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Three Strikes of Injustice - kenshiro_o
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/09/opinion/three-strikes-of-injustice.html?_r=0
======
stephengillie
It's very sad that these _convicted criminials_ could have committed much more
hurtful crimes for their _3rd offense_ and received the same penalty: life in
prison.
I don't feel sympathy for those people who are _twice_ convicted of felonies
and get caught again.
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Windows NT 3.50 Build 782 (RC2) source code leaked - ASVVVAD
https://boards.4channel.org/vp/thread/43555197#p43583389
======
ASVVVAD
An article about it:
[https://securitronlinux.com/bejiitaswrath/nt-3-50-build-782-...](https://securitronlinux.com/bejiitaswrath/nt-3-50-build-782-rc2-source-
code-has-been-leaked/) Video of someone exploring the source files with date
modified being in 1994:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to_uj-7pGwc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to_uj-7pGwc)
|
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PagerDuty makes their security training public - vuln
https://sudo.pagerduty.com/
======
Bucephalus355
In a few years, employers are going to start screening for and rejecting /
hiring employees based on how secure they think they are in their personal
lives.
A user who is compromised in their personal/computer life is 99% going to be a
user who is later compromised in their work/computer life.
From a legal scholarship point of view, this is going to initiate some very
interesting federal court cases. Like for instance, can an employer mandate
that their already hired employees use an iPhone in their personal life? Can
they require that all of their employees use a password manager? What about a
specific brand of password manager? The questions are endless.
~~~
baseethrowaway
Yes, an employer can mandate that employees use password managers for work-
related accounts and are already doing it, from my experience. Also, for the
precise reason you say, corp accounts exist. Employees in some companies
already can't turn off 2FA for some accounts whether they want it or not.
Let's not reinvent solved problems. Questions are not endless.
------
jtaft
The engineering list is a decent start! Multiple vulnerability categories I
see day to day appear to be missing though, such as race conditions, direct
object references, and file inclusions. Would be nice to add a slide stating
"Don't trust user input".
If anyone is interested in security training, or looking for an application
security review, feel free to get in touch with us!
[https://www.oneupsecurity.com/](https://www.oneupsecurity.com/)
------
yread
It's public but there are quite a few "redacted" slides there :(
~~~
dangoor
Even so, there is still a good overview that remains.
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Five surprising salaries (Astronomers 96K/year) - willz
http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/worklife/04/09/cb.surprising.salaries/index.html
======
noodle
iirc, we already had this on the front page, but i'm adding my $0.02 to it:
i read this article, and then heard this
(<http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1235>) this american life
which included a piece on astronauts. most astronauts will never see space.
50% of their time is meetings, 25% is training, and the rest is paperwork and
public speaking. not all its cracked up to be.
~~~
willz
Thanks for the note. To support your reading, I met a guy from NASA a few
years ago. According to him, NASA is a bureaucracy run by accountants.
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Shipping Startup Shyp Raises $10M, Plans Expansion to New York City - dkasper
http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/16/shyp-10m-sherpaventures/
======
akurilin
Really convenient product, excellent customer experience. Shipped half an
apartment through these guys, would have taken me forever without their crew
taking care of everything.
------
bitsweet
Not surprised. Awesome product, great team
|
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S&P 500 to exclude Snap after voting rights debate - gabbo
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/01/sp-500-to-exclude-snap-after-voting-rights-debate.html
======
hendzen
This is huge. There are a huge amount of capital inflows from indexers from
being part of the SP500. This will be a strong disencentive to future IPO
candidates for issuing shares with reduced voting rights.
|
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Apple is suing its former lead chip designer - mywittyname
https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-suing-ex-employee-after-he-quit-tech-giant-2019-12
======
ReptileMan
Weren't non competes unenforceable in California?
|
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Big Breach Of Patient Data In California - joellarsson
http://www.businessinsider.com/patient-data-breach-in-california-2014-3
======
Zenst
One key aspect of this is that the data was not stolen thru hacking or other
networking evilness, but was physicaly stolen.
Another aspect of note is that the data appears to not be encrypted.
Now that is a whole area of IT security that many overlook in out times of
internet badies our to get your systems. People think, not on the internet, no
need for encryption as it is issolated, physicaly.
Whilst the days of the RAM thefts have become a distant past with whole server
rooms raided by theifs just after the RAM sticks during the times of oevr
inflated memory prices making them targets. The threat to your data and
systems from such means still exist and can be anything from a opertunist or
disgruntled janitor down to planned targeting of the data or even the hardware
it runs upon.
|
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Picocli v4.1.0 - remkop2
https://github.com/remkop/picocli/releases/tag/v4.1.0
======
remkop2
this release includes a built-in `generate-completion` subcommand that end
users can use to easily install Bash/ZSH completion for your application
|
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Maily Herald – Rails open source self-hosted Mailchimp alternative - tortilla
http://mailyherald.org/
======
solidgumby
Ever had to deal with email deliverability issues? This alone is a very good
reason to go with a hosted service. The self-hosted software looks good but
I'd never touch that with a stick. There might be cases where
regulation/privacy rules makes the self-hosted system useful/required but in
all other cases, do yourself a favor and use a hosted service.
~~~
lfxx
You can still use Mandrill or Amazon SES for bullet-proof email delivery. This
gem just helps you to organize and schedule your mailings within your app.
|
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PolarSSL Remote Code Execution and a Denial of Service - draugadrotten
https://www.certifiedsecure.com/polarssl-advisory/
======
feld
In the case of OpenVPN -- can anyone confirm if this is mitigated simply by
requiring a ta key? I believe it would, as the server won't move to the next
step and process certificates/keys unless the ta key is accepted.
|
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Restricting User Access by Country using an IP Geolocation API - kevinjyc
https://smartip.io
======
kevinjyc
Using an IP geolocation API like [https://smartip.io](https://smartip.io) can
help on restricting access to your website to users connecting from specific
countries.
|
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Show HN: Find the fastest route via a place - FriedPickles
http://road.li
======
rwhitman
This is brilliant. Just such a useful idea. But I would say that this should
have been 'mobile first', and would strongly suggest expending effort on
mobile experience. This is large and by far something I'd be more likely to
use on my phone than anywhere else and its very hard to use on the phone right
now
~~~
wbobeirne
Agreed, or at least a breakpoint at ~720 that makes it stack vertically (i.e.
[http://cl.ly/image/0m30232n1N1A](http://cl.ly/image/0m30232n1N1A))
~~~
FriedPickles
That looks great, thanks. I'll try to make this happen soon.
~~~
prawn
Maybe also have URLs update automatically for copying and pasting? At the
moment, it stays as [http://road.li/](http://road.li/)
Allowing people to share URLs might increase adoption of the site. You need to
make use of your site a habit or people will think "Neat" and then forget
about it.
It was very fast for me from South Australia. Design needs work, but
functionality was decent. Well done.
------
thesash
This is super cool! I can't tell you how many times I've been driving between
LA and San Diego or LA and San Francisco, and just wanted to find a coffee
shop, edible food, or even a gas station. For all the things Google maps is
great at, this is not one of them (despite some of the comments here to the
contrary). Great work, and if you'd care for some unsolicited advice, a mobile
optimized version would make this a killer roadtrip companion, and if you
wanted to, you could certainly wrap it in an app and sell it.
~~~
erikig
Indeed. I would also recommend giving your users a way to reach out (twitter,
fb etc).
Incidentally, I'm running late to a birthday party and I'm trying to pick up a
gift on the way. I couldn't remember the site URL and had to spend some time
searching through HN to find it.
Thanks anyhow!
------
aaronpk
If you're using Google Maps and are looking at a route from A to B, you can
click any point on the path and drag it to anywhere on the map, and the route
will update to pass through the point you selected. Example:
[http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2835/9667570442_4689c021f7_o.p...](http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2835/9667570442_4689c021f7_o.png)
The only downside is you can't search for the place to stop at, you have to
find it on the map.
~~~
zeckalpha
Until the recent UI overhaul, you could add additional stopping points, and
drag to reorder them. It made solving the traveling salesman problem... I mean
planning circuitous routes easier.
~~~
graue
"Until the recent UI overhaul"? I still have the feature exactly as you
described it in my browser.
~~~
emhs
This is referring to all the push to use "The New Google Maps". One is not
currently obligated to use it, but it's there and being pushed. He seems to be
using it.
------
johnnyo
Great idea. I often like to find something "along the way", especially for
long road trips.
Just a datapoint, trying to find a Boston Market along my route gave me lots
of results that weren't a Boston Market. You might need to do a little better
matching on the via portion of the data.
~~~
dmckeon
OP may want to partner with lodging sites - road-weary travelers may not know
where they will want to spend the night until late in the day, and the less
expensive motel choices are often in smaller towns on their route, so a
"search along route" function can be more useful than tools like Around Me
with a "search around placename" function that requires iteration over many
placenames.
I tried "Boston Market" between San Mateo and San Jose, and got 7 results, of
which 2 were Boston Market locations, 1 a Harry's Hofbrau, 2 more are probably
restaurants, and 2 appear to be unrelated.
Trying Boston Market "without quotes" produced many more results, including
all the above, and also "Putnam Lexus," "Intel Capital," "eBay," "Aol," and,
more tellingly, the "Fish Market" near Fry's in PA.
So, users should employ double quotes in multi-word searches, and be selective
in choosing from the results.
------
n00j
The classic google maps lets you do this with any number of points. Just the
new maps removed this feature:
[https://www.google.com/maps?saddr=Mineta+San+Jose+Internatio...](https://www.google.com/maps?saddr=Mineta+San+Jose+International+Airport+\(SJC\),+1701+Airport+Blvd,+San+Jose,+CA&daddr=San+Mateo,+CA+to:San+Francisco+International+Airport,+San+Francisco,+CA+to:San+Francisco,+CA&hl=en&sll=37.56744,-122.170715&sspn=0.476771,0.686646&geocode=FXs1OgIdAIC7-CE-
fvZtP0T6vCmbxbP6w8uPgDE-
fvZtP0T6vA%3BFXAqPQId63W1-ClFVanvYJ6PgDGnG8wt9PyO_Q%3BFRT7PQId3Ii0-CE_7c0aV1zypClVVVVVjHePgDE_7c0aV1zypA%3BFVJmQAIdKAe0-CkhAGkAbZqFgDH_rXbwZxNQSg&oq=San+M&mra=ps&t=m&z=11)
~~~
FriedPickles
The difference here is Google requires you to give a specific location (e.g.,
an "instance" of McDonalds), whereas my tool helps you decide which location
to stop at when there are many workable options along your route.
------
thisisnotatest
Feedback: I clicked on the suggestion "Boston to Providence via McDonalds."
Then I decided to try entering the information I wished I'd had on my Labor
Day road trip: where was the most convenient place to stop at In'N'Out? But
after I typed my California zip code as the origin, before I could start
typing my destination, the page went completely unresponsive for 10+ seconds.
Apparently it was too eager and immediately started trying to find all the
closest McDonalds on the route between my California town and Providence,
Rhode Island.
~~~
aptwebapps
Likewise. I did a search in one country, started a new one in a new country
and it's still locked up. Couldn't even close the tab. (Chrome, OSX).
Really neat app, though!
------
beh
This is great.
Suggestion – add Yelp ratings for destinations. I find myself taking long
trips from point A to point B, and always feel like I'm missing out on things
along the way. If I knew that the world's best coffee shop (according to Yelp)
was just 4 minutes off my route, I'd love to stop.
------
outericky
This is quite neat. Any way to extract the directions once I decide which way
point I want to go through?
~~~
FriedPickles
Thanks! There's a small "Open this route in Google Maps" link that will give
directions via the selected location.
I'm playing with ideas to make that more prominent.
~~~
excitom
How about when you click one of the suggestions, go ahead and open the route
in google maps.
------
dxbydt
Here's a handy little problem you can solve with road.li - There are 5162 KFC
outlets in USA. Say I want to eat a chicken breast at every one of these
locations. What's the shortest route that connects all 5162 locations ? Do a
topological sort of all kfc locations and run road.li iteratively ie. route
from kfc-1 to kfc-3 via kfc-2, kfc-3 to kfc-5 via kfc-4, etc. until kfc-5162 -
that should be a bloody interesting map. KFC will fork out hard cash for that
sort of thing.
Then try Domino's, Taco Bell etc.
[http://ezlocal.com/blog/post/10-largest-fast-food-chains-
in-...](http://ezlocal.com/blog/post/10-largest-fast-food-chains-in-the-
us.aspx)
~~~
jffry
"What's the shortest route that connects all 5162 locations"
AKA Traveling salesman problem? Even with a few hundred cities that would be
difficult to find the optimal solution, let alone thousands. You could find a
decent to even good solution with other algorithms, though
~~~
pyk
For the ambitious, some of the leading code for solving the TSP to optimality
is Concorde (at best it has optimally solved an 85,900 "city" instance):
[http://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/tsp/concorde/downloads/download...](http://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/tsp/concorde/downloads/downloads.htm)
or solve/run Concorde on Argonne National Laboratory's server here:
[http://neos.mcs.anl.gov/neos/solvers/co:concorde/TSP.html](http://neos.mcs.anl.gov/neos/solvers/co:concorde/TSP.html)
Disclaimer: free for academic use
~~~
jffry
Ah, cool. So I guess I was wrong that a 5k-city solution was infeasible.
------
Raphmedia
Oh! That's awesome once you figure out what it is!
You should make it clearer that the big feature is the "via" !
It's presented as an after thought on the website's design, while it is in
fact the main feature.
------
rompic
We did something similar for vienna last year as a research project (german
only). [http://www.myits.at/](http://www.myits.at/)
[http://www.myits.at/mobile](http://www.myits.at/mobile)
------
jamessb
This looks really useful.
However, it would be nice to give a link to the homepage of each option,
especially when the user searched for something vague like "cafe" rather than
a specific chain and so might want additional information before deciding
which to visit.
------
smokestack
maps.google.com does this exactly with a few extra clicks:
Click "Get directions" button, click the "Add Destination" link, fill in A, B,
and C then click the "Did you mean a different..."
------
joshdotsmith
Awesome work on this.
Another idea for you: I'd like to put in multiple competing places to see
which is optimal. Should I go to Wendy's or Burger King on the way?
~~~
proexploit
Similarly, I often have errands to run and 4-5 locations and it's not
immediately obvious which route and order I should go to each of them.
------
sardonicbryan
This is one feature that I miss from my Garmin GPS -- ability to set a route,
and then search for locations or types of locations along the route.
------
avalaunch
I love this. Make it an app please! I've downloaded multiple apps thinking
they'd include this feature and none have. Very useful.
------
MasterScrat
It's not obvious what kind of places you can specify in the "via" field... it
would be nice to have autocompletion there. too.
------
awongh
this is great, I was thinking of building something similar, but it didn't
seem like the route finding APIs were there at the time.
It seems to side step a lot of the problems I'd imagined... a great way to
solve this problem I hadn't thought of before.
It'd be interesting to see what it would be like for n legs of a journey (for
n number of place searches)
------
shire
I was looking for something like this for so long, very useful!.
------
mooneater
Awesome! Does this use openstreetmap data, or what data set?
------
peter_l_downs
Needs some debouncing! Other than that, it's awesome.
------
homakov
Lol, i can just find route A to B and then B to C.
~~~
zackbloom
With this app, B is a category ("hardware store" or "bank"), rather than a
specific location. That's the innovation.
~~~
zeckalpha
Google Maps _used to_ do that.
~~~
peterwwillis
The old maps still does that, but it does not pick the ones along your route
and sort based on shortest trip. In any case, _used to_ is not really use
_ful_.
------
brndnmtthws
Needs bike directions.
|
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Group buying: Fad or future Facebook? - anya
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/TECH/web/01/06/group.buying.2011.prospects/index.html
Group buying websites enjoyed massive growth in 2010 grabbing new customers and the headlines as the sector's biggest player, Groupon turned down a reported $6 billion offer from Google in early December.
======
veb
"It brings offline and online together in a very unique way, which banner ads
simply don't do. It's definitely opening people's eyes up to the way
e-commerce can be transactive," Aitken said.
People may _like_ Facebook, but we're still very social creatures, and we do
_crave_ human interaction. Probably why we _may_ be seeing more intertwined
real-life/interweb stuff soon.
|
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How much money to set aside for legal work/fees? - chwolfe
======
zaidf
It cost us about $500 to incorporate/get a PO box. I figure another few
hundred - on the cheap side - if we paid to get our TOS and/or Privacy Policy
written by a lawyer.
~~~
chwolfe
Thanks... Did you go the LLC route?
~~~
zaidf
We went with an Inc. since we had three of us with stakes and knew the number
of people would only increase.
Make sure you go with Delaware in most cases.
|
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Peer-to-peer markets [pdf] - deweerdt
http://papers.nber.org/tmp/95308-w21496.pdf
======
deweerdt
> Internet marketplaces also have managed to deal fairly successfully with the
> incentive problems that arise in long-distance and semi-anonymous trade, and
> in doing so have enabled the entry and participation of small suppliers and
> exible workers into many markets.
|
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The most beautiful equation - ldayley
http://www.quora.com/Mathematics/What-is-the-most-beautiful-equation
======
RiderOfGiraffes
Dup: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2193377>
|
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The Story of Oculus Rift - jonbaer
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/09/oculus-rift-mark-zuckerberg-cover-story-palmer-lucky
======
staunch
> _Before I met them, I’d assumed that Zuckerberg and Luckey would have much
> in common. They’re both hackers who started valuable companies before they
> turned 20, but the similarities pretty much end there._
> _..._
> _Luckey does not come from money, nor did he have access to the prep-school,
> Ivy League fast track that Zuckerberg and so many of Silicon Valley’s young
> masters started on._
People are still surprised that poor white people and rich white people are
not the same. Wealth divides far more than race in America.
What makes Palmer Luckey all the more badass is that he created a product from
scratch that changed the world. Zuck cloned Friendster and leveraged the
exclusivity of a "Harvard social network" to bootstrap his site.
John Carmack, also from a poor background, is the one who believed in Oculus
first. He is most responsible for helping Palmer Luckey make VR happen.
They're the big heros here, not the rich kid who bought it for $2 billion.
~~~
kelukelugames
Yes, the divide between the poor and the rich is wide. Though I don't know how
it compares to race. That's really subjective.
My friends make anywhere from 10 bucks an hour to over half a million every
year. My wealthy friends are incredibly nice but sometimes they are awkward.
Multiple rich people have asked me about the kind of boat I own. I don't have
a boat. Sometimes I make my poor friends feel the same way. They are jealous
that I can afford a mortgage.
I also have white co-workers and black co-workers. My white co-workers are
incredibly nice but sometimes they are super awkward. They ask me questions
about chopsticks and interment camps. As for my black friends, well, sometimes
they deal with worse.
Bonus: Everyone's favorite astrophysicist on the challenges of being black
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inz1sdhsMCU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inz1sdhsMCU)
~~~
staunch
Neil deGrasse Tyson is obviously an amazing person. He was also born into a
nurturing, educated, well off household. He received a credential costing a
fortune from an elite university which served as his entrance ticket into the
professional world. Poverty and elitism are what prevent there from being more
like him.
~~~
kelukelugames
Did you watch the video? He literally lists all of the problems he faced from
racism.
------
mentos
Dk1&2 owner here, I've slowly soured on VR over the past year as my 'reptile
brain' has come to associate the headset with motion sickness and I would say
I have a pretty steely stomach. I'm an avid FPS player, spent 4 hours in the
HL2 VR mod about 18 months ago with minimal sickness. But the killer for me
has been the slow buildup of aversion to VR over time. I've never been more
excited for a technology but I fear there are some impossible problems to
solve.. Any other dev kit developers feel the same way?
~~~
ericflo
You should not be playing a FPS in VR, especially on anything pre-release like
the DK2. Acceleration without some kind of cockpit to ground you is one of the
worst offenders, and virtually all FPS games do that by design/necessity.
This is one of my worst fears about VR adoption: gamers, especially the kind
who will be on the leading edge of this stuff, want badly to play FPS games
and they'll find ways to do it and they're all going to hate VR.
I'm glad Oculus is putting their "comfort ratings" front and center, and being
really vocal about the principles of sickness-free VR, but I'm worried people
are going to skip all the warnings and advice and ruin this for everyone.
~~~
mentos
I appreciate that and I only ever played about 8 hours of HL2 VR, I stopped
when I beat the campaign and moved on to playing WarThunder for a couple
months then slowly tapered off.
>>This is one of my worst fears about VR adoption: gamers, especially the kind
who will be on the leading edge of this stuff, want badly to play FPS games
and they'll find ways to do it and they're all going to hate VR.
Part of the promise of VR is being able to negotiate a virtual world on foot
which currently has too much of a mismatch to work without sickening the user.
So what are the long term solutions to this? To me they are really hard if not
impossible problems.
~~~
ericflo
Cloudhead's "Blink" system is one good first step
[http://uploadvr.com/cloudhead-blink-vr-
movement/](http://uploadvr.com/cloudhead-blink-vr-movement/) AltspaceVR has
been doing something similar for a while too.
Another idea is something called redirected walking, which basically tricks
you into walking in circles even though you think you're walking in a straight
line.
Someday we may have electronic solutions to sim sickness -- they've discovered
that by sending tiny amounts of electricity through our inner ears, they can
programmatically control how you feel you're moving.
Edit: Here's a video of Palmer Luckey talking about that inner ear stuff
(GVS):
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CRdRc8CcGY&feature=youtu.be...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CRdRc8CcGY&feature=youtu.be&t=11m5s)
~~~
sfjailbird
I've often wondered if the feeling of acceleration/deceleration could easily
be simulated with a simple tilting chair. Tilt the chair back to simulate
forward acceleration (like a car speeding). Gravity pulls you 'backwards',
similar to the feeling of being pressed back in the seat. Opposite for
deceleration. I hereby donate this idea to the world.
~~~
cjrp
That's exactly what they do in full-motion flight simulators.
~~~
wlesieutre
Racing games as well.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-N3XDc-3QQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-N3XDc-3QQ)
------
whysonot
> When Iribe said, Yeah, it’s pretty much just about gaming, at least for now,
> Zuckerberg seemed to lose interest. Facebook was not a video-game company
> and over the years had moved to make games a smaller part of what users saw
> when they logged on.
I've seen Mark's vision for Oculus described as the next step in connecting
all of the people on the planet in a few pieces now. What interests me about
this position is that it implies:
1) gaming and entertainment braodly are not the end game. Instead, the social
interactions.
2) VR hardware will see broader consumer penetration in the population not yet
reached by facebook than mobile phones
Not sure what I think yet.
~~~
deelowe
I don't see it happening. There's no way people are going to be strapping
things to their faces for social interaction.
~~~
cpeterso
I agree. Many people (30% apparently) prefer text messages over voice calls. I
don't see 360° VR video being convenient or worth the bother for casual
communication.
[http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/22/tech/mobile/americans-
prefer-t...](http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/22/tech/mobile/americans-prefer-text-
messages/index.html)
~~~
interpol_p
Our home use has really diverged away from voice calls and towards messaging
and FaceTime. Where FaceTime is reserved for special occasions (kids chatting
to grandparents, long distance relatives, calling home when on a business
trip).
I wonder if VR as a communication tool could supplant video calling? Although
it lacks the ability for a family to physically gather around a screen and
communicate as a group.
------
Animats
What's the killer app for the Oculus Rift? So far, there are roller coaster
simulators and first person shooters. Those are fun, but the market is
limited. (The roller coaster thing is fun for about half an hour, tops. The
FPS market is bigger, but will only catch on if you can kill more effectively
wearing the headgear.)
In the last go-round of VR, the killer app was supposed to be the Multiverse
(as in "Snow Crash"). Now that Second Life is available but slowly sinking,
that doesn't seem as compelling. The problem with Second Life doesn't seem to
be graphics resolution, lag, or anything technical; it just isn't worth the
trouble. There's an Oculus Rift client mod for Second Life, not that anybody
cares. (The Second Life people should do a WebGL client; more people might try
it.)
Interestingly, in the first round of VR, back in the 1980s, it was "gloves and
goggles", so you could actually do something while in there. This time, the
gloves seem to have disappeared. The stock controller is the XBox game
controller, although there's an optional wrist-tracking controller. Full
finger tracking, no.
~~~
erikpukinskis
> What's the killer app for the Oculus Rift?
