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Adblock looking for crowdfunding to fund an advertising campaign for Adblock - qwertzlcoatl
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/08/24/web-ad-killer-adblock-launches-crowdfunding-initiative-to-finance-an-internet-ad-campaign/
======
billadoid
I wonder if adwords would display advertisments with potential to hurt their
business in such way.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why a Mentor is Critical to Your Success - chiachun
http://stanfordbusiness.tumblr.com/post/82651880857/why-a-mentor-is-critical-to-your-success
======
mintykeen
Stanford is such a great resource. I've been watching some of their lectures
from some very wise people in the business world on YouTube. Eye-opening
insights, to be sure!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
John Oliver: Net Neutrality [video] - marai2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpbOEoRrHyU
======
gkoberger
This is blog spam; direct link:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpbOEoRrHyU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpbOEoRrHyU)
~~~
toomuchtodo
Mods, can we get the link updated?
EDIT: Thanks dang.
~~~
dang
Emphatically.
The submitted url was [http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2014/06/must-watch-john-
olive...](http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2014/06/must-watch-john-olivers-
funny-smart-and-dead-on-explanation-of-net-neutrality.html).
------
ghayes
Here is the relevant link to read or leave comments on the FCC proposal: [0]
[0] [http://www.fcc.gov/comments](http://www.fcc.gov/comments)
~~~
higherpurpose
This one is easier, and actually loads:
[https://www.dearfcc.org/](https://www.dearfcc.org/)
~~~
JoshTriplett
That one only allows sending a preconstructed template comment, not arbitrary
feedback.
------
SchizoDuckie
I love how he gets right to the core of the problem: Corruption in the US Govt
due to 'Lobbying', which basically boils down to the largest corporations
running the country.
Continuum anyone?
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1954347/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1954347/)
~~~
sanderjd
I hate the revolving door as much as the next person, but it's really hard to
find people who are both qualified to regulate an industry and completely
neutral in their politics and employment history. I'm sure a lot of us would
prefer someone with a history of lobbying _for_ net neutrality, but that is
only better from a political point of view on our side of the argument, not
from an ethical point of view.
You can't write a law that says "only hire regulators who agree with John
Oliver's and SchizoDuckie's and sanderjd's politics". You can write a law that
says "never hire any regulators who have been in any way involved with the
industry they are regulating", but would you want to?
------
codyb
The problem is that even when people understand. No one does anything.
I told my friends, who are computer programmers, that we need to start
fighting for net neutrality. And I give them the links to the video to the
comments section.
And it's just blank stares. "Why would I go there?" kinda thing. I tried. I
know nothing will happen. I'll tweet and comment. But it's just frustrating
that no one cares even if they spend 10 hours a day on the internet.
And that's what I've realized lately, walking around NYC. No one cares. A ton
of people don't even have opinions. A ton of people have very strongly held
opinions that they don't research, or put any thought into. They just "know"
things to be true the way they are. The homeless are lazy. The mentally ill
are evil. And no one cares. Or ever does anything.
I can't say I'm much better in terms of actions. It has become a very shitty
system where money holds the power and studies have shown your average
constituent in some hideously gerrymandered district with options between two
corporate funded parties has no say in the system[0].
[0][http://www.princeton.edu/~mgilens/Gilens%20homepage%20materi...](http://www.princeton.edu/~mgilens/Gilens%20homepage%20materials/Gilens%20and%20Page/Gilens%20and%20Page%202014-Testing%20Theories%203-7-14.pdf)
~~~
jerf
Beware the despair of getting too focused on your world, and forgetting that
others have worlds of their own.
One of my children has a rare genetic disorder you've probably never heard of.
How much have you given to research for it? How much have you given for the
thousands or tens of thousands of equally pressing causes?
Everybody carries their own burdens. It doesn't mean "they don't care"... it
just means their burdens and yours may not overlap.
And sure, some people know little, care less, and do nothing. But you can't
tell who that is just by looking at people walking down the street. You don't
know. That mental model of your fellow man you're applying isn't necessarily
accurate. You just don't know.
~~~
toomuchtodo
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about.”
-- Wendy Mass
------
krogsgard
One downside is that the very platform he is broadcasting on could help
pressure cable companies, but is perfectly fat and happy propping them up. HBO
is a huge influencer and should join the others against these changes. Though
I completely agree with his points.
------
rickdale
previously posted, and not discussed here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7839414](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7839414)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Academic Destruction of the University of Tulsa - dontread
https://www.city-journal.org/university-of-tulsa
======
t2xc2
Alumni here that graduated a few years ago. I'm a brown guy (that matters in
this context.)
During my time there, the university was super obsessed with being in the top
XX list. From what I could see, that obsession wasn't channeled through
research but through superficial things like new buildings and multi-million
dollar stadium. Why? Because that's what all big and famous universities have!
Look at that big lawn. It does nothing of function but boy does it look
majestic.
The push for fairness and equality etc was REALLY needed. Racism was just a
way of life. I witnessed tenured professors in the CS department make very
causal racist remarks. There was a black guy who was upset that the professor
always chose his project/team to be the "Black team". After he left, the prof
casually said "well at least he didn't shoot the place up". Perhaps the most
ironic was an Indian prof who seemed to hate all other Indians. If you were
black people assumed you were there for sports and not because you really were
smart and interested in education.
Some of the comments in the linked article will give you an idea of the bubble
that Tulsa/Oklahoma lives in. People claiming it's the liberal agenda and
"social justice" that was unnecessary and ruined it. Sure, if you're white and
born in Oklahoma it's unnecessary.
Funny enough after graduating and moving to the west coast I'm not reminded of
my skin color every day.
~~~
_bxg1
It was weird how the corporatization and the "social-justice agenda" were
lumped together like that in the article. Usually the people who criticize the
former aren't the ones getting upset about the latter.
~~~
t2xc2
Yes, it does strike me as "remember in the past when things were better before
the liberals ruined it?"
~~~
_bxg1
And yet conservatives are usually the ones writing off the liberal arts as
useless pursuits of "liberal snowflakes", not advocating for them as essential
facets of civilization.
Edit: To be clear, the behavior described by the above commenter is
reprehensible. Independently of that, I think it's incredibly sad that
universities are being turned into businesses that only care about profit.
Obviously that makes the original article a mixed bag.
------
dannykwells
A click bait title from the author. Reads like he is just upset that the
direction chosen wasnt his. Personally I think being unique in your values,
and giving the finger to US News, is a rational choice for a mid tier college.
And who can argue that colleges haven't failed to adapt to today's economy?
Literally some small schools have larger Latin departments than CS.
Maybe this experiment will work. Maybe it won't. But, as long as students are
informed in their choice, I think it's worth trying.
~~~
mannykannot
A large part of this experiment seems to consist of increasing the losses of
the athletics program, such as the extra $9M subsidy in a year when the total
deficit was $26M.
High expenditure on athletics is often justified by the revenue it generates,
but that is clearly not the case here. Is there any plausible case to be made
that this extra expenditure will lead to the athletics program becoming self-
sustainingly profitable in time to save the university?
------
dontread
For those interested, there is a formal petition to the president of the
university at the change.org link below. The petition contains a list of all
the specific programs cut, more details about the process failures involved,
and specific suggestions/demands of the administration to rectify these
failures - something that was largely missing from the piece originally
linked. You can find the petition here: [https://www.change.org/p/president-
gerard-clancy-saving-the-...](https://www.change.org/p/president-gerard-
clancy-saving-the-heart-and-soul-of-the-university-of-
tulsa?recruiter=952433374)
------
ConfusedDog
I disagree with author comment "Our infantilized and indoctrinated students
will receive but a light wash of liberal arts before they are popped from the
higher-education oven. They will perhaps be credentialed, but they will not be
educated." I have a CS PHD. I have not read any books he mentioned in the
article. Am I credentialed but not educated? I wish I know more about those
things, but frankly I'm reading Game of Thrones, won't have time for that...
well, I might actually be ignorant monkey now I think about it. Hodor!
~~~
mannykannot
I am generally in favor of the liberal arts, but this sort of smug self-
satisfaction and assumption of superiority, as displayed here, does not sit
well with me.
------
RickJWagner
MOOCs seem like the answer to so many questions about higher learning. I hope
they revolutionize American education, and soon.
~~~
dragonwriter
> MOOCs seem like the answer to so many questions about higher learning. I
> hope they revolutionize American education, and soon.
Both higher and secondary should be revolutionized with MOOCs, not as
replacements for traditional schooling by themselves, but as an enabling
technology for flipped classrooms with no in-person lecture where all in-
person contact time is high-value interaction.
~~~
AdamM12
Anecdotal but I did linear algebra at a local CC in a "flipped" classroom. We
were expected to watch lectures (youtube videos from a MIT or whatever)
outside of class and then class was supposed to be a discussion of the
homework, which we also had to do out of class and was provided no class time
prior to it being due to discuss, in class. There was no real teaching on
behalf of the professor. I can't just interject a video when I have a question
about the subject matter. I'd either have to wait it out and see if it was
answered later, rewind and watch again, or find another video explaining the
same concept. All of a sudden an hour long video became an hour and a half to
two hour endeavor. Just absolutely time consuming. It came off as lazy by the
teacher. To be fair was like his first or second semester doing it but I
didn't care to take the class again. Some of the smartest guys I knew we
absolutely frustrated with it also. We all gave him bad reviews. Learning
should be interactive. This was not. My friend group would basically meet up
and teach ourselves the concepts. It was way harder than it should have been.
I'd rather MOOC's be used to supplement a traditional lecture. I know I used
the hell out of Khan Academy during Calc 1-3 which were all traditional
lectures.
~~~
nine_k
Hmm. With a video, you can pause it and go google for details.
Asking a professor is likely more efficient. It's still not as easy — you need
to break his/her flow, and the professor must have enough spare time to
answer.
Also, when you do more yourself you pay less; it can be important.
From my experience, going through harder parts of a textbook with a motivated
friend or two works best.
~~~
mannykannot
The sort of questions I have when trying to do this sort of thing are often
not well answered by search engines, as they often of the form "huh? I didn't
follow how the last thing you said comes from (or is otherwise related to) the
things that came before."
------
virgakwolfw
Sadly so many universities are bloated with administrators. Part of the reason
the costs are so high. Then they hire adjunct professors who make about as
much as a waiter at a good restaurant does. I don't know if TU uses adjuncts
but most college's do and this includes Ivy League schools. So the money in
general is not going to faculty (that is the full time ones) but the
administrators. At some point they are going to have to get rid of the
administrative bloat and bring costs down. They are not going to do this
willingly. But I think college has reached a price point that is too high that
the public is questioning if it is worth the cost.
~~~
secabeen
I'm not sure the data backs that up:
Average expenditure per student:
Instruction: $17,996
Student Services and Academic Support (Not all of which are administrators):
$9528
That results in $0.52 spent on Student Services and Academic Support for each
$1.00 spent on Instruction. In 1999, that number was $0.47 spent on Student
Services and Academic Support per $1.00 spent on Instruction. That's not a
huge increase in administrators.
[https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d17/tables/dt17_334.30.a...](https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d17/tables/dt17_334.30.asp)
The cost of college is largely driven by reductions in state support for
public institutions, and the resulting increases in tuition by both private
and public schools:
[https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/fancy-dorms-arent-
the-m...](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/fancy-dorms-arent-the-main-
reason-tuition-is-skyrocketing/)
~~~
AngusH
It might also be worth including some or possibly all of the $7,403 which is
allocated to Institutional support (in the tables).
This page offers a summary of what that classification includes and it
includes some clearly essential activities:
[https://www.wisconsin.edu/financial-
administration/accountin...](https://www.wisconsin.edu/financial-
administration/accounting-and-budget-control/chart-of-
accounts/program-1-institutional-support/)
[edit typo]
~~~
secabeen
That's fair, but it doesn't change the argument much. If you add the
Institutional Support, you get these costs being 87% of Instructional Costs in
1999, and 94% in 2016. That is an increase of 8% as compared to 5% by my
original calculation.
------
jasonhansel
The faculty in question should unionize! Would be a great way to test the
administrators' commitment to social justice.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
2013 NIPS Proceedings – Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems - benhamner
http://papers.nips.cc/book/advances-in-neural-information-processing-systems-26-2013?
======
ajtulloch
Alexandre Passos has an excellent editorial selection of NIPS 2013 papers
(along with some comments) on his blog at [1].
[1]: [http://atpassos.me/post/67560831508/nips-2013-reading-
list](http://atpassos.me/post/67560831508/nips-2013-reading-list).
------
seiji
Now prove each of those titles isn't auto-generated by the HN headline
generator.
------
benhamner
This is an interesting case study in how the submitted headline affects the
page's rank on HN.
I'd originally submitted this earlier today, with the headline "Neural
Information Processing Systems (NIPS) 2013 Proceedings":
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6815771](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6815771)
It only got one other upvote and never made it to the front page. Meanwhile,
another article submitted at almost exactly the same time with far less
interesting content but a more provocative headline (on a user getting banned
from Uber for API abuse) got ~15 votes, pushing it onto the front page.
I re-submitted this page with a slightly more descriptive (and buzzwordy)
headline ("State of the art Machine Learning papers: NIPS 2013"), and it
almost immediately ended up on the front page. Since then the headline has
been reverted to the page's headline, again slowing the rate at which it's
received votes.
~~~
presty
Interesting, but maybe too much witch-hunting? I mean, the title influence
could've had as much impact as the time of posting.
Your first post did not hit HN's RSS feed (IIRC, at least 3 votes are needed
for the vanilla feed), otherwise I would've upvoted it. This one did.
~~~
benhamner
Ha, potentially. The dangers of drawing conclusions from N=2.
------
presty
while we're at it, here's from ICML2013
[http://icml.cc/2013/?page_id=47](http://icml.cc/2013/?page_id=47) (click on
the schedule images)
~~~
gcr
For those of you studying computer vision, the entire CVPR2013 proceedings are
released under open access: [http://www.cv-
foundation.org/openaccess/CVPR2013.py](http://www.cv-
foundation.org/openaccess/CVPR2013.py)
In a few days, ICCV 2013 papers will be published too: [http://www.cv-
foundation.org/openaccess/ICCV2013.py](http://www.cv-
foundation.org/openaccess/ICCV2013.py)
------
karpathy
By the way, just this evening I formatted the accepted papers in a nicer way:
(okay, I'm biased)
[http://cs.stanford.edu/people/karpathy/nips2013/](http://cs.stanford.edu/people/karpathy/nips2013/)
The page allows you to toggle LDA topics and off to browse the papers, or (my
personal favorite) find a paper you like and sort the other papers according
to tf-idf similarity, which tends to reveal exceptionally relevant papers.
~~~
kyzyl
Very, very nice job. Your page is a great is example of sane, simple and
functional data visualization.
I've been sifting through these papers trying to prioritize by to relevance to
my work so that I can get them into mendeley and dig in. You just made it a
lot easier. Looks like a pretty good haul this year, for me :-)
------
djulius
Now the game is : Among these tons of (bad/good) applied mathematics , find
the maybe existing one paper that will : \- Have a real world application \-
Go through the years
More difficult : only by reading titles.
~~~
noelwelsh
This attitude is pretty tedious. In research we can't predict in advance what
will have lasting value. That's why it is called research. Same thing in
applies in startups.
~~~
djulius
Tons of papers are published every year for the sake of publication, careers,
.... absolutely not for the sake of science. Most of them do not even contain
any significant delta with previous research.
An important activity of the researcher is to sort between interesting papers
and garbage, since the selection process of even high level conference is
deeply broken.
Just read SIGIR proceedings where every paper beats the previous baseline by
0.X % on datasets that do not represent the real problem, it's just an example
among many others.
Also check this interesting analysis where the authors analyse best vs top
cited papers over a span of ten years:
[http://arnetminer.org/conferencebestpapers](http://arnetminer.org/conferencebestpapers)
Here you can see that some conferences where able to identify lasting value
and others not.
~~~
davidy123
So only pure breakthroughs are valued in science, everything else is
"garbage?" Interesting perspective you have there.
~~~
djulius
That's absolutely not what I wrote.
I said that the motivations behind academics to publish lead to the publishing
of tons of papers that while being scientifically correct (at least for top-
tier conferences) bring absolutely nothing to the party.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Do you use email signatures and salutations? - neilmiddleton
I'm seeing more and more email missing signatures and salutations. Based on the fact that this information is generally in the email headers I can understand why.<p>Do you use them?
======
Metatron
When messaging strangers or clients I always use both.
Internally I can afford to be far more casual, indeed it helps to cut out
salutations as it means colleagues don't have to read/ignore dross. Sometimes
an email is just a subject line followed by 'EOM' End of message.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Slow Gmail - a way to move out? - ved_a
I am using Gmail exclusively to non-work email for last few years. Lately, gmail has become excruciatingly slow. I was thinking if I can host my own VPS/Amazon AWS to handle email storage redirected from Gmail as the primary account. Any thoughts on this approach ?
======
shadyabhi
How is it different from using IMAP and an email client?
------
PythonDeveloper
I would suggest against this as Amazon is not the most reliable service on the
planet.
Shadyabhi is right, though, that this is not any different from using IMAP and
keeping all your email local on your PC, and keeping it on your PC is probably
safer.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
WordPress is not easy, and that's OK - ozh
http://www.mor10.com/wordpress-easy-thats-ok/
======
davidgerard
WordPress is less worse than every other blogging solution of the same feature
level.
If you don't need all that stuff, use something lighter-weight. But for the
general question "I need a blog", it's the least-worst answer.
The only serious downside is 'sploit-of-the-week and hence need for staying
right on top of updates.
Speaking as someone who desperately wishes his company didn't require a custom
theme, I wish we could just outsource our blogs to wordpress.com - which is
_even more_ the right answer for most people. But, oh well.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Examples of Automatic 3D reconstructions from photographs - dualogy
http://paulbourke.net/miscellaneous/areconstruction/
======
peteretep
Tangental random thought: I wonder if you could reconstruct a high-quality 3D
concert from combining multiple pieces of low quality cell phone video taken
by fans...
~~~
apu
I looked at this briefly, and it would be extremely tough. Very few events
have the kind of coverage (i.e., number of input videos) you would need to
even get started on the problem. Plus, the conditions are just about the worst
possible -- highly dynamic scene, low light, very unsteady cameras, almost all
viewpoints in the same plane, low quality inputs, etc.
Note that the switchcam startup mentioned in the other comment is almost
completely manual right now, and is more about assembling a "director's cut"
version of a concert video, rather than creating 3d. This actually seems more
useful to me (although of course more automation would be nice).
------
erichocean
I've also gotten good results with ScannerKiller[1] from XYZRGB, for meshes
where very high accuracy is needed/wanted.
[1] <http://www.scannerkiller.com/>
------
apu
This looks like an incomplete page, or perhaps a work in progress. Which
method was used for generating each mesh? How many input images were there?
What do they look like?
What's the takeaway message?
------
rmc
I've used RunSFM (which uses bundler) to make 3D models from photos. It's
cool, but you need to have lots of high quality photos for it to work.
I'd like to play with using a Kinect or simular 'depth camera', it might give
better results.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Joyvite – Referral Program for Your SaaS - ganis
https://joyvite.com/
======
ganis
Hi everyone, I'm co-founder / CEO of Joyvite. Joyvite is basically referral
program as a service.
I’m happy to have any feedback you may have! Thank you!
~~~
tixocloud
Hey Ganis. I reckon there must be a typo in your header "Customers" as opposed
to "Costomers"
~~~
ganis
Hi tixocloud, thanks for the correction. I have fixed it!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Graphene made with kitchen blender - efficientarch
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-27113732
======
ColinWright
Clearly a story that has grabbed some people's imaginations, but not others.
No comments (so far) on any of these:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7627892](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7627892)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7626865](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7626865)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7624404](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7624404)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7622657](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7622657)
Found when searching for duplications, this is different, but does have some
discussion:
A Solution For Graphene Production
(acs.org)
\--
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7614559](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7614559)
~~~
mk3
[http://jenslabs.com/2013/03/14/diy-
graphene/](http://jenslabs.com/2013/03/14/diy-graphene/) Skipped this one I
believe :) the method of making graphene using lightscribe
------
ljd
I'm having a hard time understanding why someone shouldn't make this at home.
This sounds like the perfect experiment I could run with the kids to get them
excited about material science. It doesn't need to be a perfect layer of
graphene, even a sludge would be good to show them, get them brainstorming
about how they would separate out the sludge.
Is there a real reason other than difficulty, why someone shouldn't try this
at home?
~~~
tbrownaw
_Is there a real reason other than difficulty, why someone shouldn 't try this
at home?_
Aren't most nano-particles suspected of causing cancer? I assume this method
would generate fairly small pieces that might make people worry about that.
Also the blender mix would probably (1) make lots of foam and overflow the
blender, and (2) stain everything it touches.
~~~
pdx
That was a concern from the 90's. However you are being exposed to the "nano
particles" everyday already. Rubber from car tires decomposes on the highway
into particles of the scale that they can be considered "nano particles", for
example. When ever you drive on the highway, you're stirring up clouds of
them.
~~~
atrus
While the general nano particle fear is a little extreme, some of the
structures (specifically carbon nano-tubes) have a similar shape as Asbestos,
which does cause cancer due to it's shape.
CNTs aren't graphine, and I'm not sure that graphine can be easily made into
tubes, but it still should give some pause for thought.
~~~
Osmium
Just wanted to second this: I don't think we know enough about how safe these
things are. It's very different to have something like graphene packaged up in
a computer chip vs. free-floating in the air. I also have no idea if common,
off-the-shelf respirators are effective at blocking such small particles.
Also worth bearing in mind is that, I believe, wherever you make one form of
carbon you'll probably end up making other forms too, e.g. buckyballs (C60)
and carbon nanotubes have both been found in soot. So even if graphene is
safe, I have no idea if this process will produce other potentially unsafe
things too. A friend is actually working on looking at the effect carbon
nanotubes have on lung epithelial cells, so I know there's interest there.
That said, I imagine you'd find all these products in a standard wood fire
too, but then I recall reading that smoke from wood fires is as bad or worse
for you as cigarette smoke so perhaps that's little comfort...
Note: I am not a doctor and not an expert in this field either.
------
troymc
The article didn't mention the sticky tape method of making graphene, but they
did put a link to an article about that [1].
Sticky tape (or Scotch tape) can also be used to make X-rays [2]. Now the only
question is how to use a blender to make X-rays…
[1] [http://www.bbc.com/news/science-
environment-11478645](http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-11478645)
[2]
[http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/28/science/28xray.html](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/28/science/28xray.html)
~~~
shill
It can also be used to see through frosted glass.
[http://www.wired.com/2011/04/scotch-tape-lets-you-see-
throug...](http://www.wired.com/2011/04/scotch-tape-lets-you-see-through-
frosted-glass/)
~~~
Lost_BiomedE
Very cool. I have jars I want to etch for a product. Now I am wondering if I
could get frosted jars and just clear labels.
------
ericfranklin
While this looks like progress, and a potential path for graphene production,
it still seems a long ways off from commercial viability. Diamonds went
through a similar hype. It may be technically possible to make diamond with a
torch or even peanut butter, but commercially producing large, clean gemstones
(rather than grit/powder) requires much more involved processes. In this case,
a blender could probably scale up easier, but it isn't "metre-scale sheets of
graphene" already possible with CVD.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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The trouble with indiscriminate tree-planting in Africa - muriithi
https://mg.co.za/article/2019-10-31-00-the-trouble-with-indiscriminate-tree-planting-in-africa
======
Yaa101
Anther thing is that by planting trees you increase the oxygen level and will
cause fires that way, but also oxygen will cause a temperature drop.
As far as I know all green does this, probably planting grass on baren land
will cause as much progres as trees would.
I think the most important job for us humans is to create alternatives for
growing crops so that we can stop depleting our top soils and stop injecting
fertilizers and poisons and give these top soils back to the green stuff that
will cool down the planet a bit.
------
testrun
_“This is partly because forests, especially plantations of eucalypts and
pines, are vulnerable to high-severity fires and will become more so as the
world warms. Most of the carbon stored in grasslands is below ground, where it
persists through fire._
This statement makes no sense, it would be absolute stupidity to plant pine
and eucalypts in Africa. You would plant indigenous and you would plant with a
plan. So that it does not affect run-off and waterways. You can have grassland
with trees. This is not difficult.
------
8bitsrule
I support indiscriminate afforestation.
~~~
muriithi
Why?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Can an Astrophysicist Change the Way We Watch Sports? - ecopoesis
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/can-an-astrophysicist-change-the-way-we-watch-sports/
======
EA
By the time the video of the sporting event is transmitted through the air,
satellite, or internet, there is already a time delay between when the viewer
sees an event happen and when that event really happened. When you watch an
NFL football game on cable or satellite, you are really watching something
that happened dozens of seconds ago, if not a couple of minutes ago.
That is plenty of time to inject post-event meta data into a broadcast to
enhance the viewing experience. There is no need to predict if a basketball
shot is going to be a miss to the viewer at home. We can simply wait for the
event to occur and then the broadcaster can inject the results between the
time the event occurs and the when the viewer sees the event.
I guess not many people watch sports from a DVR, but imagine if you had an
hour to two to computationally enhance the sport event's display.
Or maybe you could watch an episode of The Walking Dead and elect to see real
time Twitter/Instagram/Facebook reactions alongside the broadcast or on your
second screen.
~~~
Steko
So what's the main benefit of a live system like this? Wirelessly signal
players to rebound or not? I guess we don't have to worry about that, it's not
like one of the owners is developing this.
> There are three names on the patent application: Matthew L. Ginsberg,
> Navarre S. Ginsberg and Mavericks owner Mark Cuban
/facepalm
------
Animats
The "yellow line" in football mentioned was developed by Stan Honey's company,
Sportsvision. That was the most popular innovation in that space. The visual
hockey puck trail, not so much. He later did the America's Cup graphics,
including the "flag on the water" effects. (He's very much into sailing.) It's
possible to generate many more sports graphics than are currently being used,
but it's also easy to overdo it.
Honey previously did Etak, the first car navigation system. No GPS, just a
rate gyro, 2-axis tilt meter, wheel counters, and map data from a cassette
drive. Worked quite well.
------
yellowstuff
I have no particular insight, but it seems like this would be most useful for
training, not playing or broadcasting sports. For example, imagine practicing
free throws or pitching with a buzzer that goes off when any part of your body
deviates from correct form.
------
bigethan
The camera science is fancy, but to me the bit at the end: "At the very least,
he doesn’t want this tactic available to just one team."
A week or so ago there was a discussion sparked by advanced curling brooms
here about how sports shouldn't be "enhanced" by technology (eg: the sharkskin
swimsuits are cheating). What if a team had every player wore a device that
told them things:
\- the shot is not/is going in \- the pass is coming to your area of the field
\- jump! duck! \- etc
Would that be different than having a good coach vs. a bad coach? A
communicative teammate vs. a silent one?
~~~
hugh4
In Formula 1, where these sorts of things are both technologically easier and
very useful, many forms of driver aid have already been banned. Because
viewers want to see men drive cars, not robots.
So I can't imagine the governing bodies of lower-tech sports getting on board
with these sorts of things.
~~~
bigethan
Formula 1 is especially amusing to me. Rather than saying "no tech" it says
"not this tech" which just invites loophole finders. eg. the so called
"F-Duct"
([http://www.formula1-dictionary.net/f_duct.html](http://www.formula1-dictionary.net/f_duct.html))
- you're not just watching drivers drive, you're watching engineering teams
compete with the world's best drivers at their disposal.
What would a Serena type athlete be able to do with even more information?
It's not steroids, it's data. What would Tim Duncan and Greg Popovitch be
capable of with even more knowledge? I'd kinda like to know and see.
------
hackuser
I could see teams using this to gain an advantage; they look for every edge
they can get. If you think it would be too contrived, consider this example:
In a 1951 baseball playoff game the New York Giants (who later moved to SF)
contrived an advantage over the Brooklyn Dodgers (who followed the Giants to
the West Coast): If I remember correctly, the Giants placed someone in center
field (outside the field of play, behind the wall) with binoculars. He would
read the catcher's hand signs to the pitcher, indicating the next pitch. They
buried a wire from center field to the first base or third base coach, which
would vibrate something under his foot signaling the pitch to him, and he
would signal the batter. Nobody knew until 2001 that when Bobby Thompson hit a
legendary game-winning home run off of Ralph Branca, sending the Giants to the
World Series, Thompson knew ahead of time what pitch was coming (a very large
advantage for a batter).
Would a team use 2015 technology to gain an advantage? They wouldn't even need
to bury a wire.
------
lazyant
> Then do something interesting with that fact
Looks like a solution looking for a problem, I don't mind waiting one or two
seconds to see if the ball goes in or not (that's part of the emotion of the
game), but then again I've been very wrong many times before and a younger
generation may like this.
------
comrh
FoxTrax was basically a bandaid because hockey is really hard to watch in my
opinion without an HD TV. The k zone is interesting too because non-fans of
baseball I've talked to seem to really like it because the strike zone is very
mystifying.
------
hyperion2010
Now tell me who is going to get the rebound on the missed shots.
------
strommen
The next step is to predict where the rebound will go on a missed shot. And of
course, trigger an according haptic notification on a wearable device.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Show HN: Any UX suggestions for my auto dealer website? - jeremyreel
https://www.southernpalmsmazda.com/
======
rgbrenner
Is Show HN for this? This isn't a startup, or some developers pet project.
This is a very standard website made for a local car dealership.
And in the footer, there's a link to DealerOn:
[https://www.dealeron.com/](https://www.dealeron.com/) A web dev agency for
car dealership websites. I quote: "We help over 3,000 car dealers..."
This looks very much like spam.
Maybe you should take some of the money you charged for building this and hire
a UX consultant.
------
gmt2027
Coincidentally, I just picked up a Mazda CX-3 last weekend. You definitely
want to have filters for standard things like transmission (auto/manual) and
fuel type (petrol/diesel). If these options exist I didn't see them on mobile.
None of the sites I used had filters for Mazda's own colours which would have
been good.
The popups are intrusive. I have limited patience for that kind of thing when
shopping online. When there's money to spend (and car money too), my mental
Internet filter is in the strictest no bullshit mode. Popups lower trust, go
unread and would have sent me back to Google.
------
nyx_
The big red "LIVE HELP" button on the left flashes before disappearing then
animating back in from the left of the screen. Likewise, the counting-up
animation of the number of vehicles available lags halfway through, maybe
because other elements are loading in.
If you're going to do animation stuff like this, it had better be perfect.
That said, I think it's tacky in the same way that the marquee tag was tacky,
i.e. just because you can doesn't mean you should.
Oh, also, "LIVE HELP" buttons invariably connect me to some idiot chatbot.
Being spamfucked by a chatbot is unpleasant in the same way that being
startled by a retail employee asking if I need help is unpleasant. Generally,
if I need to contact your business, I'll do so of my own volition. Might want
to consider that there are other people who have similarly negative reactions.
~~~
Waterluvian
Your dealership is a local one focusing on local customers, right? "LIVE HELP"
really ought to connect me to your receptionist or give me a phone number or
not be there.
Just my 0.02.
------
uberman
What is the _ONE_ thing you want me to do when I land on the page. Whatever
that is, it should be the clear "call to action". The primary CTA (red button,
popup window) at the moment is the chat feature. Is that the thing you want me
to do most?
------
ryanmickle
The best thing I can possibly recommend is doing user research. Nothing
uncovers UX issues more effectively. And it’ll be painful to watch (and not
guide) if it needs fixing.
------
petraeus
Looks the same as the other 1 million wordpress landing pages out there,
nothing special about it at all.
------
retox
Please don't post this kind of thing here.
------
jppope
no need to have a duplicate home icon if the logo will send you home
------
dang
We tweaked the title a bit and added "Show HN", which is the convention for
sharing what you've made and asking for feedback about it. Hope that's ok!
~~~
tyingq
The footer suggests it was built by an agency with 3000 other auto dealer
customers. Show HN is going to get pretty busy if agencies start posting all
their work.
~~~
dang
You can say that about anything. Category theory gets old pretty quickly too.
What makes a topic interesting for HN is when it hasn't been repeated yet, and
this one seems unusual in that way. However, it's the kind where on-topicness
depends on intent. If the intent was intellectual curiosity (e.g. to get
interesting feedback), that's great; if it was just promotion, then it's spam.
Spammers don't normally ask for UX suggestions though.
~~~
tyingq
Not spray and pray spammers, no. But, this agency is likely thinking of this,
from their site: [https://www.dealeron.com/automotive-seo/off-site-
signals/](https://www.dealeron.com/automotive-seo/off-site-signals/)
They use the same rubber stamp template for every dealer site they make. They
aren't interested in UX feedback.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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How people 'of no security interest' are keystrokes away in UK's spy databases - mocko
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/04/21/bulk_personal_datasets/
======
jsingleton
Credit to Privacy International for unearthing all this:
[https://privacyinternational.org/node/843](https://privacyinternational.org/node/843)
If you want to help this sort of work consider donating to:
[https://www.dontspyonus.org.uk](https://www.dontspyonus.org.uk)
------
rlpb
A search should automatically trigger a notification to the subject of the
search in 12 months. Active investigations could maintain a list of people to
whom notifications will be postponed. Investigators wanting to postpone
notification by over 12 (further) months should be required to go to a judge
for an extension.
In all cases, the default position should be that the subject of a search will
be notified within 12 months.
------
deepnet
_collateral intrusion_ is a wonderful neologism.
~~~
confluence
My favourite is _parallel construction_.
------
Natanael_L
Yet another reason to improve cryptography and get everything to use it
~~~
schoen
I'm not sure that all of the databases described in this article were obtained
via signals intelligence. Particularly because the article describes
legislative authority to demand information from British companies.
Ubiquitous encryption is a great solution to wiretapping, but nothing that we
can unilaterally deploy protects most of the other aspects of our privacy. One
thing that would clearly help is being able to do more things anonymously, but
that ability is often limited by laws or companies' business practices that
crypto alone won't solve.
Sometimes crypto _offers_ a way to do something anonymously, but the
counterparty needs to be willing to participate in the privacy-protective
protocol (for example, privacy-preserving metering and tolling schemes). If
the counterparty says "I'm just going to record your fine-grained usage data
with a traditional meter" or "I'm just going to record with RFID whenever you
cross the toll bridge", the fact that an alternative has been invented doesn't
help you. If we invent a privacy-preserving presence mechanism that could
allow mobile phones to be anonymous except when actively making a phone call,
or a way to pay for mobile data anonymously without revealing the identity of
the SIM or device, we still don't get a privacy win unless mobile companies
are willing to deploy it on their networks. If ZeroCash is deployed, we still
don't get a privacy win in any particular area of the economy unless sellers
are actually willing to accept it.
Privacy advocates started worrying a lot about databases in the 1970s as
database and storage technology improved. Privacy writers called them
"databanks" back then, and they were probably the major privacy preoccupation
of the day. All of these concerns sound super-quaint now that big data is so
ubiquitous, but at the same time the concerns were largely correct! And the
databank-preoccupied privacy advocates weren't necessarily thinking that the
databanks would be filled up with data from wiretaps or spying on the Internet
(which most people had never heard of at the time). They envisioned people
stockpiling or obtaining a lot of transactional records, and making people
register in order to do things, and linking one database to another by joining
on common fields. And that's happened.
| {
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Working for a Start-up: Expectations - ssclafani
http://dandemeyere.squarespace.com/blog/2011/2/28/working-for-a-start-up-expectations.html
======
bugsy
Good use of the "sandwich method" of delivering unpleasant news.
The pattern is this:
1\. Upper slice of bread - happy light carbohydrate empty calorie news.
2\. Bad News - the meat of the message
3\. Lower slice of bread - happy light carbohydrate empty calorie news.
In this specific example:
1\. You'll learn and have lots of hours to work.
2\. We pay bottom of the scale and are proud of it.
3\. Fun, friends, cv, grow, reward, grow, stock options.
------
jckay
You mentioned something that i think is _really_ important:
"My age, duration of employment, or who I know shouldn't play nearly as large
of a factor as what I'm doing for the company."
I have heard this more than almost anything else recently. The true
entrepreneurs and hard workers want to know that if they go out there and kick
ass they will be rewarded for kicking ass. Not be rewarded "as a 24 year old
should be rewarded".
Love this article. keep it up
------
j_baker
> There's a subtle assumption hiding in here: you must be willing to learn,
> especially if you're not coming in at an executive level.
Erm... Why should executives get off the hook? They generally manage more
diverse areas of the company and should be willing to learn as much as anyone
else.
------
hsmyers
Join for all of the reasons given and alluded to, but drop the 'Expectations'
part. Or if you insist on having them, go read Charles Dickens 'Great
Expectations' one more time (or for the first time) and then ponder...
------
sili
A little off topic, but the way text is handled in this blog threw me off. The
links are more prominent that the main text, they actually look the way main
text should look.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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DeepMind's Mustafa Suleyman says general AI is still a long way off - seycombi
https://techcrunch.com/2016/12/05/deepmind-ceo-mustafa-suleyman-says-general-ai-is-still-a-long-way-off/
======
dpandey
The fascinating thing about his answers is that he says nothing that wasn't
already known 25 years ago. 'General AI' is a really vague term and means
almost nothing.
It's well known in AI that common sense AI systems are incredibly hard to
build and expert AI systems are relatively straight forward to model and
build. Given that the most 'common sense' type products we see like Siri and
Alexa still appear to be rules based systems (that have been enhanced with
historical data no doubt), we all know the world is not suddenly going to
become a common sense AI paradise unless a new Marvin Minsky makes some
breakthroughs.
I find that the term 'AI' is frequently used when a company has taken an
existing problem and enhanced the solution by using machine learning at one or
more places. Nothing wrong with that fundamentally, but calling that AI is
more of a marketing gimmick than anything else.
Google/Facebook do some of the best machine learning enhanced workflows that
delight users. They usually refrain from branding it as AI.
~~~
StavrosK
Semi-offtopic, but I've always wondered why something like a medical diagnosis
AI doesn't exist. The doctor (or operator) would enter all your symptoms and
test results, and the software would use statistical data and research results
to give you a probability of each disease (e.g. a headache is overwhelmingly
probably a flu, but if your test results for X are elevated, the probability
for brain cancer increases, etc), as well as a list of tests the doctor could
run.
Something like this would be immensely valuable, and would immediately improve
healthcare everywhere, since the software could be updated with new or obscure
knowledge right away, so you wouldn't have to shop around for doctors until
you came across someone who had read of a very rare disease somewhere, the
software would already know everything you might have.
Is there something like that out there? It sounds like there must be, but I
don't know of any doctors using anything like this.
~~~
ska
These systems have been worked on since the 90s at least. The latest branding
of them is "Decision Support Systems" but there are lots of CAD (Computer
Aided Diagnostic, cf Computer Aided Detection). There is a lot of interesting
work that falls under the general heading of "Evidence based medicine" that
relates to this.
There are a lot of barriers to presenting it as you imagine, though: some
liability, some workflow, and some just the deep lack of appropriate datasets.
There is also some adoption issues - clinicians are rarely going to be happy
with a black box approach but it can be difficult to explain/expose the
details of such analysis in a way that clinicians will accept.
A last thought: this is actually very hard to do well and dangerous to make
mistakes with - so your rather cavalier claim that there would be immediate
and wide spread improvement of health care should be tempered a bit.
~~~
dpandey
Your last thought is key. Medical diagnosis demands extremely high precision
as well as 'judgement' because one little deviation can be highly correlated
with something serious. And there can be several of these deviations in
different places. Sometimes a doctor notices something is off while looking at
something else. It's not easy to model out all these while keeping up with the
changing knowledge in the field and still avoiding false negatives.
~~~
ska
Agreed - I think the potential value is quite high in unusual root causes.
It's going to be very hard to make a system better at diagnosing 'flu' than a
trained clinician. However, "flu-like-symptoms" plus a couple of subtle things
in the history may point at a relatively obscure syndrome or whatever, which
can be very difficult for a clinician to find.
Another thing to consider in any work like this, you really need to thank
about what your false positives mean, in a practical sense. If your numbers
are big enough (e.g. screening) and your positives result in a procedure (e.g.
biopsy), eventually someone is going to die based on a false positive. This
may still be the better option, of course, but you really need to demonstrate
that, and think about what your sensitivity and specificity tuning needs.
------
denzil_correa
Anyone who has spend time in AI or ML would know this is true. Currently, AI
is very helpful to solve certain types of tasks. The recent advances in Deep
Learning etc. is the improvement of AI to solve some of these specific tasks.
A lot of people have confused this to assume there would be a master AI system
that would solve general tasks. I don't see that happening anytime soon.
~~~
squeaky-clean
I have (or avoid) this conversation with family and friends all the time. That
because we're hyper-successful/advanced in one area, we can easily just apply
that to everywhere else, like some AI budget where we currently have a surplus
in Chess/Go/Jeopardy.
"Well, what if they took all the AI power that makes that GO thing beat the
best player, and converted it into regular intelligence? It would probably be
as smart as the average person!"
Is a real question I've been asked several times by friends. Of course, no one
wants to be friends with "that guy" at a party or family dinner, so I usually
just say "Yeah, that would be neat" and move on. But I really do like talking
having serious conversations speculative AI and geeking out over AI. It's hard
though, because most people just want to talk about the kinds of AI they've
seen in movies, which are unrealistic compared to what's possible and
practical.
~~~
somestag
I've gotten some decent mileage with family and friends by making the
distinction between "weak" AI and "strong" AI.
I tell them that any AI that's designed to only solve one type of problem (or
a finite set of problems) is "weak." An AI that can figure out how to solve an
arbitrary problem is "strong."
I then tell them that we've never been able to create a strong AI, and we've
never been able to convert a weak one to a strong one. They ask why not. I
tell them that every weak AI, at its core, has a mathematical way to evaluate
its outcome. Every time it does something, it does it by assigning some number
to the outcome, and it tries to get that "number" as close to the "good"
number as possible. All of our advances in weak AI have been in ways to come
up with better numbers, or use computers to come up with good numbers to
situations that we understand very well but aren't good at attaching numbers
to. Finally, I say that with the way we make weak AIs, to make it into a
strong AI, we'd have to come up with a way to assign an accurate number to
literally every single decision the computer might be asked to make. But there
are infinitely possible decisions, so we'd have to come up with infinite ways
to come up with a number. To come up with strong AI, we need some "universal"
way for the computer to think about the world, but we have no idea what would
look like.
This explanation is hardly adequate for a true understanding of AI, but it
works pretty well for helping them understand the gist of the problem without
using some misleading metaphor that would just give them another bad
understanding.
------
sapphireblue
Is he a CEO though? Wikipedia and other press articles say that Hassabis is
the CEO:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeepMind](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeepMind)
and Suleyman is Chief Product Officer, the head of applied AI at DeepMind.
~~~
cybertronic
[https://deepmind.com/about/](https://deepmind.com/about/)
Hassabis is CEO
------
rectang
Step 1: State a problem. Any problem which has been articulated is vastly
closer to being solved than any problem which has not.
Step 2: Rescue the problem from necessitating general AI by developing an
algorithm. Any problem which has been split off from general AI is vastly
closer to being solved.
------
ilaksh
I thought Hassabis said he was seriously trying to build grounded AGI based on
some type of system with deep learning-ish stuff. I think it will work within
around a dozen years or so.
How do they know that they can't take their current deep learning-type
techniques or some variation/enhancement of them and apply them to more
demanding and general circumstances?
For example, they have the agent that goes around trying to score in a 3d
first-person-shooter with the pixels as input. Has it been determined that
there isn't a way to gradually train that system to recognize words, phrases,
or even sentences that would give it hints about how to score better, maybe by
associating words with other (spatial/navigation) parts of the model or more
general association between aspects of the learning system in different
domains.
To me it seems like some type of deep learning (or maybe a variant using
spiking neurons since those can reportedly learn with fewer examples?) when
grounded by integrated sensory inputs of different times and incrementally
trained, may be able to already exhibit general animal/human-like
intelligence, or will be able to with one or two minor 'breakthroughs'.
I'm still going with 2029 (as suggested by Kurzweil I think).
------
roymurdock
DeepMind sounds more and more like IBM Watson by the day. Both created AI
engines for games (Jeopardy, Go) and are now focusing on the medical market.
The two examples of actual AI applications cited in the article focus on
DeepMind's healthcare efforts:
_The company is working with the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK on a
project around the early detection of acute kidney injuries. Critics, however,
argue that the collaboration with DeepMind is wider than the company and the
NHS previously disclosed. In addition, it’s also working with the Moorfields
Eye Hospital on looking at how it can use the hospital’s eye scans to diagnose
eye conditions better and faster. The NHS, however, mostly used its own
algorithm in its project, with DeepMind focussing on the front-facing app.
Suleyman argued that this is due to the fact that it’s still early days for
this collaboration, which only started 12 months ago._
So in the health space they're currently doing anomaly detection and building
applications for their clients. Sounds very Watson/consulting. Lots of money
in healthcare due to the amount of data generated and the complexity of
building regulation-compliant.
Judging from their website, they've also built an algorithm for reducing
cooling energy usage in Google's data centers.
There are a ton of IoT platforms that are currently competing to connect a
bunch of industrial/medical/automotive/aerospace and defense devices and
servers, analyze that data with machine learning and statistical techniques,
make it easy for users to build their own cloud/edge applications, and eke out
every last drop of efficiency they can for their customers.
DeepMind is fortunate to have Google's brand, infrastructure, and reach. I'm
just not sure what else separates them from any other "AI" (read machine
learning/algorithm-building/efficiency consultancy) out there.
~~~
tfgg
AFAIK the health stuff at DeepMind is just one part, the research division is
the main bit. Not like IBM Watson consultancy-pretending-to-be-AI-research.
> I'm just not sure what else separates them from any other "AI" (read machine
> learning/algorithm-building/efficiency consultancy) out there.
probably the amount of pure research they produce:
[https://deepmind.com/research/publications/](https://deepmind.com/research/publications/)
~~~
dpandey
Those are 2 very different things as much as we'd like to believe they're one
since they're within the same company.
I wouldn't be surprised if google sunsets the company and absorbs the
employees in its more profitable products.
~~~
deong
No way I could see that happening. I mean, they might conceivably decide to
fold the group into Google Research rather than keep the DeepMind name, but I
doubt they'd do even that due to the name recognition that DeepMind has
garnered even among the general public.
The idea that they'd take the people and put them to work making Blogger
better or something? Not a chance. AI research is pretty much Google's core
function. They'd no more break up that functional area than Apple would take
Jonny Ive's team and put them answering support calls.
~~~
dpandey
On the contrary, DeepMind is a subsidiary in the new alphabet structure and is
looking at a stick wielding CFO with a profitability question on her face.
If they don't figure out compelling products in reasonable time, the
researchers will become part of google research (maybe retaining the deepmind
name as part of a group within google research) and the engineers will become
absorbed or find new jobs. Also, DeepMind is not such a big name outside our
little geek community. Try it with someone :)
~~~
dpandey
I wasn't implying that DeepMind (or its research team) are going to be
dissolved. My point was: _I wouldn 't be surprised_ if that happens if they
don't find compelling products to make money off of given Alphabet's revenue
focus. Also it can go the consultancy type route it currently seems to be
headed for and consultancies can make a lot of money (look at IBM), so they
could be a great business. But that might leave the researchers unsatisfied
with their impact.
My point was that ideally we like to believe that research supports products,
but generally speaking, most of Google research or Microsoft research papers
are rarely applicable to their products. And good researchers like being
independent (that's how you woo them - with the promise of independence) so
you can't usually dictate what they work on.
~~~
deong
> My point was that ideally we like to believe that research supports
> products, but generally speaking, most of Google research or Microsoft
> research papers are rarely applicable to their products.
I have no inside information here, but my hunch is that that's overly
pessimistic. From the outside, we hear about DeepMind finding cats in YouTube
videos or learning to play Atari games or Go, and it's tempting to say,
"Google doesn't sell Go programs, so what was the point."
However, Google does do incredibly good image labeling in Google Photos. Their
autonomous vehicles might eventually be a profit maker, potentially using deep
reinforcement learning methods developed to play Atari games. Certainly,
Google Translate and Inbox use ideas developed from their machine learning
groups.
You're right that there's often a pressure to make internal research groups
more profit-driven and more connected to the revenue stream that runs a
company. Microsoft Research saw this happen to some degree 10 or so years ago.
But Google's core competitive advantage is their ability to collect and
analyze data. Data __is __the revenue stream that runs the company.
Also, I think the "independence" aspect of research is overblown to some
extent. Almost no one is truly independent. If nothing else, you're subject to
the needs of funding agencies. Typically, researchers just want the ability to
work on problems that interest them using ideas they have some control over
developing. You can do that inside a company, provided that company is
interested in the same types of problems you're interested in. That's been the
success of corporate AI/ML labs -- many of the best researchers want to go
there because it's a steady stream of interesting work free from the need to
do the constant dance for grant money.
~~~
dpandey
Lets keep in mind that DeepMind is a subsidiary of Alphabet that has to
justify its existence (not tomorrow, but over time) with revenue. Interval
research corporation is a good example of a very high profile research entity
that couldn't produce revenue and shut down.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interval_Research_Corporation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interval_Research_Corporation)
Retaining researchers who write papers is highly correlated with providing a
de facto academic environment for them to work in. Microsoft research has
become almost the most interesting place for researchers to go to in the last
10 years because they have developed the place to feel like a university
department. Look at their research papers (public). Any overlap with
commercial products looks providential more than intentional.
I'm obviously not talking of people like Jeff Dean, whose intent is to build,
not publish papers. The big table paper was not the intent - building Big
Table was the intent and when they were done, they ended up writing a paper
about it.
If Google uses some of the DeepMind research itself, that's really good.
DeepMind can make revenue from Google that way (if they have that
arrangement). If they can't, it's hard to justify their existence as an
independent financial entity - they're better off just being part of Google.
------
mark_l_watson
I like his honesty in saying we are decades away from any general sort of AI.
I remember at AAAI 1982, the conference was handing out bumper stickers saying
"AI its for real" that my coworkers and I happily put on our cars. Yeah, a
little optimistic:-)
That said, I like the way Deep Mind is run, especially the forays into health
science.
------
airesQ
People with high-profile jobs are severely constrained in what they can say
(even though this guy is not the CEO, contrary to what the title claims ATM).
And we already saw that google doesn't want to touch the "uglier" aspects of
ML/AI/robotics with a ten-foot-pole (e.g. see how they reacted to Boston
Dynamics's humanoid robot video).
So I'm not sure if we should take this seriously. DeepMind technical views are
mostly on its papers. Not press statements.
~~~
dpandey
Really good point. He might just be following google's PR directives. Also,
while their research team is ostensibly doing great work, maybe the product
team doesn't have much to show or claim after all. Which CEO/exec wouldn't
want to make a tall claim about their product or company while on stage (that
they can reasonably back up if questioned)?
------
cr0sh
I personally think that if "general AI" (that is, something akin to human-
level or beyond, and possibly sentient) ever happens - it'll happen by
accident, and will be an emergent phenomenon that we won't be able to explain.
It will surprise all of us, and will likely be a "earth-shaking", akin to an
extra-terrestrial alien contact. Perhaps even more so - because it would be a
hard example against the idea of dualism (unless it arises from a quantum
computing system - then humans can posit an "out" of course, regardless of
whether it is true or not).
All pure speculation, of course. I honestly don't think we'll be able to
"design" a general AI - we don't even understand how sentience and
consciousness (among other things in the philosophy of mind) even works or
exists in human brains. We understand the gears and wheels, but can't describe
the factory.
------
socmag
I totally agree with the general sentiment of the comments and the article
that AGI is a long way off... in the anthropomorphic sense we usually imagine.
That said in many regards, the sum total of the internet, social networks and
automated systems that already exist, to me is fast beginning to resemble an
emergent AGI / ASI, and furthermore is already out and about busy doing its
business.
That it just happens to use networks, humans and machines as cells and DNA
seems kind of irrelevant.
Of course this is a silly POV thought experiment, but seriously, if that were
the case, would we even notice?
I'm not sure our own cells and DNA know they are part of a larger entity for
example.
Okay, enough weird thoughts.. time for bed.
------
xianshou
FYI, Mustafa Suleyman is not CEO, but rather "Co-Founder & Head of Applied
AI," as described in the article. Demis Hassabis is the CEO.
~~~
sctb
Thanks, we've updated the submission title.
------
saycheese
>> "We founded the company on the premise that many of our complex social
problems are becoming increasingly stuck"
Real AI will not simplify the complexities of social problems — and to believe
so shows a complete lack of understanding of those problems and what real AI
will become.
~~~
maaaats
> _and to believe so shows a complete lack of understanding of those problems
> and what real AI will become_
When the CEO of one of the most well-known AI-companies makes a claim you
disagree with, you should probably give a better reason for him being wrong
than "a complete lack of understanding".
~~~
leereeves
Being CEO of an AI company doesn't mean he has a greater understanding of
"social problems".
~~~
patrickmn
"Science talks about very simple things, and asks hard questions about them.
As soon as things become too complex, science can’t deal with them… But it’s a
complicated matter: Science studies what’s at the edge of understanding, and
what’s at the edge of understanding is usually fairly simple. And it rarely
reaches human affairs. Human affairs are way too complicated." — Noam Chomsky
------
curiousgal
Curious to know about his technical expertise, he's listed as an entrepreneur
who dropped out of college.
------
skocznymroczny
That's what he wants you to think!
------
patkai
It's quite shocking that even technical people think AI is "a" thing, and will
"come" at a certain time.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
VoicePHP from TringMe to create Voice Applications - code_devil
http://socialapp.wordpress.com/2009/01/25/voice-applications/
======
rantfoil
How does this compare to twilio.com?
~~~
code_devil
Never heard of twilio. I'll check it out and see.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Introducing Ring -3 Rootkits: BIOS rootkit targeting vPro chipsets (2009) [pdf] - devconsole
https://www.blackhat.com/presentations/bh-usa-09/TERESHKIN/BHUSA09-Tereshkin-Ring3Rootkit-SLIDES.pdf
======
devconsole
Highlights from the slides:
Your CPU chipset is also standalone webserver. Most vPro chipsets (MCHs) have:
\- An Independent CPU (not IA32!)
\- Access to dedicated DRAM memory
\- Special interface to the Network Card (NIC)
\- Execution environment called Management Engine (ME)
Your chipset is a little computer. It can execute programs in parallel and
independently from the main CPU!
How might we design some malware that embeds itself into the chipset? Such
malware would be able to survive reboots, brick the hardware on demand, reboot
on demand, act as a MITM for all network traffic, inject vulnerabilities into
the host OS during bootup, etc.
Step 1: Search for an attack vector in any version of the Intel BIOS. If you
can find any attack vector in any version of the BIOS, you've won. For
example, if the latest Intel BIOS is v3.9.2, but you found an exploit in BIOS
v2.3.1, you've still won. Because...
Step 2: ... as the attacker, you can downgrade the victim's BIOS to any
previous version without any user consent! Any old version of the BIOS is of
course signed by Intel; all versions are. The chipset firmware allows any
valid signed BIOS to replace the current BIOS regardless of whether it's older
or newer than the current.
It was pretty shocking that the BIOS can be downgraded without any user
consent. Downgrading requires a reboot, but that's probably not a huge problem
in practice.
This article is from 2009, so at this point it's just an interesting piece of
history. But I wonder whether any of these issues still persist today, such as
the ability for userspace programs to downgrade/upgrade the BIOS at will?
~~~
pgeorgi
Once you find a bug in certain critical paths, you can write to flash at will,
no signatures required. AFAICS some Samsung and Lenovo users ran into one of
those when installing Linux.
As for the management engine (the CPU that drives the vPro stuff), it exists
in _all_ Intel chipsets since Series 5, vPro is just a certain configuration
of its firmware. It also has full access to RAM, some access to USB, network
and graphics.
~~~
sitkack
For reference
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Pill_(software)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Pill_\(software\))
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joanna_Rutkowska](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joanna_Rutkowska)
------
t0mas88
So if I understand correctly this can be used to install a persistent hardware
rootkit on the chipset that listens for a "secret" knock procedure with TCP
(because it has access to the NIC) and then in response to the secret signal
modify the host OS kernel through DMA-access to disable for example all access
checks [1].
Imagine infecting a machine with this either before delivery (requires
physical access, but should be doable for FBI/NSA/foreign-counterpart) or in a
"rent a server" situation. Most providers will allow you to rent a full server
with root-access for a month and then cancel the contract. I'm assuming those
servers get re-used if they're not too old.
[1] Code to disable access checks through DMA has been around for a long time:
[http://www.breaknenter.org/projects/inception/](http://www.breaknenter.org/projects/inception/)
------
rjzzleep
you fight find this more recent work interesting:
[http://media.ccc.de/browse/congress/2013/30C3_-_5380_-_en_-_...](http://media.ccc.de/browse/congress/2013/30C3_-_5380_-_en_-
_saal_2_-_201312291830_-_persistent_stealthy_remote-
controlled_dedicated_hardware_malware_-_patrick_stewin.html)
> In this work we present a stealthy malware that exploits dedicated hardware
> on the target system and remains persistant across boot cycles. The malware
> is capable of gathering valuable information such as passwords. Because the
> infected hardware can perform arbitrary main memory accesses, the malware
> can modify kernel data structures and escalate privileges of processes
> executed on the system.
> The malware itself is a DMA malware implementation referred to as DAGGER.
> DAGGER exploits Intel’s Manageability Engine (ME), that executes firmware
> code such as Intel’s Active Management Technology (iAMT), as well as its OOB
> network channel. We have recently improved DAGGER’s capabilites to include
> support for 64-bit operating systems and a stealthy update mechanism to
> download new attack code.
edit: you still have to first get the malware in though
------
userbinator
This is another excellent example of when security-through-obscurity fails;
the vPro environment docs are presumably NDA-only (or never released outside
Intel), but reverse-engineers will figure things out anyway, and they're not
really willing to disclose how much they know...
None of my machines have vPro; I remember someone I know calling it "the
ultimate pre-installed RAT" when it first came out.
Another interesting little fact: Intel's wireless cards, at least the
3945/4965 generation, also use an ARC core to run their firmware.
~~~
mschuster91
Oh, the 4965 generation. I vaguely remember the days of the Linux driver
development, there were discussions to open-source the binary blob firmware.
