text
stringlengths 44
950k
| meta
dict |
|---|---|
Common Voice – Mozilla's initiative to help teach machines how real people speak - mjlee
https://voice.mozilla.org/
======
gok
The goal of making a large, publicly available training corpus for ASR is
incredibly admirable, but this approach is problematic. People speak entirely
differently when reading from a script. Models trained on read speech (like
LibriSpeech) generally don't perform well on spontaneous speech test sets
(like Switchboard). Transcribing speech that was read from a script isn't a
particularly interesting problem.
This effort would be more interesting if it could collect speech data in a
more specific domain, like web search queries.
~~~
cco
Why do you view this as admirable? I view it similarly to creating a large
cache of explosives and munitions and then giving them away for free. Sure a
lot of people might have some fun with them on the weekend but the largest
impact of this technology will be used against people, not for them.
~~~
staktrace
With your line of reasoning, would you prefer a world where all the munitions
were held by megavillains, or a world where both megavillains and regular
people had access to the munitions?
~~~
minikites
The latter strategy doesn't seem to work out that well for the USA because it
results in regular people using the munitions on other regular people.
~~~
zenography
To defend themselves, hundreds of thousands to millions of times per year.
[https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3194685](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3194685)
~~~
williamdclt
> indicate that defensive uses of guns by crime victims are far more common
> than offensive uses by criminals
That's literally the worst case scenario. Victims escalating the violence.
~~~
zenography
Are you saying that people defending themselves is worse than killing?
------
pornel
I've tried to contribute to new languages, but they all have "join us" button
that subscribes to a generic Mozilla mailing list, and the Voice team never
sent any instructions how to contribute! No wonder these are stuck unfinished
for years.
~~~
Krasnol
Sometimes it's beyond me how tech savy people are struggling with the easiest
things online.
The page itself has only very few links. Randomly clicking through it logged
in would have a high chance hitting one of the links that would either lead
you directly to one of the links where you can CONTRIBUTE:
[https://voice.mozilla.org/de/speak](https://voice.mozilla.org/de/speak), your
dashboard where you can also find links to the CONTRIBUTE part or just the
huge microphone symbol.
~~~
pornel
I'm talking about new languages, which haven't been launched yet, because they
don't have enough text to record yet.
The actual method to contribute to them is finding Mozilla's internal
translation tool, proposing translations, then finding a Mozillian to approve
them. Then there's an obscure webapp for sentence submission and voting, but
it doesn't give any feedback whether sentences you've submitted were accepted
or went to /dev/null.
(you see people struggling with easiest things, because you assume people
struggle with easiest things, rather than that you've misunderstood the
problem.)
~~~
ascii_only
There is feedback in sentence collector. If your sentence too long it will
tell you straight away. If your sentence is rejected by people it will appear
in "rejected sentences" tab. If your sentences are approved you can see it in
GitHub repo.
~~~
pornel
What GitHub? Please realize that none of this is obvious to an outsider who
doesn't know how your pipeline is built. None of this is explained on the
Voice website. These tools aren't even linked to on the official website.
I've submitted 200 sentences, and none of the progress counters shown to me
increased by 200, so I assumed they were lost, and gave up.
~~~
ascii_only
In mozilla/voice-web/server/data/ but if at your profile tab in sentence-
collector there are 0 sentences added than that means that your sentences
hadn't been added even to sentence-collector for approval.
------
punnerud
I love the project and have participated. What I feel lack is cases/words that
kids are able to pronounce (with help of parents saying what they have to
repeat). My 3-year old son love to use speech translations and searching for
videos, but it frustrates both me and him that he pronounce it in a way that
"all" humans would understand but the voice-to-text get his voice wrong in 3/4
of the cases.
~~~
bluGill
Collecting data from children is nearly impossible for legal reasons. I mostly
agree with the reasons, but the side effect is nobody has good data on
children. Thus children are forever doomed to a bad experience, like the time
my son asked "Hey Mycroft, how do you spell Kansas" "C-A-N-V-A-S" which he
knew was wrong.
~~~
lunixbochs
Maybe we could specifically target voice actors who convincingly voice
children in animated stuff
Edit:
\- There are already paid child actors, you could somewhat-manually collect
their speech from e.g. movies and TV shows to have _something_
\- Even if there's some copyright issue with distributing their audio
directly, it's not clear (uncertain but dubious?) that a model trained on
their audio would have any copyright concerns as long as it can't be used to
reproduce the original audio
\- What is Mozilla going to do if <1% of their dataset is already children who
didn't put an age in? Is that a COPPA violation? There's even the defense of
"an adult can sound like a child and we also don't know who this child is so
how is it personal information" (I have no idea the usefulness of any of that)
------
akie
It's going to be tricky.
I did some of the "listen" exercises to validate how people pronounced some
sentences, and I got a few people who spoke with very strong (Indian,
Nigerian, UK, ...) accents. How would you take these things into account? Just
average all of them and hope for the best? Not sure how to approach that. I
don't think it's very straight-forward. Interesting problem though.
However, you can't do anything if you don't even have the data, so props to
Mozilla for starting this.
~~~
yorwba
In the worst case, you might have to treat different accents as different, but
related languages. The current trend for low-resource languages seems to be
about using one giant model for all languages to make use of shared features
(e.g. for translation [1]), so adding even more languages might not be that
expensive in terms of training data required.
[1] [https://ai.googleblog.com/2019/10/exploring-massively-
multil...](https://ai.googleblog.com/2019/10/exploring-massively-
multilingual.html)
~~~
taneq
Isn't this literally what locales are for? Instead of "English" you have "En-
US", "En-UK", "En-Ind" etc.
~~~
jobigoud
I think locales are for dialects, where you can have different terms used for
the same concept. Here you can have someone speak the en-NZ dialect, but with
a French accent.
Also, we would need en-FR, en-ES, en-IT, etc. All languages as spoken from all
other native languages. And obviously the strength of the accent varies.
~~~
TomMarius
Yeah, also a Moravian (ancient nation united with the Czechs more than 1000
years ago) person will speak English differently than a Czech (as in nation,
not state) person even though we all speak the Czech language.
~~~
joshuaissac
A solution could be to tag both the dialect and the accent with language
codes. Native speakers of Moravian Czech will probably have similar accents
when they speak New Zealand English. Using Glottolog IDs as tags for example,
this might be represented as { dialect:"newz1240", accent:"czec1259" }. If the
program can already recognise the New Zealand English dialect and the Moravian
Czech accent, it might then leverage both of those to recognise the speech of
a Moravian person speaking New Zealand English.
------
squarefoot
I've validated some speech and like others I sometimes found strong foreign
accents from non native English speakers (just like I am) so I tried to be
neutral at least with the sentences I could understand, which luckily were the
vast majority. If however I may offer a suggestion to improve the service,
some information should be given about how to produce good quality recordings
before the user starts contributing, what mic to use and how, sound levels,
equalizing, background noise etc. Some of the recordings were truly awful
quality wise and probably would generate false negatives (ok, an AI should
learn to sort those out, but maybe later). Also, some recordings although
correct were stuttering badly probably due to network congestion on the
contributors side; it could come handy a way to also tag those sentences as
"correct but stuttering" so that in the future the AI could also learn how a
formally well recited text would sound if coming from a problematic
connection. Tagging (scoring maybe) could also be useful for sentences where
just about everything is correct save for a single word or part of it. For
example, one sentence was "The party was a Sikh-centered political party in
the Indian state of Punjab." but the woman said "in _this_ Indian state". I
didn't mark it because either way would have been not entirely accurate.
Nice initiative though.
------
est31
If you are listening to the recordings and it's annoying to you that they have
different loudness levels, you can try out my add-on that normalizes the
levels: [https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/addon/vmo-audio-
normal...](https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/addon/vmo-audio-normalizer)
You can also see a demo here (requires git clone):
[https://github.com/est31/js-audio-normalizer](https://github.com/est31/js-
audio-normalizer)
------
SamBam
It is unclear to me what we're supposed to be validating the the "Listen"
section.
1\. That the words say what is written?
2\. That the words are clear and easy to understand?
3\. That the speech is fluent and natural and easy to listen to?
I would guess 1 and maybe 2, and not 3, but it's only a guess because I don't
see it written down anywhere.
Many of the clips are very stilted, spoken slowly and unnaturally.(Also,
sometimes the text doesn't make sense. "On a normal Hajj, it would be around
to walk." But I'm guessing this doesn't matter.)
~~~
dabinat
This may help: [https://discourse.mozilla.org/t/discussion-of-new-
guidelines...](https://discourse.mozilla.org/t/discussion-of-new-guidelines-
for-recording-validation/36465)
~~~
SamBam
That does help. And it should be linked clearly.
For those that don't want to read, the only real rule is: All the words are
read exactly as written, and no other words are heard.
Clarity, stiltedness, background noise, pronunciation (so long as it's
acceptable English), accent, etc don't matter.
------
dang
Related from 2018:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17436958](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17436958)
~~~
plibither8
And 2017:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14794654](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14794654)
------
intopieces
I work in data collection for speech recognition systems and would love to
work on this project full time. I wish they had openings.
------
terrycody
But how this project can benefit us all?
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
OATV posted an opening for an associate. Only one woman applied. - ivankirigin
http://bryce.vc/post/3919404272/lets-try-this-again-ladies-oatv-is-hiring
======
solsenNet
Yeah, this recruitment thing he laid out is illegal on several dimensions.
1\. employer is obligated to advertise broadly enough to generate a diverse
applicant pool (for protected classes). 2\. personal reference is prohibited
along similar lines.
IMPORTANT: by the sheer fact of your pool not being diverse, you have
liability! does not matter if you treat every protected class applicant really
well! The NON-DIVERSE POOL ALONE creates a legal liability.
This is also illustrative because VC's often say the'll help company
management with operational issues, but because VC's are so sheltered (don't
have to hire a lot) they don't know these basic issues.
Any company CEO worth his salt is very sensitive to "job applicant pool"
issues, and funny that the operations value add from a VC is going to lead
some poor CEO into a lawsuit!!
some references:
[http://www.workforce.com/section/news/feature/dipping-
carefu...](http://www.workforce.com/section/news/feature/dipping-carefully-
into-applicant-pool/)
[http://public.getlegal.com/legal-info-center/hiring-
process/...](http://public.getlegal.com/legal-info-center/hiring-
process/employment-screening-and-advertising)
------
scottru
If you're in a male-dominated profession, where both the "employees" (VC's)
and the "clients" (startups) are 90+% male, and the way people are to apply
for your roles (primarily) is through an introduction, you should not possibly
believe you will get >10% women - you will almost certainly get far less. In
addition, if the women that others can see in the profession are concentrated
near the "top" (i.e. they're already VC's or they're CEO's at successful or
well-known companies), and you look at their stories and they didn't move up
from the "bottom," then you don't even see anybody who looks _like_ you.
And saying that what you want from other candidates is "hustle" doesn't help
matters much, though I won't pretend to be an expert on gender-dominated
language - there are plenty of smart people out there (here?) who can comment.
(I thought there was a very cogent blog post from Anil Dash on this topic some
years ago, but I can't find it.)
(Added: I saw Ivan's HN headline for this post and somehow missed the
original. "Let's Try This Again Ladies"? Really? That certainly screams
"comfortable work environment.")
------
ojbyrne
Umm, "required a personal introduction." Does he not understand how
discrimination works?
~~~
pedalpete
In this day and age with the power and ease of networks, is a personal
introduction really discriminatory? or was it ever? Find out where he gets
coffee in the morning, ask the barista for an introduction. It might not work,
but it is an intro.
Also, is a woman any less likely to be linked in the network than a man? I'm
not sure exactly what you're getting at saying this is discrimination.
If a personal introduction is discrimination, isn't location discriminatory as
well?
~~~
Semiapies
There's a reason it's called an "old boys' network".
EDIT: We have many men at HN who are hypersensitive about any suggestion that
sexism exists. It's disgusting, pathetic, and gives me one of those moments
where I'm embarrassed that I come to this site. [This is more directed at the
downvotes than you, pedalpete.]
But this is reality - all hand-waving about how a good candidate will get an
introduction aside, the advantage to getting introductions goes strongly to
people who _already_ know someone. In this industry, that's an almost entirely
male crowd.
~~~
jeremymims
Almost all VC funding is done through introduction. That's the way this game
works. It's one of the reasons so many people apply to YC. As a VC, you spend
your days trying to figure out which teams will be successful in the future
(even if they've never created a company before) and sometimes all you have is
a trusted recommendation to work from. I can't think of a single VC who brags
about how few people they know, how small their network is, and how they can't
think outside the box to reach the person they don't know who could change the
destiny of your company.
What we all agree on is that it is a good thing for more women to be in tech.
Here's an influential VC who is ACTIVELY trying to encourage more balance in
his applicant pool and he gets attacked. Seriously, what's the endgame here?
Discrimination exists. He's one of the good ones trying to make it better. The
real discrimination is the stuff you don't see in a blog post.
Not cool attacking someone trying to do the right thing.
~~~
Semiapies
Let's unpack the things you say here, starting from the end:
" _Not cool attacking someone trying to do the right thing_ "
Of course, the only people I actually _attack_ are people here on HN who are
very much _hostile_ to trying to do the right thing.
_"Here's an influential VC who is ACTIVELY trying to encourage more balance
in his applicant pool and he gets attacked"_
I haven't attacked him, nor do I see anyone else in this thread attacking him.
His chosen methodology got _criticized_. Is someone trying to do something
right immune from criticism? No.
Now, is he trying to do something right in the first place? Perhaps. He does
seem to be uneasy at a male-dominated pool of responses. However, his response
to seeing this pattern is to assume that this represents a failure on the part
of some unknown women who did not respond. That's a remarkable and dubious
attitude to strike; taken most charitably, it's a startlingly _naive_ one.
" _sometimes all you have is a trusted recommendation to work from_ "
The cold fact is that someone not within a network or who cannot easily enter
that network is disadvantaged by this requirement. In this case, it's a
strongly majority-male network that shows quite a bit of discomfort and
sometimes outright hostility towards women trying to enter it.
So, I will say to you:
1) Blaming women for the fact that you've set up filters that are biased
against them? Uncool on the VC's part.
2) Jumping on someone pointing out those biased filters? Uncool on your part.
~~~
jeremymims
Sigh. You do know that almost all of us are on your side, right? Do you have
any idea how often the topic of the difficulty of hiring women comes up when I
talk to fellow entrepreneurs (male and female)? Personally, I've tried
recruiting six talented female programmers to apply to Y Combinator. None
have. Two of them took jobs at Goldman Sachs. One of them was one of the most
talented programmers I've ever met.
If you want to change the game, you've got to get in it. The fact of the
matter is that VC is an institution that's incredibly biased against anyone
who doesn't have connections. The year before I went through Y Combinator, I
emailed 30 VCs our pitch deck. Two responded. The day after demo day, we had
offers for meetings with half. Today, I have no trouble setting up meetings.
VCs simply don't have time to review every company that might come their way.
So they use intros and recommendations as short cuts. This isn't actually a
male or female issue. Very few people have the requisite connections to break
into this group. Isolating it to a female issue alone probably minimizes the
seriousness of the problem. That's why I love when a VC like Bryce reaches out
and gives people a way to even get in the door without having said
connections. This is a huge improvement for those willing to take advantage of
it.
Seriously, I'm open to suggestions. What solutions do you have that would get
more women into the game? We both agree that it would be a good thing.
~~~
Semiapies
" _Sigh. You do know that almost all of us are on your side, right?_ "
If you mean random people on HN, definitely not. Nearly every thread on women
in the industry here devolves into rants about how stupid, weak, and whiny
women are, and many or most of the posters who _don't_ drop into open misogyny
instead pretend we're in a perfectly equal world (or, at least, a perfectly
equal industry) and that sexism is a moot issue that only conniving lib'ruls
try to whip up out of nothing.
Now, if you mean people you work with, I'm willing to believe they'd like to
do the right thing. However, a big part of actually DOING the right thing is
_entertaining the possibility that you're doing it wrong_ , and that involves
not being defensive. That includes such things as _not_ trying to foist the
blame on the women themselves (as TFA did) and _not_ trying to shout down
people who point out problems (as you did).
_"This isn't actually a male or female issue"_
It's not a strictly racial or sexual issue, either, but this is still a setup
where a bunch of mostly straight white guys will end up giving much better
odds to similar folks than they will give to equally talented people who
aren't straight, white, and/or guys. Not "there are fewer of them in the first
place", but straight-up "we are making this harder for you if you're gay,
black, or a woman".
Suggestions?
1) Think of it as marketing. Try to look at finding talented people beyond the
standard pool of straight white guys as something that's on _you_ in order to
make more money, not some problem you're saddled with that just benefits
_them_. Look at the positions you're offering as something you're trying to
sell and see how attractive they are - and think of things like "almost no
women apply" as "we're failing to attract a major segment of the market".
2) Don't emulate TFA. Don't patronize the people you say you want to recruit.
Would you try to sell something by squinting at customers who turned you down
and saying, "Let's try this again"? That sure wouldn't work on _me_ , why
would that work on women?
3) Keying into that "possibility that you're doing it wrong" - when you can,
find out _why_ women aren't applying for something. If you had good rapport
with one or more of those six programmers you mentioned, _why_ did she or they
not want to apply to Y Combinator? They all had reasons.
------
pge
We (a mid-sized tech VC firm) recently did an associate search as well. We
posted the job listing publicly (e.g., LinkedIn) and got almost 200 resumes.
Of those, fewer than 5% were women. And we are a firm that has more women than
most (up to and including Managing Director level). I was stunned that the
ratio was so skewed.
~~~
jdp23
Did you follow best practices for outreach? I've got some links at
<http://bit.ly/nwenctr2>
------
Semiapies
Am I the only one who sees something wrong with a guy hectoring _any_ set of
people who chose not to apply for a job he's offering?
Myself, I'm wondering how many _men_ applied.
------
michaelcampbell
How many Asians? Caucasians? African Americans? Paraplegics? (Quadraplegics?)
In other words, why does it matter how many of some arbitrary sub-
categorization of "humans" applied?
~~~
pge
It matters because when your applicant pool does not approximately reflect the
distributions of the target demographic along any dimension, it suggests that
you are not reaching the group of candidates you would like to. The qualified
candidates are presumably 50/50 male/female, so to see the applicant pool so
skewed from that number suggests that the firm is not reaching the full
candidate pool it should be. You always want to be reaching as many qualified
candidates as you can in order to ensure you are reaching the best potential
candidates.
~~~
hisabness
how many African Americans applied?
~~~
metageek
He probably doesn't know, because it wouldn't be on a résumé.
------
scottru
Separating the detailed comment from the pedantic comment: the word is flair.
You put a flare in the road. You do things with flair. (And in Office Space,
you wear pieces of flair. And if you're in the ring with the master of the
figure four, you're with Ric Flair.)
------
slouch
I clicked, scanned, and clicked a few more times. I have no idea what OATV is,
and I have lost interest trying to learn.
edit: Curiosity got the best of me, and I dug until I found out what it was.
Now, should I restart my search to find out what the job description is? I
think a blog post isn't the best way to accomplish this task.
------
LilValleyBigEgo
Well I guess I won't apply since I'm male.
Apparently only women are welcome to apply at OATV.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Target's website crashes - 8ig8
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9PNOC3G0.htm
======
mooism2
Websites crash under unexpected traffic all the time. Why should we care about
this one?
~~~
8ig8
From my perspective, I find it interesting when a high profile website goes
down for an extended period of time. The cost of downtime for a retailer like
Target is high so I would assume that they put proportionately high resources
in place to protect against it.
This is not a blogger's WordPress site that went down due to a viral post. So
to me it's newsworthy.
Some HN readers may be trying to manage hosting resources for their online
businesses, so I was hoping it would offer a little perspective to them.
------
8ig8
Currently down. Here's the error page:
[https://s3.amazonaws.com/resultcaptures/77c40fdfb3e0b314a29b...](https://s3.amazonaws.com/resultcaptures/77c40fdfb3e0b314a29bc8fb27f46ab3.full.png)
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Digg Is Working On a Toolbar To Go After StumbleUpon, TinyURL, and All The Rest - vaksel
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/26/digg-is-working-on-a-toolbar-to-go-after-stumbleupon-tinyurl-and-all-the-rest/
======
mikeyur
Kevin Rose confirmed this during the Digg Townhall, and Jay Adelson said
"we're not going after stumbleupon" to which Kevin replied "we kinda are."
Still doesn't interest me that much though, rarely use digg - just every now
and then when I'm bored.
------
wastedbrains
Isn't StubleUpon doing pretty poorly now a days anyway?
~~~
colins_pride
Can you elaborate on that, please?
I'm not challenging, just curious. It seems to be pretty widely accepted that
news aggregators have, in general, deteriorated; particularly digg & reddit,
too new to hackernews to have an opinion. I hadn't noticed the same phenomenon
with stumble ...
~~~
wastedbrains
I actually quit using stumbleupon but I had heard that it wasn't getting
updates that frequently and that their growth rate has been slowing down a
lot. Doing a quick search I didn't see anyone stating bad things about it, so
I don't have anything to point to but I recall hearing it discussed.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Ask HN: The most interesting/weird interview question you've been asked? - lowglow
While reading
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16346813
I thought it might be fair to source HN and ask about interesting interview questions.
======
lowglow
Question:
Imagine that you have a non-session-persisting load balancer in front of a
cluster of web servers (n >= 3). Since this load balancer doesn't direct
requests in any persistent fashion, a user making subsequent requests may be
directed to any of the servers available in the cluster in a non-deterministic
manner. In your application, you need to handle image uploads from users, and
as soon as the upload is finished, you need to show the user their uploaded
image. This creates a problem for you because after an upload, the load
balancer may direct the user to a web server which does not have the users
recently uploaded image resulting in a 404 Not Found for the image request and
a poor user experience.
In the current system, an rsync process runs every 5 minutes and copies
uploaded images around to each server so that every server has every file,
eventually. This isn't a very optimal solution because users may not see their
uploaded images for up to 5 minutes depending on which server they are
connecting to for any given request and it forces every server to have a copy
of every image uploaded, which may not be the most scalable solution.
Assuming you could not modify the load balancer, how would you redesign or fix
this system so that files are uploaded in a way that it doesn't matter which
server in a cluster a user connects to in order to be able to satisfy a
request for the file? There are many ways to solve this problem. Please
describe one or more ways and discuss the pros and cons of your solution(s).
If your solution is very simple (not a bad thing), consider offering a couple
alternate solutions so we have a strong understanding of how you evaluate and
approach problems.
-
My Response:
Basically that this was poor architecture and didn't make sense. They
shouldn't be using their web servers as a file store. They didn't like that.
~~~
bmelton
No offense intended, but I wouldn't have liked that answer either, especially
as it isn't an answer to the question posed.
It might well have been a hypothetical problem they've had in the past or that
they've heard of, or it might have even been that their application
requirements evolved into the use case above.
Not answering the question doesn't indicate that you can solve the problem.
Right or wrong, businesses arrive at scenarios like this often due to
circumstances outside their control.
Either way, I like it as an interview question, as it would effectively filter
out people who are either not clever enough to solve it or not motivated
enough.
When I hire, one of the best things I can hope to find in an potential
employee is a 'can-do' attitude. While that might sound cliche, you can hire
pretty much any smart person to point out the problems you have. It's much
more difficult to hire somebody who can both identify those problems _and_
come up with potential solutions and is capable of fixing them.
~~~
lowglow
I'd rather someone tell me that the problem is flawed and offer me another
alternative to avoid future problems -- that would be experience talking. I'd
rather have someone FIX problems and not just patch a system continuously
hobbling down the wrong path. I'd like not be too far down the rabbit hole and
figure out we need a major architecture overhaul.
More research and planning from the start, saves time and money in the end.
~~~
caw
Agreed. But this isn't even a solution you can't implement for legacy reasons.
At any point you can do this, and you can probably do it live by taking it out
of the load balancer equation one at a time.
In this case, centralizing storage makes sense.
Pros: less stuff to manage, no more rsyncs, immediate feedback on all servers.
Save money by only needing to buy 1/n amount of space (assuming the space
required is significant) because you're only maintaining X GB centrally versus
X GB * n servers.
Cons: Money up front, increased latency to fetch data, but you're already
waiting up to 5 minutes.
------
kls
I was recently asked given a variable amount of parameters passed into a
JavaScript function how would you sum all of the parameters. My answer was I
would not write JavaScript code like that, and would fire anyone on my team
that did. Needless to say I did not get the job, nor did I want it. I have
been critical of this type of interviewing for a long time. Trick questions
and magic code really provide little insight to the value of a candidate.
Further most interviewers do not have the clinical background to even
interpret the results as many of these questions are based off of
psychological tests. It's a cargo cult mentality and reflects poorly on an
organization.
~~~
goo
I think this is a reasonable question, insofar as the interviewer probably
just wanted to hear that you knew how the "arguments" object works. The base2
library, for example, uses arguments in its format function:
[http://www.google.com/codesearch#O7TxUbFbPP4/lib/src/base2.j...](http://www.google.com/codesearch#O7TxUbFbPP4/lib/src/base2.js&q=format%20package:http://base2%5C.googlecode%5C.com&l=1542)
Quizzing people on language features seems a tiny bit silly, but I respect it
as a method of ensuring expertise in a given language.
edit- I actually don't think it ensures expertise, but it can be a signal of a
lack of expertise, so it is a useful method to avoid a false positive on a
hire.
~~~
kls
I have to respectfully disagree, I have built a lot of JavaScript based
application, some of them huge code bases for the like of IBM and not once
have I had to resort to using the arguments object. I consider myself to be an
expert, but should I ever need to use it, I would look up the API because it
is not a feature used in the mainstream of development. Understanding
technical nuances of a languadge does not make a developer an expert,
delivering a clean, maintainable and elegant code base to production to
generate revenue does. Now my opinion would differ if it was someone hired to
actually work on V8 or one of the JavaScript run-times but requiring mastery
of nuances of a languadge when they will be used rarely if at all seems to me
to be a filter that can eliminate good candidates in favor of trivia
knowledge. Trivia can be looked up, delivery and maintainability cannot, these
questions favor trivia over delivery.
------
damoncali
"If you were a piece of fruit, would you rather be one still on the tree or
one that had fallen to the ground?"
------
bwhichard
How many gas stations are in the United States?
~~~
lowglow
I like these types of questions, but I've never been given one. How did you
respond?
Here's my take:
My first inclination would be to think about all the gas stations in my
neighborhood, and all of those I pass as I travel somewhere. The gas stations
start to spread out the further from civilization I go, but I've never gone
more than a quarter to half a tank of gas before seeing another. (I have a
phobia about running out of gas in the middle of nowhere.)
But the difficult part it is thinking about how gas stations are set up. There
is definitely a relationship between population density and gas station count.
The less people, the less gas stations -- but conversely there seems to be a
point where the population is so saturated (SF proper) that gas stations are
scarce inside the city.
But maybe I just think that because of the relative distances I'm traveling.
Inside the city I'm walking and see less gas stations, but outside the city
I'm driving and covering a longer distance in the same amount of time and see
more gas stations.
Also, we seldom see huge lines at the gas stations which means they are
plentiful enough to service all available commuting cars without significant
queue. If there are just enough to service cars without a queue, maybe we can
say this (naively):
X number of people in the US. Three people per family, so X/3 = Y number of
cars. (A lot of families have more than one car, I know) If each gas station
has an average of Z pumps and is utilized constantly at an average of W%
through the day, we need at least Y * Z * W% gas stations to service everyone
appropriately.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
RabbitMQ based chat. Erlang FTW! - caillou
http://69.195.198.92:8080/
======
icey
What differentiates this from every other chat app that gets posted here?
Using erlang for a chat app doesn't seem all that newsworthy to me.
~~~
old_sound
Is just a PoC of using RabbitMQ to route messages and keep history on a custom
exchange. Messages are sent via Websockets. Nothing fancy. This is not
competing against anyone :)
------
greut
Please make the requirement detections upfront. Being tell that you browser
doesn't suit after nick/gravatar is poor design.
------
crombeen
Cool idea, nice to show off the possibilities of RabbitMQ
------
caillou
I love the usage of Gravatar!
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Ask HN: Give a novice dev a dose of reality? - fooboy
Hey all, posting under an alias since my normal nick is linked to me IRL. I'm a pretty novice developer (1-2 years professionally, 3-4 since I first learned Python), and as my previous questions might demonstrate, I have very concrete career goals.<p>At my current job, I'm working on things that I believe have little or no impact on where I want to be in a few years. I need quantitative/statistical experience to do what I want to do, and I'm not getting it at work. At the same time they're very accommodating when it comes to my part-time education (walking in late after morning class, taking time to study, helping me with math theory questions), and I'm also building some general dev experience, which is always good.<p>So HN, I need a dose of reality here. Am I expecting too much for someone with my experience? Should I swallow my pride a bit, take advantage of my job's accommodations and work on this boring, semi-relevant work? Or do I need to leave as of yesterday?<p>EDIT: In the past I've "aimed high" for gigs, and I'm worried about getting rejected based on my (potentially inflated) view of my skills. Should that complicate this question at all?
======
Arjuna
By my estimation, you have two primary options, but I wanted to first ask you
to consider:
Is there any possibility that you could (even if slowly, at first) move toward
where you want to be in the current job? The reason I ask is, if they are
accommodating about your educational goals, then they value that and they
value you. So, think about what is available where you are at. I can't tell
from your post, but if the work you are doing is semi-relevant, then it could
be that you are currently in a "semi-relevant" area because they are grooming
your talent for the future; meaning, they want to get you warmed up before
they put you in a starting slot as a wide receiver [1] in The Show [2]. Just a
thought that maybe you haven't considered.
Otherwise... you could:
_1\. Start going on interviews._
If you truly feel that things are going nowhere at your current job, and if
you feel confident with the target subject matter, then start interviewing.
Even though your current experience is semi-relevant, you can still leverage
it, coupled with your education, to demonstrate that you can discuss the
subject matter and deliver in the target area. Only you will be able to
determine if you are ready to take this step. Sure, you may get rejected on
some interviews, but, at some point, we all have to "put ourselves out there"
and give it a shot.
_2\. Stay where you are and "work your craft" until you are ready to move._
If you are unsuccessful in landing any solid interviews (or you simply don't
feel ready to start interviewing), then stay the course. Appreciate the
situation that you are in as being temporary. Stay focused, keep working on
your education and, this part is critical: start developing a portfolio. That
is, start working on side projects that are related to the area where you want
to be. This will increase your skill-set while simultaneously increasing your
ability to talk comfortably about the target topic during an interview. This
is, of course, important, because you want to be comfortable with the topic so
that you can sell yourself during an interview. A portfolio will also show
initiative, interest and experience in the target area to a potential
employer.
Wishing you the best.
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide_receiver](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide_receiver)
[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Football_League](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Football_League)
------
IgorPartola
Two things. First, what are your career goals? You say you have them, but not
knowing what you are trying to do, it's hard to tell whether you are getting
ready for it or now. Do you want to build your own startup? Join a large tech
company as a developer? A researcher? Do you want to become employee 1 at a
startup? Do you want to go into management?
Second, if you are happy with your employer, stick with them, at least until a
good opportunity comes along. It's rare to find _people_ you like working
with.
In my personal experience, pet projects and general hacking advanced my career
much more than any project an employer threw at me. In fact, most of the
projects I worked on for an employer were driven by experience I had acquired
on my own time: "hey, I think we should build a highly available MySQL cluster
over WAN. I have done this before and it'd be perfect for this application" or
"hey, I'd can create a small C program to spoof source IP addresses in UDP
packets to simplify transitioning from one server to another" or "hey, let's
put our entire server configuration into puppet" or "hey, let's package
_everything_ into .deb packages". In other words, I play with tech, then bring
it to my employer (now client as I am a contractor) and some of it sticks, not
the other way around.
~~~
fooboy
In the short term, I want to take on a hybrid quantitative/engineering role. A
bit of analysis, a bit of coding. I'd like to do this at a startup to start,
so that I'm also involved with product and business decisions (so that they
clearly motivate my quant/dev work). I'd like to move into management for this
type of work over time, but thats years from now.
While I'm not happy with the work, I'm happy with my coworkers and the
environment. This (and the flexibility with my education) complicates the
thought of leaving. Maybe its a set of not-so-golden handcuffs...
------
jlebron2
I would suggest to continue working at your current job while still working
towards your career goals.
For one you can start researching companies where you see yourself working and
that align with your career goals. After you have gathered a decent list of
companies you are interested in, check to see if they have entry level jobs
you can apply for that fit your skill set. For the jobs requiring more
advanced skill sets, find out what those skills are and work at them.
There is a ton of _free_ information available to help you move forward and
advance in your career. Take online courses (coursera.org and edx.org are both
great resources available for free) and read books at your local library.
Continue to build the necessary skills so that when an opportunity in which
you are interested in does come up, you are prepared and have the necessary
skills and experience.
Hope that helps! Good luck and hope you are able to get where you want to go!
------
SnootyMonkey
I'd leave as of tomorrow, once you found the job that is directly on track to
where you want to be.
Life is too short to be on some deferred plan.
~~~
fooboy
Thanks for commenting. Does it change anything if I say that I might not be
qualified for those jobs right now?
------
jf22
Grass isn't always greener.
If you're progressing in school and the job is being accommodating I'd stay
for a bit and see what happens.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
New, Up to 6 times faster Publii Static CMS beta released - robertgavick
https://getpublii.com/blog/publii-beta-speed-increases.html
======
jenkijo
Thank for share
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Switched from Subversion to Git - stuff4ben
http://concise-software.blogspot.com/2009/08/git-scales-enough-for-enterprise-java.html
======
wvenable
I wish git was bit more user-friendly on Windows. With TortioseSVN, using
subversion is so smooth and easy I almost forget it's there. I've got a bunch
of Git tools installed in Windows, but it's all so horrible. The GUI tools are
significantly worse than using Git bash at the command line.
I think, for Git, the GUI I'm looking for probably isn't possible. It's
designed with the philosophy of small command line tools combined together --
that's not something you can paint over with pretty UI.
~~~
ghshephard
Have you tried TortoiseGit? <http://code.google.com/p/tortoisegit/>
~~~
davidw
How is that shaping up? Ready for production use? For people who don't know
too much about version control?
------
gruseom
An amusing combination of titles:
_In Search of Concise Software_
_Git Breezily Handles our 500,000-line Enterprise Java Project_
~~~
henning
I wonder what that 500,000 lines buys them.
~~~
jrockway
200,000 getters and setters.
~~~
axod
I'm not convinced language snobbery is something to be encouraged personally
:/ If it was lisp it'd be 200,000 lines of parenthesis, if it were python it'd
be 200,000 of significant whitespace, perl? 200,000 of random punctuation
characters etc etc.
It's not the language, it's what you do with it that counts. If someone _is_
writing countless getters and setters, in any language, they're clearly doing
something terribly wrong.
my 2c.
~~~
jrockway
But has anyone fixed this in Java yet, or does every large app still consist
of thousands of nearly-identical methods?
Things like parentheses and whitespace don't affect the ongoing maintenance of
your codebase; a bunch of code that your IDE typed for you does.
~~~
axod
Using your IDE to type code for you is the problem. Not Java. Place the blame
where it should be. If a programmer is foolish enough to use an IDE to
generate code, and doesn't mind if it's near identical rubbish, then it's not
the languages fault anymore.
~~~
jrockway
So could you explain the "right way". I'm not a Java programmer, and googling
did not reveal any way to generate accessors other than inserting code in your
source file.
An explanation of how you do it would be very valuable, at least to me.
------
etherael
Does anyone have a real world example of a busy dev shop with a bunch of
stretched coders that are accustomed to tortoise svn only based source control
switching to git? the coders at this place range from brilliant to pretty
good, but I don't think some of them would be capable of wrapping their heads
around msysgit and they're thoroughly wedded to windows.
Tortoisegit viable? Looked ok from my brief experimentations, but I know
that's different to actually doing real work with it...
~~~
litewulf
Why do you want to switch to git? I say this as someone who uses perforce,
subversion, git and mercurial on a regular basis. Version control is largely
similar for the 90% of your work life, and that 10% can usually be solved by
hand.
~~~
tezza
_Why do you want to switch to git?_ Agreed, I don't know either.
Any sort of branch/merge problems I encounter are mostly coders working on
mutually incompatible versions of the base system. Not on a file level but
rather on a protocol/format level
No mere source control system will be a hurdle of the same size as the hurdle
of co-ordinating all the developers who broke each others preconditions.
\---
So a switch to git will be best for projects with extremely stable interfaces
where the branch/merge _mechanism_ is the most time consuming part. Think:
linux kernel, stable protocol services.
But where developers have to collaborate while modifying a shared framework
_git_ makes little difference. Think: early stage GUI frontends, or server
components which inter-depend on message formats which are evolving.
~~~
sreitshamer
Git not being centralized helps a lot in the initial-development scenario. Two
developers can pull changes from each other without polluting a centralized
repository.
~~~
tezza
It looks like git / bzr / hg have better mechanisms than svn in the case you
mention.
Those same mechanisms break just as badly as svn when you need to coordinate
10+ developers. The communication overhead of the developers dwarfs the way
they sync files.
------
smithjchris
Most "industry" developers can barely use Subversion. How are they supposed to
handle Git?
~~~
nudded
by reading this book : <http://progit.org/book/>
~~~
jrschulz
If only those developers read books...
~~~
smithjchris
Precisely my problem... apathetic developers!
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Printer dots raise privacy concerns - timr
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/surveillance/2008-07-13-printer_N.htm
======
brk
This isn't really new, it's been around/known for several years now. I haven't
kept up with the yellow-dots, but this quote in the article piqued my
interest:
"The Secret Service is the only U.S. body that has the ability to decode the
information,"
Last time I read about this in depth, the yellow dots were basically a printed
"braille", and decoding the information they represented was trivially simple.
~~~
jcl
The EFF managed to fully decode the code for Xerox DocuColor tracking dots,
but there are many other printers whose code is unknown:
<http://w2.eff.org/Privacy/printers/docucolor/>
~~~
brk
Thanks, that was one of the links I remembered reading before.
------
akd
Just buy your printer while you're on a road trip, and pay cash. Wear a hat.
~~~
kirubakaran
And place it in a Faraday cage.
~~~
tstegart
and don't print the "Pelican Brief" on it
------
jcl
It's not just printers. Scanners, copiers, and image manipulation software
like Photoshop have all had anti-counterfeiting measures quietly added:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EURion_constellation>
------
tectonic
I'd like to see an open source project to do this. Might raise awareness.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Ask HN: What is the best way to construct safe and secure C code - wean_irdeh
Despite the resurgence of safe language that prevent common pitfalls in C language like Rust and Ada, things like Linux and NetBSD are still written in C. What is the best way to construct safe and secure C code for contribution to Linux or NetBSD? Preferably free solution
======
mmphosis
What is the problem? Even extremely type safe pure functional languages have
problems that C doesn't have. It depends on the problem, the context.
I can't think of much related to C code specifically. C code has it's pitfalls
for sure, but with discipline (a lot of discipline) most can be avoided. There
are tools. Find out about them. Try them. Learn about what they can do for
you. Use them as part of your builds.
Don't rely on tools because even with these tools, the best way is finding out
the other things the tools can't catch -- and these are not at all obvious. I
was just thinking of some of Daniel J. Bernstein's code and even the few flaws
found in it. _It also shows how hard it is to be sure of the correctness of
any length of program without trying to run it._
Read.
What is it that is not working?
What do you need?
Ask: What needs to be done?
Keep It Simple Smart (KISS)
Learn what not to do.
_There are no ready answers._
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Does life online give you 'popcorn brain'? - SocialHacks
http://www.dutiee.com/edition-cnn-com/2011/HEALTH/06/23/tech-popcorn-brain-ep/index-html
======
laglad
I agree but it's an irreversible phenomenon. Some people will balance
online/offline better than others, but we will continue to adapt to the times
we live in, and not to a sense of what is ideal.
------
hammock
Is anyone else bothered by website designs like this one which have a fixed
header like that, messing up the PgDn/spacebar style of scrolling by hiding
some of the text?
------
wccrawford
Does anyone else think worrying about getting used to life with the internet
is like worrying about not spending enough time in caves any more?
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Ask HN: Startup could be killed with a single feature? - quotz
Should I start a startup that could potentially be killed by a big corp if they implement the feature that my product is built on? Its a product based on a strong community around it, which is a plus, but still very risky.
======
allenleein
I think big corp rarely killed a startup.
Some quotes from famous startup people:
“In a big company, you can do what all the other big companies are doing. But
a startup can’t do what all the other startups do. I don’t think a lot of
people realize this, even in startups. The average big company grows at about
ten percent a year.
So if you’re running a big company and you do everything the way the average
big company does it, you can expect to do as well as the average big company —
that is, to grow about ten percent a year. The same thing will happen if
you’re running a startup, of course. If you do everything the way the average
startup does it, you should expect average performance.
The problem here is, average performance means that you’ll go out of
business.”- Paul Graham
\---
"What makes disruption so devastating is the fact that, absent a crisis, it is
almost impossible to avoid. Managers are paid to leverage their advantages,
not destroy them; to increase margins, not obliterate them." \- Naval Ravikant
\---
Personally, I think if your business fits in a market design by someone else,
you are “default dead”. Pepsi never catches Coke. Bing never catches Google.
Google Pixel never catches iPhone. The real question is can you design a
market that you can dominate. Ignore competition from big corp.
------
tinktank
Jobs told the dropbox guys that their product was a feature... go figure.
------
saluki
Most startups could be killed with a single feature initially.
If you're interested in working on it and have passion about it go for it.
Most big corps have lots of layers/decision makers so chances are slim they
would attack your feature before you have traction, users and a community
built around it.
------
ishjoh
is there an additional thing that would make people stick around even if that
other company built the feature?
Seeing a feature that can make a big difference to people is a great place to
start, if you can plan a road map that will help you to grow your user base,
is even better.
~~~
quotz
So it lets people earn for a living from the platform, and the product is also
build on a community, very different from the big corp competitor
------
jxr006
i'm going to quote Sam.
This doesn't sound like a business, sounds like a feature.
------
celticninja
How much would it cost to launch? How fast could you recoup your investment?
~~~
quotz
Not much at all. Could probably build the MVP in 2 months. But it could take a
few years to build a community around it.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Ask HN: efreeme.com Head to head with etsy.com, marketing help? - boonez123
Okay. I've built the site efreeme.com, proven it works, done the bare minimum required to get it off the ground, however now I'm looking for the marketing angle to push this. Any ideas?<p>My big competitive advantage over etsy.com is that we are completely free for both the buyer and sellers.
======
SHOwnsYou
Well your proposition is buy and sell handmade goods at no additional cost.
Market that angle.
But I think soon you'll find you want a new proposition. There is a lot of
work involved in processing payments, dealing with chargebacks, keeping
customers happy, etc.
It looks like your revenue model is completely ad based? You need a way to
start getting money now, rather than earning spare change each month via
adsense.
Running customer service and daily operations take money. If you don't value
your time (more than just spare time if you want this to grow) or don't mind
paying out of your own pocket for someone else's time, I think you'll need to
start taking a cut somewhere.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Man Implants Giant Computer Into His Arm Without Doctors - alexgrcs
http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/11/01/this-guy-implanted-a-giant-computer-chip-into-his-arm-without-medical-supervision/
======
Ellipsis753
It can read his body temperature and send it via bluetooth. It also has 3
status leds. Now honestly, the question really is, why is this so large? You
can easily get a temperature sensor and logger along with a small battery that
would be the size of a coin in total. Since it has wireless connectivity he
could just transmit status over that instead of using leds? It looks far, far
too large for what it does...
~~~
infinitone
I think it does more than just temperature, but has other biometrics. I'm
assuming this based on the project on their site:
[http://www.grindhousewetware.com/Circadia.html](http://www.grindhousewetware.com/Circadia.html)
------
DanBC
Part of the reason it's huge is that it's a body-modification. That's an
aesthetic choice. It could be made smaller, but then people don't see it, and
so what's the point of having it? With a huge lump under your arm people say
"What's that huge lump?" and you can then talk about how you're a cyborg.
In the UK getting someone else to help you is putting that person at risk of
serious legal problems. Probably around the assault or grievous bodily harm.
Gibson said something like 30 years ago (about implantable watches) "Why don't
they just carry it around in a pocket?". I forget which book, and what the
exact quote is, and I don't have them at this house to check. But if I want to
know my temperature I'll use an infra-red thermometer in my ear.
------
LionRoar
I am not put off by the DIY surgery or the size of the computer. But I was
astonished by this line: 'the chip can record Cannon's body temperature and
transfer it in real time via Bluetooth.' If I would attempt such a thing like
this I would make sure it could do a lot more!
Direct link to the article: [http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/the-diy-
cyborg](http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/the-diy-cyborg)
Spoiler: there are no pictures of the biohack surgery
~~~
larrybolt
I certainly agree with that, it seems the only two functions of the implant
are measuring the temperature and making light up his arm a little bit.
I am however curious to see how this project will advance, will he be able to
use his arm like he did before, won't it affect his health in any way... how
about heath generated by the device itself...
But being honest about it, this is cool! I always imagined with the current
technologies (think google glass, thalmic's myo, current smartphones) we will
come very soon to a time where wearable computers will make our live much
easier, the only bottleneck seems to be we haven't got batteries that could
last longer than a day and power such a device.
------
chasing
I feel like the actual medical community is almost certainly working on
technology like this that will actually be:
1) Useful.
2) Safe.
That'll be cool. As for what this guy's actually contributing... Not really
sure.
(Other projects on their site also kind of sound like bullshit. For example:
"The idea is to stimulate your brain with direct current (in the case of tDCS)
or with square waves of current (in the case of CES) which can either raise or
lower the potential energy of the stimulated neurons, depending on the
orientation of electrodes. This allows them to fire more or less easily, and
activates or deactivates a given region, thus engaging certain brain states."
-[http://www.grindhousewetware.com/thinkingcap.html](http://www.grindhousewetware.com/thinkingcap.html)
Sounds like either pseudo-science or wishful thinking to me.)
~~~
Geee
Nothing pseudo-science about tDCS:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcranial_direct-
current_sti...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcranial_direct-
current_stimulation)
~~~
chasing
Interesting. Also:
[http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/psychiatry/specialty_areas/br...](http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/psychiatry/specialty_areas/brain_stimulation/tdcs.html)
At any rate, if these were researchers at Johns Hopkins, that'd be one thing.
But I won't believe that this product does what they claim unless they do
actual studies with it and post them on their site. But. I suspect they won't.
Because I suspect they're using the Soylent scientific process: "We tried it
on ourselves and it seems to work! And didn't kill us!"
~~~
Geee
tDCS devices are simple like that, just DC current in your brain. There has
been a lot of discussion about them on HN:
[https://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=tdcs&start=0](https://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=tdcs&start=0)
------
failrate
Some body modification enthusiasts currently get significantly large silicon
implants placed under the skin. The most common one appears to be synthetic
horns, but large symbols in relief and larger abstract forms placed along
muscles/against bone are also feasible. Note, when I say "feasible" I mean
that no apparent reduction in function is caused by the implant. In this
fellow's case, it might even be a good idea for him to encapsulate a wireless
unit within a silicon sheath to avoid any kind contamination. That could
increase the bulk of the unit considerably.
------
aspensmonster
>It’s also huge, since it comes with a battery pack that charges wirelessly.
This is one of the main problems with sub-dermal implants. You don't want
anything trans-dermal, because it's a recipe for infection. But if it's sub-
dermal, it not only needs to be biocompatible but also needs to wirelessly
transmit data. This implies a need for a power source of some sort that won't
overheat. I sincerely hope he's thought this through, because if that battery
gets too hot, he's going to destroy a lot of tissue, to say nothing of how
biocompatible the device is.
------
benologist
I don't understand why the thing is roughly the size of a phone...
------
james4k
Well, that arm is going to basically be unusable.
~~~
ByronT
Oh, I hope he never falls on it.
~~~
baby
You'd be surprised how limited you are once you get a piercing. A simple
piercing.
I got one at the eyebrow, I loved it (and especially the ladies my age) but
you have to restrain yourself a lot. You can't bump into someone, you cannot
really sleep on your head, you have to take care when you're taking off your
Tshirt, or when you're washing your face, drying your face, wearing glasses,
and on and on.
------
Ahnon
The functionality doesn't seem to be greater than that of wearable sensors. It
does get people's attention though and like good art, makes you think. Where's
your threshold? What would it need to do before you'd be willing to take the
risk? Are there better locations for the device? What about upgrades and
recharging? Their way works but what's better? Definitely a useful exercise.
------
TeeWEE
This guy is crazy.
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R3hxcgvOTw#t=144](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R3hxcgvOTw#t=144)
I think he is in it for the thrill. Not usable at all, much to big, better to
just have a smartphone in your pocket. Or an arduino with sensors on your
skin. Instead of implanting this.
------
Simon321
For people complaining it's big, the guy on reddit's futurology subreddit who
helped design it said it was just the first step, it will shrink in size and
grow in features.
[http://www.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/1ohqpl/this_is_t...](http://www.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/1ohqpl/this_is_the_very_first_prototype_of_something/ccs19fx)
He also said it's just temporary, for 3 months.
[http://www.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/1ohqpl/this_is_t...](http://www.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/1ohqpl/this_is_the_very_first_prototype_of_something/ccs7pc6)
------
nivertech
I disappointed that device have no USB plug aka BioPort ;)
------
Rhapso
About time. The fact this can be done with "relative" safety needs to be
publicized. It wont get safer or smaller until people make statements that
there is a demand for such technology. And as to all the people going on about
how foolish it is, right now with the legal, financial, and social barriers,
this is the only way it can be done. And even smarter to do it while we still
have effective antibiotics.
------
mahyarm
Why doesn't he just use a basis band or a bodymedia device? It measures temps
& more and you don't have to risk an infection.
------
bane
The cyborgs I thought about as a kid were way cooler than this lameness. They
talk about this like it's some history making implant that's never been done
before, yet much more sophisticated implants for various ailments like ICDs
are quite common.
A 10 year old with a cochlear implant is way more impressive than this.
------
etrautmann
I'm not clear why this is a story. This is hardly interesting from a
technology standpoint even as a proof of concept.
I'm guessing it grabs peoples' attention based on the pain this person went
through to perform surgery on himself, but this too doesn't strike me as a
story.
------
anigbrowl
This is the original article: [http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/the-diy-
cyborg](http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/the-diy-cyborg) (which would have
been better to submit than the Time magazine blogspam).
------
sanoli
Being that big and having a battery, I would have implanted a tiny mp3 player
with a smallish speaker. Waay cooler (because to me he did it pretty much for
the 'cool' factor).
------
Osmium
How completely and utterly ridiculous and reckless. I understand the thrill,
but jeez... And good luck walking through an airport in future!
------
xlayn
Even a nexus 4 in a complete sealed bag would be smaller and more
functional.... included leds, lot of sensors, cell chips and others...
------
jlebrech
you weren't joking when you said GIANT. Couldn't he have made it the size of
an ipod/fitbit or something.
~~~
larrybolt
I'm only guessing, but I think the reason it's soo big is because they want it
to be "DIY" and a bluetooth-module and wireless-recharging module cannot be
made much smaller, not to forget that thing also needs to have a battery that
can hold out long enough!
~~~
sitharus
Wireless charging, perhaps, but I have a bluetooth module with embedded CPU
and GPIO pins that's not much larger than 2x2cm.
I'm pretty sure the reason for the size is aesthetics, rather than
requirement.
~~~
infinitone
Does the GPIO include analog? If so, can you link me :D
~~~
sitharus
[http://www.ti.com/product/cc2540](http://www.ti.com/product/cc2540)
12-bit ADC onboard. Also two serial (SPI/UART) and an AES module.
Microcontrollers pack so much in these days.
------
p4bl0
I saw that a few days ago. It's disgusting. I couldn't even read the article
because of the images.
~~~
supergirl
ok, thanks for letting us know, author of most useless comment ever.
~~~
DanBC
Warning people of gore isn't useless. Your comment, however...
~~~
thenerdfiles
C'mon, everyone. Our [deepest felt] opinions just have to be valid, or else
where will all that humanity go?
------
plywoodtrees
Wow, at least round off the corners!
------
prakster
Duuuude, do a Kickstarter campaign or something to cut that down to size!
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Open-plan offices make employees less productive, less happy, and more sick - michaelochurch
http://qz.com/85400/moving-to-open-plan-offices-makes-employees-less-productive-less-happy-and-more-likely-to-get-sick/#
======
jroseattle
Anyone who has worked in enough office environments for a while will recognize
that the "best" environment is a flexible one. Sometimes it's working in the
open, sometimes a quiet office with the door closed, sometimes at home or a
coffee shop.
When I took a mgmt role as VP/Engnring at a firm a few years ago, the first
thing I did was assess and address morale, which was not good. One of the
obvious things was that the staff didn't like the militaristic-layout of
desks, being on display to others in the organization who had cozy and private
retreats to use.
The CEO freaked out when I told him we were moving to the opposite side of the
office floor (we had a full floor in a standard big-city downtown office
building). When we moved over, we had our choice of cubes, open areas (not
desks, but full-on tables) and quiet corners. Product management hated it
because they "had to walk over to see what was going on". It didn't take a lot
to figure out the source of frustration with the office environment for the
engineering team. After that, I was able to take on the frustrations of the
product management group since they could no longer _easily_ impact the
engineering team.
As it turned out, the engineering team didn't mind working in any combination
of those situations, as long as they could kind of pick-and-choose over time.
And, wouldn't you know it, productivity went up -- considerably.
~~~
greghinch
Ultimately, in my experience, it always seems to come down to "how do we keep
the non-technical people from meddling with the engineers?" This is as much
about org structure as it is office layout
~~~
reeses
This is one of the lessons from Peopleware. It's not so much noise in the
background but noise unrelated to the job duties. Being in a room of
developers usually has less impact than having marketing, sales, etc.
collocated as well.
------
calpaterson
This topic is discussed at length in Peopleware:
<http://www.librarything.com/work/17188>
"If your organization is anything like those studied in our last three annual
surveys, the environmental trend is toward less privacy, less dedicated space
and more noise. Of course the obvious reason for this is cost. A penny saved
on the workspace is a penny earned on the bottom line, or so the logic goes.
Those who make such a judgement are guilty of performing a cost/benefit study
without the benefit of studying the benefit."
The book was first published in 1987 and apparently has not been very
influential.
~~~
shaggyfrog
> The book was first published in 1987 and apparently has not been very
> influential.
You think that's bad? Brooks first published The Mythical Man-Month in 1975
and I don't think those lessons have ever sunk in, either.
~~~
kamaal
99% of the managers probably haven't even heard if somebody called Fred Brooks
ever existed.
------
mcphilip
I really struggle to get in the 'zone' where I can do the creative aspects of
software engineering (e.g. researching graph databases like neo4j and
determining if our startup can benefit from it) when I'm in an open
environment. I have been diagnosed with ADD for the past 8 years, but am
working towards a medication free approach to dealing with it.