Here's my guess: Feeling like you're in the same room with someone who is far
away.
~~~
IanCal
This is something I see mentioned a lot, and would be great (as a remote
employee). However, either the people are 3D renders or wearing headsets
themselves. Maybe I'm picturing it wrong though.
~~~
greglmercer
This is worth more than you'd think. The multiplayer demo I tried at PAX 2014
had me and a friend sitting maybe three feet from each other, and generic
blank avatars in-game, but seeing him nod and nodding back myself was a hugely
intimate experience. It's tough to describe, a purely emotional experience.
~~~
interpol_p
Do you think the experience was worth putting on a headset for? To chat with
someone like that?
I ask because I wonder whether the overhead of using the device is outweighed
by its value as a communications tool.
------
bkraz
It's really sad to see no mention of Valve anywhere in the article. The work
that was done at Valve in 2012-2013 on VR hardware and software was critical
to the success of Oculus. Valve created a complete VR demo that was shown to
Andreessen-Horowitz near the end of 2013, and was a deciding factor in their
decision to invest, as well as Facebook's decision to buy. At that time, the
best hardware created by Oculus did not have 6DOF, high-resolution tracking.
It did not have low-persistance, globally-illuminated displays. It did not
have proper lens distortion correction. It did not have presence. Basically,
all of the hardware factors that have made modern VR exciting were discovered
and developed by the team at Valve. Unfortunately, Valve was not able to
capitalize or commercialize all of this work, and basically just gave it away
through a very awkward interaction. Source: I worked there on VR. Of course,
they are now working with HTC on the Vive, which is really great, and is going
to give Oculus major competition.
[http://media.steampowered.com/apps/abrashblog/Abrash%20Dev%2...](http://media.steampowered.com/apps/abrashblog/Abrash%20Dev%20Days%202014.pdf)
------
misiti3780
I’ve watched more V.R. than most people, and I don’t feel like I have brain
damage,” says Chris Milk, a former music-video director whose company produces
and distributes short, 360-degree movies watched on a headset.
that's one of the best example of confirmation bias I have seen in a while.
Chris is assuming because he doesn't feel brain damage he doesn't have it! (I
have no opinion on if VR causes brain damage - just pointing out the absurdly
of that quote)
~~~
in3d
This not an example of the confirmation bias at all. More like possibly
biased, anecdotal evidence that might have not been verified. You can very
well notice signs of your own brain damage.
------
bane
Here's a great post from 2014...has anything major changed in the last 18
months?
[http://assayviaessay.blogspot.com/2014/03/virtual-spaces-
rea...](http://assayviaessay.blogspot.com/2014/03/virtual-spaces-real-
data.html)
------
callesgg
The picture is clearly a photoshop job. Why would they do that.
------
oska
_> As the Oculus Rift is about to hit the market, Zuckerberg is cautious.
“It’ll ramp up slowly,” he says. “The first smartphones … I don’t know if they
sold a million units in the first year. But it kind of doubles and triples
each year, and you end up with something that tens of millions of people have.
And now it’s a real thing.”_
I'm sceptical and not least because of Zuckerberg's involvement. Mark
Zuckerberg reminds me most of Bill Gates and has so far displayed the same
level of vision and imagination as Gates (i.e. almost none).
~~~
Tmmrn
It fits then that Oculus partnered with Microsoft, cut out support for all
operating systems except windows, cut back their source code releases and are
working with Microsoft, AMD and nvidia on windows-exclusive proprietary (and
as of now secret NDA'ed) APIs.
I think a world in which technology is a black box that is controlled by
corporations by means of proprietary software WAS Bill Gates' vision for
Microsoft.
------
djloche
I'm buying a Rift as soon as it is available for shipping. I experienced about
1.5 minutes of Dk1 and was sold.
------
bronz
It was when the DK2 first came out that I realized VR was not the slam dunk it
is often portrayed as. The DK2 was bought by many people, many more than the
DK1. And once all of those customers started posting feedback on the internet
it became clear that motion sickness was still a huge problem. And motion
sickness will not be resolved with higher frame rates or lower latency as most
of us believed prior to the DK2. Oh well.
~~~
Pfhreak
Since the above is anecdotal (or at least, not well referenced), I feel
comfortable in adding a personal anecdote to the contrary.
I bought a DK2, played with it and developed some prototypes with it. I have a
very wide IPD (Interpupillary Distance), which meant that I couldn't focus
cleanly on the image of the DK2. I experience some mild to moderate motion
sickness when I use the DK2 in most titles.
However, there are some experiences -- particularly those with a cockpit or a
third person camera -- that significantly reduce or eliminate the sickness. At
PAX this year, I tested both the HTC Vive (Call of the Starseed -- a Myst-like
title) and the Oculus CV1 (Eve Valkyrie -- a space superiority dogfighter)
with absolutely no motion sickness at all, despite some rather hectic motion
in Eve. Both demos were approximately 15 minutes of VR time. The higher frame
rates and resolution, along with better accommodation of my wideset eyes
absolutely improved the 'presence' in the demo. It was absolutely a material
change from the DK2, which I've shelved until the consumer ready hardware is
available.
Additionally, DK1 and DK2 content is still generally content under
development. We're still learning which experiences are good or bad in VR, and
how to move the player without disturbing their equilibrium. Games like Eve
Valkyrie and Call of the Starseed were both designed from the ground up with
VR in mind, which also helps.
------
spoon16
Anyone know what type of desk they are using?
------
Tmmrn
> Our mission isn’t to connect a billion people, it’s to connect everyone in
> the world.
I wonder whether he is aware that Oculus has been moving away from that goal
for a while now. They are now a company that works with Microsoft, AMD and
nvidia on Windows-exclusive APIs and have dropped support for all other
operating systems.
That's why all "social" VR applications for the Oculus Rift are a joke. Sure,
you can get together in VR. But only when you use windows and only with other
windows users. Zuckerberg says he wants to connect everyone. Right now Oculus
is working on connecting Windows users exclusively. I wonder what Zuckerberg
thinks about his newly acquired company acting this way.
~~~
blazespin
Not really accurate, their mobile/ Samsung solution is not windows.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Boeing Crashes Highlight the High Costs of Cheap Government - molecule
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/03/boeing-737-max-crashes-highlight-the-high-costs-of-cheap-government.html
======
kazinator
Throwing money at government just to make it expensive won't fix this kind of
problem.
What if a bigger, fatter, better funded FAA is still in cahoots with Boeing?
~~~
pohl
I grant the existence of some who seek to make government less expensive for
the sole sake of it being less expensive. (Existence proof: Grover Norquist,
who wants to drown it in a bathtub.) Who are these mythical creatures who want
it to be more expensive without providing more/better services?
~~~
kazinator
Pretty much every governmental bureaucrat.
~~~
pohl
People say that a lot, but without really thinking it through. There are 2.79M
civil servants, each of which can be pejoratively referred to as a
"bureaucrat" if that is your wont, and pretty much every one of them wants
government services to become more expensive solely for expense's sake?
That doesn't even pass the smell test.
------
purplezooey
Many people don't realize that as much as we like to complain about big
government and wasteful spending, the private sector is just as bad, or worse
in some cases.
------
RcouF1uZ4gsC
>It is true that the F.A.A.’s current delegation rules have been around for
more than a decade — and that America’s commercial airlines have assembled an
enviable safety record over that period. But the available evidence also
suggests that America’s refusal to adequately fund the F.A.A. allowed
corporations to gain inordinate influence over a public-sector function — and
many people died as a result.
This is classic motivated reasoning. The authors know that the US Airline
safety profile over that time is stellar. Knowing they can’t base their claim
on the actual statistical safety record, thy resort to using a comparison with
vague words such as ‘suggests’ and ‘inordinate’ and emotionally charged
phrases: such as ‘corporations to gain inordinate influence’ and ‘many people
died.’
They are hoping that your emotional brain will overlook the lack of argument
of real quantitative evidence and jump on the emotional bits of the argument.
This is similar to how anti-immigration groups will seize on a high profile
crime committed by an immigrant and use that to say that immigration should be
stopped/cut back without discussing if immigrants are actually more likely to
commit violent crimes than natives.
~~~
Gibbon1
You could argue that the current record is simply a legacy of previous high
quality government regulation and oversights. And that the 737-MAX is the
first article of the new regime.
Another good example of that is the defective Bay Bridge replacement between
Treasure Island and Oakland. That bridge is going to fail during the next
earthquake because of design flaws that the oversight agency didn't have the
manpower to spot. CALTRANS after three decades of Republican lead budget cuts
doesn't have the ability to safely oversee projects of that size anymore.
~~~
DrScump
CALTRANS after three decades of Republican lead budget cuts doesn't have the ability to safely oversee...
Republicans have been in the _minority in both houses_ and had absolutely no
power in the CA legislature appropriations process for _over two decades_. For
much of that time, the Democrats had _supermajorities_.
The new Bay Bridge debacle falls squarely on the Browns.
~~~
Gibbon1
Guess who doesn't know how government appropriations work.
~~~
masonic
No guessing necessary.
------
watertom
Seems like in the U.S. the pilots are properly trained and are capable of
handling the difference in the new vs old aircraft.
Other countries aren't fairing so well. Is this a failing of the U.S.
Government's FAA? No.
I have a good friend who was a Naval aviator and did crash investigations for
the Navy, his ordered list for causes of aviation crashes. The top 3 causes he
believes are responsible for 99.9% of all crashes.
1\. Pilot error due to fatigue (Which the U.S. has made strides to drastically
reduce) 2\. Pilot error not due to fatigue 3\. Pilot lack of training 4\.
Plane failure (hardware, software, mechanical, etc)
~~~
cmurf
>Seems like in the U.S. the pilots are properly trained and are capable of
handling the difference in the new vs old aircraft.Other countries aren't
fairing so well.
What specific difference training did U.S. pilots receive that foreign pilots
did not? How are pilots in other countries improperly trained? What is the
evidence either 737 MAX crash had anything to do with training? If better
training can mitigate flawed design, should that absolve any portion of
manufacturer liability for any discovered flawed design?
In a proper investigation, all bias must be removed, and that includes
statistical likelihood of prior causes of crashes.
~~~
DuskStar
> What specific difference training did U.S. pilots receive that foreign
> pilots did not?
Well, they all have far more than 200 hours of flight time, for one. Even the
copilots.
> What is the evidence either 737 MAX crash had anything to do with training?
The fact that the problem was displayed to the pilots (trim severely out of
norm) and they didn't follow the correction procedures properly. Though that
might not be "training" as much as "competence".
> If better training can mitigate flawed design, should that absolve any
> portion of manufacturer liability for any discovered flawed design?
_Really_ depends on the flaw.
~~~
cmurf
The pilots of Lion Air 610 had in excess of 5000 hours. Flight experience
doesn't answer the question I asked either. The assertion was made that U.S.
pilots received difference training (NG vs MAX). What difference training?
You assume without evidence the problem manifests like runaway trim. And then
proceed to assume without evidence the incompetency of two pilots. And yet you
refuse to assume the incompetency of the automation, which didn't mere fail,
it countermanded with lethal force the 100% correct control inputs of the
pilots. The idea they have to assert their sanity by flipping two switches, is
about as ridiculous as automation not having to assert its sanity when it, by
design, trusts a single point of failure one upping that by trusting it while
it's failing and one upping that to extreme by taking action on it without any
regard to other input sources including the pilots themselves. It's beyond
obscene to me.
I have personally trained private pilots with competency at identifying failed
gauges, knowing which one to disregard, and estimating the missing values by
inference from the remaining gauges. And this is in sub-200 hour pilots. The
skill required for the instrument rating exceeds this particular automation in
the AOA failure case by quite a lot. And the skill required for commercial and
ATP ratings is even greater than that by quite a lot. Meanwhile MCAS upset
from judgement of a single sensor induced such an unusual attitude it became
unrecoverable.
So the assumption of incompetency by pilots, while cutting automation all
kinds of slack is to me 180 degrees backwards.
~~~
DuskStar
I think I misread difference training as _different_ training there, my
apologies. And the Ethiopian Air copilot had ~200 total hours, thus the
comment.
> You assume without evidence the problem manifests like runaway trim. And
> then proceed to assume without evidence the incompetency of two pilots. And
> yet you refuse to assume the incompetency of the automation, which didn't
> mere fail, it countermanded with lethal force the 100% correct control
> inputs of the pilots. The idea they have to assert their sanity by flipping
> two switches, is about as ridiculous as automation not having to assert its
> sanity when it, by design, trusts a single point of failure one upping that
> by trusting it while it's failing and one upping that to extreme by taking
> action on it without any regard to other input sources including the pilots
> themselves. It's beyond obscene to me.
I didn't say that it manifests like runaway trim. I said that it manifests as
"severely outside the norm trim", which it most certainly does. Unless you're
saying that full nose down trim is normal? As for "asserting incompetence
without evidence", they're certainly less competent than pilot #3 on the Lion
Air flight the night before. (since, you know, that guy realized what was
going on and how to resolve it)
As for the automation being incompetent, yep you're right! It is! But airplane
crashes don't happen for one reason - not commercial flights at least. They
happen when a sequence of failures occurs, just like here. Boeing failed to
consider the worst case behavior of MCAS, Lion Air maintenance fucked up, and
the Lion Air pilots weren't able to diagnose the failure that morning. (The
failure pipeline of the Ethiopian crash is still to be determined) As for why
Boeing failed there... It's at least partly because the automatic trim
controls weren't considered a safety critical part, since they had multiply
redundant backups. It's just that the backups were "turn off electronic trim"
and "grab the trim wheel and hold it in place", both of which require pilot
action. (Allowing stuff like this to get grandfathered in is arguably a hole
in the FAA's systems)
> I have personally trained private pilots with competency at identifying
> failed gauges, knowing which one to disregard, and estimating the missing
> values by inference from the remaining gauges. And this is in sub-200 hour
> pilots. The skill required for the instrument rating exceeds this particular
> automation in the AOA failure case by quite a lot. And the skill required
> for commercial and ATP ratings is even greater than that by quite a lot.
> Meanwhile MCAS upset from judgement of a single sensor induced such an
> unusual attitude it became unrecoverable.
Well then why was the issue so difficult for the pilots to diagnose here?
There's a gauge for trim, and I'd hope it would be looked at when trying to
figure out why you have to keep pulling back on the yoke so hard.
~~~
bushido
I am not a pilot. But based on my understanding the activation of nose down
due to MCAS doesn't present itself like the standard runaway trim that pilots
are trained on.
Trained Behaviour:
\- In case of continuous trim
\- perform yoke jerk to disable the automatic trim (per previous 737 models)
\- turn off electronic trim
\- grab the trim wheel and hold it in place
\---------------
MCAS Behaviour:
\- On nose down event, pilots pitch the flight up, adjust trim
\- Which disables MCAS for 5 seconds
\- No continuous trim event manifests
\---------------
From what I've read on some pilot forums, Boeing made a few errors:
\- Removed "Yoke Jerk"
\- The 5 second delay removed the continuous trim conditions
\- Didn't sufficient train pilots on this condition i.e. intermittent
automatic trim
\- Pilots did not see the behavior that they were trained for in the few
seconds between each nose down event
~~~
DuskStar
> From what I've read on some pilot forums, Boeing made a few errors:
I'll agree with #2-4, but #1 was the entire point of MCAS - to reduce the
response of the aircraft to pulling back on the yoke in high AOA situations.
Disabling MCAS when pulling back on the yoke would thus make the aircraft less
safe, and cause it to (rightly) fail certification.
------
jmclnx
Well as the saying goes, "You get what you pay for"
------
stillbourne
There is only one way to fix this problem folks. Privatize the FAA, deregulate
airplane manufacture, and use the money saved to give the rich a tax cut. The
rich will then trickle down on the planes to save us from these software
issues.
~~~
mieses
actually you are right
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
“My position as Product Manager of Automation Technologies was eliminated” - binaryapparatus
https://macosxautomation.com/about.html
======
binaryapparatus
Q. I hear you no longer work for Apple; is that true?
A. Correct. I joined Apple in January of 1997, almost twenty years ago,
because of my profound belief that “the power of the computer should reside in
the hands of the one using it.” That credo remains my truth to this day.
Recently, I was informed that my position as Product Manager of Automation
Technologies was eliminated for business reasons. Consequently, I am no longer
employed by Apple Inc. But, I still believe my credo to be as true today as
ever.
Because who needs or expects anything remotely 'pro' at Apple any more?
~~~
mikeyouse
Just for fun / boredom, if he was granted $100,000 worth of shares every year
since 1997 and reinvested his dividends after they started paying out, he'd
have somewhere near 800,000 shares today worth nearly $85 million.
~~~
Johnny555
Does Apple give anyone that's not a senior executive nearly that many shares?
If they do, I need to go return a recruiter call immediately.
~~~
microtherion
It's absolutely within the range of possibility, even for an individual
contributor.
------
Jerry2
Apple's plan for the future does not include Mac or MacOS. They've been
treating macOS as a second-tier OS for years and have been barely updating it.
And when they do update it, they just backport some iOS features to it. You
can also tell that macOS is not a priority because security updates for same
kernel issues always come weeks after they've been fixed on iOS.
And let's not even get into Mac hardware and how there's no more true Pro
options and how rarely they even update them.
Cook's infamous quote says it all about the future of Mac:
> _“I think if you’re looking at a PC, why would you buy a PC anymore? No
> really, why would you buy one?” – Tim Cook, talking about the iPad Pro_
Requiem for the Mac is in order.
~~~
rimantas
Or they have been treating macOS as a mature OS where there is little space
for the revolution. Except that part of "barely touching" is not really true.
> You can also tell that macOS is not a priority because
> security updates for same kernel issues always come weeks
> after they've been fixed on iOS.
Or you can tell that iOS has much larger user base and hence the priority for
security fixes.
~~~
binaryapparatus
> Or you can tell that iOS has much larger user base and hence the priority
> for security fixes.
Yeah because that single guy that needs to code all security patches has to
finish iOS first before he goes to another building to work on macOS?
We are often discussing (me included) Apple moves like they have very little
resources to do anything. Then I think again and d'oh.
~~~
gumby
AKAIK Apple no longer has a separate MacOS group. You could interpret this as
a good or bad sign -- I interpret it positively. The Mac folks can develop
drivers or whatever they need but core tech (e.g. GCD) need no longer start on
one platform.
~~~
microtherion
Ultimately, all the various *OS functions report to the same senior vice
president. However, there still are teams that predominantly do macOS, iOS,
etc, and there always have been engineers who worked on multiple platforms.
Historically, the barriers have mostly been against porting iOS technology to
macOS, but that hasn't been an issue in several years.
------
cpr
Sad day. Sal is and has been the biggest cheerleader for macOS automation
technologies ever.
------
sarreph
What a shame. I really thought we'd see some interesting developments in the
macOS automation space, as only a couple of years ago JS was introduced as a
scripting language alongside AScript. However, this is worrying as there are
so so many individuals who rely on bespoke, fine-grained task automation (and
not just glossy consumer apps) to use their Mac productively.
~~~
matt4077
I'm quite happy with hammerspoon for MacOS GUI automation. I'm using it to
collect the screenshots for a hyper(term) theme gallery
([https://hyperthemes.matthi.coffee](https://hyperthemes.matthi.coffee)).
Although now I'm not sure how much hammerspoon relies on the official APIs.
~~~
i336_
Two things:
1\. You have "https:/" (<\-- one "/") in the hyper.io link
2\. "server can't find hyper.io: SERVFAIL"
I'm interested in terminals, but this has an impossible-to-Google name (for
obvious reasons).
The themes look really cool though!
------
mevile
> was informed that my position as Product Manager of Automation Technologies
> was eliminated for business reasons. Consequently.
Business reasons to not have a head of automation for an Operating System? It
truly could be the case, but honestly I'd be ok if someone investigated
companies like Apple to see if there's an illegal pattern of letting go people
over the age of 40.
~~~
jballanc
I can't speak for the Apple of today, but when I left Apple in 2010 there were
more wizened, "gray-beard" programmers working for Apple than at probably all
the SOMA startups combined. Of all the things you could accuse Apple of (and
there are plenty), I think ageism has got to be near the bottom of that list.
------
WesBrownSQL
Hey, 20 years come get your reduction prize. This guys salary is probably a
rounding error on a spreadsheet but what he knows about Apple in any line of
their business would be worth the money. Just a shame.
------
bluthru
This is a great way to scare pro users after a lukewarm reaction to the latest
MacBook Pro's.
------
crack-the-code
Does that mean that he was effectively fired? I can't help but think there
must be some additional context as to why he was terminated and not
transitioned to another role (assuming my understanding of the situation is
correct). Is Apple really doing that bad?
~~~
kasey_junk
Why would you think that? It's relatively uncommon for companies to transition
employees when they decide to remove whole business functions.
~~~
maxxxxx
It seems stupid that they just throw away talented people. And then they pay
millions for talented people through buying startups.
~~~
rhizome
Penny-wise and pound-foolish perhaps, but Apple absolutely doesn't have a cash
flow problem that would get in the way of any flavor of these decisions.
------
r00fus
Sad to hear about Sal's departure (I'm not going to speculate on the
reasoning).
What I guessing as I read into this is that Apple is likely moving towards
cloud-based everything, and de-emphasizing OS-level functionality that's not
tied to cloud.
------
bootload
_" UNIX CLI (shell, python, ruby, perl), System Services, Apple Events
(JavaScript, AppleScript, AppleScriptObj-C, Scripting Bridge), Automator,
Apple Configurator (AppleScript, Automator), and Application scripting support
in Photos, iWork, Finder, Mail, and other Apple applications."_
I can speculate why Apple has made this decision. Notice the amount of siri
integration into macOS? This theoretically makes automation by code the black
sheep in Apples grand plan. Do away with code, push voice.
~~~
cauterized
Yup, that's exactly what my company's open plan office is missing. 50 people
muttering aloud at their computers all day.
~~~
bootload
_" The integration of an at least partially voice-controlled intelligent
digital assistant into a desktop, laptop, and/or tablet computer environment
provides additional capabilities to the digital assistant, and enhances the
usability and capabilities of the desktop, laptop, and/or tablet computer."_
_" Intelligent Digital Assistant in a Desktop Environment"_, 2013 Apple
patent ~ [http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-
Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=H...](http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-
Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-
adv.html&r=2&p=1&f=G&l=50&d=PG01&S1=\(345%2F473.CCLS.+AND+20140807.PD.\)&OS=ccl/345/473+and+pd/8/7/2014&RS=\(CCL/345/473+AND+PD/20140807\))
------
draw_down
Unfortunately they have been neglecting this aspect of the Mac for a long
time. It's a real shame because it used to be a solid advantage of the Mac
over other OSs. Recently I looked to see if Automator is still on my system, I
was surprised it's still included. They clearly don't care about this part of
macOS and it's such a shame.
~~~
matt4077
It's there, it works, you haven't looked at it in years. Apple may or may not
care about it, but apparently neither do you.
Automation probably gets us excited about ideas to streamline our lives, but
nobody ever gets around to it. I certainly hope it remains well-supported
because there are people who actually need it (accessibility comes to mind).
Also because I did actually just use it in a toy project.
------
carsongross
Remember this the next time you hear corporations complain about ruthless
employees who are willing to jump ship for mere money.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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|
What are your top 5 most frequently used apps on your phone? - avni000
I came across an interesting article about how to better understand how much users are using your app (http://recode.net/2015/01/13/theres-an-app-for-that-but-how-much-are-you-actually-using-it/) but wanted to see what types of apps are getting daily usage from people.<p>Mine are: Gmail, Day One, Twitter, Starbucks and Dropcam.
======
luxpir
Opera Mini, Modest (email client), Vim, SSH, QCPUFreq
Odd list, perhaps. Still ploughing away with the N900, overclocking it on
every reboot. Notes with Vim are synced to laptop and raspberry pi via
Syncthing.
Websites for everything else. Trying to move off Gmail (already have for work,
self-hosting now, was sending as my personal domain for years via Gmail/Apps)
and the Google ecosystem. Already out of Facebook for a good while now. Still
tweeting, but only work-related. Would like to play with Slack, but an N900
client is probably not in the works :)
Side-note, while explaining, I'm holding out for a decent (open, free)
alternative to Maemo. That looks to me like Ubuntu Touch/Phone, especially
with their convergence plans, but the dust might need to settle on that first.
