 100% certainty that the boss played a role in this guy’s
death (which we don’t), then it would be up to the DA and the court, not the
angry mob with pitchforks or the cowardly script kids on 4chan.
~~~
michaelochurch
Vigilante justice is terrible but I don't see anything else doing the job; it
may be a last resort but I think our globalist-corporatist society is At That
Point. The people with connections and resources own the politicians (all over
the world) who make the laws. Besides, even if one country does everything
right, the parasites in charge of the world can just move their money around.
I've been saying since the late '90s that health insurance executives should
be publicly exposed when they murder people, and I still feel that way. If the
courts were actually cracking down on those fuckers, then I'd say that
vigilante justice is unwarranted; but how many health-insurance murderers
_are_ in prison? The fuckers kill 45,000 per year (a 9/11 every 24 days) and I
don't know of _one_ who has gone to prison.
Why do we tear the shit out of two Middle Eastern nations (one of which had
nothing to do with it) over 3,000 dead but allow health insurers to kill half
a million over that same decade and not even give them personal civil
liability?
~~~
FD3SA
All societies tend toward Feudalism given enough time. The rent seekers
control everything, and the masses surrender their liberty in exchange for
security. History has demonstrated this countless times, which is why the Bill
of Rights enshrined the right of the public to form militias to protect their
own rights (the original 2nd Amendment).
Unfortunately, over two centuries the rent seekers have won again, so a reboot
is required. How to initiate and sustain a successful reboot is the tricky
part.
I sense from your writings that you are increasingly frustrated with the
current state of affairs. I just want to emphasize that you aren't the only
one, and if you were to formalize your dissent into an actionable movement,
many would support you. The time may have come for the Technocrat to take his
place on the world stage...
~~~
xradionut
It's not a technical problem. It's a moral/ethical problem where most the long
term solutions that would work are very dark in the short term.
------
Torn
Why is this in hacker news?
~~~
prawn
Because a user found it suitable enough to submit and a few others agreed with
that submission enough to upvote it.
~~~
eli_gottlieb
Since this site has stricter guidelines than Reddit, that's not actually an
answer.
~~~
prawn
Can you elaborate? I'm not sure what Reddit has to do with this.
HN is about what hackers find interesting. A fair number of us have endorsed
this particular topic and resulting discussion, enough to suggest that people
find it interesting for one reason or another.
~~~
davidw
Does one need to be a hacker to sign up for this site?
As a thought experiment, do you think it would be that difficult to get, say,
15 or 20 people who love professional bike racing to sign up, and coordinate
voting up an article about Bradley Wiggins' difficulties at the Giro d'Italia,
which some of us hackers find to be very interesting reading?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why is reading lines from stdin much slower in C++ than Python? - luu
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9371238/why-is-reading-lines-from-stdin-much-slower-in-c-than-python
======
dded
Back about 15 or more years or so ago, I wrote all my small utility programs
in C. These were typically small programs, but I often had a lot of (text)
input data in the form of netlists. I started reading about C++, and getline()
and some of the containers (that I had to build from scratch in C), so I
decided that C++ was for me. There were a number of disappointments, but a big
one was that C++'s getline() was _more than an order of magnitude_ slower than
fgets() (on my system etc., etc.).
With some experimenting, I discovered that even Perl was much faster than C++
with getline(). (Note that this was input of a file, not stdin as in this
article.)
I've not used getline() since.
~~~
nly
getline() works for (single) character delimited reads and lets you use a
std::string. The latter is reason enough to use it: it means you don't have to
worry about manual dynamic memory allocation and have zero risk of overflows.
In any case, the C++ equivalent to fgets is sgetn on the underlying streambuf
or filebuf -
[http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/io/basic_streambuf/sgetn](http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/io/basic_streambuf/sgetn)
. I'd use this before I used fgets, if for no other reason than I then don't
have to remember to call fclose()
The fact that you haven't used one of the most trivial functions in the
standard library because of a slight performance penalty 15 years ago is
worrying.
~~~
eliasmacpherson
What are you worried about? An order of magnitude is not a slight performance
penalty. The C++ standard library is vast and we've had c++98, c++03 and c++11
in the 15 or so years. There's few enough parts of it that you'll revisit
regularly. You can't go around expecting people to be experts in the minutiae
of all of it.
~~~
ufo
If both the C++ and the Perl code had the same performance I'd stick with the
Perl version.
------
Jach
Fun fact: the solution of using `cin.sync_with_stdio(false);` introduces a
fairly unimportant memory leak that you'll see when you use Valgrind. The
behavior was reported as a bug
([http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=27931](http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=27931))
but it's actually part of the C++ standard not to clean up standard streams.
(Edit: Here's the page of the standard in question, see the end of the second
paragraph of 27.3: [http://imgur.com/P7wYcHn](http://imgur.com/P7wYcHn))
~~~
saurik
A "leak" normally implies something that will get worse: like, as you use this
stream, the stream will slowly lose memory or something. The standard is
simply saying that when the program exits the stream objects themselves--and
therefore the buffers they use--will not be destroyed: but of course closing
the program will destroy them... the developer who closed the bug even put
"leak" in quotes as this is more an artifact of valgrind's definition of
"leak" than even an "unimportant" issue in the behavior. (I want to clear this
up, as I can imagine people reading what you are saying and then avoiding this
feature as they are concerned that their extremely-long running program will
eventually exhaust memory.)
~~~
Jach
You're right, of course. My original comment did put quotes around 'leak', but
I figured someone would come along and argue a leak is a leak even if it's not
going to crash your program. Oh well. :)
~~~
saurik
This isn't a "leak": a leak is a leak, and this isn't a leak... this is just
something Valgrind is reporting because it could be a leak due to exhibiting a
pattern indistinguishable from something that actually was leaked from the
perspective of a tool that only is able to work from a dynamically maintained
list of heap allocations and the event "program has now terminated". Saying
this is a leak is somewhat equivalent to claiming that because the executable
code itself wasn't deallocated by the program before it exited the code was
"leaked": it just so happens that as an implementation detail this data
structure is lazily dynamically allocated, but it should be considered a
static part of the program. In a world where things Valgrind reported were
"leaks" as opposed to simply "outstanding heap allocations" then I'd be
happier claiming this was a bug in Valgrind than claiming that this feature of
the language standard should have the word "leak" used to describe it ;P.
------
nly
tl;dr: C++s standard streams (cin, cout, cerr, clog) may be used alongside
code using the underlying libc i/o streams API and therefore, by default,
synchronize with libcs own buffers. In the very least, this means you don't
end up with output resulting from characters interleaved between individual
stream operations via the two sources.
Its worth noting that even Cs i/o APIs are typically synchronized across
threads so you can output lines to stdout without experiencing the same issue
within just vanilla threaded C code.
~~~
ef47d35620c1
I think you can unlink it:
std::ios_base::sync_with_stdio(false);
~~~
drivers99
That's what they did to fix it.
------
dkhenry
This is an old discussion, but I actually have this thread bookmarked so I can
show young programmers the dangers of assuming that if you write in C++ it
will be faster then everything else out there.
~~~
Negitivefrags
Seems like an odd conclusion to reach given that the end result was C++ being
faster.
Nobody ever claimed that C++ didn't require more knowledge to use effectively.
~~~
dkhenry
Actually C was the fastest, by a fairly wide margin, however hat doesn't
matter much since you can make the C++ faster and you can make C go just as
slow as the input buffered C. There are still lots of people who think that
speed is solely a function of programing language with very little impact from
program design. Like I said I like to bring this out when showing newer
developers that no matter what language you pick you need to be aware of what
is going on in the background and most importantly you should test you code
before trying to assume what parts are fast and what parts are slow.
~~~
nly
Yes indeed, and many don't realize that C streams are also buffered and can
also be tuned:
[http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/manual/html_node/Buffering-...](http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/manual/html_node/Buffering-
Concepts.html)
[http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/manual/html_node/Controllin...](http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/manual/html_node/Controlling-
Buffering.html)
there are also threading issues:
[http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/manual/html_node/Streams-
an...](http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/manual/html_node/Streams-and-
Threads.html)
glibc even lets you implement custom streams (FILE* handles that will work
with fgets etc. but call your own source and sink to do i/o)
------
memracom
tldr; when performance is important, don't just use defaults, optimize. And
learn how libraries and your OS work deep down at low levels. Even Python's
default IO performance can be improved in many cases, by changing buffer sizes
or even bypassing the file io susbsytem and using memory mapped files. But no
solution is right for all use cases.
Like they tell you in school, premature optimization is the root of all evil.
So don't worry about this until you need it.
------
NAFV_P
Thought I'd throw a point(er) alongside these comments...
Isn't the Python interpreter written in C?
~~~
Shish2k
Straightforward C is slow; straightforward python is medium speed; expertly
written C (the foundations of python) is fast
~~~
dded
> Straightforward C is slow;
I've never found it to be so, and it's not a common complaint.
------
gdy
tl;dr It is not.
------
Keyframe
One of the first questions I asked myself years ago in C was what's the
difference between open, read, write and fopen, fread, fwrite. Buffering.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Rails Rumble 2009 Teams Map - kineticac
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=101351504570893600882.000470f6f6cd705a3fdfc
======
kineticac
A map of the Rails Rumble 2009 Teams. If you're in it, you should definitely
add yourself!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Notre Dame is unstable: a strong wind could make the walls collapse, report says - rutenspitz
https://www.theartnewspaper.com/analysis/notre-dame-is-unstable
======
kweks
I was up on the rooftop three weeks ago. What is more incredible is how
untouched everything that was not directly touched by the fire is. Inside the
church itself, the wood, the chairs, the organs.. incredible condition.
There is massive consolidation work to do, but at least from what I saw, the
news is better than you would probably believe.
The guys doing the consolidation are working "real time" on the structure,
shoring up what is necessary as soon as they notice. Rapidly shifting
priorities and tasks.
There were definitely parts that could easily collapse, bit again, compared to
the rest of the structure, they appear to be minimal.
The overriding feeling I had was: Hats off to the firemen for the incredible
restraint and foresight that they applied.
~~~
Kyrio
Hey, I remember your comments from the day of the fire. Your photos from the
top of the spire are amazing. My father went to the rooftop probably at the
same time as you, so he had the same conclusion; the structure is quickly
being shored up and the teams know what they're doing.
I don't understand what report the article is reacting to, because Vannucci's
study is three years old and I haven't heard anything concerning on that topic
lately.
Oh and if you don't mind me asking, were you invited to the rooftop because
you were involved in the spire study before? Or did you take part in the
operations?
~~~
kweks
We had contacted the DRAC (governing body for patrimony and culture), but
things were on lockdown because someone had leaked photos to the press, which
had caused all sorts of chaos.
One of the managers of the consolidation companies is a close friend, so we
were able to head up under their jurisdiction.
Again, the south and north towers are spotless inside, as is the nave (apart
from the obvious 3 holes in the roof..).
The stained glass, even directly under the collapsed sections were intact (and
being meticulously removed)
The wall sections on the shorter arms of the roof section were the most
unstable parts, as the roof and beams are obviously gone. The North wall was
already reinforced, and they were in the process of doing the same on the
south wall.
One of the biggest challenges will be removing the scaffolding, which is
melted, twisted and a general mess.
It was also incredible to see cooled lead flows from the mouths of the
gargoyles.
Again, the resounding feeling from the visit and the workers was one of hope
and relief.
~~~
hammock
That's so cool. Do you have a photo of the gargoyles? Or anything else?
~~~
kweks
I was able to take a few under strict "eyes only" conditions. There had been
photo leaks a few days prior of someone who had bluffed through the security
and sold photos to the press.
The press were going through the same day I was there, there are surely
similar / better images that mine online.
~~~
cco
Why is there an issue with photos of a public structure being released to the
public? Have the rights to professional photos of Notre Dame been sold to a
private entity a la the Eiffel Tower?
~~~
seszett
The rights to the Eiffel Tower have never been sold to a private entity, but
the private entity that designed the night lighting _kept_ their rights on it
(which is the default, if the city didn't specifically ask for the rights to
be transferred in the contract).
I don't think that's a good situation, but it has nothing to do with selling
rights to a private entity.
~~~
cco
I'm not sure I follow, to my understanding it is not legal to take
professional photographs of the Eiffel tower at night, is that wrong?
~~~
closeparen
Yes, because copyright remains with the original lighting designer and was
never transferred - to or from - the public.
------
Kyrio
My parents were both involved in post-fire salvage operations at Notre-Dame
and though I'm necessarily a bit biased towards their opinions, I wish we
wouldn't share any self-branded expert's take on what went wrong or how things
should be done. Some of the most qualified people in the country are working
on the site and aren't being interviewed. As the article states, the man in
charge of the restoration is an Architecte en chef des monuments historiques;
preserving and restoring state-owned monuments is his job and he's accompanied
by other architects of the same training. I fully agree with the author in
that they should be the ones designing the reconstructed spire, not a
worldwide art project as the president suggests. As far as the "independent
report" about the stability of the building, it has not made the news here so
far.
~~~
brmgb
> the man in charge of the restoration is an Architecte en chef des monuments
> historiques
That's the professional bureaucrat overseeing the work e.g. an architect who
chose to do his career in the civil service and is suffisently adept at
navigating it/old enough to have been promoted. That is not in itself
particularly reassuring.
Where I agree with you is that France most likely has both access to good
experts and the technical know-how and means necessary to secure such a
building.
> fully agree with the author in that they should be the ones designing the
> reconstructed spire
I completely disagree. The spire is gone. The original one is never going
back. What's the point of making a copy ?
Since we have to build something, let's at least build something reflecting
our time. It will be old soon enough. A worldwide art project will surely
bring a lot more new and bold ideas to the table.
~~~
core-questions
>Since we have to build something, let's at least build something reflecting
our time.
I don't buy this idea. The original design was so beautiful that it inspired
pilgrims for hundreds of years to make a trek to see it. Modern architecture
is bland, glass-and-metal, uninspired crap; shiny jewels with no staying power
that will be torn down within a century to make room for something else, or
brutalist monstrosities put here to punish us with their brooding ugliness.
~~~
simias
The spire that collapsed had been inaugurated in 1859, so it's relatively
recent compared to the age of the cathedral. I don't really have a strong
opinion on the subject but dismissing modern architecture as a whole before
we've even seen the first proposals doesn't seem very... constructive.
~~~
kakwa_
1) The spire rebuilt in 1859 by Viollet-Le-Duc didn't have XIXe century look,
it was heavily inspired by the one of the Orleans cathedral
2) Even with that, Viollet-Le-Duc is somewhat criticized for it's restoration
works as he generally chose what looked "nice" as opposed to historical
accuracy or significance.
Rebuilding the spire in a modern style would be a mistake in my opinion, or at
the very least, a huge risk of style disunity of the building, rebuilding in
Gothic style maybe boring but it's safe.
As to which technics could be used, that's another matter. Notre-Dame would
not be the first cathedral to be rebuilt using the technics of the day.
Reims was rebuilt using concret, and the result is actually quite beautiful:
[https://img.aws.la-
croix.com/2019/04/17/1301016385/charpente...](https://img.aws.la-
croix.com/2019/04/17/1301016385/charpente-beton-cathedrale-
Reims-17-avril-2019_0_729_486.jpg)
Others were rebuilt using steel, Metz Cathedral for example.
------
blahedo
Most of the "entries" that people are making for designs for the roof/spire
replacement, and many of the posts on here, suggest that many people think
that when you were looking up in the pre-fire Notre Dame, or any other church
building of similar construction, what you were/are seeing is the underside of
the roof.
It isn't!
What you are seeing is stone vaulting, essentially a great big three-
dimensional arch, related to a hemispherical dome in somewhat the same way as
a gothic arch is related to a Romanesque rounded arch. It may or may not be
painted or plastered or frescoed (ND's wasn't, I think) but the actual
"ceiling" of the church—and, crucially, the _structural_ part of what's over
your head—was/is stone. The roof in a modern building is often structurally
keeping the tops of the walls at a fixed distance as well as holding itself
up, but in a stone cathedral, the roof was an extra layer over the top of the
stonework, primarily to shed rainwater.
All of which is to say, the loss of the wooden roof structure is a lot less
threatening than the loss of (some of) the vaulting; and replacing the roof
with glass or stained glass would be utterly invisible from inside the church,
whose ceiling would still be the stone vaulting.
~~~
robbrown451
I think most people understand that the stone vaults are what is seen from the
inside. At least most people who have given it a tiny bit of thought or looked
at any pictures. Most, but not all, of the stone vaulting remains intact,
although some of it may be weakened.
While they may comprise the bulk of the structure, I don't think it is correct
to say suggest that the roof and roof supports (all that timber) is merely to
keep the rain off. It plays a significant role in the structure as well. Sure,
without an earthquake or strong wind the valuting is strong enough, but with
the roof supports gone the building is substantially less able to stand up to
extreme conditions.
As for replacing the roof with something else, it would have to be done where
it contributes to the structure, not just sits on top. Glass can actually be
structural, in fact. I like some of the new ideas, and don't think the ones
I've seen are unfeasible, but they would simply (or not so simply) be done
with a whole lot of regard for adding to the structure.
~~~
blahedo
I think your middle paragraph is much more true for modern (last 100-150
years) buildings than older ones, though I'm not an architectural engineer.
When you say "glass can actually be structural", what meaning of "structural"
are you using?
------
llamathrowaway
Gothic architecture is fascinating because they are not only aesthetically
appealing, but also very advanced (at their time) in terms of engineering.
Stones are heavy, but the pointed arches and flying buttresses make Gothic
churches feel light and nimble. Advanced structural design also allows Gothic
churches to have larger windows as the structure is no longer solely supported
by the walls, inviting more natural light into the church which contributes
aesthetically and spiritually.
For me, the above statement is the reason why I would prefer the roof and
spite of Notre Dame to be reconstructed in a modern design that utilizes all
the advancements in architecture. The Gothic churches were built using state-
of-the-art technologies hundreds of years ago, and they deserve to be rebuilt
with the state-of-the-art technologies we have nowadays. If the medieval
French could, they would certainly build Notre Dame with steel and glass.
~~~
Animats
The glass roof is not a bad idea. It would be very French to do that. Like the
I. M. Pei pyramid at the Louvre. If it's done, it will be done competently. So
many people are watching.
~~~
sirkneeland
Wouldn't that drastically increase the sun exposure on the internal elements
and artifacts in the church? Sun damage is noticeable in just a few years, let
alone on a time scale of centuries...
~~~
0xffff2
See this comment:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19994844](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19994844)
------
hprotagonist
If i'm not mistaken, this is by design for Gothic buildings. I forget what the
proper term is, but Gothic architecture exploits dynamic tension really
thoroughly. The whole building is fighting against itself to destroy itself,
and so remains balanced and static.
Take a component out, and the result is unstable.
Appropirately for a cathedral, the sermons practically write themselves.
~~~
DoofusOfDeath
Now I'm curious how, hundreds of years ago, engineers and architects
determined what designs were viable.
Did they have quantitative data about materials' tensile strength, shear
strength, etc.? If yes, what kind of math did they have for applying those
data? If no, how did they safely design first-of-a-kind structures?
~~~
skybrian
This is at least partially survivor bias. Sometimes they miscalculated and
buildings fell down.
~~~
tssva
Even the ones still standing often aren't because of fantastic original
engineering but because they are the ones people have cared to carefully
maintain and to perform renovations on to compensate for original engineering
flaws.
~~~
bdamm
And sometimes simply by sheer mistake; the leaning tower of Pisa was supposed
to be supported by the Corinthian columns and limestone internal blocks, but
it turns out that its structure is actually supported significantly by the
marble façade.
------
mzs
This English-language article gets a lot mixed-up, Cathédrale durable was the
report, it's from 2016, it correctly predicted the danger of fire in the roof,
it was largely ignored by the people that mattered in France, it contained the
details about wind, Vannucci recently spoke with an Italian journalist and
highlighted this plus provided some additional context:
[https://www.repubblica.it/esteri/2019/05/20/news/paolo_vannu...](https://www.repubblica.it/esteri/2019/05/20/news/paolo_vannucci_notre-
dame_non_e_ancora_salva_secondo_i_miei_calcoli_i_rischi_di_un_collasso_al_livello_della_volta_sono_a-226710639)
------
cwkoss
Does anyone know of a kit for building a gothic architecture building
consisting of small stones with pre-cut geometry? Seems like it would be fun
to put together - could you use it like a puzzle and assemble with no
adhesive, throw the pieces back into the box when you're done?
Presumably could be manufactured from concrete in molds, so incremental cost
could be quite low.
~~~
Someone
“Anker stones”
([http://www.ankerstein.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=v...](http://www.ankerstein.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14&Itemid=18),
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchor_Stone_Blocks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchor_Stone_Blocks))
aren’t quite that, but also are better in the sense that you can build
different buildings with them.
For example gothic architecture, see for example
[https://www.ankerwiki.de/Neue-Modelle-bis-
Kasten-34/Kasten-N...](https://www.ankerwiki.de/Neue-Modelle-bis-
Kasten-34/Kasten-NF-34-plus/Gotische-Kirche/) or
[https://www.nikhef.nl/~i56/Anker.html](https://www.nikhef.nl/~i56/Anker.html)
(front of Chartres cathedral, gothic villa)
------
MagicPropmaker
> Whether the government now launches an architectural competition or decides
> to rely on the highly professional bodies in charge of French monuments (in
> particular, the Compagnie des Architects en Chef, to which Philippe
> Villeneuve, the architect in charge of Notre Dame, belongs), it should
> demand an integrated project for the entire structure and not allow the
> design and implementation processes to be fragmented.
It seems to me like the author is concerned about not "updating" the building
(as was done several times in the past, like the 1860 spire). It's hard to
separate those concerns about his attitude about preservation from the true
needs of the project.
------
jhallenworld
I was thinking jokingly that this is a chance to replace that old fashioned
Gothic design with a nice Modern Brutalist one. Well sure enough, there is
such a cathedral:
[https://www.wallpaper.com/architecture/brutalist-clifton-
cat...](https://www.wallpaper.com/architecture/brutalist-clifton-cathedral-
bristol-purcell-renovation)
oh, and another: it looks like a nuclear power station:
[https://www.e-architect.co.uk/liverpool/liverpool-
catholic-c...](https://www.e-architect.co.uk/liverpool/liverpool-catholic-
cathedral)
~~~
jamiek88
There’s also ‘Paddy’s Wigwam’ as we used to call it, not very nicely I now see
as an adult, as kids.
Liverpool famously has two cathedrals very close to each other, within a mile,
Church of England and Catholic Church.
Nice pic link below shows both together with further individual pictures
further down that page.
[https://images.app.goo.gl/vy5ZJ43FBx9Y1S5A7](https://images.app.goo.gl/vy5ZJ43FBx9Y1S5A7)
~~~
glaurung_
Something about this reminds me of the Witch-King of Angmar.
------
jkingsbery
> The current approach to its restoration fails to take account of the
> interconnected structural “engineering” of Gothic architecture
Why is engineering in scare quotes?
~~~
Nomentatus
I suppose because it wasn't highly quantitative or firmly within the range of
known physics, back then. But since "engineering" originally referred to the
building, operation and repair of siege engines, in ancient Rome; I'm with
you. It was just plain engineering.
------
ggm
A very old (DOS days) VRML navigable fly-through Notre Dame is somewhere on my
hoarde of data. I wish it had been carried forward as a thing to self
navigate. The same people did a virtual cluny I think.
If anyone has the data brought into the 21st C I'd love to re-fly the nave.
------
olaf
if humankind (best minds) is not able to build something better in every
aspect today, we as a species are on the wrong trail and should change.
We already need to change a lot (carbon free and many other problem areas) and
like the Apollo program was a challenge for engineering we could start an
effort in the domains of architecture and arts (and maybe others) to build
something better, spiritual etc. ...
~~~
toasterlovin
Why not just leave the cathedral as it was and build a whole new cathedral if
people really want some modern masterpiece?
------
vectorEQ
i'm sure 600+million collected can help to stabilise it... or where did that
money go? ....
------
brookside
Really, sir. A strong breeze...
------
tide_ad
If these churches weren't churches they would have been condemned for not
being up to code.
Lets put our nation's most prized and irreplaceable artifacts in it!
~~~
SmellyGeekBoy
Sure, if you ignore all the non-church historic buildings all over Europe
massively outnumber them.
~~~
tide_ad
> if you ignore
naturally
------
idlewords
I'm reserving judgement until I can hear Elon Musk's take on how to save the
cathedral, and whether the chief architect on the project is a pedo.
~~~
dopeypopey
Nice!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
O'Reilly Online Certification Programs - citizenkeys
http://www.oreillyschool.com/certificates/
======
citizenkeys
I'm considering taking a few of these mainly so I can put them on a resume. A
quick search on Google and StackExchange seems entirely positive. Anybody here
have any first-hand experience with these?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Flaky: datatypes for real world quantities - knowledgesale
http://dimaborzov.com/flaky-hn.html
======
blackhole
This is a terrible idea. This is a catastrophically bad idea. How do you
compare numbers? How do you figure out that 2.2 is less than exp(65)? You have
to represent these as numbers at some point in the calculation, and in order
to do that, you're probably going to be using either floating point or fixed
point, which means it's still trivially possible to construct an error case
that suffers the exact same problems normal floating point numbers have.
Observe:
x=1
for(i=0;i<n;++i)
x=0.01+sqrt(x)
You can't simplify this, so it will simply loop until it hits the datatype
boundary, and then get rounded into oblivion, because the underlying floating
point representation will break in the exact same way. The only way to get rid
of this would be to use an arbitrary number of bits for precision, in which
case... just use an arbitrary precision library instead! This is _EXACTLY WHY
WE HAVE THEM_.
Most equations that aren't trivial cannot be simplified. This datatype would
only be useful for spoon-fed high school math problems. Furthermore, it costs
so much CPU to perform you might as well just use an arbitrary precision
library, which will probably be faster and be just as effective at preventing
edge cases.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbitrary-precision_arithmetic>
~~~
stiff
Actually, it's a pretty interesting idea. He basically wants to keep track of
the last n operations with every given number and take advantage of this
history to try to minimize the floating point error. To compare 2.2 with
exp(6.5) or anything else you just evaluate the expression, but taking
advantage of possible reorderings or simplifications.
Your critique really boils down to:
_Most equations that aren't trivial cannot be simplified._
but this is not true, just take a look at what Wolfram Alpha or Mathematica
can do.
~~~
blackhole
If you have an equation in your program that can be effectively simplified,
you should have simplified it before writing in the first place. The thing
about equations that can be simplified is that 99.9% of the time, they can be
simplified _at compile time_.
If you want to write a library to do it for you, great! But don't advertise it
as a replacement for floating point number representations, because it isn't.
~~~
ealloc
He want more than compile-time simplification. He wants runtime simplification
depending on the values encountered at runtime. For example in the quadratic
equation.
And, he clearly isn't marketing it as a replacement for floating point. He
says: "It is important to note, however, that the goal of the project is to
make tools for symbolic calculations, not to create a viable alternative to
the floating point." and he talks a lot about estimating numerical error and
precision.
~~~
stiff
He says this about SymPy...
~~~
ealloc
oops you're right. Nevertheless, he clearly intends to extend rather than
replace floating point since one of the goals is to estimate the errors in the
floating point calculations, and he rounds.
------
eru
> Floating point datatype is the de-facto standard for real world quantities.
> Whether it is a banking account [...]
Is there any bank which uses floating point for accounting?
~~~
reeses
A huge number of ecommerce sites do. (Such as almost every site based on
ATG/Oracle Commerce)
Most banking systems predate standardized FP and use fixed decimal
representations.
~~~
eru
I can see them being used by the quants for fast pricing. But really, for
accounting? Where do the missing cents go?
------
shoo
related: there is a short series of exercises in SICP that explore the idea of
building an interval arithmetic library. i.e. numerical values are represented
by intervals [a, b] which encode their uncertainty/error:
[http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book-
Z-H-14.html...](http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book-
Z-H-14.html#%_sec_2.1.4)
Exercise 2.14 and onwards point out that two expressions that are
algebraically equivalent for perfectly accurate values stop being equivalent
once we introduce uncertainty. This is only for a toy example expression with
2 variables. Suppose we want to solve a linear system of equations in 100s of
thousands of variables. Is it tractable to track the uncertainty for all of
those variables at once? Will their uncertainties be dependent? ...
~~~
ronaldx
aye, this matches my intuition: having a lower bound and an upper bound (as
rational numbers) on each value means you can:
\- go back and improve if necessary, or otherwise \- express the uncertainty
of a comparison
thanks for the link :)
------
riffraff
Possibly of interest: the Frink programming language has arbitrary precision
math and unit of measurement tracking, and has been around for more than a
decade.
<http://futureboy.us/frinkdocs/index.html>
------
darkmighty
Interesting take on floating point problem, but it seems as if writer isn't
well versed on the centuries old solution of this problem, namely refinement
calculations for lin algebra and more general iterated numerical methods for
nonlinear systems -- and those are the places where the precision matters,
where you are trying to calculate a figure with a given accuracy.
Note however, that solutions to many problems may in a sense 'non-analytic',
there may be no finite set of elementary functions on a given rational number
which yields the solution.
Also, iterative answers are usually the only viable way to reach solutions,
they're usually much faster than the exact solution (or the floating point
precision limited solution), and you can always control how good your solution
is.
Observation: So in a sense what is practically used may indeed very close to
the Kolmogorov complexity of the solutions - the representation as
R=IterativeProblemSolve(Problem,ClosestSolution), where we publish the problem
and the desired solution! (assumig we are efficiently describing the problem)
------
Noughmad
Floating point is not so bad. Yes, when you need fixed precision, such as in
accounting, you should avoid it. But with numerical computations, if you run
into problem because of float limitations, you're doing it wrong.
The first rule of numerics is not to compare variables of very different
magnitude. His first example has coefficients that differ by almost 200
orders. This example is totally outrageous, but still, what any reasonable
person would do is introduce some scaling into the equation.
Yes, you have to think about scales, but you already do that. You never write
programs with meters and seconds, you choose scaled dimensionless quantities.
And unless you choose the scales very badly, you won't get any problems from
floats.
------
weichi
Hard to comment without seeing more concrete examples of his approach. But it
makes me wonder whether processors are now so fast that, for a large class of
numerical problems, the default should be to give up calculational speed in
return for eliminating some of the trickiness involved with floating point.
------
oofabz
How about continued fractions? Unlike floating point, they can represent any
rational number in finite memory. Using generators, you can even represent
many irrational numbers, like square roots and pi, in finite memory.
Richard Schroeppel and Bill Gosper explored continued fractions in the '70s:
<http://www.inwap.com/pdp10/hbaker/hakmem/cf.html>
~~~
darkmighty
What's special about representing rationals in finite memory? By definition
they can be represented by two finite integers. There are many ways of
describing irrational numbers in finite memory if you allow this kind of
generalization, e.g. make a datatype to represent equations and numbers as
solution to the equations.
------
smilekzs
What we need is an open-source alternative of Mathematica's core language.
~~~
GhotiFish
well, off the top of my head, there's GNU Octave.
~~~
riffraff
that'd be matlab not mathematica
------
jamesaguilar
Maybe it's just me, but saying that something in current use in billions of
computers around the globe is . . . somewhat of a stretch of the word
"obsolete."
~~~
eksith
In this case "obsolete" may be the relevant term as in Automobile coach
builders, meet the Buggy Whip makers. The two did co-exist in the early 1900's
so the alternative, "outmoded" didn't happen overnight. But it did eventually
happen.
The numbers, in the billions, of course weren't there, but my guess is that
the proportions are applicable.
Edit: After reading the article, I _strongly_ disagree this approach is
"better" in any sense of the word. More along the lines of using whale oil for
the automobile instead of gasoline. Gasoline isn't perfect, but it works.
Until we have something better (I.E. Electric), I'll stick to that.
------
GhotiFish
floating point will never be obsolete, it is a log scale datatype, and log
scale datatypes represent most natural values perfectly.
The only place where the shoe doesn't fit is where you need a minimum
accuracy. In that case what you should be doing is using integers to represent
your minimum quantifiable unit.
For example, you could represent currency in millicents to give you
respectably accurate rounding. Not accurate enough? Microcents then. Now you
don't have enough range? Good, you're thinking about your requirements now,
floating point DEFINITELY wouldn't of worked.
~~~
qznc
In addition you must prevent overflows.
Microcents with signed long long (64bit) means a maximum value of 2 __63 / 100
/ (10 __6) = 92233720368. In words "92 billion", which might not be enough.
~~~
reeses
In environments with exhaustive partitions and automatic 'promotion' (i.e.,
Common Lisp but probably not Ruby, etc.), your overflow would result in a
correctly calculated bignum.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
What Israel's Strike on Hamas Hackers Means for Cyberwar - kostaddin
https://www.wired.com/story/israel-hamas-cyberattack-air-strike-cyberwar/
======
bediger4000
Look if it doesn't mean that FVEYES is going to take out "CardHolder
Services", the $250K small business loan MFers, and the medical-grade knee
brace dorks, I don't really care.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Nginx doesn't suck at SSL after all - seiji
http://matt.io/technobabble/hivemind_devops_alert:_nginx_does_not_suck_at_ssl/ur
======
tptacek
In case you're wondering what "Perfect Forward Secrecy" is: SSL/TLS, like most
protocols, uses (expensive, dangerous) RSA to exchange (cheap, simple) AES or
RC4 session keys; bulk data is encrypted with session key.
In the normal protocol, if you lose the RSA key, an attacker can retroactively
decrypt the session keys, which are protected only by that same RSA key.
In ephemeral DH mode, instead of encrypting a session key with RSA, both sides
run the Diffie Hellman protocol to exchange a key†. DH allows two unrelated
parties who share no secrets to exchange a secret in public; it's kind of
magical. But it's also trivial to man-in-the-middle. To get around that
problem, ephemeral Diffie Hellman mode in SSL/TLS signs the DH exchange with
the RSA key.
The win here is that losing the RSA key now only allows you to MITM future
SSL/TLS connections. This is still a disaster, but it does not allow you to
retroactively unwind previous DH exchanges and decrypt earlier captured
sessions.
† _DH is unbelievably simple; go read the Wikipedia page._
~~~
shrikant
Diffie-Hellman and Boyer-Moore are two algos that completely blew me away with
their simplicity when I first encountered some theory on them.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffie%E2%80%93Hellman_key_exch...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffie%E2%80%93Hellman_key_exchange)
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boyer%E2%80%93Moore_string_sear...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boyer%E2%80%93Moore_string_search_algorithm)
------
ccollins
From the article, to find out what your website is doing:
openssl s_client -host HOSTNAME -port 443
I ran this for my own website and a few bigger websites
openssl s_client -host www.gusta.com -port 443 (My site, hosted on Heroku)
Cipher : DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA
openssl s_client -host www.google.com -port 443
Cipher : RC4-SHA
openssl s_client -host www.airbnb.com -port 443
Cipher : AES256-SHA
openssl s_client -host www.facebook.com -port 443
Cipher : RC4-MD5
openssl s_client -host www.paypal.com -port 443
Cipher : AES256-SHA
openssl s_client -host www.amazon.com -port 443
Cipher : RC4-MD5
~~~
rythie
Presumably Amazon, Facebook and Google are using RC4 for speed reasons, though
it's not really thought to be secure anymore.
~~~
tptacek
RC4 is fine in SSL/TLS.
Nobody likes it, but until relatively recently, the AES ciphersuites were all
CBC mode, which means they burned a couple bytes of padding for every record.
RC4 is also faster than AES, which was, until very recently, an issue for
server performance.
We have AES-CTR ciphersuites now, but I'm not sure how widely deployed they
are.
~~~
newman314
I was under the impression that RC4-MD5 was no longer recommended but RC4-SHA
was okay (comparatively). Is this incorrect?
~~~
yuhong
The hash algorithm in TLS is _HMAC_ -hash. Some uses of MD5 like secret suffix
are now insecure (which is why usage of MD5 for certificate signing ended long
ago), but HMAC is not one of them.
------
benblack
An article about configuring SSL that doesn't 1) discuss trade-offs of
security vs. resource consumption, 2) how to figure out your performance
requirements, and 3) indicate the author really understands implications of
decisions about crypto is an article you should probably disregard. Modern
CPUs are so ridiculously good at crypto, and most sites have such ridiculously
low connection rates, that optimizing for maximum performance at the expense
of security is a fool's game in most cases. Instead, focus on measuring your
real performance requirements first, and things like sane configuration of
SSL, for example by explicitly listing ciphers instead of using the
impenetrable +aNULL:-yourMom syntax.
Here's my vintage code for scanning SSL configs:
<https://github.com/b/tlscollect>
Here are a couple of must read posts from someone who really knows his SSL
business:
[http://www.imperialviolet.org/2010/06/25/overclocking-
ssl.ht...](http://www.imperialviolet.org/2010/06/25/overclocking-ssl.html)
[http://www.imperialviolet.org/2011/02/06/stillinexpensive.ht...](http://www.imperialviolet.org/2011/02/06/stillinexpensive.html)
It's great to learn.
Lil' B
~~~
tptacek
Does any of this have anything to do with Matt's post? Adam's first post says
the same thing Matt's does: DHE is expensive.
The "tradeoff" in security vs. performance you're referring to irrelevant to
almost everyone building on nginx. If you've lost your RSA key, you are well
and truly fucked. DHE is interesting, but sniping at people for not using it
(in your case, implicitly) is unfair.
~~~
benblack
Adam's post is rather more thorough and nuanced, which makes sense since he
actually understands SSL and benchmarking. While you might summarize them both
as "DHE is expensive", I don't know why you would. Here is each post on DHE:
Adam - "However, with a pure RSA ciphersuite, an attacker can record traffic,
crack (or steal) your private key at will and decrypt the traffic
retrospectively, so consider your needs."
Matt - "Unfortunately, it also includes a very computationally intensive
cipher using an ephemeral Diffie-Hellman exchange for PFS. Sounds scary
already, doesn't it? ... The problem cipher is DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA [b]."
The first is factual and straightforward. The second is muddled and clearly
skewed towards blindly disabling DHE. I believe we are in agreement that it is
irrelevant to almost everyone building on nginx: their connection rates are so
low they will not notice the overhead introduced by DHE.
I am sniping at enthusiastic ignorance and encouraging others to behave
similarly. I hope that is all quite clear now.
Hugs and kisses, Lil' B
~~~
tptacek
Are you a little worried that you come off sounding like "Adam is one of the
cool kids and Matt isn't"? Matt's conclusion is ultimately correct.
And we apparently disagree completely about DHE, because you appear to be
saying you'd recommend it to web startups, despite the fact that the bank that
clears those startups transactions isn't even using it.
Especially weird given that Boundary, your startup, doesn't do DHE.
~~~
kelnos
I think benblack's argument is that Adam can recommend disabling DHE because
he knows what it is and what it does and can make an informed decision about
whether or not your average SSL-enabled site needs it.
Matt simply says "I messed with my settings and leaving this one out makes it
faster", without knowing whether or not turning DHE off is safe (or if he does
know, clearly he's making it seem like he doesn't). The fact that it _is_ safe
-- in this instance -- isn't particularly relevant. The point is that someone
who doesn't understand the security implications of something is making a
recommendation about security, just cloaked in a recommendation about
performance.
Anyway, I don't know any of the people we're talking about here, just trying
to help clear up what I believe benblack was trying to say :)
~~~
tptacek
Right is right. Wrong is wrong. Pants aren't shirts. It's clear Ben doesn't
think Matt is qualified to write the post. But he should have holstered the
impulse to gripe about it until Matt wrote something wrong.
~~~
kelnos
Well, Matt did write something wrong. The original post about nginx "sucking"
at SSL was wrong. Maybe it sucks for SSL in its default configuration (is that
even that case, or was Matt's config copy/pasted from elsewhere?), but saying
it sucks in general is incorrect and link-bait'y. You can presumably configure
other web servers to suck just as much at SSL by enabling DHE ciphers and
providing DH params.
~~~
tptacek
We're commenting on _this blog post_. As was Ben, who didn't comment on the
previous post, but did single this one out here and, as I recall, on Twitter.
~~~
kelnos
It sounds like you're implying that when someone posts something on the
internet, when you're evaluating the usefulness of that information, you
should ignore anything else they wrote previously. Frankly I don't care all
that much about Ben's motivations behind calling out the author here, but I
read both blog posts as they came out, and the lack of attention to detail in
the first post definitely affected my opinion of the second post. I don't
think a lack of participation in the first HN discussion means you're
disqualified from participating in the second one using information from the
first.
------
thirsteh
So Nginx got unwarranted hate for having the most secure defaults. That sucks.
I hope the user nginxorg -- whom I assume is Igor Sysoev -- who dropped by the
previous thread (<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2752136>), sees this
post too.
Either way -- based on his attitude in the first post, I'm really surprised by
how Matt owned up and did his homework for this one. (He should have done it
from the beginning, of course, but none of the people bashing him in the
previous thread actually provided anything to support what they were saying.)
~~~
tptacek
It's not the "best/most secure". All the other servers can trivially enable
EDH as well; it's OpenSSL that implements it, not nginx. Reasonable people can
disagree on what the right default is, but plenty of financial institutions
have made the studied choice not to enable it.
~~~
masklinn
> All the other servers can trivially enable EDH as well
Unless I'm reading OP wrong, that's not the case for the servers he uses for
his tests: Stud can't enable it at all:
> stud doesn't have at all.
and in stunnel you have to compile it in for support, it's not just "not
enabled by default", it's not compiled in:
> stunnel has it as a compile time/certificate configurable option.
