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JavaFX on Raspberry Pi - wiradikusuma http://javafx.steveonjava.com/javafx-on-raspberry-pi-3-easy-steps/ ====== veemjeem Do people still use JavaFX? I thought mobile support was dropped, and the first version of javafx for the mac came out last year. Is JavaFX only for people using java on windows then? ~~~ ZoFreX It was news to me that Java in general ran so well on the Rasberry Pi - I'm quite interested in getting one now!	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Iceland's government collapses - kristjanmik http://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/politics_and_society/2017/09/15/iceland_s_government_collapses/ ====== quuquuquu Let's hope the Pirate Party can win this time and finally set up an internet haven for the world. Iceland has not had an unscathed government since before 2007!! ------ bryanrasmussen so if you lose honor you can't be employed? ~~~ kristjanmik Yes, one can easily be employed again. However, there are some jobs that will be unavailable, like being a lawyer and working with children.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Crystal language 0.23.0 released - itaris https://github.com/crystal-lang/crystal/releases/tag/0.23.0 ====== holydude I believe the road to success for smaller communities / PLs is to excel in one thing and then expand further. ------ tomByrer I've been watching this language, but seems the ecosystem is small? Plus the libs I do find are 1-2 years old; I'm unsure of their compatibility, & I'm not a fan of beta testing anymore... ~~~ sdogruyol This blog post from core developers will give you a better idea about the current state of Crystal [https://crystal-lang.org/2016/12/29/crystal-new- year-resolut...](https://crystal-lang.org/2016/12/29/crystal-new-year- resolutions-for-2017-1-0.html) ------ sdogruyol Crystal home page: [https://crystal-lang.org](https://crystal-lang.org)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Deprogramming From the Academic Cult - 13ren http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/1999/04/1999040901c.htm ====== smanek I find it funny that a PhD (modern European History) considers a 3 month consulting gig earning 12K "lucrative." That's only ~48K/year ... after taking inflation into account, I was making more without a bachelors. Oddly, most of my friends pursuing graduate degrees in the hard sciences aren't too worried about job prospects. From what I understand, it's almost impossible for them to get a tenure track position at a decent university. But most do have the option of working in their field in industry or just becoming quants/traders in finance world. ~~~ brentr I have a bachelor's degree in finance. I am currently working on a bachelor's degree in mathematics in preparation for a PhD in applied mathematics at, hopefully, either Princeton or MIT. My ultimate goal is to get a quant job. For certain types of PhD's, the job prospects continue to look very lucrative; financial mathematics is one of those areas. ------ fgimenez The only examples given here are those of liberal arts degrees. Does this happen as much in engineering or the sciences? ~~~ hugh To some extent. The big difference is this: if you leave the academic career path with a PhD in ancient history or medieval basket weaving, you're pretty darn-near unemployable and will probably wind up making $35K editing crummy manuscripts for a fourth-rate publishing house (or doing three months work in Moscow for $12,000 and calling it "lucrative"). But most of the folks I know who've left the academic career path with a PhD in physics have jumped straight into obscenely highly-paid jobs in finance, management consulting, etc. ------ msluyter This article is from 1999, but everything I've read recently suggests that the situation has only gotten worse. For a while I seriously considered getting a Ph.D. in philosophy or psychology, but various articles like this one convinced my of the insanity of that idea.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
How to Deal With Crappy Bosses - driverdan http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2011/10/how-to-deal-with-crappy-bosses/ ====== jfb A corollary question is: how does one become a non-crappy boss, particularly of programmers? In my 20+ years of programming for a living, I can count the number of really good managers on, well, on my thumbs. And they couldn't be more different -- one was a University bureaucrat with a history as a radio operator in the Army; and the other was a peer engineer who was promoted over me at a big company. Is it even possible to manage programmers in a way that doesn't cause one party to develop bleeding ulcers? ~~~ jaltucher I've had one good manager of programmers. he basically pushed us all to finish our tasks with timelines that were reasonable and then encouraged us to come up with new ideas for the company and then he's be our political advocate throughout the company for those ideas. It gave his employees a lot of loyalty for him.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
The Dallas Mavericks were plagued by a toxic culture. She is turning it around - rectang https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/30/success/dallas-mavericks-ceo-cynthia-marshall-boss-files/index.html ====== rectang Kudos both to Cynthia Marshall for executing and to Mark Cuban for bringing her in. This story shows what can be achieved when change gets a strong mandate.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
The Anhei tokamak is first in the world to generate 100M degrees Celsius - lelf https://phys.org/news/2019-04-china-quest-limitless-energy.html ====== ncmncm What they never mention in these breathless articles is that your multi- billion-dollar tokamak power-generation system will be bathing itself in high- energy neutron flux, essentially destroying itself over only a few years, leaving a multi-hundred-ton radioactive husk to be somehow disposed of, or at least kept the rain from eroding and leaching radioactive slag into the water table. Probably they would need to be built underground to begin with, so they would already be buried when they have been used up. The pB reactor designs that emit mostly charged particles do not suffer from this problem, much, but get overwhelmingly less investment. There is a reason: the main purpose of the tokamak is a jobs creation program for high-neutron- flux physicists, to maintain a population to draw upon for weapons work. There was, and is, no intention ever to actually use tokamaks as an electrical- energy source. Many involved will not agree with this. It is easy to get caught up in the technical challenge and leave worrying about practicalities and true motivations to others. ~~~ DennisP MIT's ARC design solves neutron flux by making the inner core of the reactor easily replaceable. The superconducting coils are hinged, so once a year they can just open up the reactor and lift out the core, which is 3D-printed. The core is surrounded by molten FLiBe salt, which functions as coolant and tritium breeder. The new superconductors allow the reactor to be much smaller than ITER for the same power output. MIT's project has been spun off into the startup Commonwealth Fusion Systems, which has investment from an Italian oil company and Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Neither party has an interest in physicist job creation or weapons work. There are at several pB efforts and one D-D/D-He3 (Helion, which says only 6% of energy would be released as neutrons) but it's harder to get net power from aneutronic fusion and we don't understand the plasma physics as well for the designs they need, so it's more of a wildcard at the moment. ~~~ pfdietz MIT's ARC design has an estimated cost of $29/W(e), an order of magnitude higher than PV. Each 170 MW(e) ARC reactor will use 40% of the world's annual production of beryllium. The "easily replaceable" in your description is quite a stretch. The replacement will be much more demanding than the replacement of fuel elements in a fission reactor. In the latter, the radioactivity is almost entirely contained inside the fuel elements, and they are simply transfered, as fuel bundles, to a cooling pool. But the 86 tonne reactor vessel in ARC will have been permeated with tritium, and the tungsten will have been loaded with activation products by the intense neutron bombardment. It will be much larger than the rather compact arrangement of fuel rods that makes up a PWR core (about 165 tonnes of fuel, including structural material, in a typical 1000 MW(e) power reactor, which has nearly six times the power output of the ARC design.) The reactor vessel will take more space to remove. And then it will have to be crushed. The workspace in which this happens will become inaccessible to people, as it will become contaminated with tritium and radioactive tungsten dust. The overall volume inside the reactor building where all this happens will be very large, making the building expensive. ------ jacob019 "Sometimes called an 'artificial sun' for the sheer heat and power it produces" No, it's because the sun is also a fusion reactor. ~~~ Razengan Very dumb but honest question: How are we certain that stars are fusion reactors and not, say, the other ends of black holes? ~~~ moh_maya I am not an astrophysicist (or a physicist even) but one piece of evidence that may be useful here: Based on our understanding of the nuclear fusion reactions, starting from hydrogen, we expect to see, for a star of a given light / radiation spectrum (viz. Young stars, old, white dwarfs, super giants, etc ), emit spectra lines indicative of different elements such as H, He, O, C, etc. [1]. Young stars may not have all the "heavier elements", older stars do. Their relative abundance also changes with age. Our models & predictions of stellar nuclear fusion (afaik) correspond very well with the specific emission spectra we detect for different star types. Which also corresponds very well to the size / lifetime of star, etc. So, the data is very very consistent with nuclear fusion happening in stars. Now, it may be possible that they are just the "other ends" of white holes. But if it were so, then the model becomes far mode complex, plus, where are all the black holes? While I do not know if the total number / mass of all extant blackholes is as much as the total stellar mass, I would suspect it's far far lesser. Probably wouldn't add up. This is just the first explanation that came to my mind. I am certain there are others. Again, this is a non-physicist's lay analysis. Take it FWIW. :) [1] [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_spectroscopy](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_spectroscopy) ------ IMTDb I am always amazed by the (low) price of those projects, compared to the potential benefits $890 million for potentially giving a new clean energy source seems incredibly low. I can't see a reason why we don't have at least 10 of those projects being concurrently funded in the US, Europe and China. This is a fraction of a percent of the annual budget of each region. Whoever gets their hand on that first is going to have a massive economical - and probably military - advantage over the others. ~~~ hannob > I am always amazed by the (low) price of those projects, compared to the > potential benefits What would be the potential benefit? In an optimistic scenario you'd end up with a technology that will likely have very high capital costs for construction and also very high infrastructure costs for transmission lines, because you create a lot of energy in one location. Even in that best case I don't see such a technology playing a huge role in a future energy system. You end up competing with Wind, Solar and Storage decades into the future (i.e. they'll be much cheaper than they already are today). Of course there's also the much more likely case: It just won't work. Given that there are much more pressing needs in energy research (how do we manage storage once we get to higher rates of renewables? how do we decarbonize sectors outside of electricity?) there isn't that much in favor of fusion imho. ~~~ jcoleh The potential benefit is lots of electricity, which may be abundant that when amortized over the "high capital costs" could be much more cost effective than wind, solar, and storage, or may not be. We have to invest in these relatively small projects to figure that out. Furthermore, the highly geographically concentrated energy production from fusion power could work really well for energy consumers with a similarly localized nature. I'm thinking large scale carbon capture, energy intensive materials manufacturing or processing, or large scale ocean water desalination. ~~~ pfdietz No, actually fusion is likely to be even more expensive than fission, and fission already cannot compete with wind and solar. Fusion takes the biggest problem of fission, high capital cost, and makes it worse, while reducing fuel costs, which are only a minor part of the cost of fission. It's bass-ackwards engineering. ------ melling “Unlike fission, fusion emits no greenhouse gases” Fission emits greenhouse gases? ~~~ the8472 They're probably taking the whole fuel lifecycle into account. [https://www.nirs.org/wp- content/uploads/climate/background/s...](https://www.nirs.org/wp- content/uploads/climate/background/sovacool_nuclear_ghg.pdf) ~~~ ccffph Wouldnt then our “green renewables” also not be green due to their production lifecycle as well? Plastics, batteries, fiberglass, rare earth metals, cobalt, etc ~~~ the8472 To a small extent, yes. It's a matter of degree. Nuclear and renewables still have a much lower footprint than coal. It's just not zero. We don't know the full lifecycle costs of fusion plants, but at least the fuel part won't involve open pit mining, unlike uranium ore, so it hopefully will be better than fission. ~~~ ThomPete Nuclear have a much lower fooprint than renewables, requires much less space, last longer, is more robust, doesn't require rare earth materials or support from ex coal (like wind and solar often end up doing) as a base component. Solar and wind is not even close to being in competition with nuclear when it comes to what is cleanest. ~~~ bjelkeman-again This LCA study shows wind, large hydro and 4Gen nuclear to be in the same range. With solar pv being higher. [https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/12/3452/htm](https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/12/3452/htm) ~~~ nightski Still that is only greenhouse gasses and not full environmental impact. Renewables take up a lot of space. ~~~ adrianN It's not like the world is running out of space anytime soon. ~~~ tomp But maybe we don’t want to pave the Earth with PV panels... ~~~ pfdietz The world is bathed in 100,000 TW of sunlight. Current world primary energy consumption is 20 TW, 1/5000th of that amount. In contrast, 11% of the Earth's land area is under cultivation for crops. Add pastureland and that increases to 37%. Why the outrage over PV land use, when it will be just a pimple on agriculture's land use butt? ~~~ fisherjeff Well, taking PV array efficiency and land vs. sea area into account, that’s probably closer to 0.5% of Earth’s land area that would have to be covered with panels. Obviously not a huge amount relative to agricultural land but we’re still probably talking about a butt pimple around the size of California. ~~~ pfdietz Primary energy use, though, is energy content of sources before they go through thermal cycles to get work. So one should also take into account the heat rejected in the latter. Nearly 80% of the energy content of gasoline, for example, goes out the tailpipe and radiator as heat. PV would deliver energy in high quality form, electrical power, not as heat. So less than 20 TW, probably much less, would be needed to be equivalent to today's energy usage (although precisely how much would depend on details.) Energy use will be increasing though, as the world gets wealthier. Still, this will also put pressure on agriculture to increase production, as demand for meat increases. Land constraints in the future will come from that, not from PV. ------ iforgotpassword I like how they converted the number to Fahrenheit for the American readers - like that helps grasping this in any way. :) the comparison to the sun's core is much more helpful in this regard, but I still just cannot process how we're able to do this in a controlled fashion. If this technology really ever reaches production quality I'll be truly amazed. ~~~ bcatanzaro But they did it wrong. The correct number is 180M degrees Fahrenheit. Sigh. ~~~ furgooswft13 If 100C == 212F then 100 million C == 212 million F. DUH. Just like 0 C == 0 F. Simple math, man. High quality article all around here. ~~~ mojomark 100M C to F => 100M*(9/5)+35 = 180,000,000 + 35 = 180,000,035. ...whoa ~~~ seiferteric you mean 32? ~~~ mojomark Lol, yup. I just realized furgoo was being sarcastical (I hope) ------ jorblumesea > But sustaining the high temperatures and other unstable conditions necessary > is both extremely difficult and prohibitively expensive—the total cost of > ITER is estimated at 20 billion euros ($22.5 billion) Sadly, this maybe 3-5% of the annual US defense budget? Shows where our priorities are that it's considered "prohibitively expensive". ~~~ vixen99 [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_nuclear_fusion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_nuclear_fusion) Tax payers have paid billions for this over decades and while no doubt physics has benefited there's nothing to show for it in terms of a practical large scale application to generate energy from fusion. Why do you think merely throwing money at this project will do the trick after all this time? Politicians can of course use your argument to score over opponents in the realm where details don't count. ~~~ Tepix There has been a lot of progress. Lots of hurdles were overcome. If you put the chance of success st 5% if we invest another 50 billion, we should do it. In the long run, it will ensure our future. ~~~ rgbrenner If da Vinci had 50 billion, he still wouldn’t have achieved flight. There were things he just didn’t know, and until those things were learned, all of his efforts were in vain. We’re still learning too.. and there’s no telling if we know enough to achieve fusion. It may require physics that we won’t learn for another 100 years. Until it’s invented, we don’t know what’s required. ~~~ NullPrefix >It may require physics that we won’t learn for another 100 years It may require physics that we won’t learn without another 50 billion ------ ksec Apart from the initial cost construction and maintenance. Are there cost of Fusion in terms of cost/W? Or do we get Free, limitless Energy? Wouldn't the first country achieve this be in huge / leap forward advantage? Especially for a country like China with lots of Production and Exports. ~~~ amluto I assume you mean cost/J or cost/MWh. Construction and maintenance will be most of that. Most credible fusion reactor designs product a lot of neutrons, and neutrons get absorbed by most materials and degrade them. (And turn some materials radioactive — avoiding long term radioactivity is an important design considerations.) There will also be staffing costs, fuel costs (small, but still — deuterium and tritium aren’t free), and even costs associated with obtaining cooling water. The big benefits of fusion over fission, as I see it, are that the fuels are safe and plentiful, the byproducts are harmless (if neutron activation is well managed), and the reactor itself isn’t full of extremely dangerous materials. If you turn a fusion reactor off, it’s off, and there’s no risk that it accidentally keeps reacting. ~~~ jmpman Does it also reduce proliferation concerns? ~~~ mandelken You can not make a bomb with fusion materials alone. Hydronuclear bombs use fission materials (uranium, plutonium) to start the fusion reaction. However, maybe a fusion reactor may be used for fission bomb research, but I'm not sure how. ------ m3kw9 Would a run away reaction turn earth into a sun? ~~~ chadcmulligan Seems unlikely - once the magnetic bottle collapses the reaction stops, its very hard to keep it going. Its not like fission where the reaction cascades and causes a melt down. Some localised melting is perhaps possible if things go astray. ------ Traminer 2050 :'( ------ wemdyjreichert That's 180M degrees Fahrenheit, for those of us who are American, Liberian, or Burmese. ------ tromp "EAST's main reactor stands within a concrete structure, with pipes and cables spread outward like spokes that connect to a jumble of censors and other equipment encircling the core." Even reactors are not exempt from censorship! ~~~ pjc50 Entertaining typo/correction for "censer", I suppose? ~~~ dmoy sensor probably? I would assume no incense burning (censer) in there. Yay English! A censer censor sensor is something that detects someone who covers up the existence of incense burning things. ~~~ jbay808 Not to be confused with a censer sensor censor, who censors the censer sensor's central censer detections. ~~~ AnimalMuppet Two comments ago, I knew what all those words mean. Now I'm not sure... ------ rayiner This may be how China wins. While the West has capitulated to the hippies in moving to renewables and conservation, China is investing in increasing energy production capacity through nuclear. (Not just research into fusion, they’ve got 20 fission reactors under construction right now.) More energy means more economic capabilities and more war making capabilities. ~~~ jeandejean If you read the article you'd realize they're still late compared to western nuclear technology. It's great that they invest a lot in the technology but that's both wrong and premature to award them any achievement. ~~~ rayiner Sure we’re ahead. But we’ve stopped trying, and diverted our resources to dead end technology. ~~~ eloff Nuclear is dead end tech. Renewables are cheaper than nuclear without the PR problems or risks, and getting cheaper all the time. The future is solar, wind, and hydro with a lot of energy storage and long distance transmission. ~~~ rayiner Renewables will, at best, allow us to maintain our current energy expenditures in a more sustainable manner. (If that.) But they are incredibly space inefficient. Nuclear is the only avenue for increasing our energy production by an order of magnitude or more. (Not to mention, there is no such thing is a solar powered attack submarine or aircraft carrier.) ~~~ jfk13 Why should we want to increase our energy production by an order of magnitude? Maybe a new generation needs to read E. F. Schumacher. ~~~ rayiner Building a fully electric transportation network, supporting a greater population, advanced weapons like rail guns, etc. You know, progress. The future. Maintaining our technological supremacy. China, Russia, etc., aren’t going to be reading E.F. Schumacher. Energy production equals economic, military, and political power. Whoever figures out how to break past the fossil fuel bottleneck is going to own the future. ~~~ chimpburger And for space exploration. Nuclear propulsion would enable humans to reach Alpha Centauri within a lifetime. ~~~ pfdietz No, fusion could not allow humans to reach Alpha Centauri in a lifetime, unless you mean they flew through the Alpha Centauri system without stopping. If you want human interstellar travel, that probably means beamed power propulsion. That's a better solution anyway, since it allows higher power density at the vehicle. There is no need for fusion for that. ~~~ chimpburger Let's restrict it to travel within the solar system. We'll need fusion to power all of those beams. ~~~ pfdietz Why is fusion needed to power the beams? Sunlight would work just fine. ~~~ chimpburger There is a cap on potential solar power generation. Compare the amount of power generated per square meter for a solar panel versus a nuclear power station. Nuclear reactors can be stacked vertically or located underground. Also it is ugly to have vast areas of the natural landscape covered in panels. Ugly waste of space. ~~~ pfdietz We're talking here about solar collectors IN SPACE, where the beam sources would be placed. The cap there is the entire output of the Sun.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Automating Development Environments with Vagrant and Puppet - analogAndroid http://blog.kloudless.com/2013/07/01/automating-development-environments-with-vagrant-and-puppet/ ====== WestCoastJustin This is a very nice write up. If anyone is interested, I've put several screencasts together about Vagrant [1], creating a Vagrant box with Veewee [2], and Learning Puppet with Vagrant. [1] [http://sysadmincasts.com/episodes/4-vagrant](http://sysadmincasts.com/episodes/4-vagrant) [2] [http://sysadmincasts.com/episodes/5-create-a-vagrant-box- wit...](http://sysadmincasts.com/episodes/5-create-a-vagrant-box-with-veewee) [3] [http://sysadmincasts.com/episodes/8-learning-puppet-with- vag...](http://sysadmincasts.com/episodes/8-learning-puppet-with-vagrant) ~~~ analogAndroid Thanks! I just got started with Vagrant and figured I should share my experience! ~~~ eugenesia Thanks analogAndroid - I'm just getting started with Puppet and Vagrant too. Great article, hoping to learn more from you! ~~~ analogAndroid You are welcome! Let me know if there are any things that you would be particularly interested in hearing about! ------ narsil I have been using Vagrant for development on my Mac for over a year now and it has made having consistent dev, test and prod environments so much easier. I see others who dev on a Mac and deploy to Ubuntu running into a myriad of issues, ranging from libraries not compiling correctly to TCP sockets lingering on TIME_WAIT for different periods of time. It's nice to avoid that class of bugs. ------ contingencies The limitation with this type of approach is the assumption of a conventional (and, some would say, out of date) architecture, ie. single service on a single VM on a single cloud provider. Topology specification, firewalling, resource constraints (bandwidth, IO speed/resilience... ie. RAID/backup persistence safety), service cohabitation or codependence, performance/capacity testing, cost, cloud provider abstraction, public DNS+SSL+sofware package distribution infrastructure dependencies, legal jurisdiction considerations, speed of instantiation, etc. are all realistic considerations (often requirements) for much modern infrastructure. In short: this only gets you half-way, for relatively simple examples. But if your workload is within that space, by all means go for it. (PS. Before anyone snaps 'you can manage multiple hosts with <tool>', sure. But the architecture of the tools begins to present issues.) ~~~ jacques_chester > ie. single service on a single VM on a single cloud provider. Vagrant allows you to specify groups of VMs that spin up together. Your general point that it doesn't simulate production perfectly is correct. But this is one case where the perfect is the enemy of the good. ~~~ davvolun Apparently to simulate production to the level OP requires, the only solution is to have the users test your product--the only way to perfectly simulate reality is reality. ------ thecodemonkey If you're interested in getting up and running with a full development environment, I created a minimal LAMP stack utilizing the deliciousness of Vagrant and Chef. It's available on GitHub [https://github.com/MiniCodeMonkey/Vagrant-LAMP- Stack](https://github.com/MiniCodeMonkey/Vagrant-LAMP-Stack) There has been a lot of discussions about which provisioner to use, but at the end of the day they all achieve the same goal. I would personally just use one that you feel comfortable with, in the sense of configuration system and structure. ~~~ jmadsen How timely - I happen to be reading this while waiting for my environment to finish setting up :-) Thank you for your work! (Any chance it might work with Vagrant v2 soon?) ------ Axsuul I myself am also a big fan of vagrant although it can be tough on your machine when working on multiple projects at the same time. Often times I find myself running out of memory and it can be quite tedious having to halt and bring back my vagrant boxes when I jump from project to project. Perhaps docker can address this issue someday? ~~~ Xylakant use vagrant suspend to store the vm in the current state. resume is pretty much instant. ------ joemaller1 If you're just getting started with Vagrant and find yourself stuck, try a different provisioner. I had a lot of trouble wrapping my head around Puppet, but was up and running with Ansible very quickly. Puppet, Chef and Ansible can all be used to build out your Vagrant VM's environment. ~~~ jerrya I just read about Vagrant, and Ansible last week -- I would love to read the ansible playbooks of folks to see what they are doing with them, and to learn more about how its done. Ideally, I'd love to find some vagrant scripts and ansible playbooks to bring Amazon ec2 instances up and down and configure them with a standard set of packages. ------ deadfall Nice write up. I have been using Vagrant for a while now and it has made it really easy to move environments around to different machines. Mitchell Hashimoto is a brilliant guy. ------ rhelmer I did a bit of extra work to make my puppet manifests work outside of vagrant too, so I can use a simple script to install to any Ubuntu base box (e.g. bare metal, EC2, docker, etc) - [https://github.com/mozilla/socorro/blob/master/puppet/ubuntu...](https://github.com/mozilla/socorro/blob/master/puppet/ubuntu- bootstrap.sh) ------ ckdarby This could have been 1/10th the content [https://puphpet.com/](https://puphpet.com/) ~~~ analogAndroid Oh yeah, that is true, but the point is to learn how to do it by hand so you can do more than just bring up a php app (like develop django or rails or anything else). ~~~ jtreminio Other languages are on my to-do list for PuPHPet! ------ ethanaustinite The author should really check out saltstack (with or without vagrant). ~~~ analogAndroid I have checked out saltstack (not in too much detail, since I have been busy with puppet). But I wasn't sure if there was an equivalent to exported resources in saltstack (I want to use them for automated monitoring and orchestrating of other services), since that is a pretty useful thing and I was somewhat skeptical about having everything defined in YAML, since there are somethings that I think one wouldn't be able to do... but I have been meaning to look into it! ------ sandGorgon why are people not using Docker as compared to Vagrant ? Doesnt it consume way less memory ? ~~~ beagle3 can docker have different operating systems with different kernels (win, freebsd, debian lin, ubuntu) running on the same machine? or same o/s with different kernels? different modules? the old vps vs. container discussion. ~~~ julien421 It is possible to run a VM inside Docker and still retain some advantages of containers, but not all of them since there is a "VM" in the sentence :)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Fission – Serverless Functions for Kubernetes - manojlds http://fission.io/ ====== lakshmanLD Another abstraction!! In my perspective, One of the distinguishing feature of FAAS or serverless architecture is that, we pay one and only when the function executes. But building serverless architecture on container would fail this. Correct me if am wrong!!	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Passport to hell: why thin client desktops must die (2012) - ForHackernews http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/06/passport-to-hell-why-thin-client-desktops-must-die/ ====== nmjohn > Yet for some reason, hardware manufacturers keep trying to inflict these > yokes of oppression upon us. Statements like that are so frustrating. Manufacturers wouldn't be making thin clients if there wasn't a demand for them. Initially sure, but without demand they wouldn't last and thus would be discontinued. Equating this to oppression is a slap in the face to those who actually are oppressed. For those of us who actually use the computing power of our desktops - likely a good portion of hn readers - thin clients are hardly an option. But for everyone else? There seems to be some valid use cases to me. ~~~ kjs3 There are plenty of use cases where they make sense, and lots of us have implemented them. This is just a lazy article, undoubtedly so someone could hit a deadline. ------ walterbell Good quotes from the article: "people who happen by and need to check something on the Web, but whom you’d rather not give WiFi or Ethernet jack access. In other words: enemies." "As the only person in the company to have ever seen a Unix command line, I was left in charge of customer training and first-call support. In other words, I had been consigned to a role somewhere between lab rat and human sacrifice. " ------ kjs3 I wish someone would pay me money to write about how technology X sucks because I used it 15-20 years ago and it sucked then. I know a _lot_ of tech that sucked 15 years ago, and not having to do anything other than give a vendor buddy free advertising by sticking a quote from them in at the end would free me of the drudgery of having to figure out the current state things.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
How to Prioritize Using a Military Technique - jkush http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2007/05/how-to-prioritize/ ====== andre It's a good article, but I doubt most people will ever do something like this. Most people don't even write down what they need to do, they don't even keep a list of tasks to be done. But this is a different crowd here and I'm sure that it'll be useful to some people, the one change that I would make is in the evaluation criteria, and make it more personable to the individual. ------ jkush I have to admit that being a Navy vet, I'm doubtful about any technique developed by the military. That said, this looks like a simple way to get a handle on what to work on first. ~~~ run4yourlives That's interesting, being an army vet myself, I find most techniques gained during my stint are more than enough to give me an edge that others don't have, especially around leadership. Would be an interesting conversation to discuss the two views ... someday when I don't have work to do! ~~~ jkush Even with a very high ASVAB score, being very color blind and a high school dropout to boot kept me from doing anything of interest in the Navy. I quite literally spent my entire stint painting, sweeping and tying knots. ~~~ run4yourlives dude, that sucks. Seriously! ~~~ falsestprophet don't ask, don't tell	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Intel Takes Lidar Indoors - stambros https://www.zdnet.com/article/intels-new-realsense-camera-brings-hi-res-lidar-to-a-small-form-factor/ ====== noen Im done being excited by anything out of Intel that isn't an desktop/laptop CPU. I've been burned personally and professionally with every single Intel IoT device I've touched. Remember the Edison platform? Huge promises and possibilities that turned into fatally flawed silicon that took Intel 2 years to admit. The Compute Stick? The whole Atom ecosystem? I was so excited by the realsense cameras, we got a bunch of them and thought we must have gotten a bad batch. The hardware was so bad compared to similar cost machine vision cameras, it was astounding. The SDK was great at first glance, a really easy OOBE for multi camera setup and PCL processing. Then you discover over a few weeks how flaky everything is, how brittle the SDK and drivers are (like every other Intel dev platform it seems) and after spending thousands of dollars on hardware and hundreds of hours of dev time, you finally chuck it all in a bin and say "I will never buy Intel crap again" for the third time. Hopefully this Lidar device will buck that trend, but I doubt it. They keep making random IOT hardware platforms with seemingly no long term strategy and no path to commerical implementation. ~~~ Reventlov My main problem with non "classic" intel products is the shit user experience that come with them: I don't want to use ubuntu 16.04, just package software in a maintainable way, ffs. ~~~ rubicks When Intel touts a device "On Linux!(tm)", I have to lower my already meager expectations. So long as you expect the drivers to be very thin open-source wrappers around very brittle proprietary blobs, you won't be unpleasantly surprised. ------ stefan_ I love the Intel RealSense stuff, you get very cutting edge sensor silicon at consumer gear prices with open-source software to go along with it. The only real problem is that I have no clue why Intel is in this business, and I suspect they won't be for much longer. ~~~ rubicks The Realsense hardware might be great. The software that goes with it is not: * DKMS kernel module for what should be a plain vanilla USB 3.0 device * firmware updates require closed-source libraries * breaking API and ABI changes that do not respect semver or SOVERSION The worst part of my dayjob is wrangling the Realsense software suite. ~~~ TaylorAlexander I’ve met someone who is constantly asking me “why haven’t you tried realsense?” and you just confirmed my suspicions. When the first realsense products came out, they only supported windows. This is madness for a robotics focused product. Finally my friend tells me now they support Linux. But for me the damage has already been done. They have proven that they don’t understand me as a robotics engineer. And you’ve just confirmed that for me. So I stick with trying to use high resolution cameras and structure from motion algorithms to understand the world. No need for a specific proprietary piece of hardware. Since I’m mostly doing research in to what is possible, I prefer this non proprietary approach. This little lidar looks nice but the last thing I need is another weird kernel module and some closed source library to support my hardware. No thanks. ~~~ rubicks I mean... your friend's not wrong, if by "Linux" she/he means "Ubuntu 16.04 LTS" with the caveats: * disable Secure Boot xor create your own efi signing key pair, get friendly with `mokutil`, and pray your firmware's UEFI implementation supports that complicated custom KEK * Ubuntu 18.04 support, but forcibly install at least one 16.04 package they couldn't be bothered to build for the latest stable release of their chosen distro --- or `patchelf` the shared object and, again, pray. * accept that the debugging symbols they provide still bear the source paths from the Jenkins instance that packaged them * Oh, yeah; sometimes the device is detected as USB 2.1. That's fun when it happens 2 hours into a calibration run They're good if all you need is a flakey proof of concept. It sounds to me like you require something better. ~~~ TaylorAlexander Damn that sounds awful. Yeah, I don’t need another headache. I can imagine times where the hardware is the right tool for the job, but with all those hoops you have to jump through to make it work I’d avoid that at all costs. ------ BubRoss [https://newsroom.intel.com/news/intel-realsense-lidar- camera...](https://newsroom.intel.com/news/intel-realsense-lidar-camera- technology-redefines-computer-vision/#gs.log2df) Here is the actual press release instead of the zdnet rehash. [https://www.intelrealsense.com/lidar- camera-l515/](https://www.intelrealsense.com/lidar-camera-l515/) This is the actual page for this camera. ------ opwieurposiu Previously the realsense stereo depth cameras suffered from a lot of depth noise compared to TOF cameras like kinect. I had to use a lot of filtering which limited the usable frame rate. Hopefully this new lidar cam has less noise. The realsense API is pretty good, I found it much easier to use then the kinect API. ~~~ echelon Can you use multiple sensors with a spherically overlapping FOV? Kinect for Azure purports to be able to support overlapping FOV (whereas Kinect 1 for Xbox did not) ~~~ opwieurposiu The stereo realsense cameras like D415 support overlapping FOV. They also have a way to use a sync cable to sync the shutters. ------ Animats There have been lots of little indoor LIDAR units. The SwissRanger, around 2005, was one of the early ones. The Kinect, version 2, is one. The Kinect, version 1, was a random dot pattern projector and two cameras for triangulation. Intel made something similar, the RealSense. So far, the most popular use for these things is video background removal, allowing "green screen" type effects without needing an actual green screen. ~~~ BubRoss Is that actually common? Basing a matte off of the depth map would be extremely noisy and low resolution without some big time filtering. ~~~ Animats Yes.[1] [1] [https://youtu.be/RoeXGiWO9dU](https://youtu.be/RoeXGiWO9dU) ~~~ hmottestad BubRoss asked if it would be low res. This video shows that it is extremely low res. Lidar instead of green screen is not for professional grade background removal like you see on TV. ------ swiley I really wonder how safe lidar really is for humans. Our retina are sensitive enough to detect single photons (when healthy) and lidar is known to damage digital camera sensors. ~~~ bdamm In addition to safety I wonder about interference. Wouldn't lidar become ineffective if there's so much lidar around that all the lidar sources start interfering with each other and effectively blinding all receivers with noise? I really wonder why lidar-based autonomous agents plan to deal with this problem. It seems fundamental. ~~~ namibj Usually not. They require resilience against ambient light already, so they are either very dim and use coding gains or they use short pulses which only yield a short time window for valid returns. You basically don't get non- malicious interference issues, except for e.g. the dot projector systems. Real ToF sensors can easily filter any accidental noise. You can often spoof them, however, and there's not much one can do against it considering a blinding DoS is often technically easier (track the LIDAR with a camera to keep the laserpointer on-target) ------ echelon I wonder if multiple sensors can be used with overlapping FOV. The website claims, >> Can multiple L515 cameras be used simultaneously? > Multiple cameras can share the same field of view utilizing our hardware > sync feature. I really want to get accurate 3D spherical volumes in real time. (30fps is sufficient, 60fps would be ideal) I've thought about using Kinect "for Azure", because I think it satisfies this use case and does hardware clock syncing between devices: [https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/kinect- dk/](https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/kinect-dk/) Edit: It looks like their RealSense cameras can be set up in an inward-facing configuration: [https://dev.intelrealsense.com/docs/multiple-depth- cameras-c...](https://dev.intelrealsense.com/docs/multiple-depth-cameras- configuration) ~~~ kypro I'm working on RealSense project at the moment. You won't be able to do it out the box, but their SDK does come with a lot of sample code, one which makes use of the RGB sensor on the D400 series to calibrate the cameras in world space. With just depth data it's a bit trickier. ------ fnord77 $349 for pre-order on their store. Shipping next April ------ bluegreyred Am I cynical to expect one of these in every Echo/Home/Portal "assistant" within a decade? You know, strictly for 3D-avatar VR communication purposes only. ------ melling Direct link to Intel’s announcement with a video. [https://newsroom.intel.com/news/intel-realsense-lidar- camera...](https://newsroom.intel.com/news/intel-realsense-lidar-camera- technology-redefines-computer-vision/) The camera is the size of a tennis ball. There are probably lots of industrial uses. ~~~ ganzuul ~~Ooh, it's the solid-state LIDAR tech I heard about a couple of years ago! They must have bought the company that invented it.~~ ~~The price is also just around where they expected it to be. They talked about going down to 100 eurodollars per unit when they hit mass manufacturing.~~ ED: No this is a MEMS device. The device I'm talking about is actually solid- state, scanning the laser by way of, IIRC, acousto-optic modulation. Car companies were interested in it. ------ justinclift Wish I had the spare time to try hooking some of these into some kind of a machine vision system, for automatically verifying that an object being created (3D printer / CNC) was created as intended. It'd help with automating production, but I'm not sure it'd be worth the effort. ------ georgeburdell I don’t know why they are in the business, but a cheap Lidar camera is very interesting to me from a computer vision/home robotics standpoint. Here’s to hoping for a long life for this product line ~~~ kypro It's because of the vision processing chip. My understanding is that many of the Windows facial unlock cameras are powered by Intel vision chips. ------ azinman2 Is this doing 360 plus Y as well? ------ huffmsa I don't think it has enough resolution to help them find their 10nm design.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Solar storms are no joke - audace http://www.techradar.com/news/world-of-tech/we-need-to-be-prepared-for-a-devastating-solar-storm-researchers-warn-1318509 ====== pflanze > Even when the storm passed and the systems came back online, data in > magnetic storage (including all hard drives and SSDs) would have been > irrecoverably damaged. SSDs? Would even actual magnetic storage like hard drives really be damaged? If I understand correctly the electromagnetic 'pulse' would come very slowly, cause huge spikes on long wires like electric distribution networks, but I don't see how it would wipe disks unless it's just by way of forcing lots of uncontrolled power from the electrical outlets through the computer. Would that really happen? Also, mobile devices not attached to the grid would then still work, also PCs not currently connected.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
U.S. Adds Chinese Firms to Blacklist, Citing Repression of Muslim Minorities - justinzollars https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-adds-chinese-firms-to-blacklist-citing-repression-of-muslim-minorities-11570488642?mod=rsswn ====== ArchieLeach If that's now official American policy then Israel is going bust by Christmas, and Saudi Arabia is invaded by Iran by then. ~~~ NotSammyHagar why would israel go bust by xmas? why would s.a. get invaded by then? I don't see the connection. ------ flyingfences Link[1] to the order, without a paywall, including the list of entities blacklisted. [1] [https://s3.amazonaws.com/public- inspection.federalregister.g...](https://s3.amazonaws.com/public- inspection.federalregister.gov/2019-22210.pdf)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Diary of a Pandemic: “We’ve Been Under-Reacting for a Long Time” - tallgiraffe https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/diary-pandemic-weve-been-under-reacting-long-time-glenn-kelman ====== verdverm I think society is more on the overreaction side of the pendulum right now (on the years scale) A lot of outrage from very little things, skins have gotten too thin? ~~~ tallgiraffe There is probably a bit of both going on in the world. In this particular case though, the article describes how Redfin took rather long to react on many accounts, and what it meant for their company and employees. You could make a case that if they did not react, did not take the money or fire people, they would have weathered the storm and would be better off now. True, but it's easy to make those conclusions after the fact. It was interesting to read all 3 parts of this essay and follow the timeline, for what it's worth.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Tesla: almost at 100000 votes - lelf From Tesla e-mail:<p>As you may know, Tesla is under attack from a number of car dealer associations in various states who are challenging Tesla's right to directly serve our customers at Tesla Stores and Service Centers.<p>Their efforts are protectionist in nature and infringe on the right of the consumer to choose how they purchase and service their vehicle.<p>An anonymous Tesla enthusiast created a White House petition to allow direct sales of cars to consumers in all states. We want to thank the tens of thousands of fans who have voiced their support and have already signed the petition.<p>We want this petition to succeed. For that to happen, the petition needs 15,000 more signatures by Friday, July 5, 2013.<p>Please act now and take a moment to register, sign and forward the petition today!<p>https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/allow-tesla-motors-sell-directly-consumers-all-50-states/bFN7NHQR ====== MichaelApproved Clickable link [https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/allow-tesla- motors...](https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/allow-tesla-motors-sell- directly-consumers-all-50-states/bFN7NHQR) ------ swamp40 Funny: I read this as Tesla: almost at 100000 volts. ------ mrt0mat0 i think it's hilarious that we tell other countries that we're a free market but clearly we're not if you have to ask law makers to allow you to do business. ~~~ _pmf_ > i think it's hilarious that we tell other countries that we're a free market > but clearly we're not if you have to ask law makers to allow you to do > business. As a citizen of a backwards, non-free socialist European country, yes, it is. ------ pschastain Already signed it, but thanks for putting it back on the radar; it's an important issue that needs to be addressed. ------ neonhomer I understand and agree with the reason behind the petition, but ultimately this is a state issue, not a federal one. So i wouldn't see this petition really doing anything meaningful. It's the whole basis of the 10 amendment. ~~~ DiabloD3 Its a federal issue, actually. There is a law on the books that tries to "regulate" the car industry by forcing them to have "independant local businesses" as "frnachised dealers". The franchised dealership model is a failure, the dealerships cant do anything on their own initiative else they may lose the frnachise, and all they do is make it harder for the consumer to make an informed choice on a car purchase, and drives the cost up as well. States COULD try to override the dealership laws (many states have laws that strengthen the Federal one), but thats like trying to herd cats. ~~~ brownbat I don't believe that's the case, can you cite the federal law in question? I've read the FTC Commissioner's report on state laws here, and an economic analysis report that both cite state lawmakers as the responsible parties: 1\. [http://www.ftc.gov/speeches/leary/learystateautodealer.shtm](http://www.ftc.gov/speeches/leary/learystateautodealer.shtm) 2\. [http://www.justice.gov/atr/public/eag/246374.htm](http://www.justice.gov/atr/public/eag/246374.htm) Arizona goes farther, apparently has a law that basically prevents manufacturers from releasing any information which might hurt the negotiating position of dealers. Needless to say, it's being challenged in court. Alliance of Auto Manufacturers v. Hull No. CIV 00-1324-PHX-PGR (D. Ariz. Apr. 30, 2001). ------ Achshar Is this posted somewhere else too? Or HN had 7k votes in one hour? It's an impressive turnout. ~~~ vnchr It made the front page of Reddit shortly after that. I'd imagine several tech news outlets followed with reports, drawing more attention. ------ stfu On another board I would usually respond to something like this with "not your personal army"... ~~~ DiabloD3 And you would be downvoted on Reddit as well. Tesla is a distruption success story that can be repeated by other companies, and the only thing holding them back is out of date government lack-of-regulation. Regulation merely means to make regular, and this "regulation" makes it so only the biggest and richest car companies be able to sell cars under the guise of "franchised dealerships that are local businesses", that really have very little ability to operate as an independent business. The laws reguarding dealerships only drive prices up by forcing the existence of a middle man whos only job is to represent the interests of Detroit (ironic, seeing as our cars are made in China and Mexico now, instead of in the US). tl;dr: Tesla may make cars, but they are the kind of disruption Silicon Valley yerns for. ~~~ brownbat I feel like the political parties both tend to focus on federal regulations as a source of harm or vehicle for change. The state and local regulations, those are where all the heavy lifting is done. There's some utter nonsense there, all brought to you by the parties' respective farm teams. EDIT: Put another way, I'm a left-leaning moderate, but shit like this makes me want to beatify John Galt. ------ ohwp Funny: automobile dealers response?: [https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/shutdown- petitions...](https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/shutdown- petitionswhitehousegov/r5Wbx5hx) ~~~ DiabloD3 Thanks for pointing that out, I've flagged that as inappropriate. Lets hope the WH removes it. ~~~ C1D Everything stated in the petition is true. The site is basically a way to convince people that the president gives a damn about the American People. They only reply to the useless petitons and not the real issues like the Snowden Pardon Petiton or Aaron Swartz one. ~~~ bguthrie I agree, though other petitions can be effective. If you care about a cause, place your signature on a petition hosted with an organization that will tirelessly advocate for that cause. Organizations in turn live and die by their ability to gather and show support for the causes they fight. If there's anything techies should've learned from the SOPA battle, it's that it is possible to make political change when enough people speak out. If you haven't watched aaronsw's talk on stopping SOPA, it's well worth your time. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fgh2dFngFsg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fgh2dFngFsg)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Programming language personality theory - ingve http://www.sicpers.info/2015/08/pl-personality-theory/ ====== vezzy-fnord _Lisp_ Mostly calm with sudden outbursts of zen. _Scheme_ Pretentious. Probably has a blog named for a pun on a classic computing textbook. \------ We can certainly infer plenty about the author's personality, I suppose.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Fulfilling Brain-Inspired Hyperdimensional Computing with In-Memory Computing - blopeur https://www.ibm.com/blogs/research/2020/06/in-memory-hyperdimensional-computing/ ====== blopeur Arxiv paper : [https://arxiv.org/abs/1906.01548](https://arxiv.org/abs/1906.01548)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Misleading letter from app Nextdoor falls on several doormats in Groningen (NL) - the-dude https://translate.google.nl/translate?sl=nl&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dvhn.nl%2Fgroningen%2Fstad%2FDubieuze-brief-van-buurtapp-Nextdoor-valt-op-meerdere-deurmatten-in-Groningen-24702543.html ====== the-dude Nextdoor is impersonating your neighbours, which might be a crime.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