None of the Jolla/Sailfish/Firefox offers look quite like what I'm after yet,
for various reasons. A nice polished Ubuntu phone would bring me up to date
and out of the 5 years-ago past.
If that all comes to pass then the top-5 apps list might look something like:
Firefox/Iceweasel, email client, translation tools, Vim, SSH
------
maraglee
Well 5 is a bit boring, no? For me at least that would be filled with mail,
browser, whatsapp, public transportation app and runtastic. Beyond that: moon
Reader, pocket, pocket casts, calculator++, Wikipedia
------
KhalPanda
I'm surprised some form of browser isn't in the top 5 of _everyone 's_ lists.
Gmail, Hangouts (Android L SMS integration), Chrome, Sleep Better, reddit is
fun.
------
Cyrag
K-9 Mail, Telegram, Google Calendar, BlinkFeed, Firefox
------
simantel
Coincidentally, an app may have some answers for you:
[http://homescreen.is/](http://homescreen.is/)
~~~
avni000
Thanks for sharing - should have known there was an app for that.
------
laurenproctor
Mailbox, Chrome, Weather, Nike Running, and Network (a podcasting app) in that
order.
------
inck0705
Facebook, GMail, 9gag, Reddit, Chrome
------
MegaLeon
Reddit Sync, Pocket Casts, Pushbullet, Fitnotes (frequent gymgoer) and
Headspace
------
iqonik
Not including pre-installed: Twitter, Facebook, BBC News, HipChat and WhatsApp
------
Jeremy1026
Safari, Spotify, Messages, Twitter(?), The game that I am playing that week(?)
------
lewisgodowski
Messages, Safari, Mail, Tweetbot, ESPN SportsCenter
------
0942v8653
Safari, Pythonista, Mail, Editorial, WolframAlpha
------
theGREENsuit
Gmail, Reddit in motion, CBC News, Flipboard, GasBuddy
------
cdvonstinkpot
Facebook, Evernote, Twitter, in that order.
------
FlopV
Gmail, IHeartRadio, Instagram, White Noise
------
Pyrodogg
Gmail, Facebook, Chrome, Hangouts, Clock
------
nonameface
Gmail, Slack, Drive, Audible, and Twitch.tv
------
onedev
Wow did not expect to see Starbucks in anyones list.
~~~
avni000
What can I say - I need coffee and their mobile payments app is handy.
------
pathy
Probably something like: (Facebook) Messenger Tweetbot Chrome Overcast
Instagram
|
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The best things and stuff of 2013 - platz
http://blog.fogus.me/2013/12/27/the-best-things-and-stuff-of-2013/
======
shahzad_76
For the politically inclined - the GQ interview with Kim Jong-Il's sushi chef
is brilliant (and will probably become a movie someday because the arc is so
crazy).
Excerpt: "The chef's name, an alias, is Kenji Fujimoto, and for eleven years
he was Kim Jong-il's personal chef, court jester, and sidekick. He had seen
the palaces, ridden the white stallions, smoked the Cuban cigars, and watched
as, one by one, the people around him disappeared. It was part of Fujimoto's
job to fly North Korean jets around the world to procure dinner-party
ingredients—to Iran for caviar, Tokyo for fish, or Denmark for beer. It was
Fujimoto who flew to France to supply the Dear Leader's yearly $700,000 cognac
habit. And when the Dear Leader craved McDonald's, it was Fujimoto who was
dispatched to Beijing for an order of Big Macs to go."
Fogus, thanks for sharing this in your list: [http://www.gq.com/news-
politics/newsmakers/201306/kim-jong-i...](http://www.gq.com/news-
politics/newsmakers/201306/kim-jong-il-sushi-chef-kenji-fujimoto-adam-
johnson-2013?printable=true)
~~~
ams6110
Interesting in that Air Koryo is banned from EU operations.
~~~
dualogy
This was taking place in the 80s/90s. They flew Koryo to China, then somewhere
eastern Europe where they apparently even had private jets stashed back then.
------
javajosh
Hi Mike, the movie you ask about in your footnote #3 (the one with the force
bubbles powered on a 9v battery) is "Explorers"[1] - which stars River Phoenix
and Ethan Hawke in their screen debuts.
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explorers_(film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explorers_\(film\))
~~~
agumonkey
This movie blew my young mind at the time. A-team meets NASA.
------
Expez
The amount of books you're able to get through in a year is amazing! According
to Goodreads, you're also able to do this consistently, which is even more
incredible. How many hours do you spend reading in a typical week?
~~~
marcosscriven
Curious about this too. I've always had to sort of verbalise in my head when I
read, I think because of the way I was taught in primary school. This is
extremely slow though.
I can however read code without verbalising, and with sheet music I can sort
of directly execute the notes with thinking explicitly about the notes I'm
seeing.
I can imagine some people can read prose in a similar manner, and I'd love to
know how.
I've tried to sort of 'relax' my brain while reading, but then it seems
nothing has actually registered!
~~~
amvp
I tried a number of things over the years, and the technique that finally
worked for me was counting in my head as I read. By occupying the verbalising
part of my mind I found I was able to train myself to read without it, and
with a little practice I started to be able to read tat way without counting.
~~~
marcosscriven
Interesting idea. May I ask where you found that technique please?
~~~
amvp
I'm afraid I don't remember. I read somewhere that when asked to count in
their minds, people count in one of two ways. It's my understanding that the
majority do so verbally, sounding out the words in their minds. But some
people count visually, by visualising the numbers, picturing them scroll past
on a tape, for example.
Those that verbalise couldn't simultaneously do another verbal task, while the
visualisers couldn't do another visual task, suggesting that separate parts of
the brain were involved, and occupied by counting.
Now that I knew visual counting was an option (I was a verbaliser) I trained
myself to do it. Unfortunately I'm yet to find an situation were the ability
to choose between visual and verbal counting has been useful.
~~~
WildUtah
"Surely you're joking mr Feynman" is where most of us read about it.
------
jeremiep
Great list! My two favourites were "Internal Reprogrammability" which reminded
me of Steve Yegge's "Pinocchio Problem" [1] article and "Ruins of Forgotten
Empires" which made me want to learn more about APL languages.
[1]: [http://steve-yegge.blogspot.ca/2007/01/pinocchio-
problem.htm...](http://steve-yegge.blogspot.ca/2007/01/pinocchio-problem.html)
------
chaddeshon
I didn't expect to see Sean Ross' excellent Haggis design diary on your list.
But you are right, it is a great read.
[http://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/34429/item/734152](http://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/34429/item/734152)
------
cju
A simpler description of the rules of Cannon
[http://www.pyromythgames.com/products/cannon/Cannonrules.htm](http://www.pyromythgames.com/products/cannon/Cannonrules.htm)
(from the same site as the PDF linked by Fogus)
------
eaurouge
The Autobiography of Malcolm X is indeed an excellent read. The three phases
of his adult life were completely and radically different from one another.
It's amazing how committed he was to holding himself up to the standards
demanded by his _current_ beliefs, even when it meant renouncing all that he
had previously stood for; and he did so, twice. I think this is the great
lesson from his life and something the public should be aware of, more so than
his "By any means necessary" vs King's "I have a dream".
~~~
danial
I read that a long time ago and remember being inspired by Malik's commitment
to educate himself after he was overcome with dread due to the realization
that he had basically wasted his life up until then.
Like Malik, I too felt I was behind on my reading and picked up a lot of non-
fiction that year because I did not want to waste time on reading fiction (I
don't believe reading fiction is not useful, just stating how I felt at the
time).
------
BigBalli
The past: [http://giacomoballi.com/13-most-popular-products-
of-2013/](http://giacomoballi.com/13-most-popular-products-of-2013/) and the
future: [http://giacomoballi.com/13-trends-that-will-drive-the-
future...](http://giacomoballi.com/13-trends-that-will-drive-the-future-of-
america/)
------
coin
-1 for disabling pinchzoom
~~~
bhauer
For what it's worth, pinch zoom works for me on a Windows 8.1 tablet.
------
hartror
I think I've collected about a year's worth of content from that blog post and
its links. So much for 2014!
------
kenjackson
The Carver Mead interview is more than a decade old (and honestly I'd never
knew about it before) -- great find and read. Is his characterization of Bohr
and the statistical thinking (a remnant of poor tools) still believed?
------
kinleyd
I liked the inclusion of PG Wodehouse - can never get enough of it.
------
yarou
Cool list, will definitely check out when I have some free time. I really
loved the lispy newsletter, looking forward to future editions.
------
dcreemer
Thanks for this. There's a broken link from "newsletter" to
www.readevalprintlove.org
------
dclara
Interesting list. Will check out later.
|
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5G: The Next Big Public Health Experiment - rhollos
https://anh-usa.org/5g-the-next-big-public-health-experiment/
======
Crosseye_Jack
The comment section of that page and the page itself seems like just general
FUD.
|
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|
Uploading files which method you prefer? - jamongkad
======
jamongkad
Hi guys I've been wondering where would be the best place to upload files such
as photos, music, videos and etc? into the file system? or database?
This pretty much answers my question but what do the wizards here in YC think?
<http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2006/10/15/binaries-belong-in-the-database-
too>
~~~
SwellJoe
Actually, many YC wizards disagree with that article in its entirety. In many
cases, not only do binaries not belong in the database, nothing else does.
In short: It depends on your application, and probably only you can know for
sure (and then probably only with experimentation).
------
gibsonf1
I'm thinking that Amazon's S3 is getting hard to beat for storage, especially
with their recent price reduction. We plan to go that route with our app,
~~~
jamongkad
But didn't S3 go down some time ago? How does that say for reliability?
------
coolnewtoy
I like yousendit.com for transferring files from one place to another.
|
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|
Please stand with me [What happens when you critisize the Ukraine government] - tete
http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1slk265
======
anonbanker
been in more than one argument on HN about this one, taking this person's
side, and am usually downvoted to oblivion. no surprise this is buried on HN.
|
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|
'Don't Panic' Is Rotten Advice - bookofjoe
https://www.wsj.com/articles/dont-panic-is-rotten-advice-11584054431
======
bookofjoe
[https://archive.is/xZmaU](https://archive.is/xZmaU)
|
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US lifts restrictions on more detailed satellite images - darrhiggs
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-27868703
======
guylhem
I don't like this. What is the business of a government in regulating the
resolution of whatever form of imagery???
If it can be seen from the sky, or from the street, it's public. Planes,
satellites, drones, whatever - you should be free to take pics and sell them
if you want.
Fortunately, digital camera didn't exist where such kind of laws had been
passed, or there would have been similar stupid restrictions (imagine google
streetview with n-times 640x480 pics crafted together, or worse - a law
restricting the resolution of the reconstructed google streetview you can view
on your screen!)
~~~
wahsd
I don't think I can agree with that. To a certain extent, I think this will be
another one of those fronts where modern technology tries to breach
fundamental and human rights.
What should give you the right, just because you can fly something over
someone's property, to take pictures of them and their private space. The
issue is a similar one to drones. Should you be permitted to violate someone's
privacy in their own back yard or on their property just because you have the
technology to circumvent safeguards?
There is no real difference whether the drone is 100 feet above your property
or in the ionosphere? If someone put a camera on a stick and held it high
enough to tape what goes on in your bedroom or back yard when your children
are swimming they would be considered committing an illegal act?
In a way, you should have the right to automatically remove your property from
satellite imagery. Or maybe you should get royalties for your property being
part of the service. In fact, what is the difference between royalties due for
commercial use of their images and that of your back yard? There is none,
other than that the imagery of your back yard, especially at those
resolutions, are a violation of your most basic and fundamental rights as a
human. What, is it going to be left to individuals to build visual
obstructions to prevent observation from above?
So you are now rationalizing how this is all different and how it's justified.
Well, what happens when technology is developed that allows real time 1cm
resolution, live, 24/7 observation? Or what if technology is developed that
allows reconstruction of the interior of your home, maybe even in color
resolution based on chemical analysis, and maybe even in real time?
Where is the limit? It should lie with the most fundamental rights that are
being violated right as we speak. Everyone should have the right to privacy or
a choice to profit from it.
We are already having the value of our identities and activities harvested
from us, are we really going to allow constant and pervasive surveillance to
steal our humanity too? At what point do a certain subset of people simply
regress to becoming a commodity that is monitored and maintained like cattle
on Big USA Ranch?
~~~
IgorPartola
I agree with your general point but:
> In fact, what is the difference between royalties due for commercial use of
> their images and that of your back yard?
The difference is that the photographer holds to copyright to any picture they
take. The drone/satellite operator would have to explicitly sign the copyright
over to you of the pictures of your backyard.
------
pingou
Does "images that showed features as small as 31cm" means 1 pixel = average
color of 31x31cm or is it more complicated?
~~~
natosaichek
That is roughly correct. There is typically a bayer-mask filter on a grayscale
sensor, so any given pixel is actually only either blue, red or green, but
then a mixing algorithm is applied and you get the full resolution with the
appropriate mixing. Of course, there are a variety of filters and a variety of
algorithms, so the exact mix will vary across different technologies, but
roughly speaking, yes.
------
snarfy
For anyone concerned about privacy, higher resolution imagery already exists
and is used heavily in industry. See
[http://www.pictometry.com](http://www.pictometry.com). They use airplanes.
~~~
secabeen
Right. This is a win, because it allows you to get images that previously
required airplanes over areas where airplanes aren't feasible or cost-
effective.
------
joosters
I thought that some of the higher-res photos from google earth and competitors
were taken by plane, rather than satellite. I wonder how/if the new
restrictions apply to lower-flying photography?
~~~
tokenadult
Most of the higher-resolution photography on Google Earth and Google Maps is
taken by airplanes rather than by satellites. Google calls it "satellite" view
just to emphasize that it is from above, whatever the source.
------
trebor
I don't like this. You can already see a lot of detail on these satellite
photos. This is a huge breach of privacy. (Not that a 50cm lower limit isn't a
breach of privacy.)
~~~
rwmj
Do you worry about people flying planes over your house, looking over your
fence, etc?
~~~
trebor
What worries me more is what kind of corporate espionage these satellite
images will be put to use for. They've been able to see the car(s) in a
driveway for awhile now. But imagine: now they can pay to see what the most
popular cars are in a geographical region; they can look at your deck and
determine furniture brands; they can see you sunbathing; they can see what you
play with, etc. No longer is it just "buying habits" but they can, en masse,
buy the rights to psychoanalyze your lifestyle base on what they see from the
outside of your house.
I'm pretty certain that a company paying a team of photographers to stalk the
average citizen to psychoanalyze their world would be creepy, if not illegal.
But this is exactly what they will be doing—and we'll have no ability to
"outrun" their team of photographers. Technically, we won't even know when
they're overhead.
And that does bother me.
~~~
toomuchtodo
Write an app to calculate orbital elements and pop up an alert: "Imaging
object arriving over horizon, take action"
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbital_elements](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbital_elements)
[http://www.heavens-above.com/](http://www.heavens-above.com/)
Other countries have done this _for years_ , and cover their equipment with
camo cover when opposing country assets are overhead. This is why the Air
Force/Boeing X-37B is such a big deal; its an asset that can shift orbits to
counterattack known orbit information.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-37](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-37)
[http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/X_37B_Gets_Stranger_999.ht...](http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/X_37B_Gets_Stranger_999.html)
|
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Clearwire Launches 4G WiMAX Network in Silicon Valley - johnnybgoode
http://newsroom.clearwire.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=214419&p=irol-newsArticle_print&ID=1331811&highlight=
======
laut
"Developers can expect to see peak download speeds of up to 10 Mbps, with
average download speeds of 3 to 6 Mbps. In contrast, some of today’s 3G
wireless networks typically deliver download speeds of between 600 kbps – 1.4
Mbps."
Funny that their planned 4G is slower than 3G in Denmark today (I've seen
16Mbit 3G advertised). 7.2Mbit has been common for years.
~~~
mikedouglas
Does anyone really consider WiMAX to be 4G, except for Sprint? Most American
carriers have bet on LTE, which has a theoretical max of ~170 Mbps.
Whether Verizon and AT&T can keep their deployment schedule (2013 and 2011,
respectively), is another question, but at least they were smart enough to
avoid the band-aid that is WiMAX.
~~~
mmt
I've only ever considered the ordinal-G terms to be marketing fluff.
Even WiMAX is technically inspecific, though I think it's always the mobile
version (even if used in a non-mobile implementation), in this context.
I, of course, care about actual speed, not marketing "generation" nor
advertised speed.
------
johnnybgoode
_The developer network, which is a precursor to commercial service planned for
the San Francisco Bay Area in 2010, will cover more than 20 square miles in
Santa Clara, Mountain View and parts of downtown Palo Alto, California._
|
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nnn v1.2 – The missing terminal file browser for X - apjana
https://github.com/jarun/nnn/releases/tag/v1.2
======
apjana
## What's in?
\- Use the desktop opener (xdg-open on Linux, open(1) on OS X) to open files
\- Option `NNN_USE_EDITOR` to open text files in EDITOR (fallback vi)
\- Bookmark support (maximum 10, key `b`)
\- _Navigate-as-you-type_ mode (key `Insert` or option `-i`)
\- Subtree search: gnome-search-tool, fallback catfish (key `^/`)
(customizable)
\- Show current directory content size and file count in disk usage mode
\- Add detail view mode as default, use `-l` to start in light mode
\- Shortcuts `F2` and `^L` to refresh and unfilter (if filter is empty,
`Enter` _opens_ the currently selected file now)
\- Help screen shows bookmarks and configuration
\- Show a message when calculating disk usage
\- Show the spawned shell level
\- Linux only: use vlock as the locker on timeout (set using
`NNN_IDLE_TIMEOUT`)
Homepage: [https://github.com/jarun/nnn](https://github.com/jarun/nnn)
|
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The United States slaughters 1M pigs every 3 days - arbuge
https://publicemails.com/blog/display/1043/The-United-States-slaughters-1-million-pigs-every-3-days
======
jelliclesfarm
I am more concerned about the pollution and environmental impact this kind of
factory farming and CAFOs are responsible for...
|
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Photocracy.org = Revolutionizing photo-sorting? - joshwprinceton
Hi everyone,
For my Senior Thesis, I'm working on implementing pair-wise comparisons for sorting photos, in particular for national perception and cross-cultural identity (I'm an East Asian Studies Major). As of now, there are limited implementations of pair-wise comparisons for text or photo (bix.yahoo.com as one of the few).<p>We're preparing to launch on March 16th and are hoping to get as much activity as possible after that point (hypothesis/assumption: the more people in the crowd, the better the resulting data set). We launched a text-based version for student government issues with a fair amount of success in the Fall of 2008 ("WDYWM").<p>Any and all suggestions for spreading the word or making improvements are very much appreciated!<p>Josh Weinstein
======
aristus
"These photos have won" is far below the fold -- I didn't see it until it was
over. When it is over, the middle part of the screen is blank -- no game over,
no thanks, nothing else to do. You need to follow up with the user to keep
them engaged.
I don't know much about China, or these sample photos, though I got the
impression that most of it was "popular symbol vs present-day life".
I am wary of what actual insights you can get with this kind of sociological
game... seems to me pretty fuzzy, especially since you don't have any data on
the users. "Pairwise" and statistics don't mean it's good science.
|
{
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On Liberating My Smartwatch from Cloud Services - zdw
https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=5863
======
Shared404
> The point of open source is not to ritualistically compile our stuff from
> source. It’s the awareness that technology is not magic: that there is a
> trail of breadcrumbs any of us could follow to liberate our digital lives in
> case of a potential hostage situation. Should we so desire, open source
> empowers us to create and run our own essential tools and services.
This is the best phrasing of this concept that I remember having seen.
~~~
smichel17
Yes, FLOSS is about the _power dynamic_ between users and developers.
Proprietary software gives developers power over users. Typically, Developers
seek this power in order to extract money from users (sometimes in reasonable
amounts, other times not). Unfortunately, power is abused. By empowering users
with the _option_ to take control of their own technology, FLO software
provides strong protection against abuse -- developers need to weigh user-
hostile decisions against the possibility of a fork.
~~~
wtallis
I find it amusing to recall that Stallman's Free Software efforts were more or
less kicked off by frustration with crappy closed-source printer drivers. 40
years later, being subjected to abusive behavior from your printer has become
a near-universal experience.
~~~
josephg
When I worked on google wave, one of the most requested features was adding
print support (to allow users to print waves). Printing support is a super
simple feature (especially compared to "make it run faster on IE9"). But print
support didn't occur to us at google because was ... well, of course we didn't
think of it. Google (and most tech companies I imagine) work in paperless
offices. We almost never try to print things ourselves so we didn't think of
it or care.
I have a working theory that any software used by programmers will eventually
get excellent (or be replaced with something excellent). And everything else
stays vaguely mediocre.
Postgresql? Excellent. The tooling to allow non-programmers to edit data in
postgres? Halfbaked. Sound cancellation in macbooks for video calls?
Fantastic. The software bank tellers use? Garbage. Github? Fantastic. Github
equivalent for non programmers (eg people with folders full of Word docs)? 404
not found.
Anyway, the fact that modern printer drivers are garbage should come as no
surprise. Who amongst us cares enough to fix them? RMS was probably one of the
last competent programmers who will bother writing clean, minimal printer
drivers. I expect the world will become paperless before HP cleans up their
act.
I have the same problem at the moment with my Wacom tablet - the hardware is
great but the software is truly awful, and apparently it phones home
regularly. Software for artists is unfortunately off the golden path.
~~~
oever
> I have a working theory that any software used by programmers will
> eventually get excellent
Most programmers rarely using office suites and prefer to use plain text
editors. This has gone so far that developers prefer a sadistically under-
featured file-format (.md) to office files.
~~~
posguy
What you call underfeatured many would call correctly featured. A more complex
format doesn't add value for most use cases, while being harder to reason with
and correct issues in.
.md files avoid the copy paste font/size mess by being plain text and
rendering in the reader's choice of font. Bold, italics, hyperlinks and such
are all explicitly added, easy to Ctrl + F for and aren't hidden behind
finicky context menus as in standard word processors.
~~~
anoncake
Plain text formats do have advantages but Markdown is a pretty bad one.
------
zxcvgm
> A bunch of my paddling friends recommended I try Strava. [...]
> The bad news is as I tried to create an account on Strava, all sorts of
> warning bells went off. The website is full of dark patterns, and when I
> clicked to deny Strava access to my health-related data, I was met with this
> tricky series dialog boxes
I noticed that most apps on the App Store all seem to want you to create an
account. I get that that's how they primarily operate but I'm put off by it.
This might be a controversial opinion but I like that my runs with my Apple
Watch are recorded in iOS on-device, without needing to use any of these
third-party apps. And if you still want to share or even backup your runs, you
can use apps like HealthFit¹ or RunGap² to export FIT files that contain GPS
points and heart rate data, or export them directly via API to the service you
want. If you _really_ want to DIY, you can write some scripts that extract
them from the SQLite files in your iOS backups. But by default, everything is
local only and you have the choice to do whatever you want with the data.
[1]
[https://apps.apple.com/us/app/healthfit/id1202650514](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/healthfit/id1202650514)
[2] [https://www.rungap.com/](https://www.rungap.com/)
~~~
tinus_hn
There’s also open source apps that can do this (but you have to build them and
install using a developer certificate). It’s a shame though exporting workouts
to gpx is not possible using the built in apps.
------
andrewstuart
Aaron Christophel has a YouTube channel in which he shows how to replace the
firmware of P8 smartwatches with custom firmware, over the air.
If you like his work .... you could support him by subscribing to his channel
perhaps.
[https://www.youtube.com/user/12002230](https://www.youtube.com/user/12002230)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbPz3WWBuJ8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbPz3WWBuJ8)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgjKaSETY8Y](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgjKaSETY8Y)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aFDjymXjOw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aFDjymXjOw)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGFwQUxhCxc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGFwQUxhCxc)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRqulnz1nJM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRqulnz1nJM)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUVEz-
pxhgg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUVEz-pxhgg)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9KMUe6GVLw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9KMUe6GVLw)
~~~
ngcc_hk
Great channel and much more than smart watch.
------
walrus01
For anyone that's interested in doing this own visualization of .gpx files.
This is GPLv3 licensed:
[https://www.gpxsee.org/](https://www.gpxsee.org/)
If you have an old Android phone laying around that can run at least android
5/6, there's lots of good tracking applications that can run persistently and
create a .gpx file written to disk in a location of your choice under
/sdcard/. May not even be necessary to purchase a smart watch if you don't
want heart rate.