Open spaces really hurt my productivity because my mind naturally tries to
keep track of all the conversations going on around me. This ADD wired brain
helped make me a great waiter, but it's hard to explain to bosses/founders why
I prefer to work in a quiet environment with as few people around as possible
whenever I'm not simply cranking out code that takes no thought.
Most of my bosses have been very accommodating at first, but each time the
scenario ends up where management feels like my isolation is a sign of not
wanting to be a team player and is harming the morale of those programmers
that look up to me.
I really don't know what the right answer is to this dilemma, but for me, at
least, the trend towards an open plan offices is stifling my ability to
perform at a consistently high level.
Edit: to those replying below, thanks for the suggestion. Thankfully my
employer has no policy against headphone usage, so I do get some help from
that. One thing many people don't realize about ADD is that a loss of focus
can be triggered through other senses such as seeing movement out of the
corner of my eyes. Sound is definitely the most distracting element, but an
environment with a lot of movement can be almost as bad in my case.
~~~
endianswap
I hate to sound like I'm trivializing your disorder, but have you tried a good
pair of closed-ear headphones? I sit in a room of 40 or 50 chatty computer
folks, and everything is silent when I put on my Sennheiser headphones. It
lets be effectively choose whether or not I want to be distracted by sound,
which I do sometimes (hearing conversations I want to be a part of it quite
important to me).
~~~
ghotli
[http://www.amazon.com/Shure-SE210-Sound-Isolating-
Earphone/d...](http://www.amazon.com/Shure-SE210-Sound-Isolating-
Earphone/dp/B0013JT3XC)
Those effectively eliminate auditory ADD in an open environment. Nothing has
been more effective than these for me.
~~~
bdcravens
I have a pair of Bose Quiet Comfort 15's, supposedly one of the best noise
canceling headphones you can buy. While it eliminates alot of the noise, noise
still gets in.
~~~
driverdan
Earphones that actually block sound are far superior to noise canceling
headphones that degrade the sound quality of whatever you're listening to.
------
DanielBMarkham
I've worked in every possible configuration, and I've watched teams work in
every possible configuration.
I don't like open-plan, but it tentatively appears to be most effective for
organizations as a whole. Some initial conclusions:
\- We'd be wise to distinguish what we'd all _like_ to have as an office from
what actually functions best in a larger system. It is erroneous to think that
simply because you like something means it's always the best policy for
everybody. Sometimes local non-optimizations need to be made to optimize the
system as a whole.
\- Open-plan environments are nowhere near being a _determining_ factor in
team performance, but they can be an important add-on. So sure, if your
company is too cheap for offices, treat teams like slaves, and just wants to
cram as many people possible into the smallest space? Then that's going to
suck. But that's going to suck anyway. I'd just be really careful about
confusing "stuff I think is cool" from "stuff that works the best for
everybody concerned" I'd also be careful about over-generalizing. A big hunk
of this is team, project, company, technology, and building specific.
\- As long as you're adapting, you could end up with any kind of office space.
But just as an informed guess, co-located open plan is where I'd start, then
adapt from there.
\- The worse thing you can do is start with a pre-conceived notion of what
works and didn't and then try to force reality to conform to it.
~~~
davesims
Couldn't agree more. What people _complain_ about is not necessarily an
indication of what's _not working_.
My last two gigs have been open-plan, and I prefer it much more than closed-
cube spaces. If your team is working as it should, and is in close proximity
to project/product management, with a good process and a healthy level of
trust between the stakeholders and between the various engineers, then in my
experience open-plan is far better, because the quality of communication is
high, the general focus of the team is high, and there's less background noise
"distraction", because the cross-talk is usually relevant and on-task, and has
a higher likelihood of being pertinent to the job at hand. Open plan offices
work well when the team is already working well.
However, if there's broken processes, unfocussed coworkers, and a general
level of distrust between team members or across teams, then the background
chatter becomes exponentially more distracting and frustrating. Unfortunately
most teams tend towards the latter and not the former.
In other words -- in my limited, anecdotal experience (last 5 years, two large
open-plan teams; 10 years before that in closed or hybrid), high-functioning
teams tend to thrive on the cross-talk and constant communication that open
plan creates organically. Lower-functioning teams on the other hand have done
better when the natural barriers of walls and closed doors limit unnecessary
distractions and create healthier boundaries.
So it's not surprising to me that the study shows more instances of teams
unhappy with open plans; it's certainly not for everybody. But the best teams
I've been on have absolutely _thrived_ in that environment.
~~~
geoka9
> high-functioning teams tend to thrive on the cross-talk and constant
> communication that open plan creates organically.
I wonder how programmers in such environments can get in the "zone" and stay
in it for extended periods of time, if they are being "constantly communicated
with".
~~~
davesims
I'm ADD to the core, and I find it actually easier to zone out and _code_ with
a low-level background noise, "coffee-shop" style. Large spikes in noise are a
problem, and also non-relevant conversations that pull _everyone's_ attention
off-task, but on the open teams I've been on, in general this has been the
exception not the rule.
My experience at large tables has been that good coders and PMs will actually
_IM_ a developer when they need to ask a question -- I do this all the time
even when I'm sitting 2 feet from the guy I need to talk to: "let me know when
you have a sec to talk about X", etc.
Again, that's evidence of a team that's generally on-task and communicating
well -- a cultural quality that is itself harder to find than not.
~~~
dyno12345
I prefer instant messaging to start a conversation... it's asynchronous. You
can ignore it for a little while if you need just a couple minutes more of
flow state
------
doktrin
While I don't prefer open office plans, I think it needs to be emphasized that
not all open office plans are equal.
There are compartmentalized open plans, where a specific team or division is
grouped together in close proximity, and then you have some form of the
"kitchen sink", where any number of teams (if not the whole company) is just
thrown into a room.
The latter is _extremely_ unpleasant, IMHO. Being constantly disrupted by the
loud side chatter that inevitably comes out of another group (e.g. marketing,
finance, sales, etc.) is infinitely more distracting than ancillary chatter
that is relevant to a specific team / department. In addition, obviously, the
more open a plan is the more physical distractions are present which doesn't
help matters either.
~~~
Symmetry
You also have to consider how closely packed everyone is. At my last job we
had an open plan office for the four people in my group but we were all about
20 feet apart and it was great. It was easy to communicate, but it wasn't
distracting. Having lots of tiny conference rooms for talking to people or
taking phone calls is also very important for open plan offices.
------
altero
Thanks to open-plan office I developed anxiety, high-blood pressure and
stress. I could not concentrate in the office and I had to finish most of my
work at home over evenings. I nearly divorced thanks to open-plan office.
I already quit 3 long term jobs a few weeks after company moved to open-plan.
At end I just had to start my own business. Now I am single-handily competing
with multi-billion companies (and I dare to say with good success).
Open-plan comes with lot of bullsh*t. But at end it is just about a few bucks
which company moves from operating cost to management bonuses.
Many developers care about stuff like free soda. I would strongly recommend to
care about your working environment and mental health. It takes about 10 years
of stress-free work to develop and reach your full technical potential.
Working for peanuts and burning-out after 15 years is really bad carier plan.
~~~
vpeters25
As an Agile evangelist I thought open-plan was the way to go but now I realize
collaboration tools such as IM, Campfire, Hipchat, etc can provide such social
benefits while allowing the developer to isolate themselves and focus when
needed.
I personally can work in any kind of environment, but I prefer it quiet.
Headphones help when in open-plan places but I noticed it takes me longer to
get focused in such places. I now reject job offers were I would get anything
less than a private cubicle.
------
steven2012
In the span of 4 years, I went from a cube farm, to an office, to taking
almost a year off and being by myself at home, to an entirely open-plan. It
took a couple of weeks to get used to but I really like the open-plan. I
enjoyed being by myself at home alone tremendously and didn't miss the social
interaction at all, since I IM with most of my friends anyway, but I have to
say I do like the open-plan now. My team is very social, I very much like
everyone on the team, and I get to interact with my teammates a lot more, and
if I need some solitude I can move to a smaller room (we're all laptop-based).
We do respect each other's space though, so most times it gets as quiet as a
library, and even though my teammate is just on the other side of the table
from me, he will IM me instead of just looking past the monitor and talk to
me. It's usually quiet, but closer to lunch or near the end of the day, we
play StarCraft 2, start chattering a bit more, and it's generally a bit
looser.
For the most part, we don't work remotely, but the VP of Engineering insists
that if one of us is even possibly sick, to stay at home and not infect
others.
It's definitely a different set of "rules", but I really do enjoy it.
------
mgkimsal
Was just having a discussion on this topic with a friend a couple nights ago.
Seems that "management" and "HR" always seem to have traditional desks and
offices with closable doors. Always. For software developers, they often get
lumped with the same desk/working environments that people doing call center
or phone support work get.
It got me thinking _why_ that might be, and I had a thought I hadn't had
before. Management types typically have their days broken up in to short 30-60
minute blocks - that's their standard work process - meeting, meeting,
meeting, planning, etc. I don't think they can really understand people
focusing for 2-3 hours at a stretch, and that there's often a big increase in
productivity for some people working under those conditions.
Thought-workers are somewhat alone in this, and because the people who make
office seating decisions don't work that way, they can not fathom anyone else
might _need_ to work that way (except, of course, they still need their doors
to be closed for quiet/private work conditions).
~~~
tsotha
There's more to it than that. Management and HR people need to have
conversations that not everyone else is privy to. Having everyone listening to
a coworker being asked by her boss to wear more appropriate clothing to the
office is just asking for a lawsuit, as is a conversation between HR and an
employee discussing leave for an embarrassing medical problem.
Of course you can have small conference rooms for those kinds of
conversations, but if it's a significant part of the job an office just makes
sense.
~~~
YZF
The thing is that I think healthy teams need to have those conversations as
well. I.e. ones that not everyone is privy too. Team cohesion requires trust
and I found the inability to have private conversations easily is a problem.
------
MikeTLive
Six years ago I designed a mixed-mode alcove based office plan. Long
conference table with 12 chairs. On opposite sides are four to six offices
just large enough for pair programming, doors facing the conference table.
For heads down go to your office and close the door. 1:1 collaboration go join
your partner. Max3 cram on in.
Passive collaboration open your door. Larger team meet at conf table. Active
teamwork move with laptop out to table.
Large screen on wall at end of table. This neighborhood is repeated over and
over again.
Collocate teams in alcoves. Go visit other alcoves when you need to. Touchdown
or camp at whatever teams space you need to be at.
This design was rejected at my local office rebuild. But a year later was
taken up at another facility. It won someone architectural awards.
Me? I get to enjoy its productivity multiplier every time I visit that
facility. Anyone who experiences it comments on it being the best arrangement
they have ever seen.
Any other time? When i need to work from the local office I am in low wall
cubicle hell from thanks to our expert architects.
~~~
jlangenauer
Have you written a blog post or something more about this setup? I'd certainly
like to know more about it.
------
bsg75
Open plans benefit only two categories:
1) Lazy managers or PMs, who either won't expend the effort to use ascertain
on their own how things are progressing (code review, ticket / task lists,
reports), or don't have the discipline to actually manage without continuously
interrupting with questions about things they should already know.
2) Bean counting finance or facilities types, who foolishly look at cost as
the primary design factor largely ahead of productivity and work _quality_
(not quantity).
Giving people an environment where they can focus when needed (an "office")
along with areas where collaboration can occur when desired ("war rooms") is
the only approach that gives people the opportunity to excel.
I am extremely doubtful that the time and effort to go find someone in their
workspace is more time consuming than the cumulative impact of constant
distraction, be it visual or auditory. If it is the case, then these people
can team up in a single office or work room.
Especially in tech, where more and more companies proclaim they provide choice
and flexibility in tools, workstations, and even nutrition, forcing everyone
to work in one, unfiltered common area is equivalent to putting them in a
henhouse.
TL;DR - open plan offices are trendy bullshit to avoid spending enough for a
comfortable workspace.
------
dreamdu5t
Agreed. I find it very odd that software engineers make $100k+ yet aren't even
given an office or private work space.
The cost is not the reason because open floor plan offices in downtown SF
aren't exactly "cheaper" than renting in an already established office suite.
The reason is the insecurities of management, combined with the
fashion/groupthink aspect of silicon valley startup CEOs (herp derp, facebook
does it! Startup X does it! It's the thing to do!)
------
vog
I'm wondering why people even considered that kind of office layout.
Didn't anyone of them read the famous books of Tom DeMarco, such as
"Peopleware"? Decades ago, DeMarco argued (IMHO very convincingly) for closed
rooms to cut distractions - at least for thought workers. DeMarco even
concluded that telephones are bad, especially if in the company's culture it's
not socially accepted that people are free to ignore a phone call.
------
akurilin
As an interesting example, the people in charge at Facebook seem to be well
aware of the downsides of open plan offices. They however consciously choose
to lower engineer productivity in exchange for higher openness and visibility.
It's actually refreshing how they don't try to pass it as "much better for the
developer". It's better for the company as a whole, not so much for the
individual: <http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=3119>
(starts around 11:35)
~~~
michaelochurch
Open plan is all about the brogrammer macho bullshit. The idea is that if you
can't deal with 10+ hours of being on edge due to vertigo-inducing noise and
open-back visibility, you're too old/lazy/weak to write code. It's total
nonsense and the sooner that attitude dies, the better.
~~~
pvnick
I agree with this. It carries with it a bit of a sense of youthful
superiority, and leads countless kids to waste away their twenties all to make
someone else rich.
------
crazygringo
Is there any conclusive evidence of causation, as opposed to just correlation?
Could it be, for example, that companies with worse management practices tend
to adopt open-plan offices, but that it's actually the bad management
practices causing stress, sickness, less productivity -- and that the open-
plan offices have very little to do with it?
In environments as incredibly complex as office settings, it is particularly
important to realize that correlation != causation.
~~~
greenyoda
You make a good point; an office is a complex system with many factors
affecting workers. However, I do think the findings about increased sickness
in open plan offices are very plausible. Communicable diseases, like colds or
flu, would be a whole lot easier to spread when there's someone coughing or
sneezing in your immediate vicinity over an extended period of time.
------
city41
I have worked in just about every office configuration imaginable: open office
(my current job), everyone gets their own office, and cubicles.
Despite everyone hating them, I actually think cubicles are the best
arrangement. The cubicle walls offer separation and let people focus and get
more work done, but not so much that they stifle collaboration and
communication (which everyone having their own office does).
Open office is by far the worst, I actually really hate it. So distracting,
noisy, and for sure the least productive.
------
31reasons
Why do we need offices ? office-less is the new paper-less! with tools like
google hangout and google glasses, it makes less and less sense everyday. Why
come to the same physical space everyday and stare at the computer screens to
do the work you can do from anywhere.
Offices were invented to reduce the transaction cost of communication between
employees, which was true 20 years ago but not anymore. I guess we have to
wait till the net generation moves in to management to be truly comfortable
with the mobile workforce. The time of long tail of work environment is upon
us.
~~~
notatoad
I like my office. It's a place I go to do work. I love my job, but I also love
to get away from my job, completely, when I step out the door of my office.
I've tried the work-from-anywhere thing and it sucks. It really just turns
into work-all-the-time for me.
~~~
31reasons
Its okay to like office and work there just don't force or enforce your co-
workers and employees to do the same by assuming that they love their offices
as much as you do. For example, May be you are that loud or annoying co-worker
or extrovert who keep interrupting them from their work.
------
ChuckMcM
One of the challenges I face is on temperature. The HVAC unit on our building
was not really designed to do even temperature control of an open 60 x 100'
space. So we get warm and cold spots, and adjusting one can screw up the
others. I've done a bit of research on it and their are two challenges for our
particular system, one the number of mixers in the ceiling which can change
air temperature and the way in which thermostats feed back into the system.
I suspect if you sat down with Lennox or Crane and said "we want to design an
HVAC system that will work in this environment." they would come up with
something very different than what we currently have. Sadly its going to take
a bit to convince the landlord to rip out the old system and put in a new one.
~~~
swah
Even worse in when you seem to be the only one that notices/cares about the
problem - making you look like a whiny bitch or perfectionist that can't
adapt.
------
AlisdairO
I actually like open plan, generally, with one caveat - I work from home one
day a week. I like being generally available to help my colleagues with
problems (and be helped by them), and I'm mostly-interruptible. This workflow
does rely entirely on me having at least one day a week for which I can save
up my really hard problems and just think uninterrupted.
Working from home is not a requirement - I'd also be happy with an open-plan
arrangement where you could book an office for one day a week. The important
factor is that every now and then I need some peace and quiet.
------
pragone
At my last job we had a huge open-office floor plan. I was so uncomfortable in
that situation I ended up in at a gastroenterologist multiple times before
realizing I needed to change jobs. Haven't had a single GI issue since I left.
------
drstewart
I feel like I'm the only one that feels this way, but I far prefer open plan.
I used to work at somewhere that had offices for everyone and I hated it.
Maybe it's more productive, but it makes going to work hell since you don't
see anyone the entire day. I much prefer having a more social environment
where you can actually talk to people.
And good open plan offices will give you nooks and crannies to get away from
the noise when you want to.
~~~
zwily
Yeah, we're definitely the minority. I used to be an office fan, and after
having one for several years, am enjoying being back in an open plan.
There are definitely downsides to both.
------
lifeisstillgood
Water wet, sky blue, Pope Catholic, Bear excrement in forested areas
Knowledge workers of the past who have had money and power work in quiet
campus colleges or oasis of calm like Londons Lincoln's Inn or Temple.
No power or influence - and work in chicken farms.
There is an advantage - for companies willing to put in the effort to make a
sane work environment, to grow and support honesty and team support - well
it's like being give. A free extra lap on the business marathon.
~~~
keithpeter
_"Knowledge workers of the past who have had money and power work in quiet
campus colleges or oasis of calm like London's Lincoln's Inn or Temple."_
The average Oxford JCR isn't that calm, and both the Inns of Court support
people who are performing in the open shout mosh pit that was the Georgian
courtroom.
I take your well-made point, but somehow we need to _balance_ calm reflection
with connection.
~~~
lifeisstillgood
That kind of seems to be my point - raucous connection is great fun, as long
as there is some area one controls to retreat to and capitalise on the
connections made, and prepare.
Pixar has an open central area I believe (where the toilets are) deliberately
to encourage people to connect when they leave their offices (where they can
concentrate)
Campuses almost always have a central coffee / open area where "everyone meets
up". All the Inns of court that I remember we're built around grassy
courtyards, all encouraging an easy mixing without compromising office work
It is is suspect the real advantage of yammer or those web-IRC 37signal things
- there is a "room" to go to that is social more than work.
------
qwerta
I wonder what is the next evolutionary step in sequence: private office ->
cubicle farm -> open plan office.
I think it will be empty tank inside retired oil tanker. It could dock a few
miles of the coast, so no problems with property taxes and imigration
permits.Thousands of developers would fit into single tanker. Also steel hull
absorbs radio waves, so no unauthorized tweeting or surfing during working
hours :-)
------
ladzoppelin
The noise would drive me crazy. Earplugs would not even work with so many
phones so close together. How can people program in that environment?
~~~
pdenya
Coding from starbucks at the moment. It's definitely doable. Our office has an
open floor plan and once in a while there are conversations I wish I could
block out a little more effectively but it's not a daily frustration.
~~~
zerr
Yes, commenting on HN from starbucks is quite doable.
------
jonwingfield
I tend to enjoy the open plan. Our team has currently voluntarily moved to an
open space within an otherwise cubicle-dominated workplace to facilitate
better communication within the team. I can see issues with this layout when
multiple teams are involved or team sizes are large, but I really like it for
our small team (and I'd like to think the rest of the team would agree). I
also feel like there definitely needs to be "individual spaces" where you can
go and be not interrupted for a while, which we currently do not have. A
flexible work schedule would probably do just as well.
Maybe it depends on the team and the personality types in it?
~~~
greenyoda
_"Maybe it depends on the team and the personality types in it?"_
That's exactly the case. Different people have different preferences. And if
you have an inflexible work environment of a particular type, your company is
losing access to all the talented people who hate that particular environment
-- you're, in effect, making something like the ability to work in a noisy
space a more important hiring criterion than the ability to write good code.
(Maybe this is one of the reasons that companies feel there's a shortage of
developers?)
The best approach might be to offer a choice to employees rather than having
rigid policies like "everybody has to collaborate on a minute-by-minute basis
in an open space", or "managers get offices and everyone else gets cubicles".
Giving employees control over their individual working environments would go a
long way toward making them feel valued by the company, even more than giving
them free food.
------
suman_nandan
I believe it is very difficult to get works done in an open plan office. That
seems too distraction prone. Noise cancellation headphones can get useful only
if accompanied by an extended hood to guard vision to the screen. So that the
programmer does not get distracted by any human movement nearby.
------
alan_cx
Personally, in the past, an open office speeds up the rate at which I begun to
dislike my co-workers, which lead to a dislike of my employment, and hence
reduced how long I would stay in a job.
That image in the article of the women (could be men) all lined up like
battery hens looks like my worst office night mare. You almost couldn't
stretch your arms/wings with out assaulting your co-workers. Its considered
bad form for animals to just exist like that, why is it OK for humans engaged
in work?
------
kfcm
After nearly 25 years, I've worked in almost every known office layout. My
opinions, based solely on my subjective experience:
\--open-plan offices can work great for small teams of maybe 4-6 max. Beyond
five or six people though, productivity starts to drop significantly. Also,
the people on the team have to like each other, be working on the same
problem/goal, and have a comfortable environment (whiteboards, comfy
armchairs/sofa, big table and comfy chairs, natural lighting through large
windows). For a small, driven team, this is great.
\--private offices are my preferred choice for a larger, established
organization. I want to be able to shut my door and work without the
distractions of everyday office life invading my consciousness. I can focus
when needed, be social when I want. More important, I can have my own private
whiteboard.
\--cubicles are almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea in that you get the
illusion of privacy (but not really) along with the illusion of an open-plan
(but not really).
\--work from home/home office. For the past 5 years, this is how I've worked
with my own business. I like the privacy and the ability to get stuff done.
But I miss socializing and brainstorming with others, and am finding myself in
coffee shops more and more often, just for the social aspects.
One concept I'd like to experiment with is a hybrid "enclave" model, where
larger private offices/rooms are set up for teams working on projects, or just
people who like to work together. Maybe an external wall could open or close
instead of a door if the team decides to be more social or focused.
~~~
rdl
Yeah, I'd really like to try offices in "pods" of 4-8 with a roll-up wall
(like a garage door) on one side of each, opening into a private "team space".
And maybe a roll-up wall on the public side, too.
------
jstalin
Like so many things, it seems as though people are looking for "the one" best
way of doing things. Obviously some people like cubicles. Some like offices.
Some like open space. How about letting people choose?
~~~
keithpeter
And possibly change their choice from day to day depending on task. Could be
expensive?
~~~
greenyoda
If it increases the productivity of a $100,000 per year employee by 10% (i.e.,
you could get the equivalent of an additional $100,000 employee for free for
every ten employees you had), it could actually be very cost effective.
------
jon_black
I wrote an article on my blog in January to the same effect:
[http://jonblack.org/2013/01/29/open-plan-offices-are-a-
night...](http://jonblack.org/2013/01/29/open-plan-offices-are-a-nightmare/).
The funny thing is, in spite of all the signs, our office are knocking walls
down to make rooms bigger!
~~~
greenyoda
Thanks, that five-minute TED talk in your article was very interesting.
------
pbiggar
I gave a talk on this topic [1], and about 60% of the audience was cheering
and totally for this. But I got a small number of people coming up afterwards
and saying they much preferred open plan. So I think there's definitely a
downside: developers enjoy work less because it's less social, and less
collaborate. I think overall the benefit is there though.
Does anyone know how much it costs to have private offices all round? My
estimate was that a 1sqft/yr is $55 in SF right now, so the 100-150sqft for 1
open plan desk is $700, and you might need twice as much space to give people
(small) private offices. Would love something more accurate though.
[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYk1YkCRuKQ&t=43m17s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYk1YkCRuKQ&t=43m17s)
~~~
codeonfire
There are people that want to collaborate with other people of the same skill
level. But the majority of people that want to collaborate just don't know
what they are doing and can't do their jobs. If people want a more social and
collaborative job, maybe they shouldn't choose software developer as a career.
------
yekko
This is true, I've never been to an office more sick than and open-plan
office. HALF the office was off sick during 1 week in a flu season. It was
unreal.
------
KVFinn
I'm certainly an open-office hater, it drives me absolutely batty. Open office
with frequent phone calls throughout the day by your neighbors? I'd quit.
I do like small open offices when working closely with people on a team. But
everyone in that office has to be working on the same project. This is the
scenario where it can be great. Even in this case, though, there are some
periods where you need to step away to a silo to do your own thing for awhile
in my experience.
I have heard of some mythical working environments with both public and
private working areas that allow people to move as they will. I guess this
would be the optimal solution.
------
shortstuffsushi
I tend to agree with this article. My office went from a "bullpen" arrangement
(team size cubicle areas) to and entirely open floor. To me the feeling is
almost like a sweat-shop -- row after row of programmers working away.
While my team specifically tends to be pretty social, I've found other areas
of the floor seem to be utterly silent, and in these the above feeling is even
more solidified. We've been able to kind of avoid the feeling by finding a
natural corner of the building that almost puts us back into that 'bullpen'
environment.
------
Zigurd
Microsoft got this right, and I expect they have the metrics to show it's
true.
Some things have changed, though. Coders don't need a bookshelf when they can
get a Safari subscription. Nobody needs a fixed-line phone. For 90% of coding
a laptop is fast enough. So I would think that a "hotelling" style arrangement
would work now, before, a coder might be holed up with a pile of books, big,
heavy CRTs, and desktop computers. Now that Drive has a "scan" command, even
the whiteboard can come along with an engineer between work and home.
~~~
city41
I disagree that Microsoft got this right. I assume you're referring to giving
everyone their own office. I worked for MS for 3 years on a team that did
that. For sure, having your own office is really nice. But it really stifles
communication and creativity.
Even worse, when space is low, the solution is to double people up in offices.
That can create really uncomfortable situations that can harm productivity as
well, much like suddenly getting a new, unexpected roommate.
------
novaleaf
the header picture in the article is terrible. of course that kind of "open
office" is awful.
1) looking at your (single) monitor, you have 4 to 5 people inside your field
of vision. talk about distraction city.
2) no desk space. bad for ergonomics, and no "thinking space" either.
3) no personal space. stretch our arms to your sides, and you'll whack your
coworker's head.
talk about cramming them in like sardines. i run my office as an "open plan"
but we have a good 1.5 meters separating people, and people are either facing
wall, or window. (not facing each-other)
------
septerr
After working in a cube partitioned off from everyone else on the team for 7
years, I will disagree with the title of this post. I long for a more
interactive workspace. I find myself depressed, not motivated and alone. My
instincts tell me it would be nice to have a little more human contact. At
present I can go days without speaking to others on the team. And without much
of a social circle, I think the scenario is quite a big contributor to my
depression and lack of motivation.
------
acgourley
I've always felt that space preference varies by person and task. Given that
nearly all knowledge can or do use laptops, it seems curious everyone has an
assigned daily seat.
~~~
falcolas
Speaking only for myself, I can't work on a laptop for long periods of time.
The downward tilt of my head to see the screen, the tight keyboards & mice,
and small screens make it very uncomfortable for more than a few hours.
For this reason, I have a dedicated screen, full sized keyboard and separate
mouse. All configured and arranged to be most comfortable to me, so not
exactly interchangeable.
Thus, a dedicated "assigned" seat. I wouldn't want it any other way.
------
akurilin
I wonder if shared office spaces with hundreds of teams in them, a very
popular startup location these days, is perhaps the worst of the breed. Half a
dozen teams talking to each other, multiple people on the phone, people having
lunch behind you, dogs running around the office, phones ringing, skype
sessions, car alarm outside the window etc etc.
On the plus side at some point it gets dense and chaotic enough to become pure
white noise.
------
rayiner
I hate open plan. Hell I hate open door policies. My door is closed till noon
and closed again at 5:30 sharp. If you need to collaborate pick up the phone!
------
anentropic
It's not a dichotomy between open-plan and individual cubicles
I've never worked in a cubicle office but it doesn't appeal, however I hate
open plan offices too... for the reasons in the article - too much extraneous
noise
Favourite office was more like a house, about half a dozen people to each
room. The rooms were open to each other, doorways but no doors, no barriers to
wandering through to the next room for a chat.
------
dschiptsov
What a finding! People knows for ages that open space is beneficial for a
manual, drone work, while for tasks in which so-called intellect must be
involved, quietness or even solitude is absolutely necessary. This is why a
workshop or a Mc. Donald's kitchen is a tightly packed open space, while
academics work productively in an isolated pairs or alone.
------
davidw
Here in Italy, open plan offices seem to be the default because you can cram
more people in them, and real estate/space are at a premium here, so it's
difficult to do otherwise.
I'd be curious how things are in other places where costs per square meter are
high and there is not a huge tech culture. In other words, San Francisco is
probably an outlier.
------
VLM
Nobody discussed on call?
Would I get away with "Sorry boss I can't fix the emergency this afternoon,
home is too quiet and comfortable and spacious, but thank god my kids are
coming home from school and once they start screaming at each other, playing
video games, and watching TV, I'm sure I'll be able to get right to work on
the problem."
------
wadetandy
I work for a large company with an open office plan. We have many different
types of employees, from software developers to sales folks to editors and
writers. While there is the occasional complaint about a loud coworker or
something, I generally very much enjoy the atmosphere, and I hear similar
comments from my colleagues.
One of the things that makes our implementation very effective is that
everyone from the CEO to the interns sit at the same desks and share the same
environment. The culture is very open and everyone is encouraged to walk up to
anyone and ask them a question or ten, of they have them. This collaborative
environment more than makes up for the occasional loss in individual employee
productivity, in my opinion.
It probably also helps that we are an instant message culture as opposed to a
phone conversation one, which cuts down on a lot of the noise distraction as
well.
------
tespun
I think the positive and negative effects of open floor plans vary per person
and the type of work being done. For example, I can find music disturbing when
I need to do work that requires a lot of thought and concentration but it's
perfectly fine if I'm doing something mundane.
The comfort of having a door to close is also nice so you can focus. Also it's
great to be able to every once in a while take a few minute break and do
something mindless and non-work related and not have people think you're
slacking.
Like some others that posted here I think you need to mix and match for a
semi-open floor plan that includes, conference rooms, lounges and private
offices that people can take turns in.
However, when I worked at companies with open floor plans I tended to hang out
with my coworkers more outside the office. It was good for team building and
for pulling some funny pranks on one another.
------
hkon
Someone upvote this past middle management!
------
coldcode
At work I am crammed into a corner with about 16 sq feet to live in including
my chair and table. At least I have a window but otherwise I am a sardine with
a view. Our parent company (which occupies the other 8 floors) hate us so we
are forced to live on one floor. I bet the density exceeds the fire code.
------
dsrguru
I'd imagine the effect of open-plan offices on productivity greatly depends on
the nature of the company and how the company operates. If a company mainly
produces software in a non-mission critical domain where, say, a 5x gain in
productivity is more valuable than a 1.5x gain in reliability, they're likely
to have very short release cycles à la agile development. That kind of
operation relies heavily on communication and collaboration within and across
teams, so an open-plan office is likely going to be much more productive. If
you don't have a collaboration-based development strategy, I'd buy that open-
plan offices might often make employees less productive, but even then there
will be multiple factors at play.
------
rdl
What's with qz.com? They seem to have come out of nowhere to be a pretty
awesome source of news, maybe better than TheVerge (who also seemed to come
out of nowhere last year).
Of the most interesting ~20 stories I've seen in the past week, 5 were qz.
------
parbo
At Spotify, we have a lot of team-rooms which seat 8-10 people. They all have
a lounge area with whiteboard walls as well as a small conference room for
design discussions, 1-1:s etc.
------
fizzbuzzd
Another very frustrating thing about open-office plans is that it makes me
seem like an asshole. There are many days where I'll be annoyed or frustrated
debugging something, and generally being a buzzkill while everyone else shoots
the shit. I have no problem with everyone else shooting the shit, but I can
sense people are afraid of the look I have on my face. Some days I just need
to be away from people.
------
dirtyaura
Does somebody has experience and tips how to effectively organize workspace in
a growing early stage startup. When your headcount is growing steadily,
flexibility of an open office space is a big plus, but are there good
solutions that combine open layouts with private workspace? Headphones,
moveable desks, working from home. Anything else? Share your experiences.
------
chris123
The employers with open-plan offices care more about their profits than their
employees. It's as simple as that.
------
snambi
Oh god! its obvious. Not sure why companies creating a noisy, chaotic
workplace instead of a calm serene one. One reason may be to cram more people
into a small space.
------
nekitamo
I don't know if anyone at Qz.com is reading this, but if you open the link in
internet explorer it redirects you to an article about programmers and autism.
------
rumcajz
Once I was renting an office of my own. Recently, I have moved to work from
local library. I consider it 100% improvement in working conditions.
------
enraged_camel
I'd like to provide a different perspective. This is anecdotal, but I have
"before and after" experiences that directly relate to the topic.
I work as a Presales Engineer for a software company. At the beginning of this
year, we switched from a 90s-style cubicle setup with dividers to an open-
office setup. When the change was announced last Fall, everyone on my team
voiced heavy skepticism. We thought that it would greatly reduce our
productivity as well as the already-limited privacy we had in an office
setting. We had systems in place to limit the interruptions coming from the
sales and marketing teams, and an open-office plan would practically nullify
them. But we were the minority, so our concerns were swept under the rug.
Fortunately, things ended up well.
For the sales and marketing folks, things have improved greatly since we made
the switch six months ago. They now sit with us in the same "pods," which are
collections of IKEA desks. Each pod has several sales and marketing people and
one or two Presales Engineers. They can ask us any question at any time. And
unlike with email, which we could previously put on a queue to answer later,
or instant message, which we could ignore or temporarily block (DND mode), we
now have to provide the answer right away. They can in turn relay that answer
to the sales channel or the customer with a much shorter turnaround, which
helps to advance and close sales faster.
As for us Presales Engineers, I cannot tell if the net result has been a
positive or a negative. On the one hand, we now have a lot more distractions.
We see people walking around and we hear their conversations. I personally
have memorized the phone scripts that my pod-mates use when they call
customers. Another negative has been team cohesion. In the previous setup, my
team used to sit together on one side of the floor and we could have
conversations much more easily. Now we're spread out all over the place, and
most of our interaction occurs via group chat (Google Hangout).
Collectively, everyone's morale has improved quite a bit. It's very refreshing
to be able to walk out of the elevator into an open space, as opposed to a
claustrophobic, never-ending group of cubicles. And all the pods are right in
front of the windows, which means everyone can now enjoy the Southern
California sun and the great view of mountains we have from our office. I
purchased a nice set of noise-canceling headphones (company paid for it) that
I put on whenever I need to get in "the zone" to work on things that need deep
concentration, and I trained my pod-mates to not interrupt me when I have them
on. It works really well. Other pods have also come up with systems that work
for them.
Another collective benefit has been social cohesion. When the teams were
separate last year, there was an "us vs. them" mentality. The sales folks saw
us engineers as unapproachable, and we saw the sales folks as needy and
disruptive. Now though, each pod has become a team, and people are much more
willing to help each other and collaborate. This has eliminated a lot of the
tension in the office.
It is worth noting that the above occurred within the context of a sales team
and the engineers that support that team. That said, I'm pretty sure it can
also apply to developers. We actually had one of the developer teams move to
our floor a couple of months ago (the A/C unit on their floor broke). At first
they had the same fears as my team of engineers had. But it ended up working
out really well. Sales people never interrupt them, and communication flows
from sales to Presales (my team), and from there to this group of developers.
Being able to walk over to their desks to show the problem we're having and
walking through it in person, as opposed to trying to do it over email or IM,
has been a great boon for both parties.
Bottom line: open-offices have their pros and cons. The vast majority of
Hacker News users are technical people and it seems most of them are adamantly
against open-office plans. But as someone who has a bigger picture view (since
I work with everyone in the company), I can tell you that there is a chance
the net result can be a positive if the plan is implemented well.
------
onemorepassword
I'm tired of these kind of generalizations. Our open plan office is geared
towards developers and quiet and peaceful 95% of the time. Standing rule is,
you wanna talk, you take it outside into the kitchen or the meeting room.
Simple.
Also, people can work from home whenever they want. Most prefer to be in the
office _because it's nice and quiet_.
The problem isn't open spaces, the problem is the people in it.
~~~
6d0debc071
I don't see how it can be quiet and peaceful if people are typing in close
quarters. That stuff's loud.
Not to mention that there's a psychological pressure just from being around
people who are in the same room all the time - difficult to give yourself
permission to relax and focus in on one thing when someone might come and
interrupt you at any point.
------
mosselman
Quartz not working in my Steam browser makes me less happy. What kind of high
tech is qz.com using?
------
ChrisAntaki
My last job had a pretty open office. It was great actually, really social.
------
kuchaguangjie
definitely ture, an environment which provide more freedom & privacy, will get
more feedback, and make the worker happier.
------
ninetenel
Personally I will never work in an open plan office again if I can avoid it ..
when I was interviewing for a new position a year or so ago I had to turndown
two offers from interesting companies due to their seating arrangements.
I do not want to spend the majority of my working day five feet from someone
else with no barrier having to deal with the distraction, noise, invasion of
personal space that comes with that
to me it shows a lack of respect towards your employees
------
zeroexzeroone
I can definitely see how this could make people more sick, though I work in an
open office and I rarely get sick, could be genetics or it could be that I eat
food grown locally, work out and run every day and generally have alot of fun
outside of work.
The human body NEEDS to get sick to build anti-bodies - without these then you
will get sick more often. The American way of "Take antibiotics or medicine as
soon as you get sick!" is one of the worst habits of my beloved American
people (and fast food).
~~~
digisign
Curious, do you get much sun? Vitamin D definciency commonly results in sickly
people too.
~~~
usea
You don't need much. National Institutes of Health recommends 5-30 minutes of
daytime exposure, twice a week. [1]
[http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminD-
HealthProfessional...](http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminD-
HealthProfessional/)
~~~
zeroexzeroone
Sorry but I don't trust anything with .gov to tell me what my body can already
tell me. We have to learn to listen to it.
~~~
artmageddon
> tell me what my body can already tell me
Your body doesn't always exhibit signs of something wrong, and there are many
instances in which that's it's true and it's too late to take action. I had to
get a birthmark removed from my back last summer because it could've been a
malignant type of skin cancer. I certainly didn't "feel" anything from it, and
wouldn't have known about it until a dermatologist pointed it out to me.
~~~
zeroexzeroone
Should have gotten a double mastectomy, that would have made more sense.
------
sultezdukes
I don't know about open plans making people more susceptible to sickness, but
on my exit interview on Friday, I mentioned that I thought the way we had done
open office was counterproductive.
I like the idea of pods though, where QA, BAs and developers are all together,
as opposed to 60 or so people all in this huge area, which is how we did it.
------
stackedmidgets
Thank God. Can this fad die yet?
------
damienkatz
Bl
------
mrleinad
Cubicle offices make people less happy, open-plan offices make people less
happy.. Maybe it's just working that makes people less happy.
~~~
6d0debc071
A cubicle is not a real office.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Ask HN: How do you manage your contacts? - mdevere
My contacts are a mess. Phone numbers scattered across Google Contacts, iCloud, some just stored on my phone. And don't get me started on email addresses. I generally just rely on Gmail to autocomplete the email addresses that I've used before...<p>Show me nirvana, hacker news.
======
rdegges
I started working as a Developer Evangelist about a year and a half ago, and
was having a pretty nasty problem dealing with contacts myself. I keep meeting
people all the time, and want some way to:
* Have their contact info auto-imported if I add them as a friend in SOME WAY: either by emailing them, tweeting them, messaging them, whatever.
* Have all my contacts synced into one centralized data store (Google Contacts, in my case).
* Merge and remove duplicate contacts so I don't have to deal with 50 entries of people...
What I ended up settling on is really working well for the past year or so.
I use Google contacts as my primary datastore. I then use FullContact (free):
[https://www.fullcontact.com/](https://www.fullcontact.com/)
FullContact will hook into everything, eg: Google / Twitter / Facebook /
LinkedIn / etc., grab EVERYONE'S contact info, and merge it into one record,
then merge that back into Google contacts =)
Would highly recommend it.
~~~
jfrisby
My experience with FullContact was one of constant duplication of data (at
both record and field level for both exact and inexact matches. I.E. two
contacts representing the same person with say, differences in first name --
Jon vs. Jonathon for example -- would often result in two contacts with a
combination of fields from each of the originals. Didn't have to be name.
Address, for example. "Road" vs. "Rd" confused the hell out of FullContact
routinely...), totally useless features to resolve (in particular) non-exact
duplicate matching, and an absolute contempt for any manual curation _at all_.
Essentially it made mash of my contacts, wouldn't let me correct them either
in their UI (with features built _exactly for that_ ), and or in any native
apps, more than a year on I'm still nowhere near cleaning up the mess.
All they had to say about it was that "synchronizing contacts is a hard
problem", or something to that effect. No effort to repair/undo the damage, no
suggestions on how to avoid future problems -- sorry we ate your data, sucks
to be you.
------
Rafert
Get everything in Google Contacts and use the webapp
([https://contacts.google.com/](https://contacts.google.com/)) to merge
contacts. It has the ability to suggest merges and it's easy to do the
leftover ones manually.
~~~
junto
Came here to say this. Whilst I don't particularly like sharing my contacts
with the big G-Brother, I do find their user interface and the associated
Android apps extremely good.
I tried to move to ownCloud, but I just couldn't bring myself to make the full
move over since my email was still on Gmail.
Just as I had decided to move to Fastmail, Google came out with Inbox. The
Android Inbox app is just too good to leave now.
------
sciencesama
[https://contacts.google.com/u/0/preview/all](https://contacts.google.com/u/0/preview/all)
the new google contacts can help you in categorising contacts finding
duplicates and delteing them aswell
------
JSeymourATL
I tend to combine personal & business contacts together.
Recently came across the Free Hubpsot CRM, while I've yet to give to get it a
test drive, the demo looks interesting >
[http://www.hubspot.com/crm](http://www.hubspot.com/crm)
------
tagabek
Given that I keep a very close group of friends, the default iOS Contacts app
w/ iCloud works.
For those with large groups of people/information, go with Google Contacts.
------
crishoj
iCloud contacts synced across several Macs/iPhones. I use GMail through in the
IMAP interface and keep the contacts syncing here disabled.
~~~
DebasishPanda
Same, all contacts in iCloud. If @icloud.com wasn't my primary email then I
would use Google Contacts.
Just don't use multiple systems, it will end up making a mess.
------
ruraljuror
Google contacts as well. They have greatly improved the integration with maps
in the last year or so.
------
zepolen
Google Contacts, synced everywhere. Liberal use of fields for
organizing/grouping/searching.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Better flight stats results - terpua
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/12/better-flight-stats-results.html
======
cduan
The sad thing is, if they seriously tried, Google could easily solve lost
luggage problems. All they need are a few RFID tags...
~~~
maw
It would take more than a technical solution -- currently many people who
handle luggage are not really accountable to passengers. (They're probably not
paid too well, either.)
I learned this the hard way when my wife (foolishly, to be sure) packed her
engagement ring in checked-in luggage. Everything but the ring arrived intact.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Mathematicians should stop naming things after each other - abnry
http://nautil.us/issue/89/the-dark-side/why-mathematicians-should-stop-naming-things-after-each-other
======
crazygringo
Hard disagree.
Once you get to the advanced levels of _any_ field, terminology being
"accessible" doesn't really matter, but being precise _does_.
Areas like philosophy and law actually _suffer_ in my opinion when they
overload common words with uncommon meanings, or descend into weird
disambiguations that depend on suffixes.
For example, in philosophy there's "contractarianism" and "contractualism",
and trying to remember which is the general term and which refers to a
specific theory drives me nuts. (If "contractualism" were just known as
"Scanlon's theory" it would be a lot easier.)
Naming things after their creator is actually super-helpful because it's
really easy to disambiguate, helps situate things historically, and once
you're at that level there often isn't a single unique word or phrase that can
easily encapsulate the idea anyways and isn't easily confused with something
else.
~~~
ardit33
I Disagree with you, in Computer Science we have things like: "Quick Sort",
"Merge Sort", "Map", "Hashtable", "LRU", etc... etc...
They are much more descriptive and easy to remember, even though the
Algorithms can be complex themselves. Event the name "Boolean", could be
changed to "Conditional"... and be even more readable. Also, Dijkstra
algorithm can be generalized to "Shortest Path Algorithm" (there can be more
than one).
Math, and physics to some degree, have become self-referential to the point
that start becoming more esoteric magic black books to beginners...
While CS was born out of Math folks, and unfortunately has adopted some of the
same esoteric symbolics, I hope Computer Science doesn't follow that path on
the long term, otherwise it will become divorced from day to day real life
applications.
Let me give you a clear example:
Now, imagine if we called Double Linked Lists as "Darombolo lists", or whoever
invented it. (I made up that name), Double Linked List is very easy to
visualize and remember. "Giacomo Darombolo List", is not, and just adds to
'must cram/memorize' things to make things work.....
I personally don't like "cramming" useless trivia in order to work in my
field. I hope Computer Science divorces from Math, and takes its own path to
more logical naming of things and less useless symbols used in it.
It is like the whole field suffers because the authors' Narcissism, that they
must name things after them.
~~~
knome
Tim Sort, Hamming Codes, Huffman Coding, RSA keys, LZW encoding, Duff's
Device, Bloom Filter, Carmack's Reverse, awk, linux, git. We have a lot of
things named after those that discovered, invented or popularized a structure
or technique. Certainly nowhere near as commonly as does mathematics, I will
agree.
In CS, no doubt, we often end up on the other end, where a single term means
different things in different contexts and beginners may get confused at our
reuse of terminology. Often the reuse gives some metaphorical understanding to
the newcomer, even if it largely leads them astray in the details.
~~~
labster
Bloom filters prove OP’s point though. The first few times I heard the term, I
wondered how a Photoshop filter to blur things could possibly apply to the
problem. Maybe if it was called an exclusion filter it would be less jargony,
I don’t know; naming things is hard.
~~~
sriku
At least having a word like "filter" in it narrows down the choices even if it
doesn't make it unique. If instead it was "Bloom's construction" or "Bloom's
algorithm", or "Tim's procedure", we'll be at a total loss to even guess what
it was about, which is what happens with a lot of math starting from
"Pythagorus theorem", anyone instantly recall "Apollonius' theorem", "Ackerman
function", "Euler's function"?. If "Fermat's last theorem" or "Goldbach
conjectures" weren't crazy famous I wouldn't have a clue.. The request to at
least give us a "Fourier transform", if not "frequency spectrum" is not
unreasonable.
I've lamented this for a long time, but on the other side, I doubt if
mathematicians would ever get sufficient recognition if their names weren't
immortalized thus, since they can't get patents on their works. They totally
deserve recognition. Would you even remember Leonard Euler if his work was
named factually? Most of us I guess have no idea who came up with
sin/cos/exp/log etc. I'm glad for the names of these functions, but lament the
loss of knowledge about the one (or many) who discovered them.
Longer names are a candidate .. along the lines of "Einstein's theory of
general relativity". "Euler's relative prime counting function" .. but they
too will likely, depending on familiarity, collapse over time.
~~~
yeellow
But could you propose a better name for the math terms you mentioned? Fermat
last theorem for example is famous because of its history and not significance
and I don't think any other name would be better. Pythagorus theorem - how to
call it with a short and significant name? The only option I can think of is
"a squared plus b squared equals c squared" which is hardly a good name :)
~~~
sriku
The alternative "Euclidean distance" is already half way there and is better
since we at least know it's about "distance". At this point, offering any
alternative will feel alien and unfamiliar, but "Linear distance" works for me
if I feel the need to push Euclid out as well.
edit: If I want to talk about distance in a curved space, we already have a
well named "Geodesic distance".
~~~
diffeomorphism
That sounds like a different theorem. While it conincides with sums of squares
of distances for the Euclidean setting, for the case of a sphere or other
manifold it is decidedly about triangles, not so much distances.
------
kazinator
> _Imagine how much steeper the learning curve would be in medicine or law if
> they used the same naming conventions, with the same number of layers to
> peel back:_
I she kidding? Off the top of my head: diseases named after people.
Parkinson's disease. McArdle's disease. Bell's Palsy, Hodgkin's Lymphoma, ...
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_human_anatomical_parts...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_human_anatomical_parts_named_after_people)
In Law, precedents are referred to by plaintiff and defendant names: Smith vs.
Klein. There are laws named after people, e.g. in the US. Kirsten's Law; Mann
Act; Wetterling Act; Sonny Bono Copyright Extension; ...
~~~
6gvONxR4sf7o
The whole argument seems to be a plea for better mnemonics, but "clearer"
meanings aren't often that much clearer because of the ambiguity introduced
(and often hidden).
When law _does_ use descriptive terms it's actively damaging to lay people.
Too many laws are written where common words mean something similar to but
importantly different from what they mean in the field. So then as a layperson
you _think_ you know what is legally required to do, but (surprise!) you
don't.
This is why in programming, we're so often suggested to name new things non-
descriptive terms. As you replace things and split things out and combine them
together, you introduce tons of ambiguity if you name things too
descriptively.
I'd read the evolution of math to name things how they do to be a collective
choice for precision, rather than a move for people's egos.
~~~
kazinator
Using names which mean something is impractical. The whole point of a name is
to have a symbol _so that_ we don't have to mention the meaning. The meaning
is what the symbol invokes by association, not what it contains literally. The
meaning is verbose, far more so than the symbol, and trying to capture meaning
in names creates unwieldy, verbose names that far far short of capturing all
the meaning.
We include meaning-words in names. That's why it's "Bell's palsy" and
"Feigenbaum constant", and not just "Bell's" or "Feigenbaum".
Such shortenings are possible in a narrowly established context surrounding an
informal conversations.
------
yongjik
Meh, that's like saying it's so hard to remember San Francisco from San Jose
from Mountain View from Palo Alto, why can't we just name them as Big Sea
City, Big South City, Middle Town, and Expensive Town.
I.e., it's a fake problem that only sounds plausible to outsiders - if you
live in the Bay Area, then Mountain View being called Mountain View is the
least of your problems in driving to Mountain View.
~~~
ehmmmmmmmm
Agree, although as a Mountain View resident I'm pretty disgruntled that there
is neither mountain nor view here. A town like Mammoth Lakes, CA would be a
better candidate to deserve the name "Mountain View".
Jokes aside there are places in the world that name themselves much more
intuitively like you described.
Beijing = northern capital
Nanjing = southern capital
Shanghai = on the sea
Hong Kong = fragrant harbor
Xi'an = western peace
Tokyo = eastern capital
Taipei = north Tai
Tainan = south Tai
Taichung = middle Tai
Taitung = east Tai
Shandong = east mountains
Shanxi = west mountains etc.
~~~
ajmurmann
Many places, even in the West, were named after unique characteristics.
Language changed though. I studied in a German town called Paderborn (we
lovingly called it "Paderboring" though). A river called Pader originates
there and the word "born" is old German for source or spring. Many other
German towns have similar names that make sense in old German or are derived
from Latin names that were more descriptive but nobody understands anymore.
In the USA there are many places like that as well and it's more obvious,
since language hasn't changed since they were named. Ironically the landscape
has due to human doing in many cases. Think Thousand Oaks, Walnut Creek, Mill
Valley
A sibling post makes the argument that descriptive names would eventually lose
the descriptively as language changes. This is very much validated by the
German names. However, that took hundreds if not over a thousand years in some
cases.
~~~
GrantZvolsky
Case in point: Pontefract*
The advantage of descriptive names is that the more you know, the more you can
infer despite them being far removed from current language. On the other hand
if there isn't a good candidate for a descriptive name, a surname-shaped nonce
is better than a misnomer.
* Latin for Broken Bridge
------
saithound
This is one of those articles that might sound convincing to non-
mathematicians (because it is annoying to learn names for difficult concepts,
and many people can relate to that experience), but will not sound all that
convincing to domain experts.
It'd be hard to deny that descriptive terms are easier to memorize. Sometimes
a piece of natural and/or physical intuition allows such terminology to arise.
Scientist and mathematicians do tend to think about terminology quite
frequently: communicating with other scientist and mathematicians is a major
part of doing science, and "the reviewers couldn't follow your argument" is a
valid, and not especially rare reason for rejected articles in mathematics.
Given the amount of thought put into it, "intuitive" names do tend to come
about when possible (as it happened with what we now call the Ham Sandwich
theorem, the concept of Fibration, the Squeeze Lemma, and countless others).
Given that mathematicians do put thought into terminology, there's often a
good reason for not having more intuitive names: maybe no good common-sense
intuition was available (e.g. Chu constructions are too general for this sort
of thing), or the thing comes up only in highly specialized contexts where
it's not worth bothering with it (e.g. Girard's paradox), or there are too
many different metaphors that one would have to invoke to describe the
situation appropriately, so that it's more efficient to derive a completely
new term from an associated name (e.g. Abelian became such an adjective, which
now has its own associations).
It's telling that the author criticizes terms like "Calabi-Yau manifold", but
doesn't suggest any alternative: coming up with an insightful name that
communicates the key properties of such an object, and is easier to use and
remember than "Calabi-Yau" is, let's just say, very very hard.
The same phenomenon is not limited to mathematics. Would Dijkstra's algorithm,
the Haber–Bosch process or the Otto cycle be easier to learn and remember if
they had snappy, insightful names? Probably. But the same concerns apply. It's
hard to come up with genuinely better, more descriptive names for these
processes. And even if we were successful in popularizing newer, better names,
we would find that the names were not the real bottlenecks that made computer
science, chemistry or mechanical engineering difficult to master.
~~~
i_cannot_hack
At first I agreed with you, but I think your analogy to algorithms actually
somewhat counters your point.
The Wikipedia article for Dijkstra's algorithm gives an alternative name of
"Shortest Path First", or "SPF algorithm", which I do think is a much better
and more descriptive name.
It also made me think of sorting algorithms, which all have wonderfully snappy
and descriptive names. I think the world would be a sadder place if – instead
of quicksort, mergesort, and heapsort – we had to struggle with opaque names
like Hoare sort, Neumann sort, and Williams sort.
~~~
dragonwriter
> It also made me think of sorting algorithms, which all have wonderfully
> snappy and descriptive names.@@
Well, bubble, shell, insertion and merge, sure. Quick less so. And then there
is Tim...
~~~
thaumasiotes
What? Shell sort isn't a descriptive name. The algorithm is named after Donald
Shell, and has nothing to do with shells.
~~~
xdavidliu
kind of reminds me of the Heaviside function, which is a step function. When I
first learned about it in school, I thought it was named after the "heavy
side" on the right, as opposed to the "light side" on the left. Turns out that
Oliver Heaviside was an actual person.
~~~
dllthomas
Nagle's Algorithm is named after a person. It helps make sure more data is
sent together, rather than split across unnecessarily many packets.