PEGASUS iOS Kernel Vulnerability Explained - ssclafani http://sektioneins.de/en/blog/16-09-02-pegasus-ios-kernel-vulnerability-explained.html ====== yborg Because we at SektionEins believe keeping the public in the dark about details of already fixed vulnerabilities is wrong... ...use our private jailbreak... i.e. your undisclosed vulnerabilities bad, my undisclosed vulnerabilities are cool. Useful analysis, but casting a marketing endeavor as a public service is rather disingenuous. ~~~ stevetrewick But maybe they'll share it with you if you book on their training course. Only EUR 4000! ~~~ vizzah What a jailbreak is worth these days.. close to a million? So training course for a few grand by someone capable of developing a jailbreak (on numerous occasions*) should be a well-spent educational investment, even if no unfixed vulnerabilities are shared (obviously, they won't be). ~~~ dylz I'm pretty sure someone has already paid for the course and then released all the private exploits - [https://twitter.com/search?q=from%3Ai0n1c%20pangu&src=typd](https://twitter.com/search?q=from%3Ai0n1c%20pangu&src=typd) ------ whoopdedo Once again demonstrating that the term "zero day" is horribly overused and misused and probably should be eliminated from the lexicon, the OSUnserializeBinary bug doesn't appear to be new. Brandon Azad[1] says he discovered it last year. It was fixed in OS X in May. Or maybe the fix didn't work since they had to make another patch this week. [1] [https://bazad.github.io/2016/05/mac-os-x-use-after- free/](https://bazad.github.io/2016/05/mac-os-x-use-after-free/) ------ a2tech Did these guys just admit they have their own private jailbreak? That seems like something you'd keep quiet ~~~ q3k Stefan Esser is a well know iOS security researcher that is well known to be (and vocal about) keeping private jailbreaks. This makes sense considering the platform - burning an exploit would render it unnecessarily difficult to continue research on future versions of iOS. ~~~ xenadu02 Keep this in mind when you think about Apple's recent bug bounty program. Anyone who has been sitting on some private jailbreaks might be tempted to collect $200k, no? ~~~ ikeboy A jailbreak is worth $1 million. See [http://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2015/06/26/china-...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2015/06/26/china- iphone-jailbreak-industry/) ------ klue07 Apple also released a fix for OS X with its latest update. [https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207130](https://support.apple.com/en- us/HT207130) ~~~ jetpks This was the real news to me. Apple had to know OS X was vulnerable when they released iOS 9.3.5, yet they waited until yesterday to push updates. ------ reiichiroh Realistically, is this in the wild under active exploit? With the likelihood of infection remote unless one is a UAE-targeted activist? ------ stevenh Are people who never install new apps on their Mac safe without updating for now, or can this be exploited over the web? ~~~ eugeneionesco This can be exploited over the web by chaining it with the other bug used in the attack.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Show HN: Forestry.io – A full CMS for Hugo/Jekyll in a single (React) file - sgallant https://forestry.io/remote ====== sgallant Hey folks, I was building a website for a friend and I REALLY didn't want to use WordPress. I was tired of updating plugins, dealing with hacked sites, paying for expensive hosting, etc. So, my co-founder and I built Forestry.io, a CMS for Jekyll and Hugo sites that works with GitHub and allows you to host anywhere. Instead of 100's of PHP files, Forestry is a full CMS in a single html file. Drop it into your static Hugo or Jekyll site and log from mysite.com/admin/. Boom done. No updates required, no hassle. It commits all content updates back to your GitHub repo and can publish to your host (Amazon S3, FTP, GitHub Pages, etc). If you commit to your repo, Forestry will pull in your changes so people using the CMS will see them. Looking forward to everyone's feedback.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: Blocking Google Ads - amolo What happens when you block the domain www.googleadservices.com ? ====== bufferoverflow I run NoScript, and keep that domain blocked. I'm yet to find a website that breaks because of it.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Your Social Security Number Isn’t a Secret - SREinSF https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/09/13/opinion/your-social-security-number-isnt-a-secret.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage ====== quuquuquu >social security numbers aren't a good identifier because they can be spoofed agreed >biometrics are a good identifier because gov't employees id themselves like this sooooo um what happens when that database is hacked, like OPM was? here's an idea. security questions with answers that aren't very guessable. why? I call my bank and they say, "tell me the x words that you selected as your security combo, in order" And I say "zebra john henry alligator cheetah mosquito cardshark" And they say "great, now sign in to the website to see a verification code we've sent to you" "ok it's 15467" "ok how can i help you today?" It's not foolproof, but it proves ownership of the account and access to a very long piece of data that the bank and I agree to use as a human readable private key, that we can change at any time together if compromised. They can also text or email me when a sign in to my account occurs. This way, unless my account has been hacked and I am completely unaware of it, any bad shit that might happen will be caught quickly. I can't imagine this is worse than the current scenario.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Zuckerberg: Kids under 13 should be allowed on Facebook - mvs http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/05/20/zuckerberg-kids-under-13-should-be-allowed-on-facebook/?iid=HP_LN?cnn=yes ====== dlsspy "That will be a fight we take on at some point," he said. "My philosophy is that for education you need to start at a really, really young age." Sounds like a great reason to avoid Facebook, because I can assure you the kids who are spending time on Facebook today are doing it instead of expanding their education. ------ pnathan Oh, _brilliant_ , everyone's crush from the fourth grade gets recorded. The least mature among us, given the power to blow their 'internet history' for the rest of their lives. What am absolutely fantastic idea. If someone wants to support education, they should try a _different_ startup, one dedicated to improving education, instead of providing new ways to distract onesself in class. Anecdote: I used to TA - occasionally I'd sit in on the main class. Only the 'front row nerds' would be taking notes on the computer, as a rule. The rest of the laptoppers were on facebook/myspace. Admittedly, I don't like Facebook/Twitter/Foursquare and the rest of the self- surveillance systems. So I'm biased. ------ indrekj Most of the youngsters are spam machines. ~~~ phlux Spam targets. ------ Ataraxy Hook em young! ------ chrisjsmith I don't think any humans should be allowed on facebook. Zuckerberg is a nasty piece of work. Childish, careless and with obviously no respect for people. Throws a few million dollars at the education system in the US to buy some credit. There are a lot of engineers and scientists who contribute more to this world and they are utterly ignored in favour of that asshat. ~~~ fossuser Seems like a pretty extreme judgement and based on what he's been doing recently a bit unfounded. ~~~ chrisjsmith Not really. It's a pretty reasonable judgement based on that fact that most people see the positive things, rather than concentrate on the small details which are intentionally hidden by the big gestures. The small details slowly encroach on our privacy, our human rights and our ability to function without such things as social networks. ------ phlux Keep Zuckerberg as far away from kids as possible. He will treat them like "dumb fucks".	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
China's telescope on the moon - curtis https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn28323-china-has-had-a-telescope-on-the-moon-for-the-past-two-years/ ====== paulmd Not that it's not a cool project, but what possible reason is there to place the telescope _on the surface of the moon_ as opposed to say, in geosynchronous lunar orbit? As the article notes, the environment is much more extreme and the imaging base much less stable, and I don't see any particular benefits. ~~~ ISL Off the top of my head: \-- Trivial pointing; no need for active pointing stabilization (aside from thermal drifts). \-- If you can do it on the earth-facing side of the moon, you can do it on the dark side of the moon, escaping stray light from the earth. \-- You can watch one target for a very long time. Earth-orbiting telescopes have to be very careful about keeping the earth out of the frame. Even geosynchronous systems will point near the earth (for some azimuths) once a day. This will come near the earth and sun once a month (each). \-- No need to maintain orbit. Can't hit anything, either. \-- It's really cool. Edit: Here's the wiki page: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chang%27e_3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chang%27e_3) \-- You can look at Earth trivially. \-- The UV imaging system is one of many instruments on the lander. Why not get a free ride to a great vantage point? ~~~ paulmd 1\. This doesn't change versus a satellite in geosynchronous lunar orbit. 2\. If you are on the dark side of the moon you can't transmit imaging back to earth for significant periods of time. Spacecraft computers need to be primitive as crap to deal with radiation and probably aren't packing gigabytes of storage outside the Van Allen belt. Also, I don't think stray light from Earth would conceivably be a problem except when the terminus is near the axis of the telescope. 3\. Also true of satellites in geosynchronous lunar orbit. 4\. I think this is more than outweighed by the environmental conditions. 5\. Agreed. And on further consideration cost is probably a concern. eg China is sending a moon probe, would you rather have a telescope on the surface of the moon or none at all. A telescope in hand beats one two in the bush, and all. ~~~ hueving geosynchronous lunar orbit is basically just a satellite sitting at the same distance from the earth. It's so far away from the moon that it's basically pointless to put something there unless your are observing the surface of the moon. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:L4_diagram.svg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:L4_diagram.svg) ~~~ paulmd It's actually not, the L4 Lagrange orbit is something totally different from a typical satellite geosynchronous orbit. Consider the following link. [http://freemars.org/l5/aboutl5.html](http://freemars.org/l5/aboutl5.html) Just intuitively - think about the rockets you need to get a satellite level payload to geosynchronous orbit vs what it took to get space probes to lunar orbit (let alone exolunar or returning a craft to earth). Bear in mind that staging is an exponential problem, the more mass and the more total delta-V you need, the problem gets exponentially worse. Small satellites can be launched what amounts to a SRBM and a small kicker, to get even a small probe to lunar orbit you need an ICBM plus a pretty decent kicker to handle translunar injection and lunar orbiting. To get a spacecraft there you need, well, a Saturn-V plus a decent kicker plus a small rocket for everything else. Geosynchronous satellites started in 1963 (Syncom 1) but the Lunar Orbiter program didn't start until 1965. That doesn't make sense if geosynchronous orbit was beyond lunar orbit. And if geosynchronous orbit was an equal distance, it would be trivial to put satellites into trailing orbits and cover the lunar blind spot. Lagrange points are a different (but very useful) orbital equilibrium. Particularly the Sun-Earth LaGrange points - these are indeed very far from Earth and have a very useful vantage point for all sorts of things. So far it's mostly been used for things like solar observatories. ~~~ hueving Thanks for the info, but I wasn't talking about geosynchronous orbits. I was talking about the term the GC used: 'geosynchronous lunar orbits'. i.e. an orbit synchronous to the rotation of the moon. ------ sevengraff This article is not particularly useful. I like space and space tech, but this article just declares something to exist and doesn't go into any interesting details. I might as well read a press release from the chinese space agency. ~~~ ISL The link at the bottom links to their arXiv preprint: [http://arxiv.org/abs/1510.01435](http://arxiv.org/abs/1510.01435) Plenty of goodies there. ------ ommunist in 5 years from obscure and forgotten article at arxiv.org we shall all know that China has had geology probe successfully operating on Mars since 1999.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
90% of China's billionaires are kids of high-ranking officials - cwan http://chinesepolitics.blogspot.com/2009/07/interesting-article-on-princeling.html ====== newy "Guanxi" is a huge factor in dealings involving the Chinese government, and even in day to day Chinese business. One difference between the Chinese and American system of connections and favors may be that Chinese put a heavy emphasis on family relations, which doesn't seem overly prevalent here. Well, save for certain notable exceptions. On another note, the problem of "guanxi" extends to the microlending arena. China's lending capital for microloans is small, and even then, the funds are generally directed to those with connections to the government. I'm working with a nonprofit called Wokai (<http://www.wokai.org>), and we're working to raise loan capital from people around the world for microloans to Chinese farmers. We operate pretty similarly to Kiva, except that due to Chinese regulations we can't return money to lenders - therefore, we solicit contributions that turn into perpetual loan capital. ~~~ baguasquirrel I don't think outsiders grasp how much of an impact the emphasis on "guanxi" and family relations has on everyday life in China. On one hand, you can see this as 90% of Chinese billionaires are the kids of high ranking officials. Bot on the other hand, you can see this as 90% of Chinese kids of high ranking officials are expected to marry someone who is successful/will make them look good. Anyone who's dated an Chinese girl whose parents are relatively successful (especially if they are East Asian themselves) will probably tell you a thing or two about having to measure up to standards. In Chinese society, people use their relationships to leverage life (and by extension, business and politics) to the full. Thus, it's not acceptable to marry below you because if you do, you may be forced to hire the relatives of your lowly mate. It is shameful if your family is not doing well, and it is shameful if your close relatives don't have a job. This is the cost of sticking together, having strong friendship and family bonds-- you do not want any relationships that are too one-sided or unsustainable. While modernization has weakened this system nontrivially, it does feel that it is still the norm, and we have reason to believe it will continue (at least to a greater extent than here in the West). The reason is that China has too many people, too many mouths to feed. China produces many more engineering students than does the US. But most of them aren't hireable. There's a reason why we're still "better". Finding the right talent in China is even more formidable than it is here, and it always has been, thanks to the fact that China has 3x more people per acre of arable land than the average country (cited from Stratfor but I can't find the link). _Now I'm not saying that the system is fair or even efficient compared to the Western system, but using the family to extend one's goals is a byproduct of Chinese society._ I would argue there is some wisdom in what they do. Here in the West, our HR departments often prefer to hire people who are referrals. There's an implicit understanding that good workers like to hang out with other people who are good workers. In this light, the Chinese are merely extending that wisdom beyond the workplace. ~~~ bwd There may be some wisdom, but not a whole lot. Hiring on referrals is based on the idea that people will not refer idiots to you for fear of depleting their social capital, providing you with a fairly strong selection mechanism for talented candidates. Being forced to hire the relatives of your mate regardless of their skills does not strike me as very beneficial. ~~~ baguasquirrel Hiring on referrals is tricky. It's like what Steve Jobs and Joel Spolsky have said. The A ppl hire the A ppl but the B ppl hire the C ppl. So yes, it's less than ideal when you can be already be reasonably certain that credentials mean _something_ (i.e. someone with a degree in chemical engineering is at least halfway capable of maintaining a part of a chemical plant), or you can look at things like what sort of papers they've published, what OSS projects they've contributed to, etc. As for the hiring relatives regardless of their skill... this matters when skill _really_ matters. When you're in a winner-takes-all field like finance or tech, it can be very much less than ideal and we myopically don't recognize that the rest of the world gets on without being exceptional at problem solving. The flip side to the hiring relatives bit is that native-born Chinese are generally able to extract higher loyalty and work ethic from their relatives because of these same bonds. There is the feeling that you are all together. So for all the talk of China steamrolling the world, I just don't believe it. You have to look at what benefits and costs this sort of culture provides. You get high societal stability, and a caring family that will support you, but one that can in some ways hold you back as well. Their societal structure may have worked extraordinarily well with manufacturing, but tech? I refuse to ever say that someone, or some group _can't_ do X, however I will say the jury is still out on this one. ------ pegobry What's even more "interesting" is the exception to that rule, Huang Gyangyu, up until recently the richest man in China, its "Sam Walton", who was arrested and is still being held for "insider trading", when arresting someone in China for insider trading is sort of like a character on The Sopranos getting arrested for saying fuck. With no formal education or family ties to speak of, he started his business at 16. Of China's billionaires, Wang was the only one who was 1- a Christian and 2- not a member of the Communist Party. And now he's in prison. ------ olihb As many things in life, often it's not what you know but who you know. And I guess that if you know the big cheese, it's easier to get all the permits, gov. contracts and financing. ------ 0_o The link is blocked by GFW, I think, I can not open it here in China. ~~~ cwan This is what I use while I'm in China: <http://www.witopia.net/welcome.php> \- Highly recommended given how much China is blocking these days. On other US/European sites that aren't blocked, I often find it is faster on the VPN than it is direct as well. Because I'm generally in Canada I can now also access Hulu. ------ cwan The news is from 2006, but it's a reminder following a recent scandal and but it's also a reminder of the difficulties outsiders (both inside and outside of the country) face in trying to become successful in China. ------ rbanffy This is the unavoidable consequence of China's political/economic system. It's not surprising at all. What makes me worry is that the Chinese government has a far larger influence on Chinese companies than most other countries and that makes economic reliance on China a very dangerous move. It also makes people used to totalitarian regimes to the point of making them tolerable. They shouldn't be. Chinese people deserve better. ~~~ garply 'Chinese people deserve better.' Really, what business is this of yours? I feel like Westerners are always looking down their noses at the Chinese political situation but people don't seem to take into account China's historical context. China IS getting better (and rather rapidly). Less than 100 years ago, China still had an Emperor. With that in mind, how many centuries has Western democracy had to mature? My personal belief is that democracy develops very gradually, sometimes punctuated by sharp periods of rapid change (e.g., revolutions, foreign colonization). ~~~ rbanffy "Really, what business is this of yours?" Every human being deserves better, Chinese or not. We are all on the same boat after all. And yes. China is making some progress, but, still, it has a long way to go. Switching from an imperial totalitarian state to a communist one (also an unavoidable consequence of the past couple thousand years of Chinese history) makes for not that much of a change after all. At least not much when you consider the human condition. And it _is_ my business as it shifts the "Overton window" towards a position more on the totalitarian end of the spectrum. While recognizing China made a lot of progress in the past century (making up for the couple thousand years before) it is still unacceptable. Mind you my children will have to live in a world where a totalitarian state ruled with iron fist by a political aristocracy is a major commercial partner of just about every other country. And this arrangement may start putting ideas into some minds that would be better if left empty. At least for me it's not acceptable. ~~~ garply Karma for introducing me to the term Overton window. And I do agree with you that we should encourage China to continue to liberalize. I just wanted to try to offset what I feel is a somewhat one-sided view of the Chinese situation. I'd also like to point out that, despite how the Western media often presents it, the CCP isn't monolithic. Power swings between two poles: Beijing and Shanghai (Beijing being the political and military hub, Shanghai being the economic hub). For example, Jiang Zemin represented the South and was what we would consider more economically liberal and now Hu is more friendly toward the military, more focused on 'political stability', and more representative of the North. I highly suspect the next president will be a conscious swing back to the 'liberal' side of the spectrum. And the power hubs tend to alternate every decade or so. I suspect when democracy does start to trickle down to the Chinese population, the party will split somewhere along this line. We just need to give it a few more decades. ~~~ DanielBMarkham _We just need to give it a few more decades._ Here's hoping that world events allow them time to do so. What is required is a way for one bunch of people to say "hell, the people running the government right now are idiots. Idiots I say! Let's completely do things differently!" and be able to assume power and change things without force of arms or violence. And do this on a regular basis. I know I'll feel better when that day comes. Because well, sometimes the folks running things _are_ idiots. And they have all the guns. ------ vaksel That's because its harder to bribe people in China compared to the USA. There you need to do a shady deal and pay a ton of money, so family gets the inside track. In the USA, all it takes is a 100K at election time, and its completely legal. ~~~ garply I can't imagine that it's harder to bribe people in China than in the USA. In fact, I think much, much more bribery per capita happens in China than in the US. The Chinese legal system is very weak. ~~~ vaksel not harder per se, but there its done as a backroom deal. In USA, we just call it lobbying and campaign contributions. ~~~ varjag Still, the U.S. political system allows for such an outlier as Obama[1] to get on the top. It would've been impossible if it was only the issue of getting the most lobbyist beef behind. [1] Not idealising him here, but his ascent was both extremely untypical and very American at the same time. ------ jacquesm I don't see anything different in this respect in China than I do in many western societies. Having a leg up is definitely a pre, anywhere. It may differ in degree but certainly not in principle. ~~~ rdouble In which western countries are 90% of the billionaires children of government officials? ~~~ jacquesm errm... I said 'degree' didn't I ? I meant that in any society the number of people that will make it big that have connections will outnumber those that do not. It's very hard to 'make it on your own', in any society and China is (unsurprisingly) no exception. News would have been 90% of Chinese billionaires (or millionaires or some other metric) had _no_ family or other connection to power. On another note, there are only 9 Chinese billionaires in all (10 if you count HK); see [http://www.forbes.com/lists/2007/10/07billionaires_The- World...](http://www.forbes.com/lists/2007/10/07billionaires_The-Worlds- Billionaires_CountryOfPrmRes_3.html) ~~~ rdouble The news was 90% of Chinese billionaires are actually kids of government officials. That would be like if the billionaires in the UK were children of parliamentary officials or if the billionaires in the USA were children of senators and representatives. It's wrong to equivocate the Chinese situation with simply having "connections." It's a fundamental structural difference between China and "western societies." Also, what you're implying in the weak sense is probably wrong. Billionaire lists are easily found on the internet and if you look at the bios of the people on such lists, I would assert the opposite - most of the billionaires in western countries started out with few significant connections at all. ~~~ jacquesm Gates: son of a lawyer, Buffet: son of a politician, Slim: son of a real estate broker and so on... Connections help. In a totalitarian society they help more. The only thing that stops the situation from being much worse is term limits. ~~~ nostrademons There's a difference in degree here too though: there's a massive difference between "son of a lawyer" and "son of a central committee member". Gates is considered one of the more privileged billionaires, because his mother was on the board of directors for United Way and his father was a prominent lawyer. That seems like a crack down from his parents being President or in the Cabinet. It also ignores counterexamples like Steve Jobs (from a working class, blue collar family), Larry Ellison (Jewish immigrants who worked as modest government employees) or Larry Page and Sergey Brin (children of professors). ~~~ maigret Hm well professor is not exactly middle class either... Actually children of professors are probably the best prepared to make a _great_ career more than anyone else. Parents with connections, lots of knowledge and more time than people working in the industry - that's the perfect mix. I know a few sons of professors, they just surf through life. ~~~ zandorg But even so, being a Professor is earned by hard academic work, and not connections. ~~~ dimitar Being a _son/daughter_ of a Professor isn't earned.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
42% of California’s STEM Workforce Hails from Outside the U.S - teklaperry http://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/at-work/tech-careers/fortytwo-percent-of-californias-stem-workforce-hails-from-outside-the-us ====== ishan_dikshit I think everyone here is ignoring a very important statistic within the article: "data shows that 25 percent of high tech companies founded between 1995 and 2005 have at least one immigrant founder". Would you rather have these companies be based out of Asia entirely? Also see: [https://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2016/03/17/study-immigrants- fou...](https://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2016/03/17/study-immigrants- founded-51-of-u-s-billion-dollar-startups/) I was recently speaking with Demis Hassabis and he recommended looking for startup funding in California but continuing to work out of London. More and more companies are gravitating towards this general template (not London specifically). Would you rather have some low level Stack Developer working at Airbnb on an H1B build the next Billion dollar startup in the Bay Area or out of Bangalore? Yes, hiring someone with an H1B might cost a company 10k less per annum. But what would it cost America to not have these foreign workers want to work in California altogether? Besides, it isn't fair to build such an impressive hotbed of thought and progress and then try and wall others out of it. ~~~ kamaal >>Would you rather have these companies be based out of Asia entirely? >>Would you rather have some low level Stack Developer working at Airbnb on an H1B build the next Billion dollar startup in the Bay Area or out of Bangalore? As somebody who stays in Bangalore, I can tell you this is already the case and has been for a few years now. Back then when I started my career there was a mad rush to move to US in most young people. Today coupled with a impossibly long green card wait, and uncertainties associated with a job on a Visa for most smart people moving to US isn't even an option. I know a lot of smart people for whom moving to US isn't even in their list of priorities. In the past decade start up ecosystem here has become very good. Starting companies is no longer social or economic taboo in India/Bangalore today. US people think outsourcing was bad for them? Imagine competing with start ups and their funding, which are operating at 1/10th the budget of any city in US. ------ quicknir Every time H1B related stuff comes up, I make the same simple suggestion: just inflation adjust the minimum H1B salary from when the law was passed in 1990. 60K dollars in 1990 is about 110K now. This should be able to see a lot of support from different groups because: 1\. It makes a clear appeal back to the original intent of the law. 2\. It would most likely end most of the perceived abuse/misuse of the law, which occurs at lower salary ranges. 3\. It will not prevent tech companies that actually do cool stuff like Google & co from hiring, since most of their hires probably start over 110K now. I also think that the impact on American workers in this salary range from H1B is pretty low. Many companies with salaries in this range are always hiring provided you have the skills. ~~~ jrs95 I think that's a start but specifically because $110K is nearly entry level in silicon valley it ought to be significantly higher. $150K would probably be enough to stop it from holding wages down. A great side effect of this is that it pretty much makes H1B not viable in the Midwest or other areas where we probably ought to be trying to develop more talent ~~~ ajju $60K is the minimum salary for a H1B visa, it is not the minimum salary for a H1B visa in a technical position. I would be very surprised if the "H1B prevailing wage" for any meaningful technical role in the SF bay area is less than $100k. ~~~ TheCoelacanth Prevailing wage for an entry-level "Computer Programmer" in SF is $73k [1]. [1] [http://www.flcdatacenter.com/OesQuickResults.aspx?code=15-11...](http://www.flcdatacenter.com/OesQuickResults.aspx?code=15-1131&area=41884&year=18&source=1) ------ jrs95 This wouldn't be necessary if we actually invested in our own citizens. I'd have no problem with it if our own population didn't have a skills shortage, but it does. ~~~ ajross I have absolutely no issue with your policy priorities. Let's get more native- born citizens through school with skills appropriate for the modern workforce. But the bit where this falls down is your use of "our own" in a context where it either has no meaning or has, let's just say "accidentally discriminatory" meaning. The idea that we should invest to "prevent" this situation is kinda distasteful. These people are americans now. No, they aren't all citizens (though many are), but their kids are and their descendants will be. This is their home as much as it is yours or mine. This country built itself on the backs of imported talent, there's no valid reason for that to stop now. ~~~ awkwarddaturtle > This country built itself on the backs of imported talent No we didn't. We built our country on the exploitation of poor european factory workers, chinese "slave" labor and african slaves. This country wasn't built on "talent". It was built on exploitation of CHEAP or free labor. > there's no valid reason for that to stop now. We stopped it many times in history to protect AMERICANS. Go read about immigration history rather than propaganda we are forcefed. European immigration was stalled to protect american labor. Chinese immigration was stopped to protect american labor. And if you think about it, even american slavery was stopped to protect american labor. Immigration wasn't all great. Throughout US history, it led to lots of turmoil, displacement and heartache. Nothing is all great or all evil like people with agenda like to believe. There are pros and cons to everything. The skewed "pro-immigration" policy the past 50 years has gutted american labor and american society. We need a more rational policy. And the fact that america/american government shouldn't favor AMERICANS over immigrants is pure rubbish. It's neoliberal fantasy. As a nation we have gone too "left". We need to correct our trajectory lest america fall off the tracks entirely. ~~~ neo4sure "Immigration wasn't all great. Throughout US history, it led to lots of turmoil, displacement and heartache." Get a grip on your self. It was never good for the natives amricans. Anyway, the current issues of the country are not immigrant made. That's a fantasy fox world view. ------ similarfark Google and the rest could have instituted huge training programs for Americans. Instead, they imported the most fortunate from other countries, leaving behind the least fortunate everywhere. It's 1% Americans importing the %1 from other counties. It's the most powerful and well off united in screwing the least powerful. You don't have to dislike immigrants to dislike corporations and politicians destroying opportunity for millions of the families that literally built America. ~~~ Veratyr I don't think the burden should be on corporations. Nearly (all?) every other developed country on earth has government subsidised or provided education. Where do you think all the immigrants are getting their degrees? Americans can even go to other countries and get educated for free (Germany I believe does this). The US needs to overhaul, hell, even nationalize, its higher education system. Don't expect corporations to educate people for you. ~~~ s73ver I do think most of the burden should be on corporations. They're the ones that need the talent. ~~~ Veratyr And some businesses need people who've been through high school (and some don't). Why is college different? ------ barrkel Articles like this seem to bring out people involuntarily triggered to grind their pet axe. The discussion is never enlightening. That's why I flagged. ~~~ dalbasal I suspect a lot of triggering is voluntary. ------ mc32 This is a failure of both our educational system and our culture. Our educational and cultural systems both underscore soft majors in the liberal arts realms and don't make STEM cool to average students as they might in China Russia or India. Kids care too much about fitting in rather than making it in life with hard skills. You will have thousands working service jobs in LA with hopes of making it in entertainment. You don't see that emphasis in STEM in the US. ~~~ masondixon I've always wondered about this. People never really talk about it, but I see the "cool" factor as pivotal. Smart social people want to be bankers, lawyers, doctors, management consultants, not STEM. With the internet everyone has had the ability to learn programming for ages, and it really hasn't dramatically changed much. People are just not interested in it at some point. ------ lunchladydoris Is this a case of there not being enough qualified US citizens or immigrants being willing to work for less? ~~~ vinhboy In my very limited experience with companies that hires H1B to fill programming jobs, it's because they can't find qualified local candidates. All the really qualified people are in the bay area working for tech startups, etc... So a company outside of the bay area would have to bring in H1B workers who are willing to live in the area. I am not sure if there are costs concerns for the company in making that decision, but I figure if they were willing to hire me, they probably don't have a problem hiring local candidates if possible. Edit: Since people want more details, I'll elaborate on the VERY LITTLE that I know. Right now consulting agencies in Sacramento, CA need Senior Ruby Devs and they can't find any. I am not 100% sure on what salary is being offered, but I am guessing around 100K. A junior dev fresh out of college can make about 40K (remember its Sacramento!). (I want to make it clear this is all hearsay, don't quote me on this) I was told an agency that hires out H1B workers can get paid as much as $50/hr. I have no way to verify this, but this is what I heard. Another thing is, these are short term, project based, positions --- not very attractive to people seeking a career. They also have a constant need for .NET and Java devs. That being said. I am very much against outsourcing jobs that could be hired locally. But Sacramento has a very small developer community, so I don't blame them for using H1B to fill the gap. But who knows... maybe it's all a ruse. ~~~ SilasX At risk of opening that whole debate again... Are there really no qualified local candidates, or are there no qualified local candidates _who can also solve theoretical CS problems on the spot_ while pretending they're not doing it from memory? Or qualified local candidates who refuse to lie and say they only took 3 hours on the take-home exercise? ~~~ maxsilver I personally think this is the real problem. Companies dismissing qualified candidates as "unqualified" because they are too lazy to evaluate candidates based on their skills, and would rather throw brainteasers at them instead. For every 100 candidates a CS job gets, probably 80 are truly unqualified, 20 are truly qualified, but only 2 were both qualified _and_ could pass an arbitrary list of brainteasers. And that lie lets managers run around saying "see, we can't hire enough talent! Skills shortage!" (where "skills" means "brainteaser skills", not software development skills) ~~~ morgante In the past, I've done dual-track interviewing where candidates could choose either a (paid!) evaluation project or a traditional technical interview. Even then, the vast majority of applicants could not perform at a suitable level. Have you actually done hiring? The truth is that there really is a shortage of qualified applicants (at least, at existing prices). I've literally never met a fellow hiring manager who thought there was a surplus of good engineers. ~~~ maxsilver I have never been a hiring manager, but I have been a developer asked to evaluate candidates in interviews for multiple companies, and I've seen my own employer turn away qualified candidates. I've also been an employee at companies who institute hiring policies _their own current employees would not pass_ , and then claim new candidates are unqualified based on those policies. Neither of these are particularly unusual. I've also been a person applying to jobs, where I know I'm fully qualified (usually because I already do the same thing in the same way for a competitor) and where I'm told "we think your a good culture fit, but we're worried about your technical abilities". I can't know exactly why they said that, but when I've showed working code they say their happy with, but I know I struggled on their brainteaser questions, it feels safe to infer. So, I've seen qualified candidates turned away because they were "unqualified" (but they really weren't), from both sides of the table. I'm not claiming there is a huge surplus of engineering out there, but there is no real shortage either. There are enough engineers, just not enough employers willing to hire them. ------ Overtonwindow I think some might read that title and jump to conclusion. Don't. The article states that they are only foreign born, but it doesn't say anything about how they got here. It would have helped had the article made this clear, but it's likely IEEE doesn't want to step into the H1B visa abuse issue. ~~~ vaishaksuresh Whenever someone brings up H1B, everybody goes to abuse issue, but a lot of us got here as students and we still have to use H1B to work. It is unfair to just lump everybody on an H1B as a low wage, unqualified person. ~~~ DamnYuppie The issue that many of us have, myself included, with the H1B program is that is is primarily used to suppress local wages. It is easy to say you can't find candidates if you are pricing the job well below market wages. ~~~ vaishaksuresh I'm not saying H1B is not abused, I'm saying not everybody on H1B is abusing the system or is getting paid below market wages. ~~~ DamnYuppie I am not saying everyone on H1B is as well. Yet the overwhelming majority of uses I see of H1B is to get a lower wage full stop. I do work extensively with offhsore resources and have worked with H1B's for over 20 years. I don't begrudge them recipients for taking the jobs. My issue is the corporations who are abusing a system to make themselves more money while simultaneously destroying local talent. It is a death spiral of greed, yet they seem to be oblivious to it. ~~~ vaishaksuresh I can't say I understand this argument. Say an American company X outsources to a foreign company Y. Y abuses the system and hires a bunch of H1B and pays them pennies to the dollar. X is still paying Y dollars and not pennies right? Sure, the H1B is working for lower salary, but X's cost is still not a lot lower than hiring locally right? I see how just shipping the jobs to India/China might have the effect you are describing, but I don't think hiring H1B holders is the same thing. ------ aphextron This has nothing to do with immigration policy. Our kids in the US are simply not studying STEM subjects, period. We are not keeping pace with the rest of the world. I'm currently taking lower division engineering requirements in a California community college, and perhaps 20% of my class are native born, English speaking American kids. There is just no respect for it whatsoever, in a culture where it's _funny_ or _cool_ to think math is stupid. We are completely finished as a society. What rises to takes it's place who knows, but there's no way a country can survive like this. ------ CrazyCoin I want to keep this not politicized but is there merit to the argument that immigrants are taking jobs away from other STEM majors who are from the U.S.? To find out we would need to look at STEM job growth for a year, then look at the number of STEM graduates, then look at how many STEM graduates go to work in their field, then see if after 52% of the jobs are subtracted see if there's enough left for the recent graduates. Also immigrant graduates would also have to be taken into account. ------ fhood Are there numbers on where (in what country) they were educated? ~~~ nxsynonym this is what I'm curious about too. Are these people who came to the U.S for college / grad school? the report only says foreign born - doesn't mention how long they've been in the U.S for or if they came just for the job they landed. ------ cloudwizard I was CTO at 2 startups during the first Internet boom. I was getting resumes from janitors that were offering to be trained. I had to hire most of the teams from Canada. ~~~ drpgq As a Canadian, that's kind of depressing. ------ geebee I highly recommend following and reading the link to the full report. Here it is again. [https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/foreign-...](https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/foreign- born-stem-workers-united-states) There's an interesting breakdown of a more narrow definition of STEM vs a broader one (that includes social sciences and health sciences). I personally would be more inclined to include health sciences than social sciences, but the data is granular enough to get at this distinction in some cases. ------ qbaqbaqba That's funny how everyone here is against the trumps wall meanwhile every time H1B is mentioned no one has problem with people calling for "kicking them to India". Quite sad. ------ moultano Why would we expect a global company to hire even a majority from the US?	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Is the stethoscope dying? High-tech rivals pose a threat - rbanffy https://www.apnews.com/6cf7790448ee48b3a4844213c78e783b ====== JohnFen Ironically, I purchased a low-tech stethoscope last year to use in the course of developing my high tech electromechanical hobby projects. It was the best option in terms of cost/benefit and I have found it tremendously useful.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Uber loses court appeal against drivers' rights - andrewingram http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41940018 ====== cabaalis I have a US perspective so I'm interested in why this ruling was made. If the driver doesn't want to drive on a given day, there's no one he has to call. There's no approval of the time off. He just won't get paid because he isn't doing work. In the US, one central tenant of being an employee vs a contractor is that your employer has power over your schedule, working location, and your work methods, which I see none of in Uber (which I did drive for back in 2016.) Uber drivers are allowed to drive for other groups and have other jobs. So what basis was this decision made, if not "they are complaining and the right thing to do is something, plus Uber=bad?" ~~~ doctor_fact On what basis? “92. ... The drivers provide the skilled labour through which the organisation delivers its services and earns its profits. We base our assessment ... in particular on the following considerations. (1) The contradiction in the Rider Terms between the fact that ULL purports to be the drivers’ agent and its assertion of “sole and absolute discretion” to accept or decline bookings. (2) The fact that Uber interviews and recruits drivers. (3) The fact that Uber controls the key information (in particular the passenger’s surname, contact details and intended destination) and excludes the driver from it. (4) The fact that Uber requires drivers to accept trips and/or not to cancel trips, and enforces the requirement by logging off drivers who breach those requirements. (5) The fact that Uber sets the (default) route and the driver departs from it at his peril. (6) The fact that UBV fixes the fare and the driver cannot agree a higher sum with the passenger. (The supposed freedom to agree a lower fare is obviously nugatory.) (7) The fact that Uber imposes numerous conditions on drivers (such as the limited choice of acceptable vehicles), instructs drivers as to how to do their work and, in numerous ways, controls them in the performance of their duties. (8) The fact that Uber subjects drivers through the rating system to what amounts to a performance management/disciplinary procedure. (9) The fact that Uber determines issues about rebates, sometimes without even involving the driver whose remuneration is liable to be affected. (10) The guaranteed earnings scheme (albeit now discontinued). (11) The fact that Uber accepts the risk of loss which, if the drivers were genuinely in business on their own account, would fall upon them. (12) The fact that Uber handles complaints by passengers, including complaints about the driver. (13) The fact that Uber reserves the power to amend the drivers’ terms unilaterally.” ~~~ SyneRyder Wow. If this ruling holds, it could also suggest that App Store developers are employees of Apple / Google in the UK. Several of those points apply just as much there, just replace driver with 'developer' and passenger with 'customer': * "controls the key information (in particular the passenger’s surname, contact details and intended destination) and excludes the driver from it" * "determines issues about rebates, sometimes without even involving the driver whose remuneration is liable to be affected" * "handles complaints by passengers, including complaints about the driver" * "subjects drivers through the rating system to what amounts to a performance management/disciplinary procedure" ~~~ kitd The difference is that apps are in competition with each other and the app store is more like a marketplace for developers. There is no physical interaction between developer and buyer. Uber could never call itself a "marketplace" for drivers. It operates much more like a driver agency. Edit: there are genuine online booking agencies for drivers in London, like [http://www.kabbee.com](http://www.kabbee.com), which act as a front-end for independent minicab drivers. I think this is much more that way it should operate if the drivers weren't employees, as Uber argues. ~~~ Natsu Drivers are in competition with one another in a way, though, in that any given passenger can only ride with one of them at any given time. ~~~ grouchoboy But they can not decide the price of their service. I think this is a great difference. ------ koolba The flip side of this is that if Uber considers drivers as employees they could also prevent them from driving for their rivals. I think the shift toward the "gig economy" is going to see the creation of a third classification of worker that sits between employee and contractor, likely with the negatives of both. The financial services sector has a version of this by employing large numbers of contractors indirectly through body shops. I wouldn't be surprised if we go that route here too with Uber/Lyft owning the platform yet deferring employment costs to a separate company. Their providers would be businesses, not people, and to sign up to be a driver one would apply at one of those businesses. ~~~ danpalmer In certain areas Uber strongly incentivizes drivers to only drive for Uber. This is done by making driving only cost-effective at 40+ hours a week. I understand this doesn't happen (or doesn't work) in some areas, New York comes to mind, but I've never met an Uber driver in the UK for whom it a) isn't a full time job, and b) who drives for other companies as well. ~~~ icebraining _This is done by making driving only cost-effective at 40+ hours a week._ How do they do that? ~~~ koolba Pay $x/unit if less than 10 units. Pay $y/unit if between 10 and 40 units. Pay $z/unit if between 40 and 60 units. The values for x and y may be too low to be economical so a driver would need to work more units (hours, miles, whatever) to get the higher z rate. That would preclude them from working for a competitor as there a finite number of hours per week. ~~~ icebraining I'm not asking how they _could_ do that. danpalmer says Uber is already making driving only cost-effective at 40+ hours a week, I'm asking how they are doing so. ~~~ koolba I’ve seen bonuses for driving at least X hours or Y rides per week. You can only achieve them by being active as a driver for an extended period of time. ------ thisisit Wow. This decision might upend the whole gig and sharing economy. Now every company needs to tread carefully in UK. Uber is struggling to achieve proper profitability even with "gig" and "sharing" economy and now this. ~~~ kuschku Ending the "gig and sharing economy" is a good thing for society. The sharing economy always was about exploiting workers (and externalizing costs), and this has created an additional cost for society. For example, DHL’s drivers are "self-employed", as result, in most countries their healthcare is funded by themselves, or by society (instead of the employer), and this means you (and your company) pay more taxes, just so that Uber, DHL, Amazon and co can save money. ~~~ taway_1212 > The sharing economy always was about exploiting workers Define "exploit". Depending on the definition, you could argue that all economy is about exploiting workers. ~~~ PeterisP The society has agreed upon a certain set of rights that all employers should grant to all their workers, and a certain minimal set of "benefits" that every working person should get - in this particular case, "holiday pay, paid rest breaks and the minimum wage". Going below that level is considered exploitative. ~~~ matz1 I'm in the opinion of if the government really care of it's citizen, they should do it directly, by providing low cost/free basic necessity or basic income, etc. This way their citizen is not "forced" to work with these company you deemed "exploitative" ~~~ tom_mellior > This way their citizen is not "forced" to work with these company you deemed > "exploitative" Yes. When the basic income comes, it will redefine all the parameters by which we judge the qualities of jobs. But that doesn't mean that such jobs are not exploitative _now_ , according to _current_ standards. Your snarky quotes are unwarranted. ~~~ matz1 Still, the government can help their citizens Now, by providing cheap/free basic necessity. ------ ed_blackburn Hardly a surprise a contractor in the UK, I need to be careful I'm not suddenly a "disguised employee". Uber do genuine independent contractors no favours. I don't blame Uber. I blame successive UK govts. who won't make the law clear and just let the courts decide on a case-by-case basis. My biggest fear is that they'll come done hard on all contractors IT Consultants through to taxi drivers. ~~~ kbart I'm not intimately familiar with UK labor laws, but isn't they key difference between contractor and a "disguised employee" is that _who_ gets the payment money? If you get all the payment (excluding tax etc.) for a work done then you are contractor, if the third entity takes a payment for _your_ work and pays you percentage of it, then you must be employee and that third party - employer - is responsible for taxes, insurance and other duties mandated by labor laws. The latter part is what Uber tries to avoid at all cost. For the same reason employment agencies are also not allowed to take fees for finding a job and required to pay no less than minimum wage[0]. 0\. [https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/rights-at- work/agency...](https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/rights-at-work/agency- workers/can-your-agency-charge-you-fees/) ~~~ vidarh I think roughly, you come out right if you think the way you're doing. But it's a bit more subtle in that they're going after two different types of abuses: 1\. Agencies that want to rent out contractors rather than contract out employees even when they treat these people as employees. 