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Problematic business relationships - dmistrio
https://medium.com/@dimist/problematic-business-relationships-44dc00aeb05c
======
lotsofmangos
_" We don’t need to have developers in our software company, we can outsource
the function and keep only a product owner who would know the history of the
project. Only the relationship with the paying clients is necessary the rest
are expenses. Imagine yourself as a developer or graphic designer or system
administrator in a company like this."_
I don't have to imagine, it accurately describes about 90% of the technical
companies I have ever worked for in the UK. That and silos, where they never
hire more than one person per business function and working collaboratively
with others is seen as a sign that you are not good enough to do the task on
your own.
~~~
dmistrio
Oh yes the silos. PMs whose only function is to shield the client from "dev-
speak" so that (1) nobody will complain when client asks for BS, (2) can help
to subsidise dev with a cheaper one... Silos also help that if devs talk to
each other, they might start talking about Emperor's clothes.
~~~
lotsofmangos
I remember showing one manager an article on 'extreme programming'. His view
was that it was just a way for programmers to cheat him out of money and only
do half the amount of work, given only one person types at a time.
------
tomblomfield
> most British IT businesses end up becoming consultancies
> [programmers/designers/ops] marginalized as second class citizens
I think these trends were probably true in the past, and were driven by the
investment environment in the UK.
10 years ago, early-stage investment was pretty hard to come by in the UK and
investors were hyper-focussed on companies that could show early revenue. As a
result, many entrepreneurs were forced to bootstrap, and consulting revenue
was the only way to make ends meet.
However, things are clearly changing. We've had some breakout successes this
year (Transferwise, Funding Circle) and some new entrants in the early-stage
funding landscape (Entrepreneur First, Mosaic, Hoxton et al). Investors seem
more willing back young, technical founders pursuing riskier projects.
~~~
themartorana
We're in the U.S. (East Coast) and are bootstrapped, and the hardest thing to
do is keep your eye on the ball and off of consulting. There's easy money
there - we get _asked_ to build software by other businesses, and most in our
circle look at consulting as the thing you do to save a failing business while
you figure out what's next.
That said, it's probably the thing that can be counted as the final nail in
the coffin. While consulting can halt a failing business from total wipeout,
in reality it's a softens the landing, but I've yet to see a business recover
and hop back in to the product game.
------
Herpyderp666
"Looking inwards I have observed that what is considered important is not as
much as it should be functions that are related with the end product or
service such as programming or design, or generally what’s happening at the
assembly line." What?
~~~
dmistrio
Rewrote it. Apologies.
------
scandox
Small correction: it is Tim Berners-Lee not Burners Lee
~~~
dmistrio
Corrected. Thanks!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Friend-Watch - Analytics for your Facebook account - ndroo
http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/23/new-friend-watch-app-lets-you-stalk-your-facebook-friends/
======
malik
<plug>Got nothin' on wisdom.com.</plug>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Facebook will disappear in three years - kemoly
http://www.acercandonaciones.com/en/news/facebook-desaparecera-en-tres-anos.html
======
px1999
I'll be honest, a couple of years ago, I believed something similar, but for
different reasons:
* Friendships change over time, no social network (Facebook included) could crack that.
* "The youth" don't want to be on the same social network as their parents.
* Timeline spam from games was going to kill the network.
* People were uber concerned about privacy and would flock to a more privacy-aware alternative, particularly with employers starting to check up on employees.
* Someone was bound to go and take away Facebook's golden goose - image hosting.
* Mobile monetization was going to be a massive problem for them.
I had other reasons, but I was young(er) and naive(r). They dealt with those
threats - by introducing features, having critical mass, changing their
partnerships, reassuring users, opening their wallet, and figuring out how to
do mobile well respectively.
Yes, free (as in GNU) software is always a threat to people trying to profit
from software, but it's no more serious to Facebook in the medium term than
any of the above. People are lazy, there's a lot of inertia behind Facebook at
this stage, and setting up your own social network-type stuff on your own
server is (and always will be) seen as "too hard" for most people.
I highly doubt that they'll be unseated for quite a while (even under the
glacially crushing weight of OSS) so long as they keep making the good calls
that they've been making over the past few years.
------
joeldidit
I think Facebook will disappear, but it may take a bit longer than 3 years.
Also, they won't completely disappear, they just won't be as used as they are
today.
I think a lot of people are getting bored and frustrated with the service, but
they have a lot of history on the site, and they don't have a better
alternative to turn to. This causes the wrong form of user "loyalty:" they are
trapped.
It's hard to imagine a better service coming along, but they can eventually be
outdone on the mobile front or their own internal inertia (which it seems they
are fighting) will prevent them from being able to compete.
Change happens fast. Something will show up overnight, then BOOM.. the end.
------
s3r3nity
Didn't this article topic come up a few years ago?
Weren't people saying there was a limit on the number of people you could get
into a single social network (like 250k or something like that?) and would
never surpass Myspace?
Weren't people saying that Facebook wouldn't figure out mobile monetization?
These types of bold predictions, without really any data or strong evidence,
are meaningless and should be down-voted by a tech community that makes
changes in the world through science and fact.
Plus, consistently rooting for failure of the thousands of people that work
there isn't really cool to begin with.
------
hkmurakami
So the guy also predicts the death of Microsoft, whose OS and productivity
software is used by _governments_ worldwide. If there was ever a slow moving
body, it is government. If there ever was a body that could be lobbied against
even good decisions, it is government.
Nope, don't see MSFT "dying" anytime soon, even if they don't grow by much or
even start shrinking slowly.
~~~
brownbat
Surface revenue just in:
[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/07/30/microsoft_surface_sa...](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/07/30/microsoft_surface_sales_disaster/)
But you're still right... they get 1,000 bad decisions before they dent their
cushion of money.
Facebook, though, I'm less sure. Cringely has been calling it "the new AOL"
for years, since its product seems to be a limited subset of what "Internet"
provides.
But then again, he's predicted that long enough to look suspicious. A bit like
one of my favorite bits from Lenny Bruce - "I know marijuana will be legal
someday because all of the lawyers I know smoke it." He may be right, but all
those lawyers are probably retired.
Cringely put peak-Facebook at 2014, can't wait to find out if he's right.
------
nextw33k
I recently read someone make an comparison between the introduction of the
telephone and the introduction of social networks. How people had a miss-trust
of telephones because they would take away privacy.
Obviously what is needed with social networks is inter network communication.
Otherwise we risk creating a monopoly.
------
GnwbZHiU
"Oops! Google Chrome could not connect to www.acercandonaciones.com"
The site disappear already
------
jotm
So, a fully profitable and easily pivotable company with a few hundred million
users will disappear because people can/will switch to their own small
servers?
Please, Yahoo and freaking Ask.com (who even uses it?) are still around, and
Facebook is way ahead of those two...
------
lkbm
> Happened to MySpace and I know that will happen again
One data point doesn't really establish an unavoidable trend.
~~~
marcosdumay
Also happened with Orkut.
Of course, that doesn't mean it's unavoidable either.
------
hkmurakami
_" Traduction by Google Translator"_
uhhh, seriously? I'm quite literally at a loss for words here.
------
opinali
No excuse to post utter junk like this article; flagged.
------
bleakcabal
I predict Hacker News will disappear in three years !
~~~
nextw33k
If it did I would be very happy. That would mean I would have found a news
source even better than this one.
------
MrMan
QED
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
OpenNews: 24 Hours to Choose Your Own Adventure. - knowtheory
http://sinker.tumblr.com/post/29130883993/opennews-24-hours-to-choose-your-own-adventure
======
dansinker
Hi there. I'm the director of the Knight-Mozilla OpenNews program. We're
looking for developers, hackers, and the like who want to spend 10 months
traveling the world and building new tools for journalism. It's an incredible
opportunity.
This link is for the final pitch, as the application window closes at midnight
Eastern tomorrow night.
Happy to answer any questions here. Also, you can jump straight to the
application if you want: <http://mozillaopennews.org/fellowships/apply.html>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Airlines scour the world for scarce 737 Max simulators - hhs
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-boeing-737max-training/airlines-scour-the-world-for-scarce-737-max-simulators-idUSKBN1ZL0EH
======
thawaway1837
There’s some weird numbers in the article, which may either be a lost in
translation situation or more evidence that airlines and Boeing are once again
playing fast and loose with their plans.
For example, Southwest is apparently claiming they will be able to train their
10000 737 pilots on the simulator in 30 days. They have 3 simulators (still
going through certification) and have ordered another 3 for late 2020.
Assuming they have all 6 on day one, that means each simulator will be
training approximately 1600 pilots. Divided by 30 days, gives you 50 pilots a
day? In other words less than 30 minutes a pilot assuming extreme efficiency.
And training 24/7.
~~~
bonestamp2
I was surprised by that 10,000 pilot number. It seems huge until you look it
up and realize they have 752 planes. Each plane averages 6 flights/day. So
they have about 13 pilots per plane and an average of 2 pilots per flight. *Of
course, many of those flights are flown by the same pilots which gives them
coverage for the various shifts. The numbers are probably a little more off
now too since some of their fleet is idle. Either way, 10,000 pilots doesn't
even sound like enough after roughing up the numbers.
~~~
dmurray
13 pilots per plane sounds like more than enough.
Each plane needs two pilots at a time. Each plane is manned maybe 105 hours a
week (say 17 hours a day on average, less 5% of the time in maintenance), so
it requires 210 pilot-hours per week. A full time employee works about 35
hours a week after sick leave and holidays. So you need about six full-time
pilots per plane.
Pilots spend some time in training and admin outside of the plane, but it
could hardly amount to enough to double the staffing requirements, especially
for Southwest who are famously lean and efficient. I'd guess a significant
number of the 10,000 are on standby or get limited hours (but of course need
to be trained to the same level as full-timers).
~~~
LanceH
You need 1 crew per flight, but really 2 crews per day per plane. Pilots work
about half the days, so 4 crews per plane. That gets you to 8 pilots per
plane, which is roughly 6k pilots without redundancy or pilots working very
limited segments.
------
superbrane
Interesting that Boeing does no make the simulators directly but through
partners. Having a delay in making the simulators might be because the makers
of the simulators are having problems with the software replication from the
real plane. Wonder what happens when the software on the simulators is in
desync with the software on the real plane; or when software on the real plane
has a bug that manifests only after 10 hour of continuous operation while the
software on the simulator is continuously resetted for each new pilot. On the
other hand, Boeing and the airlines should have provided more simulators if
their new model is so different that it needs a dedicated simulator. One idea
- Boeing should only sell new planes together with simulators - 1 simulator
included for each x planes delivered.
~~~
bkor
> Boeing and the airlines should have provided more simulators if their new
> model is so different that it needs a dedicated simulator
I highly recommend reading this article:
[https://onemileatatime.com/boeing-737-max-lion-air-
simulator...](https://onemileatatime.com/boeing-737-max-lion-air-
simulator/#boeing_mocked_lion_air_for_wanting_737_max_simulator_training)
The first crash was with Lion Air. Boeing mocked them for wanting simulators.
After the crash, Boeing claimed pilots of Lion Air were at fault. This while
saying no simulator training was needed.
~~~
o-__-o
>Boeing mocked them for wanting simulators.
These were the conversations of two employees. I wouldn't say that Boeing
outright mocked them but, in the processes going on above the employees
paygrade, simulators were difficult to get to Lion Air
~~~
stopads
You think because the employees weren't executives and they were talking to
eachother it's all ok? What on earth are you talking about?
Boeing employees should be in prison, there shouldn't be bail while awaiting
trial. This is a act of willful negligence and deceit and coverup that killed
hundreds of people. It's one of the biggest crimes ever in the history of our
country.
~~~
ta999999171
They're a defense contractor, they can't commit crimes.
~~~
ulfw
Hahahahaha
------
t0mas88
Simulators normally already run very close to 24x7. Not strange at all to have
a 1am sim slot or 5am or similar at most airlines. So this is going to be
chaos if the MAX is reauthorized to fly before everyone is trained.
------
jaclaz
I wonder how the validation of correspondence between the actual plane (with
the unknown/unreleased MCAS related mods) and the simulator behaviour is
performed, i.e. who (Boeing, the simulator manufacturers, the FAA, experienced
test pilots) actually does what and - ultimately - which kind of "stamp"
attests that the simulator is a valid representation of the plane behaviour
(and how much time is it needed to perform this step).
~~~
anon463637
Scrounging around for simulators or wondering how close it is to the real
thing is moot because the 737 MAX is dead. The CEO is gone and there are more
and more safety "glitches" being discovered. Even if they return them to
service, who is going to fly on them? You? Sorry, but the cheapening-out on
engineering and manufacturing over the years has eventually produced a New
Coke, who's side-effect is that it kills the consumer. There's only "classic
Coke" as a fix (737 NG), but that's not much better. In fact, Al Jazeera did
an exposé in 2010 about the internal whistleblower who was ignored by Boeing
management when it was revealed that substandard critical structural
components made by subcontractor Ducommun were being crudely constructed by-
hand and were grossly out of tolerances, yet Boeing management ordered them
installed on customer planes anyhow. 737 NG's (-6xx, -7xx, -8xx, -9xx) have
already been involved in hard landings and runway overruns where the fuselages
broke apart, killing passengers, when previous similar airframes survived
intact but were possibly damaged and needed inspections. These NG's are flying
around above your head today, and it's unclear if the next landing or severe
turbulence is going to rip the plane apart because it was either poorly
engineered or poorly manufactured due to decades of lax "self-
regulation"/regulatory capture and corporate greed. Some engineering areas and
some planes were made better than others, but it's unnecessarily playing
Russian roulette with people's lives because management used "creative" ways
to cut corners.
If you want less micromorts, stick to well-maintained older 737's/777's and
Airbus.
~~~
7952
The capital cost of the 737 Max fleet is likely to be at least $20 billion. Do
you think the airlines or Boeing are just going to write that off?
~~~
throwanem
Do you think they won't get bailouts?
~~~
heavenlyblue
To get a bailout they need to act as if it were important.
------
fyfy18
Does anyone have any reading material on how the simulators work? Do they run
the same computer hardware as actual aircraft, or is it all simulated? If it's
simulated, how do they avoid the issue of a bug not being present in the
simulator?
~~~
jrockway
I don't think the simulator is designed to QA test the airplane. It's only for
training pilots, and pilots are only trained on procedures that airlines deem
worth training for. This is things like engine failures at inopportune
moments, stall recovery, etc. The idea is not to simulate the outcome of
strange circumstances, but to get pilots comfortable with procedures. So if
there is some bug, it doesn't matter -- if you're training pilots to take off
after v1* is called out and an engine fails at that exact moment, the
instructor is not looking to see that "hey we applied the brakes and the
airplane stopped OK with light rain and 3 knots of wind", they are looking to
see that the pilot continues the takeoff anyway and doesn't try to stop on the
runway. The pass condition is following procedure, not "well that's not the
procedure but it looks like everyone lived anyway".
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_speeds#V1_definitions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_speeds#V1_definitions)
The various data that feeds into training procedures comes from actually
flying the real airplane.
~~~
superbrane
Since the planes become more software dependent, the pilots should be trained
on procedures to recognize/evaluate/react to software problems/glitches as
well. The problems with the B-MAX were actually related to bad software
(MCAS). There is probably some delay between how pilots are training and the
importance of software in their job.
~~~
HPsquared
I think, functionally speaking, a software failure is no different to that of
hardware-based control / instrumentation systems (think of all the odd
behaviour that could be caused by a short circuit or a bad connection
somewhere in the wiring). The difference is that software systems tend to be
more complex, and failures are in theory less random and more systematic -
it's more a case of stepping on an unlikely combination of inputs (i.e. a bug
that occurs in an untested corner-case) than encountering a random component
failure which is more likely the case for a hardware system.
Edit: actually I suppose I just made your point
------
laydn
The article says Southwest has 10.000 737 pilots. Let's say all of them will
be trained. The article also says that simulator training costs 0.5-1K USD per
hour. Let's take the higher figure. So that means 5M USD per hour training for
all pilots (two pilots per simulator). Let's then speculate and say that the
FAA approved training package is 10 hours (I believe this will turn out to be
less than 3).
We're looking at 50M USD cost of training pilots for the MAX, for an airline
which ordered almost 300 MAX planes.
That is less than 200K USD per plane. It is depressing that this was being
weighed against loss of human life.
~~~
donarb
There's other costs as well. An untrained pilot can't fly, meaning that the
airline is shorthanded. If you don't have enough trained pilots, you have to
cancel flights and lose revenue.
~~~
ulfw
Which they now had to do for over a year. So that was some great cost-saving
exercise again...
------
dehrmann
With all the effort Boeing put into making controls the same, I wonder why
they couldn't just release a software update for existing 737 simulators that
adds the ability to switch to Max characteristics. I get the no new training
was a goal of the Max, but in existing simulators would at least be a
consolation prize.
~~~
salawat
The issue they're getting bit by now is that technically, MAX can't be
architected the same way as older 737's due to the Flight Computer
representing a single point of failure with catastrophic consequences.
Older 737's are fine having two separate Flight Computers with only one in
command at a time. MCAS changed that. So they now have to consider significant
hardware/software rearchitecture which goes beyond a mere
If(MAX){
MCAS();
} else {
otherStuff():
}
For instance, early on in the investigation, pilots had to use the NG
simulators with manual fault injection to recreate the experience because the
MCAS software simply wasn't there.
[https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-
aerospace/newly...](https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-
aerospace/newly-stringent-faa-tests-spur-a-fundamental-software-redesign-
of-737-max-flight-controls/)
The "newly-stringent" tests described are basically 101 level test cases in
excluding catastrophic outcomes from a design, where you basically assume the
perfect confluence of bit flips occur to ruin your day. If you've done your
job right, that shouldn't end up being a problem.
Boeing didn't, therefore, it was a problem.
------
raverbashing
The title makes it sound like simulators are going extinct
In fact, now that training is going to be needed, new simulators are going to
be built, but it takes time. Maybe some 737ng Sims can be converted
By the way, some airlines have their own but several have their crews train in
outsourced training facilities (CAE, etc)
------
timwaagh
what surprises me is that there are even any simulators for this plane, when
the manufacturer said such training isn't necessary. apparantly some airlines
still put safety above everything.
~~~
thisisnico
It's worth it from a financial perspective. If a plane goes down it hurts the
brand and public trust significantly. People in general are already afraid of
flying, lets not give them more reasons :)
------
cryptica
>> The 737 MAX has been grounded since March 2019 after two fatal crashes and
cannot return to service until regulators approve software changes and
training plans.
My understanding from the previous wave of news was that two planes crashed
because they stalled in mid air because their engines were too large and too
far forward and that somehow affected the plane's center of gravity... And the
solution is a software update? You can't fix hardware problems with software.
I wonder if this is a trend. First Intel and now Boeing... Shipping defective
products and then trying to hack together patches on top.
~~~
r3drock
They did not stall because of the engines. The plane would be perfectly
flyable without mcas, the plane only behaves differently. But in order to
avoid recertification boeing decided to tweak the plane behaviour with mcas so
that there is no noticeable difference for the pilots. In hindsight this
obviously wasn't done right.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
You might be able to get a tax credit for your prototyping - juwo
http://www.ksrevenue.org/taxcredits-research.htm
if you are incorporated.
======
nostrademons
Well, aside from this being Kansas-only...
" The credit is 6.5% of the difference between the actual qualified research
and development expenses for the year and the average of the actual
expenditures made during the year and the two previous tax years."
Wonderful. I can take a credit for 6.5% of...umm, $0 - $0. That comes to...$0.
Sometimes it sucks not paying yourself...
~~~
juwo
1) This was an IRS benefit and guideline. As I understand it, every state
likely offers it.
The form is at <http://www.ksrevenue.org/pdf/forms/k-53.pdf>
2) If you were using your savings to live on so that you could do prototyping,
can that be treated as an expense? (payroll or other). This assumes you were
incorporated.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Traffico – An Open Source Traffic Sign Font - gyllen
http://blog.mapillary.com/technology/2015/01/28/traffico.html
======
jboynyc
There's also a great free (SIL-licensed) typeface for signage:
[http://pixelspread.com/allerta/](http://pixelspread.com/allerta/)
------
michaelmior
Since it doesn't seem to be linked anywhere
[https://github.com/mapillary/traffico](https://github.com/mapillary/traffico)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Apple: The Beginning of a Long Decline? - dsr12
http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130913142423-71871-apple-the-beginning-of-a-long-decline
======
sarreph
I'm sorry but I can't read rubbish like this; stopped after the extrapolation
of Apple's potential future innovations as 'the construction industry' and
'plumbing'.
------
epochwolf
My iPad keeps getting redirected to download their app. :/
------
holyjaw
Why is the Executive Editor of VentureBeat posting on LinkedIn about linkbaity
Apple-doomsday things?
Oh, wait.
Got it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
C++ was the fastest growing programming language in Sept according to TIOBE - Jjducu
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/c-is-now-the-fastest-growing-programming-language/
======
in3d
This index has a lot of noise. C++ is only up because Sep 2019 was a low
point. Its popularity is lower than in June 2019 for example. I wouldn't put
much stock in this and I like C++. Does anybody really believe that C actually
fell from 17.15% in Nov 2015 to 6.5% in Aug 2017 and then went back up to
15.45% in Sep 2018? ([https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-
index/](https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/))
~~~
rumanator
> This index has a lot of noise.
I would go even further and state that TIOBE is deprived of any meaningful
value. It's basically a index that tracks web noise. I mean with TIOBE, C++'s
ranking goes up if someone writes a blog post with a joke that goes "A C++
developer walks into a bar...".
I wouldn't be surprised if this post in HN is contributing to the bump.
TIOBE is what you get from garbage-in.
> I wouldn't put much stock in this and I like C++.
I would bet that C++20 led some bloggers to post random stuff with C++ in it.
------
jasode
I've been playing around with Rust because it's a promising low-level systems
alternative to C++ but the reality is that many projects are enabled more by
_existing libraries & tools_ rather than blank slate clean language syntax.
Some example domains of libraries & tools where C++ is the 1st class client
instead of Rust:
\+ deep learning: NVIDIA CUDA api is C++
\+ HPC High Perfomance Computing: Intel MKL math library is C++
\+ physics engine for video games: Unreal game engine is C++
\+ latest cpu chip : ARM Allinea dev tools for the new Neoverse chips (e.g.
latest AWS Graviton2 servers) is C++
\+ Qt GUI is C++
Because of the extensive C++ ecosystem, you get a non-intuitive situation
where programming the _latest cutting-edge apps_ requires a 35-year-old
language from 1985 instead of the newer Rust language from 2012. I predict
this delta of tools+libraries between C++ and Rust will continue to exist for
10+ years.
One could try to write a bunch of Rust wrappers for all the above C++ SDKs but
I'm not convinced that's a good use of development resources.
~~~
pornel
Rust wrappers for C libraries work great. C++ is a bit harder, but tooling is
getting better.
The fact that Rust has zero-cost FFI and even inlining across LLVM languages
allows you to take existing C/C++ project, and start writing new Rust code on
top of it.
It's like a more performant version of what people do with Python. Nobody says
"oh, I can't use Python, because my device drivers aren't written in Python".
~~~
ncmncm
The better a C++ library is, the less possible it will be to create a Rust
wrapper for it. Good C++ libraries depend on language features that are, and
will always remain, wholly inaccessible from Rust.
Almost every feature of C++ is there to make writing powerful libraries
possible. Many uses of such features become part of the library interface,
because that enables zero-overhead libraries with semantics intricately
integrated into the caller's usage.
Rust has a goal of zero-overhead code, but is not designed to minimize the
overhead of library usage. That was a choice: it makes the language simpler
and easier to learn, but that comes at a cost. You cannot write a Rust library
to do what is routinely done in C++ libraries, and a Rust wrapper cannot
expose those capabilities to Rust code.
------
saberience
The fact that there is no actual methodology published for how this index of
popularity is actually generated makes me highly sceptical of the whole idea.
All Tiobe (who make these ratings) say is: "Popular search engines such as
Google, Bing, Yahoo!, Wikipedia, Amazon, YouTube and Baidu are used to
calculate the ratings."
What does this mean? What algorithm is used? If they expect these ratings to
be taken seriously they should open source the methodology and data-sets and
put their reasonings for why this data plus this algorithm gives a meaningful
result.
~~~
mumblemumble
Basically, they count the number of hits returned by a search for "{language}
programming" across a wide variety of search engines and websites, and rank
the languages according to which one yields the most hits.
It is an interesting metric, but I just can't bring myself to see it as the
measure of popularity that it is presented as. The number of page hits for a
language is a function of many things. Popularity is one. Others include age,
complexity, and how confusing/difficult-to-learn the language or its libraries
are. I'm guessing there's a marketability angle, too - for economic reasons,
there may not be as many codepoints being poured onto languages whose users
are less likely to purchase commercial tools or consulting services.
I can think of no better illustration of this than the 5th, 6th and 7th places
in this month's rankings. Does anyone _really_ believe that JavaScript is only
the 7th most popular programming language these days? Does anyone really
believe that both C# and Visual Basic are more popular than JavaScript? If you
take the TIOBE score as just a measure of popularity, it would seem to suggest
that .NET developers are collectively over 3 times as numerous as JavaScript
developers.
~~~
gamblor956
C# and VB are very heavily used by businesses.
Outside of the tech bubble it's believable that JavaScript isn't as popular.
~~~
mumblemumble
They are, but I don't know many C# and VB developers who aren't also using
JavaScript. Just flogging your enterprise apps together in WinForms isn't so
viable now that people want to be able to use MacBooks at work, too.
~~~
gamblor956
C# and .Net are multi-platform, and have been for at least a decade.
Javascript is useful for websites. And outside of the tech bubble, that's
basically all it's good for.
Yes, you _can_ use Javascript for non-website stuff. But nobody is doing that
because there are many cheaper and more efficient languages out there for
doing all that other stuff.
------
nindalf
TIOBE does not measure anything useful. It is merely the number of Google
results for that term. It's like comparing apples with cars. If Google returns
more pages for cars than apples, does that mean cars are better than apples?
If Google changes it's algorithm to return more results for food, are apples
now better than cars? God no, it's not a meaningful comparison and this is not
a meaningful metric.
TIOBE only exists for the sake of tech illiterate managers who are trying to
make tech decisions beyond their technical know-how. They decide their team
will use X technology and justify it with a link to TIOBE. The people in this
thread should know better than this.
Here are a few examples of it being wildly inaccurate.
* JavaScript is only the 7th most popular language. Not the most popular like it is on Github, Stackoverflow and developer surveys.
* VB ranks higher than a bunch of other widely used languages. How do we interpret this? There are more jobs for VB developers than jobs for Javascript or Swift or Go or Ruby? Or that there's more software developed in VB than these languages?
* C and Java are pretty stable but if you look at historical TIOBE data they experience wild swings in popularity. There's no way that between 2016 and 2018 C lost half it's popularity and then regained it in 2 years. No, C was stable throughout.
If you really want to know how many developers out there are using a certain
language, read the results of a survey where they ask developers that question
- [https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2020#technology-
pr...](https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2020#technology-programming-
scripting-and-markup-languages-all-respondents)
------
datameta
I think this is partly due to the fact that there is marked growth in interest
in embedded systems. MCUs have gotten even cheaper. It's now standard to have
multiple tiers of sleep modes (standby, sleep, deep sleep). Multiple clock
rates are becoming more popular - which enables on-demand heavy inferencing
interspersed among periods of lower processor usage. CMOS sensors increasingly
have on-chip motion detection[1] that uses less energy than full sensing. RF
comms are being managed more efficiently as for most embedded devices it is
the largest use of energy by orders of magnitude. Last but definitely not
least, machine learning at the edge is a nascent application as we realize on-
edge inferencing can avoid the aforementioned energy drain of sending huge
amounts of data to the cloud.
Of course for mission-critical applications C is still the standard for
firmware in the industry, but for many startups providing novel uses of edge
computing and the plethora of hobby projects C++ is a solid choice.
[1]
[https://www.ntu.edu.sg/home/eechenss/Papers/conf-2011-A%20CM...](https://www.ntu.edu.sg/home/eechenss/Papers/conf-2011-A%20CMOS%20Image%20Sensor%20with%20on-
chip%20Motion%20Detection%20and%20Object%20Localization.pdf)
~~~
stbtrax
Having been in emb systems for a decade+: I'm not sure I agree with that. MCU
prices have been relatively stable for the past decade. Sleep modes etc have
existed for a while and are not drawing in new people. VCs are investing less
in HW startups. Most won't invest in ones that don't have recurring revenue.
Imaging sensors are made by a few large players and CMOS on-chip motion is not
that useful since you can do the same thing with PIR. AI accelerators coming
in to emb linux class projects is a new thing but I'm not sure who is using
that besides the big companies at this point. Also, the growth in C++ is
probably in the new standards, which are not well supported for embedded
compilers (emb linux excluded)
~~~
swiley
IMO it's more the flash than the CPU that puts the lower bound on power
consumption with the smaller MCUs once you start sleeping.
>Also, the growth in C++ is probably in the new standards,
This, especially since growth here means growth in queries.
~~~
datameta
> IMO it's more the flash than the CPU that puts the lower bound on power
> consumption with the smaller MCUs once you start sleeping.
Agreed! There are some novel remarks on that in the link under "[1]" in my
reply to the parent comment.
Or see the following digest if paywalled:
[https://community.arm.com/developer/research/b/articles/post...](https://community.arm.com/developer/research/b/articles/posts/m0n0-an-
arm-research-platform-for-n-zero-sensors)
------
logicchains
It's a testament to the hard work of the language designers and committee
members that they're able to grow the language at such a rapid pace. It's
exciting to think that the C++ I write in 5 years' time will probably be
completely different from how I'm writing it now, due to things like meta
classes, ranges, modules, concepts and reflection. Few other languages are
adapting so quickly.
~~~
dgellow
Meta classes in 5 years? You're optimistic :)
For those who don't know, there is a short video from fluentcpp:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9eJE2m3CYk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9eJE2m3CYk)
(and a transcript if you prefer:
[https://www.fluentcpp.com/2018/03/09/c-metaclasses-
proposal-...](https://www.fluentcpp.com/2018/03/09/c-metaclasses-proposal-
less-5-minutes/)).
And the proposal from Herb Sutter is here: [http://www.open-
std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2018/p070...](http://www.open-
std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2018/p0707r3.pdf)
~~~
pjmlp
They better do it, after all that is the reasoning behind the Microsoft
internal politics to kill C++/CX via C++/WinRT.
That now we have an ISO C++17 compliant framework and are supposed to wait for
ISO C++23 reflection until Visual C++ team bothers to provide the same level
of UWP/XAML tooling that C++/CX enjoys since 2012.
Until then, C++/WinRT provides a revivalist experience for those that missed
the opportunity to deal with bare bones IDL file editing alongside ATL.
------
moomin
So, C++20 got final approval this month. Which in turn means a lot of content
generated off the back of it and lots of people looking at it. Which means
you'd expect a TIOBE spike because they base everything off internet search
engine data. Actual numbers of people using it before and after? Probably
exactly the same.
------
elcritch
Which C++? I know of classic C++ (98), then C++11 which I've used, but now
there's C++14, C++17. C++20(?) which all seem to have very different
features... I'm glad C++ is improving, but eh it's as tricky as HTML5/ES5 to
keep up to date on.
~~~
RcouF1uZ4gsC
This is where C++’s fanatical commitment to backwards compatibility really
helps.
You can bring your C++98 code and compile it with the latest compiler in C++20
mode and it should still work.
This allows you to upgrade (and learn) incrementally. You can slowly
incorporate new features into an old code base.
~~~
leetcrew
it's a double edged sword though. after a while, you end up with some parts of
the code written in c++98 style, some that uses odd c++0x extensions, a bunch
of c++11 style code, and then c++14/c++17 features sprinkled around in the
newest code (or sometimes refactored into older paradigms). to be an effective
developer for an older codebase, you need to understand a lot of history
surrounding the feature sets to understand design decisions from the past.
~~~
bluGill
What is your alternative? Do the great rewrite every few years to the latest
fads? Some have done that successfully, but it is expensive to get right and
many more have failed. In general, if it ain't broke don't break it is a great
use of resources, which keeps your company in business (thus you making steady
paycheck and going home to your family at night). Fix/update the parts that
need updating because they change and let the working stuff keep working.
I will give a nod to the other poster who pointed out automatic tools. They
are often worth running on everything, but they only fix a fraction of the
things that a sane developer with 20/20 hindsight starting over would do
differently.
------
Thaxll
TIOBE is also saying that Perl is increasing in popularity, I can't take that
ranking seriously. When I started 12 years ago Perl was pretty much dying and
replaced by Python, so imagine nowdays...
~~~
josefx
It seems to be a stable language at least. Perl 6 was rebranded for being too
different and Perl 7 will be based on Perl 5 with the explicit goal of staying
backwards compatible. Might as well migrate to Perl instead of Python 3, same
amount of scripts to rewrite and test either way.
------
fortran77
CUDA programming is done mainly in C++. Everyone doing GPGPU programming is
using it. Because of all the interest in the latest NVIDIA 30 series, that
will give C++ a boost.
------
dgellow
tjpalmer, the creator behind the Context Free youtube channel, created a tool
named "Languish" that also gives some perspective on C++ trends, see for
example
[https://tjpalmer.github.io/languish/#y=mean&names=c%2B%2B%2C...](https://tjpalmer.github.io/languish/#y=mean&names=c%2B%2B%2Cc%2Cc%23%2Cjava)
Languish is based on GitHub activity instead of online content and searches
(which is what TIOBE does), I find it neat.
He also has a video from February of this year where he presents it in more
details:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xu0jWgGoDjc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xu0jWgGoDjc).
------
orbifold
I sometimes think that C++ is evaluated unfairly because it has a very
fragmented ecosystem and painful package management. This leads to an enormous
amount of code duplication and stylistic conventions, which further errode how
pleasant it is to reuse code. It also makes it harder for the community to
develop a common “taste”.
~~~
mempko
Depends on the system you are programming for. Most C++ libraries on a debian
system (like ubuntu) are an 'apt install' away from being on your system. And
CMake is now pretty standard for libraries so you can be pretty confident a
library can be just downloaded and installed via cmake.
------
gigatexal
The language is so vast and intractable: how does one start? Should I master C
first (pointers and such?) and then get into C++ with its Turing complete
templating language and such in order to be able to be competent enough to
grok all kinds of code written in C++? Or should I focus on one iteration like
C++11 or 98 or?
~~~
josefx
> Should I master C first (pointers and such?)
That only means that you have to unlearn a lot of bad habits. For example
malloc/free should not be used in c++ code unless you call into a c library
that uses the counterpart. Even the c++ equivalent new/delete pairs should
only be used if it cannot be avoided.
> and then get into C++ with its Turing complete templating language and such
> in order to be able to be competent enough to grok all kinds of code written
> in C++?
I am quite sure I used Java collections before I had a grasp on its generics.
You don't have to be able to implement std::vector<int> to understand that it
is a collection of int. You might have to be told to avoid std::vector<bool>,
but that is more because it is an unholy design failure that should have gone
the way of the trigraph a long time ago .
~~~
gigatexal
Finally some hopeful words. Thanks!
------
The_rationalist
TIOBE is broken, can we stop using it?
------
ksec
May be change the link to [https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-
index/](https://www.tiobe.com/tiobe-index/) instead?
Ruby Dropped out of Top 10 a while ago. But even Perl is now ranking higher?
------
jug
TIOBE often look very sketchy to me. I refuse to believe Visual Basic is still
more common than Javascript. That is, the old non-.NET edition. Or R more
common than freaking SQL - the lingua franca of data.
------
merb
I'm not sure if "fastest growing" is a good metric at all.. I mean if I invent
a new programming language I would be really fast the fastest growing one...
------
SomeoneFromCA
Because Moore's law has long stopped. Esp. for single thread performance. New
laptop processors are comparable in performance to ancient Core 2 E8400.
~~~
throw51319
[https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-
Core2-Duo-E8400-...](https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-
Core2-Duo-E8400-vs-Intel-Core-i5-8250U/2720vsm338266)
Mid-upper laptop, lower watt, from like 2018. Looks like 80% faster per core.
[https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-
Core2-Duo-E8400-...](https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-
Core2-Duo-E8400-vs-AMD-Ryzen-7-4800U/2720vsm1005639)
Latest lower watt Ryzen is like 8x faster in multithreaded apps.
~~~
SomeoneFromCA
I am not arguing that the average laptop processors are faster than e8400,
what I am saying that processors this slow are still produced and widely used.
[https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Celeron+N4000...](https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Celeron+N4000+%40+1.10GHz&id=3239)
~~~
throw51319
6 watt TDP. That's like super low power and super cheap, from 2018.
So 11x less power, much cheaper.
------
peterlk
I can't help but wonder how much of this is coming from Unreal Engine. Epic
has been using its Fortnihe money to buy up markets, and after the
Mandalorian, people are starting to look at UE much more seriously in the
media industry. And with the Twinmotion acquisition, Epic is slowly creeping
its way into architecture as well.
Their marketplace is exploding and, anecdotally, there are lots of new
adopters.
------
cafard
September is not yet 1/3 over.
------
awinter-py
for all the benefits of rust at a language level, the package ecosystem is a
bigger component of its success IMO. 'C++ with enums and a working package
manager' is rust's value prop for some teams.
the borrow checker is cool but not always an easy person to work with
if cpp20 adds a working module system and gets the design right (unlike golang
the first 5 times), half of rust's advantage evaporates
------
fithisux
Yes it took sometime for the other PLs to mature their features to the point
when C++ can start copy / pasting. Good luck finding any C++ compiler that
implements latest fetures.
On the other hand D, Nim and Rust are cutting edge.
~~~
otabdeveloper4
> Good luck finding any C++ compiler that implements latest fetures.
Googling finds me something called 'gcc' and 'clang'. Really weird and
esoteric stuff, I must be a googling wizard.
~~~
fithisux
Forgot to mention "in a corporate environment"
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Lichess rating distributions display peaks at round numbers - throwawaylolx
https://lichess.org/stat/rating/distribution/bullet
======
throwawaylolx
Hypothesised to be interpretable as empirical evidence that some users stop
playing when they reach their target rating to avoid losing points:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/ckm6w2/does_anyone_e...](https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/ckm6w2/does_anyone_else_fear_playing_chess_online/evp4i25/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Jack Dorsey: There's a “middle ground” in encryption - widforss
http://news.sky.com/story/twitter-boss-jack-dorsey-there-is-a-middle-ground-in-encryption-row-10816229
======
Doches
Jack Dorsey, expert mathematician. Because he's done a great job with
Twitter's numbers, clearly.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Reddit Is Down Following Routine Software Upgrade - dpflan
http://www.redditstatus.com/incidents/902y2bfc3bq4
======
_Marak_
Reddit Admin's made this announcement a few weeks back:
> A few days ago, we talked about a few technological and process changes we
> would be working on in order to improve your Reddit experience and ensure
> access to timely information is available.
[https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:0400SE...](https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:0400SEgkXj0J:https://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/4oedco/lets_all_have_a_town_hall_about_rall/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us)
------
dpflan
The tweet:
[https://twitter.com/redditstatus/status/763864243015790592](https://twitter.com/redditstatus/status/763864243015790592)
Main Status Page: [http://www.redditstatus.com/](http://www.redditstatus.com/)
------
dpflan
Looks like it's back!
[https://twitter.com/redditstatus/status/763887002462760960](https://twitter.com/redditstatus/status/763887002462760960)
------
was_boring
Not a great week for the company -- it's the second major outage in as much
time.
------
samfisher83
It said an emergency outage. What went wrong?
------
SixSigma
Got to rejig again to keep down the_donald
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Building a Model for Retirement Savings in Python - koblenski
http://sam-koblenski.blogspot.com/2018/08/building-model-for-retirement-savings.html
======
westurner
re: pulling historical data with pandas-datareader, backtesting, algorithmic
trading:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Python/comments/7zxptg/pulling_stoc...](https://www.reddit.com/r/Python/comments/7zxptg/pulling_stock_market_data_yahoo_and_google_dont/)
re: historical returns
\- [The article uses a constant 7% annual return rate]
\- "The current average annual return from 1923 (the year of the S&P’s
inception) through 2016 is 12.25%."
[https://www.daveramsey.com/blog/the-12-reality](https://www.daveramsey.com/blog/the-12-reality)
(but that doesn't account for inflation)
\-
[https://www.quantopian.com/posts/56b62019a4a36a79da000059](https://www.quantopian.com/posts/56b62019a4a36a79da000059)
(300%+ over n years (from a down market))
Is there a Jupyter notebook with this code (with a requirements.txt for
[https://mybinder.org](https://mybinder.org) (repo2docker))?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Whatever happened to Tineye? - sdragon
http://tineye.com/search
Today, I tried to use the virtually only startup of this season, which I cared about -Tineye. But, alas, instead of the search page, I got a facefull of ads.
Does anyone have any insights what happened to them? Did they let the page expire (highly doubt), gone bankroupt (very highly doubt), run out of founding?
======
pixcavator
<http://blog.ideeinc.com/>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
MemcacheDB, Tokyo Tyrant, Redis performance test - _pius
http://timyang.net/data/mcdb-tt-redis/
======
codahale
These benchmarks don't seem to take HotSpot compilation into account, which
means some of those numbers are for interpreted Java bytecode and some of
those numbers are for native code and you don't know which are which.
The behavior of the DBs as far as resource consumption is interesting, but the
numbers are meaningless.
Further reading:
<http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/java/library/j-jtp12214/>
[http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/java/library/j-jtp02225.ht...](http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/java/library/j-jtp02225.html)
~~~
Periodic
I had a physics professor who used to drill into us during our labs that, "a
number without an error estimate is meaningless." I didn't really get it at
the time, and thought he was just being curmudgeonly.
Now I understand how important it is. What's the error in these tests? The
standard deviation? What was done to limit the error?
It's great to see people putting numbers behind their claims, but let's get
some real science back into computer science and do some serious data
analysis.
------
Maro
You can get 100,000 ops/sec out of BDB even in transactional mode (MemcacheDB
uses BDB), look at the various BDB flags. Also, when storing larger values,
you should increase the BDB pageSize parameter (default: 4096 bytes),
otherwise BDB will allocate external pages (default: if key+value is larger
than 1007 bytes) and you will experience severe performance degradation.
Also, the Keyspace KV store can do ~100,000 ops/sec as described in hour
whitepaper at <http://scalien.com/whitepapers>
~~~
henryl
Perf is only that high for BDB because it is in process. Tokyo tyrant has to
communicate over the network layer.
Also, how often are any of these databases actually _syncing_? For TT, not at
all until you terminate the process or call it manually.
~~~
Maro
The 100,000 number is for a performance benchmark over a LAN with grouped
commits.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Is mobile gaming a threat to the games industry? - SlipperySlope
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/356139/is-mobile-gaming-a-threat-to-the-games-industry/
======
Kelliot
I see mobile gaming as an entirely new field which can be explored. Mobile
devices dont have the specs or controls to be considered true competitors to
PC / console gaming.
While better consoles have killed off vast amounts of PC gaming exclusivity i
don't think mobile devices will impede to much on traditional games.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
This png encrypts to the same image - diafygi
https://i.imgur.com/WRxFKdq.png
======
diafygi
Command: openssl aes-128-cbc -K "55555555555555555555555555555555" -iv
"83deccd3f93b37c70d37297f319cf367" -in WRxFKdq.png -out OMG_SAME_IMAGE.png
Youtube Link: [http://youtu.be/wbHkVZfCNuE](http://youtu.be/wbHkVZfCNuE)
Previous discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7771568](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7771568)
~~~
_nullandnull_
Ange Albertini does some amazing work. If you haven't checked out his corkami
repo I would highly recommend it.
[https://code.google.com/p/corkami/](https://code.google.com/p/corkami/)
~~~
dominicgs
He's very enthusiastic about sharing his tricks too. I spent the day hanging
out with him at Troopers in March and we spent a lot of time discussing the
structure of PDFs.
He's the one behind the file tricks in the journal of POC||GTFO -
[http://www.exploit-db.com/wp-
content/themes/exploit/docs/poc...](http://www.exploit-db.com/wp-
content/themes/exploit/docs/pocorgtfo03.pdf)
In fact, he set a fun challenge - can you produce a PDF file that is different
every time it's opened? e.g. a bingo card generator.
The back of his business cards have cut down introductions versions of his
posters, so everyone takes something away from meeting him. It's fun watching
people decide which one they want.
------
yzzxy
Similar: the creation of an image that is it's own histogram.
[http://www.ironicsans.com/2007/09/idea_the_histogram_as_the_...](http://www.ironicsans.com/2007/09/idea_the_histogram_as_the_imag.html)
~~~
csense
Obligatory xkcd reference: [http://xkcd.com/688/](http://xkcd.com/688/)
~~~
dfc
The word you were looking for is _perfunctory_.
~~~
valleyer
Can you explain? “Obligatory” sounds reasonable here.
~~~
sockgrant
He's didn't mean obligatory was the wrong word. He's saying we could have done
without the xkcd.
~~~
jl6
Possibly derived from the Usenet habit of putting an "Ob" footer reference to
a piece of pop culture, to demonstrate hipness.
------
userbinator
Could this be considered a rather perverse form of a quine?
~~~
recursive
If it was really a quine, the process could be repeated. This one works only
once.
------
theoh
Reminds me of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupper's_self-
referential_formu...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupper's_self-
referential_formula)
------
mey
For others, you may find this
[http://projectnaptha.com/](http://projectnaptha.com/) useful to extract text
from the image inside the browser.
~~~
ultrafez
This image was the first time I've found it handy to have it installed. It's
not as useful in day-to-day browsing as you might think.
~~~
MasterScrat
Indeed, and it takes quite some memory, and it's for me the first extension
ever which actually crashed at some points (I'm using Chrome with a dozen
other extensions installed).
------
AdmiralAsshat
Novelty aside, if you encrypt to the same image, what was the point of
encrypting? Can you hide something in the metadata that wouldn't have been
visible until decryption?
~~~
gfosco
This would be a great form of Steganography. [1] Obviously, not having it
return the same image, but something different. Encrypting a given file into a
valid image file (like a meme.) It would pass by many things without raising
suspicion, and require private knowledge (key, iv) to recover the alternate
payload. It might even be plausibly deniable.
[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steganography](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steganography)
~~~
xentronium
To be honest, rarjpegs (rars attached after jpeg file contents, properly
unarchives by any software) have been used in the imageboards for a long time
and are super-simple to create (cat file.jpg file.rar > file.jpg).
It's actually rather interesting, if someone attaches some illegal content
into rarjpeg, will it automatically make you a criminal after you see it (and
store it onto your hard drive)?
~~~
robobro
Talking about illegal information is an inherently difficult task because
illegal information is, as I see it, an illogical concept. With time, we can
only hope that laws regarding information transmission loosen up.
Familiar with
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_prime](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_prime)
?
~~~
Houshalter
Think of it as the distribution of illegal information that is illegal. And
the idea of a "illegal number" is extremely misleading. Every number can
represent any content under the right encoding. It's also nearly infinitely
unlikely anyone would stumble across the data own their own by chance.
------
Houshalter
How on Earth does this work?
~~~
mkesper
Yesterday's article was more helpful: [https://speakerdeck.com/ange/when-aes-
equals-episode-v](https://speakerdeck.com/ange/when-aes-equals-episode-v)
| {
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Calendario: A jQuery calendar plugin for creating flexible calendars - pbotelho
http://tympanus.net/codrops/2012/11/27/calendario-a-flexible-calendar-plugin/
======
ruckusing
This looks great but how does it compare to FullCalendar? [1]
From what I can see there is zero documentation, an area which FullCalendar
excels at.
It will be hard to use this plugin without any documentation, certainly in the
areas of events, which data sources are supported, etc.
[1]: <http://arshaw.com/fullcalendar/>
| {
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Focus and the Difference Between Losing and Being Beaten - gmays
http://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2014/12/focus-and-the-difference-between-losing-and-being-beaten/
======
hackerjam
off topic: if the hacker news community is NOT familiar with farnam street and
the person who writes the book reviews, shane parrish, you are in for a real
treat. be prepared to linger. it is one of my favorite go-to sites for insight
and inspiration. shane will introduce you to non-mainstream books that are
mind altering.
the other day i noticed that he is accepting donations to buy books for kids
to give out at christmas time. if are looking to give a gift that keeps on
giving, i would suggest checking him out. i think there are some projects
going on here in the usa, btw, if memory servers me correctly, shane is
located in ottawa, ontario canada.
disclaimer: i have no connection to shane or his site. i am just a loyal
lurker who reads and bookmarks his blog postings on a regular basis.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Timeline for Logic, λ-Calculus, and Programming Language Theory (2012) [pdf] - adamnemecek
http://fm.csl.sri.com/SSFT15/Timeline.pages.pdf
======
pron
To those interested in the history of logic and computation, and the
relationship between them (and algebra) -- which, BTW, was not at all
accidental or surprising but completely by design -- I've compiled an
anthology of mostly primary sources starting with Aristotle and going up to
the 1950s: [https://pron.github.io/computation-logic-
algebra](https://pron.github.io/computation-logic-algebra)
~~~
lioeters
Over the course of a few weeks, I've been going through your "History of
Computation, Logic and Algebra". I just wanted to say, brilliant work, thank
you! The way you present the history is really insightful in understanding the
current of philosophy and ideas that led up to our modern conception and use
of computation.
------
linguae
I’ve taken some graduate courses in programming languages where I’ve learned
about the lambda calculus and about type theory, and I really appreciate this
post since this provides a nice timeline of how programming language theory
has evolved. One topic I’m very interested in is how computation can be
expressed in many different ways and the tradeoffs behind various expressions.
I apologize if this is off-topic, but I wonder if there has been work done on
algorithm analysis using the lambda calculus? The texts that I’ve read on
algorithms describe the algorithms using procedural code, and then the
analysis is done on the amount of procedures that get called. However, I would
imagine that the description would be different for non-procedural styles of
programming. I’ve heard of a book called “Functional Data Structures” but I
haven’t read it yet. I’m wondering if there has been work done on algorithm
analysis at the lambda calculus level.
~~~
pwm
(On my phone walking so very quick and dirty post) purely functional DSs in
general will cost you an extra O(log n) cause of their underlying tree
representation for immutability (immutability achieved by copying paths in the
tree to retain old data). Also some DSs are very difficult to express in a
purely functional way.
~~~
adjkant
While true on the first part, these days many cases don't have insane primary
efficiency needs that would be affected by that log(n). As always though, you
choose the tools based on the job at hand, not the tools. In my experience,
functional philosophy often is about the gained mental and consistency
advantages achieved by the features offered.
~~~
pwm
Don’t get me wrong, you are preaching to the choir (I write Haskell at work),
just thought it’s worth mentioning this to the OP. In practice sophisticated
compilers like GHC produce insanely fast binaries and is getting better and
better.