I recently learned that in Polish, "nagle" can mean "all at once" \- not
pronounced the same, but still a cute coincidence!
------
woopwoop
I don't think descriptive names per se would be especially helpful. The
challenge of understanding a concept typically dwarfs the challenge of
remembering a name.
Some people, though, have so many things named after them that Googling for
concepts can become challenging. In my thesis, I needed to use something
called the Steiner point, which is sometimes also called the Steiner curvature
centroid, although I didn't know about this name at first. For a convex set K,
this is the limit, as R goes to infinity, of Bar(K + B(0,R)), where Bar(L)
denotes the barycenter of L. This is the unique continuous map S on convex
sets with the two properties
(i) S(K) is in K for all K
(ii) S(aK + bL) = a S(K) + b S(L).
It is also the map on convex sets satisfying (i) which has the smallest
possible Lipschitz constant when the space of compact convex sets is endowed
with the Hausdorff metric.
It took me a while to get a thorough enough grasp on the literature to learn
these things, though, because when you Google "Steiner point", you mostly get
stuff about a triangle center, also named after Steiner, which is a totally
different concept. It's not that I thought this other triangle center was the
Steiner curvature centroid, it was that I literally didn't know what to search
for in order to get results on the Steiner point I was interested in.
~~~
abnry
I don't see how your example proves your point. It is not plausible to think
about curvature when discussing triangles (you may discuss curvature of
constructed circles, but that's tautological to the size of the circles...) so
searching for "Steiner Curvature Point" should help find what you need faster.
~~~
woopwoop
But at the time I didn't know the phrase "Steiner curvature centroid", I just
knew "Steiner point". The definition I knew was not in terms of the curvature,
or in the terms I gave above, but as a certain integral of the support
function.
As an aside, the Steiner curvature centroid has a perfectly reasonable
interpretation in terms of the "curvature" of a triangle. For a convex set in
the plane with smooth boundary, the Steiner curvature centroid is equal to the
barycenter of the probability measure on the boundary weighted proportionally
to the curvature. Given a triangle, take a sequence of smooth convex sets
converging in Hausdorff metric to the triangle, and the limit of the Steiner
points of these will converge to the following thing: the average of the
vertices of the triangle weighted proportionally to pi - the angle. This is
the analogue of the barycenter of the curvature-weighted perimeter for
triangles.
~~~
abnry
The thrust of the original article's point is that more descriptive names for
theorems and definitions is better. "Steiner curvature centroid" is more
descriptive than "Steiner Point", and by the metric of being able to Google
for relevant information, it is indeed better.
I see now, rereading, that you were in fact making two points. First, that
understanding the definition dwarfs learning the name. (I'd argue that a
better name won't make you instantly understand a definition, but it can help
but the very example of Steiner point vs Steiner curvature centroid.) Second,
that sometimes multiple defintions and theorems are named for the same person,
which causes confusion. So you were making a for-and-against argument.
------
valw
Here we see the classic tension between _synthetic_ names and _natural_ names.
The best discussion I've seen of this topic is in the 1st chapter (which is
fortunately freely accessible and concise) of this excellent programming book:
[https://leanpub.com/elementsofclojure/read_sample](https://leanpub.com/elementsofclojure/read_sample)
Relevant excerpt:
> Most natural names have a rich, varied collection of senses.3 To avoid
> ambiguity we must use synthetic names, which have no intuitive sense in the
> context of our code.
> Category theory is a rich source of synthetic names. ‘Monad’, to most
> readers, means nothing. As a result, we can define it to mean anything.
> Synthetic names turn comprehension into a binary proposition: either you
> understand it or you don’t. Between experts, synthetic names can be used to
> communicate without ambiguity. Novices are forced to either learn or walk
> away.
> Conversely, a natural name is at first understood as one of its many senses.
> Everyone understands, more or less, what an id is. In a large group,
> however, these understandings might have small but important differences.
> These understandings are refined, and gradually converge, through
> examination of the documentation and code. At the cost of some ambiguity,
> novices are able to participate right away.
> Natural names allow every reader, novice or expert, to reason by analogy.
> Reasoning by analogy is a powerful tool, especially when our software models
> and interacts with the real world. Synthetic names defy analogies,4 and
> prevent novices from understanding even the basic intent behind your code.
> Choose accordingly.
------
parsimo2010
This falls a little flat with me. Let's consider an example from the article-
a Kähler manifold. I'm not a geometer, so I looked it up on Wikipedia, and it
says that a "Kähler manifold is a manifold with three mutually compatible
structures: a complex structure, a Riemannian structure, and a symplectic
structure."
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%A4hler_manifold](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%A4hler_manifold)
Two of those things are not named after a person, and none of them are
understandable without special training. Naming something after a person
doesn't make it any harder to understand unless there are multiple things
named after that person and you can't figure out which they mean from the
context.
In case you're wondering about those structures, here is what Wikipedia has to
say about them:
\- A Riemannian manifold "is a real, smooth manifold, M, equipped with a
positive-definite inner product g_p on the tangent space T_p M at each point
p."
\- "A complex manifold is a manifold with an atlas of charts to the open unit
disk in C^n, such that the transition maps are holomorphic."
\- "A symplectic manifold is a smooth manifold, M, equipped with a closed
nondegenerate differential 2-form ω, called the symplectic form."
The only thing in the above descriptions accessible to non-specialists is
probably that the Riemannian manifold is probably named after that guy that
they heard of in calculus class. Let's not get rid of our ability to honor
people in a failed attempt to make the communication more effective. You can
call a Riemannian manifold or a Kähler manifold whatever you want, but it's
not going to prevent someone from having to spend years before they are able
to understand them.
~~~
abnry
> Let's not get rid of our ability to honor people in a failed attempt to make
> the communication more effective.
I think we should honor mathematicians less with eponymous theorems (prestige
culture is toxic), but I agree it shouldn't be done at the expense of worse
communication.
~~~
chongli
What's so toxic about honouring a long-dead mathematician? The article praises
the Ancient Greeks and how they named things after their teachers. That, to
me, is far more problematic. The history and the effort that went into
developing the theorems of geometry presented by Euclid's Elements are all
lost. Now we only know about Euclid, Pythagoras, Archimedes, and maybe a few
others.
On the other hand, we know far more about the lives of Fermat, Euler, Gauss,
Riemann, and Newton. While we can't owe all of the work of historians to
eponymous topics, the use of their names in everyday mathematics helps to keep
their memory alive so that new generations of people may be interested in
learning about the history of mathematics.
~~~
abnry
To me, learning the mathematics is more important than learning the history,
although the history is very interesting.
As for long-dead mathematicians... theorems are still being named to this day
for living people. I think the glory we attach to discoverer of the
mathematics diminishes the glory of the mathematics.
------
archgoon
Yep; check out how the programming community does it! We have descriptive
names for things like "Apache", "React", "nginx", "Rust", and "Java"!
~~~
neutronicus
That's because "easy to google" is much more important in the short, medium,
and long runs than "easy to guess what it does"
~~~
elondaits
Not everything is easy to Google:
C, D, F, R, COM, .NET, node ...
~~~
Someone
Python (the snake; doesn’t show up at all for me in Google’s “All” results).
Swift (the bird; Google eventually gives me [https://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/swift](https://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/swift), but that page thinks it’s more common as a name
of a lizard than as the name of a bird, so Google’s small preview says
_“Definition of swift · 1 : any of several lizards (especially of the genus
Sceloporus) that run swiftly · 2 : a reel for winding yarn…”_ )
------
atrettel
I have often found eponyms confusing and I try to avoid them when a good
alternative exists. Take "Gibbs free energy" as an example. I had trouble
remembering what it is compared to "Helmholtz free energy", but then I learned
that "Gibbs free energy" is actually "free enthalpy", at which point I could
remember it more easily. Perhaps my point isn't that eponyms are bad, per se,
but that it is much better to have descriptive names if possible, and better
yet to have self-discoverable and structured names.
Stigler's law [1] also exists, and I have found far too many eponyms to be
named after people who had nothing to do with the concept (and sometimes they
did not want their name attached to it even).
Eponyms have the advantage of being short and simple. Descriptive names can be
pretty wordy. Take "Mach number" as an example. Surely I can call it the
"ratio of the velocity to the speed of sound", but that's pretty much the
definition at that point. "Mach number" saves a lot of space. Terms like
"sonic number" or "sonic ratio" could also work, but everyone already knows
what the "Mach number" is, so there is no point in introducing a new word
needlessly and sowing confusion (in my opinion).
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stigler%27s_law_of_eponymy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stigler%27s_law_of_eponymy)
------
evanpw
I fear the alternative would be all the good names becoming heavily
overloaded:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal).
------
mehrdadn
Not sure how feasible or necessary this is in general, but there are certainly
some places for improvement.
Some more modern examples than "isosceles":
\- Heaviside function → step function (edit: though maybe this one is,
amusingly, already descriptive by accident?)
\- Fourier domain → frequency domain
While I'm here, just a couple suggestions from me:
\- Markov chain → memoryless chain
\- Lebesgue integral → horizontal integral
~~~
OskarS
Another example is Abelian groups, which should just be called commutative
groups.
Though that example brings up a decent counterargument to the thesis:
”groups”, ”rings” and ”fields” all have descriptive names, but that doesn’t
help a bit, they’re still mad confusing. They’d almost be easier to pick apart
if they were named after people.
~~~
mehrdadn
+1 for commutative groups.
Interesting point! So like we'd rename group theory to Galois theory? :)
------
asperous
I think the reason is that the concepts are so abstract, no concrete word
makes sense. So in the face of an arbitrary choice people use names.
The situation isn't much better in computer science, where now when you look
up half the simple nouns in the dictionary, you get some language, tool, or
javascript library claiming it.
~~~
didibus
Exactly, if you pick a name that kinda sorta describes the concept, but not
really because it's a very precise abstract technical concept and actually has
no real parallel with day to day mondaine life, it doesn't actually help
people understand the concept. Often time it actually gives them the wrong
impression.
I think beginners are looking for shortcuts, can I reduce this complicated
thing into something I already know? And the truth is, you can't, if you
could, it would be a trivial concept and there'd probably be nothing
interesting about it to learn in the first place.
~~~
aeternum
It seems like very few concepts are truly unique. At the very least, they have
some relation to other concepts so it would be advantageous to make up a
name/word that is similar to an existing concept.
~~~
didibus
Why? It's not the same concept, just vaguely similar to some other thing. But
all of the interesting aspects are in the difference, otherwise we wouldn't
bother mathematically with the concept in the first place.
Similar != Same
And treating similar things as same is the source of a lot of error and
confusion and misinterpretation.
If its just to help a beginner at first with a little bit of understanding,
you can just say X is a bit like Y, but also very different in really
important ways so forget most of what you assume about X, because Y does not
work like X, even though it has relations to it.
~~~
aeternum
Many breakthroughs now require cross-disciplinary collaboration. We're
unnecessarily increasing the barrier to entry. Imagine if with programming we
did away with simple type names like integer, decimal, character, string and
instead called them the Karson Couch, Aisling Mcniel, Elmer Enriquez, Alton
Francis, and George Boole?
Of course people could learn them eventually.. but what's the advantage? It's
much easier to understand the relationship between an unsigned & signed
integer vs. a Karson and an Aisling.
I experienced a form of this firsthand when interning at IBM quite awhile ago.
They used unnecessary acronyms for everything and it was amazing how much it
slowed down onboarding compared to other tech companies. Even for the regular
employees it was crazy how much time was wasted at meetings and e-mail back &
forth clarifying needless abbreviations.
------
aaron-santos
The lack of eponymous names used in category theory, for example, do nothing
to aid in learning it. The term functor is no more descriptive than Carnap
mapping.
~~~
gnodar
No more descriptive, but IMO more memorable.
~~~
magicalhippo
If it's not descriptive, then memorable is a good substitute.
Been many years since I went to uni and haven't used much of the math since,
but I still recall the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality, what the Kronecker product
is and how to do Taylor expansion.
------
lixtra
Some profiling would show that names increase the difficulty of math by
0.001%. I don’t see an issue here.
~~~
colah3
I'm curious if you feel the same way about programming -- do bad variable and
function names only increase the difficult of understanding someone else's
code or library by 0.001%?
~~~
mehrdadn
This isn't about variable names and functions though. Math has those too, but
the proposal isn't to change those. In programming we don't call a C compiler
a Ritchie Hopper (or whatever).
------
markgall
I agree that this article is basically preposterous. But there is a grain of
truth in it.
The foundations of algebraic geometry were basically rewritten in the 1960s by
Alexander Grothendieck, perhaps the greatest mathematician of the 20th
century. He found names to be extremely important, and many of the basic
objects that he developed have very carefully conceived and suggestive names:
schemes, stacks, topoi, etale morphisms, dessins d'enfant,... none of which
will I attempt to define here. But all of these have stuck.
On the other hand, things other than the foundations of the subject? Sure,
name it after who did it. Suggestive names aren't really possible for most
stuff.
------
gourlaysama
This seems to misrepresent why people bother naming things. It's not like
mathematicians are spending their time randomly naming every
object/property/structure/... they encounter just for the sake of it.
A "Kähler manifold" exists, as a name, because there is no way to fully
describe what it is (and bring forward in the reader all the corresponding
context) in two or three words. Using a long sentence (full of things that
could themselves be artificial labels, recursively) instead would be a waste
of everyone's time.
If one can use a short descriptive name for something, then it's not a name,
it's just the thing, and everyone refer to it directly. And when you can't, or
when you want to indicate its importance, or you want to neatly package all
the relevant context about it, all the mathematical baggage that should come
with it in something short, then the pretty obvious thing to do it to abstract
it away and stick a label on top.
It doesn't really matter whether they use mathematicians, flower names or
characters from The Lord of The Rings, as long as it's unique enough, in
context, then it's fine. The names become part of the vocabulary of the field,
just as much as supposed "descriptive" names. All those "descriptive" names
have to be precisely defined too anyway, because they carry natural-language
connotations, assumptions, and so on, that just don't apply.
~~~
davidivadavid
Uniqueness of names is definitely important — the question is can we do
better?
If all we want is uniqueness, we could just number theorems and concepts using
GUIDs.
Might as well abdicate and embrace the fact math is going to be automated, and
all mathematical objects are just abstract constructs devoid of meaning that
can be referred to by arbitrary labels.
But it seems like there's more to it.
The names of mathematicians are interesting for the genealogy of theorems...
but they're also completely opaque about their semantics.
Is it not possible to think a system could make math more intuitive by relying
on a more structured nomenclature?
------
glennon
Tangential--I used to work with a lot of caves as a hydrogeologist:
Seven favorite cave names: Abisso "Queen Mama", Big Cave with Bats, Cave of
the Swords, Eisriesenwelt (world of the ice giants), Hell Below, Lemon Drop,
Mad As A Wet Hen Pit
Nice caves, but seven names that could use some help: Carroll Cave, Ellison's
Cave, Fitton Cave, Kartchner Caverns, Lehman Cave, Lilburn Cave, Russell Cave
------
drichel
> "In the last decade, the field of algebraic geometry was set on fire by
> “perfectoid spaces” rather than “Scholze spaces” because Peter Scholze kept
> on calling them that in his talks and papers."
Skip to 5:10 to see Peter Scholze apologize for the name:
[https://youtu.be/J0QdTYZIfIM](https://youtu.be/J0QdTYZIfIM)
------
8note
An important thing for name sis that you want them to be immutable because
it's hard to refactor both all the writing using that name, and everyone's
memory to change the concept of a spheroid from one definition to another.
This makes it hard to choose generic names from the get-go since the first
person to use name might not attach it to the best concept for it, making it
unavailable for the best concept for the name to describe.
\-----
I've always imagined people's names in concept names to be a shorthand for the
papers that defined them. Eg. "Calabi-yau manifold" is just another way to
write "manifolds as described by calabi and Yau in <well known paper>" and
importing all the detailed definitions from that paper. To get the same from
properties from a generic name, you need to get a canonical definition that
everyone agrees with
~~~
lambdatronics
Yeah, arguably geometric algebra and algebraic geometry should switch labels.
Algebraic geometry is geometric techniques for solving polynomials (algebra)
so it should really be geometric algebra. OTOH, geometric algebra is an
algebraic formulation of geometry -- so that should be algebraic geometry.
_shrugs_
~~~
DreamScatter
I work with geometric algebra (I'm the developer of Grassmann.jl) and I
disagree, I don't think it matters whether the two topics change their name.
------
Grustaf
The fact that mathematics honors the people that built it is one of the things
I love the most about it.
But speaking practically, it’s by far the beat option in many cases. There
might be a small number of basic concepts (like dodecahedron or inverse) that
can be given actually descriptive names, but for anything even slightly
complex it’s impossible, so we end up with a mixture of almost nonsensical and
often confusing “descriptive” names, and concepts named after people.
Is it harder to remember and distinguish “Hamiltonian”, “Dirac delta” or
“Lagranian” than “cohomology”, “homomorphic” and “homeomorphic”?
Having said that, in many cases the names are quite evocative, like “fibre-
bundle”.
~~~
palae
> Is it harder to remember and distinguish “Hamiltonian”, “Dirac delta” or
> “Lagranian” than “cohomology”, “homomorphic” and “homeomorphic”?
While I agree with your overall point, I must note that you did write
Lagranian instead of Lagrangian ;)
~~~
Grustaf
Ah you got me. Although those Greek and Latin names aren’t always trivial to
spell either!
------
moomin
If you think plain English words help with this, try either explaining what a
compact space is or a normal subgroup. Or, if you don’t know, figure it out
from the descriptions on the internet.
And these are not hard concepts as far as maths goes.
------
firebaze
Complex things cannot be explained easily. As such, from this perspective, it
doesn't matter if a complex topic is named by a person or by some abstract,
ridiculously compressed word describing an aspect of it.
But on the other hand, names are simply irrelevant. Anything is better than a
name of a person, even if that person was brilliant. The person may be
remembered as an aspect of some discovery (say, Einstein), but the concept as
such should have some distinct name, not tainted by history, or mere human
lifetimes. It should transcend existence as experienced by a human.
~~~
lambdatronics
We've got at least one physicist in our corner:
"Hestenes is adamant about calling this mathematical approach “geometric
algebra” and its extension “geometric calculus,” rather than referring to it
as “Clifford algebra”."
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hestenes#Geometric_algeb...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hestenes#Geometric_algebra_and_calculus)
Unfortunately, this should really be called algebraic geometry, but that name
is already taken by another field...
~~~
DreamScatter
Come on, switching geometric algebra and algebraic geometry makes no
difference.
------
YetAnotherNick
I disagree. There are only few cases in which you can describe a mathematical
concept with few meaningful words. Like this is the list of number types I
could think of. If you don't know it, there is no benefit of knowing what it
is called in English. Are rational numbers rational, and are imaginary numbers
imaginary? Can the author come up with better name than this, I doubt so.
Rational numbers
Real numbers
Imaginary numbers
Complex numbers(including imaginary numbers)
Hypercomplex numbers
Hyper real numbers
Surreal numbers
~~~
davidivadavid
Rational numbers are ratios.
------
bmurray7jhu
David Hilbert was so prolific that one of his eponymous theorems was also
numbered: _Hilbert 's Theorem 90_.
~~~
davidivadavid
Jean-Pierre Serre has a fun talk where he says that to write mathematics
badly, you can write papers called "A proof of a theorem of Euler", the idea
being that there are so many that the title gives 0 information.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECQyFzzBHlo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECQyFzzBHlo)
------
bikenaga
I recall Paul Halmos
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Halmos](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Halmos))
once advocated for naming things in mathematics _descriptively_ rather than
_honorifically_. I recall his argument was that it aids in recall and
understanding to name descriptively, and that there are better ways to honor
discoverers.
I found this statement in "How to Write Mathematics"
([https://bookstore.ams.org/hwm](https://bookstore.ams.org/hwm)):
"... surely I cannot stop without a discourse on the proper naming of concepts
(why 'commutator' is good and 'set of the first category' is bad) and the
proper way to baptize theorems (why 'the closed graph theorem' is good and
'the Cauchy-Buniakowksy-Schwarz theorem' is bad)."
I _thought_ he'd said more in "I Want to be a Mathematician"
([https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9780387960784](https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9780387960784)),
but I just looked through the book and couldn't find anything. (Halmos was a
particularist, and thought very highly of examples, and "I Want to be a
Mathematician" has examples/opinions of how to do nearly everything in the
profession, from teaching to writing to being a department chair to giving
talks to doing research ... He was _very_ opinionated, but also specific and
absolutely clear, so at least if you disagree with him you know what you're
disagreeing about.)
------
krick
Well, unless Hairy Ball Theorem is called after her, I don't think it's up to
her to decide, what mathematicians "should" do. Jeez, these journalists
researching "computational morality"...
To be fair, I do actually think some math jargon is unnecessarily complex and
we could do better, and that it _is_ something that actually matters. And I
_do_ think, for instance, that "commutative group" is better than "abelian
group", since it is descriptive, unlike the latter. But this rarely is the
culprit. Kähler manifold is called after Kähler, because he is the one who
introduced such a thing, and we don't really have any better name to describe
it. (And it wasn't Kähler who named it after himself too.) Can she propose a
better name? I'm curious to hear it, but she conveniently skips that issue in
her musings. If not, this whole argument of hers is just silly, as is thinking
that "monster group" is a "cool name". It is not cool, it's rather awful, it's
called that precisely because we don't have a clue WTF this thing is, and I
sincerely hope that some 300 years later we'll have a much better
understanding of group theory to rewrite all that stuff and to see that
"monster group" is not such a "monster" after all, but quite a natural thing,
that can be described conveniently and assigned some proper name.
So if we want to improve the landscape, let's rather start small, by
abandoning π in favor of ½τ. Let's see how many centuries that will take.
~~~
WoahNoun
A Kahler manifold is just a complex manifold with both a Riemann metric and a
sympletic (Hamiltonian) form. It's not a rare class of manifolds and while the
"adjective" Kahler has come to mean those properties. Why not call it a
Reimann-Hamilton manifold if we care so much about the "history"?
~~~
krick
> Kähler manifold is a bad name, stop naming things after each other!
> Why not call it a Reimann-Hamilton manifold
I'm not sure if this is top-notch sarcasm or not, but I'll upvote just to be
safe.
~~~
WoahNoun
I'm not suggesting that name. I'd prefer it was called a symplectic smooth
inner product manifold. I'm merely pointing out the hypocrisy of the "name it
after the discoverer argument"
------
ezoe
If it's unique name, it's fine. What I don't like it is math notations. Many
math notations requires complex typesetting and layout which cannot be
expressed in the plain text. It may be not much of a problem when math
notations were written by hand, but not anymore in the age of computer.
The mathematicians should have invented and standardise the notation that can
be expressed as the plaintext decades ago.
------
Octoth0rpe
Sounds reasonable. Let's call this new policy "Ball's Law".
~~~
pbhjpbhj
Mathematicians like it when _others_ attach their names to their seminal
works; such pride must be stopped argues author who (I am assuming) attaches
their own name to their work. #ironic
It must be called the "mathematicians should stop naming things after each
other" law!
~~~
abnry
This is not a fair criticism. The author attributes herself as the author to
her piece because that is relevant information. But nowhere does she try to
name the idea she raises after herself.
------
tazedsoul
Also, naming things is hard. If the things you are naming are specific
concepts, and the conclusions reachable by reasoning about such concepts are
highly sensitive; that is highly dependent upon such specificity, then the
problem of naming things is even harder. I think this may be because what is
hard about mathematics is the degree to which specificity matters. The names
are just pointers to ideas, and these ideas are often unique but similar to
one another, with differences that matter. It’s as if in naming a mathematical
concept we are performing a compression algorithm on an object of great
detail. A loss of information is expected. Of course, this process is an art
form. Are some names easier to remember than others? Are there good names? Bad
names? Of course. But I do think generalizing that “naming ideas based off
people is bad” to all cases is a bad idea — rather a mixed approach is
fruitful.
------
gxs
This is the nature of mathematics.
Statements and theorems are extremely dense with information, where every word
might have a it's own area of study.
Of a problem may begin with something benign like, the following function is
blah blah, but even then, the term function is well defined, and you may need
to know the intricacies of functions to be able to solve the problem.
------
muzani
I think good naming convention is something like Chesterton's Fence. "Fence"
describes the idea well, and "Chesterton's" makes it unique.
Something like "Djikstra's Algorithm" is too vague. Maybe if it were something
like "Djikstra's Path", it would be easier to understand.
------
hprotagonist
meanwhile, fields that do feel at liberty to come up with “common word names”
usually wind up reinventing 18 names for the same goddamn thing. ML/data
science/statistics is notoriously bad at this.
It took me about 3 months to realize that i’d known what “ReLu activation” was
for a decade by another established name.
------
IshKebab
> Imagine how much steeper the learning curve would be in medicine or law if
> they used the same naming conventions, with the same number of layers to
> peel back:
I don't think medicine or law are the best examples to use here unless you
think Sarbanes-Oxley or the anterior medial malleolar artery are well named.
------
karxxm
Please give me only one example how one can come up with a single name for a
complex mathematical concept. There are so many details, that the naming can
never be precise enough to be useful. But they need to be named. So why not by
their inventors?
------
valand
Name is like a pointer to an information for people to access.
I think when people name things, unless they are very narcistic, should be
having that sole purpose in mind.
This comment by xamuel relatably describes what people usually do when naming
things
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24386695](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24386695)
> Rather, what really happens is that mathematicians are a community, and they
> refer to things in whatever way is convenient. Davis's colleague refers to
> such-and-such theorem as "Davis's Theorem" not because of some committee on
> naming, but rather because they were there at the conference where Davis
> announced the theorem, and everyone at said conference excitedly talked
> about "Davis's Theorem" for the whole rest of the conference because it was
> so exciting.
The arguments that say names should be self descriptive is only a part of the
discussion.
There's the name overloading problem, where we only have a limited set of
existing descriptor which can cause two object name to conflict.
There's the memorability aspect.
There's the homophonic / homographic problem where multiple names could be
perceived differently.
There's the complexity aspect. The more complex an information, the harder it
is to write an accurate name.
There's context aspect.
There's the extreme connotation aspect. Some words triggers extreme emotional
response to someone.
There's the dependency aspect where people have been using a name for years.
All in all, naming things are hard problem. But the important thing is naming
things should be done for the sake of naming things in mind. If naming things
is done primarily for other agenda, like someone's glory, the result might be
questionable.
Assuming that people are naming things for the right cause, problems that
arise from names should not be attributed to naming process. For example the
article author's problem might be simply caused by the complexity of the
information referred by the name.
Edit: grammar and formatting
------
ampdepolymerase
Compensation in academia is already bad enough. Take away the boosts to the
ego and you are going to make the politics even more toxic, and potentially
cripple an entire generation.
------
tazedsoul
I’m not opposed to naming things after people. That said, I often suspect that
the naming conventions and rituals of mathematicians (and sometimes
physicists) serve as gatekeeping mechanisms that make life extra difficult for
newcomers to a field while preserving the authority of current experts in a
field by turning their history and duration of involvement into a more
powerful resource than it probably deserves.
------
Waterluvian
I have no opinion on naming stuff at advanced levels. But in high school and
university I felt a palpable frustration on a very regular basis for randomly
named stuff. I couldn’t and still can’t get my brain to remember things with
unrelated names.
So when I learn about and need to recall “isostatic rebound” and not “the Chip
Dipson Effect” it just eliminates an entire layer of key lookup and parsing I
have to do.
------
dmckeon
The pattern of using eponyms instead of descriptives is also recognized in
medicine: [https://scopeblog.stanford.edu/2020/01/30/eponym-debate-
the-...](https://scopeblog.stanford.edu/2020/01/30/eponym-debate-the-case-for-
biologically-descriptive-names/)
------
superhuzza
I actually agree with the author's premise, I think she makes a good case that
some of these concepts would be both more approachable, and more memorable,
with simpler names.
However, coming up with simple names is incredibly difficult. It's easy to
write a 10,000 word on a complicated topic, but incredibly difficult to squish
it into a few letters.
~~~
abnry
This is exactly how I feel. What I do think you can criticize, however, is the
lack of imagination mathematicians have in naming theorems. If only there were
more Ham Sandwich Theorems [1].
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ham_sandwich_theorem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ham_sandwich_theorem)
~~~
d2v
> The two-dimensional variant of the theorem (also known as the pancake
> theorem) can be proved by an argument which appears in the fair cake-cutting
> literature
This is the first time that reading about math has made me hungry.
------
alpple
I think the optimal or universal language is more difficult in practice than
in idealism. Reading is the art of sorting through the mess in any field, and
acquiring context. I think a lot of this underestimates the complexity and
nuance of language for any field.
------
mikewarot
The alternative is common words meaning different things, depending on field
or specialty. Case in point:
Entropy
~~~
davidivadavid
Which is actually helpful because it potentially helps build bridges and
analogies between fields by recognizing similar constructs?
------
timkam
Humans are social beings. An abstract concept that is named after its human
creator establishes an immediate link to this person. My guess is that many
people like this, because it adds a social dimension to otherwise "dry",
technical papers.
------
mdonahoe
Maybe I misinterpreted what the author is trying to say by using Conway as an
example, but I don’t think Conway discovered the Monster group. He credits
Fischer and Griess.
Conway just referred to it as a monster while corresponding with Fischer and
the name stuck.
------
seles
There's an equally annoying problem in software engineering at large
corporations (aka Google), where hundreds of services you need to know about
are named with some cute name that gives you no idea what the thing actually
is.
~~~
wenc
For AWS, there's a website called "AWS in Plain English" that explain what
each service does. For instance, it's pretty hard to guess what AWS Route53
does unless you've come across it elsewhere.
[https://expeditedsecurity.com/aws-in-plain-
english/](https://expeditedsecurity.com/aws-in-plain-english/)
Azure naming is comparatively more pedestrian.
~~~
matthewfelgate
Thanks for sharing. That's actually really useful.
------
j45
The focus on mathematicians naming things (possibly for legacy) seems similar
to the politicians venerating each others with statues.
And of course... naming remains one of the hardest things to do in any field.
------
rosywoozlechan
You know, why don't you discover some new ridiculously hard thing and then you
get to decide to not name it after yourself? This level of entitlement is
beyond the pale.
------
ineedasername
This is not a naming problem. In fact the naming is consistent: There's a
base-case "manifold". Another one build on top of it; another one build on top
of that second one, etc.
This is precisely how knowledge is built, one thing on top of another. Naming
would not have solved this "manifold" issue, in fact in would have obscured
the root of that bit of knowledge.
In short, the author's real problem isn't names, is that they don't fully
appreciate the way knowledge is built with ever more complex layers of
abstraction.
------
kepler1
Oh thank god. I thought the point was going to be that naming things after
people was discriminatory to women and minorities.
------
rajbiswas125
Naming this is things is hard.
Also many of the people who are doing their PhD dream of one day having a
theorm named after them.
------
xg15
IT equivalent: Obscure shell commands with one-letter flags and a manpage that
really wanted to be a novel.
------
NashHallucinate
>Polish Mathematicians never getting things named after them because their
names were too hard to spell
------
matthewmorgan
Yeah let's stop reminding people that it was mostly white men who invented
everything
------
gridlockd
Meh. Shaka, when the walls fell.
------
chromatin
This article really betrays a lack of deep understanding of the concepts
involved.
------
Grustaf
I’d suggest that people that prefer “descriptive” names should come up with
clever descriptive names the next time they invent a new mathematical concept
or prove a new theorem. I’m quite sure nobody will try to stop you.
------
anu7df
if you think maths is bad you should take a look at geology. At least
mathematicians stick to their names or names of other mathematicians.
------
prvc
See also:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24382438](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24382438)
------
kaetemi
And more descriptive variable names would be handy too. The whole field seems
optimized towards obfuscation.
------
bengale
Do the work and you can name it whatever you want.
------
Xlurker
Humans are vain, it's just how it is.
------
vertbhrtn
This is some mediocre people came up with idea that they could easily
understand what Calabi-Yau manifold is, if only mathematicians defined it with
simple plain words. They don't like the idea that such a full definition would
be 1000 pages long, full of complex concepts.
------
dheera
My biggest gripe with mathematical naming isn't what the author wrote, but by
the inconsistency of noun/adjective endings. For example, Hermitian and
Brownian are adjectives, much like Ethiopian or Libertarian or anything else
ending in -ian. But Hamiltonian, Jacobian, and Lagrangian are nouns. I'd much
prefer they be called the Hamilton, the Jacob, and the Lagrange, for
consistency in syntax in parsing.
It always trips up my mental English parser when someone says "the
Hamiltonian" and I'm always like "the Hamiltonian what? what is or isn't
Hamiltonian?"
~~~
mattkrause
You could just write out “Hamiltonian {operator, path, system, etc}, but it’s
not uncommon for adjective+nouns to be shortened to just the adjective when
it’s obvious from context.
If you want good Italian [food], you might ask an Italian [person] to
translate some Italian [text] you saw in a restaurant review.
------
footballnate29
Why. They spend all that time dedicating their life to their research. They
deserve to name shit after themselves?
------
acd
Strongly Disagree!
You name things after who discovered it. In these case you name it after
mathematicians like Newton, Euler, Turing, Gödel. For me its some sort of
ignorance if you do not honor the one who discovered it.
Other sciences has it too named after persons Fahrenheit, Celsius, Pascal etc.
~~~
davidivadavid
Were tables invented by Mr/Mrs Table? Bottles by Mr/Mrs Bottle?
~~~
photonemitter
Were they not?
------
petermcneeley
We all know what this article is really about. It is disappointing to see
these kinds of articles on hn. (posted multiple times as well) ref:
[http://www.paulgraham.com/say.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/say.html)
~~~
jmeister
I came here to make the same comment so I’ll be the explainer:
It’s about erasing white male names/dominance/influence/privilege/?? from math
history.
~~~
klyrs
This is a _classical_ example of attacking the very weakest form of one's
arguments. Not even addressing the content in the article, but fabricating a
strawman instead. I mean, good on ya for speaking up, your parent just spoke
in vague terms about the possible existence of a strawman.
And let's look at that pg article. Is discussing the ergonomics of naming
things in math taboo? Is it taboo for everybody, or just people of certain
demographics?
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Helloworld program in 100+ langauges - hckr
https://github.com/Prithvirajbilla/helloworld
======
nailer
And it still surprises me there are new languages where 'hello world' is more
complicated than:
print('hello world')
Dart, which was released two years ago, after JavaScript had been around for
two decades and ASI was still considered an issue, still required a semicolon
after each statement.
I half feel like pulling out an AST and doing a ModernDart, getting rid of all
the redundant tokens and compiling to the } } } } } language we all know and
ignore.
~~~
thirsteh
Why does this surprise you? The goal of most languages isn't to have a very
terse way of writing a program that does nothing but print "hello world".
~~~
nailer
One of the goals of language development is to avoid errors.
Redundancy leads to inconsistencies and is thus poor design. DRY applies to
syntax too.
~~~
thirsteh
What I'm saying is I don't see a language where hello world is
module Main
main = println "Hello World"
as inferior to a language where it is
println "Hello World"
simply because of that. That's a particularly superficial way of looking at
languages.
~~~
nailer
I don't either. It's an important consideration, but not the only one.
------
joshbaptiste
[http://rosettacode.org/wiki/Hello_world/Text](http://rosettacode.org/wiki/Hello_world/Text)
------
leigh_t
So basically a less complete version of [https://github.com/leachim6/hello-
world](https://github.com/leachim6/hello-world)
------
bsg75
"Hello World" is a little too simple to even begin to compare languages. Is
there a slightly more complex pattern that is (can be) used in these things?
~~~
masklinn
[http://www.99-bottles-of-beer.net](http://www.99-bottles-of-beer.net)
------
chrisBob
The c example uses puts(). I was a little surprised as this is not the typical
version I have seen.
~~~
bbradley406
Also, the Racket example starts a web server with an html "hello world" page,
which is unlike the other lisp-based examples.
edit: my pull request with a fix was accepted
------
the_watcher
This is pretty cool. Helloworld isn't the best way to judge how high-level a
language is, right? From what I understood, CoffeeScript is supposed to
improve Javascript's readability, but JavaScript had a much simpler Helloworld
program.
It would be cool to see something like this but tiered by some kind of
language evolution (group all the Lisps, all the Javascript-functionality
languages, the C's, etc).
~~~
Avshalom
Helloworld was historically more like a way to make sure your dev environment
was setup right (libraries on the path, compiler actually installed). It's
short pulls in a library and produces visible results. That's why it was
always the intro example not because it was in any way a valid tour of the
language.
------
igvadaimon
Here is coffeescript example:
hello = ->
alert "Hello, world!"
hello()
Why complicate things?
~~~
tragomaskhalos
I don't know coffeescript, but "= ->" looks like one token too many already -
why complicate things indeed.
~~~
tel
It creates a thunk so that alert is called as a result of calling `main`
instead of as a result of defining it.
------
inanov
From [http://www.roesler-ac.de/wolfram/hello.htm](http://www.roesler-
ac.de/wolfram/hello.htm)
> This collection includes 441 Hello World programs in many more-or-less well
> known programming languages, plus 64 human languages.
------
joslin01
I would have liked to see something more substantial. As it stands (and I'm
sorry, I mean no disrespect..), this is quite worthless. I'll spend 30 seconds
clicking around random ones and then leaving.
------
jorgecastillo
If you want a real quick tour of different programming languages I would
instead recommend.
[http://learnxinyminutes.com/](http://learnxinyminutes.com/)
------
unklefolk
Which language required the most lines of code?
~~~
sdfjkl
git clone
[https://github.com/Prithvirajbilla/helloworld](https://github.com/Prithvirajbilla/helloworld)
&& wc -l helloworld/* | sort
~~~
dbaupp
What's the output? (For people like me who don't have access to a git client
right now)
~~~
martiuk
Probably chef.
[https://github.com/Prithvirajbilla/helloworld/blob/master/ch...](https://github.com/Prithvirajbilla/helloworld/blob/master/chef.chef)
The best (esoteric) programming language.
------
tlarkworthy
hehe, it really confuses github language detector, Github: it looks like
PASCAL to me.
This repo should become a testcase
~~~
peterjmag
Looks pretty accurate to me, actually. Delphi's a Pascal derivative, so Github
counts two files[1] towards the Pascal total, and the other top languages
[2][3][4] are pretty verbose.
[1]
[https://github.com/Prithvirajbilla/helloworld/search?l=pasca...](https://github.com/Prithvirajbilla/helloworld/search?l=pascal)
[2]
[https://github.com/Prithvirajbilla/helloworld/search?l=actio...](https://github.com/Prithvirajbilla/helloworld/search?l=actionscript)
[3]
[https://github.com/Prithvirajbilla/helloworld/search?l=omgro...](https://github.com/Prithvirajbilla/helloworld/search?l=omgrofl)
[4]
[https://github.com/Prithvirajbilla/helloworld/search?l=xtend](https://github.com/Prithvirajbilla/helloworld/search?l=xtend)
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Show HN: Perspective for Men - paul_cryer
http://www.helpaguyout.com/
======
scrrr
The advice that men get when asking women about romance is often pretty much
useless and will do more harm than good. It would be way more useful to ask
men that have their stuff together and know what they are talking about.
Besides, every man has female friends to ask. So, sadly, I don't think this is
a good business idea at all.
~~~
Symmetry
I'd go further and say that the notion that there is "a" female perspective is
sort of pernicious.
~~~
Ixiaus
Well, there is a female perspective - thing is, women will tell men about what
they are wanting but have no idea how provide the feeling of what she is
wanting. I whole heartedly agree that women giving romance advice to men is,
_a bad thing_ (I also think men giving women romance advice is also _a bad
thing_ ).
~~~
Symmetry
Thats what I meant by pernicious, not all women are like that. Some certainly
are like that, but not all. I have had girlfriends who _wouldn't_ tell me
about what they were wanting, and in fact my current girlfriend is perfectly
able to tell me how to provide the feeling she wants most of the time.
~~~
Ixiaus
That's awesome, hold onto that! Most of the time you have to play the
domination game in order to have anything of meaning with a woman - but if you
have a girl that's on the same plane with you, that will reduce the amount
"drama" in the relationship and also become a much more long term and
productive relationship too.
Sorry for misinterpreting what you wrote.
------
forbes
I'm a programmer and this site looks like it was designed by a programmer. If
you are serious about this idea, spend some money and pay a designer to make
it prettier. I think this is the kind of site that needs an appealing design.
In particular, the bottom section with the 'guarantee' and the logos of 'buzz'
sites looks like one of those dodgy software download sites with the fake
awards and testimonials.
Also, I would want to see some samples of Questions & Answers before I handed
over my cash. Have a question of the day or something so people can get a feel
of the quality of your responses (if you have any yet).
~~~
Jun8
I second the point about design and especially the point about giving one or
more examples. $2 is a tiny amount of money, what's more important to me (and
costs more) is the time I will spend on your site. If I spend 30 minutes
polishing a question and get BS replies, you can't give back my time.
This may sound corny (but hey, the whole idea is a bit so) but I think putting
a few pictures of the ladies who answer would also boost your chances.
~~~
thomasgerbe
It's $2 per answer. That seems pretty expensive if I want a lot of answers for
one question.
------
JoeAltmaier
Neat idea. I tried it.
Long drawnout payment maze, used paypal, double-billed and my transaction
history shows 3 entries - don't have any idea what any of them mean. No big
deal, its just $2 but weird.
Some one-click payment approach would be nice.
How do I get a response? Email? Poll the site? No clue anywhere in the process
that I noticed anyway.
Good luck!
~~~
paul_cryer
Hi Joe,
Thanks for trying it out.
Please click on the "Check status" page which shows your current questions.
Click on the view details link - which show a status of either :
(1)Waiting for a respondent (i.e. no one has reserved your question yet. (2)In
- Progress (i.e. Someone is working on the answer. But it has not been
submitted yet). (3)Completed. [ You will be able to view the response, and
rate (1-5) the respondent]
Hope that helps. I just found out that the system does not send out emails
when answers are complete. I will have to get that fixed today. In the mean
time, please log in occasionally to check status.
Thanks. Paul
~~~
JoeAltmaier
Got a sterling answer by the way. Far more detailed and thoughtful than $2
justified. Some philanthropy involved in the responders makeup I suspect.
------
rnernento
Maybe I'm way off but I don't see people paying the kind of money your asking
for this. What's the advantage over Yahoo Answers or Quora?
There are girls on those sites as well, there are also plenty of forums for
specific questions with male and female members.
How are you verifying gender?
Best of luck either way, what do I know, I thought Twitter would never take
off...
As far as constructive criticism:
The site seems fast and functional which is great. I think the logo could be
improved and the pink / maroon color and gold / brown text colors could be
adjusted.
~~~
paul_cryer
Thank you for your tips. I appreciate it.
Check out the last box (scroll down) "Gender Verified" on this page:
<http://www.helpaguyout.com/ladies.php>
Basically, we ask women to submit their publicly available profiles such as
Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter for one-time verification purposes.
~~~
pavel_lishin
But Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter don't verify gender, either.
~~~
paul_cryer
That's true. This seemed to be the most simplistic way I could come up with
without discouraging registrations. I would be happy to entertain your
suggestions.
~~~
pavel_lishin
I don't really have any, aside from the 4-chan approach - send a photo holding
up a sign with the date and some random string of characters - but that might
also discourage a lot of women.
------
paul_cryer
We have all been through various phases in life where some sort of female
perspective would have helped out a lot. HelpAGuyOut.com lets guys ask
question and get advice from women on dating, relationship, love, life, almost
anything. We are charging $2 for a question and passing $1/answer to the
ladies who respond to the question. The monetory factor helps prevent spammy
answers while making everyone's time worthawhile. Furthermore, 100% money back
guarantee allows the asker to get a refund for any response that he/she deems
unsatisfactory.
Thank you for your feedback.
-Paul
~~~
Peroni
So if a question gets asked & 20 women respond, they all get $1 each?
Out of curiosity, what advantage does your paid service offer over the likes
of r/TwoXChromosomes on Reddit where I can ask my question and have it
answered for free?
~~~
paul_cryer
Yes. But let clarify.
You need to specify how many women you want the responses from. That means, if
you want 20 responses, you pay $40. [$2/response].
Try it out here: <http://www.helpaguyout.com/asker-submit-question.php> It's
fun.
To keep things interesting, ask a question to your significant other, then ask
the same question to 5 ladies on our site. See what happens. You will get very
interesting result. [
To answer your second question, there are variations of advice related
services - from free to proffesional ones charging hundreds if not thousands.
What sets us apart is the ease of use, low pricing and guaranteed response.
Plus our platform allows everyone to remain anonymous - women tend to open up
and give a more insightful, genuine opinion that way.
Since the advice is paid for, the asker "owns" the advice and the woman
understands that it is a private advice only for him. So, though, anonymous,
there is a bit of "I am actually helping this guy out" factor involved.
------
michael_dorfman
Some sample questions and answers would help.
Maybe I'm lacking imagination, but I'm not exactly sure what I would ask the
ladies, or what kind of answers they could give.
~~~
paul_cryer
Since all of our Q & A's are private, they are not published. However, as you
mentioned, showing some sample may help encourage others to participate. I
should probably add a checkbox saying "My question may be publicized" to get
permission.
Anyways, to help you get started, here is a sample question for you:
Let's say you are into slightly older/mature women. So your question would
simply be something like: "Can I get some advice on dating older women?"
And you would elaborate it further by adding details: "I have not dated anyone
for a while. Last week, I met this very attractive woman at a local bar who is
34. We really hit it off. We have been out once for dinner since. Even though
I wanted to pay, she insisted we split the tab (mixed signals??). I would like
to get romantically involved and take this up a notch but cannot tell how she
feels. Any advice on how to pull this off without messing things up or coming
across as a little too desperate? I am 21 and she is single."
~~~
pavel_lishin
What's the guarantee that the answer (answers?) I get for $2 are going to be
better than those from a reddit thread?
~~~
paul_cryer
There is no such guarantee. Sometimes, free services might offer much better
results. Our pricing, $2 and compensation of $1 to women does not warrant
time-consuming, elaborate, results. With the small charge of $2, the
intention, and the goal, is to:
1)Keep spammers at bay 2)Provide a small incentive to women to participate
3)Give you a genuine, insightful, no-b.s. response 4)Do not pretend to be a
professional advice service
------
wallflower
My first thought was the site did not look girly (not to be sexist but no
pastels)
Are you competing with <http://www.girlsaskguys.com/> ?
~~~
paul_cryer
Wallflower,
Did not know about this site. Anyways, even though the concept is somewhat
similar, I believe our approach and what we are trying to accomplish is
different.
------
frobozz
$1 seems like a frightfully trivial amount of money to receive for a well-
considered answer.
See: "Pay enough, or don't pay at all."
[http://behind-the-enemy-lines.blogspot.com/2011/05/pay-
enoug...](http://behind-the-enemy-lines.blogspot.com/2011/05/pay-enough-or-
dont-pay-at-all.html)
~~~
paul_cryer
Frobozz,
Agreed - as long as quality/depth is of critical importance.
A trivial fee ($2) does not warrant such response and neither do we guarantee
that.
However, by charging that trivial fee, the goal is to "guarantee" an answer to
anyone. In sites like Reddit, unless you can pique some corners of one's
brain, you are not likely to get an insightful response in a private setting.
We allow you to 'own' your advice and women understand that it is only seen by
you and not the whole community. Therefore, they tend to have a more
'personalized' approach.
Of about 65 questions asked and a few hundred responses received so far we
have noticed that women are actually taking the time to respond. It's not the
$1 they make, but the trend seems to be that they actually 'enjoy' providing
advice to men.
~~~
frobozz
How do you guarantee the answer? What hold do you have over the ladies that
makes them answer?
If someone is only going to pay me a dollar for something, I'm not likely to
do it were it not something I'd do for free anyway.
This is the point of the "pay enough or don't pay at all" statement. Both
quality and quantity tend to go down if you go from pure volunteers to paying
below market rate.
To earn US Federal minimum wage, answerers would have to spend, on average, 8
minutes on each question. This is not just the reading and writing of the
question and answer, but also any time spent getting ready to work.
Obviously, you're the one who has real-world experience of this, and I'm just
an armchair pundit who has read a few articles; so you know more than me. I'm
just curious about how you have managed to go against the current received
wisdom.
------
ljlolel
You want to get some SEO traffic and linking going on. After the guy says he's
satisfied with an answer, ask him if he wants to make the answer public for
others to benefit from. (You can also offer for it to be edited to take out
any extra detail)
------
Ixiaus
Women giving advice [to men] is not a good thing - women only have a "feeling"
based notion of what they want (feelings are intangible and subjective).
In addition to all of the PUA/seduction stuff, theres one simple "technique"
I've learned: have fun, fun is infectious (particularly with women) and when
women are having fun they get horny and they also start to "feel" something
for the fellow that is their source of fun! Fun is light and not weighed down
by the dependency for an archetypal mother projection (needy and "smothering"
guys, that's you).
Fun feels so good - women love to feel good. If you happen to be the person
she's with when she's feeling even slightly above her baseline "good" she will
associate it with you, and if you can keep your cool and "play" with her a
little bit (ya know, don't be so easy to catch) she will fall head over heels
for you.
~~~
thomasgerbe
Likewise for women: just show interest and don't be afraid to be
aggressive/forward. I've met so many awesome women who either lament their
singleness or wonder why they never attract the 'good' guys.
------
araneae
To whoever asked "What do you think about this site?
<http://news.ycombinator.com> you are probably going to get a lot of women
answering that question that read HN already. FYI.
------
epaga
Sorry if this is answered somewhere, but I didn't see it in the FAQ: how do
you prevent guys from signing up as girls? I.e. how do you guarantee this is
really female advice?
~~~
paul_cryer
Check out the last box (scroll down) "Gender Verified" on this page:
<http://www.helpaguyout.com/ladies.php>
Basically, we ask women to submit their publicly available profiles such as
Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter for one-time verification purposes.
------
andy_boot
I wrote something similar as an experiment a year or so ago: <http://www.how-
they-think.com/>
except its free
------
edu
Why would a I pay $2 to a website when for more or less the same I can invite
a female friend to a coffee and talk about the issue as long as it's
necessary?
------
jimwise
There's a Mr. Turing here to see you about whether this site is really
connecting him to a lady, sir.
------
kamakazizuru
and what's the guarantee that it's actually a woman answering and not some
greedy male who put up a female facebook profile?
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Fast as Fuck Django, Part 1: Using a Profiler - Mizza
http://gun.io/blog/fast-as-fuck-django-part-1-using-a-profiler/
======
jc4p
Doesn't Django Debug Toolbar bring in itself into AJAX calls if you simply
wrap the results in a <body> element?
------
xster
Great article but that server's DEBUG is left on and some forms don't have the
CSRF tag...
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
AI can be trusted to take our 911 calls - vladws
https://thenextweb.com/podium/2019/03/24/ai-can-be-trusted-to-take-our-911-calls/
======
Thetawaves
I think this is probably the purest vision of a dystopian hell hole that I
have ever seen.
Just what I want to do, dick around with a computer when life is on the line.
~~~
vladws
Yeah, I think so too
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
I’m Comic Sans, Asshole. - hendler
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/im-comic-sans-asshole
======
leeHS
"SMACK. Like daffodils in motherfucking spring." Love it!
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
The Arc Challenge by Jim Weirich - luccastera
http://www.onestepback.org/index.cgi/Tech/Ruby/ArcChallenge.red
======
tig
Yes, you can create an environment in every language to help you write very
short web-apps. I still dont get the point Paul wants to make with his Arc
example. Your Ruby solution looks a lot more readable to me. Also my PHP
solution, which is here: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=108625>
Maybe Paul wants to elaborate, what from his point of view the advantages of
his ARC example are?
------
jamesbritt
I'm pretty sure both Wee and IOWA, two Ruby Web frameworks (and each about 5
years old) can do this out of the box.
(Wee was more a prof-of-concept. IOWA is still under active development)
------
pg
The Arc version doesn't depend on continuations. All you need for this is
closures.
~~~
antirez
We are not interested in implementation details but abstractions I think. It's
like to do a session-cookie based implementation and say that we don't need
closures at all, just imperative programming with cookies.
it's very strange you are continuing to argue against 100000 people. Just you
didn't picked the right example to show your point.
A dialect of Lisp that's coincise has his space in this world without
challanges, if developers will like it eventually it will get some kind of
user base. I don't think languages are adopted because of challenges in the
real world, nor that this challenges can really show that the language is
worth something: it will be automagically clear once a language adds some
abstraction that is truly novel and useful, like it happened for garbage
collection, for functional programming, OOP, closures and so on.
Not only this, a language can even gain success even being almost feature-
equivalent with others just because the designer had a better taste, like it
happened to Ruby.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Google and Microsoft fight hotels' attempts to block personal WiFi - h43k3r
http://www.engadget.com/2014/12/23/tech-business-fights-hotel-attempts-to-block-personal-wifi/?ncid=rss_truncated
======
h43k3r
I have a question. People will use the USB or bluetooth tethering if this
happens then what is the purpose of doing this?
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Why Apple Should Kill Off the Mac - mgav
http://www.wsj.com/articles/why-apple-should-kill-off-the-mac-1434321848
======
jaegerpicker
So many things wrong in this article but the base most fundamental issue is
that iOS is in the position it is because of the app store and the stellar
quality of the apps available in it. This is overwhelmingly driven by the
XCode and MacOS X development platform. Microsoft showed during the 90's if
you want to control a platform win the developer market. Sure lots of
developers hated them but they had such a large dedicated group that it drove
the adoption of the platform and made it dominate. Apple is in a similar
position, not in market share but in revenue and profit certainly. They
aggressively invest in their developer community while for the most part
google invests very little. Mac's are key component of that strategy.
~~~
seagoj
Couldn't agree more. The article is half-baked without an understanding for
how much of the developer community relies on macs and how important that is
to Apple. I know I personally don't use a single Apple product other than the
Macbook Pro that is so ingrained into my workflow I can't imagine how I'd work
without it. Doing non-dot net work in Windows is a joke and there is no *nix
supported laptop with enough ease of use to get out of the way so I can get
anything done.
------
anorborg
I just want some computer company to focus on power users. I know its a
relatively smaller market, but if someone (Apple, Dell, Lenovo, etc.) focused
on high quality hardware and software that "just worked" for power users and
less focused on the consumer-y features, that would be awesome. Macs have a
great build quality but the OS seems less focused on improving the experience
than assimilating you into their ecosystem (this is true for Microsoft and
Google as well). Every new feature involves creating an account to more
tightly couple you to the respective company. I get this strategy but would
love to see someone concentrating more on the overall experience than locking
me into _their_ world.
------
TheCoelacanth
They're supposed to kill off a highly profitable business just so that they
can focus on other things?
That doesn't make any sense. They have like $100 billion dollars in cash
sitting in the bank. If anything, they are focusing on too few things, not too
many.
------
gojomo
Clip & save this to your Apple scrapbook, next to articles reporting Michael
Dell's 1997 "shut it down and give the money to shareholders" assessment.