2\. Relationships where one or both sides want an employee to be a contractor to benefit from tax savings. Uber seems to fall largely in 1, while e.g. IT contractors sometimes fall in 2, or is at risk of falling in 2. In our case the consideration tends to be that tightening the rules means there's a whole checklist of things that makes it more or less likely that HMRC will deem us to be de facto employed or subject to IR35 (making us pay taxes similar to if we are in employment). For #2 and to avoid IR35 there are a whole lot of considerations such as what costs we incur, whether or not we use our own equipment, whether or not we have sales and marketing costs; whether we employ someone; how many clients we have; if we have our own office for the company etc. that centre around whether or not the company has an existence independent from any given client. The reason this is important for us too, is that one avenue for a business like Uber to avoid problems with #1 is to try to restructure around not pretending that drivers clients are the people they drive, but that their client is Uber but that they're still independent. If they try stunts like that, it may result in rule changes detrimental to other, genuine contractors too. ------ manigandham Another case of a small vocal minority creating unwanted regulation for the rest. Over several years and 1000s of rides in the US, 100% of the drivers I've asked liked being independent and did not want to be employees. Many of them already had other jobs or were students or retirees that liked making money on the side. For some reason, people keep forgetting that being a professional driver is easily available through Uber Black or any number of other transportation companies. Anyone who wants a full-time driving job can already get one. Rulings like these will end up hurting the vast majority of drivers who will now have to show up for full-time shifts at locations and times that Uber determines, while earning less money. Good luck to them. ~~~ mrtksn Is it an absolute must to go to work everyday if you are formally employed? Isn't it possible have the same flexibility if you put it on your employment contract? ~~~ manigandham Of course FT employment comes with vacation and sick time, but why would you get the same flexibility? Uber is 100% in charge of determining where and when you work, and you get paid the same hourly/salary regardless of how much work there is, so they'll optimize for riders as much as possible. In the long run it might be better for Uber, more tightly controlled supply will mean cheaper and better rides while drivers make less. I can see surge pricing becoming pure profit when you can just order drivers to be at a certain place instead. ~~~ mrtksn What about 0 hour contracts? What about literally writing down the flexibility you want in the contract? If you think about it, it's kind of ridiculous to pretend that drivers are running businesses and employing themselves while all they do is ride a car just like an employee. If there's a reason for employees to have certain right, the same reasons should apply to the Uber drivers, therefore they should receive the same benefits. ~~~ manigandham Why would Uber accept those contracts? There are plenty of drivers, they're not going to hire you if you stipulate all these conditions, especially if they're paying a flat wage. > _it 's kind of ridiculous_ Why? Many people are individual contractors, what is different about providing transportation as a service? ~~~ mrtksn Well, there could be other cases where a business may have disproportional power and use it to exploit the elements of the society. That's when the regulations kick in and in this case this is the way the British prefers their society be regulated and protected. Also, there being many people is not an argument, there are many people doing all kind of things and they stop when measures are taken. ~~~ manigandham I'm not sure what your comment is about. What other cases? There are plenty of issues with monopolies but in _this case_ there was a small group that sued and now the ruling affects all drivers. When 99% of a group does not want measures, then it is absolutely a valid argument. ~~~ mrtksn Can I see the source of the "99% of a group does not want measures" argument? Anyway, even if that was the case(source please) you can't go against the law. If you ask heroine addicts they would probably want more heroine but if the society decides that it's not O.K. to use heroine, you shouldn't expect your drug business to operate just because the heroine users are happy with it. If you have a problem with the society's choice you can follow the regular democratic routes. ~~~ manigandham It's in the article: 68 drivers in the lawsuit compared to all drivers affected. Nothing was against the law, the drivers were contractors. Whether that classification is correct is what the case was about, and _now_ that the court ruled against, the drivers are must now be treated as employees. This isn't society's choice. Full-time driver employment already exists, but is not something that Uber provided. These few people chose to drive for Uber anyway and demand full-time employment, and then sued for it. They won their case and now all drivers are affected by it. The democratic route would mean majority voting, which is the opposite of what happened with this case. ~~~ mrtksn how do you know that other drivers are against? why do you think that the court’s decision was not based on the rule of the law? You are making too many assumptions. Your motivation looks ideological, apparently the british society choose not to go full libertarian. ~~~ manigandham You're conflating many things throughout this thread. What does "based on the rule of the law" or "libertarian" have to do with anything? There was nothing illegal happening with drivers classified as contractors. _Whether_ that classification should change is what was being reviewed by this tribunal and they've decided on a change. No rule of law was ever broken, the situation has changed, just like many rules and regulations are updated and companies adapt from before the change to after. In this case, a very small group create change that affects 100% of the drivers. The fact that only 68 total drivers joined this suit, started by only 2 originally, is a clear signal that it was at the very least not the full intent of the entire driving workforce. Perhaps they should've taken a vote before passing this ruling, especially since these people demanded something from Uber that was already easily attainable elsewhere (eg: a fulltime driving job). ~~~ mrtksn So you think that it was equally possible that they could have been classified as au pairs? These things have a legal framework. And the low number could have easily be do to the disproportionate power of the company over the drivers. You can't claim that if 68 people are taking action those who don't take action are against those 68. And "Libertarian" has to do with the way the relationship between the businesses, the workers and the clients is regulated. Your argument about demand and supply is invalid because UK doesn't function purely on libertarian principles so the state has the right to say if these people are contractors or employees. ------ pimmen It’s interesting how Uber takes two very contradictory moral stands. ”We offer the ability for drivers to meet passengers, they should be glad they have this opportunity in the first place to make money.” ”The UK says that we have the ability to start a business, register a trademark and use the public infrastructure but they just don’t get that we’re way too cool and special for these ”labor law-thingies”. Doesn’t anyone care about how we feel about all of this?!” ------ setgree I personally don't care for the frame of "Uber vs drivers' 'rights'". I wold say that "Uber loses appeal against mandatory employment conditions" is more accurate, i.e. that employing drivers is now conditional on providing them paid holidays and such. FWIW paid holidays in particular make little sense for this kind of employment given that labor input is so variable. ------ hoppyluke The article says drivers are entitled to minimum wage. I thought Uber drivers choose their own hours so I don't see how this will work? ~~~ MarkCole The minimum wage in the UK isn't a fixed monthly amount. It's a fixed hourly amount. So for someone aged over 25 they should receive £7.50 an hour The drivers will still be able to set their own hours, just they should be getting a minimum of £7.50 an hour for those they work. ~~~ hoppyluke If drivers can decide how long they are willing to work, even if there aren't many/any passengers around, then Uber has no way to control costs. Unless they already have something in place to manage how many drivers are on the road in an area at any time? I thought that was just controlled by supply/demand, but that gets skewed by Uber needing to still pay minimum page when there is an over-supply. ~~~ lovich And food producers are skewered by having to meet safety requirements when they could save money by ignoring them. Sucks for Uber that their business model doesn't win 100% of the time, but you don't allow individual entities to just ignore laws that set minimums whenever it's not the best for them. ------ chewbacha So, now the self-driving Uber is gonna come even sooner right? This is a huge financial incentive to ditch the driver altogether. ------ londons_explore I don't understand why Uber doesn't let drivers choose if they want to be employed or contractors? Those who choose _employed_ would have strict working hours, performance requirements, etc. and if they miss any target even once would be fired. They would be free to reapply immediately with no penalty. ~~~ Cthulhu_ > I don't understand why Uber doesn't let drivers choose if they want to be > employed or contractors? I do. Employees are a cost and a liability. They have to be paid weekly/monthly instead of per gig. They would have to be paid even when there's no rides. They have to be paid for if they end up sick, unable to work, on pregnancy leave. They need to have payments in their retirement fund. In the UK's case, they need to pay for the NHS. They need to buy them a car, and pay for upkeep, maintenance, damages and fuel. And they would fall under normal worker protection, so no, they wouldn't be fired if they missed any target even only once, there's procedures and legal requirements and such before formally firing someone. So it's completely in Uber's interests to only do contractors, no obligations or extra costs except for whenever they do a ride, and I'm fairly sure the compensation per ride is much lower than is necessary to operate a business. Where is the employee's benefits in this? Does Uber pay much more than they would earn working for a regular taxi company? I mean sure it's a job that people can do whenever they choose, but not doing it is a luxury. Assume most people need a 40 hour work week, or the income of one. Can't get that with Uber without working 80+ hours a week, and even then it depends on luck, supply, demand. ~~~ doctor_fact And employees have to be given paid holiday. And you have to pay them PAYE (so ~18% employer's side National Insurance Contributions). And if they're self- employed below the VAT threshold, they don't have to charge 20% VAT. Muuuuuuch cheaper. ------ CryptoPunk What is it going to take to let people offer to work for whatever wage they want? A ride sharing dApp on a blockchain? Or is the British government going to ban peer-to-peer networks too? >>When are we going to let companies pay their employees Slave wages, you mean. So it's okay if they offer to work for a "slave wage" as a self-employed small business owner, but if they work through a third party, then it's not okay? How it taking away an option in their interest? You're reducing the avenues through which they can sell their labour, which cannot possibly be to their advantage. >>It's not going to happen - we tried that before, and it didn't work. Remember the industrial revolution? Real good working conditions and pay in those factories, eh? It worked incredibly well. Wages grew rapidly throughout the industrial revolution. What do you expect would have happened if a $15/hr minimum wage were instituted in 1875, when per capita GDP was $1,000? >>The universal basic income. It doesn't make sense that people should be denied the freedom to offer to work for whatever wage they want until universal welfare is implemented. ~~~ vidarh > A ride sharing dApp on a blockchain? Or is the British government going to > ban peer-to-peer networks too? There'd be no need to ban peer-to-peer networks - the payment method does not change anything. If there is an employer-employee relationship it'd break the law if they don't follow the regulations for such a relationship. If the drivers are genuinely small businesses, it wouldn't. > So it's okay if they offer to work for a "slave wage" as a self-employed > small business owner, but if they work through a third party, then it's not > okay? The implication is in part that the paperwork necessary to operate as a small business acts as a deterrent for people to enter into it without at least some degree of understanding of what they're entering into. It is providing what you're arguing for (the ability to set whatever salary you want), but at the same time protecting society against some of the worst exploitation by providing some hoops you have to jump through. > How it taking away an option in their interest? You're reducing the avenues > through which they can sell their labour, which cannot possibly be to their > advantage. This is nonsensical. If I offer to pay you to work in conditions that are guaranteed to be lethal, according to your arguments it can't possibly be to their advantage, because I'm reducing the avenues through which they can sell their labour. Clearly reducing the avenues alone is insufficient to determine whether or not the decision is to their advantage. > It worked incredibly well. Wages grew rapidly throughout the industrial > revolution. And through most of the period, worker activism grew rapidly as well. In a great many cases, workers _died_ during actions taken to improve working conditions and salaries. The fantasy that those improvements are purely down to lack of regulation is just that. It took repeated bloodshed to bring about those improvements, and a lot of regulations that were often also paid for in blood. If there is any takeaway from the growth in wages during the industrial revolution, it is that aggressive direct action by workers provides results. ~~~ CryptoPunk A DAO on the blockchain can be indistinguishable from a platform run by a company from the point of view of the driver. >>This is nonsensical. If I offer to pay you to work in conditions that are guaranteed to be lethal, according to your arguments it can't possibly be to their advantage, because I'm reducing the avenues through which they can sell their labour. There are no jobs that are guaranteed to be lethal. If there were, there are only two conditions under which someone would work them: 1\. They are mentally incapable of making decisions for their own life, and thus should be placed under conservatorship where they are not free to make their own decisions. 2\. The jobs is fraudulently advertised. In either case you don't need to resort to creating mandatory minimum employment standards like minimum wage. What you're effectively endorsing is conservatorship for the entire population. >>And through most of the period, worker activism grew rapidly as well. In a great many cases, workers died during actions taken to improve working conditions and salaries. I'm dubious about this claim. It sounds like another pop-history claim that is baseless. Do you have a source? I remember reading that workplace injuries were decreasing throughout the industrial revolution era. From what I understand regulations had no positive impact on this upward trajectory in safety. What did definitely happen during the industrial revolution is that life expectancy rapidly rose. The famines and starvation that frequently occurred prior to to the 16th century became increasingly uncommon as the economy of the West industrialized. >>If there is any takeaway from the growth in wages during the industrial revolution, it is that aggressive direct action by workers provides results. The opposite is true. There were very few labour regulations and no minimum wages instituted during the Industrial Revolution (thanks largely to legal doctrines of substantive due process guaranteeing the freedom to contract in place since the Supreme Court Lochner ruling). After the propaganda victory of the socialist parties and labour unions, extensive labour regulations were introduced. This has accelerated since the creation of the OSHA in 1970. The last 40 years have seen wage growth stagnate and life expectancy to even decline for some demographics. The Nirvana fallacy has cost generations improvements in their quality of life. ~~~ vidarh > A DAO on the blockchain can be indistinguishable from a platform run by a > company from the point of view of the driver. And it's entirely irrelevant. If the driver is genuinely acting as an independent company, then it's not a problem. If the driver is being treated as an employee, then some entity is the employer and that entity is on the hook for the legal requirements, and it'll be down to courts to figure out who to hold responsible. > There are no jobs that are guaranteed to be lethal. If there were, there are > only two conditions under which someone would work them: You're evading the question by being pedantic. Reduce "guaranteed to be lethal" to whatever threshold you prefer and it stands. > I'm dubious about this claim. It sounds like another pop-history claim that > is baseless. Do you have a source? Each and every history book that covers the labour movement and workers rights. I'm not going to fill in gaps in what is high school level history for you. Go read some wikipedia pages for that matter. > The opposite is true. There were very few labour regulations and no minimum > wages instituted during the Industrial Revolution (thanks largely to legal > doctrines of substantive due process guaranteeing the freedom to contract in > place since the Supreme Court Lochner ruling). Lochner post-dates the most significant gains in US labor history by decades. > After the propaganda victory of the socialist parties and labour unions, > extensive labour regulations were introduced. ... and so did this. By the 1920's the support for socialism in the US was rapidly headed for collapse. > This has accelerated since the creation of the OSHA in 1970. The last 40 > years have seen wage growth stagnate and life expectancy to even decline for > some demographics. Nonsense. Ca. 1920 or so the US lost it's leadership in labour rights improvements, and especially so after World War II when the social democrats had gained massive influence in Western Europe, and most European countries built universal healthcare systems and expanded unemployment rights and other welfare dramatically while the US mostly stood still. If you want to blame US stagnation in the last 40 years on something, consider that the US is lagging further behind Europe in workers rights and welfare than it ever has, so whatever the cause is, you'll have to look elsewhere. ~~~ CryptoPunk >>And it's entirely irrelevant. I explained the relevance: >So it's okay if they offer to work for a "slave wage" as a self-employed small business owner, but if they work through a third party, then it's not okay? How it taking away an option in their interest? You're reducing the avenues through which they can sell their labour, which cannot possibly be to their advantage. To rephrase: when DAOs are created, drivers will be able to offer their services without meeting these arbitrary employment standards, without going through a company, and just as easily as going through a company. How is making it illegal for a company to hire them under terms that don't meet employment standards in their interest, when doing so won't prevent them from working for terms that don't meet these standards, and when all it will do is reduce the avenues through which they can work for terms that don't meet the standards (translation: all it will do is reduce their market power)? Maybe I'm still not clearly communicating my point. If it's not clear what I'm asking please let me know and I'll try to rephrase it. Either way, could you please address my argument? >>You're evading the question by being pedantic. Reduce "guaranteed to be lethal" to whatever threshold you prefer and it stands. The pedantry is in you making this a point about how I worded the beginning of my argument and ignoring the bulk of my argument, and its substance, that applies to any threshold. Here it is again: \-- If there were, there are only two conditions under which someone would work them: 1\. They are mentally incapable of making decisions for their own life, and thus should be placed under conservatorship where they are not free to make their own decisions. 2\. The jobs is fraudulently advertised. In either case you don't need to resort to creating mandatory minimum employment standards like minimum wage. What you're effectively endorsing is conservatorship for the entire population. \-- I really don't have the patience to deal with bad faith debating. Just know that if you win the public relations campaign through rhetoric and sophistry, but you're advancing the wrong cause, you're hurting yourself too. So there is no sense in debating disingenuously about public policy using these tactics. Western Europe and the US have seen wage growth stagnate over the last 40 years due to the kind of behaviour you're exhibiting now. Our human society only functions at all due to the extraordinary efforts of numerous people to cooperate and honestly debate issues to reach a consensus on the right way forward. Even a small portion of the population acting in bad faith to push their own narrow interests at the expense of society at large is enough to cause the whole thing to break down, because it's nearly impossible for society at large to arrive at a consensus on the truth about complex topics when there is a significant amount of misinformation being injected into the debate. Please be part of the solution.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Angularjshub - alemhnan http://www.angularjshub.com/ ====== dham Hopefully I won't get down voted for this, but I've never understood why developers use something like Wordpress. Use Jekyll or Middleman. If you have the knowledge to do Angular tutorials you can type middleman build in a command line. At work I've successfully taught a graphics designer and video editor to use Middleman. We use Github as the CMS(with markdown). They can pull down site with Github application and click a .command file to run it(for more involved changes). When they push it back up, it automatically builds. Just needs one click from there to go live. Sorry for the little rant. The site does look promising but I can't get the other pages to load. ~~~ talmand You know, I've never understood why developers use Jekyll or Middleman when they have access to something like Wordpress. I mean, after all, my opinion is what counts here. It's a tool in a toolbox, the individual reaches in and pulls out the tool that works best for the given situation based on their own personal reasons. ~~~ ivanca Plus you can easily make it static without even touching the command line if that's all you want. ~~~ petercooper Is there now an official/very reputable way to do it? I've found 101 tutorials and random scripts when I've looked in the past but nothing I'd want to use in production. ~~~ ivanca [http://wordpress.org/plugins/really- static/](http://wordpress.org/plugins/really-static/) It's old enough and well tested for me but you may differ. ------ andrea_bresolin Hi people. I'm the site owner. Honestly, I was not expecting to have so many visits at the beginning. I'm keeping it monitored to see if the current caching parameters are good enough. The site is on a shared hosting and I might contact the hosting provider to move it to less crowded server. ~~~ Nycto Quick tip: Merge your CSS and JS. It's killing your page load time: [http://www.webpagetest.org/result/131223_MJ_Q59/](http://www.webpagetest.org/result/131223_MJ_Q59/) Your first paint is coming it at around 1.8s. You could probably get that under the 1s mark just by consolidating your resources. This is even more important when dealing with a library like Angular. ~~~ andrea_bresolin Thanks for the tip. I'll see what I can do. Most of the CSS and JS come from the WordPress theme and plugins actually. ------ mail2vks Looks good. I am right now learning from [http://www.thinkster.io/](http://www.thinkster.io/) and prefer that to angularjshub. It has a well laid out structure. ------ davidjgraph My eyes, they burn... Seriously, please drop the animation, it completely detracts from might be a useful site, but the carousel genuinely gives me a headache. ~~~ ishener the animation is not the problem, it actually looks decent the problem is this site has no caching going on at all... to the site owner: do us all a favor, and install some popular caching plugin for wordpress... ~~~ kawera ... or maybe build it with angular.js... ~~~ talmand Angular tutorial site built with Angular? That might just work... ------ Keats The idea is nice but why is it so slow? (Or is it only slow for me? latest chrome on mac) ~~~ talmand Well, as others have said, caching. Because the front page loads about 100 lines of CSS and Javascript files before any of the content actually starts. Seems to do the same on the secondary pages as well. ------ henryw Looks nice. I'm going to read through all these if I can get them to load. If you are looking for another resource, try [https://egghead.io/lessons](https://egghead.io/lessons) ------ gremlinsinc Looks awesome, only one downside so far--is the code boxes they should be resizable by drag and drop, or a little wider/taller, hard to see and read all the code. Just a suggestion. ~~~ andrea_bresolin You can click the icons next to each code tab to see it at full size on a new page. ------ alemhnan I contacted the owner and he is currently busy fixing the cache thing. I submitted without alert him before so I am the one to blame if the site is slow! :) ------ durzagott Look promising. As others have said, it's too slow to be of any use. Also, I agree that the animations on the front page are terrible and need to go. ------ m1117 Made on wordpress actually without using angular, that's funny! ~~~ andrea_bresolin In my opinion, AngularJS should not be seen as a complete replacement of what already exists nowadays, it's just an additional tool and should be used only when appropriate (the right technology for the right task). Making a full website from scratch with AngularJS and creating all the useful features already available in the current WordPress ecosystem (themes, plugins, responsive design, ...) would just be too time consuming for a website providing examples and would not give much advantage. I'm the site creator and since I don't work on it full-time, the time it takes to make it is an important factor. I just hope I can provide some useful information on AngularJS. This is just my opinion of course :-) ------ prodev42 tooooooooo slow	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
8 Years Later, Intel Arrives At 4 GHz - peternorton http://www.conceivablytech.com/7776/products/8-years-later-intel-arrives-at-4-ghz ====== tobylane I'm more interested in the cooling - water, 3D, something new?	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Show HN: SaaS for MySQL Performance Management - kylered https://vividcortex.com/ ====== kylered and an overview... [https://vividcortex.com/blog/2014/04/03/vividcortex-quick- to...](https://vividcortex.com/blog/2014/04/03/vividcortex-quick-tour/) ~~~ aytekin "JUST 22 CENTS PER HOUR" Don't make me calculate the monthly price, please. EDIT: By the way, it is $158.40/month. If your service depends on Mysql it is probably worth it. We will definitely give it a try. ~~~ kylered ya, we've had some complaints about that. sorry. we don't have a reserved pricing structure yet, but we will in the near future :)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Dual EC DRBG, The Saga Continues - dsl https://gist.github.com/0xabad1dea/8165378 ====== andrewcooke his (daniel brown's) position seems consistent to me - it may have had a backdoor, but it wasn't obvious that it did, it was documented how to avoid the risk, and it's the only prng with a proof (apparently - i wouldn't know...). why are we so angry with him? is he the nsa? did he get the money? he seems to work for certicom, not rsa.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Node.js in Flame Graphs - stoey http://techblog.netflix.com/2014/11/nodejs-in-flames.html ====== ChuckMcM The moneyquote: _" We made incorrect assumptions about the Express.js API without digging further into its code base. As a result, our misuse of the Express.js API was the ultimate root cause of our performance issue."_ This situation is my biggest challenge with software these days. The advice to "just use FooMumbleAPI!" is rampant and yet the quality of the implemented APIs and the amount of review they have had varies all over the map. Consequently any decision to use such an API seems to require one first read and review the entire implementation of the API, otherwise you get the experience that NetFlix had. That is made worse by good APIs where you spend all that time reviewing them only to note they are well written, but each version which could have not so clued in people committing changes might need another review. So you can't just leave it there. And when you find the 'bad' ones, you can send a note to the project (which can respond anywhere from "great, thanks for the review!" to "if you don't like it why not send us a pull request with what you think is a better version.") What this means in practice is that companies that use open source extensively in their operation, become slower and slower to innovate as they are carrying the weight of a thousand different systems of checks on code quality and robustness, which people using closed source will start delivering faster and faster as they effectively partition the review/quality question to the person selling them the software and they focus on their product innovation. There was an interesting, if unwitting, simulation of this going on inside Google when I left, where people could check-in changes to the code base that would have huge impacts across the company causing other projects to slow to a halt (in terms of their own goals) while they ported to the new way of doing things. In this future world changes, like the recently hotly debated systemd change, will incur costs while the users of the systems stop to re-implement in the new context, and there isn't anything to prevent them from paying this cost again and again. A particularly Machievellan proprietary source vendor might fund programmers to create disruptive changes to expressly inflict such costs on their non-customers. I know, too tin hat, but it is what I see coming. ~~~ akkartik You're assuming that your closed source vendors are perfectly aligned with you. In practice they almost inevitably seem to cause capture ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture)). Open/closed is a red herring here. Projects slowing down as they succeed seems to be a universal phenomenon, from startups to civilizations. Specialization leads to capture. I think almost exclusively about how to fix this: [http://akkartik.name/about](http://akkartik.name/about) (you've seen and liked this), [http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2014/04/09/the-legibility- tradeoff](http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2014/04/09/the-legibility-tradeoff) Disclosure: google employee ~~~ nostrademons Yep, closed source doesn't solve the problem either. If you believe that just because you're paying money for someone to take responsibility for a problem, they will actually solve the problem in a way that's amenable to you...well, there are numerous closed-source software vendors looking to sell you something. In practice, the way to avoid this is to keep the software as simple as possible. Try to adjust to your user's most pressing current needs, not every need they might conceivably have. Killing features and deleting code is as important as launching features and writing code; make sure that your incentive systems reward this. Very often, third-party code gets pulled in to scratch one particular itch; if it's no longer itching, rip the code out. If it is still itching and you've built significant parts of your system around it, you may want to think about replacing the innards with a home-grown system. ~~~ barrkel When a software provider I use starts ripping out features I relied upon, I start looking for an alternate provider, one that isn't so eager to kill features. And in particular, I try not to learn or rely on any new features, if there is past behaviour of feature removal by the provider. It's better to be careful - very careful - about what you add, and to have a story for migration, than to remove features. ~~~ nostrademons This depends on industry, of course - in consumer web it's much better to risk pissing off a few customers but make the majority of them happy than to keep all your existing customers but risk losing out on a new innovation that gives a competitor a toe-hold. Enterprise SaaS probably has different trade-offs, and software infrastructure probably different still. This paradox, BTW, could be thought of as the full-employment theorem for entrepreneurs. As long as it is rational for a business to avoid change for fear of having to remove or support it later, then there will exist changes that a company with no customers and no codebase could implement that no incumbent would dare. Some of these are bound to be useful to some segment of the market, and that's why you get continued disruption in technology markets. ------ thedufer > It’s unclear why Express.js chose not to use a constant time data structure > like a map to store its handlers. Its actually quite clear - most routes are defined by a regex rather than a string, so there is no built-in structure (if there's a way at all) to do O(1) lookups in the routing table. A router that only allowed string route definitions would be faster but far less useful. I can't explain away the recursion, though. That seems wholly unnecessary. Edit: Actually, I figured that out, too. You can put middleware in a router so it only runs on certain URL patterns. The only difference between a normal route handler and a middleware function is that a middleware function uses the third argument (an optional callback) and calls it when done to allow the route matcher to continue through the routes array. This can be asynchronous (thus the callback), so the router has to recurse through the routes array instead of looping. ~~~ andrewvc A lot of people here are right, the right way is with an NFA. I just want to add that the solution is not even hard, you can do it with string concatenation and capture groups using regexps. Regexps are NFAs, and are highly optimized C code in just about every JS engine. If I have the routes /foo/bar and /foo/bar/(\d+) I can generate the regexp ((^\/foo\/bar$)\|(^\/foo\/bar\/\d+$)) I'm not at all surprised, the quality of software in node is pretty low, I've seen numerous issues in node libs being just as boneheaded. I swear, the fact that the express devs overlooked a key optimization is crazy. Rails, by way of example, uses the Journey engine to solve this problem ([https://github.com/rails/journey](https://github.com/rails/journey)) ~~~ thedufer > I can generate the regexp ((^\/foo\/bar$)\|(^\/foo\/bar\/\d+$)) And how would you know which one got matched? The regex match isn't going to tell you that. Also, it needs to recognize if multiple were matched, which is definitely not going to be done by the built-in regex matcher. It's certainly possible, but pretending it's trivial isn't helping, either. ~~~ blinks For more concrete syntax, consider the following Python: >>> import re >>> route = re.compile(r'(?P<fb>^/foo/bar$)\|(?P<fbd>^/foo/bar/\d+$)') >>> route.match('/foo/bar').groupdict() {'fb': '/foo/bar', 'fbd': None} >>> route.match('/foo/bar/1').groupdict() {'fb': None, 'fbd': '/foo/bar/1'} If the fb group is set, act on the first route. If the fbd group is set, act on the second. ~~~ rudolf0 I know very little of NFAs/DFAs/FSMs, or even string parsing in general, but a year ago I built a URL matching engine using exactly this method in Python, in combination with Google's RE2 library ([https://code.google.com/p/re2/](https://code.google.com/p/re2/)). It was far faster than anything else I experimented with, and RE2 also improved the speed dramatically by eliminating backtracking. Nice to know that what I made is considered the best solution algorithmically. ------ rwaldin I'm surprised nobody has mentioned that express has a built in mechanism for sublinear matching against the entire list of application routes. All you have to do is nest Routers ([http://expressjs.com/4x/api.html#router](http://expressjs.com/4x/api.html#router)) based on URL path steps and you will reduce the overall complexity of matching a particular route from O(n) to near O(log n). ------ remon I wonder what the thought process was behind moving their web service stack (partially?) to node.js in the first place. For a company with the scale and resources of Netflix it's not exactly an obvious choice. ~~~ tjholowaychuk I share this thought, I'm not trolling, I really believe node is a bad solution for something like Netflix. Node has its perks but for a money making machine that relies solely on being available and providing a good customer experience, not so much. I can't imagine the ops nightmares at that size, one buggy code path and the entire cluster could be down. These are issues that drove me away from Node to Go, in my opinion Node has way too many issues to run in money-making scenarios. ~~~ nmjohn > in my opinion Node has way too many issues to run in money-making scenarios. You can say that about a lot of languages other than node. How many billion dollar companies have their software written in PHP - a language that many people would agree has far more glaring issues than node. My point, is that I believe your comments miss the larger picture. There is far more involved with deciding which language to build a product with than "which language is best." I don't disagree with you about Go being a great language - but for most companies, it is not even remotely practical to use. Hiring talented Go developers is hard because there are so few. Their current employees may or may not know Go, what do you do about that? Etc. ~~~ tjholowaychuk For sure, but jumping into Node from a clean slate is probably not the best idea, legacy is different. If anything the comment on hiring highlights the use of Node being problematic. It's difficult to write robust systems in Node even as a seasoned Node developer. ------ elwell TIL, SVG's can display labels on element hover: [http://cdn.nflximg.com/ffe/siteui/blog/yunong/200mins.svg](http://cdn.nflximg.com/ffe/siteui/blog/yunong/200mins.svg) Nice, contained way to show data like this. ~~~ TazeTSchnitzel SVGs can contain ECMAScript, video, canvases, animation, all sorts of things. They're the replacement for Flash that nobody seems to use. ~~~ escape_goat Well, there was a good reason for that, for a long time: IE didn't even begin to support .svg until version 9, which means that it isn't a realistic option for deployment for anyone who needs to support pre-evergreen browsers. I investigated them a year or two or so ago, because I found that AngularJS could work quite nicely within an .svg document, which opened up some exciting possibilities. My recollection is that at the time, there were some critical cross-browser problems with font rendering that made the topic very kludgy and complicated. I except that matters have improved since, but I do not know to what extent. ~~~ Andir And IE still doesn't (nor do they plan to) support declarative animation in SVGs. (SMIL) Someone there decided that script based animation is more robust so they just bypassed that capability. I think it's a terrible idea because you forego having tightly integrated SVG animation modules that can just be dropped in as needed. ------ vkjv > ...as well as increasing the Node.js heap size to 32Gb. > ...also saw that the process’s heap size stayed fairly constant at around > 1.2 Gb. This is because 1.2 GB is the max allowed heap size in v8. Increasing beyond this value has no effect. > ...It’s unclear why Express.js chose not to use a constant time data > structure like a map to store its handlers. It it is non-trivial (not possible?) to do this in O(1) for routes that use matching / wildcards, etc. This optimization would only be possible for simple routes. ~~~ tedchs That seems like a pretty low size to me... how are people getting around this when they need to handle >1.2GB of data on Node? ~~~ jonny_eh Native code modules I assume. ------ tjholowaychuk Sounds like a documentation issue, or lack of a staging environment. I've written and maintained countless large Express applications and routing was never even remotely a bottleneck, thus the simple & flexible linear lookup. I believe we had an issue or two open for quite a while in case anyone wanted to report real use-cases that performed poorly. Possibly worth mentioning, but there's really nothing stopping people from adding dtrace support to Express, it could easily be done with middleware. Switching frameworks seems a little heavy-handed for something that could have been a 20 minute npm module. ------ _Marak_ I read: "This turned out be caused by a periodic (10/hour) function in our code. The main purpose of this was to refresh our route handlers from an external source. This was implemented by deleting old handlers and adding new ones to the array" _refresh our route handlers from an external source_ This is not something that should be done in live process. If you are updating the state of the node, you should be creating a new node and killing the old one. Aside from hitting a somewhat obvious behavior for messing with the state of express in running process, once you have introduced the idea of programmatically putting state into your running node you have seriously impeded the abiltity to create a stateless fault tolerant distributed system. ~~~ emeraldd When I concluded what they had to be doing and then read the actual confirmation of what they were doing I was somewhat shocked. Why on Earth would you want to programatically recreate the routes in an express app?!?!? It would be really interesting to see a write up on what/why they think this kind of behavior is needed in the first place .... ------ TheLoneWolfling > benchmarking revealed merely iterating through each of these handler > instances cost about 1 ms of CPU time 1ms / entry? What is it doing that it's spending 3 million cycles on a single path check? ~~~ jdmichal Running (uncompiled?) regular expressions, it seems. ~~~ mikeryan So I was a bit unclear on the parent's post but I don't think this time was on a route lookup if I'm reading the thread and post correctly the static file handler getting inserted multiple times. This handler will generally match on any route but then is doing something like "if file exists, return static file, if not look for the next handler" in this case the "if file exists" part was the "path check" thats taking 1 ms and was happening multiple times. I could be wrong but it seems like the design of the route lookup mechanism (the global array) was actually a bit of a red herring, the real issue was the ability to attach multiple instances of the same handler to the same route. _Something was adding the same Express.js provided static route handler 10 times an hour. Further benchmarking revealed merely iterating through each of these handler instances cost about 1 ms of CPU time._ ~~~ TheLoneWolfling A simple "if file exists" check shouldn't take 1ms on average. OSes cache directory entries for a reason. I mean, even Python manages 40,000 checks / second: >>> timeit.timeit("os.path.exists(data)", setup="import os; import random; import string; data = os.path.join(r'C:\Windows\System32', ''.join(random.choice(string.ascii_letters) for _ in range(10)))", number=40000) 0.9998181355403517 ------ clebio > I can’t imagine how we would have solved this problem without being able to > sample Node.js stacks and visualize them with flame graphs. This has me scratching my head. The diagrams are pretty, maybe, but I can't read the process calls from them (the words are truncated because the graphs are too narrow). And I can't see, visually, which calls are repeated. They're stacked, not grouped, and the color palette is quite narrow (color brewer might help here?). At least, I _can_ imagine how you could characterize this problem without novel eye-candy. Use histograms. Count repeated calls to each method and sort descending. Sampling is only necessary if you've got -- really, truly, got -- big data (which Netflix probably does), but I don't think the author means 'sample' in a statistical sense. It sounds more like 'instrumentation', decorating the function calls to produce additional debugging information. Either way, once you have that, there are various common ways to isolate performance bottlenecks. Few of which probably require visual graphs. There's also various lesser inefficiencies in the flame graphs: is it useful (non-obvious) that every call is a child of `node`, `node::Start`, `uv_run`, etc.? Vertical real-estate might be put to better use with a log-scale? Etcetera, etc. ~~~ donavanm > The diagrams are pretty, maybe, but I can't read the process calls from them > (the words are truncated because the graphs are too narrow). Flame Graphs provide SVGs by default. You should be able to zoom if your broser supports it. The current version also supports "zooming" in to any frame in the stack, resetting that frame as the base of the display. Also WRT the base frames of 'node' et al its because Flame Graphs are a general use tool for stack visualization, it might be 'main' for a c program or the scheduler looking at a system. > They're stacked, not grouped, and the color palette is quite narrow (color > brewer might help here?). Colors by default have no meaning and the palette is configurable. The current lib can also assign colors by instruction count/ipc and width by call count, if you have access to that. > Sampling is only necessary if you've got -- really, truly, got -- big data > (which Netflix probably does), but I don't think the author means 'sample' > in a statistical sense. It is sampling. Flame graphs re typically used with something like perf/dtrace/oprofile which dumps stacks at a couple hundred to thousand hertz. Actual call tracing is (typically) not feasible for large/prod stacks. ------ drderidder > our misuse of the Express.js API was the > ultimate root cause of our performance issue That's unfortunate. Restify is a nice framework too, but mistakes can be made with any of them. Strongloop has a post comparing Express, Restify, hapi and LoopBack for building REST API's for anyone interested. [http://strongloop.com/strongblog/compare-express-restify- hap...](http://strongloop.com/strongblog/compare-express-restify-hapi- loopback/) ------ wpietri From the article: > What did we learn from this harrowing experience? First, we need to fully > understand our dependencies before putting them into production. Is that the lesson to learn? That scares me, because a) it's impossible, and b) it lengthens the feedback loop, decreasing systemic ability to learn. The lesson I'd learn from that would be something like "Roll new code out gradually and heavily monitor changes in the performance envelope." Basically, I think the approach of trying to reduce mean time between failure is self-limiting, because failure is how you learn. I think the right way forward for software is to focus on reducing incident impact and mean time to recovery. ~~~ akkartik Without over-training on this one incident, and without guidance on how to get from here to there (I'm still working on that): 1\. Don't get suckered by interfaces, share code. If you create code for others to share ("libraries"), stop trying to hide its workings. 2\. You don't have to learn how everything works before you do anything. But you should expect to learn about internals proportional to the time you spend on a subsystem. Current software is too "lumpy" \-- it requires days or months of effort before yielding large rewards. The first hour of investigation should yield an hour's reward. 3\. "Production" is not a real construct. There will always be things that break so gradually that you won't notice until they've gone through all your processes. Give up on up-front prevention, focus instead on practicing online forensics. And that starts with building up experience on your dependencies. More elaboration: [http://akkartik.name/post/libraries2](http://akkartik.name/post/libraries2) My attempt at a solution: [http://akkartik.name/about](http://akkartik.name/about) My motto: reward curiosity. ------ ecaron My biggest takeaway from this article is that Netflix is moving from Express to Restify, and I look forward to watching the massive uptick this has on [https://github.com/mcavage/node- restify/graphs/contributors](https://github.com/mcavage/node- restify/graphs/contributors) ~~~ sadkingbilly Yes, but their original bug was from dynamically loading routes from an external source. I don't see how Express is to blame for this. Moving to Restify is not a solution, but they state having different reasons for moving (support for bunyan logging? But Express already supports this too). ~~~ ecnahc515 the bug was related to dynamically loading routes, but the true cause was that express allowed duplicate handlers. They were loading routes dynamically correctly, that wasn't a problem, it was that when doing that express let them duplicate routes. ~~~ sisk That's a feature. From the API docs: > Multiple callbacks may be given; all are treated equally, and behave just > like middleware. The only exception is that these callbacks may invoke > next('route') to bypass the remaining route callback(s). This mechanism can > be used to perform pre-conditions on a route, then pass control to > subsequent routes if there's no reason to proceed with the current route. ------ forrestthewoods If I had to pick one line to highlight (not to criticize, but was a wise lesson worth sharing) it would be this one: "First, we need to fully understand our dependencies before putting them into production." ~~~ gdulli In my experience developers constantly overestimate the gain of using a new dependency and underestimate the amount of effort it will take to sufficiently understand it. (Or fail to make the effort, not understanding the risks.) This is why developers without significant experience should not be making decisions about the tech stack. ------ Fishrock123 I would like to mention that Netflix could have consulted the express maintainers (us) but didn't. Source: myself - [https://github.com/strongloop/express/pull/2237#issuecomment...](https://github.com/strongloop/express/pull/2237#issuecomment-59681175) ------ augustl A surprising amount of path recognizers are O(n). Paths/routes are a great fit for radix trees, since there's typically repetitions, like /projects, /projects/1, and /projects/1/todos. The performance is O(log n). I built one for Java: [https://github.com/augustl/path-travel- agent](https://github.com/augustl/path-travel-agent) ~~~ kyllo How does your radix trie implementation handle variables in the URL paths, in a nutshell? ~~~ augustl This is one of the reasons for why I call it a "bastardized radix tree" in the README :) The routes are stored as "nodes". There's a root node. It has a hash map of child nodes, by name. It also has a list of "parameterized" nodes. When a node gets a path segment, it will first look in its hash map. If nothing is there, it'll call the parameterized nodes in sequence. Typically there's just one parameterized node. For the following paths: /projects /projects/new /projects/special /projects/:project-id The root node will have a single item in its hash map, "projects". No items in the parameterized node. The node for "projects" will have to items in its hash map, "new" and "special". It will have a single item in it's parameterized node, for :project-id. I updated the README just now with a slightly more detailed explanation :) ~~~ kyllo Very cool, thanks for taking the time to explain! I recently learned how tries work so it was cool to see a real-world implementation like yours. ------ degobah tl;dr: * Netflix had a bug in their code. * But Express.js should throw an error when multiple route handlers are given identical paths. * Also, Express.js should use a different data structure to store route handlers. EDIT: HN commentors disagree. * node.js CPU Flame Graphs ([http://www.brendangregg.com/blog/2014-09-17/node-flame-graph...](http://www.brendangregg.com/blog/2014-09-17/node-flame-graphs-on-linux.html)) are awesome! ------ bcoates It's not just the extra lookups -- static in express is deceptively dog-slow. For every request it processes, it stats every filename that might satisfy the URL. This results in an enormous amount of useless syscall/IO overhead. This bit me pretty hard on a high-throughput webservice endpoint with an unnoticed extra static middleware. I wound up catching it with the excellent NodeTime service. Now that I look at it, there's a TOCTOU bug on the fstat/open callback, too: [https://github.com/tj/send/blob/master/index.js#L570-L605](https://github.com/tj/send/blob/master/index.js#L570-L605) This should be doing open-then-fstat, not stat-then-open. ------ jaytaylor I am upset that the title has been changed from "Node.js in Flames". Which is not only the real title of the article, but also a reasonable description of what they've been facing with Node. #moderationfail ~~~ dang I can see why you would feel that way, but the title, while clever and (I'll take your word for it) fitting, was arguably misleading and unarguably baity. The HN guidelines call for changing such titles, so the moderators were just doing their job. There likely would have been more complaints about the title if we hadn't changed it. ~~~ jaytaylor Understood. And thank you for following up, I really do appreciate it. ------ ajsharma This is the first I've heard of restify, but it seems like a useful framework for the main focus of most Node developers I know, which is to replace an API rather than a web application. ~~~ ecaron You're going to love restify. We use it at TrackIf and can't imagine our API running on anything else. Couple it with Swagger and you won't be looking back :-) ------ codelucas > This turned out be caused by a periodic (10/hour) function in our code. The > main purpose of this was to refresh our route handlers from an external > source. This was implemented by deleting old handlers and adding new ones to > the array. Unfortunately, it was also inadvertently adding a static route > handler with the same path each time it ran. I don't understand the need of refreshing route handlers. Could someone explain they needed to do this, and also why from an external source? ~~~ mjr578 We refresh periodically as we dynamically deploy new UI code, which can be accessed at new routes. (/home and /homeV2 for example) This allows us to not have to restart our servers or push out new server code just to serve a new UI at a different (or the same) route. ------ exratione The express router array is pretty easy to abuse, it's true. For example, as something you probably shouldn't ever do: [https://www.exratione.com/2013/03/nodejs-abusing- express-3-t...](https://www.exratione.com/2013/03/nodejs-abusing-express-3-to- enable-late-addition-of-middleware/) I guess the Netflix situation is one of those that doesn't occur in most common usage; certainly dynamically updating the routes in live processes versus just redeploying the process containers hadn't occurred to me as a way to go. ------ hardwaresofton Responses are already firing in: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8632220](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8632220) ------ pm90 I love these kinds of investigations into problems in production. I mean, you really have to admire their determination in getting to the root of the problem. In some ways, these engineers are not that different from academic researchers, in that they are devising experiments, verifying techniques, all in the pursuit of the question: why? ------ hit8run I would have written my apis in golang and not nodejs. Go is way faster in my experience and it feels leaner to create something because creating a web service can be productively doneout of box. Node apps tend to depend on thousands of 3rd party dependencies which makes the whole thing feel fragile to me. ------ MichaelGG Would someone explain what I'm missing about the flame graphs? Why are they indispensable here? In a normal profiler, you'd just expand the hot path and see what had the most samples. Apart from making recursion very explicit, what special aspect do flame graphs expose? ------ BradRuderman Why are they loading in routes from an external source? Is that normal, I have never seen that before. ~~~ mjr578 We like the option of dynamically loading new routes, that point to new endpoints. We also have the ability to release new versions of our UI without redeploying (or restarting) our servers. ~~~ BradRuderman Ok you add a new route but how do you reference what code should be executed when that route is hit? ~~~ mjr578 We have something that loads up, via requires, the action (or route) that should be run when a URL is encountered. ~~~ BradRuderman Second dmak, would love to understand more. I can following dynamically loading routes but can't follow how that would be implemented end to end. Some things I would be interested in: \- Where do the keep the code that gets executed for new routes? Is that deployed dynamically as well? \- If you are changing routes dynamically how do you test in non-prod, are you constantly syncing non prod with prod? \- How do you control what you deploy dynamically vs what you migrate through the environments? ------ bentcorner Interesting article. I have a lot of experience dealing with ETLs in WPA on the Windows side - it's an awesome tool that gives you similar insights. I haven't used it for looking at javascript stacks before though, so I don't know if it'll do that. ------ sysk > We also saw that the process’s heap size stayed fairly constant at around > 1.2 Gb. > Something was adding the same Express.js provided static route handler 10 > times an hour. Why didn't it increase the heap size? Maybe it was too small to be noticeable? ------ pcl _Second, given a performance problem, observability is of the utmost importance_ I couldn't agree with this more. Understanding where time is being spent and where pools etc. are being consumed is critical in these sorts of exercises. ------ dmitrygr So the lesson is to actually know the code you deploy to prod? Is that not obvious? ~~~ SixSigma Your webserver, your dns resolver, your database, your operating system, the compilers they used, how about the bios, or the northbridge ------ drinchev NodeJS Project has already a similar issue about recursive route matching. [https://github.com/strongloop/express/issues/2412](https://github.com/strongloop/express/issues/2412) ------ debacle Doesn't this seem like a bug in the express router? All of the additional routes in the array are dead (can't be routed to). ~~~ dugmartin No, because the route list is also used for middleware. The recursive search is because middleware routes have a third next parameter that allows the search to run asynchronously. ------ Pharohbot I wonder how Netflix would perform with using Dart with the DartVM. I reckon it would be faster than Node based on benchmarks I've seen. Chrome DartVM support is right around the corner ;) ------ revelation Crazy talk. In 1ms, I can perspective transform a moderately big image. NodeJS cant iterate through a list. We really need a 60 fps equivalent for web stuff. You have 16ms, thats it. ~~~ nostrademons FWIW, a lot of the stuff the Chrome+Polymer team is working on explicitly has a 60fps goal and 16ms frame budgets. I remember in my last project at Google, I spent a lot of time working with the Chrome team to get various parts of websearch rendering under the 16ms budget. (I couldn't manage it given the amount of legacy code we had to work with, but various other people have continued the work since I left, so hopefully they've had more luck.) ------ coldcode I must admit I could enjoy just doing this type of analysis all day long. Yet I hate non computing puzzles. ------ qodeninja wow. I love that Netflix us using Node and even more curious that they would use express. ------ notastartup this is why you stick to tried and true methods folks. this is such a typical node.js fanboy mentality. "reinventing the wheels is justified because asynchronous". or "i want this trendy way to do things just because everyone else is jumping on the bandwagon". Give me flask + uwsgi + nginx anyday. ~~~ CmonDev In the end of the day Node.js is just a Reactor Pattern implementation in a form of bunch of scripts. ------ talkingtab an unfortunate title. Ha ha "flames" ha ha "Node.js" but the article is really about express. Not so "ha ha" ~~~ snlacks They renamed it "in flame graphs." For the audience, this was originally titled: "Node.JS in Flames" ------ general_failure A very good reason to go with express is TJ. He was the initial author of express and he is quite brilliant when it comes to code quality. Of course, TJ is no more part of the community but his legacy lives :-) ------ gadders OFFTOPIC: "Today, I want to share some recent learnings from performance tuning this new application stack." The word you want is "lessons". ~~~ quarterto "learnings" is a perfectly cromulent word: [https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=learnings&year...](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=learnings&year_start=1700&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Clearnings%3B%2Cc0) ~~~ gadders Nope. You see an option for a plural here? [http://www.merriam- webster.com/dictionary/learning](http://www.merriam- webster.com/dictionary/learning) ~~~ M2Ys4U Dictionaries are _descriptive_ , not _prescriptive_. They can only tell you if something _is_ a word, not whether something _isn 't_ a word. ~~~ gadders Well certainly there is no law against using made-up words. If that's what you want to do, have at it. At least it will help people get their buzzword bingo cards filled up sooner.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Why a Microsoft Smartphone Just Can’t Happen—Not Yet, Anyway - robertbud1 http://www.xconomy.com/seattle/2012/10/10/why-a-microsoft-smartphone-just-cant-happen-not-yet-anyway/ ====== JimmaDaRustla (Skimmed the article, seems bogus) A device is Microsoft's "medium" to their bread and butter - software. They, like most other companies, will use every attempt to strike a positive string with consumers to create an experience that people just might fall in love with. I hate articles like this that outreach bogus opinions to get attention. If Microsoft wants to create a device to present their software in a different light, that's their business. Whether they have carrier buy-in or not is their war to fight, not one to forfeit because the carrier may not like them or their product...?	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