------
platz
Philip Wadler showcases and comments on some of this history in his conference
talk "Propositions as Types"
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOiZatlZtGU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOiZatlZtGU)
~~~
proc0
This is talk is responsible for my outrage whenever people say math is
invented.
------
dvt
Homotopy Type Theory doesn't really contribute much to logic (it's basically
just type theory with a few extra rules) or programming languages (computer-
assisted proofs are easier in HoTT, but that's about it).
HoTT is a foundations of mathematics thing (think ZF/ZFC), so it's a bit weird
to see it on the list. But it's kind of hot right now, so you see it just
about everywhere.
~~~
adamnemecek
It connects logic, topology and type systems. How is this not a big deal? It's
also computation friendly.
~~~
dvt
Logic and type systems have been connected since Frege (he coined "functional"
and "non-functional" types[1]). Computation friendly is interesting, but not
really revolutionary. Topology I'm not an expert in so I can't comment.
[1] On Function and Concept, 1891;
[http://fitelson.org/proseminar/frege_fac.pdf](http://fitelson.org/proseminar/frege_fac.pdf)
------
david_draco
It is missing Plankalkül by Zuse
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plankalk%C3%BCl](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plankalk%C3%BCl)
which heavily influenced ALGOL
------
kjeetgill
This seems like a good a thread as any to ask my perennial question:
Is there some sort of logic or formalism that would let me algebraically
represent a program like bubble sort, and then algebraically simplify it to a
quick sort?
------
User23
Any timeline of logic that fails to include Charles Sanders Peirce[1] is
woefully incomplete. He discovered the existential and universal quantifiers
and did seminal work on the relational calculus, to name just a few items. If
you haven't heard of him I strongly recommend at least reading the article I
linked. He's a great American genius who is virtually forgotten.
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Sanders_Peirce](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Sanders_Peirce)
------
divan
Is there any good book that provides an overview and reasoning behind all
those concepts in this timeline?
~~~
yaseer
Not that I'm aware of.
If you produced a mind-map to show their inter-relatedness, It's quite a dense
network.
A quick sketch of some of the nodes and vertices might start to look like:
Logic <\--> Gödel's theorems
Gödel's theorems <\--> Proof theory
Proof Theory <\--> Linear Logic
Computability <\---> Turing Machines
Computability <\---> Lambda Calculus
Combinatory Logic <\--> Lambda Calculus
Type Theory <\--> Lambda Calculus
Homotopy Type Theory <\--> Type Theory
Pi Calculus <\--> Process Calculi/Distributed Systems
Category Theory <\--> Everything...
And that's far from complete. I imagine synthesising all the concepts into a
single book, with a cohesive narrative would be quite hard, without some
deeper unifying theory, uniting all concepts. (Category theory and HTT may be
the best contenders).
In this case, a Wiki might best capture the semantics of structure. Although
I'd love to be proved wrong and find such a book!
~~~
chewxy
ncatlab.org
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Show HN: Launch your subscription box business in 7 days - jointhebox
https://www.producthunt.com/tech/join-the-box
======
justboxing
Why linking to producthunt? Why not directly link to the website??
[http://jointhebox.com/?ref=HN](http://jointhebox.com/?ref=HN)
~~~
Paulods
Probably because its recently been linked here with the address.
I still don't understand the business though. Why focus on subscription
websites when all you seem to be doing is design and hosting? Does it come
with a subscription e-commerce platform built in?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why it is so much harder to do TDD with iPhone development than with Rails. - thinksocrates
http://joecannatti.com/?p=291
======
stevenwei
I think the biggest reason is that testing client side GUI code is generally
much harder than testing server side web based code.....regardless of what
platform you're working with.
It has less to do specifically with the iPhone vs Rails. I've experienced the
same phenomenon trying to test a Python desktop app vs something like Django.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Carphone Warehouse leaks LG's Google Nexus 4 phone - colinscape
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20081930
======
kitcar
They were leaked more than 2 weeks ago I believe...
[http://www.geek.com/articles/mobile/lg-nexus-4-photos-and-
sp...](http://www.geek.com/articles/mobile/lg-nexus-4-photos-and-specs-
leaked-20121010/)
------
jug6ernaut
I don't know that I would trust this website, maybe its just a small thing but
the image they are using is obviously a fake. The image displayed on the phone
is from a custom rom, specifically AOKP.
~~~
deelowe
Interesting. How can you tell? It looks like a google now notification to me.
~~~
jsnell
The top bar is wrong, the clock isn't centered on existing versions of stock
Android.
~~~
Pwntastic
Yeah that's the same render that's been circulating for a day or two now
------
BrainScraps
It lists a 360-degree camera - huh?
~~~
goatforce5
I guess that means you can pan around and it'll make a long panoramic picture
for you, much like the new feature in iOS 6 (and already found in Android 4.x,
right?).
~~~
mmanfrin
Both Android and iOS make panoramas, yes; but this is listed as a '360
panorama', meaning it would get a full revolution panorama.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Mondragon experiment - kelvin0
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondragon_Corporation
======
kelvin0
The documentary about this extraordinarly successful COOP
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-obHJfTaQvw](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-obHJfTaQvw)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The End of Blu-ray - sky_nox
https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-end-of-blu-ray/
======
beatgammit
My main problem with streaming is limited access to older movies, and many
streaming services are focusing on shows rather than features length films, so
I can't reliably get recent films either with my subscription services. To
watch a film, it's essentially pay-per-view for everything, and there's not
much of a discount for the incomplete collection of older films that these
services have.
I was promised that going digital would mean I have access to everything all
the time, but that just hasn't been the case. I still have a decent bluray
collection, and I sure hope that Samsung leaving doesn't foretell the the of
the format.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
CSS digital clock - uses no images, only CSS borders - bmunro
http://dmitry.baranovskiy.com/post/iphone-clock-web-application
======
raganwald
Taking advantage of the way a browser renders a very thick border is a
tremendous hack, with all of the attendant admiration and alarm the word
implies.
~~~
rimantas
different hack: <http://toki-woki.net/p/scroll-clock/>
------
someone_here
This hack is clever, but an HTML5 canvas would be an easier to implement and
more straightforward solution.
~~~
JakeSc
Indeed, there are other technologies that can build a digital clock more
easily, but I think the point was to further demonstrate the versatility of
CSS. I've personally never before seen CSS do something like this. I also
enjoyed how the author took the time to explain how div borders were used to
create the numbers.
~~~
drfloob
If that was new to you, then this should blow your mind (it certainly did mine
3 or 4 years ago). It uses roughly the same border trick to draw a 3d rotating
polygon.
<http://www.uselesspickles.com/triangles/demo.html>
~~~
JakeSc
That's impressive! I had no idea borders were this versatile.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Hey Look, It's Every Bootstrap Website Ever - tangue
http://adventurega.me/bootstrap/
======
KZeillmann
Maybe it's because I'm not a front-end developer, but I fail to see the issue
here. Besides the weird scrolling.
As a backend dev, I enjoy the ease with which I can set up a Bootstrap site on
my side projects. I'm not good at CSS, so I'll use a Bootstrap theme. It'll
make things look all right, and I can focus on content and making the backend
work. Later I can return to the styling.
I don't think every site needs to be wholly new and incredibly imaginative. In
fact, the uniformity makes it easier for me to process the content.
Bootstrap is great for, well, bootstrapping. Should it be your final CSS when
you've had a lot of time to think about your design? I dunno. But I feel that
the hate is unwarranted.
~~~
kyriakos
Totally agree with you. Not every site needs to be a work of art, First it
needs to be functional and have a good user experience and bootstrap helps a
bit with the latter.
I actually find over-designed sites harder to use.
~~~
sevilo
Agreed, us as programmers often like to consider things good if they're
technically challenging and creative, but we're so blind to worlds outside of
programming that we don't see the real purposes of things like these websites.
Surprisingly some of the highest converting pages have the ugliest designs you
can imagine, just because they're functional and only do what they're meant to
do.
------
jaredklewis
I don't see how the uniformity of sites using bootstrap is such a terrible
thing.
If we were discussing desktop applications, would you want every application
to have it's own set of buttons, dialogs, modals, and UI conventions? All with
different color schemes?
Uniformity comes at the expense of design originality, obviously. But it also
comes with the benefit of familiarity, which makes it easier for all users to
get the information they need or perform the task they came to do, which is
usually more important that originality.
~~~
ommunist
You talking communism and evangelising standardisation in the field of art and
craft. Imagine all books paperback, is that ok?
~~~
misogyny101
Everything can be art, but not everything has to be. I like that every site
looks the same because it is a familiar environment and I can focus on doing
things.
You're overreacting tho. standardization has nothing to do with communism.
~~~
ommunist
As a front end practitioner, I must defend my point. Otherwise there will be
no jobs for me around, everyone will be happy focusing on their tasks. But
what to do. Books once had nice initial letters which were difficult to read,
but looked great and were object of meditation per se. Over the centuries
books became utility, and now you can rarely see even a drop cap, not to say
elaborate title glyph. The same appears in the websites look and feel, with
greater speed. Although you may be right when you apply your point to the web
app, but I completely disagree when we are talking about the visual identity.
Identities should never be bootstrapped. And yes, standardisation was one of
the pillars of the communism. If you look into the history, you shall see who
was the longest seating chairman of the ISO.
~~~
drdeca
Let people act similarly if they want to, and differently if they want to.
What's the problem? It is not as if people are forbidden from putting fancy
graphics at the start of their texts, and, some do? I mean, not as fancy,
sure, but there is nothing stopping someone from making an individual copy of
a book like that, and, if there was cause to, it could be mass produced.
I mean also the printing things are probably not designed to have like, shiny
inks and such, so with mass producing books, its harder to do the unique
printing of the first character, but if /could/ be done. Just, no one wants to
badly enough.
Its the free market.
Personally, I prefer even simpler sites than this one, for the most part.
(Unless the site does something, I'm not sure I think that js is really needed
at all, unless you want an analytics thing.)
That is, unless the other things on the site are the point of the site, in
which case of course more stuff is nice.
I don't think its true that preferring a simpler format for the information is
necessarily a preference for a lack of aesthetics, but rather a different
aesthetic preference.
You know the general way that webpages of students on university websites
often look?
At addresses like cs.schoolwebsite.edu/~JRandom/index.html ?
Usually a blank white background, black text, a bit of formatting, but not
very much, works fine on pretty much any browser you could think of?
I think there is a specific aesthetic to these sorts of pages, and I
personally appreciate that aesthetic.
I don't think that that aesthetic should be considered to be an illegitimate
aesthetic choice.
------
manyxcxi
I love it. If you're offended by this, you take life way too damn seriously.
I use a lot of bootstrap for internal web apps so that I can spend nearly zero
time on thinking about the UI/layout and all my time just gettin the damn tool
built.
If it's public facing I rarely use Bootstrap- but good lord Bootstrap is handy
for getting a UI on something quickly or for prototyping a layout.
~~~
kbenson
That's exactly how I use Bootstrap, and 2.3.2 at that, since it's too much of
a waste of time to upgrade what just works already. I get a not dog-ugly app
with easy directions on how to implement 99% of what I want to accomplish and
I don't have to spend 12 hours twiddling CSS for a design that I think is
barely passable and everyone else thinks looks like crap, which allows me to
focus on features? _Sold_.
~~~
karlshea
Same here. It's really really nice for administrative interfaces: forms,
buttons, table grids, error states, labels, etc.
Everything looks good and the people that actually have to use it don't even
know what "Bootstrap" is, but they aren't looking at the result of a
programmer doing a half-assed job styling something only 10 people will ever
see.
------
arbre
I was wondering what was the template behind all these similar designs. Today
I learned. I really like that template and I love the idea that one can build
a beautiful website with little effort. Why reinventing the wheel?
~~~
Niksko
I agree with you. It's a pretty, modern looking template that suits a variety
of products.
Good design is hard, and good designers are expensive. Wouldn't you rather
have the default design be a good one, instead of paying shitty designers to
make shitty designs and use that as the default look for the web?
~~~
taneq
I'd rather the default design have some actual damn information rather than a
few vague feelgood phrases and some unrelated stock photos. Bonus points if
they don't make me watch a 5 minute video full of exciting music and artsy
slow-mo footage of "cloth sliding off a thing" or "people laughing in a park"
and still give me no idea what their stupid product actually does.
I know this is a gripe about the content rather than the presentation, but
seriously, so many websites based on this kind of template are a total waste
of my time and attention.
------
Uptrenda
Modifying templates is actually surprisingly difficult - not technically
difficult but just because its so hard to make the changes look as good as the
original. Often it seems to me that -only- the original text or images will
work with the template as changing any of the contents throws off the
alignment, color balance, typography, etc for everything else. For example -
the template that the OP is ranting about looks terrible because he used far
too much text in most of the sections. Unfortunately, 99.9% of templates can't
actually be modified by non-designers since there seems to be no combination
of changes that will look good. On that note: the design that OP is using is
actually the only template I've ever gotten to work with my own content (I
stay away from web design for this reason) so maybe the problem is an
abundance of poor designs that are too brittle to modify by non-designers?
------
dan1234
I'd say this less a Bootstrap problem and more of a 'every site based on a
cheap theme' ever.
Sometimes clients are unwilling to pay for real design and see more value in
that $20 theme forest theme, especially with cheap Wordpress sites being
turned around in a day or two.
~~~
enraged_camel
It's not about being unwilling to pay for real design. You have to realize
that most clients who buy these themes are getting a serious upgrade from
their 1990s-era websites with table layouts and basic inline styling. So if a
cheap theme can provide such amazing value, at that point the value a real
designer can provide becomes marginal in comparison.
~~~
manyxcxi
> It's not about being unwilling to pay for real design.
Nailed it. If I've got a client who has only $10K to spend and I know that I
can deliver all of the functionality and a pleasant Bootstrap theme within the
budget, then I'm doing the client a disservice not to make that an option. Not
only that, even if it's not a theme, but just 'raw' Bootstrap, I'm jumping way
ahead and reducing a lot of the browser/window size bugs I'd run into by
starting from scratch with the CSS.
Now- if the client was coming to me and the focus was on the design, then I'd
be ripping them off if I shoveled some rehashed Bootstrap theme over the fence
and called it magic.
I can understand a lot of arguments against it, but I'm still okay with
starting your design with Bootstrap CSS for their grids and such. Granted, you
could get a lot smaller/more performant grid frameworks, but I wouldn't
chastise someone for starting with it.
------
IvyMike
He forgot to break the Back button.
~~~
yelnatz
How come this didn't highjack my scrollbar?
------
mchahn
I did an ugly UI for a mobile app I did for personal home use. My daughter
said "Haven't you heard of Bootstrap?". This is getting insane.
~~~
gotofritz
Listen to the youth. There is wisdom in what she says.
------
carsongross
Do you remember what the Internet looked like before bootstrap?
I do.
I'll take it.
~~~
barbs
I think it looked just fine.
[http://motherfuckingwebsite.com/](http://motherfuckingwebsite.com/)
~~~
mattl
Also
[http://bettermotherfuckingwebsite.com/](http://bettermotherfuckingwebsite.com/)
~~~
vortico
I actually disagree with this "improvement" in all but one of seven of his CSS
declarations. The default font size, the pure black on pure white, line
height, and default margins are all fine in default plain HTML pages. However,
since computer screens have increased in width since the first web pages were
designed, I've added this user style to all pages I visit.
p { max-width: 50em; }
I challenge everyone to go for an entire day with CSS disabled (View -> Page
Style -> No Style on Firefox). It will help your design skills if you are a
designer.
------
pauloday
This is hilarious, everyone who's taking it as a call to stop using this
template is taking it too seriously imo. It seems more like good natured
ribbing - he's right that these Bootstrap sites tend to look very same-y, but
as he says at the bottom "this template does look really nice, though".
There's nothing wrong with using the same template everyone else uses
(everyone probably uses it for a reason, after all), but there's also nothing
wrong with pointing out that all these sites tend to look the same because of
it.
------
allending
Where is the parallax effect?
------
Radim
Looks quite nice, at a glance. What am I missing?
~~~
BinaryIdiot
Seems a vast amount of new, tech websites look identical to this one as it was
a bootstrap template. So it's making fun of those who use the same template,
tweak a few things and boom it's a "super awesome website that we worked hard
on".
Bootstrap has its uses. Being non-creative and using the same template over
and over like everyone else just comes off as unimaginative.
~~~
bottled_poe
> "making fun"
Like this? "Ha ha, you chose the most cost effective web-design option. What a
dummy you are."
~~~
BinaryIdiot
Hey I never said it wasn't cost effective just unimaginative :). Not everyone
has the time nor money to be more imaginative than a default and there is
absolutely nothing wrong with that nor is it even needed all of the time.
------
adamkochanowicz
Thank you for including the picture of the laptop and phone. Why it's
important for people to show pictures of this in their website has always
confused me.
------
uzyn
The problem is not so much Bootstrap, or the template, but the bullcrap that
many of these landing pages loaded with just because the template that the
designer got has all these placeholders they they have got to replace with.
~~~
manyxcxi
Or the dozen or more JS libs and jQuery plugins that are loaded, but never
actually used because they started with a kitchen sink template.
------
andirk
Bootstrap is simply the new look of that old table-based 90's web design (
[http://www.foopee.com/punk/the-list/](http://www.foopee.com/punk/the-list/) ,
[https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/](https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/) ).
Replace drop shadows and glossy buttons with SVG icons, and your Comic Sans
with Helvetica Nueueue. And replace your guestbook with a complete lack of
interaction with your visitors.
~~~
jrapdx3
> Bootstrap is simply the new look of that old table-based 90's web design ...
That's an interesting thought, probably not far from the idea I've had that
the ubiquitous "modern" sites will all look dated in a year or two. Fashion is
so fickle.
But the real issue is how information sparse and resource intensive these
template-driven sites are. The spare craigslist site is arguably quite suited
to its purpose, and compact enough that visitors aren't required to navigate
far and wide to find what they're looking for.
Can't disagree with the many comments here that designing an attractive and
functional website is very hard, but personally I'd rather see a "plain" but
useful site vs. a pointlessly overdecorated "landing page" that tells little
about the product or service I went to the site to find.
Like any other task or project, quality and effectiveness of the website
results reflect the thought and effort put in to it. Kind of weird quoting
Spinoza in this context, but this thought of his seems to fit: "All things
excellent are as difficult as they are rare."
------
nsxwolf
These days if you spend 5 figures on a custom web design it's probably going
to be perceived as amateurish by all the users conditioned on standard looking
Bootstrap templates.
------
cperciva
People laugh at the Tarsnap website, but when I see sites like this I'm glad I
didn't succumb to the pressure to adopt a "modern" design.
~~~
aparadja
Just as an anecdote: I certainly don't _laugh_ at the Tarsnap website, but it
immediately turns me away as a potential customer. The instant gut feeling is
"OK, this is a product made by someone who laughs at UI design. They didn't
even _try_. The product will probably be a pain to learn."
It's most likely not an _accurate_ description of Tarsnap, but its's a strong
enough first impression that I'll immediately close the tab.
And that's a shame, a mutual loss for Tarsnap and any potential customers.
Tarsnap pops up on Hacker News quite a bit, so it probably is much better than
the impression it gives.
Design certainly isn't a binary choice between adopting fads and abandoning
aesthetics completely. The overused styles are overused because they are
viable first steps towards a _decent_ design. The cop-out alternative--taking
no step at all--isn't better.
------
enraged_camel
The problem as I see it is not that templates like these are all over the web
now and therefore look generic, but rather their designs tend to encourage
very shallow messaging on the website. Take the four icons displayed in the
middle for example. Most websites have them, and almost none of them say
anything of meaning or value. It's just marketing slogans and sound-bytes.
------
CM30
Reminds me of the picture in this article:
[http://www.novolume.co.uk/blog/all-websites-look-the-
same/](http://www.novolume.co.uk/blog/all-websites-look-the-same/)
Except you know, this one has four columns rather than three.
Really though, I think people are being a bit unfair on Bootstrap with these
criticisms. I mean sure, it makes it easy to make yet another cookie cutter
website with the same layout (as a lot of startups have found out), but you
can also do some really impressive stuff with the framework if you think
outside the box for half a second.
And hey, this template does work for a fair few startups and 'service'
companies. Not all of them, but a decent amount of the Silicon Valley type
anyway. Why reinvent the wheel for yet another generic company that's probably
not going to last six months?
------
vvpan
The biggest problem with those websites is not that they look the same, but
they are all equally bad. 95% of the time they barely contain any useful
information and are just 4-5 pages of images icons and vague text, it's
useless fluff that makes me click around and scroll a lot.
~~~
hamburglar
And in a couple years they're all going to look about as cool as the three
FrontPage themes that dominated every generic template website in the late
90's.
------
gotofritz
I saw this and really wanted to punch whoever put it together. What a tosser.
Thanks to bootstrap people with no skills are able to publish their content or
put their business on the web at low cost - HOW DARE THEY!! Instead they MUST
hire a hipster full stack designer / developer who will build them something
using the latest shiny tools and trends, and will then be totally
unmaintainable when said tools or trends fall out of fashion and they get
bored of it.
If all sites look the same good, it means there is going to be a market for
designers to make sites stand out. And if people stick to the templates good
too, at least these days they look slick and professional enough - do you
remember the web 10 years ago or earlier?
------
lucb1e
Yup, lots of sites. I don't really care, though, if every website looks just
fine, only alike. What about Blogger blogs? Or Facebook pages? They look even
more alike and people use them as free websites (instead of having an
expensive website, just create a Facebook page!).
The only thing that is getting old on those bootstrap sites is the appearing
icons as you scroll them into view and scrolling instead of having multiple
pages. Those fancy patterns will disappear soon enough I expect, perhaps with
the next bootstrap version. Then all sites will look alike again, just a bit
better.
------
rlv-dan
While I agree that's it's been over used, I have to wonder if it's better to
put your limited time on making a unique website rather than putting this time
into making a better product?.
------
amai
This is still my favorite bootstrap webpage generator:
[http://tiffzhang.com/startup/](http://tiffzhang.com/startup/)
------
k__
I can understand that opinion.
A designer sees this and thinks "How unoriginal, I could do this much better!"
But that is as if a front-end dev would see a WordPress page and say, that
they could do it better.
They probably could in many cases, but do you want to?
Do you want to design 50 landing pages per year?
I don't want to implement the basic functionality of WordPress again and
again, even IF I could do it better, because it's a solved problem and it's
solved "good enough" for me...
Go, design something new and great.
------
tn13
There is noting lazy or bad about using bootstrap. In fact it has made HTML
far more readable and maintainable. It has also made web in general more
beautiful than it use to be.
~~~
tangue
I can understand the part on the "more beautiful" but I for the html part I
suppose you don't have to deal everyday with things like :
<div class="row">
<div class="col-lg-3">
<ul class="list-group">
~~~
foota
I fail to see the issue here?
~~~
tn13
Exactly! Those three lines of Bootstrap HTML tells me lot more than any other
three lines of a non bootstrap site.
------
cstrahan
What are some examples of sites that use this template? This is the first time
I've ever seen it.
Granted, I don't browse the web (just use email, GitHub, Hacker News and
Haskell subreddit and the random stuff those link to... and that's about
it)...
... but I'm really curious how one stumbles across this theme. What are people
looking for on the web? Am I missing out?
------
hexo
Looks like nowadays web hell. Its especially bad on phone - where I CANT ZOOM
OUT, just in (stop this nonsense!). Then there are animations into my face
everywhere (how do I turn this off?). And the button that scrolls... This is
not even funny anymore. Please make sites (more) accessible. This case is very
far from that.
------
upstandingdude
Welp, thats the point of bootstrap. To provide a nice default layout so you
can quickly slap together a page that is beautiful and works so you can focus
on other things.
------
tlrobinson
I'll take a boring old Bootstrap website any day over the ridiculous scroll-
hijacking parallax monstrosities that seem to be in vogue these days.
------
manu29d
Comedy is the best way to make a point.
Anyone else noticed he forgot to include the Google Analytics code from the
template? :D
------
fulldecent
If you can't design a website that looks better than bootstrap... Then use
bootstrap!
------
jameswatling
Is this template available for sale? I would like to purchase it!
------
oliwarner
Way to make me feel bad about using _this_ template :(
------
mrzool
Nice! Is this available as template?
------
partycoder
I think it looks fine.
------
automathematics
So glad I'm not the only one who hates this.
------
collegeman
Why be a jerk about anything? Life is too short.
------
mistertrotsky
I laughed.
------
gordian
Hmm, I guess trollstrap.com was taken?
------
guptagirishk
I can relate :)
------
plugnburn
ROFL but true.
Bootstrap has become a sign of a lazy developer.
~~~
manyxcxi
A great developer is an efficient developer. An efficient developer is lazy by
habit. It's a sign of a developer focusing on the core of their problem.
~~~
plugnburn
Ok, bootstrap (as well as jquery) has become a sign of lazy AND inefficient
developer.
~~~
cwilkes
Inefficient according to whom? Money or CPU cycles or being able to get
someone to enhance it later on?
~~~
plugnburn
You cannot enhance Bootstrap itself easily. Moreover, you cannot rewrite any
core functionality clearly done wrong. I don't need a widespread virus called
jQuery, I want to write pure JS, and I definitely have no need in that virus
to make my website truly responsive. Why use a plugin to make a hamburger menu
when you can do it using pure CSS3 and a hidden checkbox? Why all that
overhead?
[http://codeofrob.com/entries/you-have-ruined-
javascript.html](http://codeofrob.com/entries/you-have-ruined-javascript.html)
~~~
manyxcxi
If all you needed was a hamburger and a hidden checkbox, it would be a waste
to pull in jQuery. But even still, if you were familiar with the plugin and it
would take you 5 minutes to do it that way, why not? If page size or load
times are excessive at some point, trim the fat then. So many things already
require jQuery it's likely that the project a developer will be on already has
the framework, so they may not be impacting the page size at all.
But what if you want to use a form wizard plugin, validation, a calendar
picker, AJAX form posting with backward compatibility and can't use FormData
because you have to support those older browsers? Well, all of those cases are
covered and VERY well documented for jQuery and the different plugins you'd
need. So now you're being very efficient with your time and you're making the
smarter choice of giving yourself more time to focus on the problem you're
trying to solve, because I doubt rolling your own calendar picker is the goal
of the project.
Again, why would you build your own grid and responsive layout/break points
when you can just pull in Bootstrap? If the goal of your project is to build a
responsive grid, then obviously, go build it. But if your goal is to deliver a
web application for desktop and mobile that may already be facing some budget
or time constraints, the you're wasting your client's time and your employer's
money.
If you're picking Bootstrap or jQuery you're not trying to enhance them. Your
using them to jumpstart your project to build the parts that you need to
build.
jQuery is bloated and big, but it (and prototype/mootools/etc) lead the way
for cross browser compatibility from the time that making an AJAX request
required 20 lines of code and a bunch of cascading if/else blocks to make sure
which request object you were going to get. It's been around and grown to the
size and usage it has exactly because it was/is useful and brought some level
of efficiency.
I'm playing a bit of a devil's advocate here because I don't use jQuery for
much of anything these days. I'll use it if it's already in a project I've got
to touch. But I won't bring it in to a project I start unless there's a real
compelling reason.
I absolutely love someone who is interested in making better, specific
solutions for things, that is able to really understand the problems that come
with building a grid, or a calendar picker, etc.
Once that person has built up their own library of those things, then
absolutely they should use them over the jQuery and Bootstrap where it makes
sense. But that is also assuming that the developer actually did a better job
with what they built than what is offered in Bootstrap or jQuery. It's a bit
narcissistic to think you will always be better than what a team of people has
been working on for years, but it doesn't mean you're not wrong either.
Often though we are mid project when we realize we need a calendar picker or
some other widget for some three forms. I would have a very serious problem
with one of my developers careening off course and holding the project up for
6 days so they could build the widget from scratch when they could've gotten
one of many jQuery plugins and had all three forms done in two days.
At the end, you bring in the overhead of code maintained by somebody else
because you think it will let you finish faster, higher quality, or with
features you otherwise wouldn't be able to build.
~~~
plugnburn
> But even still, if you were familiar with the plugin and it would take you 5
> minutes to do it that way, why not?
Because I believe these kind of things must be solved with no JS at all, let
alone a bloatware lib.
> If page size or load times are excessive at some point, trim the fat then.
jQuery is THE fat.
> So many things already require jQuery
... that I try to avoid them as virus spreaders.
> a form wizard plugin
Wut?
> a calendar picker
<input type=date>
> AJAX form posting with backward compatibility
XMLHttpRequest (probably with some wrapper functions).
> and can't use FormData because you have to support those older browsers
If a thing happens we must enable front-side file uploads for unterbrowsers
without FormData, then we use our custom iframe-based solution and charge the
customer additionally. Unterbrowser users must suffer, as well as those who
want to support them.
> because I doubt rolling your own calendar picker is the goal of the project.
All the things we need were already rolled long before the project start.
> Again, why would you build your own grid and responsive layout/break points
> when you can just pull in Bootstrap?
Because my grid weighs 999 bytes. How many kilos does Bootstrap weigh?
> the you're wasting your client's time and your employer's money.
Nope, because the grid is already built.
> If you're picking Bootstrap or jQuery you're not trying to enhance them.
> Your using them to jumpstart your project to build the parts that you need
> to build.
Since they don't meet my needs 100% of the time, I would end up with some
modules that do the same as the ones written from scratch, but slower and with
buggy underlying code. Why would anyone prefer that?
> making an AJAX request required 20 lines of code and a bunch of cascading
> if/else blocks to make sure which request object you were going to get
How hard is it write it once, the way YOU see fit, and then use it all your
projects? Or you believe only jQuery authors are allowed to do that?
> It's a bit narcissistic to think you will always be better than what a team
> of people has been working on for years, but it doesn't mean you're not
> wrong either.
I'm not trying to be better than them. But yes, I'm trying to do _things I
need_ better than they can offer.
> At the end, you bring in the overhead of code maintained by somebody else
> because you think it will let you finish faster, higher quality, or with
> features you otherwise wouldn't be able to build.
In the real world though, "finish faster" and "higher quality" are almost
always mutually exclusive.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Map of America's Mass Shootings - jordanstaniscia
http://jordanstaniscia.com/2012/07/americas-mass-shootings/
======
csours
Seattle has some very accurate mass murderers.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Three things you need if you want more customers - zen53
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/02/three-things-you-need-if-you-want-more-customers.html
======
imgabe
It's weird how Seth Godin usually has a good general point, and then manages
to pick the worst possible examples to illustrate it.
_A service aimed at creating videos for bestselling authors_
[http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9448156...](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94481566)
_And a counseling service helping people cut back on Big Mac consumption_
Um..Weight Watchers? Jenny Craig?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Artificial intelligence, and the rise of the bot enabled agent - Peter424
http://www.geniianalytics.com/2016/11/08/artificial-intelligence-rise-bot-enabled-agent/
======
grzm
Actual title: "Artificial intelligence, and the rise of the bot enabled
agent."
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why I hate programming competitions - gnosis
http://web.archive.org/web/20071121053436/http://www.cs.caltech.edu/~mvanier/hacking/rants/programming_competitions.html
======
mquander
Consider this -- if the author wrote a litany of reasons why he thought that
chess was a poor way to measure one's skill at board games, and why chess
doesn't train you to think creatively as well as writing novels does, and why
your chess rating isn't a good metric for predicting how good you are at
checkers, how would that differ from the article he's got?
I don't think that programming competitions are supposed to be "worthwhile,"
nor that they are intended to measure how well you can go on and make big
systems in code. They exist because it's a lot of fun to compete in them, if
you're of a certain inclination. Isn't that good enough?
The author states without elaboration that _"Programming is not a sport like
tennis or basketball, where one player/team "wins" and another player/team
"loses."_ Well, why not? It can be if you want it to.
~~~
nopassrecover
But I guess some people use programming contests as a measure of your
programming skill. The implication I got was that success in programming
contests doesn't necessarily correlate with development aptitude.
------
icefox
How about a competition where:
Round 1) You write some core algorithm
Round 2) You write a library that uses algorithm
Round 3) You write a tool that uses the library
Round 4) You write a different tool that uses the library, but have 1/2 the time
The end tools would be tested with a million edge cases.
Round 5) Someone else on your team that has not seen the code yet gets 2 hours to fix as many edge cases as they can.
Testing design and maintainability
~~~
icefox
The more I ponder it the more I am curious just how this would turn out. Would
it be like usability tests were in round 5 the team is screaming at the team
member behind the sound proof glass while he fumbles around? Would each group
end up with their own version of "The Little Manual of API Design" tweaked for
their language/tools? Would writing tool #2 actually be harder than #1?
~~~
nopassrecover
Heh I thought this was sarcasm/satire (especially given the million edge
cases) but it's not a terrible idea as you say.
------
akamaka
I love programming competitions, and they have provided me with some of the
most valuable experience I've ever had.
I spent a couple of years working on programming problems with my university's
ACM contest team, and I've never had a chance to work with a keener group of
hackers. We spent hours and hours a week in the computer lab practicing,
figuring out difficult bugs, improving each other's code, and just working on
random side projects.
It's a bit intimidating to work alongside world-finalist programmers, who
sometimes seem to be able to pull solutions out of thin air, but after a
while, you start to pick up on how everyone on the team has a unique and
valuable way to approach problems.
And that's the most valuable thing. Since I've left school, I've learned great
stuff about business, design, people, and usability. But I'll never again have
such a pure immersion into the art of coding.
------
bravura
[disclaimer: I was on the USACO team and my collegiate term got 8th in the
world in the ACM competition]
One of the most valuable things I learned from team programming competitions
was programming discipline, by writing code on paper. Yes, I literally wrote
code on paper. In the ACM competition, there is one computer and three team
members. So you divide up the problems and write code on paper while someone
else is in front of the computer.
Writing code on paper leads you to great discipline. You write everything, so
you are biased against long ugly solutions that seem simpler in your head. It
turns out that these solutions are usually harder to debug. By intentionally
limiting your coding speed, you end up flexing your design muscle and learning
to get things right the first time. This allows you to hold more abstractions
in your head, which is an important programming skill.
Naturally, there are many bad habits you could form from programming
competitions. But this is one particular good habit that I am grateful for, to
this day.
~~~
plinkplonk
"One of the most valuable things I learned from team programming competitions
was programming discipline, by writing code on paper. Yes, I literally wrote
code on paper."
" By intentionally limiting your coding speed, you end up flexing your design
muscle and learning to get things right the first time. "
Interesting how this matches Dijkstra's method of writing programs. I believe
he additionally proves correctness before typing it in.
------
scott_s
I think it's valid to complain that programming competitions stress the less-
important aspects of programming, and that through stressing this, perhaps
perpetuate focusing on the less-important parts.
But the other side of that is I assume the people who compete in them think
they're fun. And if people think it's fun, hey, why not?
~~~
fallintothis
As a competitor (albeit one who's none too serious or good), it's remarkable
how precisely you've reflected my attitude about programming contests.
Here's a written sample of my numerous (or just repetitive) rants from an old
reddit discussion (<http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/6xrpc>):
I participate in the ICPC, my school's local programming contests, and, in a
minimal way, this year's ICFP (I had midterms to study for and was fed up with
their buggy sample server). They're very fun, and that's pretty much all you
should expect. The contests are a lot more social than people give them credit
for. Hanging out in the computer lab, kicking over chairs as you miss the
deadline for a problem, getting friends to participate for the first time, the
exhaustion of failure, the thrill of finally getting that message about
passing all the tests, post-game pizza party, high-fiving each other for
solving 0 problems each, going over solutions, reading each others'
hilariously frustrated code ("Fine! Let's brute-force this fucker!"),
exchanging tales of respective challenges on each puzzle, stories about
cranking out solutions to a problem while sitting with your laptop in class,
intermittent bantering about using conversation as a desperate distraction
mechanism, breaking out the Binky
([http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3796146278554348828&...](http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3796146278554348828&hl=en))
for help with pointers, offering Emergency High Fives (tm) to the crowd of
fellow ICPC competitors as they shuffle out of the building, golfing down the
solutions for days after the end of the contest, last-minute submission races,
weighing whether to use the scant prize money to get a Scrolling LED Belt
Buckle (<http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/7c60/>) set to display a
well-intentioned insult to the person who normally wins the contest, ... the
list goes on.
The rankings are incidental, though most people don't seem to think so. At
times it felt like our group was the only one at the ICPC that wasn't taking
the contest so fucking seriously. Certainly good programmers can win contests,
but winning contests doesn't make one a good programmer. The problems are
short, artificial, and moreover a lot of fun! I don't quite understand the
hyper-competitive students who make it their life to win the contest, as
little as it counts for anything. I'm just happy to kill an afternoon messing
around with puzzles and a group of friends; plus, free pizza.
------
martincmartin
One problem I've seen with people who do really really well in programming
competitions is that they can ace the coding part of an interview, even if
they're not very good. I've worked with two different people who did really
well at programming competitions. One was a good hire, the other wrote lots
and lots of code that only kinda worked.
~~~
gms
Do you have any proposals for how to fix this from the interview's point of
view?
~~~
jacquesm
Interviews don't work to ascertain how well someone will work as a programmer
other than the most trivial reject / accept scenarios. Everything else plays
out in the first two weeks to a month after hiring.
Interviews select for people that are good at doing interviews, they present
themselves well and may be able to subconsciously flatter the person
interviewing them.
Because of that, if the number of applicants for a given job is high the
interviewer has an easier job of it, he/she can simply raise the bar during
the interviews, eventually someone will pass the bar and that person will get
hired.
The reverse, in a market where talent is scarce the bar will be lowered until
someone gets hired.
But all that says is that during the interviewing phase the person performed
'as expected'.
How well they work in a team, what their work attitude in general is and so on
is still largely unknown. The same goes for the quality of their production.
Interviewing is a 'rough' selection process, you try to do a sort of 'triage'
here.
The groups are hire, wait-and-see, and no way.
The 'wait-and-see' might not get the nod this round but in a next round when
quality is scarcer they might come up for a second round. There are probably
plenty of people in this second group that would outperform people in the
first group. They're just not that good at 'selling' themselves.
------
lacker
Programming competitions aren't a great reflection of either real-world
programming or real-world CS research, that's true. But that doesn't mean
they're a bad thing.
Here's some pro-competition points.
1\. Any way of making programming more fun will get more people into
programming.
2\. Competitions encourage you to learn the mathematical, algorithmic side of
programming, which is another useful angle to attack problems from.
3\. Competitions help people learn teamwork under pressure.
4\. Competitions provide an incentive for people who are already acing their
classes to learn more and improve themselves.
5\. Practicing for competitions forces you to become broadly acquainted with
standard algorithms.
~~~
dkersten
I took part in several competitions and while I didn't do as well as I would
have liked, I did think they were useful in that they were definitely fun, I
got to meet some interesting and likeminded people, some of whom I'm still in
contact with, many years later, it was challenging and provided motivation to
learn more programming techniques, improve my skills and it helped me learn
new ways of solving problems. Sure, the problems weren't something you'd often
encounter in the real world, but the experience and education was worth it.
------
CrLf
I participated in some ACM programming contests when I was a student. My
university had about half a dozen teams, and we had local contests and
participated in national and european level competitions.
I can see where the author is coming from, but I can't agree with him fully.
Programming contests really are no measure of how good a programmer is. At
most they are a measure of how good a programmer is at memorizing solutions to
"standard" classes of problems and then quickly adjusting them to specific
instances of them at the competitions. But I don't think that's why
competitions exist at all.
I admit, I was never a good programming "athlete". I like solving those kinds
of problems, and I like to solve them as quickly as I can, but I also like to
immediately go back to them once solved, to "clean up" the code and make sure
I can understand my solution when I read it again a few years in the future
(which will probably never happen, but nevertheless). The problem is the "as
quickly as I can" never was "9 problems in 5 hours", not even 5 problems in 5
hours. And the same applies to my fellow teammates, which I don't see as bad
programmers at all.
In fact, looking back, it is funny how I seemed to like to pick apart other
people's solutions when they happened to solve the problem as far as the
automatic judge goes, but then seemed to have some corner case problem where
it would probably fail (incomplete solutions). This happened from time to
time, and it could also be attributed to me failing to solve the same problem,
but incomplete solutions really irked me. :)
But the social aspect of the thing was important, probably more important than
the actual programming, not only because of the visits to other academic
institutions, but also between the teams of the same university.
------
_pi
I've been to several highschool/college level competitions they generally fall
into two types, writing scenario code the fastest with no concern for real-
world problems, or a test in reading obfuscated code (GE/Fairfield University
you're seriously incompetent in your inability to provide actual computers.).
In my experience the later is worse, much worse, more-so because its
frustrating as hell.
~~~
loup-vaillant
I did these, too. The goal wasn't the podium, though. It was _graduation_.
------
philh
There is another model of programming competition, which I'm a fan of: "Write
a program [in domain X]. You have until T. Begin."
The time limit doesn't encourage good code, but without it there would
probably be no code at all. ("I don't have time to take up another project"
vs. "I can spare a weekend to work on this".) And it's not entirely negative:
premature optimisation is discouraged. The open-endedness emphasises high-
level design over algorithmic details.
The national novel writing month (not a competition, but the same format) guys
have a follow-up, national novel editing month. I want to try something
similar for programming competitions. You write something quickly, and it gets
judged as an alpha. Then you get more time to clean up, add polish, maybe some
new features, and it gets judged as a v1.0 final. Maybe this will encourage
the right mix of getting things done and doing them well.
------
dlevine
Programming competitions are essentially a means for nerds to measure their
dicks. Nothing wrong with that. Many competitions deal with idealized,
stylized problems that aren't an accurate representation of reality.
That's ok. I don't think that it harms the rest of us, and if it makes some of
the participants feel good about themselves, a contest has accomplished its
goals.
------
electronslave
So, basically: the sort of person who loves to fling all their mental
resources at a problem is, at the end of the day, a person without mental
resources. And while competition is a great way to feel like you're showing up
everyone else, you're still a sweaty nerd arguing with other sweaty nerds
about whose hash uses less cycles.
I see. Man, I'm glad I left academic computing.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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GoogleChrome/puppeteer: Headless Chrome Node API - mxfh
https://github.com/GoogleChrome/puppeteer#readme
======
nthcolumn
Duplicated here
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15028329](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15028329)
| {
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Buffett: Wealth, Estate Taxes, and the Ovarian Lottery - wheels
http://www.mymoneyblog.com/archives/2009/06/buffett-wealth-estate-taxes-and-the-ovarian-lottery.html
======
Dove
Sure, a large inheritance is undeserved. But when you get right down to it,
everything you have and everything you are is undeserved. You can't choose
your parents, you can't choose your DNA. You can't choose the country you're
born in, the ideology you're raised with, the opportunities you'll have, the
events in your life that shape your psyche, the friends and enemies that
taught you who to be.
Even when you make decisions, take action, seize opportunities, the grit and
courage and insight and endurance that enables you to do so originally came
from somewhere else. Someone taught you that. Something made you that way.
I am the sum of the curses and blessings and happenstances of history. You
cannot factor them out of my identity. There would be nothing left. Asking who
I would be had I been born in Bangledesh is like asking what a square would be
if it had been a circle. The question is wrong-headed. I would be someone
else.
And asking whether the son of Sam Walton deserves wealth is like asking
whether Audrey Hepburn deserves to be beautiful. It's the wrong question.
Gifts--from parents or forefathers or strangers or the universe--are never a
matter of deserving. They are not to be worked for or worked off. They are to
be embraced with gratitude, and cherished with an earnest effort to make the
most of them.
The idea that gifts should be received with guilt, that jealousy on the part
of those who don't receive them justfies taxing or destroying them to make
things a little more fair, is the attitude I find repugnant.
Perhaps Albert Einstein does not deserve to be so intellectually creative, but
that does not mean half of his intellectual energies belong to the state.
Perhaps you or I do not think the son of Sam Walton deserves wealth. It is
irrelevant; it only matters that Sam thinks he does. What he does with the
wealth is his responsibility, as what you do with your gifts is yours. The
fact that these things are _gifts_ does not in any way change the fact that
they are _ours_.
~~~
wheels
Everything you say is correct, but I believe it misses the point. This isn't
about what's deserved, it's proactive: it's about things that Buffet thinks
are good actions to take for a better running society. It's split into two
parts: build up some barriers to the establishment of an entrenched American
aristocracy and try to increase the opportunities for those who weren't graced
by as fortunate of a birth.
~~~
auston
dude I just upvoted you& it's not counting it!
------
chasingsparks
I don't have kids, but I am reasonably sure that when I do, I might choose to
work harder than otherwise in hopes of providing a better life for them. That
includes leaving them money after I die. I might be gone, but the money is a
product of my labors. It was still mine to spend.
Furthermore, I have never found Buffet's malinvestment in lucky scions
argument convincing. Yes, they were born lucky, but you shouldn't handicap
them for that reason. Morover, clearly some very wealthy people do chose to
give most of their money away as opposed to giving it all to their heirs.
Buffet and Gates have both pledged to do so with most of their money.
Merging the two ideas: if the government is collecting assets to prevent
malinvestment in unworthy heirs after the proven patriarch dies, why shouldn't
the government chose to confiscate the wealth of those who they deem to be
making bad investments while they are alive?
~~~
v3rt
The purpose of the estate tax is not so much to ensure that the capital being
taxed is put to better use (which I'm not sure would be the case on average;
the government would surely be a better entity to entrust with the money than
a profligate son, but those are not the norm from what I can tell, and wiser
offspring could be better investors than Uncle Sam), as to ensure the
continuation of the meritocracy in our society. By their inherited wealth,
scions of prominent families can exercise significant power over the rest of
the nation, and this power will tend to be exercised to the detriment of
meritocracy, since a system that rewards talent and energy runs exactly
contrary to the interests of the inherited-wealth class. (Humans care about
_relative_ wealth and power socially, even though absolute wealth production
is not a zero-sum game)
However, it is true that being able to pass on wealth to one's children can be
an incentive to produce more, so _that_ on the other hand points to the
benefit of a lower estate tax.
So, I think the best compromise is somewhere between the pro-meritocracy 100%
tax and the pro-short-term-productivity 0% tax; that way there is still a
significant incentive to earn for one's offspring, but if 1/x of the money is
taxed away in each generation (and the important thing is not where it goes,
but that it is taken out of the hands of the rich family), there is an
exponential-decay curve for the wealth and power of the family. However, it's
important that the tax is high enough to counteract the interest gains that
even uninspired investing can bring. I won't venture to propose a sweet spot,
but I think that approach should provide the most balance and social benefit
overall.
~~~
chasingsparks
I think wealth decays naturally anyway; especially if the descendent are not
fit. Inflation and the exponential growth of offspring are already pretty good
tools of attenuating growth. Moreover, it is easier to lose a fortune than to
make one.
However, I do agree with you that it might be a robust guard against the
inherited wealth class gaming the system. I would prefer to intervene when
such injustice is committed, but admit that that is not always easy to do. The
argument you use for curtailing that risk is similar to the argument I would
make in favor of term-limits.
~~~
fnid
You would be surprised how hard it would be to lose billions of dollars. That
kind of wealth is usually locked up pretty tight such that access is only
available to some trickle of dollars coming out of the interest, trust funds,
etc...
If a trustee loses everything then the next year, they have access to another
annuity distribution.
~~~
chasingsparks
Which is to say, they are well diversified. With increasing diversity and
massive assets it becomes more and more difficult it to earn exceptional
rewards. Does most paths of asset returns exceed inflation and familial
growth?
This is actually an interesting experiment. I'll run a crude test this weekend
bootstrapping against the S&P500 to see how likely it is for wealth to
propagate X generations into the future and report on Monday.
~~~
fnid
That is interesting. Warren has a bet out against someone that a portfolio of
hedge funds will not outperform the total market returns after accounting for
taxes, management fees, etc.
as diversity approaches 100%, performance approaches market returns.
The question is, how long can extreme wealth remain extreme wealth?
Considering the wealth gap is increasing, I would suggest forever unless there
is a "market correction" like socialism or something.
~~~
chasingsparks
If that was the case, you would expect there to be a few hundred-billionaires
out there.
~~~
Retric
There are a few hundred billionaires out there. 5 billion barely get's you
into the top 100.
~~~
chasingsparks
Hundred-billionaire as in an individual with greater than 100 billion; not a
few hundred people with greater than 1 billion.
------
apsec112
How in Cthulhu's name does this not mention that Warren Buffett's father was a
Congressman, Howard Buffett of Nebraska
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Buffett>)? Probably, I think, because it
would sound bad. It sounds modest to say "I didn't get here entirely by my own
efforts; I was lucky to have been born in the US, instead of Bangladesh." It
doesn't sound modest to say "I didn't get here entirely by my own efforts; my
father was a Congressman who had a strong personal friendship with Murray
Rothbard, one of the most famous economists in history."
~~~
byrneseyeview
Buffett didn't get any benefit from knowing Rothbard. But yes, his family's
influence probably helped him out, as he has repeatedly acknowledged.
~~~
apsec112
He didn't? I'm highly skeptical of that. Buffett's business strategy and
general beliefs are largely based on Austrian economics.
~~~
byrneseyeview
He owns lots of maturity-mismatched assets. He hasn't done much with gold.
He's bought into lots of highly regulated companies. And he advocates
punitively high income taxes on some activities, and high income taxes on most
other activities.
So no, I don't think Buffett is a Rothbardian. He's similar only in the sense
that he understands economics very well.
------
rgrieselhuber
One of the commenters on this post made the salient point that the existence
of the estate tax is probably one of the biggest drivers for the life
insurance industry.
~~~
mattmaroon
Every tragedy benefits someone. Right now the makers of Purell and other
instant hand sanitizers are having banner years due to swine flu. That isn't
an argument in favor of epidemics. Oil companies made a fortune due to
increased demand when people started flying less after 9/11. That isn't an
argument in favor of terrorism.
~~~
netcan
I think the point is more then this. It brings up a question: can you really
stop people from leaving wealth to their children in some way? How many loose
ends will you need to chase down. Inheritance is intertwined with property &
ownership.
Life insurance is one way around estate taxes. I'm sure there are others.
------
lionhearted
> The odds were fifty-to-one against me born in the United States in 1930. I
> won the lottery the day I emerged from the womb by being in the United
> States instead of in some other country where my chances would have been way
> different.
This isn't true - the odds of Warren Buffet being born in America, given that
his parents were American and had him, were 100%. There's no random chance
associated with where you're born - it was the result of what your parents and
their parents did. They worked hard to get over to the States, or wherever
else, and to make a good life for their kids.
Actually, that whole viewpoint that's come into fashion these days worries me
a little. Before, one of the biggest ethics to live for was "making life
better for your children" - you'd work hard, and sacrifice, knowing your kids
would have a better life than you did. It's what my Great-Grandparents did,
what my Grandparents did, what my Parents did. All came up poor, I came up
lower middle class, my kids will probably come up reasonably wealthy.