Author Mims casually overlooks how crucial Mac/OSX is to the iOS development
ecosystem, and how important "screens that have more pixels than any PC ever"
are to the leading-edge creators for _every_ other tech and cultural platform.
It's a reminder why tech columnists aren't asked to manage/turn-around tech
companies.
There is one true insight here, though, about where the future mass-market
volume and profits will come from. But let me suggest a diametrically opposite
strategic direction, suggested by the same insight:
It may again be time for Apple to welcome OSX on third-party hardware.
OSX is now a _complement_ to the real cash cows – iOS devices, media stores,
and cloud service – via the OSX development stack and other tight
integrations. Apple could give OSX away for running on _any_ clone PC (or
virtual host), and reap benefits in the markets where it has stronger profit
margins.
Apple would still produce showpiece Macs – the creation/development/knowledge-
work hardware you get when you can afford them – but _most_ OSX users would
simply be throwing OSX onto their econoclones, _because_ it's what works best
with the iOS devices they spend most of their time on.
If you squint, you could see "free OSX anywhere" as a followup step in the
progression that's included ITunes everywhere and free XCode.
~~~
jaegerpicker
This I would support, I have a hard time seeing it in action but two years ago
I'd have a hard time seeing Apple open sourcing there main language and
standard lib (I know Obj-C is open source but no the lib) or them making MacOS
X free. Only issue is driver and driver support. I think it would likely take
too much of Apples time to support all that hard ware and users would
certainly blame them for faulty driver code, they did to Microsoft.
------
mgav
I completely disagree with the article's author - just because they don't
"need" the revenue and there are lots of new areas of development on which to
focus is not enough of a reason.
------
jaegerpicker
Anyone have a mirror not behind a paywall?
~~~
friendstock
Google "Why apple should kill off the mac" and click on the article link.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Senators seek crackdown on Bitcoin currency - jasongullickson
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/08/us-financial-bitcoins-idUSTRE7573T320110608?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews&dlvrit=56505
======
nextparadigms
This is a knee-jerk reaction. I doubt they really understand the technology.
And from what I understand bitcoin transactions are not that anonymous.
But even if they were, are they going to ban everything that allows anonymity?
The same senators mention Tor as well. Are they going to make the use of Tor
illegal - the same tool that was used in revolutions against oppressive
regimes?
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
What happens to your bike after it’s stolen - bootload
http://www.seattlemet.com/news-and-profiles/articles/this-is-what-happens-to-your-bike-after-its-stolen-october-2014
======
ScottBurson
Somewhere in the last year or so I read an article arguing that the reason
bike theft is so attractive is that although the reward (to the thief) of the
crime is small, the risk is practically zero. The suggestion was that if the
police managed to successfully investigate and prosecute even a small fraction
of bike thefts, they could increase the risk to the thief by several orders of
magnitude. Since the reward is so small, this could effectively deter at least
casual theft.
There would probably still be professionals stealing expensive bikes, I
suppose, but still, this seems worth trying.
~~~
Paul_S
What if the cost of investigating, prosecuting and sentencing is 100x more
than what the bike is worth (very conservative guess)?
~~~
IkmoIkmo
$1k bikes are naturally pretty common targets for theft (as it's pretty easy
to break a $100 lock. More expensive bikes generally doesn't mean better
security, but it often means more demand to steal it).
At that price, I really wouldn't consider 100k to investigate, prosecute and
sentence a very conservative guess. Seems a bit on the high end. Stealing a
bike doesn't result in jail generally (expensive). The prosecution is usually
quick and easy (tons of similar cases) and the penalty is usually a fine for
first-time offenders.
What you also often see in crime is the 80/20 effect. For example here in
Amsterdam they created a list of 500 people who often ran into trouble with
the police and focused a lot of effort on them. As each and every one of them
plans and executes on an elaborate theft say once a month, they're responsible
for more than 10 of such cases every single day. The other thousands of people
who commit a theft might do it incidentally, like once every few years or once
in their life, and usually not something elaborate.
Same with bike theft, I think. I've actually seen big vans with a team of 3
operate at night. They'll throw 15 bikes that are locked but not attached into
the van in the span of 5 minutes with the 3 of em, then drive off to some
garage and spend the next 5 hours relaxed cutting through the locks in comfort
with the right tools. They'll switch neighborhoods every now and then, and
sell 20 at a time to struggling obscure bike shops that need a bigger profit
than what they can get if they buy straight from the factory.
If you have 2-3 of such teams operate in your city and do two weekly runs
that's easily a million bucks, that's, you can probably get rid of them for a
few hundred thousand bucks and recuperate 100k from the thieves. But you
prevent a million in theft and restore a bit of social order. Of course it's
not just the theft, it's also the broken-window theory stuff. The notion of
escalating crime, and of affluent people moving to other places if you let
this + 50 other things like this slip, and you end up with dropping rents and
an imbalance of disproportionate amounts of low-socioeconomic individuals
living there. Bit of a slippery slope argument I know but it's not far from
the truth.
------
aaronharnly
I'm reminded of this delicious line by a San Francisco bike guru:
"Bikes are one of the four commodities of the street — cash, drugs, sex, and
bikes," Veysey told me. "You can virtually exchange one for another."
(From this lengthy and fascinating first-hand account of a reporter's attempt
to recover his stolen bicycle)
[http://www.sfbg.com/2007/02/13/chasing-my-stolen-
bicycle?pag...](http://www.sfbg.com/2007/02/13/chasing-my-stolen-
bicycle?page=0,1)
~~~
bootload
This is a great read. Nothing seems to have changed much since 2007.
------
mcfunley
> Any bike thief worth his shim knows you’ve got to liquidate the rolling
> booty via parts
When I lived in New York in the mid-2000's it was pretty common to find folks
trying to sell stolen bikes for $20 in public parks. Being younger with less
sense and having lost a couple of bikes myself, I would sometimes get in their
faces. That was a dumb idea, cf. the screwdriver anecdote in the article.
It was also an open secret that local restaurants bought stolen bikes for
delivery workers and just covered them up in duct tape. I'm sure this doesn't
explain 100% of bike thefts.
Maybe in Seattle chop shops are necessary, but in New York the problem seems
so overwhelming that that just strikes me as a lot of unnecessary effort. The
police generally could not care less.
~~~
Symbiote
My bike was stolen in London in 2009, the day before I went on holiday.
I found it on Gumtree (like Craigslist) the next day. I stuck the phone number
in Google, and a load of other Gumtree adverts popped up -- "Call Dave" "Call
Pete" "Call Andy". I sent this to the police. An officer phoned a few days
later, and was really pleased and surprised at what I'd been able to do. She
said she'd pass it on to the "intelligence team".
Nothing seems to have changed since then:
[https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=07796163182](https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=07796163182)
(I picked one advert at random.)
~~~
IkmoIkmo
Heh, similar experience here. In fact I'm part of a facebook group for 2nd
hand stuff, one dude always posts bikes for sale there, like 2-3 a week, but
from like 50 different accounts. (hey it takes 1 minute and the bike sells for
~$100) Problem? He makes the pictures in his garden with a very particular
fence I always recognize.
I wasn't quite sure if he was just a repair guy with a small business, someone
buying cheap broken bikes and fixing them up, using FB as a sales channel, or
a proper thief. Until one day I saw someone comment on one of his bikes on
facebook saying he went to buy a bike and that the guy had an elaborate camera
and a television screen to see if the police rang the bell or just a regular
buyer as well as some other negative comments.
Police didn't seem to pick up the case though, he's still at it. But yeah I
always put the phone number in google, if I get a load of different names I
just move on. It doesn't happen that often, but when something is too good to
be true it happens like 9/10 times.
------
jacquesm
My uncle observed this in his thesis: 'the combined weight of lock and bicycle
is a constant'.
------
chvid
In Copenhagen, Denmark where bike riding and bike theft is very common, the
police does little about it. In fact it came out recently that the police have
an unofficial policy of not investigating thefts of value less than 13.000
euros due to "lack of resources".
There is seldom story of say an angry man in a van running down two kids on a
stolen scooter otherwise vigilante justice is very rare.
I think for most bike thiefs are just having field day (year or decade) and
probably quite a bit more organized than in Seattle due to massive market for
bikes and bike parts here in Copenhagen.
~~~
mrweasel
I don't think that stole danish bikes are sold in Denmark, not whole nor in
parts. They are loaded on to truck and moved out of the country.
I believe that most Danes buy their bikes part in stores (physical or online),
making the market for stolen part very small.
I understand that the police doesn't have resources to investigate every
single bike theft, but perhaps if they looked at on a case by case basis and
looked at the problem as a whole, then maybe the economy would be vastly
different. If 100 bikes are stolen, they aren't being stolen by a 100
different people, more likely just a few people are responsible for the
majority of those thefts. I worked at a company where the entire bike rack was
stole at once, a truck backed up and the entire row of 30+ bikes was stolen.
Because of how the system works the police will get 30 different cases of
stole bike, each of which isn't worth looking into.
It's a bit different from the US, because Denmark is much much small, but if
the Danish police said "The next 3 to 5 years we invest heavily in finding
bikes and preventing bike theft" then you wouldn't need to do much after that,
because the criminal would have moved to a different country.
------
erispoe
I wonder to what extend the intensity of bike theft will incentivize bike
users to buy and use bikes of low value. I have conflicting anecdotal
experiences about this. I lived in Rotterdam, where bike theft is intense, but
where people usually ride cheap bikes every day, and where you know you can
buy a cheap bike to someone in the street, for a price as low a ten euros.
Bikes are a cheap commodity in Rotterdam. In San Francisco, also a bike theft
intensive city, people seem to be undeterred in riding expensive bikes, and
the expected price is in the hundreds of dollars.
The difference might be that bikes sleep outside much more often in Rotterdam
than in San Francisco.
edit: typos
~~~
jacalata
Are lower income people in SF riding expensive bikes, or just the well-paid
ones? If bike-riding is a rich person's thing in SF, then the average rider
will have spare cash to throw at it, stores can focus on selling more
expensive bikes, higher prices are normalised...etc.
~~~
aceperry
It's mostly younger people ride bikes, but because of the availability of bike
lanes and public bike racks, more and more people from all incomes are riding
bikes.
------
zht
So what is the solution to bikes getting stolen? It seems like we cannot
really make locks that are cheap enough to manufacture to prevent thieves from
stealing bikes/harvesting them for parts.
Do we put GPS trackers on all bikes? Can we enforce harsher punishment for
bike thieves?
~~~
schrodinger
I think bait bikes are a good solution. Put out a few normal looking bikes
with gps trackers in them, and have stiff fines for those who get caught.
Making locks safe against an angle grinder isnt really feasible, but making
someone think twice before even trying because it's a bait bike might work.
~~~
name_censored_
Only three problems with that:
Firstly, bait bikes are inevitably going to be cheap bikes. Thieves are more
interested in expensive bikes - and if the expensive bikes are not only more
profitable, but also safer to steal, then they're bound to step up their lock-
picking and angle-grinding game.
Secondly, finding someone to organise this would be difficult. Any single
organisation sufficiently large enough to do this would be bureaucratic enough
to insist on the same make/model of bike (for the obvious homogeneity
benefits), which would make them as obvious as an undercover Crown Vic.
Conversely, any kind of grassroots or community effort would (by design) need
to alert as many people as possible to the venture, including the bike thieves
themselves - thus spoiling it before it even begins.
Finally, these things are chop-shopped almost the instant they get on-sold.
Tearing a bike down can be done in a public park in 5 minutes flat with a
pocket's worth of tools. The bike thieves can adapt a lot more easily than the
sting operators.
~~~
DanBC
You make a couple of assumtions that are just weird.
There's no reason to assume tha bait bikes are going to be cheap bikes, nor
that all bait bikes would be the same make and model.
~~~
name_censored_
Bait bikes of a make/model make sense _in a sufficiently bureaucratic
organisation_ because it makes purchasing, tooling and technician training a
hell of lot easier. Police cars (Crown Victorias) are obvious for the benefit
of a few chases/crashes, when police fleets could have been a bit more
surreptitious. I don't see a large organisations doing any different in
selecting a "perfect bike to steal".
I assumed cheap bikes because of Ainmats[1] ratio of 1 in 100 bikes being trap
bikes. 1 in 100 in any reasonably-sized city means tens/hundreds of thousands
of dollars of kit (including GPS), and anyone with that kind of scratch has
_someone_ trying to minimise expenditure. Or, why spring for a Trek Butterfly
to catch a hungry junkie when a Huffy would net hundreds of the same?
[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8818498](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8818498)
------
dreamdu5t
This article is incorrect. Kryptonite U-Locks cannot be picked with a bic pen.
That hasn't been the case since 2005. That was only a certain model, and once
made public they fixed it and offered free replacements.
~~~
thrownaway2424
"Certain model" means literally every Kryptonite U-lock, except for the New
York series, made prior to 2005.
------
peterwwillis
I follow two principles to avoid bike theft: 1. always lock both wheels and
the frame up with a very thick U lock, and 2. ride a bike less expensive to
replace than repair. I regularly find bikes at Goodwill, flea markets, etc
that are not stolen but are dirt cheap ($50, $100, etc). Even found a banged
up old bike (dead tires, bad derailleur/gears) laying in a gutter. May not be
the best ride in the world but it gets you from point A to B and never gets
stolen.
As for preventing theft in general, don't leave it locked up outside. That'd
probably cut down on 90% of thefts. They could improve outside safety by
building special wire mesh enclosures for bikes on bike racks, which would
make it more difficult to steal, more obvious someone is stealing, and
generally protect the bike from vandalism and the weather.
~~~
collyw
> don't leave it locked up outside. If I stopped locking my bike outside, I
> would likely never use it in the city.
------
bootload
_"... Fortunately for Rosa, the Darlings were also allegedly fencing
electronics, allowing the owner of a stolen iPad to track his missing tablet
to the same apartment via an iPhone app connected to his iPad’s GPS. ..."_
Would be a nice hack to build something like this. How would you embed a
device like this into into a frame & other parts?
Comments: _"... Ryan Scheel: Might it make sense to put a GPS device in bikes
encrypted with a private key that only your computer has access to? ..."_
RFID inventory of parts unique to a bike?
Would be interesting if each (high value) part had a unique serial number
unique to the bike. Small RFID devices for the frame, wheels, seat brakes
registered to a unique frame? That way each part could be tied to a frame &
identifiable to one bike.
~~~
jzwinck
If you are serious, the answer is to make the device a 1" tube that fits into
the steer tube of most bicycles and can receive and transmit RF via the top
cap (which would be plastic rather than the usual metal). Easy to conceal,
near-universal fit (for bikes from the last 10+ years), sufficient space for a
battery, radio, no visible parts. Charge using the tube as ground and the top
cap bolt as hot.
The problem is, it will cost $150 or so, plus monthly cellular data fees (you
can dial 911 for free, but the police will not do anything with this).
~~~
chromakode
I thought this sounded familiar, so I did some searching... here's pretty much
exactly that:
[http://www.integratedtrackers.com/GPSTrack/Spybike.jsp](http://www.integratedtrackers.com/GPSTrack/Spybike.jsp)
~~~
jzwinck
Wow, thanks for digging that up. It even costs $152 right now (converted from
GBP). Apart from the fact that you seemingly have to remove it to charge,
looks good.
------
Barnabas
If you have a nice bike, take a moment to register it:
[https://bikeindex.org/](https://bikeindex.org/)
~~~
bike_index
Thanks for recommending the Bike Index! We recommend registering even if you
have a cheap bike, since it's easy and free.
Here's another article about what to do if your bike is stolen -
[https://medium.com/@stolenbikessfo/what-to-do-after-you-
bike...](https://medium.com/@stolenbikessfo/what-to-do-after-you-bike-has-
been-stolen-in-the-bay-area-e08e6b6f005b)
------
bambax
> _You can rip off a bike and trade it for a $50 bag of drugs pretty easily_
> _The components, meanwhile—the lights, seats, handlebars, derailleurs, and
> brakes that turn a frame into a ridable bike—can go for hundreds of dollars
> each on the black market_
If the whole bike sells for $20, how can each component sell for "hundreds of
dollars each"???
> _her $8,300 Seven Mudhoney disappeared_
I didn't know bikes that expensive even existed.
So maybe the parts that sell for "hundreds of dollars" come from $8k bikes,
and bikes that sell for 20 bucks are the cheap ones; but the article isn't
clear on this.
It seems that owners of $8k bikes should refrain from buying parts on the
black market, and that they can afford the small overhead (but added security)
of only buying from legitimate dealerships?
\- - -
Regarding the problem of bikes steal, is it better or worse to have a system
of public bikes that can be rented for cheap? Paris (and London, and many
other cities) have a system of public bikes that are available everywhere and
that are very cheap to rent; I know those bikes get stolen (or broken)
sometimes but they cannot really be resold as you can't legitimately "own"
one.
It would be interesting to compare the numbers of bike thefts for cities that
have public bikes versus ones that don't.
~~~
neotek
The difference is between a junkie quickly selling a bike to get a fix as fast
as possible, and splitting the bike into components and knowing the right
people to buy them.
The junkie doesn't give a shit about tearing the bike down and getting the
best price, he just wants to shoot up and will take whatever he can get.
------
peter_l_downs
Priceonomics wrote another interesting article on the subject:
[http://blog.priceonomics.com/post/30393216796/what-
happens-t...](http://blog.priceonomics.com/post/30393216796/what-happens-to-
stolen-bicycles)
------
jmspring
An interesting local stat for Santa Cruz. According to the article, given
Seattle has a population of about 650k, they are dealing with one bike stolen
per 580 residents. During the last year, the reported bike thefts in Santa
Cruz city was 404 and with a population of 65k, we are looking at one theft
per 160 residents.
Wherever there is a drug trade and a high transient/drug user population,
there will be issues with bike theft. Where I live it is _bad_
------
Animats
Tracking devices in about 1 in 100 bikes would put a dent in the problem.
Hidden deep inside the frame, you'd find the chop shops.
------
WalterBright
Back when I rode a bike to work, I parked it next to my desk.
------
easyname
reminds me of this movie
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040522/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040522/)
------
mullingitover
I know the Constituion forbids it, but I think cruel and unusual punishment is
A-OK when it comes to bike thieves.
~~~
ams6110
Horse theft used to be a capital crime. Under the same constiution we have
now.
~~~
undersuit
Horses are like bikes with personalities, I can understand some of the
reasoning.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Laddering a Chimney (Fred Dibnah) - savingthrow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F04dGK1_wYA
======
savingthrow
This video shows traditional techniques to attach a ladder to a tall chimney.
It comes in two parts. I'm not sure when this was filmed, but some time in the
1990s would be about right.
I'm glad these traditional techniques have been preserved in film, especially
with commentary from the expert. But I'm also glad that we don't use these
techniques anymore and are much safer.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Show HN: Interest Groups Around Places - xackpot
Hi Guys, I have recently released an iphone app (old app but pivoted to a different idea). The app has a limited set of features and also limited feature set website (http://www.findero.us), but would like to test it out if users like the idea. The idea is to fulfill the need to create your own location specific interest groups. You can create your open/closed groups around a location or join other such groups. The app is available for download at: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/finderous/id520384764?mt=8<p>The app can be easily used for the following cases:<p>1. Weekend cycling group.<p>2. Residential community group.<p>3. Local Gym group.<p>4. Car pool group.<p>and many more such groups.<p>I would appreciate some feedback.<p>Thanks
======
codemonk
I took a look, but how do you compare yourself to existing players like
meetup.com ?
~~~
xackpot
Well, the idea took shape when a few people at my work place wanted to form a
private group of marathon training group, but didn't want to use work emails
or meetup.com as it was too expensive for such a casual group. That's when I
realize that there is an audience for casual interest groups where people just
want to communicate through threads in a conversation and not worry too much
about maintaining it.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Show HN: HSTR – easily view, navigate, search and manage your shell history - dvorka
https://github.com/dvorka/hstr
======
kbd
This seems to work very similarly to how fzf hooks into ctrl+r to let you
browse/search your history. fzf is a much more general tool.
[https://github.com/junegunn/fzf](https://github.com/junegunn/fzf)
------
umvi
Awesome. Is there any way I can make it so ctrl+r invokes hstr (similar to how
installing vim replaces vi)? It seems to be an stty setting but it isn't
obvious, even after searching, if this is possible. If it is, would make a
nice addition to the readme.
~~~
bewuethr
I think the answer is "yes"; it seems to be covered in the configuration page:
[http://dvorka.github.io/hstr/CONFIGURATION.html#binding-
hh-t...](http://dvorka.github.io/hstr/CONFIGURATION.html#binding-hh-to-
keyboard-shortcut)
It says to use
bind '"\C-r": "\C-ahh -- \C-j"'
to bind to Ctrl-R; the "bind" command can be used in the shell directly.
Alternatively, you can put
"\C-r": "\C-ahh -- \C-j"
in your ~/.inputrc.
~~~
dvorka
@bewuethr exactly! BTW there is even easier way how to configure HSTR:
hstr --show-configuration >> ~/.inputrc && . ~/.inputrc
You can run just hstr --show-configuration to check what will be appended
~~~
umvi
Ah, I had actually inadvertently done that using the one liner, but just
hadn't restarted my terminal! Great tool, I love it!
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Another Xiaomi Shocker - bryanwbh
http://daringfireball.net/linked/2014/07/25/xiaomi-flower
======
tptacek
Nowhere nearly as shocking as his first Xiaomi shocker, which was that in the
actual product photos for the phone, the camera lenses _were the Apple
Aperture logo_.
------
tszming
Stealing and copying are part of the Xiami's DNA, you will be even more
suprised when Xiami's CEO copy the way how Steve Jobs anounce new product:
[http://cdn.unwire.hk/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/xiaomi-
one-m...](http://cdn.unwire.hk/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/xiaomi-one-more-
thing.jpg)
------
ksec
I dont think the slide or Photos were the shocker. ( May be that is what i
expect them to be. ) The comment from Barra was the real shocker.
_Barra is only a year into his job as leader of Mi’s internationalization
efforts, but he’s already “sick and tired” of hearing his company derided as
an Apple copycat. He sees Mi as “an incredibly innovative company” that never
stops trying to improve and refine its designs, and the allegations of it
copying Apple are “sweeping sensationalist statements because they have
nothing better to talk about.”_
------
anoncow
The marketing department apparently has no scruples or is incompetent.
------
MBS
Why are we targeting Chinese here? Remember the Nokia episode where they were
filming with professional cameras and showing that video as made by Nokia
phones? Here is the link [http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/5/3294545/nokias-
pureview-ads...](http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/5/3294545/nokias-pureview-ads-
are-fraudulent)
~~~
2muchcoffeeman
Nokia actually got those ads made. That was an original ad that was
fraudulent.
Xiaomi is fraudulent and is a blatant copyright infringer. The Xiaomi CEO even
copies the style of the late Steve Jobs. It's creepy.
------
geon
> Is passing off photos taken with professional SLRs as shots from their
> phone’s camera.
To be fair, the photos are not used in a context where they could be expected
to be representative of the camera quality, nor does the higher quality of the
original photos make a difference in the small thumbnails.
------
mrbonner
In Chinese culture copying and making it better is encouraged I think.
~~~
mannykannot
There's no "making it better" here.
~~~
mariusmg
Not yet :)
------
cowbell
"The phone didn't take those pictures!? Next you'll tell me Terry Crews
doesn't even use Old Spice either!"
Does he really think anyone expects to get professionally retouched photos out
of a phone?
As for licensing, I mainly wonder if the girl receives a cut of the income or
if she's simply exploited either way.
~~~
DanBC
People should be honest in advertising.
In the UK it is very common for a competitor to send complaints about adverts
to the regulators. This is almost free to the people sending the complaints
but potentially costly to the advertisers.
One example of this would be mascara ads, which had very many reports being
sent to and fro. Now mascara ads in England either use real product on real
eyelashes or they contain disclaimers about the use of fake lashes.
------
LeicaLatte
Media folks have a lot of time in their hands.
------
alokyadav15
" Chinese " No offence but they copy everything
~~~
recalibrator
Exactly. The Chinese refuse to acknowledge intellectual property. It seems
embedded in their culture.
~~~
w1ntermute
Just as it used to be embedded in American culture:
[http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/pva/pva75.html](http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/pva/pva75.html)
~~~
MBS
Just as it used to be embedded in Finnish companies:
[http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/5/3294545/nokias-pureview-
ads...](http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/5/3294545/nokias-pureview-ads-are-
fraudulent)
------
rikacomet
It appears to me, that you are jumping the gun too soon here. The photos,
might have been ripped off by a good for nothing designer from the marketing
dept. There are countless good photos out there, who has the time to check
that some stupid-running-late guy/gal did something like this, specially when
it is hard work to go and take such artistically/professional photos.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Rock found in backyard came from space station - mdturnerphys
http://boston.cbslocal.com/2013/06/14/rock-found-in-amesbury-backyard-came-from-space-station/
======
Luc
This article mentions that the NASA engineer determined it to be ballast from
MIR or a Progress resupply ship: [http://english.ruvr.ru/news/2013_06_14/US-
Man-Finds-Russian-...](http://english.ruvr.ru/news/2013_06_14/US-Man-Finds-
Russian-Space-Junk-in-Massachusetts-8390/)
That's interesting! I didn't know spacecraft used ballast - I guess to tune
the centre of gravity.
~~~
mdturnerphys
Nice find. I was disappointed that the article I posted and another I found
didn't say what the object actually was.
------
TeMPOraL
God-dammit, why couldn't they put a _photo_ of the rock in the article? Maybe
even instead of that video, which is mostly useless.
~~~
mdturnerphys
[http://d6673sr63mbv7.cloudfront.net/archive/x1912985327/g000...](http://d6673sr63mbv7.cloudfront.net/archive/x1912985327/g000258000000000000d74fc0c606bc1574c7dc15dedcd5e3952fe4b2f8.jpg)
(via [http://www.eagletribune.com/latestnews/x1912985329/NASA-
Ames...](http://www.eagletribune.com/latestnews/x1912985329/NASA-Amesbury-
rock-came-from-Soviet-spacecraft))
------
lostlogin
That search box on the site looks strangely familiar...
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
The Solowheel: like a Segway but cool - jonasvp
http://solowheel.com
======
cultureulterior
I highly disagree. Segways are awesome.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Risk in developing a simple SaaS solution - j_z_reeves
Has anyone developed a simple SaaS solution and had it cloned before gaining market traction?<p>The app that I developed is extremely simple and took about 5-7 hours of development time. It solves a very specific problem for B2B companies.<p>My worry is that, since its highly simple right now in its MVP form, I feel like either the customers will defer to "I can build it in house" or worse, an incumbent could easily add it as a feature to an existing app. I also remember the famous dropbox comment, where a user mentioned that they could easily replicate the product with rsync.<p>Do you just press on and begin finding product-market fit or would you add some more features to deter copycats at this stage?
======
z3t4
You don't want to sell it to people that can easily build it them-self. You
want to sell to people that has the specific problem and in need of a
solution.
There is always the possibility that your idea will get stolen. But again,
those that can easily build it them-self will have a hard time seeing the
business value, and will think your idea is stupid.
------
sharemywin
Options:
1\. make it a plug in to another platform and charge.
2\. give it away for a sign up and email so you can get feedback on new
features and add a pay tier with more features.
3\. try selling it to a set of potential users in person and/or skype to get
some feedback.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Ask HN: Are you still using React-Native although it wasnt relicensed by FB? - lalalathrow
I know it may be far away, but my imagination doesn't allow me to learn react-native knowing the license issues.<p>In the worst scenario I imagine Facebook copies my app (just like it did with snapchat) and then I can't sue them or anything since I've used React-Native.
Can someone please tell me if this would be possible?<p>I don't care if I have the chance of making such an app or not. Because if I'm not that person, then someone else will be. And I hate the Idea that Facebook will have all the legal ground to copy the idea and not get sued in the process, just because the app was made with React-Native.
======
buliam
I’m not sure that in the scenario you’re suggesting (Facebook copying your
app) you would have any legal ground to stand on to sue them regardless of
whether the app was made with React Native or not. This is based on the fact
that Snapchat also didn’t sue Facebook for copying their app/features, even
though they would presumably have the financial resources to do so, which, I
believe, is not the case for most of us here.
I just started
[http://madewithreactnative.com](http://madewithreactnative.com) where I’m
interviewing developers and teams who have made apps with React Native and
none of them, so far, have mentioned anything about the license, so personally
I think you should go for it (obviously biased opinion, since I am quite fond
of React Native).
And even if you are not going to use React Native in any of your own projects
I still think learning it could be beneficial as you could leverage that
knowledge to make apps for other people, in which case you personally wouldn’t
have to worry about any legal issues.
------
owebmaster
My mindset is that having problems with Facebook will be a lot better than not
having. So I'm using react-native as much as I can.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Ask HN: A more convinient Magic Wormhole alternative? - vsenko
Magic Wormhole (https://github.com/warner/magic-wormhole) is an incredible piece of software that facilitates data transfer between computers when URL/id/hash digital transfer or copy-paste is not an option.<p>But, in my opinion, it has one significant drawback - it has to be installed and has not so few dependencies.<p>Thus if, for example, the objective is to transmit a single send.firefox.com URL from one machine to another, then installing Maic Wormhole on both of these machines is an overkill.<p>I usually resort to manually typing data on the second machine (a binary data block could be base64 encoded beforehand).<p>Do you know any software or services that could facilitate such scenarios (you need to transfer a small amount of data from one machine to another but it's impossible to use ssh, rdp, clipboard, etc.)?
======
ktpsns
I use QR codes to move snippets between mobile phones. That could work on a
notebook (with a camera). There is also
[https://messenger.chirp.io/](https://messenger.chirp.io/) to use sound for
information transfer (works better on notebooks, but probably not kiosks). All
that is pretty useful for quickly sharing URLs.
------
sgillen
can you have to be more specific with what scenarios you are facing where you
need this? If ssh and rdp are unavailable what is available?
~~~
vsenko
I'm talking about a broad range of scenarios where it's impossible to use
standard tools, like this one: \- You need to transfer some data from your
machine to the one you do not trust (e.g. kiosk). USB drive is a bad idea in
such situation, logging in to any service on an untrusted machine is even
worse. One could create a temporary email account for this purpose, but it's a
burden.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Meditation under the microscope - xriddle
https://aeon.co/essays/can-meditation-really-make-the-world-a-better-place?
======
davidgrenier
But what if, spending eight weeks thinking about compassion does makes the
world a more compassionate place?
Yes, the business of picking the right control must indeed be a tricky one.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Show HN: Undo send mail for Apple Mail - lichtschlag
https://github.com/lichtschlag/undosendmail/
======
lichtschlag
I am a big fan of Gmail's undo send feature for emails (stalls the delivery
for a moment so that you can stop if you spot a mistake in the last moment).
I wrote this plug-in for Mail.app to support a similar undo send mail feature
a while ago and use it every day. I have recently polished it up and made it
compatible with the upcoming OS 10.11. Maybe this is something that is of
value to you, too.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
The HTTPS-Only Standard - konklone
https://https.cio.gov
======
kysol
There's something about their favicon being the default green lock (
[https://https.cio.gov/assets/favicon.ico](https://https.cio.gov/assets/favicon.ico)
) that unsettles me. It feels like a social engineering trick.
~~~
konklone
That's an interesting point. I'll be straight, it's lifted right from
[https://istlsfastyet.com](https://istlsfastyet.com). And cio.gov is in the
HSTS preload list [1] so (once the list makes it into stable channels) the
chances of the domain being downgraded to plaintext are pretty low. But I had
not thought of that angle. Hmm.
[1] [https://18f.gsa.gov/2015/02/09/the-first-gov-domains-
hardcod...](https://18f.gsa.gov/2015/02/09/the-first-gov-domains-hardcoded-
into-your-browser-as-all-https/)
~~~
kysol
..and people complain about transparency :)
I wasn't calling it a social engineering trick, more that it just felt like
one. To the average person they wouldn't second guess the icon. To those who
believe in HTTPSAllTheThings, we question anything out of the ordinary.. and
that little padlock shouldn't appear in the tab.
As I said, it just felt weird, sort of the same feeling you get when you go to
Apple or YouTube and there's a warning on the lock icon. You just want to hit
the back button almost instantly fearing something dodgy is happening.
~~~
Already__Taken
You were absolutely right in calling it a trick. Browsers explicitly[0]
stopped putting the favicon there as sites started to trick users like this.
Seems like an odd choice of UI chrome that browsers decided to keep.
0: [http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-04/25/firefox-
fires...](http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-04/25/firefox-fires-
favicon)
------
bcg1
Hey gov, how about promoting a transparent decentralized system for
certificate signing that doesn't require paying a vig every year to a
corporation that can easily be leaned on by not-so-well-meaning authorities?
Oh wait, nevermind... I just realized something.
~~~
cesarb
> how about promoting a transparent decentralized system for certificate
> signing
Honest question: with a decentralized system for certificate signing, what
would be the trust root?
The current system has the browser makers as the root of trust; this trust is
delegated to a set of certificate authorities through the list of root
certificates which comes with the browser; these certificate authorities then
delegate to their intermediates, which finally certify a server as trusted for
a fully-qualified domain name.
Without a root of trust, anyone could say "I'm example.gov, this is my
certificate", and present "proof" of that. A trust root is necessary to
prevent this.
So far, the only working proposals I've seen for decentralized trust (which
don't do away with the human readability side of Zooko's triangle) are based
in distributed proof-of-work systems like Bitcoin's, where the trust root is
the distributed "chain". Has anyone ever tried to apply a system like that for
certificate signing for TLS?
~~~
pdkl95
The problem with achieving real adoption of crypto had historically been made
a _lot_ harder than it should be because too many problems are trying to be
solved at the same time.
Separate the problems! It is much easier to find realistic solutions when the
requirements are narrower. The remaining needs can be solved later on. Once
_some_ usable infrastructure has been established, it might be possible to
leverage that infrastructure to add back in some of the missing features.
For HTTPS, a good start would be PHK's suggestion of simply auto-generating
self-signed certs in apache _by default_ , as a replacement for plaintext.
Authenticating those certs can happen later.
After keys are everywhere, a potential solution might be t o allow _both_ PKI
authorities and some sort of web-of-trust (or other methods? blockchain?
something new?), and _exposing the source of trust to the user_ in way they
can manage.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution to the trust problem, so let the user
decide because they know what their requirements are. If I'm browsing to some
bank, a well-known PKI root might be a good trust source. If I'm chatting on
some local forum, a web-of-trust auth might be better (it's a local forum, so
fingerprints can be exchanged manually, friend-to-friend).
~~~
tptacek
Encryption is not separable from authentication.
~~~
CHY872
It _so_ is. A plain old Diffie Hellman key exchange will give you encryption
without authentication.
All you need for encryption is to be able to share a secret - this in no way
requires authentication.
~~~
apendleton
Without authentication your connection is susceptible to undetectable man-in-
the-middle attacks that DHE does nothing to prevent. That they're separable is
superficially true, but not interesting, as encryption alone doesn't stop
people from reading your traffic, which is the whole point.
~~~
pdkl95
This argument comes up so regularly, one might speculate that some people are
_trying_ to keep the internet in plaintext[1].
Yet again, encryption is a replacement for _plantext_ , which is the only
thing it should be compared to. Of course you can MitM attack it, but that's
not something that is easily done in bulk.
Simple encryption _raises the cost_ of an attack from "trivial wiretaps, DPI
optional" to the time, money, and effort required to do a targeted MitM
attack. Additionally, while it is generally impossible to detect wiretaps,
MitM can leak information that betrays the presence of an attack.
Remember, this isn't intended to stop all types of attacks. It is simply a
_very_ easy to implement feature that lets you replace plaintext with
something resistant (not proof) to eavesdropping in general, and proof against
some types of bulk surveillance.
Note: I haven't said _anything_ about presenting this type of non-
authenticated communication to the user as "secure".
[1] see PHK's "Operation Orchestra" talk
~~~
Natsu
It doesn't raise the bar high enough that the people who are _currently
snarfing internet traffic wholesale_ would bat an eye at.
It doesn't matter how secure the phone line is when you have no idea who
you're actually talking to. Especially when there are people with money, means
and access to make sure that you're always talking to them.
------
JoshTriplett
The most important line in this standard:
> All browsing activity should be considered private and sensitive.
~~~
skrowl
Clearly this government office isn't talking to some of the other ones, right?
~~~
sliverstorm
The Fed employs 2.7M people. I don't really understand the people who imagine
it's one great big well-oiled machine with everybody in agreement, on the same
page of the same playbook.
------
Millennium
The HTTPS-only folks mean well, and I support it as a stopgap solution, but it
is useful only in that it can probably be implemented more quickly than IPSec-
everywhere (or, if IPSec proves to be unsuitable, then some successor standard
with the same goal of encrypting all traffic).
The latter, however, should be preferred as a permanent solution. The Web is
by no means the only part of the Internet that needs to be secured.
~~~
cesarb
IPSEC and HTTPS work at different levels. With IPSEC, your computer can be
sure it's talking to the computer at 198.51.100.1 and not to any other
computer. With HTTPS, your browser can be sure it's talking to www.example.gov
and not to any other web server. Both work equally well against passive
eavesdroppers, but they authenticate different things and so will work
differently against active attackers.
~~~
azernik
In other words, IPSEC is useless without DNSSEC, and that isn't getting
universal adoption anytime soon.
~~~
cesarb
Oh, no, it's useful for what it's designed for: to protect communication
between two computers. If I have IPSEC protecting the connection between my
desktop and my internal DNS server, and between my desktop and my database
server, I know that connection to my database server is protected by IPSEC.
It doesn't protect the mapping between a computer name and a IP address, but
that's not its job.
------
kstrauser
Outstanding! This is wonderful news. I've heard people ask whether a given
site or protocol really _needs_ to be secure but I hold the opposite opinion:
everything should be encrypted unless there's a specific and compelling reason
otherwise. I'm thrilled that major organizations are coming to the same
conclusion.
------
some_furry
[https://istlsfastyet.com/](https://istlsfastyet.com/)
This is a step in the right direction. Worldwide HTTPS adoption makes the
Internet a safer place for everyone.
------
Someone1234
Great. When that is done, then do email with is frankly a far more retractable
problem in general (and a field where there is almost zero innovation or
improvement, thanks to Microsoft (Exchange/Outlook/Outlook.com), Apple (Mail),
and Google (Gmail)).
~~~
bitJericho
What's wrong with email? It's a 40 year old standard that still works great.
~~~
Someone1234
It is insecure in so many ways...
~~~
PaulHoule
One thing that amazes me is that I get a huge volume of spam emails that claim
to be from financial institutions. I use gmail for two reasons: (i)
deliverability to mailing lists I need to be on and (2) other mail programs
don't filter that junk out.
In 2015 it should be impossible to send a fake email from chase.com
~~~
bitJericho
If chase.com uses dkim and spf records and if your mail server is properly
configured then it is indeed impossible.
~~~
me1010
and, of course, DMARC -- so rejection policies can be set.
PGP FTW!
Now if only STEED would be implemented... [http://g10code.com/docs/steed-
usable-e2ee.pdf](http://g10code.com/docs/steed-usable-e2ee.pdf)
But, unfortunately, even mail from a properly configured mail server on
properly protected domain will still end up in gmail users' spam boxes by
default. Domain and server rep systems are a bear to work with.
------
PaulHoule
I guess this means you'll visit a government web site and 2 times out of 10
gets a popup that says the certificate is out of date.
------
jvehent
They also use a pretty strong TLS conf
[https://gist.github.com/jvehent/98fdfef139b6237f7bf5](https://gist.github.com/jvehent/98fdfef139b6237f7bf5)
What strikes me is that their conf is inaccessible to old client (no sslv3, no
sha-1 cert). Honest question: does the government think it's ok to break
website access from ancient clients (XPSP2 IE6)? Or will they be forced to
enable legacy ciphers when the first citizens complain? I'm genuinely
interested, because the topic of TLS modernity is a hard problem to solve. If
that was easy, google.com wouldn't be using RC4-MD5 and a sha-1 cert...
~~~
001spartan
With the number of attacks against SSLv3 and/or RC4, I think it's a good idea.
Especially given that it's a government website. With a target that large,
it's a safe bet that, at any given moment, someone is trying something against
that site. And really, who's going to access cio.gov from an XP box? Heh.
------
zx2c4
> "the financial cost of procuring a certificate"
Doesn't the government have a few of its own CAs installed in every browser?
Can't they procure their own certificates for free?
------
pcunite
I want to select who my browser should trust. Kinda like how I choose which
NTP server to get my time sync from. Make it a popup the first time a browser
starts.
------
tem5050
Nice! They even go in to detail about cipher and protocol choices
------
u23KDd23
An HTTPS only standard is not going to mitigate MITM attacks which is
invariably the biggest issue regardless of perpetrators although this is
clearly a step in the right direction.
~~~
rando3826
Proper HTTPS is secure at MITM attacks. HTTPS can be MITMed if the certs or
local systems have been breached. But the MITM is just a byproduct of a
different failure. Absolutely any secure communication protocol has to be
honored by both parties for it to be secure.
~~~
u23KDd23
I think preventing MITMs when you don't have control of the local systems or
network architecture is important.
~~~
rando3826
But it's impossible. If I'm logging your keystrokes, game over. Unless you add
some firmware to do dsa encryption in your brain, and become very fast at
typing cyphertext.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Show HN: ElementHistory – See what code created or updated a DOM element - mostlystatic
https://github.com/mattzeunert/ElementHistory
======
chrisz42
how much does it affect performance?
~~~
mostlystatic
Capturing the callstack with `Error().stack` is expensive and it's done for
every DOM manipulation.
The idea is that you'll only enable the extension when you're mystified by a
DOM change, so if the page loads half as fast it's not a big deal.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Core NFC beta - runesoerensen
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/corenfc
======
op00to
Does this mean that iOS devices might be able to use something like a Yubikey?
Reading the Yubikey Neo spec sheet, it looks like the answer very well may be
yes!
~~~
ghostly_s
Not sure I understand the use-case here...for 2FA? Or something else? Seems
like someone's phone and Yubikey would generally be in the same location,
anyway, so it's not much of a second factor, no?
~~~
op00to
Most people carry their 2nd factor on a keychain, which is usually in close
proximity to their phones - anyway, I think the benefit is that we can stop
keeping one factor on a device that's potentially remotely exploitable (google
auth on a phone)
------
gergles
> Reading NFC NDEF tags is supported on iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.
There is no reason to limit this functionality to the 7. Very disappointing.
~~~
rtpg
One small reason is that Japan's Felica standard was only supported from the
iPhone 7.
In Japan it's been common practice for certain smart cards to have Android
equivalents (most of them here ship with NFC), so you have a decent app
ecosystem that supports it.
For example I can get a Starbucks app on my phone and use that through NFC
instead of a physical card
~~~
astrange
Starbucks Japan doesn't give you points for using their card, right? It just
holds value like a Suica?
I'd rather stick to using Suica on my iPhone because… you can refill it with
an American credit card… and no matter what you spend it on, the refill counts
as travel spending!
~~~
jwong_
Can you cash out your Suica to JPY?
~~~
astrange
No, but you can buy anything in a convenience store with it. You can refund a
physical Suica but I don't know if you can do it with a virtual one.
------
jquave
I've been playing with this a bit, I posted my findings on a tutorial here:
[http://jamesonquave.com/blog/core-nfc-tutorial-for-nfc-on-
io...](http://jamesonquave.com/blog/core-nfc-tutorial-for-nfc-on-ios-devices/)
------
jlawer
I am not familiar enough with NFC, would this allow standard NFC payments
through apps OTHER then apple pay?
I know Apple has been getting some pressure (regulatory) about banks not being
able to use their own apps and having to pay for Apple Pay.
~~~
dan1234
>Detect NFC tags and read messages that contain NDEF data.
Looks like it just allows the iPhone to read other tags.
>Reading NFC NDEF tags is supported on iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.
I wonder why the iPhone 6/6S and Watch aren't supported?
~~~
asendra
Yes, that is a bummer. It means that all those NFC iphonse 6/6s in countries
without Apple pay will never use the capabilities. Just stupid.
------
MBCook
I've been wondering… Could this allow an iPhone to take Apple Pay from another
iPhone?
It seems to me like apple should be able to make it possible to accept Apple
Pay when someone is using an iPad (for example) as a terminal.
~~~
astrange
The receiver for NFC payments needs more electric power than the transmitter,
because for a credit card it actually powers the other side. I think. Someone
from Square told me this at a party once.
iOS 11 will have person-to-person Apple Pay:
[https://www.apple.com/ios/ios-11-preview/](https://www.apple.com/ios/ios-11-preview/)
------
callumjones
> Detect NFC tags and read messages that contain NDEF data.
Sadly it looks like this is read-only, which would eliminate companies like
Clipper from implementing it?
------
gumby
This seems to be unidirectional -- am I reading this correctly? I'd like to be
able to use my phone to authenticate to the keycard system at work (basically
clone my keycard).
What I did is carefully cut my keycard down and mount the NFC device into a
hole I cut in my case. The security czar heard about this and was not
impressed and she disabled my card :-(
~~~
oceanswave
Why would she do that when it serves the same purpose? One could also argue
that your method decreases loss and increases discoverability (as you'll
probably be less prone to misplacing your phone and if you do, you'll notice
it more quickly)
~~~
gumby
The same reason random websites have stupid password policies I suppose.
It does prevent her from getting my card back when I leave...but clearly as
they can be disabled that doesn't matter.
------
a9175
It is really a big thing. Get a home appliance be smart with a only tap. Ntag
I2C talks to mcu(home appliances), iPhone becomes the brain. cheapest and
intuitive solution to build a smart appliance.LoL
------
huangc10
Been waiting a few years for this. I wanted to start something back in 2013
which detects NFC tags for ID but had to introduce QR scanning to get around
the iOS issue.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Michael Burry of ‘The Big Short’ says he has found the next market bubble - ak39
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/04/the-big-shorts-michael-burry-says-he-has-found-the-next-market-bubble.html
======
mehhh
Passive stock funds have consistently beat actively managed funds for decades,
in part due to the high fees actively managed funds charge.
Even with a severe haircut, I doubt the passive funds will fare worse than
actively managed funds.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Micro-scale fusion in dense relativistic nanowire array plasmas - nabla9
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-03445-z
======
nabla9
In case it's unclear from the abstract, this is not related to fusion as
energy source. Its a new way to generate neutron pulses for neutron imaging.
~~~
ISL
It's also just cool. The thoughtful variety of things people are finding to do
with ultrafast lasers is both awesome and inspiring.
~~~
mkstowegnv
I'd appreciate any recommendations for ways to keep up with developments in
femtosecond and faster lasers - both in the lab and what is available
commercially, or a recommendation for a guru out there who is keeping up with
all the widely scattered, obscure sources in all the asian and other
languages.
------
dflock
That is _the most_ sci-fi headline.
------
00N8
obviously this is sci-fi speculative, but anybody else think: this is exactly
the kind of fusion you'd want if you were trying to modify internal combustion
engines to run on fusion :P instead of injecting diesel, you pump cold water &
laser a microdot of deuterium nanowire , bam! sweet zero emissions
powerstroke. let's split the royalties if you get it working, eh?
------
00N8
if you can come up with a way to produce the nanowire substrate at scale, I
didn't see anything saying it wouldn't be good for energy production - did I
miss that section?
~~~
gpm
For 1J of energy it's producing ~ 10^6 neutrons each with ~ 10^-13 joules of
energy. I'm not quite sure what fraction of the energy is released as high
energy neutrons (it should also release high energy protons and gamma rays
sometimes) but I think it's very high, so we are looking at something in the
vicinity of a 1 millionth the energy input - output.
There do seem to be a few substantial improvements left on the table per the
paper (mixing tritium in, scaling up a bit, etc) but getting to break even via
this technique in the near future seems unlikely. And even after that you have
to capture the energy.
~~~
anfilt
After briefly skimming the paper I don't think this method was even devised
for energy production. It mainly just a neutron source.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Colleges want professors to stay mum on student Covid-19 cases - chriskanan
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/08/31/colleges-want-professors-stay-mum-student-covid-19-cases
======
aurizon
They would, they are sensitive about cash, all about cash - let them die in
silence... the ultimate conflict of interest...
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Graphene: A D3.js, Backbone.js based Graphite Dashboard Toolkit - jondot
https://github.com/jondot/graphene
======
madarco
I'm tracking Graphite evolution since some articles from the Etsy engineers
(Track every Release <http://codeascraft.etsy.com/2010/12/08/track-every-
release/> and Measure Everything
[http://codeascraft.etsy.com/2011/02/15/measure-anything-
meas...](http://codeascraft.etsy.com/2011/02/15/measure-anything-measure-
everything/))
However every time I look at the site it seems more and more an abandonware.
Only a quickstart and no proper documentation.
~~~
jondot
The common things you'd want to do in Graphite will be easy, more complex
things requires knowledge which isn't in the docs, but easily found if you're
willing to invest the time in searching and reading code. Of course everyone
would like great documentation; however some open source projects may not have
the time for everything -- and that's ok, because its all free and full of
love. Graphite is a great engineering achievement, and an awesome tool to
have. Give it a try, even though it lacks documentation at this stage.
~~~
madarco
I haven't notice that Graphite is written in python, this is a plus (since we
have several projects in python).
However, why should I prefer Graphite over, for eg, Munin? It's still open
source but also has a proper documentation.
~~~
jondot
I'm not sure they're comparable. I did the same evaluation, one of the many
criteria that I had is a system that can handle many, many data points from
many hosts (at the peak we had 50 production machines) and provide robust
flexible queries over them; with almost 0 maintenance/configuration. Metrics
are created dynamically, the Graphite database is optimized for this problem
(more optimized than RRD - although it seems that recent versions of RRD
closed the gap), and it can take a beating in terms of scale. A single
Graphite instance does this effortlessly.
~~~
madarco
Mmm, not bad, not bad at all.
It doesn't support alarms, right?
~~~
mattyb
Graphite is not a monitoring tool. It stores time series data and graphs it.
You can write a monitoring system that queries Graphite, and send
notifications from there. Graphite can give you the raw data that backs the
graphs:
[http://graphite.readthedocs.org/en/latest/url-
api.html#rawda...](http://graphite.readthedocs.org/en/latest/url-
api.html#rawdata)
------
cicloid
I seen Graphite pop up a lot lately.
Why should I care about Graphite?
~~~
Corrado
Graphite is a very simple time-series graphing solution that does one thing
very well. Setting it up is easy and feeding it data is even easier. It's
basically a little server which builds RRD instances on the fly and allows you
to generate images of graphs using URLs. For example, you can feed it all
kinds of data from your web server, in real time, and have it produce an graph
as a PNG.
I guess for me the best part is the simplicity of the whole thing. Getting
data in is just a simple TCP or UDP socket call (which you can do with almost
anything, from nc to curl). Getting graphs out is a URL (albit a bit complex
to create by hand :). Tying it all together is a simple, but functional, web
interface.
Graphine solves the problem of graph generation and building dashboards in
Graphite. By default Graphite builds PNG graphs which are expensive to build
on the server and aren't dynamic. Graphine coverts these static PNG files to
SVG and lets the browser do all the heavy lifting with regards to rendering.
~~~
Diederich
Graphite is awesome; I've been stuffing more and more of our operational
metrics into it since 2010.
It is, however, not RRD:
[http://graphite.readthedocs.org/en/latest/whisper.html#diffe...](http://graphite.readthedocs.org/en/latest/whisper.html#differences-
between-whisper-and-rrd)
Having said that, Graphite does not use THE RRD, but it is a kind of round
robin database. :-)
------
tmcw
Uhm, awesome. Love it.
------
danmaz74
Come on, no online demo? Not even screenshots? How are people supposed to
understand if there is anything good there?
~~~
_pius
<http://jondot.github.com/graphene/>
~~~
danmaz74
Thanks - I hadn't noticed that
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Cloud Zoom - Uncle_Sam
http://www.professorcloud.com/mainsite/cloud-zoom.htm
======
OwlHuntr
very nice! useful like all hell
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Apple, AT&T sued for lack of MMS capability - AndrewWarner
http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/43616/118/
======
daeken
It's rare I see a class action suit with merit, and this is one of them. If it
was just Apple advertising it, it wouldn't be as big a problem (since it does
work with other carriers elsewhere), but a carrier clearly advertising
something they don't support is just ludicrous.
~~~
masklinn
> It's rare I see a class action suit with merit, and this is one of them. If
> it was just Apple advertising it, it wouldn't be as big a problem
So only partial: the suit against AT&T makes sense (especially if they're
advertising it…), again Apple not so much.
------
naz
Apple needs to move away from exclusivity. Networks would be falling over
themselves to cater for iPhone users if there was a choice in the matter.
~~~
alanthonyc
Just guessing, but I'm sure they can't wait to get away from AT&T themselves.
When they first introduced the iPhone, they didn't have the leverage the do
now.
------
dzlobin
"The class action suit alleges the Louisana suit will consist of at least
10,000 individuals" Enjoy your $.10 settlement and watch AT&T continue as they
were.
~~~
chrischen
Beats bending over for it. How do I get my $.10 ?
------
octover
I think that maybe this could have some traction and get AT&T more in line.
Though I don't know since the suit seems to be based on some fallacies. AT&T
does support MMS for phones that are not the iPhone. Credible speculation
seems to be that AT&T flexed their muscles with Apple (and anyone who saw the
WWDC 2009 keynote can attest annoyingly so to Apple) to delay MMS on the
iPhone until they upgraded their towers more to handle the load. My friends
and I would send each other MMS messages from our Sony Ericsson & Nokia phones
years ago. I was on T-Mobile and they were on AT&T.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
DTrace for Linux 2016 - okket
http://www.brendangregg.com/blog/2016-10-27/dtrace-for-linux-2016.html
======
jdesfossez
It would be worthwhile to clarify the term "tracing" to distinguish between
live aggregation and post-processing approaches. The general confusion around
the "tracing" terminology seems to imply a competition between these two,
while they should rather be seen as complementary.
DTrace, SystemTap and eBPF/BCC are designed to aggregate data in the critical
path and compute a summary of the activity. Ftrace and LTTng are designed to
extract traces of execution for high resolution post-processing with as small
overhead as possible.
Aggregation is very powerful and gives a quick overview of the current
activity of the system. Tracing extracts the detailed activity at various
levels and allows in-depth understanding of a particular behaviour after the
fact by allowing to run as many analyses as necessary on the captured trace.
In terms of impact on the traced system, trace buffering scales better with
the number of cores than aggregation approaches due its ability to partition
the trace data into per-core buffers.
Both approaches have upsides and downsides and should not be seen as being in
competition, they address different use-cases and can even complement each
other.
~~~
brendangregg
You're right that a key feature and differentiator of DTrace/stap/BPF is
kernel aggregations, but they can do per-event output as well. But I think I
know what you mean, especially as I was at the sysdig summit yesterday and
could see a major difference.