~~~
jamwt
From stud -h:
Encryption Methods:
--tls (TLSv1, default)
--ssl (SSLv3)
-c CIPHER_SUITE (set allowed ciphers)
Edit: Though, you'd need to set DHE params, as another commenter said below.
Stud doesn't do this atm, but I'm open to a patch!
~~~
tptacek
I think 'seiji's right, and OpenSSL won't actually do DHE handshakes unless
you give it parameters, which is another 2 lines of code that aren't actually
in stud.
------
jeremyw
Unlike the above post, this fellow actually did some broad cipher testing
(<http://zombe.es/post/4078724716/openssl-cipher-selection>), particularly
around AESNI instructions in recent Intel chips.
With AESNI, use AES-128, AES-256, RC4-SHA, CAMELLIA-128. Without AESNI, use
RC4-SHA, AES-128, AES-256, CAMELLIA-128.
In nginx, this looks like:
# (wo/AESNI): ssl_ciphers RC4:AES128-SHA:AES:CAMELLIA128-SHA:!MD5:!ADH:!DH:!ECDH:!PSK:!SSLv2
# (w/AESNI): ssl_ciphers AES128-SHA:AES:RC4:CAMELLIA128-SHA:!MD5:!ADH:!DH:!ECDH:!PSK:!SSLv2
You eliminate weak ciphers. You retain RC4 for compatibility and speed. You
order by performance. (Note that AES-128 is still ranked as secure through
2030 [at least]. You don't need to prefer AES-256.)
------
cbetz
I can't tell if this is an apology or a non-apology. It seems to have elements
of both.
Clearly the moral of the story is: "Don't claim that X _sucks_ unless you are
are damn sure".
Saying something sucks is fightin' words. Don't expect to people be nice if
you are wrong.
~~~
tptacek
Why would someone apologize for writing an informative blog post? I'm glad he
wrote both, even if he had to walk the first one back a bit.
~~~
SnowLprd
I found both posts informative, and yet I'm with cbetz on this one. The issue
isn't whether Matt's first post was informative but is instead whether it was
fair|wise|necessary to say "Nginx sucks at SSL" instead of, say, "My initial
testing, which needs to be investigated further, is showing Nginx SSL
performance lower than other alternatives." The first headline is more likely
to grab folks' attention, which is probably why Matt chose that headline. It
is probably _that_ choice that cbetz finds objectionable, and if so, I agree
with him.
~~~
pyre
> "My initial testing, which needs to be investigated
> further, is showing Nginx SSL performance lower than
> other alternatives."
You keep using that word ('headline'), but I do not think it means what you
think it means.
~~~
SnowLprd
Okay, I'll bite. Here you go: "Initial Tests Show Slow Nginx SSL Performance"
Wasn't that hard, was it?
~~~
pyre
My point was that you seemed to have purposely made that 'headline' that you
thought he should have used needlessly verbose, to the point where it couldn't
be considered a headline.
------
tlrobinson
_"Final feeling: Twitter is better than HN in all social dimensions of
engagement, kindness, and authenticity."_
Ouch.
~~~
michaelbuckbee
There is some selection bias and context that the OP had via Twitter (people
following already kind of know him and his work, etc.) whereas HN evaluates
his work solely on this one post.
~~~
AltIvan
Yeah, the correct stament should be something like:
Final feeling: My long time Twitter Followers & Friends are more engagement
and kind than the anonymous programmers on HN.
------
clintjhill
It's great to follow up. Especially with such a particular detail.
It's also good to have thick skin. HN can be aggressive. But for good reason.
I'd be willing to bet this tiny sting will result in more rigor in the future.
I know it has worked that way for me.
------
WestCoastJustin
changes: slow ssl encryption ciphers on by default, keepalive
before: nginx (ssl) -> haproxy: 90 requests per second
after: nginx (AES256-SHA with keepalive 5 5;) -> haproxy: 4300 requests per
second
------
grandalf
Any serious article ripping on the performance of something should at least
link to the config file used.
------
dfc
This is why security is such a wierd/nice/confusing/irratating line of work to
be in. Newsflash SSL is not a one size fits all secure you against anything
technology. I did not see the original article so I won't pretend that I knew
the answer ahead of time. I just hope that I did not accept SSL as being a
onesize fits all completely uniform technical conmponent.
There is a Dave Chapelle joke about cops sprinkling crack-cocaine over a crime
scene in order to make the case quick and easy. Too many developers trest SSL
like magic pixie dust for security.
Or as ptacek says "thanks in advance for putting my kids through college."
------
giberson
I use a similar directive in my apache2 configuration. Would I see an
performance improvement in removing the DH option from the cipher suite? Or is
this only directly related to ngix and how it implements its ssl protocol?
Secondly, by removing the DH method do I restrict any browsers from connecting
my site? Ie, are their any browsers, or security settings on browsers that
prevent the site from being trusted if DH isn't available?
~~~
blumentopf
It's an openssl configuration option, so it does affect performance for Apache
with mod_ssl. It's not specific to nginx.
If you do not allow DH ciphers, you'll probably just lose users who
deliberately configure their software to use only strong ciphers.
What you can do is put DH ciphers at the end of the list. That way, weaker
ciphers are preferred but you're still supporting strong ciphers.
------
beachaccount
I ran this against the slowest SSL website I know of. This site absolutely
kills my phone web browser and I've been wondering about this problem for
years. The site: manager.skype.com. The result? DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA. No wonder!
Fix this guys!
In regards to this post, if this is the default configuration of Nginx then I
agree that Nginx sucks. This is not a good default configuration for the
Internet.
~~~
bdonlan
There's nothing wrong with using DHE algorithms, particularly if you're going
to be transferring financial secrets around. If your phone can't keep up,
well, then it probably should have a better entropy generator.
~~~
tptacek
Are you sure the problem is entropy generation and not just extra bignum math?
Also: there are plenty of major financial apps that are not _allowed_ to use
DHE, because DHE makes it impossible for the provider to monitor its own
connections ("conventional" SSL/TLS allows for middleboxes that monitor and
archive sessions by holding a copy of the server's RSA key).
~~~
burgerbrain
What is best for security in regulated fields and what is _mandated or
forbidden_ for security in regulated fields are often almost disjoint sets.
Anyway, whether your phone has trouble coming up with the entropy, or
preforming the math, you should probably be using something more substantial.
~~~
tptacek
You're suggesting that people should pick a different phone so they can get
PFS with the small fraction of SSL servers that support it?
~~~
burgerbrain
I'm suggesting that if for some reason a site thinks that that sort of
security is necessary, they shouldn't change their mind for the sake of people
using their telephones.
Particularly since at the current rate of development, the average phone will
be able to do it just fine in a few months.
------
alexkon
If you are exploring and testing SSL, the SSL Labs tools come in handy. For
instance, see what Gmail and Github are doing:
<https://www.ssllabs.com/ssldb/analyze.html?d=mail.google.com>
<https://www.ssllabs.com/ssldb/analyze.html?d=github.com>
------
newman314
Guess I was right about the cipher used.
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2753903>
------
mmaunder
Thanks to Matt and everyone who contributed to figuring this out - and then
figuring it out again. Comments on the nginx mailing list (which I encourage
you to subscribe to if you're a user):
<http://forum.nginx.org/read.php?2,212229>
------
ynniv
Ah, if only we had an occasional second upvote! This is far more useful than
the original post, which was already well above average. If you are deploying
nginx with SSL, you need to know about the configuration details in the
article.
------
lanstein
keywords in footer: nginx, openssl, ciphers, DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bad,
AES256-SHA good, hn, twitter, glee soundtrack
~~~
sthatipamala
Look at his other posts. He just has joke keywords in all his posts.
------
epi0Bauqu
So what should ssl_ciphers be? Can't you just move that one to the end
somehow?
------
ldar15
So, are these the new numbers? I copied the numbers from the original and the
new post:
haproxy direct: 6,000 requests per second
stunnel -> haproxy: 430 requests per second
(OLD) nginx (ssl) -> haproxy: 90 requests per second
nginx (AES256-SHA) -> haproxy: 1300 requests per second
nginx (AES256-SHA with keepalive 5 5;) -> haproxy: 4300 requests per second
Did other things change or is nginx more than twice as fast as the next best
solution?
------
alnayyir
Well at least he followed up. Most people don't bother to correct their
mistakes.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Players have contributed $4,028,459 to Valve's TI4 Dota Tournament - manifesto
http://www.dota2.com/international/compendium/
======
manifesto
Submitter here: For those who are not familiar with e-sport, Valve is holding
The International 4, which is the biggest Dota tournament. The tournament
begin with Valve's $1,600,000 base prize pool and Valve sells Compendium for
$9.99. Each purchase contributes $2.50 to the prize pool. This thing begins on
May. 9 and in 10 days, which is 2 months before the actual tournament, Dota
players have contributed $4,028,459 as of now.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How much of pay cut would you take for a more fulfilling job? - x32n23nr
I'm at that point where I'm considering changing jobs. After a string of trampoline-like moves from one place to another, I quite frankly feel I'm only doing it for the money. As I search for options, I realised jobs I would find more fulfilling typically pay between 30-40% less. Still have not decided what to do.<p>What pay cut would you accept to do something you like?
======
frompdx
> I quite frankly feel I'm only doing it for the money.
I think this describes everyone's relationship to work. If your current
employer stopped paying you would you keep showing up? If the more fulfilling
job stopped paying you, would you keep showing up?
Usually if I decide I want to change jobs I am looking for something that is
both more fulfilling and higher pay rather than one or the other. If I did not
have to work, I wouldn't.
~~~
bruce511
Alas this does not describe everyone's relationship to work.
Huge communities of people work really hard for zero money to get job
satisfaction. You need look no further than many open source projects to see
this, not to mention armies of volunteers at any charity shop etc.
While it is rare to find that perfect job, where you are both fulfilled and
paid well, it is certainly something to hang into when you find it.
For me, I programmed for free long before anyone paid me, and I'll program for
free when they stop paying me. In between I have earned dramatically lower pay
working for myself, on projects I enjoy, with minimal oversight, than I would
have gotten working for some corporate as a cog in the machine. I don't envy
my rich Google compatriots - it would kill me to do their job.
The old cliche says if you find a job you love, you'll never work a day in
your life. That's bogus. Work is still work, and I work harder than most,but
the work is meaningful, satisfying, and fulfilling. (_and_ I get paid :))
To answer your question though I dug out this story I read a long time ago
[https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/31077/when-his-
project-w...](https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/31077/when-his-project-was-
canceled-unemployed-programmer-kept-sneaking-apple-finish-job)
------
non-entity
I probably wouldn't take a pay cut at my current salary, but I would
definitely settle for a lower salary ceiling. I find people have a different
definition of fulfilling though, it seems to most people to he defined as work
having some sort of positive impact on society, but I really just want to work
on domains / problems I'm interested in.
------
shoo
> the primary goal for many [new professionals] becomes, in essence, getting
> compensated sufficiently for sidelining their original goals. Robert H.
> Frank, a Cornell University professor of economics, tried to find out
> exactly how much compensation people deem sufficient for making this
> sacrifice. He surveyed graduating seniors at his university and found, for
> example, that the typical student would rather work as an advertising
> copywriter for the American Cancer Society than an advertising copywriter
> for Camel cigarettes, and would want a salary 50% higher to do it for the
> cigarette company. The typical student would want conscience money amounting
> to a 17% salary boost to work as an accountant for a large petrochemical
> company instead of doing the same job for a large art museum.
\-- Schmidt's book Disciplined Minds, p 131
~~~
cm2012
I'd personally consider it more moral to work at a petrochemical company than
an art museum.
Petrochemicals - Creating energy, necessary for modern life and society.
Museum - Playground for the rich and tourists.
------
gshdg
I already do something I like, so not much.
That said, a FAANG or bank would pay twice as much, at least. And I’ve
deliberately avoided that out of preference for startups. So perhaps in that
sense I’ve already taken a 50% cut.
And only regret it when looking at time-to-retirement projections.
~~~
decafninja
What bank would pay close to a FAANG? Goldman is the only one that I think
could come close at the junior levels, but once you reach senior or above, I
doubt any can.
Maybe for some elite (and pretty rare) roles in niches like algo trading, but
I doubt the typical bank developer job pays as well as FAANG or other top tier
tech companies.
Some elite hedge funds or prop trading shops could match or even vastly exceed
FAANG comp, but then again, those jobs are both pretty rare, and their
interviews can be difficult enough to make FAANG interviews look easy.
~~~
gshdg
For management roles
------
askafriend
Depends on my asset base.
These days, I have a comfortable base of assets that generate growth/cash.
Because of that, I can afford to take jobs that index better on qualities
other than just pay.
------
sloaken
I would do 20%, but each persons number is based on how much they feel they
are paid beyond their need / want level.
Like you I do not care for my current job, but for a variety of reasons I am
stuck for the next 2.
There is an old saying 'Enjoy your job and you never work a day' (because you
are having fun). But if you are not meeting yours needs, then they become the
golden handcuffs that keep you working because you need the gold.
------
bryan11
What parts to you find fulfilling? One approach would be to assign a value to
aspects of a job you find fulfilling. This could include things like a short
commute, casual dress, flex hours, remote work, low politics, good/smart
coworkers, and challenging projects. For some challenging projects may be
worth a lot, for others remote work to be with family could have the highest
value.
------
decafninja
I work at an investment bank as a senior SWE. I'd take a paycut to work at a
FAANG or other upper-mid to top tech company. In fact, I'd be ecstatic to join
such a company as a junior or mid engineer - and the paycut (if there would be
any at all) would probably be very minor. Meanwhile the long term benefits
(monetary, skill, and career) would probably be far superior.
~~~
throw51319
In what ballpark are you making? I'm at an IB as a mid-level engineer and my
all-in compensation is at least half of what I could get a FAANG. In NYC.
~~~
decafninja
Ballpark TC of 150k, as a "vice president" individual contributor, team works
with the front office (trading desk). I'm in NYC too.
Probably could have made SVP/D/ED (the next level up, I think it's referred to
differently depending on bank) if I actually cared and made more of an effort.
Instead I choose to use that time and energy to do more leetcode.
------
oldsklgdfth
I wouldn't take a paycut currently. However, I would take a job without a
raise. I have found my personal equilibrium for effort vs income. I could make
more money, but it would be with significant more work and time spent.
30%-40% sounds like a lot. But it depends if you are sacrificing luxury or
saving and retirement.
The equation I used is: income = monthly expenses + savings + retirement fund.
------
trykondev
I'd happily take a 60% paycut if I could instead work full time directing my
independent game development company.
------
cpach
I would probably be willing to settle for 0.75x, if needed, and depending on
other benefits/ factors (e.g. if I would receive multiple job offers at the
same time etc.).
------
bedhesd
This is to assume you have the pay to cut!
------
giantg2
I have a family to support, so I can't afford any pay cut.
------
pryelluw
Why are you treating this as a financial problem?
------
corporateslave5
Just stack the money and invest it.
~~~
giantg2
I'm betting my retirement account in the market. Either I can retire someday
or i will be in the bread lines.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Trying to be a Naive Entrepreneur again - RobbieStats
https://unsupervisedmethods.com/trying-to-be-a-naive-entrepreneur-again-2e03a9a7457e
======
FLUX-YOU
I think you'll be quicker to tire in healthcare. The highs are not very high
and lows can be really low.
It depends if your product depends on cooperation from staff to work. If you
build things to extend EHR/EMR functionality, it does require cooperation down
to the level of integration and delivery. They may require a copy of your
product to be installed locally, which will make support difficult (you now
have additional credentials to manage and policies to follow for their
network).
Physicians and Nurses can be very tough customers because they have so much
demand on their own time and skills due to the mortality of their work.
They're not a group you often tell to go read the docs.
It's better to deliver something new that adds value because they're not going
to have much frame of reference to what the workflow should be. It's a new
product and they switch into learning mode. They're then more accepting of new
workflows. I've seen this several times presenting changes to existing
products and presenting new products to this industry.
------
nether
"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's
there are few."
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Is Private Internet Access injecting their own Google cert? - vicken
I noticed something really strange happen today. I'm getting an invalid certificate warning ("This certificate is not valid (host name mismatch") while sending email through Google's smtp server. I decided to disconnect from PIA and send the email and, low and behold, no certificate warning. I reconnected to PIA, tried to send a test email, and got the warning again.<p>Anyone else notice this? I've noticed this happen several times in the past, but I didn't pay much attention to it. The cert in question is for mx.google.com
======
ammmir
would you mind providing some details, such as, the hostname you're using
(mx.google.com doesn't resolve), the exact error message, and if possible, the
certificate chain you're seeing?
we absolutely are not injecting any certificates or otherwise modifying or
inspecting traffic.
(disclaimer: i am an employee of PIA)
~~~
vicken
Sure thing, I snapped a shot of the error window when it popped up:
[http://imgur.com/y5tQbTn](http://imgur.com/y5tQbTn)
I was connected to the US East server at the time.
------
dangrossman
> low and behold
It's "lo and behold". Lo is short for look (archaically _loke_ ).
------
sharth
What is "Private Internet Access"?
~~~
wlkr
A VPN service,
[https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/](https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How to Debug Programs - teddyh
http://www.drpaulcarter.com/cs/debug.php
======
greenyoda
See also
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10642566](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10642566),
which is more oriented toward high-level debugging methodology, in particular,
the use of the scientific method (hypothesis formation, running experiments,
etc.).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
KDE Releases Alpha Version of Next-gen Plasma Workspace - Tsiolkovsky
http://dot.kde.org/2014/04/02/kde-releases-alpha-version-next-gen-plasma-workspace
======
nemasu
This is exciting! Qt5! Interface looks simpler, reminds me of razor-qt which
is a good thing. Looking forward to release.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Why not use CloudFlare authoritative DNS? - orangewin
Many advocate using Google DNS or OpenDNS instead of your ISP's DNS servers (recursive DNS) because of security and performance.<p>If we apply the same advice to authoritative DNS are there any reasons why using CloudFlare's DNS servers should not be used?<p>Note: For the purpose of this discussion I'm assuming that we are only interested in CloudFlare <i></i>authoritative DNS<i></i> and not their SSL services.
======
invisiblep
There's a recent discussion here
[https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/1871816-good-dns-
host...](https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/1871816-good-dns-hosting-
options?from_forum=215) about DNS providers and why using for instance
CloudFlare DNS rather than your registrar's DNS servers is a good idea.
TLDR: Hover is a domain reseller and DNS provider who a few days ago suffered
a DDoS attack which disrupted everyone who was using their DNS servers.
Hopefully if you had your domain registered with Hover, but used CloudFlare
DNS you'd not have experienced any disruption.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
3D Printer company now accepts bitcoin - owendbybest
http://www.protoparadigm.com/blog/2012/11/now-accepting-bitcoin/
======
h8er
Every day news about BTC acceptance! nice sign!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Spending three days as a hunter-gatherer to see if it would improve gut health - Mz
https://theconversation.com/i-spent-three-days-as-a-hunter-gatherer-to-see-if-it-would-improve-my-gut-health-78773
======
onychomys
Although it sounds like an amazing experience, I'm not really sure if we
should be impressed with the results of the experiment. How much of the
increase in floral biodiversity was just from going somewhere far away from
home? That is, if he'd eaten food for three days in Pretoria or Bangalore,
would he have seen the same increase? Or is there something special about a
hunter/gatherer diet?
(...and yeah, for the purposes of this comment, I'm setting aside the n=1
problem. It's not really supposed to be a scientific experiment, obviously,
but the writeup sure sounds like it's supposed to prove a point.)
------
netvarun
Of late I have been enthralled by this show called 'Life Below Zero' (It's on
Netflix and I really recommend watching it) - it's a reality TV show which
profiles folks living in the Alaskan Bush. It primarily revolves around 4-5
different folks who live in various extreme remote parts of Alaska.
Reading this article, it really reminded me of one of the lead characters,
Glenn Villeneuve ([http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/life-below-
zero/articl...](http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/life-below-
zero/articles/glenn-villeneuve/)), who lives a very spartan and primitive (by
his own choosing) hunter-gatherer lifestyle in the Brooks Range (Chandalar,
AK). He hunts for all his food and just boils them mostly (and often times
eats them raw). He doesn't not use seasoning at all. I am guessing his gut
microbes must be pretty robust and diverse.
Main difference between Hadza and his place is that food sources are very
spread out and thin in Chandalar. Most of the show is just following him
trying to find his food.
[OT: I generally dislike watching reality TV shows (and also TV in general).
But this show has made me change my opinion on reality TV. Or it could just be
because Alaska has a special place in my heart :)]
~~~
pavel_lishin
I really liked _Alone_ , which reminded me a lot of _Survivorman_. The
contestants are dropped off far apart, and told to survive on their own for as
long as they can, while filming themselves.
The amount of effort varied hugely. Some tapped out and left on the very first
night - either due to psychological issues ("oh my GOD there's a bear") or
physical ("hey let's drink some of this stagnant water and throw up all
night"). Some lasted a long while, but seemed to have a very, very hard time
finding enough calories day to day, and at best lived on a feast-and-famine
schedule (with "feast" being maybe a whole fish.)
A few contestants did so well that their biggest problem was finding things to
do to entertain themselves. One completely moved his camp and rebuilt it from
scratch, built himself a boat, and made a guitar. Another one made a variant
on a chess set that allowed him to play a solitaire game for amusement.
And these folks were all separated by less than ten miles.
~~~
ouid
>told to survive on their own for as long as they can
surely this is not the actual time constraint.
~~~
pavel_lishin
It is. The last person to give up wins the cash prize. (Obviously, they're not
told how many people have quit so far; each person, when they're "tapping
out", has no idea whether they've won or not.)
I really recommend the first season; while there's some tropes of "oh my god
what was that noise <cut to commercial>", there's a lot of focus both on the
physical tasks required for survival, and on what the contestants go through,
psychologically.
A lot of parts are very surprisingly funny.
------
notadoc
Three days?
Three weeks would be more noteworthy, but really get back to me after three
months or three years.
~~~
onychomys
Three days is a long time to a bacterium. E coli has a generation time of 20
minutes, Staph aureus is about 30. So we're looking at a hundred generations
or so. It's not nothing.
~~~
TheRealPomax
The test is to see the impact on whole system health, which is determined by
the slowest constituent parts, not the fastest.
Certainly, colonic flora has super high generation time, but the health of the
system cannot measurably change over a three day period without changes in
measurements falling well within error tolerance. Even if health did improve,
the time span chosen is not long enough to sufficiently determine correlation,
let alone causation.
------
aschearer
Building on this article, for those who are interested in some science on the
subject, what you eat greatly influences your biome. A vegan diet has been
shown to substantially change your flora [1] in as little as a day [2]. I also
found this video on the role of fiber, our gut flora, and our immune system
interesting [3].
[1]:
[http://www.nature.com/ejcn/journal/v66/n1/full/ejcn2011141a....](http://www.nature.com/ejcn/journal/v66/n1/full/ejcn2011141a.html)
[2]:
[http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v505/n7484/full/nature1...](http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v505/n7484/full/nature12820.html)
[3]: [http://nutritionfacts.org/video/prebiotics-tending-our-
inner...](http://nutritionfacts.org/video/prebiotics-tending-our-inner-
garden/)
~~~
PerfectElement
> Conclusions: Maintaining a strict vegan or vegetarian diet results in a
> significant shift in the microbiota while total cell numbers remain
> unaltered.
Studies should almost never use the term "vegan diet" to arrive at any
conclusions. A vegan diet can be potato chips and oreos, whole foods high
carb, whole foods high fat, 100% raw, etc. I assume most of them would produce
significantly different results.
------
Hydraulix989
Is there any actual science behind this?
~~~
cardiffspaceman
It doesn't answer all the questions I have but I think it is rational.
> _Mounting evidence suggests that the richer and more diverse the community
> of microbes in your gut the lower your risk of disease._
So this is the main law from science pertinent to the article. My impression
is that many people are interested in this law today.
> _What we didn’t know is whether a healthy stable gut microbiome could be
> improved in just a few days._
This is the empirical question that the experiment explores. If the article is
honest, then the reader has some food for thought. Science would be better
served with a better study.
------
anesmike
What impressed me was the look of the older males in the pictures ; there was
not much difference in the physical appearance between young and old.
~~~
pavel_lishin
It's hard to come to a conclusion without knowing their actual ages. If their
healthy-looking elders are all of 45, and nobody seems to be much above that,
then an entirely different conclusion could be drawn.
~~~
gmiller123456
There's also very likely selection bias involved. The photographer likely
chose that photo because it was appealing, not to show a representative sample
of the population.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
1/3 of Stocks in the S&P 500 are no longer qualified to be included - ksvs
http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE4AI96T20081119
======
gaika
It is even worse (or better if you're buying), the dividend yield on S&P 500
is now more than the yield on 10 year treasury bond.
~~~
lpgauth
Can you extrapolate a little more for the business illiterate?
~~~
gaika
In the good old days stocks were considered too risky and to compensate for
that they had to return more than bonds.
Earnings are a lot easier to fake than dividends that's why some consider
dividend rate more reliable indicator than P/E (esp. when comparing with other
asset classes). Last time S&P returned more than treasuries was in 1950's.
------
yters
www.newmogul.com
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Resources for starting semi-technical business - csdrane
I'm looking to launch a business in the health insurance industry. I would describe the business as semi-technical in that although coding will need to be done, there are other things that need to be done that I view as more difficult and more important. Particularly, establishing relationships with insurers and major healthcare providers.<p>My background is in finance. My brother works as an IT consultant to the health insurance industry and is very excited about the project. He also has mentioned the idea to some of his coworkers and they also are very excited.<p>Right now the business is just an idea. My next step is to finish writing a brief business plan describing the idea, market, and team.<p>But after this I don't know what to do. I need concrete advice on what next steps should be. Books and other resources would be helpful too.<p>Some of my many questions:<p>When and how should I seek funding? I would expect that the idea would take a fair amount of start up capital to produce revenue, but I have no idea about how to begin putting a budget together.<p>When should entity formation documents be drafted? When to discuss questions of ownership? I don't necessarily want to give equity to my brother's coworkers.<p>Ideally the company would hire a business development person from a major health insurer. I would expect this to make getting meetings much easier. How do I find the right person?<p>There are a million other questions that aren't coming to mind right now, but you get the idea. I'm sure that most entrepreneurs have dealt with similar questions. Any help is appreciated.<p>Chris
======
sharemywin
It sounds like some kind of marketplaces since its both insurance and
healthcare providers. your going to need to talk with the people charge of
making the decisions a those companies. Break the system down in the the
smallest possible parts that could work. setup a pitch deck and pitch it some
potential customers. be prepared for a long slow process. It took the
insurance company I worked at about 6 years after basically everyone knew they
wanted new claims software for us to buy it. The included 2 rounds of full
RFPs with onsite demos etc. also, bringing on a top tier consulting company
just to help us buy the stuff. we used another one as a systems integrator.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Twitter bots - cdvonstinkpot
http://botwiki.org/bots/
======
nthitz
Allison Parrish has done a lot of neat work with twitter bots.
[http://air.decontextualize.com/twitterbot/](http://air.decontextualize.com/twitterbot/)
[https://twitter.com/aparrish/lists/my-
bots/members](https://twitter.com/aparrish/lists/my-bots/members)
------
pjob
My favorite is Stealth Mountain:
[https://twitter.com/StealthMountain/with_replies](https://twitter.com/StealthMountain/with_replies)
------
meowface
One I made ages ago:
[https://twitter.com/WhoNotWhom/with_replies](https://twitter.com/WhoNotWhom/with_replies)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
On Joining Microsoft Edge and Moving to Seattle - nolanl
https://nolanlawson.com/2016/06/09/on-joining-microsoft-edge-and-moving-to-seattle/
======
anonymous__
Oh, the person writing this blog post hasn't actually STARTED yet.
He sounds very bright-eyed and bushy-tailed optimistic eager to improve their
software. "I'm going to make Edge as good as Chrome/Firefox!"
The people who join Microsoft going in with THAT kind of attitude are the ones
whose souls are crushed the most by its oppressive culture.
~~~
nolanl
Yay, thanks for your comment! :) I look forward to proving you wrong. _wags
bushy tail, bats bright eyes_
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Report: Twitter CEO took a Russian impostor’s bait in 2016 - okket
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/10/report-twitter-ceo-took-a-russian-impostors-bait-in-2016/#p3
======
mindcrash
If this is true it seems Russia is doing a bang up job taking two groups who
are heavily involved in identity politics and putting them against each other,
destroying western civilization in the process.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Nassim Taleb: How to React to Pandemics (Coronavirus) - tosh
https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/1221486205847646208
======
kqr2
Direct link to Nassim's Taleb paper:
[https://www.academia.edu/41743064/Systemic_Risk_of_Pandemic_...](https://www.academia.edu/41743064/Systemic_Risk_of_Pandemic_via_Novel_Pathogens_-
_Coronavirus_A_Note)
------
arvinaminpour
His argument is to reduce mobility in the short term to combat the uncertainty
and unknowns associated with the Coronavirus. The R0 (reproductive ratio) of
the virus is increasing and it’ll probably take longer to know how much havoc
it’ll reap.
It’s unclear to what level the paper is referring (reduce flights on a global
level, between cities in China or people leaving areas where the contagion
started)
------
thecleaner
5 references and no quantitative treatment of a very very serious topic like
nCoV. Taleb can publish whatever, but why is this grabbing HN front-page ?
~~~
curiousgal
His writing style is the most vexing thing ever!
~~~
SomeHacker44
Try reading _A New Kind of Science_. But only if you like many "sentences"
starting with conjunctions. :)
------
aazaa
I never understood this guy's following. Everything I've seen from him is
intellectual bro-flexing, physical bro-flexing, or buzzword bingo.
Here's the bottom line, from the conclusion:
> Together, these observations lead to the necessity of a precautionary
> approach to current and potential pandemic outbreaks that must include
> constraining mobility patterns in the early stages of an outbreak,
> especially when little is known about the true parameters of the pathogen.
In other words, isolate the infected. This is not new, nor is the idea of
today's highly connected world causing diseases to spread faster than in the
last century.
------
remus
Call me cynical, but this seems like little more than an attention grabbing
paper aiming to leverage press coverage to increase the authors' fame.
~~~
buzzkillington
Yes, that's why it's from Nassim Taleb.
------
arkitaip
This is scary: "We estimated that the mean R0 ranges from 3.30 (95%CI:
2.73-3.96) to 5.47 (95%CI: 4.16-7.10) associated with 0-fold to 2-fold
increase in the reporting rate."
~~~
sdinsn
MERS had a small R0 and yet killed more than SARS, which had a R0 range of
2-5.
------
cortesi
Taleb's prominence is baffling to me. I've read all his books, and tried hard
to figure out why people I respect believe he's an important thinker. I just
can't see it. Almost everything he says sets off my bullshit alarm.
Here we have him in typical form. The point of the paper seems to be to argue
that we can reduce transmission by reducing contact (obvious), and concludes
that we should do this pre-emptively at large scale worldwide (never going to
happen, only good for alarmist headlines). This is exactly his formula when
treating risk: start with a total platitude (rare events happen), and spin it
out through huge over-reach into a headline-grabbing book (black swan! boo!).
The other thing about Taleb is that he's frequently way out over his skis on
on the facts. Here, he states that the "selective dominance of increasingly
worse pathogens" makes "extinction certain" as if he's stating an undisputed
fact. But instead of citing a virology paper, he cites an interesting but not
very relevant evolutionary dynamics paper that draws on a particular
mathematical model. In fact, the real world is complicated, and if anything
virology tells us the opposite: zoonotic viruses tend to become less virulent
over time, as the tradeoff between transmission and lethality is optimised.
Almost nobody working in the area of virology would agree with the alarmist
nonsense that this paper takes as axiomatic.
If anyone is interested in hearing how actual virologists talk about this
outbreak, the superb This Week In Virology podcast has just released an
episode that dives into this in depth:
[http://www.microbe.tv/twiv/](http://www.microbe.tv/twiv/)
~~~
buzzkillington
He is wrong in just about every case, yet he is right in the aggregate. We are
terrible at predicting high impact low probability events and waste our time
worrying about low impact high probability events.
Put another way, if we were Turkeys our risk analysis would be modelling how
much food the farmer is bringing us every day. And we don't know about Thanks
Giving.
~~~
pillefitz
With a basic world model + scenario analysis they should have become aware of
the possibility of a Thanksgiving Event
~~~
buzzkillington
I am very interested in seeing the research about teaching Turkeys English,
time keeping and American colonial history.
------
nemoniac
Is the paper available without signing up for academia.edu?
------
nootropicat
tl;dr This old Pandemic II meme fluffed in scientific jargon:
[https://files.catbox.moe/lenadr.jpg](https://files.catbox.moe/lenadr.jpg)
The only actual purpose of this paper is to advertise Taleb (and his books):
Wuhan virus worse than current predictions? He's definitely going to remind
people about his "genius" prediction that it could be worse. Turns out to be
not such a big deal? Nobody is even going to remember he wrote this.
~~~
armitron
That’s not what I got from it at all. The precautionary principle and fat-
tailed processes that come with extinction-level risks are real. He makes
valid and salient points.
~~~
salty_biscuits
Valid points that are hand wavey, non specific and non quantitative.
Basically, you can't estimate parameters because of fat tails so what people
are doing is inadequate. Seems trite to me
~~~
mieses
the search for novelty above all else killed the cat
------
aaron695
Since there literally nothing of substance here, just awesome sounding words,
normal Taleb, lets go meta.
The new cool of 2020 seems to be is to make things look like journal articles
and blog them. I almost wish for the days of peer review.
I have no idea what a "general" or "non native" "precautionary principle" is.
I assume a Markov chain suggested it to them.
But if you believe the precautionary principle then you are pretty much anti-
science. Anti-Vaxxers are precautionary principle enthusiasts for instance.
You could go all philosophical and say the precautionary principle is a new
science, but that just sounds off alarm bells to me.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: The Conference The media about events in business, tech and science - tarasmatsyk
https://www.producthunt.com/posts/the-conference
======
tarasmatsyk
Hi HackerNews! We are a group of people who are looking for a better way to
know about upcoming conferences and share insights with others
We are presenting a twice a month newsletter:
[https://conferenceletter.com](https://conferenceletter.com)
and a telegram community to monitor new conferences:
[https://t.me/theconference](https://t.me/theconference)
Would love to hear any feedback on where you want this to grow and how we can
help you
~~~
tastroder
Do you have a public archive for the newsletter or a directory site for those
conferences? The telegram group looks like everything I wouldn't want to see
in my inbox.
Maybe I'm just not in the target market for this, who is it aimed at?
Recruiters and marketers?
~~~
tarasmatsyk
We are working on it, in fact, looking for a nice format as all of the current
conference lists look older than Egyptian pyramids.
Do you have in mind a way you would like to have these conferences organized?
We are marketers ourselves, so this is something we did to track conferences.
Would you mind sharing what exactly you do not like in the telegram channel?
Like, too many details, too spammy or?
PS. Sorry for a late reply, we did not get any traffic out of product hunt
launch so just went drinking :D
~~~
tastroder
> Do you have in mind a way you would like to have these conferences
> organized?
Not really, in my domain it's usually just underdesigned lists and a calendar
with deadlines.
> We are marketers ourselves, so this is something we did to track
> conferences. Would you mind sharing what exactly you do not like in the
> telegram channel? Like, too many details, too spammy or?
Ah, I see. The texts I've glanced over looked fine tbh. For me that lack of
thematic focus was not really appealing but I guess that makes sense for the
marketing use case.
> PS. Sorry for a late reply, we did not get any traffic out of product hunt
> launch so just went drinking :D
Ouch, good luck with it anyway.
~~~
tarasmatsyk
Thank you very much!
Your feedback really helps, this was the first try of the product to know
where to go from what we have. It is great you posted a comment here :)
------
vitvyp
Read them weekly, just great -- short overviews of different events. Also,
they share discounts.
------
krisarchuk
Such a great list with the coolest events around the world! Kudos to founders!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Layoffs at Watson Health Reveal IBM’s Problem with AI - amynordrum
https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-human-os/robotics/artificial-intelligence/layoffs-at-watson-health-reveal-ibms-problem-with-ai
======
ryanmcbride
I've never interacted directly with IBM, but I remember about 2 years ago,
they had a talk at the Akamai Edge conference about how they dealt with
bloated cookies. The company I work for has the same problem so I sat in to
see what their solution was.
The problem they were having is that all the various IBM lines of business
added so much garbage onto the client's cookie, that eventually their pages
would stop loading because they wouldn't be able to parse the cookie.
The 'solution' is to detect when that's about to happen, and redirect the
client to a page that warns them that their cookie is too big (because IBM
made it too big) and give them a button to delete their cookie. They then
continue to start over and stuff more garbage into the fresh cookie.
That kind of problem solving pretty much made me lose faith in them
successfully doing much of anything anymore.
~~~
stefs
had to deal with ibm once. we were developing an application for a customer
and ibm was working on some new service for them. of course the customer
insisted we use the new ibm service, even though it solved a problem we didn't
have at all. the ibm product was a website to be used by end users, while our
application had to pass our end users data through. so, i asked the ibm guys
(via the customer) to give me the docs for their json interface, as i don't
necessarily want to parse HTML inside the application to exchange data. there
was no json interface - html was all they had -, but they got to work
implementing one.
what i got was:
{"elem" : "html", "children": [ ... {"elem" : "form", "attrs" : {"action": "/an_url", "method" : "post"}, children: [{"input" : {"attrs" : {"type" : "submit", "value" : "..."}}}]} ..., ]}
yes, their json interface was the DOM, serialized as json. but it gets better.
to submit my data i had to fill in the actual values in their json struct at
the appropriate nodes and send it back.
i'm a) pretty sure this "json interface" feature cost the customer more than i
make in a year, and b) it probably broke the very instant the customer let a
frontend/designer guy change the html code months later.
~~~
ploxiln
Ah such classic outsourced third-world contractor output. They are told what
to do (by some PM who has no idea) and they do it. If they ever say "uh this
doesn't make sense" they are cheaply replaced. I've seen some of this nonsense
(though not IBM related):
strncpy(dst, src, strlen(src));
dst[strlen(dst)] = '\0';
~~~
zeusk
> dst[strlen(dst)] = '\0';
That line alone is cancerous.
~~~
ggg9990
Not a programmer. What’s so bad about it?
~~~
jonathankoren
It doesn’t make any sense.
The way a string is terminated in C is by a null character. ‘\0’ is a
mnemonic. strlen() returns the length of a strong. It does this by doing a
linear scan down the array until it finds the null, and the returns that index
as the length.
That line of code does nothing useful. It means, “scan through the array until
you find a null, then write a null there.” Which is exactly what you had to
start.
So why would someone write this? Well, they were told to make sure that you
always terminate your C strings with a null, otherwise you’ll run off the end
of the array and corrupt memory. This is true, but this isn’t how you need to
find the end of the array. They should have used the number from strlen(src),
not strlen(dest). Even worse, strncpy() will put the null terminator in dest
in this case.
The line belies any sense that the programmer had any understanding of what
the code was actually doing. It’s a amateur mistake.
~~~
zeusk
using strlen(src) is also an amateur mistake, because the whole point of doing
that (stncpy family, ensuring dst ends with null) is that dst might not be
large enough to fit string from src.
It has to be the size of dst, which can only be known at the site of
allocation in C (except for a non-clean way of looking at heap metadata).
~~~
jonathankoren
There’s no reason to believe from these two lines that the memory is
insufficiently allocated. It’s just two lines. The point wasn’t to share a
safe string copy routine, the point of the post was to illustrate a single
mistake.
~~~
zeusk
I'm not assuming that, but then you can't assume the memory is sufficient
either. If the string is from network or user, then you can never assume the
buffer to be of sufficient size (which they definitely do, because they aren't
tracking how much of src was copied into allocated dst).
------
glup
"Offering managers didn’t have technical backgrounds and sometimes came up
with ideas for new products that were simply impossible."
Sounds like they drank their own kool-aid, e.g., "Products That Enhance and
Amplify Human Expertise," rather than understand the actual limitations and
possibilities of ML. And it seems to me that they're still doing it with this
nonsense about a human-level "AI" debating stack.
The oversell seems a real shame in light of how much good can be done with EMR
and machine learning / NLP.
~~~
krona
That's surely part of the problem, but the catalyst is the marketing strategy
that is used to brainwash the employees. In essence; sell the experience,
_not_ the product.
This works well for IBM generally (the products are shit) but especially well
for Watson because it's extremely easy to sell AI without getting bogged down
in details. You want to identify brain tumors? We'll just teach Watson to do
it.
Whilst IBM research might be able to pull it off, it'll never get to market
because there is nobody capable of making good _products_ at IBM anymore.
~~~
cirgue
> This works well for IBM generally (the products are shit) but especially
> well for Watson because it's extremely easy to sell AI without getting
> bogged down in details.
The cynic in me says that every use of the term AI in any capacity is to sell
experience and not functionality. When was the last time you used a product
billed as 'AI' and thought 'wow, this is a huge game changer'? Siri is cool,
but it's ultimately not super useful. Google translate is incredible, but it
can only do what it can do because of the absolutely mind-boggling amount of
training data that google can access. Most disciplines have the problem of not
enough data, despite what 'big-data' folks say. In contrast, humans can
extrapolate and make reliable predictions about the future based on really
small sample sizes. We can pick up a new skill or recognize a new pattern with
a high degree of accuracy really effing fast compared to a computer. This
gives humans an enormous advantage. If IBM and anyone else in this space were
really focused on delivering excellent real-world results, step 0 is building
out world-class data integration and search tools (which we still actually
suck at, weirdly.)