But nowadays, a lot of people write that off as the "birth lottery", or luck,
or chance, and think that happiness in your own life, right now, is the
highest virtue. They even _almost_ look at it as a bad thing for parents to
work very hard for their kids specifically to have the best life they could,
calling it things like a birth lottery or random chance. There's nothing
random about why I was born in the States, or why my kids will be - it was a
direct result of five or six generations of slogging towards a better life
from miserable conditions elsewhere.
~~~
Retric
Ignoring the argument is silly, you don't chose your parents. So, you don't
chose the single largest impact on your success but, that's not the issue. The
question is "Do we want a society primarily controlled by those who inherited
money?" The reason we had huge numbers of smart people become investment
bankers was the fact that conning stupid wealthy people is profitable. But,
it's also a zero sum game that does little to help society at large. It's far
better for society when the most efficient method for gathering wealth is
generating it.
~~~
lionhearted
> The question is "Do we want a society primarily controlled by those who
> inherited money?"
There's a Dutch expression, "Clogs to clogs in three generations." It means
the first generation, who wears clogs (regular people's shoes), they work hard
and make money, they know struggle, they're frugal.
The second generation doesn't know about making money and struggling, but
their parents explain what it was like and teach the kids how to manage money
and keep the fortune alive.
The third generation doesn't learn these things from their parents, because
their parents don't really know either, and the third generation wastes the
money and winds up back in clogs - regular people's shoes.
So - will society be controlled by people who inherit money? Not unless
there's government backed heredity privilege, like European nobility, the
Japanese samurai system, or the Indian caste system. If not, things balance
out over time. How many of the astoundingly wealthy families from 1850 are
controlling society now without having added anything? Not many.
> The reason we had huge numbers of smart people become investment bankers was
> the fact that conning stupid wealthy people is profitable.
I would rebut this, but I don't think it's a well thought out view. Some
investment bankers moved money around without doing anything of value. Many
did incredibly valuable things. They built and developed real estate, ports,
railroads - heck, I know a guy who put the money together for researching
technology for non-government spaceflight. Pretty cool stuff.
> But, it's also a zero sum game that does little to help society at large.
First, I think it's very easy for someone not inside an industry to claim that
their work is useless/easy/unimportant while maybe missing the intricacies in
it. Second, I'm not sure what this has to do with my comment, which is that I
think the mental concept of "birth lottery" and de-emphasis on family is a
scary thing. It seems to say that people should support and even things out
for everyone irrespective of what their parents do, while parents working hard
to give their children a better life is a huge motivator and has been for
almost all time, much more so than improving the common good. If you look at
history, for instance, whenever farming was nationalized under a war economy
or communism, output fell. People working to feed the nation work less hard
than people working for themselves and their children. This has been borne out
in many different places, throughout ancient and recent history.
> It's far better for society when the most efficient method for gathering
> wealth is generating it.
Agreed. Getting back to your original point, I'm not ignoring the "birth
lottery" argument - I think it's flawed, and I'm addressing that flaw. The
question isn't about who gets to control society, it's about what is the
fundamental unit of society? Is it the individual? The family? The community?
The nation? The whole planet? The prevailing Western view seems to be focusing
on things on a national level. I don't think that's a good thing. I think a
mix of individual choice, strong family support structures, and entire planet
development is the answer. I think, arguably, the nation is one of the worst
places to work on developing humanity.
That's my opinion based on my reading and research into behavior and history,
but it seems like societies that empower individuals do well, it seems like
societies that promote family do well, and it seems like societies that
promote the whole planet do well. It seems where things are controlled by the
nation more than by the individual, family, and whole planet do more poorly.
I'm not worried about inherited money controlling the planet, because it
really only has a heavy influence in the next generation, many of whom do
great things and make their own contributions. After that, without
contributions it burns itself out. I am worried about national level
empowerment, because it grows on itself and doesn't burn out unless it
collapses in a bad way.
This is my opinion based on my readings and research, and I'd be happy to hear
others' opinions who agree or disagree.
~~~
spc476
I've heard that saying as well (only it was "Rags to Riches in three
generations, rags to rags in four"), but as far as I can tell, the
Rockefellers are still around, still rich, and are at the sixth generation (
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockefeller_family> \---the legacy section of
that page makes for interesting reading). The Kennedy's are still around,
still rich and are in the fourth generation (
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennedy_family> ). History has yet to see what
happens to the Bush family ( <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_family> ),
currently on the fourth generation.
The Hilton family ( <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilton_family> ) on the
other hand, might fall into your theory.
~~~
Retric
I think what grandchildren are going to do with money is somewhat random.
My grandfather understood building wealth through investments as do I.
However, my mother and older sisters don't. A friend of mine's grandmother had
real wealth, as in her home was featured in home and gardens etc. He had a
multimillion dollar trust fund and burned out on drugs until he died after his
fourth or fifth motorcycle accident.
I know many young people with enough money to never work again and mostly they
are fine. But, it's the people with handed great wealth that seem to be
hardiest hit by it.
------
flipbrad
I find it interesting that (at least in the given extract) Buffett only
highlights one of the two sources of unfair advantage (unfair starting
conditions, but not unfair monopolies) that help people get exponentially rich
with a non-corresponding increase - or even status quo - in the level of
effort, quality of work, irreplaceability or risk to quality of life.
\--
Banded tax - versus flat rate - is not fair. But neither will your fourth
million dollars be.
From society's point of view, until we have more rationality and ideality of
labour-reward on the income side, I don't think fairness arguments can really
be mounted to the abolishment of taxes that make it unfairly expensive to be
rich.
\--
That said, with regards to inheritance tax, I have always really struggled to
find any theoretical solution to the inconsistency I perceive in the system -
children will always have unequal starts in life related to the efforts and
success of their parents; be that in somewhat intangible notions like forming
a great network of contacts, or right down to trying extra hard to woo a
mother/father that will give the kids a great genotype. Why start - or stop -
at money? Has political, social or economic science ever sought to justify
that?
~~~
mynameishere
_Why start - or stop - at money?_
Not sure what you're getting at, but going all the way back to Plato's
Republic, there have been proposals to engineer society with children. More
recently,
_Children's Societies were one of the features of kibbutz life that most
interested outsiders. In the heyday of Children's Societies, parents would
only spend two hours a day, typically in the afternoon, with their children.
In Kibbutz Artzi parents were explicitly forbidden to put their children to
bed at night. As children got older, parents could go for days on end without
seeing their offspring, other than through chance encounters somewhere in the
grounds._
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kibbutz>
It doesn't work, of course. Nature will out.
------
teyc
My question is whether society is better served by
1) the destruction of excess money 2) preservation of meritocracy
and furthermore, whether interests of children of wealthy parents are better
served through
1) leaving them oodles money 2) leaving them a society where a) things are
affordable because there's less money chasing goods b) meritocracy reigns c)
not to peg one's identity to money alone
In the small, accumulation of money is a fine thing. In the large, you have
corporations whom - in the name of profit - bribe, cajole governments and
government agencies, that result in sending people to war, poisoning your
food, and endorsing medicines that do not work. Setting a limit to the
accumulation of a mere number means that humans can turn their attention
towards other activities that are beneficial to society as a whole.
~~~
eugenejen
Money and wealth are different.
Regarding your point (a):
Things can become more affordable by innovations in technology, production and
distribution. Services may not become more affordable because service is
provided by human being. And by definition, the above average service always
costs more than average.
I don't think in the name of profit is the cause to the problem. Lacking of
political power to punish corporation corruptions and being oblivious of
public wellness are the root cause.
------
michaelkeenan
It is unfair that your country of birth is arbitrary. Surely the appropriate
policy to ameliorate that is to relax immigration barriers? That seems more
relevant to the problem than estate taxes.
------
jackfoxy
Another rich guy telling those not as lucky as him how lucky we are. Oh, and
btw, pay your taxes.
~~~
mattmaroon
That's dismissive of his very valid points. Buffet is one of the most selfless
rich guys of all time. Also one of the most infamously direct and honest. He's
not saying that as part of some sort of Orwellian consipiracy to quell the
masses. He's saying that because its true.
He points out regularly injustices such as the fact that his secretary pays a
higher tax rate than he does, thanks to the ridiculous capital gains laws in
this country. He points out regularly that people like him should have to pay
higher taxes, including the estate tax. He lives less lavishly than most
people who have .1% of his wealth.
He's already given most of his fortune (the largest single donation ever) to
charity and will give the rest when he goes. He's a real-life Robinhood.
~~~
byrneseyeview
_He points out regularly injustices such as the fact that his secretary pays a
higher tax rate than he does, thanks to the ridiculous capital gains laws in
this country._
Corporate tax rates plus capital gains tax rates exceed normal income tax
rates. The only way you can claim that he pays less in taxes on selling stock
is if you assume that the company's profits -- the sum of which, discounted to
the present, is the value of the stock -- somehow don't affect the value of
the stock.
If we cut capital gains taxes to zero and added an equivalent amount to
corporate profits (say, a 40% annual tax rate instead of 35%), the government
would make an equivalent amount of money from the same economic activity, and
Buffett's theoretical tax rate would go down. Similarly, if corporate income
taxes were zero and his capital gains were taxed at 40%, he'd pay much more
than his secretary, but the government would collect the same amount.
If the strength of his argument is independent of the magnitude of the problem
he's arguing against, there is a flaw there.
Buffett is an admirable guy. But the line about his secretary is a rhetorical
flourish, nothing more.
~~~
mattmaroon
They're his words (paraphrased) not mine, and it is impossible Buffet is
unaware of corporate tax. My guess is its more than rhetorical flourish too
since he's not known for that.
Your making the argument that corporate taxes reduce his personal income, and
therefore should count as his taxes. Ok. But if corporations did not have to
pay taxes, they would pay their employees more, including secretaries. It's
impossible to say for sure that a 35% corporate tax rate reduces secretary
salaries by 35%, but it is something highly significant.
In a roundabout way the secretary is paying that corporate tax too. Its effect
is not as directly measurable on her as it is on Buffet, and might not be 1
for 1, but it's undeniably there and equally applicable to her tax rate.
Also Social Security reduces her pay by 12.4% (half of which is paid by her
employer but again would likely go to her if not). Since its capped at $100k
income, it rounds to 0% of Buffet's yearly earnings.
*I should point out that I am aware I've grossly oversimplified the effect of the corporate tax on the secretary, I trust but you get the point.
~~~
yummyfajitas
The corporate tax rate is only paid on profits.
Profits and pay for workers are in competition. So raising the cost of profits
actually increases the incentive to pay workers more. This is why many actual
nonprofits are poorly managed; they are funneling profits to workers rather
than to shareholders.
~~~
byrneseyeview
_Profits and pay for workers are in competition. So raising the cost of
profits actually increases the incentive to pay workers more._
That is not how it works. When car companies start losing money, they don't
give people raises; they fire them. When Goldman has a great quarter, they
don't cut people's pay -- they give them bonuses.
Nonprofits are managed because they exist to spend money, not to spend it
well.
~~~
yummyfajitas
You are missing the point. A company has money after expenses (I'll abbreviate
it MAE) which must be distributed. (Or in the case of GM, they have negative
money after expenses.) You are discussing the behavior of companies in
response to changes in MAE.
I'm discussing how a fixed amount of MAE is distributed in response to changes
in incentives. Each dollar of MAE can be given either to shareholders, to
employees, or can be invested. If you raise the cost of distributing money to
shareholders (this is what the corporate tax does), companies will divert
money to employees and investments. I.e., no one will pay dividends if there
is a 100% dividend tax.
~~~
kingnothing
I think you're mistaken in thinking that money will be distributed to the
average worker in this scenario. It would all be paid out to the same
shareholders as a salary instead of capital gains. The regular employees
wouldn't see an extra dime.
------
nivi
Hey babycakes, consider adding "via @venturehacks" when you post our tweets.
I'm assuming you got it from us. Because we linked to it. And no one else on
the web links to things.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What online payment platform do you use in Europe? - yitchelle
With the high concentration of countries in Europe, the mix of online payment laws between the countries make it difficult for one system for satisfy all of them.<p>In a US where a large population is covered under the one umbrella, it is much simpler to go with somebody like Stripe.<p>So the question, what solutions are available for a Startup to consider when setting up in Europe?
======
Yaa101
Ogone is reliable and non puritan, they operate from Belgium. Buckaroo is a
dutch online payment system.
Further, the rules in Europe for selling stuff is not that diverse, for
instance you need to collect VAT and pay that to your countries' tax
department because all the countries have a treaty for that.
Stay away from PalPal, they are a US company that plays political games,
freeze your account if they can find anything on you that they don't like.
They also have corrupt, arrogant and hypocitical puritan issues.
------
Gring
I work at a popular niche retailer in Europe. We use saferpay.com for all our
credit card needs around the globe.
Keep in mind that people from certain countries prefer additional solutions.
Talk to your customers and they will tell you which payment options besides
credit cards they wish to use.
In contrast to others, we've got a good relationship with Paypal as well, but
we don't use them for normal credit cards because they ask too much.
Expect to interface with more than one payment platform down the road, because
there is not one platform that does everything.
But starting with credit cards only and Saferpay is a good first choice.
------
adam-_-
<https://gocardless.com> looks quite nice but unfortunately it's UK only at
the moment.
~~~
yitchelle
This looks good, but, as you said, on UK.
------
Geee
Each country in Europe has their own systems, which are provided by the local
banks. Pretty much every bank has their own solution and you have to integrate
with that. If that sounds crazy, you'd better go with PayPal as long as Stripe
is US only. However, payments through the bank systems are usually preferred
over card payments.
------
MattBearman
I've recently switched BugMuncher from PayPal to Saasy (<http://saasy.com/>)
so far it's been awesome. You don't need a merchant account, integration was
far easier than PayPal, good tech support, and a bit cheaper on fees. Highly
recommend them.
------
ht_th
If you're planning to get big in the Netherlands, don't forget iDeal (
[http://www.ideal.nl/?s=&lang=eng-GB](http://www.ideal.nl/?s=&lang=eng-GB) ).
~~~
Yaa101
Ideal is a debit payment system brought by the dutch banks, most online
payment handlers the service dutch clients offer to handle that system too.
------
saurik
PayPal seems to handle European customers very well, and happens to be cheaper
than Stripe.
------
jamesjguthrie
I use PayPal for invoicing clients.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Redppr – taking on Instagram and rating apps - redppr
http://www.redppr.com
======
detaro
Congratulations on the emptiest website ever...
~~~
redppr
Work in progress, the main thing is the links to the App and Play stores.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Proof That Game Theory Isn't Fully True - taylorwc
http://mashable.com/2010/08/12/oracle-google-android-lawsuit/
======
jleader
Maybe I'm overlooking something, but in what way does Oracle's suit against
Google (or the article) prove that "game theory isn't fully true"?
------
WCC
Not everyone acts according to their best interests. That doesn't mean game
theory is wrong.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Painting in Clojure - speednoise
http://tombooth.co.uk/painting-in-clojure/
======
tombooth
Hi I am the author of this post,
I'm going to be knocking around if anyone has any questions, as I think you
all deserve a finished post.
If anyone wants to contribute or have a look at the code it is all hosted at
[https://github.com/tombooth/painting-in-
clojure](https://github.com/tombooth/painting-in-clojure)
Tom
------
siavosh
This is great. I imagine similar tutorials for sounds/music can resonate with
different folks.
~~~
jeletonskelly
[http://www.repl-electric.com/](http://www.repl-electric.com/)
------
fescue
I love this! I made a project for executing Sol LeWitt's instructional art in
JavaScript (but any language is great):
[https://github.com/wholepixel/solving-
sol](https://github.com/wholepixel/solving-sol)
------
mcmire
Did not realize it used math to simulate paint hitting the canvas like that! I
like the research that went into this. Pretty neat stuff.
------
guard-of-terra
This is my take at drawing in Clojure:
[https://github.com/alamar/elegraph/blob/master/moscow.png](https://github.com/alamar/elegraph/blob/master/moscow.png)
An infographic showing voting in some elections in Moscow, and presumed
violations thereof.
One pixel - one vote. One blob - one voting comission. Had to learn to draw
circles of a given area.
------
gopalv
I like the fact that it uses Processing to do this.
The right tool for art.
~~~
smrtinsert
Most likely by way of Quil
([https://github.com/quil/quil](https://github.com/quil/quil)). Using quil in
your ide of choice is a dream and a remarkable improvement over the native
processing env in terms of interactivity with the sketch.
~~~
Kronopath
> _This truly was an amazing place. Here, dreams and reality had been drawn
> together - all in one Process. "__Why _would I ever leave? " he barked with
> joy! __Why _indeed!_
Is this implying that this framework was the work of _why the lucky stiff, or
is it just some kind of reference to him? The description does very much seem
like his style.
~~~
dyadic
Just a reference, but the style is intended to emulate _why.
Quil came from clj-processing, and the relevant discussion about naming is
here: [https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/clj-
proce...](https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/clj-
processing/bInbqLUuEMo)
(I wasn't involved, I just remember things)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why Bottled Water Is So Expensive on Amazon Right Now - petethomas
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-07/here-s-why-bottled-water-is-so-expensive-on-amazon-right-now
======
legitster
_Amazon’s algorithms are designed to spot unusually high prices – that is,
high in comparison to other sellers on Amazon—and suspend those accounts. The
expensive water is showing up because sellers with cheaper water have sold out
and more expensive items previously buried in search results suddenly rise to
the top._
I'm not sure what I would tell people who are upset about price-gouging.
Should Amazon go out and buy water and sell it's own at a loss? It also seems
weird to be ordering water from Amazon and hoping it beats the storm.
I remember in economics learning that certain people would rather the product
not be on sale than to see it listed at an "unfair" price. Which seems to be
the case here.
------
tsomctl
Meanwhile, water jugs seem to be reasonably priced.
[https://camelcamelcamel.com/Reliance-Products-Aqua-Tainer-
Ga...](https://camelcamelcamel.com/Reliance-Products-Aqua-Tainer-Gallon-
Container/product/B001QC31G6) [https://camelcamelcamel.com/Coleman-5-Gallon-
Collapsible-Wat...](https://camelcamelcamel.com/Coleman-5-Gallon-Collapsible-
Water-Carrier/product/B000088O9Y)
And if UPS is still delivering, then you probably still have potable tap water
to fill them up.
~~~
ja27
The only ones at that price are out of stock. Going rate from third party
sellers is $50+ for a $15 container.
~~~
tsomctl
I have no idea what you are looking at, but I see them as under $20 with free
prime shipping.
~~~
ars
I see $130 for one of them and "Usually ships within 1 to 2 months." for the
other.
~~~
jiaweihli
The price could depend on where you live.
~~~
ars
Amazon does not do that. (Except for a country as a whole.)
I'm sure they could, but they have never done so before. Their prices do
change constantly - but for everyone at once.
------
valuearb
People often forget that higher prices is the incentive that brings more
product to market during a crisis. Demonize people selling bottled water at
high markups and you disincentive people with lots of bottled water who were
about to drive it across the country to address your shortage.
------
reactiveinertia
Capitalism is cut-throat, there is no other capitalism in the West or the
East. The only reason capitalism works a little better is because there is
meant to be competitors in times of surplus. Evidently, no one has surplus of
water to compete against price gouging and Amazon's logistical operations are
unable to handle certain edge cases such as these.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Linux Foundation quietly drops community representation - logic
http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/39546.html
======
theGimp
Wow. Thanks for noticing and bringing this to our attention, Matthew.
I, for one, am ready to drop my membership and stop supporting the foundation.
Not that they care. A single platinum sponsor is worth 5,000 individual
"supporters" to them, but it's a matter of principle -- it's a withdrawal of
endorsement.
What options do we have to give the community a voice as far as Linux
governance goes?
~~~
mlinksva
You might switch your support to
[http://sfconservancy.org/supporter/](http://sfconservancy.org/supporter/)
(the other organization mentioned in the article, and a charity rather than a
trade association).
~~~
JoshTriplett
Seconded. They currently have a company matching donations through the end of
the month, so now would be the perfect time to donate.
------
rogerbinns
I happened to be on the page for GPL violations by AllWinner today. That page
also mentions AllWinner recently joining the Linux Foundation, and how their
violations are getting worse! [http://linux-
sunxi.org/GPL_Violations](http://linux-sunxi.org/GPL_Violations)
~~~
braiser
Allwinner used to distribute "SDKs" which was their Linux kernel with binary
modules for components that they could not open-source. Allwinner is a fabless
semiconductor company and they source components from different vendors. They
did not know that they had to split the Linux kernel source tarball from those
binary modules! That wiki page is not constructive.
~~~
nona
Doesn't matter whether they are fabless, or what they knew and when. They
distribute GPL'ed software, they're on the hook, and they need to abide by the
rules.
And after all this time and all the warnings they've received, it's not
possible they're not aware of their obligations; they just choose to ignore it
until the day someone actually sues them.
------
makomk
Ah. From reading the comments, the would-be community representative Karen
Sandler is the former Gnome Foundation executive director who caused them to
run out of money by running outreach programs for women on behalf of far
bigger organisations like Google and Mozilla, charging them less for admin
than the actual costs incurred, and agreeing to pay participants upfront and
get paid back later until it completely depleted the Gnome Foundation's
financial reserves. As a result they could no longer fulfil their role of
supporting Gnome development, had to go begging for more money, and Gnome
developers who were expecting to have their costs paid for attending Gnome
events got paid months late because they had to prioritize the non-Gnome
payments. (I believe this also screwed over women who were involved in Gnome
too.)
Of course, mjg59 is a pretty loudly outspoken feminist activist, so I guess
he's hardly going to object to all that.
~~~
fpgeek
I don't know enough to have an opinion on whether or not Karen Sandler would
be a good or bad community representative for the Linux Foundation.
That being said, if the problem is that she would be a bad representative, the
appropriate solution is for someone better to run against her and win the
election. Eliminating the position suggests that the Linux Foundation doesn't
trust the community to pick the "right" representative... and that says a lot
about the situation.
~~~
lmm
> Eliminating the position suggests that the Linux Foundation doesn't trust
> the community to pick the "right" representative... and that says a lot
> about the situation.
The idea that the linux community is dysfunctional and would elect a
representative who wanted to push a particular political agenda at the expense
of linux itself is sadly none too implausible.
~~~
baghira
On the other hand we should expect nothing but good things from esteemed GPL
violators such as Allwinner and WMWare, right? /s EDIT: I guess I should
qualify the statement wrt WMWare as "supposed violator", since the case isn't
over and I haven't looked at the source code.
~~~
oldmanjay
Was this intended to be a rebuttal? It's really just an unrelated tangent
phrased in an misleading way.
~~~
baghira
It is a rebuttal to the implication that the possibility of the community
electing some nefarious personality should be considered valid ground for
denying said community any representation. By the same token a bunch of
corporations should be denied one. I didn't interpret the post as call for
reformed governance, unless you consider
1\. Deny individual representation
2\. ???
3\. Governance problems fixed!
a plan (yeah, I'm being snarky, sorry).
------
vezzy-fnord
Has anyone ever believed the Linux Foundation to be anything besides an ad-hoc
promotional vehicle targeted by and toward large players?
Rob Landley sums it up well:
[http://landley.net/notes-2010.html#18-07-2010](http://landley.net/notes-2010.html#18-07-2010)
~~~
rwmj
Not really disagreeing with you or the link you posted. But I will just say
that LF organize many important Linux conferences[1]. I know from experience
many years ago that organizing conferences is difficult, tedious, time-
consuming and incredibly expensive. The LF conferences that I have been to
have been very well run.
[1] [http://events.linuxfoundation.org/](http://events.linuxfoundation.org/)
------
jwildeboer
One (now supposedly former?) individual member from the Linux Foundation
received a message from Paypal(!) indicating that the Linux Foundation is not
going to take his membership fee any longer. No further explanation given, no
communication from the Linux Foundation.
"Dear <name redacted>,
The Linux Foundation canceled your automatic payments. This means we'll no
longer automatically draw money from your account to pay the merchant.
If you have any questions, you may ask The Linux Foundation about this
cancellation."
~~~
jrgifford
[http://d.pr/i/1aKJp/2k5zsOoc](http://d.pr/i/1aKJp/2k5zsOoc)
I got it too.
------
dvndvn
Please forgive my ignorance. But does this corporate meddling in governance
structure have anything to do with their recent corporations
sponsored/bankrolled initiative "Designing Block chain for transactions".
Which obviously calls for weeding out trouble making general public.
~~~
sanswork
Are you confusing the Linux foundation with the Bitcoin foundation?
~~~
kalleboo
Nope - [http://www.linuxfoundation.org/news-
media/announcements/2015...](http://www.linuxfoundation.org/news-
media/announcements/2015/12/linux-foundation-unites-industry-leaders-advance-
blockchain)
~~~
sanswork
Missed that. Thanks for the info.
------
emmelaich
I don't care what they do, but I don't want them calling themselves the Linux
Foundation and I don't want them owning linux.com
------
duncan_bayne
I've emailed the Foundation to ask them for the reasons for the change. I'll
post any replies I get here.
------
effenponderousa
They clearly have a for-profit mission. Linux _means_ community, yet they have
no community representation. Therefore, the foundation name is misleading.
"The IT Chamber of Commerce", however, isn't a misleading name.
------
pcx
LF is corporate entity, but I always liked and supported it. I think I will
drop my support for them if this is what it seems like it is. I want to wait
till I hear LF's response to these claims.
------
Animats
First the Wikimedia Foundation, now the Linux Foundation. "Membership" in a
nonprofit is now about as meaningless as being an "AOL Member" was.
~~~
throwaway7767
The linux foundation is not a non-profit.
But I'm curious about your statement about the wikimedia foundation, is their
board not elected by general members?
~~~
CRConrad
throwaway7767 wrote: "The linux foundation is not a non-profit."
As late as a month ago, it claimed to be: "SAN FRANCISCO, December 17, 2015
-The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation
through open source..." (from the Block-chain page linked above,
[http://www.linuxfoundation.org/news-
media/announcements/2015...](http://www.linuxfoundation.org/news-
media/announcements/2015/12/linux-foundation-unites-industry-leaders-advance-
blockchain) )
~~~
throwaway7767
I stand corrected regarding the linux foundation, I was under the impression
they were a company and not a non-profit. Thanks for the info.
~~~
ghaff
They're a 501(c)(6) trade association if you want to be technically correct.
Which is different from 501(c)(3)'s which are what you normally think of as
"non-profits" but it's still an exempt organization like a chamber of
commerce.
Fun fact: The NFL was a 501(c)(6) organization at one point because
"professional football leagues" were specifically named in the IRS code but
they voluntarily dropped their status.
------
rndmind
I don't think I know what the "linux foundation" is . . and I've used linux
for 7 years.
~~~
hga
Note who is the current employer of this obscure hacker:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linus_Torvalds)
~~~
rndmind
Your point is taken. At any rate, I am nonplussed about this story.
------
sqldba
Terrible. I was about to make a donation because I read that other article
saying they fund NTP and other critical free software projects.
~~~
jlgaddis
If you were planning to donate because of NTP specifically, are you aware of
the Network Time Foundation [0] that supports both the NTP Project (the
original reference implementation), the Ntimed Project (phk's rewrite), and
other related projects?
[0]:
[http://www.networktimefoundation.org](http://www.networktimefoundation.org)
------
linuxkerneldev
How many of the "leadership" / "management", ie: the people raking the profits
from this organization are coders?
[http://www.linuxfoundation.org/about/leadership](http://www.linuxfoundation.org/about/leadership)
~~~
scandinavian
Mike Woster - graduated cum laude with a B.S. in Computer Science and Honors
Engineering from Texas A&M University
Steve Westmorelander - He received his B.S in computer science from Louisiana
Tech University. Westmoreland is based in Portland, Ore.
Dan Cauchy - Dan earned a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering (with a
Computer Engineering major)
Dan Kohn - Dan received a bachelor's degree in Economics and Computer Science
from the Honors program of Swarthmore College
And all the fellows:
Linus Greg Kroah-Hartman Till Kamppeter Richard Purdie Janina Sajka
Weird question, don't see why the management have to be coders. They work for
the foundation. The foundations pay plenty of the kernel developers.
~~~
linuxkerneldev
> The foundations pay plenty of the kernel developers.
Do you mean directly? How many do they pay?
~~~
linuxkerneldev
Full disclosure, I've never asked LF to pay me for my contributions, nor have
they offered. None of the people I know who are lk contributors who I've just
asked have gotten anything from LF. They have been solicited to pay to attend
LF organized conferences.
~~~
geofft
They don't pay contributors in a Patreon- or tip4commit-style scheme; they
_employ_ certain core developers. If you are not a subsystem maintainer /
lieutenant, you're not going to get a job offer from them. (And even if you
are you shouldn't _expect_ one.)
------
daveheq
Is one person with $5000 more valuable than 5000 people with $1? If you're a
person without $5000, no; if you're a foundation, apparently.
------
chinathrow
Reads like a well planned, step-by-step executed (hostile?) takeover of the
full power over the board.
Why am I not suprised?
------
oneJob
Can someone else please write up a substantial comment so that the top comment
is not a bigoted feminist bashing, logical fallacy ridden comment. It's
embarrassing.
------
AstroJetson
People have asked for years, when will Linux be a real OS, when it gets on the
desktop?
No, when it part of underhanded dealings by large multi-national corporations.
So Linux has finally arrived! Sorry to see it was the Linux Foundation, I've
always had high hopes for them.
~~~
myztic
I don't know where to begin.
0) Linux is just a kernel, so if taken literally, it never will be an OS. But
I will roll with your terminology for now.
1) Linux was a Unix-like OS for tinkerers, programmers and soon for servers. A
"real OS" is not defined by its availability on the Desktop. And indeed I very
much used it exactly because of this, because I am a tinkerer who rather runs
a Server OS on his private machines, that also allows him to do most Desktop-
tasks with ease.
2) The voice of the Desktop camp inside of Linux is not ignored, if anything,
the influence is too big. Think about systemd for example. This was not a move
in order to run better on Servers, this was primarily Notebook and Server
focused. The year of the Linux Desktop is not something we won't see because
of evil big corporations, rather because it simply is not Linux's DNA to be
that.
(And side note: Because of systemd I see more and more people using *BSDs)
~~~
notalaser
To be fair, notebooks and desktops ran fine without systemd for a long time.
To this day, I'm convinced systemd got there just to give Red Hat a big enough
foot in the door.
Systemd _is_ useful on servers, especially for the DevOps people. On a
desktop, it solves no problem that cannot be -- and that has not been _for
years_ \-- solved without it.
I don't use it enough to question its technical merits. The fact that it was
packaged in Debian and the world hasn't fallen over implies that people may be
unhappy with it, but can still do their jobs, which would mean it's not _that_
bad. But the necessity of its existence on notebooks and desktops is
questionable at best.
Edit: I know this is going to incite a lot of posts about how the times have
changed and now storage devices aren't statical anymore and we NEED systemd.
From a lot of people who are too young (or too recent Linux users) to remember
the days when udev was still news.
Guys, we've been _easily_ hotplugging devices on Linux, on USB, SATA and PCI
for about half a decade before systemd's first release (and not as easily but
reliably, nonetheless, for at least seven or eight). We've been reliably
booting and using Linux off a combination of USB and NFS filesystems for even
more than that. All that yadda yadda about devices coming and going at
boottime is not without its technical merits, but unless you boot your
computer with its case open while frantically plugging and unplugging SATA
drives, trust me, it's of absolutely no consequence.
Devices appearing and disappearing dynamically used to be a problem. In 2.4.
Do you remember the 2.4 kernel? That was (boy, does time pass...) more than
ten years ago. Do you _honestly_ think the smart people writing Linux sat on
their thumbs for ten years while the arcane world of tape drives and 10 MB
hard drives around them was giving way to this new world of magic SSDs and
USB?
~~~
lmm
The evil part is that it's making it harder and harder to use a lot of OSS
projects on non-Linux OSes. As a FreeBSD user I'm worried, and when it comes
to Debian/kFreeBSD the world really has ended as far as I can tell ( and just
when it was starting to look like a first-class architecture :'( ).
The conspiracy theory would be that it's a deliberate RedHat effort to cripple
competitors like Solaris. Unfortunately \\*BSD and freedom will be caught in
the crossfire.
~~~
toyg
A RedHat ploy may be, but certainly not to fight _Solaris_ of all systems. Not
even Oracle believes in Solaris (they are pushing Linux everywhere, and their
own devs always target Linux first), and its community is basically as big as
AmigaOS.
Systemd is just the end result of RedHat employing a dominant share of
infrastructure-critical Linux developers and making too much money compared to
other players.
~~~
digi_owl
Well Oracle now have their own Linux distro, forked from RHEL6 (iirc).
This fork seems to have put RH on a war path, as their subsequent releases no
longer separated out kernel patches from the main kernel source etc.
And now CentOS is part of the RH flock, where before it was an independent
repack of RHEL.
And while Solaris itself may be "dead", there are still various tech that came
out of its development that is of interest in the -nix world.
Just look at the continued lamentations that you can't get ZFS support in
Linux because of incompatible licenses.
~~~
throwaway7767
Was it really a fork? I was under the impression that they were just directly
rebuilding the RH packages, and maybe adding a couple of new ones. Like
CentOS, but it's another company doing it and profiting by free-riding on
RedHat's work.
I can understand RedHat being pissed about that.
~~~
toyg
They do fork the kernel and add their own packages for some stuff but yeah,
90% of userland is just recompiled RedHat.
------
myztic
I am sorry that I have to say this, but large parts of the GNU/Linux community
are just irrational idealists hard to work with. Read the GPLv3, it's a great
political document, and somewhere in there there also is a software license,
hidden between the lines.
Linus always said: He cares about the code back and otherwise not what vendors
do with it. He is not in any sense one of those GNU-people about Software
Freedom everywhere and for all. When the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
created the GPLv3, indeed during the process, Linus already spoke out against
it and said he would never ever use it[1]. He cited reasonable use-cases for
which vendors have no other way than to not to give open access to devices, in
part for example commercial license agreements.
The GPLv3 - from the perspective of the FSF - fixes some vital flaws in GPLv2,
from Linus' perspective however is just too strict, forbids use-cases Linux
has been used before previously and is extremely anti-business and would hurt
the Linux project.
Whether this step of the Linux foundation is right or not, can't say for sure,
but I totally understand it. A political anti-business pro-freedom-everywhere
radical who already is involved in suing some of the companies she is supposed
to work with on that said board? Sounds like a headache you would want to
avoid at all costs.
[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaKIZ7gJlRU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaKIZ7gJlRU)
~~~
bcg1
Linus is not a god, and his proclamations are not gospel.
He can crow all he likes about how he wishes he never used the GPL and how he
is not political... but the truth is, no one knows what would have happened if
he didn't use the GNU license or distribute GNU software. Its theoretically
possible that his project would have died on the vine without members of the
community who cared about those things and made considerable contributions.
Nobody knows, not even Linus.
~~~
myztic
Linux would have never been as successful if someone like rms would have
called the shots. People still tinker with the GNU Hurd microkernel and it's
less usable than Minix. Linus is also no god for me, but he is delightfully
pragmatic, someone companies can work with, not against.
~~~
e12e
This explains the failure of gcc, glibc and gnu utils/userland to completely
fail to gain traction too! /sarcasm
(Although the egcc split was painful, and at long last there are some viable
alternatives - it took _decades_ for them to rise up. So it's a little odd
that the FSF/RMS would never have successfully been able to develop a project?
Obviously the need for a (new) GPL licensed [kernel] is less when there
_exists_ a decent GPL licensed kernel (Linux)).
~~~
chris_wot
gcc is already beginning to lose traction to llvm.
~~~
e12e
My point was that "already", means "it took a long time". See also: embedded
development.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Doctor Who Championed Hand-Washing and Briefly Saved Lives - Hooke
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2015/01/12/375663920/the-doctor-who-championed-hand-washing-and-saved-women-s-lives
======
richardwigley
His work was ignored, ironically, through a lack of scientific reasoning - by
which the critics meant there was no theoretical basis for his evidence. It
was taken seriously when Pasteur provided the theory, however, the failure to
recognise the idea advanced evidence-based medicine - which is where we are
today. So, ignoring him actually advanced science ;-)
Contemporary reaction to Ignaz Semmelweis
Semmelweis's critics claimed his findings lacked scientific reasoning. The
failure of the nineteenth-century scientific community to recognize
Semmelweis's findings, and the nature of the flawed critiques outlined below,
helped advance a positivist epistemology, leading to the emergence of
evidence-based medicine. [1]
[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contemporary_reaction_to_Ignaz_...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contemporary_reaction_to_Ignaz_Semmelweis)
~~~
jerf
The perversion of science that believes an observation must be accompanied by
a theory (preferably acceptable to the current mainstream) is still alive and
well, even in medicine, positivist epistemology or no. Once you start looking
for it you'll see it at least once a month even in popular press articles.
But a perversion it still is. It is eminently scientific to simply document
and even _publish_ an inexplicable observation, and only later hope that
somebody can incorporate it into a testable theory.
To watch a putative scientist discard evidence because it has no theory with
it boggles my mind, but even here on HN I've seen articles about papers
getting rejected for this reason in the last year, so it's a real problem even
today.
~~~
dpark
A modern-day analogue to this would be the "back is best" campaign for putting
infants to sleep on their backs as a way to reduce SIDS. The evidence is
overwhelming that putting infants to sleep on their backs (vs stomachs or
sides) reduces the rate of SIDS significantly. We have no idea _why_ , but
that doesn't really matter.
It's hard to understand how a scientist could be arrogant enough to dismiss
legitimate evidence simply because the underlying mechanism isn't understood.
~~~
kbutler
The key is testing the behavior and theory.
There are often lots of confounding factors - in the SIDS case, much of the
decrease in SIDS rate can be attributed to changes in factors (continuing the
decrease from before the "back to sleep" campaign, generally safer sleep
areas, changes in cause-of-death coding, etc.)
[https://naturaltothecore.wordpress.com/2013/02/14/revisiting...](https://naturaltothecore.wordpress.com/2013/02/14/revisiting-
sids-and-back-sleeping-part-1/)
When you don't have the correct theory or mechanism, it's easy to do the wrong
thing - like when the British navy thought acidity prevented scurvy and
shifted from using lemon juice to more-acidic lime juice processed with copper
tubing that destroyed the vitamin C...
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scurvy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scurvy)
Rather than just following a statistical anomaly, you need to devise and
perform tests that will invalidate your theory, as was done with the other
theories (e.g., the priest bell in the article). This is perilous when
people's lives or global economies are at stake, and so anomaly hunting and
cargo cult science can persist in high-stakes, difficult to test environments.
~~~
jerf
I would observe that A: nothing I said precludes any of that; certainly
"science's" job is not done with the mere observation of facts and B: nothing
about any of that is helped by including spurious theories in the observation
of a brute, unexplainable fact.
Also, I'd happily set the bar higher on correlations to be reported in this
manner... then again, I consider 0.05 to be a mistake anyhow that should
simply be rectified as that has been concretely demonstrated to not be enough,
IMHO.
------
im2w1l
>He publicly berated people who disagreed with him and made some influential
enemies.
This piqued my curiosity. Managed to dig up this quote attributed to him by
"Forgotten Ideas, Neglected Pioneers"
>In this massacre you, Herr Professor, have participated. The homicide must
cease, and with the object of bringing this homicide to an end, I shall keep
watch, and every man who dares to spread dangerious errors regarding puerperal
fever will find me an active opponent. For me there is no other means for
checking the murder than to unsparingly unmask my opponents.
I can kind of see why people didn't like him.
~~~
bainsfather
His statements and arguments were correct - that _ought_ to be all that
mattered.
~~~
soneca
You know _now_ that they are correct. The other doctors didn't know for sure
then. I think is undeniable that, even with the doubt of that being correct,
they (the other doctors) should have behaved more scientifically about it. But
when you are not sure if the statements are correct, it doesn't help if the
proponent attracts antipathy.
In the end, I believe the veredict is, with justice, that the medical society
at the time failed as a whole. But we might have had a different outcome if
Dr. Semmelweis had more political skills. I don't want to acuse the man of
anything in here, and of course this a personal, subjective, unfounded
opinion; but it might be that his proud about being correct was more important
to him than his wish to save more lives. Even unjusticed heroes have flaws,
especially vanity related ones.
I am sounding like devil's advocate here, but I really don't want to blame Dr.
Semmelweis of nothing here, nor discredit his accomplishments. I just want to
give some perspective here, a human perspective. Science is a lot about
humanity. Both in the human beings learning about a major scientific
breakthrough and the human beings responsible for the breakthrough. If you
want to change the world, you have to make sacrificies. Sometimes in your
pride.
~~~
bainsfather
Several points:
(1) "doctors didn't know for sure" \- that is a usual state for a doctor -
e.g. 'the symptoms of this patient strongly suggest x, but it could also be y
or z. Given the data, the best course of action is ...'. Do you imagine that a
doctor even today, examining a patient with e.g. persistent headaches, or
chest pains, or ..., knows 'for sure'?
(2) I am not a medic. But a few times I have helped people in critical
condition (accidents etc) - in all cases, I did my absolute best to save the
persons' lives. If paramedic's had shown up saying 'you xxxxing idiot, you
ought to be doing xyz' I would have been happy to accept their advice, no
matter how they 'presented' it. I hope you would also.
(3) In farming work in the past, I have often made mistakes (either ignorance
or error) when caring for animals, sometimes those animals died due to my
mistakes. Being told 'you xxxx xxxx why didn't you do xyz' afterwards, meant
that I did better next time. I sure as hell didn't think 'oh, I don't like the
way that is being presented, I think I'll just ignore it'.
To be clear, I am condemning the doctors of the time.
I am not necessarily disagreeing with you about whether or not Semmelweis
could have been more tactful - I don't know enough to really comment (e.g. it
might be that he was tactful initially, but as time went on and he was
ignored, he 'turned up the volume').
~~~
Spooky23
Your example is different because you're a layman and you're going to pay
attention to someone who knows what they are talking about.
If you were the subject matter expert, and some guy appears and tells you that
you're doing it all wrong, ego tends to play a bigger role!
~~~
bainsfather
>Your example is different because you're a layman and you're going to pay
attention to someone who knows what they are talking about.
For (2), yes. The 'it must be presented to me in a way that does not make me
lose face' part still applies.
For (3), not really. My 'patient' has just died - I cannot hide from the fact
that there is probably something better that I could have done - and the other
(lay) person has more experience of this situation than me. I would not say
'hey, I've known farming for 10 years, I'm not going to listen to you'.
~~~
soneca
This is not a conscious boycott due to ego protection. This is not simple
hollywood villains, these doctors are humans. Much more complex than that.
The situation is more about someone coming to you, a person who take care of
your animals for 20 years now, saying that a particular fruit that just grow
in mountains can save your animals when they eat before noon. And to support
this he ponts out that his animals have much better survival rates.
Imagine that the reality is that just eating that fruit, grown wherever, any
time of day, already improve your animals health.
Sure, the right thing to do is keep testing the different hypothesis until you
understand why his animals have better health. But if the guy comes yelling at
you, very arrogant and calling you ignorant and stupid; it might be just too
natural to realize that fruits growing on mountains are the same that grows
everywhere; so everything the guy says must be bullshit. F __* that guy, who
he think he is?
~~~
beagle3
The guy was arrogant, yes. But he had the numbers to support him. Furthermore,
the death rate of mothers at the hospital where they did all the autopsies was
so horrible and so well known that soon-to-give-birth mothers would fake
illness near the other hospital in town just so they wouldn't need to give
birth over there. (Don't have the reference handy, I've read it in several
places).
But the general response was not "well, that's a theory worth testing". It was
"This guy is crazy. Gentlemen do not pass disease". I have read no record of
an alternative theory of the high mortality rate that anyone else had advanced
- one might have existed, and was lost in the myst of time. But I find it just
as likely that there were, in fact, no competing theories.
I have unfortunately witnessed a modern day case applying to a much smaller
population. Not much has changed. I know a doctor who has literally (and
provably) saved at least ten lives based on his understanding of a disease,
which he cannot support with statistics yet - his statistics keep improving
with every case, but still not at the publishable 0.05 threshold. And this is
an extremely rare disease (in the order of 1/1,000,000), so it might take 10
more years until he has a rigorous proof. (Alas, giving more details would
basically be naming him and myself, which I do not wish to do)
His theory is a lot easier to accept than the prevailing theory about said
disease, except that accepting it proves incompetence of many in the field,
including editors of medical journals -- which, indeed, is the case, but those
cases are dismissed as occasional random misses rather than the systemic
incompetence that it is.
It is possible this doctor will retire before they have enough evidence to
publish their results. And despite the amazing results so far, when I went for
a second opinion after talking to this doctor, 4 others told me that he is
making a mouse out of a molehill, and that it's almost impossible that he is
right. Luckilly, imaging results proved he was right, and another life was
saved. And you know what? Of those 4, only two realized they need some
introspection, and the other two dismissed this as a "lucky guess".
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
P.S: Said doctor is extremely humble, and communicates very clearly.
------
leni536
There are old Hungarian movies about him[1]. He is described as the "savior of
mothers" here in Hungary.
[1]I have seen this one, but I'm sure it's impossible to find English
subtitles for it:
[http://hungarian.imdb.com/title/tt0033035/](http://hungarian.imdb.com/title/tt0033035/)
There is an other one, I didn't see it and they say that the older was better:
[http://hungarian.imdb.com/title/tt0045136/?ref_=fn_al_tt_6](http://hungarian.imdb.com/title/tt0045136/?ref_=fn_al_tt_6)
Also I found by accident this link:
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1440757/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1440757/) I
don't have IMDBpro so I can't see any relevant info on this one, I hope this
will be good.
------
pella
and check -> The Semmelweis reflex or "Semmelweis effect"
_" The Semmelweis reflex or "Semmelweis effect" is a metaphor for the reflex-
like tendency to reject new evidence or new knowledge because it contradicts
established norms, beliefs or paradigms. .. "_
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semmelweis_reflex](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semmelweis_reflex)
~~~
pella
Aaron Swartz himself wrote about this kind of situation:
[http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/semmelweis](http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/semmelweis)
------
lsiebert
Not that Dr. Who.
~~~
dghf
Indeed. It took me a couple of tries to parse this headline, thanks to that
mistake on my part.
~~~
srimech
I wouldn't call that a mistake on your part; it's over-use of capitalization
in the headline.
~~~
anonymfus
The problem is that it's still normal:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_case#Headings_and_public...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_case#Headings_and_publication_titles)
_> As regards publication titles it is, however, a common typographic
practice among both British and U.S. publishers to capitalise significant
words (and in the United States, this is often applied to headings, too). This
family of typographic conventions is usually called title case. For example,
R. M. Ritter's Oxford Manual of Style (2002) suggests capitalising "the first
word and all nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs, but generally not
articles, conjunctions and short prepositions"_
~~~
justincormack
It is normal in the US. In the UK title case has been obsolete for decades.
Apparently USA Today and Washington Post already switched[1]. It makes US
newspapers look very old fashioned to me, well along with the rest of their
retro styling.
[1] [http://gawker.com/reader-poll-big-letters-in-headlines-or-
li...](http://gawker.com/reader-poll-big-letters-in-headlines-or-little-
letters-900331797)
------
tptacek
This story was discussed on HN a few years ago:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4438828#up_4439503](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4438828#up_4439503)
------
putzdown
Yes but _which_ Doctor Who championed hand-washing and briefly saved lives?
~~~
atlbeer
Doctor? Doctor Who?
------
mherrmann
It's funny I live two minutes from this place [1]. It's now no longer a
hospital but a campus for the University of Vienna, and houses many nice
restaurants.
1:
[http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2015/01/08/aakh-1784_enl-453...](http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2015/01/08/aakh-1784_enl-4530a6c3ec67d4263450f41dced729c8192f889b-s1200.jpg)
------
ada1981
When I was helping launch Peter Thiel's MetaMed.com, I came across all sorts
of stats like this.. It's amazing how many _hundreds of thousands of lives_
might be saved if doctors did simple things like wash their hands.
------
hn_user2
> Even today, convincing health care providers to take hand-washing seriously
> is a challenge.
Really? Such an interesting article, and then this gets dropped in.
~~~
bainsfather
This article gives the general idea:
[https://news.yahoo.com/clean-hands--vanderbilt-s-hand-
washin...](https://news.yahoo.com/clean-hands--vanderbilt-s-hand-washing-
initiative-172312795.html)
~~~
bainsfather
This article is very good - it covers doctors' hand-washing plus other things.
[http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/12/10/the-
checklist?p...](http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/12/10/the-
checklist?printable=true)
(I read it a few years back and just re-found it now)
------
heeton
This is all I saw.
[http://cl.ly/image/2a0z2Q1T2S2C](http://cl.ly/image/2a0z2Q1T2S2C)
[http://images2.fanpop.com/image/photos/10300000/Doctor-
Who-T...](http://images2.fanpop.com/image/photos/10300000/Doctor-Who-The-
Classic-Series-classic-doctor-who-10355782-500-375.jpg)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How Anxiety Warps Your Perception - nedsma
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160928-how-anxiety-warps-your-perception
======
apatters
The most interesting and useful piece of information in this story is buried
towards the end: there is an app which implements a gamified version of ABMT
therapy.
The BBC didn't even mention its name! From searching around it appears to be
Personal Zen (iOS only):
[http://www.personalzen.com/](http://www.personalzen.com/)
Don't know what kind of twisted priorities in the newsroom would focus a story
like this on using anxiety to make a political point, versus putting the focus
on a way people can treat their anxiety, but hey, that's probably just my
anxiety speaking.
~~~
jontayesp
I just tried that app, but actually felt more stress because of the time
pressure to find the one "good" guy vs the one "bad" guy (they only appear for
a split second).
It would be more interesting to initially see one good guy surrounded by many
bad guys. As you focus on the good guy, you are rewarded by producing more
good guys and bad guys disappear. Instead of gamifying the experience, show
the user that focusing on the good guys creates positive momentum.
~~~
ricardobeat
This app seems to be designed by psychologists based on several studies to
treat anxiety, it is not a stress-release tool. The original article also
mentions the goal is to retrain your reaction / attention to negative stimuli,
which may explain the quick reaction time needed.
[meta] Your comment is solely about yourself and adds very little to the
conversation.
~~~
sp332
The first sentence on the page says it reduces stress and anxiety.
~~~
derefr
Most therapeutic (rather than pharmaceutical) approaches to treating anxiety
that have a long-term impact, require you to focus on (or at least
acknowledge) the stressful stimuli repeatedly in the short term:
•
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_behavioral_therapy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_behavioral_therapy)
requires that you focus on stressful thoughts to "pick them apart."
•
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposure_therapy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposure_therapy)
requires that you experience a stress-trigger and "pass through" the initial
phobic reaction to get to the point where you can neutrally observe that the
stimuli isn't dangerous.
------
mpdehaan2
Somewhat off topic, but if you are having anxiety issues, I strongly recommend
the Headspace mobile app. While a lot of mindfulness apps have a lot of fluffy
new-age tone to them, this one did not, and it also tends to introduce
concepts at a very good pace (a little bit of things to try each day) which
makes things memorable. By contrast, you may talk to someone and hear 100
things to do, and you'll explode trying to do them all.