IIRC this was ultimately abandoned due to the possibility of turning the 4965
into a pretty sophisticated SDR. What a shame!
~~~
yuhong
Reminds me of why older Broadcom wireless chips don't have official open
source drivers.
------
higherpurpose
Many of these exploits "we're just learning about now", have been discussed at
CCC, Defcon and Blackhat conferences in the past few years. It's just that
most people weren't aware of them. NSA, on the other hand, has paid much
attention to them.
Here's another one about hardware backdooring from 2012:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tV0YqJa-0OA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tV0YqJa-0OA)
But when we discover a backdoor on Intel chips (not necessarily put there by
Intel) in 5 years, everyone will probably act in shock and awe that it was
possible.
------
jrabone
And yet the Intel product pages say
"Prevent attacks below the operating system
Intel vPro technology protects against difficult-to-detect, penetrating
rootkits and malware that threaten users working in cloud or virtual
environments. It combines several hardware-based features, including Intel®
Trusted Execution Technology (Intel® TXT)3 and Intel® Virtualization
Technology (Intel® VT)4 for centralized image management and administration,
secure network storage, and out-of-band protection—all beyond the firewall."
Irony? Or hopefully the current version of vPro as built-in to some Xeon
processors is a bit more hardened...
~~~
ChuckMcM
Kind of like buying a gun for self protection and then having an intruder get
hold of it and kill you with it. In a talk I gave to some Swiss banks about
security a looooong time ago I talked briefly about security measures as
vulnerabilities which are analogous to data protection bits being the source
of data corruption errors. You have to evaluate whether the system as a whole
with is more or less (or the same!) level of secure with the code you've added
for security.
~~~
sitkack
I hadn't really thought about ECC bits getting errors and thus corrupting the
thing they were supposed to protect.
Do you know if hardware uses [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reed-
Muller_Code](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reed-Muller_Code) for the ECC bits?
~~~
ChuckMcM
I believe they use Reed-Solomon encoding but as it is up to the memory
controller to implement it can change. The memory just provides the extra bits
for the software to use. In our fictional gun ownership example it would be
like the owner hiding _multiple_ guns around the house so that if one was
compromised by an intruder they could still defend themselves. :-)
------
X4
Are there any ways to defend against the attack?
I can only think of buying AMD Chips with CoreBios instead, which of I don't
know, if they may have similar issues. Maybe buy Tilera, or other manycore
chips instead?
This article with the title: "Expert Says NSA Have Backdoors Built Into Intel
And AMD Processors" raises some concerns, even though I don't know, if the
source can be trusted. [http://www.eteknix.com/expert-says-nsa-have-backdoors-
built-...](http://www.eteknix.com/expert-says-nsa-have-backdoors-built-into-
intel-and-amd-processors/)
~~~
userbinator
Not all Intel chipsets have vPro/ME.
E.g. this one doesn't:
[http://ark.intel.com/products/64015/Intel-
BD82X79-PCH](http://ark.intel.com/products/64015/Intel-BD82X79-PCH)
(Whether they actually do have the silicon and are just disabled somehow and
could be enabled/not is a different issue, however...)
~~~
pgeorgi
To check, I downloaded Asrock X79 Extreme4's BIOS update and looked into it.
It contains 2MB of ME firmware.
That's definitely not the vPro enabled version (which uses about 5MB), but
approximately matches the regular non-vPro versions in size.
Maybe the "ME firmware N/A" field is meant to mean "don't bother, we don't
want you to configure it"?
edit: updated with information from another bios update that isn't a diff
------
TazeTSchnitzel
Is this one place where the fabled BADBIOS could live?
~~~
jevinskie
Seems so. The independent CPU has access to system RAM, that is pretty much
game over. SMM (ring -2 in the slides) may be another good choice. [0]
[0]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Management_Mode](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Management_Mode)
------
stcredzero
_Your chipset is a little computer. It can execute programs in parallel and
independently from the main CPU!_
So, basically, the "trusting trust" extends to even your chipset. Basically,
the majority of people are doomed to be the subjects of those controlling the
means of production. Most of those few who have the wherewithal to peer past
the curtain can easily be bribed and intimidated into cooperating.
Tinfoil hat on: I wonder if such vulnerabilities might have been concocted as
a means of sneaking backdoors into the technical projects of non-US countries?
------
jevinskie
Does anyone know if it is possible to get a dump of the firmware running on
the vPro? I'd like to take a look in IDA!
------
contingencies
Time to get off the x86 consumer hardware train. NetBSD anyone? :)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Gogs: A self-hosted Git service written in Go - tombenner
http://gogs.io/
======
dang
[https://hn.algolia.com/?q=gogs#!/story/forever/0/gogs](https://hn.algolia.com/?q=gogs#!/story/forever/0/gogs)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
FDA grants emergency authorization for first saliva-based coronavirus test - new_time
https://www.rutgers.edu/news/new-rutgers-saliva-test-coronavirus-gets-fda-approval
======
selectodude
One of the bigger issues with COVID testing is false negatives. I wonder how
an even smaller sample of viral load will fare with that.
~~~
fspeech
High false negatives due to low viral load in samples would be problematic for
diagnosis and treatment (except there is no specific treatment) but for public
health purpose it is just as important to test for infectiousness. Imagine if
we have a quick and easy way to self test saliva with high false negative rate
due to viral load in the saliva, we can feel more confident about not
infecting others through talking even if we can't be sure we are disease free.
~~~
_wldu
Roughly 1/3 covid tests are falsely negative[1]. I'm not sure any have been
cleared/approved by the FDA yet, but some are authorized for emergency use due
to the circumstances.
_" Testing was performed using the cobas(R) SARS-CoV-2 test. This test was
developed and its performance characteristics determined by LabCorp
Laboratories. This test has not been FDA cleared or approved. This test has
been authorized by FDA under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA). This test
is only authorized for the duration of time the declaration that circumstances
exist justifying the authorization of the emergency use of in vitro diagnostic
tests for detection of SARS-CoV-2 virus and/or diagnosis of COVID-19 infection
under section 564(b)(1) of the Act, 21 U.S.C. 360bbb-3(b)(1), unless the
authorization is terminated or revoked sooner."_
[1] - [https://www.wsj.com/articles/questions-about-accuracy-of-
cor...](https://www.wsj.com/articles/questions-about-accuracy-of-coronavirus-
tests-sow-worry-11585836001?mod=e2tw)
------
KaiserPro
Ok, but:
1) how accurate is it?
2) how fast is it?
3) what equipment is needed to run it?
4) how robust is it to mis-handling?
~~~
credit_guy
1) Presumably quite accurate considering that they received the FRA approval
2) Not clear for this one, but FDA authorized another lab to do saliva-based
tests 10 days ago [1], and that test takes 24 hours.
3) It appears this test will be performed in the labs of a partnering health
network, RWJBarnabas, and not for a wider distribution (from the article).
Their goal is to get to tens of thousands of tests per day. They cover the New
Jersey area. My guess is that you take the saliva sample, send it to one of
their labs, and you get the answer in 24 hours.
4) Again, sufficiently robust so the FDA grants them the approval.
[1] [https://hitconsultant.net/2020/04/03/fda-24-hour-saliva-
test...](https://hitconsultant.net/2020/04/03/fda-24-hour-saliva-test-
covid-19/#.XpTGupp7mEI)
~~~
Atlas
This test has not been FDA approved and only has an Emergency Use
Authorization which does not test the efficacy as an FDA approval would. Even
the linked article says "this test has not been FDA cleared or approved."
------
crystalmeph
As I understand it, the material supply chains for testing are limited in two
key ways: The sample collection material (swabs), and the reagents that the
tests need to function.
It sounds like this helps address the sample collection material supply chain,
but how do we scale the reagent supply chain? The entire world desperately
needs test capacity to increase by a factor of 10 or more, but is that
actually possible?
Every single expert says mass testing is the only way to get ahead of this
before a vaccine arrives, but I'm very worried that mass testing on the scale
needed is simply impossible, which leaves us with only two choices - stay in
lockdown for over a year waiting for the vaccine, or accept that herd immunity
is the only way out, and do what we can to minimize the damage as the virus
spreads, e.g. mandating masks in public, keeping the elderly population
isolated while the rest of the population is gradually exposed,etc.
~~~
alexbanks
I am fairly confident your option A is absolutely not an option.
~~~
crystalmeph
Yup. Year+ lockdown is not possible without reverting to a truly authoritarian
government model.
So ..., if widespread testing is not available, we don't have a choice, and
have to manage the flow of bodies as we reopen society in stages.
~~~
alexbanks
As I understand it, the goal of "flattening the curve" was never to reduce the
overall number of people that contract the virus. Which, to me, means that
neither herd immunity nor hiding were ever really the plan for covid. Giving
manufacturers the time to shift into overproducing PPE and researchers the
time to develop/test short term treatments so the hospitals could shift into
treating it as a part of routine coverage. I don't think you need herd
immunity to be prepared.
I can't tell if that's what you meant by "manage the flow of bodies." As I
understand it, lots of the deaths have been a result of timing and lack of
preparedness, not necessarily overall lethality of the virus itself.
~~~
kevin_b_er
The virus has a reported 12-20% hospitalization rate. Once they overfill in
any given region, the death rate and the hospitalization rate become the same.
We can argue about small percents for CFR, which only apply given healthcare
resources, but if we do not stay under the hospital thresholds by some means,
we get a catastrophic death rate that is comparable to the 1918 Spanish Flu,
which had something in the neighborhood of a 10-20% fatality rate.
Unless we somehow find an astonishing number of people are true asymptomatic,
this will hold. The Iceland survey does not yet count, as they surveyed and
tested and found a goodly number of people positive, but we haven't seen the
followup of how many develop symptoms where it can take 11.5 days in 97.5% of
all cases to develop.
So, we are in a Class 5 pandemic, one of similar severity to the 1918 Spanish
Flu. We just have oxygen and ventilators now for pneumonia. Once we run out of
those resources, we get to "manage the flow of bodies". If we get the
infection rate of the 2009 swine flu at 60.8 million cases, we stand to lose
up to 7 million lives in the United States alone.
~~~
alexbanks
I would challenge most of your numbers but I understand your sentiment.
------
setgree
Perhaps silly to ask, but: why does the FDA regulate this?
It’s not a food, it’s not a drug, if it’s purely a saliva swab it is non-
invasive — so where does the FDA come in?
In a university context, there is often a blanket IRB exemption for certain
kinds of research where the risks are self-evidently minimal, such as taste
tests.
If the FDA’s role here is to provide a stamp of approval indicating “this test
‘works’ according to an accepted standard,” then I would think something
closer to how food supplements are monitored would be a better fit, for
example, the test could come with text saying “this language has NOT been
approved by the FDA” or equivalent for approval.
I am failing to see risks here besides the risks of misdiagnosis, but I just
didn’t think it was the FDA’s mandate to approve or not approve based on
efficacy.
~~~
sk5t
The FDA maintains it is within the administration's purview to regulate tests
--including laboratory-developed tests, or LDTs--although the current state is
that the FDA often elects to exercise its discretion to permit LDTs sans
regulation-as-medical-device provided the lab adheres to CLIA and has any
required accreditation in order.
Dietary supplements are more or less unregulated, as long as they don't claim
to diagnose or treat a disease. This is not exactly a great situation for
consumers. Also, the current administration has taken sort of a "safety over
efficacy" tack, but I don't know, therapeutic failure seems pretty bad, so
maybe there isn't that much meaningful difference between the two.
Back to the testing concept, if not for the FDA to come down on operations
like Theranos, then who?
~~~
glenra
> if not for the FDA to come down on operations like Theranos, then who?
Theranos was committing fraud - selling investors a product that didn't exist.
You don't need the FDA for fraud to be illegal, ordinary civil and financial
law covers this.
If Theranos _weren 't_ defrauding investors and actually had a product that
worked, it'd be up to the market to determine if that product were worth
paying for. Since different customers have different risk profiles there's no
one-size-fits-all best balance between safety, efficacy and cost - let people
buy different products that choose different tradeoffs.
~~~
IvyMike
Theranos was in fact testing people, who received both false negative and
false negative results.
From the article I link below:
> At its height, Theranos operated 40 “Wellness Centers” in Walgreens stores
> in Arizona and a single location in California, which were the source of
> much of its revenue. USA Today reported the metro Phoenix-area centers alone
> sold more than 1.5 million blood tests, which yielded 7.8 million tests
> results for nearly 176,000 consumers.
[https://www.darkdaily.com/previously-high-flying-theranos-
pr...](https://www.darkdaily.com/previously-high-flying-theranos-provides-
clinical-laboratories-and-pathology-groups-with-valuable-lesson-on-how-
quickly-consumer-trust-can-be-lost/)
------
droopyEyelids
Anyone know what mechanism this test uses? I didn't see it in a skim of the
article.
Saying this because viral load seems to be peaking in the upper respiratory on
_day one_ of symptoms, and quickly decreasing from there as it moves to the
lungs.
But maybe if this is an antibody test, that won't matter?
~~~
usrusr
The decisive absence of this information in the article leads me to assume
that it has all the same properties (and reagent demands) as existing PCR
tests, just aimed at a simpler sample acquisition process. If there were
further advantages they surely would have written about them. Perhaps the RNA
signatures the test is looking for are shorter or something like that, to tune
the test sensitivity, but I could just as well imagine that it's purely a
paperwork difference. Wasting test capacity on samples acquired in a non-
approved way would be reckless when done at grassroots level, but if the
manufacturer can clear a relaxed sampling process it can be a valuable
improvement.
Paperwork-heavy engineering disciplines are full of examples where the exact
same hardware got re-rated to higher performance levels once the necessary
experience was accumulated. It's not necessarily a bad thing.
------
LatteLazy
Does this mean the fda actually tested it or is it just the official stamp of
not being banned (yet)?
------
edtruji
Sensitivity and specificity rate of this test?
------
mrfusion
Will this be an antibody test?
------
eganist
Oof, Rutgers miswrote the entire article. Flagged for being extremely
misleading on Rutgers' part (OP only quoted them).
This isn't an approval, it's an Emergency Use Authorization. They're
completely different. [https://www.fda.gov/emergency-preparedness-and-
response/mcm-...](https://www.fda.gov/emergency-preparedness-and-response/mcm-
legal-regulatory-and-policy-framework/emergency-use-authorization)
An EUA is specifically to permit unapproved uses _in exigent circumstances
only._ Approval still requires the full workup: [https://www.fda.gov/news-
events/approvals-fda-regulated-prod...](https://www.fda.gov/news-
events/approvals-fda-regulated-products/about-fda-product-approval)
\---
@dang, is there value in changing the title from its current state ("FDA
Grants Approval for First Saliva Based Coronavirus Test") to "FDA grants
Emergency Use Authorization for Saliva Based Coronavirus Test"?
\---
Edit 2:33pm EDT: calling Rutgers to clarify.
Edit 2:36pm EDT: the appropriate contact for the article has received my
message and (as best as I know) is clarifying the release.
Edit 3:01pm EDT: thanks for changing the title, dang!
~~~
ceejayoz
Is it misleading, or are they just using lay terminology in a press release
aimed at lay people?
They were approved to begin emergency use without the usual steps to "FDA
approval", correct?
~~~
usrusr
Easy english could be a reasonable excuse if the precise terminology would be
indecipherable to laypersons, but I don't see that here. "FDA grants emergency
use authorization [...]" would give the exactly same diffuse "they allowed
something on some level" information to people like me who are unaware of the
specifics, but without ruining it for those in the know.
~~~
ceejayoz
I mean, the subheadline is, in large bold text:
> Emergency use authorization granted for new biomaterial collection approach
They're not hiding anything here, as far as I can tell.
------
anorphirith
Any of these companies involved have tickers ?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Let’s See What We Know About Russia’s 5th Generation Stealth Jet - smacktoward
https://theaviationist.com/2019/08/01/sukhoi-begins-production-of-the-su-57-meanwhile-lets-see-what-we-know-about-russias-5th-generation-stealth-jet/
======
howard941
Like the F-35s this airplane looks like it has oversized (for a 5th gen) radar
and IR rear aspect cross sections. I suppose the idea is with supercruise
you're fence out by the time those are concerns. Will it have Lightning II's
near science fiction LPI flying LAN? Better search platform integration than
America's been able to pull off during Link 16's dotage? The US may need to
restart the F22, vary it, and get everyone off of Link 16 to maintain American
air supremacy.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Ideas and Getting 'Stuck' - inquiryaccount
Hi HN<p>How does the community take an idea and prevent themselves from getting stuck or even better, how to 'unstuck' yourselves to be able to move beyond and work on a side project?
======
saradhi
> "getting stuck or even better"
This ain't stop with one. To me, it's just I already lost interest in the
current one because my sense felt (or I realized) this is not as worth as what
I thought when started. It's okay to move on rather than being stubborn. Since
2017, as a solo developer, I launched 5 projects. Now, most of the time, I'm
working on only 2 projects (90-10 split) along side my full time, not a
developer.
Also, I was never stuck at an idea phase, I do extensive Google search to
validate the idea and readily jump on buying a domain as a commitment to turn
idea into the product, with a landing page deployed with in 2 days.
------
soonnow
Heres a bunch of ideas.
1) Reduce your ego. Your are not the project or the ideas that went into it.
It's ok to take a step back and revise decisions. It can help to document the
factors that went into a decision.
2) For me reading a book that actively engages your brain can help. Let's say
a book about software architecture or creativity can do it. Brainy books can
take your mind out of that dead-end.
3) Go for a walk, or for a run. Put on a podcast. Allow yourself to will drift
away. Which is ok, there's not going to be a test.
------
giantg2
If you are really stuck, move it to your backlog and make some notes about why
you are stuck. Then go do something else - a hobby, a project, etc. Sometimes
the answer will come to you while doing something else. Otherwise, revisit it
in a couple weeks or months.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
What are the nearest unsolved (technical) problems in AI? - pluv
======
aurizon
Content addressable memory(CAM). Digital memory as addressable
(row/column/etc). CAM is like an army roll call, you shout "Schwartz", and he
says "here". If not you would have to inspect every member of the army, one by
one. Humans do this a lot, via our extreme parallelism. With huge data sets,
CAM is essential.
------
w_t_payne
Testing, perhaps.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Drupal 7 Released - kylemathews
http://drupal.org/drupal-7.0
======
CitizenKane
There is a lot of cool stuff in here: * A complete rewritten database layer
with dynamic query building capabilities. This allows for queries to built in
a way that are DB agnostic. Also makes it very easy for other to modify them.
* A generic entity system. In practice this allows data fields to be attached to objects dynamically. A cool thing about this system is that field storage is completely configurable on a per field basis so you could have your data stored in a bunch of different system (Mongo, Cassandra, S3, etc.)
* There is a really nice URL routing system. Drupal 6 had some really irritating problems, but there is a lot of cool stuff in here now.
* jQuery UI has been integrated so it's available for use on every Drupal 7 installation.
There are a lot of other things too. If you're looking to develop an
application in PHP Drupal definitely isn't a bad choice.
(Disclosure: I work for a Drupal shop and am a core contributor)
~~~
stdbrouw
The new database layer is... nice-ish, but what ever happened to Dries
Buytaert's prediction/dream of finally having an object-relational mapper in
Drupal (<http://buytaert.net/drupal-predictions-for-2008>)? Last I heard was
that a Doctrine integration got rejected chiefly because "it would slow Drupal
down".
~~~
CitizenKane
ORMs are nice for simple things, but once you get to a system with a decent
amount of complexity they really start to fall down. Case in point, doctrine
has a custom query language to deal with a lot of the complexities. This is
actually the reason behind the slowness you pointed out.
Thankfully, there is the entity system which for all practical purposes is an
ORM on steroids. It abstracts storage away from the developer, has attachable
fields with per field storage configuration. Plus every entity has a
completely customizable controller class. There are now modules that give you
an entire controller architecture (<http://drupal.org/project/entity>). I
think it's a pretty cool idea and blasts ORMs out of the water.
~~~
stdbrouw
I'll take anything over the pre-7 approach of either extending nodes, trying
to wrap your head around programmatically using CCK or doing plain SQL... but
an ORM on steroids? The code samples on [http://www.istos.it/blog/drupal-
entities/drupal-entities-par...](http://www.istos.it/blog/drupal-
entities/drupal-entities-part-3-programming-hello-drupal-entity) aren't
exactly what you'd call elegant, bundles are a poor man's inheritance, you
need a contrib module (Relation) to do something as basic as relations, and
EntityFieldQuery doesn't even come close to the expressiveness of e.g.
SQLAlchemy. It's an enormous step forward, but don't get cocky :-)
------
sunkencity
I gave Drupal 7 a fair shot for a site I had to build quickly for my dad
during the xmas holidays. I've a background in PHP and it was fairly easy to
get shit up and running easily but then I gave up when I had to install tons
of plugins to get image upload working. Supposedly they've integrated the
file/image classes into the core for 7 but I didn't manage to get the stuff
working fast enough, so I tried wordpress instead and although less powerful
it at least could publish pages (wysiwyg) and handle image uploads without
tons of configuration and plugins (and plugin dependencies).
I suppose that like for all open source projects documentation is lagging but
it'd be a lot easier to adopt Drupal if the image stuff had just worked out of
the box.
~~~
mechanical_fish
(Shameless plug time: I work at Acquia, surrounded by the developers of Drupal
Gardens.)
If you want a Drupal 7 site with working image uploads (and galleries) out of
the box, Drupal Gardens can probably help you:
Go to drupalgardens.com and sign up.
Create a site and make sure you have "image galleries" checked on the template
page.
And now you have a Drupal 7 site with image uploads working. Here, I took a
few minutes and built you an example:
<http://mechfishflickr.drupalgardens.com>
Now for the kicker: If at any point you don't want to keep your site running
on drupalgardens.com -- perhaps because you feel the need to hack directly on
the code, or because you really, truly need one of the 6,794 other Drupal
modules that aren't yet supported on Gardens -- there is an "Export" option on
the "My sites" page which you can use at any time to download the code, files,
and database in a big tarball. Then you can install it on your local LAMP
stack or upload it somewhere else.
~~~
cjdavis
I'll second this. Drupal Gardens is well worth checking out, especially if you
are new to Drupal. You can get a site up and running _very_ quickly, the built
in theme editor is amazing (think Firebug with a save button), and you really
can get a tarball of the whole site with a couple of clicks.
I build Drupal based websites, but I'm not affiliated with Acquia.
------
sprice
This major release is a long time coming (~3 years).
While the list of new features is long (see CHANGELOG.txt) in my opinion the
biggest improvement is the commercially sponsored user experience additions.
Out of the box it still feels a little rough to me but there are some
interesting Drupal distributions in the Drupal 6 space (Open Atrium, Open
Publish and more) that I expect to really shine as they and others move to
Drupal 7.
(disclosure: I build Drupal sites)
~~~
dejb
> This major release is a long time coming (~3 years).
For some of us this is a blessing. Upgrading can be daunting if you've
customised heavily or used modules that don't work in a newer version.
Anything less than 3 years for an upgrade that is incompatible with older
modules/themes is too short in my view. Looks like we'll have to start
thinking about upgrading to version 6 now.
------
brendoncrawford
I was doing hardcore Drupal 4/5/6 for about 4 years, but have been out of the
loop for a while. Perhaps somebody can answer these for me:
1) Have any significant improvements been made to simplify and streamline the
Drupal Forms API?
2) Is there now any easy and reliable way to define models/CCK-types in code
rather than web interface?
3) Is there now a programmatic schema and data migrations solution that does
not have to be used from a web interface?
4) Do modules still have to be named *.module ?
5) Has any namespacing been put into place?
6) Have any new measures been put into place to discourage developers from
putting SQL queries in template code?
7) Do modules and "node" objects have better OOP integration?
Thanks
------
geekfactor
I love Drupal but it's not a great testament to the technology when the
announcement site is broken:
<http://screencast.com/t/RE6gn0gIZL>
~~~
haribilalic
It's working now.
------
Tomek_
How is the codebase? OOP? MVC? Do they still use those weird file extensions
(it was ".include" or ".module" maybe, don't remember now)?
~~~
stdbrouw
They've been slowly moving to a more object-oriented approach, but in general
the consensus seems to be that procedural code and a very, ahem, loose
separation between logic and views is just fine. See
<http://drupal.org/node/547518> which makes some good points (Drupal uses a
lot of patterns commonly found in object- and aspect-oriented code, even if
it's neither) but also reads like a long apology for crummy software
architecture.
It's a mixed blessing, I think. OOP can be scary to people new to programming,
and the PHP ecosystem has a lot of new programmers. On the other hand, I'm
very, very glad I don't have to maintain the Drupal codebase.
~~~
thinkingeric
The 'us too' quality of that blog post is disturbing. They don't need to
defend their architecture choices against people who naively assume that OO is
an appropriate paradigm for all domains. The list of how 'design patterns' are
really in there somewhere is particularly off-putting. I didn't like
developing for Drupal, but I certainly support their right to do the things in
the way they think is best for the problems they are trying to solve.
------
joakin
Im eager to try this out, I hope they fixed the cache system as before the
only way to get a fast website was installing and configuring properly the
boost module (drupal had a lot of database load, and shared hostings cut mysql
connections at a limit that drupal exceded easily).
Ill give it a try!
~~~
VoxPelli
Among other things Drupal 7 has better support for reverse proxies like
Varnish. From the changelog:
"Improved support for HTTP proxies (including reverse proxies), allowing
anonymous page views to be served entirely from the proxy."
------
RealGeek
Download Link: <http://ftp.drupal.org/files/projects/drupal-7.0.tar.gz>
------
hardik
Ah! Just yesterday I moved a site running on PostNuke+PNPHPBB2 to Drupal 6
like this:: PostNuke -> Drupal via manual SQL instructions on Drupal website |
PNPHPBB2 -> vBulletin3 via Impex | vBulletin3 -> Drupal via vB2Drupal module
Now gotta get moving upgrading Drupal 6 to Drupal 7 :)
~~~
VoxPelli
Drupal 6 will still be supported until Drupal 8 is released in a few years and
it will for a while still be more stable than Drupal 7 and have more modules
supporting it.
So no need to rush an upgrade - you can safely stay at Drupal 6 for at least a
year or so.
------
erikstarck
My first impression from Drupal 7 is that it's much easier to use and get
started with. Great work from the community! Now it's time to move in to the
larger corporations where expensive licenseware still rules.
------
smag
Congratulations to everyone who helped create Drupal 7. I took a quick look at
it, and the Admin UI looked much improved.
------
mjshampine
thinking about using drupal 7 on a new site we're making for a client. besides
the whitehouse site, does anyone know some good government sites using drupal?
any using drupal 7 already?
~~~
xorglorb
Many more than you would think: <http://groups.drupal.org/government-sites>
------
ohho
Congratulations!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Spotify App template/example app using Ember.js - rstrobl
https://github.com/neonroots/spotify-ember-template
This project demonstrates how to build a structured MVC Spotify App with Ember.js
======
matismasters
This is an amazing idea!
~~~
burningfiat
Vey cool. Thanks for this.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Scrcpy – An app to display and control Android devices - rom1v
https://blog.rom1v.com/2018/03/introducing-scrcpy/
======
mikeymop
This is an example of one of those applications that work so well, consists of
simple parts, and leverages these simple tools very cleverly.
It's a solution that I think 'why didn't I write this?'
Very awesome work rom1v, and very much appreciate you explaining your usage of
adb screenfetch and how you are able to arbitrarily run java code from /tmp.
This opened up an entire new world for me.
------
thatcherc
This seems pretty neat. What is the purpose of such an app though? Is it
intended for use by Android developers? I don't see what I'd use it for but
I'm interested in how people use the app.
~~~
tyingq
Would be neat to launch a SaaS service with it that let people test their apps
on various real phones.
Or have "real world device" testing in your CI/CD pipeline.
Or to automate something else that's only available via an android app.
~~~
rekwah
These exist.
* [https://aws.amazon.com/device-farm/](https://aws.amazon.com/device-farm/)
* [https://www.xamarin.com/test-cloud](https://www.xamarin.com/test-cloud)
* [https://bitbar.com/testing/](https://bitbar.com/testing/)
* [https://saucelabs.com/devices](https://saucelabs.com/devices)
~~~
Aissen
Add Google's: [https://firebase.google.com/docs/test-
lab/](https://firebase.google.com/docs/test-lab/)
And Geny's:
[https://www.genymotion.com/cloud/](https://www.genymotion.com/cloud/) (albeit
a bit different)
~~~
rom1v
Note that Genymobile/Genymotion is the company which open sources scrcpy ;-)
~~~
Aissen
I know, which is why I couldn't forget it :-)
------
pabl0rg
This opens up the possibility of making something akin to niffy [1], which
offers a sane/easy way to automate UI testing. Unfortunately, in the case of
Android apps you wouldn't have css selectors to simplify simulation of clicks
on specific elements.
1: [https://github.com/segmentio/niffy](https://github.com/segmentio/niffy)
~~~
rom1v
> Unfortunately, in the case of Android apps you wouldn't have css selectors
> to simplify simulation of clicks on specific elements.
There is UIAutomator, you can select components based on text, class, index,
etc. [https://developer.android.com/training/testing/ui-
automator....](https://developer.android.com/training/testing/ui-
automator.html)
We use it to automate actions to configure Android devices (when there is no
better way).
------
felipebueno
Hey, thank you for such an useful tool! :)
I'm an Android dev currently working on a team using NativeScript. My
coworkers' latops have only 4GB RAM and they are unable to use an AVD for
development. From now we are going to use scrpy :)
~~~
titanomachy
I have 16GB and I can barely use AVD, it's still laggy and terrible compared
to the iOS simulator.
EDIT: yes, I do have hardware acceleration enabled.
------
asmosoinio
Awesome tool, and a very good write-up! Wish I was still actively developing
for Android, this would be very useful.
This link should be a "Show HN"? I.e. it is about a tool you wrote.
~~~
rom1v
In Show HN rules:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html)
> Blog posts […] can't be Show HNs.
~~~
Raphmedia
Could simply link to their github
[https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy/](https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy/)
------
incidentnormal
Very clever, and nice writeup! A few years ago I wrote a bunch of bash scripts
to control my phone over adb (found it useful to script certain things and
write messages etc. Before things like WhatsApp had a Web client). This has
taken that concept to its most elegant formulation! Well done.
------
foobaw
This is amazing - something that the Android team should definitely have
supported already..
Great work!
------
shimo5037
Looks great. It certainly has become much easier to build such apps on modern
Android :)
For something a bit more old school, I’d like to insert a shameless plug here
that we open sourced something similar several years ago. It’s focused on the
enterprise side, so setting it up is unfortunately quite a bit more involved.
Screen rendering is obviously far less advanced as well, though still decent
enough. It’s compatible with (almost) all Android versions since 2.3 which has
its own fun challenges!
Anyway, great project with a modern take!
[https://github.com/openstf/stf](https://github.com/openstf/stf)
------
Abishek_Muthian
AFAIK, till now the only alternative for the features mentioned in OP was
Vysor by clockworkmod which is a monthly paid app. I had to subscribe it for
occasional demos, I'll be happy if Scrcpy fills in the role.
~~~
voltagex_
>$2.50/mo, $10/yr, or $40/lifetime. Purchase available in app.
------
defied
Very nice! We’d be interested in adding VNC support so that we can control
Android devices remotely via VNC.
------
jra101
This is awesome, worked perfectly.
Only downside is if you have swipe to unlock, I couldn't actually get the
swipe up to trigger the password input screen.
~~~
nix0n
I had this problem with another Android-on-PC app but it turns out I just
wasn't click-and-dragging fast enough.
~~~
nickphx
swipe to unlock works for me too.. great app
------
tenryuu
Been wanting an application like this for quite a long time, no wireless, no
3rd parties, just me, my usb and not requiring java :)
------
math0ne
Awesome, I've been using Vysor for this but it def has issues the least of
which is the ads, so I can't wait to try this!
------
sengork
MyPhoneExplorer and Samsung SideSync on Windows/macOS had this for a few years
now. Glad to see an application for Linux now.
------
rom1v
It now works wirelessly: [https://www.genymotion.com/blog/open-source-project-
scrcpy-n...](https://www.genymotion.com/blog/open-source-project-scrcpy-now-
works-wirelessly/) ;)
------
ASinclair
Vysor [1] has been around for a while. Does this improve upon the concept?
[1] [https://www.vysor.io/](https://www.vysor.io/)
~~~
laveur
Its kind of the same thing, Vysor has ads in it though and isn't open source.
So this seems like an improvement in general as it doesn't have ads and its
open sourced.
------
mohitmun
You can also control it wirelessly using adb tcp mode.
Run adb tcpip 5555 and connect it using adb connect command
~~~
rom1v
Actually, it won't work with the current version because of an adb bug ("adb
reverse" does not work over "adb connect"):
[https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/37066218](https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/37066218)
The solution would be to change the direction of the connection, and use "adb
forward", but then scrcpy would try to connect before the server is started,
so it would need to retry until connected (and the error would not be noticed
on connect, but on first read, due to the tunnel).
Working over "adb connect" would be good, though.
------
darepublic
Rather than control with mouse and keyboard I want to control the android
purely with voice.
------
post_break
I could see someone taking a bunch of android devices and using this to farm
stuff.
------
p47r1ck7541
This is a really nice tool for the development of headless Android device.
------
brokenmachine
Great info on how it all works. Thanks for that!
------
ww520
Is there X Windows support in Android?
------
pasbesoin
Thank you
------
tinhangliu
Amazing job! Congrats :)
------
alinspired
thanks for sharing - this can replace airdroid for me
------
rahulrav
This is amazing.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Announcing O'Reilly Answers - coriander
http://broadcast.oreilly.com/2009/11/announcing-oreilly-answers.html
======
tseabrooks
I think this is clearly a response to StackOverflow. If I can get a lot of
high quality content on the sorts of things O'Reilly publishes books about in
a free online place (StackOverflow) why would I waste money on purchasing
their books?
Notice that they will be 'rewarding' contributions with points redeemable for
books. This site exists because O'Reilly is afraid StackOverflow will result
in a loss of sales of their books and they have no original idea on how to
combat the problem.
~~~
chromatic
A good publisher has nothing to fear from Stack Overflow.
I suspect the site exists instead because the company wants to have a web site
with a lot of traffic but isn't willing to pay anyone to write things people
want to read. Thus their solution is to reuse material from books and convince
people to contribute original material in exchange for badges and coupons.
The company's launched quite a few experiments on the web, only to abandon
them a couple of months later. Perhaps this one will last longer than three
months; it appears they've actually put some money into it.
~~~
telemachos
> _I suspect the site exists instead because the company wants to have a web
> site with a lot of traffic but isn't willing to pay anyone to write things
> people want to read. Thus their solution is to reuse material from books and
> convince people to contribute original material in exchange for badges and
> coupons._
And the material not reused from books (both some posts and most of the
answers so far, perhaps all of the answers so far) comes from various O'Reilly
employees who have a new responsibility: "seeding O'Reilly answers."
------
telemachos
I'm not sure I can say how awful that site is.
To focus on one thing, nearly all of the current posts appear to be snippets
taken from their books, with prominently placed ads below. These are _not_
questions: they're just advertisements. (I also wonder if the authors were
asked about the use of their work in this way.) The posts that aren't by
authors are by editors or other O'Reilly employees. The thing is sheer
astroturfing, not a QA site.
It's sad to see a company that does something so well (their books are
generally excellent) so desperate to capture every market. They feel a bit
like Starbucks a few years ago.
~~~
RyanMcGreal
> The thing is sheer astroturfing, not a QA site.
When reddit launched, nearly all the posts were by reddit devs or YC insiders.
Give it time to see if the model takes off among external users.
~~~
telemachos
Nah, not buying it.
Were the reddit devs aware that they were making those posts? I'm guessing
yes, but I'm guessing that easily 50% of those "posters" over at O'Reilly
Overflow have no idea what they've been up to.
Were the reddit devs selling their books by posting? (Yes, I understand that
Reddit sells stuff, but the posts are not directly linked to selling what
they're posting about. That's what makes the O'Reilly site astroturfing.)
------
rabble
It looks like it's not based on the actual stackoverflow code.
<http://builtwith.com/?http://answers.oreilly.com/>
Says, PHP / Rails. Where as Stackoverflow is ASP.MVC.
~~~
mahmud
Why the investigation?
_I'd like to acknowledge the projects that have proceeded Answers and
inspired us, such as SitePoint Forums (we distribute their books),
StackOverflow, Yahoo! Answers, Knol, and many others_
------
indierockerboy
Soo.... their answer to the silos of information is yet another silo. Nice.
------
icefox
What type of companies would O'Reilly be interested in acquiring?
~~~
petercooper
I might be blind to it, but I don't recall hearing of any newsworthy O'Reilly
acquisitions well.. ever. Well, except Esther Dyson's Release newsletter.
------
sleepingbot
Yet another SO clon.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How we’re fixing “unlimited” vacation - bcaulfield
https://baremetrics.com/blog/unlimited-minimum-vacation
======
aynsof
He talks about how important it is for people not to feel judged for taking
more than the minimum amount of time off, then calls out a member of his team
by name:
"Tyler has taken over double what most of the rest of the team has at this
point."
But it's fine, because Tyler has a legitimate reason that we're assured no-one
is judging him for:
"Tyler got married and went on a honeymoon. Literally no one in the company is
mad that he did that."
What if my reason is because I just wanted to have some time away? Or because
I had some deeply personal reason that I don't feel comfortable advertising?
This system doesn't exactly scream 'psychological safety' to me.
~~~
andscoop
What do you view as alternatives? It seems to me like this is a huge
improvement on unlimited vacation, so you should add suggestions for
improvement rather than knocking it down.
~~~
paulddraper
> What do you view as alternatives?
Some sort of vacation budget system, where you can take a certain amount each
time period.
(Perhaps a certain amount could roll over from time period to time period.)
That manages expectations, and assuages anxieties about taking vacation. No
need to constantly question "Has Mary/Dave/I earned this?" Big culture win.
\---
Apologies for the snarkiness, but this ultimately seems like a self-imposed
problem.
~~~
clhodapp
Might it be better to force you to use any remaining vacation time at the end
of the year? That way, there shouldn't be any pressure to not use your
vacation time.
------
Mc_Big_G
The trick of "unlimited" vacation is two-fold. Most people don't have the
balls to take what they deserve and when they quit or get fired, the company
doesn't have to pay them for the vacations days they earned since that number
doesn't exist.
------
echlebek
The company I work for implemented what I think is a pretty novel solution.
Mandatory vacation.
Everyone gets 4 weeks PTO, and more can be awarded on a discretionary basis.
As the end of the year nears, if it becomes evident that an employee will not
be able to use all their vacation up by the end of the year, their system
access is revoked and they are forced to take vacation.
I don't think this policy has actually been tested, since everyone just
happily takes their time off. But it's a cute way of telling people that
you're serious about them taking time off.
~~~
jasonpeacock
Yes, I wish more companies took this approach. It can easily be planned for
and scheduled appropriately - you know how much time everyone has remaining.
And disabling system access is good - they should not be on "vacation" and
still responding to emails on their phone, etc.
------
ljf
Man I love working somewhere with 29 days paid leave, plus bank Holidays, plus
the option to buy 5 more days, plus 3 days a year volunteering with the
charity of your choice. And then recently just made paternity leave the same
as maternity leave (6 months full pay followed but 6 months statutory pay).
Which is certainly good for the UK, but not unheard of - imagining working
with only 4 weeks leave a year :(
~~~
netim
Paternity leave is still 2 weeks but the recent changes mean you can curtail
the maternity leave (/pay) early and both parents can take what hasn't been
used as shared parental leave/shared parental pay.
i.e. by taking this option the mother (or primary adopter) will have to go
back earlier. I gather the take up isn't particular high (beyond a week or
two) although it's been very useful in my situation.
Statutory pay is also very low (£140/week) after the first 6 weeks, although
most professional jobs tend to offer better rates.
But your right - in general the attitude to leave seems a lot healthier in the
UK!
~~~
ljf
Yeah, lucky to work at a company that offer 6 months full pay for men and
women for sure, esp when you look at what Americans or even Canadians get.
Stat pay is hard to get by on, but hopefully gives many people the chance to
spend a little more time with their kids. I really like the fact that if a
couple worked at my company, between them they could have 2 whole years spent
with their child, or 1 year between them fully paid - think it would do so
much for dad's to have the option to have that time with their kids. They'd be
crazy not to take it. Sadly we'll not be having any more so I can't take
advantage of it, but am lucky enough to be able to currently support my
wife/family so she can look after the kids full time and head back to work
when we wants/is ready.
------
unreal37
Interesting that this blog basically publicizes the vacation schedule and
dates for every employee in the company.
[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1EhvYITqDk-
vGzM9yy1uS...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1EhvYITqDk-
vGzM9yy1uSKE7pp9Whnu1VB7e5fjMqEkM/edit#gid=1840725625)
It looks like the average number of vacation days for an employee of
Baremetrics in 2017 was 36! 7 weeks per year average. Amazing yet... kinda
crazy.
------
deegles
My solution to this is to have a fixed vacation time (like most companies),
but the following years vacation time is docked by the amount you _didn’t_
take, creating a strong incentive and justification to take all of your
vacation each year.
On top of that, a randomly selected day or week per year as mandatory vacation
(to build team resilience since any person might not be available).
------
SheinhardtWigCo
I agree that “unlimited” vacation is often a trap so I appreciate the concept
of a minimum vacation policy, but isn’t it a security/privacy issue to
publicly disclose the exact dates that employees are on vacation? Is everyone
on the team OK with this information being public?
------
kylehotchkiss
[http://blogs.wsj.com/atwork/2015/03/04/the-cost-of-unused-
va...](http://blogs.wsj.com/atwork/2015/03/04/the-cost-of-unused-vacation-
time-224-billion/)
Even with more structured PTO plans, Americans are not taking enough time off
work. People could use some more non-work related activities!
------
joezydeco
So when someone quits or is fired, how much earned but unused vacation time do
you pay back to the employee?
~~~
pertymcpert
In the US I don't think anyone earns vacation time, as there's no minimum?
~~~
cosmie
In traditional compensation plans, you get “X vacation days” as part of your
compensation plan[1]. It can be as low as 0 since there’s no legal requirement
for them, but if it’s more than 0 then thecompany also provides an earning
schedule. At some companies, they allocate all PTO at the beginning of the
year. At others, they allocate a prorated amount per pay period. For example,
say you have 12 PTO days and are paid twice monthly. You’ll “earn” 1 PTO day
per month, or half a day (4 hours) per pay period.
You can then either roll them over and stockpile them, or take them. A lot of
people take less vacation than they earn, and when they terminate employment
they have an accrued balance. The company is required in some jurisdictions to
convert this accrued/“earned” PTO time into their equivalent salary for that
amount of time and pay it out as a lump sum.
[1] Startups and other companies that advertise “unlimited” vacation are
different. Unlimited is really a euphamism for 0, but with an explicit
agreement to still let you take “unlimited” days off even without having any
days accrued. Since you don’t accrue any days, they don’t owe you for any when
you leave.
------
pm24601
Evernote has gives $1000 for taking a vacation at least 5 days off.
Irregardless of vacation policy, the manager or CEO sets the tone about
work/life balance with vacation just being a part of the conversation.
------
basdp
From your timesheet I see that there are more people taking more than 20 days
off, than not. This seems to contradict your premise..?
~~~
ricardobeat
The line numbers don't start at zero. The guy on the left has 9 days (spot
on), the rightmost 21.
By the way this post is from May 2016! I wonder how they are doing by now.
~~~
unreal37
You can see their vacation spreadsheet as it's public!
[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1EhvYITqDk-
vGzM9yy1uS...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1EhvYITqDk-
vGzM9yy1uSKE7pp9Whnu1VB7e5fjMqEkM/edit#gid=1840725625)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
EFF: Help Us Protect Mesh Networking From Overbroad Patents - magicalist
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/06/mesh-networking-good-overbroad-patents-bad
======
WhoIsSatoshi
Is there a point at which regular people will realize what is going on? The
only ones who seem to care are the few people who understand the implications
- everyone else content being a sheep, satisfied with explanations given by
government in place. For our sake, connect with peers, talk about what is
going on, dwell and aspire to learn more.
~~~
m-r-a-m
For (software) patents, I don't think regular people will care until they
start hearing about jobs going to other countries because entrepreneurs can't
deal with the legal costs. Right now everyone puts up with it because of other
benefits of being in the US. Given the rate of new patents, this scenario
could happen.
~~~
WhoIsSatoshi
I don't see patents as critical to the masses. Look at Germany - they are
trying to abolish software patents altogether (src:
[https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/06/german-parliament-
says...](https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/06/german-parliament-says-no-more-
software-patents)). I am worried that regular people will be the ones
enslaving us all. Will Iceland become some kind of freedom haven? Will people
migrate to seateds instead to create a waterworld of the future? I'm very
disheartened by the present: I would like to do something, but can't figure
out what to push towards.
~~~
adamcanady
Same here, it's a tough situation and it's hard to know where to help.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
My First Open Source Project – Feedback Please? - FranT
https://gitlab.com/trubanews/truba
======
iamarsibragimov
Use prefix Show HN: for this kind of posts and you'll be get your feedback :)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Stanford researchers develop new method for waking up small electronic devices - breck
https://news.stanford.edu/press/view/18900
======
JoeAltmaier
Some of us remember TV remote controls that operated ultrasonically. They were
terrible - somebody rattles their keys or the dog walks by with its metal
collar clinking - lots of ultrasonic noise created by those events and Chunk-
Chunk-Chunk you would be three channels away from your nightly news.
~~~
lnanek2
Seems solvable in this case. Ultra-sound can wake up the device, but then it
would take some other signal to have it do anything other than go back to
sleep, like WiFi/Bluetooth/LAN/etc.. So you wouldn't get incorrect
functionality triggering from accidental ultra-sound triggers, you'd just save
less battery.
------
mar77i
My little brother used to do electrical installations. He once set up a device
that deactivated the power in a building as soon as no more consumers were on.
Of course that thing is probably still using power continuously itself.
On that same note, shouldn't it be possible to install a mechanism that
doesn't use any power at all? Something like, uh, I'm not gonna say a light
switch, but a weightless switch, to mix a few metaphors here.
~~~
pjc50
It consumes 8 nanowatts, which is well below the self-discharge rate of almost
all batteries.
~~~
jackhack
only nanowatts? With an antenna, could this low level of power be drawn from
radio/TV signals? It is enough to power a crystal set radio receiver.
~~~
junkcollector
Nanowatts are -60 dBm or what you would expect to receive on your cellphone
when you have decent but not great signal. Many radios operate down to the
-110 dBm/MHz PSD or lower ranges for high performance stuff. So you could use
hits those power levels with energy harvesting on radio waves but only if you
were in the right location, on the right band, and it would possibly cause
problems for the systems that are trying to use those signals for their
intended purposes.
------
pishpash
This isn't novel. As an idea, signal amplification being used for switching
has been around forever. Plus this thing still draws power. A completely
passive receiver is possible.
~~~
amelius
Yes, I was expecting a receiver that draws power from the received signal.
------
hguhghuff
It's the security and privacy implications that come to mind for me.
~~~
craftyguy
Care to elaborate how this applies? The article is about a switch. The
alternative to a switch is to leave the device on full-time, or implement some
self-resuming feature using a RTC. Both of those require constant power. I
don't think any of this has anything to do with 'security/privacy
implications', so some examples would be appreciated!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Intel HTML5 Dev Platform - marizmelo
http://software.intel.com/en-us/html5
From Intel website:
If you've used appMobi's HTML5 development tools in the past, then you're already familiar with our new tools. We're introducing this set of cross-platform HTML5 tools as Intel's HTML5 Development Environment to help you more easily develop great HTML5 apps for all of your target devices.
======
laughfactory
I checked out the Intel "HTML5 Dev Platform" and found it woefully lacking. It
was, at best, an alpha product as I found it challenging to even get running.
I'm not really sure what Intel is doing with this product when much better,
infinitely more mature products already exist. I mean, Netbeans 7.3 offers far
more functionality and the same "free" price tag. I was frankly shocked to see
something so amateur come from Intel.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How To : Install Webmin In Ubuntu - abttech
http://www.abttech.com/how-to-install-webmin-in-ubuntu/
======
bradleyland
A better method is to add the Webmin repo to your repository list. This allows
you to update using apt along with your other software. Webmin has it's own
built-in update mechanism, but I find it easier to automate when everything
works with your package manager.
Very simple instructions are included on the Webmin website:
<http://www.webmin.com/deb.html>
------
mkelly
At first I wasn't sure if this submission was a joke or not.
I'd be quite interested in any argument in favor of installing webmin. I'd
never willingly install that piece of software on a machine connected to the
internet.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Police-issued "courtesy cards" help friends and family out of minor infractions - danso
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/v7gxa4/pba-card-police-courtesy-cards
======
merricksb
If curious, see this discussion about the topic from early 2018:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16207890](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16207890)
------
anm89
The simplest way to fix a huge amount of problems that exist in the USA would
be to start holding the police accountable for their actions.
This is police corruption, an especially harmful category of corruption that
undermindes our entire legal system. It should be 5 years minimum in federal
prison. Police should recieve drastically stronger charges and sentences when
they violate the law, not the other way around. If someone above was found to
have known about it and didn't report it should be 2x.
You show me a problem in modern america (maybe except healthcare) and I bet I
could argue this one policy would fix it in one roundabout way or another.
It won't happen for a bunch of structural reasons unless a major party took it
up as a major part of their platform but it would work.
Come to think of it, this is one of the very few things one of the major
parties could do to get me to vote for them.
~~~
dsr_
Require malpractice insurance for police; require that they pay it themselves,
not as part of a union or from their civilian employer. Require insurance
companies to set prices solely by service record of the individual and of the
unit and of the city/county/state employer.
Commit a felony, lose your insurance coverage, be unemployable. Happens to
doctors; why shouldn't it happen to police?
Go to work for a misbehaving department, watch your premium rise.
Act professionally your whole career, watch your premium drop.
Everybody likes incentives here. Police don't have many right now.
~~~
SahAssar
Of all the systems the US has I think the insurance industry is the last to
come to mind to fix a problem.
~~~
an_opabinia
“Tort” (insurance’s cousin) is but one of the many gods in the cathedrals
people build to avoid blaming hate.
~~~
pjc50
Tory is not really anything to do with insurance; it is a very old legal
concept referring to any kind of job bodily harm to the interest of another.
------
helsinkiandrew
> he frequently receives PBA cards as a thank-you for extending cops small
> business favors and deals
This is corruption. I've never understood how things like this can happen in
the US - why is this tolerated?
If this happened in the UK I'm fairly sure it would be raised in the press,
then parliament and then the Home Secretary (in charge of policing) would be
forced to make a statement and likely do something about it.
~~~
ALittleLight
I think it's corruption too, but I have to roll my eyes at "If this happened
in the UK..."
The police, and city councils, in the UK have tacitly permitted, for decades,
systematic child rape as seen in the Rotterham grooming scandal [1] and
numerous others throughout the country. How can you suggest that cops wouldn't
look the other way for minor infractions when there are countless examples of
them ignoring obscene and severe crimes of the worst sort against the most
vulnerable?
I don't want this to come off as a "my country is better than yours" but at
the same time, I don't think using the UK police as an example of anything to
aspire to is a good idea.
1
-[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotherham_child_sexual_explo...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotherham_child_sexual_exploitation_scandal)
~~~
crispyporkbites
That’s absolute bollocks. The uk police has oversight from the IOPC and you
can read all about the ongoing conduct investigation for that cherry picked
example here [https://policeconduct.gov.uk/news/independent-
investigation-...](https://policeconduct.gov.uk/news/independent-
investigation-under-way-relating-gmp%E2%80%99s-operation-augusta)
~~~
ALittleLight
Cherry picked? The "see also" section lists another 6 "grooming gang" scandals
across the country and I have no reason to think that's comprehensive. UK
police permitting the organized rape of children seems the norm rather than
the exception from what I can tell.
The fact that there is an investigation decades after the fact doesn't really
negate what I've written.
My point isn't really about the grooming gang scandals though. My point is: UK
police look the other way for the crime of child rape, why should I believe
they don't look the other way for minor infractions?
------
spacedcowboy
What the actual fuck ?
From an outside-the-US perspective, the stack of “Things I’d never believe
about the USA, please, Alex” is just getting higher and higher.
How is it legal to have preferential treatment, no matter under what
circumstances, for ‘friends of the police’? Is Lady Liberty not famously blind
while balancing the scales of justice ? Does the maxim “justice must not only
be done, it must be seen to be done” somehow not apply in the USA ?
Over the last few years, it seems to me the rock that used to be the USA has
been overturned, and all the slimy creepy little nasties are being exposed to
the harsh light of day. What happens in a few months is going to be critical
to the soul of your nation. Get it right, I doubt you’ll recover if you don’t.
~~~
derwiki
I assure you, “friend of the police” cards have been going on for more than a
few years. And from what my military friends tell me, handing a cop your
military ID tends to work just as well.
~~~
geerlingguy
In some communities other memberships can also hold sway. I remember one
person mentioning some sort of scouting membership getting him out of a
traffic stop.
~~~
JoeAltmaier
The officer puts you in a category within seconds of meeting you - citizen,
perp or 'blue line'. Their response depends upon this judgement call.
My son the disable vet could not seem to get a ticket. He occasionally speeds,
not egregiously, but the Fort Benning parking sticker on his truck window and
the military ID in his wallet made a difference in the attitude of the
officer.
~~~
spideymans
In my city, you'll sometimes see people riding around with the official cap or
bumper sticker of the police union on the back of their car. It's no mystery
why.
~~~
Spivak
Is it really that surprising that ingratiating yourself to someone who has
power or resources on average makes you better off? Nothing about this has
anything to do with police.
You get a "baker's dozen" because the baker likes you.
~~~
ashtonkem
The baker isn’t in charge of enforcing laws. Nor is the baker given a gun by
the state with the expectation of using it.
There is a big, bright line between “favors for valued customers” and
“corruption”.
~~~
Spivak
But we’re not talking about bright line corruption here. We’re talking about
police being nicer and more lenient to their in-groups: veterans, other cops,
emts, firefighters, personal friends, family, politicians they like, police
union reps, the clerk at the Dunkin’ Donuts that always adds a shot of
espresso on the house.
The cards are literally corruption and bleh, but being friendly with the cops
(or anyone) getting you special treatment sometimes is a human thing.
~~~
kelnos
> _But we’re not talking about bright line corruption here._
Yes, we are. A public official doing a law-related favor for someone based on
their group affiliation is exactly what corruption is.
> _being friendly with the cops (or anyone) getting you special treatment
> sometimes is a human thing._
That is not a universe anyone should have to live in. If you miss out on an
extra baked good because you're not buddies with the baker, it's no big deal.
If a cop treats you more harshly because you're not a friend of the police,
that _is_ a big deal.
Bakers can't deprive you of your life and freedom. Cops can.
------
kemayo
I once got pulled over for speeding in the middle of Kansas. The cop who was
giving me my ticket told me that they had a program for avoiding having the
ticket reported so your insurance rates won't rise. So I went along with it,
and mailed the cost of the ticket plus a hundred dollars to that city's police
department, care of the "sheriff's benevolent association" (or similar -- it's
been a decade, the name is fuzzy to me).
...it remains one of the more blatantly shady-feeling things I remember
encountering in the US.
~~~
mNovak
In the same category of the "Unhooking fee" a tow truck will charge--you can
pick up your car from impound for $200, or you can pay the tow driver $200 on
the spot and save the hassle.
Though obviously lesser significance than the same behaviors from your police
force.
~~~
sokoloff
To be honest, it seems like if a tow truck had to be called out to tow you,
the tow company has earned something even if they didn’t tow you to impound.
~~~
mNovak
Depends, there's plenty of cases in some cities where the tow trucks aren't
called, they just prowl around for any minor infraction. I remember Columbus
OH being particularly bad about this--things that in a normal world might
warrant a parking ticket, you're towed in minutes.
------
woodruffw
For the curious: a more regional[1] form of this petty corruption in the NYC
area is placard abuse[2]. It's pretty common to see cars with these parked in
front of hydrants, in bike lanes, etc, being completely ignored by the police.
[1]: As far as I know, being a lifelong New Yorker.
[2]: [https://twitter.com/placardabuse](https://twitter.com/placardabuse)
~~~
Xavdidtheshadow
The Houston area PD has an organization called the "100 Club" [0] where you
can donate to get a nice sticker. Each year has a different color, so it's
easy to show how long you've been a member. [1]
Officially they're just to support the LEO orgs, but there's also anecdata in
my friend group that having one (or more) makes you more likely to get out of
most things with just a warning.
[0]: [https://the100club.org/about/#what](https://the100club.org/about/#what)
[1]:
[https://twitter.com/sighborgs/status/1246113527158497282](https://twitter.com/sighborgs/status/1246113527158497282)
~~~
woodruffw
Apropos of nothing: apart from being similar to the placard racket, I wonder
how many people who donate to this organization realize that their dollars are
being used to buy MRAPs[1], not pay for the educations of the children of dead
cops.
[1]: [https://the100club.org/newsroom/](https://the100club.org/newsroom/)
------
taneq
I couldn't believe it when I found out that these are a real, actual thing. I
don't see how anyone in the US can cast stones at any other nation for corrupt
police accepting bribes when you can largely get carte blanche just for being
'in the club' there.
~~~
wjp3
While I think this practice is bad and should end, it's not the same. Not
everyone has these cards, whereas anyone can bribe.
~~~
VBprogrammer
I'm not sure that is in the "better" column. At least anyone with access to
some cash can pass a bribe. Here we are making it a more exclusive to those
who hang in the right circles. That to me is more corrupt.
Even the signal it is sending stinks. The law should apply even to other cops
(on and off duty but that is another story) equally as any other citizen. If
just being friends with a cop gets you some special entitlement then what does
being a cop mean, near total immunity?
~~~
jdmichal
> If just being friends with a cop gets you some special entitlement then what
> does being a cop mean, near total immunity?
That's been more or less the case, yes. That and the systemic racism exhibited
while they get this near-total immunity is a large driver behind the recent
protests.