~~~
nostrademons
I use & depend upon plenty of products that are built upon AI - GMail spam
filtering & categorized inbox, Google image search, YouTube & Netflix
recommendations, cheque OCR at my ATM, predictive keyboards on my phone,
Amazon's "people also buy with this product" feature, Google translate,
computer opponents in games that I play, and all of the signals that feed into
Google Search.
The irony is that not one of these bills itself as AI. It's just "a product
that works", and the company that produces it is happy to keep the details
secret and let users enjoy the product. So you may be right that the term "AI"
itself is pure salesmanship. When it starts to work it ceases to be AI.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_effect)
Also - humans only look like we're fast at picking up new domains because we
apply a helluva lot of transfer learning, and most "new" domains aren't
actually that different from our previous experiences. Drop a human in an
environment where their sensory input is truly novel - say, a sensory
deprivation tank where all visual & auditory stimulation is random noise - and
they will literally go insane. I've got a 5-month-old and a project where I'm
attempting to use AI to parse webpages, and I will bet you that I can teach my
computer to read the web before I can teach my kid to do so.
~~~
cirgue
None of the things you mentioned are even close to AI. They’re applied
statistics, and they mostly use techniques we’ve known about for decades but
have only now found a use case because computing and storage is cheap enough
to make them viable.
~~~
nostrademons
The recommendation, translation, & image classification algorithms are all
done with deep-learning; that's considered AI now.
There was a time, not all that long ago, when SVMs, Bayesian networks, and
perceptrons were considered AI. That's behind the spam filters, predictive
keyboards, and most of the search signals.
There was a time, a bit longer ago, when beam search and A* were considered
AI. That's behind the game opponents.
As the linked Wikipedia article says, "AI is whatever we don't know how to do
yet." There will be a time (rapidly approaching) where deep learning and
robotics are common knowledge among skilled software engineers, and we won't
consider them AI either. We'll find something else to call AI then, maybe
consciousness or creativity or something.
~~~
cirgue
This is my point: the term AI has always been BS. It was BS when beam search
was AI, it was BS when expert systems were AI, and it is equally as BS when
applied to neural networks. It comes to the same thing: the 'AI' tools we use
are increasingly good function approximators. That's it. It's still reaching
the moon by building successively taller ladders.
~~~
hetzeljt
I think Judea Pearl would agree with you in part. From an interview in
[https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/05/machi...](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/05/machine-
learning-is-stuck-on-asking-why/560675/) :
_As much as I look into what’s being done with deep learning, I see they’re
all stuck there on the level of associations. Curve fitting. That sounds like
sacrilege, to say that all the impressive achievements of deep learning amount
to just fitting a curve to data. From the point of view of the mathematical
hierarchy, no matter how skillfully you manipulate the data and what you read
into the data when you manipulate it, it’s still a curve-fitting exercise,
albeit complex and nontrivial._
And
_I left the arena to pursue a more challenging task: reasoning with cause and
effect. Many of my AI colleagues are still occupied with uncertainty. There
are circles of research that continue to work on diagnosis without worrying
about the causal aspects of the problem._
------
cubano
Isn't this just the same problem IBM has had for...well...most of my adult
life?
I had a contract gig at IBM Advanced Technology in Boca for about 18 months in
early 2001-2002. Talk about missing the boat...
I was brought in to prop up a soon-to-be-failed project for the Japanese
government...basically a "Napster for Tokyo" that would allow _paid-for-play_
C2C song sharing for customers of "the Big 5" record companies.
I asked simple questions that no one could answer...why would people pay for
content when it was so easily available via other means? you are using DRM
how??? really? you need a special player to play the music?
_Why would anyone do that?_
I stayed for a few simple reasons...the fat consultant check I cashed every
Friday. Exposure to some outstanding engineers and coders where I got to learn
from true talent. The great strip club on A1A next to my rental in Lauderdale-
by-the-Sea.
But reading over this article reminds me that IBM is just too big to get out
of its own way, and has been for the longest time.
[edits]
~~~
bluetwo
Getting a nice check while doing nothing actually productive is soul crushing.
Good for the short term but it's a Chinese water torture in the long run.
Two years ago at their vegas conference they had a coffee shop that used AI to
recommend coffee types. I thought "boy, they don't understand this
technology".
~~~
pinewurst
Many years ago, when AI was expert systems and "neural networks" were fringe,
the main demo for one of the public expert system leaders was the Wine
Advisor. You'd tell it what you were going to eat and it would recommend a
wine.
~~~
numbsafari
And behind the scenes it was probably the equivalent of flipping a coin
between red and white.
~~~
pinewurst
It was totally rule-based. More complex systems had a little more
probabilistic stuff via Bayes and "certainty factors", but not this one.
I worked on another one for this company called Vibration Advisor which
diagnosed odd noises in GM cars.
~~~
kprybol
Being rules based isn't necessarily a bad thing or disingenuous. I develop
healthcare AI products (ML/DL researcher) and we actually aim to be able to
translate our models into a rules based engine (find a strong signal,
interpret/understand model well enough to translate/embed into a rules engine,
look for a new signal in our models, rinse + repeat). We end up deploying a
mix of rules based and true ML based models into production but it may not be
immediately obvious to the end user which type of model they are using.
~~~
pinewurst
I didn't mean it as being disingenuous - that's precisely the value that was
sold and if you could do the proper "knowledge engineering", it worked well.
It's just interesting to me having seen the previous turn of the AI hype
wheel, how much is being repeated.
Another interesting thing was the transition from special purpose hardware -
Lisp machines - to C code on commodity platforms. A contrast from today's ML
moving in the other direction.
~~~
kprybol
That's fair. Google's recent paper on predicting patient deaths is another
good example of this (logistic regression + good feature engineering performed
just as well as their deep learning models, and the logistic regression has
the added benefit of being significantly more interpretable and as a result,
actionable).
It'll be interesting to see when specialized ML focused silicon will become
readily available. Right now I find ML libraries that are able to run on
blended architectures (any combination of CPU and GPU's) much more
exciting/impactful than TPU's. The ability to deploy on just about any cluster
a customer may have available is huge.
~~~
fjsolwmv
In the near future customers don't have clusters, cloud providers offer
elastic adaptive compute sharing.
~~~
kprybol
From my experiences (currently work with several Fortune 100 health
insurers/benefits managers, and have previously worked for another large
insurer, a major academic medical center, and a large pharma company),
healthcare organizations tend to be rather cloud adverse (most of our
contracts very explicitly forbid us from using any form of 3rd party cloud
computing). So while I agree that much of the heavy lifting will shift to the
cloud (or already has), I expect health analytics will continue to favor on-
premises solutions (GPU’s still tend to be pretty rare compared to CPU based
clusters but are slowly becoming more common).
------
brootstrap
This stuff is the friggen worst if you ask me. i'm so done with the AI hype
train and IBM is the worst. Linked article mentions a 'watsons law' (similar
to moore's law etc). If you ask me, it is more likely for watsons law to be
that all commercial BigCo 'AI' offerings will burn thru hundreds of millions
and ultimately fail rather then the intended meaning.
"Phytel’s contribution was analytics paired with an automated patient
communication system. A clinic could use the system to search its patient
records and find, for example, all the men over age 45 who were overdue for a
colonoscopy, and then use an autocall to remind them to schedule the dreaded
appointment"
This shit isnt AI it's literally a database query and then some 3rd party
library to send a text message or a phone call.
~~~
cirgue
Watson's law: as the complexity of technology and business processes
increases, the amount of time it takes for people to recognize and acknowledge
that the emperor in not in fact wearing clothes increases in proportion to the
profitability of the lie being sold.
~~~
scardine
"The Emperor's New Clothes" are made of the finest blockchain silk adorned
with golden AI brocades.
------
cs702
The problem at IBM is not technological; it's _managerial_.
For a long while now, IBM has been treating "AI" as a product that can be
managed, packaged, and sold by "general" business managers -- think MBA-types
with only a superficial, qualitative grasp of deep learning and AI. Doing that
with rapidly evolving technology is a _sure-fire recipe for failure_.
Most such MBA-types today are _ill-equipped_ to manage, package, and sell
"AI." They're roughly in the same position as English or History majors who
are asked, say, to manage, package, and sell a new kind of quantum-computing
technology without knowing or understanding much about quantum physics. The
technology is moving faster than their ability to keep up.
IBM's mismanagement is a shame, because the system they showcased nearly a
decade ago -- the one that competed and won in Jeopardy -- was state-of-the-
art at the time.
~~~
erikpukinskis
As of 2018, after seeing how terrible “engineer-types” can be at engineering
management, the MBAs are starting to look better to me.
~~~
airstrike
As an MBA who browses HN, I'm torn between the two opinions
~~~
jeffjose
As an engineer who has an MBA from HSW, I'm even more torn.
~~~
cs702
erikpukinskis, airstrike, jeffjose: I did not criticize MBA's _in general_!
My comment mentioned specifically "MBA-types with only a superficial,
qualitative grasp of deep learning and AI."
MBAs who understand what they're managing (and who know what they don't know)
are not in that group. And BTW, I suspect most MBAs who read HN are not in
that group either :-)
------
dmix
> They couldn’t decide on a roadmap,” says the second engineer. “We pivoted so
> many times.”
> Both Phytel engineers say the offering managers didn’t have technical
> backgrounds and sometimes came up with ideas for new products that were
> simply impossible.
The death knell of all (potentially) good products. I don't know why this is
so often the case. All software companies need engineers involved in product
development decisions. Period. It's not optional.
Facebook who was smart about this. They hired or retrained technical people to
fill many business roles in marketing, product development, project
management, etc.
I'm not sure why technical people are restricted to merely being the builders
in these companies. Lots of other companies recruit internally from people
familiar with the end product and train them in other business areas.
> these potential customers weren’t impressed. Instead they asked for
> something resembling Phytel’s old system.
So they simply imagined a new product without interviewing potential customers
beforehand on what they actually want? They spent years merging databases of
two big systems, pivoted multiple times, to find out there wasn't a market for
it in the first place?
Why aren't the 'offering management' people getting fired?
------
aresant
A little case history - there were two illuminating threads ~10 months back
where several current & former IBM employees commented on the growing
disconnect between the reality vs. marketing of Watson - looks like vindicated
by today's news:
(1)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14979642](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14979642)
(2)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14766793](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14766793)
~~~
amptorn
I've been saying Watson is a red herring for years:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11262397](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11262397)
------
apo
The health care landscape is strewn with the wreckage of software companies
who thought the latest shiny software doodad could cause a "disruption" like
it had in so many other industries.
People who know that healthcare is different try to warn them. They don't
listen. Instead they charge in with people who have no experience in the
field.
From the article:
_After the acquisition, IBM management started the process known internally
as “bluewashing,” in which an acquired company’s branding and operations are
brought into alignment with IBM’s way of doing things. During this
bluewashing, “everything stopped,” the first Phytel engineer says, and the
workers were told not to focus on improving their existing product for current
clients. “People were sitting around doing nothing for almost a year,” the
second engineer says._
~~~
TheM00se
Than Tharanos decided to jump onto that bandwagon and make a dumpster fire
------
chefandy
IBM's organizational structure is book-ended with great talent. The engineers,
developers, and even front-line managers are really fantastic, and the people
at the very top are pretty good.
In the middle, there are 100 layers of middle managers that completely cock
everything up, and the really sad part is that they have enough say to really
cause damage. One of my first proper white collar technical jobs with them was
an L2 support job for this network performance monitoring suite for huge
networks... mostly large, national ISPs and the like. The job required maybe a
just-post-jr-level sys-admin knowlege of networks and UNIX systems while also
having smooth customer service skills. Definitely a great step up from my
previous lower-mid-level IT jobs and call center work.
I had three(3) managers. Three! I had a technical manager, a non-technical
manager, and my actual manager, who was the head of the department.
At the highest levels, the management was talking about switching everybody's
workstation over to Linux. Everybody from admin assistants to developers to
managers was supposed to be moved off of Windows at some point in the
relatively near future. I was psyched— I hated windows, and the product I
supported ran on Solaris, so not having to deal with the extremely primitive
(at the time) tools like Cygwin to get some UNIX functionality on my machine
was great. They seemed to be positioning themselves to sell the consulting for
other large companies to do the same thing.
Though we got no word of this internally— I only knew from what I had read in
articles— I found the internal workstation disk image on the intranet and
eagerly installed it. It was pretty smooth! I was excited! As I was getting my
tools set up, I noticed that it didn't have the internal bug/ticket tracking
clients installed, so I cruised on over to their intranet page... hmmm,
nothing listed for Linux. After hours of searching, I found some internal
discussion showing that, months earlier, the department that writes that
software unilaterally decided that they were discontinuing their initiative to
port those applications to Linux. While there was an extremely limited CLI to
these tools, critical functionality was literally impossible without the GUI
app. Without the ability for anybody on their Linux workstations to interact
with tickets or bug reports, the Linux initiative was pretty much dead-in-the-
water for most technical people and their managers.
Perfect example of just how badly their forest of middle managers completely
messes up great executive initiatives that the bottom of the food chain really
wants to embrace.
(I might have gotten some of the details wrong. It was 13 or 14 years ago and
I drank a lot back then.)
------
alistproducer2
I'm in my final week at a large company and so much of this article rings true
for me as well. I feel like the structure required to coordinate really big
companies has some really negative emergent properties that make it very
difficult for such a company to be efficient and innovative.
Look at a company like Google, which, without a doubt, has some of the best
engineers in the world. How many false starts and just flat out poorly
executed projects/products have they had in the last 10 years? Way more than
you would expect from a company that puts such a premium on hiring the best.
------
crsv
It only reveals IBM's problem with AI if you were at any point under the
impression that it was something more than marketing for them and watch actual
market signals.
The audience that gobbles up their ad campaign during the Masters that touted
their "block chain" logistics probably wouldn't even notice that they had
layoffs at Watson health.
------
phamilton
Is Watson a codebase? Or is it just a brand?
It seems to me that Watson is basically just IBM's version of AWS/GCE services
(at least the non infra ones). But it gets thrown around as a buzzword so
often. The marketing makes it look like there's a single AI codebase that can
be accessed through a bunch of APIs, but I would be very surprised if that was
actually the case.
~~~
mindcrime
_Is Watson a codebase? Or is it just a brand?_
Both, sort of. There is a "thing" called Watson, which is related to the
Watson that played Jeopardy. But "Watson" is also a brand which lumps in stuff
that has absolutely nothing to do with the "old" Watson.
To illustrate a bit.. "Watson Health" is (or was) made up of a ton of people
and technologies who came into IBM as the result of several acquisitions:
Truven, Phytel, Explorys, etc. In many cases, they repackaged stuff from those
vendors, gave it a "Watson name" and shipped it. And some of this stuff was
literally no more sophisticated than linear regression / logistic regression,
etc.
~~~
vanadium
"IBM Watson Marketing Automation" being another I was made painfully aware of
recently, which was the result of the Silverpop acquisition at least in part.
------
manigandham
Watson seems to be hyped as powering the entire world but I have yet to see a
real project using it in any capacity. I haven't even heard a cohesive
description of what Watson even is, beyond surmising that it's a suite of AI-
like services, although any APIs seem to be hidden within the broken IBM cloud
interface, perhaps on purpose.
------
lacker
This sounds like a case where the AI is used in a "marketing" way to make
people interested in a product, and then there isn't really much AI involved,
and the people developing the AI have a struggle to prove that it's relevant
to the business.
I wonder if DeepMind at Google has a similar problem. It is certainly getting
a lot of headlines, but there are plenty of other AI groups within Google that
do business-relevant things like improve search or ad matching or make Google
Home's voice recognition work. I would not be surprised if in the long run
DeepMind becomes a group that performed a neat stunt with Go, but kind of
fades in practical relevance, like Watson with Jeopardy.
~~~
kprybol
I've always viewed DeepMind as more of a skunk works program and less as a
profit driven enterprise. DeepMind exists primarily to push the limits of what
can be done when you put group of leading researchers together in a room,
provide them with nearly limitless resources, and simply tell them to "go". I
expect some of that effort to eventually trickle down into Google's consumer
products (maybe a healthcare focused version of AutoML
[https://cloud.google.com/automl/](https://cloud.google.com/automl/)). Google
has already done a lot of work on the HIPPA side of things
([https://cloud.google.com/security/compliance/hipaa/](https://cloud.google.com/security/compliance/hipaa/))
------
m15i
IBM Watson is bad for the "AI" community because when non-experts see IBM
repeatedly fail they assume the whole field is nonsense. Hopefully IBM will be
more cautious in what they claim to be possible. Hype and deceit do not belong
in healthcare.
~~~
gaius
IBM literally does not care about “the AI community”. They will strip-mine the
AI hype then move on.
------
OliverJones
IBM. Twenty years ago my late father-in-law had his ancient DisplayWriter
(1st-gen word processor) break down.
He called his local sales office. Somebody said, we've got a couple in a
storeroom someplace. I'll bring one over. No charge.
That was customer service. That's how they built their reputation. Now they
seem to be squandering it.
Sounds like they're headed now in a direction where they sell their artificial
intelligence as being smarter than their customers. Sounds like they insist on
disrupting their customers rather than their competitors. That Doesn't
Work.(TM).
Every time somebody does that to a hospital it gets harder for other vendors
to sell actually-useful stuff to health care operations. Not good.
------
hellofunk
I'm going to play devil's advocate and call it:
Self-driving cars have killed pedestrians, Watson isn't doing all they
wanted... is this the dawn of a new winter?
~~~
BigChiefSmokem
I found out that Tesla's autopilot technology can't even really detect
stationary objects. Albeit this is hard technically as it's actually a point
of reference physics problem but the writing on the wall is clear: marketing
departments are overpromising and no one is really delivering big on AI, not
even Google as a lot of other companies have already matched their efforts
(Microsoft, Waze, etc.). IBM? Give me a break.
Anyways, may I interest you in cheap VR headset?
------
abdulhaq
They should have asked the AI how to save their jobs. Unless of course it's
not really an AI, but just marketing hogwash. Surely not!
------
jacobsenscott
Winter is coming. And none too soon. So tired of AI headlines.
~~~
randomsearch
It would be really great if we could somehow hold those overselling AI to
account.
This may be possible this time round, because we’ll have a very good record of
who said what and when via the web.
Without any kind of accountability, history will continue to repeat itself.
How about hyperbole.com, where you can google academic researchers and
industrial leaders and pull up quotes from them, dated and fact-checked.
I’m sure you must be able to train a deep net to do this. They can do
anything.
~~~
pessimizer
Pundits who amplify the current bullish buzzwords will never be punished,
which is why they do it.
------
warrenm
Does it really qualify as "news" any more when there are layoffs at IBM?
~~~
stephengillie
Who makes money by pointing out flaws at IBM? Their stock on NASDAQ is 139.31
as of Jun 25 12:58 PM ET. Is there a large enough short position to be worth
buying a news article?
~~~
downrightmike
Already priced in and layoffs have an opposite effect.
------
eksemplar
I’m not too surprised, they come by our shop around once a year wanting to
sell Watson analytics, and because ML is a buss word in the political layer
(our upper leadership) we politely listen.
It’s not really great. They can automate the process of finding reports, but
the truth is, we have people already doing that and all the reports they’ve
been able to find in their POCs were either useless or some we already had.
I’m sure ML has potential, but our analytics department is run by economists
and political scientists who can really utilize ML and I’m not sure they could
be retrained, even if they wanted to, which they don’t.
We can’t really hire ML personal either. The only people who do it well enough
are PHDs, and they have much better offers, and we’re at least 5 years away
from having a candidate pool of people with the right education mix (Data +
political science) and probably 10 years away from figuring out how to utilize
them as well as finding enough funds for a position.
So ML is mostly left to independent companies that corporate/consult with
muniplicitaties in projected owned and run by the municipalities). IBM simply
doesn’t do this, and the consultant companies that doesn’t suck all work with
something else.
Of course this is the perspective from the Danish public sector, it might be
different else where, but I have friends who work similar positions as mine in
banking, and they’re telling me the same thing.
~~~
TTPrograms
>The only people who do it well enough are PHDs
This is really untrue. Maybe that's part of your hiring issue.
~~~
eksemplar
It’s always cute when people say stuff like that. We’ve tried quite a few and
none have delivered any sort of useable quality.
~~~
pimmen
Swedish here, I'm convinced things are not that bad across the sound. I've
seen people with masters degrees deliver really good ML systems. In my team
the person with the highest education is also doing a PHD but the majority of
us have masters degrees. But, sure, I've also met other companies in the same
business who have multiple PHDs doing ML and they'd made a lot more progress
than we had in some areas, but we'd made more progress than them in others
(one company in Norway I was especially impressed with). ML development is
very different from regular, software development and requires an affinity for
math and creativity, sure, and a research background helps out a lot but I
would not go so far and say that they're the only ones who are any good.
Have you tried hiring people who have documented experience doing ML
commercially? Because I could understand how you get bummed out a lot if you
hire recent grads to do ML.
------
xchip
well, to begin with, the heart rate signal on the logo is upside down :)
------
rossdavidh
Look I think everybody needs to cut IBM some slack here. Integrating
technology with customer needs is hard, and it takes a while to get good at
it, to get a process for reconciling with product managers want with what
developers can actually make. Once IBM has been in this technology game for a
little while, I'm sure they'll get the hang of it.
~~~
DoofusOfDeath
People aren't faulting IBM for tackling hard systems-integration problems.
People are faulting IBM for over-promising, under-delivering, using misleading
advertising, and internally seeming to have foolish management practices.
~~~
detaro
given this line
> _Once IBM has been in this technology game for a little while, I 'm sure
> they'll get the hang of it._
I'd assume the parent is being sarcastic
~~~
rossdavidh
...and perhaps a little too subtle. Or maybe just not funny enough to be
apparent.
~~~
DoofusOfDeath
Nah, it was funny, just a little too subtle for me at the time.
------
manolo7219
Haha... now IBM needs to find some nice wording in order to impress clients to
continue paying for smoke and mirrors believing in promises that "one day it
will be so good". There is no measurable substrate to any of promises and
whoever still believes in it, just hides its personal failure to see that on
time. Some big clients will continue following "all bets in" method as they
are already too exposed to IBM and to admit that they were wrong and naïve as
children would mean also losing their nice paid jobs. I am happy that after
everything unveils with IBM, their companies will feel a full blow and their
investors will see how it looks when you are not keeping your management on a
short leash.
------
dmix
Anyone know what "RA" stand for? The employees kept mentioning it on the
"Watching IBM" blog. I couldn't find a decent match via Google. For ex:
> IBM Watson Health has initiated a significant RA across multiple offices.
~~~
framebit
RA = Resource Action. Add it as the next entry on a long list of euphemisms
for layoffs.
~~~
rossdavidh
"layoff" being a euphemism for "mass firing of people", that has been around
so long it doesn't even seem like a euphemism any more. As you said, it's a
long list.
------
vasundhar
They can't just build a system, and leave it for the customers to do all the
hard work of integrating various systems. Integration is the key and should be
seen as product in itself.
If IBM stops milking the cow like the services, asking the customers to
integrate, It will die a miserable death, and unfortunately a premature one.
It should be pluggable, like set of pick and choose building blocks of
interfaces, that only should take domain expertise and custom specifications
as input from the client (Which ever domain.) Until then AI only will become
ambitious Sunk cost.
------
zmmmmm
I think their strategy of collectively branding every single thing as Watson
is actually pretty risky. Branding is powerful but it cuts both ways ... it
will only take one high profile failure for that to ruin the brand across
every product that has slavishly adopted it. Even here you see it happening -
layoffs in one part that got labeled as "Watson" are immediately seen as
indicative of a much bigger problem with Watson. That would not have happened
if they were independently branded.
~~~
newen
Yeah their branding of Watson is pretty bad since no one knows what Watson is
anymore. It used to be the thing that played Jeopardy. Ok fine, we can
generalize that to Watson being an NLP driven infromation retrieval system.
But then I got pitched recently as Watson being an Nvidia DIGITS style system
on the cloud. It was only then that I realized Watson is just a brand name for
anything AI remotely AI related from IBM.
------
madrox
I'm not surprised. My company seriously considered Watson when we were looking
at AI platforms. Their sales team is pretentious, and when you scratch the
surface their offering isn't all that different from Google.
Undoubtedly IBM has done amazing work popularizing AI with Jeopardy and the
debate bot. However, I think that halo extended to its competitors that,
frankly, offer more things developers really need.
------
derEitel
I was happily surprised the other day when the IBM debater was presented and
there was no mention of it being Watson anywhere on their website. They really
need to stop with this personification.
------
victor106
The problems with Watson does not mean that this is a problem with AI. If
history is any guide IBM fails but eventually succeeds during most
technological revolutions (PC, ecommerce etc)
~~~
DoofusOfDeath
Can you restate that more precisely?
In particular, I'm not sure what sets comprise the numerator and denominator
of "most technological revolutions".
------
known
Sounds like
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle)
------
progr4mmatic
I think I saw that one of Watson’s engineers is now working on a crypto
project. SingularDTV? Heh, shows how much confidence was left in the program.
------
adamrezich
Every Watson ad I see on TV freaks me the hell out. Seeing primetime
television commercials for business AIs feels too uncomfortably cyberpunk for
me
------
paulsutter
IBMs Problem with AI is that they don’t have any AI
------
off2seethecloud
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!
------
killjoywashere
Next month will be a good time for a data-rich medical system to offer terms
to IBM.
------
netinmate
IBM has become Unisys, they just don't know it.
------
dingo_bat
I know very little about AI, and even less about management. But phytel's
story as told in TFA is depressing af. I wonder why nobody is held responsible
for this catastrophic failure. Why isn't the head of Watson health out on the
streets looking for another job?
------
aviv
What is wrong with our society? We need AI to tell us how to be healthy? Is
this real? Sometimes I feel like I live in the twilight zone.
PSA for anyone with a disease that man and corporate picked a name for - you
are feeding yourself towards that disease. Fix your diet (and 100% rid
yourself of animal products, processed sugar, wheat, and any "food" that comes
in a package with a label on it - hell stay away from anything that isn't a
fruit or a vegetable), go on a dry / water fast, and heal yourself. Stop
relying on doctors, AI, whatever the hell they produce supposedly for you.
------
realworldview
Yeeeeep
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Can a video game company tame toxic behaviour? - okket
http://www.nature.com/news/can-a-video-game-company-tame-toxic-behaviour-1.19647
======
supremeanger
Sure just strip away the anonymity of the internet that is all you're pushing
towards with this sort of internet hugbox conversion.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Four beds ready to treat Internet addicts - trysomething
http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/07/health/internet-addiction-treatment-center/?hpt=hp_t2
======
soora
In a weird way, stories like this remind me just how amazing the internet and
games have become. The fact that people can become so immersed into the
experience that their brain mimics chemical addiction is mind blowing.
~~~
mjn
It's an interesting phenomenon, but I'm not sure it has much to do with the
internet or technology. People have gotten addicted to gambling on slot
machines and poker tables, so the level of technological advancement needed to
mimic chemical addiction doesn't even require entering the transistor age.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What advice would you give a non-tech person seeking a tech co-founder? - mikepk
In a couple of weeks I'm going to be teaching a class at at http://intelligent.ly in Boston titled: "How to find a technical co-founder". I get asked the question about finding tech co-founders a lot and thought it would be fun / useful to provide my usual guidance and response in a class form.<p>The class I have in mind is based on my own experiences (as the tech guy) choosing partners to build companies with in the past. It's also based on my experiences and observations working with non-tech co-founders over the years.<p>I thought it might be useful to open this question up to the HN community to see what you think. What would make you decide to join someone in a new venture (as the tech person)? Do you think you need a non-tech founder? What do you see non-tech people doing 'wrong' when engagine with tech people (and vice versa)?
======
helen842000
Teach them just how far they can get on their own with their idea before they
even need to consider a tech co-founder or outsourcing.
There is naming, branding, research, competitor analysis, writing copy,
storyboarding (if it's an app) wireframes, mock-ups, drawing up contact lists,
talking to potential customers - which is an extremely important point.
They need to also show willing to learn even some basic technical skills else
they just sound lazy. This doesn't have to include development, there's lots
of other computer based tasks that need doing.
Their project needs to be at a point where a decent tech person would say "hey
this is pretty interesting, the next big step you're struggling on is
something I'd find really easy to implement"
A non-technical co-founder has to have the hustle to build a foundation to
even get a tech person interested in talking about it, never mind
contributing.
I'd suggest teaching them that if they say "I have X number of people
committed to buying this - if only I could build it" is far more compelling to
a developer than "I have an idea in my head but I've not acted on it yet"
------
jtchang
Whether you need a non technical founder is the wrong question to ask. Ask
yourself what your business needs to succeed:
\- Is it a developer or designer?
\- A marketing genius?
Most businesses need some soft skills. This is where I see the non technical
person coming in.
When it comes down to finding that tech person all you need to be able to do
is show value. How do you demonstrate value?
* Understanding the market and problem
* Executing on previous ventures
* Connections
* Anything else that makes you stand out
Learning to code shows commitment but in general it isn't the only thing.
~~~
mikepk
I add to the list "actually doing stuff". I meet so many want-to-be-
entrepreneurs saying they just need a tech co-founder, but other than thinking
_really_ hard, that's all they're currently doing to make the venture happen.
Somehow it's almost as if they think their job is managing when there's
nothing yet to manage. They don't realize that their job is making the venture
real, any way they can.
------
The8thDwarf
Introduce the prospective technical cofounder to 10 potential customers, who
can clearly and persuasively articulate (a) the pain they currently experience
and (b) the bliss they would experience if the proposed company would talke
off.
~~~
mikepk
Thanks, this is similar in spirit to my thinking. Honestly I expected more of
the 'learn to code' kind of sentiment that I got over twitter. :)
------
orangethirty
Send me an email. Address in profile. I'd like to talk to you about this in
more depth and in private.
------
mikepk
Response via twitter "@codemokeyism @mikepk Learn writing code"
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
What's with all the spam on whois? - mtimjones
I was recently working on an article on network reconnaissance, and ran across this on Microsoft's whois. When did whois become spamworthy?<p># whois microsoft.com<p>Whois Server Version 2.0<p>Domain names in the .com and .net domains can now be registered with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net for detailed information.<p><pre><code> Server Name: MICROSOFT.COM.ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.GET.ONE.MILLION.DOLLARS.AT.WWW.UNIMUNDI.COM
IP Address: 209.126.190.70
Registrar: PDR LTD. D/B/A PUBLICDOMAINREGISTRY.COM
Whois Server: whois.PublicDomainRegistry.com
Referral URL: http://www.PublicDomainRegistry.com
Server Name: MICROSOFT.COM.ZZZ.IS.0WNED.AND.HAX0RED.BY.SUB7.NET
IP Address: 207.44.240.96
Registrar: TUCOWS DOMAINS INC.
Whois Server: whois.tucows.com
Referral URL: http://domainhelp.opensrs.net
Server Name: MICROSOFT.COM.WILL.BE.SLAPPED.IN.THE.FACE.BY.MY.BLUE.VEINED.SPANNER.NET
IP Address: 216.127.80.46
Registrar: ASCIO TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
Whois Server: whois.ascio.com
Referral URL: http://www.ascio.com
Server Name: MICROSOFT.COM.IS.A.STEAMING.HEAP.OF.FUCKING-BULLSHIT.NET
IP Address: 63.99.165.11
Registrar: 1 & 1 INTERNET AG
Whois Server: whois.schlund.info
Referral URL: http://1and1.com</code></pre></code></pre>
======
Thereasione
There was similar thread on HN:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6204867](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6204867)
>This is because under the Verisign GRS, name servers for second level domains
also get entries created. So, you can create a Whois entry for an arbitrarily
named server, like ycombinator.com.paulgraham.have.mychildren.com, and it will
show up. I haven't been involved in Whois and tld stuff in a while, but back
in the day, these host Whois records were allowed because the gtld servers
needed glue for domain names - after all, if your domain name is
ycombinator.com and your name server is ns1.ycombinator.com, how can a
resolver recurse to find that, unless te gtld servers also have an A record
for that label/object? So, you could just go create arbitrary A records at the
gtld level, which would cause a corresponding Whois entry to be created.
Hilarity for all involved.
~~~
mtimjones
Thanks for the detailed response. Good stuff.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Parasites That Brainwash Their Host - mark-t
http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2007/08/brainwashed_by_a_parasite.php
======
sungam
Cysticercosis (pork tapeworm) can cause marked personality changes in humans
when cysts form in the brain.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cysticercosis>
~~~
river_styx
I think I saw that on an episode of House M.D.
~~~
jcl
As the Wikipedia article notes, it was the pilot episode.
------
andrewl
Robert Sapolsky has a fascinating article on this topic called "Bugs in the
Brain." I couldn't remember the article title, but I just had to google for
the terms:
sapolsky french kiss polar bear
and that did it. Read the article and find out why. It's classic Sapolsky.
<http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=bugs-in-the-brain>
------
jasonlbaptiste
hmm, no comments yet? I'm assuming its one of those articles that speaks for
itself. I know I read it last year, but watching it/reading it all over again
was just as fascinating. The fact that similar proteins were used in the
fungi, which coordinated with the actual organism was pretty amazing. It's
almost as if evolution hacked itself to brainwash an organism. Kind of nuts...
~~~
time_management
There are some who believe that fungi and plants like marijuana and psilocybin
mushrooms actually co-evolved with mammalian nervous systems, as opposed to
the more common theory that their psychoactive chemicals evolved as pesticides
(like caffeine, which is deadly to insects). For example, one theory is that
psilocybin developed to inspire herbivorous animals to break out of their
routines and seek new ranges, defecating over a wider area and creating a
larger habitat for the mushrooms. Terrence McKenna, though it should be said
that he was far from a skeptical researcher, believed that psilocybin actually
drove human evolution; for example, drug-induced synesthesia, mapping concepts
to symbols, is his explanation for the emergence of language. (However,
language has been shown to emerge naturally in the absence of psychedelic
chemicals, so I find this to be particularly far-fetched.)
~~~
lacker
Language has been shown to emerge naturally? I'm not sure what you're
referring to, could you provide a link?
~~~
a-priori
One major example that has stuck with me in the case of Nicaraguan Sign
Language, which was spontaneously developed by a group of deaf schoolchildren.
Wikipedia has an article on it, and Stephen Pinker discusses the phenomenon at
length in his book _The Language Instinct_.
~~~
lacker
Yeah, but that doesn't show how language evolved, it just shows that language
is innate in modern humans rather than a purely social construct.
~~~
a-priori
That's not what you asked. You asked for evidence that language "has been
shown to emerge naturally". The case of NSL is such evidence.
------
andyking
Could someone have said "that page starts off with a huge close up of an
insect"? I freaked as soon as it popped up and had to close my eyes.
------
zasz
Gross. This stuff's used in Chinese medicine. My parents have a friend who
drinks a tea made from this fungus.
~~~
illicium
Mushrooms are fungi, you know.
~~~
zasz
I do know. The mushrooms on my pizza, however, weren't grown by planting
spores in a poor animal's head and growing and growing until its exoskeleton
cracked.
------
Allocator2008
This is an awesome example, as the article says, of the extended phenotype of
Prof. Richard Dawkins. The genes of the worm parasite for example, produce
proteins which manipulate the central nervous system of the grasshopper, ergo,
one has the genes of one organism affecting the behavior of another organism.
I'm a big Dawkins fan, ever since I got 'The Selfish Gene'. I am particularly
intrigued by the ability of the parasite to escape once its host has been
preyed upon, so if a frog eats a grasshopper that has a worm in it, the worm
can escape both the carcass of the grasshopper and the frog. In the end, the
grasshopper becomes nothing more or less than the worm's mechanism of
replication. One could view this as a restricted class of cases, however, I
think one can generalize this by saying as some do, that in fact all life from
parasites to ourselves is simply a form of intermediaries to preserve a
relatively restricted set of phenotypes, i.e., we are indeed, like the
grasshopper, "gene carrying robots". Of course I think I take a certain geeky
pleasure from this knowledge, to be able to disabuse people of their quaint,
deluded notions of life having mystical attributes, when in fact it is finally
speaking a fancy chemical process brought about to preserve genomes, this, and
nothing more! :-)
~~~
time_management
* Of course I think I take a certain geeky pleasure from this knowledge, to be able to disabuse people of their quaint, deluded notions of life having mystical attributes*
1\. Evolution does not disprove a vitalistic or "mystical" explanation for the
origin and progress of life.
2\. The "mystical" position has lost no ground to scientific advances,
although rigid systems of belief (e.g. creationism) have. Atheism has existed
for thousands of years; presumably, it's as old as theism. The partial retreat
of Christianity from mainstream Euro-American life has to do with cultural
forces, not science.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Ask HN: What do you think about these offer terms? - mircea
Hello HN,<p>I've been offered the role of CTO for a stealth mode startup(internet e-commerce) in Berlin, to complete the founding team. The terms of the offer were:
- 3.5K€ gross, t < 7 mo
- 4.5K€ gross, 6 months < t < 13 months
- market value salary + 3-4% equity, t > 13 months<p>During the interview, I was told that my expectations of salaries in Germany are a bit high (I'm based in Romania, currently): what would be market value for a startup CTO in Berlin? I was expecting something like 7-8K€ gross.<p>How is life in Berlin (housing, dining, culture, etc)? I don't speak german,yet :)<p>For a salary that is much lower than what I perceive to be market value, at least I would have expected much more significant equity.<p>I have experience with US based startups having worked as a very early employee in a leadership role but don't have experience dealing with EU startups.<p>Anything you think would help me make a better decision (legal, financial, etc) is welcome.<p>Is there a website where I can calculate the net salary from gross?<p>Thank you.
======
dirkdeman
I assume that market values in Germany don't differ too wildly from where I'm
based (The Netherlands). The 3500 - 4500 Euros for the first year is OK I
guess for a startup, albeit somewhat on the lower side. US salaries
(especially Silicon Valley) are higher, but so is the cost of living.
What does raise a red flag for me is what happens after a year. 'Market
value', how much is that? It seems they assume that business is going to grow
fast, but there's no sure way to tell. Remeber: they're in stealth mode so
they probably have no revenue to speak of at this point. If business isn't
going well in the future you're likely stuck with the same salary and 4% of
nothing, at best.
As for the net salary, you can use www.nettolohn.de (in German). I took the
liberty to calculate the net wage from EUR3500,-, it will be somewhere around
EUR 2100,- monthly.
Having said that, Berlin is a great city, amazing atmosphere and a nice
startup culture. If I had to choose any European city to build a startup from,
Berlin would be my first choice. With 3500 euros monthly, you should be able
to rent a decent place, buy food, go out and save for the occasional trip to
Romania.
~~~
mircea
Thanks a lot for the info. Do you know what is typical for an EU startup in
terms of issuing stock? What types of stock are available, which type is
usually issued to the founders, investors, etc?
~~~
dirkdeman
Sorry, I have no idea!
------
brudgers
3-4% equity is not really a founder's stake.
Assuming no dilution (a huge assumption for a startup in stealth mode), it
would take a $200 million dollar exit under the US tax system (I suspect
Germany's is no more favorable) to provide Fuck You money.
In the abstract, a founder's equity stake should provide that sort of money in
the $50 million range at exit and should assume dilution unless the company is
bootstrapping and already profitable.
What you really have in front of you is an offer to be an early hire at below
market salary. There's nothing wrong with that, but see it for what it is.
Good luck.
~~~
mircea
The 4% is in fact dilutable. That was my first question when I heard the
equity amount. Thanks.
------
mircea
I'm reposting the offer terms with, hopefully, better formatting.
- 3.5K€ gross, t < 7 mo
- 4.5K€ gross, 6 months < t < 13 months
- market value salary + 3-4% equity, t > 13 months
------
begus
You need more than 20% equity.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What do you read every day? - jranck
Be sides the obvious Hacker News, what newspapers, magazines, sites, blogs, etc do you like to follow on a daily basis?
======
shii
Something Awful, newsmap.jp, K10 if there's anything new, HN, and
dis.4chan.org/prog/
I take a general overview of the internets in the morning and a couple of
times later at jimmyr.com as well, to see what articles were trending from
people's hatena and delicious bookmarks.
------
jranck
Some staples for me are:
Techcrunch
Mashable
Lifehacker
Signal vs. Noise (37 signals)
Smashing Magazine's Network
A VC (Fred Wilson)
Reddit
Drudge Report
NY Times
ESPN or, _shameless plug_ , my site fanreader.com
------
crockstar
Not including those already mentioned:
Techmeme
Twitter
SEOmoz
Search Engine Land
State of Search
HN
PRweb - Filter for Online Marketing (generally rubbish, but a few gems
Econsultancy
------
abosit
<http://dilbert.com/>
------
mistrQ
Hacker News (and Signal vs. Noise usually once a week)
I don't have too much time to keep up with various blogs. If it's worth
reading, it's normally front page on HN.
------
rdhn
Daring Fireball, Reddit, Signal vs. Noise, The Brooks Review, shawnblanc.net
and a quick skim of Twitter (following people who post interesting stuff).
------
JCB_K
Lifehacker, Signal vs Noise, Minimally Minimal, ma.tt (for the once-in-a-year
brilliant post), the Guardian (for general news and liveblogs)
------
mindcrime
Hacker News, Dilbert, WRALTechwire, Quora, The Register, Reddit, and
www.phins.com (Miami Dolphins news site).