Anyway, for me, it strikes the right balance. The trick here is more about
learning to focus but also learning to completely percieve the feeling and
know what it is, and then it's less strong than trying to always think about
it - rather than identifying with it.
~~~
300bps
On Headspace, I did the 30 day foundation program followed by the 30 day
anxiety pack.
It gives you some good methods but as the program says over and over it is not
a panacea and requires a lot of work.
I think I've benefited from it but not as much as I'd hoped.
~~~
the_watcher
I've had a similar experience, although not entirely unexpected. From
everything I've gathered, meditation and guided breathing are tools to use to
fight anxiety, but are by no means sufficient on their own for many. I've
found that daily meditation and guided breathing can sometimes have the
opposite effect for me when I'm not struggling as much by bringing me back to
an anxious state. At the same time, working through their intro programs has
definitely given me some tools and coping strategies that help me when I find
my anxiety rising.
Also off-topic a bit, but for me, the single most impactful thing I have found
for coping with anxiety is regular strenuous exercise. I'd been told this for
years, but it's only recently that I've taken it seriously, and can now feel
my anxieties begin to bubble up when I get out of my exercise routine. It's
been so impactful that I just always want to make sure I highlight it when
discussing anxiety, since it took so much time for it to really sink in for
me.
~~~
mpdehaan2
Exercise++
My take-away from exercises was more of that it builds awareness that makes it
easier to stay in flow states for longer over time, which in turn allows (like
he says) kind of not making thoughts go away but getting less attached to
them, also over time. It's definitely not an immediate gain, but I think the
"noticing you are being distracted" and being able to stop is a good part.
------
etiene
As a radical leftist with crippling anxiety, the political part of this
article was rather unexpected
~~~
throwanem
I would be curious to see a similar study oriented along a radical/moderate
axis, rather than left-wing/right-wing. Of course, to be of real value, it'd
need not to be n=20 psych undergrads, but I may as well wish for a pony while
I'm at it.
~~~
nitrogen
Wouldn't that be the same as normalizing a left-to-right scale to [-1,1] and
taking the absolute value? Or is it possible for there to be "radical
centrism"?
~~~
throwanem
Perhaps. I'm not sure the metric used in the study would support such
analysis, though, and if they published their raw data alongside their
methodology and conclusions, I wasn't able to find it.
------
degenerate
>> _"... know that you’re in good company. Actors like Jennifer Lawrence and
Emma Stone, musicians such as The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson and Taylor Swift
..."_
Not quite the 'company' I had in mind when thinking about anxiety. If the
article started out with 'medical residents' or other jobs that are stressful
and anxiety-inducing because your ability to do your job _correctly and
quickly_ might mean someone else dies, or the success of the company rests on
your performance, perhaps I'd take the article seriously. But actors and
musicians? Sure, messing up means failure, and failure might mean lost
contracts, disappointed fans, and having to let go of the great team of people
that got you to success. But anxiety driven by success is not the 'company'
that most people can relate to. It's having to perform duties that are _put
upon you_ by your job, society, and family that are hardest to deal with. If
you're good at these things, you will be successful. But the long road to
success is the hard part which causes most people anxiety. Not already
achieving it like musicians and actors have. That's a different type of
anxiety that most people can't relate to.
~~~
the_watcher
I'm sure you don't intend this, but this reads like you misunderstand the
anxiety of many of us fundamentally: it's not rational. The fundamental
hardship of anxiety for many of us is that we know that it's not rational, and
can reason out why it shouldn't be causing such an extreme reaction, yet that
doesn't remove the feeling where everything is closing in on you.
> not the 'company' that most people can relate to.
Putting a face to someone else who is struggling with the same issue is very
helpful to a lot of us. And while I understand the point you are raising, I
can't begrudge the author for not knowing someone I personally know to name
here. If this were a profile of someone specific being used to highlight
anxiety, then you'd have a point, but this is just a single sentence intended
to offer faces familiar to the maximum number of readers.
~~~
degenerate
Points very well taken, thanks for offering a different perspective.
------
ZoF
This article seems to be about a correlation between anxiety and right wing
views, which is fine, but obviously not the whole story; generally speaking
the opposite is more likely if we're talking anxiety disorders, not just
general anxiety[0].
The single anecdote of 'conservatives look at offensive pictures more
frequently' is extrapolated to mean that they are irrationally anxious about
the future. This is not to mention that this entire line of reasoning is based
on the premise that conservatives are looking at 'aversive images' out of
fear/anxiety.
There is nothing wrong with rational fear of future possibilities, it is an
important and integral aspect of how we make decisions about the future.
[0]-[http://neuropolitics.org/Anxiety-Depression-and-Goal-
Seeking...](http://neuropolitics.org/Anxiety-Depression-and-Goal-Seeking-in-
Conservatives-Liberals-Moderates.htm)
------
dwaltrip
I was surprised the article didn't mention mindfulness. I've found it can
provide a strong foundation for rebuffing anxiety.
------
amelius
Here's a better article which describes how anxiety can change your
perception: [1]
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depersonalization](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depersonalization)
~~~
heimatau
Yes. I've been reading/doing a workbook [1] to help improve my anxiety
symptoms. In addition to depersonalization, it teaches cognitive reappraisal
[2]. They are both helping me a great deal.
[1] -
[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/160623918X/ref=oh_aui_sear...](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/160623918X/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
[2] -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_reappraisal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_reappraisal)
------
don_draper
It's interesting to me that fear (even paranoia) was useful for our species
for a long time. But now in modern society it actually is used against us.
------
jokoon
I know a guy who often talks about conspiracy. I would not be surprised to
hear that he has acute anxiety issues.
There are mentally sane people who commit crimes because of their belief
system, but anxiety could seem to explain why they would go so far with their
belief.
For example I don't really like capitalism and i prefer socialism, but those
are just ideas, i use them with caution.
------
projektir
I'd like to see more discussion about anxiety being fairly justified even in
the modern world. Not necessarily useful, but also not unfounded.
The right wing lean surprises me. I guess it depends on where your anxiety is
focused on. I'm much more anxious about systems, mobs, and the economy than
terrorists.
~~~
cylinder
Our lifestyles, particularly in major cities, seem to demand constant anxiety
by their very nature. I could certainly envision building a city from the
ground up that reduces anxiety.
~~~
Grishnakh
>I could certainly envision building a city from the ground up that reduces
anxiety.
Any concrete examples of what you'd do to achieve this?
The only things I can think of offhand are 1) instituting a UBI so people
don't have so much financial stress and poverty is alleviated and 2)
implanting a very efficient public transit system like SkyTran so that people
can get around quickly and reliably.
~~~
projektir
A big driver of anxiety for me is bureaucracy. Forms on top of forms, all
sorts of appointments, and lack of properly aligned 9 to 5 time to attend to
them.
------
hosh
This article is interesting to think about alongside:
[http://www.vox.com/platform/amp/first-
person/2016/9/27/13062...](http://www.vox.com/platform/amp/first-
person/2016/9/27/13062230/poor-college-scholarship-opportunity)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12606829](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12606829)
That is the HN posting of an article about how the poverty mindset still
persists.
------
nishac
While differentiating between "good" and "bad" images may seem like an idea
that has potential to work, I think it may be pointless to device obvious ways
to use placebo effects on the brain. I think training yourself to think
critically reduces the chance of your brain falling for poorly-designed
tricks.
The biggest takeaway from the article for me was simply the fact that anxiety
drastically changes your reality. That is both motivation to find ways to
curtail the anxiety even if it hasn't scientifically proven to be "curable"
and reason to believe that the anxious brain is not "defective" but has simply
been made to focus on the wrong set of thoughts. Here are some ways I dealt
with it:
1\. I changed my area of research (I am a grad student). 2\. I got out of a
bad relationship.
I said the above to point out the fact that the anxiety may have such
blatantly obvious causes for some people. It really helps to sit down and
identify each scenario that makes you anxious and try to understand what you
can change about your life (no matter how overwhelmingly drastic the change
is) to react more calmly in each of these situations. For example, I had
terrible (and still have but more mildly) anxiety in moving vehicles and my
heart races and ugly panic grips me, when the vehicle accelerates. I never
stopped to think what was causing it because my hypersensitive brain refused
to think deeply during travel time and even after because simulating travel
was enough to trigger it.
I made myself believe that making said dramatic changes in my life would
reduce the impact of the motion-stimulated anxiety. I figured that when panic
struck me on the bus, I would tell myself that if I could transform my life or
at least try my hardest to, I could get over this meaningless panic.
That's how I manage each situation that causes anxiety: by rationalizing as
best as I can, by identifying the root causes of my panic and by attacking
those root causes with logic. I think this requires strength and
unfortunately, I could find no easier way to make myself feel better. For
example, talking to a therapist or transferring the anxiety to/hoping for
support from people I loved turned out to be much less effective.
Then again, anxiety is very common so panicking at the panic is the first such
scenario that must be rationalized away. We do a lot of hard things in
everyday life for the purposes of leading a fuller life. Until such a time as
a reliable map of the brain is drawn and effective, scientific, non-intrusive
ways to change our perception emerge (which may not happen in our lifetimes),
establishing a camaraderie with the stubborn brain, through patient
rationalization, may be all we have.
This is just my opinion and I really hope it helps someone like me.
~~~
devilsavocado
Try this right now: Pick an emotion. Fear, anger, etc. Now, using logic, make
yourself feel that emotion. How did it go? I picked fear. I reasoned myself
into feeling a little bit worried, but I sure didn't experience actual fear.
So why do we think we can reason ourselves out of emotions?
Something that has been helpful for me is the idea of the 'Wise' mind. How
individuals deal with experience like anxiety (or anything else) falls on a
spectrum. On one end is the 'logical' mind, much like you described. On the
other is the 'emotional' mind. In the middle is the Wise mind. I spent most of
my life far into the logical side of the spectrum, and the most useful thing
I've ever done for my anxiety is shifting more into the center.
Most of your post focuses on training yourself to think critically and using
logic to treat anxiety. I've spent many years working on my anxiety with
various techniques and therapists. The common factor among all the things that
did help was that you can't just use logical thinking to fix anxiety! We may
use logic all day at work to fix problems, but you simply cannot reason
yourself out of experiencing anxiety.
Emotions play a huge role in anxiety and really cannot be ignored or just
reasoned away. They need to be experienced. They need to be felt and
expressed. And once they are, logic is a useful tool, as you said, to dive
into them and think more about why you are feeling that way.
This is also my opinion, and I'm glad you have the logical portion figured
out. But please don't ignore the illogical, emotional aspect. It's trickier
and messier, but it can be figured out.
~~~
Domenic_S
Here's where I found logic _does_ help:
1) Acknowledging that you're not the only one battling anxiety (makes you feel
not so alone)
2) Realizing that the negative feelings will pass (whether through pharmacy or
death -- nothing's forever)
3) (useful for GAD/agoraphobia) Asking "what's the worst that can happen [if I
have anxiety/a panic attack]?" and following that to its truthful, logical
end. Unless you're a pilot or tightrope walker, the answer is usually nothing,
which takes off some stress and helps.
4) Recognizing automatic thoughts and discarding them. Anxiety is often marked
by runaway "snowball" thoughts (my cat is meowing funny, he must be sick, the
vet will find cancer, the treatment will bankrupt me, I'll get fired, I'll be
homeless, I'm going to die under a bridge). Practicing recognizing the start
of those thoughts and intentionally saying, "nope, that isn't true or helpful"
and guiding your mind elsewhere helps greatly. This often becomes second
nature after a time.
Like you said, there is a continuum. Our thoughts influence our feelings, and
our feelings influence our thoughts.
~~~
devilsavocado
Sounds right to me. Worded differently, #4 is the basis of Cognitive
behavioral therapy. Except you can't quite just 'discard' thoughts, but I get
your point.
------
known
Discrimination affects biological processes such as stress hormones and sleep,
which are important for health and daily performance
[http://qz.com/334366/why-black-americans-cant-sleep-at-
night...](http://qz.com/334366/why-black-americans-cant-sleep-at-night-
racism/)
------
sundvor
Poisonous spiders? Interesting article though.
------
watermoose
This is an article essentially about how anxiety affects political views, so
here's my experience on that matter.
I'm an independent that leans conservative especially on fiscal but also
somewhat on social issues, and I know that my worry plays a part in it.
I've voted for independents, Libertarians, Republicans, and Democrats in past
presidential elections, and plan to vote Democrat this year, and I will do so
because of my worry about the Republican candidate. This candidate is
unpredictable, and is focused on the wrong side of issues that I care about.
I'm a compassionate person, and the candidate is not. I'm also a Christian,
and the candidate is the antithesis of the behavior and goals I would hope to
have in my country's leader. And of course, I think that a woman should have a
chance at leading our country, even if she's not the one that I'd chose
typically. So, my anxiety will play a part in the election, but not in the way
this article would suggest.
~~~
Kenji
_And of course, I think that a woman should have a chance at leading our
country, even if she 's not the one that I'd chose typically._
This I find the worst argument for her presidency imaginable. "I am so
virtuous and anti-sexist that I prefer the female candidate for being female"
It's pure sexism. You stop being sexist when you leave the gender out of the
equation. Completely.
~~~
nxc18
The trouble is that so many people use that argument while completely ignoring
their own biases.
E.g. "I don't care that she's a woman, but she just doesn't look
presidential."
"I just don't trust her, she's too shrill." "I just don't trust her, she's too
quiet."
Look at all the media attention to her hair, her outfits, her skin, etc and
you see that she's treated fundamentally differently than a male candidate.
The presidency has been held by a male exclusively for so long that voters
don't know what a female president looks like. When so many (shockingly many)
people vote on gut, instinct, or just their emotion, taking the time to
acknowledge bias is a useful step.
~~~
efvxcgci
_> Look at all the media attention to her hair, her outfits, her skin, etc_
Strange comment to make considering the constant articles and social media
posts about Trump's hair, Trump's orange skin, and Trump's little hands, plus
the widespread coverage of the naked Trump painting _and_ naked Trump statue
that were created to mock his weight and body parts.
~~~
smallnamespace
Trump invites that sort of coverage by being a thin-skinned, narcissistic
buffoon who thinks he's above everyone else.
Case in point: The whole 'small hands' thing would've blown over if Trump had
ignored it, but he couldn't help himself:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuSdCXmDOus](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuSdCXmDOus)
------
solson
This is complete bullshit.
As a moderately anxious person I have a completely different internal
experience on an American subway vs. one in Tokyo. I have almost no anxiety in
Tokyo. Why? it is one of the safest big cities in the world. Theft, terrorism,
assault, and general creepiness are almost non-existent and everyone knows it
and behaves accordingly.
In contrast, you have to be much more aware on American mass transit to avoid
problems. American mass transit is far more dangerous than in Tokyo and it is
almost instantly apparent to anyone paying attention. You'd be a fool not have
situational awareness on an American subway because there is a higher
probability of personal harm.
~~~
PavlovsCat
> In contrast, you have to be much more aware on American mass transit to
> avoid problems.
Okay, but does that have to translate into anxiousness? Paying attention to
things, even looking out for potential risks, doesn't have to feel negative
IMHO.
Consider the difference between " _hmm, that guy seems to be on drugs and
could be armed, I wonder if I 'll only get wounded, or if he'll actually kill
me_" and thinking, as you slightly shift position to something more useful
while pretending to not notice the person you're bracing yourself for: "
_okay, so when this guy thinks he 's attacking me from behind, as I watch his
reflection in the window, and just before I ram my heel into his nutsack with
the force of a thousand subway trains: which one of these people, who will all
no doubt fawn over my heroic move and rush over to see if I'm okay, will I
grin at, look deeply in the eye and ask out for dinner?_".
It's the same situation, just day dreaming near an unarmed guy who won't do
anything; but one actually gives you energy, the other drains it, for no
purpose. Of course the example is exaggerated, but still, being scared doesn't
help you at all, some might even say that's exactly what would attract an
evildoer, like blood in the water attracts piranhas. They want victims, not
challenges.
IMHO anxiety isn't a defense mechanism, it's a leak, an inefficiency. I don't
know if the word comes from "angst", but fear and angst are two very different
things. That is, one is a thing, the other is just a black hole which can
swallow up all sorts of things. I don't mean this in a finger waggling kind of
way, but more in a "you deserve even better" sort of way. I have sympathy for
anxious people, but not for anxiety, I think it's a poison.
All the best for you and all, if nothing else, take it in that spirit. _(I 'm
correct though :P)_
~~~
dannypgh
Either of your scenarios sound like anxiety to me. To me, not being anxious
means 1. being aware that the chances of something going bad are very small,
and 2. recognizing that worrying about it is usually not productive at best,
harmful at worst. In short I think you should aim to go from constantly
developing and updating a plan as to what to do if stranger attacks you, to
trusting yourself to be able to develop and execute a plan should the need
arise, and not spending time and energy worrying about it before then.
I think the non-anxious thing is to lazily initialize your defense mechanisms
/ responses to most would-be threats.
I didn't realize the extent of my anxiety until a bunch of months ago, when I
had a small dose of lorazepam. Suddenly, the inner voice in my head that when
riding in a car would usually be worrying "what if we crash or are pulled over
right now" for the duration of the ride was replaced with "ah, there's a
chance we might crash or be pulled over, but that chance is small, and
worrying about it now isn't going to impact it, so instead I'll let my mind
work on imagining what I could do with my free time tomorrow." It was quite
the difference.
Benzos are super addictive drugs and I wouldn't want to develop a habit (or
encourage their use lest others develop a habit), but seeing the contrast
motivated me to work on mindfulness and exercise to decrease my anxiety
levels.
~~~
PavlovsCat
Fair point, I got carried away a bit there :)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Open-sourcing PyTorch-BigGraph for faster embeddings of extremely large graphs - smhx
https://ai.facebook.com/blog/open-sourcing-pytorch-biggraph-for-faster-embeddings-of-extremely-large-graphs
======
bryanrasmussen
Don't see anything but my main problem is finding a good open source graph
engine (NEO4J level maturity or close) that I can install locally and develop
my application on and that allows me to spin up multiple graphs on the same
machine easily.
~~~
mark_l_watson
binarymax in another comment is correct about what PBG does. Still, I am
interested in combining deep learning and Neo4J (and possible RDF data stores
in the future) and I am experimenting with some code for a book project.
~~~
rahulkulhari
look at word octavian([https://www.octavian.ai/](https://www.octavian.ai/)) is
doing
~~~
mark_l_watson
Thanks! Interesting stuff.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Don’t Pull An All-Nighter - jeffio
http://jeff.io/posts/dont-pull-an-all-nighter
======
dalke
I've pulled all-nighters for star parties. Takes a while to get back on
schedule, but it's been worth it.
However, the thesis is that an all-nighter is bad for the project.
Unfortunately, the author mixes up an occasional all-nighter ("just this
once") with frequent all-nighters ("If you are at a point where you are
working 24 hours a day"), and without making a distinction between the two.
The problem with this is that I personally can point to cases where an all-
nighter worked - we added a couple of new features leading up to a demo at a
supercomputing conference, and stayed up all night the night before leaving.
They worked, and we scheduled in time to clean up the code.
The author calls out to "design" (by which I assume he means evolutionarily
designed), but omits cases like the story of Cliff Young, and the influence on
all-nighters for ultra-marathons. Clearly the best solution in that case is to
not sleep, and I will argue there are evolutionary reasons why we _can_ do
that.
------
mooism2
I don't pull all nighters on purpose, but if I have insomnia anyway I'll
sometimes spend a while coding before trying to get to sleep again.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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The Decline and Fall of the American Empire - serverdude
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/12/05/opinion/main7121029.shtml
Interesting article. The current selfish and misguided crop of politicians and the declining economy (and prospects) lead me to believe there is some truth to what this article states.
======
vorg
It seems we're at a crux in history and the world can go one of two ways,
depending on what America does:
1\. The US becomes a half-Western half-Asian nation and remains No.1, with
Europe/Russia and China/Asia a distant 2nd equal.
2\. The US slowly federates with Europe (and maybe also Russia), retaining its
primarily Western culture. The Europe/USA bloc and China each have equal
influence in the world.
(1) The first would happen through mass immigration...
> Nearly half of all graduate students in the sciences in the U.S. are now
> foreigners, most of whom will be heading home, not staying here as once
> would have happened
That's mainly because of the US government rules. Australia has more relaxed
rules and thus the international students stay. The US can change the rules
anytime it's expedient. The lessons from Canada, Australia, and NZ is that
eventually the people vote for whatever makes the house prices and rents go
back up. International students and immigrants make incomes from residential
property go up, both rent income and resale gains. Asians, mainly NE Asians,
have the most money, and many want to live in a Western country if they can.
If their children speak American English, then they're Americans.
The USA, like Canada, Australia and South America, is based on immigration. If
the US let in millions of educated and/or wealthy Chinese, they would come and
stay _for the same reasons_ Europeans came to America a century and more ago.
Ditto Indians, Koreans, Japanese, Thais. The individuality of their home
countries won't change, even in nominally "democratic" countries like Japan,
which is just a veneer over a very entrenched hierarchical society many young
people would escape if they could.
The US has a good food and water supply and can easily accept many millions
more immigrants. The Mississippi basin is the largest food growing area on the
planet, which is how it rose to global power in the first place. Other food
supplies, e.g. Yangtze and Ganges, feed many times the 300 million the
Mississippi feeds.
If half of America's citizens in 2030 weren't born there, America would still
be "No.1".
(2) The alternative is an international federation...
The US is a federation. Other Western countries became federations because of
the US example, e.g. Switzerland in 1860, Canada in 1880's, Australia in 1901,
Germany in 1948. With the EU, countries with different languages have half-
formed a federation. France and Germany may soon coordinate their fiscal and
tax policies, strengthening the federation.
As the US declines, it can surrender aspects of its sovereignty to a similar
international federation made up of other Western countries with similar
values. Perhaps it'll form a union with other majority English speaking
countries UK, Canada, Australia, and NZ. It's already united to them under the
UKUSA security and ABCA defense treaties. Perhaps it'll surrender sovereignty
to an enhanced NAFTA, sharing a common border with Canada and/or Mexico. 130
million Mexicans suddenly entering the US labor market under a shared labor
market would boost the economy massively. Or maybe the US and EU will form a
progressively closer union over the next 50 years. If Russia joins, that's 1
billion people, centered around the Arctic, with far more land and resources
than China, and especially India.
But the U.S. would be the biggest member of whatever bloc it joins, whether
Nafta, European countries, English-speaking countries, or even eventually all
three. It would therefore would have the most influence. Because Brazil is the
largest country in South America, it can indirectly control the entire
continent because the remaining people there who speak the other language are
divided into various "countries". In the same way the US could have the most
influence in any union it forms.
If "America" is defined as the constitution, the Immigration alternative
preserves America better. If "America" is defined as a Western culture, the
"Federation" alternative preserves America better. Perhaps both options (or
neither option) will play out for a while, but sooner or later one of them
will tip the future direction of America's future role in the world, and no-
one will know until much later. But there are other options not mention in the
article...
The US President and/or Congress could declare the homeland territory to be a
"battleground", thus enabling the military to "buy" (annex?) large areas of US
territory for military purposes, transfering their jurisdiction away from the
Supreme Court. Perhaps half of US territory could become a live-in "military
base". Freed from the restrictions of democracy and free speech, the military
could set up commercial/industrial zones with controls similar to China's,
thus competing on a more equal footing with China.
~~~
serverdude
Thanx for the very detailed and interesting analysis. Part of what would
determine US global leadership is how fast it adapts to the changing world
order and accepts the facts instead of hanging on to the past world where it
was dominant by a huge distance. This is not going to be easy though.
------
nate_meurer
I found the historical insights interesting -- the military misadventures of
dying empires in particular. But his energy analysis is a tad obtuse, and the
cyberwarfare scenario was nearly comedy. You can tell this person is an
historian.
I'm also uncomfortable with the way people talk about China sometimes; they're
clearly the new USSR in the minds of some Americans, and I question whether
that is warranted. China may well be a problem in many ways, but China also
_has_ big problems.
I personally believe that China's biggest problem is the same as that of the
rest of the world: the decline of cheap primary energy (peak-cheap-oil comes
first), and the decline of economic growth that will inevitably come with it.
It will hurt everybody, not just the americans.
------
bradleyland
I have no doubt that: In 25 years, we will be able to look back and review
commentary that seems to have foretold our current circumstance with almost
mystical accuracy.
I have tremendous doubt that: We can sift through the current commentary and
find the speaker who is correct about our future 25 years from now.
Looking in to the future is incredibly difficult because humans have the
capacity to change course. Who predicted the string of revolutions that
occurred in the Middle East this year? I'm sure someone did, but it wasn't the
subject of national discourse. At least not in the mainstream media.
I don't question that historically, all empires have met their end, but it is
unwise to let someone else dictate your future by writing in a journal.
------
mmx
Congress has a 9% approval rating, so why won't this change? Because people
hate Congress, but they like their Congressman. We need an education
revolution in this country and the Internet is the rail for that train, but
with issues like SOPA we have the wrong people trying to play conductor.
~~~
akkartik
I am _fascinated_ that this thread has repeated mentions of Congress. See my
response at <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3396655>
------
atarian
My friend and I have talked about this and what we would do if domestic unrest
would occur in America. My friend argued it'd be wise to move to a country
nobody really knows or cares about. I thought it'd be better to move to a more
modernized country.
------
serverdude
I think the most important set of folks that should receive their share of
blame is folks who voted the current crop of congressmen. I really feel that
we should have a "how to choose whom to vote for" as part of core curriculum
:)
~~~
akkartik
It's _utterly_ irrelevant who you vote for if the incentives are out of
kilter.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHma3ZQRVoA>
~~~
serverdude
I think there is some truth to what you say - but to say that it is "utterly
irrelevant" who you vote is a bit of hyperbole. In a democracy voting
ultimately decides who gets into power and what the policies would be.
~~~
akkartik
I'm going to stand by my statement. Please watch that video I shared. Yes they
can effect small changes but Congress is so captured by a few interests that
you can't stay within the confines of its day-to-day activities and change the
long-term trajectory. And the long-term trajectory _alone_ matters. Who cares
about swipe fees or any other such persnickety nonsense if the underlying rot
is ignored? It doesn't matter who you vote in, you won't be able to change
Congress's reliance on funding without doing something radical. And if you
can't do _that_ , anything else is utterly irrelevant.
~~~
serverdude
Sure, I watched the video. Thanks - it was a nice, instructive video.
All I am saying is that your statement is a "bit of hyperbole". Things are
_never_ black and white when we are talking about such complicated topics. As
an example, according to your statement, it would not have mattered if someone
else had been elected instead of Bush. Whereas I think it is highly likely
that Iraq war (for better or worse) would not have happened if Bush had not
been elected.
~~~
akkartik
But bush != congress.
Perhaps you're reading more hyperbole than I'm putting in :)
~~~
serverdude
Sure that certainly is one way of looking at it. When I said Bush - I did not
mean literally Bush. I think we both made our points - so I give it a rest :)
~~~
akkartik
Yeah. Just to clarify:
a) I'm claiming Congress is utterly irrelevant as it is today without outside
intervention.
b) There's lots of dysfunction to go around, but I never meant to make blanket
claims about anything but congress.
You're quite possibly right that my indignation is fresh and excessive after
watching that talk :)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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The Verge Says YouTube Reaction Videos Aren’t Fair Use, Sparking Backlash - _bxg1
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/02/the-verge-briefly-censored-youtubers-who-mocked-its-bad-pc-building-advice/
======
levythe
Playing a video and talking over it is not fair use. Too bad for The Verge,
that's not what was done.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Mocha VNC Lite (iPhone VNC) - superchink
http://lifehacker.com/398625/mocha-vnc-lite-is-simple-remote-control-for-iphones
======
sant0sk1
Now all we need is a terminal application and it'll be all good.
~~~
felideon
Agreed. Very nice though.
I heard (read) there might be an app to SSH from the iPhone, but that's about
it. And I don't think it would be free.
~~~
nuclear_eclipse
According to my friend with a 3G iPhone, he got (or will get) an app that
allows him to run SSH through his browser, or somesuch like that, so that the
app won't terminate when switching around, or whatever. I don't know because I
have an Openmoko, which comes out of the box with a terminal. :P
------
PStamatiou
this is very cool but does it crash for everyone else a lot?
edit - i lowered the resolution and it works a lot better
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Open Sourcing Katran: A Scalable Network Load Balancer - SEJeff
https://code.fb.com/open-source/open-sourcing-katran-a-scalable-network-load-balancer/
======
moneil971
This is from last May...why share now?
~~~
SEJeff
I found it interesting and hadn't seen it here.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Ask HN: Impossible to Write Good Software As a Service? - SamRichardson
I currently work at a digital agency, we offer our services to build websites for clients.<p>Now to write good software you need to iterate over it. I think we can all agree that it's also impossible to write a perfect spec of a product before it's built. Too many unknowns, interactions and hearsay.<p>The problem that we have is when working with clients you either:<p>a. Have a super detailed plan that the client signs off on before you build. You then run into all sorts of unforeseen problems. The client either pays for changes to the spec or you build a bad product. Either way the client is unhappy.<p>b. Have an informal plan of what you're planning where the client will continue to gouge additional work from you wherever they can. The clients happy but your business is earning an average of $30 an hour and your going home at 3am every night.<p>So,<p>B is realistic if you're going to be working to an hourly rate but no client wants that, they want to know an upfront final cost before they start. A is also not good, if the client is not happy, they're not going to come back.<p>How do you solve this paradox and offer software writing services that don't suck?
======
redguava
One solution for the upfront cost vs time and materials dilemma is to have an
in between model. Have a time and materials contract with a bonus for coming
in under a certain budget (or negatively a penalty for going over budget if
you must).
As for writing good code, unless your client is educated enough on the topic,
the won't want to pay for good code no matter what your contract. Sometimes
they might be justified too if there isn't going to be any maintenance, but
most often that's probably not the case.
I think your only option is to quote enough to cover doing it properly, and
sadly probably not get the job because you are more expensive than others.
I remember reading somewhere that when a client puts out a "tender" formal or
not, they typically choose one of the cheaper options, and therefore they
choose one of the vendors that least understands their requirements.
~~~
SamRichardson
I'm quite sure this is the same dilemma (or at least part of the problem)
which causes government projects to come in massively over budget and not
delivering on their promised feature set.
A recent project was delivered in Melbourne, Australia called Myki which I'm
assuming was delivered under scenario A from my original post (you can read
about it here: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myki#Criticism>)
I like the idea of the mixed model though, that has some potential to it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Trump weighs mobilizing National Guard for immigration roundups - secfirstmd
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TRUMP_NATIONAL_GUARD?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-02-17-10-22-45
======
MrZongle2
That's a pretty alarming headline. If I were in the United States illegally,
I'd be freaking out a bit after reading that.
Of course, you don't actually get a substantive quote until the fourth
paragraph: _" White House spokesman Sean Spicer said the AP report was "100
percent not true" and "irresponsible." ''There is no effort at all to utilize
the National Guard to round up unauthorized immigrants," he said."_
Fake news, indeed.
~~~
dekhn
It's not fake that somebody at DHS wrote, and distributed a memo proposing
this- that part is not being questioned (the memo itself has been obtained).
Linking it the the Trump administration or implying that it was being
considered, there is no evidence for.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Cultural history captured in 5-minute film - vinnyglennon
http://www.nature.com/news/humanity-s-cultural-history-captured-in-5-minute-film-1.15650
======
oska
There is such an obvious bias in the data to Western Europeans and North
Americans that I wonder at the hubris displayed in titling this as "Humanity's
cultural history".
~~~
jvm
The most shocking was when they said that the important people in 17th century
Japan were all missionaries... surely some of the least important people in
the country at that time!
------
CmonDev
American historians strike again!
------
dang
Url changed from [http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog/watch-2600-years-
of-...](http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog/watch-2600-years-of-culture-
grow-and-die), which points to this.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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To Be More Creative, Cheer Up - dnetesn
http://nautil.us/issue/20/creativity/to-be-more-creative-cheer-up-rd
======
j_baker
I have to say, I can't help thinking the author doesn't know anything about
Hemingway or Picasso. Both are very famous examples of how _depression_ can be
creative. You can name many others like Virginia Woolf or Emily Dickenson.
I think both depression and exuberance can be creative, albeit creative in
different ways. Exuberance is very good for, as the author notes, divergent
thinking. You simply have the ability to come up with so many positive
possibilities. Depression on the other hand is very converging. You just know
_for sure_ that something bad is going to happen.
EDIT: I should add that Hemingway at least was likely bipolar. So it may very
well be that he's a good example of how both depression _and_ exuberance can
be creative.
~~~
kevin_thibedeau
> Both are very famous examples of how depression can be creative.
That probably had more to do with their substance abuse.
~~~
j_baker
We don't really know the full relationship between substance abuse and mental
illness. There's a very well-known correlation between the two, but it's
questionable whether the substance abuse causes mental illness or the mental
illness causes the substance abuse. It's likely some combination of the two:
the substance abuse aids the mental illness and the mental illness aids the
substance abuse.
~~~
coldtea
Or, you know, actual sensitivity and sadness for something causes both
depression and substance abuse.
It's not like don't have things to be sad and depressed about, creative people
doubly so.
Thinking it's all just chemicals gone bad in the brain is the fad of the day,
like electroshock treatment for gays and ADD over-perscription in previous
decades.
People are always conflating circumstantial pepression with "mental illness"
but it's not the same.
Or, even worse, a lot of persons with circumstantial pepression prefer to
think they have a "chemical imbalance" to get people to think they are
absolved of any influence in the matter. Which is the wrong reason, because
with circumstantial depression you also don't have much, if any, influence in
the matter. It's not like you can reverse the loss of a love or failed
ambitions, for example, and just rewire your psyche to not care about those.
(Doctors of course, eager to prescribe anything and with no time for subtle
distinctions, easily assure them that they indeed have a "mental illness".
There was a whole counter-culture movement in medical circles criticizing that
in the '60s and '70s, with is sadly forgotten.).
~~~
beatpanda
Not quite forgotten:
[http://www.theicarusproject.net](http://www.theicarusproject.net)
------
jackmaney
I know that one isn't supposed to judge a book by its cover, but I refuse to
take Kirsten Weir seriously by the title of this article alone.
"Are you depressed? Cheer up!"
"Are you in a wheelchair? Get up and walk around!"
"Struggling with money? Try _not_ being so poor!"
The title of that article makes me unreasonably angry.
~~~
denova
It's different! Not being creative isn't the opposite of being cheery. The
assumption is that the reader may not see any connection at all between
happiness and creativity, and that the association might provide some insight.
Though if you're like me and are only happy when you are able to create
things, I can see why you would be irked.
~~~
jackmaney
I honestly can't tell if you're trying to troll me or not. Is there any adult
alive who hasn't at one point realized that being depressed might--just MIGHT
--impact one's ability to be creative?
~~~
coldtea
Again with "depressed".
Not being cheery is not the same as depression.
It's a super-set that includes depression cases as a small subset.
If only depressed people were moody and grumpy... We'd all be smiling and
singing all the time...
------
drzaiusapelord
>Bilder offers up one last bit of practical advice: Just get your ideas out
there—on paper, on canvas, out of your head.
This is why a lot of creative keep a "brainjuice" file full of half-cooked
ideas they can later dip into. When you have some creative energy, its easy to
just dump it out and then, later, when you're in a more sober and productive
mood, start implementing those ideas in an effective manner. Or as writers
say: write drunk, edit sober.
~~~
kleer001
This is exactly how I make music. There's three distinct steps, sound
creation, arrangement, and mastering. Usually I don't spend more than 15-30
minutes on any one track and sometimes as little as 5-10. But I have a huge
pile of unfinished work in various stages, some I never get back to, but some
I finish happily enough. My key to creative happiness is to be entertained,
engaged, and moving forward.
~~~
kendallpark
This is how I write my essays. Out of order. I toy with ideas, play with
arguments. Lots of disjointed paragraphs in a single document. Then I step
back, look at them, pick out my strongest points and stitch them together into
a cohesive paper (dumping quite a lot of work along the way).
~~~
kleer001
> dumping quite a lot of work along the way
As if your work were... say... evolving?
------
anapparition
Counter examples (a few):
Hemingway, Sylvia Plath, Larry David, Kafka, Schubert, Heraclitus, Beckett,
Beyonce, William James, Henry James, David Foster Wallace, Winona Ryder, HP
Lovecraft, Mozart, Oppenheimer, Rilke, Celine, Faulkner, Baudelaire, Newton,
Nietzsche, Rachmanioff, Craig Ferguson.
One of the main thrusts of the article, that incubation of ideas often occurs
during divergent thinking, does not entail that one must be in a cheerful mood
(in fact, one could view many forms of depression as extended periods of
divergent thinking), despite the study referenced therein, which claims
"People are more likely to maintain broader attention and solve problems when
they’re in a positive mood." Moreover, the studies represent data on a
statistical average (and probably apply largely to settings conducive to such
studies, like sorting blocks, or playing Jenga in a novel way), while many
historical examples of creative minds suffered prolonged periods of
depression.
Finally, I wonder, how many man-hours have been wasted on clickbait?
------
rbrogan
A lot of nice information in the article. I think people can be more creative
than they realize if they (1) legitimize associative thinking (this is what I
translate "being uninhibited" to mean) and (2) insist that they have a basic
capacity for being creative. Creativity often does not come immediately when
you want it, so (IMO) when it does not, you have to insist you still have the
capacity rather than treat that as a failure and give up.
------
Intoo
[http://www.wired.com/2010/10/feeling-sad-makes-us-more-
creat...](http://www.wired.com/2010/10/feeling-sad-makes-us-more-creative/)
Just above in the news someone posted an article about being more creative
when sad. Which one is wrong?
~~~
shepardrtc
Feeling sad can motivate you to try things to make yourself happy.
Feeling happy can motivate you to try things that make you happy.
~~~
Intoo
What is the difference between yourself and you? I don't see any
------
pasbesoin
To cheer up, _fix your environment_. (And your health.)
Most of the unhappiness I've encountered has related to poor environment. Wear
and tear over time brought on increasing poor health -- another significant
factor.
Meantime, I had people telling me I simply needed to "adapt". Consistently,
_I_ was supposed to change in order to meet _their_ goals.
It was the rare person who simply took me as I am and genuinely sought to work
_with_ that to mutual advantage. Those people and occasions were some of the
most productive of my life.
A consequence of all this, is that I tend to think _quite_ poorly of most
prescriptive advice. When people are all busy talking at you, they're hardly
ever actually listening to you.
------
jganetsk
Also on Hacker News home page: "Feeling Sad Makes Us More Creative"
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8915681](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8915681)
Well, which is it?
~~~
beobab
Maybe: Extremes of feeling make us more creative? (just a guess, mind)
~~~
collyw
But then we also have "How boredom can boost creativity". I wouldn't say
boredom is an extreme feeling.
------
andrewfelix
Decent article. Appalling title. There was essentially only one paragraph that
dealt with the importance of a positive mood on creativity. The article
outlined many other more important factors.
------
barrystaes
In other news: (same HN page)
Feeling Sad Makes Us More Creative (wired.com)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8915681](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8915681)
~~~
dspillett
Also, being bored makes us more creative:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8915371](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8915371)
From those results we could make one of three conclusions:
* Any sufficiently strong emotional response inspires creativity
* Different people respond to different emotional queues and the studies had samples of people biased in different directions
* It is all a load of bunkum.
------
spanko_at_large
[http://nautil.us/blog/how-meaning-withdrawal-aka-boredom-
can...](http://nautil.us/blog/how-meaning-withdrawal-aka-boredom-can-boost-
creativity)
[http://www.wired.com/2010/10/feeling-sad-makes-us-more-
creat...](http://www.wired.com/2010/10/feeling-sad-makes-us-more-creative/)
Clearly everything boosts creativity
------
exo762
>> After all, creativity may be the key to Homo sapiens’ success.
Unlikely. Creativity in this context is only useful when it's about problem
solving. Otherwise it's about art at most. And problem solving may or may not
be creative. Point - problem is gone, everyone can move on.
------
ytturbed
One thing the article gets right I believe is that highly creative people are
annoying, almost psychotic individuals. It can't be otherwise. If they cared
what other people thought as much as the rest of us do they'd self-censor
their ideas.
------
collyw
Didn't reads the article yet, but it seems ironic that the front page
currently contains three articles :
"Feeling sad makes us more creative", "How boredom can boost creativity", and
this one, "To be more create cheer up".
------
hugs
This article reminds me why I don't like working in a busy office. For me,
it's very hard to get into divergent thinking mode with other people around.
------
contingencies
TLDR; _drink_.
~~~
palmer_eldritch
And with this added element, we got the missing link between "To Be More
Creative, Cheer Up" and "Feeling Sad Makes Us More Creative".
On one hand, drinking will cheer you up. On the other hand, it will also make
you feel miserable.
Add to that the fact that boredom is one of the top reasons to drink and we
have a link with "How Boredom Can Boost Creativity".
To quote Bukowski: "That's the problem with drinking, I thought, as I poured
myself a drink. If something bad happens you drink in an attempt to forget; if
something good happens you drink in order to celebrate; and if nothing happens
you drink to make something happen."
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Kavanaugh's defense of NSA phone surveillance looms as confirmation question - notscj
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house/brett-kavanaughs-defense-of-nsa-phone-surveillance-looms-as-confirmation-question
======
monetus
Also, his words on net neutrality:
“In short, although the briefs and commentary about the net neutrality issue
are voluminous, the legal analysis is straightforward: If the Supreme Court’s
major rules doctrine means what it says, then the net neutrality rule is
unlawful because Congress has not clearly authorized the FCC to issue this
major rule. And if the Supreme Court’s Turner Broadcasting decisions mean what
they say, then the net neutrality rule is unlawful because the rule
impermissibly infringes on the Internet service providers’ editorial
discretion. To state the obvious, the Supreme Court could always refine or
reconsider the major rules doctrine or its decisions in the Turner
Broadcasting cases. But as a lower court, we do not possess that power. Our
job is to apply Supreme Court precedent as it stands. For those two
alternative and independent reasons, the FCC’s net neutrality regulation is
unlawful and must be vacated.”
He certainly doesn't sound like an activist judge, so Susan Collins will
likely approve of him. I am very pessimistic about the future.
~~~
masonic
Would you prefer a system where law can be overruled by the stroke of an
unelected administrator's pen? All he this says is that if government wants a
power, it has to follow a _legal_ process to obtain it.
We _had_ net neutrality under GWB. We _lost_ it under Obama by a botched
change in administration governance without corresponding legislation.
~~~
monetus
No, of course I wouldn't. I wasn't lamenting net neutrality, I was lamenting
that I think he will be confirmed by means of those measured statements. The
due process isn't upsetting, the fact the court will likely be regressive is.
With you having made me think about it, I'm pretty sure the supreme court
judges are unelected administrators. Our Congress isn't representative, so I
don't think their confirmation process is either.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Jig.com domain (tasty labs prev. owned) sold to Wal Mart - larrys
http://who.is/whois/jig.com/
======
larrys
Previous discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2927374](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2927374)
Whois info:
Registrant: Domain Administrator Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. 702 S.W. 8th Street
Bentonville AR 72716-0520 US domains@wal-mart.com +1.4792734000 Fax:
+1.4792775991
Domain Name: jig.com
Registrar Name: Markmonitor.com
Registrar Whois: whois.markmonitor.com
Registrar Homepage: http://www.markmonitor.com
Administrative Contact:
Domain Administrator
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
702 S.W. 8th Street
Bentonville AR 72716-0520
US
domains@wal-mart.com +1.4792734000 Fax: +1.4792775991
Technical Contact, Zone Contact:
DNS Management, Wal-Mart
DNS Management, Wal-Mart
805 Moberly Ln., M31
Bentonville AR 72716-0560
US
dns@wal-mart.com +1.4792734000 Fax: +1.4792775991
Created on..............: 1995-03-07.
Expires on..............: 2016-03-08.
Record last updated on..: 2013-06-19.
Domain servers in listed order:
ns-930.awsdns-52.net
ns-1109.awsdns-10.org
ns-245.awsdns-30.com
ns-1804.awsdns-33.co.uk
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Ask HN: How did employees do after the Jet.com acquisition? - seattle_spring
As the title said-- I'm just curious how the rank and file employees and engineers fared with the acquisition.
======
wyc
From my understanding, the Jet.com deal was more of an acquihire to get Marc
Lore to work for walmart.com[1]. The Jet.com numbers didn't look good at all,
and they were rapidly burning through capital. Walmart didn't have technology
as a core competency (nothing wrong with that), so it saw an opportunity to
grow into the digital space through this acquisition. This leads me to think
that everyone from the company is likely in golden cuffs.
[1] see the subtle language that suggests Lore will be working on walmart.com:
[http://fortune.com/2016/09/20/walmart-acquisition-
jetcom/](http://fortune.com/2016/09/20/walmart-acquisition-jetcom/)
~~~
sbov
> Walmart didn't have technology as a core competency
Is this really true? Isn't the prototypical example of real world big data
that Walmart learned to stock pop tarts before hurricanes? They also seem to
have a wide range of tech related jobs at their job portal.
~~~
dbcurtis
Walmart clearly knows how to leverage technology. Their business is built
around using technology to lower costs and manage the flow of inventory.
Walmart has always relied very heavily on IT, and has been a driver of retail
IT innovation.
My take is that even a very seasoned technology team with a deep bench can
occasionally miss the beginning of something important, and be forced to catch
up. 1) Don't let that be you. 2) Admit it, someday it _will_ be you, so don't
be so arrogant that you can't start executing plan B.
~~~
qmarchi
Full Disclosure: I work at Wally World
Wal-Mart does use IT to improve the flow of inventory, but also to improve our
interactions with shoppers, employees, and the communities that the stores are
based in.
We recently just had an internal hackathon, of which there was everything from
AI to complete redesigns of our business model. I guarantee that one of those
will become a full project withing the walls.
Insane Ideas. Save Money. Live Better
~~~
burntrelish1273
Curious: WalMart proper or WalMart Labs?
Unsolicited, free-to-steal idea dept.: I think there's a non-zero market (in
some markets) to charge/invite customers to shop outside NBH / even shutdown
24/7 store temporarily for the right $$$$. I, for one, hate shopping with
huge, slow crowds... I'll go somewhere else and/or only go during low-traffic
hours. Btw, Costco (and what was PriceClub) used to do this (eg early hours)
for commercial and executive customers... (oddly, IDKW I haven't downgraded to
Basic given there's almost no advantage to Executive these days.) Apple,
although upmarket extreme, also does this for shopping and training.
Also, wish large chains would trial Amazon Go-style cashierless checkout, but
perhaps adding a paper receipt for legacy interop/loss prevention/audit. All
kinds of great, reusable data could be had with ML/CV with real-time, total
product awareness. Lots-and-lots of cameras, networking and datacenter
floorspace... but likely worth the investment. AI tallying up what was taken
as-it-goes saves a great deal of human effort and customer time, basically an
inevitable modality.
EDIT: Maybe in the future, we won't even need stores when/if drones can bring
things around to try out/handle returns/prevent loss. Can picture drones from
multiple vendors jostling to sell competing product, getting angry with each
other and undercutting pricing of each other in real-time. Perhaps even drones
carrying flowers / selling "Rolex'es" on a train.
~~~
joshka
Sam's club has cashierless payment
[https://www.samsclub.com/sams/pagedetails/content.jsp?pageNa...](https://www.samsclub.com/sams/pagedetails/content.jsp?pageName=scan-
and-go)
~~~
jack_kc
This is a great app. Sam's Club has been my grocery store of choice since I
started using this app.
------
markwaldron
I work about 3 blocks down the road from them in Hoboken, and I've seen an
influx of nicer cars in the area. Not sure if there is a correlation between
the two.
~~~
pvitz
Or a causal connection ;)
------
LaurenceW1
Just fine...
Disclaimer: I work there.
~~~
justanotheratom
Is the use of F# intact?
~~~
LaurenceW1
yep
~~~
busterarm
You hiring? :D
~~~
qmarchi
Plenty of positions open at Corporate. Might need to move to Bentonville.
------
swingbridge
From what I was told employees did well but not anywhere nearly as well as
some of the numbers that had been initially tossed around (e.g. In regards to
the contest winner that got options for signing people up). There were a lot
of people that had to get paid before the employees got their cut.
That said no matter how you slice it, it was an impressive deal considering
the company itself was burning cash like crazy and failing badly on their
original mission of going head to head with Amazon. Well done to the team
there. Only time will tell if saving Jet was ultimately a good move for
WalMart.
------
MsABalakrishnan
For what it's worth, I wrote that viral article about the Jet content winner
([http://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/08/this-pennsylvania-guy-
probabl...](http://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/08/this-pennsylvania-guy-probably-
made-a-killing-on-the-wal-mart-jetcom-deal.html)) and afterward, Jet pretty
seriously clamped down on who would talk to me. I would love to talk to Jet
employees anonymously about how it all went down! It was super interesting.
------
djb_hackernews
IIRC, Jet was handing out equity in lots in order to hide the percentage of
equity granted. This typically means a) They want to hide how little piece of
the pie you are getting b) They are going to do further shady stuff like
reverse splits, clawbacks, etc
Edit: The employee in this thread is still working so not FU money. Maybe "FU
for a year while I travel the world" money.
------
princetontiger
I know a person who works there, and he has never mentioned it once. I presume
if it was F-U money, there would be some conspicuous consumption. He joined a
year before the acquisition.
~~~
up_and_up
A year before an exit prob means they only vested like 25% percent of their
options. At that stage they were prob pretty expensive options and highly
diluted. Options are not much good if they are not vested and priced too high.
~~~
harryh
Typically when a company is acquired unvested employee options are converted
into options in the acquiring company's stock. So in this example the employee
in question would just have to work another three years to realize the gains
(just as he would have had to do otherwise).
------
sk5t
Although not apropos to the question posed, I'd like to share that my recent,
first (and final) attempt to buy something from jet.com went about as poorly
as it could have, given that I ordered a readily-available monitor, and it
took Jet a full week to arrive at the conclusion that they could not actually
procure/sell it to me. Rather pathetic.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Microsoft Sandboxes Windows Defender - chablent
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-sandboxes-windows-defender/
======
Someone1234
This is great news. The old implementation was a little scary, they had a full
JavaScript parsing engine (and other similar parsers) running as SYSTEM. You
can get a sense of it via this Project Zero bug report:
[https://bugs.chromium.org/p/project-
zero/issues/detail?id=12...](https://bugs.chromium.org/p/project-
zero/issues/detail?id=1252)
That specific bug and others were of course fixed.
The issue is that such complex code is hard to write well in the language
they're using, and running as SYSTEM is just asking for a zero day take over
from simply visiting a site with a malicious file or an unread email.
I hope other AV vendors follow suit on the component sandboxing. They're
scanning untrusted files, who will happily try to crash or take-over the AV
process itself.