U.S. Navy’s Costliest Carrier Was Delivered Without Elevators to Lift Bombs - jayrok https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-11-02/costliest-carrier-was-delivered-without-elevators-to-lift-bombs ====== nowarninglabel Looked up some articles on the elevator tech for civilian use: [https://www.businessinsider.com/germany-company-this-is- the-...](https://www.businessinsider.com/germany-company-this-is-the-elevator- of-the-future-2014-11) [https://www.wired.com/story/the-sideways-elevator-of- the-fut...](https://www.wired.com/story/the-sideways-elevator-of-the-future- is-here/) Looks pretty interesting	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
PostgreSQL: the bits you haven't found - cel1ne https://postgres-bits.herokuapp.com ====== pvh Oh, hey, these are my slides. Let me know if you have questions and I'll do my best to help out. ------ irickt This looks like the repo if you prefer reading markdown [https://github.com/pvh/postgres-bits](https://github.com/pvh/postgres-bits) ------ jfolkins This was put together well and the references after each topic are very helpful. Thanks.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Dear Jim Gaffigan, Louis C.K. paid $35k for his website. We'll do yours for $0. - reso http://dearjimgaffigan.com/ ====== blhack Cool idea guys, but poor execution. Here is some free* advice: -The design on your website is terrible. You need to fix this immediately. This just looks like a tumblr post, or a twitter stream or something. Actually, it looks like a "The Oatmeal" comic. It's unbecoming. Go look at the design of companies that do stuff like this, evaluate why they do these things, and why you should too. -Drop the "look how hip we are" photos. You get to post photos like that when you're talking about launching your _next_ multi-million-dollar company, not when you're offering to work for free. -Post some examples of stuff that you've designed. Post examples of times you've worked with payment processors and dealt with potentially multi-millions-of-dollars worth of transactions. -Post some examples of stuff you've built that has been at the scale we're talking here. Vaguely alluding to your friend embarrassing himself in front of Mark Zuckerberg isnt' really a good example of why your service isn't going to come grinding to a halt when it gets some traffic. And now about that astericks. If you do any of the things I listed here, please give me a portion of the money you make in the future. Here is how to get ahold of me: <http://thingist.com/users/Ryan> edit: guys. This: [https://twitter.com/#!/RossRobinson/status/17026182091597824...](https://twitter.com/#!/RossRobinson/status/170261820915978240) Several times a day for a week? Not okay. Give it a rest. At this point I'm sure he's seen it and is probably annoyed with you. edit2: I found the site that you're trying to launch: <http://launch.matinee.io/> You'd probably be better served to host this there. Now it looks like you're trying to start offering this as a service to a lot of people, and you want Jim Gaffigan to be the first. That's cool, and that sounds a lot better than "We're two guys who like to drink beer and play in the snow. Trust us with your millions" ~~~ reso Thanks for the great feedback. The tone of the site is meant to be lighthearted, so as to appeal to a comedian. We're not aiming this at a corporation wanting to entrust us with their millions, but a particular person with a good sense of humor. Sorry that didn't come through. Its also just a hook; obviously he wouldn't hire us based on this site alone. The launch page as it exists right now is not really related to this campaign. We've just been using it to a/b test marketing language so far. I totally agree the design is crap, after all, I made it myself! ~~~ zaidf Remember, _Jim_ is the comedian. He's probably not looking to hire comedians like him to run what's in his mind a bunch of geeky shit. So yeah, being lighthearted is okay, but not at the expense of losing your cred as someone serious. ~~~ leviathant This, a thousand times this. Jim's good at being funny, he needs someone who's good at providing a solid online venue for promoting his upcoming release. Take a good long look through the website for Version Industries, the guys who worked with Louis CK. I've known Caspar for years online, and I still have no idea what he looks like. But I can see from this website that he does good work. ------ eggbrain I'll be frank, if I was Jim Gaffigan, I wouldn't hire you. The reason for me is twofold: The asterisk, and the lack of product. The Asterisk: You make it very hard to understand what "Free" actually means. When you later say "we'll need to take a small portion of revenue..." a lot of red flags go up in mind. What if I want to deploy the product on my own server, where I will take care of the bandwidth and other costs? Will you still give me your product for free, since the only money you asked for was to cover bandwidth? The Lack of Product: I don't see a demo (tell me if I'm wrong) showing how you have this turnkey "Louie CK model" solution up and running. If you don't have that, that means I'll be your guinea pig as your first customer. If I'm putting a product out there, I'm not willing to chance being a guinea pig because if problems occur (data stolen, server outtages, etc) it's my reputation that will suffer as a result. ~~~ shawnc I was at this point of thinking 6 years ago - "Hey I know i'll find the content makers and i'll do allt he other work, and we'll split profits. It'll all work out so great because i'll make them so popular, but really I am totally expecting them to do all the work of getting people there". It's a bad way to start a 'business'. It's a bad way to move forward on an idea. And it's a surefire way of setting yourself up to be looked at as worth... wait for it... nothing. Instead of trying to entice him to pay you nothing, entice him to pay you 35k. Wouldn't that get you so much further in his eyes and also, in yours? Wouldn't that give you so much more runway to actually do the amazing job you're expecting of yourself, and also the one you're setting Jim Gaffigan up to expect of you also? I see things like that, and I immediately think amatuer - because I was right there, thinking that way. And I didn't achieve anything of substance until I woke up from silly dreams of making it big by jumping on the backs of giants. ~~~ jcc80 Agreed. This is a good deal for someone like me who wouldn't want to spend $35k, nobody knows me and I could take a flier on some random guys. But, if I'm a famous comedian, I'm looking for someone I can trust who has done this type of work before. Not the lowest price. ------ quanticle _We'll do the initial web design for free, but you're going to be so popular that we'll need to take a small portion of revenue so that we don't go bankrupt from bandwidth fees! We can work this out later._ So, in other words, if Mr. Gaffigan isn't careful, he's going to end up paying a lot _more_ than $35k for his site. ~~~ MichaelApproved The $35k CK paid for his site didn't include continuing cost of continued hosting, bandwidth and administration. These guys seem to be offering to cover those costs indefinitely. So apples to apples, development cost is $0 compared to $35k. ------ Iaks Isn't the point of self-publishing to cut out the intermediary that is taking a percentage of the artist's sales? Given that impetus I struggle with how this would be an attractive offer especially since Jim Gaffigan is more likely than not able to afford the $35k price tag. ------ chrisacky This is one of the worst executed pitches I've ever seen. A few things totally infuriate me. 1\. > The bate and switch. Using an asterix to play down your "free" "fee" is not cool. 2\. > The site design is sub-par (this didn't annoy me, just a constructive criticism.) No one should be criticised for having poor design skills, heck I suck. 3\. > You have posted this story multiple times. This isn't cool. This is the aspect that is the worst. 4\. > This isn't some good will gesture, it's a business idea sugar coated as some ploy to make money. 5\. > 5%?!! (I especially thought of 5 points so I could say five on point five!) ------ ralphsaunders Your new startup designs websites but doesn't have a designer? I don't think you've thought this through. ------ csomar The design isn't disastrous but it looks cheap. Why didn't you invest more on the design? This could attract both his eyes and the community ones. ~~~ dmix It looks like it was made by two engineers with very minimal design skills. Thats how I would put it politely. ------ k33n This reminds me of some of the bad ideas I've had when intoxicated. ------ drawkbox Louis CK paid 35k so that he didn't have to give a piece of the revenue. A better model would be to offer both ways in case a creator wants 100% ownership. Transaction fees, production costs, etc are enough of a cut. ------ newobj Why not just build the site and then offer it to him for free. I'm not sure why people think putting together these "dearxxxxx" websites is any better/different than a cold-call or email. If you'd built the actual site and offered to hand it over to him for free that would have been a whole other story. ------ wyck The color scheme, the shadows, the fonts, the horror, guys seriously hire a designer or UI person. A crucial link is missing, the one the USER sees, you know with their eyeballs. ------ mvkel So, $35,000 one-time, or potentially way more than that long-term? I think I'll take the first one, thanks. ------ kev009 Seriously, GTFO. This is disingenuous. Trying to make money by doing this kind of thing isn't wrong, but that's a private negotiation with the talent. You don't get to pretend you're doing it for "free" for upvotes and exposure. ------ workhorse The biggest issue with this is that they don't understand Jim Gaffigan's comedy. The way to be humorous with something like this is to use a skit from one of his early comedy skits with a witty twist. ------ timClicks Liked the post until the needless mention of blowjobs came up. ~~~ reso Apologies if we offended, it is supposed to be humorous. ~~~ kenrikm Ok I'll take that, a bit of advice I would redact that line before you reach your "mark" unless you're 100% sure he's going to take it the way you intended it (as a joke) ~~~ reso Yeah, I took it out. Its not really his brand of humour, anyway. ------ cleverjake Dupe - <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3618061> ------ prawn Flagged. Same site submitted by the same user under a different domain, presumably because the last one was marked [dead]. ------ laconian Worth every penny! ------ rhizome New URL? This was up earlier this week. ------ funkah There are times when I'm very thankful I'm not a designer. This is one of those times. ------ peterwwillis Are you kidding? If i'm Jim Gaffigan i'm not gonna hire a couple of LMFAO rejects to design my website unless i'm paying them in Hot Pockets. Which would be disgusting. Hooooooot Pockets. ------ jack-r-abbit wait... didn't I see this yesterday right before it was dead. Dude... this is a crappy idea and it makes the site owners look like amateurs. And for our next trick we'll make this calculator spell "BOOBIES". hehehe _lame_	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
An AI to help language learners? - anasf http://www.heyelena.com/?utm_source=ycom&utm_medium=hackernews&utm_term=hackernews&utm_content=hackernews&utm_campaign=hackernews ====== anasf Hi guys, I am working on an AI with friends to help language learners practice conversations, we are calling it Elena. What do you think of it? Any possible features you want to see? check out the demo in the link posted and sign up if you want to download the ios app when it's ready. Thanks guys!	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
New Papua tribe discovered - ph0rque http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Science/2010/06/24/14509781.html ====== Aaronontheweb It's stories like this that remind me just how big the world is - despite all of the satellites, instant communication, air travel, and all of the other things that sometimes make the world feel small there's still lots of things and people hiding out in the vast wilderness away from it all.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Review of Let over Lambda by Doug Hoyte - vii http://john.freml.in/review-let-over-lambda This book for some reason was ignored from the discussion (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1052858) yesterday about the Lisp fingerprint reader. I think more people should read it. ====== kmcgivney This book is a little controversial among lispers. There was a discussion about it recently on c.l.l. [http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.lisp/browse_frm/thr...](http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.lisp/browse_frm/thread/6672207416edf1b9#) I'm thinking about reading it. Some people don't like the editing, since it's self-published and doesn't have a lot of polish. It's also pretty heavy on the author's opinions (which might not be a bad thing). ------ mahmud That book is a troll with an ISBN. It's funny, intelligent, odd, and irritating. But it will _not_ teach you any Lisp. I liked the parts of it that I have seen, but in a perverse, guilty-pleasure kind of way. ------ sunkencity I love that on the books own page it is described as: "Let Over Lambda (ISBN 978-1-4357-1275-1, 376+iv pp.) is one of the most hardcore computer programming books out there."	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Stiffer road surfaces could cut greenhouse-gas emissions - sohkamyung https://physicsworld.com/a/stiffer-road-surfaces-could-cut-greenhouse-gas-emissions/ ====== cjbenedikt Interesting approach. When replacing Asphalt with concrete you have to produce more cement. Cement production is a massive CO2 contributor - approx. 7% of global CO2. Would be interesting to learn if that was included in the calculations. If not it would also be good to know how the overall reduction if any - would change.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Blocking a protein curbs memory loss in old mice: study - LinuxBender https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2019/05/blocking-protein-curbs-memory-loss-in-old-mice.html ====== hirundo > Impeding VCAM1, a protein that tethers circulating immune cells to blood > vessel walls, enabled old mice to perform as well on memory and learning > tests as young mice ... it subdued the inflammatory mood of the brain’s > resident immune cells So this suggests: ↓ inflammation = ↑ memory. In the short term inflammation generally impedes function, so this is an intuitively reasonable result. ~~~ pfd1986 Specially in light of recent correlations found between inflammation and all sorts of diseases including neurodegenerative ones, previously discussed on HN: [https://harvardmagazine.com/2019/05/inflammation-disease- die...](https://harvardmagazine.com/2019/05/inflammation-disease-diet) ~~~ caprese I always wonder if this is a design flaw, or if there is another completely worse state that the body is trying to prevent happening, a state we don't even know about until we have "cured" inflammation and all these other diseases sort of like how we wouldn't be studying a lot of this stuff right now if such a large portion of the population hadn't gotten so old ~~~ duckduckcow There's a lot of evidence suggesting that it's a feature rather than a bug. There's lots of bad things that happens as you get older and upregulation of inflammation plays an important part in that. The thing is it's not random though. It happens in a synchronized fashion. It does seem increasingly likely that our genetic code contains instructions to make us increasingly frail and sick as we get older,to slowly increase the probability of death. We see this more clearly other places in nature. Closely related species that have ended up in different environments over time can have dramatically lifespans. I have seen various hypotheses for this, including models that suggest that there's a tendency for older individuals to keep too much of the resources so that the younger generations won't have enough resources to grow and flourish. ~~~ wrinkl3 Or it could just be that there was never a lot of evolutionary pressure for the "stay fit while old" traits. Being healthy for long enough to reproduce and provide some care for your progeny was usually good enough from the evolutionary standpoint, so the frailty-at-old-age genes weren't actively selected against. ~~~ duckduckcow It could be, though with a bit of Googling I found this blog post summarizing scientific studies that suggest otherwise. [https://joshmitteldorf.scienceblog.com/2016/05/16/no- animal-...](https://joshmitteldorf.scienceblog.com/2016/05/16/no-animal-dies- of-old-age-in-the-wild/) ------ RcouF1uZ4gsC From [https://www.jax.org/news-and-insights/jax- blog/2017/november...](https://www.jax.org/news-and-insights/jax- blog/2017/november/when-are-mice-considered-old) it appears that old mice are 18-24 months old. While mouse models in general are hard to apply to humans, I would guess that applying "old" mouse models to "old" humans is likely to be even harder. ------ leptoniscool Are there any foods we can eat to lower inflammation in general? ~~~ bad_user The study was done on mice and the metabolism of mice is different from ours. In humans refined carbohydrates and hyper-processed food in general (which includes hyper-processed meat) contributes the most to inflammation. ~~~ Aromasin There's growing research to say that eating any meat (specifically red meat) increases inflammation. Among other things, it elevates levels of C-Reactive protein, which the liver makes when there is inflammation in the body.[1] Another studied suggests that meat intake increases levels of arachidonic acid, which is another mediator in inflammation and aging.[2] Those are just a couple of studies. There are plenty more where they came from. I highly suggest reading 'How Not to Die' by Dr. Michael Greger, to all those that are interested in way of reducing inflammation in the body. The book is incredibly well referenced, and a joy to read. [3] [1] [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24284436](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24284436) [2] [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28146136](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28146136) [3] [https://www.amazon.com/How-Not-Die-Discover- Scientifically/d...](https://www.amazon.com/How-Not-Die-Discover- Scientifically/dp/1250066115/&tag=httpwwwdrgreg-20?pldnSite=1) ~~~ bad_user First of all, humans have been eating red meat for literally millions of years. Both those links are observational studies. The first link even admits that the association is weak. And the second link is a population-level study. Observational studies are important clues, but too weak to base conclusions on, as in such studies it's hard to isolate the variables. For example given that red meat has been a scare crow, you've got the "healthy user bias" [1], in other words the people that tend to eat red meat are also those that tend to engage in unhealthy activities like smoking, eating junk food or not exercising. Scientists of course try to take such factors into account, but that's really hard to do. Also such science is reductionist because it uses markers that may or may not have an impact on all cause mortality on or the quality of life, as such markers need to be read in context (often in relation to other markers). And since you mentioned "arachidonic acid", its rise isn't necessarily unhealthy. Here's an article that debunks the notion that red meat is inflammatory: [https://chriskresser.com/does-red-meat-cause- inflammation/](https://chriskresser.com/does-red-meat-cause-inflammation/) [1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_user_bias](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_user_bias) ~~~ Aromasin “For example, the traditional diet of the Masai was composed almost entirely of red meat, blood, and milk – all high in Neu5Gc – yet they were free from modern inflammatory diseases. (7)” I get why people keep trying to fall back on Price’s research into the Masai, but I’m afraid it’s misleading. The Masai actually had significant rates of atherosclerosis, they just didn’t die from it, at least not the ones that otherwise lived long enough to matter. [1] To say that article 'debunks' it is disingenuous regardless. It is simply a counter-argument in article form; part of a debate that could well be retorted by someone more intelligent than myself (I'm sure Greger could give it a good rebuttal). I think we can all agree that the best way to reduce inflammation is simply to exercise. It's been shown time and time again. By using the Masai as an ideal, we're simply looking at healthy user bias but in reverse. Justifying meat consumption with a tribal population that often runs marathons to catch said meat is baffling to me; it is not an excuse to dismiss a vast amount of research, both observational and otherwise. I've latched on to meat and its markers of inflammation because it's relevant to the OP topic, but if we're going down the route of history, really we should be basing diet on our genetic biomarkers. "First of all, humans have been eating red meat for literally millions of years." should really be "First of all, small populations of certain humans have been eating red meat for literally millions of years." From my studies on ancestral human eating patterns, it seems that most were almost entirely vegetarian, and may have only eaten meat during celebrations a few times in a year. Scientific American had a great article on the topic [3]. To quote a favoured read of mine, "Human gene variants promoting veggie-rich and meat-rich diets are still distributed among modern humans. They fall into patterns one might expect given modern cultural dietary traditions. A gene variant that promotes conversion from plant based dietary food sources to omega 3 and 6 fats necessary for brain development is found more often in India, where many people are vegetarian. A different variant that slows this conversion is found among arctic people who eat a fish-heavy diet already very rich in these fats, according to a recent Cornell study." [2] This is why nutrition science is so difficult. However, I still believe that with the modern human exercising a little as we do - even 2 hours 7 days a week, a massive amount to us now unless you're an athlete, is very little compared to our meat eating ancestors - that a need for a plant based diet is higher than ever, and that applies to everyone. [1] [http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/95/1/26.abstract](http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/95/1/26.abstract) [2] [https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2018/03/30/why-humans- sta...](https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2018/03/30/why-humans-started- eating-meat-critical-diet/) [3] [https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/human- ancest...](https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/human-ancestors- were-nearly-all-vegetarians/) ~~~ bad_user > " _the best way to reduce inflammation is simply to exercise_ " Exercise helps, but the evidence for it is mixed. I don't think there's any amount of exercise you can do to undo the damage of a toxic diet, which the standard diet tends to be. And as proof there are professional athletes that end up suffering from chronic illness and inflammation. Even more so, intense training like for running marathons can make you sick, because it can lead to a suppression of the immune system due to the stress involved [1]. On a cursory search I found a meta-analysis on studies on the effects of marathon running on inflammation markers and the results are very mixed, endurance running promoting both anti- and pro- inflammatory markers. [2] Therefore your claim doesn't stand to scrutiny, even though we can agree that exercise is mandatory for being healthy in general. \--- > " _Justifying meat consumption with a tribal population that often runs > marathons to catch said meat is baffling to me._ " In your original comment you pointed at a population-level study (your second link). Why is mentioning a study on an indigenous population any less valid? Is that a double standard I'm sensing? We study indigenous populations because chronic diseases are very modern and it has something to do with the modern environment, which includes the diet, especially since many of these populations got sick after being transitioned to the western diet. The Masai might have been exercising more and live with less stress, which might have contributed to their overall health, or maybe they ate that meat with something else that reduced the inflammation, however this is an admission that context matters and that reductionist statements such as " _red meat is inflammatory_ " are wrong. Also apparently we burn as many calories as hunter gatherers [3], so I would be careful about such statements. \--- > _" From my studies on ancestral human eating patterns, it seems that most > were almost entirely vegetarian, and may have only eaten meat during > celebrations a few times in a year."_ The article you linked to is entirely devoid of any tangible proof and given the editorial style I can't take it seriously. Indeed, the diet of apes and monkeys is composed of leaves, nuts, fruits and insects. However this is a very bizarre argument. Us becoming omnivores and starting to hunt animals and eat meat is what allowed us to adapt to harsher environments and to grow our big brains. Eating meat is what made us human and what drove us to develop tools made of stone for hunting or for collecting the bone marrow, it's what drove us to use fire for cooking, in order to increase the bio-availability of the meat and the starches that we eat. First of all because our big brain can only be explained by the availability of high-calorie foods. High-calorie foods are not very available in nature in edible form. We couldn't have digested many of the high-calorie starchy plants that were available. The prevailing theory is that fire was first used for cooking in order to cook starchy plants that were toxic otherwise. But the first known use of fire was only 1 million years ago [4] and does not coincide with the expansion of our brains. Use of stone tools however coincides with the expansion of our brains, yet routine use of fire may have began only 300,000 years ago [5], which means starchy plants weren't very available for us to eat, certainly not enough to explain our high-caloric diet. The best indications for what our ancestors ate comes from looking at modern hunter-gatherers and we've got plenty of such populations observed [6]. Observed hunter-gatherers obtain most of their energy from animal foods [7]. From the groups studied in that reference, they found ... \- 46 groups that obtained 85% of their energy from meat, fish and eggs (with no groups obtaining this much energy from plants) \- 133 groups that obtained 65% of their energy from meat, fish and eggs (only 8 groups that obtained 65% of their energy from plants) \- the median average obtained 70% of their energy from animal sources, 30% from plants Note that this report has been criticized to have some flaws, but there is a substantial body of evidence for the theory that, on average, hunter-gatherers got 70% of energy from animals [8] [9] [10]. \--- [1] [https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/the-running- blog/20...](https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/the-running- blog/2015/aug/27/the-elite-athlete-paradox-how-running-a-marathon-can-make- you-ill) [2] [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5650970/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5650970/) [3] [https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...](https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0040503) [4] [https://www.pnas.org/content/109/20/E1215](https://www.pnas.org/content/109/20/E1215) [5] [https://www.pnas.org/content/108/13/5209](https://www.pnas.org/content/108/13/5209) [6] [http://eclectic.ss.uci.edu/~drwhite/worldcul/10-2gray.pdf](http://eclectic.ss.uci.edu/~drwhite/worldcul/10-2gray.pdf) [7] [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10702160](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10702160) [8] Cordain, L. “Implications of Plio-Pleistocene Hominin Diets for Modern Humans,” pp 363-383 in Peter S. Ungar, ed., Evolution of the human diet: the known, the unknown, and the unknowable, New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. [9] [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10702160?dopt=AbstractPl...](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10702160?dopt=AbstractPlus) [10] [https://www.unm.edu/~hkaplan/KaplanHillLancasterHurtado_2000...](https://www.unm.edu/~hkaplan/KaplanHillLancasterHurtado_2000_LHEvolution.pdf) ------ jonhendry18 Before people start eating extreme low protein diets, that should be "Blocking _a_ protein". ~~~ thrower123 Also, there is the whole "in mice" bit. One of the more valuable science twitter accounts to follow is the one that that just retweets every sensationally misleading pop-sci headline that ends up being based on rodent studies with an all-caps IN MICE! comment. ~~~ pazimzadeh Trendy, yes. Valuable, not sure. Maybe to keep track of the bleeding edge of basic research. This is much better news than the headline "Nothing we do seems to affect memory loss in mice." It means we're starting to understand how memory works at a molecular level in mammals. ~~~ thrower123 Right, it's good that we have the very beginnings of an understanding of how the process might work. In mice. Applications to humans are, if previous track records are anything to go on, five to twenty years out and uncertain. Meanwhile, gullible people with poor reading comprehension will see the headline, or hear the badly interpreted third-hand reporting on the study during the science puff piece section of the nightly news. Some fraction of the hypochondriatic will take it up as gospel, and begin preaching it, and the sum total is a contribution to the mountain of medical misinformation that is floating around in the popular consciousness.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
An ode to passwords - ophelia https://blog.cryptoaustralia.org.au/2018/05/17/an-ode-to-passwords-rant/ ====== czeidler Another problem is that you should not use an authentication password to protect your wallet. See [https://fejoa.org/fejoapage/2018/05/17/DeveloperRelease.html](https://fejoa.org/fejoapage/2018/05/17/DeveloperRelease.html) for more info. ------ 40four A great point, the actual length of the password is the only real way to measure strength. Good breakdown of how passwords work.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
False ballistic missile alert spreads panic in Hawaii - ilamont https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/1/13/16888374/false-ballistic-missile-alert-spreads-panic-in-hawaii ====== sctb Comments moved to [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16140761](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16140761).	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
This is what it looks like when a million Brazilians take to the streets - yesplorer http://qz.com/96715/this-is-what-it-looks-like-when-a-million-brazilians-take-to-the-streets/ ====== denibertovic stress all around.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Students Stand When Called Upon, and When Not - robg http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/us/25desks.html?hp ====== biohacker42 Allowing kids to stand, sit, fidget, etc, seems so obvious. The whole sit still for hours at a time, is unnatural for kids and comes from the time when school was in a monastery and the monks thought fidgeting was devil's work. It is amazing how long counter productive rituals can persists. Requiring kids to sit eerily still, makes teaching them harder, for no good reason. And it has been that way for hundreds of years. Civilization can be seriously crazy some times. ~~~ decode "comes from the time when school was in a monastery and the monks thought fidgeting was devil's work" Did you just make that up or is there evidence that this is actually the case? Personally, I would have a hard time paying attention in meetings and lectures if most of the people in the room were constantly getting up, sitting down, playing with stuff, answering their phones, etc. Do you think maybe we ask kids to sit quietly because it's distracting for everyone else when they don't? ~~~ biohacker42 The many school traditions go back to middle age European monasteries part is true, the fidgeting part... poetic license. And it is true that some task require quiet. Math is one of those tasks. But I as an adult have no need to fidget all that much. And if I remember correctly, what you learn in the early grades doesn't need that much sensory isolation, I image things quiet down during exams. So I think the degree of stillness can be slowly increased until you're expected to sit completely still in college. ------ snprbob86 I would have LOVED to have had a stand-up desk while in school. Stand-up desks are great for your neck, back, and mind. Adjustable height sit/stand desks are the way forward. If you work for a big employer with ergonomic office furniture available, be sure to put in a request! If you work at a home office, where you surely spend way too much time in front of your computer, definitely consider the investment in your health and productivity. ------ divia 37signals post about switching to a standing desk: [http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1001-standing-versus- sitt...](http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1001-standing-versus-sitting) My favorite part: _My attention span improved, too. I noticed an immediate increase in my ability to focus on a problem for longer, and with greater clarity. When I was blocked by some problem, I was able to just walk away from the desk, whereas before the effort of getting up from my chair often made me prefer to just sit and stew in my frustration._ ------ nazgulnarsil unfortunately these kind of things get hamstrung before they really get off the ground. government school revolves around budgets and ease of teaching, not results. ~~~ cubedice Your point actually reminds me of a story in "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman," where Feynman tries to revise a school curriculum. He gets put off at the end of the process, when the Board revokes the book choices he had fought for (to buy cheaper books) and makes an observation: "The whole thing was an unnecessary effort that could have been turned around and done the opposite way: start with the cost of the books, and buy what you can afford."* I think that putting in new stand-up desks could be feasible and would also ease teaching (less restricted kids would spend more time learning than trying to fight restrictions). The problem might be instead that any 'new idea' implemented by a government is going to be bungled hopelessly. * <http://www.textbookleague.org/103feyn.htm> ------ helveticaman If you're going to improve education, why don't you start using dvorak? It's the absolute lowest hanging fruit. Hell, it's the watermelon of education. ------ DavidSJ It's unfortunate that our schools are so authoritarian that this school is considered "among the more unorthodox".	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: Is it wrong for a man to steal medicine for his dying wife? - mybbor This is a hypothetical question my mother asked me as part of a psychology course she is taking. I found it very thought provoking, and thought you would also!<p>In Europe, a woman is near death from a specific type of cancer. There is one drug that the doctors know will save her. It is a prescription discovered and developed by a local druggist in the same town. The drug is very expensive to make but the druggist is only charging ten times what the drug costs for him to make. In other words, it costs the druggist $200 to make this wonder drug and, in turn, he turns about and charges $2,000 for a single dose of the drug. The cancer-riddled woman's husband, Heinz, goes to everyone he knows to borrow the money, but he can only get together $1,000, half of what it cost. He goes to the druggist and shows him the $1,000, explaining that his wife is dying. Heinz then pleads with the druggist to sell the drug for the $1,000 or let him pay later. The druggist denies Heinz’s request with, "No! I discovered the drug. I should make money from it. I cannot simply give it away. If you cannot pay for it, others can." Heinz becomes desperate. He waits for nightfall and breaks into the druggist’s store with the idea to steal the drug for his wife. Should the husband have broken into the store and stolen the drug? (Kohlberg, 1963)<p>Here is my answer:<p>Thats a good one. I think it is all about perspective. From the perspective of the law, no, he should not have. It is against the law to steal. But, from my perspective. The man surely knew by then, that he was going to be breaking the law in stealing the medicine. So, knowing that, if he still chose to accept the potential consequences of his action and steal the medicine for his wife. I don't think that it is wrong at all. Doing the opposite would be against human nature.<p>Love you, Rob ====== iworkforthem If I am the husband, I would into the store, pay $220 for the drug and leave a IOU. "Here's $200 to cover your manufacturing of the drug, I won't want you to go out of business too. Here's another $20(10%) profit, that's what I can afford now, here's an IOU for the remaining $1780 that I own you. I will pay you once things are better on my end. Signed, a loving husband." ------ gregpilling I saw a documentary where they used this same question. The filmmakers were interviewing children, and universally the children said it was bad to steal. The interviewers asked the same children the same question each year as they grew older and went through puberty. As they went through puberty the children began to see the morality at work in the question, should you steal or let someone die? With all the children, they began to question their beliefs on the right choice in the scenario. They all thought the stealing was a necessary evil and was justifiable compared to letting the wife die. It was fascinating to watch the kids go from a rote "stealing is bad" evolve to understand the nuance. tl;dr kids see things in black/white, while teens start seeing things with shades of gray too. ------ drKarl In the book "Do you think what you think you think?" I found many interesting ethical questions which might show you that your moral and your ethic is contradictory. For instance... if you can save either a man or 5 people, but if you save the man the other 5 people die and if you save the 5 people the man dies, should you save the 5 people instead of the lone man? Most people would agree to save the 5 people, arguing that one should look the greater good, and it is the greater good to save many lives instead of one life. What if the man is family of yours? What if he's your father, or your son? Here many people would change their dicision and save their family instead. What if instead of 5 people it were an entire city, 10 million people? Should you let your family member die to save 10 million people or viceversa? ------ brudgers Compared to the Fat man problem, this one is easy. Stealing is acceptable. We have courts to sort it out. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_problem#The_fat_man> ------ rick_2047 An interesting point here would be "Why should the druggist charge 2000$ for 200$?" Many people may resent the druggist for overcharging for the drug (comparing it with Microsoft may be common). But don't for get the latent charges in developing that drug. The druggist funded his own research I presume. So he went through a lot of trouble for developing that drug (a cure for cancer cannot be very easy). So that extra 1800$ must justify the years of work he has put in (I am assuming he is not arbitrarily bloating calculation of man hours). Combine with that, the supply v/s demand issues and a price like that may seem justified. Letting someone die by refusing to suffer some loss (the 1000$ of latent cost of production) is not human. But then again, all his customers will be mostly of that sort, if he is not a saint then he will have to be stubborn about the price.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Null Pointer Dereferencing Causes Undefined Behavior - DmitryNovikov https://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/2015/04/20/null-pointer-dereferencing-causes-undefined-behavior ====== _kst_ The standard offsetof macro is sometimes defined as: #define offsetof(st, m) ((size_t)(&((st )0)->m)) That expression has undefined behavior, since it dereferences a null pointer. That doesn't mean it's an invalid definition of offsetof _for a given implementation_. Saying that it has "undefined behavior" means that the C language standard says nothing about how it behaves. If its behavior _for the current compiler_ happens to satisfy the language requirements for offsetof, then it's a legitimate implementation. Code that implements the standard library is free to do whatever it likes, as long as the resulting behavior is correct. Part of the problem, I think, is the way the question is phrased. Quoting the linked article: > The programmers' community divided into two camps. The first claimed with > confidence that it wasn't legal while the others were as sure saying that it > was. The word "legal" doesn't even occur in the C standard. Some program constructs violate constraints or syntax rules; any such violation requires a compile- time diagnostic (which may be a non-fatal error). Other constructs have "undefined behavior"; the standard places _no_ restrictions on what compilers can do for such constructs. Only a `#error` directive actually requires a program to be rejected. ~~~ userbinator > the standard places _no_ restrictions on what compilers can do for such > constructs. But it does list some suggestions on what could happen, one of which is "behaving during translation or program execution in a documented manner characteristic of the environment", which is what most C programmers expect of the language. Violating this implicit assumption is what makes compilers user- hostile; choosing the worst possible behaviour, just because the standard does not define it, is never the right thing to do. Related reading: [http://blog.metaobject.com/2014/04/cc- osmartass.html](http://blog.metaobject.com/2014/04/cc-osmartass.html) [http://thetrendythings.com/read/7057](http://thetrendythings.com/read/7057) [http://blog.regehr.org/archives/1180](http://blog.regehr.org/archives/1180) ~~~ _kst_ That suggestion is pretty vague; the only way a compiler could violate it is by not documenting its behavior. The behavior itself can still be completely arbitrary. ~~~ mpweiher Well, before the first ANSI standard, ALL behavior was "undefined", and yet we got many working compilers and tons of working code. ~~~ _kst_ Before the first ANSI standard, we had the C Reference Manual in the back of K&R1. The definition was merely less rigorous (and that lack of rigor often led to complex nests of "#ifdef"s). If a compiler generated code that evaluated 2 + 2 and yielded a result of 5, we could confidently say that compiler had a bug. ------ kragen This is ridiculous. The C standard was apparently written in order to allow compilers to introduce subtle security holes into previously-working code, all in the name of a fraction of a percent of performance increase. It’s totally irrational, especially in an epoch where C is no longer the language you’d use to get maximum bit-twiddling performance anyway — because it won’t run on your GPU! See [http://blog.regehr.org/archives/761](http://blog.regehr.org/archives/761) for a sarcastic take on the problem, [http://blog.regehr.org/archives/880](http://blog.regehr.org/archives/880) for a more serious description of the problem, and [http://blog.regehr.org/archives/1180](http://blog.regehr.org/archives/1180) for the "Proposal for a Friendly Dialect of C" that proposes to actually solve it. ~~~ lmm > The C standard was apparently written in order to allow compilers to > introduce subtle security holes into previously-working code, all in the > name of a fraction of a percent of performance increase. Yes it was. Or at least, that's the constituency C currently has - and understandably C continues to serve it. There needs to be a language for that kind of people, and that language is C. If you don't want that, _stop using C_. It's not hard. ~~~ mpweiher I've been using C since before there even was a standard. Why should I ditch the language because <deleted> have hijacked the language spec? ~~~ lmm Because they're the ones who the language is valuable to. You have plenty of other options; they don't. ~~~ mpweiher For the sorts of semantics they are looking for, FORTRAN seems to be a good option. Or keep the crazy in C++ land? What are my options if I want a simple, easy to understand language that is close to the execution model of current machines? ------ quotemstr This article highlights yet more "gotcha" optimizations that, IMHO, do more harm than good. There is no reason that any compiler _must_ miscompile &x->y, where x == NULL. What's undefined in C can be well-defined in POSIX or in the documentation of a specific build environment. It would behoove higher-level standards to make this construct well-defined even if C itself doesn't. ~~~ pcwalton Being able to assume that a pointer is not null opens up some really interesting optimizations. For example, if you know that a pointer is dereferenceable, then you can speculatively hoist loads of it out of a loop as long as there are no possibly-aliasable pointer stores in between. That's why it's helpful for C compilers to be able to aggressively infer that pointers are not null. ~~~ ufo Just wondering: how much do these particular optimizations end up being worth in the end? Is it something noticeable or is it like array bounds checking where its almost always OK to leave the checks in the end? ~~~ joosters It's impossible to give a general answer. You could have a tight loop in a performance critical part of your code, where optimising out the NULL check removes (say) 25% of the loop code. Or, the check might be negligible. It depends upon the code. That's why IMO people saying that the compiler shouldn't bother with these 'excessive' optimisations are wrong. It might be worthless for them and their programs, but might be valuable for others. Don't force your priorities upon other people. ~~~ pcwalton Yes. I'd also add that loop optimizations tend to magnify in importance when you consider that the loop might be vectorized. Especially since the state of scatter/gather SIMD intrinsics is so poor at the moment... ------ adamtj I'm sure he's right, but I'm not so sure he actually proved it. The real question is what happens when you deference a null pointer with '->'. He doesn't show us what the spec says on that, meaning there's a gap in his logic, leaving the quoted sentence in bold unsupported. I don't know but would bet that bolded sentence isn't even necessary. The undefinedness probably comes from the silence of the spec on what happens when you dereference a null pointer with '->'. As he showed, a null pointer cannot point to any object, and since a lvalue that does not designate an object gives undefined behavior, saying ' podhd' would clearly give undefined behavior when 'podhd' is a null pointer. However, instead of '* podhd' evaluating to a non-existant object, we have 'podhd->line6' asking for the object some particular offset from a non- existant object. It's entirely possible that a sufficiently insane spec might actually define such an operation. What the spec says on that point is the key. That's where the undefinedness must come from, but he doesn't talk about it or quote from the spec on '->'. He just assumes it, which leaves his original point unproven, even if it is correct. So why would anybody want to define legal behavior for dereferencing a null pointer with '->'? Well, some people start college funds for children who have yet to be conceived. If non-existant people can have account balances, why can't non-existant objects have properties? It's crazy, but it's not crazy like Intecal, where syntax errors are legal statements that you actually use for productive purposes. [http://catb.org/~esr/intercal/ick.htm#Syntax- Error](http://catb.org/~esr/intercal/ick.htm#Syntax-Error) See also the statement "COME FROM". ~~~ numeromancer > As he showed, a null pointer cannot point to any object From my reading, he didn't even show that: >> _If a null pointer constant is converted to a pointer type, the resulting pointer, called a null pointer, is guaranteed to compare unequal to a pointer to any object or function._ So a null pointer could point to an object, it just wouldn't compare equal to any pointer, even itself. ~~~ ben0x539 Null pointers comparing equal to null pointers is kind of important though. ------ notacoward The problem comes from the assumption that NULL is the same as zero. Even the author makes that assumption, when he gives an example that explicitly uses zero and then talks about it as if it had used NULL. In fact, the two have never been the same. I've worked on machines that represented NULL with a different value/bitpattern, and yes, it smoked out a lot of these bad assumptions. NULL can never point to valid memory, by language definition. An explicit zero can, from a language standpoint, even if the runtime/OS might disagree. ;) Thus, uses like that in offsetof are quite valid. ~~~ pcwalton But NULL must, broadly speaking, be the same as zero. C standard 3.2.2.3: "An integral constant expression with the value 0, or such an expression cast to type void * , is called a null pointer constant." C standard 4.1.5: "The macros are... NULL, which expands to an implementation- defined null pointer constant." See [1] for more info. [1]: [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2599207/can-a- conforming-...