------
nip180
I find unequal enforcement of the law to be one is it’s worst aspects. There
is not only officer discretion, but there is also discretion several places in
the judicial system and privilege in being able to hire better legal council.
Some neighborhoods are policed more heavily than others. Some groups of people
are targeted more heavily than others. Some city police departments enforce
state/federal laws unevenly.
There should be one law for everyone, and if two random people with similar
criminal histories break the same law in different places we should expect
their outcomes and sentencing to be very similar. Right now this is far from
the case.
~~~
darkarmani
I agree, but at the same time the alternative is zero tolerance.
Maybe the big problem is not the discretion, but that it isn't recorded? For
example, i think it is complete corruption that LEOs and their families
generally get "professional courtesy". I've heard the argument that it is a
perk of the job. I disagree, but if you accept that argument, I would say: let
the judge and courts handle the forgiveness of the offense and have it
recorded in documents. Make it an official procedure and it will not look like
corruption.
~~~
nip180
> I agree, but at the same time the alternative is zero tolerance.
I think it’s unfair to use term zero tolerance to describe equal enforcement.
Zero tolerance is a specific sentencing pattern which uses harsh punishments
for crimes. Equal enforcement is about making sure all groups have the same
relationship with the law. If the laws on the books are overly harsh once
enforced than we should change those laws.
~~~
GurnBlandston
The public would be better served by reducing the number of things that are
illegal to only those things that deserve to be enforced with 'zero
tolerance'.
------
jopsen
The mere appearance of corruption in police is enough of a problem. Even in
minor cases.
Debating whether this is bribery or nepotism is pointless, because the
appearance this gives should be plenty to fire officers who hand out such
cards.
Conveniently, they supposedly write their name on the cards they hand out :)
------
djmobley
Sounds like the CHP 11-99 Foundation license plate frame, which could
(allegedly) get you out of speeding tickets [0]
[0] [https://priceonomics.com/can-you-buy-a-license-to-
speed/](https://priceonomics.com/can-you-buy-a-license-to-speed/)
------
stefan_
The big problem in the US is the lack of automated speed enforcement. When you
have officers doing traffic enforcement it inevitably turns into a corrupt
shit show, and if you're black, you might not even live through it.
Although its now 2020, where every 300 gram toy drone will automatically
refuse to fly anywhere near an airport. It took 0 drones taking down 0
airplanes to do that. Modern cars can trivially enforce the speed limit, but
we have ten thousands of deaths and counting every year and it's not
happening.
~~~
nitrogen
_Modern cars can trivially enforce the speed limit_
Not sure about everywhere, but speed limits are first glance limits in at
least some places, where other evidence can prove that a speed above the limit
was not "speeding". Speed limits don't know what traffic is doing, they don't
know road conditions, they don't know if you have an emergency. They're just a
number set by ideally an engineer, or less ideally a party with conflicting
interests (revenue).
I had to drive someone to an emergency room once. There wasn't time or money
for an ambulance. If my car was automatically enforcing speed limits, they
might have died.
Moreover there are _far, far, far_ fewer no-fly zones than speed limit zones.
A no-fly zone is a fairly simple polygon -- are you inside or outside. Every
street has its own speed limit, which can vary from 5mph to 80mph in the US,
and traffic on some freeways is consistently higher than 80. Some highways
have dynamic speed limits, e.g. 65 at night and 55 during rush hour. School
zones and pedestrian crossings have limits based on whether someone has
switched on a light, or times of day, or even just the presence of children.
So no, you cannot have, and do not want, automated in-vehicle enforcement of
speed limits.
~~~
stefan_
No, the fact that US people can't call an ambulance for risk of bankruptcy is
not a good reason to allow cars to accelerate to 120 mph in cities.
That's the point here: you can add cities as simple convex polys and you are
already 80% of the way there. Drones don't need to listen to air traffic
either.
~~~
rurp
The ambulance emergency is just one example, there are many more that you
aren't considering. As one more example there are many passing situations,
such as pretty much any two lane highway, where it's perfectly acceptable to
break the speed limit for a brief period. I can think of other exceptions too
and this is just after thinking about it for a minute, there are probably
thousands of real world situations neither of us could think of ahead of time.
Plus, this is all assuming such a system could be implementing flawlessly. In
practice, such a complicated and messy system would have a million bugs. Who
keeps the speed limit database of every single road in country up to date? How
are all of the precise boundaries of every single speed limit zone going to be
defined and recognized by every vehicle?
~~~
chki
> As one more example there are many passing situations, such as pretty much
> any two lane highway, where it's perfectly acceptable to break the speed
> limit for a brief period.
That's not true legally speaking and I'm pretty sure it's not true from a
driving standpoint. Why would it be acceptable to break the speed limit to
overtake somebody? If you need to speed to be faster than somebody you
shouldn't be passing them. If they speed up during the passing manoeuver you
should probably slow down and fall back.
~~~
nitrogen
It's a pretty frequent problem for someone to be going 10mph below a 55mph
limit. To pass safely you have to go well above the limit for a few seconds,
even if they don't speed up, so that you aren't in the oncoming lane for too
long.
_If they speed up during the passing manoeuver you should probably slow down
and fall back._
If there's oncoming traffic, sure, but not as a matter of principle. Once you
start passing, you should definitely finish unless it becomes dangerous to do
so.
------
throwaway0a5e
The fundamental issue here is that being a normal person puts you on the wrong
side of the law and/or the punishments for being on the wrong side of the law
are too severe.
~~~
TempLogsForOne
That is just a symptom of the problem as the tyrannical administrative
bureaucratic police state expands at exponential rates, to cheers and demands
for ever more control by mommy and daddy government.
But to your point, you are correct, the only people left on the wrong side of
the law are law abiding productive people who do not have personal connections
to law enforcement. Ever other group gets treated with a light touch and has
excuses made for them and criminals are now getting off the hook left and
right, while the anarcho-tyrannical administrative state increases it's abuses
of regular productive and peaceful people.
It's either by design, out of desperation, or due to incompetence; but it will
not end well for any of us, regardless.
~~~
throwaway0a5e
I find it unsurprising but disheartening that this was flagged.
The entire administrative bureaucracy is in on this racket and it's unfair to
pick in the police alone for it. In my state it's not just the police that
peddle influence like this. Many state agencies have little identifiers that
range from IDs to bumper stickers that they give to their employees with the
unspoken purpose of signaling "don't screw me, I work for your team". The most
coveted are the court system ones because no matter what agency is trying to
screw you none of them want to piss off people who work for the courts. My
state also has all sorts of ways to wave fines and whatnot for economic
hardship reasons (which I fully support). This creates effectively three
classes of people, those who are part of the in-group and treated decently by
government. Those who have money and are preyed upon by government. And those
who don't have money and are ignored by government unless they are committing
serious (i.e. violent) crime because the government gains nothing by cracking
down on them. Why can't the government just treat everyone like the former or
the latter or, even better, repeal all the stupid laws that have wildly low
compliance rates?
------
gwbas1c
You don't need a physical card.
A friend of mine who used to get into trouble all the time when he was a
teenager got away with a ton of stuff. His father was a chief or something, so
every local cop just knew who he was.
You don't want to arrest your boss's son.
~~~
pavon
Yeah, these cards are basically a way of extending behavior that has always
occurred in small departments to a larger force where the police can't
possibly know everyone they are "supposed" to give favors to.
------
mattlondon
There used to be something similar in the UK IIRC - the traffic police
nicknamed themselves "black rats". If you had a sticker of the black rat
mascot/logo on the back of your car then you were either a traffic officer, or
someone close to them (wife/husband/etc) and a wink and a nod an you were on
your way. I don't think it was a deliberate "get out of jail" move - just more
of a "Oh you have a sticker for my unit's mascot on your car!" recognition
type thing.
I think it kinda stopped when they started giving away the stickers on
"enthusiast" car/motorbike magazines etc
~~~
jopsen
Lol, I suppose as the cards carries no real legitimacy, it's not illegal to
fake them.
That said, being stopped by cop who notices that it's fake probably isn't a
good idea :)
------
kop316
I've also noticed in a lot of states that cars have the "fraternal order of
police" sticker, and it is affixed right on their licence plate.
I suspect its for a similar reason, that either if you get your plate's
picture taken or local police can see that right away.
~~~
nickthegreek
yep, its a signal to officers that you went out of your way to donate extra
money to the police force so that they are more forgiving as they approach
your car or just don't pull you over to begin with.
~~~
eplanit
I think that today a Trump 2020 bumper sticker would have the same effect.
~~~
joshstrange
There is a chilling effect in the other direction as well. I'm not too keen on
decorating my car to support various things I do support (candidate/BLM/etc)
because I know the cops might treat me worse with that on my car... fun times.
~~~
illirik
I just have two Seattle Mariners bumper stickers on my truck; haven't been
pulled over since putting em on, so they must think I have enough misery as it
is!
/s I think the real issue is that it has been decided somehow that it is our
fault for being policed and experiencing the frequent resulting injustices. A
police officer can pull you over, stop you walking down the street, etc. etc.
and fine you, jail you, or brutalize you at will, and in all but the most
egregious cases (that also must become a cause celebre), they can just do it
again tomorrow. There's always some justification, no matter how flimsy!
That's not to say this violence is evenly distributed among the population.
POC, the poor and working class, those who work odd hours and have to drive at
3 AM etc. certainly have a much, much, much harder time than e.g. the median
HN commenter. But the answer to the question "What's stopping a given police
officer from e.g. breaking my arm while pulling me out of my vehicle?" is much
less "they will suffer consequences if they do" and much more "they haven't
decided it's what they want to do today"
------
fareesh
In the USA legislators and others in government have publicly voiced their
support of, contributed to, and organized bail funds for specific groups of
people based on their views on particular topics. One Presidential candidate's
campaign (through its staffers) has also paid money towards something called
the "Minnesota Freedom Fund". Why is there a contribution only to this fund?
If you protest animal testing and are arrested for some similar crime, where
is your bail fund? In those cases you have to organize the money yourself,
people in your government don't organize it for you.
Philosophically, government is supposed to serve everyone equally, but
depending on the political views of the alleged criminal, or the self-
proclaimed cause that they are supporting while performing allegedly illegal
acts under the banner of "civil disobedience" or "peaceful protest", there is
an availability of bail funds, selective prosecution, and all sorts of other
features of the justice system available on a selective basis - i.e. the
banner under which the illegality takes place.
If the principle of selective/unequal dispensation of justice is wrong, it
ought to be criticized irrespective of the form it takes. When it is ignored
in some forms but other forms result in outrage, it's difficult not to
question the motivations of whoever is amplifying this particular flavor of
bias.
If it is acceptable for the system to consider banners and offer different
features to offenders depending on which banner they are flying when they
interact with the system, then this is also acceptable.
I personally would prefer a conversation that looks at the problem of
selective enforcement across many spheres.
~~~
ijtioerhgser
Or we could just eliminate cash bail, for everyone. It's been eliminated in my
state for most crimes, and they are trying it out in other states as well.
It's not perfect, but it results in a lot less people in jail because they
can't pay, and it hasn't made us any less safe.
Otherwise, I don't think you're going to solve the issue of "people only
donating bail money to people they like." Because people are going to spend
money the way they want.
------
dbg31415
My neighbor in Austin is a lawyer for the police union. He would hand these
cards out to everyone in the cul-de-sac along with some booze for Christmas
presents. There's a little "CLEAT" sticker that you can put in your back
window too.
I put the sticker in the window of one car but not the other.
In the car without the sticker... I got pulled over in West Texas visiting
relatives, and the cop literally had his gun drawn as he came to my window.
Alone on a dark and empty road, guy with a gun on you -- probably the scariest
moment of my life.
In the car with the sticker, in a similar small town in West Texas (lots of
speed traps between Austin and Midland)... as the officer was walking to my
car he saw the sticker and his whole body language instantly shifted. He got
to my window, "Hope I didn't scare you with the lights, you don't seem like
you're from around here. Are you lost? Just trying to be neighborly."
I was going 20-ish miles over the speed limit both times.
I looked into getting another sticker and it literally only cost me $25.
Significantly better treatment from police doesn't cost very much. Anyway, yup
corrupt as fuck... but as long as these exist, for a simple $25 donation,
might as well have a CLEAT sticker in your window.
Also, what really bugs me... Police in Texas are allowed to unionize, but
Teachers are not. Oof. Been here almost 20 years now, I love a lot of things
about Texas, but some of the politics still suck.
PS: Also I keep a Book of the Mormon in my glove compartment, that way if I
ever do get pulled over I just casually grab the book when looking for
insurance papers. For some reason seems like a lot of cops in Texas are
Mormons...
~~~
082349872349872
Lund, "Bible on the Dash":
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S00y75ebq8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S00y75ebq8)
~~~
dbg31415
Ha, spot on.
When you find a flaw, do you fix the system or game the system?
------
excalibur
> The cards embody everything wrong with modern policing.
That's a pretty broad claim. The cards aren't even big enough to LIST
everything wrong with modern policing.
~~~
thrwn_frthr_awy
The cards represent corruption, self-interest, and selective enforcement of
the law. I think a lot of problems would be solved or help accountable for if
those issues were resolved.
------
Grimm1
This has been a common thing forever. Whether it's right is very much and
should be up for discussion but I'm surprised at how many people seem to be
learning this for the first time.
Same thing worked with the small silver shields you could give out. I don't
really agree with how policing is done in the US and it has started more than
one fight with my long retired former police father but as a matter of
practicality I still carry his silver shield with me.
He hasn't been an officer since I was 5 or so but even in high school the
active police families and the families with ada's or prosecutors all had PBA
cards and would give them out.
~~~
snapetom
Very much been around forever. The PBA cards are common in NY and NJ, where
cops are basically a legalized mafia. In areas where PBA cards are not the
norm, a simple business card with the officer's signature plays the same role.
"If there's a problem, you can check with my friend Officer so and so. Here's
his card."
------
theptip
Presumably this sort of thing will become harder to maintain as bodycams
become more prevalent.
It seems plausible that anti-corruption NGOs could request the bodycam footage
(anonymized, I suppose) under public records disclosure laws. (e.g. see
[https://www.rcfp.org/bodycam-video-access/](https://www.rcfp.org/bodycam-
video-access/), though I'd be really interested in what others think about the
likely legal interpretations of disclosure requirements.)
Yet another reason to push for more bodycams, and auditability/disclosure of
that footage; sunlight is often the best disinfectant.
~~~
djaque
The problem right now is that camera footage is handled by the police
departments. Any oversight requires the police to operate in good faith.
Thinking back to how many news reports I've seen where the footage was "lost"
or "the cameras were not switched on" I don't have any trust in that type of
system.
We really need third party monitoring.
~~~
BitwiseFool
Plus, think of the thousands of hours of footage that is regularly collected.
Without some incident or reason to inspect the video, most of the incidents
would go undetected.
------
smaslennikov
Pretty confused why this post got flagged, but I did put together a (strong)
personal opinion a while back[^0] that touches on these topics. I didn't
publish it because a friend gave me a counter opinion I couldn't find a time
to respond to, but I suppose it might as well be public now.
[^0]:
[https://smaslennikov.com/posts/enforcement/](https://smaslennikov.com/posts/enforcement/)
------
qntty
The first step to being an authoritarian is separating the in-group from the
out-group so you can deal out harsh punishment to one and be forgiving to the
other.
------
PostPlummer
30 years ago (quite exact), we drove back after a 48 hour "party" in Berlin
(Roger Waters playing "the wall" at the broken down wall). We got stopped at
the border (Germany > Holland) and I drove. We where tired, still high and
half drunk.
When the border patrol asked me (the driver) for papers, it took me a long
time to produce them and one of my friends woke up, asked what was going on
and pulled out his official "bridge operator" badge. Showed it (before I was
even capable to find my driving licence and passport) to the trooper and just
said "Hi partner": we where waved through.
When I asked what the actual F just had happened, he told me his job made him
an "non commissioned officer" and that was all it took for us to be treated as
part of the blue family, who go to great lengths to "help each other".
Different times, different continent, same rules.
------
Kednicma
The equivalent in our industry is when somebody gets locked out of a
Google/Apple/etc. multi-service account, has no backup or rescue access, but
is put in touch with a friend of a friend who happens to work at the vendor.
It's systemic favoritism.
~~~
AlexandrB
I wish people would keep these kinds of situations in mind when discussing
whether or not a certain industry is a "meritocracy".
~~~
aaron695
I have no idea what you are saying?
Having friends in an industry is hard work, so it a meritocracy, it is well
earned to have made contacts that will help you.
In this article it's perhaps family, but a family that supports their
childrens career in a blue collar job like policing, in a meritocracy, also
deserve the reward.
In policing perhaps it's illegal or should be illegal. But it's still a
meritocracy.
------
CarbyAu
What I don't get is:
\- The police need social capital. It helps enormously if they can be take at
face value for "just doing their job". And this would help in the minor day-
to-day interactions that makes up the majority of their working lives.
\- Not only is it blatant corruption, the very existence of such cards harms
the whole police forces social relationship! It is a "associate infraction
with a cop!" card!
If I were a true friend of the police, I would:
\- let them do their job fairly (while not letting them get away with unfair)
\- not try to associate a cop buddy of mine with _my_ poor decisions!
------
aazaa
The recent focus on racial bias in policing has had a negative outcome: to
distract attention from the fact that the law is being applied unevenly across
the US.
Racial bias in police encounters is a symptom, not the disease.
~~~
86J8oyZv
This is true, but the racial bias is easier to get people to rally behind. And
it's gotten people talking more about the non-racial injustices in our justice
system, too.
------
specialp
This is real at least in the NY area. NY law gives officers "discretion" in
issuing violations (not crimes). That doesn't have a limit. So being friends
with a fellow PO is technically not an illegal reason to not issue a
violation. I agree that it is not fair. Generally though if you do something
like drive 30 over the limit, they aren't going to let you off with a card.
But a non connected person can get pulled over for something minor and get
every ticket they can. This snowballs for poor people that then have more
fines on top of fines.
------
HeavyStorm
So "get out of jail free cards" do exist. And here I thought that GTA came up
with them.
In 1997
------
nphd
I feel like we're at a crossroads: Hire huge battalions of union dues-paying
forever-rookie police behind an iron curtain and arm them to the teeth, or
Operate a modernized, transparent, outcomes-based criminal justice system. It
would be interesting to understand why so many politicians and police
themselves talk about the latter while quietly implementing the former. What's
in it for them?
------
donohoe
I had one of these.
I was given it not having slightest idea what it was for (was only in the
NYC/US about two years at that point). I was told its meaning a couple of
years later when I found it again during a move.
I've thrown it out.
While I appreciate the gesture from the person who gave it to me, I was
repelled by what it represented in terms of how privilege and the police
system work.
------
jrochkind1
Last paragraph:
“Policing was never meant to be held accountable in the first place, not in a
meaningful, substantial way,” Wall said. He cautioned against focusing too
much on the injustice of PBA cards. “Be careful that the outrage [doesn't]
become directed in too narrow a way. The real outrage should be directed at
the nature of policing itself.”
------
SMAAART
Also available on eBay (of course)
[https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m...](https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1313&_nkw=PBA+cards+&_sacat=0)
------
ElijahLynn
I know two people who had these in New Jersey. One used to speed all the time
and never get a ticket or warnings. Super convenient for them. It was a legit
card, a metal one, I saw it. Pretty corrupt there in New Jersey.
------
caiobegotti
So... "protection" like under the mafia but only if you can afford the state
price, so its supporters invariably are high in the food^Wdecision chain. It
doesn't seem like a very democratic rule of law.
------
renewiltord
Hahaha, I love it. They literally formalized the old boys' network.
------
me_me_me
So we are now using monopoly rules to run a country?
A literal get-out-of-jail-free card!
~~~
dafoex
There's literally a monopoly "go" tile on it. Contrast this with the UK where
the coppers like to get "go to jail" t shirts.
------
xphilter
Wait till y’all learn about “fraternal order of police” fundraisers and car
stickers identifying donors, allowing “discretion” to be used by the cop to
let the violation go.
------
andrewxdiamond
In Ohio it’s is common to see license plates with police badges or stickers on
them. They are handed out to friends and family and deter officers from
pulling you over.
~~~
skizm
Almost all cops I know are specifically told to take all things that could
identify them as cops or friends of cops off their cars, windows, etc. since
there is so much targeted violence and crime specifically directed against
police. And this is in relatively safe NJ suburban areas. Tires on their
personal cars get slashed all the time due to having a badge in a window or
similar.
~~~
asdff
People drive pickup trucks with a 6' trump flag and a 6' thin blue line flag
mounted to each side of the bed in the midwest. different animal than the east
coast.
------
Ice_cream_suit
This is a common sort of corruption, worldwide.
Here in Australia, my receptionist has got out of a few minor traffic
infringements because her husband is a friend of a cop.
------
lawnchair_larry
The racial connection here is quite a stretch and sounds like more race
baiting. It has nothing to do with that. Knicks players have them. Yankees
have them.
------
classics2
Around here you see a lot of people with plastic stars they give out for
“donating” to police organizations screwed onto the rear license plate.
------
JoeAltmaier
Seems sketchy. But even the TSA has a 'safe list' of folks who can skip the
line - is this morally different? Law enforcement identifies folks who are not
habitual offenders, who support law enforcement and who if they abuse the
privilege will hear about it from a cop/friend, and give them a card. Not
sounding like such a terrible thing to me. Remember, nobody is getting away
with murder here.
<edit: elaborate>
------
cvhashim
Why is Vice always flagged on HN?
------
cma
Sounds like China's social credit system but maybe worse in some ways.
------
rsynnott
This can't _possibly_ be legal, surely? Wtf.
~~~
moogly
Only (or is it 'not even'?) the Police police the Police.
------
yadco
Can't find any evidence in this article.
------
bitwize
Literal get out of jail free cards. JHC.
------
EGreg
Hate the game, not the player. This is definitely corruption. BUT, at least,
it is supposed to be for _minor infractions_.
Unlike meter maids, police officers _should_ be given leeway to let people go.
It’s the mandatory minimums and fines you should worry about... cops doing
revenue generation for the city. And when their department doesn’t get enough
from taxes and tickets, police departments across the country turn to civil
forfeiture.
Ideally, the officers should act as if everyone has these cards.
[https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/local/20100607_Police_s...](https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/local/20100607_Police_say_don_t_confuse_courtesy_cards_with_a_free_pass.html)
~~~
nicoburns
> Ideally, the officers should act as if everyone has these cards.
Totally agree with this. I think part of the reason they are in issue is it
reduces the political pressure on this happening if some people can get this
treatment anyway.
| {
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Influencing Founders: Have We Reached "Peak Hoodie?" - joering2
http://www.hunterwalk.com/2013/01/influencing-founders-have-we-reached.html
======
jusben1369
I think Musk is the most influential founder of our times now.
~~~
cargo8
Good call, even just considering the startups he alone has planned for the
next several decades!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Tricks with the Floating Point Format (2012) - brudgers
https://randomascii.wordpress.com/2012/01/11/tricks-with-the-floating-point-format/
======
nkurz
This is a fine series of articles done over several months. The final one
includes links to the rest:
[https://randomascii.wordpress.com/2012/05/20/thats-not-
norma...](https://randomascii.wordpress.com/2012/05/20/thats-not-normalthe-
performance-of-odd-floats/)
This last one was also the one that (in retrospect) I found most important:
when optimizing floating point routines, do not underestimate the performance
penalty of denormal math. You've probably realized that NaN can hurt
performance, but denormals can be much more insidious. Not only can each one
cost a few hundred extra cycles for the operation, it also resets the branch
prediction buffer, so that the next couple executions of every if statement
and loop elsewhere in the program suffers an extra 15 cycle penalty!
But it gets worse! Like a disease that quickly kills the host, NaN has the
saving grace that it usually only happens once, since it generally
contaminates the result. But adding or subtracting denormals (numbers larger
than zero but less than FLT_MIN) can go on, and on, while your performance
slows to a crawl. And unless you know to be on the lookout for floating point
exceptions, simple profiling can hide the source of the problem in the noise
of all the missed branch predictions.
Making it even trickier, different compilers have different defaults. Intel's
compilers default to FTZ (flush-to-zero), but GCC (and I think Clang?) keeps
it turned on. So if you test with ICC but distribute source code, the first
sign of a problem might be an end user who experiences code that runs 1000x
slower than it does on your test system, but only on certain inputs!
Here's another couple articles on this (IMO underreported) issue:
[https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/x87-and-sse-
floati...](https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/x87-and-sse-floating-
point-assists-in-ia-32-flush-to-zero-ftz-and-denormals-are-zero-daz)
[http://devblogs.nvidia.com/parallelforall/cuda-pro-tip-
flush...](http://devblogs.nvidia.com/parallelforall/cuda-pro-tip-flush-
denormals-confidence/)
~~~
brucedawson
I think NaNs tend to pollute results more effectively than denormals. However
NaNs can be trapped easily by enabling the appropriate floating-point
exceptions so that they turn into crashes.
Note that on most CPUs flush-to-zero is a CPU state so it's not really a
default of a compiler, but of a run-time. Also, it is a per-thread state, so
you can end up with code that runs faster (and with different results) on one
thread from another!
I'm glad you liked the articles. There have actually been several in the
Floating Point category since then. I think this one is the most important:
[https://randomascii.wordpress.com/2014/01/27/theres-only-
fou...](https://randomascii.wordpress.com/2014/01/27/theres-only-four-billion-
floatsso-test-them-all/) but the entire set is available ehre:
[https://randomascii.wordpress.com/category/floating-
point/](https://randomascii.wordpress.com/category/floating-point/)
~~~
nkurz
Thanks for the articles and the response! Yes, it's a CPU state, but I'm
pretty sure that by default different compilers set it differently at thread
start (or alternatively, choose to leave it as is). The ICC to GCC switch was
the one that tricked me. So while the changes at runtime can override either,
in the absence of an explicit override you'll often see different behavior
based on compiler choice. Useful details and links here:
[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9314534/why-does-
changing...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9314534/why-does-
changing-0-1f-to-0-slow-down-performance-by-10x)
------
fiatmoney
My favorite FP trick: embedding meaningful data in the "ignored" bits of a
floating point NaN. That gives you 22 bits (must have 1 nonzero) to play with
in a 32-bit float representation, or 51 in a 64-bit float.
As I recall, at one point someone used this at battlecode [1] to lightly
obscure their communication protocol. It's also a nasty but effective way to
pack more nuanced metadata than you "should" be able to in a packed Java
float[] or double[].
[1] [http://www.battlecode.org/](http://www.battlecode.org/)
~~~
yoklov
This is used in some dynamic language runtimes as a way to represent a compact
(64bit) tagged union.
It's known as nan-boxing, and a couple years ago most of the JS vms did it (in
fairly different ways) but I'm not sure they still do, as my understanding is
that it was only useful for the pre-optimized codepath.
------
malkia
Denormalized numbers used to be the plague for the audio programmer. Spikes of
CPU audio processing just because these were produced, most of the time due to
some filters (IIR)
[http://www.dspguru.com/dsp/faqs/iir/basics](http://www.dspguru.com/dsp/faqs/iir/basics)
Recommendations were going of adding white noise, and some other tricks.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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What the Deer Are Telling Us - Ygg2
http://nautil.us/issue/23/dominoes/what-the-deer-are-telling-us-rd
======
Spooky23
I grew up in rural upstate NY and can attest to this. Once subdivisions reach
further out into the countryside, the denziens of these developments (another
disease afflicting the land, IMO) apply their city-thinking to the environment
around them.
In my town, farmers were harassed out of business by McMansion owners who
built houses abutting farms, but were offended by the odor that come with pigs
and cattle. Hunters parking on the side of county roads were pushed out by do-
gooders complaining about the parking situation (in an area where 5 acres is
the minimum building lot!) resulting in a rash of "parking on pavement"
tickets. Then came the banishment of rifles for deer hunting, because "think
of the children".
The end result... the culture changed. The first day of deer season used to be
literally a school holiday. Now, it's a fringe thing, and my parents routinely
see herds of 100+ deer at night -- when you drive up their road at night, it's
spooky... you see dozens of eyes reflecting in the headlights! When I was a
kid in the early 90s, I never saw more than a dozen at a time.
~~~
kbenson
Forcing farmers out because new residents weren't smart enough in scouting
their new home location is stupid.
That said, I'm not sure I can muster any indignation that hunters can't hunt
as much, or that the first day of hunting season is not "literally a school
holiday" anymore.
~~~
chrisbennet
I used to belong to a local Fish and Game club that had skeet shooting fields.
(Skeet are fun to shoot but the meat is very tough.) The club was forced to
close the shooting ranges due to neighbors that moved into the area around the
club because they didn't like the noise. The club had been shooting there for
80 years before that...
~~~
kbenson
My apathy stems from the act of hunting a live animal. While I understand
hunting for food for _survival_ , hunting for sport or hunting for food when
it's not essential doesn't sit well with me.
As for an overpopulated animal, I imagine there _must_ be a better way to deal
with that than allowing people to shoot them. Don't get me wrong, I'm not some
bleeding heart when it comes to animals, they aren't all perfect snowflakes of
uniqueness, I don't don't see the _reason_ to cause an animal that can feel
pain to feel that pain without a good cause. To me, "we've been doing it for
generations" is not a good cause.
Edit: I'm still interested in having this discussion, but preferably along one
of the established threads sprouting from this, unless the point of view
hasn't been covered in a reply. There's as little point in me replying the
same thing multiple times as there is in having multiple replies to this
stating the same thing, but that doesn't mean there aren't interesting things
to be said on this topic.
~~~
stouset
Your plausible options are rifles, predators, and poisons.
I'm all for reintroducing more predators, but suburban sprawlers tend to get
upset when their pets get eaten regularly.
~~~
saalweachter
One of the DEC guys I talked to was a big proponent of more fences. When you
put up deer fences around fields, you don't just protect the crops inside, you
also restrict the deer's movement and access to food.
Of course, at the end of the day you're still ultimately in a "the deer
population stabilizes at the point that deer start starving to death"
situation, but you can at least lower the deer population to minimize both
their impact on the environment and the number of adverse deer-car
interactions.
------
ChuckMcM
This has been a boon to the mountain lion population in California :-)
Although I was a bit dismayed when the news covered the attack of a deer by a
mountain lion[1] as though it was a "bad" thing. I've pointed out before that
if you don't let people hunt these animals other predators will fill the gap.
wolves, coyotes, lions, and the occasional bear have all been active in
California.
[1] [http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/San-Mateo-Residents-
Wit...](http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/San-Mateo-Residents-Witness-
Mountain-Lion-Attack-Deer-265467731.html)
~~~
pyre
The problem is when those predators have been completely removed. It requires
manual intervention to bring them back. Can you imagine the protests to
bringing back predators to an area? "Think of the Children!"
~~~
logfromblammo
My hypothesis is that humans can fill any predator niche, all the way down to
insectivores.
When the natural predators are completely removed, humans are certainly
capable of filling the gap. We have, after all, billionhandedly hunted some
species to extinction. If the rifles are too dangerous for the area, live
capture traps and knives would work just as well.
The only reason people use long arms instead of more efficient traps to kill
game animals is because operating a trap line is boring in comparison. It's
the same reason why people catch fish using a rod and reel rather than a giant
net or a fish wheel. It's just more fun.
The real question here is "why are these people surrounded by food and not
eating any of it?"
~~~
pyre
> It's the same reason why people catch fish using a rod and reel rather than
> a giant net or a fish wheel. It's just more fun.
Well, you also have the consider the affect of every person that goes fishing
on a small waterway using a giant net and catching many times the number of
fish... That seems like a good way to destroy the local fish populations in
addition to destroying the underwater environment by dragging nets through it
constantly.
------
vdnkh
Interesting article. My first job was working in a park in Monmouth County,
NJ. Of the two parks I worked at, one was completely fenced off from deer
while the other had small sections fenced off to study the impact of deer on
forest regeneration [0]. The caged park had a number of rare plants and if
deer got in (which happened pretty frequently), we would drop everything and
corral them out of the park. The second park was much too large to cage, but
the park system allowed hunters to hunt during certain times of the year.
[0][http://co.monmouth.nj.us/documents/127/deer_annual_report_20...](http://co.monmouth.nj.us/documents/127/deer_annual_report_2013_2014.pdf)
------
datashovel
This is the part that stood out to me, though not entirely unexpected.
Earth, as biologist E.O. Wilson has noted, is in the midst
of a sixth mass extinction. (There are five others in the geologic
record, stretching back 500 million years.) “Extinction is now proceeding
thousands of times faster than the production of new species,”...
~~~
happyscrappy
This part stuck out for me.
"Again and again, time has proven the Malthusian pessimists wrong."
~~~
datashovel
I get the impression you read that passage as a "feeling" or a "belief". I
read it as the person quoted was citing scientific fact that, regardless
whether the outcome for humans is negative or positive, is an observable
phenomenon in the physical world.
I have no stake personally in whether it will turn out good or bad for humans,
though of course I wish no ill upon future generations. However, the fact is I
will be long gone before anyone will know what the impact will be.
~~~
happyscrappy
How in the world would you get the impression that it was a feeling? You are
projecting your and the medias doom mantra. Malthusian pessimists were wrong,
sorry.
~~~
datashovel
"doom" and "pessimism" are human constructs. In the objective physical world
things "are" or "are not". The quote says that objectively verifiable facts
indicate the earth is experiencing a mass extinction.
There is no such thing as "doom" or "pessimism" besides that in which humans
perceive it.
~~~
EC1
>There is no such thing as "doom" or "pessimism" besides that in which humans
perceive it.
Yes, and we are humans, who discuss things in a human context. You can discard
anything with "it's just a human construct". Where are you trying to go with
that?
~~~
datashovel
That's a fair question. Ok, so let's take the following statement:
true && true === true
I would posit there's no meaningful, or reasonable way you can attach some
human emotion to the above statement. And it is true whether or not humans
exist.
Similar with events that occur on earth. If humans weren't around to
experience a mass extinction there would be nothing "pessimistic" or
"doomsday" about it. It would simply be an event that occurred in the history
of planet earth.
Now let's consider scientific studies. Imagine the following statement:
We have done a large scale study on the number of
species on earth. We identified X total species in 2003
and we identified X-1000 total species in 2004. Every
year since this date we have identified fewer and fewer
total number of species in this study.
There is nothing inherently "pessimistic" or "doomsday" about the above
statement. It is simply a statement of a scientific study. When someone reads
it, however, perhaps they infer or speculate on what this means to the human
race and attach some emotion or feeling about the above statement, whereas the
statement itself is completely void of these emotions or feelings.
So I would say that it's not the case that you can "discard anything" in this
same manner. In fact I think it's an important thing to point out because
that's an enormous, unfortunate, and critical misunderstanding of popular
culture about what science is and what scientists do.
~~~
EC1
Never thought about it that way, thanks.
------
brlewis
Deer need predators. Humans need higher income and education:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fertility_and_intelligence](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fertility_and_intelligence)
------
zzalpha
Sounds like we need to do our job as apex predators. 'course, that won't make
some animal rights folks happy, but until the natural predator population
rebounds (which it may never do), it's our responsibility to at least clean up
our own mess and do the job for them.
~~~
protonfish
It's the wolves that are the apex predators, not us. Natural hunters prey and
the very young and old, the sick and weak. Human trophy hunters target almost
exclusively mature males. Not only does this do nothing to thin the herd of
its weakest members, it does little to make a significant reduction of
population. There is no reason to think that if half of the male population
were culled, any fewer does would be pregnant the following year.
~~~
nonameface
Not all hunters are trophy hunters, that is just a subset of hunters. Numbers
from my state show close to a 50/50 split between antlered/anterless (Note:
Anterless may contain some bucks, but the hunter thought they were shooting a
doe)
[http://wvmetronews.com/2015/01/16/final-numbers-
on-2014-deer...](http://wvmetronews.com/2015/01/16/final-numbers-on-2014-deer-
seasons/) The breakdown on each season: Firearm Buck season 37,766 bucks,
antlerless firearms hunting, 39,514 antlerless deer, archery season, 21,653
deer and 5,290 deer during muzzleloader season.
~~~
ky3
But are the anterless hunters doing it because they want to? Or because they
are forced to by law?
Meaning, all hunters are actually trophy hunters, just that for every trophy
they bag, they must haul out -- at their own expense -- non-trophies.
------
gbog
Why don't they eat them? Deer meat is excellent, much better than this
industrial red and humid plastic sold as beef in the U.S.
In France I heard boars are too many, and destroy the crops. Let's make a new
trend in haute cuisine: boar meat as the new flavor. It can't be worse than
molecular cuisine. Also, it's is much better from animal rights point of view:
boar life is better than those of industrial pork generating machines (aka
pigs).
~~~
ky3
_Why don 't they eat them?_
The USA has a tradition of being a land of plenty and so people eat what they
have always eaten before. For almost all of America that means chicken or
beef, invariably. And turkey during that time of the year.
They have no tradition of organ meat, meaning liver, tripe, hoofs, etc.
The conservatism in tastes mean a lot of work cut out for anyone trying to
sell new food in what is still a highly industrialized landscape and high
barriers-to-entry sales channels.
E.g. if you're poor you eat deer until you grow up traumatized by it:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9351269](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9351269)
------
sogen
Wow, didn't know that there's a deer ultraoverpopulation.
Very interesting reading, thanks a lot!
~~~
eitally
If you live in the eastern US (I guess anywhere but within major metro
centers) it becomes pretty obvious pretty quickly, but likely more for long
time residents than others. My brother in law is a veterinarian and he got a
"deer population control" hunting license last year that allowed him to take
up to 40 deer. Our collective freezers are chock full of venison. Luckily,
someone had a brilliant idea to create a meat donation charity (Hunters for
the Hungry), which has distributed millions of pounds of venison to the needy
over the past couple decades. Here's an information clearinghouse for anyone
interested: [http://huntingprograms.nra.org/hunters-for-the-hungry-
inform...](http://huntingprograms.nra.org/hunters-for-the-hungry-information-
clearinghouse.aspx))
~~~
jmccree
There's a pretty interesting article about the efforts in GA to manage the
deer population:
[https://www.gon.com/article.php?id=2518](https://www.gon.com/article.php?id=2518)
. Hunting is still pretty popular in the southeast, so there's a constant
balance between destroying the deer population and the deer population
destroying the environment.
~~~
ghaff
I know of tech companies in the southeast that have team events in which
they'll go out hunting for the day. I imagine that's less common in Silicon
Valley :-)
------
cmurf
"Ecosystem damage becomes apparent at roughly 15 deer per square mile..."
And yet
[http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/hunt/documents/abungoals.pdf](http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/hunt/documents/abungoals.pdf)
The numbers in red are well higher than 15. So if that's right, it seems like
Wisconsin (for example) would need to reduce its deer population by at least
50%. That's quite the culling.
------
cmurf
If we were smarter, we'd go back to more native grasses and eating the animals
that eat those grasses if we can't eat those grasses ourselves. What we do
instead is the exact opposite. We destroy the native grasses, bring in non-
native plants to grow non-native animals and then eat those animals. Sometimes
I think I'm an alien, and scoff at how proud humans are of their ignorance and
hubris. But hey, good luck with that.
------
cmurf
Meanwhile in Colorado, just a couple years ago, officials were freaking out
about the mule deer population dropping. And they're all, we have to bring
back our deer! I wonder if a combination of drought and previous overgrazing
is the source of that drop.
------
blakeja
Pretty good documentary "The Private Life of Deer" that speaks towards deer
overpopulation a bit:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9t0sYnIGBo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9t0sYnIGBo)
Should be on Netflix as well.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A discussion forum in the Bitcoin blockchain - LookWhatIFound
https://bitaps.com/1K69sEhUwNgiva3xzPnToxS89dzydU7nPm
======
throwaway2016a
I don't see what the appeal is on having a permanent message board. Certainly
almost everyone who has spent a lot of time online has said something that
they wish they could take offline.
I think what we really need is more transience in online discussions. If I
said something when I was 14 years old that shouldn't come up when an employer
searches for me. I was a completely different person then. Heck, that's why I
don't use my real name on HN.
This seems like a step in the wrong direction.
However, there are real concerns for censorship.
~~~
jMyles
The fact that today's 14 year old are most certainly creating records which
will be viewed in the future is incontrovertible. The result will be, I think,
that employers (and other decision makers) will learn not to judge someone for
comments made when they were 14.
The fact that our lives are increasingly documented means that we'll all have
to be less judgmental about our shared weaknesses and growing pains, and
that's a good thing.
~~~
cJ0th
That's an optimistic take on it. I could imagine that there will be companies
who score the personality development of a person for HR departments.
~~~
abakker
Thats a pretty decent idea, though, isn't it?
~~~
stagbeetle
Some people aren't comfortable with being rated like that. Others complain
that personality profiling is still largely inaccurate and would rather not
have their futures based on it.
It's a bit like the IQ testing for employment placing.
------
alkonaut
Isn't bitcoin and other blockchains validated by "proof-of-work", meaning a
nontrivial amount of energy is required to post something to this discussion
forum?
I mean it's nearly indefensible to even add an energy overhead to financial
transactions, but this...
~~~
clarkmoody
> I mean it's nearly indefensible to even add an energy overhead to financial
> transactions
Come on now. How much energy is devoted to securing the traditional financial
system? I'm talking about buildings, personnel, armored vehicles, weapons,
lawyers, courts, etc.
Other blockchains are secured by different mechanisms than proof-of-work, and
research is ongoing into more efficient ways of achieving distributed
consensus.
~~~
alkonaut
That's a valid point - but it would certainly attractive to not require either
of the two costs. Sounds encouraging that there is research in the field.
------
pdgwien
This seems to belong to Locked Post[1], a "free, anonymous, secure,
uncensorable, decentralised and eternal post board".
[1]: [https://lockedpost.com/](https://lockedpost.com/)
~~~
wslh
"You cannot make a post while messages are pending (Post sequence number: 282
is currently pending confirmation in the Bitcoin Blockchain"
Using the Bitcoin blockchain for forums is a really bad decision: high fees,
tiny data buffer, high confirmation times. These are the kind of decisions
that kill your project from the beginning.
~~~
jacquesm
I'm not sure about whether or not that isn't a good thing though.
The quality of the bits tends to go up as they become more scarce. Compare the
telegraph of old with todays internet.
~~~
wslh
> I'm not sure about whether or not that isn't a good thing though.
I am sure because we can quickly analyze this from a computer science
perspective. We are trying to use data structures and algorithms that don't
fit for the problem they are trying to solve (forums).
You can say that future blockchains can be a better fit but we need to see yet
if those future blockchains are something new or just using concepts that we
already had but with a new label.
------
KirinDave
Why is this valuable or desirable? I keep trying to figure this out.
~~~
kordless
Having spent a lot of time thinking and talking about this concept, this is
valuable because you can attach cost-of-suffering to entities participating in
an open conversation with an aggregate.
Consider the use of Twitter's platform as (currently) allowing a small subset
of knowledgeable users to leverage viral behaviors to spread their belief
systems into a larger aggregate, without the larger aggregate being able to
defend against it.
~~~
KirinDave
> because you can attach cost-of-suffering to entities participating in an
> open conversation with an aggregate.
In a modern world, isn't this just "you must pay a fee to post here?" It
actually doesn't seem to prove work was done by the author?
> Consider the use of Twitter's platform as (currently) allowing a small
> subset of knowledgeable users to leverage viral behaviors to spread their
> belief systems into a larger aggregate, without the larger aggregate being
> able to defend against it.
I've been considering this problem, but I think these kinds of work proofs are
really just proof of minimum economic status.
~~~
kordless
A blockchain, when applied properly, can provide levels of trust in a way that
is not directly associated with the proof of work they run. Bitcoin uses
SHA256 for POW, which is pretty well understood by now to be secure and hovers
around cost efficiency.
Using the trust embodied in the blockchain allows for the mapping of comment,
author, topic commented on, participants in the topic (a sub-aggregate) and a
general context in which the topic is shared (web link and/or IPFS link). This
can be done without making any of those things part of the POW.
Yes, anonymous comments and topic submissions can be made, but those may have
a lower associated karma attached to them, similar to what we have here in HN.
With a bit more code (Script), one could add voting based on value (i.e. I
could vote you down with $20 if I had over $20 of karma associated with my
account), transparency in voting (you could see it was someone with high karma
commenting on x/y/z articles voting you down), and any other analytics anyone
thought would be valuable in determining trust levels.
BTW, I am not indicating karma is a one-to-one mapping with value injected
into the blockchain by market growth or trades. For example, I couldn't vote
you down with $200 of fiat just because I didn't like what you said. I would
have to "earn" the karma from upvotes from other users over time, which would
be tied to my source address used to pay for voting on other users. When I
actually went to vote, a portion of the revenue would go to the platform
operator (HN equivalent), a portion to the submitter of the topic, and a
portion to the person I voted up (or down).
~~~
KirinDave
So what you're saying is that basically you have verification that the
conversation you see is one that took place and that there are a fixed set of
identities (not people) who had that conversation?
Can't we just schlep a merkle tree over the top of any forum software and get
similar guarantees? And isn't this sort of false due the lack of convergence
of the block chain over long partitioning events?
~~~
kordless
You could totally do that with IPFS today, but I think the problem is that
social commentary occurs in a centralized location. If you play Rust, the
analogy would be being able to talk to someone while within a given zone.
------
kleer001
Seems like it might be good for entering minutes or important legal
discussions, things that need to be preserved. But just chit-chat? Nah.
------
btczeus
You guys need to know about Steem:
[https://steemit.com/](https://steemit.com/)
------
fenwick67
This one is touching:
"Jordan and Jeremy I Love You Forever & Loved Being Your Father."
[https://bitaps.com/66791de561fd235bf1b16924642903af8b8013aa5...](https://bitaps.com/66791de561fd235bf1b16924642903af8b8013aa520d25d93ba5b21202b9c727)
------
DougN7
Slightly off topic, but aren't all of these alternative uses for block chains
going to explode their size and cause more storage and bandwidth to be used on
many servers around the world?
~~~
Taek
A good way to deal with that is the transaction fee. If you are willing to pay
for the space + resources, then perhaps you've earned it.
But, this generally means that you will prioritize smaller, more high value
things like large financial transactions (moving $10 million costs 400 bytes,
complaining about the core developers take 2kb). And so in my opinion this
payment model makes a ton of sense.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Tokyo-based Hitch'd Stash, Collect Inspiration For Your Wedding - Swoopey
http://blog.hitchdbydesign.com/pages/hitchd-stash-faq
Hi HN, here's what I've been working on. Excited to share with the HN community and would love feedback.<p>I created it to solve the problem most nearlyweds come across when planning their wedding, 'where do i save my favorite ideas online?'<p>I was pregnant when we began creating Stash so launching this is like having another baby!<p>Your feedback is most welcome.<p>Thanks!!<p>Takara
======
Swoopey
Hi HN, here's what I've been working on. Excited to share with the HN
community and would love feedback.
I created it to solve the problem most nearlyweds come across when planning
their wedding, 'where do i save my favorite ideas online?
I was pregnant when we began creating Stash so launching this is like having
another baby! Your feedback is most welcome.
Thanks!!
Takara
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: I suck at remembering names, so I built an app to help - tomasien
http://wehighfive.com
======
marknutter
The best way to remember people's names doesn't require an app or any
technology to speak of. When you meet someone, key in on their most unique,
memorable physical feature or personality quirk. Come up with a quick story or
catch phrase that revolves around that feature. The weirder the feature and
the story, the more likely you are to remember their name.
For instance, you meet John. John's eyes seem like their closer together than
most people's eyes are. So you could say to yourself "John, John, stared at
his nose for too long". Every time you see John and his funny close-together
eyes, you'll remember the story you made up and thus remember his name.
Once you get good at this you'll never forget another person's name. It works
like a charm. I find it helps to make the stories especially strange or even
offensive. The more of a caricature you can create in your mind about them the
better. Just don't accidentally say what you're thinking out loud :)
~~~
IanCal
> For instance, you meet John. John's eyes seem like
By the start of the second sentence I've already forgotten the name.
~~~
nsxwolf
This is my problem too. When someone introduces themselves to me, I can feel
their name slipping out of my brain seemingly before they've even finished
saying it.
An app would not help me. "Hello, I'm..." "Wait! Hang on! Let me launch this
app... ok, go ahead!"
~~~
_mulder_
I know just what you mean. Often, when meeting people for the first time,
there is so much else going on to take in and remember (their company/job/what
I'm going to ask them/what they're asking me/the name of the person next to
them) that the name just drops out of my head instantly.
------
networked
Good idea. Do make an Android version! Also consider letting the user add
photos and _custom fields_ to contacts (those could range from "research
interests" to "hair color" to "college class" to "favorite drink" and so on),
not just an unstructured, unsearchable mess called "notes". If you do decide
to support custom fields do not force every contact to have every kind of
field.
\--
However, (and I think I speak for a lot of people when I say this) what I'm
really waiting for is the obvious "ultimate" solution to this problem: an
augmented reality device and app combo that would show people's names hovering
above their heads. Making the names "glanceable" would make a huge difference
and there would be potential for a lot for extensions. Add
research/technological interests in highly visible large letters and
conferences suddenly get a lot more interesting; add "going to <city name>"
and it's a hitchhiking app; add "single" and it's a dating app (use at your
own peril); add selectable multilingual subtitles (e.g., at an official
speech) and it's a live translation app, etc.
I wonder if this could somehow be made viable without advanced augmented
reality glasses.
~~~
sillysaurus2
_an augmented reality device and app combo that would show people 's names
hovering above their heads._
Being able to tag people with whatever phrase you wanted would be hilarious.
~~~
networked
For a darker turn add a friend or foe identification system to that and it
could become very useful for all sorts of gang activities.
------
dalore
I had an idea for a similar app, perhaps you can incorporate my idea into
yours. My idea was when you write down their name, it also saves the available
wifi mac addresses it sees in the vicinity. Then when you see someone again
somewhere else you can look at the app for names that might be them (based on
the visibility of wifi mac addresses).
The theory is that people carry a phone on them that is unique and is often in
wifi mode trying to make a connection which broadcasts the mac. So when you
record a contact, one of the visible mac address might be them. In a new place
it sees what mac addresses are around and loads up your contact list based on
what addresses were visible at the time.
~~~
tomasien
I'm not sure I follow - what information would the wifi signals nearby where
you met them give you? Or would it be that hopefully they have their phone
again when you see them, and it will know who they are that way?
~~~
dalore
Most people will have their phone with them. So the app will use the id's it
can currently see vs the one it saw when it recorded the contacts it will
cross reference and show you possible contacts.
------
kylelibra
Rapportive is another app that people might find useful if they have this sort
of problem. It is a plugin for gmail that pulls in social media profiles to
attach a name to a face when emailing with someone.
[http://rapportive.com/](http://rapportive.com/)
------
speedyrev
How about a text field that allows you to write something about them. "Dude
with weird hair, works for Widgets Inc. Said he was divorced but had a
daughter in college." Then make that info available when he calls me.
~~~
tomasien
Love it. Almost put that in there for the first version, but we were intent on
making this MVP
------
Etab
Nice work.
My first reaction was, "Huh? Why not just use your phone's built-in Contacts?"
But then thinking about it for a minute and watching the very helpful video
demo on the homepage...
I like how you can open the app and start entering info. Much better than
fiddling through Phone or Contacts app. Really nice touch on including the
location.
Seriously -- good job, Tommy!
~~~
tomasien
Hey thanks! I'm sure a lot of people will have the same initial reaction -
it's a very simple app that does, what I thin are, some very powerful things.
------
theboss
Wait? These are TheCitySwig guys? Just to let you know your last website was
so horribly insecure. It was like a whois who of Owasp Top 10 issues. Just
letting you know in case you build something like that again...
On topic of WeHighFive, I think it is a stupid idea. Takes one more step away
from the paradigm of 'face-to-face' communication.
At the very best, you're saving 30 seconds of time writing the text message,
and wasting 3 minutes looking through all the texts you have to remember the
person's name.
Either ask the person their name again or say it a couple times in your head
when you first meet them. With your app, when I re-meet someone, I have to
look at my phone and figure out who they are again.
~~~
ScottWhigham
Downvoted for the unnecessary negativity x2. Fine, you think it's a stupid
idea - just move on and close the tab then. Your opinion is just that: one
person's opinion. If you want to offer the guy feedback on his app, go for it.
But there's just no need to comment on HN on every app/idea you don't
like/hate/think-is-stupid with "I think it is a stupid idea." Surely you have
better ways to spend your time (as do I).
~~~
theboss
Ha. Thanks.
Isn't the point of this to save time or remember someone's name. Actually
think about how your interaction with another person would go and how this app
fits into that....It makes the interaction awkward and you probably won't even
find their text message in time (your messages screen is a most recently used
list...the message will be buried).
Where is the plus side? I think the idea is stupid. If they like they are free
to prove me wrong and show me it is a good idea.
edit: I think sugar coating opinions so they have to be positive is pointless.
Maybe me saying the app is stupid helps them realize some problem with their
app that helps them improve it and make it much better (and then prove me
wrong).
If we were to Sugar coat all feedback then the feedback of horrible products
will be indistinguishable from good products which makes it pointless.
~~~
tomasien
I really don't mind the feedback. If you don't get the use-case, you don't get
the use case. No offense taken.
------
tomasien
Tommy - creator here. I'd love any ideas about how the app can help you
exchange and remember names better - but to start, it indexes by Time and by
Location, so you if you remember where and/or when you met somebody, this can
help you remember them!
I built it for myself, but some friends helped me make it into something
anyone can use. Looking forward to the feedback!
ANDROID USERS - if you like the concept id love to hear from you, if it seems
people want it I'd love to make an Android version
~~~
CraigJPerry
I just switched to an Android phone so apologies if this is old news, but as i
make a call to people it pops up their last Facebook status on the dialer
screen.
I can appreciate this may sound like a total waste of time but i've been
grateful of it so many times now!
The effect is almost like my phone could read my mind and it's saying
something like "ohh, you're going to talk to so-and-so? Well here's something
current to talk about!"
~~~
InAnEmergency
For a long time my friend's last Facebook status was that his dog had died.
Really depressing.
------
discardorama
I used to be bad at names. Now I've become somewhat better. What's helped is:
when I hear their name, I say it back to them: once loud (as in, "Hi John!
Nice to meet you."), and several times after that in my mind ("that's John, I
just met him"). I'll revisit his name a few times with increasing delays in
between, and after a couple of iterations, it's baked in.
Another thing that helps: if you notice something weird, latch on to it
immediately. It could be anything: something he's wearing or about his voice
or his looks (a guy I met recently had a Facebook style t-shirt with a thumbs
down and "meh" instead of the 'like'; I made a note of it, and now, even a
couple of weeks later, associate him with that t-shirt). These techniques have
helped me remember names of up to 20-25 new people in a night of socializing.
~~~
purplelobster
Spaced repetition at work. Works great for me too, whenever I actually
remember to do that, but sometimes I'm just caught off guard and instantly
forget their names, but I'm not too embarrassed to ask again if I think I'll
run into this person again.
------
chromaton
My current system is a plain text file that I can open with one tap on my
phone's home screen. I started keeping track of the people I met after reading
How to Win Friends and Influence People.
This might be a step up, thanks!
~~~
tomasien
Hope it helps you out!
------
henryaj
Damn. I was thinking of building something like this! (More specifically, I
imagined the UI flow would involve getting the person to take a photo of
themselves.)
Seriously, this is a great idea.
~~~
reddit_clone
It may all be moot when(if) Google glass get popular.
I expect an info-bubble will appear when you see someone through the glasses
and tilt your head in an inquiring manner.
------
acallwood
I think Speedyrev2 hit it on the head. A notes section makes too much sense.
"Cute girl, bitchy freind, etc etc". That functionality makes it even more
interesting than it already is.
------
henryaj
Hey, this doesn't work in the UK, despite being on the UK iTunes Store - it
won't accept a UK phone number (it's too many digits).
~~~
tomasien
OH hey I did absolutely not think of that. International numbers are 11 digits
is that right? Or what is it?
~~~
gbl08ma
Depends on the country. But really, why do you need to know? Just set a high
limit, like 20 or 30 digits.
~~~
tomasien
There's a UX thing that is really nice right now that is limiting the number
of characters, it does a button animation when and drops the keyboard when
you're done filling out the contact. I'd like to find a way to keep it, but
maybe I'll just do an international version that doesn't have that and set the
limit to whatever.
------
jlsync
I've got the same problem, the app I built
[http://Big.first.name/](http://Big.first.name/)
~~~
tomasien
A different side of the same problem!
------
Brajeshwar
Other good apps doing somewhat similar stuffs;
* [http://evernote.com/hello/](http://evernote.com/hello/)
* [http://www.refresh.io/](http://www.refresh.io/)
~~~
tomasien
Evernote Hello was my inspiration for this actually! I really, really disliked
it very, very much and I'm a big Evernote fan. It needs to be simpler, IMO - I
want to drive user input toward 0 if I can, let the app do the work.
Thanks for sharing! I haven't seen refresh.io
~~~
jasonlotito
Just want to back up your statement. Evernote Hello is one of those "Wow,
that's awesome to look at" but was painful to use. To much work and effort for
what needs to be a fast and simple thing.
~~~
tomasien
Thanks! Hope you like High Five better.
------
rafaelordaz
I like the simplicity of the app, just the right number of field. I couldn't
find a suitable name for the location I was. Can I edit the location name?
Where is the app getting the location names? (Maps, Google Maps, foursquare?)
~~~
tomasien
Foursquare. I'm going to add a field where you can just make a new location on
the spot so you can call it anything you want - "Joe's Party" for instance.
Whatever would be helpful for you. That'll be at least one of and possibly the
only thing in the next update.
------
jonaldomo
I love the screencast on the site. Is there a tool you used to get that going?
~~~
tomasien
Is there ever! I used Reflector to mirror onto my screen, Quicktime to screen
record my laptop, then MPEG Streamclip to crop it, then an online converter to
convert to OGV for Firefox!
------
msane
How does it work? I'm reluctant to click to try it out because the mobile page
didn't explain enough about it / don't know what I would be getting.
~~~
tomasien
You add contacts to your phone and it adds them based on where you met them
and when you met them. You can also send a really easy text back to them with
your information auto-populated.
Then, if you remember where or when you met somebody, you can more efficiently
remember their names! Check out the non-mobile site, it has a really quick
video that shows it.