------
hs86
Microsoft's announcement:
[https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/microsoftsecure/2018/10/26/...](https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/microsoftsecure/2018/10/26/windows-
defender-antivirus-can-now-run-in-a-sandbox/)
~~~
ccnafr
Yo mods... can we stop the blog-spam?
~~~
mathnode
Recently I linked to a press release for a software acquisition, but mine was
marked as a dupe, and the blog link promoted.
I am not trying to get them sweet sweet up-votes. Just engage in my community.
~~~
xenophonf
Press releases are glorified advertisements. Please post something more
substantive instead. Even release notes or change logs are better. An actual
review like the really awesome in-depth Mac OS X reviews of yore would be even
better.
~~~
Ajedi32
I'd much rather read a glorified advertisement than a news article
regurgitating various portions of the glorified advertisement, interspersed
with a bunch of filler, ads, and background information I already know.
------
youdontknowtho
I know that sandboxing is desirable here, but it runs as SYSTEM. How do you
sandbox something running as SYSTEM? They must have changed the identity of
Defender. That's all I can come up with. Anyone else know how this works?
~~~
userbinator
I believe it runs with even higher privileges than SYSTEM --- a while ago I
had to deal with an unresponsive and 100%-CPU-consuming scanner process, which
I tried to kill it from a command prompt running as SYSTEM, and it still said
"access denied".
I know the reasoning is "if SYSTEM can kill it then so can malware", but still
a bit unsettling that there's processes running on your system that even the
owner doesn't have privilege to control.
~~~
ourmandave
_...but still a bit unsettling that there 's processes running on your system
that even the owner doesn't have privilege to control._
Welcome to Windows 10 Home Edition!
~~~
tbronchain
Can you get higher system privileges on other editions?
------
Too
Why not sandbox applications instead and remove any reason for defender to
exist in the first place.
~~~
viraptor
There's a reason for defender even with a sandboxed app. Exploiting the
sandboxed app may not allow the virus to access other parts of the system, but
it still allows messing with the apps memory and spreading online (you likely
got it from an app with network permissions in the first place)
------
excalibur
The diagram at the top of this article is amusing.
~~~
Lukas_Skywalker
Bugs me that the "secure sandbox" arrow isn't pointing from the label
_towards_ the sandbox. Makes it look like a flow diagram.
------
Lapsa
windows anti-malware-something frequently eats up half of my processor power.
got batch file on desktop to suspend it. sad
~~~
uryga
could you please share the script? i wanted to do that too but never got
around to it.
(it's especially bad when something creates a lot of small files, because
Service Executable starts scanning them, and whitelisting processes doesn't
seem to do much to deter it)
------
ahoka
From the official blog post:
"Users can also force the sandboxing implementation to be enabled by setting a
machine-wide environment variable (setx /M MP_FORCE_USE_SANDBOX 1) and
restarting the machine. This is currently supported on Windows 10, version
1703 or later."
------
ericcholis
Slight tangent, strawpoll on what everybody prefers for their Antivirus these
days. Corporate and personal. I've been using ESET for years and anecdotally
never had any issue.
~~~
EliRivers
You know, I've pretty much stopped using them. Haven't had one installed on a
Win machine for a few years.
I take a handful of basic precautions along the lines of closing ports,
installing OS updates, having my eMail text only and passive, disabling a few
things on the web browser and never downloading/running anything suspicious.
It's been good enough that the last time I installed a new Win, a dedicated
antivirus didn't even occur to me.
On occasion I'll run a malware finder when I'm seeing odd behaviour and want
to be sure, but I can't remember the last time there was a genuine positive
find.
~~~
52-6F-62
I’m pretty much in the same boat here for a few years now.
I believe I ran some Symantec search tool once when things seemed off and was
able to install a targeted removal tool by them and remove them afterward.
Same principles with my macs.
Any Linux machine I use tends to be virtual and pretty blackboxed save web,
ssh, and ssl ports. (And maybe a port open connected to a database)
------
RaleyField
Welcome to 2006. Only took them 12 years.
~~~
neolefty
Are there other sandboxed security scanners?
~~~
RaleyField
I hope I'm getting downvoted for my sarky tone.
There have been stories that other vendors are even worse but it doesn't
matter, they should've updated Defender 12 years ago concurrently with IE as
they were developing the tech for Vista, because.. Defender has high false
negative detection ratio and so is a plan B, hail marry kind of technology -
you should do everything so that you don't rely on it working as it works only
passably well for a percentage of stale threats. That's why if it and similar
software is enabled it should affect your security only additively and should
never contribute to attack surface. Instead in an effort to check if a file
contains any of months old malware you get pwned by a bug in decompression
function for a file that that you didn't even open that just passed your
system and so you'd survive the attack if it weren't for the system that tries
to help you survive attacks stupidly.
------
vectorEQ
"unless the attacker finds a way to escape the sandbox, which is among the
toughest things to do, the system remains safe."
How was that determined xD.... wtf. There have been trivial sandbox escapes
for most sandboxes in existence...
stopped reading there >.> pure speculation on how effective this thing will
really be in the first paragraph, casts doubt on the accuracy of the rest of
the information.
~~~
shawnz
It was determined by design. If the sandbox were trivial to bypass, why have
it at all? The sandbox has to meet those conditions or it's a non-starter. And
regardless, it would certainly be easier to audit the security of a small
component like a sandbox versus the entirety of the Windows Defender
application.
------
mtgx
I imagine Windows Defender has been and will continue to be (even after this)
nation state intelligence agencies' #1 way to get into users' Windows PCs.
I for one haven't trusted Windows Defender in a while, both because I don't
trust Microsoft not to be malicious with it (at the very least they've
steadily increased the amount and types of telemetry they collect through it)
and also because it's such an easy target for all sorts of attackers.
~~~
cwyers
If Microsoft was going to put in a backdoor into Windows PCs, _why would they
put it in an optional component?_
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Seed.happyfuncorp.com - bschippers718
http://tech.co/happyfuncorp-happy-seed-will-simplify-standardize-app-development-2014-08
======
mperejda
Powerful tool for new and experienced devs. Lowers the cost of creation and
enables more awesome stuff to be built. Love it.
------
pavanagrawal
Awesome concept,most of the time, I stuck what are things to start with. 100%
is a must have.
Great initiative.
------
bschippers718
I do think this can really go a very long way for the development community,
we hope people helps share and contribute.
------
g1028
Awesome!
------
foxmulder
I stopped dreading setting up a new project.
------
promulo
this is really interesting, I'll surely use in future projects!
------
amitk1508
Great to have such info handy!
------
combray
I use this for all my applications.
------
fabioruxo
Added to my toolbox!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Weedkiller in Our Food Is Killing Us? - simonebrunozzi
https://medium.com/the-guardian/the-weedkiller-in-our-food-is-killing-us-5598c440205f
======
IshKebab
Woah first time I've seen "This story is for Medium members". I guess this is
when people will start abandoning Medium.
------
mattferderer
Here's the link on Guardian's website without a paywall -
[https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/06/the-
we...](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/06/the-weedkiller-
in-our-food-is-killing-us)
Edit - Personal note - I know farmers who are disgusted that the industry now
sprays crops with weed killer not only before the crops have produced food but
also directly on the edible portions right before harvest as a means of drying
the moisture out of the crops so they can be harvested before winter. Many
elevators will not purchase the crops if the moisture content is to high.
------
LinuxBender
Seems to be a paywall.
I would second this. Something has been causing adrenal gland issues for me
and it is raising my blood pressure. BP drugs (all types) don't help at all.
It seems more and more people are having this problem. I don't know how people
are going to deal with the nasty side effects from damage to lymph nodes and
adrenal glands.
~~~
codewritinfool
I had a Yunnan tea habit of about a pound a month for 26 months then found out
my thyroid function went to almost zero. Blood tests a month after I stopped
showed heavy metal exposure down in the noise, so was it pesticides? Is it
even related to the tea? I may never know. Now I'm on synthroid for the rest
of my life.
~~~
LinuxBender
Yikes. If you still have any of the tea, perhaps get it tested. The FDA could
possibly make a public notice/recall.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Anwendo - alexvu
https://anwendo.com
======
alexvu
Hello Hacker News Community,
I'm founder, will be very glad about any feedback.
Thanks, Alex
------
sophisticateds
does it support file uploads?
~~~
alexvu
Yes, it does - it captures file upload event and you can customize test files
afterwords.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Met Office forecasters set for 'billion pound' supercomputer - aluket
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-51504002
======
jjgreen
I guess this is not unrelated to the ECMWF departing Reading for Bologna
[https://www.ecmwf.int/en/learning/workshops/ecmwf-
bologna-20...](https://www.ecmwf.int/en/learning/workshops/ecmwf-
bologna-2020-panel-discussion)
~~~
timthorn
This is unrelated. The Met Office is going out for a new platform to run daily
forecasts rather than climate models, as the current machine reaches end of
life in 2022.
~~~
jjgreen
I stand corrected
------
jetrink
One interesting fact that I learned from Nate Silver's book, The Signal and
the Noise, is that weather forecasting is a four-dimensional problem (space +
time), so to produce a forecast that is twice as detailed requires
approximately 16x the computing resources. Historically, the resolution of
weather forecasts has doubled roughly every eight years, in line with with
Moore's Law.
~~~
monocasa
I heard that it's twelve dimensional. Used to work with a guy who's PHD thesis
was on the diffeq of weather predictions.
~~~
brandmeyer
The time-spatial discretization is 4D. There are many different state
variables within each grid cell.
~~~
craftinator
Vorticity patterns are often treated as an additional set of 3 dimensions,
because they require continuous differentiation. Modern weather forecasting
software is a beast.
~~~
brandmeyer
I've done some reading through the literature on the dynamical cores of
weather models. It isn't really true that vorticity is modeled as an
additional set of dimensions.
Vorticity and divergence are an alternative description of the fluid velocity.
They are the curl and div of the fluid velocity, respectively.
Just as the fluid velocity may be discretized in 3 spatial and one time
dimension, the fluid's vorticity and divergence may be discretized in three
spatial and one time dimension.
------
mrosett
Ah - I momentarily forgot that the Met Office is in a country where “pound” is
a measurement of money, not weight.
This made me curious. Apparently supercomputers can weigh 1 million pounds
[0]. So a billion pound supercomputer in the US would be ~1000x more powerful
than a billion pound supercomputer in the UK and cost a few percent of GDP to
build.
~~~
myhf
In some countries, one "billion" means 1,000,000,000,000 instead of
1,000,000,000, so there it would be exactly 1000x more powerful than in the
UK.
~~~
ubercow13
Wasn't that originally a British thing? But we adopted the American billion
ages ago. Are there other countries where it's still used?
~~~
belinder
germany, holland, belgium, maybe more
------
martinpw
Seems there is not much information yet on the actual hardware. Quick search
found this:
[https://siliconangle.com/2020/02/17/hpes-cray-tapped-
build-m...](https://siliconangle.com/2020/02/17/hpes-cray-tapped-build-
massive-1-6b-weather-supercomputer-uk/)
Eventually reaching 145 PFlops
The Met Office didn’t share further hardware details other than the fact that
the supercomputer will incorporate graphics processing cards.
------
mqus
There are also some voices that attribute bad local weather forecasts to
closed weatherstations and errorprone digital replacements to manual
measurements... But hey, new supercomputers are cool!
------
vosper
The Omega Tau podcast did an interesting episode about weather modeling at the
European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecasts
[https://omegataupodcast.net/326-weather-forecasting-at-
the-e...](https://omegataupodcast.net/326-weather-forecasting-at-the-ecmwf/)
------
dtf
Interesting they’re talking about colocating it in EEA countries. I see the
rationale for Iceland and Norway, but why specify them as EEA? Is there a
post-Brexit strategic angle to this? (considering the large sum of public
money involved)
~~~
tgflynn
If the goal of the remote location is access to stable renewable energy
wouldn't a South European location make more sense ?
~~~
renaudg
The article says "easy sources of clean energy" : that doesn't actually fully
equate to "renewable energy".
Assuming that "clean" really means "low carbon", then only majority
nuclear/hydro/geothermal electricity grids can currently achieve that.
Wind/solar on the other hand are intermittent, and always need to be
complemented with "dispatchable" energy sources to handle the base load.
That can either be hydro/geothermal if you were blessed with the right
geography (like Iceland or Sweden), nuclear if you weren't but are pragmatic
about it (like France), or coal/gas if you got scared of nuclear but still
have a large country to power (like Germany).
I'm stressing the latter because, even as Germany is rightfully praised as a
renewables champion that invested billions to be 70% wind/solar powered on a
very good day, that's all in vain when it comes to climate change : coal/gas
is so bad that their average carbon intensity of electricity production is
still mediocre (see [http://electricitymap.org/](http://electricitymap.org/))
So, renewables doesn't always mean low carbon. If that's the primary concern
for the location, France is probably their best bet (nearly as low carbon
intensity as Iceland, and much closer to the UK)
~~~
tgflynn
> Wind/solar on the other hand are intermittent, and always need to be
> complemented with "dispatchable" energy sources to handle the base load.
I've seen people claim here that battery storage already represents a good
solution to that problem. Elon Musk's battery storage project in Australia
seems to be successful and powering a supercomputer would probably require a
much smaller installation.
------
tgflynn
I'm surprised to see a supercomputer cross the 1 billion pound/euro/dollar
mark.
Previous recent supercomputers seem to have cost in the low nine figures.
I realize the price tag includes a decade of operation but that still seems
like quite a leap.
~~~
bitminer
The "cost of ownership" is often approximately 33%/33%/33% for capital cost
(annually), support (annually) and users& operations. Of course being
government they probably don't account for the costs on an accrual basis.
Two machines, 5 years apart, and 66% non-hardware for ten years is, what, 250
or 300 millions for the pair of them?
~~~
tgflynn
I'm not sure what exactly they're including in the operating costs. If they
include salaries for researchers, meteorologists, programmers, etc. I could
definitely see it hit a billion over 10 years. But then it would seem a bit
misleading to call it a "billion pound" supercomputer.
------
lambertsimnel
A previous Met Office supercomputer purchase was discussed here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8519820](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8519820)
------
TrolTure
From an outside perspective I have to wonder if a billion pound investment in
forecasting/science would not deliver better long term ROI.
~~~
clickok
It depends– if you're trying to run a specific algorithm on your new
supercomputer, then you'd almost certainly be better off paying for
researchers to optimize or improve on that algorithm. If that's the situation
(which it is for e.g. weather forecasting or computational fluid dynamics),
then a billion pound supercomputer is likely to be more of a boondoggle than a
sharp-eyed investment. A good implementation on a desktop can beat a bad one
running on a supercomputer.
But if it's a time-sharing system, then it might not matter as much. The
supercomputer at my university tends to run a lot of one-off jobs like an
experiment repeated thousands of times with different parameters. On a desktop
that might take weeks, but if run in parallel it's like a couple hours.
Tightly optimized code might bring that down to an hour on the cluster (or a
mere week on my home PC) but I wouldn't bother because making the code more
efficient might itself take a week or more. So the fastest way to get the
results I need would be to just run it on the supercomputer.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Epic Games Store is now live - Reedx
https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/
======
portmanteaufu
I always instinctively click on the `[dupe]` tag assuming that it will take me
to the original, preferred post. Someday, perhaps.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The dirty little secret about Google Android - milesf
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/the-dirty-little-secret-about-google-android/38260
======
nanairo
(disclaimer: I realise HN is full of people who really like their Android so I
hope not to get downvoted just to give a different opinion.)
I think the problem with Android, which is behind what the author (a bit
confusingly) presents as evidence, is its licence agreement. The iPhone did
not improve the freedom for the user, but Apple had managed to distinguish
between manufacturer and provider.
Basically the iPhone (and all the others that would have followed: WebOS, WP7,
etc...) had put the manufacturer back in a position of strength: "Do you want
to have a 'modern' mobile on your network? Then don't mess with it".
Once the Android came out though, and it got embraced by Motorola, HTC and
Sony, the situation change completely. By far and large there is nothing
unique to any Android phone. All manufacturers can access the same CPU, the
same screens (actually here Samsung has a slight advantage), etc... This past
year has shown the result: a fast dynamic hypercompetitive market.
Just like for the PC before, companies were left with only one real way to
compete: price. And it's this that has suddenly put the providers back in the
driving seat. Verizon can request specific changes (like not-erasable apps)
and they either accept them, or they lose the massive subsidies.
I don't think Google did this with any bad intention. Indeed, and kind of
ironically, it seems to me that the Nexus One was the second step of Google's
strategy and was a complete failure _because of it_. Google found itself with
no power over the mobile providers: as the article say Verizon waited for a
similar speced phone to come out and quickly moved to sell that one instead.
Android is in a way so good, that now the mobile phone providers don't need to
beg the manufacturers to come to them: they know they will always be able to
have custom made Android phones, and Android phones are so good that they can
survive without an iPhone or a Pre.
In the end I think Google tried to avoid having a new Windows (one OS with a
massive market share). But they didn't realised that rather than giving the
power to nobody (everyone competing) they gave it to the guys with the money:
the providers.
------
neilk
I don't know enough about mobile to say if everything is false here. But this
article's internal logic doesn't hold together.
As a commenter "batpox" on that site notes, "Using the same logic, the dirty
secret about Linux and Windows is that they let Acer, Dell, HP, etc. determine
what hardware our OS runs on."
I think the article is trying to claim (in a roundabout, implicit way) that
good phones are the ones which are so well-marketed, and so tightly
controlled, that it gives the manufacturer leverage over the network carrier.
In this article, other forms of leverage (like manufacturer alliances) are
disparaged based on innuendo and hearsay.
In other words: the iPhone is the only good phone. Google is evil.
~~~
powrtoch
No first hand experience with Android, so I can't confirm any of its claims,
but I think you're misreading the article. The problem isn't the different
hardware, the problem is that the open OS allows the carriers to modify the OS
(not the hardware) as they see fit. An analogy would be if you bought a Dell
computer and it came loaded with "Dell Windows", which was basically just like
Windows except that it had a lot of useless Dell apps that were a pain to
remove. And as a result, the original Operating System is degraded and the
compatibility is compromised.
~~~
neilk
> An analogy would be if you bought a Dell computer and it came loaded with
> "Dell Windows", which was basically just like Windows except that it had a
> lot of useless Dell apps that were a pain to remove.
But... that _is_ what happens today.
And at least you usually can remove that stuff easily. Or go to another, less-
shady manufacturer. With the iPhone no amount of effort and expense will help,
since they also control the entire competitive landscape. I'm not saying
that's worse or better (if you like an Apple-managed platform, fine) but that
doesn't mean that more open strategies have failed. Unless you can show that
in practice, there are no good Android phones available.
~~~
mikeryan
Actually my understanding is that with Android you _can't_ remove the crap
apps that are pre-installed.
[http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/07/android-j...](http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/07/android-
junkware.html)
~~~
vetinari
You can remove them... if you have root (or in case of newer Motorola phones,
can flash custom firmware).
That's why having the ability to replace firmware is important - you do not
depend on manufacturer support for newer versions AND they can not force their
crap on you.
~~~
mxavier
Right and doesn't roooting your phone void the warranty? If so, I have to root
my HTC Evo, voiding its warranty to get rid of a NASCAR app I will never in my
life use.
------
follower
IMO I think "The dirty little secret about Google Android" is that it's not
actually as open as people assume it is.
Yes, Android is more open than iOS but that's not really saying much.
The comparison I tend to make is ("< is less open"):
iOS < Android < MeeGo/Moblin/Maemo
In a similar way to:
Windows < OS X < Linux
For example, while OS X is based on an open platform (FreeBSD) it's got a
whole pile of proprietary stuff on top which AFAIK is pretty much how Android
operates also (in terms of core applications etc). Not only that but my
understanding is that the Android kernel is so different from when it was
forked that it is also no straight-forward task to port features (e.g.
drivers) from it back to the mainline kernel. And AIUI Google has shown no
great desire to anyway.
In comparison with Maemo (which I've had more familiarity with than
Moblin/MeeGo but assume there's similarities) where Nokia (over time,
admittedly) worked with upstream projects and companies to get a lot more of
the system into existing open projects.
By way of example, "getting root" amounted to checking a box, installing a
terminal and executing a shell command. All with warranty intact.
Getting root on a Nexus One requires voiding your hardware warranty.
Without root access you don't even get complete read-only access to your
phone's filesystem. That's not open. Even with my proprietary PalmOS Treo 650
I could at least read every single file off the device if I wanted (well,
there were some "no copy" settings for some apps but I'm not sure if the non-
official tools obeyed them anyway). Particularly in this aspect Android is a
huge step backwards.
Of course, the problem with MeeGo/Maemo/Moblin is that outside of the N900 you
can't buy a phone with it--so its openness is somewhat of a moot point.
Okay, rant over for now. :)
------
davidw
> Apple co-founder Steve Jobs said, “iPhone is the first phone where we
> separated the carrier from the hardware. They worry about the network, while
> we worry about the phone.”
Wow, did he really say that? Here in Europe, many people buy their phones
separately from their SIM cards, myself included.
~~~
nanairo
Yeah, and my understanding is that sadly he was right too. As are you that in
Europe things are very different: the author acknowledges that too. Basically
my understanding is that Europe is so far from the USA that the iPhone did a
first step (but wasn't quite there yet) and the Nexus One did the second one.
~~~
davidw
> he was right
No, he wasn't. Maybe he was if you qualify that with "in the US", but the US
is not the center of the world.
~~~
nanairo
While I completely agree with you (I am European) I think Apple is pretty US
centric (as is Google). When Jobs said that the iPhone was only available in
the USA, and most of its audience was probably american too.
So yeah, I think he was talking about the USA. He either didn't know about the
rest of the world, or he didn't care about it.
~~~
davidw
Fair enough: from a marketing point of view what he said sure sounds a lot
better than "this is the first phone _in the US_ that's not ...".
------
dogas
This article has some incorrect facts.
"Members such as HTC have gone off and added lots of their own software and
customizations to their Android devices without contributing any code back to
the Alliance"
That's not true. HTC added sense UI on top of android. They are 100% allowed
to do that. Android is licenced under the GPL, and HTC came along forked it,
and added their own stuff to it, then released the source code
(<http://developer.htc.com/>). The alliance is free to take whatever HTC does
and merge it into the android core if they are so inclined.
I'm not buying that carriers and are gaining 100% control of the software.
They are legally bound to release the source code. That would have never
happened before the open software alliance and android, ergo, the OHA is not
"in shambles", and is working as intended.
Carriers are free to charge for whatever services they want to provide. The
market should take care of most of that. If sprint wants to charge $30 for
tethering, but T-mobile will let you do it for free, then it's advantage
T-mobile.
~~~
andybak
Android is licenced under Apache v2 (not GPL)
<http://www.openhandsetalliance.com/android_faq.html>
~~~
dogas
I stand corrected. The net effect is the same however.
~~~
bbatsell
No, it isn't. Apache License has no virality. HTC Sense is not open-source
(and is not even hinted at anywhere on the website you linked to claiming had
the source).
------
powrtoch
iOS could be accused of bloatware as well. The fact that you're not allowed to
remove the built-in apps is mystifying to me. I don't use Stocks because I
don't own any stocks. The Contacts app is mostly redundant with that section
of the Phone app. And I've never bought anything off the iTunes store from my
phone. Why shouldn't I be able to free up the screen and disk space? Only a
small handful of apps (e.g. Settings) need be protected in this way, the rest
could just be offered free on the App Store for anyone who changed their mind.
~~~
nanairo
Sure, my guess is that Apple hasn't done so simply because they haven't got
the time/resources/patience. It's not like Apple is making _any_ money from
something like Stock!
But if you remove it from the phone then those people who are using it are
going to get pissed. So in order for the improvement to be seamless to the
user, it needs first to move Stock to the App store, then to remove Stocks
(and other apps) from the OS, and then finally redownload the application...
all in one system update. Not hard for someone with the money of Apple, but
hardly worth the trouble (for now, I imagine once the pace of development
slows down things may change).
Edit: minor grammatical changes
~~~
powrtoch
If you would read a bit closer, my suggestion was simply that users be allowed
to delete those apps if they so desire.
~~~
nanairo
Ok. And what happens if they then want them again? Stuff from the store can be
re-downloaded. Hence why I either Apple will change them into store app (in
the way I described, for example), or they won't remove them.
I am not saying I agree with them... just a polite guess from their history.
(Edit: grammar and the last paragraph)
------
neurotech1
IMO Pushing contract-less smartphones into the market was a good move, but the
market didn't seem to go for it in the US.
If Google really wanted to "capture" the market, they should come out with a
no-contract sub $200 unlocked smartphone, and let the market decide if that is
a better price point. $529 is too expensive for US consumers, when "free"
phones are available.
~~~
Timothee
To me, one of the problems with unsubsidized phones is that the lower price
from the carrier is not obvious. Or at least, I'd always be wondering if I
might be paying the same price as someone with a subsidized phone.
That being said, I did buy an iPhone before it was subsidized.
~~~
ydant
The real problem is a non-subsidized phone costs you more on most carriers
than the subsidized version. Even if bringing your own phone gets you out of
having to have a contract, you don't save anything in the process. You pay the
same monthly fee as someone that got a "free" phone. So why give that up? It's
a tough sell.
~~~
stanleydrew
On T-Mobile you actually pay $20 less per month on every single individual
plan if you're not in contract.
~~~
ydant
T-Mobile really seems to have turned their act around. I was with them for a
long time but went to AT&T for the 3Gs (at the time being able to tether at a
decent speed was worth it).
Now, I don't know. I'm on Verizon and Verizon's coverage was surprisingly good
in places I've never had GSM coverage. I'm not sure if I could go back. I wish
I could, though - I'd love to give them my support for things like that.
------
axiomotion
Samsung Captivate here. Took 30 seconds to root it and another 10 seconds to
remove the AT&T bloatware with Titanium Backup.
~~~
bitskits
...but should you have to root it to remove the bloat? On the Evo with Froyo,
there isn't yet a root method available. Should those folks be out of luck?
I think the point of the article was that Android was created to allow the
average consumer more control and choice over their device. While
"enthusiasts" like us will always unlock features we want, I don't think you
should have to hack into your device to gain this kind of control over it. If
I spend 200-600 bucks on a smartphone, I want control over what software is
installed on it.
~~~
ergo98
So how does tethering on the iPhone under AT&T work out. Surely you just click
a checkbox, correct?
~~~
alxp
Rooting most Android phones and jailbreaking an iPhone are about the same
level of technical difficulty as far as a consumer is concerned.
~~~
ergo98
Indeed. The post I responded to opined that you shouldn't have to root to
unlock functionality of your phone, and this was relative to Android devices.
Yet to tether your iphone you have to either root, or pay an extra $20 a month
to AT&T on a non-"unlimited" data plan: Your device is limiting you on behalf
of your carrier.
------
icode
Hmmm... I have an HTC Desire and it doesnt seem crippled or bloated with money
greedy apps.
~~~
sausagefeet
Praise my N1
~~~
buro9
Though it is still pre-loaded with the Amazon MP3 store.
We want it all ways. Take off everything we don't want, but don't dare to sell
to us anything less than all of the packages we do want.
~~~
sprout
No... You can put all sorts of shit on there, but give me an easy way to
install my own ROM, and don't put on impossible to uninstall apps.
------
neilk
What the hell is going on here? 24 upvotes? Either the HN community has turned
completely stupid, or marketers are flooding the site and no admins are
deleting their crap.
~~~
Unseelie
Such a declaration is worrying because I come here and generally trust the
upvoted things, and as such, I've incentive to toss your declaration out as
the biass and the spin. So, as though you were talking to someone who doesn't
know enough about the smartphones to make an informed decison (me), please
explain your position.
------
eli
Seems awfully unfair to blame Google for what other members of the Open
Handset Alliance are doing with Google's GPL code.
You either have open code and deal with people forking it, or you have closed
code. It's tough have it both ways.
~~~
alxp
That's why I'm mostly fine with iOS being proprietary to Apple. Anyone
reselling it would just make it worse by changing it.
~~~
Unseelie
Unless they made it better.
~~~
alxp
Recent history says that's unlikey
------
dminor
Verizon's open 700Mhz network hasn't materialized yet because they're busy
rolling out LTE on it. It will be very interesting to see what the
manufacturers do when they don't need carrier approval.
------
RexRollman
I want to buy an Android phone, because I detest the iPhone's iTunes
requirement, but I have two issues with Android:
1\. It doesn't look the same everywhere. Companies are modding the interface,
and in my opinion, that is wrong. I should know what to expect, UI-wise, from
an Android phone without even looking at the box.
2\. Updates depend on the company who makes the phone. In my opinion, when an
update to Android becomes available, everyone should have access to it.
------
andybak
Slightly overstated but I think the author has correctly identified a trend
and it's one that we would do well to resist.
------
ergo98
While there are kernels of truth, this is a garbage article that has no place
on a site like HN. The author is pandering to the iPhone fanbase where it will
certainly see traction. Do a "news" search of it in the next 6 hours and
you'll find it linked on every Mac and Apple site, and will almost certainly
see linkage on Daring Fireball.
It's garbage. Utter claptrap garbage.
The author (a strong iPhone proponent, as an aside) is holding the iPhone as a
model of openness (open from carrier control at least) which is absolutely
_perverse_. The iPhone is very tightly controlled by Apple (they just finished
patenting how they'll brick your rooted device), and Apple's control has a
strong input from the carriers, where in the US your choice is limited to one.
Why can't you use facetime on 3G? Why can't you tether for free? Why can't you
use Google Voice without essentially using a roundabout? and on, and on, and
on.
~~~
icarus_drowning
I also get a hint of "open for me but not for thee" here: we're supposed to
believe the Android's openness (which began as an asset) is now a liability
because _carriers shouldn't be allowed to modify it_.
So who is to be the judge of who gets to modify Android? Google? Jason Hiner?
He also mischaracterizes a lot of the modifications that have happened to
Android: sure, the uninstallable NASCAR app on the EVO was decidedly crapware,
but to simply lump the Sense interface in with it is a deliberate
mischaracterization. (Especially after many reviewers noted that they believed
Sense _improved_ on stock on Android-- an opinion I don't share, but a debate
worth having).
So my question is thus: does Jason Hiner think Google should rescind its open-
source license for most of Android? Does he think that such a move would
honestly be more "open" than it is now?
Because it certainly appears that he does.
~~~
MichaelGG
They don't need to close the source, just figure out some way to indicate to
buyers that if they buy an Android phone, they're guaranteed to have a certain
experience.
~~~
Goosey
Google does require certain things in order for it to get the Google branding.
Currently this seems to be limited to including the core Google applications,
but if google deems the rise of handset-specific frontends to be an issue
perhaps they could expand the license requirements?
I, for one, don't see the proliferation of Motoblur/SamsungSense/HTC-Whatever
to be a negative thing. It is an additional factor that consumers can use to
differentiate between phones. One reason I own a DroidX is the great hardware,
but another reason is I think the moto skin adds a lot in certain areas (it's
calendar widget, for example).
In other words: let the market decide.
~~~
icarus_drowning
I'm sad to see that the market has apparently decided against Google's own
offering. The prospects of a Google-controlled, Android reference phone
available to all consumers on all networks was just plain nifty.
Having said that, I have several family members with HTC, "Sensified" Droid
Incredibles, and it doesn't seem to be that bad. (Then again, there is no
NASCAR app either...)
------
konad
Insanity Wolf says :
Buy straight jacket / wear it
translation
You bought your carrier branded phone because it was subsidised / suck it
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
AVM violating license of the Linux kernel - biafra
http://gpl-violations.org/news/20110620-avm-cybits.html
======
bryanlarsen
This is much more than your typical license violation -- AVM is suing Cybits
because Cybits exercised their GPL rights. So this is a very important case to
legitimize the GPL.
more information on Harald Welte's blog:
[http://laforge.gnumonks.org/weblog/2011/06/20/#20110620-avm_...](http://laforge.gnumonks.org/weblog/2011/06/20/#20110620-avm_cybits_gpl_violation)
------
zbowling
If AVM is trying to stop Cybits from reusing the code from AVM that was under
GPL in their own stuff, fat chance at that lawsuit.
If AVM is trying to stop Cybits from running modified versions of the GPL code
on AVM hardware, then it's not really illegal directly for Cybits to do, but
AVM could enforce code signing DRM requirements in their hardware (like TIVO
does) to prevent anyone with fiddling with it.
Really AVM could just give up warranty and support for customers that change
their software to run Cybits, or if it really bothers them, put signing
requirements in their firmware.
------
SoftwareMaven
If AVM were to win this case, could the copyright holders of the Linux source
withdraw their license to AVM? Could the license be wielded as a sword and not
just a shield?
~~~
cube13
If you could get every single person that has ever made an accepted change to
the Linux kernel to agree, sure. Otherwise, I'm not exactly sure how that
would work out.
~~~
wheels
You can't retroactively change the license on the software once it's already
been released. You can only change the license for future releases.
------
jonhohle
> "Ironically, by preventing others from enacting the rights granted by the
> GNU GPL, AVM itself is in violation of the license terms. Therefore they
> have no right to distribute the software" says Till Jaeger.
Is there any more to this than the quote above? The GPL is viral. Sure, you
own the copyright to any changes you've made to GPL'd software, but you give
up a lot of those rights the moment you distribute. Don't like it? Look for
something BSD/MIT licensed to modify and distribute.
~~~
stonemetal
It depends on the grand complexity that is derivative work. A while back some
kid wrote an EverQuest FanFic that someone found objectionable. Sony was able
to sue for copyright violation because it was a derivative work. So no you may
not own the copyright to changes you make to GPL software(any software really,
nothing GPL specific there), because the court may rule it a derivative work.
Wikipedia has a few more interesting examples, see Pygmalion towards the
bottom. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derivative_work>
~~~
mbreese
But the GPL gives you the right to make derivative works. I highly doubt Sony
did the same with respect to EverQuest. So I'm not sure how applicable that
example is.
~~~
alextingle
Absolutely nothing prevents you from making derivative works. You can write
Everquest fan fiction until the cows come home.
Copying and distributing that derivative work _is_ restricted, however.
~~~
mbreese
True... perhaps it would be better stated as the GPL gives you the right to
_distribute_ derivative works.
I always thought that fan fiction lived in a legal gray area that was
tolerated by some and not others. So in my opinion, it's a bad example to use
in this case. GPL is very explicit as to your rights and responsibilities.
~~~
stonemetal
Some GPL projects sue for copyright infringement others don't. Does that make
GPL violations a grey area?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Wormholes Untangle a Black Hole Paradox - digital55
https://www.quantamagazine.org/20150424-wormholes-entanglement-firewalls-er-epr/
======
dave_sullivan
Can someone explain why black holes are often assumed to "lead somewhere"?
Aren't they just Very Dense Objects in space--hence, they lead to the surface
of the object?
Also, the event horizon can be quite wide, but why the assumption that there's
some kind of "singularity" inside? There's a center of mass, but what's to say
the central massive object is not quite large in volume and organized at
scales/levels near the bottom of the planck scale? Or is that what they mean
by singularity (not so much a single point in space as a small but quite
massive object residing within the event horizon)?
~~~
PuffinBlue
There are a lot of questions in there but I can try and answer a few:
1) Leading somewhere...
It's not really assumed they do but some speculate that they could.
2) Surface of the object/singularity/wide event horizon.
This is tricky to explain quickly and simply but here goes. In a very simple
sense, a 'singularity' is really a name given to a thing which can't be
explained by known laws or perhaps involves an infinity that shouldn't be able
to exist in reality or some such. It's a name for a thing that by it's
existance causes a 'problem' in that we an't fully explain it.
That's the layman's definition I often hear but in reality to be a singularity
it needs to fit a set of criteria regarding geodesics and curvature etc that
wikipedia can explain.
In the case of black holes it's used to refer to the infinitely dense mass
that 'is' the black hole, or rather the point at which you'd reach if
theoretically you fell all the way down to it. This isn't a small but massive
object - it's an infinitely dense object.
So...there's the matter of infinitely dense. Once something loses the ability
of its outward pressure of its mass etc to resist the inward crush of gravity,
you get an object that becomes denser and denser and denser ad infinitum
because it continuously collapses under its own gravity. It simply continues
to collapse inwards on itself forever becoming 'infinitely dense' as it gets
smaller and smaller.
There is no known reason why it wouldn't continue to collapse inwards on
itself to an infinitely small point. There is no known reason why it would
stop at the planck scale, no mechanism to suddenly overcome the immense
gravity, and that's the problem really.
There is an assumption of a singularity because in order to create a 'strong'
enough curvature of space-time such that light couldn't escape (i.e. to form
an event horizon), you need to have a sufficiently dense object. The only way
to achieve this is with an object that has collapsed past the 'point of no
return' and continues to collapse in on itself (i.e you need a singularity).
Other fantastically dense objects like neutron stars lack the density, you've
got to go 'super dense' and then you just get the run away effect and a
singularity.
~~~
btouellette
Doesn't any spherically symmetric configuration of mass compressed into an
area smaller than the Schwarzschild radius create a gravitational force strong
enough such that light can't escape? If there was an unknown force that could
prevent the collapse at some level below the Schwarzschild radius it would
still be dense enough to capture light. And there certainly could be since our
understanding of things at the Planck scale isn't complete.
~~~
PuffinBlue
First question answer: yes
Second question: yes maybe. No one knows.
An interesting aside is that infinite density occurs only (I think) with no
rotating singularities which don't exist in reality. Anything rotating will
produce a non-infinitely dense singulatiry somehow, though the details of the
maths behind that elude me.
~~~
techdragon
Kerr vs non Kerr blackholes is where I usually start replying with "we don't
know" to every second question.
But broadly speaking the inside is theorised to be a 1 dimensional torus
having only diameter as a measurable quantity other than the location of its
center of mass. This is opposed to a zero dimensional point having only the
location of its center of mass. This means the mass is distributed through the
torus and is "less infinite" in the aleph zero vs aleph one kind of way.
It just gets weirder from there haha
------
Errorcod3
Interesting using gloves for an analogy.
I've gotten so use to using 1's and 0's.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
One Laptop Per Hacker--OLPH - waynecolvin
http://olph.gdium.com/
======
nowarninglabel
Kind of a poor naming choice. I went there expecting some hackers using OLPCs
running Sugar. The page itself makes it fairly difficult to discern just what
this is all about, indeed it wasn't till I read devmonk's comment that things
made some sense.
~~~
anthonyb
It still doesn't make much sense. What's to distinguish this from, say, Ubuntu
running on an EeePc? There are some vague noises about sharing, but not much
else. On <http://www.gdium.com/node/518> it looks like there's some sort of
admission process, but I need to register to see it, so... meh.
------
devmonk
Hardware: <http://www.gdium.com/group/16/home>
[http://www.amazon.com/Liberty-10-Inch-Netbook-
GDNBL10USK006-...](http://www.amazon.com/Liberty-10-Inch-Netbook-
GDNBL10USK006-Battery/dp/B0027IS8AM)
According to one comment, the cost was $369.
------
kqr2
The OLPH or “One Laptop Per Hacker” is a project dedicated to hacking on the
Gdium which is a MIPS based netbook.
Kind of reminds me of Richard Stallman's 100% "free" Lemote Yeelong netbook
which is also MIPS based.
<http://olph.gdium.com/wiki/doku.php>
<http://richard.stallman.usesthis.com/>
~~~
gcb
ah! MIPS... the product page on their site does not even mention it!
i read the specs and said "meh. someone cloned the 4yr old eeepc 900. nothing
to see here"
now, add a hdmi port and i will consider that instead of a eee keyboard.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
U2's Natural Logarhythm: Exponential Decay in the Delay of The Edge's Guitar - atularora
http://5cense.com/Edge_Delay.htm
======
anigbrowl
_This is to say, there was roughly three delayed notes per beat, or as Tim
Darling points out, it's roughly 3/16 tempo (though really I think he meant
6/16 time or 3/8 time, where 3/8 = 0.375, which is a close approximation to
0.36788)._
No, I think he meant 3/16, especially since he explains the derivation of that
value. It's a fixture in reggae music and dub because it provides instant
syncopation, and later found its way into a lot of electronic dance music for
the same reason. Get started with Dub at
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dub_music> and then study the early studio
history of Lee Perry, who pioneered a great many audio production tricks by
necessity. This 1978 track is a seminal work:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hs9Z2TEqSZo> All the sound effects going on
are done with a mixer and 2 delays, using tricks like splitting the output of
a channel back into 2 inputs and inverting the polarity on one.
The 'number of delayed notes per beat' comes in around 3 because the delay
unit is feeding back on itself, and a 4th repeat (being equal to 12/16ths) is
likely to fall exactly on a beat: 1/16, 5/15 and 12/16 are the strongest beats
in rock and dance music. If you hit the 9/16 beat it's straight rock or dance,
if you delay it by half a beat you get the basic rhythm of hip hop. You can of
course turn the feedback up higher but above a certain level it tends to run
away and make a horrible noise, independently of the delay time.
Edited to add: I hope that explanation didn't sound blithely dismissive of the
mathematical investigations. The 1/e hypothesis is compelling, but has the air
of being 'so beautiful, it must be true' - be careful of this! I have several
notebooks' worth of similar explorations of geometry, golden ratio and so
forth as applied to music. It's wonderfully inspiring, but it's easy to find
yourself trying to square the circle or retrieve the Lost Chord.
~~~
simplegeek
Per your comment I think you've got a good handle on Music and Math. I'm
totally naive but, briefly, what background should one have if he intends to
start working on extracting a melody from a song? I will appreciate your reply
(didn't find your email in your profile so posting it here, thanks).
~~~
anigbrowl
Can you be more specific - do you mean so you can learn to play the tune
yourself, or extract it via software?
~~~
simplegeek
Latter i.e. extract the melody via software?
~~~
anigbrowl
OK, then you want to get into the world of Digital Signal Programming, or DSP.
Before you do so, be aware that this is a Hard Problem if you want to achieve
more than the most basic results. The basic tool of DSP is the Fourier
Transform, which allows you to convert a 1-dimensional signal in the time
domain (such as an audio file) to a 2-dimensional signal in the frequency
domain (such as a spectrogram aka graphic equalizer display). Many problems
that look knotty or impossible in the Time domain are soluble with simple math
in the Frequency domain. So you do an FFT, modify or analyze your signal, and
then do another FFT if you want to convert it back to an audio stream.
This is a really excellent starter book that you can also download for free:
<http://www.dspguide.com/> It's far better written than most other books on
the field and will help you to develop an intuitive understanding of the
fundamental math. Many books just say 'here's the math,' without discussing
why it works or why you would want to do it one way rather than another. Many
more cover DSP from the point of view of radio or wireless communication -
although the same principles apply here as for audio, it's somewhat confusing.
This book is very audio-friendly.
The state of the art in pitch extraction from usic recordings is Celemony's
Melodyne: <http://www.celemony.com/cms/> The company was started in the
mid-90s by a German audio geek named Peter Neubäcker with his wife and a
programmer. He says in interviews that he's using a different approach based
on the shape of sounds, but has never published his methods. I've met him a
couple of times at conferences and trade shows, but he knows how to keep a
secret! However, you'd be well advised to try out the demo version of his
software. How he does is it is a mystery, but he's way, way ahead of any
commercial or academic methods.
If you like Matlab, this is the best academic work on the task so far:
<http://isophonics.net/content/reverse-engineering-mix> and you should also
grab a copy of Sonic Visualizer, which is a slow-but-flexible analysis tool:
<http://isophonics.net/SonicVisualiser> Be sure to follow up the links on the
Isophonics site, which will lead you to a rich variety of libraries and tools
for audio programming.
------
kree10
Reminds me of a use of math in rock that was actually calculated: the beat in
Queen's "We Will Rock You".
"I mixed all the tracks [...] with different delays, related to each other in
length with prime numbers, so there would not be any discernible 'echo'." --
<http://www.brianmay.com/brian/brianssb/brianssbsep07.html>
~~~
jcl
...which is expected from Brian May -- an astrophysicist rock star. :)
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_May>
------
wyclif
This was The Edge's "secret weapon" before they moved to all-digital
equipment: <http://www.ehx.com/products/deluxe-memory-man>
Still one of the best analog stomp boxes on the market.
------
luckyland
This technique, and some instruments outfitted with specific DSP components to
achieve it, was developed by Michael Brook.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Brook>
------
strayer
Since e is a number, not a function (the function is exp = lambda x: e^x) then
1/e is not log but one divided by e.
I once was told that using, say, 1/cos for acos is specific to English-
speaking countries. Does anyone know about that?
~~~
G_Wen
I think you're thinking of the inverse cosine function arccosine. The
reciprocal of the cosine function is known as the secant. I do not know if
this is specific to English speaking countries. However the Chinese version of
wikipedia suggests it is: <http://zh.wikipedia.org/zh/反三角函数>
------
turbodog
He lost me at sentence 3: "Even before he started using a delay pedal, like on
Boy".
Um, practically every U2 song ever makes heavy use of guitar delay.
~~~
mcobrien
Boy was U2's first album, so the sentence suggests Edge was using delay before
he started recording U2 songs.
------
gregschlom
Not to be pedantic, but logarithm is actually spelled with an i
~~~
phpnode
it's a play on rhythm....
~~~
gregschlom
Oops, sorry. Thanks for pointing it out
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Tables - tosh
https://www.lua.org/pil/2.5.html
======
lxe
In 2010 I worked on building a "dynamic" web app that would run on a very tiny
embedded device -- no MMU, about 130 bogoMIPS. Think of an old wireless router
you have at your parents' place.
There aren't that many options for building a "modern" web backend on
something like this -- the most popular being C compiled into executable(s)
served via thttpd and CGI.
Things like templating, or JSON parsing for that matter, would be much easier
in something higher level than C, but python, PHP, node, etc are simply too
huge and slow.
I discovered Lua, and it fit the niche exceptionally well. The syntax and the
data structures takes a while to get used to, but once you do, they feel
rather powerful, especially for such a lean interpreter. It compiles into
something like a 120k statically linked executable and is (relatively)
phenomenally fast -- not only for the tiny computer on which I had to run it,
but also for me, who had to write a complicated web app using it. I almost
felt like a demoscene developer -- I was able to run something that would
otherwise require a full featured machine on a tiny embedded board. Even to
this day, LuaJIT, OpenResty, Lapis remain up there on the benchmark tables
when it comes to web apps.
~~~
slezyr
You can run PHP on router with 3Mb of storage and 64Mb of ram.
[http://ph7.symisc.net/](http://ph7.symisc.net/)
DIR-320 Used php for it's GUI.
~~~
seppel
Back in 1998, Apache, PHP, Mysql and Netscape 4 did fit into 16 MB of RAM :)
------
leggomylibro
One thing that I like about Lua over Javascript is how self-documenting, fun
to write, and easy to read it is. It has a very simple syntax, but the
extensibility of its core structures (like tables) let you accomplish a lot
with that simplicity.
Its 3rd-party libraries also tend to be closer to C/C++'s "drop-in" solutions
like STB[1] than the enormous JS ecosystem which often requires extra tools
like Node and/or extra packages like JQuery.
Admittedly, Lua's ecosystem is much smaller than Javascript's, but in my
experience Lua is vastly easier to maintain. You can certainly write bad Lua,
but it's one of the only languages where I don't implicitly dread reading
other people's code.
It is sort of annoying that tables which are treated like arrays are 1-indexed
by convention, though.
[1]: [https://github.com/nothings/stb](https://github.com/nothings/stb)
~~~
chrisco255
Does C/C++'s STB or Lua's 3rd party libs cover cross-browser quirks and http
methods like JQuery does? It sounds like Lua/C and JavaScript are used for
totally different things. And Node isn't an "extra tool" it's a server. No
doubt JS projects sometimes come loaded with excessive dependencies but
Node/JQuery are bad examples and not equivalent by any stretch to STB.
~~~
leggomylibro
Nope; Lua is not a good choice for a website's frontend.
But people use Javascript for a lot more than just websites, and I've lost
count of how many times I've been frustrated that a JS library is distributed
exclusively through package managers like NPM even when the library is not
specific to a browser.
~~~
paulddraper
NPM isn't specific to a browser.
~~~
shawnz
Is NPM even usable from the browser in any capacity? I would argue that it's
specific to everything except browsers!
~~~
s_ngularity
NPM is definitely usable as a package manager for frontend Javascript
applications, just needs a little more complicated webpack or similar setup
than a node.js app.
------
anonytrary
Lua's feature set is tiny, and that's precisely what I love about it. Ruby
feels a lot like Lua, but I vastly prefer Lua to even Ruby, because of how
minimal it is. As someone who writes ES6 on a daily basis, I feel that Lua's
syntax explains itself -- you can start writing Lua code in 30 minutes. People
have always said that Python is fun to write, but I've never felt that about
Python. On the other hand, I can definitely say that Lua is pleasing to write
in. Python, to me, has always felt like a chore compared to Lua.
~~~
abecedarius
Funny, it's Lua that feels like a chore to me, because most things take around
twice as many lines of code than in Python. (Though some of those lines are
just 'end'.) I want to like Lua more because it's so much simpler and faster,
but it could've come closer in expressiveness and catching errors.
~~~
legends2k
Same is true for me too; lack of batteries (std lib) isn't helping either.
------
oweiler
Started coding in Lua 2 months ago and instantly fell in love.
Higher order functions, coroutines, the ability to return multiple values from
a function, no coercion on comparison operators make coding in Lua a breeze.
You can learn most of the language within a day.
Ofc not everything is perfect: The package ecosystem is growing but still
small compared to other languages. Anonymous function definitions are pretty
noisy.
Still I think it's one of the best designed languages you can find.
~~~
sdegutis
Lua is amazing in that it is very small, portable, and easily embeddable. But
aside from those three things, Lua is semantically almost identical to modern
JavaScript.
I've embedded both and used them heavily in my various window managers, and
these days I personally recommend embedding JavaScript over Lua if possible.
But when a small, portable and lightweight language is needed, there's also
Sparkling[1], which is like the best ideas of JavaScript with the minimal
footprint and portability of Lua.
[1]: [http://h2co3.github.io/sparkling/](http://h2co3.github.io/sparkling/)
~~~
vmsp
What JavaScript interpreter do you use for embedding? I know of MuJS [1] but
it only supports ES5.
[1] [https://mujs.com/](https://mujs.com/)
~~~
sdegutis
My JS-embedded apps only target macOS so I use Apple's builtin JavaScriptCore
framework.
~~~
nikki93
In my experience LuaJIT in interpreter only mode has better performance than
using JSC (you can’t use JIT in JSC either — only WKWebViews can JIT).
(edit: sorry this is regarding iOS)
~~~
sdegutis
Maybe, but my use-cases (window manager and other automation stuff) don't
really have a strong need for speed or high performance. Mostly it just sits
there idle 99% of the time and runs callbacks quicker than the UI that it
manipulates is visibly updated.
~~~
nikki93
Yeah I think it does end up boiling down a lot to use cases because the big
differences b/w Lua and JS are in availability of libs / integration and perf.
In my case I do a lot of 2d graphics where love2d.org is available and perf is
important. :) C interop is also really important, and LuaJIT C FFI is waaaaay
nicer to use than JSC C API.