I recommend this one:
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mendhak.gp...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mendhak.gpslogger&hl=en_CA)
One of the things I particularly like about that app is that it's fully
configurable for how often you want it to get a GPS fix (has a direct impact
on battery life), what filename prefix to create and where to create it,
whether to create a new file every day or every session, and many other
toggles and knobs in the options.
~~~
lazyjeff
GPSLogger (the one walrus01 linked to) is a gem. I've been using it
continuously for 7 years. Not all location trackers are the same.
It lets you log with cell tower but fall back to GPS if the accuracy is poor.
Like walrus01 says, it's very configurable in how accurate you want it to be
versus battery usage, or if you want to optimize it some way (like not record
if it hasn't been moving).
While there were monthly crashes in the first two years I used it, the past 5
years it's been rock solid (running 24/7 with maybe one or two crashes for
basically 5 years). You don't want to discover that one day the app hasn't
been logging data for the past couple days. In comparison, the Android OS
probably crashes about once a month for me.
It can automatically upload to various cloud storage places (Dropbox, Google
Drive, but even FTP) so you can generate charts on a server with a script.
Truly open source, low battery usage, saves in multiple file formats, and the
developer is active on Github with issues. Making a background mobile app is
not easy because Android is constantly trying to reduce background battery
drain or background process spyware.
------
Abishek_Muthian
I've stopped wearing my WearOS watch and it now serves as a smart clock for
notifications on my desk[1] and fitbit or any other heart rate monitor(even
Apple watch) hurts me[2]. So even inexpensive smart watches with open-source
firmware (detailed below) where heart rate monitor can be disabled would serve
my needs going forward.
Shout out to couple of smartwatch projects, which falls inline with the ethos
of the author and anyone who agrees with it.
AsteroidOS[1] - open-source linux based smartwatch firmware. Nice UI/UX,
Wayland, good number of hardware support including MTK6580 chipset based
inexpensive watches. In my tests about a year back, although the watch with
AsteroidOS itself was usable, the sync with the android app was unreliable and
could be due to android itself or manufacturer's kill-policy.
PineTime[2] - $24.99, completely accessible, several RTOSes being built, Apps
in Rust,Python etc.
[1][https://twitter.com/heavyinfo/status/1281998220118249472](https://twitter.com/heavyinfo/status/1281998220118249472)
[2][https://abishekmuthian.com/my-experience-with-fitbit-
charge-...](https://abishekmuthian.com/my-experience-with-fitbit-charge-hr-
numbness-tingling-and-pain-fec85d41d165/)
[3][https://asteroidos.org/](https://asteroidos.org/)
[4][https://www.pine64.org/pinetime/](https://www.pine64.org/pinetime/)
~~~
Abishek_Muthian
Bangle.js - There seems to be another nRF52832 based open-source 'hackable'
watch albeit double the price of PineTime but aimed at JS developers[5]!
Has anyone got this?
[5][https://www.espruino.com/Bangle.js](https://www.espruino.com/Bangle.js)
~~~
dariosalvi78
I have one. It's really nice to develop on and has lots of sensors/features.
Dislikes: it's big, very big, and ugly, doesn't have an hardware step counter
and the step detection algorithm embedded in Espruino doesn't work at all, the
heart rate detection is OKish if you are still, but not very reliable either,
battery doesn't last very long probably because of Espruino not being very
careful at saving power. It's a fun device, but not great for more serious
use.
I hope that the community will improve the software issues and that they will
come up with a nicer hardware. Espruino on PineTime would be perfect.
~~~
Abishek_Muthian
Interesting, I didn't know Espruino (JS) smartwatch as USP has its takers.
It seems to ship directly from UK, Is it made completely in UK? So may be that
explains double the price than other nRF52832 watches.
>doesn't have an hardware step counter
Did you buy an earlier version? Buy page lists pedometer[1].
>Dislikes: it's big, very big, and ugly
Ah! Where tech forgets fashion again...Google Glass(Gulp).
[1][https://shop.espruino.com/banglejs](https://shop.espruino.com/banglejs)
~~~
dariosalvi78
The watch is made in China, but the software is made by them.
The page says there's a pedometer but if you look at the datasheet of the
accelerometer there isn't [1]. So it's computed in software (it's inside
Espruino) but it's really basic. I have proposed Gordon, the author, an open
source algorithm which I developed with some students (Oxford step counter),
and he seems interested, but it takes some time to integrate and calibrate so,
AFAIK, it's not there yet.
About the size, I don't really mind, it's quirky, but it definitely doesn't
follow the latest trends in terms of fashion...
[1]
[https://www.espruino.com/Bangle.js+Technical](https://www.espruino.com/Bangle.js+Technical)
------
huhtenberg
Hold on. So how does one go about _retrieving_ the data from a Garmin watch?
Garmin app's insistence on always needing a connection to their servers has
always been bothersome, but now that the servers are fubared, it turns out
that I can't even get the data off the tracker and onto an iPhone, because
that too somehow needs a server connection. Finding an alternative had
suddenly became a high priority task.
~~~
asimilator
My Fenix 5 shows up as a mass storage device when I plug in the usb cable to
my computer. You can pull .fit files off that, which contain everything the
watch records.
~~~
js2
The Fenix 6 and 945 only support MTP, not mass storage. For those you need a
third-party MTP client on macOS such as Android File Transfer.
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:zx-
iTg7...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:zx-
iTg7R5joJ:https://forums.garmin.com/sports-fitness/running-
multisport/f/forerunner-945/163453/please-add-usb-mass-storage-option-on-
fr945&hl=en&gl=us&strip=1&vwsrc=0)
------
FloatArtifact
This project is really interesting to liberate your smart watch.
[https://gadgetbridge.org/](https://gadgetbridge.org/)
~~~
mjsir911
And some forks with garmin devices:
\-
[https://github.com/mjsir911/gadgetbridge](https://github.com/mjsir911/gadgetbridge)
(mine)
\- [https://github.com/mormegil-cz/Gadgetbridge/tree/garmin-
wip](https://github.com/mormegil-cz/Gadgetbridge/tree/garmin-wip)
~~~
m-p-3
Just wondering, is the original Gadgetbridge repo not willing to accept code
to merge?
They're also on Matrix:
[https://matrix.to/#/!KlgIJeiotNGZkxSqRi:matrix.org](https://matrix.to/#/!KlgIJeiotNGZkxSqRi:matrix.org)
~~~
FloatArtifact
Nope
[https://codeberg.org/Freeyourgadget/Gadgetbridge/](https://codeberg.org/Freeyourgadget/Gadgetbridge/)
~~~
vanous
The main developer is very open to merging, so there must have been good
reasons to not merge - I presume either code quality or requirements for
network connection, which Gadgetbridge intentionally does not permit.
------
userbinator
_I’ve often said that if we convince ourselves that technology is magic, we
risk becoming hostages to it. Just recently, I had a brush with this fate, but
happily, I was saved by open source._
_I was very pleased to discovered an open-source utility called gpsbabel
(thank you gpsbabel! I donated!) that can unpack Garmin’s semi-(?)proprietary
“.FIT” file format into the interoperable “.GPX” format._
...and how do you think that utility was created? They probably didn't have
access to Garmin's source code or documentation for the format. They just
"figured it out". Furthermore, whether that utility is open-source doesn't
seem to matter here: it's just doing a format conversion.
_but it was mostly a matter of finding the right open-source pieces and
gluing them together with Python_
Replace "open-source" with "freely usable", and the author would've probably
been able to accomplish the same end-goal. Gluing together existing software,
treating the pieces as black boxes, doesn't show off any advantages of open-
source at all.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not against open-source; I'm just against this rising
glorification of it as somehow a be-all and end-all of software freedom. What
is worth praise, however, is the rising availability of freely usable
software.
To go back to the author's first point, the best way to not "convince
ourselves that technology is magic" is to start with a comprehensive low-level
education: Computers are just dumb machines executing sequences of
instructions, and in a non-hostile environment, you get to choose precisely
what instructions they execute.
~~~
makomk
I think FIT is actually a (somewhat) documented format that's used by a number
of non-Garmin devices as well, mostly GPS cycle computers. It's not really any
more non-standard than the Garmin extension to GPX being used for heart rate
after conversion. Probably a little harder to implement though, given that
it's a terse space-optimized binary format. (Though maybe not, since XML
namespaces seem to be involved.)
------
jordan801
For those wondering, I just accessed and parsed a .FIT file.
I plugged my watch's charging cable into a USB port on my Linux rig (works the
same for windows). Navigated to GARMIN. And immediately saw .FIT files.
To get to your activities, navigate to GARMIN->ACTIVITY. You should be able to
see when the files were created, so you can figure out which one you want to
view. Each is it's own activity.
Next you need a FIT file parser. I'm a NodeJS guy, so I did an NPM search and
found "fit-file-parser". I made a quick project, and wrote out the code
necessary.
In all of five minutes I had a JSON object with my run.
Maybe I should engineer a simple, single page HTML app to open, parse, and
render the statistics? I feel like when I get done Connect will be back online
and this will be an afterthought :P.
~~~
lightbulbjim
You might like GoldenCheetah.
------
ocdtrekkie
I took my Fitbit off when Google announced the acquisition. Kinda hoping
PineTime will be a good alternative when a more polished version becomes
available.
I still have my Fitbit data and even my old Google location history backed up.
I wish more projects focused on importing from takeouts of proprietary
services.
~~~
fouc
I hadn't heard about google's attempt to acquire fitbit. It doesn't sound like
it's gone through yet.
[https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/3/21312383/google-fibit-
acqu...](https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/3/21312383/google-fibit-acquisition-
antitrust-data-regulatory-eu-scrutiny)
------
Animats
Yes. The screenshots of the dark pattern dialogs from the "anal probe as a
service" site are great.
------
lsllc
As I take my daily runs through the woods (with my Garmin 935!) I have been
thinking about the near future and what a 2nd wave of COVID19 might bring.
What if we end up with a France/Spain/Italy style hard lockdown? Like troops
on the street type lockdown?, can't go out at all except to go directly to the
store, neighbors calling 911 on neighbors who go outside (which is how my
Italian friends tell me it was in Italy).
I could just go run in the woods in the dark, no-one would know right? And
it's highly unlikely I'd be seen at night (a Spanish friend of mine ended up
hiking several nights a week in the dark so he wouldn't be seen as he was
going stir crazy being trapped inside).
But my GPS data would be uploaded to the cloud! They would know! There would
be evidence, fed to the NSA! Would I hear their standard issue kicking in my
door!
Of course I could just leave the Garmin at home, but I like my GPS and stats.
So now I know how I can pull the data off watch, process it myself and remove
it before it can be synced!
Thank you!
/s (a little bit)
~~~
RandomBacon
Yesterday: We need backdoors for everyone's safety.
Tomorrow: We need everything to be cloud-only for everyone's safety.
------
tdhz77
I’ve been following bunnie since I was 11 years old in the days of the
original Xbox. I hope others know how important knowledge sharing is. For me,
I had no idea what was going on, but the fact that I could try to understand
it was enough for me. I’m now 32, and an engineer. I didn’t have money, but
this thing called Linux was free. Such great memories.
------
andrewcooke
if anyone is interested, i have a project that allows you to process and
visualize data from garmin devices (FIT files in general). it includes a
command (ch2 fit records <filename>) that dumps the contents of a file. it's
not got many users and is a little unpolished still, but recently i added
docker support which makes it easier to try out.
[https://github.com/andrewcooke/choochoo](https://github.com/andrewcooke/choochoo)
------
phillc73
I've not seen it mentioned yet in the discussion, but my preferred open source
tool for analysing Garmin FIT files is ActivityLog2[1]. Written in Racket, it
provides some very nice analysis tools for cycling, running and swimming.
Regularly updated and decent blog posts on different aspects by the author.
[1] [https://github.com/alex-hhh/ActivityLog2](https://github.com/alex-
hhh/ActivityLog2)
------
hdasika
"Since Garmin at least made money on the hardware, collecting my health data
is just icing on the cake; for Strava, my health data is the cake."
I dont see a difference between what Garmin and Strava do to your data.
Ultimately, Strava is trying to provide you some more insights using your
health data. It ultimately depends whether you want it or not. Isn't this the
same with all the services these days?
~~~
ogre_codes
I think what the author is trying to say here is that Garmin _has_ a way of
making money off them—selling hardware—and thus doesn't need to sell user data
as well. Strava has no way of monetizing outside of selling user data.
I'm not sure this is entirely true though, I've seen hardware companies sell
out their users for a few bucks. Likewise, Strava has ways to make money from
users—via Strava Premium services.
I have no idea how well these particular companies handle data specifically so
it's hard to say.
~~~
maxerickson
Strava turned off most of their free features and is now pretty much a
subscription service.
~~~
kingosticks
That's a massive exaggeration. They turned off some features. The free
offering is still very usable.
------
205guy
I'm a longtime user of hand-held GPS units for hiking and back-packing. Since
before the time of wireless connectivity and social sports portals, these
units have had USB cables and downloadable files--and fortunately still do.
Garmin provides the BaseCamp software, which is just a local viewer for the
files--admittedly, it doesn't have very good maps. But it has always had GPX
export and seeing your tracks in Google Earth is way more compelling. So you
get your own data on your own machine, and not on someone else's servers.
And this has been one of the reasons I haven't gone to smart-watches (the
other is accuracy in terrain). You have to have the app on your phone and pair
them together. Even if that workflow is still possible (as demonstrated by the
article, it is a fall-back), the default is to require cloud processing. I
don't want my tracks stored somewhere else, and even less so if there's a
chance of accidentally sharing them publicly. I guess I don't get the sports
stats (heart-rate, etc), but that's a small price to pay.
------
solarkraft
> The bad news is as I tried to create an account on Strava , all sorts of
> warning bells went off. The website is full of dark patterns ...
I'm glad I'm not the only one considering these warning signs, but also
puzzled why not _everybody_ thinks like that, especially with services that
could hold your data hostage. Is it a lack of education, lack of care or
careful risk/benefit analysis?
~~~
TeMPOraL
Lack of options - available, or known about. You learn about service X.
Services online are usually non-substitutable (you can't use Fitbit service
with Garmin watch, etc.), and often have network effects (all your runner
friends are on Strava). So what is a regular person going to do? The choice is
almost always binary: ignore the warning signs and sign up, or do without the
entire category of experience altogether.
------
PeterStuer
When I looked into quantified self IoT a few years back the monetization of
the data as the primary component of the business model was ubiquitous. There
was one kickstarter project for an open source wristband but it did not seem
to get traction.
Has this changed at all? I love the idea of measuring myself in various ways
but I want real-time and private access to my data.
------
dariosalvi78
So maybe people now realise they are buying services not devices. These
devices are locked, either you share your most intimate data with their
companies or they're unusable. Garmin is a bit of an exception here because
they at least allow you to get the data via USB.
~~~
submeta
But they are very restrictive with API access. You have to apply for a
developer access, and they won't give you any if you aren't a developer.
All the "modern" companies will give you an API access, a token and even API
wrapper code in many languages in an instant. Garmin is very old-school here.
~~~
dariosalvi78
Very old school indeed. In my job we tried to approach them. They have a very
interesting library that allows your app to connect to their devices and skip
their app. It's for research only. They kindly offered us to use it but when
we mentioned that our app was open source they pulled the offer. We tried to
explain that we could bundle their library in a proprietary module but they
didn't want to listen.
------
holri
There is a free hardware/software Smartwatch project:
[https://www.pine64.org/pinetime/](https://www.pine64.org/pinetime/)
------
j88439h84
Does this take data from the Garmin web API or directly from the watch
hardware, without uploading it to Garmin?
~~~
jordan801
It takes it directly from the .fit file on the watch, uses some software to
parse the file. You can get the .fit file on a windows machine by plugging the
watch into it and accessing it like a USB.
Not sure about linux, but I've heard Mac requires some third party software.
~~~
js2
No third party software needed on mac. The watch mounts as a mass storage
device then you just copy the fit files off of it. You may have to check the
watch settings and make sure that the USB setting is mass storage mode.
Edit: apparently some Garmin watches only support Media Transfer Protocol:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_Transfer_Protocol](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_Transfer_Protocol)
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:zx-
iTg7...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:zx-
iTg7R5joJ:https://forums.garmin.com/sports-fitness/running-
multisport/f/forerunner-945/163453/please-add-usb-mass-storage-option-on-
fr945&hl=en&gl=us&strip=1&vwsrc=0)
For these you have to use an MTP client on macOS such as Android File
Transfer.
------
jacquesl
Thanks for this. It’s exactly what I’m interested in as I play with my Garmin
and kayak this summer! I loved Strava in the early days, but as it tries to be
a full social network, it’s lost much of its charm for me. I’m more interested
in routes and stats, than what some athlete is doing in Chamonix.
------
lightbulbjim
Cool, but you could also just use software such as GoldenCheetah or rubiTrack.
------
OnACoffeeBreak
For a list of various utilities that work with fitness trackers:
[https://www.dcrainmaker.com/tools](https://www.dcrainmaker.com/tools)
------
alex_duf
Anyone knows if it's possible to do something similar with a Fitbit? Basically
extracting the data without having to sync it with fitbit's servers?
~~~
andreashansen
If you have the Fitbit Ionic or Versa, you could develop your own watch app
and companion app, where the watch app will extract sensor data and websocket
it to the companion app, which in turn could pass the data to your own
backend/database. The API documentation is quite good from Fitbit.
------
dTal
>It’s exactly the data I need, in the format that I want; no more, and no
less. Plus, the output is a single html file that I can share directly with
nothing more than a simple link. No analytics, no cookies. Just the data I’ve
chosen to share with you.
I click the link and am presented with the familiar blank page of needs-
javascript. Oh dear. What has uBlock stopped this time?
* maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com
* cdnjs.cloudflare.com
* rawcdn.githack.com (also a cookie from here)
* code.jquery.com
* cdn.jsdelivr.net
Not quite the "single html file, no analytics, no cookies" that was promised.
~~~
jordan801
They were referring to the output file their code produces... Not the .fit
parser.
~~~
dTal
The link I'm talking about is literally the hyperlink in the text "nothing
more than a simple link". It leads to a file titled
"speed-2020-07-21-16-10-44-map.html" which I assume is meant to be the output.
~~~
maxerickson
It's semantics.
The mapping tool outputs a single html file, _that relies on stuff from other
servers_. But all they have to deal with is the single file (if you view
source, the exercise data is stored in the file).
It's really not an interesting discussion. Maybe they could have used a better
description, but it's not confusing or particularly misleading.
~~~
dTal
I am not sure how "no cookies" used to describe a link which attempts to set a
cookie is anything except misleading.
------
j88439h84
Is it possible to get data off a Fitbit without uploading it to cloud?
~~~
krtkush
I don't think so, unfortunately.
------
montebicyclelo
I mentioned that I do this, with gpsbabel on the Garmin thread the other day,
but got downvoted. :(
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23926528](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23926528)
------
greesil
You could just buy a watch. It comes pre-liberated.
------
matsemann
The long unsubstantiated rant about Strava seemed unnecessary. It drowned the
interesting part about how one can do cool visualizations tailored to one's
own needs.
There are soo many ways to look st data. I use Garmin Connect, Training Peaks,
Strava, Elevate. They all have something the other misses. Making a something
myself tailored for me would be cool.
Edit: the reason I'm downplaying the attack on Strava, is that it doesn't
really know that much. It knows the explicit activities synced, and whatever
it can derive from that (where I live and work for instance). But Garmin,
Polar, Fitbit etc knows sooo much more. My pulse and movements during the
whole day which can be used to corroborate lots of stuff, when I sleep etc.
~~~
davegauer
I thought the Strava rant was appropriate in demonstrating that bunnie was
aware of and tried alternatives before he wrote his own software.
As for "unsubstatiated": part of it is _well_ substantiated: his screenshots
clearly demonstrate Strava's questionable interface choices. :-)
~~~
matsemann
As I've explained elsewhere here, uploading health data to Strava is the core
feature it's used for. Asking for that is not a dark pattern, as it's pretty
useless without..
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
How to get rich in America: A dozen entrepreneurs, a dozen success stories - staunch
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/moneymag/0706/gallery.success_stories.moneymag/index.html
======
brlewis
The second guy lives in my town, is about my age, prepped while on payroll as
I'm doing, and entered an established market as I'm doing. I should meet him.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Show HN: CheckUp – Social network suicide prevention in Go - rkirkendall
http://www.CheckUpApp.org
======
phfez
I can understand why you think this might be a good idea. But it completely
doesn't take the depressed person into account at all. It thinks it can solve
suicide by checking up on the individual? Do you think the individual wants to
be checked up on? Maybe the people checking up on the person are the actual
problem in that person's life, which could create an even more serious dilemma
for that person.
If there is anything that would drive me to suicide, it would be more people
thinking that they can 'solve the problem' in this manner.
~~~
smclaughlin
That's an interesting perspective. I disagree. I think if someone is tweeting
about suicidal intentions then it follows that they are not concerned about
the privacy of those intentions.
~~~
phfez
Many people don't understand the terms and conditions of social networks like
twitter and facebook, and privacy with those services is ambiguous and
difficult to manage.
If a person is feeling suicidal because the people in their life are not
noticing their pain, I really doubt that knowing an algorithm had to do it
will make them feel any better.
------
wyager
This seems a little accidentally sinister to me... Something about doing
automatic sentiment analysis on someone's data without their permission seems
morally questionable. I mean, almost none of us are happy when the government
does it, even though it's allegedly with the (very questionably) "good"
intention of "fighting (terrorism|drugs|bogeymen)".
~~~
fmdud
It's different when it's public data, though - it's data _willingly shared_.
~~~
phfez
It's not willingly shared to you
------
jwise0
Ricky,
Thanks for this service.
Sometimes, all it takes is to remind someone that people are there for them,
and care about them. I don't terribly like Twitter, but I try to read it once
a day or so just to keep a view on how people are doing; this service would be
incredibly useful to me to make sure that I don't have things that I'd like to
pay attention to falling through the cracks.
I know a bunch of people here seem to wish that the service were less
aggressive (or that it didn't exist at all): for my application, I'd almost
prefer it be more aggressive! Three negative sentiments is a high bar to meet,
and I fear the false negative rate could be quite high.
Anyway, thanks very much for writing this. As a whole, classes of applications
that help me mediate my interaction with social networks are things that I
support, and in specific, this application is incredibly valuable to me.
~~~
rkirkendall
Glad you like it! Thanks for kind words.
------
conistonwater
Have you thought at all about the ethics of meddling in people's lives? [1]
This "service" seems contrary to basic notions of privacy and freedom.
[1]
[http://www.davidhume.org/texts/suis.html](http://www.davidhume.org/texts/suis.html)
~~~
jwise0
The only thing the service does is alert the friends of someone who appears to
be about to end their own life, but who, for some reason, is posting about it
on a public forum.
I can assure you that the service does no meddling whatsoever.
Someone who is swept by the depths of depression, and takes a last moment to
emerge long enough to ask their friends for help -- well, I think that it is
only fair to counterbalance the feed algorithms that try to keep the rest of
us blissfully ignorant, and let them have the support that they ask for.
~~~
conistonwater
> alert the friends of someone who appears
That's meddling all right.
------
cjslep
I think this is really cool. Clarifying question from these two statements
that seem to conflict:
> The goal of the CheckUp project is to detect any serious sign of depression,
> self-harm or suicide posted to a social network and provide peer support by
> notifying a concerned party.
> The app works by checking the tweets on your home timeline every few minutes
> and sending you an email notification if a tweet is flagged.
Shouldn't it instead make the person signing up the "concerned party" to be
notified via e-mail, and instead have that concerned party specify which
twitter feeds to watch? I'm probably missing something here.
~~~
rkirkendall
Hey thanks for the feedback! I will try to update the site to clarify the
language a little more –– what you described actually is how it works. The
user that signs up is the concerned party that we would notify. The app
watches all tweets on that user's home timeline. By "home timeline", I was
referring to all tweets posted by the user and everyone followed by that users
(so, your Twitter feed). That's how it's described in Twitter's API docs, but
I can see where that may be a point of confusion.
------
DanBC
This looks like a useful tool.
Assuming for the moment that this is very accurate.
What then?