------
tomasien
Did this just get UN-flagged? It's back on the front page now. Anyone ever see
this happen before? That's pretty weird in my experience.
------
tomasien
Hey whoa - did this get flagged and booted from the front page? Any reason?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Authentication in Angular with NGRX - mjhea0
http://mherman.org/blog/2018/04/17/authentication-in-angular-with-ngrx/#.WtX5X0IsTJB.hackernews
======
wingi
Is that the short version?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Practical Networked Applications in Rust, Part 1: Non-Networked Key-Value Store - ngaut
https://arveknudsen.com/posts/practical-networked-applications-in-rust/module-1/
======
cpursley
Interesting! I'd love to take a structured distributed systems MOOC or course
in a modern language well suited for the domain like Rust, Go, Scala or
Elixir/Erlang. Does anyone know if something like this already exists?
~~~
lanekelly
MIT's 6.824 Distributed Systems course is taught in Go.
[https://pdos.csail.mit.edu/6.824/index.html](https://pdos.csail.mit.edu/6.824/index.html)
[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpl804R-ZwjKCOwWpTZ21...](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpl804R-ZwjKCOwWpTZ21eeaBS3uBrMfV)
~~~
zinclozenge
The company, PingCAP, that made the course in the linked article also ported
MIT 6.824 to Rust as part of their talent plan. You can check it out here
[https://github.com/pingcap/talent-
plan/tree/master/dss](https://github.com/pingcap/talent-plan/tree/master/dss)
------
civicsquid
I also worked through the courses in this series, up through Part 4.
I thought it was a great way to get introduced to Rust, especially when
concurrency comes into play. Having only ever written this sort of code in
C/C++/Java, the way Rust required me to rethink my design to properly
incorporate its concurrency model was really interesting to me.
For some reason sharing "references" in a formal way felt a lot different than
what I was used to, and I'm not sure why. I'd say I prefer it, perhaps because
it made my design feel more deliberate.
------
SpoofedHello
Question for Rust programmers, do you still use Rust for quick hacking and
exploration/prototyping or reach for another tool?
Rust is getting more attractive everyday, I wonder if there is something about
the language that highly influences lib authors to write quality stuff or if
the community has a high ratio of experienced devs.
~~~
asdkhadsj
> Question for Rust programmers, do you still use Rust for quick hacking and
> exploration/prototyping or reach for another tool?
I have replaced all my tooling with Rust, fwiw. Rewrote several things at work
with Rust _(which started this train for me lol)_ , and now all my projects
are in Rust as well.
I often say that Rusts complexity is oversold _(by myself, too, at times)_ ,
and it can be just as productive as Go, if used like Go. That is to say, Go is
often touted as being hyper productive because it takes decisions away from
you, such as Generics. You can apply the same tools to Rust, and suddenly you
lack a ton of features but also reduce the possible roadblocks you might be
wanting to avoid.
Personally I don't even avoid any Rust features these days, I use all of them
_(that I understand, at least lol.. which I think is all)_. I _more_
productive than in my Go days _(~5 years in Go, fwiw)_.
~~~
heavenlyblue
Do you use an IDE for Rust?
~~~
bluejekyll
I personally use VSCode with the Rust Language Server.
A lot of people seem to really enjoy the IntelliJ Rust plugin.
~~~
aknudsen
I use VS Code too, slightly curious about IntelliJ for Rust though since I
fundamentally like that environment.
~~~
pierreyoda
Their proprietary code analysis [0] is mostly better than the Rust Language
Server for now, even if I still use VS Code personally.
[0] [https://intellij-rust.github.io/](https://intellij-rust.github.io/)
------
morty_s
I’m currently reading through everything. It’s pretty cool, been seeing more
and more stuff like this lately.
It could serve as a great second or third project for someone learning rust
and the rust-ecosystem.
------
Scarbutt
Another nice(more lightweight) hands-on Rust tutorial that I came across with:
[https://docs.rs/csv/1.1.1/csv/tutorial/index.html](https://docs.rs/csv/1.1.1/csv/tutorial/index.html)
------
foobar_
How hard is it to build a c compiler with garbage collection and compile all
the the pre-existing code with safe garbage collection ?
~~~
mynegation
You don’t even need a compiler for this.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boehm_garbage_collector](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boehm_garbage_collector)
~~~
foobar_
I know about that one but can I compile mysql, httpd and all its dependencies
with it enabled? I don't care if it is 100x slow.
~~~
stormbrew
sure. free() just becomes a noop. But probably they'll leak a bunch because
conservative gc is kinda bad, doubly so in code that isn't made for it.
(it's really a little more complicated than that in codebases, like mysql,
that probably manage their own allocation and actually care about page level
stuff)
------
sittingnut
another rust hype article. with all that, readers of likes of hn, certainly
would have a skewed view of industry.
~~~
mcqueenjordan
Your comment isn't useful. Anything that ever becomes something was at one
point nothing. Rust gets attention because it's doing new things. Important
new things.
~~~
rgoulter
Yeah.
www.paulgraham.com/pypar.html In Python Paradox, the author argues that it's a
signal of quality that someone would take the time/effort to learn Python.
(Python is new and wouldn't land them a job).
Now in 2019, Python is popular. But I think it's fair to say instead that Rust
wouldn't be a good choice if you wanted to get a job using a language which is
popular in the industry.
~~~
paavohtl
From my experience people learning Rust are not people who are learning a
language to get a job. They are usually experienced developers with jobs who
know at least couple of languages, and learn Rust to expand their toolbox.
~~~
ps101
I'm learning Rust because:
1\. I want to add a low(er) level language to the ones I already know and use.
2\. Though I did some C/C++ in high school, getting really into depth with C++
at the moment seems really daunting.
3\. I don't need it for a job at this point so I can afford to learn a less
popular language that can potentially have a future and which exposes you to
new ways of thinking about code.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Form endpoints for static sites with Email/Slack notifications - rathboma
https://www.99inbound.com
======
rathboma
Hey all,
I built this to scratch my own itch when I needed Slack and Close.io
integration for my static-site webforms. Seemed to be useful so figured I
share with others. Nothing else I found online really offered endpoints plus
the app integrations I needed.
Would love feedback on other useful app integrations.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Stripe and Apple Pay - Peroni
https://stripe.com/applepay
======
nextstep
I'm not sure I understand Stripe's value proposition here. What is the benefit
of using Stripe's library over using ApplePay (PassKit) directly? (Honest
question)
~~~
pc
You can't use Apple Pay directly: you have to use it with a supported payment
platform. (List is at [https://developer.apple.com/apple-
pay/.](https://developer.apple.com/apple-pay/.))
~~~
awicklander
So is Apple Pay in essence another way to get a credit card processed against
stripe? If you have an app that customers can store credit cards on, it's not
clear to me what the additional benefit of apple pay is? Is it simply a
better/faster way of getting the card information to stripe by way of thumb
press as opposed to key entered?
~~~
evanspa
With Apple Pay, your physical credit card number is NOT stored on the iPhone
6's secure element; instead, a token is (the token is effectively an alias to
your credit card number; it looks like one too - is 16 digits, etc, so will
work nicely w/existing payment infrastructure). So there's additional security
there. If your iPhone 6 is stolen, you can report it stolen, and the issuing
Bank of your credit card will simply invalidate your token. You won't have to
worry about replacing your physical credit card. In contrast, if the merchant
--- whose app you have your physical credit card number stored within --- is
hacked, you'd have to get your credit cards replaced, which is of course more
onerous than the former.
~~~
induscreep
Just curious...does Google Wallet also do the same thing?
~~~
evanspa
No, Google Wallet doesn't. When performing a tap & pay at a merchant NFC
terminal using Google Wallet with your Android phone (running 4.4+), your
Google Wallet Mastercard card is the card-account actually being used vis-a-
vis transaction authorization. Then, later, Google will charge your card that
you've configured to be your default-payment card. I do not know if Google is
fully implementing Mastercard PayExpress spec, but they are implementing some
of it at least. Thing is, because Google Wallet is HCE-based, and thus there's
no secure element, they cannot permanently be storing the encryption keys
needed to generate the cryptogram(s) and such that are part of a standard EMV
transaction (Mastercard and/or the issuing banking of your Google Wallet
Mastercard - Bancorp[1] would never allow permanently storing the encryption
key w/out a secure element).
[1]
[https://support.google.com/wallet/answer/2676665?hl=en](https://support.google.com/wallet/answer/2676665?hl=en)
~~~
induscreep
Interesting. Does this mean that transaction data (what I bought, when I
bought) is visible to Google, unlike Apple Pay (claimed)?
~~~
evanspa
Yes, it is.
[http://www.google.com/wallet/faq.html#tab=faq-
security](http://www.google.com/wallet/faq.html#tab=faq-security)
------
Letio
Patrick,
Curious, was the majority of the work required to support ApplePay related to
the format of the PKPayment? I assume in other cases, you just pass the raw
PAN + pin, etc, where as now you need to pass the encrypted single use token +
cryptographic data + more. Was more work required to support ApplePay?
And if so, did Visa/MC/Amex and the processing networks recently start
supporting this payload, or has it been in place for some time?
Finally, what does Apple use the Merchant ID for?
~~~
tonyb
I think this all that extra stuff is a standard 3D Secure transaction
(Verified by Visa/Mastercard SecureCard). Apple has replaced the complicated
multi-step authentication process with TouchID
------
nlh
I presume from what I've read/seen, ApplePay will be app-only (i.e. iOS) for
launch. But I've got to imagine they (as in, Apple and Stripe) will integrate
with web-based payment forms as step 2.
Or, should I say, "I hope"...
~~~
MBCook
I doubt it. For one thing they'd lose the ability to ensure you're who you say
you are with TouchID, etc.
~~~
yahelc
Presumably, if they wanted to do a web version, they could introduce Safari-
only JavaScript APIs for verifying TouchID.
~~~
zwily
They could use Continuity-type stuff to have you verify the payment from your
phone, that's happening in your desktop browser.
~~~
unfunco
Which sort of makes sense with today's announcements, they said they had the
ability to now detect between taps and presses with the Apple Watch, that
technology seems like it could be easily integrated under a trackpad as-
well...
~~~
comex
Apple trackpads can already distinguish between a finger touching them and
being physically depressed, though I don't know what it has to do with
payments.
~~~
Alphasite_
Thats a very different mechanism.
~~~
comex
Of course, but it accomplishes something similar. Also, trackpads already have
the two finger tap for additional actions (i.e. right click menu), and I still
don't know what this has to do with the topic. :)
------
bhartzer
It's great to see Stripe endorsing Apple Pay. But from a dev standpoint, how
difficult is it to integrate?
~~~
nmjohn
Stripe? A breeze. At least in comparison to other payment providers (I've
worked with stripe, auth.net, and paypal.)
------
eyevinx
No API for web?
~~~
MCRed
Apple pay is a combination of hardware for authentication and security, with a
unified payment interface on the backend. It makes sense as a mobile payment
solution.
Using your device to authenticate web purchases is a more complicated and
difficult (and potentially insecure) prospect, and thus, will take longer
before it's viable.
Apple's normal mode of operation is to start with the smallest essential thing
that adds value, and then extend it over time. In a way, what we saw today is
Apple's idea of an MVP.
If the web isn't an area where Apple can add value, they won't do it. Or put
another way, if other people do a better job on the web (e.g.: stripe) then
Apple's not going to try and compete with them.
------
jefftchan
Can we now use Stripe + Apple Pay to circumvent 30% revenue cut?
~~~
pc
Your Stripe pricing is the same if you use Apple Pay -- there are no
additional fees. (And no 30%.)
(We should update the page to say this...)
~~~
ajju
It looks like Applepay generates one-time cards by default resulting in a
single-use Stripe token. Does that mean the use case this supports is only
one-time payments versus "sign up with Apple pay+Stripe"? Any advice on how
best to integrate Apple pay for recurring pay scenarios like Sumon?
Edit: Some more context on how this all works from the other ApplePay thread
on HN: [http://clover-developers.blogspot.com/2014/09/apple-
pay.html](http://clover-developers.blogspot.com/2014/09/apple-pay.html)
~~~
pc
This supports recurring payments too -- you can associate an Apple Pay-
originated Stripe token with a Stripe customer object as normal, and then
create charges for that that customer. (This means that the Lyft use-case also
works largely unchanged.)
------
biafra
In which countries will Apple Pay launch in October?
~~~
MCRed
The USA. The other countries Apple has not been specific about.
I believe this will follow the pattern that Apple normally follows for complex
regulatory-involved industries (e.g.: the cellular carriers to support the
iPhone). They're probably already working on BRIC and the G8 countries, will
focus on them initially and then start rolling it out to wider and wider
countries (with deeper and deeper integration in those initial countries.)
I think this is going to be a multi-year process, assuming it's a success, and
it will be something that future keynotes include an update on (like "I'm
pleased to announce that Apple Pay is now in 80,000 retailers in 8 countries")
~~~
axman6
I'd be surprised if Australia wasn't one of the first countries to get it;
we've for a long time had very technologically advanced banks that are often
years ahead of the US. Last I heard cheques were still used by most people to
transfer money in the states, is that still the case? I've grown so used to
being able to instantly transfer money to anyone for free from my phone that I
can't imagine how tedious having to use cheques would be.
~~~
jawngee
No, nobody really uses checks anymore. Most payroll is direct deposit, person
to person is Paypal, Venmo or your bank's version of them.
Edit: bills and rent are possibly the last hold out, but usually you set up
bill payments through your bank.
~~~
stephenr
I remember reading tweets from an Australian that moved to the US (to work for
Apple as it happens) commenting on the banking system maybe 2 or 3 years ago:
Basically his experience was:
\- Cheques were still reasonably common, to the point that some bank(s) had
mobile apps to scan a cheque to deposit it!
\- "Bill payments" through a bank usually involved bank staff literally
preparing a cheque on your behalf, and mailing it to the biller
As for your comment about "person to person is Paypal" \- ok and what if I
actually care about what happens to the money, rather than it randomly being
held by some non-bank? Do US banks really not have a standard way to transfer
money to another individual electronically?
In Australia all that's needed are BSB number (Bank-State-Branch, a unique
identifier for each individual branch through the country) and Account number.
Transfers could take up to a day or two, the last time I tracked it
In Thailand, there is a similar system where money can be transferred directly
to an account belonging to someone else (or your own account at another bank).
So far it has always been _instant_ transfer.
Both of these systems are available via internet banking, mobile apps and in
Australia, phone banking (not sure about Thailand, promo material isn't always
in English)
I remember a few years ago a client in the US apologising for an incorrect
wire transfer to me, as he'd given the teller the wrong amount (swapped a 5
and a 2 or something). I was stunned to think that the founder of a tech
startup would not be using internet banking to make wire transfers to
contractors, but after reading about the cheque situation it occurred to me
that maybe he didn't have the choice.. can anyone confirm deny this is
available?
~~~
jawngee
Wire transfers are not common (other than Direct Deposit). Yes, banking apps
can scan and deposit checks. Most banks offer a paypal like feature to send
money to people. People prefer paypal to using those services though.
I sometimes still get paid by clients using checks, but most have switched
over to direct deposit or paying with credit cards.
International wire transfers are another beast due to the IRS and all the
regulation around it. You need their bank account, ABA routing number, name,
branch address, etc. I wire funds to Vietnam all the time, but there is a
limit to the frequency and amount that I can do. It also will raise flags with
the IRS, which is something to avoid.
Paper checks are suspected to go the way of the dinosaur in the US by 2028.
The UK is also a big check writing country too, fwiw.
And, honestly, checks aren't a pain in the ass. It's probably the same amount
of time/effort as logging into a website and sending money, except for the
time it takes to mail it or deliver it by hand.
~~~
stephenr
And then wait for it to clear, hope it doesn't get lost, order a new cheque
book, etc.
Edit: did you notice what I said about transfers in Thailand: instant. I can,
within about 90 seconds, send money to a person or business at any other bank
in the country. A cheque is only "basically the same time" if your scale for
comparison is years.
Cheques are absolutely a pain in the ass, and you're kidding yourself if you
think the us isn't woefully behind the times in terms of banking.
I thought thailand was bad when I tried to setup a foreign currency account,
but it's like Star Trek era banking compared to amercia
~~~
jawngee
If you asked for an opinion but already had your mind made up, why did you
even ask?
Checks are cleared almost instantly now. When you take a photo of it, it's run
through ACH just like a wire transfer is. At most, it takes a day depending on
when you deposit it.
I never said the US was ahead or behind either, that's something you
erroneously inferred. Checks are no longer common, as I said a few replies up.
Other than dealing with come clients that still pay by check, I haven't seen
one or dealt with them for years.
Also, I live part-time in Vietnam, so I know all about wire transfers thank
you very much. I also know what dicks Aussie ex-pats are too, thanks for
confirmation.
~~~
stephenr
Well that escalated quickly.
If you look again you'll see I didn't ask for an opinion, like "are cheques a
good way to transfer funds" I asked for confirmation/updates about a
previously documented fact - the use of cheques in us banking.
------
zengr
Related [http://readwrite.com/2014/09/09/apple-pay-paypal-
stripe](http://readwrite.com/2014/09/09/apple-pay-paypal-stripe)
------
bmurali
Can Apple Pay be bypassed?
------
thegreatpeter
What scares me is that Stripe knew my email address and prefilled the box.
~~~
amfeng
Hi! We only prefill your email address if you're logged into your Stripe
account while looking at that page. Hope that clarifies things.
~~~
berelig
And here I thought he was making a joke about his address being
j.appleseed@example.com.
Doh!
------
jMyles
Something something Bitcoin something decentralized fiat currency blah blah
blah.
~~~
jMyles
I actually like Bitcoin a fair bit; I just thought it was a good first
comment. :-)
------
eculic17
they're so on it!
------
lifeisstillgood
Obvious question - when can I store my stellar or bitcoin in my apple pay
"wallet"? Or have I misunderstood?
~~~
lifeisstillgood
Ok downvotes, that wasn't sarcasm, it was genuinely a recognition that
Stripe's view on Stellar and the cryptocurrency ecosystem is coming closer -
with Apple offering what is to all intents and purposes a iPhone controlled
wallet with fingerprint security and locked down OS there is not a lot of
steps to go to reach a means of storing electronic currency which has a
security and convenience that is hard to imagine beating
~~~
sanswork
Stripe is receiving payments from Applepay not making them to Applepay so the
other payment methods they accept have no impact on Applepay.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
OctoLinker added Ruby support - stefanbuck
https://github.com/OctoLinker/browser-extension
======
stefanbuck
Most projects consist of many files and third party dependencies. Files are
referencing other files and / or dependencies by language specific statements
like include or require. Dependencies are most likely declared in a file
called manifest e.g. package.json or Gemfile. The OctoLinker browser
extensions makes theses references clickable. No more copy and search.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Love Google. Hate Facebook. Here’s Why: - rblion
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/10/love-google-hate-facebook-why/
======
pluies
_A curious melancholy infests the New Yorker’s profile. You wonder, for
example, to what extent Zuckerberg actually possesses an interior life of his
own. He doesn’t seem passionate about much in particular. At the age of 26, he
bought a car but only after asking his friends for suggestions (he wanted
something “safe, comfortable, not ostentatious” and ended up with an Acura
TSX, which Wikipedia defines as “an entry-level luxury car”)._
So, err... According to Wired, your interior life is best represented by your
_interest in cars_?
~~~
Herring
_> I don't like this article, let's talk about cars instead_
Easy on the nitpicking, guys.
------
shmichael
I'm not sure Google's alleged "honest" interface is only a product of company
culture: The launch of Buzz was the target of as much criticism as received by
Facebook.
It might just be that social network interfaces interact with users more
intimately, and thus are more problematic to toy around with.
Either way, Facebook's chameleon interface is definitely irritating. You can
see some of their design anti-patterns here:
<http://wiki.darkpatterns.org/wiki/Home>
~~~
sprout
Google almost always rolls back anti-patterns once it's clear people aren't
fond of them.
Facebook unveils roughly 8 anti-patterns with every re-do and rolls back the
most egregious 4. The result is Facebook get significantly worse with every
iteration.
Most of the recent ones though, I've solved with NoScript and only browsing
Facebook in a dedicated browser. (I really need to make something a little
more robust; effectively a Facebook app running on a Webkit core that opens
all external links in Firefox. That would sandbox the social graph, and let me
read links out of Facebook normally.)
~~~
copper
> a Facebook app running on a Webkit core that opens all external links in
> Firefox.
This sounds really nice, but doesn't facebook also do the sa=D-style redirects
like google? (I've no way to check.) If so, it effectively becomes a nice
cross-browser way of tracking you.
(For example:
[http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http://haskell.org/hask...](http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http://haskell.org/haskellwiki/HaskellImplementorsWorkshop/2010%23Programme&usg=some-
huge-number) )
------
wccrawford
"Cuz I said so, that's why!"
It's hard to tell people what they should love and hate without coming off as
petty. Yeah, you had some issue that bugged you and Facebook was involved.
Your likes and dislikes are not everyone's. Some are happy to trade privacy
for convenience, and some aren't. That's what freedom is about.
------
jlgbecom
Because you can leave Google. You may not want to, and they do a great job of
having features nobody else has, but if they piss you off enough, there's
plenty of email providers.
Facebook, on the other hand, holds your social network hostage. We'll always
resent any site that takes advantage of that.
~~~
lehmannro
I think you are overdramatizing Facebook's importance quite a little bit here.
It's not like your friends will hate you when you quit and I _have_ seen
plenty of people quit online social networks while retaining their life just
fine.
I could make up a similar argument the other way around: to me, services like
Facebook provide little to no value; I can quit them just fine. I have
communication details of a lifetime in Google, I store my documents with them,
organize my calendar. (Note: I have heard Google's export features are quite
okayish so that argument does not really hold.)
~~~
jlgbecom
I think you're underestimating Facebook's social importance. Sure, your
friends won't hate you, it won't be the end of the world, but there is a
palpable sense of disconnect.
And there are more people who rely on Facebook for social connection, than
people who rely on Google for business and finance (especially if you're
talking about the under-25 crowd).
~~~
lehmannro
I believe your claims but is there any evidence to back it up (and is that
possible on fuzzy metrics such as _palpable sense of disconnect_ )?
From your other comments I understand you are from the US and I guess its a
wholly different matter across the pond, but I for one cannot reproduce these
effects here in Germany. Sure, most -- rough estimate: all -- of my contacts
_do_ have accounts on various social networks (me included) but we have never
critically relied on it. It never gained quite as much traction as I always
hear from Facebook.
~~~
jlgbecom
Yeah, I think it's definitely different in the U.S. than Germany, regarding
Facebook's hegemony. Hardly anybody uses anything else here.
------
amanuel
_Facebook? Why should I sign into Mark Zuckerberg’s site to download a
presentation...somewhere else...it still felt like a kind of category error.
This was Facebook pushing its nose too far into someone else’s business._
That's exactly what I don't like about Facebook being everywhere....my
solution was to setup privoxy and expunge any script debris from Facebook and
google.
Your time online should be slightly more productive and private.
------
cherisevill
Next “great” thing: logging in to our bank account with Facebook. Yeah,
Facebook was a smart idea, and, yeah, it deserves respect. But its going too
far. I will not conform. I will not become part of this stupid machine. I
still use facebook, but I use it as a means to read articles from Wired, NPR,
TED talks, etc.
This was a great article, by the way. [http://xtremenowarnings.com/xtremeno-
review-does-xtreme-no-s...](http://xtremenowarnings.com/xtremeno-review-does-
xtreme-no-supplement-really-work)
------
brown9-2
I'm confused why the author is mad at Facebook because Scribd gave him the
option of logging in with a Scribd account or a Facebook account.
~~~
skybrian
The way "instant personalization" works is that when you a visit one of the
few sites where this is turned on, you are automatically logged in using your
Facebook account (if you have one) _without asking you first_. The lack of
explicit consent for linking accounts on two different web sites together is
the privacy violation.
Once you know about this you can turn off that feature in your Facebook
settings.
~~~
skybrian
More here: [http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/09/scribd-facebook-
insta...](http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/09/scribd-facebook-instant-
personalization/)
------
jfb
Can't we hold them both at arm's length?
------
zackattack
this article sucks.
can someone please give me the reason why people feel that facebook is
"violating privacy" in a way that has nothing to do with the acceleration of
technology?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The great nutrient collapse - fmihaila
http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2017/09/13/food-nutrients-carbon-dioxide-000511?lo=ap_a1
======
jpfed
I wonder what math is being used, and whether there's some way to package it
in a way that's approachable to biologists.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Do you scrape data? What do you use it for? - jmaccabee
I've got a theory that in 2018, most people or companies can use web scraping tools to make some aspect of their lives easier.<p>For example, I wrote a script a few months back to scrape transit data and send me a text when the subway is delayed for my morning commute. Maybe you're helping your company scrape competitor prices to know when they change?<p>So - are you scraping data today? As part of a hobby project or for professional purposes? What do you use it for? And if you don't, why not?
======
klez
I do scrape. We are making a sort of meta-search engine for long term car
rental, so to bootstrap it we are scraping offer from various sites and
directing users to the original websites to actually go through with the
offer.
If anyone is interested in more detail, I can explain further.
~~~
deadcoder0904
Go on
~~~
klez
Ok, here it goes.
The scrapers are written in python 2, because that's what the guys who started
the project were familiar with.
Most of the scraping is done by hand with XPath queries on the pages we
fetched, so no beautifulsoup or stuff like that. Again, I think mostly because
those who started the project were not familiar with the task. It's not even
that bad when I need to modify something (because the page changes etc.), as
the code is very well written.
The problems started when the CEO and CTO proposed (mandated?) to use
something made by a guy who is supposed to be a web scraping expert in the
same domain we're working in (I don't doubt that, but still...). The software
it gave us is written in Ruby (which no-one here ever even saw a line of) and
Rails, and works with recipes instead of the imperative code + xpath we used
at the beginning. It works flawlessly until it doesn't. Mainly because there's
a big logical error (if an offer disappears from the original website we
should mark it as deleted on our db, but the scrapers tells us it's still
there) and I don't have time to learn ruby, rails and the whole system to fix
this. And the original dev is not available anymore. So we're phasing that out
and going back to our nice land of python :)
Anyway the process goes like this:
1\. Scraper fetches the page, scrapes the data, and generates a JSON file with
the info of all the offers it finds
2\. Those JSON files are uploaded on S3
3\. A trigger on S3 calls the "writer" on a EC2 instance, that downloads the
JSON file, unpacks the content and writes the data to a postgres database.
Current problem: scraping arbitrary strings representing car options and
categorizing them. We have something like 15,000 strings that need to be put
inside a category. Manually.
------
xstartup
Ad scraping can be very profitable.
See: [https://adplexity.com/](https://adplexity.com/)
~~~
is_true
I don't understand something. How do they know how many impressions ads get?
They are just scraping or they have access to ad networks stats?
~~~
xstartup
It's determined based on guesswork.
If you scrap a website, you'll know how what % of times an ad shows up.
Now, if you know the distribution for top N ads. You can skip everything and
go straight to the ad network and check their total number of impression
volume on particular website/GEO. You can pretend to be an advertiser and
easily get access to this info.
Now, you know the distribution and total, can't you work out the impression
count for each ad?
~~~
is_true
ty
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Rural Democrats: We Tried to Warn You - pwthornton
http://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/rural-democrats-ignored-suffer-consequences
======
webmaven
_" But they don’t know how to talk about ordinary people."_
Riiight... because Americans who live in urban areas aren't "ordinary people".
Hey, I bet they aren't actually "Real Americans" either.
</sarcasm>
In case it isn't already clear from the subtext in the OP, I'll make the point
plainly: the rural/urban divide cuts both ways.
~~~
pwthornton
This piece really comes off just as venting. I don't think the people quoted
in it are offering anything particularly insightful or that their solutions
would really help that much.
One of the proposed solutions is sending more yard signs to rural areas. Do
people really vote based on yard signs?
~~~
webmaven
_> Do people really vote based on yard signs?_
Sort of.
People are influenced somewhat by the opinions of others in their community,
and noticing the number of yard signs for candidates is a low-risk way of
gauging the prevailing sentiment.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How libraries decide which books to keep - ASquare
https://medium.com/book-excerpts/4ca8405f1e11
======
GuiA
This is super interesting.
It just occurs to me that it could be really fun to work as a technologist for
a library. In the light of this article, it sounds like there's room to
automate and enhance some stuff: scrape literary review websites for up and
coming authors, apply machine learning to the library's records to find out if
there are underlying trends in borrowing that can inform acquisitions, events,
etc. And of course you could write cool visualizations to highlight the
different metrics.
As a kid, the library was my second home - I'd go there after school almost
everyday, and Saturdays from opening to closing. The library was a short 5
minute walk from my parents' house, which in retrospect is probably the thing
that influenced my intellectual upbringing the most. (programming came right
after, in my early teenage years) It remains with me to this day: I have a
deep love for books, and dream of the day when I can accommodate a basement
with rows and rows of bookshelves.
I kind of want to work for a library now!
~~~
chc
It would be fun, but on the other hand, to my understanding a library
employee's idea of "good money" looks an awful lot like a technologist's idea
of "OMG I am going to lose my house."
~~~
pessimizer
It actually can pay pretty well. It's not Silicon Valley money, but it's
around Milwaukee bigco CRUD code monkey money. I know a few liberal arts
graduates that were working dead-end jobs who went back for the MLIS _mainly_
for the money.
Being a technologist for libraries sounds awful, though. They deal all day
w/locked-down journals, proprietary databases, the MARC formats, and various
systems from the 60s - and I'd need more than I make now to work with that
crap.
~~~
sssbc
Interesting - Regarding an article with a huge subtext of "cherish the past",
you toss out crap from the 60's.
For shame.
~~~
benaiah
Do not confuse nostalgia for reveration. The old programming systems are
indeed quaint, and should be preserved, but not used. There's a reason we've
moved on.
------
616c
Funny, I saw this myself years ago with a med school library, where the
problem was more severe and with like every paper resource they had.
But it was interesting problem. Unlike normal libraries, they are so digital
they run into a new problem: they have such little need for any books, they
might as well throw all of them away. The medical education industry is so
much more onboard with digital publishing and references because hospitals and
schools pay top dollar, and often doctors will need research materials super
fast when things are serious and they need to perform analysis quick. Digital
publishing is not even a question of if, it is a long past when.
So long story aside, they had to be really secretive throwing away books.
Someone once discovered these old, useless (no other schools want them, thus)
in the garbage. Some alumni or concerned students found them, causing outrage.
Solution, this whole library spent years without an avenue for destruction of
the books, because old grads and others would not tolerate the idea. How could
we not need the books? Year later, dozens of racks exist with books and
magazines not only never checked out, but not even touched for decades
collecting significant dust.
~~~
danielweber
I posted this link elsewhere but it's incredibly relevant:
[http://www.cracked.com/article_19453_6-reasons-were-in-
anoth...](http://www.cracked.com/article_19453_6-reasons-were-in-another-book-
burning-period-in-history.html)
Lots of people treat libraries like holy places they supposedly value and the
books are the holy artifacts. But these people are trying to overrule those
who actually use these places. No one's life is made any better by their
interference, but they get to be seen "standing up for the books."
(If I were to take the analogy further, it's like the people who only attend
church on Easter and Christmas telling the weekly church-goers how to run the
church.)
~~~
abc3
Go ahead and take the analogy further still. It's like people who only attend
church on Easter and Christmas actively preventing other people from attending
church on Sundays. Even the largest libraries have a limited amount of shelf
space. If we can't get rid of some of the books that are using that space, we
can't add new, appealing, useful books for the people who want to read them.
------
pnathan
I am almost* entirely of the opinion that no book should ever be thrown away.
Digitize if unwanted, but don't throw it away. I know that might require some
jiggering of the IP laws, but knowledge has huge value and it really bums me
out when books of knowledge are dumped. Even if the knowledge is antique, then
the information about how the knowledge was perceived and transmitted becomes
valuable to later generations.
* There are some _really_ bad books out there.
~~~
abc3
I'm a librarian. I became a librarian because I've always loved libraries and
always loved books. I haven't met many librarians who didn't have the same
formative experience and who don't feel the same way.
Counter to what the post's author implies, almost all librarians hate
destroying books[0]. But we have to do it almost every day, because most
libraries accept donations and only a very small fraction of these donated
books are appropriate for the collection[1]. Many libraries have book sales,
or sell donated or weeded books online, either directly or through partners
like Better World Books[2]. We quickly learn that some copies of some books,
either because of their poor condition or because no one is interested in
reading them, have to be recycled or destroyed. It's no fun, but there are no
alternatives[3].
As the post's author mentions in the CREW discussion in her post, librarians
make an enormous distinction between the 5,000th copy of a book that is held
in some library collection somewhere[4] and the last few copies. It's possible
that San Francisco Public Library knowingly destroyed the last copy, or one of
the last known copies, of a title, or even multiple titles, but I would be
surprised if that was a policy rather than a mistake. In general, libraries
either have a place to store such copies or can find another library that will
add it to its collection and put it into circulation or storage.
[0] [http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2013/killing-
sir-...](http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2013/killing-sir-walter-
scott-a-philosophical-exploration-of-weeding/) [1] By appropriate, I'm talking
about the book's physical condition and the likelihood that it will circulate
enough to justify processing it and putting it on the shelf, because it is
competing for that shelf space with thousands of other donations, plus the ~1M
new books per year that we could buy and put on the shelf in its place. [2]
[http://www.betterworldbooks.com/](http://www.betterworldbooks.com/) [3]
Unfortunately, there are only so many places to donate books, and we give away
as many as we can, and then some, to places that are interested in receiving
donations. [4] [https://www.worldcat.org/](https://www.worldcat.org/) is one
place we look, though OCLC makes it prohibitively expensive for most small
libraries to make their collections available in WorldCat:
[http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2008/a-useful-
amp...](http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2008/a-useful-
amplification-of-records-that-are-unavoidably-needed-anyway/)
~~~
pnathan
Goodness, I am not saying that you _want_ to. There's a limit on shelf space
in the world. I'm just noting that I'd rather see books digitized than dumped.
------
WalterBright
> Partly this had been done because the new library, while boasting great
> architectural flourishes and lots of architectural space, did not have
> enough shelf space.
I find this pretty sad. Seems the architect forgot what a library was for.
~~~
logfromblammo
That isn't as bad as the architect/structural engineer that allocated plenty
of space for stacks, but somehow forgot that books have mass and require
additional structural support.
Good thing that has never happened. Snopes: That Sinking Feeling.
Discounting the urban legends about library architecture, there is some merit
to giving your local library some uniqueness. I have seen far too many
libraries with that "concrete bunker for giants" look to them, and it doesn't
make me want to go in and read the books. It probably doesn't do much to
support "friends of the library" donations, either.
And in the future, the server racks will take up less space anyway, even with
the cooling and the network antennas.
~~~
abc3
It's worth noting that libraries do a lot more than circulate books[0]. For
many people, we're the place they use the internet, or where they print things
out when they need a printer, or the place where they rent movies, or borrow
CDs, or study, or attend programs, or get together with their friends to play
videogames or tabletop games. Or even where they learn to use 3D printers:
search on libraries and makerspaces.
My point is, libraries need room for a lot more than books. We _love_ books;
that's pretty much a prerequisite for becoming a librarian, but we do a _lot_
more for the people in your community, which is why libraries hire architects
who understand that libraries fulfill different needs for different people.
[0] [http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2014/how-well-
are...](http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2014/how-well-are-you-
doing-your-job-you-dont-know-no-one-does/)
~~~
specialist
With reduced office hours and moving services online, our public libraries
have become the primary access to government for undeserved demographics. Our
librarians are now also doubling as social workers.
Kind of pisses me off.
------
ChuckMcM
I think it would be fabulous that on deciding to get rid of a book the library
archived it into their 'digital' collection by scanning it. Access could still
be available at the library or on the library web site, but the book would not
be taking up volume space in the 'physical' collection. They could then add a
'd' notation to the card catalog entry.
~~~
chc
Is that uncontroversially legal? Considering that IIRC publishers want
libraries to buy special digital rights, I have a feeling they might make some
angry noises if they heard about a scheme like this.
~~~
makmanalp
I feel like it would be a good idea to have a law that says that if you failed
to reprint a book for x years then it's okay for a library to digitize it
forever, and allow it to be used by its patrons. This happens right now in
some libraries, where you digitally "check out" a copy of an ebook, which
theoretically limits supply and therefore limits the harm done on publishers.
~~~
abc3
Do you know which libraries are doing this?
~~~
makmanalp
Cambridge public library does it:
[http://www.cambridgema.gov/cpl.aspx](http://www.cambridgema.gov/cpl.aspx)
edit: not the digitizing part, just the artificially-scarce ebook loan.
~~~
abc3
Do you mean the Mass eBook project described here:
[https://www.cambridgema.gov/cpl/eLibrary.aspx](https://www.cambridgema.gov/cpl/eLibrary.aspx)
Or is this something else the library does on its own?
------
WalterBright
There is another way. Scan the books that are to be tossed, and provide access
to them electronically at the library.
The scanning costs can be spread out by each public library sharing the
scanned copies amongst themselves.
------
niels_olson
There is a library that still has Watson & Crick's paper in their Nature
archive. It's in the stacks. Despite my repeated urging that they place it in
special collections. The same library has a Galileo, but no one knew, in fact
they laughed at me, until I pulled the card and made the special collections
"senior librarian" pull it. Something about databases and excessive purchasing
(leading to wanton crewing) seems to have removed many a librarian's sense of
ownership.
------
R_Edward
I make extensive use of e-books and audio books. I especially like audio books
because they make my commute bearable. But some books, which may be great
stories in the dead-tree edition, are downright aggravating in the recycled-
electrons edition. I'm currently listening to a story that keeps jumping back
and forth between the present and the recent past, and whatever visual clues
the author might have left for that, the reader is failing to convey.
eBooks have issues of their own. Most of these seem to be due to the
interface, though, rather than to the format itself. 3M Cloud, for example,
seems dedicated to making it as difficult as possible for me to be able to
pick up my eBook and continue reading where I left off. My current book drops
me at the beginning of Chapter 2 every time I open in. It has a "bookmark"
capability, by which I mean I can _create_ a bookmark--I just can't ever
_find_ it later, much less return to the spot in the book that it supposedly
marks. Frustrating. But I can download and start reading a book in the middle
of the night, far from home, and when my checkout period expires, the local
copy automatically disappears without my having to return to the library or
pay a fine for failure to return the book.
------
Jun8
"Many books that existed in no other copies, many books arguably with historic
value, had been simply thrown away and buried in landfill."
I understand the need to get rid of unwanted books from a library; books are
ming in, so naturally some books have to go out. What I find despicable is
_destroying_ those books rather than trying to find ways to people who would
use them.
~~~
GuiA
Libraries frequently have days were they give away/sell at low prices unwanted
books. Sadly, it doesn't suffice to get rid of all of them- and then what do
you do?
You can always sell those books on Amazon (I've seen libraries do it) but it
basically requires a full time team to handle listings, sales, shipping,
returns, etc.
------
skittles
I donated about 20 programming books to the local library after seeing that
the selection was decades old and almost non-existent. It was very frustrating
to find out that they sold all of them in order to buy a few popular titles.
------
WalterBright
> A weed is something you don’t want growing in your garden—more formally, “a
> plant that interferes with management objectives for a given area of land at
> a given point in time.”
My own definition of a weed is "a plant that thrives without assistance." For
example, grass refuses to grow on my lawn without intensive assistance, but
cannot be eradicated from places I don't want it to grow.
------
bostonpete
Is anyone aware of anything that would corroborate this quote? I've never
heard any such controversy, nor could I find anything in a quick search...
"Weeding, even in the garden, has become a remarkably controversial subject."
~~~
logfromblammo
I see that you have never met your uptight control freak of a homeowners'
association president.
In many states, there is a published list of species that qualify as noxious
or invasive. In the HOA busybody's mind, a weed is anything that is not the
approved cultivar of grass and anything taller than 4 inches high. This
disconnect is bound to cause some controversy somewhere.
I would think that with library card catalogs going electronic, a ranking
algorithm could automatically establish a culling order for books, picking
them off the bottom to be unbound and photographed or digitized, so that there
is just enough shelf space made available for both the incoming books and the
redundant storage backups.
After all, they were able to put periodicals on microfiche and thus store more
of them, weren't they? There's no reason to trash anything if you can make its
bits small enough.
------
bluenose69
My library sells books every few years. The last time I went to the sale, I
scored one of the Feynman lecture series books for under a buck. When I handed
it to the librarian with my money, she said "oh my", realizing that this was
really not something they should be chucking away. If not for the fact that
they charge annoying fines, I would have let them off the hook, but I said
"well, you folks put it on the table for sale" and walked away with a fine
prize.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ayn Rand interview (1959) - jobeirne
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ukJiBZ8_4k&feature=related
======
yummyfajitas
Good interview, but I didn't notice any mention of a pending economic
disaster.
~~~
jobeirne
That comes up in part 2 of this interview. I was thinking of just posting a
link to that, but it seemed discontinuous.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ways to screw up as a woman in technology - sdpy
https://medium.com/@zornitsatomova/5-ways-to-screw-up-as-a-woman-in-technology-7c416aed8db8
======
BigChiefSmokem
Another multiple fail-preneur article from Medium? Downvote as you see fit but
come on HN you are better than this. This one is especially bad...
"There is this perception that in order to get into IT and do well in it, you
need to know programming, which many women like me find unappealing and hard
to understand. But the truth is, you don’t really need to know programming."
There are so many things wrong with her world views and views about tech (and
women) in general it makes me sick. My daughter loves programming in much the
same way a young boy would. If that changes it's because she has no examples
of women who like and do what she does, mostly because a lot of women to this
day retain the above mentality.
~~~
sgocity
That part made me cringe. Also the part about complementing the "tech guys" on
the team. :(
------
gamesbrainiac
The advice about pretending to know about technology when you don't is the
very reason why there are so many bad people in managerial positions. Its hard
to have respect for the work that your engineers do if you have no idea what
they do.
------
pwaivers
> "Who was I, a 23-year-old university student, to be advising those guys with
> 25+ years of experience?"
This doesn't seem woman-specific. Anyone would be intimidated in that
situation!
------
mlthoughts2018
These don’t seem to be specific to women, except maybe the first one, which is
frustrating because it comes off like victim-blaming (e.g. don’t “allow”
yourself to be intimidated ... but often the whole structure of a corporate
hierarchy is designed to do exactly that, and to milk any gendered
intimidations it can to coerce fealty out of subordinates, both men and
women).
I don’t think it’s good to spend even a tiny bit of our brain cycles worrying
about what “mistakes” marginalized employees might make, when executives, HR
and corporate governance are virtually predicated on taking full advantage of
employees in every way they can.
Let’s just focus on rampant corporate bad actors, sweepingly horrible company
cultures, agism, racism, sexism, unfair pay, unhealthy working conditions and
so on. These things are so up-front, huge, and wide-spread that there is just
no valuable returns to be had by twisting it around to focus on what workers
might do wrong in terms of navigating workplace dysfunctions.
------
handbanana
I found this very generic and hard to read
------
gwbas1c
I really enjoyed this article.
One thing I don't think most people realize is the concept of "man time." When
a work situation is mostly, or completely, men, work turns into "man time."
A workplace should never be "man time." I think that's the biggest obstacle to
get over; and the hardest obstacle, too. If we better understood "man time,"
it'd be easier to set boundaries and keep it out of the workplace.
~~~
KenanSulayman
I feel bad because I googled "man time" and then proceeded to read the whole
manual of "time" instead.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Mastodon 2.0 - daveid
https://medium.com/@Gargron/mastodon-2-0-e93d9d28dbb9?
======
kemenaran
I started using Mastodon a few months ago, "just to see", and found great
people to interact to there. And these days I'm using Twitter less and less.
Looking back, I feel like the short-messages limit is fueling flaming
statements rather than good discussions. I also see how constant enabled-by-
default notifications and dark patterns made me addicted to new tweets ; on
Mastodon I feel less pressure to keep up with the feed constantly.
Also, the project grew from a few to 100+ contributors in a few weeks, and
apparently managed this transition quite smoothly. Development is ongoing at a
steady pace, including new features and major architectural changes. Congrats
to the team and contributors!
~~~
listic
Looking back, I feel like the short-messages limit is fueling flaming statements rather than good discussions
Quite rarely, also condensed pieces of art:
[https://twitter.com/quietpinetrees](https://twitter.com/quietpinetrees)
~~~
kbenson
Wow, some of those are very good.
~~~
viraptor
Some more:
[https://twitter.com/MicroSFF](https://twitter.com/MicroSFF)
[https://twitter.com/ASmallFiction](https://twitter.com/ASmallFiction)
------
dethos
Started using just out of curiosity, about it being a federated system (just
like email), I also knew about the interoperability with Gnu Social and
OStatus networks, so I gave it a shot.
I launched my private instance and started from there. I can say I'm very
surprised, the system works very well, never had major problems and the
communication with people with accounts on other instances (since I'm the only
one in mine) works flawlessly.
This is how the Internet was supposed to work (not full of walled gardens).
The good thing is that we're seeing some great decentralized applications and
tools appearing recently and a renewed interest in this area, which is great.
~~~
criddell
What is it about Twitter that takes 3000 people to keep going vs something
like Mastodon? Is Mastodon missing something major that Twitter has? Is it
just about scale?
~~~
michael_storm
Sales, support, marketing, accounting, business ops, software ops, management,
HR. Pare those off and you might get something like Mastodon's contributor
size after adjusting for scale of user base. Although I doubt many of
Mastodon's contributors are full time, so a comparison is difficult.
~~~
criddell
So Twitter is big because it's big?
~~~
michael_storm
I don’t follow. Twitter is big because of all the things I just listed.
~~~
gipp
You just listed its components, the question was about why Twitter _needs_
those things but Mastodon does not.
~~~
michael_storm
Because Twitter is a for-profit business, whereas Mastodon is not.
~~~
criddell
And they are up to around $2 billion in losses so far, right?
It sounds like they would be better off just being a Mastodon node.
------
jochung
Decentralization is just an affirmation until they fix the network lock in
problem. You're still married to whatever instance you sign up with. The admin
limits who you can federate with, and if the policy changes, it requires you
to rebuild from scratch if you want to move.
That's what's keeping platforms like Twitter on top even though many of its
prolific users now sound more like an abused spouse than anything else.
I still think the vast majority of this concern over abuse is a red herring
though. People just don't like it when their curated bubble is pierced by
information that contradicts it, and they confuse being corrected with
persecution and social status games.
~~~
paulgb
How hard would it be to start a one-user instance so that I control my
identity and then using federation to communicate with other users? The
willingness of other admins to federate with me would be the limiting factor,
right?
~~~
nolanl
Mastodon has a single-user instance mode:
[https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/blob/8392ddbf87f5522c4...](https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/blob/8392ddbf87f5522c445573c50e4f21d690172bc0/.env.production.sample#L47-L48)
Most instances would federate with you immediately since they're on a
blacklist model, but some instances (such as awoo.space) operate on a
whitelist, meaning they'd have to vet you first.
~~~
cdubzzz
I’m sure I can dig this up at some point, but just in case anyone knows off
hand - can a single user instance run well enough on a small (1 cpu, 512mb
ram) VPS running a few other lightweight services?
~~~
pfg
One CPU would be fine with just one user, but that's not enough RAM. I would
consider 2GB the bare minimum, with one app server instance and one background
worker process (sidekiq) running.
~~~
librexpr
hugogameiro seemed to say otherwise a month ago[0]. According to his post, it
takes <1GB of RAM. Have things changed since then?
[0]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15213203](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15213203)
~~~
pfg
It would probably be possible to run the app server and background worker with
about 1 GB of RAM. You might have to restart the workers daily to avoid OOMs
(ruby/rails/puma will leak memory, you'll just accept that at some point), but
that's more or less acceptable.
That still leaves postgres, redis, your web server and all other system
processes. Fitting those on the same server with a total of 1 GB of RAM
available is a very, very tight fit. You will probably get OOMs regularly, and
upgrading Mastodon, doing backups and things like that will be painful
(building assets, for example, tends to eat a lot of memory).
hugogameiro, from what I understand, runs a lot of mastodon instances on
shared infrastructure. That eliminates a lot of that overhead and if you look
at just the instance-specific processes, 1 GB seems realistic. If you have
existing infrastructure (i.e. something like postgres, redis, nginx) and can
allocate about 1 GB of RAM to Mastodon, or use something like a Heroku 2x
dyno, where these components are separated as well, that might work.
Otherwise, I'd opt for 2 GB of RAM.
~~~
cdubzzz
So I decided to test this out on a 1CPU/512M DO droplet, just for fun.
I did indeed hit OOM during the setup (`bundle install` and `yarn` steps).
After the first one I added a 1G swap and made it all the way through the
1.6.1 install (although the webpack precompile step damn near used up the
whole swap!). Anyway 1.6.1 idles around 600M without any attempt to optimize.
I next tested an upgrade from 1.6.1 to 2.0.0 and was able to get it done (with
the precompile again cutting it close - it hit 1015M of the swap, hah!). No
change in memory usage, perhaps a bit more even.
Off topic - the install process was easy enough but seems like it could really
do well to be (much) more automated. Do you know if anyone is working towards
this? I suppose that is what Docker is for...
------
paule89
So as far as my simple mind understands, mastodon is a Twitter alternative.
But without the adds, true timeconsistent Timeline, without annoying have you
seen this tweet yet algorithms and simply working.
But the problem is that it is a social network, that depends on your social
network and its embrace of mastodon.
Am i right?
~~~
mxuribe
Almost, yeah.
Mastodon, and conceptually others like Gnu Social, are twitter-like
alternatives, but that's not fairly telling the full story of their
capabilities. These platforms bring with them decentralization benefits like
classic email does. Remember when so many people's email addresses were not
something like @gmail.com or @hotmail.com? When they used their own domain
names (either personal, or for their organization, etc.), such as
joe@whatever.net, or jane@something .org, and lived on their own servers,
though could still interact - that is, email - people from other domains,
servers? Mastodon - and again others like Gnu Social - can, and in fact
__SHOULD __live on separate servers and domains...though still allow for
interaction. This is the bigger benefit, and personally, i believe what makes
mastodon and other similar platforms pretty cool.
Now, the benefit of decentralization above may not be compelling enough for
someone on a personal basis to set up/manage their own server...and for that,
there certainly are several "largish" mastodon servers where you could create
your own account...and STILL interact with folks on other servers, etc.
I acknowledge that i sound like a salesperson for mastodon - i assure i'm not.
I'm just a fan of decentralized platforms, and admit that mastodon's UI is
easy to use. But if you're curious, i invite you to start an account, and see
for yourself. Worse case, you can always abandon it if you really dislike it.
Visit [https://joinmastodon.org/](https://joinmastodon.org/) and scroll down
to the part that helps you choose which instance to join...if you're stumped,
simply join the main/first one
([https://mastodon.social](https://mastodon.social))
Cheers!
~~~
SOLAR_FIELDS
I will advocate for this software solely on the principle you have defined in
this post - it is a disruption of the hegemony of Facebook. Of course, it
could go wrong, but currently it is a 100% better choice when it comes to
being a part of a social network and simultaneously not having your life
creepily vacuumed up by Big Brother.
------
orthecreedence
Question for users of mastodon:
Given the flagship's stances on free speech
([https://mastodon.social/about/more](https://mastodon.social/about/more)), if
I am a user on the flagship instance (we'll call it A) and I want to follow an
account on another server (let's call it B) that posts content that wouldn't
be allowed on A, would my act of following that user on B pull the content to
A? And would that content be removed? or does it only get removed if it is
post to A in the first place?
My concern is that users on the flagship instance would only see a curated
feed of the things they follow, even if following content on server that don't
have such strict content policies.
~~~
pfg
I'm not entirely sure if mastodon.social has published any policy clarifying
how and under what circumstances they apply instance bans. There are two ways
administrators can block other instances on Mastodon:
Silence: Posts from users of these instances are only visible to users
following that user directly, but not in public timelines.
Suspend: All posts from users of these instances are always removed, even if
you follow them directly.
I would suspect that most admins stick with the first option for almost all
bans. That said, users who are concerned about this should stick to instances
with a broad interpretation of free speech.
------
heroprotagonist
I tried to use this a couple of times, but had a difficult time choosing a
community. They seemed to mostly appear the same, so I chose based on activity
and uptime. But apparently those instances were largely in languages I didn't
understand. The "filter out these languages" improved it a bit, if I go
through and check every box except english (slightly unintuitive, there, as
most people will know few languages and want to select what they know instead
of what they do not know) though not completely. It seems to work better with
'local' than with 'federated' results, which can mean cutting you off from the
global community if you limit yourself to local.
I wouldn't mind seeing a guide to various popular communities to choose what
to pick.
~~~
mintplant
Something like [https://instances.social](https://instances.social)?
~~~
heroprotagonist
That's pretty nice. I remember using it before, but maybe my selections were
better this time. Thanks! Though, if you filter for 'English' it still gives
second result with description "Une instance francaise...'
Also, I found a solution for the language issue, by adding a regex filter:
.*[^\u0000-\u007F].*
It may be over-filtering a little, I am not sure. But better to filter too
much than not enough, I guess.
------
willvarfar
I'm very curious, what kind of communities and subjects have embraced
Mastodon?
A while back there was a lot of noise about how it was a popular place with
those uncomfortable topics that twitter had banned:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15053064](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15053064)
I clicked gingerly on the links to communities at the bottom of the article -
octodon.social, social.tchncs.de, mastodon.art, mstdn.io, mastodon.technology,
mastodon.rocks - and many of them have a live feed of posts.
I've gotta confess I couldn't quite tell what communities there were, but I'm
not an insider and I don't know how to navigate it.
~~~
Kihashi
Many of the instances are organized around a particular community. For
example, toot.cat is for "cats and the people that love them". witches.town is
"made to provide a nice place on Mastodon for queer, feminists, anarchists and
stuff as well as their sympathizers."
However, as you'd expect, you might not talk strictly about cats on toot.cat,
but you'd be talking with other cat lovers. It might be difficult to discern
the community from the local timelines. Also, some of the ones that you
mention are just general social instances.
Each instance has an about page that you can look at to get a better idea of
what it is organized around. [1]
[1]: [https://mastodon.art/about](https://mastodon.art/about)
~~~
Sir_Cmpwn
Something important to note is that though your local instance is often
closest to you, all of the instances talk and you have access to the entire
network (or nearly all of it) from any instance.
------
sdrothrock
Just joined out of curiosity
([https://mstd.tokyo/@scott](https://mstd.tokyo/@scott)) and I'm pretty
impressed by how smoothly things have gone... but I'm also a bit disappointed
by how it handles federation.
If I try searching for tags or topics, I generally come up with zero results
-- I'm never quite sure if it's because they don't exist on the instance I
joined on or whether there just aren't enough users to have that tag/topic out
there in the federation.
Discoverability seems very, very low out of the box and that seems like the
one thing that would keep me from staying on Mastodon.
Another issue I ran into was that after I tooted a few times, I started
wondering if I'd chosen a "bad" server (low activity) and started looking for
ways to move my account to another server -- it feels like a waste to go and
start up another account and leave my toots behind. :/
I really wish it were possible to just browse other instances' public feeds.
For example, I'd love to see some stuff from mastodon.art, but I can't yet
figure out a way to just browse over there short of making another account.
~~~
JD557
>Another issue I ran into was that after I tooted a few times, I started
wondering if I'd chosen a "bad" server (low activity) and started looking for
ways to move my account to another server
Account migration is still the top issue on GitHub. I was a bit disappointed
when I saw that they announced 2.0 without it.
------
styfle
Would it be possible to write a service that connects twitter into a mastodon
instance so that mastodon users can follow twitter users? I’m thiking outloud
here but besides scale, are there any other drawbacks?
~~~
mxuribe
The original creator of mastodon has stated his preference for leaving this
out of the core of mastodon:
[https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/issues/3888](https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/issues/3888)
...But by the virtue of mastodon being only one open source platform that
works on the overall federated universe and employs the OStatus protocol,
there isn't anything stopping such a service as you described from being
built...well, except for twitter eventually deciding to block access to their
platform...but i'd guess that would turn the federated universe into a sort of
social network martyr.
Anyway, sorry i digress...To answer your question a bit more concretely, there
are options for what you asked about:
* [https://github.com/halcy/MastodonToTwitter](https://github.com/halcy/MastodonToTwitter)
* [https://medium.com/@pimterry/sync-your-mastodon-back-to-twit...](https://medium.com/@pimterry/sync-your-mastodon-back-to-twitter-3c72f2bc8626)
I'm sure there are more options; try googling. Cheers!
------
nstart
Here's a quick question I have about Mastodon instances. Most instances I
visit are hidden behind a sign up home page. Is this default? How does this
encourage more people to interact? Or is that the point? Happy if anyone can
just point me in the right direction
~~~
librexpr
On the about page of an instance[0], if you scroll down, there's "a look
inside" of the federated timeline. If you know a username, you can go directly
to their page[1]. You can find the username of the admin on the about/more
page[2].
These are sample links to mastodon.social:
[0] [https://mastodon.social/about](https://mastodon.social/about)
[1] [https://mastodon.social/@Gargron](https://mastodon.social/@Gargron)
[2] [https://mastodon.social/about/more](https://mastodon.social/about/more)
~~~
rogerbraun
sadly, the federated timeline is close to useless. I don't understand why it
isn't the public timeline that's exposed.
------
CoolGuySteve
Can Mastodon work as an isolated server on a corporate network without phoning
home?
We're looking for a Slack alternative (edit: with channels). Regulations
prevent us from using external SaaS products.
~~~
daveid
Mastodon has no home to phone to. You only host your own user's data and the
data they request by e.g. following users on other instances. If your users
don't follow anyone on the outside, nothing will leave your instance.
~~~
actuallyalys
To elaborate, Mastodon.social is only a de facto home, nothing in the code
privileges that instance over others.
------
zanedb
Mastodon seems very interesting, but I have one significant issue with it.
If every instance is decentralized, how can you be sure the instance you use
is actually running the Mastodon code? How can you be sure it hasn't been
modified to collect user credentials, for example?
Is there some sort of signature verification for Mastodon instances?