I’ve ended up doing a lot of JS with React Native for “app-y” mobile apps
though.
~~~
sdegutis
If perf is important, I'm surprised you're using Love2d and not just using C++
with SDL and Box2d directly. Afaik Love2d just uses vanilla Lua (and not
LuaJIT) which, while faster than similar languages, is still pretty wasteful
of cycles when high perf is needed.
~~~
armitron
Love2d can use luajit or plain lua.
------
scythe
Lua is a pleasing language to work with, but only that, unfortunately. It has
never caught on in desktop apps due to a lack of suitable GUI library
bindings. It never caught on in web apps thanks to a lack of suitable web
frameworks.
There are at least a dozen half-implemented or abandoned Lua GUI projects,
including at least three Lua-to-Qt binding toolkits and one briefly maintained
by PUC-Rio (where Lua originates). But the other day I wanted to write a
simple GUI to support formatting documents with a certain LaTeX template, and
I struggled to find one that could guarantee that my users would be able to
run the software on their various OS platforms. There are even more half-
working Lua web frameworks, including Lapis, Ophal, Orbit, Sailor, and Tir,
three of which have had brief moments in the limelight as the "preferred" Lua
framework. There are at least three projects that attempted to add types to
Lua, and no less than six parallelism libraries.
If you view it as a competitor to Python, Lua is a case study in open-source
community mismanagement. There are five projects that attempt to solve every
outstanding problem usually none of which has more than three regular
contributors. There are many competing "Lua standard libraries", and after the
falling out between Mike Pall and PUC and the controversial introduction of
integers, there are four similar but distinct versions of the Lua language in
common use: Lua 5.1, Lua 5.2, Lua 5.3, and LuaJIT 2.
But if you view it as a research project, Lua has been incredibly fruitful and
continues to be. Any organization with the critical mass required to maintain
their own internal ecosystem can use Lua without ever noticing the disarray in
the wider community, and many do. It's just... annoying... from the
perspective of the US/European open-source crowd.
~~~
andrewmcwatters
Perhaps I'm uninformed, but I was always under the impression there were two
camps:
Lua 5.1.5/LuaJIT users, and Lua 5.2+ users. Game developers, performance-
sensitive developers, FFI users all tend to use the former, and when not
necessary, I've seen people use the newer versions.
Is there more segmentation between 5.2 and 5.3 than I'm aware of?
------
andrewmcwatters
I love that Lua uses one-based numbering, if only to point out undesirable
developers who don't understand the difference between offset and count.
You don't work with pointer arithmetic directly in Lua syntax, so why would
you need offsets?
Complaints about ~= as the negation of equality are as petty as well. The
syntax in question isn't _just_ used by Lua, either, and it usually tells me
that a developer can't respect differences between languages.
~~~
Pimpus
> The syntax in question isn't just used by Lua, either, and it usually tells
> me that a developer can't respect differences between languages.
Actually, the two examples you bring up are paragons of asinine design. I
can't imagine it being easy to justify such design decisions, your attempt to
do so was wholly unconvincing.
~~~
andrewmcwatters
That "asinine design" comes from decades old syntax practices like ALGOL, Ada,
and MatLab.
Perhaps exposing yourself to other languages might inform your responses on
debatably the largest technical forum in the industry: one with many
developers from widely varying backgrounds.
~~~
Pimpus
Heh, you don't even try to justify it, just point out prior art in some
irrelevant "languages". Yeah, definitely not easy to defend such choices. Even
the fact that this turns off potential Lua programmers such as myself makes it
do more harm than any potential good (and I am hard pressed to find a single
good thing about these asinine choices).
~~~
andrewmcwatters
In mathematics, there are multiple symbols for negation.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_logic_symbols](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_logic_symbols)
What is there to defend? Can you explain why it's "asinine design?" You don't
actually elaborate as to why, and I've provided you both academic background
in mathematics and prior art. I apologize if I've missed your point.
~~~
Pimpus
The fact that this discussion ALWAYS comes up when talking about Lua, with
people saying they won't even try the language, should clue you in how
terrible these design decisions are.
~~~
andrewmcwatters
You're right: This discussion always comes up with developers who constantly
have petty complaints.
~~~
Pimpus
I would venture to say that you're just out of touch.
------
sdegutis
Lua tables are semantically almost identical to JavaScript objects. The one
key difference is that any object can be a key in a Lua table, whereas all JS
object keys are coerced into strings. The other more minor difference is that
you use getmetatable() and setmetatable() instead of modifying or setting
object.__proto__
~~~
oihoaihsfoiahsf
They're identical to dictionaries/hash tables in pretty much any language,
unless I'm missing something. Besides C, every language I've worked in comes
with one of these things built-in. It's surprising to me that so many people
consider this noteworthy today. Would someone please enlighten me as to why it
is?
~~~
nikki93
Because `.foo` means `[‘foo’]` and because you can easily make sequences out
of them (if you write `{ ... i1 = v1, v2, ... }` then `v2` automatically gets
the “next” natural number as a key) the ergonomics make them usable as
structures and arrays easily. Also the ‘:foo()` syntax binds the LHS of the
operator as the first parameter for a method call, and metamethods allow you
to easily implement inheritance / dispatch / etc.
It’s more about ergonomics than availability.
~~~
thanatropism
Not a full equivalence, but this[0] gets you x.foo, x.bar ergonomics as
opposed to x['foo'] etc.
[0]
[https://docs.python.org/3/library/types.html#types.SimpleNam...](https://docs.python.org/3/library/types.html#types.SimpleNamespace)
------
jdonaldson
Tables and metatables are incredibly flexible constructs in Lua. I was able to
support nearly all the Haxe language constructs for Lua with little more than
tables, floats, and strings.
[https://haxe.org/blog/hello-lua/](https://haxe.org/blog/hello-lua/)
------
dkrikun
Have been using Lua 5.3 and luajit for a few years. Also have bought the lua
book for 5.3. My thoughts:
\-- really sweet consistent and simple language
\-- weak, fragmented ecosystem
\-- easily embeddable yet powerful
\-- few bad decisions: arrays as tables, coercions, 1-based arrays, no gradual
typing
~~~
stcredzero
Gradual typing can be very useful. Coercions, like any implicit
casting/conversion can have problems. 1 based arrays are a pain. On this much,
I'd agree.
Why are arrays as tables a problem? Is it a matter of efficiency, or is it a
type safety issue?
------
varunramesh
Lua is an awesome language, but there are significant gotchas, especially with
regards to the behavior of ipairs and the length operator -
[https://blog.varunramesh.net/posts/lua-gotchas/#the-
behavior...](https://blog.varunramesh.net/posts/lua-gotchas/#the-behavior-of)
------
dividuum
My favorite part of Lua tables is the syntax feature that makes it possible to
use a single table argument when calling a function like this:
some_func{
key = value;
another_key = another_func{
foo = "bar";
}
}
Note the use of { and } instead of ( and ). This almost makes it possible to
build a DSL. Oh. And the __mode option in metatables to create weak tables by
key/value.
------
i_feel_great
"A Lua configuration file is also code" is what won me over initially.
[https://www.lua.org/pil/10.1.html](https://www.lua.org/pil/10.1.html)
~~~
shawnz
This is a major antipattern IMO since it makes it very difficult to
programatically change configuration files. Unfortunately it seems to be all
the rage these days to make a DSL for your config files.
~~~
corysama
I don't understand. Lua config is just Lua data structures. Load Lua data
structures, modify them directly because they are the language's native data
types, serialize them back to text. How much easier do you want it?
~~~
shawnz
What if the file doesn't just contain literal values in the data structure?
~~~
corysama
Then yer shooting yer own foot. Don’t put functions or expressions in your
“Lua-SON” any more than you would in your JSON.
I guess if you lack confidence in your coworkers’ ability to resist
temptation, you could write a checker using Metalua. That would make a good
git submit hook.
Doing it “wrong” was one of my fav dev tales. I wrote a custom UI system in
OpenGL for an iPhone 1 game (memory budget 32mb). Didn’t have time budget to
make a visual editor, so I made up a Py-SON notation that simply loaded as
Python. From there I used CTypes to convert the Python data tree into binary
files full of arrays of C structs. Loading that in C was just fread(), cast a
pointer.
The big win came when we realized we had way too much UI to create and not
enough artist time to create it. So, another programmer and I sat down and
wrote a suite of Python functions that made generating UI components much
easier. It required a programmer-artist pair to use. But, otherwise it would
have simply been impossible to complete on time.
------
oldandtired
I have been using tables in Icon since 1986 (they were in Icon before that).
Tables allow key/value pairs to be anything. You can set up a specific value
to be returned if the key presented to the table doesn't exist. Lists, sets,
tables, records are the mutable values, strings, csets, integers, reals are
the immutable.
Failure is an option, so all expressions can succeed and return a value or
fail with no result. So there is not an issue with the truthiness of values
and the semantics of true/false.
Simple tests like
if a < b < c < d then { do something } else { do something }
are standard in the Unicon/Icon languages.
Icon was my goto language until about 2000 or so and thereafter I have been
using Unicon (the Unified Extended Dialect of Icon).
1 based indexing is very useful when you have the dual of indexes < 1 starting
at the right hand end of any string or list. Hence, you can work from either
end if you need and there are good use cases for starting from the RHS of
strings and lists.
I have looked at Lua in the past and nothing in it has given me any incentive
to move away from Unicon/Icon. Lisp/Scheme/Kernel and FORTH/Factor have more
notable (as far as I am concerned) facilities than Lua.
Though Unicon/Icon has flaws and certain kinds of missing facilities like
lambda's, I find that I am more productive in Unicon/Icon than I have been in
other languages. YMMV.
------
coleifer
Love lua. Luajit is stupid fast and the ffi stuff makes it a snap to integrate
with other libraries. You can find Lua in neat places like nginx, redis,
tokyotyrant...
I dislike the direction python has been going (twisted...i mean asyncio, type
annotations, f strings). Lua is like a breath of fresh air.
Downsides are small standard library and 1-based indexing _shudder_.
------
singularity2001
lua could be really nice if they fixed these:
indexing starts at 1 but a[0]=1 does SOMETHING
\-- // # stupid -- comments! / __/
0 is truthy # I just love the simple logical mathematical python way
(0=ø=()=[]={}=false)
if undefined … -- treated as nil
function pseudoclass:new …
But by far the biggest complain is the packaging. luarocks SUCKS more than
almost anything, at least for me.
luarocks install torch Error: Your user does not have write permissions sudo
luarocks install torch Error: No results matching query were found. and on and
on and on (non-representative excerpt of my pains)
~~~
andrewmcwatters
> 0 is truthy
Nope. 0 being falsy only makes sense in pointer-oriented languages where NULL
is a null pointer at address 0. In Lua, 0 is a number. It's not a pointer
address.
Which leads to:
> a={1} a[0]==nil a[1]==1 indexing starts at 1 but a[0]=1 does SOMETHING
So does -1: should -1 be falsy, too?
> if undefined … -- treated as nil
Pardon? It is. Are you asking for an undefined keyword? Why? In the Lua C API,
you already get `lua_isnoneornil` to begin with.
> function pseudoclass:new …
Lua is a prototypal language.
> but by far the biggest complain is the packaging.
You know, thank God. Because JavaScript is probably the closest thing to Lua
and look how that turned out.
The only thing holding it back is that the community doesn't need or want it.
It's also small enough that perhaps no one has made a good package manager for
Lua yet. But the `package` module in Lua already provides search paths, so
it's fairly low effort. Frankly, I've never had a need for it. I don't want
npm for Lua.
------
ubertaco
Does there exist something along the lines of Typescript for Lua that adds
optional type annotations and static analysis?
~~~
andrewmcwatters
[https://github.com/titan-lang](https://github.com/titan-lang)
~~~
ufo
I think the closest analogy would be Typed Lua. Titan is a bit of a different
approach (simpler type system, more focus on performance)
------
Grue3
>can be indexed not only with numbers, but also with strings or any other
value of the language, except nil.
What could possibly be a reason for not allowing nil?
------
funnotatparties
the standard PHP array everyone
its really an amazing object type, especially when you are given a great api
to manipulate it. Which PHP does have.
~~~
sdegutis
Lua predates PHP by 2 years, and I'm sure this combination of arrays and hash-
maps predates both languages.
Either way, I'm not sold on it. Arrays and hash-maps are fundamentally
different, not only for optimization's sake[1] but even in how people use
them.
[1]: Recent versions of Lua now try to detect whether a table is an array, and
apply optimizations when all its keys are ordered numbers without holes.
~~~
wahern
Lua doesn't try to detect whether a table is an array. The way it works is
that a table is internally composed of two data structures, a hash part and an
array part. Normally, integer keys go to the array part and everything else to
the hash part. However, integer keys of a certain size will overflow into the
hash part so that, e.g., storing a single integer key of 2^32 doesn't allocate
an enormous empty array part.
In this way Lua already optimizes the array use case naturally. It never tries
to infer whether a table is supposed to have array semantics or hash
semantics. You can use a table as a hash, as an array, or (commonly) as both.
The cost of this simplicity and concision is born by the semantics of the
length operator (#). The default __len metamethod on a table does a binary
search looking for the first missing positive integer key, the boundary that
marks the end of a logical array. The binary search will work even if your
integer keys have spilled over into the hash part, though it works much faster
if it doesn't have to inspect the hash part.
This why in Lua your arrays can't have holes (non-sequential positive integer
keys), at least not if you want #t to behave as expected. Lua has no way of
knowing the size of your array otherwise, at least not for plain tables
lacking user-defined metamethods.
That said, there's a convention that uses the string key "n" to record the
intended length. For example, table.pack() assigns the argument list to a
table and sets "n" to the number of arguments. It does this because a nil
argument value would create a hole. Also, since Lua 5.3 you can overload the
__len metamethod, which could simply return t.n. Similarly, you can overload
the __index and __newindex metamethods so that insertions update t.n or some
other marker.
FWIW, I've tried hard not to express any value judgments in the above
description. I've also deliberately abstained from discussing array-related
language proposals.
~~~
Dylan16807
I would argue that the length semantics are mostly unrelated to the hybrid
array/hash nature. You could have the same problems on an array-only data
structure, and you can invent semantics that avoid them without significantly
changing the data structure.
------
Jyaif
The one-index is as idiotic as ever, especially for a language that is
supposed to interact with other languages.
~~~
dang
Please follow the site guidelines when commenting here.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Any ICO that actually delivers what it promises? - archibaldJ
It's the end of 2018 and I have not really come across any ICO that is not fraud (or hype and dump manipulation at best) in nature.<p>Doing start-up is already very hard itself. Trying to do a start-up and create a new economy surrounding a new currency often feels like downright fantasy-landish. I would say there is no point in creating a new currency when you are not introducing a new economy of some sort. It's just not pragmatic. And ICOs as a sale for collectibles will only result in constant deprecation afterwards, unless the start-up actually delivers what it promises (and restores investor confidence whenever there is a downfall).<p>So is there any ICO that actually deliver what it promises? (other than Ethereum which has successfully created an economy of ICOs)
======
DennisP
Maker set out to create a stable-valued coin by trading volatility to
speculators who want to leverage ETH. That went live at the end of 2017 and
their DAI token has stayed stable within a couple percentage points despite
huge fluctuations in ETH value. It's been a popular system and the contract
holds a huge amount of backing ETH. (Token: MKR)
[https://makerdao.com/](https://makerdao.com/)
There are also a fair number of token exchanges built on Ethereum. Some use
the 0x protocol, which has off-chain orderbooks and executes trades on chain.
(Token: ZRX)
[https://0xproject.com/](https://0xproject.com/)
A completely different one is the Bancor network, which does away with order
book entirely, relying instead on reserves held in contracts. (Token: BNT)
[https://about.bancor.network/](https://about.bancor.network/)
These are all live on Ethereum today.
~~~
camjohnson26
Other than Bancor I'm not sure these count as ICOs. There's a lot of
successful smart contracts.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/MakerDAO/comments/5oyr28/maker_ico_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/MakerDAO/comments/5oyr28/maker_ico_and_polychain/)
~~~
DennisP
Thanks, I didn't realize that about Maker. But here's an old page I pulled up
on the ZRX ICO: [https://icobench.com/ico/0x](https://icobench.com/ico/0x)
------
the_clarence
Prediction: this thread is going to be a honeypot for ICO advertisers and bad
opinions.
No ICO has had a real utility in my opinion. Some smart contracts and some
cryptocurrencies do seem to be getting there, but not the ICOs I'm afraid.
~~~
DennisP
I guess "real utility" is subjective but based on the comments here, a fair
number of projects held an ICO and then delivered what they promised.
~~~
RIMR
A fair number of people have also left a casino with a great deal more than
they entered with. That doesn't mean casinos deliver on a promise of profit.
~~~
DennisP
The question was "is there any ICO that actually delivered what it promised?"
The answer is obviously yes.
If you were to ask "are startups who run ICOs more likely to succeed than
fail" then of course the answer is no. But that's a reality also faced by
angel investors and VCs.
You might also ask whether ICO token prices on average went up or down, but
that has nothing to do with OP's question at all.
------
cwmma
ponzicoin did exactly what it said on the tin
[https://web.archive.org/web/20180125000227/https://ponzicoin...](https://web.archive.org/web/20180125000227/https://ponzicoin.co/home.html)
~~~
vertoc
Glad I could deliver :P
~~~
quickthrower2
You worked too hard.
[https://uetoken.com](https://uetoken.com)
------
camjohnson26
Augur's decentralized prediction marketplace:
[https://www.augur.net/](https://www.augur.net/)
~~~
meowface
Augur is the only ICO I still hear a lot about in terms of having an actually
useful purpose (beyond the market surrounding the coin itself). So this should
be at least one correct answer to OP's question.
Disclaimer: Have never used it myself.
~~~
gibsons77
I've used it and it's fairly straight forward if you're tech savy. I bet on
the midterm election, and the price of ETH. Since it's just a set of smart
contracts, I expect market makers to start building 3rd party UI's to shill
their markets, which should be interesting.
------
sputknick
Augur is the best example. It's live, and works very similarly to how it was
conceived. It's slow and relatively expensive (1-2% per transaction), but that
was the plan all along, get something out there that can be improved and
iterated on. they have a roadmap in place to make it faster and cheaper. They
have pushed out like 8 or so updates since going live in July.
------
PabloOsinaga
MakerDAO seems to be delivering on the original vision quite well -
[https://makerdao.com/](https://makerdao.com/)
~~~
Legogris
They never had an ICO, though.
~~~
RexetBlell
They minted 1,000,000 MKR tokens a few years ago and were selling small
amounts every month to the public for the past few years. They have less than
500k tokens left right now. Why doesn't that count as an ICO? (btw, it's one
of the most promising blockchain projects out there with a real working
product that has real usage and usefulness)
------
archibaldJ
found a 2017 avc post on ICOs and VCs ([https://avc.com/2017/06/icos-and-
vcs/](https://avc.com/2017/06/icos-and-vcs/)) mentioning the brave browser.
[https://brave.com/](https://brave.com/)
can be an interesting case of study
------
sjroot
One that has always stood out to me as being a great idea with a (AFAIK)
functional product is Filecoin.
[https://filecoin.io](https://filecoin.io)
~~~
PlaneSploit
Filecoin is not a functional product :(
------
geraldbauer
FYI: A while ago I put together an Awesome Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) Truths
page - [https://github.com/openblockchains/awesome-ico-
truths](https://github.com/openblockchains/awesome-ico-truths) All about the
Art of the Steal. Cheers. Prost.
PS: A different take is the "Get Rich Quick "Business Blockchain" Bible - The
Secrets of Free Easy Money" (Yes, Free Online Booklet) -
[https://bitsblocks.github.io/get-rich-quick-
bible](https://bitsblocks.github.io/get-rich-quick-bible)
------
encyclopedia
1\. Quant Network (QNT)
[https://reddit.com/r/QuantNetwork/](https://reddit.com/r/QuantNetwork/)
2\. Vectorspace AI (VXV)
[https://reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/9k5i8u/askscience_a...](https://reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/9k5i8u/askscience_ama_series_were_team_vectorspace_ai/)
3\. Numerai (NMR)
[https://reddit.com/r/numerai/](https://reddit.com/r/numerai/)
~~~
elephant_7
Not sure about QNT but NMR and VXV definitely
------
Ocha
STORJ is releasing its v3 of the network next year. Their community managers
and company are hiding data and making their network less and less transparent
(stopped publishing public data regarding network usage, data breakout per
payout address, transparency and automation around usage logs and payouts),
but it is still a product and dev side is making huge progress on it.
[https://storj.io/](https://storj.io/)
~~~
tardigras
Storj internal person here: If you're referring to the change from publishing
a payout sheet to providing the new payout tool, we did this to better protect
the privacy of our farmers. Even though all the data you're talking about is
public (on the ethereum blockchain and the Storj network) we didn't want to
make it easy for those who might want to target farmers (those sharing their
hard drive space) on the network. Usage on the current network has dropped off
significantly due to us limiting new users while we build out network V3. If
you haven't checked out the alpha, you can run a local test network following
tutorials on our GitHub: github.com/storj/storj
------
loourr
While it's still early days, I think holochain is showing real promise and has
delivered alpha software that delivers on it's promises.
They're creating a framework for building decentralized applications built
ontop of distributed hash tables (the technology behind torrents) instead of
blockchain.
[https://holochain.org/](https://holochain.org/)
~~~
angryasian
besides possibly open source applications, I just can't think of any good use
case for this ? Why ?
------
azeirah
[https://funfair.io/](https://funfair.io/) has a live blockchain-based casino.
~~~
DennisP
A pretty nifty one too: the games are fast because you don't have to wait on
blocks, but you don't have to trust the casino (either for custody or
randomness) because it's based on state channels.
~~~
azeirah
Yep, they got state channels (branded as fate channels, haha) working even
before Ethereum did!
~~~
DennisP
State channels will never be part of the core Ethereum protocol. The idea has
always been for projects like that to be built independently on top.
------
camjohnson26
Sia is an interesting decentralized storage network:
[https://sia.tech/](https://sia.tech/)
Although there's still some scaling issues to sort out:
[https://blog.spaceduck.io/sia-load-test-
preview/](https://blog.spaceduck.io/sia-load-test-preview/)
~~~
com4ter
We just got our host online yesterday, hosting 4TB of space,the discord
community is very helpful.
~~~
camjohnson26
How's it working for you? The main issues I've seen are it's hard to estimate
the costs and doesn't handle small files very well.
------
brathouz
Augur was one of the first ICOs. They promised a decentralized oracle and
prediction market protocol (with dispute resolution) and that's what they
delivered.
Their REP token sale was in 2015, they spent a few years developing their
smart contracts while providing weekly updates and contributing a lot back to
the Ethereum community, and finally launched in July 2018.
[https://www.augur.net/](https://www.augur.net/)
[https://augur.stackexchange.com/](https://augur.stackexchange.com/)
To see the prediction markets without setting up the Augur client, you can use
the following site:
[https://predictions.global/](https://predictions.global/)
------
tmlee
Decentralized exchange protocols like
[https://0xproject.com/](https://0xproject.com/) and
[https://kyber.network/](https://kyber.network/)
------
quickthrower2
Physical stablecoins, ICOs regularly and advertises in the press.
[https://www.royalmint.com](https://www.royalmint.com)
------
gammateam
Pareto Network (PARETO) is a working dapp with users and a token. People use
it to trade and value information, it is mostly financial and trade
information that people, people do get paid.
I thought it was compelling
[https://blog.pareto.network/why-do-we-need-a-blockchain-
for-...](https://blog.pareto.network/why-do-we-need-a-blockchain-for-
this-44f5cddf68e2)
There are others too
------
dguido
[https://livepeer.org/](https://livepeer.org/) has a functional product
------
dumbfounder
Bloom Token: [https://bloom.co/](https://bloom.co/)
------
ascendantlogic
[https://airswap.io](https://airswap.io)
------
tmlee
We just published a Q3 2018 report at
[http://bit.ly/coingeckoQ32018](http://bit.ly/coingeckoQ32018) with a
quarterly section on ICO
------
dguido
[https://polyswarm.io/](https://polyswarm.io/) has a functional product
------
patrickk
EthLend allows decentralised loans, they have a working product and an active
team with regular updates:
[https://ethlend.io](https://ethlend.io)
Oveview of the loan process:
[https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ETHLend/Documentation/mast...](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ETHLend/Documentation/master/images/ETHLend_WP_Page-14.png)
------
ceejayoz
Does [https://uetoken.com/](https://uetoken.com/) count?
------
chrisco255
Qtum: [https://qtum.org/en](https://qtum.org/en)
------
com4ter
Brave has had a good amount of success, I use it as my main mobile browser.
------
standerman
With Ethereum, is creating an economy of scams really something positive?
------
0xfeba
BAT? Basic Attention Token? Did they have an ICO?
~~~
com4ter
Yes, this is the only one I can vouche for. The mobile browser is great
------
alexnewman
hcaptcha.com is already live with customers however
\- No ICO yet \- Still doing payments on testnet
------
cortesoft
No
------
alistproducer2
PundiX
------
lucd
Simple Token is introducing a new economy of some sort.
Companies will use the OST token to tokenize their economy. To mint their own
branded token (BT) they'll have to stake a corresponding amount of OST
token.(according to the ratio they chosed when creating the BT) So market cap
of OST tokens = combined market cap of each BT economy + value of unstacked
OST tokens.
They're definitively delivering. Some partners started to mint tokens on
mainnet (alpha).
[https://ost.com/](https://ost.com/)
[https://ost.com/partners](https://ost.com/partners)
Draft of OpenST Mosaic paper, “Running Meta-Blockchains to Scale Decentralized
Applications"
[https://medium.com/ostdotcom/openst-mosaic-paper-released-
fo...](https://medium.com/ostdotcom/openst-mosaic-paper-released-for-
community-review-b7e39c5f4a4a)
~~~
archibaldJ
After checking out the website I would say I'm very skeptical about the actual
value it delivers.
This is basically a wrapper around Etheruem with more buzz words. Nothing
interesting going on.
~~~
lucd
From what you say I think you looked your should have a better look. Anyone
can create a token on Ethereum but how can you confer value to it? Make an ICO
and list on exchanges? You may use OST instead..
[https://medium.com/ostdotcom/why-lgbt-foundation-chose-
not-t...](https://medium.com/ostdotcom/why-lgbt-foundation-chose-not-to-do-an-
ico-and-launch-a-token-on-ost-instead-4eb2fa163c70)
Mosaic is all about making Ethereum more scalable, whith cheaper fees..
[https://medium.com/ostdotcom/worldwide-introduction-of-
opens...](https://medium.com/ostdotcom/worldwide-introduction-of-openst-
mosaic-protocol-scaling-blockchain-economies-to-billions-of-users-
adbd18d75cf4)
~~~
archibaldJ
So you are "conferring" value to it with more buzzwords and façades and PRs?
nice try.
I would like to see how long everyone in the team can keep a straight face to
it before people start leaving. Well you will eventually leave after spilling
out all your tokens too anyway.
Can be interesting to see who are the last remaining ones inside the start-up.
(HR or sales or marketing?)
~~~
lucd
I tried to explain this in my first post.. I must have been unclear as it
seems you didn't grab the concept.. Maybe you should forget everything I said
and focus more on official resources.. and less on being that diminutive of a
legit project.. A well-staffed one too
[https://ost.com/team](https://ost.com/team)
"The OpenST protocol enables the creation of utility tokens on a utility
blockchain while the value of those tokens is backed by staked crypto-assets
on a value blockchain."
[https://help.ost.com/support/solutions/articles/35000054307-...](https://help.ost.com/support/solutions/articles/35000054307-how-
is-ost-unique-and-distinctive-are-there-others-in-the-space-doing-this-)
"What is Simple Token (OST)? An Overview With CEO Jason Goldberg"
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yreYVlV-f2s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yreYVlV-f2s)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
In social networks, group boundaries promote the spread of ideas, study finds - anacleto
http://phys.org/news/2015-06-social-networks-group-boundaries-ideas.html
======
qntty
The take away:
_Loosening these tight group boundaries means that people 's next-door
neighbors may have different jobs or levels of education, but they may still
have similar politics or recreational activities. These similarities allow
people in different social groups to encourage the adoption of a new complex
idea, take neighborhood recycling as an example, which can then spread to
other neighborhoods and social groups.
But when group boundaries are eliminated entirely, people have almost nothing
in common with their neighbors and therefore very little influence over one
another, making it impossible to spread complex ideas._
~~~
eevilspock
Hacker News is a case in point. Its success and civility is due in large part
to it being an enclave. Long time users and ycombinator itself has worried
that it will be if not has already been a victim of its success as more and
more of the general population is drawn to it.
------
spencertg1
I would argue it all comes down to how much 'trust' can be generated within a
network. A network of people with lots of common similarities and easily
shared traits will have a higher level of trust and therefore a greater
propensity to share and receive more nuanced ideas/concepts. Large open and
highly diverse networks of people will feel less 'trustworthy' or less
'comfortable' for people to contribute to or participate in.
The most effective networks have high levels of 'inner-trust' to generate
ideas between participants, and cross-pollinating trust' to share ideas
between networks.
~~~
golemotron
This is a powerful argument against entryism.
------
swehner
I had written about how limits are not necessarily bad:
[http://stephan.sugarmotor.org/2010/08/couple-of-thoughts-
abo...](http://stephan.sugarmotor.org/2010/08/couple-of-thoughts-about-
evolution-and-economics/)
One can make good arguments in favour of trade barriers as well (related also:
"globalization",
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticisms_of_globalization](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticisms_of_globalization))
------
okintheory
In _model of_ social networks, group boundaries promote the spread of ideas,
study finds. Has the model been tested well?
~~~
HillRat
To be honest, I don't find anything surprising about this, as what he
describes is a traditional "small world" network (high clustering coefficient
with short path links). The strong links within clusters efficiently amplify
information, and the weak links between members of different clusters serve to
transmit across the graph. (The fewer sparse cuts needed to decompose the
graph, the less effectively you will be able to transmit data across it.)
For example, Milgram (1969) found in his famous letter-delivery experiment
that the strongest predictor of success when sending a letter across ethnic
lines was whether the first jump between ethnic groups was a "strong" or
"weak" link -- weak links were significantly more likely to end in a
successful transmission. This is almost certainly because ethnicity tends to
be an accidental (due to uncontrollable historical factors) signal of
socioeconomic group; weak ties are more likely to be across socioeconomic
boundaries.
There may be more to the article than the press release indicates; Centola is
a former MIT professor with a background in computational modeling, so I
assume he brings something new to the table here.
------
davefol
"It could be that the Internet is in fact set up and operates in such a way as
to allow easier coordination on complex ideas," he said.
I'm not sure if he's being sarcastic. I thought that this was the explicit
original purpose of the internet.
~~~
eevilspock
You're missing his point, and what he is providing a counter-argument to. When
he says _" the Internet is in fact set up and operates in such a way"_ he is
referring to the widespread impact of echo chambers and filter bubbles, the
very phenomenon that most people consider to work against knowledge sharing.
_" Counterintuitively, he finds that breaking down group boundaries to
increase the spread of knowledge across populations may ultimately result in
less-effective knowledge sharing. Instead, his research shows that best
practices and complex ideas are more readily integrated across populations if
some degree of group boundaries is preserved. "_
------
Dowwie
Thank you for sharing this study. It is very interesting.
Every kind of social group has its pros and cons.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Who uses In-App Analytics? - aliciaheraz
Hi, I am Alicia, from Emaww.com (Montreal) and this is my first post here :) I'd like to assess your interest in what we are building at Emaww: an AI-API that detects emotions in interactive touches. For those of you who are using platforms like mixpanel, hotjar, kissmetrics, appsee or others... Would you be interested in emotional insight (knowing how your users feel)? and why?
======
Rjevski
I’d rather spend time actually building great apps than trying to stalk every
single thing my users do.
I’m sure there will be a market for this (there are a lot of people than don’t
give a shit about user privacy and embed every single analytics/stalking
library they can put their hands on) but for me I want none of this.
Users don’t expect every single touch event to be tracked and reported to a
remote server, so don’t do it.
~~~
aliciaheraz
I do agree with you Rjevski! We don't need another analytic tools where only
app-owners access the data for more insight. I am sorry for not explaining
what we actually intend to do at Emaww. The data we sense will be provided
back to users so that they understand their own emotions and their contexts to
increase their emotional awareness. Thoughts?
------
llllevy
Appsee actually does give you insights on users' emotions - frustration from
usability issues, for example. You can see this with session recordings and
touch heatmaps.
~~~
aliciaheraz
Thanks for this information. Is frustration the only emotion they measure?
------
tarun_anand
Yes please message me at Tarun[dot]Anand[Gmail]dotcom
~~~
aliciaheraz
will do!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask YC: When should you incorporate? - bitsantos
I've been working with a few friends from college on a web startup and we actually have a few things almost ready for launch, but we've put off incorporating and registering ourselves as a real company. Should we get that done now or can we afford to wait?<p>We're a bit low on money and we might not be able to afford all of the fees and any potential legal services we might have to get to get it all right.<p>What are the implications of not incorporating immediately?
======
nostrademons
When you
a.) Need to take money from someone else.
b.) Have done something you might get sued for.
The "might get sued for" doesn't mean when you've done something wrong (at
which point it's undoubtedly too late - don't be evil ;-). It means when
you're performing a service for money, or when you've got a fairly well-
trafficked site that's attracted a lot of attention, or when you're doing
something where there may be disputes involved.
We met with a lawyer for incorporation when we first launched, but he kinda
dragged his feet and we're still not officially incorporated. In retrospect,
he's doing us a favor, because we really don't need to be incorporated at this
stage and the additional overhead of a corporation would just slow us down.
(In particular, corporations need to file taxes as a corporation.) If we were
successful enough that people were actually submitting much user-generated
content or ( _gasp_ ) had a revenue stream other than Google AdSense, we'd
want to move the incorporation along, but while we're still developing/finding
traction, it's not that important.
------
NoBSWebDesign
It really depends on where you are located and what you are doing. Is there a
reason you want to incorporate instead of registering as an LLC (i.e. are you
going to be seeking investment any time soon)?
At the risk of being unpopular (judging by the other comments), I would advise
you to go do it now. It's not that difficult, and you will have to learn how
to do it eventually. Furthermore, if you are really planning for your startup
to go anywhere, things are most certainly not going to slow down. In fact,
your time will just become more and more valuable, so right now would be the
smartest time to incorporate.
If you are not yet making money, then that means your taxes won't be that
difficult to file anyway. If you are making money, you are suppose to be
claiming that on your taxes, whether you're incorporated or not. Either way,
you can at least legally cover your personal ass(ets).
Keep in mind that my thoughts are based on procedures and tax law in MI, so if
there is some mysterious overhead in your state that differs from MI, then you
must take that into consideration.
So, I guess my suggestion is: If there is a good chance your startup will flop
and fail within the tax year, and not get sued in the process, don't bother.
But if you are serious about it and believe it has potential to grow, why not
do it now?
------
Flemlord
Most large companies are incorporated in Delaware because they do not tax out-
of-state corporations. I also know Nevada allows one-person corporations,
which is fairly unique.
Edit: I just realized I misread the headline as _where_ should you
incorporate.
~~~
thorax
They do tax out-of-state corporations, but it's a franchise tax not an income
tax.
------
sohail
I incorporated a company myself. It isn't very hard. In BC, I did it all
online (except registering a non-numbered company.)
If you have no revenue, _DONT DO IT_. Only do it when you have revenue. There
is too much bookkeeping overhead.
On the other hand, if you are providing a service without revenue (i.e., you
can get sued for it) you've got to think whether it is really worth it.
------
pkaler
I incorporated right away. Mostly for tax purposes. I can write off 40% of my
rent and a lot of my business meals.
I also plan on contracting to extend my runway. It's best to be incorporated
for that.
------
eusman
depends of what you are doing? do you expect to get sued from day one? check
out legalzoom.com if you need to save money on registering the company
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Reasons Startup CEOs Fail - JayNeely
http://blog.bostonsearchgroup.com/7-reasons-ceos-fail/
======
kolya3
Interesting point: "At some point, it may be required that the rest of the
team that started the company with the CEO may need to be changed out for an
executive team with experience at the “growth-stage” versus just the “start-
up” stage."
While I've definitely worked with founders who weren't fit to run a big
company (lack of focus, lack of common sense, blind to customers' needs - you
name it...), the "experienced executive team" that replaced them seemed to go
out of their way to run the company into the ground. I have now seen this
happen 3 times (both at companies I've worked at and friends' companies).
~~~
alain94040
You don't run a $100M business like you run a $1M business.
In the $100M range (and before), you start obsessing about gross margins, tax
issues, renewal business, reduce on-going discount practices, etc.
When you are in the $1M range, you are focusing on gaining your first
customers and it doesn't really matter if the deal is profitable or not, each
sale makes you grow by leaps and bounds.
If you are detail-oriented, you'll enjoy the $100M business. If you are a
born-entrepreneur, you may prefer the 0-to-1 adventure. I know where I stand.
~~~
run4yourlives
_and it doesn't really matter if the deal is profitable or not,_
Um, it matters _more_ , if anything. SV mentality is not the path to success.
The faster you get profitable, the better your chances overall.
~~~
staunch
For a tiny business immediate profitably might be an absolute requirement for
the survival of a company. For a company that's prepared to spend money to
have significant long term success it's a different story.
It may very well be wise to aim for $10 million in revenue with $500k losses
rather than a more conservative $1 million revenue with $50k profit.
------
jodrellblank
_the founder CEO can become caught up in the initial “vision” and stick to it
regardless of external market input that would indicate changes to the initial
value proposition are needed to capture broader market adoption_
This bugs me like the idea that public companies are legally obliged to
maximise shareholder value.
Aren't you supposed to build something you want? Build something you're
passionate about? Isn't the current economic collapse and markets overflowing
with a slurry of average products a symptom of companies focused on growth and
money and market capture instead of doing a good job?
~~~
tjic
> This bugs me like the idea that public companies are legally obliged to
> maximise shareholder value. ... Aren't you supposed to build something you
> want?
Yes ... if YOU OWN IT.
If you are the EMPLOYEE of a company OWNED by other people (i.e. "CEO of a
publicly traded company"), then you do not get to be a prima donna with other
people's money (i.e. their retirement hopes, their investment for their kids'
educations, etc.). You buckle down and you do your job. And that job is
"trying to grow the investment".
~~~
jodrellblank
And that bugs me.
Check out Engadget.com on and off. See the churn of _shite_ products. See how
they "maximise market capture" and "shareholder value" by choosing "everyone"
as their target market. See how much missed opportunity to make groundbreaking
standout devices or cult niche items there is in the dreary ongoing clone
wars.
------
fnazeeri
Great post!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why there’s still no Netflix app for Android - Fragmentation - jaybol
http://www.edibleapple.com/why-theres-still-no-netflix-app-for-android-fragmentation/
======
Zak
I think it would be more accurate to say that there's no Netflix app because
the movie studios want DRM features and Android doesn't provide them directly.
~~~
dotBen
One of the great things about Android is that it is an open system that anyone
can hack on (read: tinker with it, not commit illegality).
Its possible to create DRM systems within open systems (at the closed
application level rather than the open OS level) if NetFlix want to... there
is no need to have add some proprietary DRM in Android OS.
~~~
dangrossman
It'd be too easy to get keys out of the software, so the studios wouldn't go
for that. There's a reason DRM is baked into operating systems.
~~~
dminor
Yes, and thank goodness they've stamped out piracy on those operating systems
with integrated DRM.
~~~
dangrossman
Netflix's concern is to meet the contractual obligations necessary to be able
to provide content to their subscribers. Whether the DRM does anything to
inhibit piracy is irrelevant to them.
~~~
dminor
Yes, obviously. My comment was directed at "the studios" if that wasn't clear.
------
bigmac
_That said, the process of dealing with each Android handset on a case by case
basis is a lot more arduous and time consuming than developing the app for
platforms like iOS and Windows Phone 7._
I have to wonder if that has something to do with why the Angry Birds update
is so broken. It works fine on my HTC Incredible, but it is now completely
unusable by my wife and one of our friends.
------
nl
That's not fragmentation, that's lack of a particular feature.
~~~
arron61
It amazes me that writers do not understand this simple point. They saw the
word "fragment" and jumped to conclusions right away without fully
understanding the original article.
Android is missing a DRM feature - which Netflix never fully explained and to
get around this, they are working with handset makers to add this feature.
This is not fragmentation. This is actually pretty cool considering that they
are able to get around limitations imposed by the operating system.
If Android 2.3 added this feature, this problem or "so-called" fragmentation
will disappear.
~~~
Xuzz
Once, of course, all the devices get upgrades to it. When I'm still seeing
releases of Android 1.5, I'm actually unsure if working with the OS for this
would actually make it more difficult to support on a variety of platforms.
~~~
tomjen3
Not really, it is pretty easy to say that your app requires Android such and
such version and if you browse the market with a version less than that, it
won't show up.
On no, thats not fragmentation either - all old apps run on later versions.
~~~
Xuzz
Sure, but then you have the exact same issue where only a subset of devices
can use Netflix.
------
tomjen3
No the problem isn't fragmentation but that Netflix insisted on using features
that weren't part of the API -- which would get you banned on the iOS and
properly on Win7 as well.
------
cookiecaper
I was under the impression that Netflix DRM relied only on a Silverlight
component anyway. Is this not correct? How do they depend on the OS to provide
this functionality?
Does the Wii also provide such functionality? Netflix is on a lot of devices
these days so it's hard to swallow the idea that lack of OS-level DRM is
keeping it off. In fact, if I remember correctly, Netflix is available on TiVO
and Boxee, both of which are Linux platforms, and Linux definitely doesn't
have a baked-in DRM facility and I would be highly skeptical that there is a
private implementation of OS-level DRM on both Boxee and TiVO that hasn't hit
the masses. So it's almost definitely just an excuse.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The brain may actively forget during REM sleep - bookofjoe
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/brain-may-actively-forget-during-dream-sleep
======
_Nat_
It's always weird to see a study reporting a hypothesis you'd always assumed
to have been established as common knowledge.
It's exploitable, too. Health concerns aside, it seems like if someone needs
to crack some really hard problem, then they might:
1\. Prepare by deep sleeping until the mind's a blank slate.
2\. Start working on the problem while avoiding deep sleep (to avoid wipes)
and extraneous information (to avoid junk that'd force you to get sleep).
3\. Upon completing the problem, thoroughly document (the mental copy's about
to get shredded), then sleep it off.
~~~
SamReidHughes
I think the common understanding is the opposite. That you are better off
thinking about the problem 4 hours today and 4 hours tomorrow, than 8 hours
today.
~~~
hombre_fatal
You'll notice it's just a common way to flex on HN.
"Oh, heh, cute that scientists need to confirm what's clearly obvious to me."
Often with an anecdote about how they've always known it, and with an
explanation about how it works (obviously) which you think would be
unnecessary if it was such common knowledge.
~~~
LeftHandPath
It's partly a flex but I think it's a common experience. There are lots of
things that the kinds of people who are on this site - for the most part,
intelligent people - will pick up on subconsciously.
When we realize it's not common knowledge, we get excited and/or become proud
of ourselves, and explain what we think to indulge ourselves (because we were
just given evidence that the knowledge isn't as common as we thought).
------
sudosteph
The key seems to be the activation of MCH during REM rather than REM itself.
I wonder if MCH plays a role in memory impairment caused by frequent cannabis
usage. It is also related to appetite enhancement, and I saw at least one
study saying cannabinoids stimulate MCH. [1]
The REM connection is especially interesting - because as many long-term
cannabis users will tell you, you usually stop dreaming after a while of use.
If you stop again though, dreams often come back with a vengeance. Studies say
this is due to REM impairment and then REM rebound after stopping [2]. I'm
totally spit-balling, but it makes me wonder if it's possible the REM changes
long-term stoners experience could be from your body trying to regulate a
overload of MCH.
[1]
[https://www.jneurosci.org/content/27/18/4870](https://www.jneurosci.org/content/27/18/4870)
[2][http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/178475](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/178475)
~~~
sysbin
Interestingly dreams return after shortly stopping cannabis but more
fascinating is how the dreams that come back will be in nightmare form. I've
experienced this outcome and I've seen it reported online by other users.
Maybe anecdotal but I find it peculiarly odd of false because the outcome has
happened several times.
~~~
wolco
I would say more vivid but not necessarily nightmares
------
jakelazaroff
Tangentially related, but I always thought this scene from Inside Out was such
a clever personication of memory:
[https://youtu.be/E9NMUGhJ7FE](https://youtu.be/E9NMUGhJ7FE)
------
bitwize
Sleep is one hell of a GC pause. If our brain firmware were written in Rust,
how much of that time could we get back?
~~~
freddie_mercury
This is almost certainly the wrong metaphor, since there aren't really any
instances of animals that are always awake, which seems like an obvious
competitive advantage.
A better metaphor is probably that the brain is normally run like a heavily
overclocked CPU & with insufficient cooling, so it needs to be turned off
frequently to cool down.
So "getting rid of the pause" wouldn't result in getting back time but in
melting down the chip.
~~~
mamon
As far as I know sharks solved it: only part of their brain sleeps at time,
allowing them to be on the move constantly. I wish human could do that :)
~~~
maze-le
Some bird species too (Albatross, Penguins). I sometimes think that meditation
could be a state of mind like this: parts of the brain awoke, parts of it
asleep. With the caveat that meditation isn't really very restful, but
demanding on its own.
------
LiamPa
Strongly recommend reading ‘Why we sleep’ if you want to learn more about rem
/ nrem, it’s fascinating how little we know.
------
irrational
To the best of my knowledge, I've never dreamed. On waking I have no memory of
anything happening after falling asleep. I wonder if I experience more REM
sleep than those people who do dream (or at least remember their dreams upon
waking up).
~~~
shadowmore
Everyone dreams, but dream recall varies from day to day and from person to
person. But there are a number of ways to improve it.
For instance, getting into the habit of introspecting your own thoughts the
moment you realize you're awake -- you'll find that some of what seem like
random things you're thinking about upon waking up are actually strands of
whatever dream you were having in the last REM cycle before waking up, and if
you practice pulling on those strands, you'll find that your recall improves
over time.
There are also affirmations that can help. Literally telling yourself that
you'll remember your dreams as you try and fall asleep, which implants a
subconscious intent that helps create better recall.
I looked into this years ago when looking into inducing lucid dreams, and I
can say from personal experience the various methods for getting more in touch
with your dreams do work. It's just a question of whether you can be bothered
to put in the effort and feel the reward is worth it.
~~~
irrational
I'm nearly 50 years old. You would think that if I could remember my dreams
there would've been at least 1 time in the 18,000+ times I've slept in my
lifetime that I would've remembered something, anything upon awakening.
Anyway, not dreaming doesn't bother me, so I don't really have any incentive
to try. Though I am a bit curious as to why I don't dream or remember that
I've dreamed. But not curious enough to expend any energy on it ;-)
~~~
vekker
> But not curious enough to expend any energy on it
and that's exactly why you miss out on nightly dreams!
------
idclip
check out vipassana and brain thickness increases during mentation and
selective neural pathway elimination.
Too.
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3541490/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3541490/)
------
segfaultbuserr
Like a NAND flash array, needs to run fsck, scrub, and GC periodically.
------
transfire
It's an old theory... REM, nature's GC.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Subscription App Paradox - tzfld
https://hackernoon.com/subscription-software-paradox-d4a1aef4d88a
======
TeMPOraL
Apps are just a harbinger; this starts to happen everywhere else too. I
dislike how our ever more efficient economy makes your capabilities and
quality of life tied closer and closer to your _instantaneous_ income. Instead
of one-time purchases, more and more things are becoming money sinks now. This
might be great for the perfect citizens - young, punctual, hard-working
individuals steadily going up the corporate ladder - but it's incredibly
annoying for everyone else. Any small hiccup in your cashflow, and suddenly
you have to start cutting off parts of your life.
It's tolerable now, because you still can own most of the things. But will it
be 10 years from now? When because of e.g. sudden health expenses, you're left
wondering whether to cancel dishwashing or clotheswashing service for a month,
so that you don't have to cancel the service that feeds your kid at school?
Will everything you "have", and everything you can do, be solely determined by
the allocation of your cashflow to various available services?
~~~
red_admiral
I don't know if this is more of a European thing but it used to be the case
that unless you were wealthy you rented your fridge, cooker, TV etc. or at
least bought them on some kind of hire-purchase agreement.
In Switzerland you even used to pay a monthly subscription to the PTT to rent
your landline phone, separately from your phone line subscription. If you paid
a bit more per month you got one of the fancy models with buttons instead of a
dial. [source in German: [https://www.srf.ch/sendungen/kassensturz-
espresso/themen/ser...](https://www.srf.ch/sendungen/kassensturz-
espresso/themen/serien/espresso-retro/die-evolution-von-der-waehlscheibe-zum-
funktelefon-2)]
The whole service economy thing looks to me like it's going back in the
direction of the times when various versions of "servant" were a common
occupation.
~~~
tauntz
The concept of renting a fridge, TV or telephone is something that I haven't
even heard of before and I also live in Europe (though, Eastern Europe). Might
it only be a thing in Switzerland or in some Western European countries?
~~~
tonyedgecombe
We used to have it in the UK, I think Rumbelows was one of the bigger vendors.
Cheap consumer goods killed its business.
------
danieldk
The trend of subscriptions seems to be accelerating, I think it is detrimental
to the ISV ecosystem as a whole.
I have bought _many_ macOS applications in the last decade or so. And like so
many others, I do not shun to spend 50 Euro or more on an app. However, as of
recently I have been more restrained in buying applications, since it seems
that they could switch to a subscription model at any random moment. Instead,
I have been looking more and more at FLOSS alternatives. Even if their quality
is sometimes not as good, the prospect of being able to use an application
long-term makes them more attractive. Moreover, I have also started donating
more to FLOSS developers as a result.
~~~
ThomPete
I run a successful app with one time payment and I thought about turning it
into subscription. Instead I decided to keep it a one time payment and then
instead will be offering subscription add ons for extra services.
I hope that strikes a balance because I understand the issue from the
customers side but also want to make a living out of it too.
~~~
bitL
You can do both; one time payment for a major version for individual users and
subscription for businesses. Just don't do subscription-only please.
~~~
danieldk
Indeed. Please do both!
Microsoft has done this pretty well with Office. You can choose to get an
Office 365 subscription or buy Office standalone.
(Office 365 pricing is also extremely good for what you get, compared to most
software subscriptions.)
------
rocqua
At some point, an app is done or close to done. At that point, maintenance to
keep the app compatible is all that is needed. So, the company should
downscale. Only, companies don't.
As such, the subscription pays for way more than simple upkeep. It pays for a
large development team to continue to add features to an app that is
essentially already done.