------
Concours
<http://mcsquare.me> lifehacker , HN
------
rudenoise
<http://www.guardian.co.uk>
------
Oyinko
Everyday, i read twitter, google news, TC and mashable.
------
bobbyfive
Slashdot, Marginal Revolution, HN.
------
marklabedz
news.bbc.co.uk HN Al Jazeera English
------
zem
reddit and a whole bunch of comics
------
kamaal
My reading list revolves around two areas which I wish to qualify the
following way:
Job/Career/Technical competency related:
1\. Perl blogs, Iron man blogging challenge, reading modern perl books from
chromatic and associated blogs. 2\. I make it a point to read whats the next
interesting/challenging thing in my area of work. 3\. Read questions on
PerlMonks, Stackexchange. 4\. Other tech stuff.
General Hackery:
1\. Hacker news. 2\. Tidbits collected from twitter and other places.
Current affairs.
1\. news.google.com
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Penn Jillette: An Atheist's Guide to the 2012 Election - MikeCapone
http://boingboing.net/2011/12/30/penn-jillette-an-atheists-g.html
======
kls
_I have tried with friends to say the most blasphemous sentence I can possibly
say and it does not come close to the blasphemy of Michelle Bachman saying
that earthquakes and hurricanes were the way God was trying to get the
attention of politicians._
This is pretty inflammatory religious and political theater, I really think it
more deserving of Reddit than HN.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Predictions on the future of databases - thewarrior
http://gigaom.com/2013/12/14/5-predictions-on-the-future-of-databases-from-a-guy-who-knows-databases/
======
siddboots
The future is a fickle thing. 15 years ago I, along with many others, would
have told you that this was "the future of databases":
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Manifesto](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Manifesto)
The difficult problems since that time turned out to be scalability and
parallelism, neither of which were addressed by The Third Manifesto. So
instead of D, we got Map Reduce and NoSQL.
Who knows what the hard problems of the next 15 years will be.
~~~
lmm
The object-relational mismatch is still a huge problem. I'm quite interested
by this supposed solution. But I spent 5 minutes chasing links and couldn't
find an example of _what the syntax actually looks like_ , only a suggestion
that I _buy_ some book to understand the language. This "D" thing sounds
pretty cool, but it seriously needs some more user-friendly marketing (and a
non-colliding, googleable name).
~~~
dragonwriter
Most of theninterestin info is linked from the reference material section of
www.thethirdmanifesto.com; what you Semmelweis to be looking for is:
[http://www.dcs.warwick.ac.uk/~hugh/TTM/Tutorial%20D-2013-05-...](http://www.dcs.warwick.ac.uk/~hugh/TTM/Tutorial%20D-2013-05-23.pdf)
Which provides a description of Tutorial D, an implementation of the
prescriptions.
~~~
dragonwriter
> ... Semmelweis ...
Or "seem" \-- I have really no idea how that happened and didn't notice it
until too late to edit.
------
tsahyt
There's a lot going on and that's the way it has been for quite a while now
but as someone who's working with databases only marginally at the moment, I'm
left wondering: What's wrong with RDBMS? Sure it's nice to have a simple Key-
Value Store for applications that don't need much more than this but bottom
line, the relational model is very powerful, albeit quite abstract, and most
data we need to deal with can be made to fit into this model. We have a
working, declarative query language that Just Works(TM), for which we have
written very good optimizers. The various instances of such DMBS range from
small-scale use (for example, SQLite) to really-huge (Postgres, Oracle, etc).
So, to sum it up: Exactly _why_ should we abandon this?
~~~
VLM
Most boots on the ground DBAs don't know anything about rational DB design.
Codd Normal form? Whats that? Can't I just make one giant table? Indexes? Why
would I want indexes? I heard they take up disk space and CPU so I won't use
any, to increase performance. So they (poorly) implement key value stores
regardless what the problem actually requires (if the only tool you know how
to use is a nail...). Nothing funnier that watching a noob do a select * on a
large table transferring gigs of data and use his RoR app to implement the
WHERE using nested ruby if statements and string comparisons (or better
regexes without understanding regexes, LOL) and god help me a bubble sort
instead of an ORDER BY clause and of course hit another table once for each
row selected from the first table because he doesn't know JOINs even exist, or
heard they're "slow".
A RDBMS is a very slow key value store, so anything that can't do transactions
or can't do anything else, is always going to be faster at its extremely
limited set of abilities.
From an engineering perspective if you need 10 HP to run your 5 KW generator,
a RDBMS is like installing a 10000 HP marine diesel and then not having any
idea how to start or maintain it or even where to get the fuel. Obviously
every objective performance metric would be better for a 10 HP lawnmower
engine in that app, if all you'll ever plan to use is 10 HP and you have no
idea how to use anything more advanced anyway.
There are also very loudly trumpeted anecdotal situations or contrived thought
experiments where certain unusual technologies fit a unusual situation very
well. This is, oddly enough, unusual.
I've read and experimented with the "7 DBs in 7 weeks" book and it IS very
interesting but I can't find any business cases to actually use any of it,
which is somewhat frustrating. And my experience is how you end up with people
writing CRUD apps to store cooking recipes that none the less use NEO4J
because they really, really, want to add a line to their resume that they used
NEO4J, not because the app needed it.
~~~
StefanKarpinski
Condescend much?
~~~
VLM
When I'm right, yeah. Not using "engineer" as a title of authority but as a
problem solving technique, maybe the TLDR is its an engineering problem where
non-engineers mess up RDBMS incredibly often, and when its blame time, better
off blaming the tool than the "designer" so...
"I don't know what I'm doing, but someone who knows what they're doing
anecdotally solved a completely different problem using tool XYZ, so for lack
of any better idea, lets copy them".
If you're familiar with cargo cult science there is an enormous miasma of
cargo cult engineering fogging up the entire database arena not just nosql.
Another concept that needs to be in the discussion is the "no silver bullet"
rule from programming applies to database design, like it or not. Can't just
sprinkle magic nosql pixie dust on any old random problem and expect it to
work, any more than applying any random programing fad to any random problem
will work.
The (old and new) tools are actually pretty interesting, although often poorly
engineered (by the end user) and implemented. Its the persistent anti-patterns
and non-engineering design technique that I'm properly arrogant and
condescending toward.
Hammers are a cool new invention and have some great unusual new applications,
but they don't install deck screws any better than the legacy screwdriver.
Laborers on the job randomly mixing screws nails screwdrivers and hammers on
the job and then internet discussions about how hammers and/or screwdrivers
suck is nearly physically painful to watch.
~~~
StefanKarpinski
Regardless of whether you are right or not, your tone is very off-putting.
This is not an academic concern – this sort of attitude is a huge part of why
the tech community ends up being very exclusionary. Oh yes, watching someone
make mistakes while learning how to build a web application or learn regular
expressions is hilarious. Much better to laugh condescendingly while watching
them struggle than try to help. Concocting "straw man" noobs everywhere who do
things in obviously wrong ways doesn't make you more right. And it definitely
doesn't make you smarter. It just makes you seem like a jerk and makes it a
little harder for people to stomach getting into the tech field. Please stop.
------
VLM
The most popular corporate world database system at this time is Excel. And
its not a very good DBMS, and the world is full of spreadsheet guys who know
nothing about database theory, designing horrific abominations.
On a large scale I think the future will be interesting, will "real databases"
remain in IT land or will it move out in the world?
Don't laugh, I'm just barely old enough that when I started out, printing,
file management, physical media management, static network address
configuration (not just IP in the old days), and backups were done solely by
IT professionals in the machine room, and now for better or worse every noob
does it (or tries to do it) themselves. If in the future someone comes up with
software to automate away DBAs...
Or it might go the other way and the corporate business database of the future
will be super turbo hyper i-Excel.
------
JackMorgan
Anyone who cares about databases absolutely must check out Datomic. If you
want to know the future of relational databases for the next 15 years, I think
it is here. Practically infinite client side scaling, logic based querying,
ACID, runs on several foundations, supports joins, all data is permanent so it
stores the entire history of every fact. You can query "right now" or in the
past at any known time. The database lives on your application stack the same
way git checks out your code on a development machine, and you push and pull
data to bring your application up to date with other stacks.
It doesn't meet every single need you might ever have, but it sure meets a
whole lot more then any other database I've seen.
[http://www.datomic.com](http://www.datomic.com)
~~~
misframer
I'm really skeptical about Datomic. I think it has some great features, but I
have a hard time believing that ACID transactions is one of them.
I've asked about this on their Google Group:
[https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/datomic/zkMV50VKw2s](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/datomic/zkMV50VKw2s)
As of right now, there are still questions left unanswered.
~~~
stuarthalloway
[http://docs.datomic.com/acid.html](http://docs.datomic.com/acid.html)
------
beachwood23
I still think its amazing that Facebook is running off MySQL. Such a
tremendous amount of user data, placed in a system that many deem inferior.
I'm not saying they made a bad choice, I'm just impressed at how they've
managed to make MySQL fit their needs.
~~~
RyanZAG
I was under the impression they use it more as a sharded "key-values" store?
ie. no joins - the part of the database that makes it relational.
~~~
gbog
I concur. In our shop we also use MySQL without the joins. That's like an
efficient key-value store, but there must be a better solution somewhere: all
the joins are done in client code, and caching too. That's a great amount of
error-prone code that probably shouldn't be necessary.
~~~
bello
"all the joins are done in client code"
What's the point of joining in the application level? If you're going to join,
why not do it in the database? That should be both faster and more convenient
(unless your schemas aren't relational _at all_ , in which case I don't see
why you'd use a relational database)
~~~
RyanZAG
Data for User A is on server 9, and data for User B is on server 43. Joins
across servers is not really supported in mysql.
Another issue is connections between DB servers. Generally you want your DB
server to be as fast as possible, so having it handle the connections to other
servers slows everything down. If you offload the DB server connections to
your web server, you can easily scale by just adding more web servers and
having each DB server handle only its own data.
The best solution would be some type of 'mysql proxy' that could run on every
web server that would transparently handle the joins between all the different
mysql data servers. I think I saw a project attempting to do this awhile back,
but didn't really keep track.
------
digitalzombie
It's just going to be different dbs in the backend working with what they do
best in tandem.
Lucence base for search. RMDB for money/transactions. And other noSQL type for
just data that isn't critical, don't care much about relation, and just need
it to be fast.
Of course, perhaps PostgreSQL and other RMDB can have noSQL attributes then
noSQL would have some good competition.
PostgreSQL if they can make it easier to clustered, like cassandra or
elasticsearch. And get a better fuzzy string and other text search capability
in there then now we're talking. But I guess it's just me dreaming.
~~~
ddorian43
postgresql XC is master-master, shardable, cross-shard transactions, data
partitioning across nodes, distributed queries
~~~
aquadrop
Yes, but it's side project so it doesn't get such attention\confidence as
postgresql. But I hope the project won't get abandoned and will evolve into
something very powerful.
------
CmonDev
"Obamacare, for better or for worse, is being launched on a NoSQL database
system" \- silver bullet did not help (along with HTML5 etc. whatever).
~~~
Ygg2
So are you implying that a regular DB would have fared better?
I think it was a failure because of the complex law background and interfacing
with all kinds of legacy systems it has to draw data from.
------
bsaul
Could it be that facebook complete lack of innovation is due to them being
stuck for years with the same issues on the db ?
~~~
ddebernardy
Best I recollect, FB is quite innovative in the data center.
Also, it would be nice of you to step in and contribute to an open source
database engine if your expertise is such that you can dismiss what FB did
with them as lacking innovation. I'd wager they'll be all ears open for your
explanation how to do multimaster replication and distributed joins
efficiently while remaining ACID compliant.
~~~
bsaul
I wasn't talking about facebook technical innovations, but rather end-user new
features, sorry i wasn't clear.
------
aquadrop
By the way, as long as we're speaking about DB future, did anyone try
foundationdb? Does it live up to expectations?
------
h2database
What about H2?
[http://www.h2database.com/html/main.html](http://www.h2database.com/html/main.html)
I can't think of a better reason NOT to use it. Can someone who knows a lot
about db please comment on this.
~~~
ddorian43
[http://www.slideshare.net/PostgresOpen/postgres-is-
different...](http://www.slideshare.net/PostgresOpen/postgres-is-
differentfrombetterthanyourrdbms)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Is Spotify Going Bankrupt in 2017? Wall Street Delivers Another Red Flag - pja
http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2017/02/02/spotify-bankrupt-ipo/
======
pratap103
If they don't manage to reneg their deals with the big three, bankruptcy is
certainly foreseeable. 70% percent royalties not including tax and overheads
on a subscription model leaves no room for a profitable model. It's a shame
because it really is the best service out there in my opinion.
------
pja
Betteridge probably applies, but the riders on those loans look really bad for
anyone hoping for a payout from their Spotify employee share options.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Recreating “Portugal cakes” from 1730 - Petiver
https://rarecooking.wordpress.com/2014/12/29/potingallportugal-cakes/
======
jcrei
The name Portugal refers to the orange fruit, not the country. Orange in many
parts of the world (Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and I think some Arabic
countries) is still called something like "Portucalle". This is due to the
fact that the sweet variety of oranges we now consume was first brought to
Europe by Portuguese sailors / merchants. (Before that, oranges were like
lemons are now, just used for cooking) This differs from Orange in many other
countries where the name comes from "Apple from China"..
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_%28fruit%29#Etymology](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_%28fruit%29#Etymology)
~~~
diego_moita
Oranges, were introduced into Portugal by the Moors (current day Moroccans and
Algerians) when they invaded Iberian Peninsula. It spread from there to the
rest of Europe.
Funny thing is that the Persians knew citrus fruits (originated in Central
Asia) long before the Portuguese but they also call it portqale while the
Portuguese name (laranja) comes from the sanskrit "nāraṅga" brought by the
Persians themselves.
The reason is that the Portuguese discovered very soon that the citrus are
very efficient to fight scurvy, caused by C vitamin deficiency, a disease that
made impossible to travel long oceanic voyages. So during 15th and 16th
century they established a lot of trading posts around the world where they
could get a supply of fresh oranges.
Oranges were one of the secrets discovered by the Portuguese to enable long
sailing ships. Like land and celestial maps and gun powder, they were one of
the most essential technologies to enable mercantilism, European colonialism
and globalization.
------
galfarragem
These "Portugal cakes", if still exist, are not popular in Portugal. We still
have recipes of cakes and breads with raisins but the orange flower water,
I’ve never heard about it. It might be a recipe branch that grew independently
taking Portuguese traditional ingredients (raisins, oranges and fortified
wine) and didn't survived in Portugal.
Nowadays the most Portuguese pastry is by far:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastel_de_nata](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastel_de_nata)
They are easily available in Portuguese emigrant neighbourhoods all over the
world. Give it a try, you'll not regret it.
~~~
quesera
>
> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastel_de_nata](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastel_de_nata)
Interesting. I've had those in "Chinese" Dim Sum restaurants, but while they
were clearly atypical for Chinese food, I had no idea they were originally
Portuguese.
Strongly second the recommendation. They're delicious!
~~~
pkallberg
Macau, a former Portuguese colony, is full of these pastries. This may be how
they entered China...
~~~
Umofomia
Indeed, they were popularized in Hong Kong via Macau:
Custard tarts derived from the Portuguese pastry were
introduced in Hong Kong in the 1940s by cha chaan tengs
via the Portuguese colony of Macau.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg_tart#History](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg_tart#History)
------
mprovost
When I moved overseas I was surprised how many dishes use currants like this
one does. Or how it's used in drinks like Ribena. But it turns out that
growing currants has been illegal in the US for most of the 20th century with
some states lifting the ban only in the last few years. This was due to the
threat of it spreading disease to trees so the logging industry had it banned.
So they're pretty much never used in American recipes.
~~~
luke1972
Currants are just dried grapes
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zante_currant](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zante_currant)).
The currants in Ribena are blackcurrants
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackcurrant](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackcurrant))
which are completely different.
~~~
twic
This is correct, but i still want to try a soft drink made with currants!
------
bane
I love this kind of archeology. I feel like it really makes me connect better
with people from long ago to taste what they taste and experience (if even
just a little) something that they would have experienced.
I know it's been done a bit in the past, but I feel like this kind of
resurrection archeology is really gaining steam recently. There's a lady in
Baltimore, MD who tries to figure out fashionable Roman hairstyles for
example. There's a "Medieval" restaurant not too far from me that tries to
only serve meals based on recipes and eating techniques available from the
period. Mt. Vernon, George Washington's Home, has recently restarted the
original distillery, making whisky as close to the way it would have been made
as possible (including stream cooled condensers).
I'm waiting for some of this to really take off in Europe and Asia. New World
foods, especially the pepper, absolutely transformed traditional foods. I'd
love to eat some original Southern Indian Cuisine from pre-1492.
I know we're living in the future...but to some extent we can also live in the
past and that's awesome.
------
powertower
> 1/2 lb. all-purpose flour
Wouldn't the flour have to be bolted Spelt or Einkorn flour (i.e., the
original strains before 1900s)?
Seems like a modern strain of wheat (that's also been fully degermed to make
"white") would give a completely different result to the 1700s original.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Cheap, clean stoves were supposed to save millions of lives – what happened? - r721
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/these-cheap-clean-stoves-were-supposed-to-save-millions-of-lives-what-happened/2015/10/29/c0b98f38-77fa-11e5-a958-d889faf561dc_story.html
======
bcg1
Ethanol stoves are actually great for this problem... very low emissions, and
fuel that is easy and safe to store and can be produced locally. In many parts
of the world, there are abundant non-food sources of mash... kelp, mesquite
seeds, cattails, etc... and community scale production is much more efficient
than the bizarre government subsidized ethanol industry in the US that uses GE
corn with that requires a lot of energy input and has a high energy cost for
transportation to and from the centralized production facilities.
I'm not sure how it is "undeveloped" countries but around here is quite
illegal to make your own fuel in this way however... it is, after all, the "A"
in BATF. It seems that without addressing such issues, the "clean" stoves will
not be popular because locals would need to keep paying some "authority"
(government or otherwise) for access to the fuel, and money is much more
scarce than dung in many places.
~~~
vonmoltke
> I'm not sure how it is "undeveloped" countries but around here is quite
> illegal to make your own fuel in this way however...
Not sure what you mean by "in this way", but it is quite legal to make ethanol
fuel for your own use in the US.
~~~
bcg1
You have to get a license from the BATF to do so, and you are limited to
10,000 gallons per year (which is plenty). To get the license you have to give
them permission to enter your property without a warrant to inspect whenever
they like, and you have to keep meticulous records to account for every gallon
produced. By "in this way" I meant a means through which normal people can
make their own fuel with a low barrier to entry and little or no risk of fines
and/or jail.
------
aaron695
Sounds to me like it is working, is what happened.
> Although these cookstoves produce fewer emissions than open fires, burning
> biomass fuels in them still releases plenty of toxins
For toxins that actually matter, that's smoke in layperson terms.
So what if the benefits are only partially there. It still rocks.
It makes me suspicions that the study where all the stovetops were no longer
being used, was just picked as an example because it failed.
And as to electricity and gas being better, that's nice, the doers can
continue down the biomass efficiency road while this is still being discussed.
~~~
benp84
That was my take-away too.
They had an idea to fix a problem, it worked but not as well as hoped, so now
they're learning and iterating. Sounds like any experimental project (or
startup).
They got 28 million stoves out with a budget of $10m/year (times 5 years?).
Big deal if they haven't saved the world yet.
------
zeveb
> “As yet, no biomass stove in the world is clean enough to be truly health
> protective in household use,” says Kirk Smith, a professor of global
> environmental health at the University of California at Berkeley and the
> leading health researcher on cookstoves.
My understanding is that rocket stoves[1] are extremely efficient and non-
polluting. Is that incorrect, or are rocket stoves not profitable for the
concerns promoting this sort of effort?
> “With their system of government, they can kind of dictate what happens,”
> notes Jim Jetter, a senior research engineer who tests cookstoves for the
> EPA.
Well, yes, it helps if one can sentence holdouts to the _laogai_.
> much like some American cooks like the flavor of meat grilled over charcoal.
Only some? I'm pretty sure that _everyone_ prefers the flavour of food cooked
over good lump charcoal.
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_stove](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_stove)
------
stevetrewick
_> Perhaps more research could apprehend what actually works_
No, not really. Since the obvious solution (i.e. the one that has worked
everywhere in the world it's been tried) is affordable grid scale electricity
- which at this point means fossil or nuclear - and the west is apparently
hellbent on preventing the devolping world from having this, it's unlikely any
future research will come up with anything of any actual utility.
~~~
eveningcoffee
There is actually even simpler solution. Build a chimney and exhaust the
burning fumes directly to the outside. Problem solved.
These people are living two centuries in the past so proved, simple and local
solutions would be the best.
~~~
intopieces
You solution doesn't take into account any of the issues discovered in the
implementation of the stove programs. Not only is the issue more complex than
you acknowledge, but it's this kind of "we can fix this problem by making them
do things our way" attitude that severely hinders progress on the issue.
~~~
eveningcoffee
The article did not evaluate such issues. If you could point to any background
information then I would be interested.
~~~
intopieces
A significant portion of the article is devoted to such issues.
"Even if people are aware of the health risks of cooking over open fires (and
many are not), they are reluctant to abandon cooking methods embedded in their
culture."
"Women had stopped using the stoves because they didn’t like the design or
because the stoves broke, burned more wood (not less, as intended) or didn’t
get foods hot enough."
"Indian women surveyed by the Stockholm Environment Institute said they prefer
to cook roti, a flatbread eaten with every meal, in a clay oven using a mix of
firewood and cow dung because they can both fry and bake the bread and the
fuels improve the taste — much like some American cooks like the flavor of
meat grilled over charcoal."
"The affordable ones are inadequate, and the good ones are unaffordable.” (How
do you expect a group of people unable to afford a stove to afford
retrofitting their home with a chimney?)
Your chimney solution solves none of these problems. When attempting to
address an issue in developing nations, it's importent to analyze exactly how
people are implementing he solution on the ground. Cultural grandstanding as
seen in these comments does nothing to solve the problem.
~~~
eveningcoffee
I meant the usage of chimneys, but yes, I could imagine how these claims can
be extended to that too.
Now * How do you expect a group of people unable to afford a stove to afford
retrofitting their home with a chimney? *
I am from nation with very poor and repressed background, but we managed to do
that.
For building a functioning oven with a chimney you do not need a lot of fancy
material - just bricks, mortar (or can be even made from clay rich earth) and
a iron plate.
Of course these gadgets are expensive and stupid and this was my original
criticism.
* Your chimney solution solves none of these problems. *
We do not know that as it was not even considered as it seems to me from the
article. Instead they tried to sell complicated industrial products.
------
kirk21
Solar panels + batteries will have an enormous impact in a lot of countries.
Once ppl buy a stove it is 'free' to use vs having to buy fuel every time
(like pellets or ethanol). Will take 10-15 years but it is coming. Combine
this with satellite internet and the living standard will radically increase.
~~~
reitanqild
Cooking use very much energy compared to led lamps or even tvs.
------
eveningcoffee
I do not have time to read this bag of words but I searched for the word
"chimney" and I did not find it.
See, there is your problem and a big fat hint for a solution.
Most countries in northern hemisphere solved this problem more than century
ago and it amazes me how this solution is not even mentioned once.
~~~
cc438
These populations aren't mentally incompetent, they use chimneys. The issue is
that chimney's aren't 100% efficient and only remove the pollution from the
home, not the surrounding environment. The pollution becomes pervasive when an
entire city of 100,000+ people is cooking with biomass fuel. Your chimney's
exhaust is just another person's air when it's as concentrated as you'd find
in places like those described in the article.
~~~
clock_tower
Look at the woman in the article picture: she's not using a chimney, and she
has to squat to cook. German women were cooking standing up (building fires on
raised stone platforms), with chimneys to vent away smoke, in the 17th
century. (See Fernand Braudel, _The Structures of Everyday Life_.) Draw your
own conclusions: pathological loyalty to tradition or lack of imagination; or
severe lack of capital and calories; or what?
~~~
panglott
This comment made me think of the Japanese kamado or the traditional Russian
stove, but see this discussion of the Lorena adobe stove
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cook_stove#Lorena_adobe_stove](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cook_stove#Lorena_adobe_stove)
One problem is that ceramic stoves with a large thermal mass may take a lot
more fuel to fire. In colder northern regions with plentiful fuel, the high
thermal mass is an advantage because it can help keep the house warm. But in a
tropical setting, open indoor fires may be more efficient at quickly heating
food, especially when deforestation is a problem.
~~~
clock_tower
What Braudel discussed was an assembly with an oven underneath, and a raised
hearth on top. You didn't have to heat the stove -- just build a fire on the
top surface (with a chimney and smoke hood directly above), and cook with
that.
------
pakled_engineer
A solsource solar cooker I gave to a friend's family in the Rajasthan desert
still works as advertised a year later. These are desperate needed around
refugee camps where locals clash with refugees looking for firewood.
------
clock_tower
While we're at it, check out [http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2014/06/thermal-
efficiency-co...](http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2014/06/thermal-efficiency-
cooking-stoves.html) . I found this on the human-powered cranes article
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10499228](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10499228))
-- and it's arguing that the developed world should go back to open cooking
fires!
Admittedly, the argument isn't very strong (the grid may be dirty, but it's
not _that_ dirty); but it's interesting and strange that it can be made at
all.
------
SixSigma
"We know what's best for rural Indian poor" proclaims millionaire with her own
catering.
Still, at least India has a rocket going to Mars even if its children don't
have toilets and clean water.
~~~
denzil_correa
> Still, at least India has a rocket going to Mars even if its children don't
> have toilets and clean water.
Fallacy of Relative Privation?
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy_of_relative_privation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy_of_relative_privation)
~~~
SixSigma
Like Kim Il Jong eating while his people starve, I guess that's the same
fallacy
~~~
nivla
That is not the same fallacy. That is one person who controls the nation
sitting on an immense amount of wealth while his people starve. India doesn't
have a huge wealth tucked under its bed that it refuses to redistribute to its
citizens.
Let me put this into perspective for you, even distributing 1 billion dollars
to its citizens barely makes each person richer by only a dollar!
~~~
SixSigma
Thanks for the perspective, I feel so stupid.
I'm sure spending $1bn on clean water and sewage in the some of the most
populous cities on earth would be equally pointless.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How We Work - Or why we ditched Campfire and moved to Google Wave. - cedsav
http://www.veerwest.com/blog/productivity/how-we-work-or-why-we-ditched-campfire-and-moved-to-google-wave
======
p3rs3us
A good use case for Google wave. Though Google wave has not been much of a
success, but it has really helped a lot of small virtual companies like the
ones mentioned in post to collaborate. Its totally free of cost and saves a
lot of bucks!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Fairpoint Pledges To Violate Net Neutrality - raju
http://tech.slashdot.org/tech/08/12/27/1833202.shtml
======
chris11
From the article and comments on slashdot it just looks like Fairpoint is
cutting access to email from the verizon website in Febuary, which makes sense
because Fairport is taking over Verizon's service in that area. So this really
isn't a big deal.
~~~
anthonyrubin
Verizon apparently has some kind of portal for accessing other webmail
services (why?) and after a certain date customers will have to use Fairport's
portal instead. This is a complete non story.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: how do I get myself ready for the job market again? - mygoodness
I've been recently growing frustrated at my job - a few key people who I just can't seem to click with and a technology stack that is getting better but still moving glacially. For the most part, I love it, and I'm happy with a secure job where I can stretch my legs. I'm young, though, only twenty four. As much as I love it, it seems like there could be something better out there, and I think I'm finally ready to start looking. The problem is, it's been a while since I actually had a job interview.<p>Even worse, this job was/is my only technical interview. Everything else was bog standard retail jobs. I feel like I don't even know how to look for a good job anymore. It used to be trying to find the best hourly rate, but now I think about things like "what's going to give me the most happiness?" or "what kind of job would help me keep my skillset sharp and stay relevant?". It's frustrating to feel like I'm good at my job but not know how to find myself another one.<p>So, I turn to you Hacker News. Do you have any tips on how I should get myself in shape to try and find another, better job? Job boards to look at? Cover letter secrets? Are cover letters still even a thing? Should I delete my Twitter account? Help. :(
======
ximeng
Apply for two or three jobs at random get some interview practise. You'll soon
get a feeling for how competitive you are and what the market is looking for.
Take small steps in a better direction, don't expect to figure everything out
at once. Don't necessarily change - look to see how you can improve in the
current company, all companies have issues. Network. A lot will depend on
where you are and what you want to do - you give no details. Cover letters are
a thing, make them relevant. HN has regular monthly job adverts, check them.
Make your twitter account work relevant, or your work match your twitter
account. Delete it if it doesn't match the image you want to work towards.
~~~
mygoodness
I'm located in Boston, but my wife and I aren't opposed to locating elsewhere
if that's where this took us. (She's been looking for something else a little
more fulfilling as well.)
Right now, I'm on the platform/infrastructure side of things, so I handle the
typical management and deployment and configuration of machines, services,
hardware, etc while pushing forward the infrastructure that our product rides
on. I have a lot of latitude in what I work on, which is why this is so scary
thinking about switching to something else. Ideally this is the area I want to
be in, but I've always fancied the idea of working in application security or
something in that vein.
Thanks for the advice altogether.
~~~
ximeng
I'm not based there but I'm pretty sure there Boston's big enough that you'd
find good opportunities there. Maybe start there and consider a move later.
Sounds like you have a direction - do more in application security while
holding on to a degree of flexibility and keeping in touch with platform /
infrastructure skills. Flexibility tends to result from smaller companies, but
autonomous teams in bigger companies might also get this.
What opportunities are there within your current company to look at
application security? What skills would you need to develop to do those - this
is likely programming / networking more than infrastructure. Can you push for
exposure to those areas within the current company? If you are good then there
will be many companies where you will get latitude in what you work on, so
don't feel too scared.
Generally it's a good idea to push your skillset as far as you can go in the
current company, ideally get a couple of successful applications in place
based on your good performance and skillset. You can then negotiate for what
you want (pay, learning opportunities, responsibility) from a position of
strength. Nothing to stop you negotiating straight away but if you get push
back then you need to think about what your plan B is.
Also make a list of companies you like the sound of in Boston and try to find
out more about them. Even if they're not hiring see if you can find people who
work for them and arrange meetings. You should get a clearer idea soon enough
of what's out there and whether they'd really be the right kind of place for
you.
------
aonic
Send me an email (in profile) I would be happy to give you a phone interview,
that would be a good start. Maybe even some tips for your resume or cover
letter.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How do you tag a jellyfish? - Tomte
https://futureoftheocean.wordpress.com/2017/08/01/how-do-you-tag-a-jellyfish/
======
userbinator
Whoever has eaten jellyfish before, will be aware that at least some species
aren't as soft and squishy as the word "jelly" may evoke on first thought.
~~~
raybb
I can vouch for that. When I was in China I ate some jellyfish and it was
pretty crunch. Somewhats similar to the feeling of biting a cucumber slice.
~~~
dEnigma
A few questions, just out of interest: Was it raw? What does it taste like?
Where in China did you eat it and is it common there?
~~~
raybb
I'm not sure if it was raw but I think so.
It honestly doesn't taste like much. My friend bit into it first and thought
it was disgusting but then the people in the restaurant gestured that we have
to put soy sauce on it. So I only had it with soy sauce and it basically just
tasted like soy sauce.
It was in Shanghai and we were just at a little non-touristy restaurant so I'd
guess fairly common.
I actually have a gopro video of us eating it but the quality wasn't too
great. Edit: Here's a gif from the video of my friend eating the jellyfish, he
really wasn't a fan. [http://imgur.com/a/gAAjW](http://imgur.com/a/gAAjW)
It kinda looked like this: [https://www.foodnut.com/i/Little-Shanghai-
Restaurant-San-Mat...](https://www.foodnut.com/i/Little-Shanghai-Restaurant-
San-Mateo/Little-Shanghai-Restaurant-Jellyfish.jpg)
Source: [https://www.foodnut.com/383/little-shanghai-restaurant-
resta...](https://www.foodnut.com/383/little-shanghai-restaurant-restaurant-
review-san-mateo/)
~~~
k_sze
I can assure you that jellyfish is a "fairly common" dish around Shanghai.
Besides soy sauce, one can also mix it with some cucumber, black Zhejiang
vinegar, fine slices of chili pepper, and sesame. It's a common cold dish.
Source: my mom is Shanghaiese.
~~~
Raphmedia
What are the nutritional benefits of jellyfish?
------
raybb
Here's a bigger picture of the jellyfish tracker shown in the article:
[http://goldbogen.stanford.edu/wp-
content/uploads/2013/10/m_p...](http://goldbogen.stanford.edu/wp-
content/uploads/2013/10/m_plankt_38_6_cover.png)
As it turns out, they actually glued it to the jellyfish.
~~~
overcast
Damn, that tracker is huge! I'm surprised the thing can swim around with it.
~~~
nathancahill
The beauty of working underwater is that you can get things like this to
neutral buoyancy. Most of the effort that we experience when moving an object
above water is force exerted against gravity (vertical, compared to horizontal
effort).
------
pvaldes
using ink tatoos, for example
------
omginternets
Very carefully.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The State of Probabilistic Programming - superfx
https://moalquraishi.wordpress.com/2015/03/29/the-state-of-probabilistic-programming/
======
mizzao
I've tried to use probabilistic programming for building a model of real data,
and it seems that there is a long way to go before it's practical and fast.
On one hand, there are the Monte Carlo-based methods that will support
modeling almost any distributions, but are slow to use for large amounts of
data.
On the other hand, there are interesting cases like Infer.NET that use a
completely different technique (approximate, deterministic inference) but are
brittle for many real-world use cases.
Then, there is the general issue that one has to be familiar with
probabilistic models and the inner workings of the inference algorithms to
have any hope of debugging the inevitable errors and convergence issues that
arise. That seems to realistically require a machine learning or statistics
PhD and the population of those is very small.
~~~
stdbrouw
Well, MCMC is pretty close to brute force so it's never going to be very fast.
But the diagnostic tools are really quite good these days – tools like Stan
and PyMC make it easy to see diagnostic plots that allow you to check for
convergence and such. Additionally, more and more fine-tuning is happening
automatically, like setting the right jump sizes and a plausible initial value
for the random walk.
Note that traditional statistics, like regression, requires similar diagnostic
steps: qqplots to check for the normality of your data, the Levene test for
heteroskedasticity and so on. They often get ignored, but they're generally
not hard to teach or learn.
We're really not that far from having this stuff be usable by the broader
public. Maybe not "build any model you like and it will just work out of the
box" but definitely as a replacement for much frequentist statistics. See
"Doing Bayesian Data Analysis" by Kruschke, for example.
~~~
x0x0
I'm more pessimistic. My experience has been that inferring often benefits
from reparameterization or analytic marginalizing, plus a bag of tricks that
many people don't know.
It's unfortunately still a long way from being a technology that you can
pretty blindly use like ols or logistic regression. Particularly if you only
care about prediction, not parameter inference, lr with a penalty search is
pretty straightforward.
May I ask what / if you use bayesian stats for professionally in your news
work?
Also, the link to your github from your site goes to stdbrouw instead of
debrouwere
~~~
stdbrouw
So do you feel the pitfalls of probabilistic programming / Bayesian data
analysis are potentially more severe than those of traditional methods?
I don't get to use that much Bayesian analysis in my work, but I've been
toying around with a hierarchical model of content popularity recently: are
some topics / authors / genres more popular than others? Frankly finding it
hard to separate the signal ("this is what people actually like to read") from
the noise ("this is what just happened to be trending and will not be
reproducible").
------
cf
What's interesting about most complaints of these systems is people talk about
their poor performance or scalability? That is usually more a consequence of
using MCMC or other inference algorithm than the language itself.
MCMC is a very slow inference algorithm. Its primary advantage was that for
well-known models it could be coded up much more simply than a fancier
inference technique. When you consider variational methods and newer streaming
methods based on things like Assumed Density Filtering you can get really
great scalable performance. The point of probabilistic programming is write
inference algorithms once for a large class of models and be done. So the
advantage of using a fancier method is amplified.
This means paradoxically probabilistic programming should eventually be faster
than existing methods rather than slower, since you can reuse these fancier
inference methods for new models. This is a very active field so this progress
is only starting to be appear in the existing systems.
~~~
x0x0
Ease of coding is not the primary advantage of mcmc. The (giant) disadvantage
of variational inference is the user needs to derive equations and understand
quite a bit of math, where gibbs or other samplers like those in
bugs/openbugs/jags/stan can work with the factored distributions and require
much less mathematical sophistication from users.
~~~
mjw
I know they've traditionally been quite fiddly, but I'm pretty sure computers
can be persuaded to help derive the maths for variational methods these days.
Perhaps a more important difference is that MCMC, while slow, is exact in the
limit. Variational methods won't converge to the true posterior no matter how
long you run them. You'll converge to an approximate answer which depends on
the particular variational form you choose to use.
~~~
x0x0
Are you aware of any work (or researchers) working on that? I would be very
interested.
And I think your second sentence reinforces my point -- it makes variational
methods either more fiddly, or require more understanding to use well.
edit: here's one such (limited but nice) effort:
[http://ebonilla.github.io/papers/nguyen-bonilla-
nips-2014.pd...](http://ebonilla.github.io/papers/nguyen-bonilla-
nips-2014.pdf)
~~~
davmre
Microsoft's Infer.NET is essentially an automated system for variational
(/expectation-propagation) inference. It implements primitives for common
operations and distributions, and then uses the local structure of mean-field
inference ("variational message passing":
[http://www.jmlr.org/papers/volume6/winn05a/winn05a.pdf](http://www.jmlr.org/papers/volume6/winn05a/winn05a.pdf))
to build up variational inference algorithms for arbitrary factor graphs. It's
not infinitely flexible and doesn't solve all problems related to variational
inference, but once you get used to it you can iterate quite quickly on model
refinements, inference tweaks, etc. without any tedious derivations.
~~~
x0x0
thank you!
------
capnrefsmmat
DrBayes
([https://github.com/ntoronto/drbayes](https://github.com/ntoronto/drbayes))
is another interesting probabilistic programming language. It implements
measure-theoretic probability in Racket, so it's not limited to what you can
express with probability density functions and standard distributions -- you
can condition a random variable on any measurable subset of the probability
space, for example, so you could condition Y on 0 < X < 3, which wouldn't be
possible to evaluate with density functions. Or you can construct random
variables which have no density function.
I'm not sure this has great practical use, but it's a very interesting system.
------
pjungwir
This strikes me as a perfect application for quantum computers---but I'm just
an amateur, so I'd love to hear an expert opinion. My understanding is this
1982 talk by Feynman [1] more or less launched the study of quantum computers,
and it's all about how they can carry a probabilistic value through their
computations rather than a definite one. And one of the lessons from that
paper (if I'm reading & remembering right---maybe it's another paper) is that
simulating quantum behavior with a non-quantum computer turns a lot of
polynomial-time problems into exponential-time problems, so that having a real
quantum computer would be very helpful for solving the performance &
scalability issues described in the OP. Thoughts?
[1]
[http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~christos/classics/Feynman.pdf](http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~christos/classics/Feynman.pdf)
~~~
ibab
You have to take into account that quantum processes are governed by a kind of
"randomness" that is different from the one in stochastic processes. Scott
Aaronson explains the basics of quantum mechanics very succinctly in one of
his lectures [1].
The exponential->polynomial speedup we might get from a quantum computer
doesn't really apply to stochastic processes, because we can already execute
them in polynomial time on a classical computer (just use a random number
generator).
Having a quantum computer would still be truly amazing, though. Even just
being able to simulate quantum mechanics efficiently would be revolutionary.
[1] -
[http://www.scottaaronson.com/democritus/lec9.html](http://www.scottaaronson.com/democritus/lec9.html)
~~~
pjungwir
I upvoted this comment as soon as I read it, but just to follow up: that link
is amazing. I read lecture 9, then 10, 10.5, 11, . . . Eventually I bought the
book and am reading it from the beginning. Godel and the Halting Problem has
been a pet interest for ~17 years, and I've often wondered about implications
similar to Penrose's argument. The recent death of a young promising friend
has made me want to research these things more seriously, and Aaronson seems
like a wonderful guide. Thank you so much!
------
nextos
It seems Markov Logic nets can scale to really big problems:
* [https://code.google.com/p/rockit/](https://code.google.com/p/rockit/)
* [http://i.stanford.edu/hazy/hazy/tuffy/](http://i.stanford.edu/hazy/hazy/tuffy/)
But they seem to be getting less and less coverage in probabilistic
programming. Perhaps they are considered too inexpressive?
------
typedweb
Probabilistic programming in Common Lisp:
[https://github.com/nikodemus/screamer](https://github.com/nikodemus/screamer)
~~~
kgwgk
Not really. Screamer gives you "nondeterministic" programming. It can be used
for example to solve sudokus:
[http://nikodemus.github.io/screamer/sudoku.lisp.html](http://nikodemus.github.io/screamer/sudoku.lisp.html)
------
nmrm2
_" Having been rescued from the clutches of object-orientation by early
exposure to Mathematica"_
I kind of laughed at this line, because this seems like a situation where the
author came to the correct conclusion for all the wrong reasons.