~~~
detaro
You can't. (and given that it's using open protocols, not forcing everyone to
run the same software is part of the design)
That said, what "user credentials" would an instance collect? The only people
logging into it would be user registered at this instance, "capturing" that
makes no sense.
The security model is very much like the one of e-mail: To protect your data,
you have to trust your provider, and for communications both the senders and
the receivers server have to be trusted to handle the communication contents
as expected.
------
disease
How hard would it be to allow users on a server to sell their own personal
data from a federated social network with both the server admin and some
central authority taking a cut?
I feel safe in saying that users being able to sell their own data for their
profit, instead of Facebook's, would get people to jump ship.
~~~
mxuribe
Yours is a very novel, clever idea! Being a fan of decentralized platforms, i
sort of hope that these platforms get their UI, set, etc. designed in so
simple a way in the future, as to allow (non-techies) to manage their own
future...but what i forget to think about is not the "how", but the
"why"...Your idea certainly offers a good motivator for enticing people to hop
on the decentralization train, and legitimately be in control of their own
data. Thanks for sharing!!
~~~
disease
Thanks, but there's nothing novel about it. It's a recurring theme in
technology (computing in particular) where something is invented, delivers
short-term profit to a small group of people, and then becomes standardized in
some way that allows a greater, long-term benefit to a broader audience. I'm
sure some economist somewhere has even come up with a clever name for this.
Obviously the model I describe will not generate Facebook-scale wealth for any
individual player, but I believe there is still good money to be made in
addition to the positive externalities that come from standardization and
decentralization.
------
natural219
I'm the one who wrote this piece in April outlining Mastodon/GNU Social's core
problem with identity portability[1]. I'm sad to see the development team has
decided to focus on emojis and fancy features while kicking the society-
breaking problem of federated moderation down the road. As one user put it on
the open Github issue describing the problem[2]:
> Being told right up front that you should irrevocably attach your social
> life to a server run by some rando.... is not a welcoming way to start using
> a new service.
I still think Mastodon is best-in-class in terms of UI for open social
projects, and hope the development team will consider tackling this problem.
Until then, I still cannot endorse using Mastodon/GNU Social as a platform in
its current state.
[1] [https://hackernoon.com/mastodon-is-dead-in-the-
water-888c10e...](https://hackernoon.com/mastodon-is-dead-in-the-
water-888c10e8abb1) [2]
[https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/issues/177](https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/issues/177)
~~~
natural219
(For anyone interested, I can rant a little)
This problem is easily fixable code-wise, but there's hesitation to diverge
from the standards upon which Mastodon is based, and the original standards
body behind this particular issue has long since disbanded. Other than
monkeypatching Mastodon (and potentially breaking GNU social federation), the
solution would be to re-convene a working standards body to implement a
"correct" spec for this problem. Since nobody seems willing to do that,
monkeypatching Mastodon to make an order of magnitude more users comfortable
with switching to it is probably my recommendation.
The world needs more protocol standards bodies and more engaged, engineering-
minded parliamentarians.
~~~
nolanl
It looks like the Social CG is still active, and they're working on the new
ActivityPub protocol which Mastodon 2.0 supports. Follower migration is one of
the issues they're discussing:
\-
[https://www.w3.org/wiki/SocialCG/2017-10-11](https://www.w3.org/wiki/SocialCG/2017-10-11)
\-
[https://github.com/swicg/general/issues/1](https://github.com/swicg/general/issues/1)
~~~
natural219
Oh, excellent! I can't believe I missed this!
------
pc2g4d
"Toot"
Still can't get over it.
Definition 2 on Wiktionary: "A fart; flatus."
~~~
disease
I don't like this word either. Not just the 'fart' aspect, or even the
'cutesy' aspect - I just don't like how closely this apes the word 'tweet'
from Twitter.
------
evv
I can't switch to Mastodon right now because most of my network is on Twitter.
Why hasn't somebody built an instance that lets me interact with both networks
at once?
~~~
coolsunglasses
Twitter's API is aggressively limited, so limited that third party clients
barely work.
Believe me, I've tried.
------
tschellenbach
From a tech perspective I love this project, very cool. I think it's more
likely to end up partially replacing IRC than tools like Twitter/Facebook
though.
~~~
mxuribe
I'm a big fan of open platforms like mastodon and Gnu Social, and even i
acknowledge that twitter and facebook may not be fully replaced any time
soon...But the world is big enough for all to co-exist. And, just because
mastodon won;'t replace twitter/facebook, shouldn't stop us all from
playing/working on it.
Also, my bet on what platform will (eventually) replace IRC is matrix; see
[https://matrix.org/#about](https://matrix.org/#about)
Of course, that's just my opinion.
------
aqsalose
Is there a sane solution to following local timelines of several instances?
The local timeline on my instance is quite dead, the federated timeline has so
much variance it's nearly useless.
~~~
snthd
Don't think so.
Open issue "Browse Other Instances' Public Timeline" \-
[https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/issues/1053](https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon/issues/1053)
------
afandian
I'm interested to know if anyone's using Mastodon for discussing research /
scholarly publications. Equivalent of people sharing / discussing articles on
Twitter.
~~~
Jtsummers
[https://mathstodon.xyz/](https://mathstodon.xyz/)
Is geared towards math topics. That made the rounds here earlier this year.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14564624](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14564624)
------
BadassFractal
How do I browse the different instances out there to find the ones I might
want to join?
~~~
mxuribe
Visit [https://instances.social/](https://instances.social/)
You can walk through the "help wizard", or click "list" link in topnav to see
all of the known instances.
EDIT: I failed to mention, that you should not feel like joining one instance
excludes you from the greater federation of networks...you can join one
instance and follow people from anywhere else. And, if you begin to dislike
the instance that you joined, simply move to another one...or even better -
though a tad more work for you - set up your own personal instance, do
whatever you want, and still be able to follow anyone on any other instance.
------
kzrdude
(About the page design) I don't know what medium is doing. They have bars both
along the top and bottom of their page, which cramps reading. Instant reader
mode click to resolve that, which shouldn't really be needed on medium.
~~~
heroprotagonist
It's kind of curious that they posted this on Medium instead of some Mastodon
site.
~~~
daveid
Mastodon is a microblogging platform. This does not fit into the format.
~~~
Deimorz
It shouldn't be posted on _Mastodon itself_ , but they should just set up a
simple static blog somewhere. Medium is the opposite of Mastodon in so many
ways (centralized, heavy data-collection, etc.) that it really makes no sense
for them to be using it as their official method of making announcements.
------
dorfsmay
I'm confused about identity in mastodon. Your identity is based on which
server you use? So if you change server within the federation you are
essentially a different person?
~~~
ProfessorLayton
Think of it like email identities, but applied to twitter
john@ google dot com can be a different person than john@ yahoo dot com
~~~
dorfsmay
But if you owned @example.com, you could move alex@example.com from one server
to the next.
------
CaptSpify
Mastodon seems cool, but I haven't used it enough yet. Does anyone have a
client that they would recommend? Preferably a terminal-client?
~~~
rainbowmverse
This came up on a search, but I don't know if it's any good:
[https://github.com/ihabunek/toot](https://github.com/ihabunek/toot)
~~~
CaptSpify
Yeah, I've seen a few others via searching around, but I haven't heard any
reviews or anything. Thanks
~~~
rainbowmverse
I've had good luck treating stars and forks on GitHub as reviews. It means it
served someone's needs, so it's probably worth trying.
------
jeena
The only meaningfull way to use it is with your own domain so you can change
the hosters easyly without loosing your whole network of followers/friends.
You can self host for sure but it would be nice to be able to just use your
domain with one of the hosters for starters, is there such a possibility?
------
mvdwoord
Ah, mastodon again, wonder how it is going. Logs in..
Your home timeline is empty! Visit the public timeline or use search to get
started and meet other users.
Double checks, yes following people, checks again... closes tab, goes back to
somewhere else.
~~~
fenwick67
This happens if you don't log in for a while, the server stops updating your
timeline for you, and it will be empty when you first log in. If you wait a
few minutes it should populate again.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: US laws affecting private user data? - rebootthesystem
You collect user data for the purpose of offering a service or selling products through a website. Depending on the nature of the business the range of info collected can span a wide range:<p>Name, email, driver's license, social security number, credit cards, bank account/s, address, phones, etc. In other words, personal and financial data.<p>A year later a user decides to close the account.<p>What laws do we have in the US regulating what information can be kept in a database, in what form and for how long after an account is closed?<p>Or perhaps, more generally, regulating a request from a user for the deletion of said information?
======
based2
[https://www.hg.org/ecommerce-law.html](https://www.hg.org/ecommerce-law.html)
[https://www.state.gov/privacy/](https://www.state.gov/privacy/)
[https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/04/identitytheft...](https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/04/identitytheft_d.html)
[https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2016/07/anonymization...](https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2016/07/anonymization_a.html)
[https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/](https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/)
[https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/10/empty-promises-
privacy...](https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/10/empty-promises-privacy-
foreigners-abroad)
~~~
rebootthesystem
Thanks! I'll read through this.
A quick scan seems to reveal consumers in the US don't have as much control
over their private data as I thought we might. Which is bad. If someone has my
driver's license and credit card data in their database and I want it
completely erased they ought to be legally required to do so.
As someone operating multiple websites as well as a user my policy is to
delete any and all private data on request. For me it's a matter of what I
would want as a user.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Master-Less Distributed Queue with PG Paxos - ahachete
https://www.citusdata.com/blog/14-marco/411-master-less-distributed-queue-postgres-and-pg-paxos
======
teraflop
How does Paxos replication interact with Postgres transactions? This doesn't
seem to be explained in the article or docs, and the examples only show the
behavior with autocommit.
In particular, suppose I do the following sequence of operations on an empty
table:
BEGIN
INSERT INTO table VALUES ('foobar', 123);
SELECT * FROM table;
ROLLBACK;
Would the INSERT be submitted to the Paxos log immediately, causing it to be
applied on other replicas even though the transaction never committed? Or
would it be deferred until commit time, causing the SELECT to return an empty
result? Or is there something more sophisticated going on?
~~~
mslot
Once a query has been logged there's no turning back. The problem with
transactions is mainly that Paxos is fundamentally incompatible with read
committed mode. It is technically possible to log a multi-statement
transaction as a single string, which makes it serializable.
------
toolz
What are the benefits of a system like this? More available reads at the
expense of terribly slow write locks?
~~~
utternerd
From their own documentation the use case is reliable replication, and even
reads would be horribly slow:
"The drawbacks are high latency in both reads and writes and low throughput.
Pg_paxos cannot be used for high performance transactional systems. But it can
serve very well for low-bandwith, reliable replication use cases."
~~~
dijit
Better to wait for postgresql 9.6 which will have synchronous replication,
write latency but not read.
[http://michael.otacoo.com/postgresql-2/postgres-9-6-feature-...](http://michael.otacoo.com/postgresql-2/postgres-9-6-feature-
highlight-multi-sync-rep/)
~~~
ahachete
PostgreSQL supports synchronous replication since 9.1. What 9.6 will have is
support for more than one synchronous replicated server.
In any case, synchronous replication means that _all_ of the participating
servers have to participate in the replication process. If one of them slows
down or hangs, replication (and your transaction) does not proceed.
Paxos, on the contrary, can proceed when N/2+1 of the nodes are available.
That's a huge difference, and it's irrespective of the latency and
performance. In other words: while 9.6's synchronous replication is a really
welcomed addition, a single miss-behaving node will halt transactions on the
cluster, while pg_paxos will continue operating without problems. Both are
meant for different use cases.
~~~
teraflop
This isn't quite true. As described in that blog post, you can configure
Postgres to synchronously replicate to N servers but only wait for M
responses. With M=N/2+1, you get the same availability as Paxos.
The difference is that with Postgres' replication, when the master fails,
write operations can't be executed until a new master is promoted. This has to
be done carefully, because you want to make sure that no in-flight operations
are still happening on the old master (aka STONITH), and that the most up-to-
date slave becomes the new master.
Paxos avoids the need for manual (or very delicately-automated) failover, at
the cost of extra network round-trips and disk syncs on every operation.
~~~
ahachete
You are right. If you, effectively, configure it for M responses, you get the
same availability.
But there are more differences between both setups:
\- Paxos is master-less, so you can write to any node (there's no need for a
master).
\- Failover is very tough to get it right. Indeed, other than consensus, there
are no other bullet-proof solutions to achieve it under any circumstance, so
relying on a master is a significant difference.
Regarding the extra round-trips and syncs, they can be pipelined if wanted
too. I wouldn't conclude this is necessarily slower (it of course depends on
the Paxos imlementation) until properly benchmarked.
------
koolba
How does using paxos compare to standard 2PC/XA transactions? Does this only
work for append only unique data structures (ex: immutable log style)?
~~~
mslot
Paxos provides strong consistency and can proceed even if some nodes fail. 2PC
has intermediate states in which a transaction is only partially committed,
and all nodes need to be available to perform writes. The downside is that
Paxos' write throughput is bounded by network latency and it requires network
round-trips on both reads and writes. 2PC is more suitable when you require
low read latency or high write throughput.
> Does this only work for append only unique data structures (ex: immutable
> log style)?
Paxos is based on a technique called state machine replication. It replicates
an append-only log of changes to an initial state, which allows you to
replicate arbitrary data structures. For example, pg_paxos logs SQL commands
on a table (e.g. UPDATE).
------
hardwaresofton
Aren't writes going to be (potentially) crazy slow? seems like they require
every transaction to achieve a quorum.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Amazon crowns winner of first warehouse robot challenge - oillio
http://www.engadget.com/2015/06/01/amazon-picking-challenge-winner/
======
Animats
That's a nice bin-picking system. Bin-picking is a classic robotic
manipulation problem [1], and they're doing a good job. They target the object
and approach it from an angle where pickup is possible. The unusual thing here
is the range of objects picked. Most bin-picking has a far narrower range.
It's a vacuum picker, which is limited; they couldn't pick up a perforated
metal pencil holder. But over 90% of the items tested were vacuum-pickable.
That's probably a reasonable figure for Amazon's inventory, since books are
vacuum-pickable. Amazon can sort their inventory into machine-pickable and
non-machine pickable.
The new system is really slow, but that can be fixed.
[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wh2GRA9enN4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wh2GRA9enN4)
~~~
peteretep
> since books are vacuum-pickable
Really? I'd have thought they were one of a class that weren't. If you latch
on to the outer cover, you'll splay the book, which can damage hard backs.
~~~
Raphael
Perhaps all the books are shrink-wrapped to hold them shut.
------
ck2
How can self-driving cars handle going down the road at 70mph, yet bin-picker
robots have to move so slowly to be accurate?
Seems like a contradiction to me.
~~~
ChuckMcM
They don't. It is a convergence problem. If you've ever seen a pick-and-place
robot in a factor you know they can be quite fast.
Simply put, the convergence problem is getting to the correct orientation and
position to positively pick up an item. Factory robots finesse that by putting
parts in a narrow area in the work space but modern car assembly robots can
pull parts in a wide variety of orientations and positions.
Current research has focused on visual systems as it is pretty cheap these
days to put a couple of cameras near the end effector to provide a
stereoscopic view to the effector converging on the target.
~~~
nulltype
Here's a pretty sweet pick and place robot for reference:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzHpDDttIBU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzHpDDttIBU)
~~~
dankohn1
That reminds me of the famous Lucille Ball chocolate scene [0], except in this
case the robot is keeping up just fine!
[0]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NPzLBSBzPI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NPzLBSBzPI)
------
thedogeye
Congrats to Team RBO!
And whatever is the antonym of congrats to Amazon's warehouse workers!
~~~
raverbashing
Based on stories about those positions, even though they'll lose their job,
hopefully they'll have a better position.
Amazon warehouse positions have high attrition and turnaround
~~~
MCRed
It's not just warehouse, it's engineering. Amazon as a company treats
employees (outside of the executive suite) like dirt. IT's a retailer, more
like Walmart than Microsoft, and so they have no respect for engineering. The
only reason AWS happened was Vogels had enough power to isolate his people
from the rest of Amazon (though I bet that team is suffering now too.)
My boss was trained to be a prison guard and couldn't operate spreadsheets,
after a re-org, his boss was, I kid you not, one of those DMV ladies who has
no interest in doing anything but covering her butt. (I mean, literally worked
at the DMV and then got a job at Amazon managing dozens of engineers.)
They like to say things like "only hire A players" but their entire management
is D players. It's hard to get a job as an engineer there but as an
engineering manager all you need is a college degree in basket weaving and a
demonstrated ability to kiss ass.
~~~
marincounty
I do agree Amazon is just another retailer in the end. As to being a cutting
edge technology company, I don't put Amazon in the same league as any of
Musk's companies, but what do I know? I know I'm tired of UPS trucks
delivering one package. I don't feel shopping on Amazon is good for the
environment. Maybe one day--when the drones deliver all the stuff we really
don't need? Sorry, I don't like these huge stores. In Amazons defense, they do
allow little guys to sell through their store. Is Amazon as evil as Wallmart--
no!
------
joars
Cool, it would probably be less complex if the items were at one place all the
time, like with a robotic warehouse:
[https://youtu.be/6EmR0KHBj_M?t=1m](https://youtu.be/6EmR0KHBj_M?t=1m)
~~~
peteretep
I have built an automated warehouse very similar to the one in the video; you
get different items in the same totes - any other approach is simply not
feasible from a space perspective.
------
sogen
say no to spec work
------
matthewrhoden1
I wonder if it would be better to have a smart bin that would simply push
products down a slide to a conveyor belt instead.
~~~
harmarsupercar
Yes, it does seem like they're using a robot to solve a human problem. If the
robots were the ones who decided how the shelves were initially stacked then
surely there would be more elegant approaches to this? picking and packing is
a tiny part of the whole ordering and delivery system which would probably be
best re-designed from the top down if all parts are to be conducted
automatically.
That said, I'm all for businesses encouraging research to be done in this
area. Automation will swallow us all eventually, but it's going to take a
while yet...
------
saosebastiao
There's nothing like giving away something for tens of thousands of dollars
that they could have sold for tens of billions.
~~~
melling
Can you skip the snarky comment and explain why this kind of contest is bad?
To me it seems like a great idea for everyone. The contestants:
1\. Can win money
2\. Gain exposure
3\. Network with other contestants
4\. Potentially get more funding
~~~
saosebastiao
If you could teleport packages to my front porch, would you be willing to give
that to Amazon in exchange for $25k and "exposure"? Amazon becomes the first
trillion dollar company in history and you get your name on a press release
and some snack money. I would never want any sort of exposure that told people
that I'm easily duped about the value of my brain.
~~~
robotresearcher
The problem is very very far from solved. Amazon is supporting students to
work on problems Amazon cares about, and these events are very important for
Amazon to recruit engineers. Some of these young people will go work for
Amazon and some of them will start companies that Amazon will buy. I don't
think they are being duped.
Amazon's robotics group is the Kiva Systems startup they bought for a huge
amount of money a few years ago.
I was at the conference and dropped in to this event. Lots of energy and
committed teams. Many/most teams did pretty badly. I heard (but couldn't
confirm) that only one item was correctly picked on the first day. It's not
easy.
~~~
phlyingpenguin
Do they fund the research groups?
Having been a grad student (EDIT: Hey, it turns out my research group has
published at ICRA! But not while this has gone on.), I get why these events
are interesting/important. However it seems like AMZ could do a little more
than <1/8th of an engineer in prize money (not counting the cost of running
the conference).
~~~
robotresearcher
I believe they did not directly fund these group's research. Just the
challenge.
Amazon does in-house R&D and is precious about the IP, like most companies.
Academic research needs to have flexible IP deals.
Most of the Amazon funding for this event went to supporting student travel
and registrations, plus gear shipping. Details are probably confidential but
think roughly an order of magnitude more than the cash prize. Shipping is
expensive.
Funding challenges is smart. Some groups are doing funded research anyway, on
more-or-less related things like grasping, vision, manipulation, planning,
whatever. The challenge gets teams to focus on a more complete and realistic
task, thus guiding the development of their general tech in Amazon's
direction.
Bottom line: Amazon, the historically conservative low-margin retailer, showed
up at the premier IEEE robotics research conference, brought some money and
hired some grad students. Students worked hard, learned a lot. Amazon and
winners got some good press. Awesome.
It's interesting how the best team was way ahead of everyone else. I'd be very
interested to see what Amazon can do internally.
~~~
marincounty
"Amazon, the historically conservative low-margin retailer"
They are slowly raising prices. It's off topic, but I have noticed their
prices are slowly rising. I saw this happen to Home Depot, and Costco. I'm not
knocking Amazon, I just got too comfortable clicking away, and should have
been looking around for the best price.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Tired of enterprisey programming - joe_coder
First post here. Cheers to all.<p>I work as a Java programmer since 1999, but with all this mileage I do not consider myself a great programmer, only an average one.<p>Unfortunatelly most of this time I dealt only with Java, thus being a monolingual programmer... but I've never been a fanboy or evangelizer:
I stayed with it for too long because as they say, I accomodated in my 'confort zone' instead of exploring new lands.<p>After reading and dabbling with few other languages (Clojure, Scala, Python and a little Common Lisp and Haskell) I became acutely aware of Java's limitations.
This added to a slow but ever increasing impression that the Java's development/SW lifecycle is painfully slow, with low productivity and full of accidental complexities, like
those absurd apparatuses Tom or Willy E. Coyote used to catch Jerry/RoadRunner in the cartoons (design patterns anyone? want a RefreshAuthorizationPolicyProtocolServerSideTranslatorPB class?).<p>Now, I'm growing tired of Java and am thinking of quitting it (how ungrateful), but I confess I don't know how to do that! Here in São Paulo / Brazil, Java is king, still has most of the jobs offers and pays fairly well.
I'm in 40's, with two sons in high school and a housewife, so seems like I cannot risk too much.<p>What would you do if you were me? Try for example to learn and start contributing for something open-source as a ticket to enter in the brave not-so-new world of non-java programming?
That seems not a bad idea, but how to start?
======
kazinator
> _like those absurd apparatuses Tom or Willy E. Coyote used to catch Jerry
> /RoadRunner in the cartoons_
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rube_Goldberg_machine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rube_Goldberg_machine)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Resignations at Cisco hint at internal power struggle - petethomas
http://www.recode.net/2016/6/6/11871550/cisco-mpls-team-resigns
======
vanessa98
A legendary racket from days past! Leave Cisco with technology and engineers,
get generously funded by Cisco, get generously bought out by Cisco, inside
Cisco enjoy sandbagged targets and guaranteed payouts, lather, rinse, repeat.
Self-dealing masterpieces!
~~~
azernik
My impression from people who have been involved is that it's not just a self-
enriching racket; mainline Cisco is actually really bad at building new
products that aren't just minor variations on old ones. Sometimes they
innovate through acquisitions, but if there's no external company to acquire
sometimes you have to make your own to get your good engineers out of that
environment of "sandbagged targets and guaranteed payouts" for a few years.
~~~
ashwinaj
This.
(At the risk of getting down voted) Cisco is a sales driven company not an
engineering company. Barring a few business units (and that too I'm being
generous) there is absolutely no innovation or drive to build new products.
It's a terrible place to work if you are an engineer with aspirations to
tackle engineering challenges.
~~~
signa11
> Cisco is a sales driven company not an engineering company. > Barring a few
> business units (and that too I'm being generous) > there is absolutely no
> innovation or drive > to build new products.
this is _exactly_ right. for example, nick-feamster (formerly gatech, and now
at princeton) hosted a google hangout with nick-mckeown (stanford) as part of
his sdn mooc on coursera. the hangout video is approx. an hour long, and is
available here:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abXezfJsqso](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abXezfJsqso)
initial 15-20 minutes of this video describes the experience of these n/w
researchers (mckeown, cassado etc) when they presented their (sdn) idea to
execs at csco, their (exec's) rejection of the said idea, which indicating to
them (the researchers) that it (the idea) passed the so called 'idea-smell-
test' :)
if you have time to spare, watch it !
~~~
zump
What is wrong with your punctuation?
~~~
bgilroy26
Some people speak with a lot of parentheticals.
We don't need speech to be a monoculture for people to understand one another.
~~~
bllguo
I don't see how disliking that poster's writing style translates into advocacy
for a speech "monoculture."
~~~
bgilroy26
I read the comment above as disapproving of the all of the parentheses in the
gp post.
If you remove the posts from people who write that way from the total we are
closer to a monoculture.
The difference between having one fewer way of writing and literally having
one way of writing is the size of the rhetorical exaggeration in my comment
------
iaw
As problematic as Cisco's messaging was on this fiasco, Tony Fadell should
take note about how professionals handle disagreements in the press.
~~~
outside1234
I'm sure Tony Fadell still thinks he did an amazing job at Nest.
~~~
argonaut
By all objective measures he did a phenomenal job at Nest. He started and sold
it for $3.2B. The fact that he failed to continue to be successful post-
acquisition, is hardly a "poor" overall record.
~~~
outside1234
I would describe his exit as the only real thing he was successful at. The
product is not selling, his employees are all quitting, the acquirer is
pissed, the acquisitions he made are all pissed, product development is
stalled, Google had to go to plan B with Google Home, ...
~~~
argonaut
Yes, and all of that just shows he isn't perfect. But Tony Fadell will have
_no problem_ raising hundreds of millions for his next venture, joining a VC
firm, or joining another company as a C-level executive.
------
ccvannorman
It is my understanding that Cisco was founded on router technology developed
Stanford which was then patented and exploited by the company (despite
Stanford's intention that it be public domain)[1]. I wonder if the cultural
tone that that set is what, decades later, has landed them in this situation.
[1]
[http://pdp10.nocrew.org/docs/cisco.html](http://pdp10.nocrew.org/docs/cisco.html)
~~~
kijiki
The NOS was based on software written at Stanford. The HW was Andy
Bechtolsheim 68K board, which also (without the theft) become the SUN-1.
cisco paid Stanford off later, although the author of that NOS is still
unhappy.
------
mkane848
While things like Jabber have an obvious alternative (i.e. Slack), who can
compete with Cisco in terms of their desk phones and meeting room equipment? I
only ask because their hardware is so ingrained in the company I work for that
even if I were somehow able to convince everyone that Slack was worth
switching for, who the hell else am I gonna get video conferencing equipment
like this[0] from?
[0][http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/collaborati...](http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/collaboration-
endpoints/telepresence-mx-series/datasheet-c78-731263.html)
~~~
tssva
Polycom and Huawei are the two next largest providers of telepresence
equipment and there are a host of smaller competitors.
As far as phones Avaya is the big competitor in the enterprise space.
Microsoft Skype for Business/Lync is also deployed many places for voice using
phones from a variety of suppliers including Polycom and HP. Lately a lot of
enterprises have started to move away from desk phones to using soft phones.
~~~
mkane848
Cool, I'll have to look into both! Huawei feels like an "Oh, right, of course"
answer but Polycom doesn't ring any bells.
Interesting observation on the soft phones trend, though. In my work
environment our Cisco phones might as well be softphones since everything's
rigged through Jabber. Give us a webcam instead of the desk phone and I don't
see any loss of functionality.
------
thrwaway_711
MPLS' impact at Cisco is similar to that of Jeff Dean and others at Google.
They were responsible for creating Cisco's most successful products, so it's
sad to see them leave. But the power struggle is definitely undeniable, as a
lot of senior figures have departed Cisco.
~~~
zump
You mean like the Catalyst 2600?
~~~
packetized
I feel fairly confident you're not referring to the 10/100 Token Ring switch,
so... could you clarify?
~~~
quesera
I don't think there was ever a 2600 model in the Catalyst family. But the
Cisco 2600 series were incredibly common routers.
~~~
tssva
Maybe he meant the Catalyst 2900 which was really a 2 slot version of the 5000
with the sup card and a 12 or 24 port line card already screwed in. I did a
large deployment of Lightstreams (It think 1010s), Cat 5000s and Cat 2900s.
This was prior to official availability of the Cat 5000 and 2900. They were
running beta code and we had to upgrade them every couple of days. We hit a
stable enough build about a week before going live to coincide with the
official availability of the 5000s. Our customer got a big break on the
equipment but had to be live by general availability of the catalysts to be a
demonstration customer. The chain smoking tool of an engineer Cisco sent, he
like to brag his employee number was in the teens, instilled a distrust of
Cisco support engineers that future Cisco engineers have reinforced, the good
ones have been few and far between. That system made it live despite his best
efforts.
Anyways I digress. The Cat 2900 and Cat 5000 came from the Crescendo
acquisition as did Mario Mazzola and Prem Jain.
------
mdip
I'm a bit biased here since I work doing development mostly aimed at a
competitor of Cisco in the Unified Communications space, but after seeing a
few presentations by Rowan Trollope at Enterprise Connect, I have the feeling
all is not well at Cisco and this article seems to echo that.
At EC, I really felt like they were on the defense trying to market a product
that's trying to be "cool like Slack" while chiding enterprise customers for
being uncool and wanting things like control over upgrade roll-outs and being
interested in "fake clouds"[1]. Their presentation of this new product had the
feeling of an angry old man trying to sell mood rings to hipsters.
The attitude of the presenters bordered on insulting and I was reminded of a
meeting with Cisco guys with a very similar attitude, almost decade ago, when
my previous employer was trying to re-instate maintenance on our Cisco phone
infrastructure. At the time, we were looking to either get maintenance or
replace it with something else (Office Communications Server 2008 -- which
hadn't been released yet, but which Microsoft was actively courting us to
become a tester of with very good financial terms associated). The rep
sarcastically said "What are you going to do, switch to Asterisk or LCS?"[2].
My recollection of parts of this is hazy, but IIRC, they weren't willing to
budge on price and even found places that we had miscalculated the cost we
already couldn't pay, resulting in a _higher_ cost. In 15 years of dealing
with vendor reps, I've never had a call that even came close to that one. I
fielded two different calls within an hour of that meeting's end with _both_
people saying the Cisco guys were "arrogant DICKS".
Within two years my previous employer ripped out all of our Cisco IP-PBX
related devices, moved to OCS 2007 and the company has stayed with the
Microsoft Solution of Various Names since. If the vendor reps were any
indication, Cisco didn't believe there would ever _be_ competition for their
product, and had a _very_ dim view of Microsoft (still seem to, today). Their
new product (who's name escapes me) seems to be the direction they want to go,
but they're late, and aren't as good as the competition.
[1] This was a phrase the Cisco folks seemed really attached to and I kept
thinking that the one feature you want in a collaboration/"phone" system is
stability. And the "fake clouds" were things like on-prem/cloud deployment
options available from Microsoft and policies that embraced limited backward
compatibility and controlled update roll-out. For me, the phrase became "fake
clouds don't rain" (or at least when they do, you have some control over it).
[2] This is paraphrased, but not much. Microsoft had courted us at the time
and we were involved in pre-release for OCS. We didn't actually migrate to
LCS, we migrated to OCS while participating in the OCS R2 TAP. They provided
us with people on-site that basically designed and helped us roll the solution
out at no charge (they were supposed to be resources for the TAP program but
they assisted with everything).
~~~
cturner
"If the vendor reps were any indication, Cisco didn't believe there would ever
be competition for their product"
Familiar feeling. The explanation: there is no long-term horizon. All they
care about is near-term bonus, and things that position them personally.
Companies with clearly-defined leading products are under permanent risk of
being hijacked by sociopaths.
Engineers are intelligent, but we are focused on hard problems, and we are
typically invested in the platform which limits our ability to manoeuvre.
The sociopaths have nothing better to do than spend all their day
consolidating position, and they don't care if they have to destroy the
mountain in order to take it. (Once a company has been pillaged, they can just
go somewhere else and do it again.)
As an engineer, you will fight to kill this thing. But once you see it has
succeeded in taking root, immediately try to get clear of it. I don't think
this gets enough emphasis in our circles - we need a short phrase that
captures the transition point. I've just read your blog and suggest "bed
bugs".
~~~
mdip
Agreed. I think the other part of it is organizational blindness, as well.
They reacted to OCS in the same manner that Microsoft reacted to the iPhone.
They were the established player with a mature platform and here came along a
service that did things radically different and lacked, what they perceived,
as the major features that customers in that space were looking for so they
simply laughed at the product. Companies certainly didn't flock to it like
people flocked to the iPhone (a trick I think only Apple can pull off), but by
comparison, Cisco's offering provided a far less integrated experience at a
greater cost and once those back-end features got worked out (or were no
longer relevant), they had a surprise competitor with (at the time[1]) a much
lower price. Couple that with the fact that people are far more comfortable
with making video/voice calls from a PC due to Skype (consumer) and the idea
of getting rid of your desk phone[2] and taking it with you on your laptop for
all of your "business phone needs" isn't so radical anymore.
[1] At the time, there wasn't even a comparison. It took far fewer servers,
cheap (by comparison) licensing that gave you dial-in conferencing for the
cost of the server and the call's cost (no additional per-minute surcharge for
the privilege of using a bridge). I haven't priced a Cisco equivalent in a
while so that may all be different, today.
[2] You can still have a phone with Skype for Business (and they're great
phones from what I've seen) and many companies still pop those phones on
desks. I worked at Global Crossing when we switched, though, and we required a
departmental waiver to get a physical phone (to save money). People did get
decent, certified, headsets, but we made the switch the way people take band-
aids off and there was a _lot_ of bleeding in the first couple of months. It
died down once people got used to it and within a half-year, meeting rooms
went empty in favor of calls with desktop sharing (one can multitask and no
need to walk down the hall carrying your laptop). Laziness always wins. :o)
------
0FCEE9602718
It had become known that Mario, Prem, and Luca were moving on, but the
expectation was that Soni was sticking around and gaining more responsibility.
Guess not. Unfortunate for Cisco.
------
twblalock
I think Cisco is going to end up like HP.
~~~
bogomipz
Aren't they already HP?
~~~
twblalock
Not yet. They still have good revenue and a large share of the market, and new
engineering grads still want to work there.
------
irq
For those unfamiliar, the name MPLS here is also a play on
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiprotocol_Label_Switching](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiprotocol_Label_Switching)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift? - schappim
What book have you found so amazing that you have given it as a gift? This could be a tech book, biz, self help or other book.
======
ComputerGuru
_The Count of Monte Cristo_ , by Alexander Dumas. I'd read thousands of books,
novels, and other literature and never had an answer to "your favorite book?"
and thought I just wasn't meant to ever have one... Until I read it. Since
then, I've bought copies solely to have on hand to gift to people I actually
care about.
To drive home the point of just how much I loved this book, I went on to learn
French just so I could read it in the original print.
Make sure it's the full, unabridged edition (1200 or 1400 pages), though!
(Just to throw in a nonfiction title as well, Bill Bryson's _A Short History
of Nearly Everything_ is a great gift for scientifically-inclined minds (esp
younger ones) looking for a first foray into the world of nonfiction, wittily-
written and well-narrated.)
~~~
wallflower
> I went on to learn French just so I could read it in the original print.
That is one of my mom's favorite books! Can you please elaborate about the
process of getting there/how much practice it took to get you towards the
point where you could enjoy The Count of Monte Cristo in its native French?
Right now, I am studying Spanish and my reading comprehension in Spanish is
low. It is not enough to understand something like 'The Little Prince' (in
Spanish) to enjoy it.
~~~
rukuu001
I used Harry Potter as my first Spanish book :) I recommend it!
~~~
rsfern
I'll second the Harry Potter books -- I've been reading the Sorcerer's Stone
(electronically) in Portuguese after working through Duolingo. It's nice
because I am familiar with the story and there's loads of new vocabulary,
which I look up (after guessing) by switching to a translation app.
If you're on iOS, the built-in dictionary app will give you Spanish->English.
~~~
tomp
What translation app do you use (unless it's the built-in one)?
------
peckrob
I read a lot of Science Fiction for fun. These are a few of my favorites that
I've given to other people:
1\. _Vacuum Diagrams_ by Stephen Baxter. When I think of epic hard science
fiction, the Xeelee Sequence books spring to mind. With a story line that
spans millions of years (and a few dozen books), this collection of short
stories is a good introduction to one of the best and most underrated sci-fi
series out there. Baxter's _Manifold_ trilogy ( _Manifold: Space_ , _Manifold:
Time_ and _Manifold: Origin_ ) are also fantastic.
2\. _Foundation_ by Isaac Asimov. The whole Foundation series is wonderful,
but this book is a landmark of sci-fi that should be on any fan's bookcase.
3\. _The Martian_ by Andy Weir. This book is what I've been giving the last
couple years to people who don't think they like sci-fi. Everyone I've given
it to has loved it.
4\. _Rama_ by Arthur C. Clarke. Another hard sci-fi staple. The rest of the
Rama books he "co-wrote" with Gentry Lee are decent but become more space
opera than hard sci-fi. I enjoyed them but many sci-fi fans find them
polarizing.
5\. _Silver Tower_ by Dale Brown. More of a military thriller than sci-fi (
_Flight of the Old Dog_ is another favorite of mine by him) and terribly dated
by modern standards (it was written when the Soviet Union was still a thing).
But it's the first "adult" sci-fi book I ever read as a kid, so it'll always
have a special place for me.
EDIT: Another one:
6\. _Coyote_ by Allen Steele. I _love_ stories like this one: primitive,
longshot interstellar exploration and primitive, first generation
colonization. Especially for desperate reasons. The first two _Coyote_ books
were good, but I just can't get into any of the subsequent ones.
~~~
stdbrouw
Foundation is a great story, but am I the only one who thought the prose to be
absolutely awful?
~~~
sevensor
By the standards of the pulpy SF magazines _Foundation_ was published in,
Asimov was a pretty brilliant prose stylist. He's a little clunky by literary
standards, but that's a pretty high bar. The man could tell a story, though.
And he had more _ideas_ than ten other SF authors put together.
------
qwertyuiop924
I don't have any friends who haven't read it who would appreciate it, but
Clifford Stoll's _The Cuckoo 's Egg_ is both a highly entertaining thriller, a
fascinating look at how computer security was, and is, viewed, and a highly
personal story about a man trying to figure it all out. It's very funny,
entirely true, and taught me a lot.
Oddly, a lot of people hated the various more personal aspects of the book, as
you see Cliff's friends, and his life as a whole. While that's valid, calling
it a flaw in the book is, I think, inaccurate. The book as much a story a
story about Cliff as the shadowy hacker on the other side of the wires, and
that's a big part of its charm, IMHO.
_Ghost in the Wires_ , and _Exploding the Phone_ are also good, and true
stories.
~~~
joshschreuder
I thought I recognised the name... turns out Cliff is the guy from the
Numberphile videos who loves klein bottles. He is such an enjoyment to watch.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k3mVnRlQLU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k3mVnRlQLU)
~~~
vmasto
Oh dear I have no idea how and why I just spent 2 hours watching videos about
Klein bottles and Mobius strips. Fascinating.
------
mindcrime
_The Fountainhead_ by Ayn Rand is one I've given adults. For kids, every year
a local group called Book Harvest does a thing with Barnes & Noble where if
you go in a B&N store, you can donate a book straight to Book Harvest which
gives books to disadvantaged kids. For them, I usually grab a few books like
_A Wrinkle in Time_ or some Choose Your Own Adventure books or something.
I also semi-frequently buy (by accident) a second copy of a book that I
already own. Usually instead of returning those to the store, I keep them and
just give them to somebody as a gift, where the "who" depends on what the book
is.
~~~
teekert
I'm still looking for the discontinued Dutch version of Atlas Shrugged (also
Ayn Rand for those who don't know) to give to people around me (many don't
regularly read in English). It changed me, I think it can do wonders for
insecure people that tend to efface themselves for "the good of the group" and
that may be less happy than they could be because of it. Also it may very well
provide people with unbalanced marriages the motivation to speak up and teach
them that lesson that if someone loves you, you can make them happy by stating
what you want and doing it (together). I often tell people to read it, hardly
anybodies does.
I find the ideas in the Fountainhead equally powerful. Find something that you
love, do it the way you love to do it, stay true to yourself. I don't
understand how Ayn Rand always seems to trigger down votes here.
~~~
mindcrime
_I don 't understand how Ayn Rand always seems to trigger down votes here._
Me either, but I'm used to it. Whatever. The downvoters are probably the
people who thought Ellsworth Toohey was the hero in _The Fountainhead_.
~~~
stevenwiles
Actually, its because Rand readers tend to have mentalities like yours -
"Anyone who doesn't agree with me just doesn't get it because they don't
recognize how supremely intelligent I am".
You aren't the first and you won't be the last Rand fanboy with this attitude.
:)
~~~
mindcrime
_Anyone who doesn 't agree with me just doesn't get it because they don't
recognize how supremely intelligent I am_
Where in the world did you get the idea that I think anything remotely like
that??? Nothing could be further from the truth. But downvoting a post simply
for _mentioning_ Rand or one of her works? To me that's very clearly just
ideological bias, which is what I was referring to above.
~~~
stevenwiles
Haha, are you serious? You said:
"Whatever. The downvoters are probably the people who thought Ellsworth Toohey
was the hero in The Fountainhead."
You just look at your downvotes and you make some pretty ridiculous
assumptions about the people who disagree with you - that anyone who disagrees
with you is an idiot who didn't understand who the hero of the book was.
If you expect to be taken seriously in discourse, you would do well to be
mindful of how you present your views.
~~~
mindcrime
_You just look at your downvotes and you make some pretty ridiculous
assumptions about the people who disagree with you - that anyone who disagrees
with you is an idiot who didn 't understand who the hero of the book was._
I'm not making an assumption that anybody is an idiot. What I am doing is
suggesting a measure of ideological bias on the behalf of those people... that
is, the people who see Toohey as the hero of the story because they share that
ideological outlook. Of course I might be _wrong_ to say that, but I'm not
calling anyone's intelligence into question, or comparing it to my own.
_If you expect to be taken seriously in discourse, you would do well to be
mindful of how you present your views._
Of course, that's pretty much a tautology. That said, there are times when one
doesn't care whether the others take you seriously or not.
------
gooseus
This is the sort of thread that hits me right in the wallet.
Here are some books I've given as gifts recently:
* The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Civilization in the Aftermath of a Cataclysm, Lewis Dartnell[1]
* The Black Swan, Nassim Taleb[2]
* Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse[3]
* The Happiness Trap, Russ Harris and Steven Hayes[4]
* Code, Charles Petzold[5]
[1] [https://www.amazon.com/Knowledge-Rebuild-Civilization-
Afterm...](https://www.amazon.com/Knowledge-Rebuild-Civilization-Aftermath-
Cataclysm/dp/0143127047/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1470613401&sr=1-1&keywords=the+knowledge)
[2] [https://www.amazon.com/Black-Swan-Improbable-Robustness-
Frag...](https://www.amazon.com/Black-Swan-Improbable-Robustness-
Fragility/dp/081297381X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1470613378&sr=1-1&keywords=the+black+swan)
[3] [https://www.amazon.com/Siddhartha-Hermann-
Hesse/dp/161382378...](https://www.amazon.com/Siddhartha-Hermann-
Hesse/dp/1613823789/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1470613352&sr=1-1&keywords=siddhartha)
[4] [https://www.amazon.com/Happiness-Trap-Struggling-Start-
Livin...](https://www.amazon.com/Happiness-Trap-Struggling-Start-
Living/dp/1590305841/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1470613328&sr=1-1&keywords=the+happiness+trap)
[5] [https://www.amazon.com/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware-
Softw...](https://www.amazon.com/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware-
Software/dp/0735611319/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1470613285&sr=1-1&keywords=Code)
~~~
Frogolocalypse
The Black Swan is on my list too.
~~~
nl
Is it really that good?
I've started it a few times. Nassim Nicholas Taleb seems to make sure never to
use one word when ten could possibly be used, especially if some of them about
himself.
~~~
sundarurfriend
Yep, I haven't been able to finish the book either, and what I've read didn't
stand up to all the hype.
Taleb's _Antifragile_ I did, unfortunately, finish, and it's way, way worse.
Now that I think about it, both books have a similar pattern: the first dozen
or so pages present an interesting idea, which does give you a fresh and
useful mental model in understanding the world. The rest of the book,
unfortunately, meanders off into superficial redundant applications of it and
pounding into the reader's head how anti-establishment Taleb is.
------
SwellJoe
_The Elements of Style_ by Strunk and White. I've given it to just about
everyone I've known who seriously wanted to be a writer, journalist, etc. as
well as some folks who just wanted to write better. It's a small, beautiful,
book about writing better. This is the book I've gifted the most.
Several scifi books have also been gifted to friends, mostly Asimov (both the
_Foundation_ and _Robots_ series), Herbert's _Dune_ , and Clarke's _Rendezvous
With Rama_.
Also, gifted a copy of _Our Band Could Be Your Life_ by Michael Azerrad, which
is my favorite book about my favorite bands (and the American punk scene of
the early 80s). The recipient was too young to remember the scene from that
era, but was open to understanding why "punk" isn't so much a style of music,
but an ethos.
Every book I've gifted is because I really love the book, and really like the
person I'm giving it to.
~~~
omaranto
With Strunk & White I think you should ignore their advice which is often
confused or nonsensical and just imitate their prose which is delightful. This
review explains it better than I could:
[http://chronicle.com/article/50-Years-of-Stupid-
Grammar/2549...](http://chronicle.com/article/50-Years-of-Stupid-
Grammar/25497)
~~~
SwellJoe
Is there a more correct book that is similarly concise and similarly well-
written? I would love to read it, if so.
Edit: I found this blog post that lists some alternatives
[http://thewritingresource.net/2011/09/22/forget-
everything-s...](http://thewritingresource.net/2011/09/22/forget-everything-
strunk-white-told-you/)
About half of the titles are punny or plays on words, which I'm somewhat
suspicious of (even though I like puns). And, all are at least twice the size
of Strunk and White. I understand that some subjects are bigger than a ~100
page book can cover, but despite having spent a lot of my life writing (and
having published a book), I've never been able to plod through a big grammar
book. I can read _Elements of Style_ in an afternoon without feeling like it's
a chore. As noted in some of the reviews, if it's wrong it's not worth even
that much effort. But, I never thought it was predominantly wrong or
predominantly misleading. And, it usually reminds me about one or more of my
negative writing habits, and I correct it for a while until I forget again.
~~~
nabusman
On Writing Well by William Zinsser was a great book on writing. Though it's a
bit more conceptual than Strunk and White.
~~~
d4nte
I was looking to see if someone had suggested On Writing Well! I agree that it
is an excellent resource, especially for those who are already familiar with
basic grammar rules and are interested in improving their style.
------
davewasthere
The most: Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card. Think I've bought almost a dozen
copies over the years. Although that book wasn't really a gift, more a loan I
never got back.
Others:
Lord of the Rings - I gave this to the guard who detained me in Russia. I
thought it was the best revenge.
The life changing magic of tidying - to my partner. We're both messy. I've
read it, she hasn't... neither of us have changed.
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami to the friend who lent me Wind up Bird Chronicle all
those years ago and started me on the path.
~~~
joshstrange
Searched the page for Ender's Game, I've always really enjoyed that book. I
never had to read it for school but an older friend of mine did and told me to
read it. I did and then a few years later was able to use it for a "pick your
own book" report in school. I was always embarrassed to lend out my copy as it
had writing in the margins that I had to do for school so I just bought it and
gave it away whenever I was going to lend it. Really great book and this
reminds me I still need to read the rest of the Ender series, I read all of
the Bean/Shadow story line but somehow never got around to the continuation of
the Ender line.
~~~
mcphage
> I still need to read the rest of the Ender series, I read all of the
> Bean/Shadow story line but somehow never got around to the continuation of
> the Ender line.
They go in a very different direction. The Bean/Shadow books are still
military fiction, and the Ender ones are... not. I do recommend reading them,
but just don't go into them expecting anything similar.
~~~
joshstrange
This is what has kept me from reading them, I greatly enjoy military fiction
(especially when you add sci-fi into the mix, I semi-recently read the whole
Honor Harrington series and loved it).
------
funkaster
"Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams"[1]. Even if you're not in a
management track, it's a great read to learn and better understand how to
structure teams for a happy, productive and successful path.
[1]: [https://www.amazon.com/Peopleware-Productive-Projects-
Teams-...](https://www.amazon.com/Peopleware-Productive-Projects-
Teams-3rd/dp/0321934113)
Edit: add Amazon link.
------
cure
Fiction, because it is so funny:
* Good Omens, by Terry Pratchet and Neil Gaiman [1]
I wish Pratchett and Gaiman had written more books together.
[1]
[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060853980?ref_=sr_1_1&pld...](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060853980?ref_=sr_1_1&pldnSite=1)
~~~
RegW
I gave this to one son when he was about 18, along with a pretty much complete
set of Discworld: [http://www.terrypratchettbooks.com/discworld-reading-
order/](http://www.terrypratchettbooks.com/discworld-reading-order/). These
were collected over many years, so a bit of a wrench. The best of which might
be: "Wyrd Sisters" (Shakespeare), or "The Truth" (Newspapers). He can make fun
of pretty much anything, while still showing it great affection.
Neil Gaiman's "The Graveyard Book" is a great book for reading to younger
kids. Weird, creepy, but strangely uplifting, even if it does begin with a
triple murder. I can't remember which kid took that.
I bought Robert Silverberg's "Nightwings" in the 80s and read it several
times. I was going to give away but couldn't find it, so I had to buy a new
copy and read it again first. This seems to anticipate a lot that followed,
from genetic modification to drastic climate change, but it is essentially
about a character trying to cope in a mad world.
~~~
captn3m0
I recently read the graphic novel version of Graveyard Book. Would highly
recommend that as well, it is quite well done.
------
anonyfox
Rich dad poor dad. It's not the most professional book on the topics, sure.
But the content is written in a very accessible manner and I give it to young
friends that are about to throw away their life because they were never
exposed to any other mindset but "underclass".
It is really shocking to me, that bright young people (with a bachelors
degree) choose to go for a crappy paid hamsterwheel job, barely make ends
meet, feel miserable at work, begin drinking/TV to cope with these
frustrations and complain all day.
A few years ago I discovered that it isnt a choice for them at all. Many can't
even imagine that life can could be any different than this suffering. Once
you're trapped in the hamsterwheel a few years, your life is basically wasted
and you're a slave to the paycheck forever. But being exposed to very basic
lessons like kiosaki's early on can spark _just_ enough curiosity to break
out. Just invest a little time in yourself aside of work goes a long way to
improve life situations over time. Luck is when preparation meets opportunity,
not a lottery ticket.
Going entrepreneur isn't even required, but just getting paid adequately for
something you actually like doing, and the confidence by being quite good at
it, does work wonders to improve your daily quality of life. You just have to
"get" some basic ideas and invest a little effort in yourself.
~~~
dsr_
It's worth noting that this is a work of fiction.
[http://www.johntreed.com/blogs/john-t-reed-s-real-estate-
inv...](http://www.johntreed.com/blogs/john-t-reed-s-real-estate-investment-
blog/61651011-john-t-reeds-analysis-of-robert-t-kiyosakis-book-rich-dad-poor-
dad-part-1)
------
Jemaclus
"I Will Teach You To Be Rich" by Ramit Sethi
([http://amzn.to/2aF1vjF](http://amzn.to/2aF1vjF)). It's a fantastic, easy
read that takes you step-by-step into automating your finances and making
smart decisions toward not necessarily being rich, but being rich _er_ and
having some financial security on a month to month basis.
Every once in awhile, I'll have a conversation with friends about finances,
and they'll complain about how much work it is to manage money, and I'll go
home and order them this book. It's an easy $10 gift, and they've all told me
it changed the way they approach finances. Good stuff. Cannot recommend it
enough.
~~~
sooper
How much of this book applies in a non-US context? Is it worth reading anyway?
~~~
Jemaclus
I don't know how finances work in the rest of the world, but at least the half
that deals with bank accounts, savings, and automating your finances should
still be applicable. There's a sizable chunk that has to do with stocks and
retirement stuff that may not be applicable to you, but the rest of it should
be!
------
old-gregg
"The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany" by William
L. Shirer. It's a classic history book of our century which, despite its
title, primarily focuses on Hitler's raise to power in the early 30s and the
long, painful and ultimately futile international attempts at avoiding WW2 in
the late 30s.
It's a book I wish everyone would read, particularly everyone in a public
office and the media. It's a shame that comparing politicians and their
actions to Hitler has became a cliche everyone now is quick to ignore.
Meanwhile there's plenty of stuff happening in the world straight from the
Nazi playbook of the 30s.
~~~
noinsight
There's a new trilogy by Richard J. Evans about the same subject. I have them
sitting on my bookshelf but have yet to read them.
Apparently Shirer's book has drawn some criticism because he was a journalist
and not a historian whereas Evans is a historian.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Reich_Trilogy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Reich_Trilogy)
~~~
madao
This is true, however I think its safe to say that most of his work was from
primary sources, he kept extensive journals during the period and was also
lucky enough to talk to several generals of OKW and get access to their
journals. Not to mention that he also gained access to the Nuremberg trial
records and German records (very well documented) after the war. Well worth
the read.
------
taylodl
I give _Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance_ to High School graduates.
It's a good book for that time in a person's life.
~~~
Dowwie
+1, but gave it to a someone who was quitting his job and about to take on an
entirely new career
------
chenster
"How to read a book" should be the first book gift you ever give. It changed
my life. [https://www.amazon.com/How-Read-Book-Intelligent-
Touchstone/...](https://www.amazon.com/How-Read-Book-Intelligent-
Touchstone/dp/0671212095)
------
justifier
i play a game where i have duplicate copies of some books to give to anyone
interested who has yet to have heard of one
here's a incomprehensive list in alphabetical order:
a people's history of the united states; howard zinn
a rebours; joris-karl huysmans
alcestis; euripides
apology; plato
belaya staya; anna akhmatova
die verwandlung; franz kafka
elements; euclid
epic of gilgamesh; unknown
ficciones; jorge luis borges
fractals: form, chance and dimension; benoit mandelbrot
fragments; sappho
gospels of mary and judas; unknown
i ching; unknown
la vida es sueno; pedro calderon de la barca
leaves of grass; walt whitman
letters of vincent van gogh
meghaduta; kalidasa
my life; isadora duncan
nightwood; djuna barnes
oku no hosomichi; basho
one piece; eiichiro oda
poems; emily dickinson
relativity: the special and general theory; albert einstein
saga; fiona staples and brian k vaughan
the brothers karamazov; fyodor dostoyevsky, translated by constance garnett
the first third; neal cassady
the power of pi; stickman lagrou graves
the secret life of salvador dali; dali
the way of a pilgrim; unknown
twelth night; william shakespeare
thing explainer; randall munroe
ulysses; james joyce
women, race, and class; angela davis
if you want a quick description of any i enjoy talking about them, and i
appreciate suggestions
~~~
krisdol
Someone stole a A People's History of The United States from me at a party I
hosted, and I don't mind at all. Hope they read it or gave it to someone who
would.
~~~
justifier
one of the wildest first read throughs you will ever experience
especially if you come from an us educational upbringing where songs about
oceans being blue(o) are historical place holders stead primary sources
the elucidation is immediate.. zinn's first paragraph has an excerpt from
christopher columbus' log:
They ... brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other
things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks' bells. They
willingly traded everything they owned... . They were well-built, with good
bodies and handsome features.... They do not bear arms, and do not know them,
for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of
ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane... . They would
make fine servants.... With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make
them do whatever we want.
fuck you chris
if you like zinn check out angela davis, her ability as a historian to find
substantial sources is incredible
(o)
[http://www.teachingheart.net/columbus.htm](http://www.teachingheart.net/columbus.htm)
~~~
justifier
"Did Christopher Columbus ever make this statement?"
[http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/18080/did-
christ...](http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/18080/did-christopher-
columbus-ever-make-this-statement)
------
halhen
I've given Alan Watts The Book to at least five people I thought could use it.
Four of them never mentioned it again. I'm marrying the fifth next month.
~~~
dominotw
heh. I tried to get my friends into Jiddu Krishnamurthi but unfortunately
people in the west seem to have a pavlovian revulsion to eastern 'guru's from
the east nowadays.
There seems to be some sort of strange obsession with applying the scientific
method to psychological issues. Bunch of my friends started meditating because
it is 'scientifically proven' to make them happy, make them rich, make them
have good sex or whatever . Nevermind that all those "studies" are pure
nonsense[1]. But people will buy anything with the stamp of science on it,
they are not joking when they claim 'I believe in science not god' .
Congratulations on your wedding and for finding a compatible partner. That's
really great!!
1\.
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19123875](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19123875)
~~~
antisocial
I am glad to see somebody mentioning Jiddu Krishnamurti here. He is the most
underrated and forgotten person, mainly due to his own insistence, but he made
a tremendous difference to some lives. I've come across his books almost
twenty years ago, I haven't read any of his books in years now, but his
teachings(insights he shared, because he wouldn't like to be called a teacher
) are so well ingrained that I am reminded of them every day.
Similar to the OP of this thread, I didn't marry a person who said he finds
his teachings dry :), I am now happily married to my spouse for twelve years
who humbly says it is too difficult to really understand Jiddu.
------
feiss
"A short history of nearly everything" by Bill Bryson. The best science book
I've ever read, recommended for anyone.
~~~
passivepinetree
Bryson has a wonderful way of dealing with academic subjects that most would
find boring and making them both interesting and approachable. I recommend
this book as well.
------
collinglass
Eric Fromm's The Art of Loving.
It's my grandmas favorite non-fiction and she's read over 1000 books. She gave
it to me and it sat on my shelf for months because the title wasn't appealing
and I'm not a big book reader. Since I read it, I've now bought a second
version of this book and give it to friends to read.
It's a technical write-up about Love in the general sense. Fromm pitches the
idea that love is an art rather than a feeling.
I highly recommend the read. This book discusses the topic in a serious and
insightful way.
------
klausjensen
I have given away ~20 "Who Moved My Cheese" by Spencer Johnson over the years.
It is a great little book, which deals with how we handle change in our lives
(work and other) and how we sometimes fail to see, when it is time to move on.
My favorite one-sentence takeaway from the book is the question: "What would
you do, if you were not afraid?" \- which has helped me make hard decisions
many times over the years.
[https://www.amazon.com/Who-Moved-My-Cheese-
Amazing/dp/039914...](https://www.amazon.com/Who-Moved-My-Cheese-
Amazing/dp/0399144463)
~~~
rplnt
The reviews on goodreads[1] are hilarious. Ordered it right away, though I
mostly don't read books that I order, so...
1\.