~~~
josephg
Yes, this is a constant sourse of amazement for me too! The chrome team at
google is well over 1000 people. (The opensource code base now has over 800
committers). The initial release had 100 committers[1], so probably about as
many man hours have gone into google chrome in the last year than were put
into the project in its first ~5 years of existence or something. In the last
year just shy of 1.5 million non-blank lines of code[2] have been added to the
browser, which is more code than was in the whole browser when it was first
launched, webkit included.
But what does all that new code _do_?? I'd challenge anyone who's not a
developer to name a single new feature added to chrome in the last year. I'm a
web developer and I struggle to name more than 5 changes.
Its easy to pick on chrome because the numbers are mostly-public. But the same
is probably true of facebook.com, ms office and all sorts of other big company
products. As features compound, the marginal value of each additional line of
code added becomes vanishingly small. (All the really useful features have
already been added, and project iteration gets much slower in big projects).
There are thousands of engineers working on facebook.com. If they all quietly
left and were never replaced, how long do you think it would take before
anyone in the public would notice? 6 months? 1 year? Longer?
And if thats the case, what a waste of that huge pool of talent. If you could
leave your job without any of your users noticing or caring, what a waste of
your education and your potential. Quit and start that company you've always
been dreaming about starting. Go do literally anything of substance.
[1]
[https://www.openhub.net/p/chrome/contributors/summary](https://www.openhub.net/p/chrome/contributors/summary)
[2]
[https://www.openhub.net/p/chrome/analyses/latest/languages_s...](https://www.openhub.net/p/chrome/analyses/latest/languages_summary)
~~~
icebraining
Just taking a cursory look to their blog, there's PWA/WebAPK, Payment Request
API on desktop, Web Share API, WebUSB, WebBluetooth (in progress),
improvements to WebVR, Network Information API, new headers like Clear-Site-
Data, the new Web Push Encryption format, out-of-process iframes, headless
support, native notifications on macOS and IndexedDB 2.0.
And of course, there are countless bug fixes and other small improvements, and
all of this has to work on six operating systems.
~~~
josephg
To be clear, I'm not saying Chrome's thousands of engineers aren't busy.
They're obviously adding literally millions of lines of code that does
_something_. I'm saying the features they're adding are very marginal. All the
important stuff was added years ago. 1000 world-class software engineers can
help solve some of the world's really important problems, and writing a "web
share API" or bringing back web notifications sounds like a tragic waste of
their talent.
"I saw the best minds of my generation consumed putting advertising next to
pictures of cats"
------
Walkman
I really like 1Password's old model for a user point of view; they asked money
for every new major version of 1Password, but old version bug fixes were free.
This way, if you needed the new features or newer OS support, you could pay
for the new major version (same as buying a new suit) or you could use the old
version if it was fine for you. This model is fair, but still generates more
income for the developers from loyal users who upgrade.
~~~
Silhouette
That's how most software used to work. You paid for the big new versions, but
if you had one already, you might get minor updates for free either from the
Internet or even going back a bit further from the cover disc on the front of
a magazine or a BBS.
The thing is, that model relies on the big upgrades being sufficiently
attractive to users that they will pay more money just to get the new
features. It's clear what you're getting and what you're paying for it. That
works well if you keep making big steps forward with whatever your software
does that are valuable to your users. It doesn't work so well if all you've
got to offer is a few incremental refinements that don't much change the value
of your product. As others have been mentioning, sometimes software is
essentially complete, and this way you can't just keep selling something
that's done to the same customer over and over again.
This is why some of these calculations about the cost effectiveness of
subscriptions for business software make me laugh (and then not subscribe).
They'll compare the cost for an ongoing subscription today with the cost of
buying every new version before, ignoring the fact that new versions before
might not have been a big advance and plenty of customers probably only
upgraded every other version or less, or in some cases not at all.
~~~
falcolas
There's another option to "keep building new features for an existing app":
Take your expertise and apply it to a new app.
Why keep all your eggs in a single bucket when you have a great opportunity to
diversify and not risk pissing off your customers with pricing changes?
~~~
Silhouette
That's also how a lot of software companies used to work. Even the big
business names like Microsoft and Adobe added major new products to their
portfolios over time. At the other end of the spectrum, there were people
writing indie games or little utilities to make your computer work better in
some small way, who might have dozens of products in their back catalogue that
were all low-cost, one-off purchases.
A lot of software today seems to be more like movie or sports franchises: once
you've found a winning formula, you just keep cranking it out with slight
variations from one year to the next. After all, as long as there are enough
suckers in the market to pay your bills if you do that, what's to stop you?
------
mherrmann
For me, the determining factor is whether it costs the vendor something to
provide the service. Running a server? Fair. An app that runs on my hardware?
Not fair. Updates? Requires development effort, so totally fair. etc.
------
kitx
Think the fairest model is one where you pay once for the app, updates are
free for a set period of time, then you have to pay again to upgrade if you
wish to. If not, the old version is yours indefinitely.
Well aware that the App Stores do not offer this option, but it is possible if
you implement your own billing system on macOS or Windows.
------
jakobegger
Who is your customer? Are you selling to a journalist that uses your app to
write every day? Are your customers athletes that exercise 3 times a week?
Then yes, go for it, charge for a subscription.
Or do you have a long tail of „casual users“? Bloggers that write an article
or two every month. Casual runners that want to track their weekend runs.
Someone who wants to touch up vacation photos once a year.
Then a subscription is unsuitable. Casual users will pay once for a premium
app, especially if they expect to use it for a long time. But its gonna be
hard to convince them to pay a monthly fee.
Most apps will have a mix of regular and casual users.
Just make sure to think of the different audiences your app has. Your business
model will decide which of them you can keep.
~~~
koolba
> Casual users will pay once for a premium app, especially if they expect to
> use it for a long time. But its gonna be hard to convince them to pay a
> monthly fee.
I don't think so. It may not be as easy to convince as "just $1!" but I bet
the customers will come.
I also think they'll forget to cancel. That's where the real casual money is.
Thousands of customers oblvious to the monthly fees.
It's like gym memberships but without the high pressure sales tactics. The
customer signs up, uses it for a a week, then gets billed monthly for the next
year.
~~~
pbhjpbhj
Are you promoting stealing people's money using the gym-membership model? It
sounds like you are.
That model is what you come to when you realise burglary doesn't scale.
~~~
koolba
> Are you promoting stealing people's money using the gym-membership model? It
> sounds like you are.
I'm not promoting it. I'm calling it out as the natural progression of
switching to a subscription model.
When a customer sees "$1/month" vs. "$12/once" what they're really seeing is
"$1" vs "$12". The apps on a subscription model will win out.
> That model is what you come to when you realise burglary doesn't scale.
It's not subscription themselves that are bad. It's selling a product that
relies on your customer not using the product to be profitable. Limited space
in the gym leads to overcrowding which incentives them to not have you come.
The less you come, the less crowded it looks, the easier it is for them to
sell memberships (i.e. subscriptions).
------
binaryanomaly
Imho the problem are not subscriptions per se but it’s how you treat your
customers. If customers feel treated unfair and ripped off developers
hopefully feel the churn. If the switch and the pricing is fair most people
won’t mind in the longterm. Ulysses is imho a negative example how you should
not do it. They were so much in love with themselves they completely failed to
look at it also from a customers perspective (not everybody is a professional
writer who purchased the expensive apps) which of course set up many people.
Don‘t be evil, ignorant and arrogant...
------
codecamper
The problem is that the ios app store (not sure about play) does not offer a
paid upgrade option.
It is unrealistic to expect developers to toil away, improving software each
year, using new platform features, all for no incremental income from existing
users.
I'm an app developer with a relatively successful app who spends about 1
minute every 6 months thinking about upgrading the app. No money, no honey.
~~~
thejosh
What about new users? Wouldn't you want to keep improving to attract new
users? Depends on your market though I guess.
~~~
syllogism
Don't updates roll your review ratings, though? For user acquisition I'd
rather be sitting on 500 reviews and a 4 star rating that point out some legit
problems. That's better than releasing a new version and having the reviews
reset to 0.
------
bitL
This is the reason we need alternatives to iOS and Android - to allow real
customer-centric mobile OS where users aren't held hostage. Would it be a big
problem for OS manufacturers to add more options, such as paid upgrade that
could retain access to previous version's settings instead of being completely
sandboxed from it? Of course not. Would it be a problem to offer a year-long
automatic upgrades while retaining the last version once payment runs off,
instead of blocking access? Of course not. It's just greed, the need to have
"predictable income" and to stuff it to the user that allows this to happen.
Instead of trying out and buying an app as a one-off if I like it, I am not
going to even look at a non-essential app that requires a subscription.
------
kuschku
A major issue with this is that incomes are different in different places.
Maybe to someone in Silicon Valley spending a hundred to two hundred bucks a
month on a bunch of apps is reasonable, but to a student that has less than 50
bucks left after rent and groceries (and might need to buy new clothes
sometimes, too), this is ridiculous.
It’s a similar issue with the completely ridiculously priced smartphones.
Android often loves breaking their APIs, so you need to test the new releases
on a physical phone before they’re public. Google now dropped the Nexus
phones, so that means you need a Google Pixel. The cheapest Google Pixel is
900$ in Germany. How the hell am I supposed to pay for that? Or is App
Development now supposed to only be a thing for big businesses?
~~~
yjftsjthsd-h
> you need to test the new releases on a physical phone
Why not use the emulator?
~~~
kuschku
Because that doesn’t expose issues that appear with the UI gestures, or some
interactions.
I’ve tried with the emulator, but it never is the same as the real device, and
you just can’t test pinch-zo-zoom for example on an emulator.
~~~
dogma1138
You can use any android device to send multi-touch, gestures and sensors
events to the emulator: [http://tools.android.com/tips/hardware-
emulation](http://tools.android.com/tips/hardware-emulation)
Android Emulator also has been supporting "multi touch" via the mouse and
keyboard for a while now, IIRC it's alt+click.
Android devices that run stock android and get monthly updates can be bought
for under 150 and even 100 EUR e.g. WilleyFox.
~~~
kuschku
> Android devices that run stock android and get monthly updates can be bought
> for under 150 and even 100 EUR e.g. WilleyFox.
Yes, sure, and I’ve still got my Nexus 5X – but Google only provides the
preview releases for the Pixel devices from now on, all other devices only get
those after release.
------
rtpg
The example apps that this person gives seem to prove subscription models
being a good alternative more than anything
Guardian for 2.50 a month. How much did newspapers cost?
10 a month for VPN service. You have to rent a server right?
80 bucks for Dropbox a year. How much does that external terabyte hard drive
cost, let alone the syncing feature.
Not to mention that a lot of stuff is in easily exportable formats....
There's always going to be one off apps, but most of this stuff is too nice to
be supported by one off purchases (far before it's considered "done"). Paying
100 dollars a month for premium software when we spend all our time in our
computer is ... Fine I think.
Though the counterargument is that I wouldn't spend 100 bucks a month on
chairs.
~~~
tomc1985
Subscription services are blatant rent-seeking. Startups should be ashamed to
have their hands out like common street hawkers. I don't care if there are
recurring monthly expenses for your company to meet, you used to be able to
buy software and now, increasingly, you can't.
We are very quickly heading down the path to a full-blown _renteer_ class, who
don't own anything and live at the mercy of their myriad service providers,
who by-the-way seem more concerned with their perverted version of
'innovation' then customer satisfaction or avoiding product sunsets.
~~~
ryanwaggoner
That's not what rent-seeking means. They're adding value, not manipulating
public policy, no regulatory, capture, etc.
I think what you're trying to say is that they're charging more than you think
they should. That's not what rent-seeking means.
These apps are providing value and doing so under a subscription model. If you
don't think they provide sufficient value, there are almost always loads of
competitors. Additionally, it makes no sense to sell a lot of software under a
one-time fee. There are significant ongoing costs for support, maintenance,
servers, etc. It makes as much sense as selling one-time fee access to the
grocery store.
~~~
tomc1985
In many (most, imo) cases the value added is minimal, sometimes added
seemingly only to justify the monthly costs.
And it is very much rent-seeking. How could you not describe big 5's lobbying
activities as conducted at least partially for regulatory capture? Look who is
in charge of the FTC and FCC, particularly that one kid that tried to act cool
to tech geeks, what's-his-name.
And that is not even what I meant by rent seeking. We are seeing a new kind,
at least in tech: subjugation of consumers means of production, achieved by
carefully dispensing bits through services instead of allowing customers to
retain control of them (via un-drm'd media or downloads). The purpose of this
change is to create more revenue for the owner.... which is rent-seeking.
Similar things have been going on for years with consumer stables...
DollarShaveClub's One Wipe Charlies (expensive) to replace toilet paper
(cheap), or juicero (expensive) to replace a blender and fruit (cheap).
Chemical cleaners (expensive) instead of centuries-old natural techniques
(cheap) even when chemicals are inappropriate to the cleaning job. And so
on...
------
raffomania
I'm hopeful that a Patreon-like donation model will prove successful for
apps/products with a passionate userbase. Ulysses, as described in the
article, does seem to have a pretty active community with a lot of people
willing to pay.
~~~
tobltobs
Maybe times will change but currently you are lucky if you waive less then 98%
of your possible income if you use a donation model.
------
Silhouette
This seems to be happening much more with mobile apps than desktop software,
and I can't help feeling this is partly a response to not being able to charge
a serious price for a serious app as a one-off. In mobile world, apps cost a
few dollars at most. That's just how it is, because everything in the early
days was quick and cheap and that set the market's expectations. It doesn't
matter that you needed to spend a billion dollars in R&D and your app is the
secret to eternal life, if it's more than $1.99, it's too expensive and the
bad reviews will pour in. So if you really are building something that is
expensive but worth it, you need to disguise the price, and thus almost
everything serious uses either in-app purchases or a subscription model to
avoid the scary number.
Compare this to the world of professional software, where it's almost the
other way around. Businesses are used to spending lots of money on software,
because it makes them more money in return, but they won't do so lightly. To
get businesses to pay on a subscription basis, even the biggest names in the
industry have had to set their subscription levels at a tiny fraction of the
previous cost for a one-off purchase, because businesses will do the sums and
won't take the deal if it's going to work out too expensive.
~~~
tonyedgecombe
It seems to be happening in desktop as well, I was looking for some
bookkeeping software and it has all shifted to subscriptions in the last
couple of years.
~~~
Silhouette
There are definitely moves in that direction on desktop as well, for sure.
Microsoft, Adobe and Autodesk are some of the big names that traditionally
made expensive business software and increasingly rely on subscriptions (and
bulk licensing for larger businesses, though in itself that's nothing new). No
doubt there are many smaller players trying to follow the same path, though I
find it interesting that other smaller players are starting to compete based
on _not_ having the downsides of a subscription. It seems the market is big
enough for both variations, at least in some areas.
------
wkrause
If people are paying for a subscription then the market is clearing. Or in
other words the customer has decided that they are better off with the service
than without.
I think part of why people dislike subscription models is due to the reduction
of their personal consumer surplus. Under a one time purchase model, power
users who get value out of a product for many years get a nice windfall. Users
who only need or use the product for a shorter period of time have a smaller
consumer surplus since they're paying the same price.
A subscription model almost functions as a form of price discrimination. You
end up charging more to those that get value out your product for a longer
period of time. I'd imagine this has the effect of increasing producer surplus
at the expense of consumer surplus.
In theory every consumer has a one time price such that they would be
indifferent between a perpetual model and the subscription model. The issue is
there isn't a way for the supplier to segment the market in a way that is as
efficient as the subscription model for every user. If you offer the two
models together you create an adverse selection problem where only consumers
who estimate a greater consumer surplus from the one time price will choose
that option, lowering overall revenue for the supplier.
------
ducttape12
I've found the flipside of the subscription model; I'm actually able to use
commercial software for free. Most subscription software has a free tier, and
most of the time it's good enough for my needs.
In the few cases where it isn't, thanks to having some technical knowledge,
I'm able to string some utilities or services together to accomplish what I
need.
------
_pmf_
Web and app developers have pushed hard to obsolete mature desktop software
that costs money with low effort MVPs that have a subset of functionality, but
are cheap. Now they have established a new, lower baseline for quality, they
switch and want to have proper money for their low quality product.
------
forkLding
I guess we can use a car buying model instead, either pay upfront for a lot or
pay subscription until you dont want to or until the amount exceeds upfront
payment, I think it will be easier to stomach for users.
------
msmithstubbs
Several of the app subscriptions listed appear to actually be subscriptions
for content (Apple Music, The Guardian, Medium) while others are actual
services being paid for (Dropbox).
------
turowicz
You either pay for each version of the software or a subscription in a SaaS
model. I don't see anything wrong with that.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Exploring large projects with Projectile - pmoriarty
http://tuhdo.github.io/helm-projectile.html
======
tptacek
If you're not using Helm, you're not using Emacs the way it's meant to be used
in 2014. It sounds crazy to suggest than an Emacs extension could transform
your workflow, but Helm can.
Projectile is cool, but mostly I just use it so I can quickly and recursively
find-files in my current project.
~~~
swah
I'm torn about using helm. It looks cool and can display a lot of information,
but ido seems to disrupt your workflow less, the way emacs masters of old
wanted it to be.
------
jdreaver
I regularly use projectile with helm. I particularly like helm-projectile-
grep/ack, which runs grep or ack on the files in the project. Another great
feature is the set of projectile commands to toggle between a test and
implementation file (assumes you use a test directory structure that mirrors
your code's structure), or simply find a file in your tests.
------
swah
Note that Projectile is about dealing with projects, but Helm is providing the
split window UI in the video. Completion like ido, using the minibuffer, could
also be used.
(Helm is the sucessor to anything.el
[http://www.emacswiki.org/Anything](http://www.emacswiki.org/Anything))
~~~
Ixiaus
Helm is amazing. Helm all the things.
One of my favorites is _helm-hoogle_ for completion of Haskell type
signatures, function names, etc...
------
barrkel
I recommend adding in helm-git-grep if you're working on a git repo. It's how
I navigate most code now.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
What Entrepreneurs Want From VCs: Independence And Faster Feedback - vaksel
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/25/cornell-study-what-entrepreneurs-want-from-vcs-independence-and-faster-feedback/
======
natch
Don't those word at cross purposes? Perhaps with great skill a VC could manage
to do both well, but this must be very easy to get wrong, especially because
both personalities and technologies are involved, making it hard to just
follow some formula.
------
pclark
> 5\. Many entrepreneurs express concerns that some VCs have tensions within
> their organization/partnership ...
I find this tons.
------
Poiesis
What VC's want from Entrepreneurs: a company that makes lots of money.
~~~
herval
somehow the huge investment companies like Twitter keep getting kinda makes me
think that's NOT what VCs want...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Designing the Perfect Slider - thmslee
https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2017/07/designing-perfect-slider/
======
deepsun
Several years ago I made a perfect slider for my app. When I told about it to
American, he said: "It doesn't make any sense. Slider is like a small burger,
what are you talking about?"
~~~
girzel
I clicked this link expecting to read something about small burgers, I have to
admit.
------
joncampbelldev
for people as disappointed as I was that this wasn't a guide to a perfect mini
burger, this is my goto guide:
[http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/03/the-burger-
lab-h...](http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/03/the-burger-lab-how-to-
make-the-ultimate-home-made-sliders.html)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Help naming my event sourcing / CQRS platform - yrashk
I have a working prototype of an event sourcing / CQRS platform for Java with some interesting capabilities. It's already being used in commercial projects and is licensed under Apache license.<p>I want to find the most appropriate name for it:<p>https://twitter.com/yrashk/status/707399517025374208 (or reply with your suggestion)
======
ryanicle
If you could describe a little more details, it would be great. With the
current description, I'd choose EventTune, EventResponder, and EventPing. I'd
be glad to know if one of them is chosen.
------
partisan
What are some of the interesting capabilities? I like eventrecord and
eventchain, but don't overly love either of them.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google Adsense 10 Year Celebration - Play Pong - tomfakes
https://www.google.com/adsense
======
tomfakes
On my Adsense Dashboard, there's a new logo in the bottom left that, when
hovered over, starts a game of pong over the page. All to celebrate 10 years
of Adsense
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Quoter – Save and manage your highlights - mhasbini
https://getquoter.app/
======
mhasbini
Hey HN,
Often, I come across interesting quotes or tips that are worth saving.
I’m lazy, so I needed a way to save them effortlessly – otherwise, I would
forget or procrastinate.
I also wanted a pop out every now and then to remind me of my highlights, so I
don’t have to manually check the quotes.
Then I hacked together a workflow that saves quotes using a shortcut and a
cronjob that shows a random quote periodically (every 6 hours).
I used this setup for almost two years and it worked perfectly (My saved
highlights:
[http://mhasbini.com/highlights.html](http://mhasbini.com/highlights.html)).
Recently I decided to make the quotes accessible from the menu bar with the
ability to easily change configurations and manage the quotes. I worked with a
friend who had similar needs and so Quoter was born.
It just works and doesn’t get in your way. It’s configurable and lightweight
(~3 MB compressed and have small footprint).
Hope you like it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Reddit - gatsby
http://blog.samaltman.com/reddit
======
kyro
Exciting news. One thing I sincerely hope reddit will do with the new
injection is to increase the level of quality of content and discussion across
the board. Often the advice given is "you've got to find the smaller
subreddits" and while that's true, I think having the first few layers filled
with terrible content and hive-minded, often racist/sexist discussion is
incredibly detrimental to both the site's image and new user experiences.
I know there's great content there, and great people having great discussions,
but it's not terribly easy to find. I'm thoroughly convinced that reddit could
be an incredibly valuable source of reliable news, discussion, and
entertainment, but the way it's structured highlights its more juvenile
aspects.
And if it can find a way to establish legitimacy, it'll be worth far more than
it is today.
~~~
silencio
I'm a default (twoxchromosomes) mod.
I would love to see better moderation tools. Most of the shitty content I've
had to deal with are from newer/multiple accounts, as well as the older
accounts that are sick of the trolls. Our AutoModerator shadowban list and our
ban list is so ridiculously long I can barely scroll it. It'd be amazing if we
didn't have to rely on a bunch of other tools (toolbox, RES, AutoModerator) or
consider building our own tools (subreddit history scraper). It'd also be
amazing if there was some site-wide automatic action against certain throwaway
accounts so we don't have to clean up _after_ the 4th attempt at some idiot
trolling us.
I would also love to see a better take on Reddit 101 too. We still get
comments like "I'm a male and why is this on my reddit page" and people that
just barge in without reading rules to post things against our rules (like a
ton of misogyny _and_ misandry). Some of this is inevitable but it's pretty
annoying that there isn't much we can do here either other than deleting
things after the fact.
I don't think that those two alone will improve the site significantly, but it
would be a burden lifted for default mods, and that might help clean up parts
of the front page. Maybe. I don't even want to think about how much time we
spend on everything from figuring out trolls to writing warning notes for each
other, to discussing some idiot user trying to dox one of the mods. It'd be
time we can spend doing other things for the subreddit. That would be nice.
~~~
drzaiusapelord
>"I'm a male and why is this on my reddit page" and people that just barge in
without reading rules to post things against our rules
I think its asking way too much of someone who wants to join a casual site
known for cat pics and meme jokes to read through the couple dozen default sub
rules. There's no practical educational solution here. The volume of new users
and the labor of understanding all these rules is huge and its impractical to
expect people to digest it all, especially for a topic most users, being male,
aren't into. Lets also not be ignorant of the massive feminist thought that
dominates subs like 2x. To you, its mainstream, if not conservative, to others
its very different from what they're used to. Why do you think subjecting
random people to that and not expecting some kind of reaction?
Reddit's idea of default subs seems flawed to me. Perhaps it should have
suggested defaults when you make an account and you choose what you're
interested in. Non-logged in users should get, maybe, randomized top 500 or so
subs. Hand-picking subs, many of which are instantly polarizing (atheism,
worldnews, politics, 2X, etc) is really an insane way to run that site.
Worse, once a sub is made a default, its quantity goes up but its quality goes
down. /r/writingprompts was once a fun place for authors to get some practice.
The highest rated stories were usually good for a read, but now its a default
sub, and its unreadable. The top comments tend to be half-assed efforts
usually ending in a joke or even a reddit in-joke because the guy who posts
something silly immediately will dominate while the guy still working on his
story and posts after an hour of writing ends up being comment 78 and no one
scrolls that far down to read. Heck, that sub is so bad, that if you want to
read a decent story you start at the bottom, with the lowest ranked items, and
scroll up. Talk about failure of design!
/r/books was an okay resource for the casual reader and now is dominated by
items that are, imo, much more lowest common denominator. I'm sure there are
more examples.
I really think reddit is about ready to have its disruptive MySpace moment
when some Facebook-like competitor moves in. The default subs are unrreadable
dreck, the politics a mix of the ugliest libertarian meets social justice
warrior crap, and the mod policy a schizophrenic per sub mess that pleases no
one. Most subs seem completely overwhelmed and just resort to strict rules and
'self post only' policies to keep some level of sanity. This isn't a sign of a
healthy system.
~~~
convoces
>Worse, once a sub is made a default, its quantity goes up but its quality
goes down.
This seems to be almost universally true for any online community. As a
userbase widens, content quality and even social dynamics become diluted to
some extent towards a general population baseline.
As a mod of /r/changemyview (153k subscribers), we have discussed opting out
of becoming a default sub if we were approached by the reddit admins. We
already continuously struggle to maintain sub quality, given 50k subscriber
growth in the last 9 months, though we have seen some success with our small
set of very well-defined, strict, and heavily enforced rules.
~~~
golemotron
There should be a reddit of subreddits - a way to vote them up and down in
order to determine the defaults.
~~~
majani
the same effect can be had by making trending subs the defaults. Part of me
thinks this could be the solution, but another part of me thinks there's no
way they've gone nine years without having tried that already...
~~~
sltkr
I think the problem with that is that subs like /r/thefappening popping up by
default is kind of a PR nightmare. From the perspective of attracting new
users it's great, though.
------
minimaxir
I like Reddit. I recently obtained a data dump of every single submission and
comment so I could perform interesting data analysis and may just determine
what make a post on Reddit viral.
The problem I have with Reddit is that I'm still unsure if it's a positive
externality. There's a lot of good aspects of Reddit (discovery, community),
but there's so much _bad_ about Reddit that it's impossible to overlook it
(abusive subreddits, abusive users, no administrator transparency, etc.)
There's free speech, and then there's the ethics of promoting and profiting
off of abusive/illegal content.
My dream startup would be a Reddit-esque link aggregator, which favors the
actual _quality_ of submissions, instead of submissions which are lowest-
common-denominator which are optimized for the hive mind.
~~~
alexis
That's one big reason why Steve & I wanted it to be open-source!
[http://code.reddit.com](http://code.reddit.com)
It's not like all forum-software-innovation stopped in June 2005 when the 2 of
us launched reddit to the world.
The hard part is going to be quantifying "quality of submissions" in a
scalable way. We thought a lot about this and while it's not perfect, the vast
majority of content on reddit across those half million communities is indeed
good.
It's a fascinating problem that I hope someone can solve -- improve on Steve's
hotness algorithm!
~~~
noir_lord
I would agree with you that the vast majority of the content is indeed good
unfortunately the bad is _often_ concentrated into a few sub-reddits and at
reddit scale that still is a lot of bad unfortunately.
~~~
walden42
I think it's an interesting issue because the primary issue is what interests
people, not the website itself. If a majority of people want to concentrate on
the bad, then the bad shows up more. If the mods or admins make the site such
that it's impossible to concentrate on the bad, then that would involve some
kind of censorship that could be very biased towards _someone 's_ definition
of good.
The issue is the people, not with Reddit.
~~~
noir_lord
> The issue is the people, not with Reddit.
That is always true, in fact I'd go as far as to formulate Waldens Law, "if
the issue is either people or X, it's people" ;).
------
giulianob
As a long time Reddit user, I've been really disappointed lately with Reddits
"battle" against content creators and the little recourse you have if you are
marked as a spammer or shadow banned. See the recent /r/indiegaming debacle
for example, where a subreddit where mainly indie devs would post about their
games now allows very little self promotion (
[http://redd.it/2fdwyv](http://redd.it/2fdwyv) ). Some of these rules are
Reddit wide so theres nothing they can do but it essentially discourages
content creators from being close to their audience on Reddit.
On top of that, if you are banned from a subreddit (even a default one) the
moderators can basically choose to ignore you and you are SOL. There's the
whole 90/10 rule where if you are posting something from the same source too
often, you can be seen as a spammer and banned. It's very easy to break this
rule. For example, if you make a few self posts, make tons of comments, post
links to 5 different websites, then post 1 link to your website, you are
breaking the rule and if a mod sees it you can be banned (comments/self posts
don't count towards the 90/10 rule so your 5 posts to 1 self promotion post is
breaking the rules). I wish they would just let the upvote/downvote system do
its job and weed out content people don't want instead of forcing people to
post a bunch of crap they wouldn't normally post just to make their profile
look good so they can post about their own projects once in a while.
~~~
Semaphor
You are confusing mods and admins.
> For example, if you make a few self posts, make tons of comments, post links
> to 5 different websites, then post 1 link to your website, you are breaking
> the rule and if a mod sees it you can be banned (comments/self posts don't
> count towards the 90/10 rule so your 5 posts to 1 self promotion post is
> breaking the rules).
Some admin recently said that something like that has never happened. Only
flagrant violators of that rule get shadowbanned by the admins.
~~~
giulianob
A mod can ban you from their subreddit and that happens a lot based on a
fairly subjective basis. There are even times where you just get caught by
moderating bots then if the moderators don't bother to reply to you, there is
little recourse. I have heard of cases from friends who have been banned for
fairly bizarre reasons. I'm not saying you will be banned the first time you
break the rule but people who post about content they create have to be
extremely careful or they can be banned either from a subreddit or globally.
When you are a moderator of a subreddit that has millions of viewers, I think
it shouldn't be so subjective.
------
gatsby
"It’s always bothered me that users create so much of the value of sites like
reddit but don’t own any of it. So, the Series B Investors are giving 10% of
our shares in this round to the people in the reddit community, and I hope we
increase community ownership over time. We have some creative thoughts about
the mechanics of this, but it’ll take us awhile to sort through all the
issues. If it works as we hope, it’s going to be really cool and hopefully a
new way to think about community ownership."
This is awesome. Curious to see how this plays out. What's the approximate
timing for announcing if reddit is able to do this or not?
~~~
ufmace
I don't understand this. How does "the reddit community" own shares in a
company? What does that even mean? Are board votes going to be held on reddit
posts or something?
~~~
benmathes
likely some kind of cryptocurrency. Given YC's involvement in Stripe, nonzero
chance it will be done with Stellar.
------
cryoshon
Mod/admin censorship, government manipulation (out of Eglin AFB most likely),
and corporate advertising/shilling are pretty blatantly huge in reddit right
now, with many users openly looking for alternative websites. The admin team
has shown again and again that they're willing to tolerate anything until
there's bad PR.
One of the founders (Alexis) has a PR firm, Antique Jetpack, which is on
record [1] as cooperating with Stratfor of wikileaks fame. I can't quite see
how the two are unconnected.
A couple of years ago, one of the admins there tacitly admitted that he was
under a National Security letter complete with gag order to give up user
information.
A few months ago, reddit changed its voting system in order to completely
obfuscate user detection of large scale vote manipulation. The community was
unanimously against this change, and has been overruled.
I don't see a great future for reddit, honestly. I'll continue to use it until
whoaverse or another alternative is populated enough.
[1]:
[https://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=277352](https://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?viewemailid=277352)
~~~
alexis
Seriously? I debunked that stratfor conspiracy with a deluge of sunlight -
even getting top-voted comment on the r/conspiracy post
[http://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/1l4aiq/reddit_is...](http://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/1l4aiq/reddit_is_censoring_the_recent_wikileaks_leak/cbvovm4)
~~~
minimaxir
> _even getting top-voted comment on the r /conspiracy post_
To be perfectly fair, any comment posted by a founder of Reddit would become a
top-voted comment.
~~~
alexis
Totally false. Check my comment history:
[http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/20r4o8/talking_bitc...](http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/20r4o8/talking_bitcoin_and_rbitcoin_on_bloomberg_tv/)
~~~
anonbanker
Went through four pages, and didn't see a single zero-point comment. That's
pretty rare for reddit.
~~~
ryanmerket
Comments start at 1 point.
------
hammock
It's a good time to invest in reddit. Not because it will become cooler over
the coming years, but because it will become more valuable as it monetizes
itself and sells off it's goodwill/equity.
Reddit as a platform peaked in 2013- quantitatively[1] and qualitatively. It's
mainstream now, and will soon be passe (something like SomethingAwful).
If reddit has any value as an investment, it's for advertising and personal
(pseudonymous or not) data. Facebook peaked a few years ago in the way I've
described, and since their IPO has grown in market value[2] but declined in
cultural value[3] (even as its MAU continue to grow!). They are slowly selling
off piece by piece, literally to the highest bidder, the equity, trust and
attention that it has built up over the years. It's not a sustainable model,
it's in a mature phase by now, and it generates a whole lot of cash while it
lasts.
Wouldn't be surprised to watch reddit do the same.
[1] [http://www.randalolson.com/2014/09/28/the-most-upvoted-
post-...](http://www.randalolson.com/2014/09/28/the-most-upvoted-post-on-
reddit-every-day/) [2]
[http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=FB&t=2y&l=on&z=l&q=l&c=](http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=FB&t=2y&l=on&z=l&q=l&c=)
[3]
[https://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=facebook](https://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=facebook)
~~~
BrandonM
Your '[1]' link doesn't make the point that you claim it does. That post says
that 2014 data isn't available yet.
------
wasd
Sorry if this is obvious but how does this work if Conde Nast/Advanced
Publications is the primary shareholder?
~~~
orky56
They were acquired by Conde Nast but have since parted ways to go private:
[http://betabeat.com/2011/09/a-startup-is-reborn-reddit-no-
lo...](http://betabeat.com/2011/09/a-startup-is-reborn-reddit-no-longer-part-
of-conde-nast-seeks-ceo/)
~~~
amha
That article says that they're still owned by Advance Publications, though
(the Conde Nast parent).
I'm confused as well. Is Advance Publications retaining a stake? Are they
spinning it off? ???
------
Major_Grooves
I keep asking this, but it never gets much attention - but why can't reddit
put more effort in to a hierarchical structure.
As others have said some of the best contents is in the smaller sub-reddits,
but they often struggle to get much content because people feel that to get
any "attention" they have to post in a sub-reddit. I feel people would be
encouraged to submit to smaller sub-reddits if there was a hierarchical
structure whereby if a story did well in a sub-reddit, it would get to the
front page of the next sub-reddit above it - so I might submit to /r/Dundee
which leads to /r/Scotland which leans to /r/UnitedKingdom etc
I'm sure there would be some clever way to structure and control this. It
would breathe life in to the smaller sub-reddits.
~~~
raldi
I worked there from 2008-2011 and always wanted to implement exactly this, but
at that time we only had 5 +/\- 1 employees so nobody ever had the time.
Now that they have dozens of employees I wish they'd put this high up on their
roadmap. As a nearby comment points out, it would be the next step on reddit's
journey toward reincarnating the golden age of Usenet.
------
markburns
They are looking at using a crypto-currency backed by the shares.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/blog/comments/2hwpmm/fundraising_fo...](https://www.reddit.com/r/blog/comments/2hwpmm/fundraising_for_reddit/ckwph30?context=3)
------
SuperKlaus
"...are giving 10% of our shares in this round to the people in the reddit
community..."
How's that supposed to work? Reddit (the company) will own the shares? Some
foundation? A bit more detail would be nice.
~~~
mksm
They will most probably use blockchain technology for the community ownership
distribution:
[https://jobs.lever.co/reddit/6ce6a242-00d1-49c4-9bed-c34f264...](https://jobs.lever.co/reddit/6ce6a242-00d1-49c4-9bed-c34f26445ee7)
~~~
bencxr
this is really the interesting point of the article for me.
it could be the first cryptocoin actively used based for rewards/sponsorships
etc. See [http://ltbcoin.com/](http://ltbcoin.com/) as an example.
------
justaman
One simple way to improve the quality of posts is to remove default
subreddits. Instead, have people pick from a list of common interests:
programming, games, rap, etc. I think that by limiting interaction with trolls
will, over time, reduce the total number of trolls. __It is my assumption that
the majority of trolls tend to stay on the default subreddits. This would also
allow for smaller subreddits to grow by in a sense linking interests into
categories rather than the current method of community discovery.
~~~
thearn4
As a mod of two defaults, I agree that this might be a good way forward. Right
now, adding a popular but non-default sub to the default set is a very quick
way to decrease the quality of the posted content, and can nearly kill the
community unless the mods are extremely proactive. I can't help but think that
there must be a better way.
------
simonblack
I think it's time we re-invented Usenet by making the subreddits tree-
structured. Or at the least, by making a tree-structured list of subreddits.
At the moment there are thousands of subreddits but the only way to find them
is by playing with the 'random' button and hoping for a bit of serendipity.
~~~
jgh
I kind of like this idea.
------
dkokelley
Does anyone know of any precedent for granting equity to a community site's
users? I'm curious to see what sort of dynamic this creates in the site.
~~~
mbillie1
> I'm curious to see what sort of dynamic this creates in the site.
As a daily reddit user for 4+ years, I'd wager that it'll just be an
exaggerated amount of the same. With any internet community it seems, given
enough time, you get saturated by users 'gaming' it for points/karma/post
count/etc. So now the same small number of nothing-else-to-do reddit users
trawling the archives for repostable karma material have one more incentive to
keep up the high-karma-low-content submissions: money. Sorry for the cynicism.
------
lifeisstillgood
Ok, Sam Altman, YC and reedit all just entered my personal mini-hero status
for "we want to give 10% of shares to "the community"
It does more than bother me that community created value is captured by a few
servers in SV - and it's going to take a lot of experimentation to get this
right. I rather like the idea of licensing my location data to Google Traffic,
and rather doubt giving equity to some but not all redditors will ever work
out fairly, but hats off for actually acknowledging the problem publicly and
trying _something_. I expect whatever the normal for community value will be
in twenty years, none of the ideas on this thread even come close - in
beginning to enjoy the ride though :-)
------
opinionedated
They allow shit like /r/greatapes and a entire super racist network of
subreddits like /r/ferguson and shit, but hoo boy if you're Jennifer Lawrence
they'll bend over backwords to shut down /r/TheFappening to get rid of your
nudes... While simultaneously ignoring /r/Photoplunder, which does the same
thing but to people who aren't famous.
And lets not even start on banning /r/creepshots but not
/r/CandidFashionPolice, which is THE SAME FUCKING THING. I mean shit, if
you're going to have standards, at least be consistent.
And don't get me started on /r/netsec and it's shitty anti-disclosure
philosophy.
~~~
jcfrei
I like to believe that due to the anonymity on reddit it provides a much
better reflection of our society - and hence also exposes some of the deeply
ingrained hypocrisy.
------
kyrra
The one downside (as I see it) of Reddit that Facebook, G+, and HN all don't
have is the ability to downvote. Downvoting makes it so larger subreddits will
only have material on their front page that the majority of that group agrees
with. This leads to certain subreddits (like /r/politics/) being heavily
dominated by one side of the subject area.
But I still use reddit daily myself. Getting off some of the default
subreddits and subscribing to ones focused on a specific topic (a video game,
programming language, city, etc...) has replaced specialized/focused forums
for me. It's definitely a great communication platform.
~~~
giarc
With HN, once a user reaches a certain level of "upvotes" they unlock the
ability to downvote.
~~~
kyrra
Ya, I thought about after I wrote it. Though I believe you can only downvote
comments not stories on HN.
~~~
buckbova
You flag posts and they'll drop in the rankings, sometimes right off the front
page.
~~~
hayksaakian
i think the distinction in UX is important
downvote sounds like the opposite of upvote
flagging sounds like a reporting mechanism
they actually do the same thing, but they give totally different impressions
to new users.
------
taylorbuley
Not a YC investment, but I'm interested in how this relates to YC's mitigation
of signaling risk.
> So the new rule is that partners can only invest some amount of time after
> Demo Day (we’ll experiment a little to figure out exactly how long) or as
> part of a Series A.
Reddit seems to qualify under the "some amount of time after Demo Day" caveat.
Does anyone know at what time period YC ended up setting?
[http://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-investment-policy-and-
email-l...](http://blog.ycombinator.com/yc-investment-policy-and-email-list)
~~~
sama
still haven't set it, but 9 years after demo day is certainly going to be over
the bar.
------
foobarqux
Reddit, like all community new sites, is awful and devolves to the mean of
society as the user base grows.
~~~
d0m
Good thing nobody is forcing you to browse it.
------
balor123
Quora looks like a nice iteration on Reddit. Reddit should just do a big
rewrite to make it look and feel more like Quora. The data model should be
able to remain mostly the same, with just some major interface changes, minor
feature changes, and major backend updates. It could probably even be deployed
in parallel to the existing implementation. Some items that'd be nice are
email updates, weekly digests, topic suggestions, anonymous posts, related
topics, etc.
~~~
carlesfe
I honestly don't think so. There is a lot of value on Reddit, but I bet that
90% of the visits and content are basically memes and imgur pictures. The part
that could "become Quora" may die without the other.
------
yuhong
I wish that Reddit would actually copy HN's about box and remove the 10:1 rule
for submissions. This include killing Anonymity Rules from /r/talesfrom*.
~~~
teach
I would like to see a Reddit about box, at least.
------
mmcclellan
Just wanted to say that this is a fascinating thread. It's eye opening to see
just how differently I use reddit than others. I have numerous 6+ year
accounts and I don't know what the hell most of this stuff means: subscribing,
moderator tools, banning, All I know is nearly anything I want to learn about,
there is some passionate group of people on reddit discussing it.
I just type in my address bar: site:reddit.com litecoin rig or site:reddit.com
flask api, and open a half dozen tabs. Because of the compact layout, I can
race through hundreds of comments really quickly and waste like milliseconds
on trolls.
They've probably lost track of how many "How can this thing grow up, without
becoming wack" discussions they've had. I think my answer remains, "it
probably can't."
------
orionblastar
Actually the problem with Reddit are low-functioning people who join
subreddits for the attention and trolling. Most of them a griefers and almost
all of them are looking for porn and other stuff like that.
I have a few small subreddits I get on that seem to be free of that:
[http://www.reddit.com/r/DiscordianHumanism/](http://www.reddit.com/r/DiscordianHumanism/)
[http://www.reddit.com/r/OS2/](http://www.reddit.com/r/OS2/)
[http://www.reddit.com/r/artificial/](http://www.reddit.com/r/artificial/)
[http://www.reddit.com/r/KindleFreebies/](http://www.reddit.com/r/KindleFreebies/)
[http://www.reddit.com/r/ebookdeals/](http://www.reddit.com/r/ebookdeals/)
[http://www.reddit.com/r/MachineLearning/](http://www.reddit.com/r/MachineLearning/)
[http://www.reddit.com/r/retrobattlestations/](http://www.reddit.com/r/retrobattlestations/)
You will find better content on those Subreddits even if they don't have a lot
of members on them like the others that are so popular that they get the low
functioning trolls and attention seekers who cause only trouble.
The DiscordianHumanism subreddit was created because of the trolls on Atheism
and SecurlarHumanism and sort of combines Discordianism with Humanism for a
different take on the world, etc.
A lot of the subreddits where you ask for advice, you often get bad advice and
a groupmind who votes up bad advice and votes down good advice. This is
because the low functioning people outnumber the mid-functioning and high-
functioning people. You will find a lot of the low-functioning people are
under 18, and posting from their parent's basement with no supervision.
------
dimitrideag
I´ts interesting, however the idea of Reddit to allocate 10% of their shares
back to the Reddit community for me it´s more than something "cool" as Sam
Altman said, and beyond the "a new way to think about community ownership".
From another perspective, It´s just a good strategy to do your own IPO (go
public) without the legal/bureaucratic way. It´s creating your own NY Stock
Exchange with the idea to increase your value based on what your users are
doing now (because it will be possible to buy, sell and trade between users).
So, beyond the message that it´s for “giving back to the community”, Is it
more a clever strategy to increase the company value, and even more the
stockholders value? or I´m incorrect?
------
sytelus
How do these people get time for reading reddit, twitter, FB and blogs? Just
reading HN once in a while sips away pretty much all of my "free" time.
------
AndrewKemendo
Just a interesting note: Currently (5PM EST) this news is #16 on the reddit
front page with only 545 comments.
I figured it would have been higher given the gravity.
------
MarkMc
Can anyone recommend a good subreddit? Something where people are thoughtful
and respectful. Perhaps something like HN without the tech...?
~~~
dazmax
[http://www.reddit.com/r/TrueReddit](http://www.reddit.com/r/TrueReddit)
"A subreddit for really great, insightful articles, reddiquette, reading
before voting and the hope to generate intelligent discussion on the topics of
these articles."
------
Alex3917
> First, it’s always bothered me that users create so much of the value of
> sites like reddit but don’t own any of it. So, the Series B Investors are
> giving 10% of our shares in this round to the people in the reddit
> community, and I hope we increase community ownership over time.
How do you prevent extrinsic motivation from undermining intrinsic motivation
here?
------
rdl
The "giving equity to the community" is interesting -- I remember when VA
Linux, Red Hat, etc. did something similar at IPO (to a much smaller number of
developers, but still).
Seems like a great idea in principle, and hard to make it work, but hopefully
they'll come up with a structure that does.
------
jgalt212
Not to be a prig, but I think Sam leading a VC round outside of Y Combinator
while he's president of Y Combinator at the very least represents a conflict
of interest* and at the worst is an abuse of power.
*conflict of interest is pretty much the standard way of doing biz in the Valley as I understand it.
------
moron4hire
Reddit is barely above 4chan in my mind.
------
forrestthewoods
I wonder if those community shares will benefit the people whose digital
content is infringed upon for profit will be? Giving back to the community is
interesting. Attempting to give back to the content creators upon whose backs
Reddit is built would be even more interesting.
------
rthomas6
So we finally get to redeem our karma.
------
mark_l_watson
I agree that reddit drips in awesomeness. I talked with the co-founder Alexis
Ohanian when he talked at Google last year: really interesting guy, not only
with solid advice on entrepreneurship, but also he talked a lot about public
service.
------
arfliw
Does anybody know of a sub where stuff like this link would make the front
page? And techmeme type stuff (fundraising etc)? I can't find anything like
that. It certainly isn't /r/technology or /r/startups
------
liotier
> First, it’s always bothered me that users create so much of the value of
> sites like reddit but don’t own any of it.
If it bothered you that much, you would let users publish their contributions
as cc-by-sa !
------
EGreg
This is excellent! Reddit is closer to the kind of online community I like to
see and I'm happy to see what they have planned. Weren't they also giving away
10% of profits to charity?
------
Angostura
I'm intrigued by the final paragraph:
> Yishan Wong has a big vision for what reddit can be. I’m excited to watch it
> play out.
Has anyone seen him set out his big vision? I'm not sure that I have.
~~~
arfliw
He hasn't, beyond his 'reddit is city-state' thing.
------
septerr
The giving back to community approach would, in my opinion, be more deserved
by a community like StackOverflow. I always feel grateful to and am amazed by
the SO community.
------
jokoon
I'm still interested in how moderation really works on reddit...
the "reddit drama" always makes me curious but I don't really know the rules
very well.
~~~
SquareWheel
Users can create their own communities called subreddits. If they do, they are
the first and only moderator of that sub. A sub can be about anything, and if
other users enjoy that type of content they can subscribe.
Ultimately mods can remove or approve any post they desire. Some mods are
hands-off, and others curate content. It depends on their goals for the
subreddit. If users are not happy with the content of the sub or the
moderation style, they can subscribe to a competitor subreddit or start their
own. It's very much an open system.
------
Pxtl
I get that there's a lot to like about Reddit - it's absolutely an impressive
platform and it definitely deserves investment. And I get the libertarian
ideals of the admins, I do.
But yeah, seeing the phrase "First, it’s always bothered me that users ..."
_not_ end in a discussion of the toxic parts of Reddit's culture and the
various high-profile cases of Reddit's admins ignoring ongoing problems of
their most horrifying sub-reddits... that was a bit jarring.
------
lazyant
I suggest giving some shares to the people that have been with Reddit 8+ years
and with over 8k combined link+comment karma :)
------
smrtinsert
And to think, this could have been Digg, had it not been for a n unwanted
design revamp and the Great Exodus.
------
ser_ocelot
The problem with Reddit for awhile now has been the default subreddits. How
about no default subreddits?
------
circuiter
Excellent. The comments here simply further the notion that HN is slowly
turning into reddit.
------
27182818284
Is that 1 billion guess a guess of 1 billion MAU? In other words, as much MAU
as Facebook?
------
wudf
Next I'd like to see Steam as a member-owned platform. Awesome announcement,
sama!
------
mathattack
When I saw this, I was hoping for a "Sam Altman AMA". :-)
~~~
thedaveoflife
you have your wish:
[http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2hwr02/i_am_sam_altman...](http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2hwr02/i_am_sam_altman_lead_investor_in_reddits_new/)
~~~
mathattack
ok. Next I'll wish for a raise and a George Lucas AMA. :-)
------
joshdance
Better community moderation tools would be awesome.
------
n0body
Reddit - full of kids
------
paulhauggis
I wonder what's going to happen when they find out that the majority of the
top users on Reddit are under 18.
------
dogecoinbase
_Yishan Wong has a big vision for what reddit can be. I’m excited to watch it
play out._
Wow, seriously? He's talking about the guy who spewed this nonsense[0]:
_We understand the harm that misusing our site does to the victims of this
theft, and we deeply sympathize.
Having said that, we are unlikely to make changes to our existing site content
policies in response to this specific event.
The reason is because we consider ourselves not just a company running a
website where one can post links and discuss them, but the government of a new
type of community._
If Sam wants to hitch his wagon to this wash-your-hands-of-responsibility-
while-reaping-the-profits attitude, that's his business, but's it's fucking
reprehensible.
0: [http://www.redditblog.com/2014/09/every-man-is-
responsible-f...](http://www.redditblog.com/2014/09/every-man-is-responsible-
for-his-own.html)
~~~
odonnellryan
I'm confused, sorry. Are you for or against the banning?
~~~
dogecoinbase
I am against a site policy that says "we are aware that something horrible
happened, but we aren't willing to make any changes to prevent it from
potentially happening again".
I'd love to get some feedback from the downvoters, because it's hard for me to
reconcile Yishan Wong's statement with Sam's assertion that he's "excited to
watch it play out".
~~~
vasilipupkin
I think he is being very clear. For now, at least, he doesn't want to be the
moral police - he expects each user to exercise their own moral judgement. I
personally prefer reddit to leave moral choices to their users
~~~
dogecoinbase
_he expects each user to exercise their own moral judgement_
It's clear that this is not happening in any meaningful way, so his lack of
action is simply an admission that he can't or won't do anything to prevent
abhorrent behavior on the site he's responsible for. If it's a government,
it's a powerless one, enforcing no laws but collecting taxes regardless.
There's nothing to admire there.