Maybe things have changed, but the Mathematica programming language never
struck me as useful for anything over a couple thousand lines.
edit: this is completely beside the purpose and message of this article, but
it's worth noting that modularity is a pretty significant design criteria that
none of these languages have a particularly strong story about.
~~~
clementine
Mathematica itself and Wolfram | Alpha have quite substantial code-bases
written in Mathematica (now the Wolfram Language). Also, there was an article
recently about probabilistic programming with WL:
[http://www.mathematica-
journal.com/data/uploads/2013/11/Cass...](http://www.mathematica-
journal.com/data/uploads/2013/11/Cassel.pdf)
My guess is that WL would be an interesting and powerful starting point for
probabilistic programming at some point down the line (if not already).
------
enupten
I wonder if kids 30y from now look upon this as the new Prolog.
~~~
vezzy-fnord
I was pretty much thinking about logic programming throughout most of the
article. Seems like PPS is a continuation of these ideas, in many ways.
~~~
enupten
In more ways than one,
[http://alchemy.cs.washington.edu/](http://alchemy.cs.washington.edu/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why Are Warranty Disclaimers in ALL CAPS? - cribbles
http://www.partingthoughts.net/why-are-warranty-disclaimers-in-all-caps/
======
MrLunk
Because if they print 'small print' that small in Lower Caps... it becomes
even more unreadable ;)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Startups [are] addicted to meaningless jargon - blowski
http://qz.com/697558/internet-startups-cant-explain-what-they-do-because-theyre-addicted-to-meaningless-jargon/
======
blowski
I truncated the title because it was too long.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Certificate Authority provides free certificates - stakent
http://www.disog.org/2010/01/certificate-authority-provides-free.html
======
dangrossman
The only difference between what they're doing and what every other SSL issuer
is doing already is 20 bucks. A cheap-o certificate from GoDaddy or your
favorite reseller does no more than validate domain ownership by e-mail as
this freebie does.
~~~
fexl
SSL is a messed up protocol, relying on trust in central authorities. SSH did
it right: it only ensures that the server you connect with today is the same
one you connected with yesterday, and it does not aim to do anything more.
An SSL certificate "verified by King George" does not mean that you can trust
the vendor with your money or your data. _I_ have to decide to trust the
vendor that much, and nobody else can do it for me. All I want the crypto to
do is verify that I am now talking with the same vendor I talked with
yesterday.
I don't mind using a certified signed by someone not crowned as a king, for
example <https://secure.loom.cc>. Or I could use this one <https://loom.cc/>
"verified by Equifax" which means nothing special to me.
I don't care that _someone else_ decreed that "this is the One True loom.cc
site." All I care is that the site I initially decided to trust is the same
site I'm connecting with now.
~~~
zokier
You can just remove all CA certs from your browser and then it works somewhat
like SSH.
~~~
fexl
Yes, it's pretty close. However where SSH warns you whenever you encounter a
new server, the SSL in your browser only warns you when you encounter a new CA
(Certificate Authority).
For the browser to behave more like SSH, it would have to maintain a list of
_individual sites_ which you have accepted as genuine. Then if you get a
phishing email asking you to click a fake link such as <https://lo0m.cc>, you
will get a warning even if the lo0m.cc site has a certificate "verified by
Equifax" or whomever. This is a good example of where the current SSL protocol
utterly fails.
When you visit the real loom.cc site which you originally trusted, you should
see a happy warm reassurance in the browser bar, maybe including a pet name or
avatar. But when you visit lo0m.cc, you should see the entire browser framed
in red with a warning that this is the first time you have ever visited this
site and you could be the victim of a phishing expedition. Something like
that. I'm hand-waving a bit now. And it may get annoying for people at first,
as they establish trust in their first 20 banking, gaming, or social
networking sites. Kind of like installing a new CA root 20 times right? You
don't want it to be _too_ easy or people might just "click through"
unconsciously. But personally I don't find this to be a great difficulty with
SSH.
Indeed the building blocks are all there in SSL, namely (1) the verification
of digital signatures, and (2) the negotiation of a symmetric encryption key.
Some may carp about the protocol or the code being a mess, but as a black box
it works just fine.
I think browser writers could phight phishing more effectively by thinking
outside the box of implicit trust in central authority.
~~~
tptacek
Almost no aspect of the phishing problem is rooted in HTTPS.
~~~
fexl
That is precisely why I criticize SSL. One of the primary goals of SSL is to
_authenticate_ a site so that Grandma can rest assured she is not being
scammed. "Phishing" represents a catastrophically expensive failure to achieve
that goal.
Trusted root CAs have "verified" millions of SSL certificates to one degree or
another, from simple checks for domain control all the way up to brick and
mortar audits. The problem is, any one of those millions of certificates can
be used to phish customers of building-and-loan.com and steal massive amounts
of their money.
A scammer simply sends Grandma an official looking email saying "We have
recently received a request to wire money out of your Building and Loan
account. Please log in _here_ to confirm or deny this request. This extra
level of precaution is for your safety. Sincerely, [insert signature of CEO
here]."
Now when Grandma clicks the link, she is taken to an SSL-protected site called
"building-and-loan-confirmation.com", which to Grandma's delight and comfort
is "verified by Equifax". This misplaced trust costs Grandma $25,700.
I am thinking the _very least_ browser writers can do is give Grandma a simple
way to "confirm" a site which she has visited. Once she has confirmed it, and
maybe given it a "pet name", her browser will display an especially reassuring
theme any time she visits that site again (e.g. green border, friendly
picture, familiar name, whatever).
Grandma still needs to know that she should _only_ log in when she sees that
reassuring theme. Any time she visits a non-confirmed site, she will only see
a plain looking neutral theme. (Note: NOT alarming red, because then she'd be
see red constantly as she browses around. Just neutral.)
Note that the suggestion I just made actually has _nothing_ to do with SSL.
Keep in mind that a phisher could easily send Grandma an _unsecured_ link in
an email -- no HTTPs at all. If Grandma clicks that link, she will only see a
neutral theme, and if she remembers her lesson, she will NOT log in because
she does not see the reassuring theme.
Of course, you could also say that Grandma should remember this lesson: don't
click links in emails. Only visit sites by (1) typing in the name yourself or
(2) using a bookmark. But I'm just trying to suggest a way to help Grandma
_after_ she has forgotten that primary lesson.
Here's another idea. You know how Firefox remembers passphrases for you,
protected by a master security passphrase. That could help here. If Grandma
visits the real building-and-loan.com site, her user name and password will be
filled out for her automatically. If she visits a phishing site, it won't.
That is another "hook" where browser writers might do something to help dear
Grandma protect her property from predators. Something along the lines of:
"This site is asking you to log in, but you have never logged into this site
before. Are you _sure_ you want to do this?"
------
qjz
Huh? Since when does a CA need your private key/passphrase? Any time I've
gotten a commercial certificate, I've only had to provide a Certificate
Signing Request (CSR). Ahh, it seems the author didn't follow all of the
instructions on the page he referenced
([http://www.h-online.com/security/features/SSL-for-free-
step-...](http://www.h-online.com/security/features/SSL-for-free-step-by-
step-906862.html)):
'After that, StartSSL kindly offers to generate a pair of keys for the
certificate. However, since the private key for protecting one's own server
should never be given away or generated by someone else, the "Skip" option
should be chosen and the Certificate Signing Request generated earlier should
be uploaded onto the server.'
This is a bit creepy. StartSSL is providing a "free" certificate using a
process where they also generate the private key & passphrase (unless you're
smart enough to realize what a terrible idea this is). That's like the
hardware store keeping a copy of every key they cut.
------
sorbits
Only class 1 certificates are free.
This is a great service as it allows me to setup secure IMAP, SMTP, Jabber,
etc. without having to pay a third party money for this extra security, and
without having to bother my users with installing my self-signed root
certificate (StartSSL’s certificate is known to OS X and browsers except IE
and Opera).
I don’t see how free class 1 certificates help scammers, phishers, and
similar.
~~~
Murkin
Where did you see its not known by IE ?
That is a deal killer..
~~~
sorbits
It seems they are now supported by IE judging from this page
<http://www.startssl.com/?app=40> which show icons of all the major browsers
incl. IE but excl. Opera, and this page <http://www.startssl.com/?app=22>
which has the following text redacted (overstrike): _Startcom’s certificate
isn’t trusted by the Microsoft Internet Explorer_.
So I think that it is now supported by IE, question is, which version of IE
and/or Windows. I can’t find any details about this on the StartSSL’s pages
(there used to be a FAQ entry iirc with browsers supported which included
version and OS).
------
jrockway
I tried to get a certificate for my own domain name, but I was not allowed to
create an account "pending verification". So really, maybe this is not as easy
as the article suggests.
~~~
durana
I ran into the same problem when I first used StartSSL a few months ago. It
seemed like there were some cases where automatic verification would work and
other cases where verification was deferred to a human. I believe StartSSL is
a small, possibly one man, operation, so you might have to wait a few hours
for human verification. Once my account was verified, everything after that
was pretty easy and quick.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Group Mind. More than 13,000 People Are Playing Pokémon Red Together - toksaitov
http://www.polygon.com/2014/2/14/5411790/twitch-plays-pokemon-creator-interview-twitchplayspokemon
======
crystalmace
I'm curious, does the setup read and execute every single typed command it
recieves, or does it analyze the commands entered within a set time period and
simply choose the one that it recieved the most? Which system do you think
would work better for such a setup? Is there a system that would work better
for such a project?
------
whitewhim
This is really cool, it kind of reminds me of the lifeline in who wants to be
a millionare "ask the audience". It would be really cool to see a startup
where all the decisions were made with such a format although its
understandable why it probably won't happen.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Hiccupops: A 13-year-old biological hacker's award-winning startup - buu700
http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/01/a-13-year-old-enlists-m-b-a-students-to-build-her-start-up/
======
chime
Does it really work?
------
3piphany890
anyone who creates a start up at 13 is brilliant. but is she a hacker?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What would you like to see included in a 21st Century Bill of Rights? - zebrafish
With the explosion of machine learning and artificial intelligence, the ever decreasing cost of storage and compute, and the apparent disregard for individual privacy on the part of both government and industry, which rights would you include in a "Bill of Modern Rights"?
======
Top19
I can't answer this question, but just to put it in context, the United
Nation'a Universal Declaration of Human Rights, put together after World War
II, is a truly beautiful document. I had never read it or really knew anything
about it, but if you read through it, it's an absolutely inspiring vision of
humanity and of a world that one day might exist. It's wording is concise,
clear, and beautiful.
Here's the foreword from the most recent published copy:
"The Universal Declaration promises to all the economic, social, political,
cultural and civic rights that underpin a life free from want and fear. They
are not a reward for good behaviour. They are not country-specific, or
particular to a certain era or social group. They are the inalienable
entitlements of all people, at all times, and in all places — people of every
colour, from every race and ethnic group; whether or not they are disabled;
citizens or migrants; no matter their sex, their class, their caste, their
creed, their age or sexual orientation."
And here is the original document:
"Article 1.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are
endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a
spirit of brotherhood."
Sorry not to hijack this thread and I know you technically said Bill of
Rights, which is also very inspiring, but I feel like less well known in the
US."
~~~
ams6110
Theoretically beautiful, like most utopian visions. The reality is that most
places that the UN is involved in are human rights hellholes.
~~~
Top19
And to answer OP's original question...
Right to Birth Control: we're never going to agree on abortion but can we at
least get this? A long time ago women would usually stop getting their periods
after 20...because they were constantly pregnant until 50 when menopause
started. Having larger amount of children might very well be unsustainable in
a world with less jobs and that demands a lifetime of learning (by both
spouses) to stay employed and take care of yourselves, let alone 3, 4, 5+
children. If male birth control ever comes out I think this would become even
more viable too.
Right to Internet: I don't have great reasons for this but can anyone think of
a bad one for this? Like birth control could be found to have terrible side
effects, perhaps some welfare plan might cause mass dependency, but literally
is there any bad reason for guaranteeing internet?
~~~
talmand
Why stop with right to Internet? Why don't we just stop this silly game and
declare that everyone has a right to anything that they could possibly want?
Someone creates a technology in the future that may help people's lives in
some significant, or even small, way? I declare I have a right to it and
demand someone else pay for it to provide to me.
~~~
Top19
Initially, your point was "grinding my gears" lol. My reasoning was "'x is
good". You took that (and this next part could be wrong so please accept my
apology if it is but I tried to break it down into concrete math terms) and
said "no it's not, because '20x' is bad, and if we do 'x' then that means we
almost certainly will commit ourselves to '20x'".
But......You do have a point though. When extremist interpretations can be
made...haha they almost certainly will (Islam, the Bible, anything related to
communism, capitalism, etc).
How do you get around that? No contract is really bulletproof, there is a
spirit to every law and document. That spirit I like to think is applied
through good systems, common sense, and good leadership.
~~~
talmand
Yes, it's a tough one. I consider many different ways of possibly dealing with
it. I start with the notion that no matter how well a system is designed, it
will eventually fall apart and requires a reboot. Sometimes actions prolong
the system, sometimes they hasten its demise. These days I'm wondering if an
automatic and irreversible sunset clause on every rule in the system might
help. To force the people to rethink things from time-to-time. That way the
rules don't slowly degrade over time as people "tweak" them for their own
benefit. New people have an opportunity to contribute to the rules as opposed
to being dictated by rules created by people long dead.
It would have to have term limits on the people involved in making the rules
for the system as well.
Everything would have to be staggered though, can't have everything up for
renewal at the same time. Too easy to cause chaos of which some people will
take advantage.
But, most likely, it won't matter in the long run because my thoughts are
around the idea of trying to prevent the always inevitable violent upheaval of
the status quo to "make things better". Which only means get rid of all the
crappy rules we've forced on ourselves to return to a time the rules were fair
and made sense. Which, of course, eventually goes downhill again.
------
zachrose
If the 2nd Amendment is for A) self-defense without the government, or B)
eventual resistance against the government itself, then surely it should be
interpreted to protect strong encryption.
~~~
zebrafish
Agreed. The wording of the 2nd amendment doesn't lend itself to encryption
though which could be an issue.
~~~
didgeoridoo
I hadn't ever really thought of this, but cryptography has sometimes been
considered a "military munition" for purposes of restricting export:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Export_of_cryptography_from_th...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Export_of_cryptography_from_the_United_States)
Is there any existing jurisprudence defending citizen access to cryptography
on 2nd Amendment grounds?
~~~
zachrose
There's this one xkcd: [https://xkcd.com/504/](https://xkcd.com/504/)
But no, to my knowledge this legal argument has not been made in court.
(Here's a Motherboard article about the possibility:
[https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/the-second-
amendm...](https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/the-second-amendment-
case-for-the-right-to-bear-encryption.))
So far I think it's more interesting to consider as a political argument than
a legal one: conservatives who like guns should (IMHO) have every reason to
oppose state-weakened cryptography, as much as that might fracture the law-
and-order conservatism from libertarian conservatism. (Also, there is no
universe where a militia with automatic weapons and tapped email is really
going anywhere.)
------
Akarnani
The Right To The Best Available Deal:
To have all applicable financial / tax regulations applied to you
automatically.
This way you don't have to discover tax breaks/credits/deductions — they just
get applied to you.
This is important and effects something like 250M Americans.
Outside of criminal and civil law, much of the US system of government is
enforced financially through the tax code.
The benefits of the Internal Revenue Code are applied unevenly because richer
people are able to develop the sophistication or acquire service providers who
help them make sure they are getting the best available deal.
Can you imagine if hackers/coders got better deals on products Amazon then
non-coders? It would be absurd to say "well, learn to code or higher an
engineer and you'll save $1000 a year!" That's a pretty close metaphor—we say
"get financially literate! The information is out there! get an accountant!".
Computers, tech, machine learning, and AI are great at making sure all
Americans get The Best Deal Available.
~~~
beaconstudios
I wonder if having tax breaks apply to everyone that could take them would
genuinely cause a Cloward-Piven collapse
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloward%E2%80%93Piven_strategy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloward%E2%80%93Piven_strategy),
it's a strategy for collapsing a welfare state by doing exactly what you
described, based on the theory that welfare benefits and tax deductions are
not designed to handle 100% use).
------
DarkKomunalec
Right to a defensive trial: If you are prosecuted, you should be allowed to do
nothing, let the court sort it out with a free, publicly-assigned defender,
and _if_ you don't like the verdict, you can dispute it in a second trial.
That way you only have to spend money and time defending yourself against
suits with serious merit. Would seriously hurt patent trolls, and all
nuisance/extortion lawsuits in general.
------
avaer
Freedom from imposition by any non-public government process. If the
government does anything it must be open to public knowledge and scrutiny.
------
dTal
How about:
A community has the right to transparency in the forces that govern it.
The principle may seem familiar, but it is not currently applied in a broad
sense; Facebook's News Feed algorithm, which can swing elections, is secret.
So is Hacker News's. Our behaviour is carefully shaped and we are not allowed
to know how.
------
EliRivers
The right to privacy of thought, and the right to think anything.
~~~
zebrafish
Crucial in a world where prosthetics and embedded sensors in your body could
soon become common place.
------
jakeogh
The Preamble to the Bill Of Rights is important:
[http://drexel.edu/ogcr/resources/constitution/amendments/pre...](http://drexel.edu/ogcr/resources/constitution/amendments/preamble/)
------
Chris2048
I expect this post the become massive, as questions like this are so large a
kind of bike-shedding exercise goes on, but my own 2c:
I think religious rights should have never evolved the way it did.
Religion is clearly different from creed color, etc, it also includes belief,
personality, motivation etc. Instead of becoming power real estate for
established religions to fight over (do 'cults', or atheist institutions get
the same protections), it should have evolved into the right to believe
anything that doesn't motivate you to break the law; in other words,
protection against though-policing.
The flat-earthers should get the same protections as catholics - the right to
hold any belief, be it on faith or otherwise.
~~~
maxerickson
In the US they pretty much do have the same rights.
~~~
Chris2048
the same rights in terms of outcome? They don't literally use the same
legislature, because AFAIK flat-earth beliefs do not qualify for religious
protection.
In fact, some believers wrap their belief structures in an established
religious structure, it seems, _just so_ they have those protections.
One specific concern about this:
Don't like gays? sorry bub, go to jail. Have a religious basis to not like
gays? protected! I choose _this_ contentious example to show that any belief
protected by religious rights, should also be protected when otherwise having
no religious basis; and also _why_ some beliefs shouldn't be protected, even
if religiously based.
When all beliefs not barred are permitted, there will be a lot more motivation
to bar specific kinds of belief - at the moment, the established religions can
push exceptions for their specific beliefs. Put another way - if religion
isn't special, then either racist belief is as valid for a neo-nazi as it is a
church, or that belief is an invalid for a church as a neo-nazi.
~~~
maxerickson
Note that I said in the US, where we have openly racist groups that do not
claim to be religious organizations.
~~~
Chris2048
They have to use different laws if they want to get protection though, and are
liable to "hate" laws that religious organisations be more immune to?
~~~
maxerickson
No, not really. Our speech protections are pretty universal.
There are hate crime laws, but they largely are additional charges in cases of
violence.
A church probably has an easier time demonstrating that they are a non profit
for tax purposes.
------
psyc
The right to innovate and invent without anxiety. To me this means clarifying
copyright and trademark, reducing their abuse by claimants, and abolishing all
patents altogether.
------
rlpb
Freedom of communication. In other words, "unreasonable search and seizure"
extended to all communications. The same caveats - the authorities should be
required to obtain an individual and targeted warrant before being allowed to
(attempt to) intercept, and this should be granted only upon reasonable
suspicion of a crime as determined by a judge.
If they fail to intercept, they could always get warrants to secretly surveil
the suspects, swap or backdoor their hardware, etc.
------
zebrafish
I haven't seen anything on here about the right to be forgotten which I
believe is extremely important.
I also think the right to human autonomy is absolutely crucial. I want the
freedom to choose to drive my own vehicle. I don't want a self-driving vehicle
to dictate where I can and cannot go.
I really think, and this is entering muddy waters, that there should be a
right to anonymity. I should be able to say or do things without people
knowing who I am.
~~~
igk
Right to be forgotten is iffy, because we should have the right to hold public
figures accountable, and that is where it would be mostly used. If you get
arrested for drunk driving, lose all respectability in your community, and
then remove it form the net, your life is still fucked. But if you are Donald
Trump, having the right to immediately depublish things until it is proven
that you are person if interest is usefull.
A right to privacy and a data letter (every outlet and company must inform you
via mail about any data, articles etc on their servers/in their publication in
which personal information about you is involved, if they are either supplying
a service or writing the story) would fill most of that niche in my opinion
Right to autonomy I agree, that is basically stallmann. First sale doctrine,
freedom to tinker, software freedom...things like this
Right to anonymity goes into dangerous territory again...you should have a
right to not be surveilled(privacy), which makes it harder to connect you to
your speech (good). But if somebody figures it out,having the right to stop
that is ...dangerous again.Especially with the bullshit idea that corporate
money is speech, that right would make it illegal to unmask bribery
------
meric
Is "right" the correct abstraction? An alternative might be "obligation".
Bill of obligations:
Article 1: All parents are obligated to either support their children and
provide their physical and educational needs, and give them the emotional
support they need to grow up or leave them up for adoption at the earliest
opportunity.
Article 2: Adult children must financially support their parents by a
percentage of their income while their parents are over the age of 65.
Article 3: The nearest relatives with income to a person with disability are
obligated to support that person financially.
Article 4: The government have obligation to help the needy, the disabled, the
elderly, the abandoned, to search for their nearest relatives and garnish
their wages and income to ensure the persons' needs are fulfilled.
Etc etc. Instead of centralising social welfare payments through the
government, we can place this obligation back towards those nearest to those
who need help. Instead of paying taxes to the government for who knows what
causes, they go directly to those nearest to us, and if supporting them is too
onerous, search for the next nearest relatives.
These articles obligations can be extended to include companies, governments,
institutions. Any entity that doesn't fulfil their obligations can be sued by
anyone, rather than only when they violate the plaintiff's "rights".
~~~
gambiting
This goes directly against personal freedom though, especially points 2-4.
What if you were abused by your parents and/or had some other issues with
them, and you haven't had any contact with them for 30 years? Should you still
pay them after they get over the age of 65?
In general, the whole idea is upsetting to me, over here in EU we pay massive
taxes but they guarantee people in need are taken care off, "garnishing wages"
of nearest relatives sounds just stupid.
~~~
igk
It's a difference in conception...in Europe, the idea of "positive freedom" is
more prevalent...we care about being able to actually do things in all cases,
even if we are in a bad situation. You have a right to education, health care,
political participation etc., and part of that right is to be able to
_actually_ do it (i.e., "I could if I chose not to work today, but then I
can't eat"). Property is a means to freedom, not an end, and can be touched
more easily. Hence, taxes are (more) ok.
In the the states, I feel there is still the idea of property as a basis for
freedom. "Negative freedom" \- don't force me to do things, don't touch my
house, don't touch my money, don't restrict what I could theoretically do if I
have the means - is more dominant. Hence, people don't seem to like the idea
of having to pay for "other peoples freedom". It's more palatable to think of
taking care of just your kids/relatives - there is a limited number of them,
and you can probably do that without actually giving up a lot of property. Buy
a big house, move your parents in there, you still have a big house
afterwards.
Of course, this also leads to (or is equivalent) to a "fuck the poor" mindset
~~~
talmand
>> In the the states, I feel there is still the idea of property as a basis
for freedom.
This doesn't exist in the US anymore, maybe for a long time. People think it
does, but it does not.
>> "Negative freedom" \- don't force me to do things, don't touch my house,
don't touch my money, don't restrict what I could theoretically do if I have
the means - is more dominant.
People like to think this too, but it doesn't work out that way for most
people.
~~~
igk
Do you know when and how that changed? I'd like to change my view, but just
from the discussions I've had with US citizens and what is see happening in
your politics, it seems like it is very much still alive. Sure, Sanders and
his crowd think less like this, but he lost to Hillary, and not _only_ because
of rigging
~~~
talmand
It would be difficult to nail down, simply because it's not a across the board
change that happened overnight. There have been various encroachments on our
liberty and property rights over decades.
Simple examples: police confiscating money and small items during routine
traffic stops with little or no recourse, overzealous use of eminent domain
for questionable reasons, creation of various "fees" because local government
can't get tax increases passed, etc.
There's likely more easily found but those are the first few I can think off
the top of my head. Note that in some areas of the US this sort of thing
happened and there was instant backlash against it in some jurisdictions. But
in others the government moved along just nicely thank you very much.
People think of their homes as their "property" and maybe there is some basis
in "freedom" in that. But most people don't "own" that property in the first
place. Property can mean many different things and many different aspects of
property are in a constant state of seizure by government for its own ends.
~~~
igk
Ah, I misunderstood you then. I got the impression you mean that the _mindset_
had changed. What you describe seems to indicate that the mindset is still the
same, but the reality is changing. And in my opinion, this is exactly due to
the mindset. Especially the thing about fees to sidestep the aversion to
taxes. The police and eminent domain thing sounds like corruption, and maybe
also correlates with your idea of freedom: if freedom is something which is
enabled by society and the restrictions and opportunities that come with it,
you risk some of your freedom if you act in a corrupt manner. If freedom is
something that property gives you, and society is only there to protect your
property because warlording is stressful, then trying to get away with small
corruption becomes desirable.
Your last sentence confirms me in this. "The government" is made up of people
who got into power for idealistic or selfish reasons, yet you refer to it as
its own entity and concept. This gels well with the "lay of mine" concept of
freedom, less well with the "we as a whole enable us all" flavour.
Obviously, I am biased, and I might be interpreting things. If so, please
corrent my misunderstandings if you have the time.
~~~
talmand
I don't fully agree with everything you say, but it's close enough along the
lines of what I'm saying that I can't disagree with it either. It's a
complicated thing with a huge gray area surrounding it, there's room for
multiple trains of thought that can be reasonably correct. I think that's a
fact many people tend to forget when discussing such matters.
But I would say that the mindset hasn't changed per se, but I think it's
starting to get there.
------
bbcbasic
The right to total privacy in email and messaging communications.
The right to a speedy trial - you get freed from jail ROR if not tried within
3 months.
------
emhac
The right for the energy (food, fuel), insulation (clothes, room) and
information (internet) necessary to live long and prosper.
------
NicenJehr
Freedom of Information:
Its rediculous that one can be jailed, thieved or killed for: possessing
someone else's number, telling someone a secret number, or refusing to share
the correct number with someone.
These problems only exist because society believes in, and enforces, ownership
of ideas
~~~
afarrell
So, given that a jpg is just a very large number, I infer from your framing
thst you are in favor of legalizing:
\- leaking someone's private medical records
\- sending weapons designs to a foreign power
\- selling photos of child abuse
Correct?
~~~
gambiting
All three actions you listed can remain illegal, while owning the
information(or to keep with the analogy "a very large number") should be fully
legal.
It's not illegal to have a case full of medical records, but stealing them or
releasing them without permission is illegal, no?
~~~
talmand
Depends on the item in question; sometimes mere possession of an item, even if
obtained legally, can be illegal.
------
krapp
Why do we need a "Bill of Rights" at all?
Rights exist because they are insisted upon and asserted by the people, not
because a government or a document declares that they exist.
------
vivekd
The right to be secure from unreasonable electronic Surveillance
------
jchen11
Free access to internet and online university for those that can't pay for
brick and mortar degrees would be reasonable in terms of cost and efficacy.
~~~
Gustomaximus
I feel one of the bigger challengers for online university is the examination
system as much as the course.
If someone could organise a monthly 'exam hall'. Over time you could even
build prestige on these courses same as large university if you can guarantee
the examination process is robust.
Thinking about it... I think you'd need;
\- A place where people have to physically turn up.
\- Paid/volunteer monitors do a proof of person ID check and some photo or
physical ID check as students notoriously do other student exams in some unis.
\- Exam content has to be original to avoid rote leaning form doing past
exams.
\- Exam content to be provided at test commencement on individual screens,
communal projector or print out in the room that only get released as the exam
starts. This way People cant gain early access to anything.
\- Web cams must be set up to show the exam room so effectively there is
another level of monitors and the physically present monitors are monitored
too. This again would reduce the risk of graft.
\- Exam paper/results must be collected immediately from exam with something
to ensure the person who did the work uploads their own, e.g. At the end of
the exam people are called by name to walk to the front of the hall and scan
their paper.
I'm sure there would be a bunch more to it than that but it seems to me once
you could guarantee results are genuine there is a great opportunity to have
recognised online courses that can have all the prestige of unis (less
networking effect). Without believable results it will always be a challenge
and learning will be for learning sake, not the recognition factor
universities provide.
------
alistoriv
The right to food and shelter. It really is ridiculous that we don't guarantee
access to basic human needs.
------
Jessinho
hello friends can you help me
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Is this a feasible business idea? - webgambit
A couple weeks ago I had an idea for a new service, but I'm not sure it's something others would find useful or if it would be accepted as an authority.<p>Basically, what I'm thinking is a service where people could do things like store notes, pictures, recordings, etc. and each item would be stored in such a way so that it could not be later altered (was thinking MySQL archive tables).<p>For example, the idea came to mind when my wife moved out a few weeks ago. Every time we have a conversation I feel like I need to document it, e.g. "Just spoke with X and stated that abc" and have that stored on a server of a non-biased company somewhere so that if the situation gets to the point of legal counsel being brought in I could put together a sort of log or journal of what's been said and when.<p>If this was something that could be useful, I could build out mobile apps that could take recordings and submit those or even automatically forward text messages from selected individuals. I would, of course, want something like triple redundancy on the databases to ensure nothing is lost.<p>But, like I said earlier, I'm not sure such a service would be helpful to others or if lawyers/courts would even consider the information worthwhile or admissible.<p>What say ye, all wise HN community? :)
======
adyus
If such a thing existed, it would have helped this guy:
<http://huff.to/kKIGDa>
The important part is in the grey box. The guy went to a notary public and
legalized a statement that he could later use in court.
You could take your idea further and actually charge users to have their
submission automatically notarized, after they prove their real life identity,
of course (there's already a startup that offers to certify users' identities,
anyone remember the name?).
~~~
webgambit
You're right, it's situations like that which brought up this idea. Some way
to reliably document a statement or idea and the date just seems like a useful
service.
The notarization would be a bit difficult since each state has their own rules
and laws. Additionally, I think they all have a residency requirements, at
least the two states I've been a notary in did.
------
tmachinecharmer
You can use
\- private tumblr blog
\- catch.com
\- evernote
\- google docs
\- emacs org-mode + dropbox
etc.
If you record everything on audio tape or talk only using phone and record it.
Or you use gtalk only then legal bodies might take it seriously. But no one is
going to take notes written by you seriously.
Is it legal to record phone conversation without other persons consent? I
don't k now.
~~~
webgambit
But can't the time and dates can be changed those.
As for recording phone calls, the laws vary from state to state. The states I
have experience with only require one person on the conversation to be aware
that it's being recorded.
------
bartonfink
I know my parents would have paid quite a bit for something like that when
they were still raising kids. They talked about it every time there was a
disagreement about who said what.
------
blazzar
The key part is allowing both parties to sign the content as accurate and then
lock it down. Without both parties signing I suspect it would carry little
weight legally.
~~~
webgambit
That's an interesting idea that I hadn't considered. Thanks.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
New Redis Fork with SSL and Transactions - DrJosiah
http://www.dr-josiah.com/2018/04/yes-im-forking-redis-ssltls-transactions.html
======
DrJosiah
I'll be around here and in the similarly named Reddit post, feel free to ask
questions.
~~~
voidlogic
It looks like most of the discussion is here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16941992](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16941992)
~~~
DrJosiah
Thank you! I didn't catch that when it started.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Scientist discovers PageRank-type algorithm from the 1940s - alexandros
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/24821/
======
lmkg
Page Rank is not a particularly impressive algorithm. The technical leap that
Google made was the idea of having outgoing links be a proxy for authority,
and it was an innovative and useful observation. Page Rank is about the
second-simplest implementation of that concept (the first-simplest would not
have the dampening factor). It's just a glorified eigenvector problem. Page
Rank is not impressive for being a significant technical breakthrough. In
fact, I think Page Rank is more impressive for _not_ being a technical
breakthrough. Google came up with a single good idea, and even a very very
simple application of that idea had significant practical benefit.
~~~
wheels
Actually, no PageRank wasn't even the first web search algorithm to do that.
HITS, by Jon Kleinberg was the first rigorous formulation of that notion
(which is mentioned in the article) and was cited in the original PageRank
paper. It was widely known at the time that it was a concept imported from
library science for correlation in co-citation patterns.
~~~
zandorg
That happens a lot. Someone invents something at the same time as another guy.
One of these guys has some VC or Angel cash. Guess who succeeds most?
~~~
wheels
Uhm, Jon Kleinberg is an academic (one of computer science's finest) and was
clearly cited in the PageRank paper. He's authored seminal publications across
several sub-fields of computer science, he's in a named chair in an Ivy League
university, and laid the foundations for modern web search. I'd say he's been
pretty successful for a guy in his 30s.
<http://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/kleinber/>
------
mnemonicsloth
Kalman didn't invent the Kalman filter. He learned about the discrete
equivalent from Stratonovich and adapted it to the continuous case, and that
was the name that stuck. But every _useful_ Kalman filter is actually a
Stratonovich filter, because they're all digital.
I guess having a short name makes you more likely to become immortal.
~~~
georgecmu
It's not so much the short name as being on the right side of Atlantic.
------
kwamenum86
I took a class with Jon Kleinberg called Networks co-taught by an economics
professor. Introduced me to power laws, Nash equili riums, and six degrees of
separation(or rather the validity thereof) Brilliant class. Brilliant guy.
------
neilc
Google's search quality very likely doesn't have very much to do with the
PageRank algorithm as such. Certainly PageRank isn't much of a qualitative
improvement over prior work like HITS, and any reasonable web-scale search
engine can easily incorporate some variant on the HITS/PageRank idea.
[http://glinden.blogspot.com/2007/09/hits-pagerank-and-
keepin...](http://glinden.blogspot.com/2007/09/hits-pagerank-and-keeping-it-
simple.html)
------
jmount
Even better than that the 1965 Hubble paper is pretty relevant to the
"folklore" algorithms for eigenvector based graph partitioning that keep
getting re-discovered (without attribution) again and again.
------
dangrossman
PR is simple enough that "Given this link graph, what is the PR of site C" was
a question on a written exam in my introductory AI class (meaning no notes,
calculators, computers).
~~~
elblanco
If I remember, converging that matrix to a steady state by hand took lots of
paper and time.
~~~
vinutheraj
It depends on the size of the graph given I guess !
------
wallflower
This reminds me of the minor hub-bub around PhotoSynth/VirtualEarth not being
a new technology (e.g. academic researchers have previously researched it in
the past, way before computers had any hope of executing the complex matrix
transformations.)
------
georgecmu
I'd rather have the title say "economist proposes" rather than "scientist
discovers".
------
codexon
Does this have any implications on Google's pagerank patent by prior art?
~~~
imd
No, because the article says similar work was already known back to 1965, just
not 1941. It was already known Google didn't invent the concept.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Did Space X just show its secret plans for a mission to Mars? - amayne
http://weirdthings.com/2011/04/did-space-x-just-show-its-secret-plans-for-a-mission-to-mars/
======
ceejayoz
There's a bit of development between an artist's conception and a Mars
mission.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
15 Jobs, What I’ve Learned – I Don’t Want To Do “This” - camz
http://www.cameronkeng.com/2012/07/17/15-jobs-what-ive-learned-i-dont-want-to-do-this/
======
camz
Curious to see if anyone else had any tidbits or advice from their experiences
in a variety of jobs.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Patent US6368227 – Method of swinging on a swing - chrisdotcode
http://www.google.co.uk/patents/US6368227
======
chrisdotcode
Previous discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4585175](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4585175)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why you shouldn’t keep your startup idea secret - prakash
http://www.cdixon.org/?p=338
======
jamesbritt
"In terms of the risk of someone stealing your idea, there are at best a
handful of people in the world who might actually drop everything and copy
your idea."
Sure. But what if there are others who are already working on something
similar and, on hearing about your idea, glom some interesting features, or
get motivated to push something out before you do.
I guess I'm skeptical that that there is zero downside to having your
competitors know what you are doing.
~~~
derefr
If you already have "competitors" (that is, if _they_ see _you_ as their
competition), you're past the idea stage. If you don't, then they're as likely
to listen to you as to an anonymous email telling them to do features X, Y,
and Z.
------
vyrotek
I would agree that its important to get feedback from everyone around you.
But, there's something scary about throwing out an idea on Hacker News. The
author mentions that only a handful of people will drop what they're doing and
copy your idea. I would imagine that your odds are a LOT greater around here!
:)
Of course, I'm half kidding here... but I cant be the only one who ever
worried about this.
~~~
alex_c
There has to be a difference between "talking to everyone who will listen" and
"broadcasting your idea to the world". You might want to talk about your idea
to 99% of the people you meet, but specifically avoid 1% for one reason or
another - putting it in front of an anonymous audience makes that control
impossible.
~~~
jacquesm
I've yet to see that come true, ever. I've seen lots of people _try_ to do
that, but invariably types like that will go for the low hanging fruit. Their
heart won't be in it and as soon as the next thing comes by that looks like
less work they'll start chasing that.
Building a business takes dedication and tons of effort, the idea is a minor
part of it all. Sure, you need an idea to get started but if your execution is
excellent it will take a very determined party to try to compete with you.
------
Estragon
"Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good,
you'll have to ram them down people's throats."
~~~
dotcoma
that's Howard Aiken, for the record.
------
Barnabas
I strongly agree with this post. Summary: you have more to gain in idea
refinements and reality checks than you have to "loose" from competition. Also
NDAs are almost worthless.
~~~
jacquesm
> Also NDAs are almost worthless.
That's so true. It's gotten to be such a formality now that plenty of parties
don't even bother with them any more. In the US maybe less so that in Europe,
but the last NDA I signed is already 2 years ago and it's not like I haven't
done anything in that period.
By the time you need that NDA you probably have other problems to attend to.
------
xexers
I personally sit on the fence here.
It's funny because just a few weeks ago, this article was on HN. Don't these 2
arguments contradict each other?
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=660720>
~~~
scrod
_Don't these 2 arguments contradict each other?_
Let's get to the real issue here: you seem to be under the impression that
airing a variety of viewpoints is somehow problematic.
~~~
xexers
That's not what I meant. I meant, I am on the fence... here is an article (and
comments) with the opposite viewpoint.
------
jhancock
I mostly agree. There are a few corner cases where this does not apply. I'm
working on a new app right now which I feel there is no value in openly
exposing it prior to launch. Even after launch, I'm only going to market
directly to my end user and not seek wide-scale exposure. I have discussed the
niche I'm going after with a few trusted advisors and that is all I need to
verify I'm thinking straight. Exposing it early may not introduce a copy cat,
but in my case may cause other problems. I know, I'm being a bit mysterious,
but there it is ;).
------
aswanson
I personally think you should share ideas with people if you respect their
ethics and skills.
------
njharman
If your idea is so easy to steal, copy, reproduce that there mere act of
telling someone about it is a threat, then
1) Your idea (like all ideas) has minimal value.
2) Someone else probably has/is/will come up with it independently.
3) When you do reveal/launch it and it's worth anything someone with more money/laywers/customers/clout/power/marketing than you will take it anyway.
Ideas are nothing. Implementations of ideas maybe something. Good/successful
implementations are hard to reproduce/steal. The article points are about
helping you achieve that good implementation. Something which secrecy hinders.
Also note, that currently for most the world, people with money/power can
generally make ideas not worth stealing via various patent/copyright laws and
the general high cost of litigation.
------
edw519
I kept my idea secret for years because I thought that as soon as someone else
knew it, they would steal it, execute it, and become a billionaire while I'd
be stuck in a cubicle forever.
I thought I was so smart, but looking back, I can't believe I was so stupid.
Once I started sharing my idea (only parts of it at first), I got instant
feedback, what was good, what was stupid, how to improve it, who else to talk
to, etc. You get the idea.
My dream took wings and became my project only after I shared it with others.
~~~
joe_the_user
The funny thing is that would-be novelists have same illusion and face the
same failure - except the ideas of writers don't have to be as original...
------
sammcd
I am starting a new project and have decided to keep quiet about it until I am
a little closer to release. This has challenged my idea of confidentiality a
bit, and I will start revealing more information a bit earlier.
As a side not. I Created a quick sign up page at:
<http://141312.com/launcher>. I find it interesting that most people who have
signed up have marked that they would be willing to sign an NDA for an earlier
beta.
I'm not sure if I will require an NDA, but I plan on using people's
willingness to sign one as an input for that decision.
~~~
lukifer
You might consider using a <http://friendda.org/> instead. It's not likely
you'd actually try to sue one of your beta testers anyway; it's more of a
social gesture than anything, a friendly request to your community asking that
they not talk too much about Fight Club.
------
dzlobin
I'd love to see pg's input on this
~~~
lamby
I'd love to know _your_ input on this more. This whole comments thing isn't
just to kill time before pg decides to pipe up.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Uncertain Fate of Amsterdam’s Red-Light District - danso
https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-europe/the-uncertain-fate-of-amsterdams-red-light-district
======
sktrdie
I have been living in Amsterdam for about half a year. Met lots of locals. The
red light district is not liked. It’s full of trashy people wanting to do
drugs and have sex. Sure if you find those to be pleasures of life then be my
guest, but the locals hate it: imagine having an entire neighborhood ruined by
these kind of people, who let me tell you are not the most respectful kind.