I think the two models for tracers, playing on their strengths, are: 1. real-
time analysis tracers (DTrace/stap/BPF), and 2. offline analysis tracers
(LTTng, sysdig). Both can do the other as well, but I'm just pointing out
strengths.
sysdig (and I believe LTTng) has done great work at creating capture files
that can then be analyzed offline in many many different ways, and they've
optimized the way full-event dumps can be captured and saved (which I know
LTTng has done as well). DTrace/stap/BPF don't have any offline capture file
capabilities -- they could do it, but it's not been their focus.
------
AceJohnny2
I've only recently tried out DTrace on OS X, and I'll admit to being kinda
floored at what it can do. To think I used to be satisfied with strace on
Linux!
Seeing the tracing capabilites of Linux expand is exciting indeed.
Edit: the couple of tutorials that finally unlocked DTrace (on OS X) for me
are:
[https://www.objc.io/issues/19-debugging/dtrace/](https://www.objc.io/issues/19-debugging/dtrace/)
[https://www.bignerdranch.com/blog/hooked-on-dtrace-
part-1/](https://www.bignerdranch.com/blog/hooked-on-dtrace-part-1/)
~~~
tkinom
Agree, DTrace on OS X is supper powerful.
I once try to debug the open source libusb app in Mac OS, with DTrace I can
trace the App, Kernel USB API call, libusb internal thread in user space, etc.
Much better visibility to system activities compare to simple strace.
Absolutely love the power of what it can do.
BTW, Can a DTrace script to use to monitor a system with potential "Dirty COW"
type privilege escalation issue?
------
helper
The most challenging thing for us is running a new enough kernel to get these
features. While upgrading to a newer kernel isn't particularly hard, small
companies don't have a lot of engineering resources to run kernels that aren't
maintained by their distro of choice (usually on the LTS release).
The good thing is this is solved simply by waiting long enough. The bad thing
is most developers can't just pick this up today without a bunch of extra
effort.
If you are looking for something you can use with old kernels you should
definitely checkout Brendan's perf-tools repo[1]. It takes advantage of older
kernel features and works with things as old as ubuntu 12.04.
*Edit: Fixed Brendan's name
[1]: [https://github.com/brendangregg/perf-
tools](https://github.com/brendangregg/perf-tools)
~~~
technofiend
This is the same problem shared by RedHat customers, although RH is great
about backporting features to older kernels, I'm not sure they'll be able to
move this to 3.x from 4.9. The price we pay for stability.
~~~
4ad
You mean the price paid for stable kernel ABIs, so proprietary drivers can use
them?
The Linux kernel is the most safe operating system component to upgrade,
mostly because the Linux kernel people care deeply about compatibility and not
breaking user space. While it is still not free to upgrade, the cost is
minimal compared to the cost (in real money, risk, security) of backporting
major components to older kernels, like Red Hat is doing.
Red Hat is maintaining old kernels for having a stable kernel ABI (among some
other reasons), not for general "stability".
Personally I run only CentOS, but always with a recent kernel, albeit usually
a LTS one. Mostly to get exactly these type of features described in this
article.
~~~
technofiend
Well they show the same caution and care around curating their repositories
and releasing security fixes, so in my opinion (you may disagree) they try to
ensure stability beyond the kernel's ABI.
~~~
jlgaddis
Indeed. The kernel is not the only component (of the complete system) that
gets features backported.
I, personally, am quite happy that I don't really have to worry that a routine
"yum update" is going to break any of my installed applications.
------
wyldfire
Congrats, this is good news.
> On Linux, some out-of-tree tracers like SystemTap could serve these needs,
> but brought their own challenges.
I was pretty happy with stap, it had a really rich feature set.
> DTrace has its own concise language, D, similar to awk, whereas bcc uses
> existing languages (C and Python or lua) with libraries.
I think we need more creative names for languages. The short and simple ones
like "go" and "D" keep on having collisions. :)
>BPF adds ... uprobes
uprobes + all the other stuff is really killer, I like the idea of watching
for stuff like "my app has crossed this threshold and then this system
condition occurs". At least when I tried it a couple years ago with stap my
kernel wasn't built with uprobes support and I wasn't inclined to rebuild it.
Hopefully it becomes (or has become) more mainstream.
~~~
brendangregg
> I was pretty happy with stap, it had a really rich feature set.
So are other companies. I mentioned it in the post, as in a way this hurt BPF
development, as companies that normally would have contributed resources said
they were satisfied with stap. Exciting times might be ahead for stap, if it
continues its BPF backend.
As for naming, yes, we need better names. Maybe the bcc/Python/BPF combination
can be named something?
------
qwertyuiop924
Will there every be way to write probes/tracing scripts without dropping into
C? I don't mind C in general, but I don't want to have to dig out the
documentation for the eBPF C library and start writing hundreds of lines of C
every time I want to run a trace.
DTrace made this really nice, because you would write your tracing scripts in
a high-level, awk-like language, which is the sort of thing well-suited to the
purpose.
~~~
brendangregg
Yes, see the section "A higher-level language", which mentions at least two
projects: SystemTap+BPF and ply.
Think of the current bcc/Python/C interface as a lightweight skin that was
necessary during BPF development to kick the tires on various features,
prototype tools, see what else needed to be done, etc. It may be good enough
to stay around, as lots of tools have been written for it that will get used
and be valuable. But there's room for higher-level languages too.
If Sasha keeps developing his "trace" tool (and its summary counterpart,
argdist), that may serve many such custom needs (as another option). See the
various examples:
[https://github.com/iovisor/bcc/blob/master/tools/trace_examp...](https://github.com/iovisor/bcc/blob/master/tools/trace_example.txt)
, like:
# trace 'sys_read (arg3 > 20000) "read %d bytes", arg3'
TIME PID COMM FUNC -
05:18:23 4490 dd sys_read read 1048576 bytes
05:18:23 4490 dd sys_read read 1048576 bytes
05:18:23 4490 dd sys_read read 1048576 bytes
~~~
caf
How feasible would it be to compile the dtrace language itself to an eBPF
backend?
~~~
qwertyuiop924
Huh. Is there a formal definition anywhere?
If we have some kind of spec (even if it's not formal), it might be possible,
since they are roughly equivalent, AFAIK. However, since I haven't worked in-
depth in either, I'm unsure what work would be involved: it's possible that
only a subset would compile.
Anyways, this is probably a good goal to shoot for. Dtrace is the system
tracer on pretty much all of the other big unixes, so it's a good idea to
support as much of its language as possible. Plus, there are a lot of scripts
already written in DTrace's language: having access to them would be
invaluable.
~~~
brendangregg
Nobody would love a DTrace/BPF front-end more than I. And not just because I'd
sell more copies of my DTrace book (I joke :). It is a really nice language,
although missing a few things that BPF can do that DTrace can't (like saving
and retrieving stacks), so it'd need to be enhanced.
But with the warning that I'm not a lawyer: before beginning work on a
DTrace/BPF front-end, I'd start by talking to a copyright lawyer to see if
permission or a license is needed from Oracle. DTrace is Oracle copyrighted,
and re-implementing a DTrace front-end on Linux sounds a lot like re-
implementing an Oracle-copyrighted API.
~~~
Annatar
What would stop one from enhancing the DTrace in illumos further? That is
licensed under the CDDL, and Adam has made several enhancements to DTrace
lately, and if my memory serves me correctly, Bryan fixed a couple of bugs in
it recently as well.
~~~
qwertyuiop924
Wouldn't really solve our problem, though: We'd need a new compiler for the
language. As I understand it, that would require a almost entirely new
codebase. But I don't work on DTrace internals, so I may be wrong.
~~~
Annatar
What? That doesn't make any sense. How is dtrace(1) built on illumos, then?
~~~
qwertyuiop924
I'm uncertain, but I thought dtrace on illumos was interpreted. Am I wrong?
If I am, than all we'd have to rewrite was the compiler backend, which is much
easier, so that would be nice.
~~~
Annatar
dtrace(1) itself is compiled from C into an ELF binary executable.
% file `which dtrace`
/usr/sbin/dtrace: ELF 32-bit LSB executable 80386 Version 1, dynamically linked, stripped
The DTrace language, D, is interpreted. By DTrace.
The problem lies in the fact that neither the GNU/Linux kernel, nor the GNU
applications provide DTrace probe points. On Solaris and thus on illumos, and
thus on SmartOS, there are tens of thousands of probe points and numerous
probe providers. Some external applications, like PostgreSQL or PHP, added
DTrace probes, and all is well on Solaris / illumos / SmartOS. Some, like
node.js had providers and probes added by engineers at Joyent.
[http://dtrace.org/blogs/dap/2012/04/25/profiling-node-
js/](http://dtrace.org/blogs/dap/2012/04/25/profiling-node-js/)
[http://dtrace.org/blogs/dap/2013/11/20/understanding-
dtrace-...](http://dtrace.org/blogs/dap/2013/11/20/understanding-dtrace-
ustack-helpers/)
[http://dtrace.org/blogs/blog/category/node-
js/](http://dtrace.org/blogs/blog/category/node-js/)
GNU/Linux would have to do the same thing. It currently only has but a handful
of DTrace probes and providers, which is understandably not very useful.
[http://dtrace.org/blogs/ahl/2011/10/05/dtrace-for-
linux-2/](http://dtrace.org/blogs/ahl/2011/10/05/dtrace-for-linux-2/)
~~~
qwertyuiop924
None of that is at all what I meant: allow me to clarify.
I was talking about the DTrace language, which I have been avoiding calling D
up until this point, so as to avoid confusion with the other D. In this post,
when I talk about D, I will be referring to the DTrace language.
Linux now has a tracing system called eBPF, which provides many of the same
advantages of DTrace. This is what Gregg's blog post was about.
However, eBPF requires compiling tracer scripts, or at least parts of the
tracer scripts, into bytecode (IIRC). Currently, the bytecode is usually
compiled from C code. However, it is ungainly and impractical to write a bunch
of C every time you want to run a trace. So I asked if they had plans to
support compiling a higher level language. At this point, somebody suggested
that somebody should work on compiling the DTrace language, D, to eBPF
bytecode. I thought that this would be a good idea, and we were discussing how
viable it would be.
I thought that you had suggested using Illumos DTrace as a base for this
compiler. Since by my impression, Illumos DTrace interprets D, I thought that
this would require almost a complete rewrite, and thus it wouldn't very
helpful.
It seems you meant something else. So what did you mean?
~~~
Annatar
I think we both got lost, didn't we? (:-)) So let's rewind:
_It is a really nice language, although missing a few things that BPF can do
that DTrace can 't (like saving and retrieving stacks), so it'd need to be
enhanced. But with the warning that I'm not a lawyer: before beginning work on
a DTrace/BPF front-end, I'd start by talking to a copyright lawyer to see if
permission or a license is needed from Oracle._
I fail to see how Oracle would be relevant, given that the entire DTrace is
released under the CDDL. My question to Brendan was why he couldn't just take
or enhance the existing DTrace codebase to do the front-end for BPF?
(Personally, I think the other guy working on integrating BPF deeper into the
GNU/Linux kernel, rather than _biting the bullet_ , taking DTrace and doing
the same thing Solaris engineers did to the SunOS kernel, is terribly mis-
guided, especially since some probes and providers already exist in Linux. In
the end, it will be a "Linux zoo", like everything else in Linux: "56"
competing solutions for doing one thing, none of them comprehensive, and no
consistency. Linux history is being repeated again. You have one comprehensive
tool which works across several operating systems, DTrace, and Linux is yet
again different from everyone else. Reminds me a lot of Microsoft Windows.)
~~~
qwertyuiop924
It's not ideal, but eBPF works now, and it works on all the new kernels, which
is more than can be said for any of the DTrace on Linux projects. It looks
like eBPF is becoming that unified solution (mostly: ftrace and a few others
still exist, but eBPF is the most capable, and is picking up steam). As for
being different from what the other Unixes did, that's why I was in favor of
developing a frontend that supported D, so that we could at least have a
shared language with the rest of unixland.
>My question to Brendan was why he couldn't just take or enhance the existing
DTrace codebase to do the front-end for BPF?
Brendan didn't answer, so I don't know, but my guess was that turning the
interpreter into a compiler would require a near-complete rewrite.
~~~
brendangregg
> that's why I was in favor of developing a frontend that supported D, so that
> we could at least have a shared language with the rest of unixland.
Yes, D everyone would be nice, but what exactly does it mean? We can share
DTrace scripts? Docs? Blog posts? Books? I've been porting them all over to
bcc/BPF. Am I missing something?
People have already began work developing new languages, eg, ply
[https://wkz.github.io/ply/](https://wkz.github.io/ply/). What if we develop a
language that's much better than D? We need to make enhancements, anyway.
I should reiterate something I covered in the post: most people won't care
about this. Most people didn't write DTrace scripts when they had the option
to (did either of you write DTrace scripts? have some on github?). Most people
used the tools. And today, people can "apt install bcc-tools" and use
DTraceToolkit like tools.
If someone wants to engage lawyers & Oracle and see if or what needs to be
done to use DTrace, then great, it'd make my job easier when developing these
tools (and I'd sell more DTrace books :). But I'd also like to see someone
take a swing at developing a better language as another possibility.
~~~
Annatar
_did either of you write DTrace scripts?_
I did, some, in the beginning (circa 2006): I was stymied mostly by the
realization that _deep, deep_ knowledge of the kernel structures was required
to make use of DTrace (I wasn't working as a kernel engineer per se at the
time.)
I forgot a lot of it in the meanwhile: just yesterday I was trying to get a
simple ustack() using DTrace on a running process, and I even pulled open
"Solaris Performance and Tools", and eventually when the process finished, I
threw up my hands in frustration. All I wanted to do was see why the running
process (oggenc) was taking so long. (But this BPF thing looks far, far more
complicated and convoluted than D.)
Nevertheless, I think D is ideal, because, in my case, it plays on my
experience in programming AWK: apart from needing to know what in the kernel I
wanted to probe, I could immediately start writing DTrace programs without
having to learn the language. And _that_ is amazing.
~~~
brendangregg
See my other comments -- Annatar, what is your real name?
I'll add: as someone who has written and published countless DTrace and BPF
scripts, I don't know that pursing a DTrace front end is wise right now, for
reasons I've already covered.
I'm sorry you weren't able to solve that issue. I'd suggest starting with a
profiler (timed sampling) if it was running on-CPU, to see where CPU time is
spent.
------
lallysingh
So we're not getting DTrace proper, it seems. Instead something else will stem
up from the various linux tracing systems. Maybe this BPF-based one.
It's a shame. One of the nice things about dtrace was that there was a book on
it. Good, in-depth documentation on performance tools is hard to find.
~~~
brendangregg
Thanks, I wrote the DTrace book with Jim Mauro, and there will be a BPF
tracing book as well.
BTW, I wouldn't say "maybe" regarding BPF, as it's integrated in the Linux
kernel (unlike most of the other tracers, which are add-ons). Sooner or later
everyone who runs Linux is getting it.
~~~
cthalupa
I think I bother you about a new tracing book for Linux every time one of your
articles is posted, so I'll give my obligatory: We want a new Brendan Gregg
tracing book! ;)
Things have been moving so fast it's probably a good thing you didn't. It
sounds like 4.9 will slow a lot of that down to a more manageable pace for
writing a book, though.
------
asymmetric
> In 2014 I joined the Netflix cloud performance team. Having spent years as a
> DTrace expert, it might have seemed crazy for me to move to Linux
I thought Netflix was mostly running FreeBSD [1]. Is it only the Open Connect
Appliance?
[1]:
[https://www.freebsdfoundation.org/testimonial/netflix/](https://www.freebsdfoundation.org/testimonial/netflix/)
~~~
brendangregg
When you login to Netflix and browse videos, you're running on the Netflix
cloud, which is massive, AWS/EC2, and mostly Ubuntu Linux. When you hit play,
you're running on the OCA FreeBSD CDN, which is also a large deployment.
~~~
Annatar
So why didn't they just deploy FreeBSD across the entire server park? That
would also give you DTrace again...
~~~
X86BSD
I'll put $1 on politics. I mean look, you have an OS that bgregg has had to
pour how much effort into to get the observability that FreeBSD already had?
And that's just the observability part. Then you have the FreeBSD network
stack. To me it's clear based on the work done on Linux it was a political
choice.
~~~
Annatar
Yeah but if that's the case, it's really bad. There is no place for politics
in computer science or information technology.
~~~
empthought
I think it's more likely because Netflix uses the JVM -- probably the Oracle
JDK -- which is supported on Linux but not on FreeBSD.
~~~
Annatar
That makes _even less sense_ , and reeks even more of irrationality: if
they're using JVM, a Solaris based system like SmartOS would be the best
choice - Solaris is where Java is developed, after all.
It's like buying a NetApp appliance to run NFS servers, when Solaris is _the_
reference NFS server implementation. Humans do not make any sense with their
decisions governed by feelings instead of logic.
~~~
brendangregg
Yes, we're using the JVM. No, Solaris or SmartOS would not be the best choice.
Would it help if I went into detail as to why?
~~~
Annatar
Yes it would.
~~~
brendangregg
I worked on Solaris for over a decade, and for a while it was usually a better
choice than Linux, especially due to price/performance (which includes how
many instances it takes to run a given workload). It was worth fighting for,
and I fought hard. But Linux has now become technically better in just about
every way. Out-of-box performance, tuned performance, observability tools,
reliability (on patched LTS), scheduling, networking (including TCP feature
support), driver support, application support, processor support, debuggers,
syscall features, etc. Last I checked, ZFS worked better on Solaris than
Linux, but it's an area where Linux has been catching up. I have little hope
that Solaris will ever catch up to Linux, and I have even less hope for
illumos: Linux now has around 1,000 monthly contributors, whereas illumos has
about 15.
In addition to technology advantages, Linux has a community and workforce
that's orders of magnitude larger, staff with invested skills (re-education is
part of a TCO calculation), companies with invested infrastructure (rewriting
automation scripts is also part of TCO), and also much better future
employment prospects (a factor than can influence people wanting to work at
your company on that OS). Even with my considerable and well-known Solaris
expertise, the employment prospects with Solaris are bleak and getting worse
every year. With my Linux skills, I can work at awesome companies like Netflix
(which I highly recommend), Facebook, Google, SpaceX, etc.
Large technology-focused companies, like Netflix, Facebook, and Google, have
the expertise and appetite to make a technology-based OS decision. We have
dedicated teams for the OS and kernel with deep expertise. On Netflix's OS
team, there are three staff who previously worked at Sun Microsystems and have
more Solaris expertise than they do Linux expertise, and I believe you'll find
similar people at Facebook and Google as well. And we are choosing Linux.
The choice of an OS includes many factors. If an OS came along that was
better, we'd start with a thorough internal investigation, involving
microbenchmarks (including an automated suite I wrote), macrobenchmarks
(depending on the expected gains), and production testing using canaries. We'd
be able to come up with a rough estimate of the cost savings based on
price/performance. Most microservices we have run hot in user-level
applications (think 99% user time), not the kernel, so it's difficult to find
large gains from the OS or kernel. Gains are more likely to come from off-CPU
activities, like task scheduling and TCP congestion, and indirect, like NUMA
memory placement: all areas where Linux is leading. It would be very difficult
to find a large gain by changing the kernel from Linux to something else. Just
based on CPU cycles, the target that should have the most attention is Java,
not the OS. But let's say that somehow we did find an OS with a significant
enough gain: we'd then look at the cost to switch, including retraining staff,
rewriting automation software, and how quickly we could find help to resolve
issues as they came up. Linux is so widely used that there's a good chance
someone else has found an issue, had it fixed in a certain version or
documented a workaround.
What's left where Solaris/SmartOS/illumos is better? 1. There's more marketing
of the features and people. Linux develops great technologies and has some
highly skilled kernel engineers, but I haven't seen any serious effort to
market these. Why does Linux need to? And 2. Enterprise support. Large
enterprise companies where technology is not their focus (eg, a breakfast
cereal company) and who want to outsource these decisions to companies like
Oracle and IBM. Oracle still has Solaris enterprise support that I believe is
very competitive compared to Linux offerings.
So you've chosen to deploy on Solaris or SmartOS? I don't know why you would,
but this is also why I also wouldn't rush to criticize your choice: I don't
know the process whereby you arrived at that decision, and for all I know it
may be the best business decision for your set of requirements.
I'd suggest you give other tech companies the benefit of the doubt for times
when you don't actually know why they have decided something. You never know,
one day you might want to work at one.
~~~
Annatar
It was Jeff Bonwick's team which proved that the number of engineers or even
developers working on a given problem is completely irrelevant: ZFS was
developed by a team of, what, five people? Meanwhile, how many people are
working on BTRFS? It's nowhere near ZFS.
But, let's chalk that up to an isolated, one off statistical aberration. From
what I understand Adam and Bryan wrote DTrace almost single handedly, with
some help from Mike, and even with all the contributions, you can still count
the people who made DTrace a working production tool on the fingers of your
one hand.
However, let's chalk that up to a one-off, statistical aberration as well.
Meanwhile, how many people are working on how many tracing frameworks for
Linux?
Next, we have zones, a complete, working, production proven virtualization
solution, augmented by KVM, lx, TRITON, Consul, et cetera. One coherent
solution. Built upon technology on which _I_ ran production Oracle databases
on, way back in 2006, powering a very large institution which was making very
large amounts of money. By the second. How many engineers did it take to
design, architect, and code all that up?
Meanwhile, there are how many competing cloud virtualization solutions based
on Linux? And remarkably, except for SmartOS, _none_ are a complete,
comprehensive solution: they all lack one thing or another. Not one of those
Linux based solutions is paranoid about data integrity or correctness of
operation. Those things are not even an afterthought of Linux.
Should I chalk that up to a one-off, statistical aberration, or would you say
that there is a pattern here?
Amiga Intuition library, the foundation on which the GUI is built into the
system, was written single-handedly by one just one person: RJ Mical. In a
couple of days! For almost two decades, it was _the_ reference on how to build
a library of GUI primitives with almost unlimited flexibility.
Star Control 2, one of the greatest games in history, was developed by just
two guys in the span of three years.
Dave Haynie almost single handedly developed not one, but entire series of
Commodore computers, the C16, C116, C Plus/4 (Commodore 264). Those are the
lessons not only of history, but of our contemporaries, people you used to
work with: KVM was ported from the Linux kernel by what, three engineers, and
form what I can tell, it runs faster on illumos than it does on Linux where
it's developed! Why is that?
You and I apparently drew a completely different set of conclusions: when you
wrote _Linux now has around 1,000 monthly contributors, whereas illumos has
about 15_ you seem to equate the number of people working on a product with
that product's capability and quality, whereas I drew the conclusion that the
number of people is _irrelevant_ , but what the individuals or individual can
do makes all the difference in the world.
Where you are absolutely correct is that the job market for illumos based
operating systems is non-existent, at least in the country where I live, and
slim elsewhere (I used to work in Silicon Valley and in other parts of the
States). That's a fact. But I wouldn't rush to the conclusion that it's
because illumos or SmartOS are worse products, because I see no evidence of
that. Furthermore, at the end of the day, _people still need to run a cloud on
something which actually works_ , and Linux is not it. It doesn't work
correctly, when it works at all. Not even after 20 years, billions of dollars
and a world wide army of people working on it. What is the alternative?
SmartOS.
I read the Netflix tech blog from time to time. And over time, one thing
became clear to me: Netflix can do the things it does because they have _one
single_ application to scale, but most of the world _out there, in the
trenches_ , has more than one application. You write of people with deep
knowledge of the kernel and performance: I've been working in this industry
for _decades_ , and I've yet to meet anyone like that (they must all either be
a secret society, or I'm just way too paranoid, but I do know a lot of IT
professionals). So perhaps it's a living in an enclave problem, or perhaps
both you and I work in enclaves, only different ones? I'm the only person I
know _in IT_ that has done or has any interest in kernel, system engineering
or performance; I must either be incredibly bad at picking companies to work
for, or people you mentioned are really _few and far between_ , or a third
possibility is that it's a fluke coincidence?
Let me tell you about my world: I work on and with Linux professionally. Where
Netflix has only one major application (according to their tech blog) to worry
about, I work at a place where we literally have _several thousands_ of
applications, some bought, some developed in-house; for just about every
problem, we have an average of _five_ applications, all different, but
basically doing the same thing; and some of our applications are so exotic, so
complex, and so custom, that it is impossible to find anyone on the market
with any experience in them. _Thousands._
So while you might be picturing this in your head, imagine running Linux, and
suddenly your database keels over: Linux didn't fail over to the other path,
so multipathing doesn't work right. Then imagine having systems with data
corruption, but Linux can't fix it, because ZFS isn't supported by redhat
which we run, so there goes that - another outage (we have regulators and
governments to worry about, so the company is reluctant to start hacking their
own custom kernel and a ZFS-based Linux). Next, Linux suddenly has an outage
because the NFS mount is flapping. Why is it flapping? Because Linux's NFS
implementation doesn't play well with NetApp. Now imagine stuff like this
happening on a scale of 72,000 systems, spread across the planet. I never had
such problems with Solaris. Not once.
But, since that's anecdotal evidence and experience, we have to discount that
as well.
Then, I have hardware (from one of Oracle's competitors), very, very
expensive, intel-based 80-CPU Xeon monsters, with .5 TB of memory per system,
where the serial console _hangs at random_ : redhat points the finger at the
hardware manufacturer, hardware manufacturer points the finger at redhat.
Result: console is still hanging at random, with both companies telling us
they have no clue what the problem is. That's Linux for you.
Serial console always worked just fine on illumos. After all, it's basic
functionality.
Then there's the issue of Linux not getting shutdown properly: you'd think
that after 20 years of development and as you correctly noted, a world wide
_army of developers_ and billions of dollars in investments, the shutdown
procedure wouldn't try to write to an already unmounted filesystem; it's basic
functionality, after all; but even that is too much to expect, apparently (I
can dig out the redhat bug if you're interested).
That last one, we cannot chalk up to a fluke, and even worse, sgi's XFS was
the only one which actually detected that write and panicked the kernel - ext3
was oblivious to this data corruption. It's mighty difficult for me to
engineer highly reliable services on such a substrate... but let's not dwell
on that too much right now. It's too depressing.
Then there is tracing: you know there are several frameworks at play. Then
there is also lack of proper DWARF2 support (I researched the subject, and
found out that the "solution" was to replace my run time linker!) Can you
imagine something like that being a solution on an illumos based system? I
think everybody would commit collective suicide or quit altogether like Keith
Wesolowski did before _casually suggesting_ such a thing, but let's not dwell
on that either. (At this point, I think it fair to sue for pardon if I _don
't_ want my operating system made by people who think nothing of casually
replacing the run time linker only to get DWARF 2 debugging support. Do you
agree?)
Then there's this issue of startup: while SMF has been humming along for more
than a decade, Linux is still trying to figure out some sort of a _complete
working solution_ : currently that's systemd, and based on how it's
architected, it looks like Windows and Linux are finally converging.
Meanwhile, to make a startup which sort of reminds of the working SMF, systemd
has several different configuration states for its services... and no fault
management architecture to speak or write of.
One thing's for sure: your and my expirences are radically different. You
shocked me to the core, but I also understand your thinking and motives for
leaving illumos behind better, and it's the kind of appreciation I'm unable to
put in words. You are also a much more flexible: after having seen just how
convoluted, complex, slow, and resource wasting Java is, I would _never_ go
work at another company which used it (the place where I work now, Java is
_the_ language and _the_ platform). I'd just quit the industry like Keith did.
In spite of all of this, if you let me know how to reach you, I'll provide you
with enough information on how to get in touch: I'd still love to have you
over if you're in the country, and cook you dinner.
~~~
brendangregg
You've just discounted quite a lot of what I said as "no evidence", and have
made some incorrect assumptions about both development at Sun and Netflix.
Along with your other comments, at this point it's clear you are bashing on
Linux, Netflix, and me personally, and you still haven't revealed your real
name.
I'd like to know what your real name is. If you really cannot post it here,
then feel free to contact me at bgregg@netflix.com.
~~~
Annatar
I _am_ bashing on Linux, absolutely; that massive bleeding wound is _very raw
and painful_. I have no reason to bash on Netflix; I merely pointed out that,
in my view, Netflix's problem domain is very narrow, and a luxury: most IT
departments don't have only one (however massive) application to worry about.
As for you personally, I have nothing but highest respect for you. You are one
of the reasons why I still haven't quit this industry. In fact, I still cannot
believe I've actually communicated with _Brendan Gregg_. To me personally,
you're a living legend. If I believed in personal heroes, you'd be one of
them.
------
easytiger
Really rather unfortunate that big enterprise platforms such as banks and so
forth are so far behind on their kernel version that it will be approximately
7-8 years before they will have this capability, unless RH backport of course.
~~~
twblalock
On the other hand, I'm glad the banks who handle my money don't upgrade to the
latest and greatest software without taking very, very stringent precautions
to make sure everything will work.
~~~
obitoo
In my experience thats not the case - its more like 'It works, no-one touch
it! We're spending our money on more visible things' (several years later):-
"Whats that, its no longer going to be supported? Damn, now we _have_ to
upgrade"
------
4ad
Linux is not my favorite operating system, but it seems like we're stuck with
it. I'm very happy for all these improvements. Once you got used to a system
with a quality and functional tracer, Linux was hard to get back to. But Linux
tracing is getting better and better now. I am very satisfied.
~~~
Annatar
_Linux is not my favorite operating system, but it seems like we 're stuck
with it._
It only seems that way. We're never stuck with something as long as we don't
accept it. One other factor is at play which works against Linux, and that is
that people in IT like shiny new things, and therefore something else always
comes along. Hopefully this time around, that something else will be the old
new thing (learning from the past, and re-discovery). One way or the other,
the clock is ticking on Linux, and one of these days, it won't be as popular
any more, because something else will be the new-new thing. It's the nature of
this industry:
change is the only constant.
You don't have to accept anything. Don't bow to peer pressure.
------
honkhonkpants
So how does this relate to uprobes? I've been looking into that lately because
I want frequency counts (or coverage analysis) of user space programs but
without the nop-sled overhead of xray. Does dtrace supplement or replace
uprobes? Or am I really just confused?
~~~
cthalupa
DTrace is a Solaris (and BSD/OSX) tracing tool that never quite made it to
Linux (There are some attempted ports, but none of them really caught on). BPF
(and adding in frontends like BCC) give you the same sort of functionality in
Linux.
BPF can take advantage of uprobes and instrument around them, but it interacts
with them, and does not replace them
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Jade template language forced to rename to Pug - joshmanders
https://github.com/pugjs/jade/issues/2184#issuecomment-175763098
======
ljoshua
Great example of a community coming together to just get stuff done. Benefits
of open source right there.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
The Articles of Unity - ca98am79
https://medium.com/@ArticlesOfUnity/the-articles-of-unity-f544f930d336
======
aiscapehumanity
Not really tech related; However, I think its is a silly idea, mostly in that
for 2020, it just won't happen. Something like this needs momentum well before
the general election. I saw this retweeted with no reference for how this was
already in the works, even though that was in the claim. For 2024, this would
have to show something by 2022 as so the unity campaign will actually have
representatives people can get to know and have stake in up into the election
year. I'm just pessimistic. It's not a bad idea in itself, it's just probably
not going to go anywhere.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Ask HN: Where is my cloud addressbook? - frossie
All my info lives happily in the cloud- notes, to-do lists, documents, photos, music - except for my darn addressbook - you know, name, phone number, address, email, group. Now I am <i>not</i> looking for social networking solutions - what I wish for is:<p>1. An online way of managing addresses with a decent UI (no, Google Contacts is not a decent UI).<p>2. A way of sharing items with family members (so only one spouse has to enter the number of the plumber)<p>3. Decent offline clients (ideally sync, at least read-only) for the usual suspects - iPhone, linux (akonadi?), whatever Mac/Windows worlds use.<p>4. Web based import - eg. my electrican's website exporting their vcard/hcard so I would just click on an icon when browsing their website (like the RSS feed monitor) to import their data in my address book. Hell, maybe when they move their new address would automatically push out.<p>None of this stuff is rocket science these days, so where is it? At least is there a good solution for 1-3? (I realise 4 would require some kind of standard and viral uptake). What do people here use? Is everybody tied to their OS/mobile-specific addressbooks, or are they depending on stuff like Facebook/LinkedIn? I don't want to have to join Facebook to look up my plumber's number.<p>PS. Sorry if this is covered before, closest thread I was able to find was http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=544738 which had a good OP but comments petered out. After reading the comments I am tempted to add the suggestion I found there of:<p>5. Deal with multi-person addresses like husband and wife at the same location.
======
ganley
I've looked pretty hard into this, and the prevailing opinion seemed to be
that the trouble isn't technical, it's social. Do you really want your friends
putting your contact info in the cloud? In order for this to work, you really
need a mechanism for people to approve sharing their info, control what gets
exposed, etc. If you built such a mechanism, it has some obvious advantages -
e.g. someone can update their own address and have the change be automatically
propagated - but it also makes it much more complicated. It's doable, but
established social sites (Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, etc.) have such a head
start that you'd have to worry about them stomping you from day one.
~~~
frossie
Well I think there are two different problems - personal and professional
addresses. While I may not want my info public in the cloud, my plumber (for
the sake of argument) presumably does not feel the same way, because his
details are on his website. So problem #1 is getting the kind of free-format
contact info you find in the "Contact Us" sections of websites into my
addressbook. There is no technical barrier here - vcards/hcards are a decent
but under-utilised standard.
Problem #2 (personal information) you are right, it needs restriction. But a
household is probably quite happy to share addresses - not in the sense of
each member having an identical addressbook, but in the sense of sharing some
common groups - just like sharing calendars works now.
I just can't understand the seeming lack of interest in this area - address
info is the one untapped area that _everybody_ uses. But there must be some
stunning lack of interest in it - which would also explain why the Google
Contacts UI is so poor.
------
jcapote
Get a google apps account for a domain, it has shared contacts. Bonus: If you
have an android phone, it'll integrate seamlessly...
~~~
frossie
Okay, that would solve my personal problem (so would seting up an LDAP
server), but for the general population, getting a Google Apps account is
using a canon to smite a gnat.
I was hoping somebody would say "There's a start-up for that...." :-)
------
catch404
2. A way of sharing items with family members (so only one spouse has to enter the number of the plumber)
Having more than one spouse must make it hard to keep track of things :)
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
HN Bookmarklet to make all comments visible - niyazpk
http://benalman.com/code/test/jquery-run-code-bookmarklet/?name=HN+Read+all&ver=1.3.2&code=%24%28%27span.comment+font%27%29.css%28%27color%27%2C+%27%23000%27%29%3B
======
niyazpk
This is a very simple bookmarklet I am using to make comments with -ve points
(which are not readable) more visible.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Micro-documentary on "A cool tiny home tour: living in 96 square feet" - sleepingbot
http://faircompanies.com/videos/view/a-tiny-home-tour-living-in-96-square-feet/
Homes are shrinking in America. After doubling in size since 1960, the national average dropped for the first time in nearly 15 years (by 9%, the size of an average room). But far from this new average of 2,000 plus square feet are the so-called tiny houses. Also called wee homes, mini dwellings, or microhomes, their definition is not exact, but they run as small as 65 square feet.<p>The video is worth watching.
======
KevinMS
Ok if you like toy houses, but the points made are moot. This is just feel-
good hippy shit that distracts from real progress.
Already been done- called mobile home, trailer parks, etc. Next time you dry
past a mobile home park in a relatively affluent region of the country, the
cars parked there are not rusting and up on blocks, they can be pretty nice,
the people there are not poor. People are often living there because its cheap
and efficient, or a second home for work reasons.
Cost - its the land that costs. As they say, a house is a wooden box that sits
out in the rain and rots.
If you want efficient housing a medium sized earth sheltered house is simply
the best you can get. But you'll never get a loan for it. You can actually
heat one of those in the winter with a few people and a few candles. Its
because the 'outside' is always a constant temperature, about 50 degrees F.
Theres no reason to think that one of those toy homes would be much less
efficient than, say, if you scaled it 2x. The the shape and construction that
would really matter.
~~~
tome
Why would you never get a loan for it?
~~~
jws
If your construction cost is significantly greater than your resale value, and
you intend to borrow a large portion of this cost, then there is not enough
collateral for the lender to recover their investment.
A house which you will treasure, but is considered undesirable by the masses
will be a problem.
------
dabent
I mentioned him in a comment before, but I think the way that the Tumbleweed
Tiny House Company has handled PR is a model for any startup. The guy built a
fancy trailer and landed on Oprah. I don't say that to put him or his company
down. I think his houses are really neat. He found (or made) a niche and put
together a campaign that makes him the iPhone of small houses.
------
andrewf
My nearest IKEA has a number of "tiny houses" all set up that you can walk
through. (I'm in Australia)
------
dstorrs
A complementary movement is co-housing (<http://www.cohousing.org/>). Co-
housing is about intentional community--a group of people get together and
deliberately choose to live in smaller houses with a shared common space. This
space might include a library, playroom, media center, kitchen / dining room
(although each house has its own, and you aren't obligated to cook or eat with
the community), or whatever else the community decides. Every co-housing group
does something a bit different. One specific example is <http://www.mosaic-
commons.org/> (Full disclosure: I was involved in Mosaic for a couple of years
until my divorce.)
It's a pretty cool concept and tends to attract the kind of people that
hackers like (smart, interesting, iconoclastic).
------
ars
I have to say I really like all the wood.
But did I hear him right that he just dumps the water from the shower? That's
not good. If you put the water in the sewer it gets recycled.
It's basically impossible to waste water from a shower if you are on a public
sewer, since the next city downriver uses it. Also, never use a septic system,
those are bad for the environment since they waste water.
Very cool house though.
~~~
patrickgzill
Where does the water go if it doesn't go in the sewer? Is it somehow
destroyed, never to enter the environment again?
~~~
ars
It seemed that he just dumps it on the ground.
~~~
nitrogen
How is that significantly different from any other method of disposing mostly-
clean water? Either it goes through another use cycle downstream (if the sewer
system drains into a river), evaporates, and is recovered as precipitation, or
it just evaporates and is recovered as precipitation. The water is still part
of the water cycle.
~~~
ars
The water cycle sure. But that's of no help to places with water shortages. If
you return it to the sewer then other cities down the line can reuse the
water.
If you remember a while back when atlanta had severe water shortages. Part of
the problem is that something like 40% of houses had septic systems, so cities
downriver from atlanta did not get enough water.
------
amohr
One of the books on his shelf is Suburban Nation
([http://www.amazon.com/Suburban-Nation-Sprawl-Decline-
America...](http://www.amazon.com/Suburban-Nation-Sprawl-Decline-
American/dp/0865476063)) - worth a read. It's interesting because that book is
to Urban Planning what tiny houses are to Architecture.
~~~
Luc
I loved it when they zoomed in on the book case (watch it on Youtube in HD).
Instant ideas for further reading!
~~~
lacerus
In this video there is an even better close up of his books at 1:09
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaE4EvM-
UF4&feature=playe...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaE4EvM-
UF4&feature=player_embedded)
~~~
sleepingbot
More close shots of his books in the photogallery of the visit:
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/faircompanies/sets/721576226806...](http://www.flickr.com/photos/faircompanies/sets/72157622680688384/)
------
davidw
Even people in Venice have larger apartments than that...
------
JoeAltmaier
Sometimes I think it would be really, really nice to live small - maybe whenI
retire and the kids are gone.
~~~
dstorrs
Depending on the age of the kids, you can try it out pretty simply--while the
kids are off at college / summer camp / whatever, rent an apartment for a few
months.
On the "paying for it" side, it's a balance between your financial situation /
tolerance for risk; you can either pay the extra fee, or you can rent out the
house (check out AirBnB, Craigslist, etc).
On the "logistics" side, you will have a bunch of furniture, clothes, etc
which don't fit in the apartment. You can either leave those in the house or
put them in storage, whichever works better for you.
Try to not go back to the house while you're living in the apartment, though--
have your mail forwarded, etc. And if you find there is a box of clothes /
books / kitchen gadgets / whatever that you haven't unpacked at the end of
your apartment time, consider getting rid of it.
------
gcheong
A tiny house, a few books, and a big bottle of Smirnoff. Could be paradise.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Show HN: Interledger – How to Interconnect All Blockchains and Value Networks - emschwartz
https://medium.com/xpring/interledger-how-to-interconnect-all-blockchains-and-value-networks-74f432e64543
======
fiatjaf
I would love to know how.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Why I Walked Away from a $12M Acquisition Offer 18 Months After Our Launch - rmason
https://www.groovehq.com/blog/startup-acquisition-offer
======
beeskneecaps
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8601975](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8601975)
------
oldspiceman
Feel free to correct my math here:
50% share of business after tax take: 6,000,000x0.7 = 4,200,000 Being
extremely conservative and investing in LQD: 4,200,000x3.13%/12 ~ $11,000
Would you walk away from a check for $11,000/month forever?
~~~
scott_karana
> Would you walk away from a check for $11,000/month forever?
Nope, I wouldn't. Like he said in the article:
First-time founders care most about their exit. Every time after that, you focus on legacy.
With cash problems forever off the table, it'd be much easier for me to start
more businesses... :)
(Tellingly, author Alex Turnbull's _first_ business was also acquired, by
Constant Contact.)
------
dollar
A bird in hand is worth two in the bush.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Steve Jobs left designer Jony Ive more power than anyone at Apple - ashishgandhi
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/10/21/steve_jobs_left_designer_jony_ive_more_power_than_anyone_at_apple.html
======
zach
By comparison, John Lasseter has more power than anyone at Pixar. I think the
situation could be similar.
Now, sure, he has to commit to budgets and timeframes but if he _really_ wants
something you have to figure it's going to happen.
And of course, he's not the top manager, the CEO equivalent in charge of the
studio itself — Ed Catmull is. And yes, everything creative gets picked apart
by other directors so it's not like he's the only voice.
But you'd have to say John Lasseter has more power than anyone at Pixar,
assuming you wanted to look at things that way.
You could also say he's the creative heart of Pixar.
It's sure nice that those two things match up.
Edit: I explored this subject in my Quora answer on Pixar, Valve and Blizzard
for those interested.
[http://www.quora.com/What-are-some-commonalities-in-how-
Pixa...](http://www.quora.com/What-are-some-commonalities-in-how-Pixar-Valve-
and-Blizzard-are-run-as-organizations/answer/Zach-Baker)
~~~
AllenKids
Yeah, sometimes we get the toilet seat cover iBook and Cars 2, but by and
large having a creative guru under nobody else's thumb seems to work well for
both companies.
~~~
gallamine
Actually, John Lasseter defends Cars 2:
[http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/movies/john-lasseter-of-
pi...](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/movies/john-lasseter-of-pixar-
defends-cars-2.html)
Apparently the "critics" were far harsher than audiences.
~~~
AllenKids
Of course, Cars 2 is the low point in Pixar's streak but overall still able to
capture an audience not to mention tons of toys sold. I understand Lasseter's
point and given his fixation over the concept I'll just accept the fact it is
a big deal to him personally just as I accept Jobs' enthusiasm about getting
Beatles in the iTMS.
~~~
zach
I think that's a very apt comparison. It's hard to overestimate how deeply
personal _Cars_ and _Cars 2_ are to John, but it's also hard to overstate how
tricky they were to pull off.
Sure, you can criticize _Cars 2_ for having a story that didn't hit the
bullseye. Totally fair, by Pixar's own "story, story, story" standards. But
don't think the Pixar Brain Trust didn't do so first (as mentioned in the
article, things had indeed gone wrong) or that they didn't do heroic acts to
make things work. Ultimately it's an artistic process within a movie studio
and you sometimes have to put things into production and trust that you can
work out the problems. Pixar will bend everything out of shape to delay that
point but it still happens. It's the fact that Pixar had done so well rescuing
movies from a burning story that makes the rest of us forget that sometimes.
Still, where _Cars_ and _Cars 2_ started from and how well the stories they
had were executed — I think those things are hard to criticize. These movies
are love letters to the automotive culture that came of age as John did, and
they are both put on the screen with a huge amount of artistry, character,
cleverness and humor.
~~~
thret
The Cars storyline was offensive to begin with. People who compete
professionally in ANYTHING demand the best performance from their peers.
Anything less is disrespectful. Having someone throw a race out of
sentimentality, and making that seem somehow honorable is despicable. And then
they make the winner of the race out to be some kind of arsehole because he
gave it his best? It doesn't make any sense.
The plot is the same as Lucky You and it physically made me sick.
------
technoslut
Interestingly enough, there is a quote from the Jobs book, from Ive, that was
tweeted by Bianca Bosker, who works at the Huffington Post:
<https://twitter.com/bbosker/status/127357233632788480>
"Jony Ive:'I pay maniacal attention to where an idea comes from...so it hurts
when [Jobs] takes credit for one of my designs'"
As much as Jobs considered Ive a 'spiritual partner' there was still a power
play that existed between the two.
~~~
siglesias
Jobs has never taken credit for a design, has he? People who are uninformed
just assume it's Jobs, and that perhaps is what Ive is referring to. He
probably meant "it hurts when [Jobs] _gets_ credit..."
If you look at the Objectified interview, along with nearly every promotional
video that Apple puts out, it's very clear that Ive is the design guy.
~~~
ugh
Could be an internal thing. I really can’t remember Jobs ever publicly and
personally taking credit for design. But maybe he did inside the company?
I guess we will have to wait for the book for more context.
~~~
gnaffle
That might be. I did read something on folklore.org about Steve Jobs often
being told an idea, dismissing it as stupid, and, several weeks later, often
coming back with the same idea thinking it was his own.
------
tomelders
It staggers me that time and time again Apple lays out the reasons for it's
unrivalled success for all to see, yet non of it's rivals seem interested in
copying their methods and opt for simply copying their products.
Fortune favours the brave.
~~~
chrislomax
I personally think it's impossible to replicate what Apple have done. It's not
just one thing that has caused a change but a series of changes starting when
they introduced the iMac.
Apple is more of a "love mark" than a technology company. Back in 95,
Microsoft was a love mark, people loved it when a new version of windows came
out, now people dread it.
People started looking for an alternative and Apple was there, all different
and shiny. It wasn't 1 year that turned them around, its the result of 12 hard
years.
Microsoft released a tablet back in 2000, did anyone care? Apple does it and
millions rush to buy it, they have created a following, this is not easily
replicated. They innovate, amaze and move onto the next thing. There is
nothing simple about this process.
~~~
nobody31415
You could take everything you just said and apply it to Sony in 1980. Then
their founder, Akio Morita, retired with poor health and they diversified into
lots of sensible business decisions about owning studios
Then some little computer company in California moved in on their territory
and began making beautiful, simple, well made upmarket products.
~~~
chrislomax
Might I just add, I am not your typical fan boy for Apple. Quite the opposite
actually. I am a Microsoft geek at heart, learnt basic when I was 13 and loved
them since. They can do minimal wrong in my eyes (except for windows ME).
I appreciate Apple in a completely different way, I think how they have
created their following in nothing short of amazing. The spot a market
potential and they make it work, really well.
The iPod worked really well but it was really the iPhone that did it for them,
they brought Apple to the absolute masses. I am still not 100% sure if the
iTunes store was a fluke, I don't think it was on the first iPhone. If it was
planned in it's entirety then hats off to Steve.
Look at the market share now, Microsoft should be scared. I don't think
Microsoft has ramped up it's game much either, Ballmer is a bit of a joke so
I'm going to find it hard to take him seriously but I think I will always be
Microsoft at heart.
~~~
toyg
The iTunes Store came with the original iPod, and it was an integral part of
Apple's strategy.
You probably meant the _App_ Store, which wasn't on the very first iPhone and
was, in fact, a bit of a lucky strike. Jobs didn't want anyone installing
anything on the phone (classic Apple control-freakery at its finest), so he
insisted for months after launch that extensibility would come exclusively
from sandboxed web-applications. Eventually they did release a SDK and
establish a process to publish apps, but only after encountering overwhelming
demand.
~~~
philwelch
No, the iTunes store came in 2003, two years after the iPod.
------
blumentopf
To those familiar with car history, there's a striking similarity between the
Jobs/Ive duo and the Daimler/Maybach duo:
Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach lead the automobile industry in the late
1800s and early 1900s just as Jobs and Ive lead the computing industry in the
late 1900s and early 2000s. Maybach was the engineering genius who pioneered
countless innovations in engine design, while Daimler had the intuition to get
the right products to market and do the industrial power play.
------
MarkMc
Well, not THAT much power:
'Ive wants to spend more time in the UK where he wants his sons to go to
school, the Times claims, but the Apple board has refused to support his
relocation. The story quotes a family friend as saying that "they have told
him in no uncertain terms that if he headed back to England he would not be
able to sustain his position with them".'
From:
[http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/pda/2011/feb/28/apple-j...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/pda/2011/feb/28/apple-
jonathan-ive)
Sounds to me like HP-level stupidity from the Apple board.
~~~
AllenKids
Is not that just a story with no reliable source whatsoever?
And the true tabloid Daily Mail actually interviewed some of Ive's friends and
they all said never heard of such a desire from Jony Ive himself.
[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1367481/Appl...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1367481/Apples-
Jonathan-Ive-How-did-British-polytechnic-graduate-design-genius.html)
~~~
maxmcd
I guess we'll all find out on Monday.
------
raheemm
Guess I'm buying this book. It'll be my first time to buy a book during first
release. Good marketing by the publishers. This is sort of like Freemium
model, no?
~~~
Fjolle
I'm afraid that i will know everything from the book by monday if this press
coverage continues.
~~~
ugh
Turn all the sentences into separate news articles!
------
jinushaun
But yet, you never see him up on stage... There's a cult of personality around
Ive on the Internet—everyone wants him to replace Jobs as CEO, but is that
even realistic? Sure, he can design, but can he _run_ a company?
~~~
fdb
Have you heard about the Peter Principle?
From Wikipedia: "in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of
incompetence", meaning that employees tend to be promoted until they reach a
position at which they cannot work competently.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Principle>
Knowing what somebody is _not_ good at is almost as essential as knowing what
people _are_ good at. I guess both Ive and Apple know this.
~~~
pak
If you believe in the Peter Principle, you might be interested in the Gervais
Principle (<http://www.ribbonfarm.com/the-gervais-principle/>) which uses
characters from _The Office_ to wax philosophical about organizational
structure. At the very least, the first part is worth a read. It diverges from
the Peter Principle in a number of thought-provoking ways.
~~~
r00fus
Highly entertaining (and insightful), thanks.
------
sgt
This fact alone left me feeling quite a lot better. Now I know Apple is in
good hands at least for the time being. Tim Cook is also brilliant at what he
does, and I am sure he trusts Ive as much as Jobs did.
------
Kliment
Those are some damn nice CNC mills in the background of that photo. Wonder how
much use they get.
~~~
krobertson
If he is a designer who understands the manufacturing process, then that is
awesome in my book.
My father owns/runs a CNC manufacturing business. Sometimes the
designers/drafters (more the case they have a background in CAD) don't
understand the subtleties of manufacturing and materials. I mean, they aren't
big gaps or anything.
Best comparison is maybe coder vs tester. Both technical, but look at the same
thing from two different perspectives.
~~~
nobody31415
It cuts both ways. There are designers who build things that can't be made -
and especially things that can't be mass produced cheaply and easily.
But there are also people with 20years of manufacturing experience who don't
what that we can do more things cheaply and easily with 5-axis CNC mills and
hot-wire cutters than you can with a casting.
~~~
krobertson
Sure it cuts both ways. I was just reacting to the picture of a CNC behind
him.
If that is his design studio, it is awesome he has real equipment for making
the stuff he designs rather than some art deco chairs from some snooty
designer.
~~~
nobody31415
If you have a CNC mill or a 3D printer in the office you can certainly turn
around prototype designs quickly!
------
moizsyed
Right now Ive has the best of both worlds, he has more power than anyone at
Apple, and hes not the CEO. The CEO role comes with an extra layer of public
scrutiny.
Knowing that Jony Ive has more power than anyone at Apple gives me a certain
amount of relief about Apple being on the same trajectory for the next
foreseeable future.
------
brown9-2
Of course, any new CEO/board can undo what previous CEOs and boards have set
in stone.
~~~
artursapek
I think they all have too much respect for Steve to change anything like this
for a while.
~~~
0x12
The hard part will be when reality rubs up against things set in stone. The
big trick will be to determine exactly when change is needed versus when some
people just want to change things to make their mark.
------
psawaya
I think it's interesting that Jony Ive came to Apple before Steve returned.
Jobs didn't have to recruit him, and he fit perfectly into what Apple became.
~~~
sirn
'I often joke that my tombstone will say, "The Guy Who Hired Jonathan Ive",'
\- Robert Brunner, Apple's former Chief of Industrial Design
------
alexwolfe
In some ways because Ive was the head designer he had more power than anyone
else regardless of Steve's extra effort. His work would impact every level of
the company so immediately regardless of peoples personal opinion.
------
michaelfeathers
Who did they leave in charge of making sure people listen to him?
~~~
afdssfda
Tim Cook has been in charge for ages.
------
gaius
Where did the abbreviation "Jony" come from? It's Jonny.
~~~
verisimilitude
Straight out of a keynote: [http://technology.automated.it/wp-
content/uploads/HLIC/b08b7...](http://technology.automated.it/wp-
content/uploads/HLIC/b08b727c9a90a9380c9942576a18ec4e.jpg)
~~~
gaius
I suspect then this is like Colin Powell being known as Coal-in... He's stated
himself his mother calls him Colin!
------
swah
I suppose Ive is Taste, now that Jobs is gone.
------
TechnoFou
It's interesting how the soul of Steve Jobs stays in Apple to control the
company even after passing out. A company that functions through the power of
will, creativity and beliefs.... it's different from all the corporate VP's
and Executives we all see so organized at other companies!
------
aik
I wonder how Jobs' death affected Ive? I would think Ive must be hugely
grateful for what Jobs saw in him.
------
anactofgod
Interesting. And a Bloomberg Businessweek article has Scott Forstall as Jobs'
heir-apparent at Apple.
[http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/scott-forstall-the-
sorc...](http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/scott-forstall-the-sorcerers-
apprentice-at-apple-10122011.html)
------
markerdmann
This brings to mind a blog post published by Darryl Jonckheere in January that
argued for making Jony Ive CEO:
[http://www.darryljonckheere.com/2011/01/24/why-jonathan-
ive-...](http://www.darryljonckheere.com/2011/01/24/why-jonathan-ive-should-
be-apples-next-ceo/)
------
Bratwurst
Jony Ive is just the Shigeru Miyamoto of Apple.
~~~
driftsumi-e
ha, that's a great parallel to draw. miyamoto is behind many of the most
iconic videogame characters AND game designs ever seen. so, in fairness to
miyamoto, he's got a little steve in him as well.
------
Apocryphon
Jony Ive? Yet another man behind the man.
------
maranas
I'm not surprised - Ive deserves it. The designs he came up with were the
driving factor in Apple's success.
------
tormentor
I think he gives Ive more power because of his experience with Paul Rand and
the Nextstep logo.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xb8idEf-Iak>
In short Paul Rand tells Steve I will make you one design and I will solve
your problem. Since then I believe he has given designers (Jon Ive in this
case) their space to design whatever they want. Trust in the designer.