[http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4894.Who_Moved_My_Cheese_](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4894.Who_Moved_My_Cheese_)
------
nickbauman
"Ishmael, An Adventure of Mind and Spirit" by Daniel Quinn. The book that
created and destroyed the _Turner Tomorrow Foundation_ Fellowship Award. It
will make you examine some of the most profound myths at the center of our
civilization and how those myths will determine our destiny, for better or for
worse. It's a book that changed the way I think fundamentally. I will never be
the same because of it.
~~~
dredmorbius
Curious about that "created and destroyed" bit.
I found this at NY Times:
[http://www.nytimes.com/1991/06/05/books/judges-in-turner-
awa...](http://www.nytimes.com/1991/06/05/books/judges-in-turner-award-
dispute-merits-of-novel-given-a-500000-prize.html)
~~~
nickbauman
I think Quinn's win and the controversy Styron stirred up afterward shut down
the award. After all, there were 2500 manuscripts to start with. Quinn's next
novel, _The Story of B_ addressed some of the criticism Styron (and others)
had. I think it might be even better than _Ishmael_ because of it.
------
jasonlmk
I'm surprised there aren't more philosophy-oriented books mentioned here. I
think they make great gifts.
Many of my friends are straight out of university, and it's a period where
most people seem to start asking existential questions. The two books which
have affected me greatly (and which I regularly give as gifts) are:
* Meditations by Marcus Aurelius * Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
------
kareemsabri
The Selfish Gene - fundamental world-view shaker
~~~
bobcostas55
I think The Extended Phenotype is a better choice. It contains the central
insight of The Selfish Gene, and then adds a lot on top of it.
~~~
kareemsabri
I've never read that one - I'll add it to my list!
------
AdrianRossouw
Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking. I pay it forward.
Stopped smoking six years ago and haven't had the desire to start again since.
it feels great.
I actually played the nintendo DS adaptation of the book, which was also
available on ios for a while.
it turned all the points the book was trying to make into a series of
minigames that really illustrated the principles beautifully.
~~~
steinsgate
Yes that's a great book. I am still amazed how well it worked for me. I was a
chain smoker smoking 40 cigs a day, and then I read the book and poof! I
stopped for good.
~~~
nikmobi
I second this! I've recommended this to countless people. Did you guys find
that a lot of people are really skeptical that a book can have such an impact?
It certainly worked wonders for me as well.
~~~
steinsgate
I was skeptical at first too. But man, was I wrong! I have recommended it to
about four or five friends so far. Only one read it till the end. And it
didn't work so well on him, even though he reduced smoking. Did the book work
on your friends who read it completely?
~~~
nikmobi
I have one other friend (the only one of them all to actually read) and it was
just as effective for him as it was me. I'm now trying to get my sister to
read it. The hard part seems to be getting people to pick it up and stick it
through.
~~~
steinsgate
Best of luck getting your sis to quit :-)
~~~
nikmobi
thank you :)
------
chiph
I've given out a few copies of _Corporate Confidential: 50 Secrets Your
Company Doesn 't Want You to Know---and What to Do About Them_. So far, the
recipients have done well after reading it. It really clued them into the
hidden meaning behind common corporate-speak.
[https://www.amazon.com/Corporate-Confidential-Secrets-
Compan...](https://www.amazon.com/Corporate-Confidential-Secrets-Company-Know
----ebook/dp/B003K15PC4)
------
mwest
_The Player of Games_ , by Iain M. Banks -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Player_of_Games](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Player_of_Games)
~~~
Jaruzel
I've been scrolling through all the comments, seeing if someone mentioned the
late great Mr Banks. His Culture books are almost perfect hard sci-fi in my
opinion, and his contemporary collection contain some amazing books ( _The
Wasp Factory_ , and _The Bridge_ immediately come to mind).
------
SyneRyder
_Anything You Want_ by Derek Sivers.
It's still my favorite book on business, a short easy read filled with
anecdotes from his time running CD Baby. The situations are ones I keep
encountering myself running a small business, and the way the stories are
written makes them highly memorable & applicable. If I can't decide between
opportunities, I remember "Hell Yeah! or No." If I'm working on fraud
screening, I remember "Don't Punish Everyone For One Person's Mistake". When
working on an MVP and feel it isn't big enough, I'm reminded of "Start Now. No
Funding Needed." And it has my favorite twist ending in business.
It's the first book I've specifically bought multiple copies of to give away,
including to clients.
------
AlphaGeekZulu
Douglas Hofstadter: Gödel, Escher, Bach
~~~
durga
I tried to read this book but never quite understood it. What's it really
about?
~~~
qwertyuiop924
It's about the thing it's about.
~~~
dahart
Maybe you should add "spoiler alert"? ;)
~~~
qwertyuiop924
Nah. if you haven't read GEB, your brain won't evaluate the previous statement
correctly, and you won't gain any information.
Neurolinguistic hacking! (it works, just ask Stephenson)(JOKE)
~~~
dahart
Yeah, right, I know, your comment was hilarious! I was adding joke to joke,
but I guess I failed, someone else even downvoted my bad joke. Did my smiley
make it feel snarky?
~~~
qwertyuiop924
Look, I don't know. I didn't down you.
------
pjmorris
I've given a copy of 'The Making of the Atomic Bomb', Rhodes, and lent a copy
that didn't come back. The gift recipient has urged the book on various
managers, as the book has much to teach of scientific and technical
management, as well as much, much more.
~~~
tbihl
Along the same lines, I'd recommend 'The Rickover Effect'.
------
warpas
"Freakonomics" by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. Great book about how
and why people respond to incentives. A lot of good examples told through
fascinating stories supported by data.
~~~
hollander
Don't shoot the dog, by Karen Pryor, about operand conditioning, the effects
of positive and negative reinforcement. This is a fun book, and very
informative.
------
durga
Surely you're joking, Mr Feynman is amazing.
~~~
haukur
I was going to say the same thing. "What Do You Care What Other People Think",
another Feynman book, is also pretty good.
------
iamben
I've literally just bought someone "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" by Haruki
Murakami. It was the first Murakami book I read, and I've read plenty since.
Wonderful.
~~~
elliott34
I read Murakami books not because they are entirely entertaining WHILE I'm
reading them, but because the dream-like memory of the experience sticks in
your mind for years.
~~~
john2x
Wow, you aren't kidding. After reading your comment I tried to recall Wind-Up
Bird, and got the same sensation.
------
jen729w
Hyperion by Dan Simmonds. It, and the follow-up Fall of Hyperion, are by far
and away my favourite sci-fi books.
Given them to 5+ people over the years and every one has loved them.
~~~
Ntrails
I was gifted my copy, and have gifted 3 copies to others now. Pay it forward
:)
------
upbeatlinux
I found each of these invaluable at different points in my life. YMMV
Biz - the Personal MBA - Josh Kaufman -
[http://amzn.to/2aFsj3c](http://amzn.to/2aFsj3c)
Org - the Fifth Discipline - Peter Senge -
[http://amzn.to/2aNpbQz](http://amzn.to/2aNpbQz)
SciFi - Perdido Street Station - China Mieville -
[http://amzn.to/2aNoWFn](http://amzn.to/2aNoWFn)
Parenting - The Continuum Concept - Jean Liedloff -
[http://amzn.to/2aZEAAL](http://amzn.to/2aZEAAL)
------
pjmorris
The software-related books I've given most often are Gerald Weinberg's
'Becoming a Technical Leader', Brook's 'Mythical Man Month', Demarco and
Lister's 'Peopleware', Hunt and Thomas 'The Pragmatic Programmer', and
Mconnell's 'Code Complete'.
------
xacaxulu
I always have copies of George Orwell's "Animal Farm" to give out. As I get
older, I love seeing younger people flip out when they read it and see how
applicable it is in modern life.
~~~
unimpressive
Having read at least one history book about the Soviet Union, I'd recommend
you not waste your time with Animal Farm and read an actual history book
instead. The plot is basically ripped from Russian history, as it was intended
to be a critique of Stalinism.
My taste for Orwell's two most read, _Animal Farm_ and _1984_ was especially
dulled after I read his non-fiction masterpiece _Homage To Catalonia_ which is
a harrowing lesson in realpolitik and the socialist infighting of the 1930's.
[http://www.george-orwell.org/Homage_to_Catalonia/](http://www.george-
orwell.org/Homage_to_Catalonia/)
~~~
StanislavPetrov
_1984_ and _Animal Farm_ aren't important for their historical allegories but
their statements about the nature of society, and are just as poignant when
applied to today's society as they were about the Soviet Union.
_Homage To Catalonia_ is a wonderful book. I would also highly recommend
checking out _Down and Out in Paris and London_ and _Burmese Days_ (two works
of fiction loosely based on events from his real life experiences).
------
endgame
Gift? Not quite, but I enthusiastically offer my copies of Simon Singh's books
up for loan when anyone sounds vaguely interested. "The Code Book" is a great
history of cryptography and "Fermat's Last Theorem" is a good history of the
problem and its eventual solution.
~~~
Zezima
Yes!
I actually just finished "Fermat's Last Enigma" after reading "The Code Book"
2 years ago.
He's an excellent author who begins all of his books with the premise that the
lay person will be reading it. He even makes this explicit in Fermat's Last
Enigma.
He gives the reader an amazing depth of knowledge by gradually building on
very simple examples and explanations which still can intrigued someone with
deep technical knowledge.
Coming into "Fermat's Last Enigma", I had two years of higher level math,
number theory, discrete math, and linear algebra. I still learned so much
about Mathematics, the progress of the field, and proofs of simple things like
Pythagorean triples.
Singh is the best scientific writer, truly.
------
stevenking86
Vagabonding by Rolf Potts
It opened the doors to the remote lifestyle for me and led me to switch to
careers to tech (due to the abundance of remote opportunities) and to embrace
a new kind of lifestyle.
[http://www.vagabonding.net/](http://www.vagabonding.net/)
~~~
cosmic_shame
What career field did you transition from?
~~~
stevenking86
I was a talent buyer for the live music industry - booking bands for a music
venue. Involved being physically at the space a few times a week.
~~~
pm
And here I am trying to transition going from tech into music (as a musician
though - we'll see how it goes). Any words of wisdom from your side of the
music bench?
~~~
stevenking86
You can definitely do both! I still perform music as well. I went from
performer -> music industry pro -> programmer. Making money as a performer was
definitely the toughest. But it pairs well w/ tech work if you can do your job
during the day and play at night. If you're trying to make it in rock music,
you'll be disgusted at how little has to do w/ how good you are or how good
your music is. It's very much who you know and how well you can promote
yourself. If you're trying to make it in jazz/classical it's more of a
meritocracy so just practice a lot and you'll get gigs. Good luck!
------
mooreds
Books I found so amazing that I actually bought copies and given them as a
gift (in some cases to multiple people):
* Perennial Vegetables by Eric Toensmeier--eye opening list of vegetables that come back year after year
* The Hard Thing About Hard Things, by Ben Horowitz. Somewhat presumptuously, I bought multiple copies and sent them to some of my friends/acquaintances that were CEOs.
* Climate Wars, by Gwynne Dyer. This mix of fiction and non fiction really brought the climate change crisis to my attention.
------
PebblesHD
My personal favourite that I've given as a gift is Thomas Glover's Pocket Ref
[0]. Its easily the most useful thing you can buy for anyone in engineering,
fabrication or just generally a tinkerer. I've loved my copy since I was given
it as a kid.
[0] - [https://www.amazon.com/Pocket-Ref-4th-Thomas-
Glover/dp/18850...](https://www.amazon.com/Pocket-Ref-4th-Thomas-
Glover/dp/1885071620)
------
crdb
It's tough finding books that don't send a message to the receiver. I
particularly remember a colleague expressing disappointment at whichever
secret Santa gave him The Fountainhead at the office Christmas party (he was
pretty left wing).
The four I remember gifting were Asimov's entire Foundation series, Joseph
Conrad's Heart of Darkness, The Phantom Major by Virginia Cowles and See you
in November by Peter Stiff.
~~~
ChicagoBoy11
HA, I gave Atlas Shrugged to my boss and told her it was because she really
reminded me of Dagny Taggart -- she was really happy about it, as far as I can
tell
------
d-roo
A couple years ago a friend gave me 'It Starts With Food' and after reading it
I bought it for at least a half-dozen of my friends. It was truly life
changing for me and my approach to food and health. Within a couple weeks I
went from having hypertension/pre-hypertension to normal blood pressure and
over the course of 6 months or so I lost 40 lbs. Changing my diet to 'whole'
foods redefined for me what hunger was. My daily diet had been one of going
from one sugar high to the next. What I interpreted as hunger and a big
appetite were in fact cravings for sugar.
Admittedly, it may be a bit below the reading level for the average user here
but I can't recommend this book enough. Especially for those of us that sit in
front of a computer all day. Take a look at the reviews at Amazon which are
numerous and nearly unanimous. Do yourself a favour and give it read.
[https://amzn.com/1628600543](https://amzn.com/1628600543)
------
david-given
Barry Hughart's _Bridge of Birds_.
Set in a mediaeval China that never existed (but should have), it's the story
of how village peasant Number Ten Ox and the ancient sage Master Li (who has a
slight flaw in his character) go on a quest to save the children of his
village from a plague which can count... and the _other_ quest which they find
themselves part of.
On the way you'll learn how to make a fortune with a goat, how not to cook
porcupine, the best way to move rocks using only a corpse, why you should
always be polite to ginseng, and the true meaning of courage. You'll meet
ghosts, monsters, and gods --- and they're typically _less_ bizarre than the
human cast, which contains such jewels as the Ancestress, Miser Shen, the Old
Man of the Mountain, Lotus Cloud and of course, the inimitable Ma the Grub and
Pawnbroker Fang...
It's by parts hilarious, touching, gripping, and there are parts that will
make you cry from sheer beauty. Read this book.
------
psiclops
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse. I learned a lot from that novel
~~~
tingol
Like what?
------
KRuchan
"The Defining Decade" by Meg Jay to anyone in their twenties.
Shameless plug -I posted a summary here:
[https://rkirti.wordpress.com/2015/12/05/learnings-from-
the-d...](https://rkirti.wordpress.com/2015/12/05/learnings-from-the-defining-
decade/)
------
joshstrange
Motivating the Middle [0] by T.J. Sullivan
It's a relatively short book and it's focus is on college fraternities (which
is what I was in when I first read it). I bought about 20 copies and handed
them out after reading it. While it has nothing to do with software
development I have found it's core message to be applicable to working on a
team. The core message is you can normally divide your organization up into 3
categories, these will not necessarily be equal in size. These categories are
the highly motivated "top" go-getters who will do everything they can to help
further the org, the "middle" who with the right motivation can work just as
hard and be just as driven as the first group, and the "bottom" who rarely
make more than minimum effort if that and are extremely unlikely to go out of
their way for the greater good of the org. The book suggests to more or less
ignore the bottom and spend your energy on "motivating the middle" to use them
to their greatest potential. It says that spending your time on the bottom is
a fruitless endeavor and will only result in alienating the middle people who
are somewhat on the fence.
Now this applies much more to a community-run (in this case student-run)
organization where letting someone go is often off the table (in greek life
removing a brother/sister can be a much bigger challenge than one might
assume). I do not bring any of this up to debate the pros and cons of greek
like of which there are many (you can talk to me privately if you wish to do
that), but just to bring some clarity to what I'm trying to say.
Often as an employee not in a managerial role you are in a similar situation
and while I'd be a lier if I said I always applied this logic but I do try to
always remember that being annoyed/angry with under-performers is, in all
honesty, a zero-sum game. It's best to focus on what I can do to make the
place I work better and work to bring the "middle" to want the same.
It's probably not the best book to bring up here but it's really the only book
I'd ever bought for more than 1 person (and the only one that I didn't by for
purely entertainment/enjoyment reasons, I've gifted fiction books on a number
of occasions).
[0] [https://smile.amazon.com/Motivating-Middle-Fighting-
College-...](https://smile.amazon.com/Motivating-Middle-Fighting-College-
Organizations/dp/1604946903?sa-no-redirect=1)
------
dantheman
Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt [https://mises.org/library/economics-
one-lesson](https://mises.org/library/economics-one-lesson)
It's focus is to get people thinking about 2nd and 3rd order effects. It's
very simple and well written.
------
matwood
Replay by Ken Grimwood.
[https://www.amazon.com/Replay-Ken-
Grimwood/dp/068816112X](https://www.amazon.com/Replay-Ken-
Grimwood/dp/068816112X)
It's ground hog day, but on a lifetime scale. The search for happiness and
what it means to be happy.
------
thallian
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett + lots of the Discworld novels
(also by Terry Pratchett).
The latter have become one of the basic building blocks of my life.
------
nhumrich
Peopleware
Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams (3rd Edition)
[https://www.amazon.com/dp/0321934113/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_1Y6P...](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0321934113/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_1Y6Pxb1RFKP38)
------
probinso
"Calvin and Hobbes: there is treasure everywhere"
This book was amazing.
------
pavlov
I gave Stafford Beer's "Think Before You Think" [1] as a gift because I didn't
seem to understand any of the book, so I gave it to someone smarter than me in
the hope she would eventually explain it to me. I've forgotten to follow up on
that.
[1] [https://www.amazon.com/Think-Before-You-Complexity-
Knowledge...](https://www.amazon.com/Think-Before-You-Complexity-
Knowledge/dp/0954519469)
(Edit: I just looked at the Amazon page and realized the book seems to cost
about $200 used -- can that be true...?! I think I paid $30 for it. Maybe I
should have kept it.)
------
misiti3780
Antifragile by Taleb
The Black Swan by Taleb
Thinking Fast & Slow by Kahneman
Guns, Germs, and Steel by Diamond
The World According To Monsanto by Robin
The Organized Mind by Levitin
The Vital Question by Lane
Life Ascending by Lane
Chasing the Scream by Hari
Anything By Gladwell.
------
x0x0
_The Book With No Pictures_ by BJ Novak. It's a great book for friends with
kids under 6 or so. You can see the author reading the beginning here:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cREyQJO9EPs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cREyQJO9EPs)
I've given probably 10 copies to family and friends with kids and it's been
universally liked.
[https://www.amazon.com/Book-No-Pictures-B-J-
Novak/dp/0803741...](https://www.amazon.com/Book-No-Pictures-B-J-
Novak/dp/0803741715)
------
voycey
I tend to either give "The Belgeriad" or "Mistborn" as a gift to people who
want to get into Fantasy.
I think when Rothfuss releases his final Kingkiller Chronicle book it might be
my new intro series :)
~~~
mden
Why did you have to remind me about Kingkiller Chronicle :(
Also Brandon Sanderson's Way of Kings (fantasy and same author as Mistborn).
The audio books are really good.
------
ehudla
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
~~~
Dowwie
+1
------
simonpure
Alexander Osterwalder's Business Model Generation [0]
[0]
[http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/book](http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/book)
------
openfuture
I buy books that catch my interest when I'm travelling and then give them to
people I meet who I think will appreciate them. I'm so tired of giving books
to family that then never read them. Anyway, books I've given recently (last 3
months):
The Dominant Man: The Pecking Order of Human Society
[https://www.amazon.com/dominant-man-pecking-order-
society/dp...](https://www.amazon.com/dominant-man-pecking-order-
society/dp/B0006C317G)
__ Completely changed my perspective on social interaction. I've been trying
to get people to read this but the title sounds very non-pc. Got it for 1AUD
on a second hand book table somewhere, it's very dry though and mostly just
presents evidence without drawing conclusions.
Cat's Craddle - Kurt Vonnegut __ I love the word Karass. Lots of travelers
like this book.
When Nietzsche wept __ Amazing book, the amount of strategy in their
conversations is amazing and the book is just high quality. Best to know some
stuff about Nietzsche and that era before you read it though.
Teach us to sit still - Tim Parks __ Not something you'd give to anyone but if
the person is a little intrigued by meditation then this book will probably
get them to start doing it.
Why the West Rules for Now: The patterns of history and what they reveal about
the future __ I had learned the history of certain periods in certain
locations but this book brought it all together into a cohesive narrative.
Highly recommended if you want to start inquiring into history but don't know
where to start.
Carlos Castaneda's series on learning shamanism __ I dunno what to think of
this. I can believe that the guy actually experienced what he's writing, it's
just too much to make up imo. Anyway I'd recommend it to anyone interested in
philosophy, religion or meditation because it's just such a radically
different perspective on how to live life and the meaning of enlightenment.
\--
I also have a long list of books that I've seen recommended here or
recommendations from people I've met all over the world that I use for
inspiration when I need to give gifts for Christmas or something but I haven't
read them yet so I won't mention them here.
------
azogue
Colleen McCullough's _The First Man in Rome_. It's historical fiction, set in
Rome a few years before Julius Caesar was born. I began reading it to see what
I could learn about how war was waged by the romans and was absolutely dazed
by the political and social intricacies exposed.
One of the most welcome gifts I've ever bought. One friend told me he had
rediscovered the pleasure of reading; another read the full _Masters of Rome_
series shortly after. Really good feedback.
Terry Pratchett's _Night Watch_ is also one of my favorites to give. Although
when asked if it is the first of a series people tend to be somewhat surprised
by the answer: I send them a graph spanning all the Discworld books[1]. _Night
Watch_ is in no way the first but I've found it to be a good starter and the
order is not that important in Pratchett's books.
Hermann Hesse's _Siddhartha_. Already mentioned by someone. Some translations
have an incredibly lyrical prose, but you've got to be careful with the one
you buy.
[1] [http://images6.fanpop.com/image/photos/38700000/The-
Discworl...](http://images6.fanpop.com/image/photos/38700000/The-Discworld-
Reading-Order-Guide-2-0-discworld-38786764-1000-1198.jpg)
------
phaitour
Fiction: The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón is beautifully written
and I've recommended it to many people. I've gotten lost in Carlos' worlds
over and over again, and the cemetery of forgotten books is mesmerizing.
Humor: Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson. I've recommended this to many friends
who needed a good laugh. I don't remember another book that made me laugh so
hard that I dropped the book.
Non-fiction: this one's a tough one because many good books are mentioned
already, but two that I really enjoyed and have recommended in the last year
are: Boyd by Robert Coram and How the Other Half Banks by Mehrsa Baradaran.
Boyd tells the story about a brilliant but petulant air force pilot who
rewrote the guidelines of US military aviation. How the Other Half Banks is an
eye opening account of how broken our banking system is and the history of how
we got to where we are.
Business: again, a lot of good books are mentioned already, but two I've
enjoyed are Smarter Faster Better by Charles Duhigg and Never Split the
Difference by Chris Voss. Both are fascinating books that'll leave you
thinking about how to improve your own game.
\--Edit--
Bonus: When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi is a tremendous piece. It's a
short read but a must read!
------
jsmith0295
Atlas Shrugged
Just kidding. I did give a friend The Go Programming Language by Donovan &
Kernighan, though
------
itbeho
Fiction: _Nine Princes in Amber_ by Roger Zelazny.
Non-Fiction: _How to Win Friends and Influence People_ by Dale Carnegie
Technical: _The C Programming Language_ by Kernighan and Richie
~~~
colomon
I'd forgotten, but back in the day I gave several people the Science Fiction
Bookclub omnibus edition of the first five Amber books. Seems like you could
always find them in used bookstores...
------
miduil
This Saturday as a birthday present for a 14 year old friend of mine, who
haven't been reading so much lately:
* Persepolis, first version
* Dark Angel, by David Klass
I've just started reading "Flowers for Algernon", I guess this can also be a
good birthday present. I think gifting books is something very difficult, in
my experience I never wanted to get books for present.
------
evanb
Bradbury: Now and Forever: Somewhere a Band Is Playing & Leviathan '99
Gleick: The Information
Michener: The Source
Martin: A Song of Ice and Fire (all of them, digital)
~~~
acidburnNSA
Just read The Source. What an epic whirlwind of historical fiction. Good call.
~~~
SeanBoocock
I read it in high school and I still remember how enchanting it was some
fifteen years on. What a great look through historical epochs. I need to put
it on my short list to reread.
------
schappim
I have given The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch.
------
rahulskateboard
I have in the past gifted multiple books written by Terry Pratchett,his
Discworld series is an amazing example of social satire.The people who tend to
love his stuff most are usually science oriented folks though since he tends
to reference a lot of technology in an oblique fashion,including programming.
------
bjelkeman-again
Maverick, by Richardo Semler. I must have given away a dozen of this book to
various people. Very inspiring if you are looking to build an organisation.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maverick_(book)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maverick_\(book\))
------
adrinavarro
I have given out as a gift a copy of 'Predictably Irrational'. I found it
interesting and insightful at many different levels (whether you're just a
normal person and enjoy those 'huh' moments, or you're actually dealing with
this stuff at a professional level).
------
wj
A cookbook is the book I have given the most. Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller
is an absolutely great book for somebody that is getting into cooking.
Of the top of my head some books I gave my brother included Salt, Siddhartha,
and Shantaram. There were others that didn't start with an S as well.
------
smacktoward
The Stephen Mitchell translation of the _Tao Te Ching_ :
[https://www.amazon.com/Tao-Te-Ching-
Laozi/dp/0060812451/ref=...](https://www.amazon.com/Tao-Te-Ching-
Laozi/dp/0060812451/ref=sr_1_3)
It's beautiful.
~~~
roylez
I was about to say the same. Recommended it to a few friends. It is a life
changing book, even more enjoyable than original Chinese version.
------
acidburnNSA
East of Eden by John Steinbeck. It's about life. Has become 2 recipients'
favorite book so far.
------
wilwade
No kids books have been listed, but I have found them all too often
enlightening. Sometimes even more than an adult book.
I and my kids have enjoyed all of Graeme Base's books, but The Eleventh Hour
is particularly good and have given it to many kids and adults:
[http://graemebase.com/book/the-eleventh-
hour/](http://graemebase.com/book/the-eleventh-hour/)
I am also thinking about giving Yertle the Turtle By Dr. Seuss out to anyone I
meet before the election:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yertle_the_Turtle_and_Other_St...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yertle_the_Turtle_and_Other_Stories)
I have given many Dr. Seuss books away as well.
~~~
flubert
Get a couple of the collections of Dr. Seuss.
Can't help but think that in addition to "Yertle", that "Sneetches", "Horton
Hears a Who", and "The Grinch who Stole Christmas" are all timeless
masterpieces.
[https://www.amazon.com/Six-Seuss-Treasury-Dr-
Classics/dp/067...](https://www.amazon.com/Six-Seuss-Treasury-Dr-
Classics/dp/0679821481/)
[https://www.amazon.com/Hatful-Seuss-Favorite-Sneetches-
Barth...](https://www.amazon.com/Hatful-Seuss-Favorite-Sneetches-
Bartholomew/dp/0679883886/)
------
shabinesh
I am not much into fiction, my gift depends on the kind of person I gift to,
few books I most of the time prefer gifting,
1\. The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche, for those
spiritual minds. I am a huge fan of this book, I am traveling this week to
Dharamshala to learn about Buddhism after reading this book.
2.Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, for those aspiring young minds.
3\. Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, for my adventure loving friends. I had an
intense desire to see Mt.Everest after reading this book, I traveled to
Everest base camp.
4\. Bhagavad-Gītā As It Is by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, for
everyone, I don't remember how many I have gifted.
5\. Imitation of Christ, I have gifted it, but haven't read it myself. It's in
my list.
6\. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
------
jayroh
I've given this as a gift several times -- "What Should I Do with My Life" by
Po Bronson.
[https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FBFMKC/ref=dp-kindle-
redirect?...](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FBFMKC/ref=dp-kindle-
redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1#nav-subnav)
Had a run-in with serious burn-out about 12 years ago and had considered
leaving software entirely and starting a landscaping business. This book was
inspirational in that it helped me figure out what I might LOVE doing, and
then made me realize it was right under my nose the whole time. I just needed
to get a new job that appreciated and challenged me
~~~
drdrey
what are you doing now?
~~~
jayroh
freelance developer these days.
That's what I meant by "right under my nose". I still loved what I DID, I just
wasn't in the right place or right industry.
To be more specific - I was writing code, but in advertising. Being a
programmer in advertising is a brutal, thankless, experience. When I figured
that out and left for software consulting, it got better.
------
billhendricksjr
A People's History of The United States by Howard Zinn. Given it at least 5
times.
All students should realize that history is written by the "winners" see US
history from the perspective of the oppressed - Native Americans, slaves,
women, the poor.
------
petr_tik
I give books to people I work with and the 3 books that people will have heard
of are:
Thinking fast and slow by Danny K
Antifragile by Nassim Taleb
Algorithms To Live By by Brian Christian & Tom Griffiths
I thought about giving fictional books to people, but it seems to personal a
present for a work acquaintance
------
hartem_
Mostly 'Hackers and Painters' and 'Surely you are joking Mr. Feynman'.
------
kidster
The Little Prince and The Alchemist. Whenever I make new friends I give them
either of these books if they haven't read them yet. These two have changed my
point of view significantly -- and I've read them at an adult age already.
------
RobLach
"Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius. A stoic tenet plus it grounds everyone once
you realize not even the power and wealth of a Roman emperor is enough to
escape certain realities and you need to re-adjust your definition of success.
------
francasso
Obviously "The Universal Master Key" by Franz Bardon. They might start looking
at you in strange ways though... you have been warned
[https://amzn.com/1291355138](https://amzn.com/1291355138)
------
Induane
Gödel, Escher, Bach Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Enders Game
Speaker for the Dead A Brief History of Time I Am a Strange Loop Lila: An
Inquiry Into Morals The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (5 or 6 book trilogy)
Dune
------
bschwindHN
* How to Sharpen Pencils: A Practical & Theoretical Treatise on the Artisanal Craft of Pencil Sharpening for Writers, Artists, Contractors, Flange Turners, Anglesmiths, & Civil Servants
* Ulrich Haarburste's Novel Of Roy Orbison In Clingfilm
------
pessimizer
Vampires, Burial, and Death: Folklore and Reality by Paul Barber. It's pretty
much my Bible, and is all that needs to be said about the nature of my
secularism. I tell people it's a cool book about vampire myths, though.
------
Jaruzel
Last Christmas, I was given and then bought for others:
_The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: The (Mostly) True Story of
the First Computer_
( [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thrilling-Adventures-Lovelace-
Babba...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Thrilling-Adventures-Lovelace-Babbage-
Computer/dp/0141981512) )
It's a halfway house between a graphic novel and a proper book, and is written
in a very entertaining way. I can thoroughly recommend it for anyone who is
interested in Computer History, and normally struggles through dry tomes of
non-fiction (which this is most definitely not!)
------
thatha7777
1\. The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Repeatedly (to different
people).
------
adolgert
bash Pocket Reference. I keep a stack by the office door, sort of like a candy
bowl.
------
jfb
_River-Horse_ , William Least-Heat Moon. It's a wonderful account of a
classically idiosyncratic journey from the Atlantic to the Pacific, through
the waterways of North America.
_Speak, Memory_ , Vladimir Nabokov. The pinnacle of the memoirist's art. I
find it nearly uncreditable, Nabokov's facility with English, his _5th_
language.
_Lyonesse_ , Jack Vance. Vance is the greatest stylist in 20th century
American letters, and _Lyonesse_ is probably his greatest achievement. Fantasy
indebted to Celtic mythology, not Tolkien. Marvelous, poetic, pungent language
in service of a wonderful story.
------
ehudla
Programming Pearls (Jon Bentley). His essays on bumper sticker CS, Doug
McIlroy @ Bell Labs, and little languages still resonate in mind regularly.
It's when I feel someone can be trusted with really cool ideas.
------
brianzelip
Kahlil Gibran's 'The prophet'
------
EliRivers
Books by David Mitchell. Possibly the finest modern literature author alive.
~~~
parkersweb
It wasn't as highly rated as 'Cloud Atlas' but I particularly loved 'The Bone
Clocks'. Something about his vision of a post-apocalyptic future seemed very
plausible - and very memorable.
------
yumaikas
_Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software_ was one of the
most formative books for my programming self education. I've tried to loan it
to several of my friends more than once, and it was a gift to me.
Also had a strange case of loaning out _C# 4.0 in a Nutshell_ and never
getting it back, but I would do it again (with an updated version). Albahari
is good at writing a reference without being too boring, and C# has some
legitimately interesting sides in how it does some things, like it's
dynamically compiled regexen.
------
rgun
Glimpses of World History by Jawaharlal Nehru:
A collection of letters written by Jawaharlal Nehru to his daughter Indira
Gandhi, from jail, teaching her about world history. An interesting
introduction to history.
------
robot
The intelligent investor - benjamin graham. In my home country investing is
still a mystery for many and there are no good books. This book gives you some
base and perspective about investinng
------
ScottBurson
Oliver Morton's _The Planet Remade: How Geoengineering Could Change the
World_.
Obviously this is a selection for someone who likes to read serious nonfiction
and is interested in the science of climate change and what we might be able
to do about it.
I've mentioned the book on HN before and got an unenthusiastic reception, but
I loved it. The author does an excellent job avoiding both knee-jerk
skepticism and knee-jerk credulity, and it's so well written I could hardly
put it down.
------
cyman
Four Hour Work Week. Take it with a grain of salt, since it takes a lot longer
than the author suggests to create a business. (I'd say a year of hard work at
least to finally hit a product that sells easily enough in high enough
quantities rather than a matter of months.) But it's possible. It's a great
read with direct, practical advice. Ex: It says exact what services to use and
how much they cost, rather than the more typical theoretical "think this way"
of other business books.
------
bmh_ca
How to Win Friends and Influence People
------
cmdrfred
Dune, Enders Game and Ready Player One.
~~~
eddd
Last year (I'm 28), I tried to read Enders Game for the for the first time
since 15 years. I was disappointed, it's really cool, but for younger
generations.
~~~
cmdrfred
Ever read speaker for the dead?
------
dmourati
The Little Prince, or Le Petit Prince if the recipient is a francophile. A
wonderful story that I personally try to read every year. Netflix has recent
plans to release as a film as well.
------
nrjames
West with the Night, by Beryl Markham.
This is the autobiography of a woman who grew up on a farm in British East
Africa (Kenya) in the early 1900s. She eventually became a bush pilot and the
first person ever to fly an airplane solo across the Atlantic Ocean from east
to west. It is a beautifully written and interesting story. Note: if you
decide to read it, skip the Forward because it sort of spoils the book. Come
back to it at the end, however, because it provides some interesting
historical context.
------
woodpanel
"Why the Germans, why the Jews" by Götz Aly - good insight into younger German
and Ashkenazi history. Is the most comprehensive book I've read about the why.
Why the broad anti-semitism, why the NSDAP, why the holocaust.
Poor Charlie's Almanack - It's one the books that Warren Buffet always
recommends. I gotta say though that I don't get why. But it makes a good gift
since it has good "coffee table" value because of the many illustrations.
------
davidtpate
Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull It's the story of Pixar and there's so many
things I enjoyed about this book. It helped validate for me many of my
instincts in running a creative business.
The Martian by Andy Weir I very much enjoyed the story and how it was all
approached.
Seven Eves by Neil Stephenson Similar to his other books (Snow Crash and
Cryptonomicon) I've gifted these a few times. I really enjoy his method of
storytelling and his stories appeal to the geek in me as well.
------
mch82
[Rework][] from DHH and Jason Fried.
Rework explains the "life beyond work" and "make a dent in the universe"
philosophy behind Basecamp and Rails and is a valuable counterpoint to the
popular media narrative of the startup IPO mindset. The book also explains how
to apply the philosophy with actionable examples and it's fun to read.
[Rework]: [https://37signals.com/rework](https://37signals.com/rework)
------
mbauman
_The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Díaz_ (fiction) - At face value, a
story about a nerdy outcast in love, which means most people I know will
relate to it. Pulitzer Prize winner.
_The Elements of Typographic Style by Bringhurst_ (design) - Most designers I
know already own a copy, but interesting for laymen.
_The Little Schemer by Friedman & Felleisen_ (programming) - Fun and
educational for anyone interested in programming, at just about any level.
------
neelkadia
Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach.. I've bought around 20 copies and
given as a gift to all my close {friends, cousins, co-workers} two years back.
------
anonbiocoward
Strunk and White. I put my email and phone number in the inside cover. Only
for good friends. Have gotten contacts from people I haven't seen in 10 years.
------
d4nte
One book I've given is Mere Christianity, by C.S. Lewis. It is deeply
philosophical, beginning with astute observations about human nature,
continuing with an evaluation of possible worldviews and their consistency
with logic and evidence, and concluding with an enlightening discussion of
Christian theology. Regardless of a person's beliefs or lack thereof, it
provides interesting ideas to consider and challenge.
------
xf00ba7
An imaginary tale, the story of sqrt( -1 ). link:
[http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9259.html](http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9259.html).
One of my favorites. Oh....also handed out the foundation series in combined
hardback form to a few folks for the winter holiday. I loved that series as
well. Thankfully so did the people I handed it out to.
------
vectorpush
The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe.
My favorite sci-fi story, I might even admit it is my favorite of all stories.
I've given it as a real book but the experience really benefits from the
e-reader format because, at least for me, there were many terms to look up and
many sections that I wanted to notate for consideration later. It's a
challenging book but a very thoughtful and rewarding read. Highly recommended.
------
CalRobert
Getting out: Your guide to Leaving America
The title is a bit provocative but if you're looking to move from the US to
another country it's a great place to start. I've given it to a couple of
footloose people in their twenties who wanted to move abroad but were
intimidated by dealing with visas and expense. (Remember, not everyone works
in fields where countries are clamoring to give out visas!)
------
zgotsch
I've given out several copies of "The Diamond Age" by Neal Stephenson and
"Stories of Your Life and Others" by Ted Chiang.
~~~
thedudemabry
Ted Chiang's short story collection is the most concentrated dose of fantastic
sci-fi/fantasy I've read. Each story is brief, memorable, and plays with at
least one neat "what if?"
I've also given out a couple of copies because it's a great way to demonstrate
SF&F genre awesomeness to the sceptical in just a few pages.
~~~
nl
Everyone should read Ted Chiang.
[https://subterraneanpress.com/magazine/fall_2010/fiction_the...](https://subterraneanpress.com/magazine/fall_2010/fiction_the_lifecycle_of_software_objects_by_ted_chiang)
------
agentgt
Many of the books I would have been covered already but one that hasn't (ie
not found via option-f) is:
_" Is God a Mathematician?"_ by Mario Livio
It is a wonderful exploration and history of math, science and light theology
(mostly historic though. the book is written by a mathematician).
I still wonder frequently if math is human made up thing or is it innate. Is
the universe inherently mathematical? Can we prove it?
~~~
vinchuco
Define inherently mathematical.
~~~
agentgt
I'm probably not doing the justice of describing the book particularly since I
am especially weak at writing.
Before I go on and waste everyones time with me falsely explaining things I
recommend you just read up on the book (ie just read some summaries).
What I mean by "inherently mathematical" is that everything is based on math.
That all thing in the universe are mathematical and everything can be
represented with formulas and constants. That math makes the universe work and
not the other way around.
It may seem obvious to some that of course the universe is mathematical but
many believe that it is a human's way of modeling patterns that just so happen
to happen in our universe.
Like I said I sort of want to avoid prolong discussion of this topic as it
could be its own HN thread and I also know I'm doing a great injustice to the
book and people actually working in this area of attempting to try to explain
it.
Here is SA article on the subject (SA is hardly academic but it might be
better than my explanation):
[http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-the-universe-
ma...](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-the-universe-made-of-math-
excerpt/)
~~~
vinchuco
I'll take a look at both! I did not expect a definitive answer to a hard
question (I myself wish I had a good one). The "unreasonable effectiveness of
mathematics" is a really interesting topic.
A spider may wonder if the universe is inherently spiderthought-like.
Spiderwebs work great, after all.
------
bluejekyll
"The Four Agreements", I wish I had read it when I was younger, I give it to
anyone who seems to feel other people are their problem.
~~~
MichaelGG
Isn't this the book that starts off with the guy claiming he (or his
ancestors) could transform into Jaguars? IIRC, the book was littered with
falsehoods.
~~~
bluejekyll
Native American traditions often don't distinguish between hallucinations and
actual transmorphing into something else. So while it's been a few years since
I read it, it wouldn't necessarily surprise me.
But the four agreements are what are important:
1) always do your best
2) never make assumption
3) don't take things personally
4) be impeccable with your word
2&3 were the most help to me in both work and dating.
~~~
arviewer
You mixed up 1 and 4, but that's no problem. Doing your best means that you
will never be 100% perfect in following up on 1, 2 and 3, so make the best of
it and forgive yourself if you forget to follow them.
For me 3 was very important, with many small things that annoyed me, people
getting in my way etc. They don't do that to annoy me, and of course I know
that, but to fully realise that was important.
Be impeccable is the most important for me. This is more about shouting at
yourself than about shouting at other people. Most of the time we shout -
silently - at ourselves, and these little punishments that you often don't
even notice, take you down and can make your life a lot more miserable. And if
you shout a lot at other people, try to figure out why you need to do that.
In the last five years, this was the most important book for me. Whenever I'm
having troubles with someone, reading this book helps me get through it.
~~~
bluejekyll
I guess I never thought of the order as important. Like I said there are two
that are the most important to me, and the others that I need less reminding
of.
Though, since being married and having kids, I do find being impeccable with
my word a little more difficult when you're out with a friend for a drink
(very rare these days) and your wife asks you when you will be home... it's
very easy to say "I'm on my way" when in fact you just got your last drink and
you know it's going to be 20-30 minutes before you leave, but saying that will
might get you in some hot water. I definitely need to do better on that one.
~~~
arviewer
The order is not that important, but this is the order of the method. And you
give a perfect example of 1 working with 4, although doing your best does not
mean letting go and let this problem repeat and grow into something more
annoying.
------
jackess
Carol Dweck's Mindset. Really gives insight into how our limiting self-beliefs
can stunt our growth and potential, and how to fix them.
------
koolba
[http://pbfcomics.com/book/](http://pbfcomics.com/book/)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_the_Fuck_to_Sleep](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_the_Fuck_to_Sleep)
Intro to programming in Python - I don't remember which one though. I think it
was one of the O'Reilly ones.
------
dedalus
These days I present anyone with this book: Mindset,The New Psychology of
Success [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FCKPHG/ref=dp-kindle-
redirect?...](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FCKPHG/ref=dp-kindle-
redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1)
and they tell me it makes a difference to their lifestyle
------
Gnarl
"The Body Electric" by Dr. Robert O. Becker. Everyone in healthcare, medicine
and especially the wireless industry should read it.
[https://www.amazon.co.uk/Body-Electric-Robert-
Becker/dp/0688...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Body-Electric-Robert-
Becker/dp/0688069711)
------
ehudla
Danny, the Champion of the World. For kids and kids at heart. One of the books
that I feel made me want to be a maker/hacker.
------
ktRolster
I gave my own book, "Zero Bugs and Program Faster."
I gave Randall Jarrell's version of _Faust_ it is an excellent book.
------
spapas82
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov.
------
is_it_xmas
There are so many great books here. I'm surprised to see nothing by Palahniuk.
I've given Choke and Survivor as gifts.
Also disappointed that George Saunders didn't make the list. His essays in The
Brain-dead Megaphone are great and his short stories, especially Isabelle and
others is The Tenth of December, are heart-warming.
------
lettergram
_Time Enough for Love_ by Robert Heinlein, I've recommended it to four people
and all came back with it being their new favorite book.
It has all of science fiction classics, but focuses on a guy who can live
forever and attempts to experience everything. Of course this leads to some
strange events, and is definitely worth a read.
------
m12k
_Letters of Note_. From the blog of the same name - a fascinating collection
of letters from and/or to historical figures. Makes a great coffee table book.
[https://unbound.com/books/letters-of-note](https://unbound.com/books/letters-
of-note)
------
kingkawn
Letter to a Teacher by the Schoolboys of Barbiana. Beautifully written call
for better education for the poor by the children who need it.
Available in PDF now too:
[http://www.swaraj.org/shikshantar/LTAT_Final.pdf](http://www.swaraj.org/shikshantar/LTAT_Final.pdf)
------
stevewilhelm
Turtle Island, by Gary Snyder.
or more recently,
Tamalpais Walking: Poetry, History, and Prints, By Gary Snyder and Tom Killion
and
Quiet Light, by John Sexton
or
Places of Power: The Aesthetics of Technology by John Sexton
------
smountcastle
I give these three books out to new managers in my org:
* High Output Management by Andy Grove [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679762884/](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679762884/)
* Turn the Ship Around by David Marquet [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591846404/](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591846404/)
* The Score Takes Care of Itself by Bill Walsh [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591843472/](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591843472/)
For interns I give out these two books:
* The Pragmatic Programmer [https://www.amazon.com/Pragmatic-Programmer-Journeyman-Maste...](https://www.amazon.com/Pragmatic-Programmer-Journeyman-Master/dp/020161622X/)
* The Passionate Programmer [https://pragprog.com/book/cfcar2/the-passionate-programmer](https://pragprog.com/book/cfcar2/the-passionate-programmer)
------
ehudla
The Swiss Family Robinson. A children's book, about a family that has no other
option but to become makers.
~~~
rudedogg
I read this book in grade school and loved it!
------
mironathetin
Franz Werfel: Pale Blue Ink in a Lady's Hand. The story of an Austrian
aristocrat and politician, who is - through his marriage - well established in
society and on a safe carrier path, who discovers that he might have a child
with a jewish woman (in pre-WWII Austria).
Great story and so well written by Werfel.
------
paulsutter
"Crap Taxidermy"
[https://www.amazon.com/Crap-Taxidermy-Kat-
Su/dp/1607748207/r...](https://www.amazon.com/Crap-Taxidermy-Kat-
Su/dp/1607748207/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1401679657&sr=8-2&keywords=crap%20taxidermy)
------
avh02
I'm really surprised by no mention of the tripods trilogy by John Christopher.
Only managed to gift it once. Don't think they even read it :(
Truly a phenomenal story IMO
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tripods](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tripods)
------
tixocloud
The Essential Marcus Aurelius was a book that was given to me as a gift. Since
reading it, I've bought many more copies to share with people I deeply care
about.
This book contained so many great insights into how to deal with life's
stresses and has been a revelation in my transformation of attitude.
------
a_c
The Phoenix Project by Gene Kim.
A novel that tells how to manage IT department in a very enchanted manner. The
situation entailed in the story is too real. I had some many "I have come
across this shit before, wish I handled it better" encounters that I couldn't
put the book down until finished.
------
wdr1
_The Princess Bride_.
I've given it away seven times & purchased it eight.
Like every book, it's different from the movie. I'm not going to say it's
better than the movie, but I'm also not going say the movie is better either.
Both are just so amazing in their own right that I adore them both.
------
sokoloff
Web Operations:Keeping the Data On Time
------
yla92
I have given Humans of New York book as a gift to a friend of mine and now
preparing another one to another friend.
Mainly because I think the book has so much great quality photo essays, worth
keeping it for a long time, sit down, flip it through from time to time and
enjoy the beautiful stories.
------
ehudla
Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas (Papert)
Since this was discussed here recently (in sad circumstances), I'll just say
that everyone who might be involved with kids, either as an educator or parent
needs to read this book. And it was great to read when I was a kid, too!
------
sflicht
Huygens and Barrow, Newton and Hooke [1] by mathematician V. I. Arnol'd.
[1] [https://www.amazon.com/Huygens-Barrow-Newton-Hooke-
quasicrys...](https://www.amazon.com/Huygens-Barrow-Newton-Hooke-
quasicrystals/dp/3764323833)
------
NTripleOne
I'm not a big reader (Last book I read was back in 2010~?), but I think my
favourite was Arkady and Boris Strugatsky's Roadside Picnic. Big fan of the
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series as well as the film, so it only made sense that I read
the book that it was all based on.
------
japhyr
When I've had friends interested in learning to play chess, I've given _Play
Winning Chess_ by Yasser Seirawan. It's great at explaining what to think
about when playing the different phases of the game, with no emphasis on
memorizing particular lines.
------
sevensor
_The Soul of a New Machine_ : it's the 1970s and the mincomputer wars are hot.
A bunch of young engineers at the upstart Data General race to get a new mini
out the door. Tech has changed a lot in 40 years, but the way people work on
it hasn't.
------
hkhall
The most recent is Liquid Intelligence by Dave Arnold[1]
[1][https://www.amazon.com/Liquid-Intelligence-Science-
Perfect-C...](https://www.amazon.com/Liquid-Intelligence-Science-Perfect-
Cocktail/dp/0393089037)
------
jboynyc
Most recently, _Password_ by Martin Paul Eve. Highly recommended.
[http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/password-9781501314872/](http://www.bloomsbury.com/us/password-9781501314872/)
------
drited
Misbehaving by Richard Thaler. It's like Thinking, Fast and Slow except more
hilarious.
------
Ace17
Masters of Doom, by David Kushner.
------
typeseven
The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine.
------
grafelic
I haven't yet gifted a copy of Robert Anton Wilson's and Robert Shea's "The
Illuminatus! Triology", but I want to. This book strikes the fine balance of
being funny and mindblowingly weird at the same time. Great fun.
~~~
kqr
I started reading this when I was very young and then eventually trailed off.
Thanks for reminding me I gotta try again!
~~~
grafelic
You're welcome! My approach to this book was to stop thinking too much about
the numerous "plot lines" and just go with the flow.The fact that I bought the
book in a second-hand bookstore in Berkeley and read most of it while
exploring the Californian coast, probably put me in that mindset from the get-
go. :)
------
physicsyogi
I gave Joseph Brodsky's _Watermark_ and Alan Watts' _The Wisdom of Insecurity_
to two friends last year. And for Mothers Day last year I gave my wife a book
of themed photos and prose, _Two_ , by Melissa Ann Pinney.
------
sguav
The Ambidextrous Universe, Martin Gardner, 1979 edition. I find it fascinating
even today
------
cheshire_cat
"The Genius and the Goddess" by Aldous Huxley. It's one of his lesser known
works and also quite short (128 pp).
I really like Huxleys way of waving thoughts on psychology and philosophy into
a story and specially liked it in this novel.
------
daniel_iversen
"Strategic Selling" by Miller Heiman. It was the first book that really opened
up my eyes to the fact that sales is (mostly) a science and its an awesome
methodology. I got it as a gift and I've given it as a gift too.
------
matthewvincent
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse is my current go to gift book. It's so short that
anyone can dive in without being intimidated.
I don't think it's possible to read Siddhartha without coming just a little
bit closer to enlightenment.
------
35bge57dtjku
I give One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, in movie form, to departing coworkers.
------
remmelt
Cooked by Michael Pollan.
Great history about food, how cooking made us "human," links to religion,
feminism, consumerism, and much more. Very insightful and at times heart felt.
Not recommended if you don't eat food.
------
jvrossb
Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson
------
aaronbrethorst
The Pragmatic Programmer:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pragmatic_Programmer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pragmatic_Programmer)
~~~
petr_tik
My SO gave this to me last Christmas - what touched me the most was her lack
of knowledge in CS/IT field, but willingness to research and find one of the
best books in our domain. It's not just the book that was given, it's often
the context (who, to whom, what for)
------
ultrasandwich
The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis. I think her writing appeals to a wide
range of people. The stories are simultaneously experimental, hilarious,
methodical, obsessive, but mostly just excellent.
------
dredmorbius
Interesting question, and a quite difficult one for me to answer as I'm
refactoring much of my thinking presently. I'll offer a list, some authors,
and some guidelines, largely based on books which radically changed my
thinking.
Madelaine l'Engle's _A Wrinkle in Time_. A quite profound children's book with
lifelong impacts.
[https://www.worldcat.org/title/wrinkle-in-
time/oclc/22421788](https://www.worldcat.org/title/wrinkle-in-
time/oclc/22421788)
Frank Herbert's _Dune_ introduced true complexity into storytelling for me.
[https://www.worldcat.org/title/dune-frank-
herbert/oclc/52908...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/dune-frank-
herbert/oclc/52908888)
James Burke's books _Connections_ and _The Day the Universe Changed_ , and
their accompanying television series, were a profound introduction to the
history of technology, science, ideas, and philosophy. Though 30+ years old,
they remain highly current and relevant.
[https://www.worldcat.org/title/connections/oclc/4494136](https://www.worldcat.org/title/connections/oclc/4494136)
[https://www.worldcat.org/title/day-the-universe-
changed/oclc...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/day-the-universe-
changed/oclc/12049817)
Jeremy Campbell's _Grammatical Man_ (1984) introduced the concepts of
information theory and their deep, deep, deep interconnections to a tremendous
number of interconnected systems, many not explored within his book. Darwin's
_The Origin of Species_ , James Gleick's _Chaos_ , and many of the works of
Santa Fe Institute members, including John C. Holland, J. Doyne Farmer,
Geoffrey West, W. Brian Arthur, David Krakauer, and Sander van der Leeuw,
continue these themes.
[https://www.worldcat.org/title/grammatical-man-
information-e...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/grammatical-man-information-
entropy-language-and-life/oclc/8306673)
[https://www.worldcat.org/title/chaos-making-a-new-
science/oc...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/chaos-making-a-new-
science/oclc/15366709)
William Ophuls' _Ecology and the Politics of Scarcity_ (1977) is perhaps the
best, most comprehensive, shortest, and most readable exposition of the fact,
reality, dynamics, and interactions of limits on the present phase of fossil-
fuel fed economic growth I've found. This is a book I recommend not only for
the message, but the author's clarity of thought and exposition, his
meticulous research, exquisite bibliographical notes, and, given the nearly 30
years elapsed, testability numerous of his predictions, some failed, yes,
others uncannily accurate. Rather more the latter. In a similar vein, William
R. Catton's _Overshoot_ looks at the ecological dynamics in more depth, with
much wisdom, the writings of Richard Heinberg cover the ground of limits
fairly accessibly and more recently. Vaclav Smil in numerous books addresses
technical factors of the profound nature of the past 250 years, and
implications for the future. Meadows, et al, in _Limits to Growth_ set off
much of the post-1970 discussion (though they're hardly the first to raise the
question -- it dates to Seneca the Elder),
[https://www.worldcat.org/title/ecology-and-the-politics-
of-s...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/ecology-and-the-politics-of-scarcity-
prologue-to-a-political-theory-of-the-steady-state/oclc/2524932)
[https://www.worldcat.org/title/overshoot-the-ecological-
basi...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/overshoot-the-ecological-basis-of-
revolutionary-change/oclc/6195764)
[https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3Aheinberg%2C+richard&q...](https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3Aheinberg%2C+richard&qt=owc_search)
[https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3Asmil%2C+vaclav&qt=res...](https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3Asmil%2C+vaclav&qt=results_page)
Though hardly pessimistic, Daniel Yergin's book _The Prize_ (and TV series)
impressed upon me more than any other just _how much_ petroleum specifically
changed and transformed the modern world. Though intended largely as laudetory
and championing the oil industry by the author, my read of it was
exceptionally cautionary. The impacts on business, everyday life, politics,
wars, industry, and transport, and the rate at which they occurred, are simply
staggering. You can continue this exploration in Vaclav Smil's _Energy in
World History_ (1994) (I've recommended Smil independently elsewhere), and a
rare but profound two-volume set I'm currently reading, Manfred
Weissenbacher's _Sources of Power: How energy forges human history_ (2009).
The shear physicality of this book speaks to the message -- it's divided into
five parts: 1) Foraging Age (6 pages), 2) Agricultural Age (156 pp), 3) Coal
Age (160 pp), 4) Oil Age (296 pp), and 5) Beyond the Oil Age (142 pp). That
is, the ~2 million years of pre-agricultural existence are little more than a
footnote, the 8,000 years of agriculture roughly equal to the 150 years of
coal, and the 100 years of petroleum use roughly twice either. The oil and
post-oil ages comprise their own volume. Yergin followed up with _The Quest_ ,
continuing the search for oil, though I've been less impressed by it.
[https://www.worldcat.org/title/prize-the-epic-quest-for-
oil-...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/prize-the-epic-quest-for-oil-money-
and-power/oclc/22381448)
[https://www.worldcat.org/title/energy-in-world-
history/oclc/...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/energy-in-world-
history/oclc/30398523)
[https://www.worldcat.org/title/before-oil-the-ages-of-
foragi...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/before-oil-the-ages-of-foraging-
agriculture-and-coal/oclc/837625798)
[https://www.worldcat.org/title/oil-age-and-
beyond/oclc/83762...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/oil-age-and-
beyond/oclc/837625970)
Adam Smith's _An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations_
is among the most-cited (and most _incorrectly_ cited), least-read books of
high influence I'm aware of, outside religious texts (and perhaps it _is_ a
religious text to some…). The author's message has been exceptionally shaped
and manipulated by a powerful set of forces, quite often utterly
misrepresenting Smith's original intent. Reading him in his own words,
yourself, is strongly recommended. I'd also recommend scholarship particularly
by Emma Rothschild and Gavin Kennedy, though also others, on Smith. Contrast
with the portrayal by the propaganda disinformation front of the Mont Pelerin
Society / Atlas Network / so-called Foundation for Economic Education, and
much of the modern American Libertarian movement (von Mises, Hayek, Friedman,
Hazlett, Rothbard, and more recently, Norberg). Contrast _The Invisible Hand_
(1964), a compilation of essays published by Libertarian house Regnery Press
in 1966, at the beginning of the rise in public use of Smith's metaphor to
indictate _mechanism_ rather than _an expression of the unknown_.
There are numerous editions of Smith, I believe the Glasgow is frequently
cited by Smith scholars: [https://www.worldcat.org/title/glasgow-edition-of-
the-works-...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/glasgow-edition-of-the-works-
and-correspondence-of-adam-smith-2-an-inquiry-into-the-nature-and-causes-of-
the-wealth-of-nations-vol-1/oclc/832488566)
[https://www.worldcat.org/title/economic-sentiments-adam-
smit...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/economic-sentiments-adam-smith-
condorcet-and-the-enlightenment/oclc/45282974)
[https://www.worldcat.org/title/adam-smith-and-the-
invisible-...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/adam-smith-and-the-invisible-
hand/oclc/820387997)
[https://www.worldcat.org/title/adam-smiths-lost-
legacy/oclc/...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/adam-smiths-lost-
legacy/oclc/56598640)
[https://www.worldcat.org/title/invisible-hand-a-
collection-o...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/invisible-hand-a-collection-
of-essays-on-the-economic-philosophy-of-free-enterprise/oclc/326622)
I'd like to put in recommendations on technology specifically, but am still
searching for a good general text. The material's covered somewhat in the
chaos and complexity recommendations above (Campbell et al), though I'd add
Joseph Tainter's _The Collapse of Complex Societies_. Charle's Perrow has
several excellent books including _Normal Accidents_ and _Organizing America_.