Ann discovers that Bob is suicidal. What is Ann supposed to do then? (My
suggestions are to ask Bob if he intends to die; and to help Bob access
medical help. (Emergency help if he says he intends to die soon)).
Perhaps some set of accurate, international, flowcharts showing what you're
supposed to do if a colleague / friend / relative / etc is suicidal would
help. (In UK: Contact their GP; or an ambulance if suicide is in progress;)
You also seem to be ignoring ages, which is tricky. What do your ethics team
say about reporting suicidality and people under 18?
~~~
rkirkendall
Good idea on the flow chart! Thanks
------
bussiere
hum, interesting.
Kind of minority report here.
Machine learning on depression syndrome ?
I'am a hacker and not truly white, are you not afraid that people used this to
take advantage of depressed people ?
A man can use this to spot depressed women , some are manipulator born people.
I find the project interesting but it have a lot of ethic problems. I think
that it will be more a tools for the people in wealth.
maybe it could be more interesting to have the global mood of people than the
mood of one people.
~~~
fleitz
ML would be a huge step forward, this just matches a couple keywords.
~~~
bussiere
if you need some advice on ML i will be glad to give you some.
I'am mainly use python for this but there's other solution.
------
matart
How accurate do you think this can be? What happens if I write a facebook
update that says, as an example:
I don't believe I have ever said "I feel depressed"
Would this be flagged? Does it only take one post to be flagged or is it
looking for recurring behaviour?
~~~
rkirkendall
Good question. Part of the ongoing nature of this project is to expand our
phrase detections. I pulled the original phrase list from a white paper
written by BYU last year because I figured that would be a good starting
point. There is room for vast improvement though.
If the last few posts leading up to the flagged post are classified as
predominately negative (currently looking at the last 3 tweets before the
flagged tweet), then we send the notification. The intuition is that if a
person is comfortable enough with social to post seriously suicidal content,
he or she has probably already made some preceding negative remarks.
~~~
matart
Very interesting. Thanks for the response!
------
rubiquity
This sounds like a great service but I really don't give a damn that it is
written in Go.
Also:
> _This application is temporarily over its serving quota. Please try again
> later._
~~~
rkirkendall
Hey! Thanks for the heads up. We picked up more traction than I had
anticipated, but we should be back online now! And some people may be
interested in the Go repo ;)
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Corn biofuels worse than gasoline on global warming in short term - 001sky
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/apr/20/corn-biofuels-gasoline-global-warming
======
001sky
There seem to be limits on both sides of this debate.
What is 'news' here is not that one-side or the other has 'won'.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Mint.com turns 404 ad page into date ad for developer - punkrobby
https://www.mint.com/accounting
======
chimeracoder
I love it when companies add a little personal touch to their 404 pages
(though they're taking 'personal' to a whole new level here!)
I saw an incredibly great collection of creative 404 pages a few months back.
I can't find the one I saw, though Fab404 (<http://fab404.com/>) has a bunch.
~~~
effigies
My favorite 404: <http://www.rathergood.com/404>
~~~
ComputerGuru
Sound, plus it's annoying as hell? I can see why.
------
ComputerGuru
Am I the only one wondering if it was a prank on Justin? I think it's more
likely that a coworker was being funny than Justin's desperate for a date :)
~~~
MichaelApproved
He's clearly posing in the picture. He must know it's being used for something
funny.
~~~
delinka
That, or the entire thing is a big joke and if Justin exists, he's not quite
that ... caricature.
~~~
ComputerGuru
s/caricature/character/ ?
~~~
delinka
Nope. I'm intentionally misusing the noun 'caricature' as an adjective. I
suggest that Justin's notable features in his photo are exaggerated, if he's
even a real human.
------
aaronbrethorst
Clever, reminds me of Groupon's unsubscribe video:
<http://www.groupon.com/unsubscribe> (flash required)
~~~
wtn
The Groupon unsubscribe video is so awesome I recommended my friends to
unsubscribe to see it…
~~~
joshmlewis
As long as you're signed out you can still watch the video and not really
unsubscribe.
------
josegonzalez
When I saw this page committed, I smiled quite a bit.
<http://seatgeek.com/404> (Image: [http://d2o7bfz2il9cb7.cloudfront.net/main-
qimg-e859ed4563650...](http://d2o7bfz2il9cb7.cloudfront.net/main-
qimg-e859ed4563650849267fc5cad7baa3ba))
------
goodweeds
If you've ever posted an ad on craigslist, then you know he's probably
received hundreds of penis photos in the hour since this link was posted.
~~~
bostonpete
Pshaw. I posted an ad for a lawnmower and only got a handful of penis photos.
~~~
rapind
In my defence, I really need a new mower.
------
guelo
I know this is off topic but beware of Mint. As they say, if you are not
paying then you are not the customer.
EDIT: ooh -4, I guess ya'll REALLY didn't want to be warned. It was just
intended as a friendly warning but in reality I don't care what you do, go
ahead use Mint all you want then.
~~~
hendrix
This is oh so true. Wtf are you giving out your bank history and info to a
website? If they get hacked…lol oh shit. (let the downvotes commence)
~~~
ceejayoz
Frankly, I trust Mint with my bank info more than I trust my bank. One has a
history of incompetence, and it isn't Mint.
~~~
esrauch
I agree with that in general, but it feels like a single point of failure. 10
different servers that all have an X% chance of being hacked are much more
secure to me than 1 server that even has X/10% chance of being hacked.
That said, I like the idea of mint in general. It's depressing that banks
can't (won't) figure out read-only credentials for use cases like this.
~~~
tedreed
ING Direct implemented read-only credentials for Mint, after fighting with
them about access for months. (ING kept blocking Mint, and then Mint would
find a way around it.)
------
Aloisius
Am I the only one who finds the picture a bit disconcerting? It is mostly the
kissy face pose. The photo seems so over the top that it just doesn't seem
sincere.
And is that a sweater vest? Nice.
~~~
maratd
Relax. It's obviously a joke. Nobody is a desperate enough to look for love on
a 404 page ...
~~~
maximusprime
It's PR. And it worked - got to the top of HN and probably sent around other
places. It's just an advert for mint.
------
hirojin
I see many guys (yes, only the guys) here curious about Justin's sexuality.
Really, if you're interested in him, just email him already.
------
yogrish
Other interesting 404 page <http://www.foradian.com/404>
~~~
bbrizzi
Niiiice. I just spent 5 minutes turning it along all 4 of its axis to find an
angle from which it looks like a cube.
~~~
FireBeyond
There's an easter egg there, too - try Control Shift drag.
------
rehashed
1.17MB 24bit PNG with alpha transparency on a flat color background...
------
hansy
Haha this is so awesome and creative. Way to take a completely buzz-kill page
and turn it into something fun and (perhaps) useful.
------
richardw
The perfect place for a really good 404 is here. Missed opportunity, I think.
<http://xkcd.com/403/>
<http://xkcd.com/404/> <\--
<http://xkcd.com/405/>
~~~
beaumartinez
I'm getting a 404 for it. Has Munroe changed it recently?
------
jspash
Looks like a stock photo. Has the same amount of "funny" as grannies on
motorcycles. Just an opinion or two...
~~~
sp332
I don't think it's stock. There's something up his sleeve.
~~~
udp
I think it's some kind of watch.
------
jdelsman
I emailed him; never heard back :(
~~~
emwa
Could be he's into girls.
------
Cushman
Serious question: why do we still have 404 pages?
A 404 means the server can't find what I asked for, can't tell me where it
went, has no idea what I'm looking for. By definition, my browser shouldn't
show me the content that was returned-- it _knows_ it's not what I want!
If I get a 404 code, the page shouldn't change. The browser should just show a
message indicating that that resource doesn't exist, include the reason
message if it's something other than "NOT FOUND", and let me either try a
different link or correct my spelling. If I clicked a link to get there, it
could even set a style on the link to indicate the resource doesn't exist.
It's strange how much we're still living in the nineties. I wonder how many of
the use cases of Ajax could be replaced by an intelligent browser using the
existing HTTP standard?
~~~
eck
The webmaster wanted you to see it. If browsers didn't show the content of a
404, webmasters would just send you the same "not found" page but with a 200
code, which would be even worse.
~~~
Cushman
Well, no, it would be the same. That's my point; the conventional treatment of
404 on the web is a 200 that says "Sorry." So what's the point of it?
~~~
jamesaguilar
It would be the same for the browser user agent, but a lot of other user
agents might have trouble. Anyway, why are you advocating a change that you
recognize will have no effect?
~~~
Cushman
? The change I'm advocating is in browser behavior, and would definitely make
a difference for any site that complies with HTTP. There's nothing preventing
malicious hosts from continuing to serve pages full of ads, but then, there
never was.
~~~
esrauch
It sounds like he is claiming that if a major browser changed this behavior,
websites would just reconfigure their response to give a 200 response error
page because they would prefer if the browser showed something like this
rather than a browser dependent error message. That would end up making 404
_completely_ useless, even for actual tools like wget because it would be
against webmasters interests to use them anymore.
Do you disagree with that claim?
~~~
Cushman
Well, my counterargument is that a change in browser behavior would make sites
more usable, encouraging the proper use of 404. Of course, if that weren't the
case, I'd agree there'd be no point in changing :P
~~~
esrauch
If webmasters wanted a spartan base error they could easily have one though.
------
noja
They should probably mention whether he wants a date with a guy or with a
girl...
~~~
digitalsushi
ahh maybe that doesn't actually matter. why is everything so boolean.
------
yarone
Next up, ad network designed for embedding on 404 pages. :-)
~~~
CyrusL
Actually, that already exists. Believe it or not there are ad products that
pay for the people who click "Under 18" on porn entry pages.
~~~
ComputerGuru
I find that hard to believe - mainly because it's impossible to believe anyone
actually clicks that link. Heck, I'd bet half aren't even links, just text
(only kidding!).
~~~
MichaelApproved
I've clicked them before out of curiosity to see where it would take me.
------
Groxx
I _love_ the description. Sharp crayons FTW!
This might just take the cake for my favorite 404 page ever.
------
alapshah
Quora- What are some of the funniest 404 pages: <http://www.quora.com/What-
are-the-funniest-404-pages>
~~~
rottencupcakes
Certainly not Quora's: <http://www.quora.com/zxdasd>
------
tomlin
The points for this post are currently 404. I. Can't. Upvote.
------
athst
I can't stand it when sites try to be cute like this with their 404 pages. I
guess it's a good thing for getting buzz, but what about a user who is
actually trying to use the site and gets that page? It's awful. You were
trying to complete a task, the site isn't working how you wanted, and to top
it all off, now they're trying to be funny and lighthearted. It just seems
like a site failure isn't the right time to be making jokes.
------
cfontes
Hahaha, very very nice ! It's petty that Mint doesn't work in my country... it
doesn't sync with Brazilian Banks. So I am stick with Buxfer.
~~~
juliano_q
Buxfer automatically import data from brazilian banks? I am looking for
something like Mint for a long time to use here.
------
kkt262
I wonder how long till he gets a date? Probably a while since it's only us
nerd dudes that know about it.
~~~
argarg
What if he's interested in nerd dudes?
------
kr1shna
Well done, Mint. Now if you could get a service up and running in the UK?
Pretty please?
~~~
maximusprime
Mint wouldn't work in the UK. Our online banking is secure. It seems that in
the US most online banking is just secured with a password! :o
~~~
kr1shna
Secure is relative. The HSBC crap-gadget that one has to carry around on a key
chain is susceptible to easy theft/loss. Anyway, "security" is a poor reason
to not have such a great service in the UK
~~~
maximusprime
An HSBC security device is absolutely useless unless you know all the other
details needed to login. That's kinda the whole point of it...
I personally don't see the need for mint.
~~~
mikeash
Mint wouldn't be very useful if your finances are simple. I have accounts with
three banks, two credit card companies, and three investment brokerages, so
having a service that aggregates all of that activity together makes it _much_
easier to keep track of what's going on.
~~~
maximusprime
I guess possibly, but I still don't understand the need. I have quite a few
accounts, but they're all for different purposes. Seeing them "all together"
would make little sense for me, since they are different entities.
~~~
mikeash
The investment accounts are really just a bonus, but it's really useful to
have the checking account and all credit cards visible in one place. The
checking account is where money comes in, and the credit cards are where money
goes out, so seeing them together makes things much clearer. I also use
multiple credit cards for purchases, so I can't easily see all of my purchase
activity in one place otherwise.
Additionally, having everything consolidated means I can do a quick check on
recent transactions several times a week, instead of just looking at things
when a bill comes. That means that it's much easier to detect fraud, since the
activity is fresh in my mind, and takes much less time to notify the
institution of the fraudulent transaction.
~~~
maximusprime
OK, I guess I'm a completely different use case. Why multiple credit cards for
purchases? Why don't you buy things using a debit card?
~~~
esrauch
In addition to what mikeash said, using a credit card and paying it in full
improves your credit score whereas a debit card doesn't, which will make it
easier to get loans later.
~~~
salvadors
That's (thankfully) not true in the UK (or, indeed, most countries).
~~~
esrauch
Is there no such thing as a credit score in the UK? Or does paying credit
cards not improve your credit score?
The banking industry in the US is messed up, but how does it not make sense
that responsibly paying loans doesn't indicate you are more likely to make
good on future loans?
~~~
salvadors
There's no such thing as a credit score (at least not in the US sense).
The big problem with the US system is that it gets you needlessly hooked on
the whole idea of credit. As per this very example, you need to do things like
get credit cards just to pay them off on time, or else you're screwed when it
comes to things like getting a mortgage. In most of Europe the key factor for
that sort of loan is simply whether you have a steady income that's high
enough to make the payments, factoring in outstanding debts. A credit check
will show up things like whether you've a history of missing payments on any
existing credit, and that can certainly be taken into account, and most
lenders have their own version of a 'credit score' they'll apply based on all
that info — but it's not a centralised thing, and it's generally more
concerned with raising past problems as a red flag, rather than with past good
behaviour.
If you've a history of living within your means that should be a good thing,
not a bad thing.
~~~
esrauch
> If you've a history of living within your means that should be a good thing,
> not a bad thing.
How is always paying off a credit card not living within your means though?
Maybe this is some US-centric brainwashing, but it seems to me that someone
who has never had a credit card is less trustworthy than someone who had it
and didn't overspend; it proves that the person had the opportunity to do
something really dumb and didn't. The person who never had the credit card
might have done something dumb if they were ever given the chance.
It's interesting that your credit checks are so decentralized, but it seems
unlikely to me that would cause them to consider no history to be the same as
known good history.
That said, I'm not even sure how much impact properly paying credit cards has
versus not having one, but even with a minor difference there is practically
no advantages to using a debit card instead of a credit card that you always
pay off in full from your checking account. Even excluding credit, certainly
you must get additional fraud guarantees and possibly rewards programs with
credit cards in the UK?
~~~
salvadors
But if you're always living within your means, why would you ever want to have
a credit card at all? Things like reward programs certainly aren't universal
(or even common, I believe, though they do exist), and pretty clearly only
exist to try to get people to use the card in the first place, on the basis
that it's to the credit card company's advantage, in that enough people won't
pay off in time to justify the rewards. (I should also note that it's more
common in UK/EU for credit cards to also have a monthly or annual fee.)
I'm not sure what additional fraud guarantees exist. I had fraud on my debit
card once, and it was resolved much easier and quicker than the time I had
fraud on my credit card. The UK does have a slightly odd additional consumer
protection law in that if you buy anything over £100 on a credit card, and the
goods turn out to be faulty, you can claim the cost back from the credit card
company, rather than the retailer. That's certainly vaguely useful, but I've
never heard of anyone choosing to have a credit card just for that reason.
I think there's potentially a different worldview at play in the "had a chance
to do something dumb and't didn't" approach. To massively overgeneralise, I'd
say the European way is to simply not put that temptation in front of people,
whereas the US way is to deliberately encourage it, so as to massively profit
from it (with the UK constantly torn between the two!) :)
So I'd say pretty much the opposite of your final conclusion: There are so few
advantages to using a credit card rather than a debit card that why would you
bother with the hassle/risk?
~~~
mikeash
If nothing else, a credit card gives you a month-long interest-free loan when
used properly. That's money in your pocket if you keep the difference in an
interest-bearing account. Why _wouldn't_ you take advantage of this?
I'm not sure what hassle/risk you're talking about with a credit card. The
hassle factor is the same (approximately none) and the risk is lower, not
higher.
~~~
salvadors
People always say this "interest-free loan" thing, but it doesn't make a lot
of sense to me. In an average month I spend under €1000 a month on my debit
card, but let's round it up to that just for an example. My bank doesn't pay
interest on current account balances. Even if I were to go through the hassle
of setting up a term deposit for that, the total interest I'd receive on that
in one month is 78 cents.
I can think of any number of reasons why I _wouldn't_ bother taking advantage
of that.
The question as to whether a credit card is more/less/even risk to a debit
card is pretty much the issue at hand here, but even leaving aside the
slightly odd issue of psychological risks and hassles, I've heard plenty of
horror stories from people in the US where something went wrong to make their
monthly payment late (including the credit card company just deciding to
change the due date), thus triggering all sorts of badness.
~~~
mikeash
Well, get a better checking account to start with!
Yeah, the money is small, but it's also free. I mean, $10-20/year for doing
nothing? Why not?
So as you say, it comes down to the risk differential. If you believe a debit
card is less risk, then certainly a tiny amount of interest won't change your
mind.
For what it's worth, I've heard far more horror stories about debit cards than
credit cards. The major difference is that with a debit card, _any_ company
that gets your card info can screw you over. You place an order online, and
the company charges you $1000 instead of $10 by mistake, leaving no money in
your account. Your next transaction then overdrafts, leaving you with a fat
fee. In theory, it's not your fault and you should be able to get the bank or
the merchant to cover it, but they'll all be pointing fingers elsewhere....
And of course, if you can't get the money refunded immediately then you spend
a great deal of time with no money in your account. Now you may have trouble
buying necessities etc. until the situation is fixed.
Additionally, I have my credit cards set up to automatically pay off the full
balance each month. If somebody tries to pull a dirty trick and the payment is
made late, the blame is clearly and fully with them, so I imagine that would
be quickly resolved. Beyond that, there really isn't anything to go wrong
other than a major failure of self-control.
~~~
salvadors
Where does one find these magical accounts? In many countries no bank pays
interest on current accounts, or, where they do, currently interest rates
generally are so low anyway that the amounts are negligible. I have much
better ways of arranging my finances than faffing around with credit cards I
don't need and moving money around short term money market accounts just to
earn less than $20 extra a year.
As for your example of buying something online with a debit card, I don't do
that. My bank lets me generate as many virtual cards as I like for online
shopping, each with a different number. I set the maximum amount that can be
charged to each one and I can then order anything I want online with it with
none of the risks you mention.
Even if I couldn't do that, the situation you describe wouldn't arise, as
a) I have daily limits on various types of transfers and withdrawals (that I
can adjust online if I need to spend more than that at any time, so I keep the
defaults pretty low). So even if someone was being malicious they still
couldn't take out more than that amount (and I've SMS notifications set up for
all transfers over a fairly low limit too, so they couldn't just come back and
take another payment every day until I was cleaned out). It would certainly
inconvenience me, but that's just as true with a credit card (and that would
probably take me longer to notice). And, as I said earlier, I've had
experience of problems with both, and the credit card ones were much more
hassle to resolve.
b) my current account is multi-currency, so even if someone managed to clean
out all my euros, I'd still have cash in GBP, USD, etc.
c) most of my money isn't in my current account anyway, so even if _that_ got
completely cleaned out, in all currencies, I'd still have money in my various
other accounts.
~~~
mikeash
Interest bearing checking accounts do exist. They're not making much right
now, but it's more than zero.
I don't get why you describe credit cards as "faffing around". They're no more
hassle than debit cards.
------
guynamedloren
So, who emailed Justin after seeing this page? Wonder how affective this is!
~~~
blahedo
Clearly, this page displays strong affect; that's why we're all talking about
it. The question is, does it work?
~~~
sandieman
Only if females existed on hackernews to let us know!
~~~
ChrisAnn
Damn, I guess we'll never find out seeing as there aren't any on the internet
at all...
(also, maybe Justin likes boys.)
Edit: It would seem sarcasm falls on deaf ears at Hacker News. Note my
feminine username...
~~~
sp332
HN doesn't read usernames, that's why they're in small gray print.
------
wwweston
Shades of datelance.com:
[http://www.deseretnews.com/article/600150311/Friends-post-
bi...](http://www.deseretnews.com/article/600150311/Friends-post-big-ad-for-
old-bachelor.html)
------
dr_
Since it's at mint.com/accounting I wonder if it an intentional dig at the
traditional concept of accounting, or at least personal finance, as opposed to
what mint offers?
Just a thought.
------
insraq
"The page is not available, but Justin is" - very creative.
------
scoot
Um, why are we upvoting this dreadful stereotype of a developer (dickie bow,
nerd glasses, and "slow cars, sharp crayons, awkward silences") Puhlease!
------
JAVagueArgument
JavaScript Polaroid (you have to shake it like one) 404
<http://fatjed.com/404>
------
asktell
GitHub has the 404 I've been looking for: <https://github.com/404.html>
------
cupcake_death
Page Sad Clowned <http://www.explore.to/nothing-here>
~~~
jarofgreen
That serves a completely blank page for me. You broke the 404! :-p
------
anid101
This one is awesome too - <http://playcez.com/error>
------
jeremyt
Genius link bait.
------
kwamenum86
Watch from tokyoflash.com. Nice.
------
LearnYouALisp
That man needs to shave!
~~~
biesnecker
Or maybe he doesn't.... they need to A/B test! :)
~~~
LearnYouALisp
I knew what the reaction here would be. I know what the modern "trend" is, and
its unprofessional.
~~~
biesnecker
How is figuring out what your customers actually respond to unprofessional?
~~~
LearnYouALisp
It's so basic that we really shouldn't have to talk about it: this is personal
presentation, interaction, humanity. The trouble is people who live in a
virtual world lose much of that consciousness (and it's happened to me as well
before).
------
Tharkun
I can warmly recommend <http://www.404.be>.
------
ronbeltran
Is there any mint.com girl developer who wants a date? I only see Justin on
404, or maybe they dont have girl developers.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Need Some Feedback on the Python Job Positions Aggregator - vmesel
http://www.pyjobs.xyz/#refer
======
txsh
Menu bar overlaps heading on mobile. iPhone 6, chrome.
~~~
vmesel
Thanks for reporting, bro! Gonna change it xD
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Stockfish – open source chess engine - uriva
https://stockfishchess.org/
======
ganeshkrishnan
I use this as my primary chess engine. Most top chess engines are better than
any human grandmaster. However none of them use deep learning like Google did
with go and I am trying to setup tensor flow with stockfish so that it can see
patterns in chess board
|
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|
Bill Gates: Chinese censorship is "very limited" - ilamont
http://blogs.computerworld.com/15466/bill_gates_chinese_censorship_is_very_limited
======
nailer
I quite like a lot of Microsoft's older products, and I think the Bill &
Melinda Gates foundation does great work with his (and others' contributed)
money. But every so often I, along with everyone else, gets reminded of Bill's
ethics.
------
dublinclontarf
Sorry as someone who lives in the mainland I can tell you that it is NOT easy
to get around the GFW(Great Fire Wall).
All websites related to T-o-r are blocked, even if you can get a hold of T-o-r
the GFW blocks the IP that T-o-r initially connects to as well as the default
ports.
Web proxies are useless unless they are https and even then if there are the
wrong keywords in the https get request it's blocked. The GFW uses deep packet
inspection, so not only are there blacklisted websites but they also analyse
the content your viewing.
People say there are trivial methods to get around the GFW but I haven't found
any that work(short of buying access to a VPN, and currently unless you have
an international creditcard you can't). Where are the trivial methods that
work if there are so many of them?
This is a censor-ship net where the gaps are constantly being closed, a few
years ago it WAS trivial to get around, not anymore, and it's becoming more
difficult as the GFW systems and methods advance (using technologies provided
by western companies such as Nokia, Motorola, Microsoft etc)
note-formatted so post can get through the GFW
------
maconic
I've spent some time in China and found Twitter, Facebook, Blogspot, BBC (just
to name a few) to be entirely blocked while I was there.
While it's debatable as to whether or not these Western websites are important
to average Chinese, it seems like a mischaracterization to say blocking
several of the top 10 most popular websites in the world is "very limited."