------
nknight
Great, but... Ive only does industrial design, as far as I know.
The other side of the coin is the software, and if that declines, Ive's going
to be creating very well-designed paperweights. So who does Apple's software
design?
~~~
george_morgan
I’ve also wondered this. iOS and Mac OS both have a penchant for faux-realism
and pastiche which always seems strangely incongruous with the austere
industrial design. It’s a trend that seems to be getting stronger, just look
to the most recent version of iCal for example.
Apple’s current industrial design patterns seem to have a solid foundation in
quite traditional modernist values, such as ‘truth to materials’, so for
instance you would never see Apple ship a product with a plastic case coated
to look like brushed aluminium. They would always use real aluminium.
It seems the software design team isn’t grounded in quite the same set of
principles as the industrial design team.
I do wonder if the ID guys would rather see their designs running an interface
such as WP7 (or even Plan 9, xMonad etc.), which isn’t as tied to real world
metaphors and in a sense show more ‘truth to software’ (or to put it another
way, there is certainly no ’true’ interface for digital information, but if
there were one… I can’t imagine faux leather would be it.)
~~~
derefr
> to put it another way, there is certainly no ’true’ interface for digital
> information, but if there were one… I can’t imagine faux leather would be
> it.
I've wanted to make this argument in favour of _sometimes using_ skeuomorphic
(e.g. faux leather) design for a while:
All the other applications that come with Mac OS (say, iTunes, Mail.app, or
iPhoto) have clearly-defined, strongly-typed content "atoms"—respectively,
songs, messages, and pictures. The apps themselves just serve as magical
databases with filters and specifiers to find and manipulate that content.
They don't have to look like anything, because they're just "the box you put
your music in" or "the box your get your mail from."
iCal and Address Book are the two main applications in the default set that
break this pattern: they don't hold a clearly-defined type of content at all.
It's just raw information: information about events, and about people,
respectively. Because of this, you _could_ get away with simply using text
files for the same purpose, and nothing of value would be lost. It would even
be as easy to sort and search, if you have a good text editor.
So Apple needs to offer a value proposition that makes a user want to use
Address Book rather than a text file: familiarity in function and ease of
learning curve. In a more design-oriented view, in cases where the data itself
is arbitrary (you could technically store anything in a vCard), the software
must bring over the rules and constrictions of the physical medium to give the
proper context for the controls in the UI to actually afford their proper use.
A set of overlapping boxes means nothing; a set of overlapping boxes on a
screen that looks like a calendar suggests what you should use the boxes for.
A set of blank index cards seems to suggest no use whatsoever, until you bind
them into a familiar rolodex-like facade.
You can see the same thing play out with the iOS apps that Apple has given
design awards: the kind that hold strongly-typed information tend to get the
UI out of the user's way, and let the information stand paramount; while the
kind that hold raw data retain a strong skeuomorphic metaphor to suggest use
over-and-above "put text here."
------
tobylane
I'd fear giving Ive too much power/ego/etc, he needs to be grounded to do what
he does. At the other end of the scale, it has been said he wants to be in UK
more (duh :P), don't know what has changed there.
------
DodgyEggplant
There was one Steve Jobs. If only two people can replace him, it's a little
miracle. A master manager, and a master designer. They can continue w/o the
ego fights. Like Bill Hewlet and the other guy (JOKING! Please spare my
carma). They will do it, we all need them to do it.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Buttercoin is shutting down - dzhao
https://buttercoin.com/#/goodbye
======
Sealy
Given that you are a Y Combinator startup, would you be able to post a Y
Combinator style "Lessons Learned" or "What went wrong" style reflective post.
As a community of budding entrepreneurs, PG often tells us we can learn a lot
more from failure then success.
~~~
Mahn
I second this, but as for what went wrong:
> With the dip in bitcoin interest among Silicon Valley investors, we weren't
> able to generate enough venture capital interest to continue funding
> Buttercoin.
It sounds like they didn't/wouldn't have enough traction to be cash flow
positive on their own, and couldn't attract enough investors money to keep the
lights on otherwise. Of course there's probably a more interesting story to it
than that.
~~~
IkmoIkmo
I'm not sure the dip in interest from SV investors was really it. It's
certainly true that investors won't throw money at bitcoin as easily as they
would have in 2013-2014 when growth rates were off the charts. The past year
or so has been slow for bitcoin from a consumer growth pov.
But that doesn't mean interest really dipped in absolute numbers, it's just
different. Thing is, in 2013 the average quarter raised about $25m. In 2014
that went up to about $70m.
But guess what happened this quarter in 2015? Over $200m.
The difference is that in the past 2 years we saw lots of smaller seed/series
a funding, lots of $1m, $5m, and a few $15-30m here and there. This quarter we
saw a ton of <$2m, a single $15m, and two giant (for bitcoin) $75m and $120m
investments. In other words we're already seeing some 'winners' and investors
consolidating around those companies, and a lot of low-risk experimental seed
rounds.
Buttercoin was never one of those winners. And in the exchange market, it's
really hard to suddenly become one, when another company like Coinbase exists
that's present in multiple markets, has engineers from places like Facebook
and Airbnb, finance guys from Goldman Sachs, VPs from Paypal, $100m in funding
and domination in various bitcoin product categories.
Especially when running an exchange, which is sort of a commodity. Branding
etc aren't big differentiators. So let's look at what an exchange needs:
Bitcoin Exchanges need liquidity (uphill battle as a late-comer)
They need to allow buyers & sellers to easily move fiat money on and off the
platform (uphill battle to convince a US bank to service you)
They need to comply with all the regulations (difficult for any money
transmitter, as you need licenses in all but two states. Very hard to be a
startup when you face $1-5m in legal costs to get licensed. Plus, states are
coming out with Bitcoin regulations that double the regulatory load as they
don't replace, but add to existing money transmitter regulations)
They need good security (this one ought to be a possibility for startups. But
it's not easy, it slows you down and increases your costs to have expertise
checking every part of your software. The old bitcoin companies could fall
down and learn and iterate. The new startups have to get it right from day
one.)
Buttercoin came a bit too late to the game, in a world with large existing
exchanges, launched in one of the most difficult regulatory environments etc.
Beyond that, running a bitcoin exchange isn't very profitable at the moment
unless 1) You're one of the big guys. 2) You're spending nothing on security,
fancy ui, new products, customer service etc and run a 2-man show, where every
dollar you earn is pretty much income. Problem is, becoming 1 can't be done
anymore without 2, and doing 2 can't be done without large investments, and
investors have no interest in backing Buttercoin over say Coinbase or Circle.
So Bitstamp is one of the larger exchanges in the world and has about 5k
bitcoins in daily value. At a 0.25% fee (both to seller and buyer), they take
half a percent on their volume. That's a little over $2m in yearly revenue.
Now imagine that Coinbase has 60 employees, if you consider that the cost per
employee (salary + office, equipment, training etc) in SF is $150k, that kind
of budget just doesn't fly. Even with some investment your burn rate is too
high.
I think Buttercoin must have had around 10 employees, $1.6m funding, less than
$500k annual revenue and limited traction. Looking forward to what they'll do
next because Buttercoin worked well and was a nice product, it must have been
a good team.
~~~
sanswork
The thing is you can't treat those two deals like they are the new norm which
is what has been happening in the bitcoin community with all the posts about
"on track for a $1b year".
Once you subtract those two 'unicorns' we have ~$30m in investments for q1. If
you extrapolate that out(which we really can't since we have no idea which way
the trend is going but we will because) we end up with all other deals for
2015 raising about the same as 21 inc.
Realistically we have to wait a few more months to see where things are going
but I think people in /r/bitcoin are definitely playing off the comment too
easily. It's not like buttercoin didn't have a lot of connections with
investors to poll for information on their beliefs.
------
Animats
Running an honest Bitcoin exchange isn't very profitable. Some exchanges don't
charge commissions, so all rates are low. Coinbase doesn't charge customers
commissions until they do $1m a year in business, which few do.
~~~
sanswork
They have a spread though so they don't need to charge an explicit commission
to be profitable.
~~~
kissickas
Exactly. Coinbase takes your money but doesn't buy BTC for several days, so if
the price goes down, they pocket the difference. If the price goes up, they
will often cancel your order. It goes without saying that bitcoins are
volatile so this isn't such a rare occurrence.
[https://www.google.com/search?q=coinbase+scam](https://www.google.com/search?q=coinbase+scam)
~~~
Buge
That's not what sanswork was saying. sanswork was saying that the buy price is
higher than the sell price, so coinbase makes money off the price difference.
I don't think they intentionally cancel transactions as a way to make profit.
You can see reports of them cancelling transactions when the price goes down
as well but still refunding the full previous amount.
I also have an instant account so I can immediately get my funds with no
chance of cancelling.
~~~
kissickas
Thanks for the clarification. That's what I get for starting a comment with
the equivalent of "This."
As to the accusation you can see is thrown around all over the place, that is
possible, but my interest-free loan to them of several thousand dollars left a
sour taste in my mouth regardless and it wouldn't be hard for them to make
some money off of the capital, in BTC or not.
------
bdcravens
Was there a previous announcement? 4 days seems awfully short. (granted, it's
fairly trivial to setup a local wallet or an address on Blockchain.info, but
still)
------
zodiakzz
I thought the standard procedure to shutdown a Bitcoin exchange was to get
"hacked"? ;)
~~~
Everhusk
So much respect for the Buttercoin team for this. The Bitcoin community really
needs more honest people like them.
~~~
cLeEOGPw
It doesn't, apparently.
------
film42
This is awful! I just want to give a shoutout to the Buttercoin team. They
really nailed the serive. I remember signing up and thinking, "well, I'll just
look," but by the time it came to transfer money, it was so easy, I just had
to continue. Everything after that followed a similar pattern. Even the order
form was well done. I'll miss you guys!
Btw, their matching engine is on GitHub and it's a good read!
~~~
joeyspn
> Btw, their matching engine is on GitHub and it's a good read!
But it hasn't been updated in 2 years... They could definitely open source
parts of their _current_ stack if they want to help bitcoin, maybe seeking a
"Docker effect". It would be an AWESOME farewell. Bitpay knows how important
this is, they are opensourcing a lot of cool stuff...
Edit: I've just realised they open sourced a newer matching engine built with
scala (I was looking at the old node-based)
[https://github.com/buttercoin/engine](https://github.com/buttercoin/engine)
------
Mahn
Only tangentially related, but, provided the founders know what they are
doing, is there any kind of bitcoin startup that can eventually become cash
flow positive on its own today? Because I've been thinking a lot about bitcoin
startups and it seems to me that barring a massive stroke of luck, with the
adoption that there is today, one could only survive if backed by hopeful
investors. Namely I can't picture bootstrapping an exchange, a payment
processor or an ATM provider. Then again you could argue than "get lucky or go
home" applies to any kind of startup, but to me it looks like it's specially
harder in the case of bitcoin.
~~~
IkmoIkmo
Not in the US.
South America, Africa, a few Asian markets, yeah quite likely. But you'll need
to be scrappy, low-cost. i.e. it might mean having you and 3 others working in
someone's living room and manually processing money.
But in the US, nah I doubt it, it's really hard. I wrote a bit about some of
the issues if you're late to the came, Ctrl F my name in this thread if you'd
like. In short, there's a huge regulatory burden, very difficult to get a bank
relationship, competition is pretty fierce while volume isn't exploding, you
need quite a few employees to succeed, and that means you need a certain
amount of revenue to break even, and you can only get that if you capture
10-30% of the market, a market with the likes of Coinbase ($100m+ investment).
Things completely change when bitcoin is in a hype cycle. Exchanges make money
on volume, and trading volume when the price is volatile is so much larger.
Late 2013 trading volumes were about 20x what they average today.
Add to that the price being 4x what it is today, and you essentially know that
total exchange revenue in late 2013 was close to 100x what it averages today.
That's such a gigantic difference, it's like the number of internet users
drops by 99% and we wonder if internet companies can stay alive, or new ones
thrive.
That doesn't say all that much about bitcoin's future in general by the way.
Usage, transactions numbers & volume, wallets, payments, those are all up
compared to 2013. But exchanges need fiat-bitcoin and bitcoin-altcoin
transaction volume and a big part of that volume was speculation. The
speculative trading has disappeared for a large part, or quieted down, while
use of bitcoin has grown. (not explosively, but still quite significantly)
~~~
Mahn
> South America, Africa, a few Asian markets, yeah quite likely.
Today? Isn't the demand in those markets for bitcoin even lower than what it
is in the US? I understand it is speculated bitcoin has a better chance of
penetrating those markets, but _currently_ , if one were to open an african
bitcoin exchange, I don't think one would see enough volume to become cash
flow positive in a very long time.
~~~
IkmoIkmo
Thing is, there's potentially a bigger use case in these markets. Plus these
markets are underserved. Plus the cost basis for employment like customer
service and manual money processing is a bit better. And lastly, the
regulatory burden is often lighter. In the US to get money transmitter
licenses in all states is already a few million, and much more in surety bonds
(which you can pay for yourself for many millions, or buy, but very few
companies want to offer a surety bond to a bitcoin company right now, and
virtually nobody to new startups)
I mean I agree, it's true that the US/Europe are the large markets. But there
are so many exchanges serving this market that a new exchange can barely get
customers/volume, and therefore it's hard to be cash flow positive. And you're
competing for financial services with modern banking, Paypal, Stripe,
Creditcards etc. And you're competing with the dollar, a stable currency.
But in various African markets, there's no modern payment system and volatile
high-inflation currencies. In those markets a bitcoin exchange, linked to say
a dollar-pegging service like Bitreserve, is an interesting use case. And
there's few other exchanges competing for those customers.
If I want to send money to family in France, it's literally free from the
Netherlands. Bitcoin isn't super useful for this kind of transaction. But
sending money back to say family in the Phillipines can often cost me 5% or
so, while bitcoin exchanges in the Phillipines allow me to buy bitcoin here
for 0% or near 0%, send it there for near 0% costs, and sell it there for
1-2%. Bitcoin actually undercuts banks in many countries outside the OECD. In
OECD countries like the US or Europe, bitcoin is less useful.
And there already are exchanges in South America, Africa, Asia btw, which are
doing fine. But it's definitely not a goldmine, don't get me wrong. It's just
that you can hardly start a new exchange and compete in Europe or the US
anymore, while other continents aren't easy either, it's comparatively easier
to become cash flow positive.
------
binoyxj
Had so much expectations seeing the backer list, when I joined late last year.
It seems most VCs are being less futuristic by playing it safe or am I missing
something? "dip in bitcoin interest among Silicon Valley investors".
------
bshimmin
Bad luck if you happen to be on a week's holiday when they made this
announcement...
~~~
300bps
Yeah what does this mean?
_Be sure to move your bitcoins to another service and remove your dollar
balances by Friday April 10th at 11PM._
~~~
frostmatthew
Two lines later it states: _Bitcoin balances in Buttercoin after April 10th
will be converted to USD and sent to the bank linked to your account._
~~~
pors
You can have Bitcoin at Buttercoin while not having a linked bank account. I
transferred a very small account from another wallet to Buttercoin.
------
zmanian
Without another speculative bubble, running a bitcoin exchange is likely to be
a terrible business. Competing with Coinbase in that terrible business in that
terrible business is potentially disastrous.
~~~
2pasc
What made competing with Coinbase so hard? the fact that Coinbase was so well
funded?
~~~
zmanian
I suspect that the VC industry has pretty much anointed Coinbase as the
defacto north american exchange winner.
Given how little actual consumer interest there is in Bitcoin at the moment.
This is probably what matters.
~~~
tlb
It'd be great for investors if they could just anoint winners. But in
practice, consumers decide and investors follow.
~~~
tim333
It's hard to compete with a similar company if they have a load more money
than you. Take Uber. Maybe you build a better taxi app but they have $5bn
raised and you don't. Then they can subsidise, run at a loss, spend loads on
ads and so on.
~~~
JohnTHaller
... make fake orders to competitors and try to steal their drivers, etc.
------
allenhai
I had so much hope for buttercoin, its kind of sad when you look at the team
section of the website.
~~~
mathattack
In what sense? In the sense that it's sad that real people lose jobs, or
specific to them?
Seems like they had top notch investors. I wonder what went wrong.
~~~
13
> _With the dip in bitcoin interest among Silicon Valley investors, we weren
> 't able to generate enough venture capital interest to continue funding
> Buttercoin._
It doesn't seem too much of a stretch to think that a lot of companies hedged
their investors money in Bitcoin and hemorrhaged investment when the bubble
burst, leading to colder responses when other companies later went back asking
for more. That would seem to fit with stories like this.
~~~
notsony
Investment in Bitcoin related companies increased in 2014 to almost $1bn, from
around $300m in 2013... not sure what went wrong at Buttercoin but interest in
cryptocurrencies in general has never been higher.
~~~
sanswork
Where did you get the 1bn figure from? Coindesk puts it at closer to $400m for
2014.
[http://www.coindesk.com/venture-capital-funding-bitcoin-
star...](http://www.coindesk.com/venture-capital-funding-bitcoin-startups-
triples-2014/)
We're at around $200m for 2015 with 95% of that between 21 and Coinbase.
~~~
sanswork
Just an update actual number is 83% not 95%.
------
mu_killnine
Interesting to see Buttercoin come full circle. I recall seeing them start as
an open-source project on Reddit with a handful of folks.
[http://www.reddit.com/r/buttercoin](http://www.reddit.com/r/buttercoin)
------
rebelidealist
They got google ventures amongst many other investors. Now they are shutting
down just 3 months after launch? Hopefully they have funds left to do
something else.
------
bitJericho
There's always
[http://bitcoinsexchange.itmustbetrue.com/](http://bitcoinsexchange.itmustbetrue.com/)
------
maaaats
I can't read the page, because I don't have a "modern browser". What kind of
20th century crap is that?
~~~
adventured
Out of curiosity I fired up IE to see what they were blocking. I'm not sure I
can think of a good reason to block IE 10 (7 and 8 I can understand, 9 is
barely tolerable), I've never run into a major problem with that version
compared to Firefox or Chrome.
~~~
dheera
In 99% of cases there's no reason to blanket block any particular browser. If
you have features that cannot be implemented (e.g. vector graphics, WebGL),
I'd say that directly to the user, i.e. "Sorry, this website requires a WebGL-
enabled browser such as X, Y, or Z." This should be based on JavaScript
feature detection targeting the specific feature you're looking for, and not
the web browser version number. If it's just text and CSS there's no reason
why you can't at least display _something_. It may not look correct in IE <=8
but at least the user will see something intelligible in most cases.
~~~
ChainsawSurgery
Eh, this is a little bit of a tangent because there's no reason to block users
ever I feel (and in this particular case blocking IE 10+ is stupid), but
honestly? It's rarely worth the time to go through and make sure your site
works on older browsers. Or that it degrades gracefully.
Yeah, if my site uses canvas, I should probably have a fallback for IE8. But
in practice, and I _know_ I'm not alone here: Unless I see that IE8 makes up a
significant part of my site's traffic, fuck it.
There are already enough vendor issues between the _latest versions_ of the
big 4 (Chrome/FF/Safari/IE), spending more time going through old versions of
those 4 will drive you bonkers.
It's rarely worth it and spending any amount of time catering to those users
is almost assuredly not a good use of your time.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
In Defense of Technology (2014) - sloria
http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/11/05/andrew-ohagan-technology/?_r=0
======
ThomPete
I think what is missing from this conversation which both this article and
people like Marc Andreesen forget is that technology isnt just progress its
also change.
The thing is we are not all actual beneficiaries from technology. In fact a
lot are victims who loose their jobs, get smaller paychecks and basically lost
the ability to offer their skills to the workforce.
Technology gives and technology takes. What it takes is increasingly important
to have a critical view on because something more fundamental is going on I
think that is going to be increasingly clear.
~~~
AdeptusAquinas
Technological change has destroyed industries and livelihoods in the past, but
it also created more opportunities as it went. The anti-luddite argument is
that there were more jobs made available to the people despite the heavy
labour intensive work being disrupted.
These days though it might be different. An interesting extension to your
point, and using your terminology, is that the rate of what technology 'takes'
is possibly beginning to exceed the rate at which it 'gives'. Things might be
changing too quickly for the market to adapt and ensure gainful employment to
people.
~~~
ThomPete
Thats my point.
Look at these two graphs
[https://plot.ly/~BethS/8/job-growth-by-decade-in-the-
united-...](https://plot.ly/~BethS/8/job-growth-by-decade-in-the-united-
states/)
[http://www.technologyreview.com/sites/default/files/images/d...](http://www.technologyreview.com/sites/default/files/images/destroying.jobs_.chart1x910_0.jpg)
The more jobs created have been because of globalization not because
technology creates more jobs. (My claim)
Furthermore the less money is being made even though production goes up
(because of technology)
This is the problem we are facing and so I am simply not buying the luddite
fallacy argument it is in itself a fallacy.
Another way to look at this is that technology replaces higher and higher
levels of abstract thinking.
The horses that where replaced by cars didn't find new jobs.
------
SocksCanClose
Your frame of reference is a bit off. To wit:
You say: "technology isn't just programs, [it is] also change... a lot [of
people] are victims who lose their jobs..."
When in fact, the "victims" of this process aren't subject to the technology,
qua technology (technology is simply a tool - derivative of the Greek "tekhne"
for "art" or "craft"), which is to say, one doesn't create a technology which
then has a mind of its own (yet), but rather, they create tools that other
individuals then have a _choice_ to either use, or not.
And so when you say "technology gives[,] and technology takes," what you
really mean is "people chose how to spend their [time/money], and [those
choices have consequences]."
Which is to say that you are implicitly saying "We ought to decide how people
chose to spend their [time/money]".
Would your reaction be the same to the ironworker who made a living on
horseshoes two hundred years ago?
Of what do you wish to be "Critical"? Of choice? Of giving people the ability
to spend less of their time and energy on certain tasks?
Five hundred years ago human beings spend most of their time producing life-
sustaining staples -- growing what for bread, chickens and cows and hogs for
protein, vegetables for vitamins and nutrients. Now we can buy a week's worth
of sustenance (which used to quite literally consume 12 hours of labor per
day), grown to higher standards, in greater quantity for less than $50 -- the
equivalent of a single day's labor at minimum wage.
Do you wish to be "critical" of this tekhne as well?
~~~
ThomPete
The factory worker does not have a choice about whether his employer want to
use robots or not.
You are proving my point by applying the very flawed logic of the luddite
fallacy that I am really critiquing.
------
guywithalogin
Technology for me will ultimately be judged by the degree in which it's use
requires the commodification of my self. From my taste in entertainment to
more invasive information such as my location and who I interact with, I feel
it's important to put into consideration who I'm trading this information with
and for what in exchange.
As long as a service requires my submission into an database which will be
sold off and used to strengthen marketing and other forms of persuasion, I
have no choice but to assume the worst case usage. With that assumption I feel
it is most ethical to mostly not participate.
I hope that I'll be able to sit back and hop on when popular tech services
have given me an alternative form of payment other than my person as an
information commodity. I have no idea as to whether that day will ever come.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Rands In Repose: A Story Culture - filament
http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2010/02/08/a_story_culture.html
======
yannis
Culture is becoming nothing but advertising. The anthropologist Steve Barnett
saw in this the phenomenon of pattern exhaustion, in which a culture runs out
of variations of traditional designs in their pottery and become less
creative.
------
diN0bot
The trick is that wisdom can often be expressed by the wise in 140 characters,
and the non-wise can recognize it as wisdom, but to truly understand requires
far more subtly than 140 characters.
even a good discussion is only so useful for exploring nuance, subtly and
balance. at some point experience is all there is, and communication is more
about mentoring and guiding.
can two people even truly communicate? can we even share?
~~~
epochwolf
Given the relationship I have with one of my closest friends I think it's
possible for two people to truly communicate. We don't complete each other's
sentences just yet. Give us 20 years together and we probably will. My
grandparents can do that.
I don't think it's worthwhile to look for meaning in twitter messages. A mere
140 characters isn't enough to have a deep discussion but it might have some
insight. I get more from discussing my insight with friends than I do looking
for it on twitter. Wisdom takes time.
Edit: removed a paragraph that wasn't needed
~~~
mreid
I don't doubt that close friends are an invaluable source of meaning but I
think you may have missed the point of Rand's post.
I'm pretty sure he is not arguing that there is deep wisdom to be found in 140
characters. Rather, through your interaction with many tweets from many people
you can distil meaning.
_The point of Twitter isn’t knowledge or understanding, it’s merely
connective information tissue. It’s small bits of information carefully
selected by those you’ve chosen to follow and its value isn’t in what they
send, it’s how it fits into the story in your head. There are great stories to
be found on Twitter, but you have to do the work._
You're not precluded from discussing tweets with your friend.
~~~
epochwolf
I think I may be using a different definition for meaning. I equate meaning to
wisdom rather than information or knowledge.
I don't think twitter has much wisdom to offer. It has starting points for
valuable thoughts from time to time. Which I see as the the point of the
article.
------
TobiasCassell
"The value of the idea is one part that it is yours and one part that you gave
it to someone else. It’s you and something new."
I loved this..
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Fitness tracking app's map reveals movement patterns on remote military bases - bagels
https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/28/politics/strava-military-bases-location/index.html
======
greenyoda
Extensive discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16249955](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16249955)
------
bagels
This might be the original research?
[https://twitter.com/Nrg8000/status/957318498102865920](https://twitter.com/Nrg8000/status/957318498102865920)
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Show HN: Devknox – Free Security Plugin for Android Studio - subho007
https://devknox.io/
======
efuquen
This is a great idea. Is there anywhere a list of all the flaws that it can
detect? I couldn't find it on the website.
~~~
subho007
We just updated our blog. The list is here: [https://blog.devknox.io/devknox-
autocorrect-for-security-iss...](https://blog.devknox.io/devknox-autocorrect-
for-security-issues/)
~~~
efuquen
Wow, to be honest I didn't realize this would be so amazing. I'm going to tell
all my co-workers about it as well. I upvoted you on Product Hunt as well:
[https://www.producthunt.com/posts/devknox](https://www.producthunt.com/posts/devknox)
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Politically motivated climate data deletions - okket
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/28/arctic-researcher-donald-trump-deleting-my-citations
======
ada1981
This seems to be happening with enough frequency that we citizens of the world
ought to create a third party mirror of all gov data so as to withstand
leadership transitions and politically motivated deletions.
I'd say someone like the UN should coordinate this, but it would probably be
better done by a Wikipedia style outfit.
Maybe on the block chain. Perhaps we need a DataCoin that fuels keeping this
stuff alive.
I'm curious how much data we are talking about and how difficult it would be
for us to automate backing it up so this sort of issue isn't as devastating.
Might also be a way for us to cite data in such a way that it automatically
triggers archiving.
Ie. Using
[http://dataarchive.org/govagency.gov/data/numbers](http://dataarchive.org/govagency.gov/data/numbers)
would automatically store the source info as well as last accessibilily
information.
Ideas?
~~~
throwaway2016a
Replying to you to clarify the article since you are the top voted comment and
I think it might lend itself to other people making conclusions they shouldn't
without reading the article.
While I agree with you, I'm not sure that is the case here. The research is
not deleted in this case, just literally the citations. Here it sounds more
like:
Either
A. People editing citations in articles need to be less lazy and relocate
missing sources
or
B. Research sites need to follow proper SEO best practice and use 301
redirects when they move files
~~~
mdekkers
RTFA - Data is actually being deleted, along with citations.
~~~
throwaway2016a
I did RTFA and this paragraph threw me off:
> All in all, emails about defunct links of sites that weren’t saved are
> annoying, but harmless. Finding archived materials to replace them add maybe
> 20 minutes of internet searches to my day – and a bit of anger at the state
> of the country.
The way I read that was that the articles still existed elsewhere. But reading
the article again I can see they are referring to other people's citations of
the things that are deleted.
Also, the title itself:
> I am an Arctic researcher. Donald Trump is deleting my citations
Citation is defined by the dictionary as:
> "a quotation from or reference to a book, paper, or author, especially in a
> scholarly work."
Not the source data.
So my apologies. I misread what the author was intending to say. But in
defense if the author was intending to say that then the word citation in the
title is used completely wrong. (or scientist have a different definition
which I find odd)
Actually readying the article again. I am still not sure I was not right the
first time. Deleting a citation is NOT deleting the source material. Deleting
"cited material" is.
------
Robadob
They don't actually make clear where the information has been deleted from.
But to me it sounds alot like the big fuss at the inauguration when Obama's
Whitehouse website was archived and replaced with Trump's.
The stated 'The US National Strategy for the Arctic' and 'Implementation Plan
for the Strategy', both sound like Obama policy which would have subsequently
have been archived.
Blaming Trump for this is facile at best.
[http://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/20/politics/obama-white-
house...](http://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/20/politics/obama-white-house-
website/)
~~~
ItendToDisagree
What is the functional difference between 'deleted' and 'archived but not
available for anyone to view' or is there one?
~~~
Turing_Machine
The entire Obama Whitehouse site is still available for viewing at
[https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/](https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/)
The Obama administration sites were moved to the National Archives and Trump
started over with new sites. That's exactly the same thing that happened when
Bush II and Clinton left office (Clinton was the first to have a web site, so
we don't have any precedent before that). Nothing has been "deleted".
Oddly, no one seemed to screech when Obama "deleted" all the material from the
Bush II administration. Why not?
------
pvaldes
Big bonfire of burning books: done
What's the next thing in the manual?
~~~
mtreis86
Round up the writers and dissidents
~~~
mtreis86
If anyone has not yet read The Gulag Archipelago, please brace yourself
mentally and do so. A very realistic look at how these things happened at a
certain point in recent history.
------
refurb
Exactly what was deleted? On what website? I can't tell from the article.
------
patrickg_zill
so... they're not her citations in the sense of "things that I have written"
but instead, changed or modified websites that now have dead links, with no
pointers to the data.
I had the same problem this morning in looking for some old Mac software...
~~~
throwaway2016a
Thank you for being one of the only people to bring up the point of the
article. It means the actual citations not the work being cited.
However, as the article points out, it is possible (perhaps even easy) to hunt
down updated links to the research. Instead they were deleted.
If that was done to a Wikipedia article the article would be flagged and
either the text deleted or the link fixed. So in a sense Wikipedia has much
higher standards.
If anything this is a fable of SEO. Why you should always make sure your
legacy URLs provide proper 301 redirects.
------
sundvor
"The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to
make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive."
I have no words.
------
asdfologist
Can the Trump supporters here explain why this is a good idea? I'm genuinely
curious.
~~~
shepardrtc
The neocon (or alt-right, or whatever) attitude is that the planet is too
massive and powerful for us to affect it. They believe that climate
researchers and scientists have an agenda to push their liberal viewpoint
about the world on people and control businesses that would otherwise prosper.
The so-called "data" is - in the best case scenario - simply opinion, or - in
the worst case scenario - faked. They believe that if you get rid of the
"data", you can stop the liberals with their bullshit agenda.
And now one of their zealots is whispering in the ear of the President.
~~~
bdavisx
>The neocon (or alt-right, or whatever) attitude is that the planet is too
massive and powerful for us to affect it
Not exactly, that's the idea that's been pushed on the people who don't think
for themselves, and so those people believe it, just like they believe other
fake news.
The "leaders" that actually pushed the idea know that global warming is
happening, and that humans are (at least a part of) the cause; they just don't
care, profits are more important.
------
muninn_
So is he sitting there pressing the delete key himself?
~~~
kapauldo
Don't be a defender, you're making it worse.
~~~
muninn_
Nah
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Joystiq is closing and I'll miss them like hell – Polygon - evo_9
http://www.polygon.com/2015/1/30/7945625/joystiq-is-closing-and-ill-miss-them-like-hell
======
smt88
We live in a world where a single publication is less and less meaningful. The
writers from Joystiq will likely continue writing about games. Find your
favorite ones and follow them, and you'll still get the same quality of
content.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Quantum setback for warp drives - Anon84
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/23292/
======
jerf
So, previously, if you applied an impossible amount of impossibly-stable
negative mass in an impossible configuration that was impossible to maintain
due to impossible-to-predict interactions with the interstellar medium and
goosed it in an impossible manner you might have been able to move faster than
light.
Now some guys have revealed that it's also impossible due to quantum effects.
Frankly, that's just one more "impossible" in a rich sea of impossible
assumptions to make this style of warp drive work.
As I like to say, once you accept one impossibility into your theory, the fact
that impossible results occur is not fundamentally interesting.
People who babble about how people thought that traveling faster than sound
was impossible and who are we to say this is actually impossible need to spend
more time with real relativity and not Star Trek "wishing is an acceptable
substitute for engineering" relativity. People who think that the Alcubierre
drive was ever actually possible betray a _profound_ misunderstanding of both
the drive and relativity, in their zeal to get to the results they want
instead of the reality they have. If FTL is possible, it won't be as a result
of QM or relativity. It might come from the eventual fusion, but a deeper
understanding of relativity shows that you're still facing a steep uphill
battle.
The thing that you come to understand if you actually understand relativity is
that it is not merely that FTL travel is "impossible" because c is some
"cosmic speed limit". c is not the cosmic speed limit. c is the number that
indicates the relationship between space and time in the Minkowsky metric. c
comes from the literal shape of the universe, which is not the Euclidean one
you think it is. Travelling "faster than c" is not merely breaking the 55mph
speed limit on your local road, it is fundamentally a undefined, gibberish
statement in relativity. Everything outside of your lightcone is profoundly
indistinguishable from anything else outside of your lightcone.
The deepest discussion of relativity I know of that is freely online:
<http://www.mathpages.com/rr/rrtoc.htm>
------
grinich
I don't understand how Hawking radiation is significant. It's far less than
the cosmic background radiation everywhere in the universe. (This is why we
can't "see" black holes.)
~~~
jerf
This is something like standing on Pluto and saying you don't see what's so
bright about the sun. Why not come stand on the surface of the sun and then
make up your own mind?
Hawking radiation is not intrinsically weak. Hawking radiation _as generated
by a large blackhole_ is weak. Flashlights are not weak; flashlights as
powered by my nearly dead batteries are weak.
With a different spacetime configuration you can get arbitrarily strong
Hawking radiation, just like you can get arbitrarily strong light using more
power. Hawking radiation around a very small black hole tears it apart
relatively quickly.
The Universe does not seem to like playing games like this and it tends to
wipe out any structure that permits causality violation (as any FTL drive
would) in an unsurvivable blaze of either Hawking-radiation or in an explosion
of the vacuum energy (see Hawking's work on what would happen if you towed a
wormhole around enough at relativistic speeds to cause a causality violation).
And by "unsurvivable", I don't mean "probably fatal to life but we might be
able to engineer around it". I mean, "unsurvivable to the space-time structure
in question"; whatever mass or energy happens to get in the way is orders of
magnitude away from even affecting the outcome, let alone standing a chance of
survival.
~~~
grinich
Thanks for the great reply! I guess I'd only read about Hawking radiation with
respect to black holes, and never considered its implications on a larger
scale. Sounds like it has larger implications than I thought.
Were you citing a specific paper by Hawking (towing a wormhole)? I'd like to
read more.
~~~
thwarted
I haven't read the Hawking paper in question specifically, but the idea of
towing a worm hole around is that you move one end of a worm hole for some
period of time at relativistic speeds. Since as you approach c, time slows
down, so the stationary end of the worm hole is further in the future than the
one that was moved around. It's a pretty stock layman's example of how time
travel _could be_ possible and I'm sure Hawking has torn a, er, hole in it
some how.
------
jimfl
If the bubble is unstable then it probably just needs constant modulation,
meaning the FTL ship is flown more like a helicopter than a rocket ship. That
makes it more maneuverable.
------
DanielBMarkham
This just in: Quantum mechanics and relativity don't get along.
Film at 11
<<yawn>>
------
geuis
Yeah let's get to the point where it's technically possible to build one. This
is exactly like preminent scientists in 1903 publishing papers about how
powered flight was impossible.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
The “backfire effect” is mostly a myth, a broad look at the research suggests - hhs
https://www.niemanlab.org/2019/03/the-backfire-effect-is-mostly-a-myth-a-broad-look-at-the-research-suggests/
======
stupidcar
This is like one of those Knights and Knaves logic puzzles we used to do at
school:
Amy believes the backfire effect is real, whereas Ben believes it is fake. Amy
reads an article saying the backfire effect has been disproven, then passes
her new opinion on to Ben. What will be Ben's revised opinion of the backfire
effect be if 1) the backfire effect actually exists, 2) the backfire effect
doesn't exist.
~~~
balabaster
I find this premise amusing... I find it amusing because my ex (whose name
really is Aimee) often had opinions that my life experiences and education
suggested to me were suspect. Aimee used to do a bunch of reading, but the
material she read was often from sources or authors I didn't find credible and
thus while their arguments seemed plausible, they weren't enough to invalidate
my original opinion.
My name really is Ben. My thoughts and opinions on such matters were largely
unaffected by hers in many cases, unless she presented credible evidence that
led me to re-evaluate my opinion, which did occasionally happy. Often though,
it was just "someone else agrees with me, thus I'm right," which does nothing
to sway my opinion.
Two people having the same opinion doesn't make them right and doesn't negate
my opinion. It just means they both disagree with me. Humanity also believed
in the geocentric model of the universe at one point. That doesn't make it
right. It took one person to change the entire opinion of the world to the
heliocentric model. Now admittedly, I'm not Copernicus, but we're all capable
of finding evidence to support or refute our opinions on the world. It's just
that very often people use the opinions of others as support for their own
instead of exercising critical thinking and forming their own opinions.
~~~
RealityVoid
The thing is, forming your own oppinion is _hard_ and you need a great deal of
insight to reach some form of truth.
I, for example, if I lived a couple of hundred years back, would have probably
believed the world is flat, since, well, it's the easiest oppinion to have by
just looking around. The model we have now is incredibly sophisticated and not
at all intuitive, we just think it is because we're used to it. Things that we
are used to seem the most obvious and simple in the world.
We are limited with how much we can dig deep into stuff. So many times we have
to reffer to other people that know what they are doing. I, sometimes, even
reffer to myself at some different point in time. If I know at some time I
looked deeply at some problem and reached a conclusion then, I will just take
it for granted and not always retrace my thought process. It's a useful mental
shortcut, but one that can leave me making oppinions on old or incomplete
facts.
~~~
Retric
People did not really believe the world was flat hundreds of years ago.
Similarly the “new” world was in regular contact with the old for the last
several thousand years. It’s only 53 miles from North America to Asia, even
less if you include the two islands between them.
PS: We have a lot of ideas about how wrong people used to be. But, I suspect
most people never really formed an option on most of this stuff because they
never really considered the question.
~~~
phreeza
If they were in regular contact, why did smallpox have such a devastating
effect on Americans?
~~~
Retric
Population density. Smallpox dies out with lot’s of tiny isolated communities
with minimal contact to each other.
------
supergauntlet
This link isn't terribly blogspammy or anything, but the original article has
more information: [https://fullfact.org/blog/2019/mar/does-backfire-effect-
exis...](https://fullfact.org/blog/2019/mar/does-backfire-effect-exist/)
And the original paper:
[https://fullfact.org/media/uploads/backfire_report_fullfact....](https://fullfact.org/media/uploads/backfire_report_fullfact.pdf)
~~~
gpvos
It's more readable, better organized, and shorter, too.
------
autoexec
So someone named Amy Sippet who works at a charity called Full Fact decided
it's mostly a myth, not after conducting studies or independent research but
after reading just 7 previous studies on the backfire effect and noting that
some studies didn't seem to her to support it and that most of the studies she
read were conducted in the US. The article links to and quotes from her
twitter account.
This major breakthrough in the social sciences shares space in the very same
article with an observation about how you can use Instagram to find "the
internet’s darkest corners.” and some random stuff about Apple.
Maybe it's just the backfire effect here, but I'm not really convinced.
~~~
sterkekoffie
Limiting a literature review to 7 studies based on frequency of citation is
pretty understandable, especially for a relatively young research topic. Of
the 2 studies which showed a significant backfire effect, the findings of the
first were considered "overstated and oversold" by its own authors and the
second only found evidence of the effect in one of four situations. The second
was also partially replicated in a later study which found no evidence of the
backfire effect.
That being said, the author of the review probably would not want you to be
convinced by a single pop-sci piece covering her work. This "major
breakthrough," as you describe it, does not in fact share space with any
tweets or mentions of Instagram, but can be found here:
[https://fullfact.org/media/uploads/backfire_report_fullfact....](https://fullfact.org/media/uploads/backfire_report_fullfact.pdf)
------
rsj_hn
In an age when nothing seems to replicate, this wouldn't surprise me. But
1\. There is an obvious conflict of interest in having a fact checking
organization claim to "debunk" studies showing that fact checking is
ineffective.
2\. This "refutation" is a press briefing, not a peer reviewed study, and
doesn't have a lot of facts to back up the claim, other than looking at the N
difference in only 7 handpicked studies.
This is an amusing example of what happens when so called authorities are held
to account. Let's say someone reports that fact checking organizations are a
waste of taxpayer dollars. Then the fact checking organization comes out with
a 'Fact Check: False'. It seems there should be some prohibition about being
an authority on criticisms of yourself.
~~~
avs733
I've always struggled with the phrase 'replication crisis.' Really we have a
'mindset to approach science crisis.' The replication crisis is a couple of
things to me...
1) A problem with how research is published and treated as 'new knowledge' \-
some of which is being solved (slowly) by efforts such as the OSF. Other
efforts include registered reports, journals for nonsignificant findings, etc.
The problem is journals seek to publish a 'contribution' and define
contribution in a way that misrepresents science.
2) A problem with the promotion and rewarding of academics...see 1 and also
the drive to produce work in academia results in rewarding minuscule steps
that don't have larger coherence because the paper not the impact is rewarded.
People get tenure for publications not scientific discoveries. This obviously
links to 1
3) Often replication failures are a feature not a bug - but fundamentally we
think about and talk about science in way to absolutist of a frame. This is
especially a problem in social sciences which try and perform 'science' to
gain equal treatment to 'hard science.' They aren't worse or better...they are
different, their science is harder because context matters - but it is still
science. There are myriad studies in psychology performed on white men from
Harvard in the 40's (forgive my facetiousness). If I rerun the experiment and
it 'fails to replicate' is the theory 'wrong', 'invalid', 'incomplete', or
context specific? The choice of term there is critical to a set of
philosophical beliefs about science that can actually imperil science by
making different experimental results into an _inherently_ bad thing.
------
rjkennedy98
This all depends on how you measure it. Take Roe v Wade for example. Abortion
pre-Roe v Wade was really not that big of a political issue. Just yesterday I
was listening to the radio on a long drive and a company called "Patriot
Network" was advertising a cellphone network for "Patriots". The reason?
Verizon and other big phone companies donate to Planned Parenthood.
~~~
sb057
Part of the reason it wasn't a very big issue pre-Roe v Wade is that on-demand
abortions were illegal in 46 states prior to it.
~~~
kirsebaer
"In 1971, delegates to the Southern Baptist Convention in St. Louis, Missouri,
passed a resolution encouraging “Southern Baptists to work for legislation
that will allow the possibility of abortion under such conditions as rape,
incest, clear evidence of severe fetal deformity, and carefully ascertained
evidence of the likelihood of damage to the emotional, mental, and physical
health of the mother.” The convention, hardly a redoubt of liberal values,
reaffirmed that position in 1974, one year after Roe, and again in 1976."
[https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/05/religious-
ri...](https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/05/religious-right-real-
origins-107133)
~~~
zaphar
There is an enormous amount of nuance in that statement. The real change that
occurred was that nuance evaporated from the discussion of the subject.
------
emmelaich
Meta -- but does anyone else get tired of the word 'myth'?
These days, instead of opinions and arguments being countered, we have 'myths'
busted.
It's even weirder when it is 'myth' you've never heard of.
~~~
keiru
Yes, it's tiresome. Not refering to this one in particular, but many internet
champions of truth aggrandize their Goliath to post shitty myth busting
articles. In a recent post I chose to say "mistaken belief" to avoid sounding
like captain fact-checker.
------
backfired
To paraphrase:
> The effect: " _An ideologue believes a (wrong) thing. You tell them, no.
> They double down. Your effort to refute has backfired._ " This is actually
> rare.
It doesn't matter, because we've all been there. We've all experienced clashes
of opinion, and none of us like being wrong, so we resist adjusting.
Lots of us do it. It's a natural part of childhood. Being afraid of the dark.
Believing in ghosts. Santa Clause. The Easter Bunny. The Tooth Fairy. How did
you cope?
What about other aspects of belief? Religion? What aspects of religion does
one regard as history? How many people remain religious in the face of
contrary evidence?
Suddenly, this effect seems less rare.
~~~
username90
The backfire effect is obviously not universal, otherwise it would be
impossible to teach for example Newtonian physics. So if you present strong
enough proof people will change their minds.
I think the problem is that people don't really learn what a strong proof is,
so when two people who each have a weak understanding of the topic tries to
argue both will see that the other is ignorant but not that themselves are
ignorant. After the discussion both will have correctly refuted a lot of
claims from the other side, thus "strengthening" their own views. If this
often happen to you then you are likely not as well informed as you think you
are.
In short, I believe that "you can't reason someone into a position that you
didn't reason yourself into" is true, while the popular "you can't reason
someone out of a position that they didn't reason themselves into" is wrong.
~~~
Torgo
Not necessary. Science advances when entrenched proponents of the old theory
die out.
------
ocschwar
I don't know. Having read it only makes me believe more strongly in the
backfire effect.
------
diminoten
"Fact finding organization finds that fact finding matters, despite some
rumors that facts don't matter."
Right.
------
doc_gunthrop
“Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor
to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.” -Francis Bacon
------
Der_Einzige
The term used for this by philsophers at least after hegel is "the dialectic".
I've always thought that many philsophers uncritical acceptance of a
dialectical process within the world was absurd. I am happy to see some
evidence from science indicating this to be the case.
------
darkpuma
Belief in the backfire effect confirms the bias many people have towards
believing their political opponents are idiots, immune to rational thought.
~~~
Veen
That’s only true if you believe your own side and yourself aren’t just as
vulnerable.
~~~
darkpuma
I didn't say one side experiences this more than another.
There are rational people on all "sides". Rational people may come to disagree
with each other if they have different information available to them, or if
they simply have different priorities.
Anybody who thinks _all_ of their opponents are irrational, by virtue of being
their opponent, are themselves irrational in that respect. However that says
nothing about the political distribution of this particular cognitive bias. I
have made no claims concerning that.
------
dr_dshiv
"I didn't think the backfire effect was real, but now I'm not so sure."
Is there a catchy name to describe the effect of disbelieving social science
research?
~~~
spamizbad
Not sure, but social science research is currently in the midst of a
replication crisis. And not necessarily due to anyone acting in bad faith: you
can run an experiment twice a few months apart and get opposite results. No
idea on how to fix, but probably needs to invest in more robust experiment
design, larger samples, and perhaps more advanced statistical methods. Sadly
all of those demands cut against the "publish or perish" mentality in academia
which often favors quantity over quality. A shame, since most social science
researches want to do the best work possible but are constrained by $$$ and
the broader culture of expectations in academic research.
~~~
germanlee
It's in a replication crisis because pretty much none of it is science ( no
replicable testing possible - hypothesis, experiment, theory ). It's why
Richard Feynmann associated social science with pseudoscience.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWr39Q9vBgo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWr39Q9vBgo)
Because real science destroyed the credibility of religion and religion in
much of the world is no longer a credible social control tool, the elites
needed a new form of religion to control society. That new religion is social
"science". Whereas religion controlled everything from economics, schooling,
family, culture, society, law, etc, now they all fall under the
pseudoscience/religion called social "science".
\---------------------------------------------
Reply to ziddoap.
Considering you tossed around "illumati-esque", I doubt you are interested.
I consider social science to be a pseudoscience for the same reason richard
feynmann did. Did you bother watching what he had to say?
Social "science" is a humanities. It belongs in the category with philosophy,
ethics, literature, religion, etc.
Just because I said it is a pseudoscience doesn't mean that I think it is
useless or bad necessarily. No more than I think literature, ethics,
philosophy or even religion is bad.
I just think social "science" is a "religion" trying to latch onto the good
name of real science. Just like creationism "science" or all the other fake
"science" trying to gain credibility by associating itself with science.
~~~
feanaro
I see this position somewhat often, almost unavoidably accompanied by a
reference to Feynman. The position is, of course, pure nonsense if you take a
few moments to think it through.
Not only has the world moved on drastically from when Feynman, a non-expert in
the area, wrote that essay, but it is also ludicrous to claim that a part of
existence is unamenable to scientific study. If it exists and has an effect,
it can be studied. There is no reason to believe human behaviour and thought
is beyond this.
~~~
CriticalCathed
>Not only has the world moved on drastically from when Feynman...
You're right, social science got even less replicable and less scientific.
>If it exists and has an effect, it can be studied.
Yes, you're right. But that doesn't mean that you can ground it in empirical
evidence or effectively apply the scientific method of inquiry. Philosophy is
a method of studying human behavior -- it is not, however, science. And for
substantially the same set of reasons the social sciences are also not
science.
~~~
feanaro
> You're right, social science got even less replicable and less scientific.
You'll need to substantiate this claim, of course.
> Yes, you're right. But that doesn't mean that you can ground it in empirical
> evidence or effectively apply the scientific method of inquiry.
Why not?
> Philosophy is a method of studying human behavior -- it is not, however,
> science. And for substantially the same set of reasons the social sciences
> are also not science.
You are simply repeating the old misconception I've hinted at: that human
behaviour is off-limits to scientific inquiry, even though it is real and
physical. I fail to see why this would be the case. We are, after all, talking
about measurable, quantifiable things inputs and outputs regarding human
behaviour.
~~~
Kaiyou
Because most humans behave sufficiently different from each other. Even if you
experiment on a subset of humans and get knowledge about this subset, a
different subset of humans could react completely different. It's so bad that
even the same subset of humans could react completely different if you do the
same test 50 years later.
~~~
feanaro
> Even if you experiment on a subset of humans and get knowledge about this
> subset, a different subset of humans could react completely different.
They _could_ , but that does not mean they _do_. There are quite obviously
rules and patterns to much of human functioning. Denying so seems like human
hubris.
Even if each human displays unique behaviour for a particular trait, knowing
that it is so for that particular trait is useful and therefore still amenable
to scientific exploration. Even if humans reacted randomly in some situation,
the random behaviour would be subject to a probability distribution and
knowing it would be useful.
It's hard for me to see where exactly the leap to "it's impossible to study
human behaviour scientifically" is necessary, particularly when we have so
much evidence to the contrary.
~~~
Kaiyou
It's not science if you don't reliably get the same output if you provide the
same input. It's useful, sure. But it's not science.
~~~
feanaro
Sorry, but this just sounds like a deepity. Science is a _process_ , not a
result.
It holds for most of science most of the time that you don't reliably get the
same output if you provide the same input (because you don't know all the
variables or the entire set of equations). Only when a phenomenon is
completely known does this stop being true.
But when is a phenomenon completely known? After all, for a long time we've
known classical mechanics to be completely known... Except it wasn't. And
during the time we thought it was, you could get into exactly the type of
situation you describe above: for the "same" input, you could get a different
output, depending on the components of the stress-energy tensor you were not
aware were relevant. The effect was subtle there of course, but there are many
examples where it's not (e.g. the entirety of biology and medicine).
So I disagree with this description of science.
EDIT: Also, it completely slipped my mind the first time around because it's
such a stupidly strong counterargument, but by your definition the entirety of
modern physics (quantum mechanics, quantum field theory and beyond) is not
science.
~~~
Kaiyou
Science is useful because it has the power to predict. It gains this power
from getting the same output when providing the same input. If what you are
doing doesn't have the power to predict it's not science. You can still apply
the scientific method to what you are doing and if you're applying that method
you might as well call yourself a scientist and what your doing science, but
then again, a few hundred years ago scientists didn't yet know that things
like alchemy weren't science, so they applied the scientific method to it and
figured out that it isn't useful.
------
orblivion
That thing you thought was true all your life is actually false.
1 year later: That thing you thought was false for the last year was actually
true.
At every turn trying to make us feel stupid. It's almost like somebody is
trying to drive us crazy.
~~~
britch
Understanding is a process. Believing what we have the best evidence to
believe is not stupid. If the evidence changes and you shift your belief you
are not stupid.
I think the reality is that humans are very complex, especially how we relate
to each other. Studies that try to boil down our behavior and provide
actionable results are highly demanded, but are very difficult to prove.
~~~
greglindahl
Believing the best evidence is not a good idea if the evidence is weak. One
thing that many science journalists are not very good at is conveying how
strong the evidence is.
~~~
tempestn
It's a good idea as long as the belief is proportionately weakly held.
~~~
RealityVoid
But his is not the way most people think about things. For most people it's
white or black, it is or it isn't. Speaking of degrees of belief makes you
look like an indecisive fool at times.
~~~
tempestn
If I were running for office I might be a bit careful about how I expressed
such things, but having a degree of belief proportional to the degree of
evidence appears the opposite of foolish to me. I hold that belief moderately
strongly.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Database Internals - pointy_hat
https://databass.dev
======
playing_colours
This is a very good book! Recently, I am very happy with a number of more
foundational data books from O’Reilly:
Designing Data-Intensive Applications
[https://dataintensive.net/](https://dataintensive.net/)
Streaming Systems
[http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920073994.do](http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920073994.do)
and this one.
~~~
burlesona
If you wanted to build your own database (to learn how), is Database Internals
the better book, or DDIA?
~~~
travisjeffery
I'm currently writing a book for PragProg called Building Distributed Services
with Go (though it mostly applies to other languages too) that's walks you
through building a distributed database from scratch. You can sign up on this
mailing list to know when it's available: [https://travisjeffery.us4.list-
manage.com/subscribe?u=1e3ff7...](https://travisjeffery.us4.list-
manage.com/subscribe?u=1e3ff7d7791b26a8f60b9f16c&id=653935be08)
~~~
bogomipz
Looking forward to it. Do you have any idea when this might become a Beta book
on PragProg? Cheers.
~~~
travisjeffery
Awesome. Hopefully within a month or two.
------
chrisseaton
I've been reading this book for the last few days - it is _way_ above what you
expect these days for a technical book from a popular publisher in terms of
its description of underlying data structures and algorithms. It's also easy
to read. The depth of a text book with the approachability of a typical
working programmer's book.
------
manigandham
I also recommend following Andy Pavlo and the CMU Database Group which has
lots of free courses, videos and material:
[https://db.cs.cmu.edu/](https://db.cs.cmu.edu/)
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHnBsf2rH-K7pn09rb3qvkA](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHnBsf2rH-K7pn09rb3qvkA)
~~~
zerr
It suffers from the common issue for such content - theory/lectures are too
diverged from the practical/lab part.
~~~
manigandham
There's nothing stopping you from just writing code following the lectures.
What else would a practical/lab part be? \
There are tons of open-source databases on github that you can hack on so I
don't think there's a major issue with getting practical experience if you
want it.
------
elamje
The topical overview certainly sounds interesting, but sounds extremely
similar to Designing Data Intensive Applications which also covers modern DB
internals.