I'd like to reference something concerning Unix, Linux, and programming,
perhaps Kernighan and Pike's _The Unix Programming Environment_ , Linus
Torvalds' _Just for Fun_ , Richard Stallman's _The GNU Manifesto_ , and Steve
McConnel's _Code Complete_. The O'Reilly book _Unix Power Tools_ also
encapsulates much the strength of the Unix toolset. All these are somewhat
dated.
[https://www.worldcat.org/title/collapse-of-complex-
societies...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/collapse-of-complex-
societies/oclc/15083222)
[https://www.worldcat.org/title/normal-accidents-living-
with-...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/normal-accidents-living-with-high-
risk-technologies/oclc/10229932)
[https://www.worldcat.org/title/organizing-america-wealth-
pow...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/organizing-america-wealth-power-and-
the-origins-of-corporate-capitalism/oclc/939707157)
[https://www.worldcat.org/title/unix-programming-
environment/...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/unix-programming-
environment/oclc/10269821)
[https://www.worldcat.org/title/unix-power-
tools/oclc/5238168...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/unix-power-
tools/oclc/52381684)
[https://www.worldcat.org/title/free-software-free-society-
se...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/free-software-free-society-selected-
essays-of-richard-m-stallman/oclc/51101440)
[https://www.worldcat.org/title/just-for-fun-the-story-of-
an-...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/just-for-fun-the-story-of-an-
accidental-revolutionary/oclc/45610395)
[https://www.worldcat.org/title/code-complete-a-practical-
han...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/code-complete-a-practical-handbook-of-
software-construction/oclc/27035508)
------
markvdb
"Dead souls", by Nikolaj Gogol.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Souls](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Souls)
------
jrs235
The Underachiever's Manifesto: The Guide to Accomplishing Little and Feeling
Great [http://amzn.to/1GmFRvX](http://amzn.to/1GmFRvX)
------
ilikebits
My favourite is "The New Way Things Work" by David Macaulay. Loved this book
as a kid, it really got me into trying to figure out how the world worked (the
title really nailed it).
------
nl
Lots of good books have been mentioned.
I think _Watership Down_ is worth considering.
I only read it because I had to as a 15 yo, and it was absolutely brilliant. I
went and read every other book Richard Adams wrote.
------
nabusman
\- 48 Law of Power (Because we all have to deal with power games and politics)
\- The Intelligent Investor (Because people ask how do I invest)
\- Fooled by Randomness (Same ideas as Black Swan but oriented towards the
markets)
Edit: formating
------
lackbeard
The Blind Side, The Hard Thing about Hard Things, Sex at Dawn.
If asked, I would say those aren't the books I've found most amazing but
they're the ones I felt compelled to give as gifts.
~~~
flubert
>Sex at Dawn
I hate to be that guy, but I thought that book was unreadable. Had some weird
obsessive chip on the shoulder about Darwin (mentioned on almost every page).
Complete with nearly contentless USA Today style infographics. I'd recommend
"Sperm Wars" instead.
------
phonon
"Mathematics: From the Birth of Numbers", by Jan Gullberg.
------
randcraw
"At Home" by Bill Bryson.
"Quiet" by Susan Cain.
"Hackers" by Steven Levy.
------
gpestana
The Art of Travel, by Alain de Botton
[https://g.co/kgs/3WZtk1](https://g.co/kgs/3WZtk1) . I highly recommend it!
~~~
elwaz
Second that and add: Status Anxiety
------
dmichulke
"Economics in one Lesson" by H. Hazlitt (conveys the same as "Atlas shrugged"
in much much less pages)
"The Selfish Gene" (R. Dawkins)
"Dune" (F. Herbert)
"Walden II" (B. F. Skinner)
------
daltonlp
_Shadows on the Koyukuk_ , by Sidney Huntington
_Skunk Works_ , by Ben Rich
------
spdionis
The Dune series by Frank Herbert is by far one of the best works of fiction
ever written.
I recommend it to anyone interested in something mind-expanding and
entertaining at the same time.
------
jgord
Capital in the 21C - Thomas Piketty
Because it changes the way you see the world.
------
rukuu001
I heard the owl call my name, by Margaret Craven
I get the feeling this is better known in the US/Canada than here in
Australia.
I found it during an unstable time of my life and it helped a lot.
------
cionescu1
After reading Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, I offered it as a gift to most of
my friends. It's an exhilarating read, one that I would recommend to anyone
------
ehudla
The Mythical Man-Month
~~~
reidacdc
I gave this to my colleagues when I joined the my current development project,
the lessons about trying to scale development teams remain pretty sound.
------
fillskills
I've given On Intelligence and The Alchemist as gifts.
------
shoedog
Shoe Dog by Phil Knight. A memoir of how Nike was build from scratch. Written
is a witty funny way that can be totally funny and brutally honest.
------
hardmath123
One book that works well for techy parents who have kids is _The Number
Devil_. It's fantastic read-with-your-kid-at-bedtime material.
------
JimmyM
_On What Matters_ by Derek Parfit.
Happened to be vol. 1, but vol. 2 is also fantastic. Honestly, _Reasons &
Persons_ would also make a fine gift.
------
eddd
Zero to One by P. Thiel (cheezy for HN, I know)
Meltdown by T. Woods (cool guy, Austrian Economy)
The Witcher by A. Sapkowski (Fantasy, but It reads well only in polish
language)
------
elorant
This year I gave "The Martian" to four different people. They couldn't thank
me enough. Best SF book I've ever read.
------
mattsouth
I love this thread. One that hasnt been mentioned and that I've
enthusiastically gifted is The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin.
------
BarkMore
_Economics in One Lesson_ by Henry Hazlitt.
~~~
woodpanel
Me too. It's an easy read and deliveres an Enlightenment to the typical
economic-folklore. I also like it because it doesn't question your morale, but
just asks to broaden your scope of possible perspectives.
------
bcook
Android Internals: A Confectioner's Cookbook
~~~
notsrg
Any idea where I can find a copy of this?
~~~
bcook
Through the author.
[http://newandroidbook.com/msg.html](http://newandroidbook.com/msg.html)
------
zelcon
The Little Schemer
------
jackgavigan
_Against The Gods_ by by Peter L. Bernstein
------
callmeed
_On Writing Well_ by Zinsser
_Traction_ by Weinberg & Mares
_Predictable Revenue_ by Ross
_Choose Yourself_ by Altucher
_Learn Python the Hard Way_ by Shaw
_Mere Christianity_ by Lewis
------
mudil
I gave my father Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. Horrors of war and the triumph
of the human spirit. What a story, what a life!
------
pareidolia
Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death makes a great gift for anyone who
watches too much TV or is addicted to Youtube
------
syngrog66
Steven Levy's Hackers, to a boy considering a career in computers
Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, to a fan of history
------
bch
"how to cook a wolf" by mfk fisher. Insight into tough times, getting by, and
making the most of those times.
------
abrkn
10% Happier by Dan Harris (audio book, narrated by the author)
A light hearted account of a news anchor's introduction to meditation
------
Atwood
Nonfiction:Global Brain, Fiction:Robinson Crusoe. A handful of poetry (rumi)
and philosophy books over the years too.
------
nugget
The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley
------
werber
I think I've given "Go Tell It On The Mountain" by James Baldwin more times
than any other book.
------
Gatsky
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.
This book got its hooks into me. Also fantastic writing craft if you get a
kick out of that.
------
SeaDude
"Ecotopia" by: Earnest Callenbach
"Self Reliance" by: Ralph Waldo Emerson
"The Iron Heel" by: Jack (fuckin) London!
------
ptha
2 that I've given and reread myself a few times would be:
_Catch-22_ by Joseph Heller
_The Third Policeman_ by Flann O'Brien
------
kp25
"The Fault in Our Stars" by John Green,
"P.S. I Love You" by Cecelia Ahern,
"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee,
------
omginternets
Calculus Made Easy by Silvanus P. Thompson
I was surprised to find out how old this text was. It hasn't aged a day!
------
pop8row9
The Dark Side of Camelot, by Seymour Hersh. A very, very interesting treatment
of the Kennedys.
------
StanislavPetrov
_The Gambler_ by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Not a long read but classic Dostoevsky. A
real gem.
------
kowdermeister
Would anyone recommend a book about mathematical thinking? Basic, intro level
would fit best.
~~~
mturmon
Have you read "The Mathematical Experience" by Davis and Hersh? It's a
fantastic and engaging introductory book that tries to get across what drives
mathematical investigation. The reviews on Amazon are pretty accurate.
------
davidjnelson
The Power Of Now by Eckhart Tolle.
------
quantum_nerd
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future
to my college best friend as a birthday gift.
------
qq66
"Maus" by Art Spiegelman
"The Way Things Work" by David Macaulay
"Winnie the Pooh" by A.A. Milne
------
rmchugh
The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan. A beautiful and moving tale of post-boom
rural Ireland.
------
arkadiyt
I've gifted the PostSecret books to several people - it's always well
received.
------
danvesma
Will Self – Great Apes. To remind people that sometimes we're just fucking
monkeys.
------
danmaz74
"Make you contacts count", to a couple of cousins who will start working soon.
------
danbolt
I've received The Brothers Karamazov, and found it to be my new favourite
book.
------
dmd
For the under-4 set: The House In The Night. It's a perfect new-baby book.
------
vskarine
\- The Ultra-Mind Solution, by Dr Mark Hyman
\- Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand
\- The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho
------
edoceo
Lean Customer Development
------
jurgenwerk
Cookin' with Coolio
~~~
bokumo
I had to check to make sure this wasn't some kind of joke, but it is real!
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cookin%27_with_Coolio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cookin%27_with_Coolio)
------
rendx
Mitch Albom: Tuesdays with Morrie
Karin Boye: Kallocain
Ray Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451
Raymond Chen: The Old New Thing
------
mangamadaiyan
One, Two, Three... Infinity by George Gamow.
I can't recommend it enough.
------
oaalami
"What do you do with an idea?" By Kobi Yamada
------
darksim905
The 48 Laws of Power
~~~
api
Seconded.
If you find the tactics in this book reprehensible and vile, it's even more
important that you read it so you are not taken in by them. People do these
things because they work.
------
ehudla
The Interpretation of Cultures (Clifford Geertz)
------
gardnr
"How the World Works" by Noam Chomsky
------
GnarfGnarf
James Kunstler: "The Long Emergency"
------
ehudla
Breakfast at Tiffany's (Truman Capote).
------
fny
_Infinite Jest_ by David Foster Wallace
------
skmurphy
many copies of "Secrets of Consulting" by Gerald Weinberg and two copies of
Bionomics by Michael Rothschild
------
krapp
Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf
------
hkmurakami
The 4 part LBJ book series by Robert Caro.
------
Dowwie
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
------
mrmondo
The Phoenix Project, many, many times.
------
hanoz
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists
------
mrjummyman
The Denial of Death - Ernest Becker
------
sonabinu
The Alchemist
------
gravypod
The Kamasutra to a friend.
Didn't work sadly.
------
bertique
The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
------
ehudla
Primo Levi, The Periodic Table.
------
arisAlexis
The peripheral by Wiliam Gibson
------
miloshadzic
The Art of Computer Programming
~~~
vinchuco
That's a really nice gift
------
Thriptic
Complications by Atul Gawande
------
LeicaLatte
Life Inc. by Douglas Rushkoff
------
ehudla
The Double Helix (Watson)
------
jesuslop
Something of John Verdon
------
anonymoushn
Thinking, Fast and Slow
------
lagirl1994
Uncle Tom´s cabin
------
raymondh
Thing Explainer.
------
bostonaholic
The Lean Startup
------
thomasreggi
The Alchemist
------
Frogolocalypse
Non-fiction
The Emperors New Mind - Roger Penrose
Godel, Escher, Bach - Douglass Hoffstadter
Brocas Brain - Carl Sagan
The (mis)Behavior of Markets - Benoit Mandelbrot
The Black Swan - Nicholas Nassem Taleb
Fiction
Gates Of Fire - Stephen Pressfield
Neuromancer - William Gibson
Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson
Hardwired - Walter Jon Williams
Altered Carbon - Richard Morgan
Red Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson
Space - Stephen Baxter
Enders Game - Orson Scott Card
Skeleton Crew - Stephen King
I've given away a lot of books. I'm old.
~~~
runT1ME
Good list. Define ou haven't read all of these but of the ones you've
mentioned I can tell I'd probably like the rest. Have you read Anathem or any
of Peter Watts' stuff? If not give them a try.
------
jbmorgado
I've given Flatland: an adventure in many dimensions on some occasions.
I think it's a wonderful and amusing book, full of philosophical and political
meaning that can be read at almost any age.
------
aaron695
If the book is so generic that someone can suggest it here, then it's not a
good gift.
But a great philosophy is below. People will appreciate the gesture and you'll
never get cranky about lent books never returned.
“It's a gift. Never lend a book.”
― Bill Adama
------
Pulce
"The hacker Ethic and the spirit of the information age", Pekka Himanen.
"Deadhead", Robert Sheckley.
"The world she wanted", Philip K. Dick.
"Poesia in forma di rosa", Pasolini.
------
nether
Being Peace by Thich Nhat Hanh
Great primer on mindful meditation.
------
iyn
> Meanwhile there's plenty of stuff happening in the world straight from the
> Nazi playbook of the 30s.
Can you elaborate?
~~~
curiousgal
Trump jumps to mind.
~~~
huehehue
Sorry to be that guy, but could you elaborate further?
~~~
cyphar
Exploitation of the public's fear, promises to make the country great again,
rejection by their own party once they figured out that they might come to
power. Those spring to mind as examples.
~~~
matwood
>Exploitation of the public's fear, >promises to make the country great again,
So any politician running for an election?
> rejection by their own party once they figured out that they might come to
> power.
You mean, the basic reason the democrats invented the super delegate to begin
with?
Not sure how old you are, but when Bush 2 was in power the same comments were
made. I guess Bush didn't turn into Hitler so now it's Trumps turn.
~~~
morgante
> Not sure how old you are, but when Bush 2 was in power the same comments
> were made.
I'm sure there are some who complained of that, but nobody I know did. There
is a categorical difference between merely having a different policy agenda
(most Republicans) and outright rejecting basic Constitutional principles (ex.
religious equality, free press, no torture).
I didn't vote for Romney in 2012, but I certainly didn't think he was a
fascist.
Pretending that all politicians are equivalent is rather ignorant. After all,
Hitler was _also_ a politician and clearly he was in fact different, as were
dozens of other leaders who around the world who have shared his approach.
~~~
ktRolster
_I 'm sure there are some who complained of that, but nobody I know did._
Look up "Bush Hitler" and you'll see plenty of images. It's the American
national past-time to compare our president to either Hitler or the
Antichrist, depending on your persuasion.
~~~
morgante
As I said, I'm sure that plenty of people did. Fringe groups will always have
extreme opinions.
That's different than mainstream news sources and even multiple historians
making the comparison. No credible argument could be made for Bush (or any
other Republican) being a fascist, but Trump's campaign follows many fascist
criteria. Compare the results, to see for yourself that it's obviously a whole
different degree:
\-
[http://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch/#/trump+hitler/](http://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch/#/trump+hitler/)
\-
[http://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch/#/bush+hitler/](http://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch/#/bush+hitler/)
Or just look at the facts. Bush never campaigned on an explicit central theme
of xenophobia and fear of foreigners. Heck, immigration reform was actually
one of the stronger aspects of his policy proposals. Yet Trump's most
consistent message, by far, is that we need to be afraid of foreigners and
minorities—something straight out of the fascist playbook.
~~~
matwood
>As I said, I'm sure that plenty of people did. Fringe groups will always have
extreme opinions.
If you consider MSNBC a fringe group:
[http://www.mrc.org/biasalerts/chris-matthews-compares-
bushs-...](http://www.mrc.org/biasalerts/chris-matthews-compares-bushs-
aggressive-iraq-war-nazis-trial-nuremberg)
------
atsaloli
"The Way to Happiness" by L. Ron Hubbard is a common-sense moral code. It's
inspired me to be a better person in different ways (e.g., as a husband,
professionally, personally, etc.). I gave it to a plumber in Sydney once (I
used to hand them out) and he came back and asked for a few more for his mates
"because they could use it".
[http://www.thewaytohappiness.org](http://www.thewaytohappiness.org)
~~~
Jaruzel
Putting the scientology stuff to one side for a moment, L. Ron Hubbard's
_Battlefield Earth_ and _Mission Earth_ books are fun pulp sci-fi, good for
summer holiday reading.
~~~
atsaloli
Aye. BTW, I just got this promotion from the publisher: Amazon Kindle edition
of _Battlefield Earth_ (1094 pages) is available for 99 cents until midnight
August 14th.
[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01B41I4NI/ref=as_li_tl?ie...](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01B41I4NI/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=galaxypcom-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B01B41I4NI&linkId=cee637675360d7a332e5803c5d1cb021)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
McCabe Cyclomatic Complexity: the proof in the pudding - rbanffy
http://www.enerjy.com/blog/?p=198
======
billsix
if John McCarthy's eval/apply had a high cyclomatic complexity; would it
matter?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Researchers Print World’s First 3-D Heart - puttycat
https://www.haaretz.com/science-and-health/.premium-israeli-scientists-print-world-s-first-3-d-heart-1.7124321
======
puttycat
Unpaid-wall link: [https://www.haaretz.com/amp/science-and-health/.premium-
isra...](https://www.haaretz.com/amp/science-and-health/.premium-israeli-
scientists-print-world-s-first-3-d-heart-1.7124321)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Building Problem Solvers (1993) - callmekit
http://www.qrg.northwestern.edu/BPS/readme.html
======
brudgers
Direct link to PDF: [http://www.qrg.northwestern.edu/bps/BPS-
Searchable.pdf](http://www.qrg.northwestern.edu/bps/BPS-Searchable.pdf)
------
icu
Thank you for posting this link on HN :-)
~~~
pjmorris
Your comment was intriguing enough to get me to go look at the book... which
led me to download it and its source code in to my good intentions folder. I'd
love to hear more about your enthusiasm, as a prompt to eventually rescue the
book from my good intentions folder, as things tend to accumulate there.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google’s 46-camera ‘light field videos’ let you change perspective - boulos
https://techcrunch.com/2020/06/23/googles-46-camera-light-field-videos-let-you-change-perspective-and-peek-around-corners/
======
hatsunearu
This is incredible! I love how they went ahead and did work on not just
compressing it, and also making it such that it is easily renderable on
commodity platforms (basically making explicit geo and atlased textures, kind
of like a regular game render)
~~~
rasz
Next step could be recognizing and generalizing shapes (human, car, house),
deformation/movement models (rigging, inverse kinematics) and decompositing
textures into layers (skin, clothes). You would keep common
shape/movement/texture atlas in the base codec. As you wrote, the process of
recording as a reverse game engine.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Donald Knuth used an Erlang-like notation - old_sound
http://videlalvaro.github.io/2016/10/knuth-first-erlang-programmer.html
======
fusiongyro
Knuth is simply defining a piecewise function here in ordinary math notation.
Functional programming languages borrow heavily from math, Erlang is a
functional language. The resemblance would probably be even more striking with
Haskell... which only serves to undermine the message.
Erlang's great though. Glad to see some irrational exuberance for it.
~~~
nayuki
Knuth's function would be written in Haskell as thus:
f [n] = [n]
f [m, n] = [m, n, 0, 1]
f [m, n, r, 1] = [m, n, mod m n, 2]
f [m, n, r, 2] = if r == 0 then [n] else [m, n, r, 3]
f [m, n, p, 3] = [n, p, p, 1]
It needs to be implemented with variable-length lists instead of fixed-length
tuples, in order to satisfy the type system.
~~~
old_sound
For me what's striking about Erlang syntax is the meaning of the semi-colon
and the period, as function clause separator. Most of the rest is just vanilla
FP lang syntax.
~~~
DanielMcLaury
To be fair that's just vanilla _English_ orthography.
~~~
old_sound
Yup, and still people get confused at Erlang's use of semi-colons and periods.
Do you think it is because other programming languages don't uses the semi-
colon that way? Or that periods are usually used to access class members, but
not to finish function declarations?
~~~
klibertp
I think it's because most people have no idea how to use semicolons in natural
languages too.
~~~
kbenson
I think this is true. Anecdotally, I've looked up the usage of semicolons a
few times now, and I _think_ I know how to use them, but every time I'm about
to I just rephrase what I'm saying so I don't have to. They are used so rarely
in English it's hard to feel confident through exposure.
~~~
adrianratnapala
I use semicolons all the time; they are easy and useful.
The two clauses separated by a semicolon are sentences; thus the semicolon is
logically and grammatically equivalent to a full stop. (As long as you
normalise the capitalisation). The difference is in nuance, flow, and other
soft things.
So when do you use a semicolon instead of a full stop? Whenever you want to!
The really difficult punctuation mark in English is the _full_ colon.
~~~
petertodd
What's a full colon? Hard/NSFW to google for that...
~~~
dragonwriter
Just a plain colon, as an emphatic distinction from a semicolon.
------
pmontra
To the eye of a developer used to more modern languages that also shows some
bad choices in the design of the Erlang syntax. Basically everything that
makes the source code less readable than the original: uppercased variables,
the minuses that prefix the module and export statements, the wierd =:=
operator. I add the also wierd <> binary and string concatenation operator,
not used in this example.
The semicolon-period statement separators/terminators are in the original and
in natural languages, but newer languages proved them to be useless. Probably
compilers in the 80s needed some help by the programmer to be fast.
Elixir fixed some of the worst offenders, kept others and added something.
Examples: the <> is still there but at least we can interpolate strings Ruby
like, the useless do at the end of almost every defsomething declarations (the
compiler should get it by itself.)
But every languages has its wierdnesses, the contest is to have the least of
them.
~~~
OskarS
It's worth noting that Erlang gets a lot of that weirdness from its progenitor
language, Prolog, where arguably some of that stuff makes more sense. For
instance, the =:= operator is an equality operator that forces arithmetic
evaluation, unlike = which is just used for unification. In Prolog, this is a
fairly crucial difference ("1 + 1 = 2" is false in prolog, while "1 + 1 =:= 2"
is true) and there needs to be language constructs that make the distinction
clear. Given that, having different operators is a sensible solution to the
problem.
On the other hand, it's arguably true that Prolog has an over-reliance on a
massive swath of operators. All of these operators represent some variation of
the concept of equality: =, ==, =:=, =@=, #=, and "is". The differences make
sense if you're deep into Prolog, and it's rich capacity for designing new
operators is arguably a strength of the language, but it's clearly an obstacle
to beginners.
I absolutely adore Prolog, but it's a real shame that development of logical
programming basically stopped with it. It would be as if functional
programming never properly progressed beyond early Lisps. Its a shame that
Erlang borrowed so much of its syntax, when the syntax is clearly not its
strongest suit (though it fits Prolog better than Erlang).
~~~
debacle
> The differences make sense if you're deep into Prolog
They make sense academically, but they only slow down language adoption.
------
unboxed_type
Its interesting how you squeezed 'Erlang language' into some syntax choices.
Erlang is about actor model, not about pattern matching. Joe had his
inspiration from Prolog - it is a well-known fact from publicly available
sources.
Anyway, thanks for the article, it sparked some emotions in my brains :-)
~~~
old_sound
I know all that. Long time Erlang dev, former RabbitMQ core dev, so yeah, I've
heard already about the Prolog story. Interesting you talk about the Actor
Model, since even Robert Virding has said that when they created Erlang they
had no idea there was a thing called "Actor Model".
~~~
unboxed_type
Wow! Ok. Well yes, as far as I know both Joe and Rob agree on that it is
accident that Erlang have implemented 'actor model' thing. Also its
interesting to note that functional nature of Erlang is very different to ML-
family languages. Authors used all these functional stuff because of
pragmatics in the first place and not because of solid theory underpinnings.
~~~
old_sound
Yup. See this convo
[https://twitter.com/old_sound/status/788349221946662912](https://twitter.com/old_sound/status/788349221946662912)
------
Xophmeister
Joe Armstrong's comment on this post is gold just for this:
But as Abraham Lincoln said - "don't believe everything you read on the Internet"
------
peterkelly
It's called pattern matching, and is present in most functional languages -
Haskell is a good example of something which uses this style extensively.
In a sense it's derived from the way that some mathematical functions are
expressed, e.g. i've seen the fibonacci sequence expressed in this manner a
few times.
The only thing this excerpt from the book has to do with Erlang is that they
both used the same (existing) idea.
~~~
old_sound
As mentioned already:
>For me what's striking about Erlang syntax is the meaning of the semi-colon
and the period, as function clause separator. Most of the rest is just vanilla
FP lang syntax.
It's strikes me that everybody notices the pattern matching part, but not the
way the clauses are separated, which AFAIK, it's something used by Erlang
Syntax only.
And yeah, after working in Erlang and other FP langs for the past 6 years I
kinda know this is called pattern matching ;-)
~~~
kqr
> _it 's something used by Erlang Syntax only._
Well... and English syntax. In English, you can specify a list of things by
separating each thing with a semicolon and then a sentence is terminated by a
period. Example:
> _Today I would like you to buy coffee; talk to Sarah about the party if you
> can, otherwise send her a text; drop off the kids; meet me at soccer
> practise._
You see how the sentence is terminated with a period, each individual item in
the list is separated by a semicolon, and the comma is free to use inside each
item to indicate related clauses. I've changed nothing about the structure of
that list, except replaced the items with function definitions.
> _Today I would like you to define f(m, n, r, 1) as f(m, n, remainder of m
> divided by n, 2); f(m, n, r, 2) as n if r is 0, otherwise as f (m, n, r, 3);
> f(m, n, p, 3) as f(n, p, p, 1)._
It's the same thing, only we've replaced the mundane everyday tasks with
function definitions. Now reformat the thing and we get
Today I would like you to define
f(m, n, r, 1) = f(m, n, remainder of m divided by n, 2);
f(m, n, r, 2) = n if r is 0,
f (m, n, r, 3) otherwise;
f(m, n, p, 3) = f(n, p, p, 1).
Sure, Erlang syntax happens to coincide with the syntax of English, and I'm
not sure whether this was intentional or not, but it certainly has nothing to
do with Knuth.
~~~
old_sound
Really you can use semi-colons on a sentence and then end the sentence with a
period? And I thought I had learned something during all my years studying
linguistics and grammar.
BTW, newsflash: many languages use semi-colons inside sentences. Spanish for
example, which could be argued to be older than English. So did Erlang copy
Knuth, or Erlang actually copied El Cid Campeador? I think Erlang comes from
El Cantar del Cid.
~~~
kqr
I just find it more likely that Knuth continued to use English for those
definitions, and not that he switched to Spanish, or for that matter Erlang.
~~~
old_sound
For me it's pretty clear he was trying to write the algorithms in Spanish,
therefore the semicolons.
------
sotojuan
Doesn't most of this syntax come from Prolog?
~~~
Turing_Machine
Likely that was its direct source (Erlang was originally developed in Prolog,
IIRC). However, the first volume of TAOCP came out in 1968, while Prolog dates
from 1972. It's possible that the Prolog team got the notation from Knuth, and
then Armstrong, et al carried it forward into Erlang.
~~~
4ad
Knuth didn't invent any notation here, it's just standard math.
There are a million languages out there that resemble math notation (mostly
functional languages), many of them resemble it much better than erlang does.
------
pwdisswordfish
This article reminds me of the "JavaScript is Scheme" meme from a while ago.
In that people wanted to increase the prestige of their favourite(?) language
by shoehorning it into a comparison with something high-status; which
comparison, when you think about it, doesn't make much sense.
> Interesting curiosity, which proves that the Erlang Syntax is some sort of
> Platonic Language Ideal that predates all programming languages.
Because it supports definition by cases and an if-then-else construct? And
because it uses the same punctuation marks that ordinary natural language
sentences do? Give me a break.
~~~
old_sound
Go get your break, while you are at it, get a laugh or two, because that's
what this article is supposed to be about. nobody is so silly to pretend Knuth
was describing Erlang on his book.
------
yellowapple
Are we sure it ain't just Prolog?
In particular, Erlang's syntax is heavily derived from Prolog's, so it's
natural to conclude that Prolog would be the closer relative to Knuth's
syntax.
In reality, though, it's probably the other way around; Prolog's syntax is in
turn more-or-less derived from the conventions in traditional math formulas
(especially with the uppercase variables and such).
------
4ad
Author confuses standard math notation with erlang, missing the fact that
other, more pure, functional programming languages even more closely resemble
math notation.
Nothing to see here.
~~~
rdtsc
> Author confuses standard math notation with erlang, missing the fact that
> other,
The article is silly whimsy, you know that? Knowing the author from online
presence, I can assure you the author doesn't really think Knuth was writing
Erlang at that time.
> that other, more pure, functional programming languages
Maybe the author doesn't care about other more pure functional programming
languages. They care about Erlang so they wrote about it.
------
rpcope1
Related:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRbY3TMUcgQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRbY3TMUcgQ)
------
KeytarHero
Uhh, TAOCP predates Erlang by quite a bit. Shouldn't the headline be, "Erlang
uses a Donald Knuth-like notation"?
~~~
rdtsc
> TAOCP predates Erlang by quite a bit.
Are you sure Knuth wasn't secretly programming in Erlang since the early 50's.
He is considered one of the original inventors, it was just too controversial
so it was covered up all this time.
I guess we need special whimsy and/or sarcasm tags so people don't take them
too seriously...
------
GnarfGnarf
Knuth also created in TeX the notation used by Microsoft's Rich Text Format
(RTF): {\b bold} etc.
------
ljbx
omg, wrong way round. It's more math or logic notation.
~~~
old_sound
More like satire logic notation, but who am I to tell at this point.
~~~
totallymike
Honestly I can't tell sometimes if HN is all just satirical internet comments.
I read the article, chuckled at the exchange with Joe Armstrong, then opened
the HN comments to look at all the grumbling.
Turns out there's plenty.
------
dang
This is a good case of where the HN guidelines call for changing a title of an
article: "Please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait."
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)
A good HN title is accurate, neutral, and close to the language of the
original article. If anyone suggests a better title, we're always happy to
change it again.
~~~
old_sound
It's not misleading or linkbait. It's just humor. Don't you have humor
guidelines at HN?
~~~
dang
Jokes certainly have their place but they're context-dependent, i.e. the same
title can work fine in one place but not another.
~~~
old_sound
Is the website title HackerNews not linkbait or misleading? I ask since I
usually don't see many "hacker News" around here…
~~~
dang
It's a category error to conflate article titles and website names, but I'll
play along.
Misleading? Arguably, but I don't think it's much of a stretch from "Hacker
News" to "news for hackers" to "anything that good hackers would find
interesting", which is the mandate of the site
([https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)).
Linkbait? I doubt it, but I'm biased.
------
gohrt
Clickbait title is clickbait.
minimal-syntax languages tend to look similar.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The dirty secret of browser security #1 - TheCowboy
http://scarybeastsecurity.blogspot.com/2012/01/dirty-secret-of-browser-security-1.html
======
jiggy2011
Perhaps someone should maintain a list of vulnerable versions of software
(similar to bugtraq) and then whenever a browser executes an external program
it could be checked against this and display a warning.
As a side note I don't think we've successfully educated users on how
important updated software is to security.
I know a number of people who have disabled automatic updates for anything on
their computer (often on the advice of more IT savvy friends).
I think this is often because of a fear that automatic updates for software
may apply unwanted changes to the software functionality or occasionally break
things.
Security updates and general updates need to be cleanly seperated.
~~~
vibrunazo
I agree with the separation. Two separate checkboxes for disabling regular
updates and security updates, would probably stop most users from disabling
security updates.
------
obtu
This page lists installed plugins, finds those that are updated and tells you
where to get updates:
<https://www.mozilla.org/plugincheck/>
Though that isn't as newbie-proof as what Chromium does (blocks outdated
plugins, though they an infobar allows running them from the current page).
------
Yaggo
One reason why I keep plugins disabled in Safari.
~~~
jiggy2011
The problem is that we are probably not the target users here.
We can disable plugins and then selectively re-enable them (we probably keep
them upto date anyway) but many people are going to get annoyed if they try
and access something that uses (say) flash and it doesn't work immediately.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Experimental Animal Decompressions to a Near-Vacuum Environment [1965] [pdf] - danso
http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19660005052.pdf
======
danso
BTW I was interested in Googling for this after reading this New Yorker essay
on the costs of colonizing Mars:
[http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/06/01/project-
exodus-...](http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/06/01/project-exodus-
critic-at-large-kolbert)
> _The pressure differential also had unhappy gastric consequences. The
> ballooning dogs expelled air from their bowels; this led frequently—and
> simultaneously—to defecation, urination, and projectile vomiting. The
> animals suffered what looked like grand-mal seizures, and their tongues
> froze. (This last effect was a result of heat loss through rapid
> evaporation.) All told, a hundred and twenty-six dogs were tested in the
> chamber, for varying lengths of time. Of those which spent two minutes in
> simulated space, a third died. The rest deflated and, eventually, recovered.
> Among those which remained in a vacuum for three minutes, the mortality
> figure climbed to two-thirds._
_I came across “Experimental Animal Decompressions to a Near-Vacuum
Environment” while reading up on the One-Year Mission. Maybe it’s just a sign
of my geocentric bias, but I was struck by the correspondences. For all his
training and his courage, Kelly is basically just another test mammal. Like
the dogs, he’s been sealed in an airtight chamber to see how much his body can
take. And in both experiments the results, at least in their broad outline,
are totally predictable._
HN discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9601697](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9601697)
------
tilt_error
No animals were harmed in the making of this report.
~~~
mjevans
Which is a report on the report in which animals were harmed. Let us remember
them as martyrs to science and the knowledge required to preserve many more
intelligent lives in the future.
~~~
effie
How is harmful treatment of animals required to preserve intelligent lives?
~~~
mjevans
Today, maybe not so much. However as we become a space-fairing species knowing
the limits to which things must be designed (examples, blast shutters in
films/anime and self-sealing blobs from scifi/anime) will help. Knowing the
causes of death might also enable a better focus for pre/post treatment and
medical research/supply staging.
------
CyberpunkDad
For something supposedly from 1965 it looks a lot like a LaTex document. Was
layout that good back in 65?
~~~
sawthat
Have you seen a book or magazine from before computers? LaTeX replicates what
professional typesetters did.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Hunter S. Thompson: Finding Your Purpose (1958) - pizza
http://tranquilmonkey.com/hunter-s-thompsons-extraordinary-letter-on-finding-your-purpose/
======
adocracy
It feels like the "maturing process" has waned over the decades. It feels like
people in the past were older, at younger age. This can't be due to the
educational system - we have access to more quality information than ever
before, and more prolific insights into the complicated troubles of our world.
How much of this is due to the increased work ethic in this country where
parents serve less and less as role models and mentors for their children,
because of time away and dedication to work or company? Can a truly
enlightened parent -one who has already discovered the Who they intend to be-
ever be absent from their child's maturation process? Probably not, which
leads me to think that all this increased work, all this national goal
setting, has happened without any Who-finding. Young entrepreneurs - find your
own Who, and your personal Product Market Fit will follow.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
ReMarkable Tablet Gets Desktop Linux - davisr
https://old.reddit.com/r/RemarkableTablet/comments/gkktxy/desktop_linux_on_remarkable_xournal_doom_and_more/
======
kadoban
Looks like this is for the old version. The new version is going through
staged preorder now.
If it'll work on the new that'd be enough to make me want one, but kind of
rough to do it in the hopes it'll be able to run linux. The official OS sounds
like its actual ebook reader software is pretty crap. If I'm going to pay that
much for a device like this I really want a nice reading experience, not just
note-taking.
~~~
mttyng
I agree completely with respect to the e-reader point. I was _almost_ ready to
preorder V2, but that shortcoming gave me pause. I really hope they step it up
a notch with that.
~~~
kadoban
I did a little more research, and it appears that you can run KOreader on the
V1. It doesn't seem to be supported at all, but it looks easy enough.
If you're not familiar with it, KOreader is pretty nice, supports all the
formats I'd want and has decent features and performance (in general, haven't
tried it on these devices specifically).
Would still need to see if it'll work on the V2, but if I knew it would I'd
perorder right now.
------
rkagerer
Is the lag on V1 really that slow, or is it because it's struggling to run
Linux UI?
------
aNoob7000
What I find amazing about Linux is how people get it to run on all kinds of
devices.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Children with high IQ more likely to do drugs as adults - casemorton
http://www.m.webmd.com/children/news/20111114/high-iq-in-childhood-may-predict-later-drug-use
======
tokenadult
Date of publication November 2011. Previous submissions of same underlying
story from other sites:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3237261>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2364425>
These discussions are about a single, unreplicated observational study. The
study doesn't prove causation and may not be generalizable to other countries
besides the UK (where the study occurred).
<http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Best Ideas or Links for SSH User/Key Management for Groups? - jqueryin
I work at a relatively small development agency. Every so often we have somebody that parts ways; We have to tie up all loose ends in regards to account access, SSH public keys, etc. Is there any intuitive web interfaces or CLI apps for maintaining user access control (primarily SSH, but suggestions welcome) to a number of different machines?<p>I myself have used groups internally, but it still entails me remoting into the box to revoke access. It'd be nice if there was some unified way to revoke access across multiple machines.<p>Thanks!
======
jqueryin
Some more digging netted me some positive results for using Puppet:
[http://itand.me/using-puppet-to-manage-users-passwords-
and-s...](http://itand.me/using-puppet-to-manage-users-passwords-and-ss)
[http://serverfault.com/questions/58790/how-can-i-have-
puppet...](http://serverfault.com/questions/58790/how-can-i-have-puppet-
deploy-ssh-keys-for-virtual-users)
------
jqueryin
I've also got to quickly add that there's often scenarios where we have SSH
access to client machines that are entirely out of our control. We might have
limited access (i.e. no sudo/su). This scenario is the more difficult of the
bunch for me to wrap my head around resolving.
------
Duff
To avoid the inevitable errors that turn into security problems, you need to
either use a network-based authentication mechanism or limit ingress into the
network to a single point to reduce the number of things that you need to
touch.
------
JoachimSchipper
'AllowGroups ssh-users' locks out anyone not in the group ssh-users (notably,
including any test accounts you may have misconfigured). You'll have to do
_something_ with the account anyway, so...
There are various ways of central access control (modern SSH has certificates;
Kerberos works too), which may also help here. But that's probably overkill
for your issue.
------
ichverstehe
Use a VPN. Make that the only point of entry, and whenever somebody departs,
you only have to revoke access to the VPN. Here's a decent OpenVPN guide:
<http://code.mixpanel.com/openvpn-in-the-rackspace-cloud/>
------
nodata
If your public keys are properly named in the authorized_hosts file, then you
would just use sed to remove the relevant keys.
If you don't want to do that, any centralised user management system would
allow removal of the user from the allowed ssh group, and adding a VPN layer
is good too.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
You Might Not Need Underscore - ville
https://www.reindex.io/blog/you-might-not-need-underscore/
======
haromaster
There is some really good points here. However, i feel a lot of these 'You
might not need...' articles are often a straw man response to the idea that
developers only use libraries because they are easier to code, not because
(some of them) solve cross-browser issues or provide better performance, offer
features that there isn't a 1:1 native method for etc.
~~~
oceanswave
Exactly this.
------
maroshii
One of the advantages of underscore (and lodash) is that you can iterate over
arrays AND objects indistinctly in most cases. How would you do:
var a1b2 = _.reduceRight({a:1,b:2},(memo,val,key) => key+val+memo,'');
or:
var two = _.find({a:2,b:3,c:4},(val,key) => key !== 'a' && key !== 'c' )
Until I see _.chain, _.compose, _.partialRight, _.zip or _.throttle (among
others) implemented in the standard library lodash is a no-opt.
With iterables and the "for of" loop javascript is definitely not going in the
direction of functional programming though.
------
LocalPCGuy
The article doesn't touch at all on the performance of lodash compared to
underscore or even native functions. In many cases it is more performant. So
while you do have to decide if the extra library load is balance by the better
performance in your specific use case, it should be considered.
Also, there is the simple fact a lot of people like the abstraction compared
to the native solution - it is often simpler to use and remember.
~~~
stymaar
> In many cases it is more performant Imho, choosing to use a library like
> lodash in the beginning of your project for performance reasons is a
> premature optimisation. In 90% of the projects, the speed of
> Array.prototype.map compared to _.map will never be part of the performance
> bottleneck.
> it is often simpler to use and remember Maybe people are used to one
> library's api, and expect the native counterpart to be more difficult, but
> the examples given in the article are counter examples to this statement.
~~~
jdd
You use something like lodash from the start so you know out of the gate
you're getting something modular, consistent, feature rich, that also happens
to perform well. Using a library like lodash gives wiggle room between you and
the language. This wiggle room allows for increased consistency, added
features, and performance improvements. For example ES6 introduces changes in
`Object.keys` to support string values. Lodash standardizes the behavior so
it's consistent across es3, es5, and es6 environments.
------
togakangaroo
Interesting post with a few neat things I didn't know (spread on an object?
Very cool)
But then you still have. To deal with awesome functional helpers like
denounce, not to mention insanely useful things like cloneDeep and zipObject.
Instead I'd note to use the natives tuff wherever possible and use lodash to
pull in just the functions you need piecemeal.
Oh and you should certainly mention Function.prototype.reduce and
Object.assign
------
fabien_
Underscore : _.each(array, iteratee) ES5.1 : array.forEach(iteratee)
And all the other elements...
Yes, you are right. But... The "array" is not always an Array.
document.getElementsByClassName( 'myClass' ) is not an Array but a
DOMNodeList. So document.getElementsByClassName( 'myClass' ).forEach(iteratee)
will not work. Same for map, reduce...
Underscore (or lodash) makes more that just polyfilling es5 methods.
~~~
julienng
Do something like: NodeList.prototype.__proto__ = Array.prototype;
------
GreLI
What about _.flatten()? E.g. to flatten an array before find()?
Just thought of 1-level flattening [].concat(...array). But it not that
explicit. Also, array.find(i => i.foo == 'bar') isn't as readable as
_.find(array, { foo: 'bar' }).
------
inglor
`Array.from({ length: n }, (v, k) => k + x)` this is a terrible way to create
a range, it only works incidentally. Please do not use it.
~~~
peferron
Which part of the spec makes you think it only works incidentally?
[http://www.ecma-international.org/ecma-262/6.0/#sec-
array.fr...](http://www.ecma-international.org/ecma-262/6.0/#sec-array.from)
~~~
inglor
The part where you're abusing an old "array like" and the way Array.from works
with it and uses the index argument in the mapper argument to force it into a
range. How many people do you think understand what `Array.from({length: 5})`
works?
~~~
peferron
Your comment sounded like it only worked because of implementation details in
the JS engines. That would have been a much bigger deal than just not liking
the style.
Out of curiosity, how would you do it yourself?
------
mc_hammer
true but underscore had the features first... so, i might not need es2015.
also i have no idea how to install es2015 or the browser compatibility it
brings.
thx for the info though. :)
~~~
ville
Check out Babel ([https://babeljs.io/](https://babeljs.io/)). If you're
already using some kind of build setup for your JavaScript, adding Babel is
very easy and quite a few projects are using it already.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Mint has test bank accounts on the production site - iamspoilt
I am surprised to see that a tool that claims bank level security has these test accounts enabled on the Canadian production website.<p>How can users trust that the bank login information they are filling in for a specific bank account is actually being redirected to a real bank or some test account under the hood? I know there is no way end users can ensure that but this is pure negligence on Mint's part in my opinion.<p>Screenshot: https://imgur.com/a/QGlrsBJ
======
saluki
Banks should have a read only api available to access your account for
financial apps like this.
I just can't understand giving your full user/pass for financial accounts to a
3rd party.
------
protonimitate
It's sloppy, but why is redirection a concern? If there's an issue that
redirects login information to a test account, it could just as easily be
redirected to any other account (test or not).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Is gitlab down for anyone else? - aidos
https://gitlab.com/users/sign_in
======
iriche
GitLab is the new GitHub
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: WishBin – Superpowered Wishlists for Amazon - williamle8300
http://www.wishbin.co/
======
buttonsmasher
Neat! But I ran into a few issues. 1) Facebook login does not work, I used
Twitter 2) The first time I clicked the Wish bookmarklet on an Amazon product,
it just froze, had to do a it a multiple times That said, I can see it using
regularly, definitely better than placing items in 'Save for Later' list on
Amazon Edit - I am currently a camelcamelcamel user, I love the price tracking
on that, do you have any plans on adding that feature
~~~
williamle8300
Hi, thanks for the feedback.
Yes, we do have price notifications like CamelCamelCamel. It's more
rudimentary, but I think that's what the common user would prefer.
1) Did you click on the button from the landing page, or signup page?
2) There's a bit of a problem here where it needs to load the DOM first. I
think I need a way to create something that provides better error handling.
------
conception
How would you say your service is better/differentiates itself from
camelcamelcamel?
~~~
williamle8300
They're more of a email alert metaservice, I think. Though WishBin gives you
price updates and whatnot, they're secondary ideas.
WishBin is wishlist service first, data-piping service second.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
YouTube will experiment with ways to prevent dislike button 'mobs' - unclebucknasty
https://www.engadget.com/2019/02/03/youtube-experiments-could-prevent-dislike-abuse/
======
who-knows95
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-
disliked_YouTube_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-
disliked_YouTube_videos)
1\. "YouTube Rewind 2018: Everyone Controls Rewind"[17] 2\. "Baby"[18] Justin
Bieber featuring Ludacris
------
xfitm3
Is there a difference between like and dislike button 'mobs'?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Spotify 2017 wrap up of your personal play history in playlists and info graphic - IronWolve
http://2017wrapped.com/
======
IronWolve
The infographic and quiz was kinda cool, I'm always playing Spotify it seems.
"In 2017, you listened to 14,762 minutes, 3,117 songs, 1,251 artists, 28
genres"
I was surprised that 5th top artist of the year was a background relaxing mood
playlist I sometimes play when I'm working, so I spiked the usage.
Also, I tell spotify to show me unavailable tracks so I can see whats being
yanked from spotify. Hellbound train by david baerwald was the only track
removed for the year in my 2017 playlist.
Spotify even created a playlist for "Ones that got away" songs that fit my
style that I missed.
~~~
dorelljames
They really got me this time. Haha. I was surprised that I've been a pop
lurking person. In total, I had 56,571 minutes, to 4,417 different songs and
1,661 different artists and explored 42 genres.
PS: The Ones That Got Away playlist is awesome.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
FunnyJunk's lawyer isn't afraid of the Oatmeal - reiichiroh
http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2012/06/15/funnyjunk-lawyer-charles-carreon-isnt-afraid-of-the-oatmeal/
Charles Carreon seems to be less of an "Internet lawyer" and more of an relic, parading out his outdated work on the sex.com case. He seems to have succeeded in impressing the non-technical masses but has no actual expertise with regards to how the Internet works nowadays.
======
unimpressive
> but he’s certain he can find some legal recourse for what’s going on right
> now – “California code is just so long, but there’s something in there about
> this,” he says.
Hypothesis: If I dig long enough I'll reach china.
He's forgetting a few layers of the earth; at least.
------
petrilli
I really like the "I'm sure I can find SOMETHING to throw at him". Also, isn't
he basically engaging in slander by accusing Matthew of orchestrating these
attacks? Everything I've seen the only thing he orchestrated was charity.
------
timwoj
> I’ve got the energy, and I’ve got the time.
I'm reading this as "I've lost all of my other clients because I'm clearly not
very bright, so I have plenty of time to focus on this fight that I can't
possibly win."
------
MoOmer
Ok, I thought the story was silly at first - but come on. Let the story die.
------
jack-r-abbit
> _he didn’t seem the least bit fazed by all the negative attention he’s been
> getting throughout the internets_
What is he gonna say? "OMG I'm crapping in my pants over this" Of course he's
gonna say he isn't fazed. Lawyers need to have a good poker face or they stand
to lose what ever ground they may think they have.
------
earl
In his 20 years as a lawyer, he says, he’s written hundreds
of letters like the one he sent Inman, but the response to
this one was unique.
Yeah, I hate it when there's pushback to extortion too. But watch yourself,
internets: Charles Carreon doesn't afraid of anything
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Bus Driver with 37 Years of Programming Experience? - hello-yoshi
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/robert-broughton/13/a4b/b29
======
mark-r
I have a friend who worked as a programmer until a bad case of burnout
coincided with a layoff. He's been driving for a delivery service for at least
10 years now.
------
sp332
He runs a website, "Common Sense Canadian" <http://thecanadian.org> He's also
apparently a member of the Vancouver LUG (Linux users group) and the PHP
Developer Network on LinkedIn. Here's his blog: <http://broughton.ca/>
~~~
hello-yoshi
Haha, this is awesome. Thanks for sharing :)
------
marua
w00t
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Drowned Lands of the Wallkill - commandertso
http://www.bldgblog.com/2019/07/terrestrial-warfare-drowned-lands/
======
subpixel
This land is still being fought over today, as very large, insular religious
communities are growing in both size and political influence with results that
are...complicated.
~~~
leppr
Is there any material you would recommend to learn about it ? The article was
light in details but the story is damn interesting.
------
saagarjha
> The Wallkill itself had no real path or bed, Snell explains, the meadows it
> flowed through were naturally dammed at one end by glacial boulders from the
> Ice Age, the whole place was clogged with “rank vegetation,” malarial
> pestilence, and tens of thousands of eels, and, what’s more, during flood
> season “the entire valley from Denton to Hamburg became a lake from eight to
> twenty feet deep.”
Sounds pleasant.
~~~
mannykannot
With the significant exception of the malaria, this could well have been an
interesting place to visit, much like the Great Swamp of Putnam and Dutchess
counties, just across the Hudson from here, is now.
[https://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/life/2018/09/27/gr...](https://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/life/2018/09/27/great-
swamp-has-something-offer-every-season/1371226002/)
------
zaphod12
Fascinating! I live relatively near there and had no idea the history of the
region. The Black Dirt Bourbon they mention is quite tasty, too, and I high
recommend Black Dirt Red (surprisingly not a blend - but one of the best Baco
Noir wines around - grown no place else but the hudson valley!)
------
imrehg
Reminiscent of "The War for the Alon" in Ursula Le Guin's Changing Planes.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Rate my app (iconswitch.me) - iOS icon creator - nhangen
http://iconswitch.me/<p>I got tired of manually exporting, resizing, and re-naming icons from Fireworks and Photoshop, so we built a PHP script to automatically convert a 512x512 image into the necessary bundle used for iOS apps, including iPad, retina, and spotlight.<p>Still unsure how I'll use it to promote anything, but for now it's something I made because I needed it.<p>Thoughts welcome.
======
gus_massa
Clicky: <http://iconswitch.me/>
Nice work. My comments:
+) Is it possible to use only one button? When I browse and select the image,
I expect it to be uploaded automatically. For example Gmail and Tineye have
this behavior.
+) Try to show more feedback about the uploaded image. When I upload the
image, almost instantly a download notification appears. (I think that it was
"too fast".) I expected to see some changes before the download is available.
For example:
- see an upload progress bar
- see an scaled version of the image in the site (this is important)
- see a fake "working" progress bar :)
- see a message "Your images are ready to download"
- see a "download button" in case the automatic download fails or I touch "cancel".
~~~
nhangen
Thanks, all great points.
The progress bar is next in line, as is a preview. I also agree on the instant
download - it was just a quick way to make it work.
Appreciate it!
------
solipsist
This site is also a must-have for iOS developers who want to see the
glossy/rounded edges version of their icons:
<http://www.midnightmobility.com/iphone-icon/>
------
NickFitz
Very nice, and just saved me a lot of messing about. Thank you!
------
farout
Wow - this is awesome. I have a lot iPhone apps so this will be real useful to
me.
suggestions:
I would change the titles of the buttons:
Isn't "Upload" really "Download icons"? Isn't "Browse" really "Upload photo"?
progress bar or status message for each action.
Add cancel button just in case.
below the fold explain the steps or add text near the buttons:
Step1. Upload photo
Step2. Download icons
Done.
I am curious what did you use to make this app? php? what did you call to
resize? I have been working with iOS so I doing some transforms but I have
done nothing like this in other languages.
Very nice.
~~~
nhangen
You know, you're right - the upload really could be a download or "convert"
button.
It's made in php, I might throw the code up on Github once I get a final
version I'm happy with.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Combine clean architecture with entity-component-system - randle_mcmurphy
My idea is to separate my code into data, domain, and presentation layers and use entity-component-system only in presentation layer. So data and domain layers will follow DDD principles and will mostly deal with reading/writing data. And in presentation layer, the domain models will be converted to components and systems.<p>Did anyone try it? Looking for opinions/tips/examples.
======
daleholborow
What's the system? Do the absolute bare minimum required for success, and if
you don't need the additional overhead, avoid it. Find Jimmy bogard on
vertical slice architecture in YouTube for some good talk on pragmatic ,
simple designs winning over theoretically sound but heavy and unnecessary
architectures, well worth a look
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How Much Does Crime Effect Rent Prices? - kevlar1818
https://priceonomics.com/how-much-does-crime-effect-rent-prices/
======
DrScump
The submitter quoted accurately; that's an ugly error on Priceonomics' part.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Edge Computing opportunity is not what you think - jgrahamc
https://blog.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-workers-serverless-week/
======
iampims
WebAssembly is a great platform to build upon, but it’s still very rough for
most languages to build the necessary features for seamless interop with WASM.
WASI is still not standardized.
------
austinpena
Working with Cloudflare workers has been such a treat, and now they're going
to enable Python support! Such an awesome tool.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A 12-Month Campaign of Fake News to Influence Elections Costs $400K - KasianFranks
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/a-12-month-campaign-of-fake-news-to-influence-elections-costs-400-000/
======
lr4444lr
_An examination of Chinese, Russian, Middle Eastern, and English-based
underground fake news marketplaces reveals a wide range of services available
on these portals_
How laudable that the propaganda for hire industry is so multicultural.
------
j_m_b
So this is the cost, what about the effectiveness? How does it stack up
against the millions paid in traditional campaign outreach?
------
failrate
It should be far more expensive to lie to me, otherwise that will continue to
be the logical choice.
~~~
criddell
It's going to be interesting to see how this evolves. I would expect there to
be much, much more of this in future elections.
------
CWuestefeld
Link to the underlying report (PDF):
[https://documents.trendmicro.com/assets/white_papers/wp-
fake...](https://documents.trendmicro.com/assets/white_papers/wp-fake-news-
machine-how-propagandists-abuse-the-internet.pdf)
I'm not clear on how effective such a campaign promises to be. But assuming
that folks wouldn't pay if they couldn't get something out of it, what does
this tell us about democracy? Do we need to throw out either democracy or
freedom of speech?
~~~
pjc50
Freedom of speech _purism_ is probably unworkable. I'm old enough to remember
people arguing that _spam_ was free speech and that spamfighting was immoral.
Fake news is much more sophisticated than spam but is ultimately going to
encounter the same fight.
~~~
danjoc
Today, we have a big 10 situation where 95% of all email travels through 10
hosts... gmail, live, aol, yahoo, etc. Email was designed to be open to all,
but thanks to the spam fighting tactics employed, we ended up with all the
power concentrated in the hands of a few.
We lost nntp entirely, but that wasn't due to spam. The copyright industry
shut it down under the premise of "think of the children."
http was designed to allow anyone to run a server, but thanks to asymmetric
bandwidth and port blocking, it's all hosted on the NSA cloud.
It hasn't been a good two decades for free speech. The only fight we won was
crypto, and they're coming after that again.
~~~
maxerickson
NNTP is still alive, with basically the primary purpose of disregarding
copyright.
The talk groups are all abandoned for web forums with UX that people end up
preferring (I understand that NNTP allows choice of client and people are
going to explain how much better that is; over here in the reality experiment,
the abandonment already happened).
------
gaetanrickter
"$50,000 - Discredit a journalist" wow.
~~~
blfr
Pretty expensive when most journalists spend their days doing it themselves at
no extra cost.
~~~
shuntress
Do you have non-anecdotal evidence to back up this claim?
~~~
reitanqild
Yep:
-a lot about what was written in the presidential election last year seems to have been wishful thinking or meant to influence not inform. _And this is from somebody who doesn 't like Trump._
\- Swedish police has no-go zones, firefighters gets attacked - journalists
keeps telling everything is fine.
\- and bad reporting from the Middle east has plenty of crazy examples.
(Journalist: "Israelis, the most advanced army in the area, actually tries to
kill civilians". Fact is of course, for anyone who bothers to think for 15
seconds that if the Israelian army _tried_ to kill civilians then I must say
they have failed _spectacularily_.)
~~~
mikeyouse
> _Swedish police has no-go zones, firefighters gets attacked - journalists
> keeps telling everything is fine._
This still isn't true. There are many legitimate issues with integrating
immigrant populations into fairly insular and homogeneous societies. People
lying about the magnitude of those problems really, really discredit efforts
to make them better though.
Swedish police are incredibly well trained.. it's absurd to think they've just
abandoned parts of major cities, especially when those cities are safer than
most large cities in the US. Malmo, the 'center' of all of the alleged police
no-go zones has a murder rate equal to that of San Diego.. It's 90% lower than
the murder rate in Chicago. The overall murder rate is dramatically lower than
the rate in the US:
[https://imgur.com/a/wKh0X](https://imgur.com/a/wKh0X)
It's really bizarre how the right wing in the US has chosen Sweden as the
symbol for their refugee distrust when there's very little evidence that their
problems are anything more than those seen by every major city with large
impoverished populations of any background.
------
cmurf
_The right of voting for representatives is the primary right by which other
rights are protected. To take away this right is to reduce a man to slavery,
for slavery consists in being subject to the will of another, and he that has
not a vote in the election of representatives is in this case._ \- Thomas
Paine
I think voting rights and electoral integrity is more important than fake news
(i.e. propaganda) which has been around forever and isn't going away.
------
aswanson
I wonder if the Byzantine generals algorithm could be applied to fake news. A
distributed truth block chain.