Another experience which spooked me a bit (I don't know if it was purely
coincidental or not): I was visiting some fairly obscure websites while I was
there and they were accessible. Yet, within a few days after I first visited
them, some of them were blocked. That made me wonder if there are human beings
checking websites to decide whether or not they need to be "harmonized"
(Chinese joke).
~~~
araneae
And livejournal.
I haven't been to China, but a friend of mine taught English at a university
there for 2 years. She used a proxy server, but none of her students had even
heard of them. (She was subverting the gov't by gently encouraging them to use
them.)
It's irrelevant how _easy_ it is to get around the censorship for Bill Gates.
What's relevant is how _effective_ the censorship is for Chinese people- and
it is.
------
helveticaman
This fits with Mencius Moldbug's idea of rule by the smart:
"Yet, even within the ballpark of restricted democracy, racial qualification
is an incredibly crude measure. A much better result would be achieved, for
instance, by psychometric qualification. If your IQ is less than 120, you have
to go through life with the dunce-cap of a nonvoter. On the other hand, you
get to go through life with a government elected by those whose IQ is over
120. Even better, the result of the test could be undisclosed - so you have no
idea whether or not your vote matters. You feel no humiliation if it doesn't;
you receive no advantage if it does."
This is essentially how China is run: you take a standardized test when you're
eighteen or so, and that test determines your life. If you do well, you have
power, and if you do poorly, you don't. By the same token, if you're smart
enough to download and set up Tor, you can access to controversial
information. If you can't set up Tor, you can't. It's an IQ test.
The thinking here is one I have met in peopel from the East, and it goes like
this. A little learning is a dangerous thing. You can't have innocent fools
upset with the goverment because you just can't have a revolution every thirty
years. It's a mess, and you never get ahead as a country.
Not my opinion, but if you ever found the rule of the nerds appealing, (I for
one am a nerd and sort of do), now you know: that's China.
~~~
tsally
_This is essentially how China is run: you take a standardized test when
you're eighteen or so, and that test determines your life. If you do well, you
have power, and if you do poorly, you don't._
I wonder how China's Steve Jobs did on the standardized test when s/he was
eighteen. Our Steve Jobs hadn't even met Wozniak by that point.
There are many types of intelligence and only one type is measured by
standardized testing. Indeed is it probably all the other types that will
become increasingly important as society adjusted to its complete saturation
with technology. Ken Robinson's TED talk addresses this far better than I
could:
[http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/ken_robinson_says_schools_...](http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html).
If you only watch a few TED talks, Ken's should certainly be one of them.
As you point out, the picture you paint of China is strangely appealing to
those on HN (myself included). I think our types tend to be good at
standardized testing and we enjoy highly efficient systems. However there is a
massive cost to such a system because the Steve Jobs of the world are less
likely to thrive. Once you look past the initial appeal of efficiency, it
becomes a scary ideal indeed.
~~~
elblanco
It's interesting though, there is a very large population of extremely bright
and creative people who tend to score poorly on standardized tests as well.
Selecting people based on standardized tests means that you have selected
people who are good at standardized tests not necessarily the smartest or most
creative people.
There's a growing consensus that, at least at present, while China is
certainly capable of producing complicated stuff (TV's, Cars, Electronics,
Plastics, etc.) and very large numbers of well educated engineers, there is
very little Steve Jobs type innovation happening in the country.
~~~
tsally
_It's interesting though, there is a very large population of extremely bright
and creative people who tend to score poorly on standardized tests as well._
That was the point I was trying to make. At 18 years old Steve Jobs was only
just beginning to develop that intelligence of his we see so often today.
------
est
> "The Chinese efforts to censor the Internet have been very limited. It's
> easy to go around it, and so I think keeping the Internet thriving there is
> very important."
It's true to someone like Bill Gates. But for average Internet users in China,
the Internet propaganda and censorship mechanism works great.
------
noarchy
That's the kind of rationalizing I'd expect from someone with such a poor
standard of ethics. Gates is not going to be alone here, of course. Everyone
doing business in China has to be telling themselves stuff like this.
------
Klondike
At least Google's initial rationalization was (paraphrasing) "even though
China's censorship sucks, we think we can still benefit people's lives there
by censoring the bare minimum possible". They've always acknowledged that
China's censorship is a form of repression, and never emphasized the "we're
just following the rules" bit over the actual ethical problem they were
dealing with.
------
elblanco
Really? Did somebody just run through this entire topic and downvote every
comment? (8pm EST)
(seriously, every single comment in here was sitting at 0 points right after
about 8pm).
------
rbanffy
Let me be the first to say I am not surprised.
|
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What Microsoft gets for $2 billion - loboman
http://www.scottberkun.com/blog/2010/what-microsoft-gets-for-2-billion/
======
cletus
Isn't it simple? Microsoft is sinking a huge pile of money into improve Bing,
getting market share and making acquisitions (altough I guess these wouldn't
be expensed directly against income).
Whether or not that's a wise strategy is another matter but there really is no
mystery here.
~~~
davidu
They are not making acquisitions -- They acquired powerset over 2.5 years ago.
More than 10 quarters ago. I'm not aware of any other acquisition since then,
or anything in the online space besides that in the last, what, 4+ years?
Not that I disagree with that choice, acquisitions just because you have cash
is just as stupid as no acquisitions. Better for them to determine a strategy
first.
------
iterationx
Steve Ballmer says he is willing to invest 5%-10% of Microsoft's operating
income over the next five years on search. Read more:
[http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-steve-
ballmer-h...](http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-steve-ballmer-has-
gone-bonkers-2009-6#ixzz19NFIfq1Z) Specifically, assuming Microsoft's
operating income stays constant (it will likely grow), it's $5.5-$11 billion.
endquote.
~~~
MarkMc
That was 18 months ago, which means there's 3.5 years left of this experiment.
If it's not making a profit by then, Ballmer will probably pull the plug on
the project. Unless someone pulls the plug on Ballmer first.
------
natmaster
Disclaimer: I do not speak for Microsoft, I am simply an employee - these
opinions are mine and mine alone.
As someone working in the online services division I have to say that this
analysis is extremely simplistic. Would they be saying the same thing about
Facebook? It was in the red for many years before it became profitable. That
was the plan.
~~~
BarkMore
The comparison to Facebook is not fair. Facebook is now profitable and
Microsoft online services are not. Facebook was never in the red to the tune
of 2B a year. Microsoft online services had a multiple year head start on
Facebook.
~~~
viggity
Facebook doesn't do 60B a year in revenue
~~~
BarkMore
The comparison is between Facebook and Microsoft's online services, not all of
Microsoft. Microsoft's online services didn't do 60B a year in revenue.
------
apedley
This is such small thinking.
As one of the commenters on the page did: <http://i.imgur.com/jHLOX.png>
It shows a much more likely scenario. Although maybe a bit over the top with
the naming of the profit section as Google Kill Zone. Why can't big companies
play nice. :)
~~~
goalieca
do you project a turnaround right now? Looking at their current product base I
would say "hell no!". Microsoft has nothing up and coming to convince me they
will gain more search users. Each and every time they have unveiled a new
search or online tool they have failed to capture the market. I do not see
what will be different in the future once they come up with their next big
idea. Bing is clearly not going to take over even with it being the default in
internet explorer.
~~~
apedley
So what about the recent Facebook integration, still rolling out and the
overall switch to social search, something Google can't get right no matter
how many companies they buy.
What about the only very recent Yahoo integration, the Windows Phone
integration and the constant improvement with maps beyond what Google have
offered.
------
nopinsight
It's not the absolute amount that matters most, especially for a company with
Microsoft's size and cash flow.
Google's 2009 revenue is over 23 billion dollars and its operating income is
over 8 billion. Considering the market size, two billion is not over the top.
Not to mention online is a growth market and its strategic value is paramount.
They're not a startup and they can invest really long-term to capture part of
a market this significant.
------
anonsoftie
This is a challenging problem that doesn't fit nicely into comments or short
blog posts, but I'll try.
Search is a tremendously expensive game to try and win. It's economics are
such that the more search share you have, the more money you earn per search.
This is a critical point, so I'll spell it out a little further.
All search companies have more advertiser dollars than they have searches to
spend them on, Google, Yahoo and Bing included. It's a supply constrained
marketplace. The search ROI is so good for advertisers that they all want to
spend more money at their current CPCs, but there aren't enough searches. This
supply constraint leads to a problem for the smaller players. Search revenue
is driven by having lots of advertisers compete in every auction. The larger
the share, the more clicks each advertiser will get, and thus the more
advertisers you attract. The smaller scale players don't drive enough clicks
for some advertisers for it to be worth their time to set up and manage
campaigns on them, while the larger scale players it is worth their while (the
return they get exceeds the fixed cost of advertising in the marketplace). So
with fewer advertisers, there are fewer bidders in the 2nd price auction, and
the revenue per search is lower for the smaller scale players.
So how does this apply to Microsoft's online division? Well, if they want to
catch Google, they're going to have to do it at a scale disadvantage, meaning
that Google is going to make more off of the same searches than Microsoft will
simply because they have a bigger marketplace. To beat that, Microsoft has to
commit to spending lots of money to try and close that scale gap by buying
share through distribution deals and spending a ton on technology to
differentiate the search product while accepting that they don't monetize the
searches they do have as well. If they can eventually build a product that
will pull enough marketshare from Google to be roughly equal, then they should
start to see better monetization.
The valid questions are: 1\. Is it possible to catch Google? Or are the market
dynamics such that without a transformative difference in how the product
works that Google will never be caught.
2\. If it is possible to catch Google, how much money will you have to spend,
and what will your eventual ROI be when you get there.
Since Microsoft is a company that does 60B in revenue, it has to look at big
businesses to drive a 10% growth in that revenue. Your hot little startup that
does $100MM doesn't make a dent. Even Facebook only does 1-2B, depending on
which report you believe. Search is a 10B going to 20B market, and if
Microsoft can spend 5B over 5 years to get half of that market and earn 10B
every year it's worth it.
Of course, the division has been horribly mismanaged for years. Qi Lu now runs
it, and he's a different breed from most Microsoft execs. So time will tell if
it's a good bet or not for Microsoft.
~~~
Umalu
This analysis seems right to me. MSFT's annual cash flow from operations is in
the $24 billion+ range. MSFT has $44 billion of cash in the bank. What is MSFT
going to do with all that cash? Watch Google slowly eat its business? I'm
surprised MSFT hasn't invested more in web services -- $2 billion seems small
given its resources. Could it be a shortage of opportunities?
~~~
RockyMcNuts
The $2b is what they spent IN EXCESS of the value they currently carry on the
books for the business - they invested far more.
It's an abysmal performance by anyone's standard BUT they could probably sell
that business for considerably more than the book value.
Even if the book value is fair and they lost $2b, they got the only viable
(albeit still money-losing) alternative to Google, which was a strategic
imperative if they want to link Office and Windows to the cloud.
------
bl4k
And if they canned online - all the pundits will be saying:
_"Google is beating Microsoft because Microsoft DOESNT EVEN HAVE A MAPPING
PRODUCT OR SEARCH ENGINE.. they do not see the FUTURE IS ONLINE.. blah blah
blah.. "_
This is Microsoft playing defense - and cheap relative to the profit machine
they are defending
------
brudgers
The chart doesn't account for the operational value of Bing for Microsoft.
If you want to search MSDN, Google doesn't get to sell advertising or skew the
search results to fit their business model or for that matter track what
you're searching. Likewise, searches from MicroSoft IP addresses using Bing
aren't tracked by Google either.
~~~
BarkMore
If Microsoft is really concerned about Google gaining a competitive advantage
by looking at search query traffic from Microsoft IP addresses, it would be
much less expensive for Microsoft to hide the traffic through proxies than it
is to build their own search engine.
For a long time, Google's search results for MSDN were superior to
Microsoft's. Perhaps that's changed with Bing. In any case, it seems to
Google's advantage to provide the best search for MSDN.
------
forgotAgain
I think the greater damage is what Microsoft lost by being fixated on search
for so long. They went to where the puck is not to where it was going. Because
of that, they now face the same situation in mobile.
In other words they've become reactionary instead of being innovative.
------
disruptivetech
Many see online as a "loss-leader", consider it setting out your stall. MS
makes plenty of cash from selling product, but you could argue without the
online presence their sales would be diminished - so where they are on the
balance is what really needs to be considered i.e. if they shut up shop
online, what the cost to the OS/Office division would be now and in the
future?
There is always the hope to tough it out in the hop of eventually gaining more
market share as your competitors run out of steam and cash.
------
presty
February 2010..
~~~
nhebb
Here's a link to their latest financials:
[http://www.microsoft.com/investor/EarningsAndFinancials/Fina...](http://www.microsoft.com/investor/EarningsAndFinancials/Financials/FY10/Q4/SegmentRevenues.aspx)
The Online Services Division for 2010 had an operating loss of $2.355B.
------
mwerty
I think the infuriating logic goes something like this:
1\. If the shareholders held a gun to my head, can I make this profitable?
Answer is probably yes but for some tiny profit.
2\. Do I see any other big prizes I can spend money on given I'm running a
company with this skillset? Ans: Yes, but I still have lots left so what the
heck.
Plus, if they return money to shareholders in dividends, its waaaay less fun.
------
grandalf
To make the claim that this is a bad thing, one must argue that Microsoft's
stock would be worth more today if Microsoft had not been aggressive about
search.
How a company shows gains and losses is also very subjective. The numbers
could turn around and show strong profits around the time that bing reaches
45% market share (which will be soon).
~~~
dotcoma
45%? Not even in Ballmer's wet dreams.
Bing's market share is only up 4% since launch
[http://www.microsoft.com/investor/EarningsAndFinancials/Earn...](http://www.microsoft.com/investor/EarningsAndFinancials/Earnings/SegmentResults/OnlineServicesDivision/FY10/Q4/Performance.aspx)
and most of those gains must have come at the expense of Yahoo!
~~~
grandalf
What is your projection for search market share in 5 years?
It's a business that takes lots of investment in scale. I think Google is one
misstep away from Bing grabbing lots more share.
Google instant was a near-miss. Even on my new macbook wtih google chrome it's
annoyingly jittery and hinders the user experience.
~~~
junkbit
You can see how much they have moved in the past 12 months in this graph.
Project this forward 5 years [flash warning]
[http://gs.statcounter.com/?PHPSESSID=nv37oj3f3ovned6v8hr2mlp...](http://gs.statcounter.com/?PHPSESSID=nv37oj3f3ovned6v8hr2mlp4v0#search_engine-
ww-monthly-200911-201011)
~~~
dotcoma
so: not much. Or not?
------
moonhorse
I am a fan of Scott, but the last paragraph on Sinofsky is laughable. Online
business and software are different beasts. With all his advocation of the
dogmatic triad model, Sinofsky would for sure slow down online service
division and sink the business even more.
------
known
Sometime back I read MS _marketing_ budget is more than $2 billion.
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Germany to meet EU guidelines to ban single-use plastics by 2021 - yboris
https://mymodernmet.com/germany-single-use-plastic-ban/
======
air7
From my reading of the data, I feel that banning plastic bags (for example)
would do more harm than good (in 1st world countries). The alternatives
require more reuse than actually occurs in order to be environmentally viable
[0], waste management makes sure that no garbage gets into the ocean and is
either kept in a landfill or incinerated responsibility. And "dumping plastic
overseas" is a non issue: Its at most 10% of the exporting country's plastic
waste.
It's not that plastic doesn't cause expenditure of resources but rather that
life requiees that anyway and in most use cases plastic may be the most
enviormently friendly way to answer a need such as a carrying vessel for
forgetful people (again, in 1st world countries with excellent waste
management)
[0]
[https://www2.mst.dk/udgiv/publications/2018/02/978-87-93614-...](https://www2.mst.dk/udgiv/publications/2018/02/978-87-93614-73-4.pdf)
~~~
molmalo
> The alternatives require more reuse than actually occurs.
Where I live, we banned plastic bags in 2017. Every store at first sold cloth
bags, for buyers who didn't bring their own. Some weeks later, everyone had
several reusable bags, that they would bring when buying stuff, not a hard
thing to do.
Those bags last even years, so I don't understand why you think people
wouldn't reuse them. They actually are quite better (they don't make my
fingers hurt, won't break so easily, etc).
~~~
dogma1138
Because there is a study showing that some bags needs to be reused 50,000
times, degradable plastic bags which are then reused as rubbish bags or put
into recycling are a better option than the trendy cloth bags that have a
pretty substantial environmental impact and not the beneficial kind.
I don’t know about you but even if a bag lasts for years I don’t think it will
be reused more than 1000 times.
~~~
zaarn
It's not 50000 times. It's 131 times. Paper bags 3 times.
You can use a cloth bag 131 times easily.
[https://stanfordmag.org/contents/paper-plastic-or-
reusable](https://stanfordmag.org/contents/paper-plastic-or-reusable)
If like you assume the bag will not be used more than 1000 times, it beats
it's target to be better than plastic bags by a factor of 10.
------
teach
I hope this doesn't turn out like the ban on single-use plastic shopping bags
in Austin.
Many grocery stores "complied" by replacing the single-use bags with much
thicker "reusable" plastic bags. So now customers still don't bring their own
bags into the store, the new bags still aren't easily recyclable and I suspect
most are thrown away just as before.
Edit: on the other hand, the city of Austin's waste management is very
supportive of recycling and hopefully they'll support plastic film in the
single-stream collection and make it much easier for the average person to do
the right thing.
~~~
andrew_eit
This _may_ be a just factor of culture and attitude.
In Germany, single use plastic bags have not been allowed in supermarkets for
several years now and it has worked quite well IMO.
Yes you can buy thicker re-usable bags (sometimes made out of textiles or a
mixture of textiles and plastic) but by far many people bring their own bags,
or just load the stuff into shopping trollies and take it to their cars
(unfortunately the petrol/diesel car culture is still going strong :( ).
Also, in places like Lidl and Aldi, it's quite normal to just look for an
empty box of some product on the shelf(e.g. a box that had some canned goods)
and use that as your 'basket', stuff your items there, pay, go home and
dispose of the box in the paper recycle bin.
EDIT: I also forgot to mention, as an example of culture/attitude: plastic
bags are still available for fruit & vegetables but even then, people do make
their own choice to just take the produce without a bag, and place it 'loose'
at the cashier for them to weigh.
~~~
mjevans
I'd like to see a return of paper bags. That technology is very ecologically
friendly.
Really crummy paper bags for (dry) fresh food isolation, heavier re-usable for
takeout and carry. It's nice to have bags to be able to give to others and
forget about.
Re-usable produce containers should be sold too, and I'd prefer if those were
sold from a special part of the store so that consumers could pack in their
own togo containers.
~~~
gruez
> I'd like to see a return of paper bags. That technology is very ecologically
> friendly.
How? Random search turned up
>According to the previously cited U.K. study, it takes three reuses of a
paper bag to neutralize its environmental impact, relative to plastic. A bag’s
impact is more than just its associated carbon emissions: Manufacturing a
paper bag requires about four times as much water as a plastic bag.
Additionally, the fertilizers and other chemicals used in tree farming and
paper manufacturing contribute to acid rain and eutrophication of waterways at
higher rates.
[https://stanfordmag.org/contents/paper-plastic-or-
reusable](https://stanfordmag.org/contents/paper-plastic-or-reusable)
I guess you can argue that paper bags are compostable, but I'm not sure
whether that matters much. Plastic bags that are sitting in the landfill
doesn't harm the environment, and their bulk is negligible due to how
thin/light they are.
~~~
novia
> I guess you can argue that paper bags are compostable, but I'm not sure
> whether that matters much. Plastic bags that are sitting in the landfill
> doesn't harm the environment, and their bulk is negligible due to how
> thin/light they are.
The biodegradability of paper bags is the whole point here. You've seen the
sides of the roads. You've seen the streams and rivers. People get done with
their garbage and just throw it wherever. With garbage made out of plastic
that doesn't break down, this is a big deal.
~~~
gruez
>You've seen the sides of the roads. You've seen the streams and rivers.
My local rivers are relatively plastic-free. Same with roads. They're not
completely free of plastic, of course. Given that there are thousands of
plastic bags being dispensed in my neighborhood every day and that the
roads/rivers aren't being regularly cleaned, the fact that the neighborhood
isn't completely filled with plastic bags makes me think that the overall
disposal rate is pretty good.
Plastic litter might be the most _visible_ externality of single use plastics,
but I'm not quite sure whether tripling our co2 emissions from plastic bags is
a worthwhile trade for eliminating plastic bags from our neighborhoods.
------
andrew_eit
I have strong feeling that in the coming decades we will see strong growth in
the re-usable / repairable product market.
It's high time we got more creative in the products we mass produce, we've
grown complacent, something as simple as the plastic bag or the plastic straw
have caused such environmental destruction yet can actually be phased out with
behavioural modifications.
I would also argue that reusability and repairability is a part of the
equation of 'long-term economic mass production', at least for day-to-day
necessities where sterilisation isn't paramount.
Seriously, just looking at what I have lying around at home, even something as
mundane and as simple as a broom seems to have special plastic elements
(plastic hook on the top to hang on a wall, plastic lining in on the pole).
There's a lot of unnecessary un-recyclable waste out there and while banning
Single-Use plastics is a great step in the right direction, we need a paradigm
shift in how we think about the objects we construct.
~~~
vondur
I miss having glass Coke bottles. I can’t remember what shopping ing was like
when I was really young, but I’d imagine plastic containers were rare.
(1970’s)
------
kachurovskiy
It's always good to have less waste and single-use items. At the same time,
maybe it's better to use the oil in it's processed form (plastic) before
burning it[1] instead of burning it right away[2]? On the go, now you're
forced to pick up a 500g single-use glass bottle instead of a 20g plastic
bottle. Only 1-10k tons of German trash ends up in the ocean from 50M tons and
I don't think plastic spoons are a material % of that.
It's not that I love plastic, it's just the optimal choice for food packaging
now. Saying "I don't use plastic spoons" while following current consumption
standards makes no dent whatsoever.
[1] [https://www.tz.de/muenchen/stadt/muenchen-grosse-muell-
luege...](https://www.tz.de/muenchen/stadt/muenchen-grosse-muell-luege-warum-
verbrennen-wir-so-viel-abfall-9828158.html) [2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_Germany#Energy_consu...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_Germany#Energy_consumption)
~~~
badestrand
> It's not that I love plastic, it's just the optimal choice for food
> packaging now. Saying "I don't use plastic spoons" while following current
> consumption standards makes no dent whatsoever.
IMO the value is not only in the concrete measures taken (e.g. using wooden
spoons) but in the overall trend. We have the movement away from plastic right
now and while some single actions or policies may only have a negligible
effect there is a huge value in the big picture: Research for alternative
materials, lots of companies and consumers trying to figure our ways to reduce
waste and plastic usage. And boom, after a few years or decades we might have
a plastic free future where everyone consumes less and close to 100% of
materials are recycled.
Could we search for alternatives without banning single-use plastic bags?
Probably yes but the workings of society are messy and not always rational so
better take the path that actually works.
------
LargoLasskhyfv
Oh my gawd! Now vee vill be burried under heapz of dogpoop!
No, really. What about the dogpoo-bags?
It's mandatory to pack the shit of your dogs into bags, and drop them into
some trashbin in most places here.
Example: [https://www.hamburg.de/saubere-
stadt/7174714/gassibeutel/](https://www.hamburg.de/saubere-
stadt/7174714/gassibeutel/)
[https://www.hamburg.de/behoerdenfinder/hamburg/11260865/](https://www.hamburg.de/behoerdenfinder/hamburg/11260865/)
[https://www.hamburg.de/hundegesetz/](https://www.hamburg.de/hundegesetz/)
~~~
oseityphelysiol
I don't see why they can't be made out of paper.
------
pl-94
This measure is more of a symbol than an effective way to reduce carbon
emissions. Attacking symbols is a always nice, but isn't it a little bit late
for that? I can't wait the day where EU will try for real to follow Paris
agreement.
~~~
andrew_eit
I think you are talking about two different environmental issues.
Correct me if I'm wrong here, but the Paris Agreement covers climate change,
carbon emissions, energy production, etc.
The topic of single-use plastics, while related to sustainability, covers an
entirely different emerging issue, namely: the infiltration of micro-plastics
into our environment.