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2599207/can-a-conforming-c- implementation-define-null-to-be-something-wacky) ~~~ notacoward Casting zero to a pointer yields a null pointer. That doesn't preclude other- valued null pointers, or ensure that a cast the other way will yield zero. That's where the "undefined" part comes from. ~~~ _kst_ Casting a _constant_ zero to a pointer type yields a null pointer. The conversion is done at compile time, so the compiler knows that a null pointer is the required result. There is no requirement for an integer-to-pointer conversion to retain the bit pattern of the integer value, any more than an integer-to-floating-point conversion is required to do so. In most modern implementations, conversions among integer and pointer types of the same size are trivial, simply reinterpreting the bits as a value of a different type. A conforming C or C++ compiler can use, for example, the bit pattern 0xFFFFFFFF to represent a null pointer. Converting a constant 0 to a pointer type would yield a pointer with the representation 0xFFFFFFFF. Converting a non-constant 0 to a pointer type does not necessarily yield a null pointer; the result is implementation-defined, and may be indeterminate garbage. ------ DominikD I find this entire debate absurd. Pragmatic approach would be to refrain from using construct that are known to be controversial. By controversial I mean "there are reasons to believe that under certain conditions this may be dangerous, even though most people agree on what reasonable behavior is in this case". Don't write code that can bite you. The "struct foo bar = &baz->qux;" is not your child. Kill it by refactoring it into something that's known to be obviously correct. ~~~ eps Refactoring for the sake of C pedantry rather than legitimate portability concerns is not a _pragmatic_ approach. If this code were a part of some abstract "spherical horse in vacuum" project that may potentially build on esoteric platforms using random C compilers, then, yes, it might be worth re-factoring. In the context of Linux kernel project given the toolchain used the code is perfectly fine as is. The debate is silly though, can't argue with that. ~~~ DominikD Linux kernel has official support for over 20 different ISAs. Some of the cores supported are pretty esoteric: BlackFin, SuperH, Etrax. Most of the problems with optimizing compilers - around UBs and others - come from architecture-specific optimizations. Problem discussed here is not abstract - people writing kernel code encounter these issues from time to time. I did, my friends did, we will be bitten by UBs in the future. Code my team is working on at the moment was written for a completely different architecture than it is run on right now. Sudden platform shifts happen, like when tsunami affected Renesas' ability to manufacture chips used in automotive. It IS pragmatic to avoid code that can potentially introduce problems in the future. Perhaps not for every piece of software, but low level one? Definitely. ------ scott_s If you want to read more than can handle about undefined behavior in C, check out John Regehr's blog ([http://blog.regehr.org/](http://blog.regehr.org/)) and academic papers ([http://www.cs.utah.edu/~regehr/papers/](http://www.cs.utah.edu/~regehr/papers/)). He also posts here on HN. ------ TheLoneWolfling Ah, the wonders of C, where the obvious solution to "we can't guarantee <x> because it may cause problems on weird hardware" is "let's cause problems on mainstream hardware instead". ------ Animats Of course it's undefined behavior. It's also a famous issue with GCC optimization. This is another reason I look forward to the day when C is a legacy language. ~~~ spoiler As it stands now, C might outlive most, if not everyone in this thread. :-) Although, I don't mind C. I work in it every day and I've comfortable with it. A colleague of mine (who works primarily in Python) teased me it's because I have developed a Stockholm syndrome. ------ dmethvin The author may be correct, which is of course the best kind of correct. Yet I have written code for more than 25 years that depends on the behavior exemplified in the `offsetof()` macro referenced there. When writing low-level code it's really handy to know the offset of a member in a struct. ~~~ madmoose Your compiler probably has a built-in method to achieve the equivalent of offsetof without invoking undefined behavior. GCC has __builtin_offsetof: [https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Offsetof.html](https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Offsetof.html) ~~~ masklinn offsetof is part of C89 stddef.h, why would you call the underlying GCC- specific __builtin_offsetof? Just call offsetof that's what it's here for, __builtin_offsetof is the GCC implementation detail. ------ shultays I don't get it, there is no actual dereferencing going on here, It is just basic addition arithmetic between two values, one of them happens to be 0. Why It is illegal or "The program running well is pure luck"? ~~~ cygx The C standard does not specify the representation of null pointers, nor does it allow arithmetics with invalid pointers. Eg the conversion (void )0 might result in a value with all bits set and member access will overflow. Another example would be hardware that raises a signal when encountering an invalid value during address calculations. In practice, the address calculation will work as expected (ie I'm unaware of machines where it doesn't). However, an aggressively optimizing compiler migh treat an expression like foo->bar as assert(foo != NULL), which might lead to unintended consequences in worst-case scenarios. ~~~ masklinn > However, an aggressively optimizing compiler migh treat an expression like > foo->bar as assert(foo != NULL) In fact most modern optimising compilers do exactly that, and the article does refer to such a behaviour having had security implications in the past. ------ tempodox This is to be taken with a grain of salt. sizeof(&P->m_foo) does NOT return the size of `m_foo` but the size of a pointer to an `m_foo` on the target architecture. ------ jwatte The post hinges on the faulty assumption that calculating the address of an lvalue "evaluates" that lvalue. This is not so. Any compiler that generates anything other than an add instruction (or lea or similar) is broken, for rather unsubtle reasons. Or to put it another way: dereferencing a null pointer may be undefined, but arithmetic on any pointer (including null) is well defined, and the code in question is arithmetic, not dereference. And, yet another broken blog post will make the rounds on the internet every three years and confuse even more people. It's sad. ~~~ pcwalton The post cites the spec. The C standard clearly seems to state that & must reference "an object", and NULL does not reference an object. A "pointer to any object" is distinguished from a null pointer. Do you have links stating otherwise? ~~~ Gibbon1 An of course plain C does not have 'objects' and a _lot_ of architectures have stuff mapped at address 0x0 ~~~ nullc You may be mistaking C for a fancy macro assembler. It's not-- It's a high level language, even though a fairly low level looking one. The obligation of the language is to behave as the spec says, and there may not be a close mapping between your program and what runs on the machine, though there often is. An "Object" is a concept defined and used extensively in the language specification; "a region of data storage in the execution environment,". ------ nraynaud When you have a bunch of experts arguing on the interpretation of the language spec to know if a construction in the most fundamental piece of software on the computer is valid like a herd of clerics around a vulgate deciding if dead newborns can go to heaven, you know you have a cultural problem. ~~~ jwatte Are those who argue experts, or are they "experts" ? I know of no expert who would age with the interpretation of the post. ~~~ nraynaud they are strawmen, you get to pick ------ ascotan That's why you should be passing input params by reference and not as a pointer. The compiler should be be used to check that inputs are valid references so you don't have to null check everything. ------ amelius How does Rust deal with this type of situation? ~~~ lmm By not having null pointers. If you want to have a pointer that might not point to anything valid, you do that explicitly with an option type. Of course if you really need to use a possibly-invalid pointer for performance you can drop into unsafe mode. (At least, the above is what I'd expect from a language like Rust) ~~~ yonran But when you do need unsafe code (e.g. for defining a structure that interacts with a C API), is behavior undefined? I’m just looking at a bit of my own offsetof calculation and hoping it won’t break once I turn optimizations on. unsafe extern "stdcall" fn callback(arg0: const IUnknown) { let myself: &MyStruct = &(arg0.offset(-(&((std::ptr::null::<MyStruct>()).as_event_handler) as isize)) as const MyStruct); } ~~~ dbaupp Yes, it generally is. Rust has similar (but not the same) undefined behaviours to C/C++, the compiler just ensures that they can't happen in safe code.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Steve Wozniak's FusionIO: 1 Billion IOPS with software improvement - sp332 https://www.theverge.com/2012/1/6/2686627/fusion-io-one-billion-iops ====== WiseWeasel So it apparently makes their custom flash storage behave like RAM, and provides an API to OS and software developers to make use of it as such, but it's non-volatile, so everything persists in the case of power failure or reboot. Here's an informative quote from Wozniak from the press release: " _Instead of treating flash like storage, where data passes through all of the OS kernel subsystems that were built and optimized for traditional storage, our core ioMemory technology offers a platform with new programming primitives that can provide system and application developers direct access to non-volatile memory._ " [http://www.fusionio.com/press-releases/fusion-io-breaks- one-...](http://www.fusionio.com/press-releases/fusion-io-breaks-one-billion- iops-barrier/) Here's hoping the _other_ company by which he's still nominally employed gets interested in this technology, so that many more can enjoy the benefits of this technology. It seems like storage is the main bottleneck for most computing these days, so this should save us a whole lot of man-years waiting for our computers. ~~~ hristov I am not sure this is exactly it (or perhaps I am misunderstanding your post). With present technology you simply cannot replace RAM with flash. Flash is still much slower to write than RAM. They have achieved very high throughput by using mass parallelism but I am sure that each individual cell writes just as slowly as it used to before. I think their innovation is not to replace RAM with flash but to have flash automatically mirror a range of RAM. Thus, using their software you can designate an area of RAM to be mirrored or backed up if you will, and what ever you do with that area of RAM, the fusion IO software will save it and try to have an area of flash that is the exact mirror of your area of RAM. Thus, when you are doing programming you can simply work in RAM without having to worry about saving your data, or writing to a file, etc. The fusion IO will make sure it saves your state so that if you lose power your program can restart from the latest RAM snapshot that was saved in flash. It will probably work, but it seems like something that would be mostly useful in very expensive systems with very high failure resiliency requirements (such as stock exchange systems). If you do not need super high failure resiliency, it might be cheaper to just get one of those motherboards with an on board 12V back up battery (i.e., the ones used by Google). I doubt this would be very relevant for Apple. ~~~ joshu No, but you could, say, have 16 gb of ram, 16gb of flash, and enough battery to sync it if the power goes out. ------ powertower That's 1 billion IOPS across 8 servers, each having 8 FusionIO cards.. So it's 15,625,000 IOPS. Compared to an SSD that does 100,000 IOPS. _Each card seems to be a dual unit, not taking this into account as some SSD pci cards are also like this._ ~~~ wazoox And these are 64 bytes IOs, not that much representative of any workload I can think of. All in all, more a PR stunt than anything else. 8KB IOs are what counts, generally; 1 billion 8KB IOPS needs a terrific bandwidth of 8 TB/s... ------ tmurray Does anyone know what this improvement actually is? The article makes it sound like their card is doing DMA to pinned user allocations, but that doesn't sound too revolutionary. I know next to nothing about storage controllers, but see the last many years of high-speed networking for an entire ecosystem based around that concept. ~~~ wmf OS bypass hasn't really been done for storage, so that's new in some sense. ~~~ 4ad It has been done since forever. ------ spydum We have immensely powerful systems today, but it would seem the levels of abstraction and libraries add overhead (just how much? I don't know). I wonder how things like BareMetal (<http://www.returninfinity.com/baremetal.html>) would shake things up? Strip away those layers, and get back to damn near bare metal. Seems to be the magic here: they skipped all the abstraction, and are allowing direct access to the storage (I have to imagine, it's massively parallel as well). ------ ww520 Steve Wozniak is a true hacker. Kudos for the achievement. ~~~ wmf Is there any evidence that Woz did anything here? ~~~ radicaldreamer No, Woz is an investor in Fusion I/O from before they went public. It's unclear what he does/did on the product side. ~~~ gnarbarian My buddy works there. He says Woz' main contribution is marketing :P ------ nutjob123 OCZ makes pci express ssd's which claim very high speeds. They seem to be similar in theory to what Woz is doing. Does anyone have any experience using them? Here is a link [http://www.ocztechnology.com/ocz-revodrive-3-x2-pci- express-...](http://www.ocztechnology.com/ocz-revodrive-3-x2-pci-express- ssd.html) ------ rbranson 1 billion 64-byte IOPS = 64GB/sec DDR3-1333 DRAM = 10.6GB/sec I'll have the grain of salt, please. ~~~ WiseWeasel From the presentation: "128 memory modules, in eight different servers, running an aggregate of a billion IOPS, 64byte cache accesses." So "only" 7.5GB/sec (125,000,000 * 64 / 1024^3), or about 60Gbit/s per server, with 16 modules per server. Still fairly respectable by storage standards, at about ten times the theoretical max for SATA III of 6Gbit/s. ------ christkv anybody got any recommendations on how to write IO code for SSD's vs Spinning media ? Are there any good file systems optimized for SSD ? ------ chargrilled As an aside, I randomly bumped in to Steve Wozniak while in San Francisco and he's a really nice guy. ------ rbanffy I have a strong feeling that just by having Woz around, the software got faster spontaneously ;-)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Predictive Analysis for Crypto: The spreadsheet that got me my first 1,000% gain - spreadstreet https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/7kgk29/financial_modeling_for_cryptocurrencies_the/ ====== arkades Not to knock the guy’s technical work here, but making 1000% gain while buying into a bubble on the upswing isn’t an accomplishment. Though seeing as how he’s pulling 30 tweets at a time, I can’t imagine this is statistically meaningful at all. I’d like to see this tool show gains on something not already bubbling up.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Show HN: A super simple link aggregator that I made - obblekk http://couvet.co/ ====== obblekk hey all, this is my first side project and i would love advice. tech: python/flask, rethinkdb, bootstrap, jquery ~~~ MichaelCrawford I understand jQuery exists in part to work around javascript flaws in older browsers. My first piece of advice is to not download jQuery to those browsers that do not have javascript flaws.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
BitcoinJS - markmassie http://bitcoinjs.org/ ====== benmanns As an experiment I sent 0.0005 BTC to the address corresponding to the private key in the documentation (L1uyy5qTuGrVXrmrsvHWHgVzW9kKdrp27wBC7Vs6nZDTF2BRUVwy -> 17XBj6iFEsf8kzDMGQk5ghZipxX49VXuaV). Within seconds someone had already transferred it out to 1ENnzep2ivWYqXjAodTueiZscT6kunAyYs. [address] [https://blockchain.info/address/17XBj6iFEsf8kzDMGQk5ghZipxX4...](https://blockchain.info/address/17XBj6iFEsf8kzDMGQk5ghZipxX49VXuaV) [thief?] [https://blockchain.info/address/1ENnzep2ivWYqXjAodTueiZscT6k...](https://blockchain.info/address/1ENnzep2ivWYqXjAodTueiZscT6kunAyYs) ~~~ benmanns Wow! Tried it with the other private key[0] and the same thing happened. Upon some searching it looks like the recipient belongs to a Russian named amaclin on the Bitcoin forum[1] who has a script running to empty published private keys as soon as a transaction hits the network. [0] [https://blockchain.info/address/14bZ7YWde4KdRb5YN7GYkToz3EHV...](https://blockchain.info/address/14bZ7YWde4KdRb5YN7GYkToz3EHVCvRxkF) [1] [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=655092.msg7358079#ms...](https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=655092.msg7358079#msg7358079) ~~~ amaclin Help me please to understand the following transactions: [https://blockchain.info/address/1HcBw7XNKm6NoVJ4s5sSZPL9JGeB...](https://blockchain.info/address/1HcBw7XNKm6NoVJ4s5sSZPL9JGeB8a9STj) (look from bottom to top) Send 0.0001 to 1HcBw7XNKm6NoVJ4s5sSZPL9JGeB8a9STj , then spend change to 1HcBw7XNKm6NoVJ4s5sSZPL9JGeB8a9STj, then spend change to 1HcBw7XNKm6NoVJ4s5sSZPL9JGeB8a9STj... etc 9 times. And the last transaction is sending 9 utxos to 1Q76cQw9Rmw4TathPdYdR34GXSGKZKnLQy - the address of private key which was published earlier on page [https://www.npmjs.org/package/simplebtc](https://www.npmjs.org/package/simplebtc) wtf? ------ mifreewil how much overlap is there with BitPay's Bitcore? I do believe both projects originated from Stefan Thomas' original work on BitcoinJS ~~~ sida You are correct. Both projects come from Stefan Thomas's original BitcoinJS. Both projects (bitcore vs bitcoinjs) are very similar. I would say the main difference you will find is mostly at a DSL level. I find that bitcoinjs has nicer syntax than bitcore. Bitcore has a fairly loose syntax. And a function can takes many different types of argument. As an example: [https://github.com/bitpay/bitcore/blob/master/lib/Hierarchic...](https://github.com/bitpay/bitcore/blob/master/lib/HierarchicalKey.js#L17-L54) If you pass no argument, it defaults to a new BIP32 key on mainnet. Or you can pass in a network argument, or you can pass in a string private key. Bitcoinjs-lib on the other hand, enforces fairly strict typing on functions. Functions often only take one particular type, as an example: [https://github.com/bitcoinjs/bitcoinjs- lib/blob/master/src/h...](https://github.com/bitcoinjs/bitcoinjs- lib/blob/master/src/hdnode.js#L73-L75) This function only takes a string key in base58 format. In my experience of using both, it is easy to have programmer error in bitcore, because its syntax is so loose. Whereas it is a lot harder to make programmer errors in bitcoinjs-lib. Given that this is financial software, I prefer the bitcoinjs-lib approach. For example, One problem I encountered with bitcore was I made a mistake in the derivation path of a bip32 key. Instead path of 'M/1/0/1', I mistakenly used 'M/1/0/1/undefined'. Bitcore happily derived a key for me. This is the type of errors you don't tend to get with bitcoinjs. ------ indutny Hey guys! Still not considering to use [https://github.com/indutny/elliptic](https://github.com/indutny/elliptic) for your EC operations? It seems like Bitcore has moved to it, and are quite fine with the results: [http://blog.bitpay.com/2014/07/22/bitcore-3000-is-three- time...](http://blog.bitpay.com/2014/07/22/bitcore-3000-is-three-times-faster- for-bitcoin-on-the-web.html) ~~~ jonpaul Lead developer of [http://cryptocoinjs.com](http://cryptocoinjs.com) here. Also maintainer of [https://github.com/cryptocoinjs/ecurve](https://github.com/cryptocoinjs/ecurve) (what bitcoinjs-lib) uses for EC operations. I've worked with the lead developers of bitcoinjs-lib on ecurve so I think that I'd be qualified to answer this. The main reason was that (1-2 months) ago when we were cleaning up ecurve, we had considered using your elliptic library, but we had problems with such simple operations in bn.js (your big integer library that elliptic depends upon) where arithmetic was incorrect for simple operations like -1 + 2 = -3 (don't quote me on that exact one). So at the time, we felt it wasn't battle tested. But they (we?) have every intention of switching to elliptic in the future. ~~~ cryptbe I took a quick look at your implementation of ECDSA and I think it has a bug at line 311 [1]. It looks like I could bypass the check if r or s is negative. One thing that I don't understand is why big integer libraries developed exclusively for crypto need negative numbers. The library [2] that I contribute to doesn't need them, and it works just fine. Actually I could argue that having only non-negative numbers make it simpler and faster. [1] [https://github.com/cryptocoinjs/ecdsa/blob/master/lib/ecdsa....](https://github.com/cryptocoinjs/ecdsa/blob/master/lib/ecdsa.js#L311) [2] [https://code.google.com/p/end-to- end/source/browse/javascrip...](https://code.google.com/p/end-to- end/source/browse/javascript/crypto/e2e/ecc/) ~~~ dcousens Its not really a bug, the operations after it would still be valid (it is almost immediately reduced to the field order), its just that those parameters would not be akin to the SEC paper specification. I agree that the honus isn't on the users to check that though, so I'm probably going to make a pull request to change this.[1] [1] [https://github.com/bitcoinjs/bitcoinjs- lib/pull/250](https://github.com/bitcoinjs/bitcoinjs-lib/pull/250) ~~~ cryptbe What might happen if r = s = -n? I think it's pure luck that this doesn't lead to a signature forgery. ~~~ dcousens You're not wrong. Thanks for pointing this out, thankfully the implementation already failed on a negative s value, but you're correct in that it wasn't definitive. I also whole-heartedly agree with your comment about the unnecessary inclusion of a bignum that allows for negative values. The lack of typing in this (and other cases) has lead to several problematic scenarios for users to the point we have littered the code with assertions to enforce whatever we can. ------ abrkn It's been over a year since the team started with justmoon's bitcoinjs-lib and I'm very impressed with the result. Good work, kyle, wei, and everyone! ------ loucal I love the "Who's not?" section under who's using it ... -Your bank :) ------ chucknelson This does not make sense to me: > BitcoinJS 1.0 Released! ...further down the page... > Documentation: Soon! ~~~ weilu Why not? 1.0.0 is yet another version number. We have significant API changes since the original 0.1.3 tag. The sooner we get on 1.0.0, the sooner we can move on with proper semver in our lives. Documentation is still lacking for bitcoinjs-lib. PRs and volunteers welcome =) Meanwhile, developers can reference our tests for examples; and join IRC #bitcoinjs-dev if you have any questions.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
The Hobbit House (2012) - Tomte http://www.beingsomewhere.net/hobbit.htm ====== darsham The frame and rafters seem solid (as long as you don't stress it too much), but it seems inevitable that the roots of plants will pierce the plastic layer, and rain will drain though the roof. I know it's heavy duty plastic, but the roots of small plants can crack rock. It's hard to tell from all these 200x200px pictures, but is the plastic the first thing on the ceiling? If that's the case, you might patch it up as it gets punctured or replace whole sections of it. I'm very curious as to how the house and vegetation will evolve on the long term, because this is pretty much my dream house. Edit: After looking at the rest of the website, it becomes clear that they know what they're doing. I'm still curious about the details. ------ jqm Very cool. It looks so easy from the article but I doubt it actually is. (I notice this was the authors second attempt). Side note... the father-in-law in the picture actually looks like a Hobbit in the picture. Coincidence? ~~~ saalweachter Dress for the job you want. ------ nakedrobot2 This is one of the most over-shared web pages I know. What on earth is it doing here on HN? ------ kcbanner The only thing that concerns me here is the structural soundness, very cool project though. ~~~ Kronopath I agree. From the captions on the construction pictures: _> Lift logs, prop up, nail together and continue until no longer wobbly._ That's not very reassuring. ~~~ emidln On the other hand, while structural soundness was much worse in the past than it might be today, this method has served humanity fairly well for a very long time. ------ pessimizer If you're interested in this sort of thing, I'd recommend (amongst many other works): [http://www.amazon.com/Shelter-Lloyd- Kahn/dp/0936070110/](http://www.amazon.com/Shelter-Lloyd-Kahn/dp/0936070110/) [http://www.amazon.com/Shelter-II-Lloyd- Kahn/dp/0936070498/](http://www.amazon.com/Shelter-II-Lloyd- Kahn/dp/0936070498/) I'm pretty sure this house was featured in one of them. ------ koliber This looks like a very neat project. I am tremendously curious how this will hold up with time. I have recently finished building a house (as an inexperienced general contractor). A ton of things deal with how things will behave over time as opposed to how they will work right after construction has finished. I am particularly curious about the fairly loosely-packed bales of hay and the plastic used to waterproof the roof. ~~~ sejje This has been on the internet, at least, for a few years. Those are the original project photos--I've not seen any updated ones. ~~~ jff I seem to remember reading about people living in a hobbit-house type thing (I think it may have been this one) leaving after a few years. I don't remember if the house had become unsound or if the local government finally caught wind of their "nail it together until it stops wobbling" building technique and condemned the place. ------ Qantourisc Love these kinds of houses, however getting a construction permit is hard. First there is the "is it structurally ok ?", but cob houses can be build correctly. And second is getting the "looks" approved, all houses have to look the same and all that :( ------ drcube Not that this isn't awesome, but aren't hobbit houses underground? With networks of tunnels and hillside windows and entrances? This looks like a rustic country house with a green roof. As much as I like this, I'd prefer something actually underground. ~~~ izzydata Sounds more like dwarfs. Pretty confident Bilbo's house did not have any other homes connected to it. It was built into the side of a hill as a standalone home. ~~~ drcube I meant that the several rooms of a single home were connected by tunnels, not that multiple homes were connected together. This is always how I've imagined my dream house to be. Energy efficient, immersed in nature, easy to hide if necessary. ------ _mulder_ One of the big problems, at least in the overcrowded UK, is getting your hands on a suitable parcel of land in an area sympathetic to this sort of development. ~~~ dbingham This is a problem in the US as well. There are numerous ecovillages way out in rural areas in counties with relatively lax regulations, places like Dancing Rabbit ([http://www.dancingrabbit.org/](http://www.dancingrabbit.org/)) and Earthhaven ([http://www.earthaven.org/](http://www.earthaven.org/)), but there are many more communities where you can't even plant a garden. You have to maintain a perfect lawn or else. I live in an ecovillage that is attempting this sort of building in a (small) city. It's a city that is generally friendly to our efforts, but city, county and state code still make it pretty much prohibitively expensive. We're still trying to find a way through it, at least to a happy medium. ------ fusionefredda Simply amazing! ------ tootie Does it, um have a toilet? Or electricity? ~~~ jarito Read the article. It has a composting toilet, uses skylights for daylight illumination and has solar panels for electrical needs. Doesn't seem to use it for refrigeration though, which seems limiting. ~~~ welly I live in a similar-ish situation where I live on a narrowboat in London. I have a solar panel for electrical needs and I run the boat engine once every few days during the winter. For refrigeration, I've got a 12v fridge but many people I know use gas fridges. Fridges use up an amazing amount of power. But the fridge is really the only thing I run off electricity - occasionally charge up my laptop and charge my phone off the 12v supply. But yes, my boat batteries are pretty much there only for the fridge.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
UI Movement – The best UI design inspiration, every day - ingve http://uimovement.com/ ====== ramykhuffash Just noticed this got posted (thanks ingve). I made & launched this a couple of weeks or so ago - it's been going pretty well so far! If you have any questions or feedback, let me know! ------ MrAndyDavis Great curation of UI!	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
AI technologies that could make chatbots intelligent - daoudc https://hackernoon.com/three-ai-technologies-that-could-make-chatbots-intelligent-10f8c6e8b4b0 ====== sharemywin The project seems interesting. Wonder if the modules could have plugins so the decision like which semantic parse is configurable?	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Move over NSA, here comes the Obamacare Big Brother database - dyinglobster http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials-verbatim/062513-661264-obamacare-database-hub-creates-privacy-nightmare.htm?p=full ====== cleverjake The government will have access to a persons current status in other government programs? How does that compare, let alone surpass the government intercepting private phone calls and other communication? ~~~ falk This article is nothing but partisan politics. People voted for Obama twice knowing his healthcare plan/stance, but we didn't vote for the guy to have him spy on us and take away our 4th amendment rights.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Where do all the censored developers go? - yasp https://danielpocock.com/where-do-censored-developers-go/ ====== firasd What if a lot of this culture war stuff is happening in the US because of geographic clustering? I'm not sure why a couple hundred twitter-addicted people from Portland/Seattle/SF get to pontificate all the time about who or what should be allowed in 'tech', which is a giant global industry... I appreciate the 'Awokening' in American political culture to some extent but I've never really been comfortable with stances like, "by including X person, you are excluding me." There's some creepiness to it I can't quite put my finger on. Also, the more you take this to an extreme and purge everyone who isn’t fully aligned with your thoughts and values, you’re just going to end up in a very insular group that isn’t reflective of how things work in the outside world. ~~~ jdnenej American politics is incredibly toxic and counter productive. Why can't people keep politics and productive work separate. This goes for both sides, people need to stop sharing political rants in spaces dedicated for work and people need to stop digging in to contributors social media pages to find something bad. ~~~ john_moscow >Why can't people keep politics and productive work separate. They do. Most of the toxic political bullshit happens when you have a large enough group of people that don't have enough productive work to engage in. Take any profitable bootstrapped company behind a product with an actual user base and the toxicity levels drop exponentially. That said, in the current investment climate, toxic bullshit unfortunately pays more than productive work. ------ StudentStuff The journey to software freedom has been bogged down for too long by people that drive away large chunks of potential developers & users[1]. If you want to be caustic, we won't stop you, but you can't come into community events like LinuxFest Northwest, SeaGL & such, shit on people there who are writing libre software, and expect us to invite you to come back. 1 - [https://www.networkworld.com/article/2988850/linux-kernel- de...](https://www.networkworld.com/article/2988850/linux-kernel-dev-sarah- sharp-quits-citing-brutal-communications-style.html) ~~~ michannne I thought the idea was to keep software free, not attract as many people as you possibly can ~~~ StudentStuff That is my point, AGPLv3 is rarely used due to the antics of certain free software advocates. Ethically, there is a huge swath of developers that aligns with writing code under libre licenses, but gets turned off when they see our community filled with people that lash out at them needlessly. ~~~ michannne I personally have never considered anything other than the license text when choosing a license, and from my experience, anyone I've worked with chooses MIT because it makes open-sourcing easier. Never have I seen anyone in the wild discuss FSF as a reason for not choosing any GPL-class license, but maybe I'm hanging around the wrong places. ------ mindingdata For those of us sitting here reading this and thinking it sounds like the ramblings of a madman writing on a public bathroom wall, can someone explain what this is about? ~~~ twic I clicked some links and ended up reading [1], and if anything, i understand even less than when i started. Mollamby. EDIT: And the author has another piece featuring none other than Debian Grand Champion of Drama, Ian Jackson! [2] [1] [https://danielpocock.com/assets/mollamby.pdf](https://danielpocock.com/assets/mollamby.pdf) [2] [https://danielpocock.com/codes-of-conduct-and- hypocrisy/](https://danielpocock.com/codes-of-conduct-and-hypocrisy/) ------ sdan Catch 22 just happened. This was just "censored" by being flagged itself. Made me laugh. ~~~ dan-robertson Why is that a catch 22? ~~~ all2 Damned if its shared, damned if it isn't. In other words, there is no course of action for discourse (no discourse if it isn't shared, banned if it is shared). This may be a false dichotomy? Perhaps it could be shared elsewhere? But where else (other than here) is there such a concentration of people in tech? ~~~ doubleunplussed At the risk of talking about fight club, the weekly culture war thread on /r/TheMotte is where I would post something like this, if I wanted discussion by smart people without the risk of it getting deleted. ------ bbanyc We've tried free speech, and it always turns into a cesspit of spam and abuse and illegal activity. Censorship is inevitable. That's not the question. The only questions are: who? whom? The writer linked here rants and raves, and gets censored for ranting and raving. I might have had a modicum of concern if he had something meaningful to say. ------ vfclists Whenever grassroots level organizations (genuine and pseudo), become successful, corporate organisations get their agents to work their way in to take it over eventually. Others get involved with the intention of taking over and selling out to corporations. This is what is happening. It is nothing new. ~~~ vfclists When I posted this comment just 52 minutes ago. This article was no 3 on hackernews. It is disappeared so fast I can't believe it. I have scrolled to page 10 and it still nowhere to be found. amazing ------ fzeroracer Calling this a 'lynching' is remarkably offensive and tone deaf. People focus on the latest remarks RMS made and pretend that was his only offense, while ignoring the years of egregious behavior and anecdotes others have brought up about him. ~~~ siliconpotato Not only that, he has a habit of frequently equating minor acts performed as part of free software politics to terrible crimes perpetuated by ceaucescu , Iran, etc	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Show HN: Custom New Tab page for Firefox - jakke https://github.com/jakke-korpelainen/newtab ====== jamiesonbecker Looks fantastic. It did take a few minutes to get forked over and modify for location, °F instead of °C, etc. Perhaps a future version could use a config.js or something that would just swap those. For the record, you want to edit _js /scripts/controllers.js_ and _js /scripts/view/dashboard.html_. Replacing Helsinki in the _openweathermap.org_ link with your plain text city name seems to work. For Fahrenheit, replace the "var temp" line in _controllers.js_ with: var temp = Math.round(((parseInt(data.main.temp) - 273.15) * 9/5) + 32, 2) + "°F"; I didn't get the github.io pages working in less than a few minutes, so I just grabbed it locally where it'll probably work faster anyway. Thanks also for the great plugin link. Excellent work Jakke, beautiful typography. ~~~ asyncwords Similarly, if you prefer the American date format you can change the two $scope.text lines near the end of _controllers.js_ to $scope.text = "Good " + $scope.getStateOfDay(moment().get('hour')) + ", today is " + moment().format('dddd MM/DD/YYYY') + "."; which looks like ' _Thursday 03 /12/2015_'; or you can change both lines to $scope.text = "Good " + $scope.getStateOfDay(moment().get('hour')) + ", today is " + moment().format('dddd, MMMM DD, YYYY') + "."; which looks like ' _Thursday, March 12, 2015_ '. ------ throwaway182734 I'm the author of the cited add-on: Custom-New-Tab ([https://addons.mozilla.org/en/firefox/addon/custom-new- tab/](https://addons.mozilla.org/en/firefox/addon/custom-new-tab/)). Thank you so much for promoting it jakke (OP)! Just wanted to quickly respond to the few comments in this thread about my addon. \- It doesn't work for FF on Android (I have never looked into it). \- It's true that setting browser.newtab.url does achieve similar functionality but only Custom-New-Tab properly places the focus! \- CNT can fix your "blanking the URL" problem. Check out the preferences. ------ explorigin Looks really nice. Out of curiosity, why did you use Angular? For a simple, non-interactive page Angular seems like overkill. ~~~ jakke Thanks! Yeah, you're right. I just love angular and was testing how I'll get it to work with RequireJs, which sort of ended up in this ------ erikano Looks nice. Off topic: Thank you for the link to the Custom New Tab addon -- been thinking I wanted something like that in my Firefox but hadn't thought to actually look it up. That addon doesn't seem to work for current Firefox on Android, unfortunately. Btw, your link to the addon in your README makes the page show in Finnish, you might want to change your link to point to the English URL. ------ rdebeasi This is a really cool start! In the future, I'd love to be able to set preferences and save them to local storage. (For example, it would be nice to be able to set date formatting or location.) I know I could grab a copy of the code and then change those things myself, but then upgrades would be a pain. Overall, though, good stuff! ~~~ jakke Thanks! I've now added basic level customization from user.json, supports location but I'll work on the date time formatting also in near future. ------ simi_ As a long time user of Momentum, I like how this looks better. I've never seriously used the "main focus for today" feature. ~~~ filiwickers You can turn it off in settings on the bottom left. ------ wongarsu This looks really nice, I'm going to set this up. If you want to keep developing this, you should think about packaging this into a convenient addon. But what I'm missing most right now is a license file! Right now it's just copyrighted without giving anyone the permission to copy or modify it. I don't think that's your intention (If you don't want to think about it, the MIT licence is a good choice) ------ potch Incidentally, you can do this without installing an addon. In about:config, set the `browser.newtab.url` to any URL (file:///, local, or otherwise) you wish. This is really slick- nice work! ------ detaro Looks nice. The weather info doesn't show in the demo for me for some reason? EDIT: only works over HTTP, not HTTPS ------ duvander This looks great. I use something similar* in Chrome for a similar effect. I like that you can make it exactly what you want with your version. * [http://momentumdash.com/](http://momentumdash.com/) ~~~ Majestic121 According to the description, it is indeed based on Momentum. ------ skykooler An issue I've found is that the URL stays in the address bar. This seems to be caused by Angular adding "#/" to the page URL after it is loaded - any idea how to fix this? ~~~ jakke Be sure to link it to the #/ address if you're using the plugin. I had the same problem, this is because the router is redirecting all to the #/-address. ~~~ skykooler I ended up rewriting the page without any JS frameworks - now it's a lot more compact. Index.html: [http://pastebin.com/EwUDuhYG](http://pastebin.com/EwUDuhYG) ~~~ jakke Neat, thanks for sharing! I ended up using a framework because I had plans to make this easy to customize and add a few more features. ------ milankragujevic Excellent! Much better than what I made for personal use, and it's great that you open sourced it. I'll set it up on my local web server and start using it. ~~~ jakke Thanks for the feedback! I've had a few prototypes along the years but this was actually something that I figured someone would be interested in. I'll continue to develop this and add customizable user settings etc when I have time ~~~ milankragujevic [http://milankragujevic.com/projects/newtab/](http://milankragujevic.com/projects/newtab/) [http://milankragujevic.com/projects/newtab/newtab.zip](http://milankragujevic.com/projects/newtab/newtab.zip) Here's something I made, since your version doesn't work. It's a rip off of your work, but none of the code is taken and the temperature display works. It's much simpler, doesn't use any fancy JS, and is contained in 4 JS files including jquery and the quotes and the config. ------ sunilkumarc Is there any other better Javascript library than Moment.js to play around with dates ? ~~~ sleepyhead No. Are there any issues with it you think? ~~~ sunilkumarc Not any that I can think of. I just wanted different way of handling dates. ------ tiggr Interesting to see the image get garbled in Safari 8.0.3. ------ tarball Inspiring! Here is mine: [http://i.imgur.com/HICxcIs.png](http://i.imgur.com/HICxcIs.png) ------ lcnmrn about:blank does its job!	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: What's the best way to reach out to Angel/pre-seed investors in the US? - abdelhai Hello HN, I'm currently working on technical product for developers and am thinking of raising an angel/pre-seed round from US investors to help me get to the first users.<p>I'm currently based in Berlin, Germany. Here, it's hard to find investors, who are interested in developer-related products, especially at this early stage (1 founder + MVP).<p>I'm already talking to local investors but am curious about other options.<p>I was advised to create a US-company via Stripe Atlas. Will this help?<p>Anyone went through similar challenges? Curious to know!<p>Thank you! ====== rman666 Not to rain on anyone’s parade, but it is hard to raise an angel/seed round anywhere, including the US. I would think this would be doubly true for someone based outside the US (trying to raise in the US) working on a developer-related product. Just my 2-cents. ~~~ abdelhai Thank you for answering. True, it's definitely not easy but statically possible. This is why I'm asking for advice. ------ pavanman5000 If you could move to San Francisco that could greatly increase your odds. The Bay Area is a tech mecca and there are lots of meetups, accelerators and people that culturally match your passion. You could go to demo days, parties and network + pitch. It's a hustle to raise funding and you'll need a great team, idea and traction to show that you're worthy. You can find relatively low cost housing here as long as you don't mind renting a shared room: [https://www.facebook.com/groups/390478684333910/](https://www.facebook.com/groups/390478684333910/)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
I2 Files Suit Against Palantir Technologies - Misappropriation Trade Secrets - elblanco http://www.i2group.com/uk/about-i2/news/media-advisory-from-i2 ====== elblanco The filed complaint: <http://www.scribd.com/doc/36371667/i2-v-palantir-080910> For those not in the know, i2 is the maker of what's essentially the Microsoft word of this particular industry. They're the defacto standard. i2 is also well known for being insanely hard to work with both with customers as well as by system integrators. Palantir has been vacuuming up a lot of their business recently and they're really starting to get kicked out of some traditional spaces they normally have a safe monopoly in. One way that's being done is through interoperability with i2's products. Folks in the community have long wondered how that was done since i2 generally safeguards their file specifications pretty tightly and is very careful about who they license to. The assumption was that Palantir, with the huge resources at their disposal simply put a team on it to reverse engineer it. This suit is largely about this if I understand correctly and the claim is that Palantir didn't reverse engineer it, but instead used an illegally licensed SDK, purchased through a shell company setup by a Palantir employee in order to trick i2 into licensing their SDK to a competitor when they had no intention of doing so. Actually, the whole scheme sounds like a great corporate espionage demo for both company's products. ------ metachris Sounds like an attempt by i2 to crush a new competitor with a very vague lawsuit. Hard to tell if it has any merit. ~~~ davidu Actually the press release seems relatively specific in their claims. I'd expect the actual complaint to be even more explicit. If it's true, it will not be very hard to prove. As an aside, this stuff happens quite often. It's inappropriate and should never be condoned by anyone in an organization. I think people doing it often forget that these kind of actions can be considered illegal in some cases and jurisdictions, or at the very least a serious violation of licensing agreements. ~~~ _delirium It's interesting that they were caught and are being sued. My impression is that this happens all the time in hardware, for example: companies are often using somewhat shady means to get early copies of competitors' prototypes to do teardowns on. Obviously they don't just go to their competitor, identify themselves honestly, and ask to buy a copy. It's usually via front companies, or via contacts at legitimate companies who'll get dev samples legitimately but slip you one, or via side deals with Taiwanese or Chinese fabs, who'll set one aside for you. AFAIK that almost never gets caught/prosecuted. ------ jasonlotito Seems oddly appropriate that Palantir would be accused of stealing secrets.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Start my Start-up for a required internship - thatusertwo I'm a college student with a university education, in order to graduate we are required to do a co-op/internship. I want to spend my 4 to 6 weeks getting my start up off the ground. What sorts of things could I do to convince my program administrator to allow me to do this as an alternative? ====== HelgeSeetzen Internships are about learning, so you need to convince your administrator that you will get a valuable learning experience. "Learning by doing" is a cliche that probably won't be enough for your administrator. Universities have a mindset that connects learning directly with teaching (not doing). They aren't completely wrong on this, in that good learning comes from doing things properly and teachers can often define "properly" for you. My recommendation would be to join an accelerators or incubator program. That gives you the mentors/teachers necessary to satisfy the "learning" requirements of the university. Alternatively, try to find experienced partners for your stand-alone venture (sort of arranging your own private accelerator program). As a last resort, maybe you can get a traditonal internship in an established start-up that relates to your space. You could then pitch your project within that start-up. Who knows, they might pick up on it. ~~~ jeffmould Agree completely with your response. I can see both sides to the university theory of teaching, not doing that make the experience valuable. On one side, with doing your own startup there are no control structures in place on you so you are often just shooting at moving targets with the goal. The university likes to see specific learning experiences from the internship. On the other hand, some internships are nothing more than glorified mailroom people with no "real" learning being achieved. I like your advice on going with an incubator or accelerator program to get started. Another option is if the OP is dead set on doing his/her own startup as part of the program, would be to go into the administration with a predefined list of objectives/goals to accomplish within the time period that are directly related to the degree path. For example, if it is a business degree, make the goals business oriented, such as incorporation, accounting structure, etc... If the degree path is programming related, make the goals such as having an MVP developed or building out the landing page for the site, etc... Even interning at an established startup can get turned down if the administration does not feel the experience is valuable. So the whole point of the effort would be to prove to them that you will learn/gain more by doing your own startup. ------ thatusertwo Thanks for the suggestions guys, the course coordinator said he couldn't let me do it cause then anyone could say that is what they were doing.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Geoff Ralston, Y Combinator President, supports gun confiscation orders, UBCs - wowzap https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/1699-gun-control-letter-to-the-sena/3258ed616a016f80dfa3/optimized/full.pdf#page=1 ====== yongjik Stop editorializing the title. The link is just a PDF file of a public petition to the Senate, where the bolded paragraph reads: > That's why we urge the Senate to stand with the American public and take > action on gun safety by passing a bill to require background checks on all > gun sales and a strong Red Flag law that would allow courts to issue life- > saving extreme risk protection orders. And nowhere in the document appears "confiscation", "confiscate", etc. ~~~ wowzap Red Flag Laws = Gun Confiscation Orders. Just because they aren't using the most accurate terms doesn't mean I am editorializing the article. Look at their implementation in the states. All of these laws have the same ends, gun confiscation before due process. Maybe the due process takes place in a week, maybe it takes place in a year, in any case, these are gun confiscation orders with no conviction of a crime and in many cases, no evidence that a crime has even occurred. Red Flag Laws = Gun Confiscation Orders. ~~~ yongjik Guns = Lethal Killing Machines, but if New York Times writes "Silicon Valley luminaries want fewer lethal killing machines in society" I'm pretty sure you'll be unhappy about the title. Editorializing is editorializing. ------ mindcrime It's sad to see an apparently intelligent person embrace this kind of stupidity. Rates of firearms ownership in the US have been declining steadily anyway, so even IF you buy the idea that gun violence is increasing (and there's evidence that it isn't), then you have to question how "more gun control" is the answer when gun ownership and violence are already un-correlated (or even negatively correlated). ~~~ wowzap Those are my feelings too.. I understand how the public can be swayed by inaccurate media representations, but it's Y Combinator which seems to portray itself as a source of intelligent people. ~~~ mindcrime The thing is, I can understand people who, swayed by inflammatory media reporting and Bloomberg-funded propaganda, experience an emotional reaction to these various shooting incidents, and immediately think "something MUST be done". I get it, even if I think most of their proposals are useless, or actively harmful, in terms of reducing violence and protecting the innocent. BUT, I think a lot of people on the "more gun control" side are actually pushing a very specific agenda, which has absolutely nothing to do with "public safety" or "protecting the children" at all. It's an ideological / elitist mentality that says "only WE should have guns, and the common riff- raff need to be disarmed one way or another". This position I have zero sympathy towards, and the only correct response to this, IMO, is "come and take 'em". #molonlabe ------ sarcasmatwork @GeoffRalston, Who is giving you money to say and agree on dumb shit like this? Go read the Obama era CDC research on gun violence and learn something instead of agreeing to things that are not based on facts. [https://www.gunsandammo.com/editorial/cdc-gun-research- backf...](https://www.gunsandammo.com/editorial/cdc-gun-research-backfires-on- obama/249799)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Announcing the new pricing plan for AWS Config rules - brad0 https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/05/announcing-the-new-pricing-plan-for-aws-config-rules/ ====== jcims I honestly don't understand how AWS expects folks to take Config seriously when it's missing support for the majority of the AWS services portfolio. [https://docs.aws.amazon.com/config/latest/developerguide/res...](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/config/latest/developerguide/resource- config-reference.html) It's incredibly frustrating too, because the Config recorder builds a nice graph of related objects for you (although it would be nice if they added ARN references rather than just IDs) and the Config rules 'marketplace' could be a nice place for vendors to ship a variety of regulatory and standards compliance kits. We have hundreds of AWS accounts and all but ignore the service in favor of third party, open source and in-house built products with appropriate coverage. ~~~ __coaxialcabal What tools do you find useful? ~~~ jcims I won't go into detail for us but there are some good tools on this page - [https://asecure.cloud/tools/#Security%20Assessment](https://asecure.cloud/tools/#Security%20Assessment) ------ echohack5 What is the benefit of running this instead of using tools like Chef InSpec ([https://github.com/inspec/inspec](https://github.com/inspec/inspec)) or Cloud Custodian ([https://github.com/cloud-custodian/cloud- custodian](https://github.com/cloud-custodian/cloud-custodian))? ------ reilly3000 This is welcome. I got a rude awakening the first time I turned config rules on when the bill came in, and it kept coming even after they were killed in the UI. I had racked up over $100 in a few months in config bills with the rules being disabled but in an odd state. Thankfully AWS gave us a credit, but I haven't really wanted to mess with them since. I'll give them another look now that the pricing is more in line with a usage model. ------ DonHopkins >AWS Config helps you assess and maintain compliance over your AWS resource configurations. Well that's pretty cheeky, calling all us developers asses! ;) What, that word was "assess"? Oh, never mind. -The Emily Litella of the Net	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