~~~
Upvoter33
seems like you need people to agree on "what is truth" first?
------
jakeogh
Not even remotely scratching the surface.
[http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ajes.2017.76.issu...](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ajes.2017.76.issue-2/issuetoc)
------
rdudek
Since this is HN, the bigger question is how much of this can be automated?
For example, you go to one of those sites, fill out a form, pay in bitcoin,
and let the system do the rest?
------
coldtea
A 12-month campaign of fake promises, ruthless hypocrisy and BS interpretation
of reality (which has been the standard for decades) has comparable costs...
------
sgberlin
Seems expensive for what mostly sounds like basic black hat marketing tricks
------
xnandor
This article was purchased through a fake news vendor.
------
throwaway-1209
Correct The Record and Share Blue cost millions. Maybe the DNC should
outsource.
------
ausjke
unless you're going to do full censorship there is no cure, the MSM is clearly
against trump in the election which could be decisive in the past, the social
network dared to disagree this time and actually made a difference, but, what
is wrong then, let them compete and people will know where to turn to,
remember, majority of them have already made their mind no matter what, it's
the middle ground that is affected.
~~~
wnevets
>unless you're going to do full censorship there is no cure, the MSM is
clearly against trump in the election
by giving him billions in free air time?
~~~
reitanqild
Yep. As far as I can see he outsmarted American media.
They really tried hard to help every other candidate but ended up playing
right into his hands.
Given what people think about the current president this says quite a lot
about media.
------
SteveGerencser
I have said for many years now that before anyone can vote they need to take a
test. It's a dead simple 5 question T/F test. And you only have to get 3 right
to vote.
~~~
DanBC
What would happen to people with a learning disability?
Would you protect their vote? Or are they subhuman and not allowed to take
part in democracy?
~~~
JoeAltmaier
That's a reasonable question, and reasonable people come down on different
sides.
~~~
DanBC
No, reasonable people recognise CRPD.
Particularly article 29:
[https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/convention-...](https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/convention-
on-the-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities/article-29-participation-in-
political-and-public-life.html)
> States Parties shall guarantee to persons with disabilities political rights
> and the opportunity to enjoy them on an equal basis with others, and shall
> undertake:
> a) To ensure that persons with disabilities can effectively and fully
> participate in political and public life on an equal basis with others,
> directly or through freely chosen representatives, including the right and
> opportunity for persons with disabilities to vote and be elected, inter
> alia, by:
> i. Ensuring that voting procedures, facilities and materials are
> appropriate, accessible and easy to understand and use;
> ii. Protecting the right of persons with disabilities to vote by secret
> ballot in elections and public referendums without intimidation, and to
> stand for elections, to effectively hold office and perform all public
> functions at all levels of government, facilitating the use of assistive and
> new technologies where appropriate;
> iii. Guaranteeing the free expression of the will of persons with
> disabilities as electors and to this end, where necessary, at their request,
> allowing assistance in voting by a person of their own choice;
But also:
[https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/convention-...](https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/convention-
on-the-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities/article-5-equality-and-non-
discrimination.html)
[https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/convention-...](https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/convention-
on-the-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities/article-9-accessibility.html)
[https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/convention-...](https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/convention-
on-the-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities/article-12-equal-recognition-
before-the-law.html)
[https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/convention-...](https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/convention-
on-the-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities/article-19-living-independently-
and-being-included-in-the-community.html)
[https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/convention-...](https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/convention-
on-the-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities/article-21-freedom-of-expression-
and-opinion-and-access-to-information.html)
~~~
JoeAltmaier
Sure, that's the law. But we were talking philosophy. Should a comatose person
vote? How about someone who hasn't the wits to draw the 'x' on the ballot?
There's a whole spectrum. At some point, the potential for abuse of such
people is as large as the harm in preventing them from voting.
See how complicated it is? A bunch of legal citations doesn't come near the
issue.
~~~
maxerickson
The UN isn't law, that stuff is all philosophy (expressions of ideals and so
on).
It isn't an obvious thing though, determining intent when it isn't clearly and
plainly expressed.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Human Cost of the Post-9/11 Wars: Lethality and the Need for Transparency [pdf] - DyslexicAtheist
https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/files/cow/imce/papers/2018/Human%20Costs,%20Nov%208%202018%20CoW.pdf
======
danboarder
When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail... MLK said it
best: "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot
drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence
multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral
of destruction ... The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars
producing more wars - must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark
abyss of annihilation." \- Martin Luther King Jr ,1963
~~~
benevol
The issue is that war is one of America's most important business models, if
not _the_ most important one.
And once a machine makes that much money, the investors fueling it will do
everything to keep it going.
------
bronlund
This is just the 'direct deaths', the real toll is much higher.
After all, this is USA most important export article and what keeps the dollar
up - their ability to bring death to anyone anywhere within 24 hours.
------
sbhn
The us war on terror will never end, it just makes to much money
------
benevol
Wow, that post got taken down quickly.
~~~
toolslive
"news media that try to track the consequences of the wars are inhibited by
governments determined to paint a rosy picture of perfect execution and
progress"
(from the paper)
------
NTDF9
America is a war machine. Why? Because they need to support the digits on
their balance sheets.
It's really unfortunate when human lives have lesser value than digits on some
balance sheets.
There will be a time in future when the world teaches the same things about
America that we were taught about Hitler.
------
dandare
Attributing civilian deaths from Afghan and Iraq civil wars to the US War on
Terror is very controversial.
~~~
emilsedgh
Why? They used to be quite stable. Hadn't US decided to invade them, no civil
war would've happened.
Particularly, regarding Iraq, it was US' decision to disarm Saddam's army and
start from scratch, creating a huge void that allowed the civil war and ISIS
to rise.
~~~
runn1ng
Characterising Afghanistan pre-invasion as "stable" is bold.
They had civil war through the whole 90s and were ruled by either warlords or
Talebs.
US invasion didn't help, but it wasn't stable in any sense of the word before
that
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why Your Programming Language Sucks - tlong
https://wiki.theory.org/YourLanguageSucks
======
kafkaesq
Many valid points in there, but many weak arguments also.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Best Places to network my way into the software industry? - vailprogrammer
What is the best way to network my way into a software job? On paper I think I look like a terrible candidate, even though I’m actively building up my software portfolio. I’ve read that portfolio projects alone won’t get me a job when applying through traditional means, and that it’s better to network. So where do I go to network? Any and every tech meet up or hack a thon that I can? Would it be productive to strike up conversation with people at coworking spaces, or would they see me as a distraction/nuisance? Even though I’ve been staying sober until I get a tech job, should I go out drinking with tech people? I’m moving to a new city, and will need to find a (any) job to support myself until I find a software job. Should I apply to startup customer support or sales jobs, and hope that once I have that job I can slide sideways into a coding position?<p>Optional background info:
Started programming at age 12, studied Computer Engineering. Had a full stack developer position 25 hours per week my last two years of college under a toxic/micromanaging boss. Burned out, graduated and moved to a resort town for 4 years of working in hospitality. Now I’m ready to get back into the software world, and am building out a number of projects that have been floating around in my head and applying to jobs. On paper I have a 4 year gap in my resume which I think is killing my chances so far. Any help is much appreciated.
======
hluska
I have three pieces of advice.
1.) Keep the story about burning out under a toxic/micromanaging boss to
yourself. I cannot stress this enough. Interviewing clients is about 50%
selecting the best candidate and 50% covering your own ass. Even if your side
is 100% true, it still raises too many red flags to even consider taking a
chance on you.
2.) Do you have any side projects that are (even tangentially) related to the
hospitality work you've been doing? If not, can you start one?
3.) Don't hide from your hospitality work. Instead, over the last four years
on resort, you've likely picked up some great stories and learned some things
you never would have learned had you gone right into a coding gig. Hell, I
think that most good managers would see that hospitality background as a
pretty good point in your favour.
As for networking, in theory yes, networking at events works. In practice,
it's very slow, time consuming and frustrating. Cold emails to CEO/CTO types
at startups you genuinely like is a better way, particularly if you'll be in
{{tech hub}} on {{dates}} and would like to buy her a coffee.
~~~
vailprogrammer
1) Understood, and will do. How do you suggest I frame the 4 year gap in tech
work though? "I decided that after 17 years of school, I wanted to take some
time off to ski. That year off turned into 4 but now I'm back" ?
2) Right now I'm just building some small things that are useful utilities for
my personal life, but after those I plan on doing some more advanced stuff
with computer vision. I could probably create something that ties face
recognition into a hotel valet system....
3) Maybe its just the pessimist in me, but I am afraid that managers think I'm
just trying to escape the hospitality industry, rather than looking to make my
mark in the tech industry. I do agree that it's been very useful though, I can
get along well with anyone now. This kind of segues into why I'm asking about
networking: I feel like on paper I'm not that impressive but if I can get to
know someone in a hiring position at a software company they'll see how much
of an asset I could be.
Now that I think about it, I can see how going to events might not have the
effectiveness I'm looking for. Once I've built up my portfolio some more and
am feeling more confident in my interviewing skills, I'll start sending emails
out like you suggest. This impostor syndrome really holds me back some times I
feel like.
Thank you for the response! Any further help is appreciated, particularly with
how to frame my 4 year hiatus from tech.
------
itamarst
Does your resume reflect your experience working?
If you do it right, you can apply to entry-level job as "I am just like
someone graduating from school this year, except I have evidence of <time
management/ability to communicate/whatever else you did at hospitality work>,
and so I'm worth talking to".
If you just omit the 4 years it just confuses people, and you're not taking
advantage of skills you have acquired.
~~~
vailprogrammer
Thanks for the reply! I’ve worked at several different restaurants here, but
I’ll see about kind of merging all of that under just 1 restaurant on my
resume. I also started and ran a service business for 3 months last summer,
should I keep that on my resume? My concern is that hiring managers will ask
why I didn’t start a tech business. But at the same time I learned tons of
useful stuff from running all aspects of that business.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Facebook sues analytics firm Rankwave over data misuse - JumpCrisscross
https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/10/facebook-rankwave-lawsuit/
======
inflatableDodo
My prediction after the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke is that it would
lead to an explosion in wealthy people who want to play at noopolitics.
I suspect they have dozens of CA's on their hands currently. At the very
least, if not hundreds.
The key takeaway that some people will have had from Cambridge Analytica, is
not 'they got caught, don't do this', but rather 'they were largely successful
and incredibly cheap'.
The upshot from having lots of players in this space however, is not one of
greater control by insidious power addicts, but rather a loss of control as
the players compete for attention and influence. So, chaos in the news and the
elimination of any kind of consistent narrative from on high. I think we have
been experiencing this for a while now. In some ways it is almost an
improvement.
~~~
arendtio
My key takeaway of Cambridge Analytica was that the advertising industry is a
lot more harmful than I thought. I always thought, that there is no real
problem when some people influence/manipulate other people on what they spend
their money on.
But now we see that those same instruments can be used to not only change
shopping decisions but also democratic decisions, which is not okay in my
opinion and should be prosecuted and be punished with severe penalties.
Otherwise, the whole point of democracy (one human, one vote) is useless, as
the rich can simply buy ads to influence enough people to follow their goals.
~~~
dqybh
>Otherwise, the whole point of democracy (one human, one vote) is useless, as
the rich can simply buy ads to influence enough people to follow their goals.
As they've always done through the media? The hardest thing to swallow, for
some people, is that democracy is deeply flawed, and these things openly show
it. Until now they've been free to ignore it.
~~~
TelmoMenezes
> As they've always done through the media? The hardest thing to swallow, for
> some people, is that these things show very openly how democracy is deeply
> flawed.
If you study a bit of History, or look beyond the western world, you will see
how terrible the alternatives are. And you will see that democracy is
something worth fighting for. Democracy is not flawed, it is hard. We have to
fight for it, and the next generations will have to fight for it, and so on.
It's real life.
I haven't resigned myself to living in a Black Mirror episode.
~~~
syshum
Democracy is very very flawed, that is why the US is not a democracy, why at
every level of government there are checks put in place to put in road blocks
to democracy.
And why it is so extremely dangerous that people are trying to destroy those
checks and institute a direct democracy with things like the national popular
vote.
~~~
HeWhoLurksLate
I believe you have terms misconstrued.
What we in the US have is a representative democracy / republic that is also
rather decentralized federation (states and state's rights) as well.
_The US is a democracy._ 🇺🇸
~~~
ratsmack
I believe we, the US, is a Constitutional Republic, and we vote
Democratically.
~~~
syshum
The original design of the government was to have only 1/2 of 1 branch of
government Democratically Elected. That being the House
The Senate was appointed by State Legislatures, this was changed with the 17th
Amendment
The President is Chosen by Electorial College not a democratic vote (which I
support BTW)
The Judicial Branch is Appointed for Life.
~~~
ratsmack
The Electoral College is one of the most significant aspects of our electoral
system and hopefully will never be supplanted by popular vote.
------
melling
Michael Lewis (Moneyball, Big Short) interviewed Alex Kogan:
[https://atrpodcast.com/episodes/the-alex-kogan-
experience-s1...](https://atrpodcast.com/episodes/the-alex-kogan-
experience-s1!d20f3)
After listening to this, it sounds like Cambridge Analytica was overblown, in
the sense that the information wasn’t as useful as claimed.
~~~
JumpCrisscross
> _it sounds like Cambridge Analytica was overblown, in the sense that the
> information wasn’t as useful as claimed_
The consequences of the breach were overblown. Its scale and depth, however,
were not.
~~~
e40
The "overblown" part refers solely to the predictive powers of the dataset.
------
busymom0
Facebook is all words but no actions. Their actions speak otherwise. This
lawsuit is just a PR stunt for them to claim they did something so they have
something to reply with at the next senate hearing.
My problem in this whole data privacy debate is things like "shadow profiles"
where even though I don't have Facebook, they still have information on me
because one of my friends decided to share their entire contacts list with
facebook and thus facebook now knows my details too even though I never
consented to my details being shared.
Another problem I have with this privacy debate is the lack of technological
awareness in the politicians. I watched the US senate hearing last year with
Mark Zuckerberg and was absolutely shocked at how clueless the members in
office were. It was shameful. Mark also got away with giving almost useless
answers and the senators didn't grill him much on more important issues.
At this point, I am really curious whether our data is even valuable in the
"ad market" considering everything gets leaked anyway. So if something is
getting so easily available to these ad companies by simply "misusing" the
service, wouldn't the value of the data start going down? I remember a few
months ago, there was an article on how the data per use was valued at around
$12 (not sure if I am remembering right). I wonder if that value goes down
over time because of these so claimed "breaches".
------
tomohawk
Cambridge Analytica was not the 1st time this was done.
[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/feb/17/obama-
digital-...](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/feb/17/obama-digital-data-
machine-facebook-election)
~~~
colordrops
Also I'm curious why Correct the Record and Share Blue are nearly complete
ignored when they did the exact same thing at the exact same time.
~~~
EasyTiger_
They took over the main politics subreddit in 2016, one of the worst things
I’ve seen happen online. Crickets.
~~~
fareesh
By all accounts it seems like there was a major reshuffling that took place on
the night of the Democratic National Convention.
The entire mood of the subreddit changed overnight from posts that vilified
Sec. Clinton to posts that glorified her - it was completely crazy. I read
that subreddit quite frequently during US election season and the difference
was staggering. People dismiss it as "everyone rallied behind the nominee" \-
as someone who was there practically every day. It definitely wasn't that.
There is definitely something shady going on with that subreddit in
particular.
Incidentally, the TV news media was also seemingly doing a blackout of the
fairly heated protests taking place outside the building where all the
disappointed Bernie folks were trying to get inside. I only found out of them
much later from online videos.
~~~
EasyTiger_
Yeah I used to enjoy the sub too, some interesting discussions that were
usually polite. You are 100% correct it was overnight, there was nothing
organic about that.
------
hetspookjee
What always amazed me about Cambridge Analytica is that the media onslaught
only started almost a year (cant reclal excactly but a long time) after the
presentation was shared online, it already garnered quite some views when I
saw i for the first time. I remembered watching the entire presentation and
was amazed by the depth of it all, but amazed as well how almost noone else
seemed to care about the presentation.
I couldn't find any news agencies reporting on it whatsoever and I didn't
understand why. I still have a hard time to believe that it took so long for
the media attention to catch on.
~~~
sonnyblarney
This is about narratives.
Tons of facts are out there in the wild, waiting to make enough noise that
they hit the mainstream press, when they pick up each others stories and it
goes global.
A single tweet from way back can do this.
This is why the press has so much power, ultimately, they decide where 1
billion eyeballs will be pointed (and where they won't).
For this reason I check the headlines from a lot of different sources; it's
amazing what doesn't get picked up.
------
yters
Didn't something similar happen with Obama's campaign and social media? I
don't remember any sort of outcry in that case.
------
return1
Facebook has probably had a lot of those, but they don't matter if they are
not related to specific US political campaigns.
~~~
matt4077
Are you sure? I recently saw a non-political case from South Korea get some
coverage, including on TechCrunch iirc.
~~~
return1
and i m pretty sure it will be forgotten in a week
------
SeriousM
To be honest, "sending a message to the developers that we're enforcing our
policies" is equally too late as self advertisement as they change the rules
ever so often as they like if it sounds good to them. Fuck Facebook, you can
live without the so called "social" media circle.
------
temp99990
Did anyone else find it ironic there’s a scene in the Netflix AOC documentary
where she’s crowded around a computer with her boyfriend scrolling through
Google Ad spend targeting specific demographics and age groups?
~~~
Terretta
Should you _not_ target your Google Ad spending?
~~~
temp99990
I don’t think so, but isn’t the entire Cambridge Analytica debacle an issue of
using Facebook data to target political ads to users based on demographic
information?
~~~
Eleopteryx
I don't believe Google sells your psychological profile to third parties
seeking to target ads. Google might be able to ascertain my political leanings
based on my behavior, and other parties may be able to target ads toward
people with my political leanings, but Google never directly gives them actual
knowledge regarding my existence.
~~~
temp99990
Do you actually believe the profiles CA created were accurate or much more
insightful over whatever demographic data FB or Goog let you target with?
I did a very similar project for a CS/stats class in 2011. They did some basic
k-means clustering on likes and basic sentiment analysis on posts.
~~~
Eleopteryx
>Do you actually believe the profiles CA created were accurate or much more
insightful over whatever demographic data FB or Goog let you target with?
Multiple political campaigns over the past several years clearly thought
Cambridge Analytica's data/services were more valuable, or uniquely valuable,
compared to services like Facebook or Google. If Google or Facebook were
equally suited to the same purposes, I imagine they would have simply used
Google or Facebook.
~~~
darkpuma
Many customers keep the tarot card shop down the street in business too.
Any marketing professional worth his salt employs the full force of his
persuasive skill against his own customers/employers. A marketing firm does
not merely try to convince you to buy coca-cola. They also try to convince The
Coca-Cola Company that they are effective at convincing you to buy Coca-Cola.
The question anybody looking to hire an advertising firm _should_ ask
themselves is whether skill at the later implies skill at the former. It
_could_ be the case that CA is good at persuading political campaigns, but bad
at persuading voters. One reason to believe there might be a discrepancy here
is because the persuasion tech used by CA in both cases is likely totally
different. Which is to say, CA likely did not employ their facebook profiling
tech against political campaigns to persuade those campaigns to buy their
services. Rather, they probably used more traditional sales tactics (perhaps
as simple as lying about the efficacy of their facebook profiling tech.)
~~~
Eleopteryx
>Many customers keep the tarot card shop down the street in business too.
Right, because there's literally no alternative to fortune-telling magic but
more kinds of fortune-telling magic. If there were already a conceptually
different prediction service with useful and measurable accuracy, the tarot
card place would need to have superior accuracy or some other hook, otherwise
they'd go out of business. Ultimately the differences would be measurable and
demonstrable.
Marketing team could be selling snake oil, I get it, but snake oil only exists
where a real, functioning product doesn't, otherwise there'd be results to
compare.
~~~
darkpuma
> _" but snake oil only exists where a real, functioning product doesn't"_
I have no idea where you could have gotten that impression. Snake oil can
exist whenever the consumer is unable to distinguish real products from snake
oil. Marketing is absolutely one of the industries in which snake oil abounds,
and there is no reason whatsoever that it doesn't exist in the niche of
political advertising.
------
megous
Interesting what people will sacrifice to see some barely defined number next
to their name, or next to their post in some app.
------
kerng
Well, Facebook is going all in. Its said that offensive is the best defense.
But I doubt this will instill any more confidence, rather the opposite - how
any other companies are there that Facebook gave access to data via apps?
------
hanniabu
Facebook is suing over data misuse? Does anybody else find this ironic?
------
dmitriid
It means tgey are going to have another “horrible year” according to the
media. I.e. revenue up, profits up, investments up etc.
------
jsbaby608
Obama misused Facebook data during the 2008 election. He was lauded as a tech
genius and I saw countless articles about how this was the future of politics.
The only reason Facebook is even bothering to go after these companies is
because they don't want to be responsible for re-electing Trump.
It's the same reason they just banned multiple right-leaning influencers from
their platform.
It's scary to think what kind of stuff politicans will get away with when they
align with FBs politics.
All you need to do is lean left..and you can get away with murder.
------
dbg31415
Has to be hundreds of companies in gross violation... wonder how far over the
line these guys were to get sued.
------
bryanrasmussen
I had assumed it was Cambridge Analyticas all the way down.
------
temp99990
I was reading an interesting Twitter thread on why Trump is spending insane
amounts on ads on FB right now (roughly $500k a week!) with many purposefully
breaking Facebook’s own guidelines on what’s acceptable. Basically the person
was saying Trump is playing a game of chicken with Facebook daring them to
remove them so he can play the victim card and claim bias against
conservatives. And if they don’t take them down then he gets to spread ads
that clearly violate the company’s policy and make them look hypocritical
either way.
~~~
YeahSureWhyNot
what's wrong with him posting ads? not allowed?
~~~
temp99990
The point is he’s buying a ton of ads that purposefully cross Facebook’s own
policy on political ad spend to force them to either take action so he can
claim victim status or keep them up and look like hypocrites.
------
ARandomerDude
I'll save you the trouble:
Facebook: We're very sorry. We had no idea they would use our platform this
way. We'll take steps to make sure it never happens again.
Everybody: This is an outrage! Facebook is evil.
Also everybody: I'm bored. I'll check Facebook.
Almost nobody: I stopped using Facebook.
Lawmakers: This is unacceptable!
Also lawmakers: Hey Facebook, here's some ad money for my next campaign.
Shareholders: Oh good, the damage is a known. Stock price is up, this is
great!
7 months from now: _Breaking: Major Privacy Breach at Facebook_
~~~
wybiral
> Almost nobody: I stopped using Facebook.
I can't speak for the general population but I know _plenty_ of people who
have quit FB in recent years (myself included).
~~~
product50
Facebook releases their monthly active numbers with their quarterly earnings.
By all means the numbers have been trending up, even at their massive reach,
despite all the challenges they have been facing.
So looks like you and your friends are not representative of the general
population.
------
OrgNet
Did they get this data for free?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Looks like someone put "On Lisp" in HTML - JMiao
http://www.bookshelf.jp/texi/onlisp/onlisp.html
======
dfranke
I "borrowed" a bound copy from my advisor. He seems to have forgotten this
fact. I'm hoping to keep it that way.
------
epall
This has been around for a while. I remember referring to it something like
three years ago. Cool, though!
------
gms
Would be nice if PG could let us know when, if ever, it's going to be
republished :)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Probable Cache Poisoning of Mail Handling Domains - jgrahamc
https://www.cert.org/blogs/certcc/post.cfm?EntryID=206
======
danyork
There is a longer discussion of this post in another HN submission:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8304756](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8304756)
------
danyork
Good to see someone documenting a situation where DNSSEC would help if: 1) the
mail servers were performing DNSSEC validation (as postfix now does); and 2)
the DNS zones were signed that included the MX records.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Super Mario 64 has been decompiled - sjuut
https://github.com/n64decomp/sm64/blob/master/README.md
======
bri3d
As an amusing side-effect, the team working on this effort also implemented
IRIX userland support for QEMU since the original N64 toolchain ran on IRIX on
the SGI Indy, and they need the original compilers to verify functional
equivalence of their source: [https://github.com/n64decomp/qemu-
irix](https://github.com/n64decomp/qemu-irix) .
~~~
gdubs
I wrote to SGI in high school asking for some info on their computers and they
sent back a stack of beautifully printed, full-color brochures. The Indy had a
webcam, which was very rare in those days. Also included was a brochure on the
Indigo workstation, which Industrial Light and Magic used for Jurassic Park,
etc.
Nintendo is a little mysterious when it comes to what their actual tooling
was, but I remember Donkey Kong Country being the first time I read they were
using SGIs (or at least the studio "Rare" was).
It's somewhat surprising they used the Indy for developing Mario 64 – I always
got the sense that it was somewhat lightweight in performance compared to the
Indigo, but a very cool machine either way.
~~~
segmondy
I have an SGI rotting in my garage, what's amazing about them is the quality
of the monitor. For CRT displays, the best damn monitor I ever experienced,
just CRISP.
The Nintendo 64 had a MIPS R4300 chip, the SGI Indigio also used the MIPS
Rchip, the early one had R4000/R4400 chip, the later ones R8000+ chips. I can
only speculate that by using SGI, you could run some of your non specific N64
code locally and debug faster.
Original PSX had a R3000 chip, but Sony opted for BSD, their devkit ran on
FreeBSD PCs and you built the code and ran on actual PSX device. Cheaper...
~~~
IntelMiner
Can you link more info about Sony's devkits using FreeBSD?
BSD would've been a strange choice as the Playstation 1 debuted on December
3rd, 1994. "FreeBSD 1" came out just 13 months earlier
The Playstation 2 "TOOL" machines ran Red Hat for some of them, which was a
bit more mature by 2001
The Playstation 3 and 4 though both run Net and FreeBSD under the hood
internally though
~~~
primis
The Playstation 1 "TOOL" actually ran windows [1]. A large success of the the
PS1 however was the the "twin ISA" card dev kit, which could be plugged into
any PC-Compatible for PS1 development, which drastically lowered the cost of
development for the PS1.
Also BSD != FreeBSD, BSD 4.3 Net/1 (the first BSD released under the BSD
license instead of containing AT&T code) was released in 1989.
[1][https://www.retroreversing.com/official-playStation-
devkit](https://www.retroreversing.com/official-playStation-devkit)
------
derefr
One thing I've always been curious about: is there any sort of clear
continuity of architecture or design patterns between the games in the Super
Mario series? Yes, they're probably all from-scratch rewrites of the engine,
but could each successive engine be said to be a "descendant" of a previous
one, on a design level?
One thing I know (and can be seen in this repo) is that SM64 emulates a
version of the NES/SNES "Object Attribute Memory", as a pure-software ring-
buffer. (I'd love to know whether that carries on to later titles like Galaxy,
3D World, NSMB(U), Mario Maker, etc.)
~~~
chc4
Super Paper Mario uses an extremely similar engine as Paper Mario: The
Thousand Year Door, which uses a slightly modified version of the Paper Mario
64 engine.
~~~
derefr
Intelligent Systems seems to have a good head on their shoulders for code
reuse. Enough so that I would suspect that their _Fire Emblem_ and _Advance
Wars_ series—when they were releasing concurrently—were the same engine
underneath.
(Side-note: I've always wondered how the mini-games in IS's _WarioWare_ series
work—whether each game is entirely custom code, or whether they've come up
with some sort of DSL for specifying reflex games. If the latter, I would bet
that that has a decent genealogy too.)
~~~
Andrex
Well, they made a game where you can make your own microgames (D.I.Y.), and I
believe an Iwata Asks revealed it was basically a dumbed down version of the
internal tools they had been using, at least for the earlier DS WarioWare game
(Touched.) Not sure if that quite answers your question, but I would bet it's
some kind of DSL interpreted by a microgame engine.
------
euske
This is cool and illegal. What makes me envy of the West (or countries other
than Japan in general) is that this kind of attempt is somewhat condoned and
praised, while in Japan there would be a vocal outcry and finger-pointing
campaign (with some media exposure) to the point where the author would be
forced to shut down the project. It's a blessing that people can pursue things
like this, and it's a huge shame that Japan is such an anal when it comes to a
marginally illegal activity in an open space. (I'm sure some people do it
underground though.)
~~~
sdrothrock
> It's a blessing that people can pursue things like this, and it's a huge
> shame that Japan is such an anal when it comes to a marginally illegal
> activity in an open space.
I've noticed spillover effects into Japanese gamers as well -- people being
suspicious of or derisive about mods, even when they're perfectly legal and
the game has built-in mod support (looking at you Monster Hunter World).
My (Japanese) girlfriend is on the very conservative side of the spectrum
there and absolutely hates it when I bring up any kind of modding, and so do
her friends -- the culture of "authorial intent is king" is very strangely
strong for a culture that also appreciates and enjoys doujin.
~~~
triodan
Doujin works are made with the awareness that they are parodies of the
original work. It does not alter the body of the original work in any way and,
as the term itself means, self-published. It is made without any direct
affilation in regards to the original work.
------
ortusdux
I am looking forward to the mods that this will enable. I highly recommend
trying mario 64 on dolphin EMU at 1080P with a texture pack. A HD mod that
added a few more polygons would really round out the experience.
~~~
urda
Is a raspberry pi a good-enough platform to run N64 1080P games on?
~~~
bluedino
The question is now, would it be possible for someone to make a port of Mario
64 that runs on the Pi, instead of trying to emulate it?
Usually after you get source releases to games, you get people that port them
to different platforms. Like how we had Doom on iPods and Kodak digital
cameras.
~~~
hugg
There's still a lot of assembly code
------
dooglius
Previous discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20418577](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20418577)
~~~
Mathnerd314
This is the "official" release, where someone from the team that was working
on the decompilation is making it public rather than just a random person on
the Discord.
But not much has changed, I guess it's hard to make progress in a month.
------
laurent123456
It's interesting there are bits of code that don't have a purpose, and may
have been there to support a second player. For example here:
> This is evidence of a removed second player, likely Luigi.
> This variable lies in memory just after the gMarioObject and
> has the same type of shadow that Mario does. The `isLuigi`
> variable is never 1 in the game. Note that since this was a
> switch-case, not an if-statement, the programmers possibly
> intended there to be even more than 2 characters.
[https://github.com/n64decomp/sm64/blob/4b46247686fd0e1ee691b...](https://github.com/n64decomp/sm64/blob/4b46247686fd0e1ee691bf0f09201cfeeeb1d9f1/src/game/shadow.c#L530)
And more results when searching for "luigi":
[https://github.com/n64decomp/sm64/search?q=luigi&unscoped_q=...](https://github.com/n64decomp/sm64/search?q=luigi&unscoped_q=luigi)
~~~
Wowfunhappy
I vaguely recall reading that the multiple characters in SM64DS were a feature
that was cut from the original game. Am I hallucinating or did Nintendo say
that somewhere?
(The additional characters in the DS remake were horribly unbalanced, so I
wonder if the earlier implementation would have been better...)
------
DiseasedBadger
"For Windows, install WSL and a distro of your choice and follow the Linux
guide."
I love these instructions!
Also, I'd love to see this converted to a native executable. I wish Nintendo
would actually allow that, although I'm sure they wouldn't.
~~~
sigotirandolas
If I remember correctly, some time ago I saw a video from someone who managed
to build a substantial part of SM64 as a native executable and was able to
verify that tool-assisted runs ran perfectly on in it (hence it being
accurate). The video displayed the game as a wireframe and had no audio, since
those parts are surely tied to the N64 hardware.
I can not figure out the right keywords to find it again, but you may be able
to if you are interested.
EDIT: Even though I can't find the video anywhere (I promise it existed!),
from
[https://warosu.org/vr/thread/5644072](https://warosu.org/vr/thread/5644072)
"To answer your questions, yes: This is a full source code which can be
recompiled with modern toolchains (gcc: ive done this already) and even target
other platforms (PC) with quite a bit of work. There already exists some proof
of concept wireframe stuff."
~~~
alexhaber
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VbTe7U-bo4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VbTe7U-bo4)
------
vSanjo
Always a little humbling to remember the developers are just like you and I.
[https://github.com/n64decomp/sm64/blob/master/src/game/camer...](https://github.com/n64decomp/sm64/blob/master/src/game/camera.h#L379)
[https://github.com/n64decomp/sm64/blob/4b46247686fd0e1ee691b...](https://github.com/n64decomp/sm64/blob/4b46247686fd0e1ee691bf0f09201cfeeeb1d9f1/src/game/level_select_menu.c#L111)
[https://github.com/n64decomp/sm64/blob/4b46247686fd0e1ee691b...](https://github.com/n64decomp/sm64/blob/4b46247686fd0e1ee691bf0f09201cfeeeb1d9f1/src/game/behaviors/spiny.inc.c#L59)
[https://github.com/n64decomp/sm64/blob/4b46247686fd0e1ee691b...](https://github.com/n64decomp/sm64/blob/4b46247686fd0e1ee691bf0f09201cfeeeb1d9f1/src/game/debug.c#L181)
[https://github.com/n64decomp/sm64/blob/4b46247686fd0e1ee691b...](https://github.com/n64decomp/sm64/blob/4b46247686fd0e1ee691bf0f09201cfeeeb1d9f1/src/game/mario_misc.c#L33)
~~~
NikkiA
It's a decompiled result, it's _incredibly_ unlikely the comments are from the
original code, rather they'll have been placed there by the people doing the
decompile.
~~~
vSanjo
Ah, I wasn't aware of that. I thought it might include those.
That's a shame!
------
bla3
Nintendo will request a takedown the second they see this, no?
~~~
derefr
What for? There's no copyrighted material in this repo.
~~~
lostgame
The models and sounds aren't copyrighted? Because they are totally within the
GitHub, there...
~~~
kelnos
I didn't look through the repo, but given that the linked README talks about
needing an original version of the ROM in order to extract assets, I would
guess they're not in there?
~~~
lostgame
The models certainly are. Don't think the textures are.
~~~
duskwuff
A number of assets, including textures, audio, and prerecorded demos, have
been stripped out of this release.
------
diveanon
Is there a usb compatible n64 controller?
Part of what makes this game such a watershed moment for 3d gaming is how the
controller was designed to maximize it's potential.
To this day Mario 64 is one of the best games ever made.
~~~
andimm
8bitdo once hat an N64 controller, but seems like it's not available anymore,
maybe you find a used one somewhere.
Also there are "Controller Converter" N64->USB available on i.e. Amazon and
iNNEXT has an Retro 64-Bit N64 Controller on Amazon as well.
Don't know if any of these will work for you, at least the iNNEXT is mentioned
in the retropie wiki[0].
[0]
[https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Nintendo-64/](https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Nintendo-64/)
------
lame88
What an awesome project. I would love to mess with random stuff like whirlpool
strength and see what it does to the game. Efforts like this to make the
decompiler output intelligible e.g. meaningful variable names make this much
more approachable for a technical person like me without much of the niche
platform-specific reverse engineering skills. In fact there are countless
games I'd love to dive into like this.
~~~
thanatropism
Train a ML system on a range of parameters (whirlpool strength) until you have
a decent port of the game to a neural network and/or tree-based algo. Then try
to optimize the game based on people’s enjoyment.
~~~
im3w1l
I think it would be much easier to use change the parameters directly in the
original program. Just have to use a gradient-free optimizer.
~~~
thanatropism
Yours is a better technical approach to the vague dream I had described.
Am I being downvoted because I don't have an optimal solution to some problem?
------
kbumsik
I don't know much about reverse engineering field, but more than 70% code is
assembly. Is extracting assembly still considered decompiled?
~~~
holmium
Outside of a few audio and PAL routines (see asm/non_matchings), everything
that was written in C has been decompiled back into C. There are a few
routines written in ASM, like the boot code and some of the SDK code.
Most of the other "assembly" files are for data, like the level scripts. It's
not assembly of machine code.
You could try to put those into C, but you're not gaining much--assuming that
it's even something that can be represented in C without a bunch of fancy
compiler specific tricks. You'd be better off creating a DSL or a custom
program suite, which is probably what Nintendo was doing 25 years ago.
------
person_of_color
So how do people do this?
Manual inspection?
~~~
aeneasmackenzie
They got the original compiler running and made source that compiles to the
same ROM.
~~~
person_of_color
How does that work? They still manually reversed the disassembly right?
------
segmondy
It's amazing the level of effort and work that has gone into this and here I'm
trying to finish a 100 line side project. :-]
~~~
WilliamEdward
You can get a lot more done with a team of people who are also getting paid.
~~~
breakingcups
Who was funding this decompilation? Was it from the speedrunning community?
------
mrpippy
Once the inevitable native ports start appearing, I’d love to see an OpenGL 1
graphical backend so it can run natively on IRIX
------
JohnSmith13345
pannenkoek2012 would probably find more glitches, assuming this doesn’t get
taken down by Nintendo given their aggressive stance on copyright
------
ryan-allen
They wrote it in assembly, nuts!
~~~
o-__-o
Binary executables are machine code. One step from machine code is assembly.
It’s easy to translate machine code to ASM (because you are just reversing the
op code and adding data structures) from there it gets hard because compilers
do all sorts of tricks to create performant assembly and throws away hints
about code structure (e.g a simple overloaded function may become an ASM
routine with 30 parameters depending on how it’s called. Or vice versa.. it’s
like trying to recreate HD video from mpeg-1, entropy has been thrown away).
So decompiled code is usually left in assembly. Sometimes an effort is made to
create the C equivalent but that’s a maddening effort.
More than likely SM64 was written in c with some critical performance parts in
ASM (like mode7 and some of the OAM stuff other threads talk about).
------
codesushi42
It would be great if this could be done for games where the source code was
lost.
Like Panzer Dragoon Saga.
~~~
mburns
This decompile was done without the original source code, just the released
game, which is effectively the same as being ‘lost’.
~~~
codesushi42
I meant where the source code does not exist anymore, anywhere.
Nintendo still has the source to SM64.
~~~
mburns
Maybe I misunderstood you.
I’m saying this same decompile process could indeed be done to any released
game where the source code is lost, because that is effectively what happened
in this case.
~~~
filoleg
I think you misunderstood what the parent was saying.
On the technical level, you are correct in that in both scenarios the end
result would be the same, as you are going from compiled code to decompiled
code.
What I believe the parent is saying, is that applying this to Panzer Dragoon
accomplishes more (on the human level), because devs of that game don't have
the original source code anymore, while Super Mario 64 devs do.
~~~
jolmg
Maybe the confusion could have been avoided if instead of:
> It would be great if this could be done...
codesushi42 would have said (emphasis mine):
> It would be great if this _would_ be done...
Not that I think it was incorrect as it was, just a little ambiguous, I guess.
~~~
filoleg
Not a native english speaker, but this seems like a nitpicky non-issue to me.
How is it not the same as "could you please pass me a glass of water" vs.
"would you please pass me a glass of water"? Both indicate a request rather
than talking about actual physical ability to perform the action.
Also, I would agree more with your point if the parent said "It could be great
if this could be done..." instead of "It would be great if this could be
done". The first "would" seems to indicate to me pretty clearly that the
parent was talking about a request rather than ability.
~~~
sigstoat
> Not a native english speaker, but this seems like a nitpicky non-issue to
> me. How is it not the same as "could you please pass me a glass of water"
> vs. "would you please pass me a glass of water"? Both indicate a request
> rather than talking about actual physical ability to perform the action.
in the case of something like the glass of water, "could" makes the sentence
more indirect, and more polite.
the original post is "it would be great if [huge task undertaken by
unspecified persons] could be done". this native speaker would not attempt to
polite-ify a request for something like that (and i don't think other native
speakers would either), so the original post can't be making a request. it is
expressing a hope that the thing is possible. mburns (reasonably) then
explains that it is possible. then codesushi42 sort of goes on the rails, and
i can't figure out what they're attempting to convey at this point.
~~~
codesushi42
Huh? I wasn't making an appeal to anyone, so your point is moot.
Context is important. Why bother decompiling a game if you have the source
already? Of course I meant decompiling games for which there is no source code
available on any machine. Nintendo has the source for SM64.
What a ridiculous load of pedantry.
~~~
torstenvl
It isn't pedantry. Expressing a wish that something "could" be done is
ambiguous. "Could" is both used as you originally intended _and_ as an
expression of ability. It's not pedantry to misunderstand, and it's not
pedantry for GP to explain why the misunderstanding occurred.
A misunderstanding occurred. The misunderstanding was clarified, acknowledged,
and explained. I'm not sure it contributes anything to make accusations of
pedantry.
~~~
Pizzaputer
Yes, this thread right here officer.
------
crtlaltdel
lol i love seeing all the replies to comments on this that start with "No."
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Netflix Stock Surges to Record Highs as Market Cap Tops Disney - theBashShell
https://www.barrons.com/articles/netflix-stock-surges-to-record-highs-as-market-cap-tops-disney-51586972020
======
christophilus
> Analysts smell a blowout in the making, and in particular expect customer
> growth to blow past guidance.
They've got about 45% of US households already. I'm not sure how much growth
is left for them in the US. I guess analysts are banking on international
growth, but I'm skeptical. I wouldn't short Netflix here, but I wouldn't buy
them, either. I definitely don't see them as a stronger company than Disney.
Disney's got some serious problems in the short term. But with all of their
assets and brands, and their new streaming service in overdrive, I simply
can't see how Netflix is worth more as a company.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Top Trends of 2010: Growth of eBooks & eReaders - _grrr
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/ebooks_ereaders_top_trends_2010.php
======
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How to set up a minimalist professional web page these days - ACow_Adonis
I'm thinking it might be time for me to start branching out on my own. I've been doing analytics and stats for a long time now. But I haven't done anything with the web for almost a decade.<p>What's a recommended path to setting up a nice clean, minimal, compatible website/web presence these days for myself.<p>I'm thinking things like no advertising, email domains, minimal overhead, maximum compatibility. Oh and I guess I'll need a domain :p<p>Dev time on my behalf kept to a minimum would be a plus, obviously? I'm willing to pay a bit of money (think what one guy can afford on a decent salary) for tooling...(but I want to do the actual work myself).<p>Content wise I'm thinking primarily involving written articles, books, papers, blogs, visualisations, and maybe links to video/presentations.<p>So how about it HN? Possible, easy, silly? What do you suggest?
======
achairapart
1) Use a service like SquareSpace or Medium, no dev involved.
2) Use WordPress: just pick a simple, one purpose theme and avoid bloated ones
(ie ThemeForest). It requires a LAMP/LEMP stack.
3) Ghost is an alternative blogging platform with minimalistic and usually
well designed themes. It runs on Node.js.
4) Pick one of the many static site generators based on the language of your
choice. They require no database and only need basic static hosting:
[https://www.staticgen.com/](https://www.staticgen.com/)
------
_RPM
Mine is a true home page. There isn't anything on their but hand written HTML
that contains links to my online stuff. Not really anything special. It also
contains a picture of myself and my email. I wrote some obfuscated javascript
to write my email to the document.
~~~
ACow_Adonis
OP here: Html + css was where the tech was last time I involved myself with
the web, WordPress had just come out as "a thing". I'm not against it, but is
like to know where we're at and what's feasible/standard these days.
Ideally I'd like something a bit more involved than raw html (unless it's
become far more sophisticated than I remember), as I imagine I'll be updating
and writing and presenting quite often, so a way to
structure/manage/maintain/present/modularise/categorise material would be
great.
As I'm on the data science end of things, I'm guessing I'd also be looking at
hosting/presenting small data sets, or at least visuals representing such to
be inserted/included in posts/demos/documents...
------
avail
I wrote my homepage[1] in about an hour (with bits and pieces of js borrowed).
I used to have a wordpress blog styled exactly the same, but I never posted on
it so it is gone now.
I by all means don't think this is 'professional', but I doubt what you want
to make would need much more work than I have done.
These days there's resources for _everything_ , webservers which have really
good proxying if you want to code in a language other than php or manually
writing html, pre-made 'article-writing software' in many languages made for
the web.
Tools? All you'd need is notepad, or nano (or, your preferred text editor)!
You shouldn't need to run compiled code for the web, in my opinion, as there's
no noticeable speed differences.
Googling for specific things in a specific language will probably give you
results, e.g. 'nodejs blog' will land you to Hexo[2], which really neat,
customizable, and fast.
[1] [https://avail.pw](https://avail.pw) [2]
[https://hexo.io/](https://hexo.io/)
------
mdorazio
Can you provide more detail on what you're actually looking to post and how
much functionality you want to include?
On the lowest effort end, squarespace is a pretty decent option for getting
something that looks nice up and running quickly without needing to deal with
server stuff. It works for several colleagues, but has some flexibility
limitations.
The next step up would probably be a Wordpress installation either on your own
server or the lower-effort hosted solutions from wordpress.com. Personally I
can't stand wordpress (it's become immensely bloated and keeping it updated
and all your plugins/themes/whatever in sync and playing nicely can be a
pain), but it works well for a huge number of people.
After that you're looking at rolling your own custom page on your own server,
maybe a simple themeforest template on a shared host. I don't recommend this
approach these days unless you're itching to get your hands dirty with some
code whenever you want to update something.
~~~
ACow_Adonis
Thanks for the reply: very quickly, I'm looking primarily at essentially
showing off my analytical abilities and making available articles and writing.
It is essentially marketing for...me. I appreciate I'm being a bit vague,
because I'm just trying to gauge what the state of play/possibilities are at
this point.
I'm really not concerned with (in fact probably against) social involvement
such as comments or community forming things on my site. Its all me. I'm torn
about whether it could be integrated with the likes of social media (to
automatically make posts to an equivalent facebook/twitter page/account). I do
not need/want to make any money off of the site itself, so I don't want to
worry about advertising, and indeed, want to keep it off the site and make it
100% gauged around user accessability. Its goal is to make money by people
being interested in hiring me and what i do, rather than generate revenue by
views of the site.
Really, its going to be a very close form to that of a fancy blog/versions,
but posts may take forms of blog posts, articles, presentations, books or
software links/articles etc. I would appreciate some way to apply themes and
manage or structure my content.
Don't know if that helps at all...
------
bobwaycott
There is a plethora of static site generators in just about any language,
nearly all of which have some decent-looking templates you can use. Then
managing your site is just a matter of writing markdown for text content, and
pushing it up somewhere for hosting. Github can handle this, as can many other
services (e.g., S3).
------
LarryMade2
I like dokuwiki -
[https://www.dokuwiki.org/dokuwiki#](https://www.dokuwiki.org/dokuwiki#)
You can use a CMS template to make it blog like, lets you do nice formatting
no cruft.
Here my use of it (need to do some updating, been a while):
[http://www.portcommodore.com](http://www.portcommodore.com)
Heres a good example page:
[http://www.portcommodore.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=larry:proj...](http://www.portcommodore.com/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=larry:projects:flash_attack_cable&s\[\]=flash&s\[\]=cable)
------
probinso
If you do not want to see yourself as web developer, you can often find free
templates that are simple HTML CSS. You can either use this as your template
depending on the license, or create a derived piece.
I use Dynamic DNS and a lamp(hp) server hosted on a Raspberry Pi.
This cost me a total of $10 a year + trivial Electronics costs.
My site consists of 0 interactive parts. I have no use of a database . It only
lists work that I've done, Often linking out to GitHub repositories.
------
bbcbasic
Just to throw a few numpty options out there we have Wix, Wordpress.com,
Blogger.
Then there is Github pages and some people have created template repositories
that you can clone or fork that look rather nice and are easy to post content
to if you just learn Markdown which takes five minutes
E.g. [https://github.com/barryclark/jekyll-
now](https://github.com/barryclark/jekyll-now)
------
snehesht
If you just need a blog try this
[https://posthaven.com](https://posthaven.com)
However if you need an intro page I would suggest wordpress, they have a
hosted one too, incase you don't want to deal with server stuff.
p.s My site [https://snehesh.me](https://snehesh.me) is built on react and
nginx
------
kelt
I went this route for a simple web pressence:
\- html theme from themeforest
\- amazon s3 for hosting the static files
\- linked a domain
\- used formspree.io for the contact form
Not much traffic, couple of cents a month. I don't do much updating too.
Worked well for me.
Good luck!
------
bigmanwalter
My choice right now is to build a small Django site with a sqlite db backing
it. This way you get a free admin dashboard for updating the site. For the
theme, grab something from www.html5up.com
------
kirankn
I would suggest Jekyll on Github pages with a custom domain and possibly Zoho
for custom email. All this is free and can be setup on a quiet Sunday
afternoon.
------
walrus01
What is your level of proficiency with Apache/php/mysql? There are some good
minimalist WordPress templates that do not look like a blog.
------
sheraz
Wix, weebly, or square space. Done and done.
I'm a dev and would doing it if I were not such a cheap bastard.
------
peternicky
Check out codepen and/or GitHub pages...very simple and flexible.
~~~
ACow_Adonis
My concern/hesitancy with github (possibly completely unfounded) is that the
site is primarily targeted at developers. So while I already have a github
account, and developers appreciate it and that setup, I think it's kind of
hostile to non-developers. Non tech people don't like/want to be referred to a
git page.
Say for example I want to show commercially/professionally that I can predict
elections, real estate prices, gambling markets or pedestrian/traffic
movements, and I convey this through words and visualisation. I think in a lot
of that space, any window/connection to git or software development is a
barrier to many of the people who would hire me to do such, and the technical
people would dig deeper if they wished. Or they can home in on the
specifically technical articles.
So is it possible, if hosted on git pages, to divorce the page on a
presentation level from any concept of git/repositories/software development
concepts if I so choose?
~~~
hanniabu
You can use a custom domain with github pages so nobody would know the
difference, plus the housing is free. I use this in conjunction with
CloudFlare [1] for free partial SSL and Formspree [2] for free static email
capabilities. I would make a simple medium/markdown styled page and all you
have to do for blogging is reuse the same frame, write your content, update
the meta tags, and add a link to your blogging page. It may take about 5 more
minutes per post you make, but in the end I think it's worth it considering
how much faster your site will load with the static content.
[1] [https://blog.keanulee.com/2014/10/11/setting-up-ssl-on-
githu...](https://blog.keanulee.com/2014/10/11/setting-up-ssl-on-github-
pages.html)
[2] [https://formspree.io](https://formspree.io)
------
marvel00legend
Try WIX
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Heroku: Announcing Huge Growth and New CEO - alexyim
http://blog.heroku.com/archives/2009/10/15/announcing_huge_growth_and_new_ceo/
======
maryrosecook
Their deployment is beautifully simple. The fact that they host several of my
mini-apps makes me extremely grateful. But, the chances I will ever actually
give them money are remote: their plans are scarily expensive. I'd rather
spend 20 bucks a month on Slicehost and suffer the irritation of doing my own
deployment.
~~~
colinplamondon
I don't see how it's expensive at all.
We have 10k/month coming in from our iPhone app and use Heroku + S3 for
everything. It lets us focus on getting our product up to speed instead of
system administration, period. If's only expensive if your time is worthless,
or you really, really want to pay a sysadmin to take care of your server
stuff.
Right now we're paying them $200/month and I smile every time I get the bill-
it's one of my favorite expenses because of how much time it saves. When we
get up to 5k, it's still a no-brainer. At 10k, it's time to start looking at
Rackspace, but that's about the limit of things for us.
It works, it saves time, and it lets us focus on improving our product.
~~~
z8000
What is your iPhone app?
~~~
colinplamondon
Free Books- deep title, I know :)
<http://freebooksapp.com>
------
swombat
I'm still not quite convinced what need they fulfill, other than making it
easy to deploy small/free apps. Sorry, that's just my impression. Anyone think
differently? Please do correct this view if you think it's wrong.
~~~
transmit101
That's quite a significant itch that they're scratching then. Look at the
figures - 36,000 deployed apps speak for themselves, and the quality of the
platform suggests that the big spike is still to come.
------
mark_l_watson
I tried to convince one customer to use Heroku, and we did for a while, but
they ended up paying big $$ to RackSpace. Considering increased
admin/engineering time, I have little doubt that they would have been better
off paying $500/month to Heroku, rather than RackSpace.
Another customer wanted to use Heroku, but we ended up building our own system
using multiple EC2s - again, long term the hosting costs will be much less,
but the admin/engineering costs especially during development were a large
expense.
For my own web portal project? I am using AppEngine (code in
JRuby+datamapper+Sinara, but I am considering a rewrite in Java because of the
superior tool support).
------
benofsky
The deployment looks pretty awesome but the plans are outrageously
expensive... is their something I'm missing which causes them to be so
expensive!
~~~
jotto
It is expensive, but i've found the dynos to be quite a bit more powerful than
you'd expect. for instance, i'm getting the same req/sec from 1 dyno as i get
from 3 passengers on REE 187. The CPU speed/rendering time is not as fast
(getting 300ms on Heroku vs 80ms on Linode) - which is likely due to ec2
hardware.
~~~
percept
Thanks--I've been curious about that.
Are there more performance comparisons posted? I saw this:
<http://bit.ly/4GzJdc>
FWIW in that test a Slicehost setup performed better, but only by a small
margin over Heroku's free plan.
------
dylanz
We use Heroku a lot. It takes very little time to get a complete environment
up for an application, and we're able to get production products out to test
in the market faster than ever. We ported a Fortune 500 code base onto Heroku
as an experiment, and it basically just ran, dependencies and all.
It's one of those products where until you actually use it, you question why
it even exists. Once I used Heroku, I quickly realized the pain it was saving
me from.
------
nbrochu
Great news! I host a lot of my stuff on Heroku and have had a great experience
so far. Deploying with a git push is pretty satisfying!
------
dpnewman
I have been using free acct for staging. I could not use service for deploy as
we're using sphinx, plus will be processing incoming emails. The lack of total
customization is the barrier -- but if that changes the overall fluidity of
the service is incredibly appealing.
------
bham
I'd love to see AMQP support. It's listed as "SOON".
I'd like some way of having one hanging request talk to another. A crude way
of doing "long polling" I suppose.
How would you implement two-player chess on Heroku for instance in its current
form?
~~~
nakajima
You could always use the database to track games between players.
~~~
z8000
Via polling? No thanks!
------
johnnybgoode
A few days ago I posted one potential issue with Heroku:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=859544>
Does anyone know if this has changed recently?
~~~
tlrobinson
AFAIK there's nothing stopping you from using Amazon's SimpleDB, especially
since Heroku is already running on EC2.
Also, given the "SQL Databases Don't Scale" by Adam I would be very surprised
if they don't roll out a more "scalable" alternative to Postgres in the near
future.
------
drusenko
congrats guys, happy to hear you're continuing to kick ass!
------
jcapote
Awesome! Keep rocking, this is the platform of the future for sure...
------
abossy
Is there a similar platform for Python?
~~~
tlrobinson
AppEngine is probably the closest.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Fundable ideas – Which ideas are worth pursuing and which are just a gimmick - robbdimitrov
https://medium.com/@robbdimitrov/fundable-ideas-4aa630ba97ba
======
sharemywin
consumer side of AR/VR I can see that but maybe I'm wrong but being able to
design in 3d whether its buildings, parts or possibly software could be game
changing.
Also, a screen on any wall or desktop seems pretty useful.
AR/VR as a teaching platform transformative.
IOT again consumer side sure. but how do you enable "farm-tech" and/or
automation without IOT?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
USA vs. Russia arms sales from 1950 through today - sirteno
https://www.disclose.tv/follow-the-money-usa-vs-russia-arms-sales-from-1950-through-today-344541
======
siruncledrew
Some countries that surprised me (without knowing the full historical
context):
\- Finland heavily linked to Russian exports in the 1960s-1990s while Sweden
and Norway linked to the US?
\- Peru being a sort of battleground between US and Russian exports?
\- Russia maintaining a dominant connection with India until the 2010s, while
the US was mostly supplying Pakistan instead?
------
zerr
Song list?
~~~
clircle
It's at the end of the video
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: OpenHacker, a weekly competition for hackers - JacksonGariety
http://openhacker.co/
======
murtza
I think it would be interesting to shift the focus of OpenHacker to platform
where companies can post challenges and offer prizes.
For example, Netflix hosted a competition for a $1M prize for the "best
collaborative filtering algorithm to predict user ratings for films." Another
example was the Ansari X Prize, which "offered a US$10,000,000 prize for the
first non-government organization to launch a reusable manned spacecraft into
space twice within two weeks."
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netflix_Prize](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netflix_Prize)
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansari_X_Prize](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansari_X_Prize)
Contact big companies and startups to see if there is a challenge they want to
put out there to the global community. The value proposition is that they gain
access to the global talent pool at a relatively cheap price.
~~~
JacksonGariety
Yeah, I've thought of this.
But the site needs a user base first! And the world has problems to be solved!
~~~
murtza
Your first challenge is selling your platform to companies and organizations.
It does not matter if you are selling to the Gates foundation or Netflix. Once
the company/organization buys into the platform, they will do a lot of the
marketing/promotion for you through social media and traditional marketing
channels. Once you sell your platform, focus on getting users for that
competition.
Pitch the various competitions and prizes to journalists. The X Prize
foundation has a lot of media buzz around them. I am sure you could do the
same.
You can make money from both sides. Like Kickstarter, charge companies a
percentage of the prize for listing on your platform. Second, you could also
charge a nominal entry fee like $5 for each submission, which will select for
higher-quality submissions.
------
lettergram
My advice would be to make it a monthly competition and add in a donation box
(to increase the possible prize) that would increase quality as well as
interest.
~~~
jmartens
love the idea of a donation box
------
orng
I love the idea, but is one week a long enough time limit for anything
substantial?
~~~
JacksonGariety
Would a monthly competition work better do you think?
------
cwarrior
Any way to ask question or add comments about the challenges?
~~~
JacksonGariety
It's on the features list on GitHub.
------
balsam
Heads-up: you got competition from the YC-backed hackerrank
[https://www.hackerrank.com/](https://www.hackerrank.com/)
~~~
JacksonGariety
I'm a hacker rank member. Cool site.
I'd like OpenHacker to be more about solving real world problems than fun
programming challenges though.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Timelapse video with an iPhone and CLI - rocktronica
https://github.com/rocktronica/timelapse
======
rocktronica
I was surprised this didn't already exist, so I made it... even though it's
honestly just a wrapper around curl and ffmpeg!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
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