But the real issue is that none of the girl prostitutes are locals. Not once I
heard of a local Dutch girl doing this. And it’s also mostly lots of people
that need he money. If the brothels were full of dutch-rich women then I’d be
fine with it... but reality is that it’s not and it encourages poorer people
to participate in the activity. And in a way it exploits these people even if
it’s their choice.
Also let’s not forget the immortal rule: wherever there’s money, there’s
corruption.
So unfortunately I don’t favor the red light district. Maybe if it was far
from the center and if it was done in a way where you would be 100% sure where
nobody was exploited, then yes. But reality is that nobody can know for sure
that exploitation doesn’t happen.
But then there’s also the other side of the coin that if you make it illegal
it will anyway happen in a worst manner... on the streets and with more
exploitation.
So maybe having something organized and outside cultural city center seems
like a good win-win situation.
~~~
close04
> Not once I heard of a local Dutch girl doing this.
How is this relevant? I mean in what manner would nationality change your
opinion on this topic?
~~~
moccachino
I read them to mean that the fact that no Dutch girl is doing it is indicative
of exploitation. Dutch people generally have lots of opportunities that many
other nationalities don't.
It's impossible to look at someone and tell with certainty that they are being
exploited, but it's easy to look at a group of people and notice if any of
them are from the local privileged peoples, and if most of them are from
poorer regions.
~~~
close04
> it is indicative of exploitation
In rich countries a lot of low paying jobs are performed by foreigners coming
from poorer countries. I'm sure almost nobody _enjoys_ any of those jobs but
they do them because they need the money and have little choice.
And by the nature of these low paying jobs they _only_ attract people with no
other options, foreigners dreaming about a better life, completely unaware of
the risks. This opens the door to abuse. I'm certain that plenty of locals
(whatever country we're talking about) would do this job if it payed really
well.
------
dijit
The red-light district is for sure a tourist attraction, for people who are
dumbfounded and awestruck to people going on drug fuelled benders.
I am the former, I've been through the red light district at night and there
are a few bro's but generally it was decent.
The tourism culture seems to actively promote seedy/druggy stuff though..
Maybe if it wasn't being pushed it would be better?
------
Synaesthesia
One of my favourite authors is Chris Hedges. I was surprised to discover he is
against decriminalisation of sex work. His arguments actually won me over.
[https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-real-face-of-
prostitut...](https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-real-face-of-
prostitution/)
[https://www.truthdig.com/articles/prostitution-being-
raped-f...](https://www.truthdig.com/articles/prostitution-being-raped-for-a-
living/)
[https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-underbelly-of-the-
sex-...](https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-underbelly-of-the-sex-trade-
industry/)
~~~
landryraccoon
I'm was unclear on something - is Chris Hedges saying that sex workers should
be themselves charged with a criminal offense, or that only pimps should be?
Those blog posts make it out that sex work is a crime against the sex workers;
i.e., it is prostitutes that are the victims. If that is indeed the case then
prostitutes should be able to go freely to the police for protection, without
fear of prosecution, since they are the victims. So that makes it unclear to
me what it means that Hedges is against decriminalization.
~~~
chimeracoder
> Those blog posts make it out that sex work is a crime against the sex
> workers; i.e., it is prostitutes that are the victims. If that is indeed the
> case then prostitutes should be able to go freely to the police for
> protection, without fear of prosecution, since they are the victims. So that
> makes it unclear to me what it means that Hedges is against
> decriminalization.
He's of a school of thought that sex workers are victims, but since most sex
workers do sex work voluntarily, it means that he views sex workers as victims
of their own harmful actions. The implication (whether or not he states it
directly) is that sex workers need to be saved from their own harmful actions
(ie, the work they do voluntarily) because otherwise they will harm
themselves.
While it's dressed in secular rhetoric, at its core, it's a very Puritanical,
moralistic argument that ultimately is used to justify people taking steps to
"save" sex workers from their "wrongful (harmful) actions".
Unsurprisingly, sex workers do not like him or his work.
------
TurkishPoptart
I wish Seattle had a Red-Light district, so that I could avoid it. Instead,
there are homeless and drug-addicted people everywhere, in need of help.
------
gwbas1c
When I went through the red light district in 2008, I didn't find it anywhere
near as sketchy as half of San Francisco.
The only disappointment that I had is that Dutch weed isn't anywhere as good
as Californian weed.
That being said: If I were Dutch, I wouldn't want to raise a family within
biking distance of the red light district. It's practically across the street
from a major train station. Dutch children have a lot of independence, and I
wouldn't want an 8, 12, or 16 year old stumbling into the red light district
by accident.
------
kilo_bravo_3
Everyone is cool from afar with sexwork until a meth head is jerking it on
their doorstep. "Like, wouldn't you rather have it be regulated and legal?"
Everyone is cool from afar with homeless until they're sleeping in their own
doorway. "Like, why are you trying to get rid of all of these poor homeless
people?"
"What's the big deal, maaaaan?" they ask, "Why do you have a problem with it?"
But the second the problem comes to their own doorstep they call the cops.
It's one of the most delicious hypocrisies of the internet. People get to
bitch about people dealing with all of the negative aspects of any problem
while self-righteously pretending to be open and accepting from thousands of
miles away.
~~~
lacker
They could operate more like marijuana sales do here in California. You have
to get a license and the number of licenses in an area is limited, so there
isn’t a “district”. Advertising is restricted. Most dispensaries are just
bland unmarked buildings in inexpensive office or warehouse areas.
It just seems possible to avoid both black markets and “vice districts”.
~~~
Animats
That's how Switzerland does it. Prostitution is legal, regulated, and hookers
charge value added tax like every other business.
Amsterdam's problem, from the article, seems to be tourism, not sex. The city
is being overwhelmed by visitors.
------
tempguy9999
> Everyone is cool from afar with sexwork until a meth head is jerking it on
> their doorstep
You are confusing or conflating sex work with drug use.
> Everyone is cool from afar with homeless until they're sleeping in their own
> doorway
I would be ok with that; you don't speak for me.
> self-righteously
Yeah, sure. None of your post reflects on your self-centredness.
~~~
toasterlovin
What if a homeless person takes a shit in your door step right in the broad
daylight (actual thing that happened at my place of work several years ago).
Cool with that as well?
~~~
geggam
Public restrooms are a problem in many areas. Take San Francisco. People piss
and shit on the streets, you would think its because they have no couth, I
almost ended up shitting on the street because no one lets you use their
toilet without buying something and the friggin lines were too long.
I still dont understand why folks dont let tiny houses and allocate certain
parking lots to let the homeless use for sleeping at night. Its not like you
can pretend they arent there and make them disappear
~~~
toasterlovin
Shitting _in the bushes_ or _behind a dumpster_ because you simply have to go
and there's no restroom within reach is an act of necessity. Many of us have
found ourselves so disposed. Shitting on someone's _doorstep_ is not something
anyone needs to do, ever.
~~~
geggam
Find me a bush on market street in the finance district.
~~~
toasterlovin
Although I am somewhat tempted to see exactly how far you will bend over
backwards to justify people shitting in doorways in broad daylight, I will
resist the temptation and move on. Take care.
~~~
geggam
:) i agree its not normal behavior but the homeless have been dehumanized
enough they arent quite normal. Add a bit of mental issues and no public
poopers... its simple to understand
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Covid-19 vs. Temperature (Not Real Science) - chrisdengso
I was curious to see if I could find any correlation between the Coronavirus and the temperature. In this post, I explain why and how I did it. DISCLAIMER: This is very unscientific and I just hacked a script together as fast I could on a boring night in quarantine.<p>https://blog.cude.io/covid-19-temperature/
======
chrisdengso
Check it out here:
[https://blog.cude.io/covid-19-temperature/](https://blog.cude.io/covid-19-temperature/)
------
gus_massa
It would be nice to add the slope of the linear fit and the error. I guess it
is something like -0.002+-0.005 or -0.002+-0.006, and it too close to the
noise level to be meaningful.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
I can't concentrate for studies in University - iwtdwiwtd
Hello,
So, my problem is that I absolutely can't concentrate on my lectures. I used to be like that in high school too, I skipped many lessons, because they were useless for me, I couldn't concentrate on them, but I would go home and studied hard on my own and I was getting very good marks and no one could believe it.<p>However, in University, I must to take information from my lecturers, because it's much harder than in high school.<p>So, any tips for concentrating on lectures? I really need help, thank you very much.
======
meanJim
I read from the comments below that you are studying computer science.
My advice is bias.
You probably aren't in the last 2 and a half years of the program yet where
you do coding projects. I find that I don't have to be at every class (
although I go anyway ) to do well in those because a lot of it is coding and
completing projects. (Binary Tree, Hash Tables, Disjoint Sets, Linux File
Systems, Building an Operating System).
Whats my advice?
Suck it up. You will convince yourself you love to learn from people you have
paid to listen to that you don't fully respect (you didn't fully respect your
teachers in high school from the sound of it), you love to learn computer
science because you love how close it is to pure creation (in my opinion). You
love the fact that with the foundation that you pick up you will be able to
build wonderful applications for millions of people to use.
There is no secret, listen to what your lecturers have to say, take notes, and
just do it.
High school is easy, college is easy, computer science is not. You can't allow
yourself to get use to that 'selective' hearing bullshit. But I have faith in
you, life is all about effort and if you actually put the effort in you won't
struggle in the long run.
Or maybe the major isn't for you. My 2 cents.
------
DanBC
1) Consider getting an assessment for ADD / ADHD / etc.
2) Stop drinking caffeine for at least a week, see if that makes any
difference.
3) Sort out sleep - do a web search for "Sleep Hygiene" and see if that helps.
(Do you snore? Do you have sleep apnea? Get that checked, it can be dangerous.
But if you don't, well, lack of sleep affects concentration.)
4) Learn a good note taking system. People seem to like the "Cornell notes"
method. There are many templates around. This means you'll be concentrating on
what's being spoken, and writing stuff down in a useful way, and not
distracting yourself with other stuff.
4a) Take notes on paper, not on computer, unless you really need computer.
Avoiding computers means you avoid solitaire / facebook status checking / HN /
etc.
------
DanBC
5) BrainGym is some bullshit nonsense but it's used quite a lot in UK schools.
Even though it is nonsense you could try a few of the exercises, because i)
short breaks do help and ii) placebo effect.
~~~
iwtdwiwtd
If I know it's placebo effect, it won't help me, will it? Lol, ok, thanks I'll
try it.
~~~
DanBC
Some research suggests that even knowing that something is a placebo doesn't
stop it from "working".
With BrainGym you need to realise (it's pretty obvious) that it's nonsense,
but maybe just taking a short break every now and again and doing some
"exercises" will be useful, for some reason not connected to all the nonsense
that braingym comes out with.
------
mrleinad
What do you study?
~~~
iwtdwiwtd
Maths and Computer Science
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Hacking Product Hunt – A Data-Driven Approach to Win at Product Hunt - edoventurini
https://medium.com/@edoventurini/hacking-product-hunt-fcbcc22875
======
haloklaus
Awesome article, gonna do that with my start-up Modescope
~~~
edoventurini
Thank you. Let me know how it goes.
------
anacleto
I hope to see something like this also for BetaList.
btw, really interesting.
Congrats.
~~~
edoventurini
Thank you. An analysis on BetaList would be very interesting. I'm adding it to
my TODO list! :)
~~~
keesj
Ping me at marc@betalist.com for API access!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: GitBook Editor – Merge Conflict Resolution UI - friendcode
https://www.gitbook.com/blog/features/merge-conflicts
======
ocdtrekkie
This sounds awesome. I avoid merging things specifically because I never
learned Git command line, and GitHub doesn't have a UI to deal with it.
~~~
AaronO
Hi Aaron from GitBook here.
Exactly. I use git a lot, I'm familiar with git's internals and have written a
lot of git related code (our git server and all our git related
infrastructure). Yet I still flinch at the idea of solving conflicts in the
CLI.
I'm sure other developers feel the same, more so for less or non technical
people.
~~~
ocdtrekkie
So, I see you can sign into GitBook with your GitHub account. But it looks
like you guys are selling your own Git hosting service. So... question... does
GitBook's client work with GitHub repositories? Your site doesn't make that
very clear.
~~~
ocdtrekkie
Okay, so, honest truth... I thought I could do code with this. I really WANT
to do code with this. I really do. :P
------
BorisMelnik
excellent - we love Gitbook and are super excited any time we get new
features.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Spiritual Life of the Long-Distance Runner - pmcpinto
http://www.newyorker.com/news/sporting-scene/spiritual-life-long-distance-runner
======
michael_h
I'm envious of people who get the 'runners high'. I've run for hours to no
effect except rubbery legs and boredom. I like riding a bike because going
fast is fun, but the _work_ of it gives me nothing.
~~~
leonroy
Where do you run? I found it took regularity and running in the woods (rather
than the city) before I was able to get that feeling of calming and mild
euphoria. Not sure if it's runner's high but it sure felt good!
~~~
michael_h
Woods, city, suburbs - doesn't seem to matter.
------
ck2
18 minute miles for 40 days. It boggles the mind.
Keep in mind the average walker does 20 minute miles so it is barely faster
than walking but still, 40 days. I've done marathons and I wouldn't walk for
40 days unless my life depended on it.
This story reminds me of that one guy with an actual "superpower". He has the
genetics where his muscles can actually burn lactic acid as fuel. So he has
impossible endurance. Dean Karnazes - has run 350 miles in 80 hours (13 minute
miles). He's done 50 marathons in 50 consecutive days.
~~~
MaybiusStrip
Not to diminish Dean Karnazes' feat, but you might be interested to find out
someone recently did 50 Ironman races in 50 days
([http://www.runnersworld.com/general-interest/50-ironmans-
in-...](http://www.runnersworld.com/general-interest/50-ironmans-in-50-days-
in-50-states)). An Ironman includes a 2.4 mile swim and a 100 mile bike ride
in addition to a full-length marathon.
~~~
ck2
That actually does diminish his feat.
An ironman each day as a workout. Just imagine that. Wow.
~~~
whatusername
If you haven't heard the story before -- I'm a big fan of Cliff Young:
[http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2011/10/a-61-year-
ol...](http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2011/10/a-61-year-old-potato-
farmer-once-won-one-of-the-worlds-most-grueling-athletic-competitions/)
------
dahart
Long distance running has some interesting similarities with startup life,
IMO, that relate directly to the author's premise. Not the same, of course,
but you can still ask the same questions: What makes the entrepreneur keep
going when it's hard work, and they're tired, nearly out of money, low on
sleep, hitting the extremes of mood and ability, month after month? What
motivation is there to just keep going when it's not clear there's an end?
I'm no ultra marathoner, but I've recently done some marathon length trail
runs just for fun, it was liberating and fun to be able to cover long
distances on foot without a vehicle, and I automatically started thinking
about longer runs. The article seems to suggest there's a special brand of
weird, that ultra marathoners are very different. I rather think it's human
nature to see how far you can go, no matter what you're doing, and always
curious and interesting to think about and/or experience what kind of mental
states people go through when doing some activity to the exclusion of other
things.
------
alisson
Reminded me of this couple on their 60s that ran everyday for 366 days
covering 10,000 miles, and they live on raw fruits and vegetables:
[http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/couple-run-
marathons-r...](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/couple-run-marathons-
record-366-days-row-article-1.1563451)
~~~
ck2
That's mind blowing. I wonder how many pairs of sneakers they went through.
Also wonder if they chat while they run or just like running together.
------
cafard
I can't really claim to have been an ultramarathoner--I ran four or five
36-mile races and one 50, all long ago. I don't remember the ultramarathoners
I met (at my own races and a couple of 100-mile races where I handled for a
friend) as being particularly spiritual.
------
padobson
I love running and I love praying. I can confirm that there is some overlap in
the benefits of each.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
SyrianStories : timeline of the revolt in Syria in pics & vidz - lolizbak
http://syrianstories.org/
======
lolizbak
(i know there's normally no politics here, but i think it's worth sharing)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Extreme Productivity with Screen and Vim - feydr
http://airodig.com/2010/08/27/extreme-productivity-with-screen-and-vim/
======
spudlyo
I didn't care for this video. I thought it was light on content and the
narrator had some pretty annoying mannerisms.
_"...cuz you know, like back in the day we didn't have fancy X-windows where
we could you-know move around and play on the web and look at porn and shit...
so it was uh...you know, I mean... screen... but screen is still definitely,
you know.. something that is really good to use."_
I do however agree with him that screen and vim are both pretty kickass, I
just think he could have done a better job showing why.
~~~
mcantor
I was surprised at how much the swearing and hesitating grated on me. I'm
usually the first guy who wishes presenters would lighten up and joke around a
little, but for some reason I couldn't stomach more than 3 minutes of this
video. I just kept thinking, "Man... this is really unprofessional." I hope
they don't revoke my sarcastic hippy license...
I'm actually kind of jealous that it's got _26_ upvotes on the frontpage.
That's a lot! I love vim and screen with all my heart; maybe I should make a
video like this, too. I feel like I could do them justice better.
~~~
thesnark
I would watch such a video if you made one.
------
cedsav
I use Eclipse as my main development environment. I'm familiar with vi, I use
it regularly for sys-admin stuff, and used it extensively a while back in
college.
As far a text-editor goes, I'm 100% sure that vim/emacs power users are
extremely productive (And I'll wage that this video isn't the best example of
productivity vs. a GUI).
What I haven't been able to figure out though is the workflow of vim users
when working on real projects, not a single source file.
I rarely spend a lot of time writing code in a single file. I often have to
navigate the project folder structure to look for stuff, I need to compare
files, work with the source control and so on.. all of this I feel I can do
pretty efficiently from within Eclipse.
So how do vim/emacs users do? I presume it's all command line and a lot of
typing. Am i wrong?
~~~
koenigdavidmj
In Vim, FuzzyFinder (<http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=1984>)
makes it really easy to flip between files.
That, and once you learn Vim frame management, you become a lot more
productive on multiple files.
~~~
swombat
And NERDtree. <http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=1658>
~~~
jarin
And PeepOpen if you're on a Mac and using MacVim
<http://peepcode.com/products/peepopen>
------
pyre
I use a screen session w/ multiple windows at work on the server, which I
attach to every morning. Then I have all of the setup that I was working on
the previous day right there in front of me.
Some screen hacks:
* I use grabssh[1] so that I can get ssh-agent forwarding working again when I reattach. ssh into the server, run grabssh, then reattach the screen session. Now all of my shells in the session can source fixssh to update their environment.
* I also use a wrapper for ssh within a screen session:
function screen_ssh_wrapper()
{
if [ -n "$STY" ]; then
HOST=$(echo "$1" | sed -e 's,[a-zA-Z0-9],,g')
if [ -z "$HOST" ]; then
# Note: We need all of these vars b/c we want the ssh command to
# inherit them from the current shell, and *not* from screen (for
# long-running screen sessions, those values may be out of date)
screen -t "$1" \
env \
SSH_CLIENT="$SSH_CLIENT" \
SSH_TTY="$SSH_TTY" \
SSH_AUTH_SOCK="$SSH_AUTH_SOCK" \
SSH_CONNECTION="SSH_CONNECTION" \
DISPLAY="$DISPLAY" \
ssh "$@"
return
fi
fi
ssh "$@"
}
alias ssh='screen_ssh_wrapper'
[1] <http://samrowe.com/wordpress/ssh-agent-and-gnu-screen/>
~~~
feydr
interesting fix to this problem!
------
seancron
It looks like the server just died. The post is mostly this video:
<http://vimeo.com/14481789>
Cache:
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://airodig.com/2010/08/27/extreme-
productivity-with-screen-and-vim/)
------
xbryanx
If you want to learn some extremely useful tips for real productivity in Vim,
I'd suggest the detailed videos on <http://vimcasts.org/> over this frenetic
if enthusiastic video.
------
itodd
I've been using tmux instead of screen lately. It's nice to have window
splitting built in. <http://tmux.sourceforge.net/>
~~~
digitallogic
I use emacs for splitting so I don't generally need this feature. Actually
most of my screen sessions only have a single window with emacs in it. I use
screen mainly to attach and detach sessions.
~~~
stevelosh
You might like dtach -- it's a program that just lets you detach/attach
sessions. It's simpler than screen, so if that's all you use screen for you
might like it.
<http://dtach.sourceforge.net/>
------
kevincolyar
If you're a vim user on a mac, try out ViKing. <http://vikingapp.com>
------
actf
To those suggesting Vim/Emacs require less mouse usage than an IDE: I see
little more than anecdotal evidence to support this. I personally use Visual
Studio extensively in combination with the ViEmu pluggin, and I'd like to
think that doing so is both more productive and utilizes the mouse less than a
combination of screen/vim would. After configuring keyboard shortcuts, there
is almost nothing I need to use the mouse for in Visual Studio. I get the
benefits of using Vim plus I get the additional benefits of code completion,
project management facilities, debugging utilities, and much more.
Honestly, I fail to see the advantage to this approach.
------
Xurinos
I didn't watch the video, based on some of the other responses here (I do not
have time for the presentation fluff), but I hope he made mention of
slime.vim. If not, I will toss in a quick plug for it --
Want to quickly send blocks or lines of code to REPLs (and sometimes the
command line) in your other screen windows? slime.vim is a vim extension that
copies text from your vim session and pastes it into the screen window of your
choice.
------
njharman
I use screen sparingly (when it matters (remote long running process that I
need to not die just cause Comcast Cable sucks ass and drops my internet) but
would never use it "all the time" Fucking with Ctrl-A and my scroll back
constantly pisses me off. And the advantages aren't worth learning how to
remap Ctrl-A which I'm told is possible.
~~~
pyre
Most things that are worthwhile have an up-front cost/learning curve. To
dismiss something just because you have to take the time to learn about it
first is a ridiculous concept.
Personally I have the 'escape' mapped to the back-tick (`), and if I need to
send an _actual_ back-tick then I just hit it twice (``). I ripped this setup
off from someone on StackOverflow.
------
fortes
I'm currently into vim/screen, but actually thinking of jumping ship to
emacs/tmux [mostly due to orgmode]. Anyone ever done the same?
From the looks of it, the screen to tmux transition will be the easy part :)
~~~
hesitz
I started in basic Vim and migrated to using the Vimoutliner plugin,
especially for non-code text. Orgmode is a hell of a lot more fully featured
than Vimoutliner, has a much larger user base, and a much more active
development team. I'm able to stomach Emacs by using the Viper and Vimpulse
plugins that emulate a nice subset of Vim keybindings, but it still doesn't
feel as good. If you need the extra features of Orgmode it's well worth it,
though. Still, Vimoutliner probably has Orgmode beat when you consider just
the outliner functionality (but of course Orgmode offers much more than that).
Lately I've been witing LaTeX documents using the Vim Latex-Suite plugin. What
I really should do is configure Orgmode to work with my LaTeX preamble and/or
revise the LatexSuite so its outlining works more like Vimoutliner.
Either way you can't lose.
------
qusiba
The problem of VIM is that, you need to do a lot of configuration yourself.
While this is fan for me, I never recommend it to anyone who has less patience
than I have. Any IDE would be much easier for them.
~~~
mcantor
I found vim's configuration to be pretty natural, in that the bare editor
worked fine for me, but as I became better-versed in its use, I would run into
small things that made me think, "Hmm, I wish I could do this," or "Hmm, I
wish this feature worked that way." Engraving each small thing into my .vimrc
was a lesson in of itself that helped me learn more about vim each time; I
rarely felt overwhelmed or like I had to figure everything out at once.
------
hubb
what's with the "big booty bitches" in the background? haha
~~~
feydr
eh... yeh. that accidently slipped by -- just random testing of the webapp I
was working on.. ;)
~~~
mcantor
Sounds like a badass webapp, dude! ;-P
------
markjuh
hmm, :u to undo... who would do that?
------
clyfe
what is "Screen"?, link please!
EDIT, ty hubb
~~~
junkbit
The main selling point of screen is not actually the way he uses it in the
video, to manage multiple windows, but the way you can disconnect and
reconnect to any screen session from any computer using the screen daemon and
ssh.
For example start a bittorrent download running in screen at home and then
monitor it from work, reload X without loosing your work, or the canonical
example: idle in irc all day without being disconnected.
~~~
feydr
yeh this is useful detach/re-attach, however, I usually have a screen session
opened locally so when I'm doing remote work I typically open several ssh
connections since they are cheap -- anything I want to put into the background
I do so the typical way and not through screen -- good point though
------
eegilbert
I love it when old becomes new again.
------
korch
Vim + Screen has been my "IDE" of choice for 5+ years. At this point I
probably could not hack on code using any other toolset—it's so ingrained. And
compiling Vim with Ruby bindings has also allowed me to whip up some very
useful scripts to performs routine tasks like you'd see in Eclipse.
Vim ftw!
~~~
Dornkirk
I actually don't really understand using this as an "IDE" - part of the reason
I don't think I'd be able to leave Eclipse is because it's "fully loaded" so
to speak - such as navigating my project's directory/structure, debugging,
etc, and I don't think I could live without auto-complete (maybe I'm lazy, but
I didn't see it in this video and I don't see how it'd be possible in a Vim
environment?), not just auto-complete for the time saving but also for the
inspection - I (unfortunately) work with a convoluted piece of technology
where every instance of a class seems to inherit a gazillion properties &
methods and I sometimes don't know what I'm looking for unless I can scroll
down the list that auto-complete gives me.
~~~
dan00
".. and I don't think I could live without auto-complete (maybe I'm lazy, but
I didn't see it in this video and I don't see how it'd be possible in a Vim
environment?) .."
In insert mode the keys CTRL-P, CTRL-N complete the previous/next matching
word. Instead of these keys you can use the supertab plugin, to complete a
word by hiting tab in insert mode.
You can choose where vim searches for matching words with the variable
'complete'.
There's also the omnicompletion, which does language specific completes, like
method names of an object, by using ctags.
Search for 'omnicomplete <language>' to find the language specific plugin.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Time Machine style backup with rsync in 540 lines of code - terminalhealth
https://github.com/laurent22/rsync-time-backup
======
pwg
The description sounds like this mirrors a lot of the functionality found in
rsnapshot ([https://rsnapshot.org/](https://rsnapshot.org/)).
What are the advantages here vs. what rsnapshot already provides?
~~~
chopin
Or backintime ([https://github.com/bit-
team/backintime](https://github.com/bit-team/backintime)).
The only thing I am missing is that it doesn't work for sshfs mounted devices.
Which is not provided by any alternative tool which supports snapshots
(probably because of problems with hard links, although I never had issues
with those over sshfs).
------
mthoms
To me, the fact that it doesn't provide a fancy GUI on MacOS is a pro not a
con. I'd much prefer to browse the snapshots using a normal file browser.
The Time Machine GUI was cool at first. Now it's just obnoxious.
------
terminalhealth
Also works on Windows via WSL. The repo is active, but urgently needs
maintainers.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Intel Announces Xeon W-3175X: 28-Core Processor for Extreme Workstations - rbanffy
https://www.anandtech.com/show/13449/intel-announces-xeon-w3175x-28core-processor-for-extreme-workstations
======
piinbinary
In a surprise to no one, it doesn't run at 5 Ghz like their demo did. Still,
4.3 is very impressive for that many cores. I'm curious how it stacks up
against the 32-core threadripper.
~~~
KenanSulayman
Didn't they use liquid nitrogen cooling and “forgot to mention it”? [1]
[1] [https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-28-core-
cpu-5ghz,372...](https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-28-core-
cpu-5ghz,37244.html)
~~~
Latteland
I guess it should stop being surprising that, just like in June, Intel can't
seem to cope with amd beating them. They just outright lied in June (your
article reminds us), and this seems like a slightly smaller lie?
------
rbinv
265 W TDP stock, yet comes with an unlocked multiplier? Good luck with
overclocking. 5 GHz (as demoed) won't be easily attainable.
Interestingly, AMD's TR 2990WX has a 100 MHz lower clock rate (3.0/4.2 GHz),
but achieves a TDP of 250 W with 32 physical cores. It will be interesting to
see their power efficiencies (i.e. FLOPS/W) compared.
------
dragontamer
I'm wondering why dual-Xeon Silvers aren't more popular?
Xeon Silver goes up to 12-cores (but the 10-core seems best
price/performance). So dual-Xeon Silver 10-core gives you 2x10 cores in NUMA
configuration.
You get AVX512 from Xeon Silver. You compromise slightly due to NUMA
architecture but less so than Threadripper (2x NUMA) or EPYC (always 4x NUMA).
Xeon Silver 4114 x2 gives you 12-memory channels, 2x10 Cores (40-threads).
Nominally it was supposed to be under $600 per chip, but its closer to $750 at
the moment. Even then, Dual Xeon Silver seems to be the best price/performance
from Intel.
\----------
The Xeon W-3175X is a singular NUMA node with 28-cores is nifty for sure, but
its a niche product. Threadripper demonstrates that the typical consumer can
handle NUMA nodes.
I can't imagine that most people need tight-thread integration that the
W-3175X would give you.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Let Oracle own API's, Justice Dept tells top court in surprise filing - bcn
http://fortune.com/2015/05/26/google-oracle-api-supremecourt-obama-appeal/
======
badlogic
This advise by the Solicitor General hinges on an interpretation of section
102(b) of the copyright act. That section essentially says that "methods of
operation" can't be copyrighted.
The Solicitor General does not understand that APIs are a formalized
description of "methods of operation" (page 14). I suggest reading the entire
advisory, it's quite frustrating and contradicts itself.
~~~
markvdb
I agree that one shouldn't ascribe to malice what can be ascribed to
incompetence. ("The Solicitor General does not understand...")
BUT!
At the White House level, incompetence equals malice. We have every right to
expect competence from a level as high as the White House.
~~~
RexRollman
Well, these are the same people who think you can safely backdoor encryption.
~~~
harryh
Justice department officials and congressmen are most definitely not the same
people.
~~~
bcg1
FBI is part of the justice dept.
[http://www.fbi.gov/news/speeches/going-dark-are-
technology-p...](http://www.fbi.gov/news/speeches/going-dark-are-technology-
privacy-and-public-safety-on-a-collision-course)
------
meesterdude
> and likened the Java API’s to Charles Dickens and other literary works
Never, could have I ever predicted to one day see that as an actual excerpt
from an article.
By the way, this is a wonderful exercise of effort on our part as a society.
Really very important we sort these these nuances out. People may be dying,
the poor may be getting poorer, but _this_ is what is important. /s
~~~
colechristensen
>By the way, this is a wonderful exercise of effort on our part as a society.
Really very important we sort these these nuances out. People may be dying,
the poor may be getting poorer, but this is what is important. /s
It's sarcastic, I get it, but it is also profoundly stupid. Sorting out
intellectual property and ownership is _the_ 21st century problem as we
continually move away from the importance of physical objects and towards the
importance of pure information.
~~~
iSnow
>Sorting out intellectual property and ownership is _the_ 21st century problem
Uhm, no. Only for the HN crowd and maybe open source.
There are a lot more and more pressing problems that have to do with things
like the environment, food production, reproduction, migration and democracy
vs. corporatism vs. ideology.
~~~
rayiner
It's profoundly important to the U.S. as a whole. Creation of IP is the last
thing that's going to be automated by robots. It's already been tremendously
resistant to production being exported to China and India. We're already at
the point where the primary product of the U.S. is IP in various forms (Apple
designs the computers but they're manufactured in China).
~~~
bediger4000
What do you mean by "IP"? If it's "intellectual property" that strikes me (a
non-lawyer) as a particularly vague and ill-defined concept. I personally find
the idea of owning an idea to be risible: historically, important things have
been invented or discovered multiple times, sometimes clearly independently.
So, why should I as a citizen finance some monopolies that will be
economically detrimental to me and to society as a whole? Seriously. I'm not
pulling chains here. Economists are almost 100% against monopolies (although
they often differ on what constitutes a monopoly), and "IP" is a state-
supported monopoly. Why should we subject ourselves to it?
~~~
jacobr1
> Why should we subject ourselves to it?
The traditional reason is to grant incentive for its creation in the first
place. One primary example has been medical advances. With the benefit of a
(temporary) monopoly on the sales of a new drug, the company has an incentive
to create it in the first place. Perhaps we wouldn't have as many life saving
advances without IP protection. A secondary reason is that it requires public
disclosure. One alternative to patent protection is to keep a production
method a trade secret. So companies, if they are sufficiently secretive, could
have effective if not legally enforced monopolies due to such secrets. So is
it worth the tradeoff of having IP protection?
COST: a time-limited monopoly; limited incremental innovation on derivatives
of the protected work during the lifetime of the protection.
BENEFIT: potentially more innovative goods and services are created to begin
with; the means and methods behind these innovations are publicly documented
for future replication or derivative work .
I'm think it is worth the tradeoff both for copyright protection and patents
in general. But the specific laws are certainly not optimal as currently
written and enforced by the courts. Durations for both patents and copyright
are too long. Plenty of things that are patentable should not be, due to them
being too obvious, trivial, or just not appropriate for protection.
Also the remedy for infringement has multiple options. You could allow general
infringement, at statutory royalty rates. I think Canada has experimented with
this for copyright, and the US as standard (but private) arrangements for the
licensing of music. You could require a fraction of any profits. These provide
the monopoly rents, but not a monopolization of production and derivatives. We
are still learning what the optimal tradeoffs are for society. I hope we have
more experimentation on regulatory regimes to identify the best compromises.
~~~
bediger4000
_The traditional reason is to grant incentive for its creation in the first
place._
Most certainly, that's the nominal, and even in the USA, constitutional basis
of copyright and patents. But the actual implementation over the last 100
years seems to have veered away from creating incentives, and into creating
something naively akin to ownership, with state enforcement.
_I hope we have more experimentation on regulatory regimes_
Based on the CAFC's decision here, and it's history, we're only going to
experiment with "more" and "stricter" regimes. We've (the USA) never really
experimented with loosening "IP" monopolies, despite data and logic pointing
towards shorter monopolies as closer to optimum.
I'd also have to take exception the "pharmacy has benefitted from long-lasting
monopolies". That's probably true simplistically (When was the last time Smith
Klein Glaxo didn't turn a huge profit?) but in the manner of creating tons of
medicines for The Rest of Us, it seems to have failed. India and some African
countries actually allow infringing compounds, because the price of authentic
compounds is set high. Also, the people of the USA pay way more for
medications than most other countries. This whole topic is subject to
argument, but certainly pharmacy patents relate to high prices and
unavailability.
------
rodgerd
Welp, IT industry had a good run. Time to wrap it up and hand it over to a
couple of companies to run as a monopoly.
~~~
coldpie
Yeah, I don't understand why this is a relatively minor story. This should be
filling the front page of HN, on par with Jobs's death. If this ruling goes
the wrong way, it will end software development as we know it, especially
given the ridiculous length of copyright.
Any reimplementation of an API? Illegal. IBM compatible PCs? Illegal. Any
emulator? Illegal. Binary-compatible reimplementations? Illegal.
~~~
Ygg2
On the plus side, being a lawyer will be well paid.
------
tzs
(Reposting a question I asked in an earlier discussion, where I may have
arrived too late for anyone to see it).
That cases raises an interesting precedent issue that I have not been able to
find the answer to. Let's assume that the Supreme Court decides not to take
the appeal, so the decision of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
that APIs are copyrightable stands.
What courts is this precedent for?
Generally, the way precedent works is that if appeals from court X go to court
Y, then the decisions of court Y are precedent for court X. If court Z is not
on the appeals path from X, then the decisions of court Z are not binding
precedent for X.
For copyright cases, appeals normally do NOT go to the CAFC. They go the
Courts of Appeal for the circuit in which the court appealed from resides.
E.g., copyright cases from district courts in the 2nd Circuit go to the 2nd
Circuit Court of Appeals.
In general, that is the appeals path from the Federal district court.
Copyright cases aren't specifically singled out.
Oracle vs. Google was tried in the 9th Circuit. If it had just been a
copyright case, the appeal would have went to the 9th Circuit Court of
Appeals. However, it was also a patent case, and patent cases are singled out.
They are explicitly diverted from the normal appeals path and go to the CAFC.
If the case is also some other kind of case, such as a copyright case or an
antitrust case, the CAFC is allowed to hear those aspects too.
So does this mean that if P sues D in the 9th circuit over copyright, with no
patent issues or any other issues that would bring the appeal to the CAFC,
then the district court would only use the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals for
precedent (which I believe disagrees with CAFC), and ignore CAFC's Google vs.
Oracle copyright ruling?
Even more confusing, suppose P sues D over copyright and patents in the 9th
Circuit. The district court figures that the case, if appealed, will go to the
CAFC, and so follows CAFC precedent for the copyright aspects. Now suppose
after the court rules, neither party appeals the court's decisions on any of
the patent issues. The only appeal copyright issues. Does the case still go to
CAFC? Or does it go the 9th Circuit? If it goes to the 9th Circuit, do they
apply their own copyright precedent or CAFC precedent?
~~~
richardfontana
I believe the CAFC decision is not binding precedent for any court. If P sues
D in the 9th circuit over copyright, even if there are patent claims as well
(such that an appeal on a copyright issue would necessarily go to the CAFC),
the CAFC decision in Oracle v. Google is not binding precedent. Of course that
does not mean that the district court would be likely to ignore the CAFC
decision in Oracle v. Google, but in principle it ought to be no more than
persuasive, like any pertinent decision in a sibling circuit.
On the question in your last paragraph, where P sues D over copyright and
patents in the 9th circuit, and there are only appeals of copyright issues,
the appeal goes to the CAFC by statute.
~~~
tzs
On that last part, so CAFC gets the case if it included patent claims, even if
neither party is appealing any of the patent issues?
That raises the possibility of copyright plaintiffs tossing in a patent claim
that they have no intention of trying to actually win on, just to make sure
that they will get CAFC's view of copyright instead of the 9th Circuit's view.
~~~
richardfontana
Yes, the CAFC would get the case.
The CAFC itself would be bound to apply 9th Circuit precedent, as it purported
to do here. Again in principle, a prior copyright decision by the CAFC
applying 9th Circuit law would not be binding precedent on a CAFC panel
hearing some later copyright case arising out of the 9th Circuit.
------
lorddoig
Excuse me, non-American here, but a passage from an article linked within
states[0]:
> The nine justices request that U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, Jr.,
> the government's top lawyer before the Supreme Court, weigh in on about 20
> cases a year in which the federal government has a strong interest. The
> justices generally give greater weight to what he or she says than other
> third parties that take a side in a case, an influence which has caused the
> solicitor general to be dubbed the "tenth justice."
Question: _what the fuck?_
[0]: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/15/google-oracle-lawsuit-idUSL1N0Y32YG20150515
~~~
bcg1
> Question: what the fuck?
American here.
We are aware of the problem, but due to high call volume and a totally
corrupt/captured/entrenched corporate & government bureaucracy, you may
experience long wait times.
------
shmerl
European courts declared APIs to be uncopyrightable.
~~~
gpvos
I wouldn't be surprised if the US tried to sneak copyright for APIs back in
through "trade" agreements like TTIP.
~~~
tajen
... and API copyright would give an excellent commercial advantage to US
companies over Europe, since they have more startups than we have. On the
other hand, my government (France) doesn't do much to help startups [1][2], so
it's only fair that we get invaded by talented foreign companies.
[1] For €1000 sold to a customer, the employee gets a purchasing power of less
than €300, even in the absence of expenses and stakeholder dividends, because
our VAT is 20%, mandatory contributions 46%, income tax 10-15%, land tax
5-10%, and laws are so circumvoluted that the tax accountant takes 45€ per
paysheet per employee and charge about 2000€ yearly to the company. And the
founder gets to spend >10% of his time on the phone with administrations or
filling forms. I know the IRS of USA isn't much better, but I've lived in
Australia and administrations make a difference on CEO time.
[2] I'm aware of that the French government provides benefits for startups
like CRI (Crédit Impot Recherche), which basically funds the PhDs you hire,
but it wastes paperwork pumping money from companies into companies, requires
a person to manage the grant, and isn't socially fair since it advantages
those with a PhD.
I could always blame TTIP agreements for advantaging Americans, but we, French
people, tackle down our own companies on a massive scale.
French people, please don't answer "Hey man the CCI can help you for your
paperwork if you fill in this form and post it to this address and fill the
file they return and the RSI will take a levy of 0,015% for training (truth)
and ... form ... and ... paper ... document... and... minitax... organisme
social... excess... deductible for SMEs if you tick the box 5UV and ..."
Please. I just wanted to hire and code, and the Australian PAYG paysheet is
frigging awesome.
~~~
rtpg
Where is your 46% coming from? Also, you might grossly underestimate how much
of an absolute mess American taxes are to deal with. If you're complaining
about paying your accountant 2000 euros a year...
~~~
sitkack
Taxes are in the same ballpark for all western countries. The real burden
isn't the financial load, it is the complexity. I had a dream that my US state
could take over all forms of taxation and have a single payer system (ha!)
Business, personal, income, property, federal, all of it, one form, filed
electronically and done by the state. Done.
------
caf
Is the logical extension of this that anyone who's written a standard C
library was in violation of Kernighan & Ritchie's copyright?
~~~
WildUtah
"anyone who's written a standard C library was in violation of Kernighan &
Ritchie's copyright"
K&R and Ken Thompson et al. were working for Bell Labs and assigned copyright
to AT&T. AT&T cooperated with early open source programmers at Cal to produce
UNIX software. The negotiations between Cal and AT&T produced a license from
AT&T for UNIX and C as embodied in Berkeley UNIX. Berkeley BSD grants a
license to anyone in the world to reproduce standard libraries and the rest of
the UNIX system.