The Thirty-Seven Basic Plots, According to a Screenwriter of the Silent Film Era - samclemens http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2015/10/27/history_of_screenwriting_a_master_book_of_plots.html ====== te_platt One movie I've always had a hard time categorizing is Groundhog Day. I went through the 37 plots listed and still don't see a good match. Does achieving enlightenment count as a plot? ~~~ Jtsummers A second reply, because this is about the movie _Groundhog Day_ and not the topic at hand. Something that really bugs me about most people's references to the movie is that they grossly miss the point. When most people reference it they refer to something about their dull repetitive life, or being stuck in a rut. But that's not what happens in the movie. He literally experiences the same thing for hundreds of days to hundreds of years (depending on interpretation). But something happens, he realizes the numerous opportunities present in this same, repeated, "uneventful" day. Sure, the daily grind of wake, commute, work, commute, dinner, TV, sleep, repeat is dull and repetitive. But unlike Phil, we don't have an infinite number of times to do this before we learn our lesson and change our approach. We get 100 years on the outside, 60 productive years for most of us. Even if you're doing the same thing each day, how do you spend the rest of your time? If it's living for the weekend, that's 5 evenings a week you've wasted. Fill it with time with family, friends, learning, hobbies, something. Become the best person you can be, because one day the repetition will end. What will you have to show for it? Will you have just worked yourself to death and memorized every line of Star Wars, or will you be making ice sculptures with a chainsaw? ~~~ david-given Why do I need to show anything for it? That's a serious question; if I like working and enjoy memorising Star Wars, why shouldn't I do that? Why can't I focus my life around the things _I_ enjoy doing, rather than concentrating on all the things which I _could_ be doing (but can't do, because of any number of reasons) and end up miserable and feeling like I'm wasting my life? ~~~ Jtsummers If that's what you enjoy, that's fine. But many people don't really enjoy their work, it's just work. What they enjoy is done on the weekends or holidays. How many people waste 2 or 3 hours commuting each day, time away from the family they ostensibly want to be with, for work, and then lament, when their children are grown, missing out on those years? If Star Wars and your job are the things you _want_ to be doing, do them. That's fantastic. If dancing or drawing or rebuilding a jeep are what you want to do, but can't because of work, find some other job or some better way to do your current job. And don't feel beholden to others to do things or enjoy things because that's what they expect of you. I fucking hate the Star * franchises (or, more accurately, what they've become and their fanbases). But I work with people who love them (in their current incarnations). But in this field (computer programming), everyone thinks I'm weird. Same with video games, I enjoy them to an extent, but I've played them enough to know that I want to do other things. OTOH, don't listen to me if that's what you enjoy and I tell you to stop. If it's what you want to do, do it. But if it's what you want to do, and something in your life is holding you back that you want to change (as opposed to certain obligations, like an SO, that you shouldn't or don't want to change), then find a way to get that time back. EDIT: Hell. If your work and Star Wars memorization are what you really want. Make that commute work for you. Ride a train and get more work done. Or listen to the movies on your drive. I'm doing that with my current attempt at learning Italian. That's one of the ways people miss the point. The time is there for you to do many (though not all) of the things you want to do now, you just have to realize it and take it back. EDIT Further: And I guess, with regard to having something to "show" for it. At the end of your life, do you think that you will be happy with how you led it? Did you achieve all, most or even some of your goals? It's not just a result to show to others, but also an internal understanding of where you are and what you have achieved (or not) and why. If I get married and have kids, I probably won't achieve most of the travel I want to in this lifetime. But I'll probably be happy to have made that trade. But if I can't achieve that goal because I decided to work until I was 70, then, for me, that will have been a failure. So I've set myself on a course to avoid that. ~~~ kefka > But many people don't really enjoy their work, it's just work. That's because the threat in our economy is "If you don't work, you don't eat and you will go homeless." And that's a strong motivator to put up with shit at the workplace. Most people aren't wealthy. ~~~ ghaff Well, that's been more or less the situation for everyone since the beginning of history excepting a very small slice of the population born into or married into a privileged elite class--and not even all of them. ~~~ TeMPOraL Just because this has been the norm since beginning of civilization, doesn't mean it has to be like that forever. We really do have the technology now to relieve everyone of that burden; we only need more social will (and less referring to Idiocracy, Wall-E and "oh all those people who will be drinking their UBI in front of the TV") and a path through the phase-space of economy. ------ jsnathan If I understand this right then these 37 'situations' are to be composed into specific 'plots' by mixing and matching. This would be in contrast with the '7 basic plots'[1] and would yield much more specific results. I wonder if they can be combined at random.. almost seems like they can be for pairs. [1]: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Basic_Plots](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Basic_Plots) ~~~ proksoup There's a whole body of work that I think could be categorized as "1 basic plot". Joseph Campbell I think did a lot about this idea, but Dan Harmon[1] always explained it best for me. [1]: [http://channel101.wikia.com/wiki/Story_Structure_101:_Super_...](http://channel101.wikia.com/wiki/Story_Structure_101:_Super_Basic_Shit) ~~~ mentos thanks for this I think Dan Harmon is a creative genius really enjoying this explanation of story structure ------ 6stringmerc And, according to Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon's screenwriting book, a successful movie should abide by a very simple 3 Act formula (paraphrased): Act 1: Introduce Nice Guy Act 2: Get Nice Guy stuck in a tree, throw rocks at him Act 3: Get him down from the tree Or, in other words, just watch _Die Hard_ enough to get the idea. ~~~ thaumasiotes Channeling the other comment tree, Groundhog Day never introduces any Nice Guy. The idea is that Phil develops into one over the course of the movie, although it's only apparent in the last (!) scene. ~~~ vacri "Nice guy" just means "person the audience can relate to". Phil isn't nice, but he's definitely relatable (if that's a word). This struck me in particular with Gilliam's _The Zero Theorem_ which I saw recently. I generally really like Gilliam films, but I struggled with _Zero Theorem_ precisely because the main character was so unrelatable. ~~~ thaumasiotes People differ. I tried to watch the Sopranos on the strength of many glowing reviews along the lines of "the apex of television". That failed. I can't stand the show because it has no sympathetic characters. Everyone is horrible to everyone else and in general. I agree about Phil though. ~~~ ghaff My general impression, based on the success of shows like The Sopranos (and Breaking Bad--although that's more complicated) is that at least a significant slice of the US audience is more willing to tolerate unsympathetic protagonists than was historically the case. Films have always been more varied but they don't require the ongoing commitment that a TV series does. ~~~ TheOtherHobbes Aristotle said that the basis of interesting writing is conflict, and writers have been copying him ever since. A plausible character with believable internal conflict is more interesting than a plausible character with external conflict - although ideally you want plenty of both. Audiences like a certain amount of ambiguity, especially if they sympathise with the challenges a character faces. But the old formulaic plot books are largely nonsense. I have a version from the late 19th century which predates silent movies by a few decades, but still claims to reduce drama to the same tropes. It doesn't work - except maybe as light entertainment. The book is full of references to plays that have been almost entirely forgotten now. Really good writing - Shakespeare, ancient Greek comedy/tragedy, a few more modern examples - works on a much deeper level than a trivial plot taxonomy. ------ asgard1024 I am thinking someone should do a similar list for technology news. For instance: \- A renowned researcher gives hope to solve a long-standing problem. \- A famous hacker releases some cool software (or hardware blueprints) as an open source project. \- Please take a minute to pay homage to somebody who accomplished great things. \- A pressing social problem became even more pressing. \- A noble individual gains a legal victory over a faceless institution. \- A corporation announces structural changes. ..and so on. And then perhaps somebody could write categorization software based on the list. ~~~ animal531 Renowned researcher [asgard1024] gives hope to solve a long-standing problem in [technology news]. ------ rayalez These interpretations are so silly. You can classify plots into any number of anything based on any merit. Will it be of any value though? Meh. I understand the natural human desire to figure out how stories work, but this is _not_ how it's done. On that topic, the best explanation I have ever read is the book "Story" by Robert McKee. I recommend it to everyone who is interested in the subject. It may still be imperfect, but he is very good at explaining things that are actually practically useful for writers and make a lot of sense. ------ yourcelf See also "Plotto: The Master Book of All Plots." [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11454870-plotto](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11454870-plotto) [http://www.npr.org/2012/02/19/146941343/plotto-an-algebra- bo...](http://www.npr.org/2012/02/19/146941343/plotto-an-algebra-book-for- fiction-writing) ------ jamesdutc I've heard people talk about there being two basic plots: - stranger comes to town - stranger leaves town You could similarly say that there are two basic plots: - love - hate Or even: - love/hate - indifference This is all very silly. Why not say that there is only one basic plot: \- something happens (or not) There are no classifications that are both neutral and useful. A useful classification corroborates a thesis, and, in this case, asserts an ordering or structuring of some set of objects. We could pick any arbitrary, discrete attribute and classify plots by each gradation of this attribute, like the above. Putting items in this classification is fun, but it doesn't generate knowledge if the classification does not convey some additional meaning. A phylogenetic tree or a periodic table impute some ordering on the natural world that allows us to make meaningful predictions about undiscovered animals and chemical elements. They also support scientific theses about evolutionary biology and modern chemistry. They are not neutral (purely descriptive) classifications. What additional knowledge do any of these story plot classifications give us? ~~~ hugh4 >What additional knowledge do any of these story plot classifications give us? Well, at the very least, it's a nice store of writing prompts. What I would say is that it's less of a classification and more of a map. Out of the vast space of _possible_ stories, here are the sections of story space which tend to get told again and again. Why? Because these are the sorts of stories are of interest to our silly human brains. Here's a story. One day a man bought a newspaper. Then he saw a giraffe, and he threw the newspaper into a river. The Queen of Denmark bought a trombone. Was that a good story? No, it was dull, incoherent and meaningless, just a sequence of actions. We can't identify with them at all. Here is another story. One day a man met a woman. But the Queen of Denmark kidnapped the woman. So the man went and rescued her. Now that's a _much_ better story! It needs a bit of fleshing out, but it's precisely the sort of sequence of actions that humans like being told about, over and over again. It's somewhat bizarre that humans should enjoy hearing lies about stuff that never actually happened, but we do -- only very specific types of lies about very specific types of stuff. This list is a vague attempt to map out the specific types of stuff that people like hearing about, and from that we can get insight into our own psychology. ~~~ jamesdutc I agree. A list of common story structures can be effectively used as a heuristic in synthesizing new stories from these structures, and this list does an extremely terse list of common themes. It's definitely fatiguing to generate these repetitive stories, and I would argue that there are literary traditions (still alive today on television, in film, in music!) where your surreal, absurd, existentially nihilistic story about giraffes, the Queen of Denmark, and the law-man beating up the wrong guy would fit in nicely! ------ gerbilly The basic of all plots is the story. A story is a series of events centred on the actions of one character. A story is about the character facing a difficulty, and demonstrating which action the character took to overcome that difficulty. Sometimes some of the first attempts at action fail, causing further difficulties. Stories are an innate part of how humans think. There is a lot of solid research suggesting that there is a part of our brain that automatically transforms times series of events into stories, automatically, and without our knowing it. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_brain_interpreter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_brain_interpreter) The story is the basic organizing principle of our memory, our justice system, pretty much all of society. See also: [http://bigthink.com/overthinking-everything-with-jason- gots/...](http://bigthink.com/overthinking-everything-with-jason-gots/your- storytelling-brain) If I had to describe humans to aliens I'd say: "Creatures with a loss aversion that create stories." ------ emmanueloga_ 1919's condensed version of [http://tvtropes.org/](http://tvtropes.org/). ------ TeMPOraL Good that this topic came up now - in two days, another NaNoWriMo starts[0]. Even better, there's a lot of useful things for amateur storywriters in the comments here! Bookmarked! [0] - [http://nanowrimo.org/](http://nanowrimo.org/) ------ cglace David Mamet breaks storing telling down into. Who wants what from whom? What happens if they don't get it? Why now? ------ vixen99 [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Basic_Plots](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Basic_Plots) ~~~ clarkmoody [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thirty- Six_Dramatic_Situat...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thirty- Six_Dramatic_Situations) ~~~ thaumasiotes Your link is better -- Wycliff Aber Hill was obviously reporting the same list. Hill has added his #3, "miracle of god". He's also mangled the names of some situations; "falling prey" is totally opaque, while "falling prey to cruelty/misfortune" isn't. ------ karcass Donnie Darko is, what six or seven of these? ------ Ch_livecodingtv This is a fun read. Whatever plot, the end then comes only between (1) Fair (2) Not Fair ending. ------ sparkzilla There's 38: Memento.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Google shows off Project Glass at I / O with live skydiving and bike jumps - UnfalseDesign http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/27/3121164/project-glass-demo-io ====== UnfalseDesign Best. Product. Demo. Ever.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
A Step Forward in Parental Leave at Etsy - dmnd https://blog.etsy.com/news/2016/strong-families-strong-business-a-step-forward-in-parental-leave-at-etsy/ ====== alexandrerond It is great news to see some companies taking small steps towards what is considered normal in the rest of developed world, but it's actually very sad that in America it's the corporations who are taking the role of defending citizens rights, but only selectively. Etsy defends the right to maternal leave, Apple defends the right to privacy and so on, but at the same time, it is the relation between corporate power and political power that has made the US move forward so little in social rights. Free health, education, maternal leave, striking... This should be rights, not company privileges. Congrats to Etsy employees, and condolences to everyone else. ~~~ forgetsusername > _it 's actually very sad that in America it's the corporations who are > taking the role of defending citizens rights_ Why is that sad? It's precisely how it should work. Corporations have the power, money, organization and man-power to push a progressive agenda. It's just a collection of people afterall, not some nebulous, evil entity. ~~~ joepvd In the countries I have been living, paternal leave is a right that comes with having a job and getting a kid. It is not a perk that some noble businesses might choose to provide. ------ olderthanilook It's really wonderful to see companies looking after their employees like this and taking steps to reduce gender bias, and to improve inclusivity when it comes to benefits. As an individual who is not likely to ever have children however, I would feel rather jealous of my co-workers who got to take advantage of this benefit. Some sort of clause like: "... when they become a parent ... or when they work for the company for five years without becoming a parent." would help me feel included. I really don't mean to diminish this awesome perk, it is obviously much more inclusive than the status-quo and I commend Etsy for implementing it! ~~~ jkot Compare it to sick leave: _I am healthy person, but I feel jealous of people who are sick and take extended leave . I would feel more included if healthy people could also take sick leave.._ ~~~ pixelmonkey What a bizarre comparison. People do not choose to become sick -- at least not usually! One would hope that in a modern society, most people choose to have children, although it is true that sometimes becoming a parent can happen outside the realm of choice. Even then, though, the comparison falls down, as extended leave due to sickness is usually covered by disability insurance rather than by employers. Company policies cannot possibly cover every life circumstance but one hopes that over time companies who value their employees offer (fair) policies that make work a little more compatible with the common circumstances of life that tend to be out of the control of employees. ~~~ jkot Why bizarre? It is not like one can choose when wife has complications after pregnancy, kid gets sick or suspended from school. One can not choose to "pause" parentship. ~~~ pixelmonkey But nothing you list there is a reason for parental leave. The concept of parental leave is to spend time taking care of a new child while adjusting to the changes of parenthood. Companies could choose to have "puppy leave" for when employees choose to adopt newborn puppies. Choosing to have a dog (or not) and choosing to have a child (or not) are life choices about time and money investments in taking care of another being, and in the right circumstances they are _choices_! I imagine a company with a puppy leave policy (however absurd on the surface) would cause jealousy in coworkers who choose to have children, instead. And, rightfully so! One can not "pause" parentship, it is true. But one can and should choose parentship in most circumstances, and one should not expect an employer to provide special relief from all its obligations, financial/time/otherwise. Employers should instead provide adequate comp and leave to all its employees, regardless of their life choices. It is ultimately about fairness and a rule that says employees deserve what they earn and don't get unreasonably special treatment for choices that are, frankly, none of the company's business. ~~~ jkot What would be a valid reason for parental leave, if not sick children or sick partner? And why is parental leave at Etsy spreaded over 2 years (some companies have even 7 years). Children is not a puppy. And some companies have dog friendly policy. There is also a leave for weddings, funerals, menstruation... It is another perk offered by company to its employees. I dont play ping-pong or dring free soda, should I be offended if company does offer that? ~~~ pixelmonkey I think there's a straightforward difference between a fringe office perk of marginal value (like free soda) and a form of direct compensation (like paid time off, options, and salary), and I think it's important for employers to distribute the latter based on fitness for job, market rates, and employee value, rather than on arbitrary life choices -- at least wherever possible. ~~~ jkot Having children is not arbitrary choice, but normal behaviour. 40% to 60% pregnancies are unplanned. And heterosexual men have no control over this except abstinence, thin piece of latex or tied tubes. Not having children is arbitrary choice. One has to suppress natural instincts and put lot of effort into contraception. Etsy is on free market, and it does its best to atract employees. Some choose parental leave, because it means they will not have to quit their jobs in few years. Some others will choose different company with more money. Plus this is great way to increase diversity and attract more women. People do not care about bullshit like microagressions, but parental leave is a strong factor. And finally 6 months parental paid leave might sounds extraordinary, but it is not unusual in other countries. Even Czech Republic has 28 weeks paid and 3 years unpaid leave. ------ tonyarkles This is a great step! As a contrast, in Canada maternity/parental leave is baked in to every job. See [http://www.esdc.gc.ca/en/reports/ei/maternity_parental.page#...](http://www.esdc.gc.ca/en/reports/ei/maternity_parental.page#h2.1-h3.1) It's not perfect (there's a cap on how much money it will pay), but it's universal. There's 35 weeks, and it can be divided between mother and father however the family sees fit. ~~~ hias It is similiar in Germany :-) I am shocked that there isn't a nationwide policy for this in the US :-( ~~~ disillusioned One of only two countries in the world with no paid maternity leave! Thanks, corporate lobbyists! ------ sudhirj They're giving all parents half a year off, paid, gender blind and circumstance blind. ------ xenadu02 Congrats to Etsy. Last year at PlanGrid we adopted 12-week paid leave with the same gender-blind policy that applies in the case of adoptions, etc. I wish I had worked here when my little ones were born. My employer at the time (a multi-national software company in the bay area) offered leave in CA but those living elsewhere got nothing besides FMLA (meaning only women and only six paid weeks, along with burning all vacation time). Being the dad I got nothing. ~~~ disillusioned To clarify, FMLA doesn't even cover six paid weeks. It covers twelve UNPAID weeks wherein the law guarantees your job, if you're working at a company > 50 employees. That's it. The six paid weeks was a component of a short term disability policy your company carried for your employees, and NOT part of FMLA or part of any federal requirement. US requires no paid leave at all. ------ jkot It is great to see parental leave includes men. I quit my last job (and started my own business) because I needed extended parental leave. ------ the_ancient Unpopular Opinion but I feel the need to speak up for the millions of adults that either by choice or biology do not, and will not have children A Step forward in Parental Leave, a Step backwards for equality... Equality is treating everyone the same.. Giving one group 26 weeks paid leave for their life choice (having kids) while not giving the same 26 weeks paid leave to their childless employees is unequal treatment... I have never understood why I, a person that has chosen not to have children, should have to work harder, longer, for the same money has people that choose to have children A business hires you do to a job, if your life choices interfere with your ability to do your job you should not be rewarded with time off. ~~~ adrianN Because our society values children and wants to encourage you to have some. For the same reason some of your taxes go to schools and, at least here in Germany, pay for child benefits. ~~~ collyw The world is already overpopulated. My personal belief is that we shouldn't be encouraging people to have children. ~~~ adrianN That is my personal belief as well. But politicians disagree and you also don't see people voted out of office for providing free daycare. ~~~ the_ancient in the US you would, you would likely not get elected at all if you ran on a "Free Daycare" policy unless you could somehow pay for that free care with out using any tax money ~~~ hias Why? I don't get it. Facilities like these (and health care, care for the old/jobless) benefit our society, why shouldn't you pay for them with tax money? What else should tax money be used for then? Why is the US thinking that way? ~~~ the_ancient Why do you believe the government should provide Childcare, Healthcare, Eldercare, etc Where do you draw the line? Why should the government no care for me in my 20's or 30's or 40's Should I get free food, free shelter, free TV's, Free iPhones? I do not believe the government should provide anything to anyone. Nor do I believe I should be taxed simply because I am alive. >Why is the US thinking that way? A Culture of Rugged Individualism, combines with rightful distrust of the government Statism has killed more people than any other form of government ever devised by humans. While causing untold suffering. ~~~ hias Well it is like that in Germany, and it worked the last few decades. Homeless people get free food and free shelter. If the government should not provide anything, why should there be a government? You get taxed because the government provides something for you and the provided services need to get paid. I doubt you want to live in total anarchy without police, firemen or a working sewerage for example. ~~~ the_ancient >why should there be a government? Why indeed... >You get taxed because the government provides something for you and the provided services need to get paid. To the extent I want or need those services I will be happy to pay for them individually like I do anything else. If the services government provides me are desired than I should be free to choose to pay for them and if I do not then I would not be able to take advantage of said services. >I doubt you want to live in total anarchy without police, firemen or a working sewerage for example. My Fire dept is all Volunteer funded by donations from the community, it gets very little to no tax money. I believe taxes may have paid for the fire truck, but that money could have been raised with out taxes. I have a septic tank, no government sewer service, but even if I did every city near me has private run water and sewer services that are paid for by the people connected to them not by tax dollars Police is the only service on your list that is actually paid for by tax dollars, that makes up about .000000000000000000000000000001% of my tax bill, if the police want to send me a bill for their service I will be happy to pay it directly and not have the rest of the government burden.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Analyse Asia Podcast #26: The Nintendo and DeNA Deal with Serkan Toto - bleongcw http://analyse.asia/2015/04/11/episode-26-the-nintendo-and-dena-deal-with-serkan-toto/ ====== bleongcw Synopsis: Serkan Toto of Kantan Games is back on the podcast to discuss the mega deal between Nintendo and DeNA which created a dent in the gaming space for 2015. We discussed the pre and post press conference, speculated the motivation in what pushed Nintendo to break its sacred code of not venturing into mobile games, and how their competitors will respond as a result of this deal. We also broke down the mechanics of this deal and Serkan offered his bullish perspective on Nintendo’s future as a gaming company. While dissecting the news, Serkan helped to close the understanding on how LINE’s curated games platform is not working against Kakao Talk from Korea which adopted the opposite model, and also discussed how SoftBank is a “Berkshire Hathaway” for technology investments with successful forays in gaming space with SuperCell and GungHo, not to mention their past investments from marketplaces to taxi apps all over the world.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Twitter Bans WikiLeaks-Style Website for Publishing 'BlueLeaks' Documents - AndrewBissell https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/y3zwyw/twitter-bans-ddosecrets-for-publishing-blueleaks-documents ====== guerrilla Here's Emma Best's full thread [1]. [1]. [https://twitter.com/NatSecGeek/status/1275554481510457351](https://twitter.com/NatSecGeek/status/1275554481510457351)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: Why Has SDK Become a Four-Letter Word for Developers? - werencole At a developer conference last week, several app and game developers said, "SDK has become a four letter word." That goes the same for API.<p>I have a general sense as to why this is, but I am curious to hear it from the community. Why are SDKs and APIs a dreaded aspect of the development cycle? ====== forgettableuser Lots of reasons: \- Software bloat leads to slow download times and slow launch times and more RAM usage \- Abstraction layers often get out of control and sacrifice lots of performance and lead to software bloat \- Often you start with and SDK thinking it will solve your problem, but it turns out it doesn't solve your exact casem which means you end up spending lots of time fighting the SDK which leads to a mess+abstrction+bloat. Many times you might have been better off writing it from scratch. \- Dependency hell which brings in the bloat+abstraction problems. Plus now you now have extra environment and deployment headaches to make sure everybody involved has the correct dependency chain and correct versions of everything. \- Build system hell: Once you have dependency hell, you often bring in build system hell to manage everything \- SDKs (Frameworks) take control of everything: Often frameworks impose lots of rules and conventions that leak into everything else you do. This means following their design patterns, subclassing from their classes, etc. Their stuff may not fit well with your own stuff. Also, this often deeply entangles your stuff with their stuff so it is hard to remove later. \- Fighting between SDKs: Lots of SDKs try take over the world. If you use multiple SDKs, they may fight. \- Lack of understanding: People too eager to use SDKs often lack the understanding of how it works. To fix bugs, to fix performance problems, to extend features, means you must ultimately understand it, but often this comes too late in the process. And you discover that for all these things will require massive changes to the framework or a complete rewrite. You would have been better off writing it yourself in the first place or picking some other SDK that you understood better. ~~~ forgettableuser Check out the Handmade Manifesto for a better feeling of where people like these are coming from. [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10095104](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10095104) ------ smt88 I love SDKs and APIs. "SDK" means to me that someone else has done a bunch of work for me. A good example of the AWS SDK, which lets me very quickly integrate S3 uploads into anything I'm working on. "API" means that I can use someone else's data and mash it up with my own (or even another person's data), and that's really exciting! In summary: no idea why those people said that. ~~~ werencole To elaborate on my general sense of why the developers said that: there are now dozens of pertinent SDKs that developers need to stitch in to their apps. Same with APIs. They take time to implement, can effect the performance of an app and sometimes don't really work all that well. An app developer could reasonably have dozens of third-party SDKs in an app. Say, Flurry, Applause Analytics, Google Analytics, Maps, Facebook, Twitter and so forth. Same with various APIs. I remember one developer I was talking to on Twitter last year was so fed up with third-party SDKs that he basically swore them off except for the most essential ones. He was having a hard time stitching someone else's code into his app and the implementation was just wonky. ------ benologist Lots of work, may require invasive permissions, may run afoul of app store rules etc, may be a pain in the ass integrating with whatever non-native approach you're building an app with, and potentially weeks to get any change live. The people at FGL.com are working on a promising solution to this - [http://enhance.fgl.com](http://enhance.fgl.com) - ------ yunyeng I believe myself this development in APIs is just tip of the iceberg. If the software development goes like this, everything will become huge, and hard to scale, and will need lots of engineering resources.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Why I Didn't Apply to Y Combinator - bendrucker https://medium.com/on-startups/ebb45a310757 ====== intelliot Reminds me of something I learned at a Startup School: "Jack Dorsey & Ben Silberman are successful bc they don't care about the outside world...don't care about press." \- @RonConway	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Show HN: Traverse City Platmap with Leaflet and D3 - michaelcolenso http://tcplatmap.iswordfight.com/ ====== michaelcolenso I showed this last week, but the app crashed and burned after about an hour. I'm pretty sure I figured out the issue(s) and fixed them, but I'll be interested to find out if that's really the case. ------ mswen Hi, looks interesting. How well organized were the city/county records? Did you have to do a lot of parsing and extractions from documents? Or, was the data well organized in databases or csv files? ~~~ michaelcolenso The data was sourced by using ogr2ogr to grab the data from an arcGIS server that the city runs and convert it to geojson. There was also an associated Sales db that I was able to query all results for, so I grabbed those and stuck them in MongoDB for the purpose of linking the parcel data with the property number in the db. When a user clicks on a property, I search mongo for the associated records and update the html via socket.io. ~~~ mswen thanks - is this a demo project or are you thinking of doing this as a business service available across other locations? ~~~ michaelcolenso I mostly built it as an exercise in curiosity, but I'm certainly open to letting the universe decide what's next... ~~~ mswen I recently was showing an acquaintance of mine a demo of something I was playing around with and a potential business model. He responded with "I wouldn't be that interested but if you could use those same capabilities to deliver X, now that is something I would pay for." When I went and looked at your demo I thought here could be someone who is already walking down the road toward being able to deliver a critical component of X. If you want more details lets switch over to email. You can find one of my contact emails in my HN profile.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
CAP Theorem: Revisited [Distributed Computing] - rg81 http://robertgreiner.com/2014/08/cap-theorem-revisited/ ====== ndm00 Interesting read. Most blog posts I've seen about the CAP theorem have an academic feel, this one is more approachable. Really, the CAP triangle is outdated. The trade off in a distributed system is between consistency and availability - you choose partition tolerance when you have nodes networked together.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Why the FBI's request to Apple will affect civil rights for a generation - colinprince http://www.macworld.com/article/3034355/ios/why-the-fbis-request-to-apple-will-affect-civil-rights-for-a-generation.html ====== venomsnake It will not affect anyone's rights. Why - FBI is not using any form of prevention of the creation of secure devices. Apple designed their devices in such way that there is way for them to circumvent their security. The fact that apple must comply is their own fault. It is obvious that the security scheme of iOS is weak - it is security trough obscurity. They tried to make secure encryption with only 18 bits of user input. If the user provided all of the 128/256 bits the case would have been moot. So what is the moral - when you design security solution - make sure that you can give the FEDS complete control over all of your data and company resources and they still would not be able to harm your consumer. How? Make sure the user and only the user can set the keys. ~~~ dawnbreez The TSA demanded that luggage manufacturers begin making luggage that can accept a special key that only the TSA is supposed to have. The luggage companies complied. Within a week, a TSA officer took a close-up picture of all 7 key variants; from this image, 3D models of the keys were made, and now you can print all 7 keys and open anyone's TSA-approved luggage. The FBI is slightly more competent than the TSA. _Slightly_. I doubt trusting them with _any_ access to my device is a good idea. ~~~ venomsnake Yes. But that is why you shouldn't use apple products - because they left a theoretical backdoor in their devices. As long as the US law does not prevent manufacturers from producing arbitrary level of secured devices - it is totally OK for the FBI to enlist half of the world in attempts to crack it. The best security comes from open and auditable security schema and strong keys. If I make good implementation of AES and someone encrypts a file with it but provides its own password - I can give the feds the AES spec, the source code, I can even consult them on dictionary attacks and so on - and they still won't be able to decrypt it. Apple decided to go the other way. ------ pmarreck I think Germany would have a lot of interesting things to say about government overreach into private affairs ------ everyone Apple has a been a member of prism since 2012, so is this not all moot? ~~~ milge PRISM covered monitoring and tracking of your device and the data it sends/receives. This order is to unlock the device itself. A pic taken on the iphone but never uploaded anywhere wouldn't have been caught with PRISM.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Show HN: Rethinker – the evolution of Professional Development and Feedback - alexragalie https://www.producthunt.com/posts/rethinker ====== alexragalie Are people ready to give/receive feedback in a manner which “rates” personality and capabilities, baseball card-style? Ray Dalio seems to think so, and we also believe that’s an unavoidable step in our evolution as a society. We’ve therefore developed our startup’s first product in order to validate this assumption. Would you be comfortable to give feedback to your work colleagues in this manner? We’ve also just been featured by ProductHunt, supposedly more for the cute dog pic than for the product itself, but who’s counting? :P Give it a go and let us know what you think! ~~~ alexragalie Also for a bit of background on Rethinker: after 5 career changes and countless professional frustrations in the last 12 years, i've decided to do something about improving the way in which tech can be used to develop yourself faster and better. I deeply feel for the pain and fear of those trapped in unfulfilling jobs, and i hope that through Rethinker my cofounder and I will be able to make a difference in their lives. The Future of Work looks very different for you and me, and "winter is coming" in very literal senses for most careers and job tracks. I hope that Rethinker can be there for you, to help and guide you through the constant changes. P.S - We're still in Beta, so lots of things will change and be improved in the coming weeks. Any feedback or ideas are also highly appreciated!	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Interview: Apple’s Schiller says position on Hey app is unchanged - tosh https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/18/interview-apples-schiller-says-position-on-hey-app-is-unchanged-and-no-rules-changes-are-imminent/ ====== johnmarcus Hey should just offer to subscribe, and just make clear there is a 30% Apple tax for paying through Apple, and is cheaper if signed up through the web. Consumers whom want to pay the Apple tax will, those whom would sign up online would still do so. I dont see the big deal here. ~~~ boromisp From TFA: "Unfortunately, of course, the current rules would prevent Hey from advertising or even mentioning any upgraded service and that would have to be marketed through off-app channels." I'm not sure, if it's explicitly forbidden to imply that there might be other payment methods. ~~~ 1cvmask It is expressly forbidden.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Free access to British scientific research to be available within two years - tomgallard http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/jul/15/free-access-british-scientific-research ====== Qworg If there is anything that will kill free access, it will be this: "British universities now pay around £200m a year in subscription fees to journal publishers, but under the new scheme, authors will pay "article processing charges" (APCs) to have their papers peer reviewed, edited and made freely available online. The typical APC is around £2,000 per article." APCs just murder the desire to publish at all. ~~~ gridaphobe I believe the idea is that future grants would stipulate that some percentage of the grant be used to cover publishing costs, whereas current grants include some money for subscribing to journals. That way the publishers are still guaranteed to get money, but anyone can see the results of the research. Certainly less ideal than circumventing publishers entirely, but hopefully a step forward. ~~~ czr80 I'm curious how this will work - who knows exactly how many papers they will publish at the start of a grant? And what about fields with low grant amounts (mathematics, humanities, etc?) ~~~ michaelt If I was a funding body I'd knock a few thousand off the initial grant and say "have the journal send me the bill when you publish a paper". That way, you only have the expenditure if the research leads to published papers. If the research doesn't lead to papers, well, at least you're a few thousand better off. And of course the funding bodies would know exactly who published what when where, and they'd get the right details in the paper's acknowledgments every time. As an alternative, if there was funding to publish only a limited number of papers that could reform the incentives that lead to "salami publication". Or perhaps it would lead to a worst-of-both-worlds where salami publication cost funding bodies a bunch of money. We shall see!	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Thousands of ships use 'cheat devices' to divert poisonous pollution into sea - rahuldottech https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/shipping-pollution-sea-open-loop-scrubber-carbon-dioxide-environment-a9123181.html ====== sawaruna Not sure if anyone is really being cheated in this scenario. The International Maritime Organization permits ships to use this, while ports are increasingly banning them from operating near their waters.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Overview of the Esophagus – Digestive Disorders – Merck Manuals Consumer Version - Preme https://www.merckmanuals.com/home/digestive-disorders/esophageal-and-swallowing-disorders/overview-of-the-esophagus ====== paulrpotts I write this with all due respect to the poster: what the fuck?	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
On Technical Writing - ming13 https://arturdryomov.dev/posts/on-technical-writing/ ====== voidhorse This article, like many on “technical writing” conflates techincal writing and _writing about technology_. In my estimation, they’re two different things. Technical Writing is a profession with a massive set of practices, relatively well-prescribed goals, and a long history. It’s a discipline that has almost nothing to do with Stephen King and Strunk and White—though of course these sources might be applied. Chances are, if you were to ask an professional technical writer about resources for technical writing, they’d point you to a few text books on technical communication or papers or blog posts from people in the industry. Technical writing also has serious consequences. If a manual for a missile has mistakes, it could cost thousands of dollars or thousands of lives. Stephen King’s advice isn’t quite as helpful in such perilous situations. _Writing about technology_ , I think, is closer to what the author is actually pursuing here—and most tech blogs better fit this classification than technical writing. Writing about technology is more free form, more whimsical, full of opinion, intimations of possible approaches or solutions but not hardened proceedural documentation. It might seem a bit pedantic to make such a distinction, but I would really love it if more people honored it. For instance, this article was a bit of false advertising, since I thought it’d be about technical writing in the professional sense (i.e. writing documentation) and not about writing about technology in a more casual, opinionated way. It’s similar to the distinction between programming and software engineering—they’re quite distinct pusuits, even though the tools and techniques considered overlap. ~~~ kaycebasques My guiding goal as a practicing technical writer is _how do I transfer knowledge as efficiently as possible?_ For that reason I think it’s a skill that is applicable to anyone whose job depends upon a lot of collaboration, which is why I think we see the topic come up somewhat frequently here on HN. I 100% agree that _technical writing_ is a discipline with a specific meaning and is not the same thing as _writing about technology_. ------ baby This article is actually quite empty, it starts like it is going to be about how to write good technical content, then becomes an auto-biography, then becomes an article on how one can get started blogging, then just end abruptly with some statistics that probably nobody cares. So if you came here to know how to write, Stephen King wrote a book "On Writing" that is quite interesting and mostly reads like a novel. See it as a "I'll read this and I'll get motivated to write". If you came here to understand how to get into blogging: just start. Create a wordpress, and just start writing. Focus on content, not on form. After a while, you can think about a domain name, about a custom theme, or about hosting this yourself on github with hugo. But don't start with the technical parts of managing a blog, just write. If you came here to understand how you can become a good technical writer: keep writing. Consistence over years of writing is what makes you a good writer. The ultimate technique for me is to give an interactive talk to people about your ideas, and see where your audience get stuck, where they ask questions, how different ways of explaining something get the point across. Malcolm Gladwell does more than this: he explains an idea multiple times in different ways. If you have the page count to do this, do it. Different people need different ways of explaining. (shameless plug: I'm writing a book on crypto [https://www.manning.com/books/real-world- cryptography?a_aid=...](https://www.manning.com/books/real-world- cryptography?a_aid=Realworldcrypto&a_bid=ad500e09)) ~~~ dnh44 William Zinsser’s “On Writing Well” is also quite illuminating in regards to writing non-fiction. [https://www.harpercollins.com/9780060891541/on-writing- well/](https://www.harpercollins.com/9780060891541/on-writing-well/) ~~~ criddell Have you read Steven Pinker's _Sense of Style_? [https://stevenpinker.com/publications/sense-style- thinking-p...](https://stevenpinker.com/publications/sense-style-thinking- persons-guide-writing-21st-century) I was thinking about reading it but it's hard to find reviews of the book that don't include praise or criticism of Pinker's other work or the author himself. ~~~ x1798DE I've read it and I found it to be the most useful book on writing I've read so far, because he grounds his advice in clear linguistic principles and he is mostly not prescriptivist in his advice. His advice about keeping an easy-to-understand sentence tree alone is worth the price of admission. ------ herodotus I am surprised that someone who claims to have been an avid reader writes so poorly. Consider, for example, "Fast-forward to the last year of school. I’ve started writing. It was nothing special really, short fictional stories there and there." The author's tense is muddled, and I have no idea what "there and there" means. Better would be "Fast-forward to my last year of school. I started writing. It was nothing special really, just some short stories." There were a few instances where the author should have used "I" rather than "I've". In fact, I would encourage this author to avoid such contractions altogether. The goal of writing at least one article a month is laudable, but this author should work on writing craft fundamentals. Perhaps a book like The Elements of Style would help. Even better would be a tutor or coach. ------ kristianc > There were no recommendation engines of course so I went through everything, > itching to consume experiences left behind by humanity. Sounds like an > addiction, right? Well, it kinda was. Well, there kind of were. I doubt you would end up reading The Hobbit, The Three Musketeers and Sherlock Holmes purely by accident. The idea that the best content bubbling to the top of the popular consciousness is merely a product of modern ML recommendation engines is for the birds. ~~~ soonerroadie Of course there were recommendation engines - they were called librarians. ------ JeanMarcS « Kids certainly don’t give a damn about them either. » Well I guess it depends on how you educate them. While I’m here eating my (late) breakfast, both are in their room reading. They are 9yo (10 next spring). My son is finishing season 2 of Erin Hunter’s warriors (he loves cat) and my daughter finally catch up on Harry Potter and is reading no2 (they are not allowed to see the movies until they read the book) ~~~ aspaceman "Kids these days" never really goes away huh? Funny how smart phones and social media will be our version of that. ~~~ coldtea > _" Kids these days" never really goes away huh?_ And it's seldom wrong either. Kids do have different behavior in different ages. Whether that's good or bad is another thing (in some things it's bad, in others are good). But culture, habits, etc, are not the same blob of sameness for centuries. Kids in 1950 are different than kids in 2020 or kids in 1900. In this particular case, indeed, kids these days seldom read books, whether in print or eBook form. Whether they still read social media pages, and online news, is beside the point when it comes to reading books. ~~~ aspaceman It’s frustrating because it’s based on anecdotal evidence and preconceptions. It also defaults to the assumption that all change is bad. I know plenty of kids these days who read books, lots of them in fact. Often reading fiction and literature especially. ~~~ coldtea > _I know plenty of kids these days who read books, lots of them in fact. > Often reading fiction and literature especially._ Well, since you've mentioned anecdotal evidence, all the statistics say kids read less than ever. Down to 1/4 or so of what kids in the 70s read (including eBooks). [https://www.humanitiesindicators.org/content/indicatordoc.as...](https://www.humanitiesindicators.org/content/indicatordoc.aspx?i=11098) ------ phlakaton > Btw, conferences and events are dead. The author lost me right there.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Work indoors all Day? Try Vitamin D supplements.... - trevelyan http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080515.wvitamind_study0515/BNStory/National/home I'm not a medical expert, and don't know how much this story is circulating in the US, but there has been a lot of heightened attention to it in the Canadian press recently. Since I'd imagine most of us likely work indoors and at computers, thought the article might be relevant. ====== giardini A very recent study finds that: 1\. ingested vitamin D is immunosuppressive 2\. low blood levels of vitamin D may be a _result_ of the disease process and 3\. Supplementation may make the disease worse. [http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080125223302.ht...](http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080125223302.htm) So PI 9 is on point: we should go out in the sun. And you can't wear sunscreen and get vitamin D from the sun. ------ PI to put it simply Vitamins do not work. Why not have a walk into town at lunch time?	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Easily get the user's Apple ID password, just by asking - migueh https://github.com/KrauseFx/steal.password ====== beeskneecaps Can’t believe this didn’t front-page. I’ll never type into one of these without being on the home screen ever again! Thanks! ~~~ krausefx It made it to the front page [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15441537](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15441537)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Stanford Class2Go - smagch https://github.com/Stanford-Online/class2go ====== noelwelsh This is intriguing: Professors have access to the classes' data to learn how their students learn. We will facilitate experiments. For example, we intend this to be the best plaform for running A/B/N tests to measure the impact of different teaching methods on student outcomes That they're giving data driven decision making such a prominent place is great. I would like to know more, though. Having taught before at the University level I know it's a ton of work. It's even more work if you're developing parallel versions of a course for testing purposes. So the A/B feature had better be really easy to use. There is also the ethical issue of giving students a worse performing variant of the class. The solution here is to use a bandit algorithm or an early stopping method to find the best variant as quickly as possible. Finally, I think the Coursera model where everyone runs through the course on the same schedule is not optimal for experimentation. It doesn't allow for a tight feedback loop, because you have to wait N weeks before you can experiment with changes on the next cohort. ------ thinkling Stanford is hosting the Intro to Databases class [1] on class2go, while the previous run was hosted on Coursera. [1] <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4880112> ~~~ 27182818284 I thought this was pretty annoying, actually. I was used to Coursera already, but had to create new logins, etc. Then I was confused because Coursera listed (and still lists) the DB course as coming soon at the same time leading up to the Class2Go version. :-( I'm slightly disappointed by the muddled way it was carried out. ------ ivan_ah The main objects in the code base can be examined here: [https://github.com/Stanford- Online/class2go/blob/master/main...](https://github.com/Stanford- Online/class2go/blob/master/main/c2g/models.py) It looks like nice functionality that any online educational product could use. I certainly hope to use Also of interest is the urls.py which shows you all the different aspects of the web application. [https://github.com/Stanford- Online/class2go/blob/master/main...](https://github.com/Stanford- Online/class2go/blob/master/main/urls.py) Good stuff. ------ themgt We were able the 'main' app booted after adding a requirements.txt: <http://class2go.a.pogoapp.com/> It would be nice if you could separate out the ops infrastructure from the actual application, to suit a wider variety of deployment scenarios.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: What exactly is a hackathon? How do I participate and why? - eibrahim ====== jyu A hackathon is another form of self selection, much like going to a club where any guy needs to buy a bottle to get in. The bottle in this case is willingness to spend your free weekend on coding up some random project. Usually the participants like programming, have an idea, or just like socializing with other coders. You can find hackathons through websites, meetups, friends. These two websites are pretty helpful: <http://hackathon.io/> <https://www.hackerleague.org/> While I have only participated in 1 event, it seems like the winning teams are ones with good idea, decent presentation skills and come prepared to execute. Ones that work well with each other, have a solid idea, done some fundamental ground work like looking through the APIs to see what kind of data and queries you can do, manipulating JSON, bootstrap, and basic teamwork stuff (github push / pull / merging), etc. You meet all sorts of people at these things, and exposes you to more randomness. If you haven't done one, book a weekend and try it. And please take care of your self with healthy food and a decent night's sleep. ------ dhruvbird A hackathon is essentially a code-sprint. Imagine running a marathon - except you're doing it by writing code. The reasons are many, and depend a lot on what you want from the hackathon and what others (the ones you'll be hacking with want). For example, in a small company setting, hackathons are great to implement features or fix-bugs that have been lying around for a while. It's a concentrated effort to get something done. In a medium sized setting, a hackathon might serve the purpose more of enabling newbies (or people from outside a certain team) to get to know another team's code-base and philosophy. In a slightly larger sized company setting, a hackathon might just be more about idea exchange and getting to know people simply because there might be a lack of focus with so many people around. That's just my take on hackathons. I'm sure there are other more interesting views on it. And whatever you do, please sleep well and eat healthy when you're participating in one.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Dolphins Call Each Other By Name - rblion http://news.discovery.com/animals/whales-dolphins/dolphins-call-each-other-by-name-130219.htm ====== srean They are also known to build difficult to make toys (air bubble vortex rings) to entertain themselves. They have to _discover_ how to make it. Sometimes they can be quite possessive, they would break the toy if someone not so knowledgeable wants to play with it. Once a dolphin figures it out how to make one, his/her peers eventually figure it out too. So it kind of spreads within a group like fashion. This behavior has been observed both in captivity and in the wild. <https://www.google.com/search?q=dolphin+vortex+ring> (a time sink right here) They also have what appears to be fratricide were they bludgeon another to death targeting vital organs (I dont have a reference to this, but I recall reading it on BBC). I have seen dumber people on and around TV. I am sure there are HN'ers who are divers and have first had experience with dolphins, we would love to hear the stories. ~~~ stcredzero _> They also have what appears to be fratricide were they bludgeon another to death targeting vital organs_ Apparently Orcas have developed this Kung-fu like thing, where they can kill a shark _by just holding it_. [http://worldtourwhilediving.com/2012/01/13/orca-flips- over-g...](http://worldtourwhilediving.com/2012/01/13/orca-flips-over-great- white-shark-dinner-is-served-for-willys-family/) ~~~ lifeisstillgood This is a form of "tonic immobility" in sharks (chickens have the same reaction if held whilst looking at a line drawn away from them) It's an attempt to feign death / stand immobile whilst danger passes. Its effective in sharks as they need water passing over their gills so if they stop swimming they are dependant on current. Of course orcas are big enough to turn a shark over - your average guy in a chain mail suit tries this with Jaws' older brother and it's three months of trying to get steel rings out of your teeth ~~~ PavlovsCat <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apparent_death> "With tiger sharks 3–4 metres (10 to 15 feet) in length, tonic immobility may be achieved by placing hands lightly on the sides of the animal's snout approximate to the general area surrounding its eyes." Nah, that sounds easy.. ^^ ~~~ lifeisstillgood I have a plan - we post the above link on Reddit then we put a hundred bucks on what the next Darwin Award winner dies of :-) ------ ComputerGuru Any thread on dolphins is not complete without a link to the 1992 NYT article on dolphins: [[http://www.nytimes.com/1992/02/18/science/dolphin- courtship-...](http://www.nytimes.com/1992/02/18/science/dolphin-courtship- brutal-cunning-and-complex.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm)] Here's the sad part: none of this is new. 1992. 