Besides the environmental effects that microplastics already seem to have,
such as hindering plant growth [1], microplastics are also entering the food
chain, and making their way back to us. The long-term affects are as far as I
know, quite unknown.
[1]
[https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.9b01339](https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.9b01339)
------
dgellow
As said in the body of the article, it’s a EU directive, Germany is just the
first country to act on it but other will follow. I feel that should be part
of the title instead of singling out one country.
~~~
akerro
There are also other non-EU countries that are following this directive,
Canada and Wales, it's a nice global movement.
------
stock_toaster
Does this also apply to medical devices? Some are disposable (like syringes)
for sanitization reasons.
~~~
jankassens
A different source [1] describes certain product categories. Initially
products like swabs, forks, plates, cups, stick for balloons that have non-
plastic alternatives.
[1] German: [https://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/umweltschutz-verbot-von-
ei...](https://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/umweltschutz-verbot-von-einweg-
plastik-kommt-mitte-2021-a-51e5fb32-7dca-4139-a8a9-734a4b893d00)
------
BallinBige
They also banned all ads for cigarettes & vapes. I think that's great.
|
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Grafana v6.2 - el_duderino
https://grafana.com/blog/2019/05/22/grafana-v6.2-released/
======
mikepurvis
Tried Grafana briefly a year or two ago, and I wanted to like it, but similar
to Kibana, it's laser-focused on the task of realtime monitoring current data.
I wanted to use it for a high-level view of historical stuff (robot data
recordings from ROS), and there was a lot of really basic functionality for
that use case that just wasn't there at all.
Even stuff as basic as being able to pan a plot back and forth after you've
zoomed in— here's the four year old ticket for that in their issue tracker:
[https://github.com/grafana/grafana/issues/1387](https://github.com/grafana/grafana/issues/1387)
I ended up generating Bokeh plots and had a much better time. So Grafana is
great for what it's great at, but I don't recommend it for uses other than
current-moment data.
~~~
nopzor
thanks for the feedback. there's definitely a lot of validity to what you're
saying, for what you describe.
grafana has traditionally been used for 'real time dashboarding and analytics'
in the IT/devops world. that's the original use case, and its sweet spot, as
you allude to.
but, since the beginning, the mission of the open source grafana project has
had nothing to do with IT per se. it was about democratizing metrics; helping
teams understand their 'systems', by breaking down silos between databases and
people.
over the last few years, interesting things are afoot in grafana community.
we're seeing grafana used for more and more non-IT use cases. it's being
deployed in the industrial and business worlds. about 10-20% of the grafana
community now deal with things that have nothing to do with IT/devops.
the 'systems' are no longer limited to things like servers, switches,
containers and clusters. these emerging users deal with things like
temperature sensors, dollars, robots and ambulances. we are making progress in
bringing grafana to these worlds, while also ideally improving it overall.
there's tangential threads in various stages of recent completeness (none of
which solve your specific issue admittedly). things like sql support, general
focus on ad-hoc analysis with ('explore'), the upcoming abstraction around
being able to better use ui components within grafana ('grafana/ui'), improved
support for tabular data, new panels, etc.
sorry about the four year old issue; i'd be lying if i said there weren't
myriad things we'd like to do, that don't make the cut not due to desire but
due to time and resources.
again, thanks for the feedback, please know that we're very interested in
continuing to develop and improve grafana for use cases like yours!
-r
[disclosure, very biased and opinionated response. am co-founder/ceo at
grafana labs. lucky enough to work with torkel and the team on making grafana
better]
~~~
mikepurvis
Thanks for the response and for a pretty cool open source project! Sorry my
comment dumping on it ended up being the top of the thread here. FWIW, I
definitely had a nicer time trying out Grafana than I ever have fighting with
Kibana, and I definitely liked that I was able to use it with SQL based
datasources rather than just Elastic.
------
markbnj
A fun little thing to do if you want to play around with the new release:
install prometheus, prometheus node_exporter, grafana, and grab the
node_exporter full dashboard from the grafana site. In like 10 minutes you've
got a pretty cool system info dashboard for your laptop :).
~~~
latchkey
I did this for 1500 raspberry pi-class litecoin miners. It was _awesome_ to be
able to see all the data in realtime across so many devices.
------
tbarbugli
Lazy loading is a feature I was waiting for long time, hopefully this time is
here to stay!
~~~
retzkek
If your dashboards have so many panels that lazy loading is important, you
need to reconsider your dashboard design. Endlessly scrolling to find the
panel you're interested in makes for a painful user experience, and it makes
it harder to compare series across panels.
I aim to keep dashboards no larger than what can be displayed in a single
window on a desktop, with perhaps some supplementary plots below, often in a
collapsed row. I make heavy use of "drill-down" links, preferably from tables
or single-stats (or more often the "status panel" for denser displays [1]), or
in panel notes otherwise, to dive further into the data.
When designing a dashboard, I ask myself "what story is this dashboard going
to tell?", and as with a good novel I try to keep from straying too far from
that narrative, branching side-plots out into new dashboards as needed.
[1] [https://grafana.com/plugins/vonage-status-
panel](https://grafana.com/plugins/vonage-status-panel)
~~~
mtrpcic
It depends on what your use case for the dashboard is. If the dashboard is
meant for constant display, then yes, too many panels is a bad user
experience. On the other hand, if you're trying to create a "Oh my god
something is wrong in production right now, show me everything so I can see at
a glance" dashboard, I would rather scroll than jump between 3 tabs because of
"aesthetics".
~~~
retzkek
Aesthetics? How about ergonomics? In the same vein as "alert fatigue," having
too many panels on a dashboard (or too many lines on a graph, etc) can
overload the user, and obscure the real issues.
> show me everything so I can see at a glance
Yes, exactly, at a glance, not after scrolling through five pages. With
careful dashboard design, you should be able to see a problem area actually
"at a glance," and then drill-down to pinpoint the actual cause, faster than
you'll find it scrolling through a single large dashboard.
I admit this is something of an ideal to aim for, and it can take a lot of
time and effort to achieve, which may not be available. However, it will pay
off in the "Oh my god something is wrong in production right now" scenario if
you can take that time.
~~~
zepolen
Agree, designing a good dashboard is a skill just like anything else it comes
with experience.
------
NickBusey
Those new gradient bar gauges look great, can't wait to use them on some
environmental data.
------
colechristensen
I have been having some fun recently with Grafana session storage. In the end
it seemed like a database issue which was unavoidable because there aren't
other options for session storage when you use a db (other than downgrading to
5.x)
After endless grinding with configuration options, debugging go code (new
skill) and javascript running in the browser I tried switching out to a local
mariadb and it worked instantly. Lesson learned, be wary of a Galera mysql
cluster. My running but unproved theory that during the login process the
creation of the user token in the db and reading it back happen so quickly
that the item isn't available yet so Grafana can't find it and logs the user
out.
------
BossingAround
If I have a CSV of a number of values (say in the thousands), and what I need
is basically a tool that will create a slick, good-looking graph that compares
two or more of these CSVs, what's the best tool for that? Think JMeter if that
rings any bells.
I honestly just used some basic graph-generation tools which would spit out
PNGs, which is always less than satisfying. I looked at Grafana, but never had
the time to actually try it out. My feeling also was that it was a bit
different of a use-case as I had no real-time data, but I may be totally wrong
here.
~~~
wielebny
We have JMeter to pump the data to InfluxDB and then visualise them in
Grafana.
Additionaly, you can see results while JMeter is still running.
------
dogtail
Waiting for better Loki integration.
~~~
netingle
Loki author here: got some ideas? We’re all ears!
~~~
mgbmtl
Hi! Any plans to release binaries? If I am currently using 1% of ELK features
(I use it for simple log aggregation of servers), but not k8s, would you still
recommend loki?
~~~
netingle
Yes we do! Plan on cutting v0.1 in the next week or so, kubecon kinda got in
the way... I’ll work on adding some binaries to that - what platform you
looking for?
~~~
nickserv
Not the OP but in the same situation. I run Debian 9 on my servers, would be
great to have some debs to try it out.
Thanks!
------
Sytten
Great job. Though I am still waiting for official CSP support, it seems like
it should already be there. Unfortunately the legacy angular code prevents us
from applying any real policy.
|
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|
Google/Alphabet partners with GSK to develop nerve implants - ucaetano
http://www.dw.com/en/google-parent-alphabet-makes-foray-into-futuristic-biotech/a-19441725
======
danielmorozoff
It's interesting to see where google sees this will go, given BMI tech is in
its infancy. Has anyone else heard more about this?
|
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|
SwiftUI and Catalyst: Apple executes its invisible transition strategy - colinprince
https://www.macworld.com/article/3402057/swiftui-and-catalyst-apple-executes-its-invisible-transition-strategy.html
======
thought_alarm
There is a disconnect between what Apple's engineers say vs. what the Apple
pundits at large think, and that disconnect is fucking gigantic.
Apple has never described Swift, Catalyst, or SwiftUI as a transition from or
to anything. Instead, Apple has gone out of its way to say that these are
_not_ transitions. Remember that big "NO" slide from last year?
When a transition is required, Apple does not ever hide it.
Classic Mac to OS X was a transition.
PPC to Intel was a transition.
UIWebView to WKWebView is a transition.
SwiftUI is no more a transition from AppKit/UIKit than Storyboards were a
transition from NIBs and programmatic UI.
Modern ObjC syntax, Enterprise Objects, Java/Cocoa Bridge, Ruby/Cocoa,
Python/Cocoa, Key-Value Observing/Encoding, ObjC Garbage Collection, ARC,
Storyboards, Playgrounds, Swift, SwiftUI, etc. These are not transitions.
These are all just tools in the toolbox. Some more useful than others.
The only thing Apple's engineers are trying to do here is create stuff that
developers find useful. There is no hidden or invisible strategy with this
stuff.
~~~
setpatchaddress
Carbon.
~~~
diesal11
Has been deprecated since 10.8 (2012) and was never ported to 64 Bit. It was
pretty clear they weren't working on a Carbon replacement imo.
~~~
stefanfisk
True, but the official deprecation was quite sudden, and anyone using at the
time and who expected Apple to be open and sensible about their API direction
was caught quite off guard.
------
atonse
I largely agree, although disagree about the point that this is unique to
Apple.
I think Microsoft also does quite a good job of maintaining compatibility and
slowly bringing people forward (to the point where it's often used as a
negative argument). As an outsider, the whole UWP thing felt like a bit of a
mess, so I'm not even sure what's the "modern" way anymore to build Windows
apps – is it UWP? WinForms? something else?
Apple benefits from having higher average quality of developers in its
ecosystem, which allows them to sunset things faster than, say someone like
Microsoft, who has to keep things backwards compatible for a decade+. While
there are larger applications (Adobe Suite) that dragged their heels on the
move from Carbon to Cocoa, a lot of software on macOS/iOS is written by
independent developers who do tend more to keep up with the latest frameworks.
~~~
addicted
Having been through the whole .Net Framework -> .Net Core processs, I think
one of the biggest problems with MS is that they just have pathetic naming.
Apple creates these new names that are unique, exciting, and evoke something
concrete. It makes it easier to remember what they mean when they’re talking
about something. So for example, their new UI framework is called SwiftUI
which builds off the swift legacy and logo and the emotion of being faster
therefore better, whereas MS’s was UWP. WTF is UWP supposed to evoke. How am I
supposed to mentally associate that with something.
And the .Net stuff was otherworldly. You had .Net Core, .Net framework, and
.Net standard. Other than Core, neither of the other have any unique meanings.
All the 3 are frameworks and standards. Or strongly associated with frameworks
and standards. 2 of them are technologies, and one is just a document, but
they all sound the same.
.Net core sounds like it should be a subset of the other stuff, yet it’s the
future. If it wasn’t MS who invented .Net Core, they may have given it a
different name, say, I don’t know, Mono, and it wouldn’t confuse the crap out
of people. They would need to be told it’s a ground up rewritten open source
implementation of the .Net Framework which will eventually supersede it once
and they would not get confused again.
~~~
FridgeSeal
Oh my god yes Microsoft’s naming conventions are mind boggling.
.Net Standard, .Net Framework, .Net Core, and they all do slightly different
things, and they seemingly change with version, and now there’s .Net Framework
5, which apparently replaces/unifies some of them but it’s not super clear.
Then you’ve got C# and F# and the specific language versions of those. Oh
also, don’t forget the fact that there’s inexplicably like, 3 different
package managers, which may or may not pull from the same place and it’s not
clear what the differences are.
Coming from Python (and a little bit of Rust) I had literally no idea what was
going on. I tried to learn C# twice and gave up out of sheer irritation and
confusion.
~~~
thrower123
Is there a third package manager now? There's the blessed one, NuGet, which
most use, and Paket, which the cool kids and F# people use, but if there's
another one out there I'm drawing a blank.
~~~
FridgeSeal
You can use the CLI as to do stuff. Not sure if it counts as package manager,
but coming from Python, being faced with 3 different ways to install packages
(I'm still not sure how environments/projects are supposed to work in .Net)
certainly added to the confusion.
------
gdubs
SwiftUI looks like it can bridge that final gap I’ve had with my Metal and
SpriteKit projects, which were _almost_ entirely cross platform. There will
still likely be distinctions in touch handling vs mouse — I haven’t had time
to fully explore SwiftUI yet — but I’m looking forward to simplifying the code
even further.
~~~
vardump
> which were almost entirely cross platform...
Cross-platform Metal and SpriteKit? Wouldn't it be better to code against
Vulkan (== MoltenVK) or OpenGL if being cross platform is the goal?
Or do you mean "cross platform" as for example Microsoft has often done.
Within _their_ platforms.
Current difficulty of developing native cross platform projects is depressing.
You have to use domain specific tools like Unity, React Native, etc. Or just
target the web browsers.
~~~
gdubs
Correct, within the Apple ecosystem — Mac, iOS.
~~~
josteink
So not so much cross platform as it’s commonly used, but rather multi-
targeting within the Apple-platform.
~~~
fastball
Mac OS / iOS / tvOS / WatchOS are certainly different platforms. The iPhone
and the Mac are very different products with very different use cases, so of
course they are different platforms.
It's not "all-platform", but this is definitely "cross-platform".
------
spinningslate
> [Catalyst/SwiftUI] provides iOS developers with a familiar set of tools and
> access to an entirely new platform
Rather think that's the wrong way round. Whilst it might be true in the short
term, it's really part of the MacBook/MacOS obsolescence plan. The next
generation of MacBooks - whatever they're called - will be an evolution of
ipad, using ARM hardware and running an iOS-derived OS. The recent creation of
ipadOS is another symptom of that transition.
Not that it changes the central thrust of the piece: that Apple does slow,
sustained, steady evolution well. But Catalyst/Swift aren't primarily about
giving developers access to an extra platform; it's to make sure there's a
ready-made market of apps and developers when the macbook range as we know it
goes away.
~~~
eridius
> _The next generation of MacBooks - whatever they 're called - will be an
> evolution of ipad, using ARM hardware and running an iOS-derived OS._
No they won't. I mean, it's conceivable that they could be using ARM chips
(though Apple would need a strategy for emulating x86_64 in this case, like
they did for PowerPC->i386), but there's no way they're going to be running
iOS.
Apple is slowly expanding the capabilities of the iPad, that's certainly true,
but it's not even close to replacing a laptop for all tasks. iPads are
becoming usable for more and more tasks, but there's a very long way to go
before the laptop is obsolete, and I don't expect iPad to ever actually go
that far (if it did, it would just end up being a laptop). Even given laptop
hardware, iOS is not set up to be able to replace macOS for all tasks.
Even ignoring all that, Catalyst is if anything evidence to the contrary, that
Apple sees macOS as being very much alive and wants to encourage more apps to
be developed for it. Catalyst isn't _just_ iOS apps on macOS, it's also tools
to extend your iOS codebase to adopt macOS-specific features, like multiple
overlapping windows of arbitrary sizes, menu bars, a mouse¹, titlebar
controls, and more.
¹I know iOS 13 now supports using a mouse on iPadOS, but it's just an
accessibility feature that looks to the app like a touch, it doesn't e.g.
support hover states, or encourage smaller click targets, or anything like
that.
~~~
spinningslate
>No they won't. I mean, it's conceivable that they could be using ARM chips
(though Apple would need a strategy for emulating x86_64 in this case, like
they did for PowerPC->i386)
Exactly. Apple has proven it can do emulation very successfully - it's already
done it twice (M68K->PPC->x86)
> there's no way they're going to be running iOS
I didn't say "running iOS", I said "an iOS-derived OS".
>Catalyst is if anything evidence to the contrary, that Apple sees macOS as
being very much alive and wants to encourage more apps to be developed for it.
That's the other interpretation. I don't see it personally: the central thrust
of the article is that Apple is really good at gentle evolution. MacOS has
seen no meaningful innovation in years. iOS, by comparison, has evolved
significantly. It's been steadily gaining more features that move it towards
being a laptop-capable OS (e.g. multi-tasking). It's certainly not there yet -
but that's the trajectory.
To be clear, when I said "next generation macbooks" I didn't mean "next
revision". It's probably several revisions away and it'll happen
incrementally.
Still, of course, it's just opinion :). Thanks for sharing yours.
~~~
eridius
If iOS gains enough features to replace macOS, then it will just be macOS
again. iOS is gaining new features, but it's still a rather constrained and
touch-focused environment. For example, you can do split-screen on iPadOS, but
you can't do arbitrary overlapping windows. Instead they're focusing on ways
to save "scenes" and switch between apps, but each app still owns the portion
of the screen it's been given (and those portions are very constrained; full-
size, half, 1/3rd, or a slightly shorter 1/3rd in a slide-over; and the 1/3rd
size is literally supposed to be your iPhone UI). They added mouse to iPadOS
but strictly as an accessibility feature, and apps can't even detect that the
mouse is there, let alone add mouse-related functionality. The file system is
still heavily locked down. There's still no process spawning or any indication
that Apple will ever allow process spawning (which is a hard blocker for a lot
of developer tools). iPads support external screens, but not as the primary
display (that's basically just for projecting stuff, e.g. presentations or
photos).
Ultimately, there's no point in relaxing these restrictions for an "iOS-
derived" laptop OS. The primary argument in favor of unifying macOS and iOS
was the fact that iOS has a lot of developer momentum and that way you can use
iOS apps on macOS, but that's exactly what Catalyst gives us already. Apple is
working towards unifying stuff at the developer API level (e.g. Catalyst,
SwiftUI, etc) but at the OS level macOS and iOS are quite distinct and will
stay that way.
------
throwaway34927
TLDR: over time, Apple transitions from one technology/development platform to
another. author calls this an "invisible" strategy because... it's done
properly and methodically.
~~~
scarface74
I can’t think of a single transition that Apple botched. They even had a good
transition strategy from the Apple //e to Mac for users with the //e card.
~~~
ken
Apple II->III? Mac->Copland? Mac->Taligent? Apple IIgs->Mac?
HyperCard->(nothing)? Carbon 32b->64b (as originally promised)? FCP 7->X?
iMovie HD->08? iWork '09->2013? Mac Pro 2012->2013->2019?
It depends on your definition of "botched", but I can think of lots of
examples of cases where Apple either gave up, or essentially reverted their
changes, in the face of public outcry or technical hurdles.
I wouldn't really call the IIe card a "transition strategy", either, any more
than Mac86 was. It was a kluge to add another entire computer as an add-on
card. It didn't help move your programs or data at all. It also only emulated
a IIe (8 years old at that point), not a IIgs (only 5 years old). It was only
a 'transition' for the absolute penny-pinching-est buyers, i.e., education.
~~~
inspector-g
Some of your examples are pertinent, but I think calling MacOS->Copland,
MacOS->Taligent, HyperCard->(nothing) "botched transitions" is a bit
disingenuous.
Copland never shipped, and as such was not a transition at all, because the
public was not directly involved in the internal failure. Taligent basically
never shipped anything, and so the same argument applies.
The replacement OS that Apple _actually_ shipped (OS X) aided a legacy
transition that I think went down basically as well as it possibly could have
(given the inherent dissimilarities between the two OSes).
HyperCard was merely killed off, so there was clearly no transition at all.
That's like saying Newton->(nothing) failed as a transition.
|
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What's the history behind 192.168.1.1? - vinnyglennon
https://www.quora.com/Whats-the-history-behind-192-168-1-1-Why-not-192-169-1-1-or-any-other-IP-address-When-did-it-start-being-used-Who-started-it-Why-Why-not-1-1-1-1-What-is-the-relation-to-127-0-0-1-What-about-10-0-0-1-Apple?share=1
======
insickness
This explains the reason private ranges were designated but not why
192.168.0.0 in particular within the Class C range was designated to be
private. Does anyone know why that number in particular was chosen?
~~~
egwynn
Found this link in one of the responses on that page:
[https://superuser.com/questions/784978/why-did-the-ietf-
spec...](https://superuser.com/questions/784978/why-did-the-ietf-specifically-
choose-192-168-16-to-be-a-private-ip-address-class)
Similarly, I expect Postel picked 192.168 because, at the time he made the
choice, it was the next available, or nearly the next available, network to be
assigned from the former Class C space. This probably can't be proved one way
or the other, but the pace of address assignments shown in the RFCs strongly
suggests that they would have been in this general vicinity around 1993-1994
when the assignments were made. (Addresses in 192.159 were being assigned in
1992. No dates are available for assignments in 192.160-192.167 as these were
at some point reallocated to RIPE.)
~~~
danpat
To be clear, the 192 part is the lowest "Class C" network prefix. The 168 part
was the arbitrary time-dependent part from the allocation database.
~~~
egwynn
Correct, thanks for making that explicit.
------
garganzol
What the given article does not address is when to choose 10.x.x.x, 172.x.x.x
and 192.168.x.x and why it's important to choose the right one.
Here is the prescribed solution:
\- Use 10.x.x.x for office/enterprise LANs
\- Use 192.168.x.x for home LANs
\- Use 172.x.x.x for supplementary services like guest networks, DMZ etc
Why so? The reason is VPN.
When you connect to office VPN from home, you connect from 192.168.x.x to
10.x.x.x. This makes it very easy for routers to avoid address range clashes.
If you break that rule then you may end up with a weird situation when you
connect from a home network 10.0.1.1/24 to an office network 10.0.1.1/24\.
Good luck trying to connect to that specific 10.0.1.12 machine: there is no
easy way to determine where the packet should be routed.
~~~
keshav_
what if I have two homes?
~~~
forapurpose
Or if you are visiting someone else, you're in a cafe, a hotel ...
~~~
limeyx
Or your home is in a hotel but you walk down to the cafe ... should you
renumber ?
------
6t6t6t6
Something I never understood is why people choose 192.168.1.1 for private
networks.
Being all the other factors equal, isn't 10.1.1.1 easier to type and more
"aesthetically pleasant"?
~~~
forapurpose
> Something I never understood is why people choose 192.168.1.1 for private
> networks
While interviewing someone for an entry-level job, I told the interviewee that
there was a network using 10.0/16 (a 16-bit subnet mask, or more popularly
10.0.x.x). He corrected me and said that 10.0.0.0 networks should have an 8
bit subnet mask (10.x.x.x). On one hand, I definitely liked that he was
willing to challenge me, even during an interview, and that he knew the spec
(RFC 1918 does assign an 8-bit mask to the 10. private network). On the other
hand, I wasn't sure he was technically correct that a 16-bit mask was wrong,
even if 8-bits was 'correct', and I couldn't see what negative consequence the
16-bit subnet had - his thinking seemed a bit rigid. Anyway, maybe there are
other purists who believe smaller networks should use 192.168/16, or maybe
they instinctively use it because the RFC gives it the smaller network
allocation. Or maybe they know something that I don't.
> isn't 10.1.1.1 easier to type and more "aesthetically pleasant"?
And it's much easier for non-technical people to understand and to remember
without error. In fact, I recommend something even easier, such as 10.9.8.x.
For people supporting the non-technical, those little details can save hours,
even a day. I've seen cases where after hours of frustration, the support tech
discovers that the user typed in something like 129.168, or 192.16.8. Great
support reps are great humanitarians, able to handle those situations with
grace, without humiliating the poor user, and without heavy drinking.
EDIT: clarifying edit
~~~
srj
10/8 is a class A range (high order bit = 0), but CIDR says that you can
separately describe which bits are for the network. Unless this interview was
conducted more than 20 years ago I'd say your interviewer was mistaken.