------
sujosh
I enjoy Sam's writing but I am wondering why is he doing this ? Of course, its
his money and he has 100 % right to do with it whatever he wants but still --
1\. Reddit is site which promotes hatred. Radical men hatred is quite common
to find out.
2\. Almost all mods are SJWs. It is almost impossible to find or carry out
rational discussion on reddit. This hatred is so strong that many FEMINAZIs
recommend getting rid of men from planet.
3\. Mods control everything. Free speech is illusion on reddit. #GamerGate
proved that reddit collaborated with un-ethical journalists to promote hidden
propoganda
4\. Reddit ads are most useless things.
5\. Reddit users are mostly illiterate or low wage earners or college students
or BurgerLand workers or IT workers who are stuck at their job. Reddit will
never achieve revenue it is expecting to achieve.
6\. Reddit is owned by mainstream media powerhouse.
7\. Reddit regularly participates in social experiments to modify user views
and conducts social experiments.
If all such things are happening why a partner at YC, who in other posting
talks about morals, ethics, equality would want to invest in something this
filthy.
After all , Money changes everything, doesn't it ?
PS - You can downovote me as you wish, or moderate this post but it won't
change fact that Reddit is shithole and you can't deny it. All interested
parties in Reddit wants to create rage, modify or alter people's opinion/view
in US and outside countries and profit.
~~~
kvl7
I completely agree with your points, and just created this account to post
something similar until I saw your post.
Reddit is indeed a shithole, filled with an extremely radical left-wing hive
mind that is completely devoid of critical thinking skills.
~~~
meowface
I don't completely agree.
I support Gamergate and do not like SJWs or their movement, but Reddit is not
run by or even heavily influenced by SJWs for the most part. The ruthless
shadowbanning of people discussing Gamergate was _mostly_ due to very poor
research and reasoning by the admins, and the misinformed belief that some
subreddits were being raided by 4chan.
SJWs are still mostly a fringe group. In fact, reddit actually fired one of
its admins a few months ago for going full-SJW and being clearly very biased
towards /r/SRS.
Now, some mods in some of the big subreddits lean a little more left or right
politically. The userbase in general is not "extreme left" though, much more
center left. Search reddit for IA's and thunderf00t's latest videos and you'll
see serious support and upvotes in almost all subreddits.
No offense, but this conspiracy theory mongering just makes this whole thing
even harder to debate.
------
ionwake
My money is on SageBump.
Ofcourse I built it, so I am biased.
[http://www.sagebump.com/?view=technocrat&intro](http://www.sagebump.com/?view=technocrat&intro)
------
atko
We are in the process of raising first round of funds for
[http://whoaverse.com](http://whoaverse.com) and things are starting to get
interesting. We have major plans for both enterprise and private use of the
platform and when it comes to giving back to the community - we plan to use
the same model big players like YouTube and Twitch have for rewarding content
creation (actual money).
This will be a fun ride which currently feels like David vs Goliath, but boy
is it fun :)
~~~
wingerlang
This is literally a reddit clone, what's your edge?
~~~
atko
Bing is a clone of Google and Yahoo is a clone of... DuckDuckGo? Call it what
you want, here are just a few distinctions:
\- built-in night mode (reddit does not have this)
\- responsive design which works great on mobile out of the box (reddit does
not have this)
\- limited voting (new users need to gain a certain amount of points before
they are able to vote without restrictions, reddit does not have this)
\- limited number of owned subs (reddit does not have this, one person can and
does moderate hundreds of subs)
\- youtube-like score bar which graphically shows percentage of
upvotes/downvotes (reddit does not have this)
\- user profiles which show statistics about user activity, for example,
submission distribution and highest-lowest rated submissions (reddit does not
have this)
\- better privacy, users can delete all data stored about them if they decide
to leave and close their account (reddit does not have this, all data is kept
and public even after user deletes his account)
\- youtube-like revenue sharing model (in development) where community is
rewarded with real money (reddit does not have this)
\- based in Switzerland, no censorship policy as long as content is legal
(reddit is like North Korea when it comes to this, censoring thefappening but
leaving sexwithdogs)
\- no blatant ad submissions posing as regular posts policy (examples: a photo
of a starbucks cup with a cute kitten inside which frequently reaches reddit
frontpage or a video titled "look what I filmed with my GoPro")
\- ...constant dialog with community and very open to new ideas and
improvement
I hope this answers your question.
~~~
wingerlang
That sounds good. But what's your plan to convince me (and more) to change my
daily website? I go to these sites for content, and despite reddit not having
the nice features, it does have the content.
Also I think you should go away a bit from the look-like-reddit because most
people will probably go there, see yet another reddit clone and dismiss it.
------
Kequc
Reddit has got to be one of the ugliest popular websites on the internet. And
idealistic, gosh. How can you look at a toilet magazine largely being
contributed to by people on their toilets and think "I bet all those people
want to own a part of it."
This article suggests that in a "couple of years" reddit "could have close to
a billion users". Are all these numbers just being pulled out of thin air?
This person is talking about investing in reddit, a site with so many
pageviews for such a long time which last I heard still somehow was not
turning a profit.
This person is investing in reddit and giving 10% of their investment to
purportedly a billion people. Which is a valuation of 1e-8 percent of his
investment per person.
I don't want that? Can I not have it somehow.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Revised Font Stack - chaostheory
http://www.awayback.com/revised-font-stack/
======
decklin
I might be daft, but this article doesn't explain (and seems to assume it's
perfectly obvious) why in the world you should use
Arial, sans-serif
instead of:
sans-serif
at the bottom of a stack. If I am on a platform where Arial looks OK, it
should already be my default sans-serif font, right? Currently, I have Arial
installed, but I've set my default sans-serif font to DejaVu Sans Mono, which
(subjectively) looks better on freetype. But most sites force Arial. It seems
like a cargo-cult sort of thing.
This problem is worse with monospace fonts (even more subjectively, I am
practically allergic to Courier New).
~~~
jacobolus
You should stick Arial at the bottom if your first-choice font is something
similar in x-height and design sensibility, because it will make your site
stay more consistent in design. If your first-choice font is a completely
unrelated sans-serif, then there's no reason to put Arial at the end.
Thus, you’ll notice that in this particular article, Arial is at the end of
the “Helvetica” stack, but _not_ at the end of the “Gill Sans” stack.
Also, DejaVu Sans Mono is never going to keep design continuity with the
site’s intended sans-serif font, because it’s monospace.
~~~
decklin
Erm, sorry, I just meant DejaVu Sans. But I do appreciate that its metrics are
still different from Arial. Is that important in every application? Maybe.
~~~
jacobolus
Well, I think a lot of times you’re right, the “Arial” at the end is just
cargo-cultism, and should be scrapped; blame copy-pasta.
But yes, I think it’s completely reasonable to have a design request Helvetica
but fall back on Arial: to the regular reader the two look pretty much the
same, which means that the design will stay working, both in layout and style,
as the designer intended.
------
samdk
Thanks for this! I've used 'Better CSS Font Stacks' as my primary reference
for a while. It's nice to have another, and it's extremely nice to be able to
see some numbers about font presence on OS X/Windows.
(Better CSS Font Stacks: [http://unitinteractive.com/blog/2008/06/26/better-
css-font-s...](http://unitinteractive.com/blog/2008/06/26/better-css-font-
stacks/) \-- the PDF they link to at the end is highly recommended.)
------
pbhjpbhj
If you're bothered enough to do this sort of analysis on the display font
wouldn't you choose an @font-face font?
~~~
jacobolus
There’s nothing stopping you from putting one of those first, right? Either
way, you should be careful about the fallbacks.
It’s impossible for an article like this to discuss the proper stack for every
possible @font-face typeface you could choose.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
My Fake Coffee Shop -or- Local Audience Twitter Favoriting - LastZactionHero
http://lastzactionhero.roughdraft.io/cd3ac6998a94a06c37ad-my-fake-coffee-shop-or-local-audience-twitter-favoriting
======
LastZactionHero
Is favoriting kind of a spammy way to get traffic? Yes. But... it kinda
worked...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Please make your software engineering advice more specific - mac-chaffee
https://www.macchaffee.com/blog/2020/07/26/more-specifics.html
======
mac-chaffee
I've seen enough posts on here talking about the values of writing, so I'm
trying to get back into blogging. Feedback is greatly appreciated!
~~~
tgflynn
I agree with you. The software culture is full of general and conflicting
claims like "functional programming is better", "object orientation is bad",
etc. Most of that is just useless noise.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why Only 9% of Startups Make it to 10 Years - bradleyjoyce
http://startupreport.com/content/why-only-9-startups-make-it-10-years-startupreportcom
======
JoeAltmaier
This article doesn't seem to reflect the title in any way?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Snowden warns new surveillance measures will outlast the coronavirus - fraqed
https://thenextweb.com/neural/2020/03/25/snowden-warns-the-surveillance-states-were-creating-now-will-outlast-the-coronavirus/
======
boznz
I was asked by my biggest client to put miradore on my personal phone so they
could track my self isolation as part of the government regs, I did it because
it is probably benign and they need to comply also doesnt seem the best time
to look like an arsehole but it will be uninstalled the second the crisis is
over.
~~~
rad_gruchalski
No worries, the „crisis is over” is probably out of equation.
„Look, can’t you simply keep it installed? You didn’t have anything to hide
when the crisis was on. Surely you have nothing to hide now. Right? Right?!”
~~~
squarefoot
A bit too weak. The official motivation IMO will be "...but the virus can
evolve, then get back next year killing people of all ages. You wouldn't want
innocent children to die, would you?".
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Recommended reading for building a chatbot? - jakobov
I need to build a basic chatbot for a side-project. Ideally I am looking for a guide for hackers.<p>Google is not returning any relevant results, just marketing spam...<p>Any suggestions?
======
eindiran
I assume you want to use a text interface rather than a voice interface?
Do you have any constraints on the programming language you'll use? I'm going
to assume that you'll be okay using Python in my answer.
If you were looking in to a voice interface, I'd highly recommend checking out
"Designing Voice User Interfaces: Principles of Conversational Experiences" by
Cathy Pearl[0], but you should know it's not really a how-to guide for
hackers, but a set of principles for designing the interface/what the user
experience should be like.
For text-based interfaces, there appear to be a few similar books, but I
haven't read any of them and can't recommend them. For example, see "Designing
Chatbots: Creating Conversational Experiences" by Amir Shevat.[1]
For the technical/implementation side of things, I'd recommend that you start
searching using search terms like NLP and NLU, rather than "chatbot" on its
own. A great place to start is with a toolkit like Rasa or spaCy for Python
and look up some tutorials on how to use them.
If the chatbot is quite basic, I'd recommend starting with bare spaCy and
using the built-in models. A tutorial like this should get you started:
[https://apps.worldwritable.com/tutorials/chatbot/](https://apps.worldwritable.com/tutorials/chatbot/)
If the required bot is a little more involved, you can use Rasa NLU as well.
Check out this tutorial for an example:
[https://towardsdatascience.com/building-a-conversational-
cha...](https://towardsdatascience.com/building-a-conversational-chatbot-for-
slack-using-rasa-and-python-part-1-bca5cc75d32f)
Are there any particular things that you know your chatbot will need to be
able to do? Extract and recognize product names in the user's response? Handle
ambiguity/anaphora resolution? Respond correctly to commands and questions
from the user? The behaviors you want from your bot will help shape how you go
about building it, so if you can give me a better idea of what you need, I can
give you more specific advice on that front.
[0] [https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Voice-User-Interfaces-
Conve...](https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Voice-User-Interfaces-
Conversational/dp/1491955414/)
[1] [https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Bots-Creating-
Conversationa...](https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Bots-Creating-
Conversational-Experiences/dp/1491974826/)
------
peterbozso
The Microsoft Bot Framework is a code-first bot creation tool:
[https://dev.botframework.com/](https://dev.botframework.com/) The learning
curve is steeper than other similar solutions', because you actually need to
write code, but if you are familiar with C# or JS, the possibilities are much
wider than with the others. The official docs are pretty good, in the design
section it also explains some base concepts of conversation design, not just
how to use the SDK-s: [https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/bot-service/bot-
servi...](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/bot-service/bot-service-
design-principles?view=azure-bot-service-4.0)
~~~
wethebestcoder
Having heard about this while never using it and having used other "hot"
frameworks that Microsoft gave up on (Xamarin) and having checked out hyped
products that turned out to be underdeveloped (windows iot) I have doubts
about how good their chat framework is since the future didn't turn out to be
all about chat bots like they said it would.
Have you used it? What do you think? Be honest.
------
turbo_fart_box
Dialogflow + Manychat + serverless. Use that as your build platform and spend
time building something usable then writing tonnes of code. Manychat has some
nice videos too
------
gitgud
I learnt a lot just looking and _hacking_ at these [1] Glitch examples, all
sorts of methods used here not just a single library/technology stack...
[1] [https://glitch.com/@glitch/bots](https://glitch.com/@glitch/bots)
------
cdnsteve
Have you checked out dialogflow from gcp? Can get up and running really
quickly.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Removing garbage collection from the Rust language - graue
http://pcwalton.github.io/blog/2013/06/02/removing-garbage-collection-from-the-rust-language/
======
pron
This seems like the right decision: simplify the language, flatten the
learning curve, and delegate complex functionality to libraries.
But it's important to point out the general importance of good garbage
collectors. GCs are importnat not only because they help avoid a common type
of bugs, but because they are essential to many concurrent data structures.
Performance of modern software is now (and more so in the future) largely
determined not by the single-thread speed of running an algorithm, but the
scalability of an algorithm as it parallelizes across cores. Many of the most
scalable concurrent data structures are almost impossible to implement
robustly without a really good garbage collector.
As of now, the only really-good GCs are found in the JVM, and Java does indeed
provide very low-level access to important memory primitives (direct control
of memory fences is now possible through an undocumented API, and will be made
public probably in the forthcoming Java 8). But as good and as powerful the
JVM is, such algorithms will be necessary in circumstances where the JVM is
not the best choice, namely embedded systems. So a garbage collector as good
as those available for the JVM (or almost as good) but for a low-level systems
language will be a boon.
A good GC for C++ would probably be a headache because of the language's
inherent unsafety in just about anything.
Go is not an option in those circumstances, either. For one, while Go compiles
to native binaries, the language actually operates at a higher level than Java
(for example, it offers no control over thread scheduling like Java does).
More importantly, choices made by the language designers might preclude a GC
implementation good enough for high-performance concurrent data structures.
Rust is a great language to try and build a good GC for. If it would be
possible to do so in a library and not in the core language - all the better.
~~~
dmpk2k
I'm not sure I agree with the point regarding concurrent data structures and
garbage collectors. The idea is nice, but ignores a rather serious problem in
implementation: such garbage collectors are _serious_ engineering
undertakings.
To see how hard the implementation of a parallel and concurrent garbage
collector can be, take a look at the Garbage-First Garbage Collection paper.
Try to really understand all the moving parts in there and how they interact.
Once you're done wiping your brains off the wall, realize that this is the
extent that GC engineers need to go to remove most bottlenecks on scaling,
regardless of your opinion of G1 itself. This is a serious and hard-core
engineering effort that absorbs several man years of expert effort (and I
emphasize the expert part) to do properly. Rust would probably have to become
the size and importance of the Java world to ever get this level of attention.
Despite this, the JVM's collectors still routinely throw roadblocks in front
of the mutator.
And that ignores the other tradeoffs that GCs present. E.g. most GCs need at
least 3x working set to work reasonably efficiently. That's 3x less working
set you could be keeping in a local memory bank, or using for something else
(like a disk cache, because page faults sure are crazy expensive...).
The best way to avoid this problem is to not play the game at all. The reason
I became interested in Rust in the first place is Graydon and co wisely did
not follow that pied piper. Optional thread-local garbage collectors are a
much simpler problem.
As an unrelated aside, I recall Andrei Alexandrescu making the argument that
GC is important for type safety, unless the type system can prove that
dangling pointers are impossible.
~~~
pron
Go's designers seemed to take a somewhat defeatist approach in this regard.
Instead of writing a really good GC, they opted to design the runtime in such
a way that more memory sharing is possible, and the pressure on the GC is
hopefully reduced. But they've done this at a cost: they've deliberately
introduced aliasing, which all but completely precludes the possibility of
ever implementing a really good GC for Go. That's why I think Go might be good
enough for current multi-core hardware, but will not scale in a many-core
world (there are other aspects of Go that are major road blocks for future
scaling as well).
I remember seeing a talk by Cliff Click where he explains how a small change
to the CPU can greatly assist with developing pauseless GCs (though his former
employer, Azul Systems, has moved on to implement the whole thing in software,
probably at some cost to performance).
Regardless of the undertaking, the question remains -- as we move into a many-
core era -- whether we'll find a programming paradigm good enough to take
advantage of many cores. I think that whatever the winning paradigm may be, it
will require a "really good" GC.
~~~
hga
Going by what I know of Azul's systems, their pauseless GC avoids a 1 second
delay per GB of heap by focusing on solving the hardest case vs. deferring it.
When running on their custom hardware (generic 64 bit RISC + their special
sauce) it uses an instruction to cheaply implement a read barrier. According
to a paper describing this system, which they've since improved, doing that on
stock (x86_64) hardware would incur a ~20% performance penalty. If your
application uses a lot of memory and can't afford pauses that's probably OK.
~~~
nickik
There Collector C4 is a soft-realtime they can not provide realtime but if
they can be quite sure that they have very samll pauses. I truly belive in
that vision. The problem is that the all the parts of they system have to be
updated.
At the moment they can run on x86_64 but its not as fast as it could be. The
have a special build for every linux distribution.
I am not sure how good this all works if you have very few cores and not a lot
of threads. All in all however the C4 defently shows the way of the future.
Hardware developer should learn from Azul, the OS guys should work more on
supporting managed runtimes and the programming language community should do
so to. Managed Memory is the future exept in very, very special cases.
------
copx
Rust continues to shape up as a real C++ competitor. And C++ certainly needs
some competition. It is way too lonely in its domain.
I hope the next version of Rust will have a proper Windows package, though. I
don't understand why they don't bundle the version of MinGW they depend on. I
was pretty disappointed to be greeted by missing DLL errors after running
Rust's Windows installer.
There are countless MinGW builds, with different thread libraries, exception
models, etc. I guess when they say "MinGW" they mean the binaries from the
original MinGW project. However those get updated all the time. Thus the
packages the MinGW installer would download today might not be compatible with
the Rust 0.6 binaries which were build some time ago .. probably with a
different version of said packages. Thus they should really release a complete
package.
Even if there is no compatibility issue, it is just bad policy. I actually
program C/C++ on Windows AND have a MinGW build on my machine.. but not the
one Rust needs. Which is common because other builds are much more up to date
and full-featured than those from the original MinGW project. And I really
didn't feel like doing an additional MinGW installation just to play around a
little with Rust.
~~~
Ygg2
I asked a similar question on the IRC and got the answer that they are aiming
for Microsoft C compiler so it would work with natively with system as much as
possible. MinGW has some slight issues when launching application IIRC.
~~~
copx
By the way, why does Rust need a C compiler anyway?
I admit I am ignorant here because I never cared. I know that many
academic/niche programming languages bundle MinGW/depend on a MinGW or even
Cygwin installation.. I always assumed that was to cut some corners. I mean, I
have used multiple programming languages on Windows which compile to native
code and have no dependency on a C compiler.
~~~
steveklabnik
> By the way, why does Rust need a C compiler anyway?
I'm not 100% sure, but I do know that zero.rs requires 'the following libc
functions: malloc, free, abort, memcpy, and memcmp'. So I'd imagine it's that.
~~~
pjmlp
Those functions could be easily done via syscalls to the underlying OS or
simple Assembly routines, as they are quite simple to implement.
I have not yet looked at Rust's code, but I guess it is required for some
bootstrapping code.
~~~
colanderman
_Those functions could be easily done via syscalls to the underlying OS or
simple Assembly routines, as they are quite simple to implement._
None of those four functions use syscalls, _nor_ are any of them simple to
implement efficiently in assembly.
Consider that memcpy, under GCC,
* generates different code based on any known alignment of the source or destination
* generates simpler code if the size is known at compile time
* generates only register accesses if one or both of the arguments live in registers
* is elided entirely if GCC determines that it may do so safely
The other three have similar complex behavior. The Rust developers didn't use
them just because they were too dumb to know how to write a for loop in
assembly.
~~~
pjmlp
Simple is not the same as easy.
Anyone with compiler development experience can implement them without much
trouble, hence simple.
Sadly that is a skill many seem to lack nowadays.
~~~
Confusion
Yeah, back in the old days everyone had that kind of compiler development
experience, didn't they?
~~~
pjmlp
Compared to what kids seem to know nowadays, yes.
They can grok HTML5 page full of JavaScript stuff, but then mix language with
implementation, think that strong typing is only possible with VM based
languages and faith at the look of Assembly code.
------
haberman
I like it!
It sounds like ~ pointers are basically like unique_ptr in C++11 or scoped_ptr
at Google ([http://google-
styleguide.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/cppguide.x...](http://google-
styleguide.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/cppguide.xml#Smart_Pointers)). In
practice, I find that these are the most commonly useful semantics, and as
Patrick mentions it is simple and predictable.
I fully agree that the landscape of GC/refcounting solutions is diverse. If
indeed there is a way to allow for different approaches without favoring one,
I think that would definitely make Rust more widely useful and future-proof.
One question: one distinguishing factor of GC (vs refcounting) is the need to
"stop the world" during the mark phase. Would there be a way of doing this
from the standard library, or would the GC scheme itself be implemented
outside the language? Likewise with any barriers that might be required for
mutations, scanning the stack, and other tricky parts of implementing GC?
~~~
steveklabnik
> It sounds like ~ pointers are basically like unique_ptr in C++11 or
> scoped_ptr at Google
I am not mega familiar with all of the details of {unique,scoped}_ptr, but my
current understanding of ~ is this: basically, the compiler inserts a malloc
before and a free after something declared with ~ goes into and out of scope,
and it's the only pointer allowed to that memory.
~~~
dbaupp
> it's the only pointer allowed to that memory
Not quite true with borrowing (i.e. & and &mut), which allows a temporary
pointer to the memory to be created. Unlike C++ however, the compiler makes
sure all borrows are safe via a fairly intricate borrow checker, that
guarantees (among other things) that the borrowed pointers don't outlive the
original object. (i.e. no dangling references.)
~~~
steveklabnik
Ah! Yes. That's what I get for posting at 3am, thank you. :)
------
specialist
No mention of escape analysis. That's where I'm placing my bets.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_analysis>
Most short-lived objects can be stack allocated. Then the heap gets much less
of a work out.
The runtime can figure out heap vs stack. Progressively better over time.
Definitely better than I can do.
C# has (had?) the option of explicit stack allocated data (pseudo objects).
Terrible idea. Premature optimization that prevents the runtime from doing a
better job.
If I was doing embedded, realtime, or kernel dev work, I'd want to fiddle the
bits myself. But I don't so I don't.
~~~
pron
Java does escape analysis, but if I remember correctly, it is no longer used
for stack allocation (it is used for other advanced stuff, like lock elision,
and replacing objects with scalars) because the JVM GCs have gotten so good
that stack allocation provided no significant benefit. The reason is that
stack allocation is relevant only for short-lived objects anyway, and for
generational GCs, short-lived objects are (almost) a non-issue. GCs struggle
much more with long-lived objects, which eventually require compaction, whose
cost rises linearly with the size of the live data set. This is the cause of
the problems with large heaps mentioned in the comments below.
~~~
specialist
Very interesting. Thank you for the update. I'm more than a few years out of
date. I may have to place new bets. :)
FWIW, Azul has presented to our local user group (seajug.org) a few times,
most recently Nov 2012. There's video
<http://www.nimret.org/seajug/index.jsp?p=2012%2Fnov%2F> By all accounts,
their allocation and garbage collection implementations are the best
available.
------
oddthink
In every C++ project I've worked on, the vast majority of allocations go
immediately into a shared_ptr. This article seems to assert that most C and
C++ programs stick to malloc/free or auto_ptr-style semantics. This seems to
be a contradiction, so I'm confused. I can see it being true for C, but
definitely not for C++.
Am I misunderstanding the thrust of this article?
Edit: deleted comment about cycles, since they are discussed a bit at the end.
~~~
plorkyeran
shared_ptr used to be commonly accepted as a reasonable default choice, but
that hasn't been the case for years. unique_ptr/scoped_ptr is nontrivially
faster (thread-safe reference counting is fairly expensive), and much less
error prone. These days the usual advice is to only use shared_ptr if you
absolutely need it.
~~~
oddthink
I'm sure there are many places where other pointer types would be better, but,
like I said, I only tend to see shared pointers, usually typecast to something
like FooPtr and used indiscriminatly. It's an uphill battle to even use
something like a pointer to const.
I've never seen refcounting overhead show up in callgrind, so I think the
choice to uniformly use the most general version is OK.
~~~
marshray
But the insidious thing is they'll be inlined all over the place and may not
show up on callgrind. The atomic operations will contribute to cache lock
contention inside the processor. Of course it all depends on often you perform
operations on the shared_ptrs. Use them only as handles to large components
and keep them out of inner loops and you'll be fine.
------
marshray
Single- transferred-ownership pointers are not going away.
Reference counted pointers are not going away.
I don't care if Java programmers don't know the difference between the stack
and the heap, _please_ keep the @ syntax to save me from having to type
void f(std::shared_pointer<my_namespace::my_object_type> const & p)
another 50,000 times in my career.
~~~
pron
Reference counted pointers may very well be going away. See comments below.
TL;DR they totally suck in multi-threaded settings.
~~~
marshray
How many times have you seen a large application grind to a halt or become
unusably slow due to reference counting overhead?
Perhaps it happens sometimes, but compare that to leak-it-all-as-garbage and
scan-all-the-address-space style collection.
------
portmanteaufu
I'm really excited that Rust has decided to position itself to be usable at a
C-level. Not only will I be able to write a kernel module with strong memory
safety guarantees (unless I need otherwise), I'll have access to basic data
structures like strings and hashmaps.
~~~
steveklabnik
Here's a minimal Linux kernel module in Rust, by the way:
<https://github.com/tsgates/rust.ko>
------
jhasse
"This could be fixed by switching to keywords, which I prefer for this reason"
~ could be named unique_ptr and @ something like shared_ptr. Genius!
~~~
copx
..or given that they like 1970s style abbreviated identifiers so much: "upt"
and "spt"
Looking forward to writing: "let mut foo = upt .."
~~~
pcwalton
I don't really care for excessive use of abbreviation myself. I would prefer
"heap" and "Gc".
------
jeltz
I look forward to the proposed solution. Because while I understand the
arguments about simplifying the language and allowing for external garbage
collectors, I am not sure I am convinced that the GC type will be as simple to
work with as the current built in GC:ed type. Sometimes you want to have GC
when coding and as it is currently implemented in Rust it is easily accessible
and simple to understand with readable code.
------
chad_oliver
The article mentions that Rust is at least partially designed for low-level
applications such as writing kernels. If garbage collection is shifted into
the standard library, would this allow Rust to be used on real-time embedded
systems such as the newer ARM microcontrollers?
~~~
pjmlp
At least for ARM Cortex-M3 and NXP LPC2000 microcontrollers you do have GC
enabled languages available (Oberon)
<http://www.astrobe.com/default.htm>
But having Rust as option is also great.
------
ambrop7
I'm completely in favor of this. Garbage collection has no place in the core
definition of any language that targets OS kernels and other high-performance
applications. It's sad how we have so many languages that fix many of C++'s
problems (e.g. D and Go), but not without the addition of a garbage collector.
~~~
pron
With regards to OS kernels you may be right (though not for performance
reasons), but some high-performance applications would be very hard to write
without a GC, especially if they're to take advantage of multicore. See my
explanation above about scalable, concurrent data structures. Even hard real-
time systems can benefit from a GC, and Java has a few GC implementations for
hard real-time apps.
FYI, object allocation and de-allocation for short-lived objects is much
faster with a good GC than with dynamic allocation, and even for long-lived
objects GC gives a higher throughput than malloc/free. The problem with GC is
latency issues (pauses) when maintaining very large heaps with many long-lived
objects.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Buxfer facebook app released - comments welcome! - ashu
http://apps.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2216806192&b
======
immad
I like it. Played with a bit. Quick comments:
1\. After the first time I found it slightly tricky to find "new transaction"
again, I think it should be a bit more prominent. 2\. I think its really silly
that it reports personal expense and income in my feed, i had to remove them
manually and that would get annoying in the long run. 3\. There wasnt an
obvious way to pull in contacts or add facebook contacts, though I might be
missing the point of the contacts section. 4\. When I tried adding a shared
expense it gave me a js error and wouldn't proceed. I am using FF 2.0.0.4 5\.
Seems like it could be integrated more with facebook so i can tell me people
they owe me money. Possibly it is and i am just not seeing that feature.
Good work guys.
~~~
ashu
thanks for your comments! we will make what goes in the news-feed completely
controllable by the users, as soon as possible. we don't reveal any other
transaction details in the feed entry of course, but even what we do currently
maybe too noisy for some folks. regarding contacts, they show only those
contacts with whom you've a pending balance - but it can be confusing. we will
get that fixed soon.
it's too bad you encountered a JS error, will look into it soon.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Control objects with only the power of your mind with OpenBCI - hippich
http://iniwall.com/2015/11/27/control-objects-with-only-the-power-of-your-mind-with-openbci/
======
nowarninglabel
Does anyone know how the OpenBCI headset compares to something like the Emotiv
EPOC headset? I'm just starting to get into this stuff and looking to buy a
headset for tinkering, but not sure which one to start with...
~~~
cinquemb
Most of the consumer stuff is crap… only system I'd suggest is with openephys,
but at this point youd have to buy the cap/electrodes separately putting you
at a $3-5k range for 32 electrode setup, which I have to say is a lot better
than the $100k+ systems researchers are used to and like to use for a reason.
~~~
deutronium
Have you played with Ti's EEG ADCs out of interest, they seem reasonably
affordable.
~~~
cinquemb
No I haven't, but here are the datasheets for the parts used in the OpenEphys
acquisition board[0], I'm sure they could be swapped out for other parts given
anyone's particular constraints. To assemble from scratch the acq board, they
are saying it will cost about $1k[1].
[0] [https://github.com/open-ephys/acquisition-
board/tree/master/...](https://github.com/open-ephys/acquisition-
board/tree/master/datasheets)
[1] [https://open-
ephys.atlassian.net/wiki/display/OEW/Building+i...](https://open-
ephys.atlassian.net/wiki/display/OEW/Building+it+from+scratch)
------
DiabloD3
Honestly, I can't imagine myself wearing such a gigantic and ugly headset.
However, I can't wait until this technology is miniaturized and mass
commercialized for a few generations. Hopefully, it doesn't trip up like
Google Glass did (which is another important technology that ties in with this
kind of thing).
~~~
aluhut
It wouldn't make much of a difference though if you are already wearing VR.
------
mailslot
There's IBVA also (Mac support)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Unbearable Lightness of Tweeting - sergeant3
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/02/the-unbearable-lightness-of-tweeting/385484/?single_page=true
======
gofishdigital
The unbearable heaviness of Periscope...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Hunting for a Canadian Legend: The Avro Arrow Jet Fighter - dnetesn
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/13/world/canada/avro-arrow-jet-.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=5&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0
======
aren55555
After the Avro Arrow project was cancelled a number of the employees involved
joined NASA to assist in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. It's a shame
that the same kind of "brain drain" occurs to this day. Canada produces a lot
of talented people and many of them head South.
~~~
eloff
Not just Canada, the United States has been very successful in attracting top
talent from all over the world. A large part of its success is due to that -
the USA does not produce nearly enough STEM graduates domestically. A huge
number of people come every year to study in US universities, still considered
the best in the world in many cases, and many stay afterwards. I think that
the USA could be considered to be an empire in decline once it can no longer
attract the top talent worldwide, and once those people graduate and go back
to their own countries instead of staying in the US.
In the Canada case specifically, the pay gap for software engineers between
the USA and Canada is about 2-3x if you're at the top of your field. The real
mystery to me is why Canada has any software engineers at all. I'm a Canadian
SE living in Canada currently and I wouldn't dream of working for any
companies located here, including e.g. Amazon or IBM.
~~~
danudey
> The real mystery to me is why Canada has any software engineers at all.
For all kinds of political and social reasons, I would never move to the US.
Key examples:
\- The disaster that is the US health care system \- Even more endemic
systemic racism than Canada has \- Even left-wing politicians are to the right
of what I prefer in Canada
All that, plus I'm not in this for the money. I make a comfortable living and
live in a gorgeous city, and there aren't any cities in the US I would want to
live in.
I'm happy in Canada. I'd probably also be happy in Europe or even Asia, but I
can't picture being happy in the US.
~~~
dogruck
Yes, but the top, hard driving, talent would make the trade and move to the
US. Your prerogative is to kick back and chill up north. I'm not hatin -- just
pointing out that you're not really a counter example to the point at hand.
~~~
fraqed
Maybe that's why Canadians are considered so nice, because all the "hard
driving" types have left the country and gone, mostly, to the US.
~~~
dogruck
A reasonable theory. Agreed.
------
guiomie
If you want to know more about the Arrow, I really enjoyed the movie "The
Arrow", not some big budget movie, but really interesting.
Being Canadian I must of heard countless time how this aircraft was like none
other and ahead of it's time ... Not sure how true it really is.
~~~
gerdesj
cf TSR2
------
filereaper
If anyone's up for it, CBC made an entire drama movie for it and its demise.
[1]
[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PMnlnqRex4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PMnlnqRex4)
~~~
KGIII
Three hours well spent, thanks. I'm not sure how historically accurate it is,
but it was fun to watch. I didn't get my Canadian citizenship until a half
dozen years ago, but it's neat to see that story. I knew of the plane, and a
few others, but not the details.
In a demonstration of my pride to be a Canadian citizen, I will eat ketchup
chips and apologize profusely when I go back across the border into Canada,
eh.
------
nils-m-holm
My father wrote (or edited, I don't remember) an article about state of the
art aircraft in 1958. Among others it covered the Avro Arrow, stating, among
other fun trivia, that more than 450 engineers worked on the design and it was
built from more than 38,000 parts, including 17,500 meters of cable.
Unfortunately he switched jobs shortly after that and worked for a fine
literature publishing house until retirement. I thought his earlier job was
way cooler. :) We still visited the local airfield every other weekend.
------
Mikeb85
As interesting as the Avro Arrow was, it's capabilities have been exaggerated,
and there were a decent number of Mach 2 capable jets of the same era. More
interesting is the downfall of Avro and the effect it had on Canada's
engineers and brain drain...
~~~
valuearb
The Convair F-106 Delta Dart from the same era was likely faster (Mach 2.3 vs.
Arrow's fastest test at Mach 2). And the Delta Dart was no great interceptor,
they only built a few hundred. This was the era where Air Power doctrine had
to painfully accept that high speed high altitude was becoming too vulnerable
to SAMs.
The fastest war plane of the era was the North American Aviation XB-70
Valkyrie, which was an enormous bomber which cruised at Mach 3+ and 70,000
feet for nearly 4,000 miles. Neither the Arrow or Dagger could touch it, but
SAMs could so it was canceled after a very successful test flight program.
The world changed to low altitude penetration, a role which would have cut the
B70s range substantially because it's design actually far more efficient at
Mach 3/70,000 feet than it was at Mach 0.95 at 1,000 feet.
~~~
pinewurst
I would disagree that the F-106 wasn't a great interceptor as it apparently
was (and was a pleasure to fly).
The issue is that by the time it made it to production, the major threat had
become the ICBM rather than the bomber. USAF Air Defense Command in general
was defunded but ABM never took its place.
~~~
valuearb
Well my greater point was that high speed high altitude intercepters were
becoming obsolete while the Arrow was being built. As much a pleasure as the
Delta Dart may have been to fly, it wasn't produced in great numbers because
it wasn't designed for the new threats.
------
Animats
The Avro Arrow was an impressive aircraft. There were a large number of cool,
but not useful aircraft developed in the 1950s, as jet aircraft were being
figured out.
Avro is remembered mostly for building a flying saucer, the AvroCar. It never
got out of ground effect, being both unstable and underpowered. But it looked
really cool. It can be seen at the USAF museum in Dayton, Ohio.[1]
[1] [http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-
Exhibits/Fact-...](http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-
Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/195801/avro-canada-vz-9av-avrocar/)
~~~
pjc50
I'd have thought of the Avro Lancaster or Vulcan instead. The Vulcan in
particular was part of the "V bomber" effort in which the UK government
commissioned 3 totally different supersonic nuclear bombers in the hope that
one of them would work and be delivered on time.
~~~
cstross
Ahem: the V-bombers were all subsonic (at least in service — the prototype
Handley-Page Victor went supersonic on at least one occasion and was
controllable in transsonic flight; the production Victors had various external
extras bolted on which made supersonic flight impractical).
The requirement issued for these bombers in the late 1940s, was for a mission
to carry ten tons of Atom bomb from the UK to Moscow at high subsonic speed
and able to penetrate Moscow's air defenses. They were pretty successful;
Vulcans carried out the longest bombing mission in aviation history prior to
Operation Desert Storm (the 8000-mile Black Buck raids during the Falklands
Conflict) and the last Victor tankers were retired in 1993. And we're looking
at designs that flew little more than a decade after the piston-engined
Lancasters and Halifaxes of RAF Bomber Command.
All three V-bomber types — the Valiant, Vulcan, and Victor — saw service
carrying Britain's nuclear weapons from the 1950s to the early 1970s. (They
were replaced in the deterrent role by Polaris submarines.)
More here:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_bomber](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_bomber)
------
SOLAR_FIELDS
Is the Apache Avro file format named after this plane? I couldn't find any
official documentation that states as much, but the logo hints at it.
~~~
grzm
After the British company, not specifically this aircraft:
[https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/AVRO/Index](https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/AVRO/Index)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro)
~~~
SOLAR_FIELDS
Thanks, after seeing the logos of both it is readily apparent.
------
perilunar
"Early models were cut apart and their blueprints destroyed along with the
machines used to make the aircraft."
That's just perverse: why would you destroy the blueprints? Couldn't they just
file them away in an archive or library somewhere? The cost to store them
would be minimal.
------
WalterBright
I'm partial to the Avro Triplane myself.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCZOcObmd0Y](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCZOcObmd0Y)
Probably the most beautiful pre-WW1 airplane.
------
jalayir
Wow looks a bit like the venerable MiG-25 foxbat
~~~
vaadu
And the A5 Vigilante.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_A-5_Vigilante](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_A-5_Vigilante)
US and Canadian intelligence had evidence that the KGB had a man on the inside
of AVRO who was providing ARROW plans to the Soviets.
[http://nationalpost.com/news/canada/the-spy-named-gideon-
boo...](http://nationalpost.com/news/canada/the-spy-named-gideon-book-tells-
story-of-russian-illegal-sent-to-canada-and-betrayed)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Cubby: new dropbox like service from LogMeIn creators - Ecio78
http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/12/logmein-prepares-to-take-on-dropbox-box-with-launch-of-cloud-storage-service-cubby
======
Darraghb
Gotta love the fact that you download the app and can't even sign up!
Yes, I entered my email to be on the beta waitlist, but why release a mobile
app that can't be used?
Then again, with Dropbox, Sugarsync & Pogoplug I probably don't need yet
another cloud storage provider..
~~~
Ecio78
You're right, there are many alternatives but the ability of sharing for free
if you use peer to peer only and the possibility of using folders with their
original structure seem nice (if they work!)
~~~
Darraghb
SugarSync can sync any folder on your machine, preserving file structure.
However, their sync to Android local storage(the main reason I signed up) is a
bit buggy, so Cubby may be a decent alternative. Agreed that free P2P transfer
is potentially quite interesting.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
You have $100k to spend on teaching about better passwords. What do you do? - randanom
Hi. Longtime lurker, first time poster.<p>I've been given a 100k budget from a tech company to create an educational marketing campaign that teaches people to use better passwords, and improve their password habits. This is not my first time doing this (third actually, on this topic), but the first time I've reached out to people knowledgable on the subject. I do my best to stay up to date on infosec. I read industry news and analysis, read whitepapers, and keep abreast of what others in the arena are doing — but I studied literature in school, and have worked mostly as a copywriter/advertiser, and inevitably our advice draws a mixture of praise, heavy criticism, or ire from the security community (usually more ire than anything.) My team, likewise, are not infosec experts or professionals, but rather designers, front end devs, and marketers.<p>We all have bad practices. Especially end users. I guess my question is, what do you think would be the most pertinent topic for end users, and what kind of change do you think people are most likely to carry out?<p>- Should we focus on getting people to use password managers<p>- Changing their passwords regularly?<p>- Using long, unique passwords?<p>- Using 2FA?<p>What would you do? What would resonate with people more? What do you focus on with friends and family?<p>What approach is more effective, fear-based messaging? Humor? Dry facts?<p>In the past we've found that contests have the highest engagement, but there's just something sleazy about "tweet2win."<p>I don't want you to do my work for me, but rather than craft some retweetable graphics, get some big numbers, and call it a day, I'd actually like to create something of real value for people. How can we create something that actually causes real change in people?
======
borplk
I'd say getting in the habit of using password managers is by far the most
important point.
Once you are doing that, using long and unique passwords comes automatically.
Using 2FA is good but I'd say it's not 'low-hanging fruit'
Changing passwords regularly is also not low-hanging fruit. For many things
it's not even necessary, for very important stuff you'd want to change
password every 4-6 months, so for example someone wont have access to your
email for 3 years straight. It will put a ceiling on the maximum continuous
time someone could have had access to your account. 2FA helps with this as
well.
I'd focus on making people understand how easy these password managers are.
Depending on the audience, you could focus on it being much better and easier,
not necessarily "more secure", they probably care more about it being easy.
------
Beached
Just a couple dry facts seem to work the best, pick the top three, or maybe
show a live example. I've used jacktheripper against NTLM hash in front of an
audience and cracked the password "Pass!" in seconds before their eyes, this
received good response.
Whenever someone wants a reminder about password strength, I send them to xkcd
[http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/password_strength.png](http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/password_strength.png)
------
s3nnyy
I have written my master thesis about this topic. Let's chat? (iwang attt
fastmail.net)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google Gets 3 Months to Fix Privacy or Face French Fines - Libertatea
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-20/google-to-get-3-months-to-fix-privacy-policy-or-face-french-fine.html
======
nmc
[http://www.cnil.fr/english/news-and-
events/news/article/cnil...](http://www.cnil.fr/english/news-and-
events/news/article/cnil-orders-google-to-comply-with-the-french-data-
protection-act-within-three-months/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Do I need a formal business plan for my side project? - erikschoster
I'm kicking off work on an exciting side project with a friend and I think we have a pretty solid idea of how the project can be priced and who our customer base could be at least to start.<p>We're bootstrapping and don't plan to seek any investors or take out loans -- right now the only expense is basically a server I already own.<p>In your experience is it still useful to formalize a business plan for a fairly informal side-project like this?<p>We hope it will become more than a side project, it's in a space we both care about and have worked in for a long time but there's no immediate expectation of growth. We aren't setting any hard deadlines for quitting our dayjobs or anything. We'd just like to create it and share it and see if it catches on.<p>I don't want to kill the momentum for actually building the thing in our spare time by self-imposing needless paperwork but a little voice inside me says it might be a useful exercise even if we're the only ones who see it in the end.<p>What do you think?<p>Thank you!
======
Pinbenterjamin
You definitely should. I remember when I started doing serious side projects,
how invaluable having a document was.
It should be living though. Start with something small, describe goals, and
outlook. Put a feature checklist on it. As you work through early problems and
refactors, treat it like a development blog. Include build notes.
You will probably put this down, and pick it up a few times on your journey.
Make sure you leave plenty of breadcrumbs for yourself so that you can be
productive each time you do.
And, should you decide to put it down for good, you'll have a nice little
project history for lessons the next time you try it.
------
sharemywin
might want to checkout:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Model_Canvas#/media/F...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Model_Canvas#/media/File:Business_Model_Canvas.png)
A lot lighter weight but contains the right questions.
~~~
erikschoster
That looks very helpful -- thank you!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The fall of the Berlin Wall...again - ramisms
http://stream.aljazeera.com/story/201303012359-0022580
======
n3rdy
Imagine trying to tell someone in 1980 that in 2013 people would be protesting
the destruction of the wall.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Writing a Redis client in pure Bash - crypt1d
http://digitalserb.me/writing-a-redis-client-in-pure-bash/
======
1amzave
Arguably not _pure_ bash, in that it calls out to external executables. I'm
pretty sure all the head/cut/tr invocations could be easily replaced by
appropriate parameter expansions though, and the `read` builtin could probably
supplant `dd`, so it should be doable.
~~~
skywhopper
Bash doesn't exist in a vacuum. It's designed to make use of and interact
heavily with those external commands. An environment missing dd, head, cut,
and tr is probably not going to provide a usable /dev/tcp filesystem, either.
Ultimately the point is that a Redis client is possible using just a standard
Unixish userland, and sysadmins who interact with Bash all day can easily make
use of redis directly and integrate it into existing scripts without
installing special client libraries or writing wrappers in Perl or Python.
~~~
1amzave
Sure -- but my point was merely in regard to the (mis)use of the word "pure"
here. Avoiding calling out to external executables and remaining purely within
the shell itself is also frequently a good way to improve performance
(sometimes quite dramatically), so being aware of the difference is
worthwhile.
(Also, /dev/tcp isn't a filesystem, just a simulation of one constructed
purely within bash itself, so it wouldn't in fact depend on anything but the
relevant networking syscalls.)
------
beering
Reminds me of cronlock[0] which is a bash script that uses Redis as a global
lock that you can use across multiple servers. Needing to just download a
single bash script makes it easy to drop into an existing project.
[0] [https://github.com/kvz/cronlock](https://github.com/kvz/cronlock)
~~~
cheald
I use Redis as an IPC lock for our applications, too - it's quite good at it,
especially since you can have atomicity guarantees with a Lua script.
------
joshbaptiste
I have been using/administering GNU/Linux based systems for 15 years and have
yet to see where the Bash built-in /dev/tcp was enabled, so any shell script I
write that requires sockets I reach for netcat or socat.
~~~
SEJeff
I think you are mistaken. /dev/tcp is not visible in /dev or devtmpfs, however
it most definitely works.
$ nc -l 8080 &
[1] 13694
$ echo hi >> /dev/tcp/127.0.0.1/8080
hi
[1]+ Done nc -l 8080
I just tried it on a relatively diverse set of distros. Depending on the
version of netcat, if it is an ancient one on an older distribution such as
say RHEL4, you have to do:
nc -l -p 8080
However, the same echo command works in all of them.
~~~
crypt1d
Exactly. Its been available for a while now on most distros, I even used it on
some legacy AIX systems running Korn shell.
Btw, the reason why this works even if you dont see anything in /dev/tcp is
because when you try to open a socket in bash using /dev/tcp it doesn't talk
with the pseudo-filesystem of /dev. Bash actually intercepts the command and
issues a connect() to the remote host.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
“Introduction to Linux” course will be free and online this summer - Reallynow
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/03/2400-introduction-to-linux-course-will-be-free-and-online-this-summer/
======
r0h1n
While I appreciate the intent behind this move, I'm curious who are the people
who were paying $2400 (that's a serious amount of money) for what appears to
be an introductory course that imparts no work skills (it's usually easier to
convince people to pay for courses when they feel it will have a positive
impact on their careers or resumes)?
[https://www.edx.org/course/linuxfoundationx/linuxfoundationx...](https://www.edx.org/course/linuxfoundationx/linuxfoundationx-
lfs101x-introduction-1621)
> This course explores the various tools and techniques commonly used by Linux
> programmers, system administrators and end users to achieve their day-to-day
> work in a Linux environment. It is designed for experienced computer users
> who have limited or no previous exposure to Linux.
> Upon completion of this training you should have a good working knowledge of
> Linux, from both a graphical and command line perspective, allowing you to
> easily navigate through any of the three major Linux distributions.
~~~
jotm
Probably companies paying for their employees' training... Expensive if you
ask me, but when you have 500 employees who need to learn some Linux basics,
you can't just tell them to learn it themselves at home (and organizing their
own training would be expensive).
~~~
frozenport
That is 1 million dollars!
------
ericd
Great! I've always been self-taught with Linux, so I'm sure I do a number of
things in a suboptimal way, and this seems like a great way to clear some of
those bad habits away.
------
Spittie
More information about the "Introduction to Linux" course here:
[http://training.linuxfoundation.org/linux-courses/system-
adm...](http://training.linuxfoundation.org/linux-courses/system-
administration-training/introduction-to-linux)
This page has a list of the covered topics:
[http://training.linuxfoundation.org/linux-
courses/introducti...](http://training.linuxfoundation.org/linux-
courses/introduction-to-linux/outline)
------
jimeuxx
I'm already signed up to this. I'm hoping it'll go beyond what I picked up
messing around with Capistrano and AWS. I've enjoyed other courses on the edX
platform.
My problem is that there don't seem to be any resources available for learning
sysadmin with web development and VPSs specifically in mind. After getting
through a book on Unix sysadmin, I learnt about more than I need without
really feeling confident about the topics that are relevant to hosting a
webapp securely/reliably.
------
rafaelm
This definitely interest me. I've used Linux for hobby projects for ages now
(I remember messing around with slackware and fighting to get sound and my
winmodem working), but I've never seriously learnt how to really use it.
I've been thinking about starting my own Linux From Scratch project, but I
don't know how much of a learning experience that would be. Has anyone here
got any experience with LFS?
~~~
charlieflowers
Yeah, I went through it years ago. It was very helpful. Makes you realize just
how much of the non-kernel aspect of the Linux world depends on open source.
Most of LFS is about downloading the source code of non-kernel programs, and
then learning to build them.
It's not necessarily optimized to make you productive as a user or system
admin. But it's a systematic journey through building the OS and tools, and
therefore it makes you aware of what's available and gives you a glimpse of
what's under the hood.
------
hdevalence
What are "the three major Linux distributions"?
~~~
mattattaque
Ubuntu, Redhat, and CentOS?
~~~
ghshephard
Ubuntu, Redhat/Centos, and SUSE
------
xkarga00
[http://tuxradar.com/content/take-linux-filesystem-
tour/](http://tuxradar.com/content/take-linux-filesystem-tour/)
------
Quai
I'm taking a 4 day long Linux foundation course starting on Monday called
"Linux performance tuning". Looks like it is going to be interesting.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Critique my summer project: talkOlympics.com - deyan
http://talkolympics.com/
======
deyan
Hey Hacker News,
I would love to get some feedback on my summer project:
talkOlympics aggregates the latest on the Olympics and lets you read it
together with other surfers. While browsing, you see the people following the
games and also the article that they are currently reading. You can follow the
crowds to find interesting articles or join the group chat to discuss the
competition.
We put together the site in order to test whether / how this whole idea of
social browsing could work. Please let me know what you think - I have found
out that HN is the best place to get high-quality feedback!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
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