Thus anyone who writes a standard UNIX library has a solid license chain back
to KR&T for the APIs regardless of the result of this lawsuit.
Now, the BIOS in your PC -- and the billion PC clones produced in the past 35
years -- becomes a criminal offense if the CAFC result is upheld. Quite a lot
of other APIs that have been standardized under the laws as we understood them
for the 50 years before CAFC reversed them soon become illegal forever.
But UNIX and its various flavors is fine.
Python, Perl, Ruby, C++, and C programmers should be fine as will be their
standard libraries.
And we'll all adapt by not using proprietary APIs from now on. You'll have to
be careful about code licenses and API licenses instead of just code licenses.
It's a headache and a large one-time cost to the industry in libraries we'll
lose forever but in the long run it'll be fine for programmers.
The real danger from the CAFC is the way they've been expanding patents. You
can't escape from patents just by getting licenses or not copying others'
work.
~~~
pgeorgi
Still, the BSD license requires reproduction of the license text and copyright
headers (and for a while, advertising on the package). I don't see those in
many C libraries.
------
estefan
Maybe we should change the standard licences - GPL, MIT, etc. - to include a
caveat "free to use without restriction... except by companies known as, or
ever known as, Oracle Corporation"...
~~~
maze-le
There are a few more exceptions, that come to my mind: Military, Intelligence
Agencies and their subcontractors, TBTF-Banks, Disney, Sony ... ahrr and the
list goes on
~~~
lmm
[http://www.gnu.org/licenses/hessla.en.html](http://www.gnu.org/licenses/hessla.en.html)
------
bcg1
"The Congress shall have Power... To promote the Progress of Science and
useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the
exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries" \-- Article I,
Section 8, US Constitution
([http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_trans...](http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_transcript.html))
This is the exact opposite of promoting progress, and this type of behavior
needs to be overturned on constitutional grounds. This is so far beyond what
the Constitution authorizes Congress to oversee with respect to patent and
copyright law that the specifics of the case are almost meaningless. There is
absolutely nothing to suggest that anyone would stop developing APIs or turn
them into trade secrets unless they can be copyrighted. 40+ years of sharing
and software development prove otherwise.
Time for the Federal Circuit and Justice Department to wake up, or for there
to be an investigation into bribery and corruption in East Texas and DC.
Preferably both.
------
Oletros
And the more ironic here is that Google didn't copy Sun code, they used Apache
Harmony implementation.
The ones doing the copy were the programmers from Apache Foundation
------
maz20
No suprise here --- 1) Google won the first case with Alsup. This demonstrates
that some lower courts can have a better understanding of the law and are
willing to spend time applying logic to these things. 2) Oracle won in a
higher court. At this point, we see a trend that the higher you go, the more
political and less competent the courts get. The DOJ's actions reinforce this
trend too. So, even if it goes to the Supreme Court, we're pretty much
guaranteed Oracle will win that too.
See, the whole problem of this case rests in that you have to "spend time" and
"apply logic" to agree with Google's position. Which, pretty much throws out
any hope of getting a "higher court" (or higher-anybody) to adopt Google's
stance on the issue.
Actually the poster "tajen" pretty much hit the nail on the head for this
issue -- essentially, adopting Google's stance unfortunately requires a degree
of competence and logical commitment beyond the comprehension of most higher
officials. So, even if this goes to the Supreme Court Oracle has this case
pretty much won...
~~~
dragonwriter
> 2) Oracle won in a higher court. At this point, we see a trend that the
> higher you go, the more political and less competent the courts get.
I don't know that that's the case; even if we assume that the CAFC is wrong
from the perspective of application of the law (rather than merely correctly
applying the law to reach an outcome that we don't like), certainly, lots of
observers think that the CAFC is an especially problematic court among Courts
of Appeal, and even on the issues that it specializes in (which copyright is
not one of; Oracle v. Google got there instead of the 9th Circuit because of
patent issues in the case, even though the thing we're all focused on is a
copyright issue.)
So, I don't think that "the CAFC messed this up", even if taken as gospel,
necessarily demonstrates a relation between "level" of court and competence.
> The DOJ's actions reinforce this trend too.
Since the DoJ isn't a higher court than the CAFC, I don't see how you can
reasonably say that.
~~~
maz20
DOJ is not a court but it is a "high official" (or "official body"). What I
was stating was that the "higher you go" \-- in terms of official government
bodies, whether they're courts, or something else -- the less competent I
would expect them to be.
You can simply say, 1) "Oracle owns Java" 2) "APIs are part of Java" 3)
"Google uses Java APIs" 4) Therefore, "Google uses something Oracle owns" so
Oracle should win this case
Now of course, you can apply some deeper logic to uphold Google's stance. But
that's the problem --- how "far" or how "deeper" do you expect the higher
courts to look into this issue? Deep enough to understand Google's position?
~~~
dragonwriter
> You can simply say, 1) "Oracle owns Java" 2) "APIs are part of Java" 3)
> "Google uses Java APIs" 4) Therefore, "Google uses something Oracle owns" so
> Oracle should win this case
You _could_ , but neither CAFC nor DoJ _did_ , so that's irrelevant.
> Now of course, you can apply some deeper logic to uphold Google's stance.
Or you could apply deeper logic and still uphold Oracle's stance. Now, I tend
to think the District Court decision here was more correct than the CAFC
decision (or the DoJ position), but I don't think as a legal decision its as
_clearly_ correct as some people would like to claim -- even though its also
the outcome I prefer independent of what is correct under the current law.
> But that's the problem --- how "far" or how "deeper" do you expect the
> higher courts to look into this issue?
Fairly deeply on the legal side -- that's what appellate courts exist to do,
and they are generally fairly good at it (though they do fail spectacularly at
times, but not _worse_ than trial courts, though with higher courts they get
more attention for it) -- perhaps less so on the factual side (again, this is
by design -- and why appellate courts often resolve legal disputes and send
the factual matters back to the trial courts to resolve given the legal
clarification.)
> Deep enough to understand Google's position?
I don't think the CAFC or DoJ failed to _understand_ Google's position.
Disagreement isn't the same thing as lack of understanding.
------
moron4hire
Why not let it happen? Why not just completely destroy everyone's
understanding of how permission to use certain types of code work, and then
force everyone to just abandon the US copyright system for software
completely? Let this happen and just let it destroy the system from the inside
out.
------
username3
Naming things is one of the hard things in Computer Science.
------
lukeh
Will be interesting to see if Microsoft sought a license from Apple for
Project Islandwood...
------
bmvakili
Seems ridiculous; my analogy: organization of volume of books; or
classification of library; I can use any classification. I can go to Library
of Congress; copy they way they organize their books; and implement same in my
library. Why can't you do that with Open Source code?
------
jorgecastillo
I know this has been said a lot of times already but I don't think we can say
this enough. If Oracle wins, this will set a terrible precedent for software
development. If any software company deserves to be qualified as evil, it is
Oracle without a doubt.
------
glomph
Can someone give the background of why Google did what they did? Did they want
to block Java compatibility or was that a side effect of some other objective?
~~~
tim333
History very approximately:
> In November 2006, Sun open-sources Java.
>In November 2007, Sun approves Google's use of Java in Android.
> April of 2009, Oracle Corp. announced that it would be acquiring Sun
Subsequently Oracle figured it could get some money from Google by requiring a
license fee
[http://www.zdnet.com/article/the-real-history-of-java-and-
an...](http://www.zdnet.com/article/the-real-history-of-java-and-android-as-
told-by-google/)
It gets more complicted though, see [http://www.zdnet.com/article/the-real-
history-of-java-and-an...](http://www.zdnet.com/article/the-real-history-of-
java-and-android-as-told-by-google/) and a bunch of other stuff
~~~
glomph
Thanks.
------
woah
Where does this leave SQL?
------
matthewmcg
The apostrophe should be removed from the heading.
------
username3
APIs should be trademarked.
------
tajen
What happened of Judge Aslop [1]? As a foreigner, he's the only ever positive
story I have heard about the American judicial system, since he was in charge
of the Google vs Oracle trial, and he reproduced code himself to understand
what was so unique about it. In fact, he decided there was only way to code
some things, and ruled that the very small method everyone was arguing against
can't be patented/copyrighted. And he ruled Oracle's API couldn't be
copyrighted. So do this contradict his ruling?
[1] [http://www.cnet.com/news/judge-william-alsup-master-of-
the-c...](http://www.cnet.com/news/judge-william-alsup-master-of-the-court-
and-java/)
~~~
carussell
> So do this contradict his ruling?
Yes. As mentioned in the linked article, the Federal Circuit court overturned
Alsup's ruling. The Alsup ruling came from a district court, and the Federal
Circuit has the authority to overturn it. From there, the question can go on
to the US Supreme Court.
------
ChairmanZach
""[Google]'s Section 102(b) argument also suffers from a broader flaw." (this
sentence transitions from the Administration's rejection of Google's
suggestion that declaring code is inherently more functional and less
expressive than implementing code to the DoJ's agreement with Oracle's lawyers
on the purpose of Section 102(b))"
That Google would be in the right by copying the declaring code of 27(!)
different namespaces is nothing but crazy.
[http://www.fosspatents.com/2015/05/us-dept-of-justice-
finds-...](http://www.fosspatents.com/2015/05/us-dept-of-justice-finds-
googles.html)
~~~
mikecmpbll
That FOSS Patents piece is the best commentary I've seen on the subject,
thanks for bringing to my attention.
~~~
simplifier
Ah, Florian Mueller, a paid Oracle shill.
~~~
mikecmpbll
I don't care how involved he is in the case, I read his writing and I found it
to be illuminating -- far more so than anything else I'd read on the subject.
You can happily take the opposing view simply because he is involved and is
probably biased, but that will make your viewpoint almost entirely baseless.
~~~
dragonwriter
Mueller has a history of doing an excellent job working things that aren't
actually reasonable to informed parties that seem illuminating to people that
aren't informed. It's actually a fairly key skill for a professional
propagandist. I haven't actually read the piece on question here, but
appearing illuminating and actually being deceptive propaganda are not
mutually exclusive traits.
~~~
mikecmpbll
if that's the case, it's the job of the 'informed' guys to write similarly
illuminating counter-arguments, because I've not found any yet.
~~~
dragonwriter
The illusion of illumination is greatly enhanced by having a strong guiding
narrative, which is easy with propaganda, harder with reality.
~~~
mikecmpbll
You cannot cry propaganda without providing some evidence as to what is
misleading or factually incorrect, because otherwise anyone can say anything
is propaganda.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Bash has local variables - dorfsmay
http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/localvar.html
======
dorfsmay
By default all variables are global, and had not realised that you can specify
"local" to make variables inside a function, local.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Mozilla Signs Lucrative 3-Year Google Search Deal for Firefox - shock
https://www.pcmag.com/news/mozilla-signs-lucrative-3-year-google-search-deal-for-firefox
======
mikece
I wonder if there was a way to work out a scheme of tax breaks for supporting
open source development. The problem is politics: the politicians certainly
cannot be trusted to decide which software should be supported, and if you
define that "critical" software should be supported then does a browser like
Firefox meet the requirement of "critical?"
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Culture handbooks from the world's most culture-centric companies - miraj
http://info.zealify.com/blog/best-culture-handbooks
======
andyparker
Thanks for sharing Miraj! Appreciate it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
As Curiosity touches down on Mars, video is taken down from YouTube - evo_9
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/08/as-curiosity-touches-down-on-mars-video-is-taken-down-from-youtube/
======
wtracy
It's time for penalties for false DMCA takedown notices.
~~~
novas0x2a
If it was a content id takedown (which it sounds like it was, and Ars thinks
so too), the DMCA is not involved at all; Google's content id system allows
takedowns that do not use the DMCA system and thus do not expose the filer to
a perjury charge. Google might penalize the company some other way, but it
doesn't seem like it from the outside.
~~~
knowtheory
Well, I'm not sure I condone this behavior, but the Fox News thing to do here
is for NASA to blackball Scripps, and to refuse to grant them interviews or
access to their events.
~~~
ars
Isn't Content ID automatic? Could be Scrips just says yes automatically to
every hit generated by Content ID.
~~~
knowtheory
That doesn't absolve Scripps of their responsibility to make sure that the
content going into their system isn't owned by someone else.
If one were the sort to blackball others, the fact that an algorithm did it
for them, on the basis of data that they fed in is essentially no excuse for
me.
~~~
ars
> that the content going into their system
I thought it was a mistaken identification? I.e. it was youtube's fault, not
Scripps.
~~~
knowtheory
“We apologize for the temporary inconvenience experienced when trying to
upload and view a NASA clip early Monday morning," a Scripps spokesman told
Motherboard. "We made a mistake. We reacted as quickly as possible to make the
video viewable again, and we’ve adjusted our workflow processes to remedy the
situation in future.”
~~~
ars
I repeat myself: "Could be Scrips just says yes automatically to every hit
generated by Content ID."
So they have some responsibility for saying yes (i.e. their workflow was
select all, yes), but it was youtube that misidentified the video, not that
Scrips uploaded a video from NASA into content ID as you wrote.
------
ojosilva
I think we need legislation or, at least, some sort of groundwork regulation
that protects user-generated content from company-issued end-user agreements
tied to private takedown workflows, such as Google's content-id system. Such
agreements tend to give publishers and copyright owners far too much power.
I'm even thinking of left-field cases here, such as the right to control and
redistribute content in the backdrop of Craiglist vs. PadMapper -- regardless
of who's right or not, these two websites are fighting over content that
_wasn't actually produced by either one of them_. It's come to the point where
websites and their business partners have become _de facto_ copyright owners
of anything ever produced by mankind. What I'm saying is quite hyperbolic, I
know, but just imagine a glitch in Time-Warner's top-notch automated content
takedown workflow that takes down from You Tube, Vimeo and DropBox, almost
instantly, a homevideo of my 8-year old son's rendition of Bach's Suite for
Cello, due to a striking similarity to some piece of content supposedly owned
by a prominent customer of theirs. Sounds familiar?
For instance, under my hypothetical legislation, Google would only be allowed
to take down NASA's video if NASA accepted such action via an email
notification that warned of a copyright claim by a third party. Such
legislation would limit Google's liability (even further), protecting it from
legal action by Scripps Local News, but most importantly, limit its power over
the user's content published in its website, thus effectively (and I hope
positively) diminishing Google's role as a copyright claim desk. The burden
now would be on Scripps Local News to "threaten" (warn) the end-user of
impending legal actions. This system works better the less anonymous and more
accountable you, or your profile, are. OTOH, it reduces Google's
persuasiveness when it comes to partnering with large media producers, which,
all in all, is the heart of this content removal fever. Google's stance is to
beg the user to bear with these takedown "glitches" because that's how we'll
get to watch the full Beatles concertography for "free".
This fantasy takedown and redistribution noob legislation of mine, which has
been addressed before [1], has many limitations (ie legal inconsistencies
across borders), but I feel something needs to be done to better protect UGC
since its existence, despite its metamorphic nature, has remained a constant
for as long as we've had the internets.
[1] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User-
generated_content#Legal_pr...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User-
generated_content#Legal_problems_related_to_UGC)
------
pasbesoin
How about a three strike or six strike rule for false take down notices? Pass
that threshold, and no more DMCA for you.
/snark, but also seriously
~~~
Vivtek
YouTube doesn't require DMCA takedowns - they just trust the copyright holder.
So "no more DMCA" wouldn't even stop this. The problem is Google's fire-and-
forget method of automated interaction with humans.
~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
This is how they took down Megaupload's Ad.
------
yk
Does anyone know how these DCMA/ ContentID calims work in practice?
As I understand it currently, the news segment was probably send to someone
who fingerprints it and crawls youtube for infringement. They then send Google
a take-down notice and some bot at Google takes down the video and sends a
mail to NASA, where for the first time a human notices that some news segment
did copy a video from NASA.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
IPhone Apps Design Mistakes: Over-Blown Visuals (2009) - acqq
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/07/21/iphone-apps-design-mistakes-overblown-visuals/
======
andrewljohnson
To this day, Motion-X absolutely kills it with their "overblown" designs. This
2009 article is harping on an app that was dominant for the two years
following its publication, and a design strategy that is still working for the
company.
It's true that you can make an excellent UI using the standard components, and
this also leads to other advantages like being able to adapt to new screen
sizes easily. But to say Motion-X's UI somehow fails is a disproven
hypothesis.
They went on to use the same kind of design approach for Motion-X GPS Drive,
which let me check... yep, makes more money than _Angry Birds_ in the US App
Store, ringing in at 11th grossing app overall (not in the category, on the
entire App Store).
Spot on, Smashing Magazine... you literally could not have picked a worse
example. Maybe I should be quiet though, since we compete with them on some
apps :)
~~~
dereg
How does the fact that the app sells well disprove the fact that the app is
badly designed? I have both Motion-X apps, and I love their features, but I
find myself using simpler apps because of the Motion-X UI clutter. Motion-X
offers an impressive feature set for the price, but why on this earth do I
have to deal with un-familiar graphical switches to change a setting? Where in
the real, tangible world does having more switches and buttons make something
better? I'd actually use the apps more than once if I didn't have to study the
UI in order to make a task-related decision.
For example, take a look at a screenshot from Motion-X's Drive app
(<http://i.imgur.com/uWXdk.jpg>). Compare that to the less-flashy Tomtom app
UI (<http://i.imgur.com/6mPKe.jpg>)
Which UI is more functional?
And for run tracking, which UI would you find yourself more inclined to use,
Nike GPS' (<http://i.imgur.com/80pLl.jpg>) or Motion-X GPS'
(<http://i.imgur.com/tTdMN.jpg>)?
I never can figure out how to use the Motion-X apps. Tease me all you want,
but the UI is a chore to me. I prefer the dumbed-down Tomtom app for
navigation and the Nike GPS app for my runs. While they may lose, _feature-
wise_ , they win on _functionality_. Why should a user have to deal with
artificial UI abstractions that add flair at the cost of increased cognitive
load?
~~~
rmc
_How does the fact that the app sells well disprove the fact that the app is
badly designed?_
Being well selling doesn't mean that it's not badly designed, it means there's
a financial interest in not changing it.
~~~
alexqgb
Exhibit A: the fucking ribbon.
------
bignoggins
My latest iphone/iPad app would probably be considered as "overdesigned" by
the article's standards.
[http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fantasy-football-draft-
monste...](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fantasy-football-draft-
monster/id451545140?mt=8)
[http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fantasy-football-draft-
monste...](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fantasy-football-draft-
monster/id459009632?mt=8)
Do you know why? Because overdesigning SELLS. My iPad app is currently ranked
top 75 overall and my iPhone app has been in the Top 100 overall. With 400K
apps in the app store, having a unique looking UI will attract more people to
try it.
I totally agree with having good UX and being consistent with the HIG, but the
user can't appreciate that until after they've purchased the app. So if you
want to actually sell a few copies, then suck it up and pimp out your UI.
You'll be glad you did.
~~~
mmatants
I don't think your app would be considered over-designed - check their "police
scanner codes" example.
Your app still uses normal buttons, and even the "tabs" are close to Apple's
toggle-button-array design. Your search field is exactly like the OS standard.
Compare that to the article's examples.
~~~
joshuamerrill
I would also point out that Apple is doing a lot more "overdesigning" itself
these days. I think the address book in Lion or the Reminders iOS 5 app are
evidence.
------
mikek
The author uses the fact that most apps are not used much after they are first
downloaded to to justify his argument that non-standard controls are bad. But
he fails to make a causal connection.
On the contrary, people will use apps if they are useful, and will learn any
UI to achieve their goals. Does Angry Birds use any standard UI controls?
Nope! But people play it anyway, because it's a great app. Standard UI
controls would just make it ugly.
------
jamesbkel
Decent points, but it's from 2009. Also, using 3D pie charts in an article
about proper design... maybe not the most effective technique.
------
Nickste
Glad the author used the Bloomberg stock finder input as an example.
I've been teaching my father in law how to use the Bloomberg app on his iPad
and this was one of his biggest stumbling blocks - he just couldnt work out
why the keyboard wouldn't appear.
With the adoption of these types of devices moving to include the "non-tech
savvy" population, who aren't as quick to work out unclear UI, we start to see
how small UI choices can have a dramatic effect on usability.
------
MetaMan
I agree with the principle of "over design" - we old guys call it "if it isn't
broken don't fix it".
However, some of his examples aren't convincing for me. I actually like the
ugly Motion-X toggle switches compared to the IOS toggles which are a bit
confusing I find - I can immediately see what is active / selected on the
motion-X screen but on his examples of the correct" design I couldn't
immediately work out what is selected/active. Also, the Motion-X tabs are much
clear to me - there I said it.
To be honest the author comes across as one of those who insist on people
following the "correct" rules even when they get in the way or there is a
better solution.
I'll bet there are a lot of people who also disagreed with some of his
examples but who won't say anything for fear of appearing "ignorant" in the
eyes of the "design police".
Another important point. He states
"On average, only 3% of people who have downloaded an app use it after 30
days. Why? Because the majority of iPhone apps don’t make any sense to users."
But where is the evidence for this? He shows App usage over time graphs which
don't separate between "over-designed" and "correctly designed apps" and then
goes on to make an unwarranted assertion that the fall off is due users not
understanding how to use the apps! How about the utility value of the apps not
being enough or users getting bored with their $0.99 fun purchase ?
Lastly, if you go to the author's web site. You'll see he's designed an app
for a pizza company. I downloaded it and it's beautiful (in fact I fancy a
pizza now)! However, It does not use ANY standard IOS controls and has gone
for a very nice custom dedicated UI!
His article spends a lot of time basically saying that the standard UI should
be used but as his own app demonstrates there are cases where a custom UI is
appropriate. His article would be much better if he provided guidance on when
using a custom UI is better and provided evidence for his assertions.
------
mattgreenrocks
If you want a look at the long-term consequences of a culture of pervasive
custom UIs, look at the current state of Windows apps. _Every_ single app
looks different in some minor way for no discernible reason. The sum of them
on the desktop adds up to visual noise and clutter that is needless. I realize
the differences in look are not intentional: GTK here, .NET there, each with a
different layout engine.
But the sad fact is, nobody seems to care about it. There is no standard UI on
Windows anymore, and it drove me nuts.
My favorite whipping boy in this argument is Trillian:
<http://pcworld.hu/apix/0911/trillian_astra.jpg>
------
flocial
I think the Reeder App is over-designed. The developer basically blazes his
own path and the app only follows conventions nominally. However, at the same
time it's done with great taste. In some cases, following HIG to the letter
might make it look like you slapped together an app with widgets.
Also, every application by Tapbots pretty much flaunts all conventions with
highly custom UIs, yet they post great sales. I suppose the same could be said
of all TapTapTap apps, they also sell great.
However, one thing they all get right is great functionality and performance
stability. You really can't trump that.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Interview with Taiwan Digital Minister Audrey Tang - torgian
https://podcasts.apple.com/tw/podcast/%E7%A7%91%E6%8A%80%E5%B3%B6%E8%AE%80/id1264391007?i=1000473082360
======
torgian
Brief notes:
His self introduction is interesting of itself considering how different he is
from other ministers around the world ( at least I think so ).
The main topic is how Taiwan has overcome the mask shortage and how they
distribute them fairly.
There's also brief discussion about privacy issues, open data, and 'social
hackers'
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What service are you willing to provide for $1? - mkovji
======
mark212
I'll tell you you're a cheapskate. IaaS -- insults as a service.
~~~
DoreenMichele
But for an entire dollar, I want custom insults. None of this telling me the
same thing you told the last ten people who gave you a dollar. Cuz, wow, lazy.
;)
~~~
mark212
I’m sorry but auditing is only available in the Enterprise Plan
------
tonyedgecombe
Nothing, I wouldn’t want someone who places so little value on my work as a
customer.
~~~
Gustomaximus
Remember Whatsapp used to charge a dollar. Multiply $1 by how many millions of
users. That's not bad assuming a profit margin is there.
~~~
tonyedgecombe
You can't make it up in volume :)
It might be irrational but people value what they buy by how much they spend.
I remember when I left my last full time job I felt we were undercharging our
customers. I went back to those same customers doing the same work and charged
them three times as much as they had been paying. Their attitude towards me
changed completely, I was really shocked at the difference, I'd gone from
being a grunt who installed systems to a valued member of the team.
~~~
cimmanom
You can't make it up in volume when you're charging directly for your time.
But you can with a service where the marginal cost to serve an additional user
is less than that $1.
------
cimmanom
A smile.
Note that there are a lot of things many people are willing to do for free but
wouldn't do for $1. Such as answering this question.
That's because taking money for it interferes with the personal satisfaction
of an altruistic or community-building or socially responsible act.
------
fundamental
The key thing that seems to be missing is $1 from how many people?
$1 from one individual involves a lot of overhead to complete a transaction
(for your average person), but $1 from N people who each require a minimum of
interaction can make much more economical sense. This can be multiplied by
getting $1 from N people every X days.
Per the original question there's fairly little I'd be willing to provide to a
single individual at $1, but in aggregate (high N, reasonable X) there's a
number of viable options (mostly in the software realm).
------
ai_ia
One minute call twice everyday by real human.
1\. First to remind me the things, I would be doing today. 2\. Following up on
the tasks, I am supposed to do today.
I tried to do using Alexa. Didn't go as expected.
~~~
cakridge
Distributed accountability buddies. I like it.
~~~
odonnellryan
Neat idea that has existed in other spaces for a while.
There are groups of sailboats on longer voyages that keep in contact, often
back to a base on land, over SSB. If you don't respond to the daily check in
it is assumed something is wrong, and everyone is told about it and if anyone
is close to your last position you hope they can look for you.
------
soulchild37
I have been selling Android/iOS apps with a $1 price tag on it, I get 1 star
review almost everyday blaming why the app isn't free.
There's a lesson on don't price your app at $1.
~~~
mkovji
I don't think that is the right lesson to learn from the given point. There
are lot of $1 apps that are successful. There is a huge difference between $1
and free if you can see it.
This for example.
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.halfbrick....](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.halfbrick.fruitninja)
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.explodingk...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.explodingkittens.projectbombsquad)
------
Blackstone4
Sounds like you've seen earn.com and the emails they send users. For $1 sign-
up and get some crypto.... the monetary value here is crazy low. The tasks
they seem to set probably take ~5mins which translates into $12 p/h... so
you've got to really be into crypto.
Service am I willing to provide for $1? Watch my favorite Netflix shows and
give you a thumbs up or down :).
~~~
beojan
I can easily automate that by calling /bin/true.
------
deft
Find someone/something to solve your problem by providing internet research on
the topic. Max 5 minutes.
------
jason_slack
I'd be willing to:
1\. provide positive inspiration
2\. provide an answer or at least initial research within 5 minutes of time.
(using some automated tools I write)
3\. provide a daily list of facts about that day at various points in time.
4\. teach a child a simple task.
5\. provide the top "movers and shakers" in the stock market from the last
day.
------
lake99
You know the service that Bob Newhart provided, as a psychologist? He charged
5$ for 5 minutes. I'd be willing to do that for 1$.
Ref.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow0lr63y4Mw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow0lr63y4Mw)
~~~
muzani
How does someone really do that? It takes a few minutes just to arrange a
meeting or enter the room and sit down with someone.
------
nanospeck
Be Your Personal Job Hunt VA: Share your linkedin/resume and I will search for
the whoishiring posts or SO ads that match your job profile and send you a
custom intro email draft. 1$ per draft, hurry limited time offer!
akhil.karunAtTheRateGmailDotCom
------
canterburry
I am actually working right now on a runtime configs management service for
which I am initially planning to charge $1/month/client in blocks of 10
clients with a minimum commitment of 1 year...but still $1 per client per
month.
------
xstartup
Self-hosted [http://killbill.io/](http://killbill.io/) with working bitpay
plugin.
Or if you are selling bitpay and other plugins for killbill, i'll gladly pay
more.
------
muzani
Almost nothing really. The cost to agree upon any service costs more than $1.
~~~
taprun
The trick is to productize it and then aggregate many tasks from others at
once.
~~~
31reasons
Thats exactly what $1 apps do in the App Store, no?
------
C_System
Take a photo of what I'm looking at in the real world.
This is kind of what Indeed is doing via the Job Spotter app. They pay users
~$1 for snapping photos of help wanted signs.
------
spacesarebetter
You can talk to me for 1 minute. I'm great listener.
------
hood_syntax
Send someone an anecdote from my life every month. Not that my life is
interesting, but it would be worth the effort from my end.
~~~
deft
I kinda like this idea. A subscription based generic version of FML
------
CloudBuddy
[https://cloudbuddy.cloud/](https://cloudbuddy.cloud/)
------
netrap
One minute of my time.
------
tmaly
I will recommend one amazing food dish per month for $1
------
marssaxman
It'd be less hassle to just give it away for free.
------
yesenadam
Transcribing about 40 seconds of voice audio.
------
txsh
Turn down service.
~~~
mark212
as in "No, sorry" or you'll come to my hotel room and fold down the blankets
and put a nice chocolate on the pillow? Because I would love to have the
latter for $1, especially if the chocolate is included.
~~~
txsh
> you’ll come to my hotel room and fold down the blankets and put a nice
> chocolate on the pillow?
No, sorry. You now owe me $1.
~~~
whatsstolat
I'll buy that debt for $0.02
------
chewyland
Buy me a beer and I'll tell ya.
------
quickthrower2
7 function calls.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Facebook used contractors to transcribe users' audio messages - iafrikan
https://www.iafrikan.com/2019/09/03/facebook-transcribe-user-audio-no-permission-privacy/
======
sarcasmatwork
CWs (contingent workers) were used so Facebook could pay them less money to do
work that a full time employee should be doing. The fact FB did this is no
surprise. They are not held accountable, even with a 5B fine so they will
continue to push the legal envelope as much as they can..
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
We tested Europe’s new lie detector for travelers and triggered a false positive - rchaudhary
https://theintercept.com/2019/07/26/europe-border-control-ai-lie-detector/
======
noonespecial
So more ableism for the neurotypical. Great.
I fully expect to fail these sorts of things as a matter of course. I can't
wait.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Six Years After Fukushima, Robots Finally Find Reactors’ Melted Uranium Fuel - htiek
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/11/19/science/japan-fukushima-nuclear-meltdown-fuel.html?referer=https://www.google.com/
======
geon
> [https://youtu.be/c5hQ6WlioRE](https://youtu.be/c5hQ6WlioRE)
This has to be the worst possible way of sharing information; a video of 2
still images and a computer voice reading a text.
Right up there with images inside a word document, inside an email.
~~~
petepete
YouTube really should be detecting and pushing them to the bottom of search
results. Downvoting doesn't appear to have much of an effect.
~~~
jimcsharp
I believe likes and dislikes on Youtube both count as "interaction" as far as
rankings are concerned.
------
hexane360
"At Chernobyl, the Soviets simply entombed the charred reactor in concrete
after the deadly 1986 accident. But Japan has pledged to dismantle the
Fukushima plant and decontaminate the surrounding countryside, which was home
to about 160,000 people who were evacuated after accident."
How much of this decision is simply about space? Russia is the largest country
by area, with 21 people per square mile, while Japan is much smaller, with 873
people per square mile. If you compare GDP/area the difference is even
greater.
~~~
kurthr
Chernobyl is still in Ukrane (near the boarder with Belarus) and not Russia
(yet). At the time it was part of the Soviet Union, but Ukraine has always
been a bread basket of Central Europe.
Fundamentally, Chernobyl is a much larger (order of magnitude) event with 6
tons of radioactive material burned and released. Frankly, for all the
coverage Fukushima gets, it's amazing that you rarely hear about the
associated tsunami and the damage it caused... 22k direct casualties with 2.5k
still missing, 230k people still displaced in 2015 with ~400k structures
destroyed.
~~~
ifdefdebug
> 230k people still displaced in 2015
The displacement is mostly due to radioactive contamination still being high
in several zones around Fukushima.
The tsunami was a huge catastrophe but it's over. There is no breaking news to
get coverage.
Fukushima on the other hand is an ongoing disaster producing news from time to
time which, naturally, get coverage.
~~~
kurthr
No, they are separate. Only 100k people are still displaced by Fukushima
covering an area of over 400km2.
[http://fukushimaontheglobe.com/the-earthquake-and-the-
nuclea...](http://fukushimaontheglobe.com/the-earthquake-and-the-nuclear-
accident/evacuation-orders-and-restricted-areas)
Sendai is some 50km away from Fukushima and the population center is well
outside the evacuation area. Tamura and Minamisoma are the only cities within
it.
The tsunami destroyed 400k structures and decimated Sendai, which (note that
the figures in the linked article are in 10s of people and structures as
indicated at the top of the figures). Some 300k people and 100k homes were
within the inundation, ~25% of the local population.
[http://tohokugeo.jp/articles/e-contents16.html](http://tohokugeo.jp/articles/e-contents16.html)
In the Fukushima evacuation area the majority of the surface is less than 4x
background radition ~1uSv/hr. In discussing an ongoing disaster please look at
this video:
[https://youtu.be/G_0rQ9hnP84?t=477](https://youtu.be/G_0rQ9hnP84?t=477)
[http://www.world-nuclear-
news.org/RS_Contamination_dropping_...](http://www.world-nuclear-
news.org/RS_Contamination_dropping_in_evacuation_zone_0706131.html)
[https://xkcd.com/radiation/](https://xkcd.com/radiation/)
------
JonoW
Does anyone know how they extract the molten fuel? Sounds like they will use
more robots, but if it's taken this long just to get a robot to see the
target, how on earth does a robot retrieve this stuff? Must be a career
defining experience for these robotists, doing something that can really help
an awful situation
~~~
nielsbot
That's basically what they say at the end of the article:
“I’ve been a robotic engineer for 30 years, and we’ve never faced anything as
hard as this,” said Shinji Kawatsuma, director of research and development at
the center. “This is a divine mission for Japan’s robot engineers.”
~~~
themodelplumber
> This is a divine mission for Japan’s robot engineers
That is so cool. I'd love to see some kind of "lessons learned" summary from
the robotics people.
~~~
justinjlynn
Unfortunately, I'd imagine the vast majority of the helpful information
learned will be kept a proprietary secret.
~~~
adrianN
I could imagine that shielding electronics from radiation could fall under
military secret.
~~~
justinjlynn
These days, once you get to the level where you can afford to develop them in
the first place, there really isn't that much of a difference.
------
eric-hu
I long believed that nuclear power was the only energy source cleaner than
fossil fuels and scalable enough to meet the energy demands of the world.
While that might still be true in some sense, I now believe that humanity
isn't ready for nuclear power.
Besides the Fukushima and Chernobyl type issues with organizations skimping on
design, there's still an outstanding problem of nuclear waste storage. The
current nuclear power statistics haven't factored in a major waste storage
incident because one hasn't happened yet. Until we've witnessed multiple
lifecycles of nuclear fuel consumption to full waste breakdown, the safety
stats could still swing against nuclear power. Maybe all it'd take is a
terrorist incident involving nuclear waste. From what I understand, breeder
reactors can vastly reduce the quantity of a power plant's waste and produce
waste with a much shorter half life. This isn't widely implemented or shared
because that technology can also be used to produce weapons grade material. I
think humanity will be ready if/when we can sort out our differences without
violence and greed/corruption are no longer problems for most large orgs.
Additionally, renewables seem to have better scalability today than they did
in the 90's when I formed my initial opinions. Right now, the worst case
situation with a renewable power source is probably a large dam bursting.
That's certainly possible due to corruption or terrorism too. If the three
gorges dam suddenly burst, that could take out most of Shanghai. For most
other renewables, the potential worst case is much milder though.
~~~
gizmo
I agree that renewables are a very good alternative to nuclear power, but in
practice moving away from nuclear means doubling down on coal. The problems
with nuclear are political, but the alternatives to nuclear power are mired in
political conflict as well.
As for your dam bursting scenario, something like that actually happened in
the 70s when the Banqiao Dam burst. Nearly 200.000 people died. Fukushima had
0 radiation deaths.
~~~
RobAley
You can't really say 0 deaths, because no one knows. We don't have good
epidemiological models for wide-spread low-level dispersal such as was seen at
Fukushima, we already know incidences of cancer and gene mutation don't scale
linearly with exposure at low levels. There are also associated deaths from
psychological factors of those who were evacuated, lost land / business etc.
which will only become apparent in years to come.
Dams do have the potential for massive loss of life as you say, and they also
suffer from the problem of massive centralisation of capacity (unlike e.g.
solar or wind). On the smaller upside, the models related to fatalities are
pretty well understood.
Perhaps an instant move away from nuclear may need coal, although here in the
UK it's gas that has been taking up the slack while the government dilly-dally
on whether to build out new nuclear or invest in renewables research
(successfully doing neither).
I see over the longer term renewables coming up as nuclear is naturally
retired at the end of the current plant's lifespan. Solar is now cheaper than
coal to built-out in many places, there are other impediments but (generally)
lack of public support isn't one of them (compared to coal/nuclear).
~~~
gizmo
Deaths resulting from psychological factors involving those who were evacuated
count when it comes to nuclear energy but not when it comes to dam failures? I
don't think this kind of double standard is reasonable.
Besides, I'm pretty sure you just copied the argument about low level exposure
from the Fukushima disaster wikipedia page, but you conveniently left out the
next sentence: "given the uncertain health effects of low-dose radiation,
cancer deaths cannot be ruled out.[11] However, no discernible increase in the
rate of cancer deaths is expected."
Scare-mongering about nuclear radiation doesn't help anybody but the coal and
gas industry.
~~~
RobAley
I never said that such deaths form dam failures didn't count. The only
reference I made to dams is that the model (physically traumatic & psych-
related death) is well understood. Deaths due to low-level, widely dispersed
radiation is not.
I'm afraid you were wrong to be "pretty sure" that I copied the argument from
Wikipedia, I haven't read that page (until you pointed it out now). My comment
comes from what I've picked up working for 10 years in epidemiology at Oxford.
I didn't "conveniently" leave out the next sentence, and I wouldn't have
quoted it anyway as its effectively tosh. There is no discernible increase
expected on current models, but the current models are accepted (by most
experts) not be useful predictors, as described in my initial post.
It's not "scare-mongering", it's being open to scientific discussion and
exploration. Blind-adherence to your view-point doesn't help anyone but the
nuclear industry.
Let's have open and honest debate. Even when that means we say "we don't
know".
------
rtkwe
Kind of surprising at this point that there’s not an area directly below the
bottom of the reactor with a giant ceramic catch basin (or something similarly
heat resistant) to catch these failures and cleared of pipes etc so when this
happens cleanup workers know the location of the materials.
~~~
jjoonathan
> Kind of surprising at this point
Fukushima was built when the nuclear power industry was 13 years old. Now it's
63 years old.
You are seeing the folly of youth, with consequences delayed 60 years, not a
design that would be typical of new construction.
~~~
Rapzid
Sounds like life :| Those cigarettes you smoked in your early twenties? Those
beers you smashed working in IT? 63 will be interesting..
~~~
collectively
You know if you stopped smoking in your early twenties they’re not likely to
affect you when 63. So this is more like smoking crack in your twenties.
------
whichdan
If anyone's interested in related reading, there's a manga called Ichi-F[0]
that walks through the daily life at Fukushima Daiichi.
[0]
[https://kodanshacomics.com/series/ichi-f/](https://kodanshacomics.com/series/ichi-f/)
~~~
scoggs
Wow, thank you! The art is pretty good overall and the story seems well done
enough. There are 39 chapters according to where I found it to read online but
MyAnimeList (MAL) says 24 chapters from 3 volumes.
More info on MAL here:
[https://myanimelist.net/manga/61341/1F__Fukushima_Daiichi_Ge...](https://myanimelist.net/manga/61341/1F__Fukushima_Daiichi_Genshiryoku_Hatsudensho_Annaiki?q=ichi-f)
------
jenga22
I wonder what they do once the robot sees the uranium? I mean the robot itself
is now heavily contaminated. Do they just leave the robot down there? Or do
they somehow decontaminate it so they can use it again?
~~~
prebrov
Robots just kept dying in there all those years [1]. I reckon they are
disposable, in effect.
[1]: [http://mashable.com/2017/03/03/fukushima-robots-
fail/](http://mashable.com/2017/03/03/fukushima-robots-fail/)
~~~
vidarh
That's the primary reason it's taken so long, as far as I understand. It's not
that it was hard to find the location, per se, but that the robots didn't last
long enough.
------
ukulele
> At the plant’s entrance, a sign warned: “Games like Pokemon GO are forbidden
> within the facility.”
Was this a thing people were doing? Going to a nuclear disaster site as part
of a game?
~~~
NikolaeVarius
Probably nowhere near as dangerous but I think its interesting.
[https://widerimage.reuters.com/story/in-the-shadow-of-
cherno...](https://widerimage.reuters.com/story/in-the-shadow-of-chernobyl-
stalker)
~~~
trhway
A number of Russian middle class volunteers who fought in Donbass war treated
it as kind of similar experience - an adventurous game/vacation, a "noble
quest to defend 'Russian world' from dark forces of fascism and imperialism".
~~~
wruza
Is there an evidence of that? We could open a case for these war crimes.
~~~
trhway
It wasn't war crimes, it was participation in a civil war fighting armed
volunteer and regular forces of the other side.
------
wiz21c
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_Daiichi_nuclear_disa...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_Daiichi_nuclear_disaster_casualties)
reminds us that nuclear kills much less than regular earthquakes, car
accidents, or air pollution due to the burning of fossil fuels...