What’s the sell here?
~~~
libraryofbabel
There is some overlap, but they complement each other. This one (Database
Internals) has much more of a technical deep dive on storage engines,
especially B-tree implementation details.
If I was mentoring someone learning this stuff, I'd advise reading Designing
Data Intensive Applications first, which is certainly the best for giving the
big picture, and follow up with this one for more detail on certain topics.
Given the previous dearth of books on this important subject, I think it's
wonderful that we have two.
------
HappyJoy
Database Design and Implementation by Edward Sciore implements a fully working
relational database from buffer manager up to parser and beyond. It's very
much in the spirit of Tanenbaum's OS book.
Here's the landing page for the book's implementation:
[http://www.cs.bc.edu/~sciore/simpledb/intro.html](http://www.cs.bc.edu/~sciore/simpledb/intro.html)
Unfortunately, I don't think the book is in print anymore.
------
abhinaba1
I am reading this book for the past few days. Very well written!
------
loopz
Grey text on white background => almost unreadable on my screen and I don't
usually have problems with low contrast.
~~~
ifesdjeen
Author here. Thanks for the heads up, it did look a bit bleak on the mobile.
Increased the font size, made grey much more dark, and increased heading
sizes. Hope it's easier to read now!
~~~
Stratoscope
I don't know if I'm seeing the old version or the new version, but this is
still very hard to read.
Advice to all web designers: Please do not use "font-weight: 300" for body
text, _ever_. Simply changing that to 400 in the developer tools made it much
more readable. The font was still bugging me, so I tried killing the "font-
family: futura pt" too.
Wow! What a world of difference. Now it is super easy to read, instead of
looking like it's trying to show off some design style.
Know your audience: you are addressing potential database developers with this
book, not graphic designers.
~~~
ifesdjeen
Preferring one font over the other is more a question of taste, but I think
you're right about font-weight: it does read better with 400. Thanks for the
tip!
~~~
Stratoscope
And thank you for being so responsive to feedback! It's much easier to read
now.
I also want to apologize for my comment being a little grouchy; I should know
better than to comment on style and readability in the wee hours. :-)
~~~
ifesdjeen
Sure thing! Appreciate that you've figured out what was wrong with that font,
too.
------
mesaframe
In past few days I've heard so many praises and also I have heard so much
criticism about Database Books in general.
What makes this book so much better?
~~~
zzzcpan
It depends on your goal.
Database internals books are not worth reading if you want to work on
implementing real world database engines. You are better off checking out
internals and documentation of various implementations and also research
papers in that field. And you would be doing your own research anyway.
But if you are just starting out in programming, it's probably as good book as
any to learn something new and practical about algorithms and data structures.
~~~
ifesdjeen
I completely agree that it always depends on the goal. I'd also add a second
vector: experience. If you've already worked with distributed and/or storage
systems and have understanding of the field, you can jump straight to papers
and code. However, for people who are just starting, it may be beneficial to
read an overview book and get familiar with a field. This book attempts to be
that a starting point that can help to navigate database papers and code.
Some of the folks I talked to who have already worked with databases a lot
mentioned they've benefited from the book as well, since there were some
concepts they were less familiar with or never had to learn (for example,
transactional processing for the folks who have mostly worked with on
eventually consistent databases; or B-Tree details for the folks who have
mostly worked on LSM-Based storage engine)
Disclaimer: I'm author of this book.
------
alfiedotwtf
Nice. This is the book I've been wishing someone wrote for a long time.
Finally! Insta-buy.
------
commandersaki
Is this a full fee paid course for on campus students?
Because if it is, I would be miffed and feel short changed to be told to watch
youtube lectures on my own time. I value face to face time and interactivity
with my professor or lecturer. If this is a heavily discounted course due to
the crippled way it is taught then I have no issue.
From the syllabus:
CS144 is taught using a combination of lectures and videos. In previous years,
it was entirely “flipped”; i.e. all the lecture material was taught by videos.
This year things are different and we are going to mix things up: Some weeks,
including the first week, will be based on recorded videos that you are
required to watch in your own time. We will call these Video Weeks. Other
weeks, including the second week, are based entirely on in-class lectures, and
you don’t need to watch any videos. We will call these Lecture-only Weeks. So
why mix things up? We are teaching this way because we have found that some of
the material (e.g. the basic principles you learn in week 1) are most
efficiently learned by watching videos - the concepts are fairly simple and
the material is descriptive; a video is a more efficient use of your time.
Other material, such as when you learn about congestion control in week 4, is
best learned in person, interactively in a lecture.
~~~
jrockway
The fee you pay for college courses is for the piece of paper saying you
passed the course.
Those that don't need the piece of paper can learn for free. Who can complain
about that!
~~~
commandersaki
Ostensibly. Some may want the paper and an actual learning experience that
isn't virtualised. I must be asking for too much.
I also might not understand the purpose of the video lectures. If they
supplant face to face time but get rid of the tedium, then I would say it
should also accompany course/lecture notes, reading texts, and/or supplemental
documents.
I just think forcing people to watch youtube videos is a much lower quality
experience for a student. If it's a required course I'd want a refund for
being forced into a lazy teaching format.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Watson’s Nobel Prize Medal for Decoding DNA Fetches $4.1M at an Auction - ssclafani
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/05/nyregion/james-watsons-nobel-medal-sells-for-record-4-million.html
======
IvyMike
Slate has a far more negative view of the auction:
> Jim Watson is one of the most important scientists of the 20th century. He
> is also a peevish bigot. History will remember him for his co-discovery of
> the structure of DNA, in 1953. This week, Watson is ensuring that history,
> or at least the introduction to every obituary, will also remember him for
> being a jerk.
[http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/201...](http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2014/12/james_watson_selling_nobel_prize_dna_structure_discoverer_s_history_of_racism.html)
~~~
nitin_flanker
Why he is a jerk? it's his rights to decide what to do with that medal. isn't
it? Why people are criticizing him is out of my head.
People also call him racist because of his another discovery. I mean let him
do whatever he wants to do with that. Will a medal going to carry away
whatever he does for the science?
~~~
jjoonathan
He established his reputation as a jerk independently of selling the medal.
Here are some quotes:
> [I am] inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa [because] all our
> social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as
> ours—whereas all the testing says not really.
He's flat out wrong about what "all the testing" says, btw. We're not just
bashing someone for speaking a politically unpopular truth here (I cynically
suspect that we would do just that were Watson's position correct, but
fortunately that doesn't seem to be the case).
> Whenever you interview fat people, you feel bad, because you know you're not
> going to hire them
> [the] historic curse of the Irish, which is not alcohol, it's not stupidity.
> But it's ignorance.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Watson#Controversies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Watson#Controversies)
Also, he's selling the medal with the specific intent of thumbing his nose at
the scientific community. He would draw much more sympathy if he had fallen on
hard times due to misfortune, for instance.
~~~
shamney
Why is he "flat out wrong" about the testing? African intelligence scores are
much lower.
~~~
shamney
why would someone downvote this? I'm simply pointing out facts. For example,
see this paper by Wicherts et al [1]: "Our estimate of average IQ converges
with the finding that national IQs of sub-Saharan African countries as
predicted from several international studies of student achievement are around
82."
[1][http://wicherts.socsci.uva.nl/wicherts2010IQAFR.pdf](http://wicherts.socsci.uva.nl/wicherts2010IQAFR.pdf)
~~~
seekingtruth
I'm getting downvoted for linking to Wikipedia. Facts don't matter on this
topic.
~~~
shamney
the downvotes are quite amazing. this is just a basic factual matter --
nothing to do with whether watson's broader claims are true -- yet it seems
some people are simply incapable of dealing with reality...
~~~
whorace
The same people who decry creationists as ignorant insist that evolution only
works from the neck down.
------
TheBiv
As a biologist, every time I read a story about Watson or Crick I am compelled
to include Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins names in the conversation
(granted the HN audience may not need an introduction to their influence).
This article seems to cast doubt on how important they were in the discovery
of the structure of DNA and into inheritable capability, however it is widely
known amongst scientists how large of a role they played in Watson and Crick's
discovery:
[http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosalind_Franklin](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosalind_Franklin)
[http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Wilkins](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Wilkins)
~~~
jjoonathan
These days they teach it in school like Franklin did all the work while Watson
& Crick were allowed to barge in and steal the credit due primarily to male
privilege, which IMO goes too far (it ignores Crick's mathematical
contribution, Franklin's unfortunate timing, and the ownership structure of
lab projects).
The real shame is that we insist on shoehorning a fundamentally collaborative
endeavor into a winner-take-all social construct.
~~~
phj
The version I learned was that Franklin did all the experimental work, while
Crick did the Fourier transforms in his head to interpret Franklin's results.
Not sure about Watson's contribution, though.
~~~
jjoonathan
Sounds like your teacher/prof was more level-headed than mine. Was Crick's
contribution to the mathematical theory explained or was it sort of implied
that he just happened to have the right training?
The way I see it, both the diffraction theorists and the crystallization
experimentalists deserve credit. Had things happened differently the
experimentalists would have gotten all the credit and that would have been
just as wrong.
------
pervycreeper
>The sale also became symbolic of a quest for redemption after he became what
he called an “unperson” in the scientific community seven years ago
So much for science as a bastion of disinterested objective investigation.
When a community's greatest minds (such as Perelman, Grothendieck, etc., in
math, for instance) become alienated from the larger community, when
conformity and publishing quantity (over quality) is rewarded, and dissent is
punished, when information, results, and access is kept from all but a few of
the elect, we have a system which is not fulfilling its promise or its
purpose.
~~~
coke12
This was not "disinterested objective investigation", it was ranting from a
bigot. He's also said (among other things) that he won't hire fat people, and
that women aren't as good as men at science.
I think what we're seeing here is what too often happens with celebrity
scientists -- they get a big head, and think they are expert on issues that
they actually know nothing about.
~~~
pervycreeper
I am condemning the reaction to the comments, not defending those comments
themselves (which I have not investigated thoroughly).
>I think what we're seeing here is what too often happens with celebrity
scientists -- they get a big head, and think they are expert on issues that
they actually know nothing about.
I agree with this point (and would go further by removing the celebrity
condition), and it is probably applicable to Watson, just as it is to most who
condemn him.
~~~
jamesaguilar
> I am condemning the reaction to the comments
Are you saying that you believe it is wrong to fire or refuse to associate
with someone who says racist things? (This was the reaction to his comments.)
I mean, leaving aside the legal issues of having someone in a management
position saying something like that. Morally, you feel that this is wrong?
~~~
pervycreeper
>Are you saying that you believe it is wrong to fire or refuse to associate
with someone who says racist things?
No, that is an overgeneralization of a very lazy mischaracterization of what I
said. Ostracizing someone for "saying racist" things would be appropriate,
depending on a number of particulars, including degree (is teaching "math"
instead of "anti-racist math" itself an assertion of racism?). However, in
this instance, it would require a great deal of interpretation to get a
legitimate expression of bigotry out of his initial remarks. He was punished
not for prejudice, but for breaking a social taboo. Same analysis applies to
Shirtgate and Larry Summers on sex differences.
~~~
jamesaguilar
> No, that is an overgeneralization of a very lazy mischaracterization of what
> I said.
I didn't characterize what you said, I asked whether I had understood your
properly.
Now that you have clarified, I have another question. Do you actually believe
that what he said was a controversial yet fundamentally scientific opinion?
The man himself has acknowledged that there is not actually any genetic
difference in intelligence, as far as we can tell. It might be different if
the data actually backed up what he said, but as far as I can tell, it was
simple racist ranting.
Nobody was punished for shirtgate. A guy apologized for doing something wrong.
Everyone forgave him. The end.
~~~
pervycreeper
>Do you actually believe that what he said was a controversial yet
fundamentally scientific opinion?
well, using this quote as a source (can't find the original):
>He says that he is “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” because
“all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the
same as ours – whereas all the testing says not really”
This is more of an off-the-cuff, vague, and poorly considered comment. So, no.
However, it has attracted a disproportionate amount of scrutiny (compared to
the stupid and incorrect things said all the time by other scientists), most
often from people who are equally unqualified to comment. Also notable is the
assumption on the part of critics who assumed he stated the basis for the
difference is genetic, which he did not in fact say.
>Nobody was punished for shirtgate
He was bullied to tears by a giant internet hate mob telling him he was a bad
person on one of the most significant days in his career, all for his choice
of apparel. The same people, I might add, who advocate internet censorship in
order to curb "harassment".
------
mironathetin
Who buys something like that? Not that I don't like to see the money of a
wealthy person going into science. Better than a stupid investment into (put
here whatever multiplies money). But to me its like eating the heart of your
enemy to let his strength leap over to you. Thank god, it doesn't work.
Is it only me, or is it a weird purchase?
------
waps
"Decoding DNA" is such a bad name. He figured out the double helix.
DNA isn't decoded yet. Genes have a preamble, and postamble, and we have very
little idea what they mean, we only know what compounds are "requested" by the
codons in the middle of the gene. There are large "empty" parts in chromosomes
(not just the telomeres), and while we know they're not optional, exactly what
they're for is anyone's guess. Furthermore, genes are known to contain some
sort of symbolic pointers to other genes, which we don't know the format of.
Also the way the cell nucleus decodes DNA into the chromatin network, which
should be thought of as the CPU that "executes" DNA contains a lot of stuff we
don't know about. For starters, there are molecules linking across DNA
molecules ... what do they signify ? How do they work ? How is gene expression
controlled by the DNA (presumably has to do with the pre-and-postambles of
genes). How does the pointer resolution in genes work ?
What we know as the double helix, what everybody thinks of as DNA, is really a
picture of sex (or "conception" if you want to get technical. That's why we
have sex of course). DNA only occurs in that form during reproduction (could
be cell, or organism reproduction of course, though during cell (asexual)
reproduction it's only present for a few seconds at best, during sexual
reproduction it exists for a few minutes)
~~~
kendallpark
> What we know as the double helix, what everybody thinks of as DNA, is really
> a picture of sex (or "conception" if you want to get technical. That's why
> we have sex of course). DNA only occurs in that form during reproduction
> (could be cell, or organism reproduction of course, though during cell
> (asexual) reproduction it's only present for a few seconds at best, during
> sexual reproduction it exists for a few minutes)
??? What are you talking about? DNA exists in a double helical form almost
always. An exception is when it is "unzipped" for transcription or
duplication. (And that's only a few nucleotides at a time.)
I have no idea how you're relating sex to the double helical structure of DNA.
~~~
waps
In the chromatin network there's no double helix, because it's always mostly
unrolled and various things are bound to it. It looks a lot more like a
ladder.
The double helix as analyzed only exists as part of chromosomes.
~~~
kendallpark
It seems you are mistaking DNA's quaternary structure for its tertiary
structure. DNA's tertiary structure remains helical while wound up in
chromatin.
[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/Nucleosom...](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/Nucleosome_1KX5_2.png)
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nucleic_acid_structure](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nucleic_acid_structure)
------
baker0
This is a simplified argument but if you gave any adolescent group an
assignment to study and argue the Talmud, then I think they'd naturally grow
into inquisitive-minded individuals well versed in critical thinking. It seems
clear that the intellectual success of European Jews is directly related to
their cultural upbringing and academic endeavors.
I doubt anyone has ever suggested otherwise. The fact that 27% of Nobel Prize
winners in the 20th century were of Ashkenazi heritage is most likely directly
related to their culture and a ton of endless hard work. We are all homo
sapiens. Yes some cultures are worse off than others but I see no evidence of
any genetic superiority. It's not like all these academic achievers are coyly
existing on a beach in a tropical environment, barely exerting any effort, and
causally changing the world of science. No, it takes a ton of effort.
(My comment is based on Watson's theory on IQ and race, and books like, The
Bell Curve. And I'm not promoting religion just the critical thinking skills
developed by analyzing and arguing a complicated text.)
~~~
IndianAstronaut
Another component in intelligence may be the parasite burden people in certain
regions have.
[http://www.economist.com/node/16479286](http://www.economist.com/node/16479286)
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
The Obsessively Detailed Map of American Literature's Most Epic Road Trips - 001sky
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-obsessively-detailed-map-of-american-literatures-most-epic-road-trips
======
drallison
Missing here is Peter Beagle's _I See By My Outfit_ relating his 1993 trip
from the Bronx New York to Menlo Park California with his childhood friend,
Phil Segunick.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Fasting Diet Promotes Ngn3-Driven Β-Cell Regeneration to Reverse Diabetes - mattshelbourn
http://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(17)30130-7
======
DrScump
PDF, with images:
[http://www.cell.com/cell/pdf/S0092-8674(17)30130-7.pdf](http://www.cell.com/cell/pdf/S0092-8674\(17\)30130-7.pdf)
Details on the human feedings:
"The human version of the FMD is a propriety formulation belonging to L-Nutra
([http://l-nutra.com/prolon/](http://l-nutra.com/prolon/)). It is a plant-
based diet designed to attain fasting-like effects on the serum levels of
IGF-I, IGFBP1, glucose and ketone bodies while providing both macro- and
micronutrients to minimize the burden of fasting and adverse effects
(Brandhorst et al., 2015). Day 1 of the FMD supplies ∼4600 kJ (11% protein,
46% fat, 43% carbohydrate), whereas days 2-5 provide ∼3000 kJ (9% protein, 44%
fat, 47% carbohydrate) per day. The FMD comprises proprietary formulations of
vegetable-based soups, energy bars, energy drinks, chip snacks, tea, and a
supplement providing high levels of minerals, vitamins and essential fatty
acids (Figure S3). All items to be consumed per day were individually boxed to
allow the subjects to choose when to eat while avoiding accidentally consuming
components of the following day. For the human subjects, a suggested FMD meal
plan was provided that distributes the study foods to be consumed as
breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner. (See lists below for ingredients and
supplements)"
~~~
guelo
Was that company involved in funding the research?
------
hrodriguez
I needed an easier, to digest, read...
> Professor Valter Longo, from the University of Southern California,
> explained "Our conclusion is that by pushing the mice into an extreme state
> and then bringing them back - by starving them and then feeding them again -
> the cells in the pancreas are triggered to use some kind of developmental
> reprogramming that rebuilds the part of the organ that's no longer
> functioning."[1]
Feast and famine diet may restore insulin production in diabetes:
[1] [http://www.news-medical.net/news/20170224/Feast-and-
famine-d...](http://www.news-medical.net/news/20170224/Feast-and-famine-diet-
may-restore-insulin-production-in-diabetes.aspx)
------
tomhoward
Earlier discussion today;
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13722516](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13722516)
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Ask HN: Open-source tools for discovering and scraping APIs - mmahut
Do you know any good tools that given an API will discover it and scrape periodically data into a database for BI analysis later?
======
Jefro118
Not quite sure what you're asking for here. What does "given an API will
discover it" mean exactly?
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Designing and building a keyboard - wyager
http://yager.io/keyboard/keyboard.html
======
sdegutis
Related: a hardware hacker that I know recently designed and made a new
keyboard[1], which looks really interesting and fun to make. Fortunately he
also provided really good detailed instructions[1][2] so other people can make
it too. I'm not at the skill stage yet where I can make it myself, but it'll
probably be the first complex hardware project I eventually undertake.
[1]:
[https://github.com/technomancy/atreus](https://github.com/technomancy/atreus)
[2]: [http://technomancy.us/173](http://technomancy.us/173)
------
userbinator
OOP in _keyboard firmware_? Am I the only one who finds this quite a lot more
complex than it needs to be?
> The fact that I2C communication blocks immediately is important. Button
> debouncing is done by counting the number of "frames" for which a key is in
> a certain state.
The obvious solution for this is to synchronise the I2C clock to the matrix
scanning loop, so you receive/send one bit each time through the loop. Even
better, do away with the I2C overhead completely and use a continuous serial
protocol between the two halves.
~~~
wyager
>OOP in keyboard firmware?
I could do it with FP if someone made a Haskell to AVR compiler :)
>Am I the only one who finds this quite a lot more complex than it needs to
be?
What functionality would you propose stripping?
>The obvious solution for this is to synchronise the I2C clock to the matrix
scanning loop, so you receive/send one bit each time through the loop.
That's the _wrong_ solution. The main loop takes some milliseconds.
Communication at that rate would be intolerably slow. And how is that any
better than natively clocked I2C? I'd have to re-implement the entire protocol
_in software_ to get that kind of control.
>do away with the I2C overhead completely and use a continuous serial protocol
between the two halves.
What overhead? Any overhead introduced by I2C is very minimal.
What benefit would a "continuous" (do you mean asynchronous?) serial protocol
have? There are also a number of downsides: 1. It wouldn't work well with the
symmetric halves design. The cable would have to switch the TX and RX lines,
and no common cable does that. 2. It wouldn't support more than two keyboards
at once, unless I implemented a shared-line serial protocol from scratch, and
then why not just use I2C? And using an asynchronous serial protocol doesn't
solve the board synchronization problem.
The new version of the board also breaks out the UART header for people who
want to do exactly this, but the UART is not a better solution.
~~~
userbinator
> What functionality would you propose stripping?
The complexity here is not in the functionality. It's in the design and
implementation.
> The main loop takes some milliseconds.
The MCU has a 16MHz single-cycle core. That means a 62.5ns instruction cycle,
or 16,000 instructions in 1ms. What makes it require >16,000 instructions
every time through the loop?
> What benefit would a "continuous" (do you mean asynchronous?) serial
> protocol have?
I do mean a continuous one, with the master driving the clock at the frequency
of the main loop, and the slave(s) synchronising their transmissions with it.
One of the biggest advantages I see is that you can make use of unused
positions in the key matrix, so that they can be scanned at the same time as
all the others. You just need to know which one, and instead of applying
debouncing/up/down, accumulate the bits of scancode that are sent in and pass
them through.
> 1\. It wouldn't work well with the symmetric halves design. The cable would
> have to switch the TX and RX lines, and no common cable does that.
GPIOs are bidirectional. You can do the crossover configuration entirely in
software, since the current design already detects whether it's plugged in
from USB.
> 2\. It wouldn't support more than two keyboards at once
How would you do this with the current design? They're symmetrical, but I
don't see any way to chain or hub them together (unless you use a USB hub to
connect as many independently as you want...), so I think that's a bit of a
moot point. But if you are thinking of a star topology for this "keyboard area
network"(!), using another unused key position in the matrix of the master for
more extension boards would work. Each board could act as a hub for more, but
this quickly gets into "why would you ever want to do that" territory.
> unless I implemented a shared-line serial protocol from scratch, and then
> why not just use I2C?
Because I2C was defined with different assumptions in mind.
~~~
wyager
>The complexity here is not in the functionality. It's in the design and
implementation.
I'd love to hear some proposals for simplifying the implementation.
>What makes it require >16,000 instructions every time through the loop?
Mostly USB library stuff, I think. Been a while since I profiled it.
>I do mean a continuous one...
Can you further explain this paragraph? I don't know what you mean by "unused
positions in the key matrix".
>You can do the crossover configuration entirely in software
Like I said: I'd have no implement the protocol from scratch, in software. The
hardware UART does not support this functionality.
>How would you do this with the current design?
You can splice a TRRS cable or buy a TRRS splitter. The new version of the
board actually has a dual-jack USB-A connector to make daisy-chaining even
easier.
Again, not sure what you mean by "unused key position in the matrix".
>Because I2C was defined with different assumptions in mind.
Which were?
~~~
userbinator
> I'd love to hear some proposals for simplifying the implementation.
The one thing that stands out is that many of the classes only have one
instance created, and they're classes that don't have much functionality in
them. Returning structures from functions requires a copy, in this case the
array of button states, and copies of them are also created inside of
functions like ButtonDebouncer::update. Only one of these state arrays is ever
needed, so make only one...
The actual matrix-scan loop in HardwareController could also be simplified
greatly; this usually just involves shifting a 1 bit through the row/column
driver output port register(s) and reading the input port(s). There's no need
to turn all the rows/columns off each time, since getting the next col/row is
only a matter of changing which one is being driven. Getting the button number
shouldn't require a multiplication (I'll admit I was pretty shocked when I saw
that!) either, since each iteration of the inner loop is the button after the
previous one, so it can be done with one counter.
> Mostly USB library stuff, I think. Been a while since I profiled it.
I'm more familiar with PS/2 keyboard protocol which is much simpler, but USB
shouldn't be that much more complex to send/receive info once everything has
been initialised (and as I understand from working with USB controllers in
non-keyboard devices, the SIE does much of the actual transfer work in
hardware.)
> Can you further explain this paragraph? I don't know what you mean by
> "unused positions in the key matrix".
There can be row/column combinations which don't have keyswitches at their
intersection, but are scanned anyway. You can connect other units so that they
act like keyswitches when they send information.
> Like I said: I'd have no implement the protocol from scratch, in software.
> The hardware UART does not support this functionality.
Of course.
> Which were?
A non-continuous clock. Transfers that occur in small bursts instead of one
continuous serial stream.
(I have studied the IBM keyboard firmware, and worked with one for an
8051-based controller before.)
~~~
wyager
>The one thing that stands out is that many of the classes only have one
instance created,
To maintain proper levels of abstraction.
>Returning structures from functions requires a copy,
Which is extremely fast, simple, side-effect-free, and likely optimized away
by RVO.
>The actual matrix-scan loop in HardwareController could also be simplified
greatly;
Nothing you described would actually be an optimization. Turning off all the
rows/columns takes 1 cycle.
>Getting the button number shouldn't require a multiplication
Nit-picking. This is fast and easy to read. I'm not going to worry about the
few nanoseconds required for a multiplication.
That's also not an issue of "simplification"; it's just premature
optimization.
>but USB shouldn't be that much more complex
PJRC wrote that library. Not sure what they do.
>There can be row/column combinations which don't have keyswitches at their
intersection, but are scanned anyway. You can connect other units so that they
act like keyswitches when they send information.
Why would I do that? Part of the design is that each individual board is
responsible for translating button presses to USB keycode deltas. This allows
for better distribution of responsibility, and also the boards can be
connected in any configuration/order and maintain the same behavior.
>Transfers that occur in small bursts instead of one continuous serial stream.
What's the downside to this? The bursts occur way faster than human perception
could hope to notice.
Besides, if you want to be pedantic, any serial protocol communicates in
"bursts".
~~~
userbinator
> To maintain proper levels of abstraction.
Abstraction is only a tool, a means to an end; not the end in itself.
> Which is extremely fast, simple, side-effect-free, and likely optimized away
> by RVO.
Copying is one of the fastest things a processor can do, but that's not a
reason to do it unnecessarily, even if the compiler optimiser could simplify
it.
> That's also not an issue of "simplification"; it's just premature
> optimization.
Really? I suppose that if you consider abstraction the ultimate goal, you
might think that shorter, simpler code would be "premature optimization"...
> Part of the design is that each individual board is responsible for
> translating button presses to USB keycode deltas.
That functionality remains the same; the receiving board just collects each
bit of the scancode and passes it through directly to the USB. The sending
board is still the one doing the matrix scan and position-to-keycode
translation. The receiving board is just a passthrough.
> What's the downside to this? The bursts occur way faster than human
> perception could hope to notice.
It adds complexity to the software, because it has to deal with start/stop
conditions, etc.
> Besides, if you want to be pedantic, any serial protocol communicates in
> "bursts".
Not if the clock is continuous; once the receiver and sender are synchronised,
the sender can e.g. keep transmitting 0 bytes when there is nothing to send,
and keycodes (which are all nonzero) otherwise.
------
filereaper
This is interesting.
I've been looking for a split ergonomic type mechanical keyboard, but I
haven't found any. The author just went about building what I was looking for.
~~~
aeontech
How about this one [http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/shop/freestyle2-for-pc-
us/](http://www.kinesis-ergo.com/shop/freestyle2-for-pc-us/) ?
~~~
loup-vaillant
It has one unacceptable flaw: staggered keys. [http://loup-
vaillant.fr/articles/better-keyboards](http://loup-
vaillant.fr/articles/better-keyboards)
------
austinz
This is awesome, and makes me want to try building something similar. On a
related note, can anyone recommend a good source for learning about PCB
design?
~~~
technomancy
GeekHack has lots of resources and knowledgeable folks re: all aspects of
keyboard building:
[http://geekhack.org/index.php?board=117.0](http://geekhack.org/index.php?board=117.0)
I built my board ([http://technomancy.us/173](http://technomancy.us/173))
primarily building on knowledge from geekhack.org and the #geekhack channel on
freenode.
~~~
technomancy
Of course I would add that if your goal is more to make a cool board than
learn about pcbs, it's easier to skip the PCB entirely and just hand-wire the
switch matrix yourself. PCBs make sense at a scale of 5+ but IMO just add
extra overhead for a one-off design.
------
ACow_Adonis
Was just thinking about designing a dream keyboard after the "look at my
chair" and "what's your keyboard" threads here on HN.
Came up with the following requirements:
\- Must be split into a left hand and a right hand.
\- No wires! (since it largely defeats the first point)
\- All the regular relative raised key/ergonomic issues.
\- Mechanical, obviously.
\- Since the point is essentially arbitrarily positioned keyboard hands for
touch typing, there's little purpose in having the letters on the keys:
they're no longer necessarily right in front of you to look at.
\- Optional: can either free-stand successfully or have some various means to
allow it to be mechanically attached to various things/surfaces/mechanisms:
Say if i want to have a lazy-boy chair with each arm being one of the
keyboards.
So get to work HN :P
~~~
Wingman4l7
There's the ErgoDox, a split keyboard which is essentially a DIY kit, but it's
not wireless -- although the potential for setting that up has been discussed.
------
melling
Anyone working on anything a little more non-standard like a modern DataHand?
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DataHand](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DataHand)
~~~
simias
I had heard of this DataHand before but looking at the wikipedia picture I
realized that the mapping was directly lifted from QWERTY. It seems such a
waste to me to design a new input method and not try to make an optimized
layout for it (since you'll have to relearn to type anyway...)
~~~
clarry
The layout and hardware are things that can be tackled separately and
independently. The hardware isn't a waste if it works.
------
ahultgren
While mechanical switches are everywere, it's simply impossible to find decent
and decently priced scissor-switches. Does anyone know where to find such for
less than $1 each?
~~~
TheCowboy
I have been trying to find these or something similar for my keyboard project,
but I haven't had any luck yet.
I don't know if it's a personal bias after using a Thinkpad keyboard over the
years, but I feel like scissors switches don't put as much stress on my hands
and require less effort.
~~~
userbinator
How about buying a replacement Thinkpad keyboard and getting the switches from
it?
I've used a Thinkpad as well as other laptop's keyboards over the years, and
the Thinkpad ones usually do feel a bit more solid and accurate. They're still
a bit too stiff for me, however, as my regular desktop's keyboard is an
extremely soft rubber dome one (~40g actuation force). I've tried clicky
keyboards, but never really liked them. It's definitely a personal preference.
~~~
TheCowboy
I'd like to do that. The only problem is the switches are mounted on a custom
plate. Fabricating a new plate isn't trivial because of tight tolerances. I
haven't found any examples of someone who has taken on such a project as well.
What keyboard do you use?
------
follower
Here's another take on a custom keyboard:
[http://blog.keyboard.io/](http://blog.keyboard.io/)
------
simias
The website is already half dead, the pictures won't load here. Unfortunately
without the pictures it's a bit harder to follow...
~~~
ivanca
Here it is the whole post as a single pic:
[https://www.dropbox.com/s/hvng9q9rnk6vkfx/keyboard.png?dl=1](https://www.dropbox.com/s/hvng9q9rnk6vkfx/keyboard.png?dl=1)
------
georgeoliver
This is a great article. Funny enough I'm seeing more and more of these
detailed build your own keyboard articles these days. I don't know much about
DIY hardware, has the market recently shifted such that making these things is
much cheaper/easier than a few years ago?
~~~
Rumudiez
Mechanical keyboards have been on the rise again, and that includes hardware
enthusiasts who love to build! I enjoy taking care of my mechanical keyboards
and admire others' collections. The growth here and in other areas like the
RasPi has led to much more smaller production related to these markets and
enabled communities to design their own hardware.
------
theophrastus
I always wanted to see someone make a proper attempt at a keyboard for
"neutral" hand position. hands placed palm down are flexed "pronate", palm up
"supinated", palms facing each other "neutal" is the most relaxed (face it:
we're 'meant' to be holding our hands out ready to strangle each other) so i
want a keyboard not rotated-up slightly, i want one built into a proper cone
(apex up), or two cones (yes yes... i'm sure a couple of breasts might come to
some of your filthy minds)
~~~
leoc
There have been some (shockingly expensive) keyboards in that format. I
thought they were from Kinesis or Maltron, but I can't find them on either
company's website atm. There are also ergonomic steno keyboards which can be
placed in that configuration
[http://geminiwriter.com/ProductdetailsV1.aspx?ID=24](http://geminiwriter.com/ProductdetailsV1.aspx?ID=24)
------
ksrm
Great! I'm now tempted to build something similar but perhaps with Bluetooth
instead.
Does the fact that the keys aren't staggered make it significantly better or
worse to type on?
~~~
wyager
>Does the fact that the keys aren't staggered make it significantly better or
worse to type on?
Depends who you ask! Personally, I think it's a bit more comfortable to type
on than a staggered layout.
Some people _love_ the matrix layout. Some people are rather put off by it.
~~~
technomancy
I haven't used a non-staggered matrix layout, only column-staggered and row-
staggered. Staggering the columns[1] makes allowances for the fact that your
fingers are different lengths, and I like it a lot even though it takes a
while to get used to. I suspect I would like a non-staggered layout better
than row-staggering though.
[1] - like the Ergodox or my own Atreus design does:
[https://secure.flickr.com/photos/technomancy/tags/atreus](https://secure.flickr.com/photos/technomancy/tags/atreus)
~~~
ksrm
Sweet keyboard! It feels like it's missing a whole row of keys though.
~~~
technomancy
Thanks. I intentionally kept the size small since it's not meant to be used as
my primary board; I use an Ergodox when I'm at my desk and only use the Atreus
when I'm out at coffee shops or relaxing on the couch, so the context is
different. Using the fn key for so much definitely takes getting used to
though.
------
wyager
Source here:
[https://github.com/wyager/micromechboard](https://github.com/wyager/micromechboard)
------
rrpadhy
More than a physical keyboard, a keyboard designed for mobile users excites me
more.
Many people use one hand to type on the mobile phone (thumb to be more exact).
However, the design of the keyboard on the mobile screen does not align well
with the natural movement of the thumb. It is painful and hideous.
I believe an Arc keyboard on the mobile screen would be the best design.
Anyone working on something similar?
~~~
leoc
The Twiddler3
[https://plus.google.com/105804767481830727070/posts/j4M9fmRr...](https://plus.google.com/105804767481830727070/posts/j4M9fmRr8dY)
will be a physical keyboard suitable for mobile users. If you want a software
keyboard then ASETNIOP [http://asetniop.com/](http://asetniop.com/) looks
fairly promising, but it's probably only suitable for large tablet-size
screens and hasn't been released yet.
------
taeric
Am I truly that alone in not liking split keyboards? I can certainly use one,
if I have to. I much prefer the standard flat keyboard, though.
Of course, I confess that I have been lucky enough to never have any problems
from one. I fully understand those that need it for medical reasons. I just
don't know as that I would choose it if I didn't need it. (Rather, I know I
would not.)
------
weaksauce
This is awesome... I've wanted my "perfect" keyboard for a long time. Maybe it
might be worth trying to make.
------
chrissnell
Very nice job. Have you thought about an enclosure for it yet? This has always
been the hardest part of PCB designs for me. PCBs are easy and cheap and there
are lots of standard box-type enclosures but you either end up hacking holes
in the sides with a Dremel or forgoing the enclosure entirely.
~~~
jmgrosen
That's one of the greatest use cases for 3D printers! Whether ordering from
Shapeways or printing on your own, making custom cases for projects is pretty
awesome.
~~~
technomancy
Unless you own your own, renting 3D printer time is crazy expensive for
building a case for something this big. Laser-cut acrylic is faster, cheaper,
stronger, and more precise.
------
wolfeidau
Great read, it is very interesting reading about the process you followed
designing and building a hardware project from scratch.
Hopefully this encourages more people to have a shot at building something
interesting, and write about it.
Thanks a lot.
------
malandrew
The keyboard market makes me wonder if there would be a market for custom pcbs
in customs shapes instead of just flat, or possible a 3D printer that can
deposit both a polymer and conductive traces.
~~~
pjc50
Non-flat PCBs would be a massive hassle to solder components to; normal pick-
and-place+reflow is out of the question as the components would fall off, so
you'd have to resort to gluing them on or soldering one leg manually.
Flexible (polyamide) PCBs are already available, with FR4 stiffeners where
components are to be soldered. You could assemble one flat, bend to desired
shape and attach to a form.
------
bananas
Nice work - very tidy and professional-looking. Thanks for sharing.
------
lewaldman
WOW! Last week I was on forums checking out about coverting a rubber dome
keyboard to mechanical...
Now you got me thinking!!! :D
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Earned income tax credit recipients more likely to be audited - paulpauper
https://www.propublica.org/article/earned-income-tax-credit-irs-audit-working-poor
======
bdavis__
If you know enough about the law to rely on the Earned Income Tax Credit to
pay off you credit cards, why don't you just reduce your withholding. Now the
'refund' turns out to be a paperwork exercise and you have the money as soon
as you earn it.
'Nothing Burger'. Maintaining the integrity of our tax code inconveniences
some. But benefits all.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Cross-platform development: Mobile Flutter Apps That Run on the Desktop - MarkMc
https://feather-apps.com/
======
BrutalCoding
What happens if an app is calling something like google sign in? Plugin found
here:
[https://pub.dartlang.org/packages/google_sign_in](https://pub.dartlang.org/packages/google_sign_in)
Haven't tried it out on iOS but on Android it will prompt a dialog with the
google accounts that are registered in Android.
Anyhow, this is really interesting, I'll keep an eye on this.
------
slipwalker
_A compiler and libraries which run your Flutter app on Mac and Windows_
no linux support ?...
~~~
MarkMc
Sorry no - just Mac and Windows for now.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Show HN: Prime Time – Countdown to next prime unix timestamp - thexa4
https://primetime.maxmaton.nl/
======
karmakaze
Multiple primes per minute is more dense than I expected.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Huawei is working on its own mobile OS in case things sour with Google - jonbaer
http://www.theverge.com/2016/6/23/12011732/huawei-developing-own-mobile-os
======
CthulhuOvermind
Currently working in this company, I guarantee you Huawei is working on its
own version of everything. Any tool we use is always considered as something
we should aim to replace with a version of our own.
A custom OS does not suprise me in the slightest, considering there are custom
ARMv8 CPU's in development as well
~~~
drzaiusapelord
Pretty much every Android OEM has a plan B. It would kinda stupid not to.
Samsung has proudly shown off Tizen and even releases products with it.
Actually, its the fourth largest mobile in term of market share. Sailfish is
reportedly used internally in several companies as well.
The more the merrier. I would love to see Android be a Nexus-only product
where there's a high level of quality, fast updates, and years of
security/platform updates opposed to the excessively skinned Android phones
that maybe get one major update in their lifetime and then get tossed into the
landfill.
edit: I should note Tizen isn't a Samsung product, they are just one of its
biggest users and contributors. Its an open source OS managed by the Linux
foundation.
~~~
0xFFC
>Pretty much every Android OEM has a plan B. It would kinda stupid not to.
I am genuinely not capable of understanding this logic.google is not a small
company and they are not going to destroy Android with these kind of stupid
decisions.
So why Samsung and etc does spend billions on new softwares when they can
simply fork Android (in most extreme situations to respond to Google, just
like what Amazon did).
~~~
cronjobber
The concern is not that Android "goes away", but that google enslaves the
hardware companies like good old MS of yore enslaved the PS clone makers.
~~~
Zigurd
That ship has sailed. Learn how to prosper in that role or do something else.
If you think you can do an OS, go for it. I would like to see a third
successful mobile OS.
~~~
zyx321
>If you think you can do an OS, go for it.
It's not about competing with Android. It's about bargaining power. If you
depend on Google, they can dictate any terms they like. Having an alternative
to Android, even a crappy one, sets an upper limit to how hard Google can
screw you over.
------
pawadu
The main issue here is that a bunch of multi-billion businesses are dependent
on a company that has its own agenda. Google doesn't care about Huawei or
Samsung or Sony. If dropping Android and joining Windows Phone camp could
somehow improve their ad revenue and data gathering they would probably do it.
So while I don't think Huawei will get anywhere with their OS. They (and
Samsung) are trying to send a message to Google: act like a real partner or we
are out.
~~~
bllguo
> So while I don't think Huawei will get anywhere with their OS. They (and
> Samsung) are trying to send a message to Google: act like a real partner or
> we are out.
Well I agree with the first sentence, but the second? They really don't have
that much leverage; I highly doubt that's anywhere near the message they are
trying to send. You seem to imply Google should feel threatened by these
moves, which I imagine is far from the case.
------
exhilaration
Samsung is allegedly doing the same thing with Tizen:
[http://9to5google.com/2016/06/13/report-claims-that-
samsung-...](http://9to5google.com/2016/06/13/report-claims-that-samsung-is-
considering-moving-all-of-its-devices-to-tizen/)
I don't think this is likely to happen, it would destroy both Samsung's and
Huawei's markets in the West. Perhaps Korean and Chinese consumers might
switch to the new platforms but I can't see those of us in the Americas and
Europe giving up our Google services.
~~~
pjmlp
From native point of Tizen already had two reboots.
First it was based on Meego APIs, then it got the C++ dialect from BADA OS
(very similar to Symbian) and now they rebooted it again using EFL + C, but
adding another C++ API in the process.
Native is not always open to everyone, for example for TVs app developers can
only use WebApps and need to become a partner for native code.
So I doubt that Tizen will ever get an app eco-system that people will bother
to use.
------
Aoyagi
So who do I distrust less, Google, who is shamelessly harvesting all kinds of
data just because they can, or a company with history of malware/spyware
allegations?
~~~
gypsy_boots
> or a company with history of malware/spyware allegations
I'm not familiar with Huawaei, what's the story behind this?
~~~
wepple
There were a few stories a while back, although IMO they were fairly light on
details and data to back up their claims:
[http://au.idigitaltimes.com/malware-found-pre-installed-
xiao...](http://au.idigitaltimes.com/malware-found-pre-installed-xiaomi-
huawei-lenovo-phones-107190)
More generally however, a lot of tech manufactured in China has concern around
it. Numerous western govt's have blacklisted the use of anything Chinese-
produced over fears of espionage and general quality. A good example is the
'backdoors' that have shown up in Lenovo computers post-acquisition.
I think there may be a little confusion between the the fact that Huawei makes
networking gear which is blacklisted with a number of western govt's, with
their mobile offerings - and several reports of 'malware' haven't helped muddy
the waters.
That said I wouldn't use a Huawei phone.
Edit: here's the report regarding Malware:
[https://public.gdatasoftware.com/Presse/Publikationen/Malwar...](https://public.gdatasoftware.com/Presse/Publikationen/Malware_Reports/G_DATA_MobileMWR_Q2_2015_EN.pdf)
It got a ton of upvotes on HN much to my confusion, given that the PDF reads
like a marketing release trying to sell mobile AV (there's a whole side-topic
of conversation there). Furthermore, the click-bait title highlights Lenovo,
Huawei, etc when the actual report only outlines 3 never-heard-of-before
vendors and mentions they 'suspect' the other vendors of distributing infected
phones.
Again, I would never own a Chinese-designed phone, but I think it's worth
verifying claims.
------
brudgers
The source article: [https://www.theinformation.com/how-a-former-apple-
designer-i...](https://www.theinformation.com/how-a-former-apple-designer-is-
updating-huaweis-look)
------
swalsh
If Huawei's history is any indication they're probably just taking the android
code, and doing a find and replace.
------
xiphias
There are so many innovations that can be done in the world (and to Android
itself as well), but another new OS is not one that would make sense (maybe a
HTML5+JS based, but there are already open source OSs based on that). Even
Microsoft has a hard time getting into the Mobile OS market. Anyways, good
luck to Huawei (and I wish they would try to beat Samsung in the high-end the
mobile market).
------
Zigurd
The choices are pretty grim:
The only OS other than iOS and Android that has a managed language runtime is
Windows. It's not a bad phone OS. But it is US-made and if you are Chinese,
you don't want NSA inside.
Possibly the best alternative is to do an OS derived from AOSP. But only
Amazon has done a good job with this, building a really polished commercial
product with a complete (for their purposes of media consumption) ecosystem.
Then there is Sailfish. The main problem with Sailfish is that C++/Qt/Linux is
not a competitive app environment compared with Swift on iOS or Android's
Java-like runtime.
Web app runtimes on Tizen and other contenders taking this route have also
proven to be underdeveloped, slow, and too under-resourced to get them past
general problems with web apps, framework consensus, etc.
~~~
pjmlp
Tizen is also a very schizophrenic OS.
First they ditched the API inherited from Meego by their own BADA flavored
ones with that Symbian C++ touch, and recently they ditched those again by C +
EFL with another new C++ one to avoid losing C++ developers.
Also the native APIs aren't available everywhere where Tizen runs, for example
on TVs only the Web app runtime is available to all developers. For native one
needs to pay extra.
So besides going back to stone age C style APIs, their continuous change of
direction doesn't inspire any confidence to invest into the platform.
------
harigov
For any partnership with billions at stake, I would consider such experiments
as insurance. It's a good thing that Huawei is being proactive in this
regards. Although I do wonder why don't they build it on AOSP instead of
building something from scratch.
------
fit2rule
I would love to see Creative Labs return to the scene with Plaszma OS, which
they were doing before iOS and Android took all the ice cream.
So many alternative ways to use Linux to provide an awesome user experience ..
------
0x006A
EMUI is terrible, if only they would make it easy to run stock Android.
~~~
MichaelGG
Yep. It shows that Huawei, at least those UI developers, fundamentally do not
understand how OSes work. EMUI, when you invoke the switch window function,
has a single button to kill all running processes (or activities or whatever
Android calls them). Hitting it by accident is easy. And once you do so, the
UI proclaims with glee how much memory it freed up. Even when, on my phone,
I've never seen free mem under 800MB.
Are there any non-US companies that do well in creating UIs?
------
AcerbicZero
After my disappointing experience with the Nexus 6P, I can't imagine a
situation where I would roll the dice with Huawei hardware, let alone
software.
~~~
TsomArp
Can you elaborate? I'm interested on the Nexus 6P.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
The Metrics of Backpacks - tosh
https://www.artpractical.com/column/the-metrics-of-backpacks/
======
rfrey
I really liked this essay, and I think I would really like its author if I
knew her.
At the end of the essay, the vague sadness I felt was joined by a pretty
unsympathetic “well, what did you expect?” kind of feeling. I didn’t like
that, it put me into the shuttle bus of coyotes she might have been talking
about.
But she doesn’t like technical backpacks, or people who like technical
backpacks, and she took a job in a technical backpack factory.
~~~
CrestonePeak
When the town turns into a company town for the makers of technical backpacks,
I feel some admiration for the people that try to assimilate, but also... it's
kind of a shame.
There's no easy reaction to all the engineers and technical staff that don't
love making tech products, maybe don't even like it. I want to explain to them
why I love it in the hopes they'll start to feel the way I do and be happy.
But people are too complex for that. And you can't just be like "get some
other job" because there are very few other jobs that won't leave them
struggling to make rent, at least not without moving far away.
~~~
et-al
Bingo.
> Surrounded by transplants, we together inhabit a prehistoric California of
> 1970s sedans, rickety on the highway, hot air blowing through open windows
> into the backseat. [...] Our coworkers had moved here to be a part of the
> future, but we were left over from something that had already passed.
------
golergka
> Dustin wants me to know that it was his decision to not hire me. “I have to
> feel really good about a person before I bring them on, and I don’t feel
> that way about you,” he says.
Whenever I took a decision to fire somebody, I always made a point of openly
taking responsibility for it. I thought it was the right thing to do; I was
sick of people who couldn't stomach making a decision, and that I could at
least look the person I was letting go in the eye and try to explain, in the
most honest and open way possible the reason for my decision. Same for
declining to hire someone after an interview.
But reading this, it felt unnecessary cruel; now I wonder if it's sometimes
best to just let these things work out themselves. May be not everyone is like
me, and some people don't really need this conversation.
One thing for certain though: Dustin had no self-interest in having this
conversation, after author have already been informed about the decision.
~~~
samastur
I think most people want to know why they are being fired and they deserve
that information communicated delicately.
Some might want to know who fired them when it is not obvious, but few would
actually benefit from knowing this.
------
derrida
"What dismays me about technology is this: not the machine itself but the way
its architecture echoes outward, imposing a grid of quantification on
everything it touches. The sadness of numbers interferes with our thoughts,
begs us to apply logic to warm, messy things. What becomes of the ambiguity of
feeling? That which can’t be immediately identified is derided, denied, and
eventually erased." Amen.
~~~
781
Standardizing, gridifying and quantiazing it's what allows our modern huge
world to exist.
> _Social scalability is the ability of an institution –- a relationship or
> shared endeavor, in which multiple people repeatedly participate, and
> featuring customs, rules, or other features which constrain or motivate
> participants’ behaviors -- to overcome shortcomings in human minds and in
> the motivating or constraining aspects of said institution that limit who or
> how many can successfully participate. Social scalability is about the ways
> and extents to which participants can think about and respond to
> institutions and fellow participants as the variety and numbers of
> participants in those institutions or relationships grow. It 's about human
> limitations, not about technological limitations or physical resource
> constraints._
[https://unenumerated.blogspot.com/2017/02/money-
blockchains-...](https://unenumerated.blogspot.com/2017/02/money-blockchains-
and-social-scalability.html)
~~~
derrida
Standardizing and quantizing is also what enables conceptual proliferation
which makes reality increasingly intractable. Understanding this is why China
had Chuang Tzu and continuity in civilization. Things shouldn't be the slave
of reason, they should be a slave of the senses. Love, Hume/Buddha :)
perception in terms of quantization has that old problem 'with a hammer
everything looks like a nail'... everything looks like a market transaction...
to be solved by some financial instrument, bureaucracy or code. Chuang Tzu was
talking about this millenia ago and was required reading for China's leaders.
Meanwhile Global Warming carries on... reality doesn't care what we think.
~~~
781
> Things shouldn't be the slave of reason, they should be a slave of the
> senses
People say that. But then they are horrified when someone kills another one
because it made them angry. Or when a man rapes a woman because he couldn't
control his senses.
They say they want a "human touch" and "emotion instead of logic", but don't
like the consequences of truly doing that.
~~~
edejong
The solution IMHO is not to substitute the emotions, but to understand,
control and channel them by equanimity, concentration, meditation,
investigation and mindfulness.
------
areoform
Spare a moment for those whom change leaves behind. The ones with pretty
backpacks that have pony tails. The ones who have to cry.
Spare a thought for those whom numbers don’t define. The ones who draw
strength from stories of humpback whales. The ones who hear the redwoods’ cry.
Spare a feeling for those whom see through the self-congratulatory lies. The
ones who know that the X in UX is a haphazard lie. The ones who know that
sometimes even numbers can cry.
Spare a tiny piece of your heart before the day you too get left behind and
become undefined while feeling you’re seeing through the lies.
------
OneWordSoln
Something special happens when one reads a piece of such ineffable beauty.
Beyond thought or specific emotion, we are affected, taken to some other
undefined place. It happens very rarely for me, perhaps due to my lifetime of
tech-oriented pursuits, but it certainly happened to me today and I am
thankful for Ms. Gannon's soul-bearing work of beauty.
On another note and only because I am a paying, very satisfied customer, I
have to recommend MasterClass. I was originally simply interested in watching
Gary Kasparov's chess class with my 10yo son, but when I saw the list of
experts in writing, music and media production, we decided that $90 for one
class was inferior to $180 for a year of all the classes (and we live in
public housing so this was no easy investment). It has been an outstanding
decision. I literally did this within the past week and watching Judy Blume
and Neil Gaiman and Margaret Atwood with my 12yo daughter has been nothing
less than revelatory. I also have enjoyed Will Wright and Herbie Hancock and
Malcolm Gladwell and Frank Gehry and Hans Zimmer; excellence and passion
inspire us. The production on the classes is its own master class in
educational video creation in the internet age, but their choice of educators
is its own special kind of genius.
My favorite, however (and surprisingly, to me), has been the poet Billy
Collins. We need more poets' hearts in this digital world of MBAs ruthlessly
squeezing the populace and our beloved Mother Earth for everything the laws
they crafted will allow. I applaud Victoria Gannon for her wonderful piece of
poetic prose. Her poet's heart has inspired me this morning and I need all of
that I can get in this world of callous competition.
~~~
satokema
He had found a Market-Matic machine which had provided him with a plastic cup
filled with a liquid that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike a real
comment. The way it functioned was very interesting. When the Reply button was
pressed it made an instant but highly detailed examination of the subject's
taste buds, a spectroscopic examination of the subject's metabolism and then
sent tiny experimental signals down the neural pathways to the taste centers
of the subject's brain to see what was likely to go down well. However, no one
knew quite why it did this because it invariably delivered a cupful of liquid
that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike a real comment.
~~~
OneWordSoln
When one tells the truth there is no guarantee that the listener lives closely
enough with the truth to recognize it as such, the filters of their life often
obscurring the simpler reality that some few others choose to inhabit.
All that is important is living and telling one's truth because, in the end,
most people don't even know who Dunning & Kruger are, let alone that McArthur
Wheeler bears a great resemblance to the vast majority of humanity in the
early 21st Century.
------
auggierose
I don't get it. Was hoping to learn something about how to make the perfect
backpack. ;-)
~~~
somada141
I feel pretty shallow for saying this but I was hoping for information on
perfectly adjusting one's backpack based on their anatomy/measurements.
Who has time for literary beauty when so many dumb things occupy one's mind :D
~~~
EliRivers
So part of this is all about you, but not in the way you wanted. You're not
just a reader in this; you're part of the ensemble; did you see yourself as
you read?
~~~
somada141
I'm gonna fess up and say I didn't read it at first. Within a few seconds when
I realised it wasn't about literal backpacks I checked the comments to see if
anything of value is discussed. Agreed with the person before me and moved on.
This is how I operate these days I'm afraid. I subconsciously attribute some
vague numerical value to anything I do and should it fall under some equally
vague threshold the effort is abandoned.
I think the more I work as a coder the more I allow my behaviour to become
algorithmic :D
------
lawkwok
I haven’t read writing this long without closing the tab in a very long time.
The writers melancholic stream of thought in the context of working at a tech
startup is great.
------
simplyinfinity
huh, so i'm about halfway trough and i'm having a hard time following what the
writer is talking about.
To me this feels like someone with ADD trying to tell me something but gets
distracted every other sentence. is it just me?
~~~
shaftoe
I abandoned about halfway through when I realized it wasn't going to get to a
discussion of backpack design and I had no idea what the actual point was.
You're not alone.
~~~
barryhoodlum
Hope you guys manage to convince your wives to watch some sci fi!
~~~
thih9
Why are you assuming that parent commenter has a spouse that doesn't watch sci
fi?