1992. Over twenty years ago. As children they make a best friend for life, they form complicated alliances for mutual benefit, they form _political_ alliances/gangs, they help each other out both tit-for-tat and "pro-bono" while keep score of debts (I help you today, you will owe me _at some undefined point in the future_ ), they group together to accomplish tasks (sometimes/often at the expense of other dolphins, for instance a female they are trying to get with). Another important study was done to research the presence (or lack thereof) of a universal dolphin "language" (EDIT: found source! [[http://wakeup- world.com/2011/11/28/the-discovery-of-dolphin-...](http://wakeup- world.com/2011/11/28/the-discovery-of-dolphin-language/)] but not peer reviewed research). It involved showing dolphins in one aquarium a sequence of objects (red ball, green box, etc.) and recording the sounds made, then travelling to another aquarium _with dolphins that have never been in contact with the first_ and playing back the sounds made, then watching the dolphins "locate" or "identify" the object the sounds were made in response to. They achieved an astonishing (if memory serves!) 86% accuracy rate implying audible descriptions of objects, much in the same manner that a "bee dance" can be universally understood across hives/colonies except it's based on actual sounds rather than movements.</cannot find source> Regardless of whether or not you feel dolphins deserve the title of "non-human sentient beings" (whatever "sentient" means, it's such a non-word), I think anyone involved in the mass slaughter of dolphins in an attempt to ransom money should be imprisoned for being a killer (Reference: 900 dolphins killed in Solomon Islands as black mail for raise in pay negotiations. Sorry, but f __* them [[http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&...](http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10861279) ]) ~~~ cynical2 Any thread on dolphins teeming with the usual tripe about their intelligence, playfulness, peacefulness, and near parity (if not outright superiority) with humanity is not complete without mentioning their tendency to commit infanticide and kill other marine mammals for fun: [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/3323070/Killer- do...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/3323070/Killer-dolphins- baffle-marine-experts.html) <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1689180/> ~~~ darkchasma I'm confused, you use the term tripe, as to say it's misleading about their intellect or parity, and yet give two more examples on how similar they are to humans. We, as humans, are peaceful, playful, intelligent, and vicious and sadistic murderers. ------ acheron "For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much -- the wheel, New York, wars, and so on -- while all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man -- for precisely the same reasons." -- Douglas Adams ~~~ AlexanderDhoore So long, and thanks for all the fish! ------ mtrimpe Dolphins are exactly why I feel SETI is such a misguided (in a sweet way) effort. Here we are, searching for extraterrestrial intelligence while we can't even communicate with the other intelligent species on our own planet. Glad to see we're making progress though! ~~~ bitwize SETI is not misguided. We've known for a long time that Earth was hospitable to intelligent life (us). That there are other species with similar levels of intelligent just makes Earth more awesome. But it would be a complete _mindfuck_ if we found other intelligent life in space, where before there were mainly only stars, rocks, and interesting formations of liquid and gas somewhere in between. It would change everything. ~~~ seldo The thing about SETI is that it is not really a search for intelligent life, it's a search for "intelligent life that broadcasts radio waves of a frequency and power that we can detect in a pattern and on a timescale similar enough to our own communications that we can recognize it". Fermi's paradox basically boils down to: if intelligent life is at all common, it should be everywhere we look, and yet we don't see any. The traditional position is that therefore if we don't see intelligent life, it must be because it's too rare, or communication across interstellar distances is impossible. But the other possible answer is that intelligent life is everywhere, and we just don't understand or even recognize it as such. The fact that we've been living with dolphins for millions of years and actively studying them for decades and have only just worked out a pretty basic fact -- they have names for each other -- despite the fact that they share most of their genes with us and live under the same environmental conditions exactly, suggests that we are probably _really really bad_ at recognizing intelligent life that isn't exactly like our own. ~~~ enraged_camel It is also possible that we haven't found intelligent life yet because we define both intelligence and life in very specific ways that we as humans can relate to. For example, there can be an intelligent microorganism species out there where each individual microorganism leads a life as complex as a human. They may have invented all sorts of things in the micro scale, but chances are we might never find them simply because we are not looking for intelligent life in such a micro context. ------ crucialfelix I went through a Cetacean and cephalopods obsession last year. What really freaks me out is what Dolphins looked like when they were still land animals: <http://understanddolphins.tripod.com/dolphinevolution.html> Also the perceptual systems of octopus and squid are amazing. Cuttlefish can perceive the polarization of light. This helps for contrast and edge detection. Many Cephalopods (octopuses, squid, cuttlefish) can see with their arms and then replay the image on the other side like a video screen. Dolphins can tell the difference between a quarter and a dime from 100m away using sonar. The click generating system emanates from the top of their head, in the area of the third chakra. We have a very limited sense of space and an all too focused sense of self. But we have a lot of oil and we can dig shit up and drive around real fast and think we are really important. ~~~ knowaveragejoe > We have a very limited sense of space and an all too focused sense of self. > But we have a lot of oil and we can dig shit up and drive around real fast > and think we are really important. We can also appreciate these things as no other species on Earth can, to the best of our knowledge. ------ wfn I referred to this NGM article in another sub-parent comment here, but I think it contains very relevant on-topic animal intelligence language-related insights, so posting a link and a couple of short excerpts from it here: Under Pepperberg’s patient tutelage, Alex [a parrot] learned how to use his vocal tract to imitate almost one hundred English words, including the sounds for all of these foods, although he calls an apple a “banerry.” “Apples taste a little bit like bananas to him, and they look a little bit like cherries, so Alex made up that word for them,” Pepperberg said. [...] [...] because Alex was able to produce a close approximation of the sounds of some English words, Pepperberg could ask him questions about a bird’s basic understanding of the world. She couldn’t ask him what he was thinking about, but she could ask him about his knowledge of numbers, shapes, and colors. To demonstrate, Pepperberg carried Alex on her arm to a tall wooden perch in the middle of the room. She then retrieved a green key and a small green cup from a basket on a shelf. She held up the two items to Alex’s eye. “What’s same?” she asked. Without hesitation, Alex’s beak opened: “Co-lor.” “What’s different?” Pepperberg asked. “Shape,” Alex said. Article: [http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/print/2008/03/animal- minds...](http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/print/2008/03/animal- minds/virginia-morell-text) ~~~ the_gipsy From that excerpt, all the parrot can tell is if two objects are the same color or not. ~~~ wfn Not really: the parrot must have an internal representation of 'color' as something (a concept / quality) that can be _had_ and _shared_ between things. It (hm, s/he) must therefore understand that it is (it must represent it as) an abstract quality in the sense that it can be had by different things (likewise with 'shape'). Well so what? This entails (I would argue) that it has the capacity to store and operate on abstract things (more or less the definition of 'symbol') - and in this very sense, the parrot has the faculty for symbolic processing/operations. Not only does it extract properties from sensory data and generalize them into concepts (things can be wibbly-wobbly-in-way-A, or wibbly-wobbly-in-way-B (first order of abstraction (well, n+1 really)) => things have wibbliness, and some things have the same kind of wibbliness (second order (or n+2))), but also, it may operate on these concepts and use them in assertion/negation propositions: some objects have the same color but not the same shape. (I use the term proposition in the more general logical sense, not necessarily as in 'a linguistic assertion'; but when asked, the parrot provides an answer that can be put in a truth-table so to speak.) Interestingly, that's one of the ways to actually define 'semantic content': something which provides truth-conditions (e.g. some language-formalizing systems would say that the proposition "The present King of France is bald" has no semantic content / has no meaning because it is neither true nor false (presently there is no King in France, and the reference fails) (though Russell would disagree ('how can it be neither true nor false?') (if interested: "On Denoting", 1905.)) So what #2? Well, one could argue that symbolic apparatus + semantics (a set of truth-functions / grounds for constructing them) => 'language', so it's kind of a big thing, I'd say. (At the very least, evidence towards abstract thought in animals is always somehow very interesting for me.) Again: symbols (abstracting from properties => projecting these abstracts back onto sensory data) + symbolic processing (basically, ability to ascribe truth/falsity to/via them) => darn interesting. There's a whole hot debate how/whether this can be achieved 'bottom-up' from neural networks (Connectionism) (is 'symbolic processing' the proper way of reduction? Even if cognition is 'symbolic' in the end, perhaps it is best to model this starting bottom-up and arriving at 'symb.processing' as an emergent/epiphenomenal capacity?) - or, whether you need 'innate capacity' for symbolic processing / language ('language genes') - top-bottom language faculties (that all add up to those same neural networks, but simply, you won't get much by starting bottom-up) (Classicism / Nativism (not really interchangeable, using loosely / generalizing, etc.)) (<http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/language-thought/#ConDeb> , [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/connectionism/#ShaConBetCo...](http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/connectionism/#ShaConBetConCla) , etc.) </convoluted comment> _edit_ fixed and added even more confusing stuff. ~~~ the_gipsy Let's go back to the scenario: > The parrot sees a green key, and a green cup, and answers "color" to "what's > same?" and "shape" to "what's different". For all I know, the parrot recognizes both objects having the same color, and I assume that "shape" means nothing more than "equality" and does _not_ imply attribution of concept or quality, until the parrot can _also_ tell the difference between for example something wet and something dry. In my skepticism, the only meaningful ability of the parrot is to say out loud if the color matches. Which, IMHO, does not imply as much as you say. There must definitely be _some_ internal model of the world for this to happen. You _might_ be right when you say that there is attribution of quality, concepts, objects, and they share qualities - but I remain skeptic. For instance, an ant will recognize a sugar and react to it, and react differently to for ex. something noxious, but we know that ants are not capable of any complex internal models. All in all, TY for the reply! ------ pg Someone should define a canonical way to transform dolphins' whistles into syllables. Then we could at least sort of refer to them by their names. ~~~ felideon Apparently, dolphin trainers have the ability to whistle their names: "Her name was really Cathy. Well, not really. Her real name was [whistles]."[1] [1] [http://www.democracynow.org/2010/8/16/filmmakers_activists_t...](http://www.democracynow.org/2010/8/16/filmmakers_activists_try_to_save_dolphins) ~~~ aendruk 54:33 ~~~ StavrosK Thank you. ~~~ felideon Maybe it wasn't entirely obvious, but there is a transcript at the bottom. ------ gruseom John Lilly, who spent years working with dolphins, believed that they were smart enough to be cute and friendly to humans because they understood how dangerous we were. ~~~ pvaldes Not necessarily. Most of the time the people think about how cute is a dolphin is misunderstanding the animal. If a Lion shows you the teeth, you don't think is a cute kitty, is angry!, but, hey, this dolphin that show us the teeth "is smiling"!. This "smile" is in fact an agressive display in the wild. Being faster, well armed, and better fitted for water, a dolphin can avoid dangerous humans in the water any time he wants. In fact a lot of alone exemplars search for company, actively, even if is from humans, and are curious. Some dolphins simply like the human company, or the benefits derived of this, other not... at all. ~~~ mjmahone17 On the other hand, animals that are domesticated become "cuter." Look at the Russian fox domestication program (and the mirror aggressiveness program). <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domesticated_silver_fox> These foxes actually share a good number of features with dogs and humans: it may be that, because dolphins are such social creatures, we perceive them as cute because they are more or less domesticated. ~~~ icegreentea A suspected reason why domesticated animals cuter is the ideal that traits that are typically selected are traits found in youth. The general term for this is neoteny [1], which is where youthful traits are held on to into adult life. Typical traits selected for are reduced aggression and increased docility. The hypothesis is that the animals that displayed these traits likely also had a variety of other relatively child-like traits, such as larger heads, larger foreheads (I guess this might be why dolphins look so darn cute), larger eyes, floppy ears, and etc - on the basis that the set of genes that control the development of adult traits are typically linked together. The result being that as we selected for the tamest animals, we also selected those that were cuter. It's kind of circular in that traits that make things cute are typically those that are found as young - the young form of most animals sharing the same general 'cute' features. One thing of note is that the concept of neoteny is often invoked to explain how humans diverged so rapidly from the other primates. If you accept that explanation, and take the idea a bit further, then you end up with a somewhat bizarre and perhaps disturbing idea that humans are actually the result of self-domesticating primates (obviously a gross over simplification... but kind of a fun thought to play around with). [1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoteny> ~~~ pvaldes Yes but dolphins are not selectively breeded for domestication. At all. They are anti-domesticated in fact. If a killer whale attacks or kills a people in a zoo, (and this accidents happen) this whale is not killed and is maintained in breeding programs, as its sons. Too much expensive animal to lose its genes. ------ ricardobeat “Hey everybody! I’m an adult healthy male named George, and I mean you no harm!” That would be more like "Hey everyone, I'm George". Humans also 'encode' information in that sense - from that introduction you could probably tell age, general health and friendliness. The day we can talk to any stranger dolphin and have a real conversation will be alike to contacting alien life. ~~~ ChrisCooper Very true. On that topic, "...these communications consist of whistles, not words." Not to suggest that they're actually speaking a language, but a language consisting of whistles could still easily contain words. It would just have a different set of sounds. ~~~ kaybe It's not like it would be a new concept to humankind: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whistle_language> ------ felideon After some rabbit hole googling related to my 'Seaquarium' digression below, I encountered this 2010 transcript[1] of an ex-Flipper trainer: "Flipper was a wild animal that lived in Biscayne Bay before we captured her and dragged her, kicking and screaming, to the Miami Seaquarium and put her in a tank and gave her a stage name, Flipper. Her name was really Cathy. Well, not really. Her real name was [whistles]. Dolphins have a signature whistle that their mother gives them." - Ric O'Barry So it seems like this research proves what dolphin trainers have known, ostensibly, for many years? [1] [http://www.democracynow.org/2010/8/16/filmmakers_activists_t...](http://www.democracynow.org/2010/8/16/filmmakers_activists_try_to_save_dolphins) ====== OT: > The researchers also intensely studied four captive adult male dolphins > housed at _The Seas Aquarium_ , also in Florida. Made me giggle. Don't they mean, the [Miami] Seaquarium? If so, Flipper[1][2] is part of the study! [1] <http://miamiseaquarium.com/Shows/Flipper-Dolphin> [2] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flipper_(1964_TV_series)#Filmin...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flipper_$1964_TV_series$#Filming_locations) ------ stcredzero _> Bottlenose dolphins call out the specific names of loved ones when they become separated, a study finds._ ...Holy, f^~kin crap! We've been in the presence of other sentients this whole time. Enslaved them. Killed them while gathering food. Holy, f^~kin crap! ~~~ noonespecial Its an uneasy thought to have that sentience might not be a binary function that humans have and other species lack. It might be a continuum. Some animals are far more sentient than others. Its followed closely by the even more uncomfortable thought that this might vary greatly _inside_ the species. Finally this eerie train of thought pulls into the last station and you think that if the above is true than its almost certain that some _humans_ are less sentient than others. There be dragons. ~~~ pyre Well, you _could_ take that as "less sentient humans should be treated like animals and abused/treated like property/eaten." On the other hand, you _could_ take it as: \- Maybe I shouldn't eat all / some animals. \- Maybe some / all animals should have more rights and not be treated as objects, but living beings. [Not to mention the Christian fundamentalists that will refer to the Bible stating that God gave man domain over animals, so things like lighting cats on fire for fun are ok.] ------ mxfh The full paper is available for free from the Royal Society B: Vocal copying of individually distinctive signature whistles in bottlenose dolphins [http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/280/1757/2013...](http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/280/1757/20130053.full) The orginal press release is here: <http://www.smru.st- and.ac.uk/newsItem.aspx?ni=1611> [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east- fife-21...](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east- fife-21507301) ------ javajosh I will wager money that their names translate to things like: Big nose Funny tail Horny boy Big mamma Deep swimmer Not just amusing, but also useful. By correlating individual behaviors and physical features with names, we might be able to unlock dolphin language! Which would be incredible! ~~~ alan_cx Great idea. We humans were named after many characteristics. Jobs, what we see when the child is born, what kinds of personality we want our children to have, etc. ------ leoh Last year around this time, I had the opportunity to interact with two dolphins in captivity. Being with them, they felt so present and warm, like being around a perceptive old friend. I had never had that experience with an animal before, except fellow humans. It's something I will never forget. ~~~ dfc I take it that you are not a dog person? ~~~ leoh Recently my family got a dog. Love him. But his presence and awareness is very different. ------ traughber Growing up, I was lucky enough to occasionally join a group of scientists aboard a research vessel off the northern tip of the Bahamas. We would spend hours a day and up to two weeks at a time on the open ocean swimming with them and making visual and audio recordings of their behavior. The species they study are Atlantic Spotted Dolphins (Stenella frontalis). One of the things that has always struck me about them is how social they are – they have social circles and "cliques", similar to humans. We would observe these social networks and monitor how they change over the years. This research project is unique because they've been following this same group of just a few hundred dolphins in the wild for over 25 years. Having watched video and high frequency audio recordings of them interacting with one another in the wild, it comes as no surprise that they have "names" for one another. Relatedly, Denise Herzing, the founder of that organization (the Wild Dolphin Project) will be speaking at TED this year (see Session 8, "Coded Meaning"): <http://conferences.ted.com/TED2013/program/guide.php> Here's their site: <http://www.wilddolphinproject.org/about-us/mission- vision/> ------ ChuckMcM That is an interesting result. Some birds mimic other bird's songs but I don't know of an example in the bird family where an individual had a unique song. ~~~ tzs How about Emperor Penguins? When one of a pair returns from feeding, it finds the other by recognizing its unique calls. ~~~ LargeWu I think the finding here is not that dolphin A has a unique call, but that dolphin B calls out to A using A's unique call in order to find A. This is as opposed to B simply listening for A's call. ------ Viruptc Unbelievable that humans still kill these amazing animals <http://www.seashepherd.org/cove-guardians/> ~~~ tsieling Well, people kill people, too. But I agree with the underlying sentiment that we should be taking their place in the world much more seriously than we do most other animals. ------ DanielBMarkham Because I ended up doing a bit of reading about dolphins earlier this week, I thought I'd share a bit of trivia in this thread: dolphins also have prehensile penises. (Like an elephant's nose) [http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1l9V6Lfe2uE) And they're also not-very-nice (Tongue firmly in cheek here. Of course animals do not possess human qualities like "nice" or "asinine") [http://deepseanews.com/2013/02/10-reasons-why-dolphins- are-a...](http://deepseanews.com/2013/02/10-reasons-why-dolphins-are-aholes/) Now that we know they have names and are able to make tools, this has to make them one of the most unique species on the planet aside from man. Wonder what would have happened had they just invented some form of writing? ~~~ scotty79 I think we eat them not the other way around only because underwater is a crappy place to develop multi-generational culture. You need surfaces you can draw your symbols on and appendages that can manipulate things while looking at them. I don't feel that I'm member of the best species on earth. Just the one that is ahead in the race but only by a very thin margin. Fortunately we reached "writing" and "science" checkpoints first which means that we effectively won. ------ dchichkov As far as I know Royal Penguins also can call each other by name. And can distinguish a call from afar in the noise of hundreds of other penguins calling each other. There must be a lot of redundancy in the call, I guess. Also penguins sound totally like one of these old 14400 baud modems ;) ------ ttar Dolphin language is similar to human language. [http://www.tusker.com/tusker-trips/eclipse- trips/archaeo/art...](http://www.tusker.com/tusker-trips/eclipse- trips/archaeo/art.SetiNews.cfm) ------ maxharris I think it's a mistake to say that they call each other by "name," because that implies the ability to form concepts/speak a language, and there is absolutely zero evidence for that. Even the article is careful to point that out: _While researchers often hesitate to apply the “l word” -- language -- to non-human communications, bottlenose dolphins and possibly other dolphin species clearly have a very complex and sophisticated communication system._ ~~~ wfn Depends on your definition of 'name' and your system/formalization of the act of reference and/or semantics. In this case, 'name' seems to mean 'proper name', and there are systems explaining proper names as symbols used to _refer_ , but not to carry semantic charge (whatever that would entail). For example in my native tongue many town names are named after rivers large and small that do - or - only used to flow next to / past those towns. Yet we don't suddenly change the proper name: the _reference_ still works, but we do not need to cognize the semantic contents (originally associated with the name, if that was the case anyway; if you know where Baroomghtown is, I can use the term to refer to it and my reference will succeed as it were). That was a mouthful. My (insignificant) point: perhaps they would only need cognitive machinery for referring to (in some simple(?) sense) / distinguishing between themselves. That is: (1) usage of proper names does not (necessarily) imply ability to speak a language (perhaps that's all I meant; talk about nitpicking..); (2) there's quite a lot of research showing that animals form concepts left and right (could dig something up, but googling under those keywords would yield enough). Consider this interesting report: Under Pepperberg’s patient tutelage, Alex [a parrot] learned how to use his vocal tract to imitate almost one hundred English words, including the sounds for all of these foods, although he calls an apple a “banerry.” “Apples taste a little bit like bananas to him, and they look a little bit like cherries, so Alex made up that word for them,” Pepperberg said. (NGM, 2008: [http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/print/2008/03/animal- minds...](http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/print/2008/03/animal- minds/virginia-morell-text) (a curious article)) So it might be possible to conceive of a schema such that [arbitrary symbols (sequences of syllables, etc.)] + [concepts] => proper names; and those would indeed be what we are used to calling 'proper names', a subset of the category denoted by 'names', not something else. However, I agree completely with the sentiments re: fears of (over-)anthropomorphizing and projecting our own 'theories of mind' onto other life. ------ rwhitman I bet there would be economic opportunity in developing commercial dolphin- human communication software and interfaces. Imagine how much benefit to deep sea construction and exploration there would be if training and employing dolphins using natural language was possible. Or to shipping, fishing etc. ~~~ WiseWeasel Dolphin-based sitcoms where the dolphin says "it's a living" and shrugs his dolphin shoulders. ~~~ krapp When we uplift them, we'll have to remember to give them shoulders. And eyebrows. Good comedy depends on eyebrows. ------ rblion Did you know that dolphins love to rape each other and some have tried to rape a human?! Check out this list of interesting facts... [http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/news-6-badass-facts- you...](http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/news-6-badass-facts-you-never- knew-about-dolphins) ~~~ westicle It's amazing how similar they are to humans in many respects. ~~~ rblion It is. Highly intelligent, playful, social, strategic, sexual, and with bursts of aggression. ------ lignuist I wonder, if there is any public repository of dolphin audio recordings. ------ mtgx Have they tried testing this on dogs, too? I assume they don't do that, but it would be interesting if they did the test on dogs, too. ~~~ ricardobeat And ferrets. ------ olejolej Like in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams :) Dolphins will govern... ------ tomasien Did anyone else's pulse race when they saw the phrase "encodes other information"?	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
An Introvert’s Advice for Getting Ahead - prostoalex http://blogs.wsj.com/atwork/2015/04/03/an-introverts-advice-for-getting-ahead-2/?mod=trending_now_1 ====== reqres This article mischaracterises introversion by confusing it with shyness. Yes, there is probably a significant correlation between the two but they are separate issues. You can be an introvert without being shy. Furthermore, shyness can be overcome (as I have) but an individual's level of introversion is for the most part unchangeable. It's not hard to find examples of excellent public speakers who are also introverts. Mohandas Gandhi and Barack Obama are two examples which spring to mind. ~~~ nightcracker Thank you. I am very much an introvert, but not shy at all. Social interactions just mentally drain me, so I avoid them if possible. ------ jonpress I think that introverts who can fake extroversion make the best leaders. Natural born extroverts are often selfish and can't relate to others on a deeper level - Only on a superficial level (catch phrases and the like). I think that good leaders need a high level of self-reflection otherwise they will sound like a self-absorbed, out-of-touch jerk - These people are just not motivating to work with. ~~~ nightcracker What makes you think extroversion/introversion are related to the capability to self-reflect? ~~~ jonpress It's a personal observation and also a big generalization. I think maybe it's because extroverts often derive their self-worth from their interactions with others instead of basing it on intrinsic characteristics that nobody else can see. ------ 98Windows Splitting people into either the introverted or extroverted category seems really simplistic. I think that's why these debates are a bit hollow since no one really knows what they are arguing. ------ andrea_sdl For anyone reading this article or wanting to dig deeper into the subject of extroversion and introversion checkout "Quiet" by Susan Cain. It talks exactly about introversion and how it has its values. BTW: The introvertion/extroversion thing is really a mix of elements. Rarely you are a 100% extrovert or introvert, but a complex mix of both. ------ rukuu001 My tactic in a room full of jabberers - ask someone a question (as simple as 'why?') about what they've said. It can expose nonsense, or alternatively expand useful information with only oblique confrontation. ------ gtirloni Previous 303 threads about this on HN: [https://hn.algolia.com/?query=introverts&sort=byPopularity&p...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=introverts&sort=byPopularity&prefix=false&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story) ~~~ virjog What's your point? I can do a simple search of any keyword and get back hundreds or thousands of results. There's no harm in sharing a recent article about a topic to spark discussion. ~~~ jsalit If you ignore the GP's tone, it's actually a useful search link. Along with accumulating insight and conclusions, to referencing previous articles and discussions helps to avoid specific redundancies. ------ conqrr Somehow I feel PM roles suit introverts more than any other roles in a technical company. ~~~ crimsonalucard y? PM's need a lot of social skills to protect engineers from a lot of the politics. ~~~ NeutronBoy Agreed. The role of a good PM to to enable the project members to do their jobs, by shielding them, and getting them the resources they need.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Most startups do not create value, says Scott Shane - davidw http://www.smallbiztrends.com/2008/08/the-entrepreneurship-lottery.html/ ====== brm The term startup implies that the company wont be around in 6 years, it will likely either have folded or exited so judging by sales numbers after 6 years is not the right measure. And really? Sales data from 1996 to 2002? That's ancient in terms of the web	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
We Make Mistakes - katm http://blog.ycombinator.com/we-make-mistakes ====== tomasien I never got into Y Combinator (I think I applied 4 times but I'm not sure) but I'm now the CEO of a rapidly growing, well funded startup that actually SERVES an increasing number of YC companies. The way I always thought about YC was that it is ALWAYS worth applying because the exercise is good and the upside is high (and the downside minimal) but getting into YC should never be "part of your plan" \- there are too many other great applicants, plain and simple. It's the same as how no student should ever PLAN to get into Harvard, and Harvard even has SATs and GPAs to rely on (fairly objective stats around which you can make a guess about your odds) while YC has only heuristics based on experience and founder reputation. Never judge yourself based on something that has an open application process - it doesn't define you, it defines them. No reason not to apply, but take it as a bonus if you get in, don't take it personally if you get rejected. ~~~ downandout _> I never got into Y Combinator but I'm now the CEO of a rapidly growing, well funded startup that actually SERVES an increasing number of YC companies_ This this kind of thing always feels like a bit of a victory. I never came close to being admitted to Stanford, but years ago found myself on the campus, hiring a professor as a consultant to a startup I co-founded. As we walked around the campus and then sat in his office, this far-off universe of people that the Stanford admissions committee had long-ago decided were smarter and more capable than I was suddenly seemed far less so. I was already doing what many of the students, and even many professors, aspired to do. A rejection from YC, Stanford, or any other exclusive club with limited space isn't necessarily an indictment of your abilities. In the case of a startup, launch your product and let the market tell you how valuable you are. Remarkable products will quickly spread, and investors will line up to write you checks. You can have VC partners worth hundreds of millions of dollars literally walking the streets [1] to find you, too. [1] [http://youtu.be/8-pJa11YvCs?t=13m](http://youtu.be/8-pJa11YvCs?t=13m) ~~~ vacri I once tried to become a paramedic. I was working in a sort-of outpatient clinic at the time, talked a couple of times with an paramedic instructor, along with some regular officers. I never got in - the HR recruiters didn't like me for some reason. This made no sense to the instructor, who thought I was a prime candidate, nor to my medical colleagues, and I also later successfully coached two friends through the process. I often wonder how life would have turned out differently had I been accepted. Sometimes people on both sides of the wall think you'd be the best for the job, but if the gatekeepers don't think so... :) ~~~ hessenwolf I got a reply from a financial engineering consultancy HR person on Friday to say that they would not be able to process my application until I had submitted my high school results. From 1997. I have several applications on the go right now, so I do not have time to go historical for them. They miss a candidate. ~~~ hnriot that's not unreasonable, when applying for job you need to get your stuff together. So many companies have later found out employees claimed degrees they never got. HR protects against that. ~~~ shaftoe A high school diploma? Your high school grades? Who cares? ------ flipside 7th rejection, doesn't even phase me anymore. :P For those with less experience, the disappointment will pass. Take a day if you need to reflect on what you're doing, why you're doing it and how you could do it better. Rejection is fuel for the fire, use it to burn brighter going forward. Next time, be so good they can't ignore you, simple as that. ~~~ DevX101 Persistence isn't always a virtue. If you've been rejected 7 times, please stop expending your time and emotional energy on YC. Redirect that energy to building your business. Build your product and get customers/users, which is the real endgame, not getting into YC or getting a check from a fancy Sandhill VC. ~~~ flipside Applying to YC is a straightforward decision every time: 1\. YC would definitely be helpful and worth the equity. 2\. The application process is a helpful reality check for the status of my startup regardless of outcome. 3\. I still believe we have crazy amounts of untapped potential. I focus just fine on my startup the rest of the time. ------ damurdock I'm reminded a bit of [http://www.bvp.com/portfolio/antiportfolio](http://www.bvp.com/portfolio/antiportfolio), a collection of companies that applied to Bessemer Venture Partners for VC funds, were denied, and went on to make it big. ~~~ graycat Sure, easily can conclude that BVP and other VC firms believe that they have a particular way to evaluate applications and make money. This does not mean that they have the ability or obligation, or even make an effort, accurately to evaluate every application that comes through their door. So, likely, net, if they are making money, then they are happy about the money they are making, smile all the way to the bank, and just f'get about the rest. ~~~ 7Figures2Commas _If_ they are making money? Venture funds are generally structured using the 2 and 20 model. The first 2 refers to an annual fee of 2% of committed capital for the life of the fund. Venture funds typically have a life of 10 years. I believe Bessemer's last fund was $1.6 billion, so assuming a typical 2 and 20 structure, that would be $32 million/year, or $320 million over a 10 year fund's life, _guaranteed_. ~~~ graycat Yup, that's one way to make money. But as in [http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2013/02/venture-capital- returns.html...](http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2013/02/venture-capital- returns.html#disqus_thread) on average the VC returns to the limited partners have not been very good. ------ vishnupr A relevant question I asked PG a year ago: [Do you review rejected YC apps to find startups who then made it big?] - [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7122774](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7122774) ~~~ rdlecler1 I've mentioned this in another post. I'm a CPSC University of Calgary alum. James Gosling (Founder of Java) is also an alum. A bunch of my profs went to school with him back in the 70s and the stories they told about him. Well he was a legend. One day he came to do a talk when I was in undergrad. He told us that he applied to every major CPSC school for his PhD and was rejected __EVERYWHERE __except for Carnegie Mellon. As he was about to walk across the stage to be awarded his degree there, they pulled him aside and told him that each year they randomly select one person that they initially rejected and accepted that person, and that he was the first one that ever graduated. Even James needed luck. I would love to see the same experiment done with YC. IT would be one hell of an experiment. ~~~ tsenkov This is a very interesting case, indeed. I think YC used to accept awesome teams with (seemingly) bad ideas. Which is only partially like your example. But I don't believe they are doing it now with so many applications (40% more than S14). Anyone has any examples pointing the other? ------ onuryavuz This was our first time, and we are rejected. ([http://cubic.fm](http://cubic.fm)) During the application process I started to realize, YC asks all the right questions. Just trying to find proper answers is a huge step forward for the first timers, like us. We learned a lot. I think, the only thing that missing is the feedback loop. I'm aware of the fact that there are more applicants than YC could accept, or provide a feedback. But after all, we still need a feedback. After I saw the rejection email, first I planned to share our application in HN to get feedback from the community. But now I see this is a need for all the rejected applicants. I'm not sure what could be a better way for closing the feedback loop. Maybe, there's a start-up idea in here somewhere :) ------ zeeshanm Anyone feeling down should read Ev William's story from "Founders at Work" on how he had to create, recreate, and recreate his team at Blogger. There was an year when he was the only one running Blogger when the entire team left. It is truly inspiring! Great things can happen when you're low on budget and there are numerous entrepreneurial stories about those early days. Sometimes it is much needed to go through the early struggles to come out even stronger in the end. ------ waterlesscloud "In this cycle we saw a +40% increase in the number of companies applying over the Summer 2014 batch." Yikes! That's a major increase in applications. Has that number always grown that fast? I wonder what the saturation point will be... ~~~ dvt I think 40% is atypically high. However, people have been wondering what the saturation point might be (with no sign of slowing down) for years ;) ------ Fando There are more applicants than YCombinator could accept (or anyone could accept if you look at it in scale). Someone should create a social-media type website for YCombinator applicants (or anyone) to share their stories, meet, interact, network, learn, and collaborate on new and existing ideas. Imagine how many start-ups would be "born" like this. Think of how many great ideas don't get in or simply don't apply, think of how BIG this community could grow to be in a short time - it would grow by itself. Look at what Kickstarter is doing. Think of how many new comers this type of stepping stone would benefit and help achieve their ideas. Starting this community is possible by creating a great website that creatively engages members to collaborate. Let YCombinator (and anyone else) endorse it - first to members of the y-community then others. In fact "y-community" should be the name of it. We all know that out kind already burn with passion, desire and creativity. With minimal guidance from YCombinator it could succeed faster - passionate desires of those not-accepted will continue to burn and be fostered. Eventually, and this is speculating perhaps, if YCombinator becomes somewhat involved, with so many start-up communities popping-up in every city and country, this website, could grow to become the "Facebook" of start-ups. (only it would also be productive :) But seriously. ~~~ hillis The website you're describing already exists. In fact, you just posted on it. ~~~ Fando You're obviously right to think that hillis. What are your thoughts on the potential that could be achieved if YCombinator would build on the idea? ~~~ kevin If? We are! ------ taytus First rejection but I have a smile in my face. I did it, I had the courage to apply. So... yeah I'm happy. ~~~ rdlecler1 Good work. We were invited for an interview, but I can tell you that I've failed to get an opportunity so many times in my life that I've lost count. I've had a handful of wins, but have thrown the dice tens of thousands of times. Opportunity is a fickle beast. There have been dark dark days (and months). My ego and pride is covered with calluses. It's depressing and it makes your humble, but it's not a sign of defeat. Push through if only because the alternative is to concede defeat. A couple of my biggest regrets are not applying to Google in 2000 when I was graduating from CPSC: "Search engine? Well that sounds boring. And they don't even have a business model!".. Opps.... The other was not applying to YC in November 2009. "Oh the next class is too far away." I had a killer prototype, and since then the whatifs always haunted me. Better to try, and be overlooked, than to never try at all. ~~~ sf_angular_dude may i ask why not applying to yc in 2009 was such a big regret? was it because it was less competitive back then, and you think things might have turned out differently? just curious. TIA! ------ AustinPythonFTW I'm definitely speaking at least a little bit out of bitterness (our team just got rejected), so with that caveat it feels like YC is becoming more like traditional VC (venture capital): \- extremely low probability of success just due to volume of applications \- no feedback (again, due to volume of applications, and they posted a nice blog post about this, but just stating a fact) \- it seems (I don't have any factual evidence to back this up, would love to be proven wrong through factual evidence) that you need to know someone \- tendency to fund those who need it the least (already-proven user traction or revenue) YC is a for-profit, private enterprise that can do whatever it wants, and it is in the business of maximizing income, so it would be foolish for the organization not to act in a self-interested way, but just calling it like I see it (and again, it'd be great if there were any stats the organization could release to disprove any of the points above, but I understand that it has no obligation to do so). ~~~ jl We've been doing pretty much the same things since we started in 2005: we've never given specific feedback about rejections at the application stage (it wasn't going to scale even when we only got a few hundred applications). We funded 8 startups in our first batch, which was roughly 2-3% of the total applications. We definitely fund people who have no connection to folks we already know, or Silicon Valley for that matter. And we also fund startups who are at the idea stage and have no traction (though traction does help). I'm very sorry we rejected you, but we are honestly often wrong. ~~~ AustinPythonFTW thanks for the comment. YC is definitely great about being very respectful to applicants in its process and blog posts, so don't get me wrong. I'm just wondering if there's a way for people to understand what their chances are. For example, if 0.01% of people that have lower than a 650 GMAT get into Stanford, then that would be useful information to know (for hopeful applicants). Similarly, if the "has revenue" cohort has a 15% interview rate, and the "pre- revenue" cohort has a 0.5% interview rate, that would also be really great to know. (same thing for solo vs. multiple founders, recommended vs. non- recommended, etc). I understand that YC has no obligation to provide this information, and perhaps there are very good reasons why it wouldn't provide it even if it was available. It would just be useful to know if possible. ~~~ ig1 The curve is far less uniform than you might imagine. There are going to be a few companies which are obvious superstars (great team, market, execution, traction, etc.) which will be obvious yeses. You're either in this group or your not. There are many many companies which are obviously bad: weak team, bad market, poorly thought through idea, pre-product, etc. These companies would get rejected regardless of how many companies applied. Then you have the companies in the middle. That's where the competition is. It doesn't really matter how many companies are in the previous groups, what matters is how you rank compared to the "maybes". ~~~ AustinPythonFTW ig1: your comment is very insightful -- it may be a situation where you, as an insider and experienced founder, can more clearly delineate between the categories (particularly obviously bad vs. middle) than some of us (first time founders, etc). anyways, it's a good point, thank you. ------ Udo Damn, I was thinking about trying for a "late" application, but apply.ycombinator.com seems to be down. Does anyone know if they still allow this, in principle? Or are batches now so saturated (with good ideas) that they dropped the option? ~~~ kevin We do still allow late apps. We're working on the problem and hope to have it back up soon. Sorry guys! ~~~ BillionaireBear What happens if a rejected company from this batch submits a late application. Does this paradox cause the universe to implode? Haha - honestly though , is this acceptable? ~~~ Brandrsn From apply.ycombinator.com: "You are listed as a founder on another application. Please do not create a new application unless you're applying with a different startup." Was worth a look... :-) ------ KetciaThach Been rejected , but been viewed by 6 people (alumni/or YC) and it is a victory for us for a first time. In the end it is all about what resonate the most to them, YC has its agenda if you dont fit in it , doesnt mean you're bad or your idea is not smart enough. It means you don't fit . That's all. We will keep on working and apply in 6 months or just never apply again and make it work on our own. And I think the worst case would have been to be accepted by YC and fail once I got out of it ... which happens a lot !! :) Thanks for all YC ------ ninajlu Got in this batch on our second time applying. First time we applied with an idea: now we have a product and customers. In retrospect I think the initial rejection was reasonable. ------ lubos If you want to get into YC, it's quite simple. You have to optimize for what they want and considering how transparent the application process is, it's actually quite easy. PG's essays are step-by-step guides on how to "tick" all the right boxes. They even give you the list of ideas they _wish_ to fund. How nice of them... No wonder YC has announced that quality of applications is increasing. It's not increasing because startups are getting better. It's increasing because more startups are optimizing. Remember Nikki Durkin from 99dresses? She didn't just apply. She spent huge amount of time researching partners, their history, what they liked, what they wanted to hear... and she has delivered just that like a rockstar. How many promising founders are rejected because they just didn't bother to optimize like Durkin? To me, if you get rejected, it just means you didn't put enough time into the application. If your goal is to get into YC, then keep trying, you will figure it out. But in the end, if you are real entrepreneur, figure out what you are doing with your business. Don't optimize for YC, just do what you've got to do and if YC wants to join you for a ride, then fine. If not, too bad for them. ~~~ coffeemug Optimizing for what you think YC partners want is a sure way to not get into YC. You're not a mind reader; what you think they want is almost certainly different from what they actually want. More importantly, they read thousands of applications, and you're only working on one. They can smell people who are trying to game them from a thousand miles away. Just doing what you do is the only thing that matters and will get you in, assuming you're doing the right thing. (Asking alums for feedback on the application is a very good way to make sure you're doing the right thing and your presentation doesn't suck) ~~~ gohrt Your theory seems to apply to SEO as well (just make the best content, and google will rank it highest for relevant terms), and yet the whole SEO industry exists, and most of journalism has changed the way it uses language so that it is more parsable by googlebot -- Google Standard English. ------ graycat The start-ups that are of the most interest are necessarily exceptional and significantly different from start-ups in the past, successful or not. Thus, evaluating start-ups when looking for the ones of most interest is challenging, and evaluations via simple, empirical patterns from the past promise to select a lot of straw and miss some golden needles. Really the challenge here is common, nearly standard, and a very old story that goes back to nothing less than the _Mother Goose_ children's story "The Little Red Hen": What the hen was doing was unusual and, therefore, not in the experience of others. Thus, no one would help her. But when she had hot, fragrant loaves of bread freshly out of her oven and eager, hungry, paying customers lined up to buy, lots of people were ready to _help_. But in the interim she had to work alone with just her own evaluation, creativity, and determination. No doubt that story is in _Mother Goose_ because the situation was both common and ancient. What is needed are better means of evaluating projects. For a special, relatively small, collection of projects, there are such means, highly polished, e.g., for grant applications to NSF, NIH, and DARPA, similarly for Ph.D. dissertation proposals, and also for a huge range of US DoD projects, e.g., the SR-71, the F-117, GPS. Generally these projects and their evaluations have much better _batting average_ than Silicon Valley equity funded information technology start-up projects. Maybe what Silicon Valley is doing is making money, and the YC $30+ billion is astoundingly impressive, but one major success can be worth $300 billion, 10 times as much, so that we have to suspect that better evaluations could lead to better returns. ------ MarkyPc3 Last I applied as a single founder I got an interview. Now I have a cofounder and made significant progress but our application didn't earn us an interview (the second time applying with this idea.) Perhaps I took something for granted when i applied this time so the app turned out weaker or disappointing but I realize how lucky I was to get feedback last time as opposed to none at all now. ~~~ untilHellbanned This seems strange. Any areas your application changed? What did you think you did better this time? ------ chacham15 Is it just me or does the application to YC feel like a pitch to an investor? I understand that for very specific cases they might be different in that they can see some early potential. However, if you're not one of those lucky few, then it feels like if you're at the point where you can convince YC to invest, you're already not too far from being able to convince an investor to invest. E.g. I've gotten the advice from multiple people at or affiliated with YC: "get users and show growth". But, for me specifically, if I had users and growth already, there is little more that the money that YC would help me raise can do. If I got into YC earlier, I would have hired people to help build the product which people want. Yes, there is a lot of work to grow post product, but in my case, money wouldnt really help that much (my case is desktop software, so I dont really need more server capacity or have scaling issues like other companies do). ------ MCRed One of the things that I've found so challenging about applying for accelerators is that it's difficult to find examples of companies that got in or that didn't get in, and what they did for their applications. Every time I have come across one, I've learned a bit - like "that didn't work" or "that was a great idea" \- around how they apply, pitch themselves or their product, etc. Anyone who was rejected want to share any of their application info, like team or product demo videos, or their website and a one line pitch? I know you might not want to for competitive reasons, and I understand. But there's always things we can learn from each other, so if you want to share I'm sure I'm not the only one who would appreciate seeing what didn't work. :-) ~~~ aliakhtar I'll share a bit. I'm a solo, international founder. I applied with a barely usable, very limited prototype, of a technically challenging project (involving A.I and machine learning). My video was viewed twice, and my demo was viewed, but no other action was taken within it. I was rejected. I expected that, given that my prototype was pretty bad, and I have a lot going against me. It definitely lit a fire under me just to apply though - and the questions that the application asks, are things you really need to think about. I definitely don't regret applying. And the fact that my demo & video were viewed - makes me think that perhaps my idea is somewhat promising. I plan on improving my product a lot and re-applying next batch. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12DAjoONx9E&t=35s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12DAjoONx9E&t=35s) ~~~ MCRed I was a "solo founder" type for awhile. If you're an engineer I think you can have your pick of co-founders. My suggestion, after working on and for startups for a couple decades is that you should be the CEO, find business people to be co-founders, and hire a VP of engineering, or CTO. It's almost a cliche that there are business guys "starting companies" who "just need an engineer"... but I think the best chances for success - on a high tech startup - are for the engineer to be the CEO, and eventually bring on a CTO. One advantage of this- the CEO is focused on product while the business guys (COO, CMO, whatever) are out doing the legwork for raising money. I've seen too many companies flounder because the CEO was focused on raising money. You can learn business, they can't learn engineering. (well, they can, but not to your level in the time available.) ~~~ aliakhtar I'm not going to get a co-founder just to get into YC. ~~~ wellboy You do need a co-founder though to build a startup. The value of having 1 person to bounce ideas off is incredible versus just yourself. The value of the second co-founder for bouncing ideas off is 50% less than for the first one, that's why one co-founder is optimal. ~~~ aliakhtar I bounce ideas with my friends - and I don't have to give them 50% of my business! ------ michaelchisari First application, got rejected. Honestly happy it happened now instead of after the interview. It gives me more time to think about what's next. My startup is movie industry related, so maybe Los Angeles would be a better place to be. I'll post the startup site here when we launch. ~~~ wj Looking forward to seeing it. Lots of room for innovation in the entertainment industry. I have a small web app for low budget filmmakers that a hesitate to call a startup (I think rocket growth might be particularly hard to achieve in the production side of the industry). More of a business in its infancy. Best of luck to you. ------ 7Figures2Commas > Don’t let funding take your eye off the goal: making something people want. > Everything else, including going through Y Combinator, is there to support > that goal but is not the goal itself. It would be interesting to see a chart plotting over time the number of applicants in each batch who have applied to YC multiple times. Based on the number of folks here on HN who have apparently applied multiple times, and for different concepts no less, it seems plausible that a not insignificant percentage of the applicant pool now consists of folks who, contrary to YC's own advice, are more focused on getting accepted into YC than building a real business. ~~~ paul The best way to get into YC is to build a great business :) ~~~ qazawy1001 honest question because I hear this line from YC partners, then at that point why as founders would we need YC at all? ~~~ danieltillett You don't, but if you are dumb enough to give them a share of your business they are happy to take it. ~~~ sokoloff I think the math is quite favorable to taking YC investment as a +EV decision until quite a late stage in a successful startup's development. pg wrote about this pretty convincingly here: [http://paulgraham.com/equity.html](http://paulgraham.com/equity.html) Unless you are comparing YC against an actual term sheet in your hand with at least 2X better terms, that YC is overwhelmingly likely a good deal. There might be good reasons not to enter YC for some companies, but the 6% equity is rarely the determining one, even for companies with revenue and sustainable Ramen profits. ------ qopp The whole process makes seems to make some people feel like it's asking someone out or trying out for a play (i.e. the video interview, etc) so I can see why people can take it so harshly. Your application/video/product could be flawless and literally solve world hunger but the process isn't objective as all that. In the end they just pick a handful of people out of all the applications that they want to invest in. I'm sure that most applications there was no reason at all that they chose not to accept them. They just didn't. ------ jaksmit "In this cycle we saw a +40% increase in the number of companies applying" — roughly how many applications were there? 1000? 10,000? Also, how many teams make it to the interview stage? ~~~ drawkbox Seconded, some metrics on this yearly would be great if at all possible. To give the applicants some sort of perspective. In terms of the companies that make it, previous years the amount that make it in range up to 80 but they reduced it to 50 last year. 500 or so total YC companies since inception (2005). ------ BillionaireBear Dissapointed, got very positive feedback from an alum prior to applying. But alas, that was not enough. :) I do find that international founders are at a distinct disadvantage due to lack of networking opportunities (which definitely plays a big part when each application probably receives 5 minutes per reviewer). That said - you could argue that any great entrepreneur would not allow that to be a barrier hehe! Best of luck to everyone who has an interview and those who don't. ------ iamjoday Hi Friends, I've just received rejection email from Ycombinator... :( Though I realize, how competitive it gets to get in, its not the start one expect for their product or idea... while, I am working on to make my product, I would appreciate if fellow community members can help point out ares of improvement in my product, [http://joday.com](http://joday.com) Thanks for your time! I really appreciate it! Nish Founder, Joday.com ------ ececconi It's easier to imagine that YC can't take all of the good companies that apply if you imagine they could only pick one company out of 10,000 applying. The goal should be to build a great company using whatever resources and networks of people you have available. Not just gaining entry here. ------ userium As many here told, the process of applying is valuable in itself. Our application was rejected, but you can sign up for a beta invite here: [https://userium.com/](https://userium.com/) Soon 400 sign ups and counting. :) ------ fsoroush We haven't received any response yet... Anybody else NOT received a response ? ------ pptr1 "Don’t let funding take your eye off the goal: making something people want. Everything else, including going through Y Combinator, is there to support that goal but is not the goal itself." Exactly... ~~~ MCRed This is particularly challenging, since, given the amount of effort it takes to make an application, if you apply to multiple accelerators during "application season" it's easy for it to be a full time job. It's very easy to believe "if only we just got in... we'd have the money to do X". ------ doddavenkatappa We too got the rejection letter. But it is perfectly understandable in our case as we are really in the early stages, without a prototype. Any thoughts on how much a prototype and full-time commitment from all founders matter? ~~~ wellboy If you haven't sold a previous company before, you need to have strong traction (at least 5,000 users or $5,000 revenue within the last 6 months), otherwise you don't have a chance really. Also, you need to have a full-time commitment, otherwise they won't give you $120,000 if that makes sense. ------ rudeboy347 Thank you YC. I hope to be in the batch one of these days.Congrats to the successful applicants. For those who were rejected, reflect, revaluate and reapply. ------ paul9290 I'm curious to how many founders in this batch are... \- Over 35 \- Female \- African American Edit: My post here is to gauge if the needle of progress in our industry is moving forward in the terms of race, age and sex. ~~~ rdlecler1 We were accepted for an interview (Not accepted to the class yet). I'm 41 and my co-founder (who doesn't looks quite as young as I am) is 47. To be honest, I fully expected a rejection for this very reason so I'm pleasantly surprised which is actually pretty consistent with the YC brand. To make a fair assessment you also need to look at the distribution of applicants. If 15% of applicants are female, then your null hypothesis is that 15% of founders will be female. ~~~ paul9290 Congratulations! I do wonder if you... \- Are already generating revenue \- Have lots of traction/traffic \- Sold previous start-ups and or companies before \- Worked at and or working at Apple, Facebook, Google or similar companies \- Ran a successful KickStarter \- Went to an ivy league school As for us.. I am 39 and this is my second start-up. My co-founder is 21. Our first start-up idea (was a novel idea at the time) has since gone onto being worked on/copied by dozens, including one now with millions of users. We were not technical when we started our first start-up, but did receive a fair amount of attention for the concept. Overall, I don't think that matters due to the competition you face in applying for YC. I would assume many who are interviewed & accepted can check off a few of those questions I asked above. Though maybe not? Not sure we will apply again since we applied in April of 2013. Though when we applied in 2013 & got rejected we soon were invited to demo our technology to an entity in the valley. That is an interesting story in itself. Maybe that will happen again :-) Well we were not lucky this time, I wish you better luck! ~~~ rdlecler1 Revenue: I wish. We're in a highly regulated environment and we didn't raise enough money to get a broker dealer license so we had to defer revenue because we couldn't afford it as well as the legal and compliance costs. Traffic/Traction. Wow, Two different things. We're an investment marketplace for agriculture and agtech ([http://agfunder.com](http://agfunder.com)). Listed companies have raised $10.5M since Feb2014, we have another $2M in live deals, and about $12M in deal flow coming on in the next 4 weeks. So in that respect traction is huge, this is not being funded by thousands of investors but by VCs in Silicon Valley family or in Russia, offices, strategics. In our case the LTV of a customer is in the hundreds of thousands so we don't need traffic in the millions. We average about 5,000 uniques per month, and we have about a 1% conversion rate, of which 0.25% are investors. Sold previous startups: No. I wish. I wouldn't be living off my credit card right now. Apple/Facebook/Google: No. KickStarter: No, family then advisories, and then friends of friends got us this far but it has been very very painful and it seemed like just when we were on deaths door (Maxed credit cards, zero sleep for 2 weeks) that we had a stay of execution. Ivy: Yes. I have a PhD from Yale and have published in Nature, Harvard Business Review, and most recently TechCrunch so I had a lot of social proof to work with (That said I have ADD and dyslexia and I didn't graduate from high school so don't let a poor start hold you back). I'm sure this played in, but it is possible to build up your CV. I think YC (and frankly everyone else) wants to know that you are someone who is capable of doing something extraordinary. You need to give them data points. Start with some baby steps and leverage your way into something bigger. I submitted several articles to TC before one was accepted. ------ guelo Does YC get every single early startup applying now? Why would an early startup not apply? Seems like it's almost a requirement now. ------ viksit Does this include late apps? Curious about the decisions on apps that came in hours or days after the 8p deadline. ~~~ kevin You can pretty much late apply all the way until the next batch starts. There's not really a formal process with late applications, though. We do read through them all eventually and we'll respond to all of you. Right now, the rough deadline for us is by the end of the year. ~~~ viksit Ah got it. So this means late apps still haven't been reviewed? ------ stevephillips This sounds pretty honest and heart felt. ------ pardeepg I have not received any response from YC yet. should we wait or contact YC for application status? ------ qazawy1001 you make mistakes and we will remember. btw, it just might be sour grapes, but i get the feeling yc app process is highly gamed right now and being rejected by it is not useful enough information to act on for the founders - which is the hallmark of a good investor. ~~~ aliakhtar [http://i.imgur.com/4zlJhGg.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/4zlJhGg.jpg) ------ charendy I think is time you guys dig into Africa, the fast growing emerging market. ------ bozoUser do the co-founders also get the email? I dont see one in my inbox yet.. ~~~ thatmatt I think just the main submitter. ------ yunnnyunnn Thanks YC ------ monsterix This is the exact case of a crowded doorway [1] we discussed almost two years ago on HN: Higher the number of applications implies higher the perceivable quality of YC applications. Implies higher the probability of riskier bets to fall through. What's potentially dangerous about this situation is that quite a few glossy low-risk companies will outdo the more riskier ones - even though YC staff is one of the best in the world and thoroughly equipped to do what it does - and thus lowering the chances of fishing real gems off the coast. I do not have the numbers, but how have the batches of later years done as compared to the early ones which had Dropbox, Airbnb in them? [1] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5648760](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5648760) ------ the_cat_kittles "We Make Mistakes" is such a pretentious title because you think people hold ycombinator in such high esteem that you need to say that ~~~ sfeng They're trying to be kind to the people they just refused, I'm not sure why that's pretentious. If you applied, presumably you wanted to get in and reminding them that it's not necessarily them or their company which is wrong is a kind thing to do. ~~~ dropit_sphere Actually, I think this is the most important part of the process. When you're small you have the luxury of making mistakes and no one cares. When you wield some power/prestige and your actions affect other peoples' lives, people start coming to you with grievances. The worst part is that often those grievances are "deserved" \--- I guarantee that some startup w/o an interview request will make it big, and one that gets accepted will slink off and die. That doesn't mean that YC is failing, just that the problem is _really hard_. ~~~ yarou The problem itself isn't very hard, at least not in the mathematical sense of the word. It's just that it's a human process, and is thus prone to the failings of human beings, including the various biases that human beings are known to have. ------ brentxphillips So how would YC classify passing over interviewing former United Nations staff working on reducing the turnaround time and effort it takes aid groups to raise funds to develop, launch and sustain operations responding to the worst humanitarian crises the world has seen in an era? Does this fit in the mistake category or the we’re just naively stupid and don’t have the time to bother spending 5 minutes hearing about your project category? Aid groups are choking on sheltering and feeding millions of refugees streaming out of Syria and Iraq but who gives a fuck? ~~~ ericd They've got much more interest than they can deal with, such that even very good teams can be passed over. Just try again next time, and try not to take it personally. And in the meantime, keep on working on it. ~~~ esusinc As an East Coast located start up there is the feel of being on the outside looking in. There seems to be obstacles to overcome...be it culturally and geographically. As a startup in an growth industry (UAV/UAS)that happens to focus more on the service delivery and hardware side, how do you overcome the software centric focus of YC? ------ monksy Why not do the 1871 startup incubator in Chicago? ------ aloma85 If you are not a White or Asian male, don't even bother. Someone needs to start a fund for African Americans. ~~~ jacquesm That's nonsense. If you're black, female or eskimo, any combination of those and whatever else you could come up with that would put you into a minority group _PLEASE_ do apply with your start-up, that's the only way the numbers will start to reflect society as a whole. ------ resca79 I appreciate the seriously of Y Combinator, but I dislike an article like that, first the title: 'We make mistakes' While I found the rejection a good and sincere email, I'm trying to figure out the role of this article ------ pulkitpulkit I get YC makes mistakes (as does everyone else) but I expected / wished / hoped that the response would be figuring out how to make fewer mistakes; maybe an improved process to reduce the risk of mistakes and not just a blog post throwing their hands in the air and wishing everyone that fell on the wrong side good luck. I think they owe that to their stakeholders, if not all the aspiring entrepreneurs out there. This makes it seem like they don't really care...	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
The man who took 40,000 ecstasy pills in 9 years - henning http://psy.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/47/1/86 ====== Alex3917 For what it's worth, the recommended dosage of pure MDMA is 125mg no more than every three months. Meaning this guy actually managed to take 2,250x the RDI for years without dying. (Not even counting all of the other drugs he was on.) ~~~ jlcgull ... and had the longest most awesome RAVE evar!!!! </ sarcasm> ~~~ rokhayakebe You would think after a while he couldn't get the same feeling anymore. ------ daeken This is actually quite interesting. I'd love to see some hard data on the actual impact this use had on the serotonergic system; for as large a part as it plays in the brain, and all of the diseases that we believe are related to it (everything from mental illnesses like depression and schizophrenia to migraines and cluster headaches), we really know very little about it. Our current drugs acting on serotonin receptors are brute-force hacks -- we need to know a whole, whole lot more. ~~~ chopsueyar I always likened SSRIs to a "Game Genie" for your brain. I do concur with the brute-forced nature of it. ~~~ subwindow Picking a nit, but SSRIs don't actually act on serotonin receptors. Although the action of SSRIs isn't completely understood, they generally work by increasing the level of serotonin in the brain by reducing reuptake. ------ dtf It's worth noting that the term "ecstacy pill" encompasses a huge array of psychoactive and non-psychoactive substances. Go and scare yourself at sites like PillReports: <http://www.pillreports.com/> Unless he or one of his friends was an organic chemist, MDMA - a relatively expensive drug to synthesize - is likely to be way down the list on the menu of chemicals that Mr A actually consumed. ~~~ keefe or he just had a reputable dealer? x is on my hell-no list, but I've known people that take it and buying from someone with connections is quite different than the randomness you'll get if you try to buy at a rave. There is a whole social hierarchy about manufacture and distribution of pure samples of stuff like that. ------ rjurney I knew a guy who took to extreme ecstasy benders. He would take 2-3 or more a day for a week, was probably under the influence half the time or more. This went on for a year, he took hundreds of doses. Then he had a long stint in a mental hospital. ~~~ Tichy But he probably was crazy before doing that, right? ~~~ rjurney Crazy in that he would do that, but not crazy in the sense of catatonic depression. ------ miguelpais Really, an average of 12 pills a day? Wouldn't that make you continuously high? ~~~ dedward Sounds suspicous - unless he's some kind of genetic anomaly, he'd be completely depleted of serotonin and the drug would have nowhere near the effect even a single pill had the first time around, at least as I understand it - all my E-tard friends back in the day used to tell me it was kinda pointless to do E two nights in a row, and definitely pointless ot do it every night - severe diminishing returns (no idea if that's true or not - i like my brain intact) ~~~ watmough I read the article, and it doesn't seem beyond possibility that he wasn't exactly the smartest dude on the block, _before_ he took all that e. That said, if street e is as impure and subject to cutting as people say it is, then he was exposed to an enormous amount of other garbage as well. One thing that struck me. Does e run on the same mechanisms as the SSRIs? This got a couple of mentions in the article, so you'd think there'd be an enormous number of people on SSRI's long-term to study. ~~~ Daniel_Newby > Does e run on the same mechanisms as the SSRIs? No. MDMA causes the forcible release of neurotransmitters, especially serotonin. SSRIs simply prolong the action of serotonin that is spontaneously released, so they tend to be much milder. ------ steveranger Everything in moderation - if you took 40,000 aspirin's in 9 years you'd see some strange effects. And MDMA is absolutely incredible; I recommended everyone tries it just once. Had some of the best nights of my life on it - completely untouchable experiences. ------ bombarolo I guess even reading the internets for 40000 hours in 9 years will cause a similar effect. ------ cypherdog I'm curious if elevated levels of serotonine for extremely long periods of time would cause memory loss alone. It seems to me that memory is very much a "wow that just stood out from the norm." sort of tracking system. Under high levels of serotonine, maybe nothing can stand out from the norm long enough to be remembered? ------ rjurney The thing about this story at is hard to believe is that the more you use ecstasy, the less it makes you happy. You burn out those neurons. Takes years before it will effect you again. Can't imagine he was getting anything but speediness off most of at stuff, would have been pure dependence, not a high. ------ barkingcat How much money was spent on 40,000 pills? It must be at least a down payment on a house. How did he keep a job with the residual mental effects of the drugs? Or maybe it was family money. ~~~ anon114 It's probably safe to assume he dealt. ------ stuaxo Saw this years ago... would be nice if they did a follow up; this must be at least 5 years old now ? ------ i386 "Guy takes cocktail of drugs every day for 10 years and winds up with mental problems - of course! It must be the ecstasy that did it!" I seriously question the scientific method of anyone who draws any conclusions from this account. ~~~ dkarl _Mr. A reported current cannabis consumption, together with a previous history of polydrug misuse (i.e., solvents, benzodiazepines, amphetamines, LSD, cocaine, heroin)._ _Decrease in level of cannabis intake led both to disappearance of his paranoid ideas and hallucinations and reduction of his panic attacks_ I agree; they have no idea what caused what. Why didn't they at least mention how extensively he used (for example) solvents? Plus, who knows what was actually in the pills? Is ecstasy typically pure? A few times I thought about taking a small dose of ecstasy before a psychotherapy appointment (its original intended use,) but as far as I know, there's no way to reliably get a pure, known dose illegally. ~~~ Alex3917 "As far as I know, there's no way to reliably get a pure, known dose illegally." <http://www.ecstasydata.org/send_sample.php> [http://www.dancesafe.org/shop/?page=shop/browse&category...](http://www.dancesafe.org/shop/?page=shop/browse&category_id=34855bad041ac0de73e8658e0aa8a0a5) If you don't want to pay $120 for molly or $40 for pills to have your stuff analyzed at the lab using mass spectrometer, then the next best option is the complete kit from DanceSafe for $50. If I ever tried MDMA I would probably just do both, but then again my anxiety is why I don't partake in the first place. ~~~ dkarl Quite informative, especially their stats page: <http://www.ecstasydata.org/stats.php> 32% of the street ecstasy tablets they tested were pure MDMA, and 50% contained no MDMA at all. 29% contained stimulants, so you're just as likely to get a dose of unknown stimulants as you are to get pure MDMA. Yeah, drug lottery? No thanks. ------ dreepers10 This case report should be summarized and read to high school students as part of their health class. ~~~ abstractbill Definitely not. Telling kids about the clearly very extreme cases just gives them an easy reason to dismiss what you're telling them. ------ dopamine May I take this opportunity to remind that the _only_ drug known to be relatively safe is caffeine. ~~~ noonespecial Pure caffeine powder can be almost instantly fatal if handled without gloves and respiratory protection. There are no safe drugs, only safe quantities. ~~~ rdl I believe you mean nicotine...I have observed friends taking 10 kilograms of food grade caffeine microballs and weighing and bagging in 500 mg doses to distribute at a hacker convention, with no adverse effects. ~~~ noonespecial Food grade caffeine granules are both diluted and granulated to prevent machine material handling errors from becoming deadly at food packaging plants. The powdered stuff is quite dangerous. ~~~ rdl The info I have is that the granules are mainly to ease mechanical processing. Given that ld50 of anhydrous caffeine USP is above 100mg per kilo of body weight, I do not think a few grams, especially through skin, would be much risk. The msds advises gloves, due to it being a skin irritant, but that is for constant exposure. Fine powders are a fire safety and explosion risk, of course, especially in automated storage and processing environments....flour, non dairy creamer, aluminum powder, etc are great fun. If there is any info to the contrary I would be very interested. ~~~ Daniel_Newby "Given that ld50 of anhydrous caffeine USP is above 100mg per kilo of body weight, I do not think a few grams, especially through skin, would be much risk." Fine water-soluble powders are absorbed quickly when inhaled, producing a very high peak concentration in the blood that supplies the heart. If it is enough to stop the heart from beating, you die, even if dose averaged over the whole body is reasonable.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Another 85 Ideas for Computing - samsquire https://github.com/samsquire/ideas2 ====== chacha2 So many of these describe a hellscape. ------ davidjnelson > Work by mobile phone This one has the potential to help people in impoverished countries make a living wage. Would be really great if a company made this happen.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Cork'd to Shut Down - uptown http://content.corkd.com/2011/01/12/corkd-the-final-tasting-note/ ====== rwhitman I think every product shutdown should be accompanied with a video. Granted, Gary is a pro, but it feels very personal and comforting to have the founder explain why it was shut down. Every time Google or Yahoo close down a product, they should have the team lead explain what happened in a video. It would soften the blow to the community and give a nice face to what often seems like a harsh move. ~~~ dotBen I'm not a user of Cork'd but I didn't find Gary's explanation at all 'comforting' - it seemed full of contradictions and along with Gary's unusual nervous body language _(remember, he's a pro speaker and practically masterful in front of the camera when he is feeling confident)_ I went away feeling he wasn't really explaining the real reason(s) why they are closing Cork'd at all. Which leads me onto your second point - that's exactly the reason Yahoo or Google don't do a video when they shutter a servie. They have no intention of telling you the real reason for shutting a service down (eg "it wasn't making enough money", "it's not strategically important any more") and if they gave a BS video we would all know it. Which leaves me to conclude if you are not going to be straight forward about why you a closing a service _(the rights or wrongs of that are beyond scope for here)_ then perhaps it is best to say little/nothing in a nondescript blog post or press release - and certainly not a video. ~~~ boltofblue I found his video a little "managerial". ------ Dylanfm What a bummer. Reading the acquisition announcement from 2007 (<http://hivelogic.com/articles/corkd-has-been-acquired>) shows that the founders Dan Benjamin and Dan Cederholm will be pretty disappointed. "Cork’d couldn’t have found a better home." Maybe it could have? ~~~ nopal I guess it just goes to show you that once you sell, anything can happen, even if you're selling to someone you trust and respect. ------ mikeryan I'm a big wine fan and always wanted to really like Corkd but it never really did what I wanted in a way that worked for me. I never found it a great place to find new wines, or store my library or find out if a wine was very good For example a lot of wines are scored, but a lot of times only by one user, I'd love to see a more robust scoring system. Maybe I didn't give it enough of a chance and perhaps its gotten better, but it always left me wanting more. I think there is still a gap here to be filled. This is a passionate community that I think is still underserved online. ------ fredoliveira Unsurprising (and admittedly sad). I remember the old Corkd because it was (among other things) a design reference, and at least a very good example of how an "ancient" industry could benefit from an upgrade and an exploration in the world of social media. Then it was acquired and things kinda fell apart. I'm not a wine guy, but I was sad to see Corkd being abandoned, and I'm now sad to see it shut down. I do know other people working in this space and doing interesting things, so this is bound to make someone's day a little better too, I guess. Sidenote: I love how Gary pulls great communication even when delivering shitty news. He used to be about flair, but he's ultra tight on video these days (not that he was any bad years ago when he first started, obviously). It shows how dedication makes you good at something. ------ kylebragger I was there from July '09 until I left to launch Forrst in March '10 -- really sad to see things come to this, but I hope there is still a happy ending in store for all involved. ------ nhangen I'd like to know if this was a case of being stretched too thin, or the model just not working. I'm not a wine guy, but I found myself visiting because of the design and because of Gary. It seems like with the right person at the helm, this could've gone further than it did. ~~~ prawn Wasn't that right guy Gary? I would guess that the model just lacked something to tip it over the edge, perhaps. ~~~ nhangen well Gary didn't really have time to work on it, so though he could've been, I don't think he was dedicated to it enough in order to be. ------ shortlived Off topic: I find it really interesting how visually distracting the goodbye video was because he had one sleeve rolled up. ------ omouse So what kind of code base do they have? Could they make it free/open source software? ~~~ iisbum I'd be interested in having access to the Wine database, not necessarily the actual reviews -- although that might be nice too. ------ JoelMcCracken Geez, I hadn't even heard about this site. Wish it wasn't shutting down. ------ rsanheim Can anyone recommend an alternative? ~~~ xutopia SocialGrapes.com ------ aneth Alexa Traffic Rank: 132,623 Traffic Rank in US: 53,916 Sites Linking In: 1,308 Any reason another wine startup wouldn't buy them just for the traffic? ~~~ epoxyhockey Totally! At the very least, they should put the site up for auction on Flippa or something. ~~~ briandoll I'm not sure that's a good idea. Cork'd is known as being a part of Gary's awesome empire. If it were to be sold, many folks would miss that memo, and still assume it was associated with him. If the new buyers made any missteps, that could reflect badly on Gary, even though he's no longer associated to them. I'm more surprised about the current strategy to let the site sit there and rot. I'd think shutting it down, while still allowing folks to log in and export their data for a year or so, would be a better option. ~~~ prawn Same could be said re previous ownership who are now associated with an abandoned project by those who missed _this_ memo?	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: Who is the best hacker of all time? - pooya13 Who do you consider the most talented and well rounded cyber hacker of all time? ====== justforfunhere I think Fabrice Bellard is one of the top computer programmers of our times. [https://bellard.org/](https://bellard.org/) ------ bjourne Linus Torvalds. He appears to be good at almost everything; C programming, project management, architecture, writing emails, etc. ~~~ kgraves how can you be good at "writing emails"? ~~~ Jugurtha Clear writing communicates complex ideas effectively and drives endeavors more than we give it credit for. Most emails I receive are longer than they ought to and makes N recipients spend T additional time to finally get the wrong idea and diverge in execution. More rambling emails are sent to align people. The sender can prevent this upstream by writing in a "clear, concise, complete, correct" way. This is valid for issues/bug reports/feature requests/user stories, etc. ------ yewenjie Richard Stallman, the last true MIT Hacker. ------ sethammons Assuming you mean breaking into systems, while I'm not immersed in that culture, I did enjoy Kevin Mitnik's Ghost in the Wires. It may be a bit dated, but some of the stories of early phone phreaking and social engineering was a fun ride -- and helps add a decent level of paranoia to answering phone calls today! Kevin Mitnik is a legend. He might not be the best of all time or today, but he is up there. ------ kratom_sandwich Are you aware that hacking is in most parts social engineering? Are you looking for the best hacker or social engineer? Are you aware of the differences between a hacker, a cracker and a script kiddie? What about participants in a hackathon - do you consider them hackers as well? I mean, the event has "hacking" in its name, right? ~~~ fabiomaia Very ambiguous question indeed for a community called "Hacker News" that targets a wide range of topics in technology and science, any of which can easily be considered "hacking". ------ giantg2 If you're using the media's definition of hacker to mean someone breaking/exploiting computer stuff, then I would say we can't answer that. The best people conceal their identity and don't get caught, so we wouldn't know them. ------ kleer001 My favorite is Jayson Street only because he does a great black hat with little to no programming. Which, of course, goes against the "well rounded" part of your question. ------ krapp The mysterious hacker called 4chan. ------ person_of_color Kevin Mitnick ------ lihaciudaniel Aaron Schwartz, the best freedom fighter ~~~ yesenadam Swartz [https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=aaronsw](https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=aaronsw) [http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/](http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
What is the best way to hackintosh a dell XPS 15 Multimedia computer? - bennygames It needs to get well explained if it get's to difficult..! :p ====== GiraffeNecktie This is not the place to post this question. Try searching on the hackintosh site <http://www.hackint0sh.org/> and if you can't find anything post a message there. ~~~ bennygames Ok, sorry... I'm new as you can see! :p I posted a question on their forum, thanks! ------ bennygames Sorry, spelling mistake... It needs to BE well explained if it get's to difficult..!	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Fake memory implanted in mice with a beam of light - sew http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/07/fake-memory-implanted-in-mice-with-a-beam-of-light/ ====== functional The research may show that the mice are responding to stimuli, but how can anyone honestly claim to know what the experience is like, or whether the "memories" are truly recalled as negative and induce actual "fear". I mean, it's not like mice can verbalize their experience. They don't use words to tell us how they "feel" about these memories on the inside. And in the article, it states that no new memories were actually created. Only the nature of existing memories were augmented to be negative. From the article: ...whether they could create a new, negative association by flipping the switch on an old, neutral memory while giving the mouse a negative experience. So they took an existing memory of a location, and made the mice scared of the location. That's a lot different from the claim in the headline. ~~~ tomrod I volunteer to take part in an experiment for false memory implantation on humans. Sounds like fun. ~~~ DanBC I wish there was a website where people could sign up to volunteer for experimentation. They could make (simplified) health data available, and tick what kinds of things they'd like to do. Until then, here's a website that'll let you experience a common memory error. ([http://psych.hanover.edu/JavaTest/CLE/Cognition/Cognition/fa...](http://psych.hanover.edu/JavaTest/CLE/Cognition/Cognition/falsememory_instructions.html)) There are probably more experiments you can do on yourself to induce a false memory. ~~~ aperrien That might be a good idea for the future, if we can insure the experiments are done ethically, and with the subject's full understanding. ------ ChikkaChiChi Even with all the Snowden articles I've read over the past few months, nothing has made me want to start manufacturing tin foil clothing more than this article just did. ~~~ etrautmann Then the title is slightly misleading. The beam of light is not sufficient for creating the memory, just part of the process. The other thing not mentioned in the title is that the mice are either genetically engineered to have neurons that express light sensitive proteins, or have been injected with a virus that makes these neurons sensitive to light. ~~~ Alex3917 > Then the title is slightly misleading. The whole story is BS. There is zero evidence that they implanted any sort of memory, let alone a false one. All they've shown is that when the mice encounter situation X, they are afraid because their memories of situation X are associated with fear. Basically it's like how if you have a nightmare about dying in a car crash then you may be afraid of driving the next day, but that doesn't mean that you have a memory of actually dying in a car crash. ~~~ etrautmann It's certainly not an uninteresting or invalid scientific result, but the interpretations tend to get a little overblown. This is an unfortunately common theme in neuroscience, especially recently. ------ etrautmann Quick translation: 1) Researchers found neurons that are active in one context (say, mice are in a blue cage). 2) They use a genetic tool to target these neurons and make them sensitive to light 3) The researchers then deliver _mild_ foot shocks to the mice, while activating these neurons 4) Mice are put back into the original context (blue cage), and exhibit behaviors associated with expecting foot shocks. Makes sense, nothing too surprising but getting something like this to work is impressive. *edit for clarity ------ bcn Here is the abstract (all I could find) of this paper: Memories can be unreliable. We created a false memory in mice by optogenetically manipulating memory engram–bearing cells in the hippocampus. Dentate gyrus (DG) or CA1 neurons activated by exposure to a particular context were labeled with channelrhodopsin-2. These neurons were later optically reactivated during fear conditioning in a different context. The DG experimental group showed increased freezing in the original context, in which a foot shock was never delivered. The recall of this false memory was context-specific, activated similar downstream regions engaged during natural fear memory recall, and was also capable of driving an active fear response. Our data demonstrate that it is possible to generate an internally represented and behaviorally expressed fear memory via artificial means. \- from [https://www.sciencemag.org/content/341/6144/387](https://www.sciencemag.org/content/341/6144/387) The Ars article also has a good link to a backgrounder on optogenetics: [http://f1000.com/prime/reports/b/3/11/](http://f1000.com/prime/reports/b/3/11/) ~~~ VladRussian2 >increased freezing in the original context, in which a foot shock was never delivered seems like an effective way to train things like correct reaction for the "Attention" command in soldiers, schoolchildren, employees during all- hands,... On the other side, some decades later we will be appalled by the modern practice of electrical shocking of mice the same ways some of us are already appalled by medieval torture. ~~~ ars Medieval torture is a bad example because it was done with the intent of causing pain. This is not. A better example might be vivisection - it used to be done without any analgesia at all, for the simple reason that they had none. But they learned a LOT from it. Today the idea is repugnant, but that's because we have analgesics we can use. This is the same way - it's the best tool we have. Once we get a better tool we'll use it, but don't criticize the past for not using a tool that didn't exist. Even worse would be to say not to do the experiment at all. ~~~ VladRussian2 >Medieval torture is a bad example because it was done with the intent of causing pain. This is not. Jews in concentration camps were experimented on with intent of scientific experiment. By your standard it is just ok. Intent doesn't matter to the subject of torture, be it an interrogated witch, 911 terrorist, Jew in concentration camp being experimented on or a dog being vivisected. > Today the idea is repugnant, but that's because we have analgesics we can > use. No. The idea became repugnant to some [the most advanced people of the time] and through their effort the analgesics started to be used. In particular, ether was first used for surgery in 1846, while vivisection was still legal for more than half a century after that. Or do you mean UCSF doesn't have analgesics available: [http://www.sfgate.com/education/article/UCSF-lapses-mean- res...](http://www.sfgate.com/education/article/UCSF-lapses-mean-research- animals-suffer-4065881.php) > Once we get a better tool we'll use it, but don't criticize the past for not > using a tool that didn't exist. That a convenient lie - alcohol, 'shrooms, opium, various barks, cola nut, etc... have been known for like thousands years. >Even worse would be to say not to do the experiment at all. False scare, like security vs. liberty. The humanity would probably be much better off if it excluded all experiments on live animals. Our primitive, medieval, violent mentality is that keeps us from developing into advanced civilization. Live and let live. ~~~ aperrien This philosophical argument can be answered very simply. Which do you value more, animals or humans? ~~~ PavlovsCat If you actually value either, you also have to value the other? But I can also answer that with a question if you want: which do you value more, slow but steady progress, and planting for generations ahead and reaping from what generations before sowed, or instant gratification and profit, and the constant low-intensity war that entails? (not that we lack a constancy of military action in the world, but hey) ~~~ ars > If you actually value either, you also have to value the other? If by value you mean assign a positive number then No. If by value you mean calculate then Yes. (Sorry for phrasing it that way, but I wasn't sure which you meant.) > which do you value more, slow but steady progress, and planting for > generations ahead and reaping from what generations before sowed, or instant > gratification and profit, and the constant low-intensity war that entails? Now I'm confused. In another post you appear to be against this experiment (i.e. the slow and steady progress), but the way you write this makes it look like the slow and steady progress is the better way - but that's the experiment. So which is it? ------ nsxwolf If we gift them with a past, we create a cushion or a pillow for their emotions, and consequently, we can control them better. ------ return0 This is one of the first studies on cellular memory traces but not the first. Similarly, in 2011 Garner et. al. had created a hybrid memory trace chemically: [http://www.sciencemag.org/content/335/6075/1513](http://www.sciencemag.org/content/335/6075/1513) ------ pyrocat This is more akin to the "programming" scene from A Clockwork Orange than it is of Blade Runner or Total Recall. ------ hawkharris This is an interesting story, but let's be careful not to dwell on the potentially sinister uses of optogenetics. Other research groups at MIT — i.e. within the McGovern Institute for Brain Research — are using the same techniques to better understand the biological basis for psychiatric disorders. For example, they recently used light stimulation to rid rats of compulsive behaviors. I'm very excited about the potential for this technology to help people suffering with OCD, general anxiety, depression and bipolar disorder. ------ forgotAgain Well it does tend to explain all of the alien abduction stories starting with a bright light. ------ kamakazizuru like any science article nowadays - - this is probably what the title should read "Fake sensation of fear implanted in GENETICALLY modified mice by repeated and prolonged exposure to a beam of light" ~~~ return0 No it's not a sensation, it's an association that happens as rapidly as it would happen under real circumstances. And the mice were not genetically modified, the rhodopsin was delivered through a virus. This is important because it helps us understand the way memories are encoded, however it is for very primitive and basic kinds of memory. ~~~ kamakazizuru im not debating its importance - as for the genetically modified part -i will give you that they werent modified at embryo stage as is typically the case in GM Species. The virus did not deliver rhodopsin - but additional genes that allowed the cells of the rats to encode the optogenetic proteins. That is by all means a genetic modification. It wasnt just a drug injection or something! ~~~ return0 Sorry, i hadn't read the actual paper until now. Actually they did use transgenic GM mice, which allow the expression of rhodopsin in activated cells. While the title of the article is not very revealing, it's pretty close to what they did, although by no means did they "use lasers to implant a memory", they used a lot of other stuff too. ~~~ kamakazizuru yes that was precisely my point. No sense commenting on an article if you havent read what it talks about. ~~~ return0 yeah, but you did ------ cupcake-unicorn But the mice had this "on-switch" installed, right? You can't just flash the light at any mouse to scare them...That amnesia light from Men in Black hopefully is not in the making... ------ Jach What one giveth, one can taketh away: [http://www.kurzweilai.net/how-to-erase- memory](http://www.kurzweilai.net/how-to-erase-memory) ------ scotty79 Probably relevant: [http://www.ted.com/talks/ed_boyden.html](http://www.ted.com/talks/ed_boyden.html) ~~~ etrautmann Yep, this is the guy that came up with the method for making neurons sensitive to light. The technique can be applied in many ways, this is one of them. ------ lem72 Does this mean that it might be possible to implant knowledge into our heads like in the Matrix? Could I learn Jiu Jitsu with a beam of light? ------ EScott11 How do they demonstrate this is not mere classical conditioning? Perhaps the mice are simple afraid of _all_ chambers after the shock. ~~~ drakeandrews Mice given the choice of Place A or another chamber after the treatment chose the other chamber. ------ jpalioto And the tinfoil heavy portfolio pays off for the paranoid investor!! ------ likeclockwork Was it a pink beam of light? ------ madaxe Ah, but the important question is: was the beam pink?	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: Was Parse emails database leaked? - SimpleMinds I hope this is good place to ask?<p>Today I got multiple spam emails with title<p>[test] Facebook Analytics for Apps: Create App Events<p>First from<p>eiad_rayyis@hotmail.com<p>Then From<p>miriamk@fb.com (in header)<p>through<p>potomac1050.mktomail.com<p>To all my parse-specific accounts (name+parse@gmail.com) - I have multiple (2..) for private and work-related things.<p>As those email addresses were Parse specific, I think I haven't shared them anywhere else.<p>Did anyone else got spammed? Searching through Google and Hacker News doesn't yield any results<p>Thank you for reading!<p>Ps. Is this good place to ask? Where else would you suggest I should direct my questions to? ====== lacker Ah, I'm really sorry about this. No, the database was not leaked. Someone just misconfigured the email system and accidentally sent this out to the wrong audience. I'm sorry! ~~~ SimpleMinds Thank you for update! Good to know and hopefully that makes other calmer too.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
3 Ways To Hack Facebook - charlesju http://www.charlesju.com/2008/12/4-ways-to-hack-facebook.html ====== icey s/hack/spam	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Doctor Who's first female lead is more popular than many fans expected - SirLJ http://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/23/doctor-whos-first-female-lead-is-more-popular-than-many-fans-expected.html ====== dTal So much relentless effort to turn this into a conversation about gender when there's been pretty much the same type of quiet optimism one always gets when a new Doctor is announced. As the article mentions "there was so much more backlash to the backlash than people actually expressing displeasure with the idea of a female Doctor Who". Can we just stop with the articles and whatnot? We don't even get to see her properly for another year...	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
How Qantas Ferried an Engine on the Wing of a 747 - bootload http://www.flightradar24.com/blog/how-qantas-ferried-an-engine-on-the-wing-of-a-747/ ====== dingaling Fair dues to QANTAS for milking this on social media but spare-engine ferrying was common from the dawn of the jet age. The 707, 747, DC-8, DC-10, TriStar and VC-10 all had an underwing hardpoint for the extra engine and carrying it was fairly routine; just apply the compensations laid-out in the flight manual. Four-engined TriStars looked funny... It is rare nowadays due to the ubiquity of twin-engined airliners which have neither the underwing space nor the take-off engine-failure margin to ferry a spare. Instead their spare engines are stripped and sent in freighters, usually by the engine manufacturer who provide power-by-the-hour contracts to the airlines. ~~~ peckrob I seem to recall I once flew on an L-1011 TriStar as a kid that ferried an engine. It was out of Atlanta but I can't remember if we were going to Los Angeles or San Francisco. That was probably 25 years ago, so not sure which it was. As a sidenote, the L-1011 is still one of my favorite planes. It was one of the most technologically advanced airliners ever created when it was unveiled; lots of things about it were way ahead of its time. It's a shame that the competition with the Douglas and the DC-10 nearly bankrupted both Lockheed and Douglas. Airlines played both companies against each other and nearly killed both. Lockheed ended up exiting the commercial business while Douglas merged with McDonnell. There's a great long article on the the L-1011 published a few months ago: [http://www.airlinereporter.com/2015/09/requiem-trijet- master...](http://www.airlinereporter.com/2015/09/requiem-trijet-masterpiece- lockheed-l-1011-tristar/) ~~~ niccaluim The L-1011 is/was amazing. It was the first airplane to be certified for full autoland in zero visibility conditions. ------ teleclimber Seeing a 747 with 5 engines reminds me of seeing GE's N747GE testbed aircraft in Mojave, which usually flew with a odd engine configurations. I can't remember if they used the 5th pylon at all and most pictures show an experimental engine on the inboard pylon. Sometimes a very large engine[1], sometimes a small one[2]. One time they tried to ferry the aircraft from Mojave to Victorville with only three engines (they must have removed the experimental engine for whatever reason). They attempted the take-off but had to abort. It was quite a sight anyways. They went back to the hangar and we saw it fly away with four engines a few days later. GE now has a second 747 to play with.[3] [1] [http://www.jetphotos.net/photo/45634](http://www.jetphotos.net/photo/45634) [2] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ge-747-N747GE-020404-01.j...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ge-747-N747GE-020404-01.jpg) [3] [http://www.sieinc.com/into-thin-air-the-lofty-side-of-jet- en...](http://www.sieinc.com/into-thin-air-the-lofty-side-of-jet-engine- testing/) ~~~ ak217 I'm guessing they would never use a 5th pylon when engine 2 is missing and replaced by a potentially misbehaving or inoperable test engine. The 5th pylon could never accommodate a running engine since it's just an external cargo mount, not a full blown engine mount with all the necessary connections. ------ braidenjudd My father works for QANTAS, has for 40 years. He said they used to do one, once a month on the older jumbos. But with the newer ones 400s, QANTAS just retired one to the desert with the 4 original engines still on it. Meaning it never needed an engine change in its entire operating life. ------ eddyg > The fifth pod option is restricted to Qantas’ Rolls-Royce-powered 747s Why the restriction to RR-powered 747s? ~~~ drewkett I would guess it's a flutter problem. Flutter is when an aircraft becomes dynamically unstable due to the interaction between the aircraft structure and the air around it. Certain aircraft are more prone to flutter than others such that it occurs at speeds closer to its max airspeed. The type of engine and how it's attached to the wing can have a big effect on flutter since it's a large mass that's hanging off the wing. As a result the same aircraft with different engines can have significantly different flutter properties. [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroelastic_flutter#Flutter](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroelastic_flutter#Flutter) ~~~ stergios An oscillation builds up in the wing span to the point where the wing self destructs. Here's an video example from the development of the 747: [http://www.airspacemag.com/videos/category/flight- today/wing...](http://www.airspacemag.com/videos/category/flight-today/wing- flutter-on-a-747/) ------ sandworm101 Why not use a full fairing over a complete engine? ~~~ emeraldd Probably less drag to let the air flow through an "empty" engine rather than to have a large obstruction on the wing. ~~~ sandworm101 I don;t know. Cramming all that air down the tube of a fanless engine doesn't seem very efficient compared to the clean cone of a fairing. ~~~ sbierwagen Adding a bigger fairing will increase the cross section of the object, increasing the form drag. (Bigger things push more air out of their way when moving) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasitic_drag#Form_drag](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasitic_drag#Form_drag) ------ dwightgunning I'm also curious about what had happened the engine that needed to be replaced. Is the 6T engine the heaviest non-visible part on a 747? ~~~ jrgv From the article: "The disabled engine in Johannesburg will make its way back to Sydney at a much slower pace by ship." ~~~ dwightgunning Sorry, I meant what happened to the engine that meant it needed to be replaced. It doesn't sound like these engine replacements happen too often so I figured it was in some way noteworthy.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Streak (YC S11) raises $1.9M and launches API - alooPotato http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/15/streak-raises-1-9-million-for-gmail-based-crm-app ====== alooPotato Know a lot of HN'ers have asked us for an API to access their Streak data. We just launched it and the docs are here: www.streak.com/api ~~~ mikeknoop The docs don't mention, but are your list endpoints capped or paginated? Also is there an implicit order applied to the list endpoints? ~~~ alooPotato We don't guarantee an order just yet but its currently ordered by last updated timestamp. We're working on making this a guarantee ordered. Wil updated the docs once we do. ------ coob Google purchase in 5…4…3… ------ asah FYI we use Streak and were beta-testers on the API at Buyer's Best Friend (bbfdirect.com) for managing 1000s of customers, both buyers and sellers. It's been amazing, and after adopting it company-wide, I decided to join this round of financing. ~~~ robbiea Who is we? I tried looking in your profile but you don't have it listed. ~~~ kanamekun The poster mentions their company name and URL in the parent post...	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Quitting my job, driving South for a year - how does my site feel? - rockandroll http://panamnotes.com/ Any feedback on the site is appreciated. I've got a case of tunnel vision and would like some 3rd party feedback. I go public with it tomorrow. ====== parterburn I dig the layout & the first few posts are written in such form that I'm looking forward to tracking along and reading the rest!	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }

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