~~~
baron816
I’m not worried about how many people nuclear power kills every year. I’m
worried about how many people it kills every hundred years. A major nuclear
disaster, however unlikely, has the potential to kill millions of people and
leave a big portion of the Earth uninhabitable for centuries. Just because we
haven’t seen one on that scale yet, doesn’t mean we never will.
~~~
thaumaturgy
Ok, let's do a Fermi-like estimation.
Estimates on the number of deaths related to coal generation vary from around
13,00 to 30,000 per year in the US [1] and 500,000 per year in China [2]. The
current world population is 7.6 billion, of which the US and China account for
approximately 1.8 billion people. Let's round the coal-related death rate way
down for easy math: 10,000 per year in the US and 100,000 per year in China.
Then, multiply that rate by the world's population, and you have, let's say
450,000 coal-related deaths per year worldwide. This is a really squishy
number, but we only need approximations here.
You were concerned about how many people would die every hundred years from
nuclear disasters, so let's see if we can work today's 450,000 per year
estimated deaths backwards for the last hundred years.
The world population was somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.8 billion people
in 1917. Assuming linear growth (I know, I know) and a strong r-value
correlation for population vs. coal-related deaths (arguable, but again, Fermi
estimate), we have to sum .00006 * population from 1.8 billion -> 7.6 billion,
and we end up with approximately 28 million people.
Which is to say, if we could gather up all the deaths, worldwide, from coal,
over the last hundred years, and convert it into a single disaster, it would
kill the entire city of Shanghai, and New York for the apple on top.
That would have to be one hell of a nuclear disaster.
Now, there are arguments to be made that the energy we've received from coal
has also powered hospitals and technology which have saved or improved
people's lives. There are also arguments to be made that the side-effects of
coal (hospitalization, environmental disasters) cause the death toll to
absolutely pale by comparison.
And again, I've rounded these numbers down at every stage of the calculation.
[1]:
[http://www.catf.us/resources/publications/files/The_Toll_fro...](http://www.catf.us/resources/publications/files/The_Toll_from_Coal.pdf)
[pdf]; it includes its own numbers, at the 13,000 estimate, and the EPA's, at
14,000 to 36,000 range.
[2]: [https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2011/03/deaths-per-twh-by-
ener...](https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2011/03/deaths-per-twh-by-energy-
source.html) (blog, but includes lots of supporting links; I'm open to
alternative sources that give vastly different estimates).
~~~
nl
There are very few people who are anti-nuclear power who are pro-coal.
Even ignoring renewables, gas solves many of the worst problems with coal.
~~~
thaumaturgy
Sure, but even natural gas and rooftop solar have higher rates of death per
year than nuclear. (In my second link above.)
In a world in which we must choose the lesser of evils for energy, nuclear is
among the least evils, yet faces the greatest overall public resistance to new
installations.
~~~
nl
I dunno - even that source itself says that the death rates from solar would
fall using better construction methods. It also notes (in the case of wind)
that increased take up is associated with lower death rates ("Wind power
proponent and author Paul Gipe estimated in Wind Energy Comes of Age that the
mortality rate for wind power from 1980–1994 was 0.4 deaths per terawatt-hour.
Paul Gipe’s estimate as of end 2000 was 0.15 deaths per TWh, a decline
attributed to greater total cumulative generation.")
I'd also note that the very low rates of death from nuclear power do not
appear to include construction deaths, which are the only source of death
measured from wind and solar.
------
spyspy
Non-mobile link: [https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/19/science/japan-
fukushima-n...](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/19/science/japan-fukushima-
nuclear-meltdown-fuel.html)
------
MilnerRoute
If I'm reading the article right, the robots actually made this discovery back
in July.
------
chiefalchemist
As seen as another HN thread, seemingly relevant here as well:
[http://www.sciencealert.com/new-composite-material-
reduces-h...](http://www.sciencealert.com/new-composite-material-reduces-
helium-damage-fusion-reactors)
------
robinwassen
The YouTube video with images of the core that nytimes linked, is one of those
spam news videos using text-to-speech.
~~~
themodelplumber
I was wondering about that. Was about to adjust my false-positive filter for
YouTube click spam. I mean, if the NYT links to it...
------
uptown
Early on there was considerable talk about the contaminating impact this might
have on the Pacific. Has anything come of that?
~~~
scott_karana
Water sampling happens frequently at various points near the reactor, all of
which showed levels at expected bounds to date.
Most of the scary charts were fake:
[https://www.snopes.com/photos/technology/fukushima.asp](https://www.snopes.com/photos/technology/fukushima.asp)
------
civilian
What is the article talking about when they say "radiation-hardened
materials"? What kind of materials might that be?
~~~
perlgeek
I don't know what they did in this particular instance, but basically there
are two things you can do: shield, or in the case of electronics, use larger
parts.
The smaller some piece of electronics is, the smaller the charges in there
are, and the easier it is to introduce errors with ionizing radiation.
~~~
_ph_
And the design of the electronics might help with radiation tolerance.
Computation paths could be redundant to detect/eliminate bit flips due to
radiaton.
(Some server Power cpus seem to run parallel in pairs, comparing the output at
critical parts to detect cpu errors)
~~~
rurban
Basically the same as in space exploration. Also running at very low MHz.
------
exabrial
What causes a robots electronics to go bad in radioactive environments?
------
millisecond
Web link not bypassing paywall for me, anyone else? Or am I in some
experimental cohort? :)
~~~
jwilk
It worked for me. Anyway, here's an archived copy:
[https://archive.is/jQlRG](https://archive.is/jQlRG)
------
SiempreViernes
> "... exotic space particles called muons "
welph, that's my eyes rolling right out of my head. I mean really, "space
particles"! The might as well call all metals "supernova remnants" -_-
~~~
archgoon
Would you prefer for them to be referred to them as "Cosmic Rays" :) ? To be
honest, "Space Particles" sounds less silly and more descriptive. It also
emphasizes that they're not generating the muons themselves, but collecting
them from space.
EDIT: Though I guess, now that I think of it, it's a bit unfair to refer to
muons as 'exotic'. People will typically encounter thousands of them in a day
[1].
[1]
[http://cosmic.lbl.gov/SKliewer/Cosmic_Rays/Muons.htm](http://cosmic.lbl.gov/SKliewer/Cosmic_Rays/Muons.htm)
[1] "Muons arrive at sea level with an average flux of about 1 muon per square
centimeter per minute."
~~~
SomeStupidPoint
Aren't muons terrestrial particles created by cosmic ray impacts on the
atmosphere, though?
~~~
archgoon
Well, yes; but calling them "exotic-in-the-sense-we-don't-talk-about-them-
very-much-even-though-they-pass-by-all-the-time-that-got-created-when-an-
actual-space-particle-that-wasn't-that-exotic-like-a-proton-or-helium-atom-
hit-the-atmosphere particles called muons" doesn't quite roll off the tongue.
:)
They ultimately (and not in the we're all space dust sense, more like 2.2
microseconds ago sense) are caused by interactions with particles from outer
space, so calling them space particles, isn't _that_ bad. :) But yeah; it's
does elide that aspect of them.
------
AlleyTrotter
SO! it never made it to China LOL
------
gnu8
Why in fuck is this a link to mobile?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Faster Coding Interview Prep Using Interactive Visualizations - fahimulhaq
https://www.educative.io/collection/5642554087309312/5679846214598656
======
coldcode
Perhaps the next thing will be AI driven coding interview robots. Why bother
with people when you can optimize the whole process without human
intervention? Call it Being Interviewed As A Service.
~~~
moron4hire
"We put the extra A in BIAAS"
------
ryanong
I always hated algorithm interviews when it came to applying for web
development jobs. I've been a developer for 8 years now and I have only had to
use any algorithms once in my career. I get it that for facebook, google, and
what not these could be representative of the work you do but I don't think
this is a good interview.
I tend to look for developers now that have a better sense of modeling and api
design. One interview that works really well is modeling a chat app and going
through all the edge cases. Also a fan of Rob's Pairing Interview that is
executed by pivotal. Build an array or perhaps a set from scratch and pair on
building it where the interviewer is a driver and the interviewee as the
navigator.
~~~
dominotw
you are right. But the fact of our industry is there is no way around these
interviews. You _have_ to do them.
~~~
bluejekyll
This is not true. You have to do them if you don’t have much experience, i.e.
straight out of college. With no experience, these stand in for an
understanding of your CS understanding. Organizations that put very
experienced candidates through algorithms questions show that they don’t value
experience, and I wouldn’t want to work there.
With a large amount of experience, we as interviews, should be asking much
more about past projects and issues people have run into. I find it much more
valuable to understand what real world problems people have faced, and how
they solved them. Sometimes you even get to a point where someone actually has
a good story about using the wrong algorithm, and so you still get to talk
about algorithms.
This tends to also tell you a lot about the candidate’s abilities to work in
the environment you are thinking of placing them into. Algorithms questions
should be a fallback only when you can’t discover this while running through
questions about their experiences.
~~~
watwut
The trouble with "nice discussion about past projects" interview style is that
it is super easy to pretend way more experience and skill then you really
have. You are literally measuring how smooth talking that person is and
whether has good idea about what opinions are cool now.
That is what fizz buzz or basic algorithms are for. Because really,smooth
talking incapable collegus do more harm then normal incapable ones.
~~~
jakub_g
Sadly this is very true. I had been working with a colleague who was a perfect
talker about best practices and what not, and first to criticize the offshore
team for bad coding, yet himself he was as well doing a lot of crazy things
and sloppy coding, and breaking the build and shipping regressions on a
regular basis.
Unfortunately I don't have a good solution to this problem.
I'm wondering how interviews in other professions look like. For example when
you're a director of a hospital and want to hire a surgeon. I guess you don't
ask him to come one day to make a little surgery for free.
~~~
watwut
Surgeons are heavily credentialed. You have to have school and residency and
subsewuent tests what not. I don't think same would be appropriate for coders.
------
jfyne
Windows user here. .mediumTextViewer class has a overflow-x: scroll on it
which makes everything look like this:
[https://i.imgur.com/kE2ElEv.png](https://i.imgur.com/kE2ElEv.png)
Switch it to auto and it will look a lot cleaner.
Otherwise cool site
~~~
_nh_
Thanks for the suggestion. I'm the co-founder of Educative where this course
is hosted. We'll fix it.
------
zengid
Is the industry staying focused on algorithms written in imperative Object
Oriented languages for interview quizzes, or has anyone seen more functional
styles being used? I know Facebook does a lot with OCaml so I wonder if they
are strict about requiring proficiency in OOP patterns, or if it depends on
what you put on your resume.
------
kafkaesq
_Engineers have used Coderust to crack the coding interviews at Google,
Amazon, Snapchat, Uber, Dropbox, Lyft, Facebook, Microsoft, Netflix, Zenefits,
Pinterest, eBay, Twitter, Cloudera, Salesforce, Tableau and many others._
If one can "crack" these interviews by spending a couple of hours on some
interactive tool... then shouldn't that be an indication to those conducting
these kinds of interviews that, fundamentally speaking, they might not be all
that useful in the first place?
And not only that - but perhaps _counterproductive_? In that they explicitly
reward not the thoughtful, disciplined engineers you want to hire -- but the
drudges and go-getters who think, "Gots to get me into a top company - just
tell me what I gotta do to pass the test!"
Shouldn't it now?
~~~
noitsnot
The quote is a fancy marketing line to sell a product. Good companies don't
use a coding test to straight out determine hirability. Or at least they
shouldn't.
~~~
kafkaesq
They aren't 100% determinative, of course. But by and large, many companies do
place a great deal of emphasis on ones performance on these tests (perhaps
being only partly conscious of the extent to which they're doing so).
------
shadykiller
Can anyone suggest if this is good and worth the money ? I'm planning
interviews at top 5 next year.
~~~
nerpderp83
[https://www.pramp.com/#/](https://www.pramp.com/#/) the ridiculous problems
are about 1/3 of it. Interacting and thinking under pressure are the other
2/3\. Best to practice exactly how one would perform.
------
adwhit
Wonder if this got to the top of the front page because it looks like "Code
Rust".
It has nothing to do with Rust, of course.
~~~
oldsj
Yea how are you going to put Rust in your product name and not even include
it!
~~~
dominotw
I read it as 'get the rust off of your algorithm coding'
------
pfarnsworth
Is HN now allowing advertisements for services to be on the front page now?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Things that make Go fast - davecheney
http://dave.cheney.net/2014/06/07/five-things-that-make-go-fast
======
hendzen
Escape analysis, dead code elimination, and function inlining are standard
optimizations taught in an undergraduate compilers course. Go is cool, but I
wouldn't really cite those as justifications for why.
~~~
Nitramp
Yes for dead code elimination and function inlining, not so sure about escape
analysis. The author acknowledges that, but there's a detail in Go: it does
the function inlining at compile time (unlike e.g. Java JITs), but still
manages to inline across compilation units (unlike C++, modulo LTO).
That's nice, and presumably what he wanted to point out. It's also nice that
in Go, these things are very straight forward due to the overall simplicity of
the system (unlike C++). The dead code elimination is just a supporting fact
for why that's useful, and again works across compilation boundaries.
I'm not sure about your assertion of escape analysis, at least Java JITs only
learned that trick as of lately, and are still pretty bad at it. C++ again
suffers from cross-compilation unit visibility; even if your LTO can detect an
inlineable call, its AFAIK not possible at that time to move heap allocations
to the stack.
This is an interesting pattern in Go, the longer one looks at it, the more you
understand that it's a whole bunch of good decisions in various subsystems
coming together.
~~~
pcwalton
> C++ again suffers from cross-compilation unit visibility; even if your LTO
> can detect an inlineable call, its AFAIK not possible at that time to move
> heap allocations to the stack.
Sure it is. Why not?
C++ compilers don't usually do this because it doesn't help much—explicit
memory management encourages people to not allocate unless necessary in the
first place.
~~~
Nitramp
> Sure it is. Why not?
Do you have a reference for that? I'd expect this to be hard, at linking time
you no longer have the C++ source, so it's much harder to make such decisions.
~~~
pcwalton
You don't need the C++ source, just the IR. LLVM already removes mallocs if
they are unused:
[http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/pipermail/llvmdev/2010-July/033017....](http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/pipermail/llvmdev/2010-July/033017.html)
------
Artemis2
Unfortunately, Go's compiler is not as fast as it could be; most of the
optimizations presented here were already made by compilers in the 80s.
The fact that modern compilers are a really complex piece of software that
took dozens of years to write and improve to the state we are at doesn't
helps. Hopefully, switching to a compiler written in pure Go in Go1.4 (IIRC)
will allow code maintainers to benefit of Go's simplicity.
------
Alupis
The comparison between GO and Java seems unfair, given they compare a
primitive variable with an object... which has methods and a bunch of other
things to increase it's size (for good reason).
Sure GO may be quick... but a JIT'ed java program will run at native C
speed... because it's been compiled down to native code at that point... (and
most language performance comparison's I've seen pop up generally ignore this
fact and measure "performance" by timing runtime which includes the JVM firing
up and executing cold/non-jit'ed code... not real-world scenarios for high
performance code.)
~~~
melling
What is Java's startup and JIT overhead? Go seems to be a good replacement for
when you need a faster Python. For large, long running programs the JIT
probably has better optimizations than the current Go compiler.
~~~
pjmlp
> What is Java's startup and JIT overhead?
Quite fast if you use an AOT compiler.
On the server side, it is usually doesn't matter that much. And when it does,
there are JVMs that cache JITed code.
~~~
papaf
This is true for PC's and servers. However, Java startup time on the Raspberry
Pi is horrific.
I recently saw a small server go from 3 seconds startup on my PC to 4 minutes
on a Raspberry.
~~~
pling
That's pretty much because the CPU on the Pi is awful. I mean really bad. The
CPU came with the SoC they could get their hands on rather than was selected
as being optimal for a desktop/server role.
------
astrange
Function calls aren't that slow in an OoO processor - they're perfectly
predictable branches, so it can just start decoding from over there. There
might be a cache miss, but there might also be fewer cache misses, or even
better the CPU might skip decoding with a µop cache.
Really, the purpose of inlining is so inline functions can be specialized for
their new context, which can easily make the total code size smaller. On x86,
size/speed tradeoffs just don't happen like they used to.
~~~
gsg
That's not the whole story. There are other costs associated with calls such
as spilling and imprecision of data flow analyses around a call site.
------
HeroesGrave
Things that make Go fast*
*compared to non-native languages like Python and Java.
Could people please stop calling their favourite language fast just because it
beats an interpreted/VM language.
~~~
pjmlp
Not only that. Usually these comparisons cleverly leave out AOT compilers for
the said languages to make theirs look better.
In Java's case there are quite a few JVMs, many of those with AOT compilation
to choose from, even implemented in Java itself.
~~~
marktangotango
For Java can you name any AOT compilers besides Excelsior JET and GCJ?
~~~
pjmlp
GCJ is dead.
Yes, CodenameOne, JamaicaVM, Aonix Perc and J9 all support AOT compilation
besides normal JIT.
The Oracle Hotspot replacement project, Graal allows for AOT compilation via
SubstrateVM.
There there is RoboVM for targeting iOS applications, with WP support getting
added now.
Android is replacing Dalvik with ART, which does AOT compilation at
installation time.
Probably a few more that I am not aware.
~~~
marktangotango
Thanks for the info, interesting the first four you mention are commercial
products. Two you may find interesting: avian vm, and xml vm at one point
could translate jvm bytecode to c for compilation with gcc.
------
zwieback
I was surprised to see stack-check preambles mentioned here. Does that really
happen on every function call? Or does it happen on a context switch? Usually
stack-checking on function entry is considered something that makes code slow.
~~~
4ad
Yes, it happens on every function call. It costs 3 machine instructions. That
is nothing.
There is no other "context-switch" other than the one triggered by this check
(and other similar mechanisms), Go is cooperatively scheduled; all preemption
is voluntary.
~~~
zwieback
Wow, what can you do in three instructions and what happens when the stack
check fails? Sounds intriguing, think I'll read up on that...
~~~
4ad
Let's take a look at Linux. Other systems are similar.
; go tool objdump -s main.main a
TEXT main.main(SB) /private/tmp/a/a.go
a.go:9 0x400c10 64488b0c25f0ffffff FS MOVQ FS:0xfffffff0, CX
a.go:9 0x400c19 483b21 CMPQ 0(CX), SP
a.go:9 0x400c1c 7707 JA 0x400c25
a.go:9 0x400c1e e8ddf90100 CALL runtime.morestack00_noctxt(SB)
a.go:9 0x400c23 ebeb JMP main.main(SB)
a.go:10 0x400c25 e8d6ffffff CALL main.foo(SB)
a.go:11 0x400c2a c3 RET
a.go:11 0x400c2b 0000 ADDL AL, 0(AX)
a.go:11 0x400c2d 0000 ADDL AL, 0(AX)
a.go:11 0x400c2f 00 ?
On linux/amd64 we can use the Local Executables TLS access procedure. In
particular, we use a negative offset from the FS segment register to get a TLS
slot (our job is simpler because we are always the main executable).
MOVQ FS:0xfffffff0, CX
We make use of two TLS variables, g and m (soon we will only use one), a
pointer to g is at -16(FS). We access it in this first instruction.
g is an instance of struct G, see go/src/pkg/runtime/runtime.h:/struct.G. It
contains many things, but it starts like this:
struct G
{
uintptr stackguard0;
uintptr stackbase;
...
In particular the first word (at offset zero) is the stackguard, which
indicates the stack limit (it is also used for voluntary preemption, but that
doesn't matter here).
This instruction in the stack check preamble:
CMPQ 0(CX), SP
Compares the current stack pointer with the stackguard. In most cases we have
enough stack, so the next instruction just skips past the preamble to the real
function code.
JA 0x400c25
When we don't have enough stack, we call a function in the runtime (one of the
runtime.morestack functions). This function allocates a new stack segment
(from the heap). Currently we use contiguous stacks, so if we have complete
type information in the current stack we can just copy the old stack to the
new stack segment fixing any pointers as dictated by the type information, and
then we switch the stack pointer.
If we don't have enough type information (or in previous Go versions), we use
segmented stacks. We allocate a new stack segment, but we don't copy the
stack; we just switch the stack pointer and we take care to be able to do the
reverse operation when we return from the function.
Take a look at the next instruction after the call to runtime.morestack.
JMP main.main(SB)
We just jump to the beggining of the function like nothing has happened. Then
the algorithm repeats, but we won't fails the stack limit check again, so it
will skip it. Why it jumps to the begining of the function instead of just
continuing in the body of the function is left as an exercise to the reader.
We used the Local Executables TLS access model here, sometimes we have to use
the Initial Executable model. If we ever allow Go programs to be loaded by C
programs as dynamic objects, we would have to use more complicated models.
On ARM we just use a register instead of using any form of TLS. On most
systems Go binaries set the FSbase register to some value on the heap, but
when we use cgo, or on platforms that don't support static binaries we don't
touch FSbase, as it was already set up by libc.
Functions that use little stack (under 120 bytes) can be excepted from this
stack check.
~~~
zwieback
Thanks, nice writeup.
------
fiatmoney
Hey, as long as we're talking about Go performance - can we please, please get
some kind of wide vector intrinsics (ie, no cgo overhead) in a library, or at
least aggressive compiler generation of vector ops that actually use AVX & the
ARM NEON equivalent?
Right now peak floating-point performance isn't even within half of what it
should be on a very recent CPU, and I'd love to be able to deploy Go that
exposes machine learning models to a network interface.
------
azam3d
Go should replace Java in Android Development
~~~
pling
Go should replace Dalvik and the half arsed Java runtime implementation on
Android yes, but I'd take a proper mature JVM over both on _any_ device.
~~~
pjmlp
I am looking forward to the Google IO presentation about ART.
Looking at the official languages both in the iOS and WP 8.x SDKs, Google
should at least give first class support to all major JVM languages.
------
robryk
Nitpick: goroutine context switch can also happen at function calls (when the
stack is being enlarged).
~~~
Rapzid
I guess taking advantage of that could be tricky. If your function gets
inlined...D'oh!
~~~
skj
If your function is inlined (which happens at compile time), then there won't
be any stack growth and the point is moot.
~~~
Rapzid
This is a form of pre-emptive scheduling. It doesn't happen when the stack
size needs to increase, it causes the stack check to fail. A bit of classic
Dmitry cleverness:
[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ETuA2IOmnaQ4j81AtTGT40Y4...](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ETuA2IOmnaQ4j81AtTGT40Y4_Jr6_IDASEKg0t0dBR8/edit)
[http://golang.org/doc/go1.2#preemption](http://golang.org/doc/go1.2#preemption)
Anyway, I was just offering this scenario up as a bit of curious humour where
somebody might think they are providing an escape hatch but the compiler in-
lines their call foiling their plans :)
~~~
stcredzero
Curious humor == Classic too clever by half.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: My <canvas>-based, Photoshop-esque JavaScript color picker - spicyj
http://zetamac.com/picker/
======
spicyj
I made this for the An Event Apart JavaScript 10k contest but unfortunately
finished it after the deadline (but not by much!).
Anyway, here it is for all of you to enjoy. Hopefully useful when you don't
feel like opening up Photoshop to get a CSS color.
I'd love to hear suggestions for how I can improve it. (Sorry that the bubbles
next to Lab are missing; refreshing the square on the left was too slow for it
to be useful.)
~~~
ELV1S
I've made one for 10K too <http://10k.aneventapart.com/Entry/235>. Mine is SVG
based. The code is on GitHub <http://github.com/NV/color-blender>.
~~~
daychilde
I really like being able to select two colours like that - and the in-between
colour is even better. Love that.
------
charliepark
This is really well-done. In terms of suggestions ... how hard would it be to
turn it into a jQuery plugin?
~~~
spicyj
Not really sure; I've never written a jQuery plugin before, so I'll need to
look into what's required. If I have time, I'll do my best.
~~~
JangoSteve
I've never done anything with canvas, but I've written jquery plugins. Let me
know if I can help. And let us know if you post the source code.
------
jonah
Nice!
I've been using this one: [http://johndyer.name/post/2007/09/PhotoShop-like-
JavaScript-...](http://johndyer.name/post/2007/09/PhotoShop-like-JavaScript-
Color-Picker.aspx) but yours has a few more options.
One thing I did notice though is that it's almost unusably slow in FF3.6
unlike Safari 5 or Chrome 7 where it's fine.
~~~
wlievens
Unfortunately, canvas is ridiculously slow in FF3 in general. It's
depressing... I built an isometric game in javascript+canvas, paid people to
draw neat pixel graphics, but eventually dropped the project because of the
performance. In Chrome it was reasonable, but in firefox I rarely got above 10
FPS.
(it wasn't the only reason I dropped the project)
~~~
bd
Somehow Firefox became the slowest kid on the block, simply by not improving
as fast as others (FF4 is better, but unfortunately change is smaller than I
hoped for).
Which is really pity, it's still my primary browser and has a lot of good
things going for it.
What's actually worse than FF canvas rendering performance (which, in fact, is
not that bad if you measure it) is its memory management.
FF does something very weird, code that works ok in other browsers causes huge
memory spikes followed by frequent garbage collection (e.g. what makes tens of
KB memory use oscillations in Opera/Chrome makes tens of MB oscillations in
FF).
Even something as simple as assigning repeatedly random numbers to fixed
length array grows memory in FF. Canvas operations do the same, causing memory
use to grow at an alarmingly fast rate.
So if you do animations (or anything which gets executed repeatedly), you get
relatively fast rendering which is triggered erratically and paused due to
"behind the scene" memory management (which slows down everything).
~~~
wlievens
I actually had that memory problem - with canvas - in Chrome rather than in
Firefox: <http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=20067> It was
fixed at some point though.
~~~
bd
Small world, I created a page referred to in the bug report :).
Yes, Chrome's memory management got better [1] and Firefox's got worse (at
least relatively, they know about the problem and made some improvements [2],
but meanwhile other browsers got even better).
It looks like while both Chrome and FF improved their garbage collectors, FF
somehow got much higher memory consumption in the first place (growing memory
in places where it really shouldn't - aforementioned array assignments or
drawing into canvas).
\-----
[1] I remember a period where Chrome was tuning their memory management, you
would get very different performance between subsequent Chrome updates.
[2] [http://hacks.mozilla.org/2010/01/javascript-speedups-in-
fire...](http://hacks.mozilla.org/2010/01/javascript-speedups-in-firefox-3-6/)
------
mynameisraj
Wow. Really incredible work. Mind posting a packer-free version so we can look
at the source?
~~~
paulirish
Ditto. I really wanna dig into the source. This is a perfect widget for people
to learn some canvas basics from.
~~~
TimLangley
You can always "unpack" the packer code
[http://yaisb.blogspot.com/2006/10/defeating-dean-edwards-
jav...](http://yaisb.blogspot.com/2006/10/defeating-dean-edwards-
javascript.html)
------
jswinghammer
This actually filled a need I have for showing someone who is only mildly
technical how to pick colors for a feature we're testing.
Thanks! It looks great!
------
sstrudeau
Nice implementation. I spent a lot of time looking at these when I was putting
together a UI that needed some color picking.
When I read the headline, I thought you may have made something like my
"dropper"-style color picker using canvas:
<http://github.com/sstrudeau/jquery-dropper>
Mine allows you to pick a color from an image. Two big caveats (haven't found
workarounds for): < IE9 doesn't work and the excanvas VML hack doesn't help
(no pixel-level access to images); and images loaded into a canvas element
have a same-origin restriction similar to XHR.
------
eli
Nicely done. I had intended to do something like a color picker or CSS layout
tool, but instead I started working on a game and got way carried away
(shameless plug: <http://10k.aneventapart.com/Entry/154>)
My first time using <canvas>. It's really a lot more fun than I expected.
Reminds me of the good old days of messing around in Basic.
------
foxtrot
Really nice work, bookmarked for future use.
One addition that may be worth adding is being able to create a swatch based
on colours selected.
------
timinman
This should be easy to convert into a chrome extention:
<http://code.google.com/chrome/extensions/>
(It would increase it's usefulness, because the tool could overlay the current
page and you could then compare colours.)
------
olalonde
Very nice but it would be more usable if the cross pointer would completely
replace the arrow pointer.
~~~
spicyj
In Safari, Chrome and Firefox, it should. I couldn't get it to work properly
on IE9.
------
nailer
Great work! For later, though, browsers are apparently due to be implementing
color picking controls (according to the alistapart HTML5 book anyway).
------
nader
very nice! the only thing missing is adjusting the values with the keyboard
cursor like in photoshop. Arrow-up: 1% more, Arrow-Shift-Up: 10% more
------
chubs
Fantastic! Quite neat - I like it. If i ever decide to compete with photoshop
in the browser, i'll talk to you ;)
------
maushu
There is a slow down when dragging on left side on the grey, unlike on the
right side. Weird performance glitch.
------
smysore
very cool.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Speeding Up Your Python Code - bemmu
http://www.maxburstein.com/blog/speeding-up-your-python-code/
======
merb
Not only is it slightly faster but you also avoid storing
the entire list in memory!
Actually that won't help when you need a big list and need to store it in
memory. Python is really akward with this kind of scenario. Doing calkulations
with Maps of Lists is definitiv (extremly) faster in the JVM, C++ whatever.
Python is good however some use cases are definitv not in favor of Python. I
mean some could drop to C/C++ for that and pass Pointers around so not the
biggest problem.
------
coady
Writing the first examples in a more idiomatic style would better demonstrate
the timing differences. The list construction isn't really noticeable at that
size.
def generate(num):
for i in xrange(num):
yield random.randrange(10)
def create_list(num):
return [random.randrange(10) for i in xrange(num)]
Also worth noting that functional programming in Python (e.g. inlining loops)
is often faster.
from future_builtins import map
import itertools
def generate(num):
return map(random.randrange, itertools.repeat(10, num))
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Technical Debt: A Taxonomy - karlmdavis
http://blogs.construx.com/blogs/stevemcc/archive/2007/11/01/technical-debt-2.aspx
======
karlmdavis
In addition to containing an interesting categorization of technical debt,
this article explains the entire concept of such debt in a very clear manner.
Much appreciated, as I know of some managers that could benefit from reading
this.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Akaros - open source, GPL-licensed operating system for manycore architectures - jnazario
http://akaros.cs.berkeley.edu/akaros-web/news.php
======
chrisballinger
Cool to see this posted here, I know one of the guys working on it. It would
be nice if they provided some compiled/preconfigured images for VirtualBox or
VMware to play with though.
~~~
jboynyc
Yes, that's what I expected to find when I clicked on "Getting Started."
However, that just shows you the location of their code repository.
------
e12e
It would appear that this project shares some goals with Dragonfly BSD[1] --
apart from the choice of foundation (fork FreeBSD vs GNU/Linux) -- are there
any notable differences?
[1] [http://www.dragonflybsd.org/](http://www.dragonflybsd.org/)
~~~
tjaerv
The license. (GPL vs BSD.)
~~~
e12e
Well, yes. I sort of thought I'd covered that with "...choice of foundation
(fork FreeBSD vs GNU/Linux)".
------
NTDF9
Resources section of that webpage needs to have more. Until I look at the
source code, I can't figure out what exactly is different from linux and how
said differences matter/help.
------
aray
Poking around a bit, I can't see much that this adds beyond what you can do
with the Linux kernel, except where it basically breaks virtualization
containerization. If you care enough about workload performance to break the
strong statement of separation that virtualization affords, why not just run
unvirtualized in the first place. The rest looks a lot like LXC+cgroups.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN [Again]: My Side Project, Thingist. - blhack
http://www.thingist.com/
======
rudasn
I didn't take any action on your site (quite busy at the moment) but I have a
few suggestions on your design.
\- Try not to use sans serif (Helvetica) and serif (Georgia) fonts at the same
time. Choose one and stick to it. If you are going for large font sizes serif
look nice. Otherwise use sans serif. Keep in mind though that sans serif fonts
are easier to read on a screen.
\- On a similar note, bold and underline on long paragraphs/blocks of text is
hard to read. Also #000 on #fff (or vise versa) is tiring for the eyes. Have
you experimented with shades of black/gray (#333, #666, #999, #ccc)?
\- Try to make better use of your space. The login box takes way too much
space.
\- Last but not least, I personally find the blue header at the top very
"strong". I would use a different shade of blue (google uses nices shades of
blue, perhaps you can steal a couple)
------
blhack
Hi, HN. About a month ago I showed you all my November launch project. A few
of you seemed interested in it, and I've added quite a bit since then, so I'm
showing you again :).
First, the point of the site is to share lists. Originally it was a place for
me to keep a Christmas list, but I quickly wanted to be able to add stuff like
"coffee" to lists like "things I love".
After that, the ability to share pictures of the things I was listing sounded
cool, so I added the ability to upload a photo along with whatever item you
were listing.
Then I noticed that one of my favorite lists (songs I love) was pretty much
all just links to youtube, so I added the code to automatically embed youtube
videos instead of just linking to them. The same now goes for soundcloud and
vimeo.
Something an HNer asked for last time was the ability to expand a list onto
one page...which I added (and it looks like this:
<http://thingist.com/t/pageview/1674/>)
The "notifications" have improved quite a bit since I showed you as well. If
somebody comments on one of your items, or comments on something you've
commented on, or "relists" one of your things, or mentions you in a post (by
prepending your username with a $, so $blhack, if this was HN), you'll get a
notifications about it.
As far as numbers go...the site growing has stagnated, and I would love it if
anybody could give me some advice on how to fix that... The people that do use
it use it quite a bit, I just wish there were more of them.
Anyway, maybe this post will get ignored, sorry if it's against guidelines to
submit a project twice. I've been having a _lot_ of fun building this so far
(the most fun for me was definitely working with soundcloud's API...something
that I had never done before).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Twitter is finally giving our chronological timelines back - NicoJuicy
https://thenextweb.com/apps/2018/11/01/twitter-is-finally-giving-our-chronological-timelines-back/
======
spdustin
I've seen a number of stories that seem to get this wrong. It's not a new
feature, really. You've been able to toggle off "Show the best Tweets first"
in the "Content" section of the settings of both the web app and mobile
clients for a while now. Turning it off restores the chronological timeline.
This UI experiment seems like it's just giving a one-tap toggle on the header
of your Home timeline, rather than making you go into your profile's settings.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How much does your slow machine cost your company? - acangiano
http://foldingair.blogspot.com/2011/08/how-much-does-your-slow-machine-cost.html
======
mikecsh
I've actually done exactly this exercise myself having been constantly
frustrated with the development platform in use at my company (Similar Dell
PCs, Win 7, VS2010, RS6 etc.). Additionally we have a slow VPN to our servers
which are hosted at our main office. There have been days where the total
wasted time is >25% of my day.
I'd add an additional cost into the analysis which is the frustration of
engineers working under these conditions and the risk of them leaving to find
somewhere that takes this more seriously.
I'll also register my continued surprise and disappointment at the performance
of this typical MS development stack on a machine that should be more than up
to the task (3 GHZ Core 2 Duo, 4 GB RAM).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
China hacker's angst opens a window onto cyber-espionage - esalazar
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-china-hacking-20130313,0,7978305,full.story
======
BogdanCalin
Here is the blog <http://blog.sina.com.cn/rocybird> Use Google Translate to
read it (or Chrome).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
EVE Online: Premeditated Murder - outworlder
http://themittani.com/features/first-degree-awox-premeditated-murder?page=0%2C0
======
lmm
It'd be nice to have an explanation that covered the jargon for a beginner.
E.g. why don't BDCI losses count? What even is a BDCI?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Categorized Weaknesses (summary negatives) from State of Haskell 2011 Survey - gtani
http://nickknowlson.com/blog/2011/09/12/haskell-survey-categorized-weaknesses/
======
nickknw
Hey, thanks for submitting this to HN :)
There's some discussion going on in the Haskell subreddit[1] for anyone who's
interested.
[1] -
[http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/kd2ky/categorized_w...](http://www.reddit.com/r/haskell/comments/kd2ky/categorized_weaknesses_from_the_state_of_haskell/)
------
copper
In practise, I prefer Kazu Yamamoto's cab over cabal-dev, mostly because it
leaves the system libs alone, and has the _extremely_ useful uninstall -r.
------
Uchikoma
As a Scala user, I'd love such a survey on Scala. @Martin, #typesafe, please?
~~~
gtani
(Summer 2010
<http://www.scala-lang.org/node/6619>
~~~
Uchikoma
Thanks, appreciated, missed that one.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
FabriKube – A framework for building Hyperledger Fabric blockchain on Kubernetes - alesiladas
https://github.com/fabrikube/FabriKube
======
coffee-high
Awesome!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Hacker News channel on Denso (Videos from popular posts on HN) - iamclovin
We're still in private beta but would love to give more invites and get feedback.
======
iamclovin
Clickable link: <http://getdenso.com/denso/hacker-news>
There's also a Foundation channel (by Kevin Rose) -
<http://getdenso.com/denso/kevin-roses-foundation>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Put the “Ph” Back in PhD - pooya72
http://magazine.jhsph.edu/2015/summer/forum/rethinking-put-the-ph-back-in-phd/index.html
======
jimrandomh
I don't think the problem is with PhDs failing to engage with philosophy, but
rather, with the name "philosophy" having been hijacked and turned towards
something that isn't worth studying. When you say students should learn more
epistemology, I'm 100% on board - but when you say students should learn more
"philosophy including epistemology", I suddenly anticipate them being exposed
to a bunch of low-quality thinking reflecting long-dispelled confusions.
Most of the good philosophy work has moved to other labels, like
"rationality", out of a need to distance itself from the concentrated
confusion being taught in universities. If you want to teach good philosophy,
great! But please, please don't expose your students to the concentrated
confusion that passes for most of philosophy; apply a strong filter and teach
your students to apply that filter themselves.
~~~
littletimmy
It may be that philosophy is not worth studying, but this is something a
person has to realize for himself. As Wittgenstein said, it is a ladder that
must be thrown away AFTER a person has used it.
~~~
jimrandomh
Or... they could skip the Wittgenstein and go straight to Kahneman, Yudkowsky
and Pearl. Why would you study something that you expected to later decide
wasn't worth it, when there's so much good stuff?
~~~
littletimmy
Mainly to identify the good stuff. So let's take the example of the subject
political economy. Political economy has a rich philosophical tradition. You
start at Hobbes, then you've got Locke, Rousseau, Smith, Marx, Ricardo, Mills,
Keynes, Hayek, Friedman... Each of these philosophers cites a previous
philosopher and has transformed our thinking of political economy in some way.
You cannot just ignore all of them because then you'd have no clue about how
the world came to be the way it is and when you read contemporaries you'd have
no frame of reference. So, who do you eliminate?
~~~
jimrandomh
There is a difference between learning philosophy, and learning the history of
philosophy. We don't need more historians; we need people able to think
clearly about hard questions. Not understanding how the world came to be the
way it is would be unfortunate, but the opportunity cost of making everyone
study history is just too high.
~~~
littletimmy
Thinking about hard questions absolutely requires history, particularly in a
field like economics. Studying macroeconomics without knowing the history of
political economy is useless.
------
dbecker
When Casadevall (and others) argue for more ethics and epistemology in the
first year of a PhD program, they should be transparent that they would take
away time and attention for much of the material currently taught in the first
year of PhD programs.
I'm not arguing that it's not a worthwhile tradeoff. I just wish we were more
transparent about these tradeoffs when discussing what we add to a curriculum.
------
misnome
I don't necessarily see that this is particularly relevant. The point of a PhD
is surely to show that a student is _capable_ of performing at the very peak
of their field. The well-roundedness should come later, and just like an
undergraduate degree is not "Job Training" and postgraduate one doesn't
instantly make you a leading scientist.
Also, from what I saw of other students doing PhD's in the US, they already
take several years longer than us in Europe because of the lack of
specialisation in undergraduate degrees - they spend the first few years in
effect "Catching up".
------
c_prompt
Conceptually, I agree with his view that without a better understanding and
appreciation for philosophy, humanity is limited by the progress science
makes. But if I'm understanding his reasoning, he wants more philosophy so
that scientists can become well-rounded generalists, reduce competitiveness,
and better communicate to voters and politicians. These might be valuable
benefits but, to me, humanity could benefit most if scientists had a much
better understanding of rational ethics. IMO, universities are churning out
too many unethical scientists and, for proof, I offer how much money goes into
government-related projects (e.g., weapons, surveillance, control). A rational
understanding of ethics is needed to reduce the research and funding of the
plethora of destructive and control-oriented efforts. Not to mention that if
scientists ever truly learned rational ethics, they'd no longer ask for
government grants as they'd know it's wrong to take stolen money.
~~~
disgruntledphd2
I was totally with you until the last sentence. I suspect our definitions of
rational ethics may differ. Quick, to the philosophers, they can solve this!
------
vezzy-fnord
The issues facing scientific advancement and discourse have nothing to do with
a lack of "thinking big" in postgraduate education. A lot of people do think
big, but there are plenty of economic barriers - some intrinsic, others
artificial, that prevent whatever vague idealism the author is going for.
Nor is it the fault of scientists that voters and politicians do not
understand them. More often than not, it's a refusal to understand or apathy
towards doing it. In fact, politics is not inherently concerned with factual
information almost at a fundamental level. If voters have no drive to
autodidact, there will be no one out there to spoonfeed them information.
Quantitative skills are already part of scientific practice at its core. So is
ethics, particularly over the past half century. Learning to code and debating
utilitarianism will not change anything that the author is concerned about.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
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