I'm sure you have a point, I wish you wrote about it in a clear way instead of
implying unhelpful things about other authors.
~~~
everythingswan
In the article, the author describes the people she works with in this exact
context.
Parent you're replying to is lumping those further up the comment chain with
the people described in the article. She says they often talk about how to get
their wives to watch more science fiction movies.
I felt it landed perfectly given the context of the article, YMMV.
------
HenryBemis
I travel almost every week. One of my 'favourite' things on this planet is the
one that I use most. My backpack. It usually carries a 1lt bottle of water, 4
pens, dental floss, 2 laptops & chargers, phone charger, 1 journal, 1 A4
notepad, clean socks. I love using this backpack because I don't have to check
it in the airports.
I was hoping for a backpack article that would suggest tips, tricks for people
like me/us. Travelers with laptops. I was initially disappointed until I
started reading. Thank you for this.
~~~
notoriousjpg
What pack do you use?
------
antoniorosado
My god, what a wonderful read.
------
mtlewis
This was a beautiful and unexpected read.
~~~
CrestonePeak
The unexpectedness of it was a lot of how it got to me.
------
Multiplayer
This is amazing writing. I hope the author is able to find the appropriate
outlet to use her obvious skill.
------
scarejunba
Entertaining read. I quite liked it. Also a weird feeling to be one of the
tangential villains in the story.
Though I imagine I would conclude that either the person doesn't trust me _or_
they're an idiot if they don't incorporate my data into their world view.
------
djrockstar1
This was written beautifully. Anyone have recommendations for similarly
immersive prose?
~~~
photon_lines
Fernando Pessoa and Vladimir Nabakov come to mind. Primo Levi is great as
well.
------
mejarc
So much of this account resonates with my experience as a UX ("X!" Must be
technical!) developer in the Bay Area. I love this line particularly: "A film
of pseudoscience sticks to everything we touch."
------
iovrthoughtthis
This is beautiful.
------
Creationer
As humanity we need a greater purpose. We need to constantly expand and move
into more difficult frontiers. It is what defines us as a species and the
challenge keeps us collectively sane.
We need to push as a species into Space. To mine asteroids and setup bases. We
need to get our home planet off fossil fuels and maintain it as a haven of
life, with a smaller and more productive human workforce.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
More evidence essential oils 'make male breasts develop' - plessthanpt05
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-43429933
======
nimbius
soapmaker here. While lavender oil is nice to have, its also rather cost
prohibitive in what i believe would be a compelling dose to elicit this type
of response.
as for tea tree oil, im in favor of phasing this out entirely as it seems to
serve no real purpose in cosmetics and is actually somewhat toxic to humans.
Its had a number of folk remedies, such as a cure for syphilis and a tincture
to reduce boils, but none of these have succeeded in scientific testing.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_tree_oil#Safety](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_tree_oil#Safety)
most cold process soaps will fragrance at 3-5% the weight of the actual oil. I
can speak from experience that 5% tea tree oil soap is vile. The final product
emerges with an acrid fragrance not unlike pine floor cleaner, and each bar is
brittle enough to crack if dropped. many crack during the curing process, and
the final product has a texture similar to the gear shift on a cheap car.
~~~
toomanybeersies
I thought it was well known that tea tree oil is toxic.
I've been using it for a while do deodorise my shoes. It seems to be effective
at killing whatever makes them smell. Anecdotally it also works for killing
fungal infections of the feet too, although I've switched to using iodine,
which is actually proven to be effective and tends to clear fungal infections
within a couple of days.
~~~
zappo2938
Tea tree oil kills MRSA on the skin. All the low dose natural products are
causing the bacteria to become resistant. Otherwise, for fungal infections
soaking feet in vinegar once a day for a week should work just fine. Smells a
little.
~~~
toomanybeersies
I wasn't using low dose natural products on my feet.
I had a spray can of 100% tea tree oil that I would spray on my feet. It would
sting like hell anywhere I had broken skin but it was effective.
Iodine is much more pleasant to use and doesn't smell so bad, it's cheaper
too.
~~~
jcims
Doesn’t it stain?
~~~
reitanqild
Temporarily, it then sublimes directly into gas form without passing through a
liquid phase. (Verify before you use it everywhere, but this is what I would
expect with the mixes I've used. Also see
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iodine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iodine))
------
staplers
A better link:
“Since there was no identifiable cause for prepubertal gynecomastia in the
three patients we reported, we speculated that environmental factors might be
contributing to their condition. Together, the case histories and NIEHS in
vitro studies provide support for our hypothesis that topical exposure to
lavender and tea tree oils likely caused gynecomastia in the three patients.”
\- [https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/lavender-
tea-t...](https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/lavender-tea-tree-
oils-may-cause-breast-growth-boys)
~~~
zmk_
Sample size of 3?!
~~~
deusum
Three boys and a lab test of cancer cells. And they don't expect long term
effects from the oils.
The article title is a bit sensationalist, but a thorough investigation is
arguably worthwhile
~~~
tritium
Hmmm, so a there's a broad suspicion that endocrine disruption is a widespread
problem, and suddenly we see a dubious article provoking confusion, and
possibly a lot of very costly research only to determine we might've been
barking up the wrong tree?
This story sounds familiar... [0]
[0]
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2146171.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2146171.stm)
------
rainbowmverse
>> _" The American study found that key chemicals in the oils boost oestrogen
and inhibit testosterone."_
I find this highly suspect. If the effect were significant, every trans woman
I know would be talking about their essential oils instead of salt cravings
and estrogen pills/injections.
Is there something to this, or is it another case of shoddy science reporting?
~~~
Analemma_
I doubt the effect is anywhere near large enough to be satisfactory for people
who want to transition.
~~~
lostgame
Trans woman here. Was going to say this, but you nailed it.
Just going to confirm right now any effect this has is nowhere close to the
kind of estrogen changes that actual hormone therapy provides.
------
wallflower
From personal experience, I avoid eating too much tofu. At one point, I had a
condition called gynecomastia. The doctor asked me about my diet (eating
steamed tofu every day) and recommended that I stop based on some research he
had read. Condition went away.
~~~
6t6t6t6
Just bro science here, but if tofu had a real effect on the hormones, wouldn't
that mean that gynecomastia should have a much higher prevalence in the
countries, such as Japan, where tofu is consumed daily?
~~~
VLM
Genetic variance based on geography much like the situation with lactose
intolerance.
------
amelius
Does anyone know why there seem to be so many more estrogenic substances
compared to androgenic substances, in our everyday lives?
It seems a bit unfair ...
~~~
jnwatson
Speculation is that plants produce phytoestrogens for herbivore birth control.
"Phytochemical mimicry of reproductive hormones and modulation of herbivore
fertility by phytoestrogens"
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1474615/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1474615/)
~~~
snowpanda
This is really interesting, thanks for sharing. Question: so are plants
leeching it into the soil => our water supply? Or is it the plants that we're
eating?
~~~
ianai
Plants have phytosterols instead of cholesterol. If anything, predation chose
for plants that had some population controlling affects on predators. But I’ve
read those same compounds are completely ignored by our bodies.
I’m going to suggest there’s more going on than we know here. Ie there are
toxic compounds leaching into food from plastic containers, possibly water
supply, and definitely cooking utensils.
------
hawktheslayer
I started using a diffuser at home, typically with tea tree or eucalyptus oil.
It helps me relax, maybe via the placebo effect. But I have also become
somewhat obsessed with it, to the point where I have a diffuser at home, the
office, and even in my car. Had anyone else had this experience?
~~~
zaarn
This sounds like a somewhat minor psychological addiction (I'm not a doctor
though and addiction is not always harmful)
~~~
hawktheslayer
It can't be worse than my coffee addiction...
------
thetrumanshow
See, now this lends some credence to the idea that the oils can have any
(medicinal or other) effect at all... which up to this point I found highly
suspect.
~~~
colecut
2 years ago I had a boil on my neck that lingered for months. It shrank to
nearly nothing within a week or two of tea tree oil.
But now I'm worried about manboobs. So far so good though.
~~~
zamalek
Another comment indicated that it's poisonous, so I assume that's how it
worked for you.
~~~
colecut
I'll take it
------
b1daly
Given the problems with replication, and the selection biases, I’ve decided
it’s a safe bet to ignore the implications of articles about health studies!
It’s shocking how many dietary and medical practices have been championed, and
then later repudiated.
One challenging example: fish oil.
Article saying it’s good...
[http://time.com/4619488/omega-3-fats-heart-
health/](http://time.com/4619488/omega-3-fats-heart-health/)
Article questioning the overall research:
[https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/03/30/fish-oil-claims-
no...](https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/03/30/fish-oil-claims-not-
supported-by-research/)
------
antirez
I'm happy to be so sensitive to any kind of flavor to eliminate everything
that smells from my life, more or less. I guess it is some form of innate
protection.
------
truculation
Drat, my favourite toothpaste contains tea tree oil.
~~~
anotherboffin
The hypothesis is that topical exposure is linked to the hormone changes. For
me, that means tea tree oil in toothpaste shouldn't be something to worry
about.
~~~
justinator
_Tea tree oil should NOT be taken by mouth for any reason, even though some
traditional uses include tea tree oil as a mouthwash, treatment for bad
breath, and treatment of toothache and mouth ulcers._
[https://www.poison.org/articles/2010-dec/tea-tree-
oil](https://www.poison.org/articles/2010-dec/tea-tree-oil)
~~~
mrfusion
Don’t you get the oil when you drink tea?
~~~
justinator
Melaleuca alternifolia (tea tree) is a different plant altogether than
Camellia sinensis (Tea plant)
Tea tree smells very similar to turpentine - you know: paint thinner. I often
wondered if they are chemically similar.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
See all of the offensive things you've ever said on Facebook in one click - econti
http://www.yourdirtymouth.com
======
econti
Would love for some of you guys to try it out and let me know what you think
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Firefox's enterprise support version has now been released - AndrewDucker
http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/
======
allbutlost
A marked change of stance from the following?
"Mike, you do realize that we get about 2 million Firefox downloads per day
from regular user types, right? Your “big numbers” here are really just a drop
in the bucket, fractions of fractions of a percent of our user base.
Enterprise has never been (and I’ll argue, shouldn’t be) a focus of ours.
Until we run out of people who don’t have sysadmins and enterprise deployment
teams looking out for them, I can’t imagine why we’d focus at all on the kinds
of environments you care so much about."
[http://mike.kaply.com/2011/06/23/understanding-the-
corporate...](http://mike.kaply.com/2011/06/23/understanding-the-corporate-
impact/#comment-10493)
~~~
hkolk
It looks more like this replaces the (now quite outdated) Long Term Support
version of 3.6, which even got updated yesterday: <http://www.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/3.6.26/releasenotes/>
Part of this new ESR process is that 3.6 will go EOL in April.
------
JoachimSchipper
Proposed release schedule at
[https://www.mozilla.org/img/covehead/esr/release-
overview.pn...](https://www.mozilla.org/img/covehead/esr/release-
overview.png): one year of support, with ~12 weeks to get to the next version.
------
ecaron
Without the Windows version being available as a MSI, this still isnt going to
get enterprise support. At least not support/migration from people deploying
FrontMotion's Firefox MSIs.
~~~
gcp
I think this ESR is purely about extending the release schedule/security fix
lifetime. Enterprisy features can be added in the normal releases just as
well.
~~~
commandar
The thing is, enterprise users have been begging Mozilla for official MSI
support for _years_ now.
The fact that they _still_ haven't done anything about it, even with a
supposed enterprise version kind of indicates that they're still not taking
the enterprise seriously.
~~~
azakai
Firefox is 100% open source, so even if Mozilla itself doesn't focus on making
MSIs, other people can. There is at least one company doing just that,
<http://bespokeio.com/>
~~~
commandar
FrontMotion mentioned in the GP post is probably the most popular one I'm
aware of. But it's absurd to have to rely on a third party for what's a basic
matter of packaging.
MSI is _the_ standard for packaging applications for deployment in enterprise
environments for Windows. Mozilla's prolonged refusal to officially support it
amounts to a tacit refusal to properly support enterprise.
This isn't a new issue, nor is it a minor one. The Bugzilla issue for this was
opened _eight years ago_ [1] and there still isn't a proper, official
deployment solution (and this isn't even getting into the lack of centralized
management support).
[1] - <https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=231062>
~~~
azakai
It isn't a basic matter of packaging. You also need to do very exhaustive
testing to make sure it works exactly as it should in all possible cases.
Enterprise support is not easy to do.
~~~
untog
Of course it isn't. But Google do it just fine with Chrome:
[http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/chromebrowser.ht...](http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/chromebrowser.html)
~~~
azakai
Why is it surprising that Google can do it? Google has massive resources.
~~~
ebiester
Mozilla brought in over 100 million in 2009.
------
teyc
Is 12 months enough? Especially when you consider enterprise software vendors
need time to test as well.
------
CWuestefeld
So that's what "ESR" stands for. I had almost convinced myself that it's in
honor of "Eric S. Raymond".
~~~
wmf
No, this version of Firefox won't encourage you to buy guns and vote
libertarian.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Here Is the Epic Future Blockchain Is Going to Create - febin
https://hackernoon.com/here-is-the-epic-future-blockchain-is-going-to-create-afe167c90568
======
mankash666
This is rife with half truths.
1\. Amazon is cited as a middleman in multiple use cases. It's trivial for one
to bypass Amazon by self hosting an e-commerce website. However, Amazon's
value is actually it's channel reach - people go to Amazon to look for things
and not being there is bad business.
2\. The USP of the blockchain is in providing "trust" that was previously
provided by middlemen. Like in smart contacts or escrow. Those are the only
use cases that actually make sense. Ones listed in this article aren't the
best fit for the blockchain
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Righted Museum - jgrahamc
http://righted-museum.tumblr.com/?
======
cge
Since this is offered without comment, the following is an article about this:
[http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-
intersect/wp/2015/03/...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-
intersect/wp/2015/03/04/googles-quest-to-make-art-available-to-everyone-was-
foiled-by-copyright-concerns/)
Essentially, this is documenting artwork that has been blurred in Google's Art
Project because of copyright problems.
------
frikk
what... is this?
~~~
mdlincoln
[http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-
intersect/wp/2015/03/...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-
intersect/wp/2015/03/04/googles-quest-to-make-art-available-to-everyone-was-
foiled-by-copyright-concerns/)
A project apparently exploring how copyright claims result in selective
censoring in the Street-View-esque images of museum collections produced by
the Google Art Project.
The WaPo article actually conflates copyright and reproduction rights (I work
in a museum curatorial dept. FYI) Copyright would apply to works where
artists, or their estates, can still make copyright claims over their artworks
(although the role of fair use in reproducing images of art is evolving:
[http://www.collegeart.org/fair-use/](http://www.collegeart.org/fair-use/))
But why can older artworks that are now in the public domain still have their
images blurred out? Although the museum may have agreed to openly release
representations of the public domain works that they own, it is often the case
that museums may temporarily hang works on loan from private collectors in
their galleries. In cases like these, museums and the lenders work out loan
terms that frequently include provisions about photography. These loan
agreements supersede copyright issues. Whether or not museums should agree to
such terms is, of course, a good question.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
“God is a Verb” by R. Buckminster Fuller (1968) - MilnerRoute
http://www.wholeearth.com/issue/1010/article/194/god.is.a.verb
======
bonesss
Not too far removed (philosophically), from 'theological noncognitivism ' [0]:
the idea that 'god' is more of a concept like 'hope' or 'love', not a thing
like 'milk', and a poorly understood & undefined one at that.
[0] -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theological_noncognitivism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theological_noncognitivism)
~~~
blowski
I’m a regular Church-going Christian, and could definitely go along with that
theory. As a gross over-simplification Jesus is a noun, the Holy Sprit is a
verb, God is an entire language.
~~~
kendallpark
Curious: what is the Father, then?
~~~
klez
In the context of the post I think that by God GP meant the Father.
EDIT: I re-read the post and no, they didn't seem to mean that.
~~~
blowski
I just thought about it... and I'm not really sure. I'll cop-out and say
something like "God is unknowable, undefinable, and constrainable".
------
jkingsbery
Aquinas wrote that God is "ipsum esse subsistens," translated by Bishop Robert
Barron as "the shear act of 'to be' itself." So the idea of God not simply as
a noun but as an action (i.e., verb) can be found at least as early as the
13th century.
~~~
danielam
I'm glad you brought this up. The so-called existential Thomists are strong on
this point. Frederick Wilhelmsen's "The Paradoxical Structure of Existence"
[0] was my first encounter with this understanding of God. I strongly
recommend this book for those whose interest was piqued by God-as-verb (in
place of the God-as-teapot canard). The book offers a great interpretation of
Parmenides and Heraclitus as having been closer to one another than the way in
which they are typically presented in philosophical texts. For example,
Parmenides correctly intuited Be-ing but failed as soon as he attempted to
conceptualize and crystalize it into a noun (and also accounts for this
curious silence on the plurality of beings in this regard). It is only then
that he and Heraclitus part ways. The book continues with Avicenna's discovery
of existence as something distinct from essence, then onto Averroes' error of
demoting existence to the accidental order (understandable once to understand
that the epistemic order is the reverse of the metaphysical order).
Ultimately, we come to the understanding of God as the very act of existence,
an act that precedes the essential order of things and cannot itself be
conceptualized because it is not _a_ thing, but precedes all things and causes
them to be at every instant. That is a far more satisfying account of God than
the caricaturish and anemic view of some ghastly thing floating about the
universe performing magic tricks. It also makes God impossible to ignore as an
unnecessary being-among-many.
Another book that touches on this subject is Etienne Gilson's "God and
Philosophy"[1]. One of the most interesting bits for me is where he draws
attention to the Old Testament where God reveals himself to Moses as "I am He
who is". I always thought that was a rather curiously mysterious way of
revealing oneself. But on this understanding of God as the act of existence,
it makes perfect sense. God _is_ , or God is _Is_ , so to speak. So really, we
trace this understanding of God -- albeit not a philosophical one -- to at
least the second millenium BC.
[0]
[https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781351477703](https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781351477703)
[1] [https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300092998/god-and-
philos...](https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300092998/god-and-philosophy)
~~~
psyc
Wikipedia has a bunch of interesting notes about the interpretation of the
‘being verb’ name of God:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_that_I_Am](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_that_I_Am)
------
plainOldText
Buckminster Fuller was the architect who envisioned a new kind of house,
called the Dymaxion House. Fortunately it didn’t pick up. It was a great
engineering exercise, as the house was quite simple and efficient, but on the
other hand it had no soul.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dymaxion_house](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dymaxion_house)
~~~
wu-ikkyu
Not having a "soul" seems like a poor reason to rejoice in the failure of such
an affordable and efficient home, especially considering how many people live
in "cookie cutter" houses, bland apartments, not to mention outrageous prices,
and the effect on the environment of building such inefficient homes.
"The severest blow of all was that both the national electricians and
plumber's organizations said they would have to be paid to take apart all the
prefabricated and pre-installed wiring and plumbing, and put it together
again, else they would not connect the otherwise "ready to live in" house to
the town's or city's electrical lines and water mains. They held exclusively
the official license to do this by long-time politically enacted laws."
-Fuller
------
zigzag448
God is a point in an uncertain future. The more uncertain the future the
bigger God wil be. This also explains the friction between science and
religion,because science makes the future less uncertain and thus god smaller.
~~~
panic
I'd say science makes the future more uncertain, not less, by giving us more
tools to change it. It's easier to figure out how to change things than to
understand the impact of those changes.
~~~
Emma_Goldman
I think this must be true. The greater our understanding of the world, and the
greater our ability to manipulate the world, the greater the options available
to humans and the more complex their interaction. The world has been
significantly less predictable since the Enlightenment, and the rejection of
the fixed socio-theological order that preceded it. Life in pre-modern Europe
was very predictable - almost everyone was a peasant who followed the same
seasonal cycle, and stood in deference to the same feudal and religious
system.
~~~
pc2g4d
If one's understanding of _part_ of a system increases to enable manipulation
of that part of the system, but one's ignorance of the effects of that change
in the broader system remains, meaning that the increase in understanding has
led to an increase in unexpected effects in the broader system, has one's
overall understanding increased, or decreased?
Not sure if that's too abstract, but your statement that "the world has been
significantly less predictable since the Enlightenment" made me wonder,
because you'd think "less predictable" means that understanding has gone down.
~~~
Emma_Goldman
I would draw a sharp distinction between 'understanding' and 'predictability'.
Understanding is about our knowledge of and ability to manipulate the world.
Predictability is our ability to reliably forecast the future of the social
world.
Of course our understanding has increased. But that has generated rapid and
accelerating changes in society and a monumental increase in its complexity,
which together, make it significantly harder to predict the future of the
social world.
I am not saying that we don't have a better predictive grasp of the natural
world. We obviously do.
------
warent
The line breaks on this make it hard to read. Is there a rhyming mechanism in
play here that my amateur poetic brain isn't picking up on?
~~~
bordercases
It's acting as a universal delimiter, like commas. Even though it would be
technically correct to put commas everywhere for creating emphasis, it would
be ugly, and wouldn't cover all the cases for emphasis that Fuller is trying
to create. My guess is that he's trying to communicate how he would pace the
poem in his own speech.
------
kleer001
God is a direction.
~~~
beders
More of a misdirection, really.
I cry over the thousands of years of wasted time where humanity has tried to
figure out the demands of an entity that simply doesn't exist.
Instead, we got dragged into wars, instigated by rulers who manipulated
followers of so-called 'holy books' into killing their brethren. We denied
education to large parts of the population. We suppressed anything resembling
science&progress because it might offend an imaginary being.
It's a frigging disaster.
Imagine a world where we would have followed science and reason early. Where
we didn't destroy libraries, but gradually improved their wisdom. All those
years down the drain. Sigh.
~~~
dragonwriter
> Imagine a world where we would have followed science and reason early.
Having seen the history of tribalism fused with areligious and antireligious
ideologies and empowered by applied science in the modern era, I can't see it
as particularly better than the results of tribalism fused with religious
ideology but without systematic science earlier in history.
Science is a powerful multiplier, but inherently value-free; the values to
which it is applied necessarily come from elsewhere
~~~
beders
You can use science to verify ethical statements.
That said: The definition of 'tribe' already implies shared values (more often
than not centered around a primitive version of the golden rule)
~~~
dragonwriter
> You can use science to verify ethical statements
No, you can't. (And not just in the sense that science falsifies rather than
verifies.)
Ethical/moral statements always have a value component that is empirically
unfalsifiable. They sometimes also have a falsifiable factual premise that,
along with a set of value premises, supports a conclusion. Science can falsify
the fact component, and sufficient failute to falsify can justify belief in
the false component, but cannot falsify or (by failing to falsify) justify the
value component, and therefore cannot justify the statement as a whole.
------
wizardforhire
Trim tab
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trim_tab](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trim_tab)
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
iHasApp: detect installed apps on a user's device - gilles_bertaux
https://github.com/danielamitay/iHasApp
======
galonk
Is it really necessary for an app to be able to query whether a URL scheme is
handled? It would be nice if Apple could make that API non-functional to put a
stop to this.
~~~
e28eta
If you want to build a real, cross-vender multi-app workflow, it's really
handy: the initiating app can show different UI based on whether it's
available. Ex: only show "Open in Google Maps" button if it's installed.
I find it distasteful that it's being heavily used for analytics instead of
building great workflows. Look at all the apps that integrate with Facebook's
tracking: "fb..."
~~~
stephenr
That strategy specifically relies on the app author to support specific apps
then.
A better solution would be using the share sheet, so any app that supports the
type of data you're sharing, can make use of it.
~~~
21echoes
This system of open intent handling (for purposes other than sharing to
social-media-network-du-jour) is decent on Android devices, but is all but
non-existent on iOS devices. In other words: no, that solution is not
currently the better option on iOS given the environment.
~~~
stephenr
iOS8 only came out 2 1/2 months ago. Give it time.
------
scoot
Related-ish - can anyone explain how Chrome on iOS can apparently detect my
logged-in username in the GMail app (and suggests I log into Chrome with it)?
~~~
speedyapoc
Could be shared keychain data between those apps.
------
cmyr
This is a two-year old project. Is there any reason we're discussing it now?
~~~
jamesbrownuhh
The technique and principle is specifically "in the news" at the moment given
that Twitter apparently intend to harvest and use this information in their
own app. So I'd guess that's probably why.
~~~
cmyr
Ah okay, thanks. It doesn't seem like a behaviour that's very in line with the
general vibe of the iOS platform, but it's also hard to imagine a way of
removing this functionality without degrading the user experience. I wonder if
we might see the app store guidelines updated to specifically forbid this sort
of wide-net URL surveying.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
A Connectome-Based Convolutional Network Model of the Drosophila Visual System - beefman
https://arxiv.org/abs/1806.04793
======
andbberger
Funny to see this in light of our conversation yesterday [1]
This should be read with extreme skepticism. I have experienced first hand how
'science' is done in the Turaga lab. I have on multiple occasions been
pressured to cut corners and do shady things in the name of results.
In light of my experience, I require extra-extraordinary evidence to believe
anything coming out of that lab....
[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17306673](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17306673)
~~~
joe_the_user
Well, also this claim is definitely something that would represent an
extraordinary advance. Any detailed correspondence between machine learning
neural nets and actual neurology would be quite a step and not something
neurologist or machine learning experts expect.
~~~
paradroid
Neurology is the study of disorders of the nervous system. This is theoretical
neuroscience. FTFY.
------
jdc
If you're interested in this kind of thing, check out Openworm and their c302
neural network.
[http://docs.openworm.org/en/0.9/Projects/muscle-neuron-
integ...](http://docs.openworm.org/en/0.9/Projects/muscle-neuron-integration)
------
rdlecler1
This is not dissimilar to research done on artificial regulatory networks
driving paterning in drsosophila. Turns out the topological circuitry, not the
biological details explains the behavior. The network actually didn’t work
initially until they added a then unknown gene that they later discovered.
They even used this artificial network to predict phenotypic mutations that
were later confirmed emirically.
One of the reasons why we have such a problem getting our heads around neural
networks is that we don’t test and remove the spurious interactions in our
topological visualization. Do that and the underlying circuit will reveal
itself in the same way that any second year EE can identify the circuit
topology of a 3-bit adder. Neural networks don’t have binary logic gates,
rather you can have a large number of inputs and it works on a threshold
basis.
------
taneq
> Our work is the first demonstration, that knowledge of the connectome can
> enable in silico predictions of the functional properties of individual
> neurons in a circuit, leading to an understanding of circuit function from
> structure alone.
That's kind of huge. If they're right, the connectome from a real organism is
a good geometry for an ANN trained to do the same job.
------
MrQuincle
Two kind of performance metrics they seem to suggest on top of accurate
tracking:
\+ stability of the network, the neurons should not change their function
willy nilly
\+ robustness against multiplicative noise
I'm curious if that might lead to a more physiological plausible network.
------
nighthawk1
This is really the holy grail that we will be able to translate the connectome
into a software representation of it and be able to quickly acquire working
neural networks from living organisms.
------
mrfusion
How do they measure the synaptic weights? I didn’t think even electron imagery
could see synaptic receptors and neurotransmitters.
~~~
andbberger
They don't. It's purely topology, for which they use EM [1]
Uncle Howard has spent a lot of money on modeling the fly connectome at this
point!! Pressure is on to show that connectome data is actually useful.
I am skeptical. It's not not useful. But it's just one piece of the puzzle...
[1] [https://www.janelia.org/project-
team/flyem](https://www.janelia.org/project-team/flyem)
------
yedawg
Using recurrent neural nets to map and train ai based on part of the visual
connectome of a fly is interesting but lacks scalable experimental
feasibility. Every new neuron in the algorithm introduces an exponential
amount of complexity to the ai which takes away from it's scalability.
------
mrfusion
Is this implying these flies use gradient descent?
~~~
andbberger
No.
------
olliej
Does anyone have a link to the supplemental material for this?
~~~
rflrob
I can't find one, and weirdly the NIPS 2017 site doesn't seem to know about
this paper either...
[https://nips.cc/Conferences/2017](https://nips.cc/Conferences/2017)
~~~
jtmcmc
so I can say that they may submitted it to arxiv using a nips LaTeX styling
template - even if it wasn't in NIPS (could have been rejected or something
else and they forgot to change the style template)
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Google App Engine: Viable for startup that intends (hopes!) to be bought? - jochip
I'm considering using Google App Engine for a new startup but am concerned that using the Google Datastore (BigTable), Google Authentication, etc will limit the interest of future suitors.
My principal concern is that it will harder for them to migrate our startup (embedded in Google's operations) into their existing infrastructure. Any advice?
======
SwellJoe
Yes, it will make it harder for acquirers to integrate your technology. But
it'll be hard, regardless. It might even take a near-total rewrite.
Then again, you probably don't want to make it easier for an acquirer to
negotiate your price down based on more and more aspects of the software that
are harder to integrate--there will be some due diligence after the letter of
intent is signed, and you'll want them to find that the technology is far
better than they'd expected rather than far worse. I'd suggest pretty strongly
making sure everything you do is abstract enough to roll on other platforms
without too much pain. For BigTable, just make sure you don't do anything that
won't move to Hadoop+Hbase reasonably easily, for example.
Authentication...abstract it out. If you support OpenID, too, you'll be able
to roll out anywhere.
Sure, Google is not evil, but no reason to trust your entire business to a
potential competitor or a potential acquirer that might like having that kind
of advantage over you in the negotiations.
~~~
SwellJoe
Then again, as I read this, I realize that the vast majority of potential
acquirers (everyone except Google and maybe Yahoo), are going to want you to
run on their existing infrastructure (meaning some kind of SQL database). So,
being tied to a BigTable like structure might be a negative, even if you can
run on Hbase, too. I dunno.
------
okeumeni
I shared the same concern, that’s why I opted for the more expensive way of
building a staging infrastructure for our next project. Data management
structure and procedure can become an issue for any migration.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Fair Allocation of Scarce Medical Resources in the Time of Covid-19 - bookofjoe
https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMsb2005114
======
blendo
“... encouraging all patients, especially those facing the prospect of
intensive care, to document in an advance care directive what future quality
of life they would regard as acceptable and when they would refuse ventilators
or other life-sustaining interventions can be appropriate.“
Please take the time now to discuss end of life decisions with your loved
ones. It may help to look at
[https://theconversationproject.org/](https://theconversationproject.org/)
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Computer ownership by country - davidw
http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=12758865
======
apstuff
I've never been to 'Canda' so I can't speak to the issue.
~~~
sspencer
I believe they mean Canadia.
~~~
cawel
And personally I think they mean 'Canada' :)
------
apstuff
The list is from 2006. It would be interesting to see the current numbers for
Brazil and Russia given their supposed ascendancy. Plus, half the world's
population live in China and India, neither of which is on the list.
~~~
russell
It's the top 50 countries, ranked by computers per 100 population. China and
India are still quite rural. I would not expect a significant percentage yet.
------
cawel
Ah. Israel has more computers than people.
~~~
a-priori
Yes, I'm interested in this too. I knew Israel is tech-savvy (lots of
startups, etc.), but I didn't expect this statistic to be so high.
Are there any Israelis here that could shed light on this?
~~~
nir
I'm Israeli. I did expect it to be high on the list, but that gap between it
and 2nd place is quite surprising...
I can think of a few reasons:
1\. Israel is in a way similar to a big city - a small place and tightly knit.
It's a young nation without much traditions so people are open to try new
technologies and if they work out they quickly spread.
2\. Since Israel's main industry is hi-tech (it's 2nd or 3rd in number of
NASDAQ traded companies) having a computer is seen by parents as important for
their childrens' future prospects.
3\. There is some still kind of respect for knowledge mentality (you wouldn't
know it from the reality shows on our TV channels, but it's one of the top
book reading nations) which meshes well with the internet etc.
~~~
iman
4\. Game consoles and games are very expensive and thus not very popular in
Israel. So all the kids need a computer in order to get their video game fix.
5\. There isn't much poverty in Israel.
It would probably be very difficult to find a household in Israel that doesn't
have a computer. (Not counting old people who don't know what a computer is)
~~~
nir
I didn't think about #4 - good point.
All in all, I think the amazing gap (%50) between Israel and the next nation
probably also stems from the high proportion of technology companies in
Israel. All these companies that go through laptops and dev machines at high
cycles must make a big difference.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Edward Snowden looms over Pulitzer Prizes - 001sky
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/03/edward-snowden-pulitzer-prize-washington-post-guardian-nsa-104608.html
======
higherpurpose
Reminder to self: never update a Politico story ever again. It seems they are
a little too eager to tell us with each of their Snowden stories how "many
people think he's a traitor".
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Ask HN: help debug mapme, noob map app - messel
http://mapme.heroku.com
Request for assist debugging simple map script: please test from your locale http://mapme.heroku.com
======
messel
Request for assist debugging simple map script: please test from your locale
<http://mapme.heroku.com>
source: <http://github.com/victusfate/mapme>
------
andrewljohnson
Works for me.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Software on Librem 5 and PinePhone Linux Phones Is Progressing Nicely - iamnothere
https://www.cnx-software.com/2019/06/06/software-development-librem-5-pinephone-linux-phones/
======
camjohnson26
If these devices are useable it could start a movement away from Apple and
Google’s ecosystems. Smart phones are no longer novel and iPhone releases
don’t have the same excitement they used to. We’re getting to the point where
the technology is cheap and developed enough that 3rd parties can develop
their own, where before Apple and Google were the only projects with enough
information to innovate on what was already out their.
In the same way IBM used to dominate the computer market but now we have
raspberry pi’s with just as much power but available for basically nothing.
------
Tepix
Thanks for posting this, I hadn't heard about the PinePhone at all. Very
interesting price point ($149 for the 2GB version)!
I just hope they can get the UI smooth and responsive. All UIs of Linux phones
I've used in the past (Ubuntu Touch, OpenMoko) had a laggy UI which made them
unpleasant to use even if you disregard all the other usability issues. And it
wasn't the hardware's fault. The same phone wasn't slow when using Android
instead of Ubuntu Touch.
I'd rather have a more bland yet snappy UI than a lot of eye candy.
~~~
jonquark
The Wayland based Jolla phones are very responsive in my opinion (uses Android
and Jolla regularly)
~~~
Tepix
Good point, SailfishOS is snappy and smooth from what I remember.
------
neilv
A potentially huge difference between the Purism Librem 5 and the Pine64
products is that Purism is emphasizing privacy and security.
Both companies are based in countries believed to compel compromises
sometimes, but my current gut feel is I'd rather have a Librem 5.
I currently have a dumbphone, and a trail of nonworking PostmarketOS,
Replicant, and FirefoxOS devices. If we could get the Librem 5 software
working reasonably well atop PostmarketOS, that would provide a less-secure
"budget" option for getting more people onto the platform, for people who
can't swing several hundred dollars. Even were Purism to later introduce a
budget device, open source and not being locked to their devices would be an
encouraging sign for adopting the platform.
~~~
megous
> A potentially huge difference between the Purism Librem 5 and the Pine64
> products is that Purism is emphasizing privacy and security.
Dunno, PinePhone is said to have physical switches too.
Also all you need for privacy is complete control of the OS, which you will
have on PinePhone (complete mainline Linux support, down to GPU drivers). It
doesn't matter what country the HW vendor is from if the OS/bootloader is
fully controlled by the user.
Main thing that will hold PinePhone back initially is lack of suspend to ram
support. There are some partial solutions (WIP crust firmware), bit it's not
complete, yet. There's still time though.
PinePhone will be the first smartphone I'll buy, regardless of SW support, as
I'd like to play with the HW anyway. I already had plenty of fun with other
mobile Allwinner SoCs in form of a A83T based tablet, and A64 is quite similar
to that and very familiar to me. So all the SW I already wrote for the tablet
will be easily re-targettable for PinePhone.
It will be interesting to see how Pine64 will make it usable for regular
people. But for me as a programmer, it's will be a very nice device that I'll
be able to fully control and experiment with without any limits. Even the
power management co-processor is fully user programmable and has support in
gcc toolchain since gcc 9.1.
~~~
neilv
Hardware backdoors is one real thing (the hardware is mostly closed black
boxes), and that's a concern on both devices. Cutoff switches, baseband
isolation, etc. don't solve everything.
BTW, that's great news about upstreamed kernel and toolchain support. IIUC, an
earlier problem with some of those tablets was that there were hundreds of
variations, and good luck getting a mainline kernel on any of them, or finding
a second tablet if you got the first one booting with all the devices.
~~~
megous
Well not completely black, for example Quectel modem on PinePhone is running
it's own Linux system, which has many parts open sourced, and is at least
pokeable and allows for not so hard reverse engineering. For anyone with
enough time, now that Ghidra is available, it should be fairly straightforward
to see what's hiding in there, even in the proprietary parts. You should be
able to even run shell commands via some AT commands, if not via adb.
[https://osmocom.org/projects/quectel-
modems/wiki/Quectel](https://osmocom.org/projects/quectel-modems/wiki/Quectel)
------
jammygit
I think v1 of these phones will be disappointing, but promising. If the
projects survive to launch their v3s, I’ll get excited.
If anyone on their teams is reading, the deal breaker for me is this: I need
Authy, or an equiv, and Anki. Also need a step counter and my password manager
to sync across devices easily. Probably slack too. Phone and texting also, but
honestly the web browser would be secondary. Maps could be optional.
If a new phone could provide that, I think I could safely buy it and be able
to use it as a daily driver.
------
danielscrubs
The problem with Linux is that the UX and UI are always lackluster.
How do we make people work on those parts as a hobby? Can we make UX/UI have
their own demo-scene culture?
~~~
solarkraft
I care about UX, but don't know how to influence development.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
No boundaries for user identities: Web trackers exploit browser login managers - randomwalker
https://freedom-to-tinker.com/2017/12/27/no-boundaries-for-user-identities-web-trackers-exploit-browser-login-managers/
======
cm2187
What makes the matter worse is this ridiculous trend that all websites have
adopted of making a two step process, one for login, another page for the
password. I see no good reason to do so, and if the password manager does not
prepopulate the credentials, it forces the user to do many clicks to go
through the process. This is really a moronic design.
~~~
humblebee
This pattern is used for SSO. It doesn't make a lot of sense to request a
password from a user who is using a SSO solution. The issue is the website
needs to do a look up on the username to determine which SSO solution the user
might be using.
There might be a better pattern for this, such as making the determination
through a xhr request when the username field loses focus.
~~~
CydeWeys
Another good thing to do in combination with that is to store the SSO provider
locally (cookie/local storage, whatever). Then simply use that instead of
presenting the two step process -- you can default to the existing server-side
determination if the method stored locally fails.
I don't mind doing the two-step dance _once_ during first login on a new
device, but having to deal with it every time is infuriating and lazy on the
part of the company.
~~~
zanedb
But what if the user needs to login through a different provider?
~~~
CydeWeys
That could easily just be a different link, like the "Forgot password" link,
presented at the main login page. You wouldn't interact with it normally, and
thus it'd never interrupt your typical logon flow, but it'd be there when you
need it.
I'm still not really sure what purpose this two-step login is solving, though,
as typically every time I use an SSO it's by clicking on a button like "Log in
through Facebook" or "Log in through Google", before I'm ever even asked to
enter a username. Why do they need to know the username? They'll know that
when I log in using the SSO provider.
------
iforgotpassword
I never understood this behavior. Opera presto had a dedicated "fill with
saved credentials and submit" button in the toolbar (or ctrl-enter). Problem
avoided. Autofill never made the overall process faster. On the contrary, if I
want to use different credentials I have to manually clear the form first.
~~~
so33
1Password does this also, and I believe LastPass. I too prefer this behavior
to autofill, especially in situations where I have, say, multiple Google
accounts, to the point where the UX tradeoff (introducing extra UI) is totally
worth it.
------
tofflos
Is disabling autofill really a solution for the majority? These publishers are
handing over their users' credentials to a third party. If enough people
disable autofill they will just move the script to the login page and capture
their users' credentials as they are manually typing them in.
The top Polish sites need to clean up their act.
~~~
cpv
Not totally related, but imagine an online banking website with 3rd party
scripts.
------
quantumfoam
For FF users: about:config - set signon.autofillForms to false.
~~~
QAPereo
Would uBlock Origin and uMatrix do the job?
~~~
thg
For uBlock it depends on whether the script is hosted on a blacklisted site.
If it is, the script won't get loaded, but if it isn't, uBlock isn't going to
do anything about it.
uMatrix does prevent this as long as you keep the script blocked. But of
course you're going to be out of luck if you have to allow scripts from the
host that also hosts the script that exfiltrates the data. Sadly, there aren't
really many sites left that function without at least partial JavaScript
execution. Thus, as was mentioned in other comments already, disable auto
pasting for your browser or possibly use a plug-in that disables it for you,
as you can't really rely on uBlock, nor uMatrix, to reliably protect you
against this.
~~~
QAPereo
I see, thanks for the highly informative reply... I’ll definitely disable auto
fill.
------
kevin_b_er
I was using Secure Login for Firefox for a good while, but it died in e10s era
and probably doesn't have the hooks to block this at all in Firefox Quantum.
One of its useful features was to not fill out anything, username/email
included, until I clicked a button.
~~~
Izkata
I haven't upgraded yet, but it sounds like KeePassHelper can do something
similar - I have it listed as "try this replacement" for when I do eventually
upgrade: [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/keepasshelper...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/keepasshelper/)
Seems to require some setup though, and stores passwords outside of Firefox?
~~~
kevin_b_er
Not much of a replacement when I'm fine with firefox's password manager. It
seems plenty secure when a master password is set and thus the passwords are
encrypted at rest.
~~~
thuspoint
> when a master password is set and thus the passwords are encrypted at rest
They are not
[https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1284343](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1284343)
------
ecesena
I wonder if the parent sites are even aware of this.
If you can get (well, you can) the autofilled email+password, might as well
automatically log the user in.
Edit: it's also interesting to see so many EU sites, where in theory you
should show a disclaimer for cookies, but apparently it's ok to extract email
addresses.
~~~
sjmulder
They aren't allowed to, of course, and the banner is treated like a formality
in an almost cargo cult like fashion.
~~~
chatmasta
The “we use cookies!” banner is ridiculous. I always click “no thanks”
whenever it’s an option, but obviously it changes nothing. That banner is a
great example of useless regulation that accomplishes nothing yet wastes the
time of users and developers.
~~~
toyg
It started as a legitimate complaint about user tracking but it was eventually
lobbied into nothingness. Meaningful legislation would have hit the industry
hard, at a time when IT/web was one of the few sectors holding on in the Great
Crisis, so the EuroParliament got cold feet. They seem to have done a better
job with the GDPR, which really should have come before the cookie stuff
anyway; there is a chance the matter will be reviewed once the GDPR is fully
implemented.
------
inetknght
This just reminded me why disabling autofill is one of the first things I do
when using a new browser.
~~~
dylan604
I've never disabled it directly, mainly because I'm not intimately familiar
with all of the about:config options, but I have always selected the "Never
for this site" whenever that popup presents itself. Deep down, I always
thought it was a bit tin-foil hat on my part, but sounds like it was good
intuition after all.
------
walterbell
Why do browsers autofill non-visible forms?
~~~
gruez
because it's hard to determine whether something is visible. what if it's
offscreen? what if it's partially off screen? what if it's 0% opacity? what if
it's 0.001 opacity? what if it's 1px height/width? what if something is
overlaid on top of it?
~~~
sirmarksalot
Most importantly, the page could easily wait until the login manager fills it
in, and then immediately hide the form.
~~~
walterbell
Can the browser prevent visibility changes to auto-filled forms?
~~~
adamson
I feel like that'd be a terrible user experience on non-malicious sites
------
daddosi
Lets be honest. Browsers and webstandards never gave us the things needed to
build a nice userbase for our little web projects. Persona was a cool
idea/step in the right direction but it came much to late. Everyone is on big
web farms now where they can do many things after suffering though the arcane
form just once.
------
exikyut
From the article:
> _Chrome doesn’t autofill the password field until the user clicks or touches
> anywhere on the page._
When I tried the demo, clicking through to part 2 only autofilled the
username, but when I hit F5 to reload the page it autofilled the password too.
Chrome 63.0.3239.108
~~~
totallynotcool
Using the same version of Chrome on Ubuntu and I cannot recreate this. I have
to click ~somewhere~ on the page before the password is filled, just
refreshing does not cause the issue.
------
paulryanrogers
It would seem the only guaranteed way for a browser to avoid interception of
credentials is to deny JS access to sign-in fields. Even write-only access
risks allowing other scripts access to the key and mouse events.
Am I missing something?
------
totallynotcool
That's part of running 3rd party scripts on your site. I guess the worst part
of this is sniffing auto-fill credentials without user interaction- i.e.
submitting a form- however listener/callback on the submit button could
accomplish the same thing.
Only thing I can think of to thwart auto-fill sniffing is populating the form
with junk data on page load then waiting for the user to enter their access
id/user name before the password field is filled. This "solution" still
doesn't protect the 3rd part script from intercepting the submit button.
------
ivanhoe
For this to be significant you first need a) to register on that site b) to
explicitly logout and clear all the cookies for that domain(otherwise they can
track you anyway). How many people does this? Of course, disabling auto-fill
option is a smart thing to do regardless of this, I'm just saying that this is
not affecting the most of the population.
------
dao-
> Users can install ad blockers or tracking protection extensions to prevent
> tracking by invasive third-party scripts. The domains used to serve the two
> scripts (behavioralengine.com and audienceinsights.net) are blocked by the
> EasyPrivacy blocklist.
Firefox has built-in tracking protection that should block these scripts.
Enable it in about:preferences#privacy.
------
KozmoNau7
Nothing happened, which just makes me even more appreciative of uBlock Origin
in dynamic mode with default-deny on all 3rd-party resources.
I'll still set signon.autofillForms to false, though. For peace of mind.
------
leeoniya
uMatrix
~~~
mr_toad
The article seems to suggest that at least some sites are embedding the script
to avoid same origin policy, which will also bypass uMatrix.
This is equivalent to hosting something like JQuery from your own domain,
instead of using a CDN. As a site owner you have to trust that scripts like
JQuery aren’t going to do bad things.
They could just as send the email addresses (and passwords) directly to third
parties. It’s not clear whether the site owners are witting collaborators in
this or if they don’t know what the scripts are doing.
~~~
leeoniya
there are companies that specifically market as CDNs to advertisers to allow
third-party scripts to appear as first-party. it's nasty shit:
"The company's technology disguises third-party network requests so they
appear to be first-party network requests."
[https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/08/11/ad_blocker_bypass_c...](https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/08/11/ad_blocker_bypass_code/)
however, the demo page linked in this thread failed to work for me as uMatrix
blocked an injected 3rd party script
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Ask HN: Questions about iOS Freelancing - AppsAndiOS
Hi HN, I have been developing for iOS for a few months and have recently released an app that is fairly simple, but shows well-rounded iOS development skills. I have someone that would like me to develop an app for them, but neither he nor I have any experience with freelancing. I am mostly aware of what is fair as far as pricing goes, but I have a few other questions.<p>Side note: After this client, I plan on continuing as a freelancer. I am a student now and I want to freelance and work on my own side projects while working towards my degree in Comp. Sci.<p>Do I need to establish a business, and if so, what kind?
What should I know/be aware of in terms of taxes?
In terms of an iOS Developer Account, how would I go about setting one up for my client and publishing the application through his account?
Obviously, when I start building an app, the source code is automatically copyrighted in my name; should I just change the name?
How much should I charge as a 'beginner'?<p>In general, I am just looking for what I need to get started.<p>Also, any advice, guides, or blog posts for someone that is just starting out as an iOS freelancer are greatly appreciated.
======
michaelpinto
Talk to an accountant: My understanding is that in most places you don't need
an incorporated business, but that isn't the case everywhere.
In terms of publishing that depends on who your client is: An established
client may already have an account with Apple while a first time publisher may
not. In fact some of your work might be to set that up for a new client. And
in terms of copyright that would depend on your relationship with the client.
~~~
AppsAndiOS
All right, thanks. It seems that the entire task isn't formatted as strictly
as I expected.
~~~
michaelpinto
You're really in the service business when you're a freelancer, otherwise
you're just a pair of hands. So your greatest value is when you aren't giving
cookie cutter service.
------
Zeeshank
Side note: if you are planning on continuing your career in freelancing for
now then please contact me at 610198@gmail.com. I am currently looking for an
iOS developer.
Thanks
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
LinuxFoundation.org And Linux.com Hacked After Kernel.org - hardfire
http://yaps.co.in/foss-linux/linuxfoundation-org-and-linux-com-hacked-after-kernel-org/
======
adityapatawari
Compromised ssh keys are floating again? Any word on how it happened?
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Ask HN: What are some good essays/blogs on VCs? - nns
What are some good essays/blogs on VCs?
======
mind_heist
David Lee's talk at this year's start up school NY was great:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt-8Io0i_F4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt-8Io0i_F4)
------
kcovia
[http://www.avc.com](http://www.avc.com) is excellent. It's Fred Wilson's
person blog (Union Square Ventures).
------
tinkerrr
Paul Graham Essays?
[http://paulgraham.com/articles.html](http://paulgraham.com/articles.html)
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Guide to getting started in Machine Learning - ananthrk
http://abeautifulwww.com/2009/10/11/guide-to-getting-started-in-machine-learning/
======
simon_
Andrew Ng's course notes are 90% of the way to being a textbook, and are an
incredible resource, especially if you're going to watch the lectures.
<http://www.stanford.edu/class/cs229/materials.html>
~~~
ovi256
I also recommend Andrew Moore's tutorials on Datamining, which is quite
related to ML. Found them on HN a few days ago, printed the slides and started
reading them. So now I'm just passing it on :)
------
paraschopra
God, whatever you do please don't start by picking a few datasets at UCI ML
site and using R packages to play with the data.
An ideal approach will be to:
\- Pick any programming language and start off with plain regression. It may
look simple but this will become fantastic base going forward
\- Generate a synthetic data set and apply your freshly written regression on
it
\- Expand your toolkit to include test and training data set generation and
calculation of ROC curves and confusion tables
\- Add logistic regression, regularizers and other advanced regression models
to the toolkit
\- Use a real world dataset and develop multiple different models. And pick
the best model (choosing the right model itself is a big task in itself)
\- Then try coding Neural Networks, SVM, etc.
~~~
chromophore
Agree with you Paras!
Shubhendu here by the way! :)
I was taken aback a little by the suggestion to use the UCI repository with R
for beginning ML.
I would agree with your approach, I learnt all my basics from Andrew Ng's
course and his course more or less follows what you said. :)
~~~
chromophore
And I prefer the book by Bishop, It strikes a fine balance between the maths
and the ideas.
------
the_real_r2d2
I would add:
Programming Collective Intelligence (O'reilly)
<http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596529321>
[http://ianma.wordpress.com/2009/07/19/machine-learning-
for-b...](http://ianma.wordpress.com/2009/07/19/machine-learning-for-
beginners/)
Practical Artificial Intelligence Programming in Java
<http://www.markwatson.com/opencontent/>
~~~
bad_user
"Programming Collective Intelligence" is very short on theory. It's good for
getting your feet wet and for getting over your fear of something new and
difficult, but otherwise without proper comprehension of the phenomenons
involved in those algorithms, you're not going to get very far.
~~~
the_real_r2d2
Yes, it is short and basic in theory, but I it is very practical. In my case I
learn best trying and applying concepts in practice. That is why I found the
book very useful. Also I accompanied my learning with some other books (i.e.
Machine Learning from Tom Mitchell) and academic papers that filled the theory
gap. As a started point to teach the basics of ML and to encourage to go and
learn more, I think PCI is very good.
------
wheaties
Nice to see a link to online courses. I've been studying Bishop's book in my
spare time.
------
leecho0
I'm curious what you guys use ML for
~~~
paraschopra
MATLAB
~~~
leecho0
I was wondering more about like regression of customer data, creating
recommendation engines, or something along those lines.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
OCZ's Vertex 2 Pro Preview: The Fastest MLC SSD We've Ever Tested - blasdel
http://anandtech.com/printarticle.aspx?i=3702
======
kristianp
I for one am waiting for an affordable SSD based system for my next laptop.
(Running ubuntu)
~~~
chancho
Just buy one. Ubuntu is very slim to begin with (~4gb) and it's very easy to
configure the filesystem to keep core files on the SSD and other stuff on a
magnetic disk, e.g., symlink /home/kristianp/Music to /media/bighdd/Music or
even just mount the hdd as /home. (Do they still make laptops with two drive
bays? Used to be common but now that I think about it I can't recall any
recent models with this. Maybe the Taiwanese brands? Asus, MSI, etc?)
I have a 16gb drive in my wife's netbook that has plenty of room still (no big
music collection, though.) Our home computer has an 80gb drive, 70gb for Win7
and 10gb for ubuntu. Just to give you an idea, next time you boot up Ubuntu
(karmic) watch the splash animation, the one that says "ubuntu" with a pulsing
white progress-bar like thing underneath. The animation only cycles once and
then gnome is instantaneously loaded and sitting idle (autologin is on.)
Rebooting between Win7 and Ubuntu is like switching between Firefox and IE on
my old computer. If you can afford one now, just buy it. If you wait for the
"sweet spot" between price/performance/capacity you'll probably be waiting for
a while. They'll be a better value in the future, but that will always be a
case and it doesn't mean they're not a good value now.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Any feedback on my app: Create PDF album from your photos - redpill27
It is a lean project I have been hacking on in my spare time. The app is a result of learning new (to me) technologies - backbone, celery, django-piston.<p>I'm not sure if the app is useful or if it solves some real problem in its current state. I would appreciate any feedback and ideas to iterate on.<p>Link: http://images2pdf.com<p>You can use this registration code: FORHN150D
======
md1515
I think that is pretty dang cool. Perhaps one expansion could allow people to
add some text - details about each photo if an explanation is required. Either
way, that's a neat site - nice work.
------
iworkforthem
I think you make the pdf a step further to make it into a printable photo
album or calendar, etc.. and thru supplier like zazzle, cafepress, etc... to
have an actual album, etc.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
HP-Oracle war: HP ditches Oracle CRM for Salesforce - iwr
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11/25/salesforce_oracle_hp/
======
pilif
Even with all the bad blood - migrating 40'000 users from one piece of
software to another, while keeping all accumulated data intact is a huge and
costly undertaking.
And while I'm sure that there is some recurring support cost for the currently
deployed software, salesforce, while maybe cheaper in support, probably also
comes with a huge initial license fee.
Is this fight over that one guy (albeit the CEO) really worth an investment of
this size?
~~~
epo
I'll bet Salesforce would have given them all sorts of freebies and
concessions just for this publicity.
~~~
dctoedt
> _freebies and concessions just for this publicity_
And it's not just the publicity -- it's Salesforce.com's sales reps being able
to say to Oracle's _other_ customers, one on one, that they should "be smart,
do what HP did, rip out Oracle and go with us." That's not at all uncommon,
from what my sales colleagues used to tell me.
------
thedealmaker
HP still uses oracle financial internally. Let's see them ditch that...
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.