~~~
forapurpose
> I'd say your interviewer was mistaken
Is that what you meant to say? The interviewer (me) thought that 10.0/16 was
fine, which I think agrees with your analysis. The interviewee said only 10/8
was correct.
(Re-reading my GP comment I realize that my role might have been ambiguous, so
I've clarified it.)
~~~
HighPlainsDrftr
If you said 10/24, I'd immediately think 10.0.0.0/24\. 10/8 would certainly be
valid. 10.0/16 is too.
I remember when CIDR came around back in the 90's. Man people were pissed off
when you would call out a 'Class A/B/C/D/E' block. I prefer to always be
specific when writing my CIDR. I understand when people don't do it.
Be liberal in what you accept and conservative in what you send.
~~~
forapurpose
Yes, Postel's advice applies to many things.
I think there is some misunderstanding. The question wasn't the notation but
the subnetting. See the story in the GGP.
------
HighPlainsDrftr
Up until 4 years ago, I used to always allocate addresses specifically on bit
boundaries. I did this mainly for one reason - aligning the bytes and trying
not to waste CPU cycles.
For example, in a /24 network: 0-15 - network equipment 16-31 - some special
gear 32-63 - mail servers or something like that 64-127 - split it up and
align more things 128-191... you get the point.
... The ultimate goal was to hit everything on a bit boundary so the CPU
wouldn't work so hard
These days, CPU power is so prominent, it doesn't matter. DHCP is probably the
way to go.
IPv6 is here. We have the opportunity to really make CPU's fast again with
IPv6!
~~~
anyfoo
What's a "bit boundary" in this context? And how does you subclassing scheme
prevent wasted CPU cycles. at all?
------
derekp7
I wish there was a netblock reserved for packets that never leave a physical
(or virtual) host, that could be used for the default internal network for
things like Docker. In my case, Docker defaulted to 172.17.0.0/16, which
happened to conflict with one of the IP ranges for my wing of the building at
work.
I've resorted to using RFC 5737 (test-net-1 through 3) IP ranges for this
purpose, even though that isn't what they are designed for.
~~~
y4mi
Uuh, 127.0.0.1 never leaves the physical machine. It's also a full subnet, so
127.0.0.254 would work as well.
Dockers main usecase just isn't purely internal, do using that ip range
wouldn't make any sense
~~~
y4mi
Too late to edit my message, so I'll use a response instead. Docker rebinds
the 127 network to each container, so you cant - by default - communicate
through these IP Addresses.
An easy fix could be to just let the container use the hosts network stack
(so, not network type: bridge). After that, you can bind the daemons to
specific IP Addresses in the subnet - i.e. 127.0.0.2:3306 DB1 127.0.0.3:3306
DB2 and they'll be able to communicate directly.
But as mentioned before: this is not the primary usecase for docker, so its
cumbersome to use.
------
k__
I still learned about net classes, subnetting and supernetting in 2003, to me
it was how networks worked till a few yeara ago :D
~~~
forapurpose
What changed a few years ago? IPv6?
~~~
k__
I read about classless internet domain routing.
------
dlhavema
I gotta try out the 127.0.0.x thing at the end of the article. I never knew
the range was so large!
~~~
jarfil
It's actually 127.x.x.x, a whole class A.
------
dlandis
Ugh, not another site that blocks pinch to zoom gestures on mobile. It doesn’t
make sense to me why so many (quite popular) sites care so little about
enabling their users to comfortably read their content. The solution, for now,
is to use Safari since it started ignoring that setting, but unfortunately
Chrome still allows it for some reason.
|
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Wedding Startup RegistryLove (YC S12) Lets Couples Register For Anything - Jerpo
http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/16/yc-backed-wedding-startup-registrylove-lets-couples-register-for-anything/
======
creativename
From their "Tour" page:
_The fun part! Browse and shop our gorgeous gift catalogue filled with
inspiration and ideas and add things to your registry_
While their (more obscure) "How it Works" page says:
_Find things you love on our gift database, or list gifts and services from
your favorite stores._
I think they could do a better job of making it clear that you can go and add
registry items from everywhere. And honestly, as someone who just got engaged,
I would probably be inclined to use Amazon Universal Registry if it came down
to it (as someone else mentioned).
Edit: Part of the confusion is that I skimmed the landing page and went right
to the bottom. I looked so quickly for the call to action that I skipped the
tag line! (Any Gift. Any Store. One Registry.)
~~~
thomasfl
"How it Works" for HN people is Ruby on Rails, google hosted webfont, twitter
bootstrap css and javascript.
Would like to know a bit more about the business side of it.
------
w1ntermute
The most difficult part about getting into the wedding business as a startup
is _advertising_. People (hopefully) only get married once, and they're
usually too happy to go shopping around for deals. This is why wedding
businesses can rake in huge profits by ripping off their customers. You get
similar phenomena in the baby business and the funeral business (although with
the latter the lack of interest in comparison shopping is due to grief). So
RegistryLove's success will hinge largely on their ability to get the word out
to the general public.
~~~
patio11
The mortuary industry is also covered by state regulations designed to keep
out competition, justified by entirely specious public health reasons. For
example, it is illegal to import wooden boxes without a license in most
American states, if those boxes are intended to be either buried or burned.
Wooden boxes are well-understood commodity items which, if they had an OSHA
sheet, would be stamped "generally regarded as safe."
The bridal-industrial complex does not benefit from similar regulations, but
_not for want of trying_.
~~~
minikites
Honest question: could the wooden box license be intended to slow the
transport of pests via wood? Moving firewood that hasn't been heat treated has
been responsible for a lot of pest plagues in forests.
~~~
travisp
If so, it would be about moving wood that hasn't been heat treated. The law is
generally worded to specifically be related to the funeral business. There are
other laws that are similarly restrictive, such as a law in Louisiana that
prohibits anyone from selling "funeral merchandise" if not licensed:
[http://abcnews.go.com/Business/casket-making-monks-fight-
sel...](http://abcnews.go.com/Business/casket-making-monks-fight-sell-
wares/story?id=11489765)
------
jschulenklopper
They could do some work on the (privacy) protection of those registries, for
example by making the URLs of registry a little harder to guess. (Yeah, I
know, adding obscurity instead of security, but nevertheless).
I wanted to see an example list, didn't knew a valid first and last name to
search for, so guessed <http://registrylove.com/registries/> and some low ID
number after that. Pronto!
I don't know if some Daisy & Javier mind that I can see their wishlist for
their wedding. Personally I would have wanted to keep that list a little more
private to only those people knowing I had registered my list at RegistryLove.
~~~
masterzora
I'll admit I haven't dealt with wedding registries much at all (really, I
watched somebody use a registry kiosk at a store once and that's about it) but
I was always under the impression that registries are generally pretty much
public.
~~~
Kerrick
You're right. If you know the first and last name of either the bride or the
groom, and the store at which they registered, you can access their registry.
This is by design--stores want it to be easy to find what the B&G want,
because they want it to be easy for you to buy something for them.
~~~
jschulenklopper
I could access a registry by guessing an ID (an ActiveRecord primary key, so
just an integer), not searching for names. Agreed, this isn't very useful, but
the list isn't protected/obscured if the URLs are that easy to guess.
For example, at Amazon Universal Wishlist, the ID of a valid wishlist is very
hard to guess -- like 6HV8XSTGDT3E7-difficult. On top, you can select whether
you want that list to be public (discoverable via name search), visible if one
knows the link, or private.
------
tedchs
My engaged brother is using Amazon Universal Registry for this purpose -
<http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/universal>
~~~
Jerpo
We provide a personal concierge and service unparalleled by Amazon. Amazon
does have a large collection of item's but they don't partner with local
boutiques!
~~~
eli
(To be clear: the amazon service lets you add anything with a website, not
just items sold through the site)
~~~
MixWish
We're still in Beta, but <http://www.mixwish.com> allows you to add items from
any website as well. Similar concept to Amazon, but much easier to use.
~~~
heretohelp
This has gotten comically out of control and is probably saying something
about the wedding industry.
~~~
eli
Speaking of Amazon, you may enjoy: [http://www.amazon.com/One-Perfect-Day-
Selling-American/dp/15...](http://www.amazon.com/One-Perfect-Day-Selling-
American/dp/1594200882)
------
jbenz
Based on the name and the vertical, I thought this was going to be another
site from the team behind <http://weddinginvitelove.com/>,
<http://weddingplannerlove.com/>, <http://weddingphotolove.com/>, etc... but
there appears to be no connection. Interesting to see that this naming
convention is becoming a pattern.
~~~
Geekette
I'm actually quite surprised that this team would use this name when another,
earlier company (WeddingLovely) has clearly established that naming pattern
for its own name and that of all its products/business lines as you mentioned
(WeddingInviteLove, WeddingPlannerLove, WeddingPhotoLove). If they did any
research on startups in this space, they must have come across WeddingLovely,
so why continue with this name choice?
------
rwhitman
_None knew how to code, so Sofia taught herself... “At first we tried to hire
somebody, but we quickly realized that master coders are just not that
interested in the wedding market,” says Markia, “and we were like, well, we
could just sit here forever or we could just do it.”_
I advised a startup with a premium domain in the wedding space a few years
back. Both founders were non-tech founders, and they struggled day and night
to find a tech... anything. Lots of folks like myself offered little bits of
assistance and packages of discount consulting work but nobody was really
willing to commit and take the plunge as a tech cofounder. I'm sure this is a
common story. If you don't have a huge amount of capital investment its really
hard to rally tech folks behind bootstrapping something like this
------
endtime
We've been using myregistry.com and have been perfectly happy with it.
MyRegistry syncs directly with several popular registries, and lets you add
anything not in one of those stores with a bookmarklet that intelligently
grabs name/price/etc. from the page you're on.
It doesn't sound like this doesn't anything significantly different, other
than having syncing with more stores (which is, admittedly, nice).
------
benhoyt
Huh, interesting that it's YC-backed. It overlaps with my own website
<http://GiftyWeddings.com> \-- though mine is more of a gift list, where you
really can add any gifts you like (you just type them in, and optionally add a
web link).
One thing that really put me off trust-wise with Registry Love is the payment
page (for guests) is sent, and I think submitted, over clear-text HTTP, for
example <http://registrylove.com/carts/N/payment>
------
petemack
Is the only difference between this and all the other gift registries like
<http://wantsthis.com> <http://wishpot.com> etc. that they handle
payment/customer service? I'd be curious to see how things like returns and
really odd items like "cash" are handled.
------
Elessar
Is this international? I would recommend the service to friends but can't find
any list of which retailers are supported from the FAQ or About pages. I
suppose I could create an account and trudge deeper but honestly, I can't be
arsed to do that much work just to find out if Canada is supported and
advertise this to my friends.
~~~
marikachen
Hey there! We are currently focused on the SF Bay area, but we are expanding
very quickly! Depending on what they are looking for we may be able to
accommodate them immediately. I appreciate you considering suggesting us, and
would love to hear from you/or them at any time! Marika@registrylove.com
------
fmcferran12
We launched this social feed feature today and play in this space:
<https://knackregistry.com/hot>
Instead of browsing through various retailers websites knackregistry.com has
set up a What’s Hot product feed so brides can easily see what friends and
other brides are adding to their Knack registries. When a bride finds
something she wants she just clicks the add to my registry button and the item
will be added from the feed to her registry.
------
ernestipark
This would've been fantastic for my family member who got married recently.
------
kumarski
Almost makes me want to get married....NOT. but cool shtuff.
------
ukd1
Great idea, my sister would have loved this too!
------
marikachen
Thanks! <3 Marika
|
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Google Wave Patent License (what does this mean?) - paulgb
http://www.waveprotocol.org/patent-license
======
tlrobinson
Google promises not to sue you (or rather gives you a license so they can't
sue you) for violating any of their patents while implementing the Wave
Protocol. Unless you sue them.
Pretty standard for open specifications backed by large companies, I think.
------
glevy
Leave it to the attorneys to come up with scary stuff. It seems that Google
may be learning from Microsoft to push its weight around. I wonder if this
would violate antitrust laws?
Under normal circumstances if Google were a smaller company, an inventor whose
invention have been infringed by Google, would have the option of shopping
around and use another product than Wave. And Google may be entirely in its
own right to refuse providing him with a service. However, given the potential
of Wave and the enormous size of Google, Wave could possibly completely
replace email. Depriving the inventor of the Wave license would cause him
irreparable harm since he cannot shop around for a comparable product.Google
is facing an antitrust issue. Google is becoming like Microsoft.
Here is another angle: Background: If several persons are co-inventors on a
wave invention without having assigned it to a single entity such as a
company, then each co-inventor own 100% of the invention. This means that each
one can independently conduct business such as leasing or selling 100% of the
invention. So let's say that Google infringes on the invention and one of the
inventors sues Google for 100% of damage. Google by contract can cancel the
license for that one inventor but the other ones can still use the wave
license. So one of the inventor needs to be willing to sacrifice himself.
Who would sue Google anyways???? Microsoft???
------
paulgb
_If you institute patent litigation against any entity (including a cross-
claim or counterclaim in a lawsuit) alleging that the implementation of the
specification constitutes direct or contributory patent infringement, then any
patent licenses for the specification granted to you under this License shall
terminate as of the date such litigation is filed._
This part piqued my interest. So if I sue some third party because I feel
Google's implementation of Wave violates my patent, I lose the license to the
Wave patents? Or if I feel that a third party implementation of Wave violates
my patents, do I also lose my license?
Eg. if a Wave implementation violates my (say) encryption patent, and I file a
lawsuit for patent violation, do I lose my license to the Wave patents?
Seems like a neat way to scare off patent trolls, but I'm not sure I'm
interpreting it right.
~~~
wmf
I think you are interpreting it right, although it won't have any effect on
pure patent trolls since they don't need to license Google's patents anyway.
|
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My Favorite Pieces of Syntax in 8 Different Programming Languages - yakkomajuri
https://medium.com/@yakko.majuri/my-favorite-pieces-of-syntax-in-8-different-programming-languages-ba37b64fc232
======
perfunctory
def even_numbers(limit):
return [num for num in range(0, limit, 2)]
It’s unfortunate they chose this specific example because it doesn’t really
show the power of list comprehensions. This example could be written as
return list(range(0, limit, 2))
Or even simply
return range(0, limit, 2)
If one doesn’t need a mutable list.
~~~
yakkomajuri
Great point! Was trying to keep examples simple but that just flew over my
head. Updated the article. How about the new example?
def squares(limit): return [num*num for num in range(0, limit)]
If you have another suggestion I'd be happy to hear it!
~~~
perfunctory
Much better.
|
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Shunting-yard Algorithm - wooby
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shunting-yard_algorithm
======
BigZaphod
Yeah, it's a neat algorithm. I think we implemented it in college. I'm not
sure why it was posted here, though. Is there a greater context to this that
I'm missing?
~~~
memetichazard
Possibly related to this story (<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=928025>)
which has to do with parsing.
|
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Karl Rove's book vs. Rework - what the American People need to know - henning
http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2209-karl-roves-book-vs-rework-what-the-american-people-need-to-know
======
mixmax
This is genius. 37signals is already a strong brand, but only in a relatively
narrow niche. This is an excellent way of marketing their new book to a much
broader segment that doesn't necessarily know that they're behind ROR, or read
their blog. There are several things worth noticing:
1) They create an "attack ad" on Karl Rove, thereby putting themselves on
level with a much much bigger player and leveraging themselves onto a pedestal
where they don't belong. They seem like big guys battling another big guy.
They've used this tactic before comparing their product to Microsoft and
Google as if they're equals.
2) They've picked one of the most unpopular people in America to attack. No-
one will feel sorry for Rove, and everyone will love 37signals.
3) As stated above, they are sure to have this video passed around much larger
circles than their normal reach allows them since it's funny, sarcastic and
not about programming or project management. Everyone understands it.
4) It'll probably be controversial. This is a favorite tactic of 37signals,
and if they're lucky they'll be on talkshows around the country getting free
publicity for their book while telling the American public that Karl Rove's
book is too long, written in a French font and thus isn't patriotic.
I don't care much for their products but their marketing is absolutely
amazing.
~~~
patio11
While I don't doubt that hitting Karl Rove is effective (because you don't
have to push buttons which are emotional for everyone, you just have to push
buttons which are _really_ emotional for at least some folks who control
links), I just have a quick comment to make: be careful about attributing your
own views to the population at large.
(The overwhelming majority of Americans do not know who Rove is and a large
portion of the remainder will vaguely remember "Political something-or-other,
right? Helped get Obama elected?" Of those who actually know who he is, many
come from that weird niche market called "the other half of the country.")
~~~
axod
Agreed. He's #5 on the Amazon best seller list for a reason.
Similarly, it'd probably be a bad idea to do an attack piece on religion,
however silly the idea of religion is to most of us here.
------
byrneseyeview
The narrator needs to be an octave lower, and they could have some more pauses
between sentences. But this was a surprisingly good job. There aren't that
many attack ad tropes, but they really seem to work.
Although it's missing a picture of the 37signals guys outside, with their
golden retriever. I can't buy them as morally superior until I've seen that.
~~~
sophacles
Can you expand on the moral superiority of a golden retriever vs a labrador or
possibly a dalmation?
~~~
tomsaffell
It's not moral, it's chromatic.. <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1193657>
------
pclark
Fantastic. I loved the Garamond = french font joke.
------
kadavy
"When it came time to choose a font, Rove selected Garamond, a kind of type
developed in France, and NOT by hard-working Americans."
Shoulda gone with Goudy.
------
run4yourlives
People: Learn how to market by watching these guys. This is what they do best.
------
collision
I love their own use of Garamond in the ad.
------
nkassis
Ok, I'm going to order this book just for the ad. I hope this doesn't make me
a political ad sheep. The sheer genius of the ad makes me think that the book
might have something good in it for me.
~~~
aaronbrethorst
Neither the book or the ad contains demon sheep. That alone elevates it above
much of our country's political discourse [1] ... ;-)
[1] <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRY7wBuCcBY>
------
mhd
While I dislike self-help books almost as much as neocon apologetics, this ad
should be rewarded. Is the Kindle version readable (no DX), i.e. no special
layout or pictures get lost/scrambled?
~~~
nwjsmith
The Kindle version is excellent, the pictures are crisp, no special layout.
~~~
axomhacker
I just "picked up" the Kindle version and it looks excellent on my DX. However
the Amazon detail page says it's "Optimized for Larger Screens", which means:
"This title has complex layouts and has been optimized for reading on Kindle
DX's or Kindle for PC's larger screen, but can still be viewed on other
devices.
<http://www.amazon.com/Rework-ebook/dp/B002MUAJ2A>
------
jayair
I liked it. Good job 37s. They constantly work to grow their brand and have
fun while doing it as well.
------
pw0ncakes
On a scale of 1 to 10 I give that ad an Aleph_37. Well done.
------
dejan
ok, I will respectfully disagree with most of you here, as there is nothing
"comical" about it.
This made me officially sick, although so far had high opinion of them. I
didn't get the joke of "french" font, and "hard working americans." I
feel...insulted, as this is a way how to promote stupidity and national
hatred. The guy wrote a book, and just because it is one position higher, he
is a subject of an attack like this. Did they even read his book? No, it was
easier to search the internet of a guy who didn't like it and quote it.
Maybe tomorrow it is >you< there, with your book, or your product. Or me?
Wasn't the content that mattered? I've seen excerpts from Rework and feel this
is a toilet book. Inarticulate and arrogant, I know it all style, but I don't
go making a video comparing their book with e.g. Re-Imagine by Tom Peters.
Tom has an attitude, but not an insulting one, but of a creative energy, an
innovative arrogance that he wishes to spread.
Again, it could be just me. I would never smack Americans with "All
European/Asian/African" labels. Nationality, religion and all other kinds of
divide are elements of mediocrity. Real hackers should know that.
~~~
samdk
Karl Rove practically _invented_ the attack ad.
This is not an attack ad, it's a satire of an attack ad. Taken literally, yes,
it's pretty stupid--attack ads generally are. But that's missing the point.
~~~
anamax
> Karl Rove practically invented the attack ad.
No, he didn't.
Attack ads predate both TV and radio and were run on both almost immediately
after they became available.
~~~
philwelch
Rove learned most, if not all, of his tricks from Lee Atwater, who was the
Karl Rove of the Reagan/Bush era.
~~~
gruseom
There's a superb documentary called _Boogie Man_ about Atwater, who died
horribly and spent his last years seeking out everyone he had wronged with his
ads and asking for their forgiveness. He was an amazing, contradictory
character, a larger-than-life sort who holds far more interest than the
pusillanimous toady Rove. I watched that documentary late at night in a hotel
room during the 2008 campaign; I was on a consulting trip and had to get up
early the next morning, but I couldn't turn it off. It explains a great deal
about how all that dirt became commonplace.
~~~
GmanFUNK
Yeah, it's an amazing hilarious movie and those guys did it totally
independent and then sold it to TV. Buy a DVD on their website (i Did) because
it has killer bonus features too and i'm into supporting the Little Guy.
www.BoogieManFilm.com
|
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Ask HN: Please review my crazy idea. - thetrumanshow
So I took one of jacquesm's ideas from his list:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1790564<p>... as I told him I would do:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1791494<p>... and build a gadget around the (5) AdProfs idea:
http://fcgadgets.blogspot.com/2010/10/ad-spaces-gadget.html<p>... and honestly, I have no idea what I am getting myself into.<p>I would love it if some friendly HN folks would chime in and tell me what they would do if they were in my stead. And, if they are knowledgeable about such things, let me know what kinds of pitfalls to avoid here.<p>Thanks!!
======
RiderOfGiraffes
Clickables:
\+ <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1790564>
\+ <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1791494>
\+ <http://fcgadgets.blogspot.com/2010/10/ad-spaces-gadget.html>
|
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US Patent system so dysfunctional you can patent a stick from a tree - lotusleaf1987
http://www.google.com/patents?id=hhYJAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract&zoom=4#v=onepage&q&f=false
======
ck2
We need to sponsor that image as a billboard in Washington D.C. to get the
mainstream news to cover it and then maybe Congress to look at it eventually.
~~~
drndown2007
Anyone have any idea how much it would cost? I'm in for $100 or more
~~~
civilian
Estimates here: [http://www.bluelinemedia.com/billboard-advertising-
media_13....](http://www.bluelinemedia.com/billboard-advertising-
media_13.html)
------
jws
Check the last two pages. It only took 4 years for a re-examination to cancel
all 20 claims.
~~~
wisty
Fantastic. Only four years in which anyone throwing a stick to a dog could be
creditably threatened with a patent suit.
My gut says that the threat would be hollow, but my gut says a lot of things.
Like that "1-Click" is too obvious to patent - all you need is a requirement
"reduce the number of steps a user needs to place a purchase order", and
that's the logical conclusion. Can you tell me if 1-click patents are valid?
If anything can be patented (if not actually defended), and patent threats
(even hollow ones) are an obstacle to new businesses, how is the patents
system encouraging innovation?
I know pg advises to ignore other companies patents completely (though you
should file a few of your own), and worry about the flack when you have
something to lose, but that doesn't mean the system isn't crap.
~~~
RyanMcGreal
> all you need is a requirement "reduce the number of steps a user needs to
> place a purchase order", and that's the logical conclusion.
That's it - my new goal is to invent and patent the Zero-Click Purchase.
You read it here first.
~~~
eftpotrm
Slashdot described the method and benefits for this many years ago, so could
be cited as prior art.
~~~
Symmetry
My college dorm's Laundry webservers were slashdotted but someone was still
able to come along later, patent the idea, and try to sue us.
~~~
eftpotrm
... which is just another example of that which has long been implemented (and
sometimes long been patented) still managing to attract protection. However,
at least when there is a significant pre-established publication of the idea
the 'try to' becomes rather more significant than the 'sue' and they can be
got rid of rather more easily.
~~~
Symmetry
Yes, and really it wasn't much of a problem for us. The company still has a
monopoly on the laundry-webserver business, though, and overcharges other
people horribly.
~~~
eftpotrm
Hmm. If this sort of thing is happening with any regularity the other side of
this argument is that there needs to be a clearer, simpler way for patents to
be struck down. If it's not valid for one it's not valid for any and any other
position is dangerously close to extortion.
------
alexqgb
Meanwhile, back in Washington, the Administration continues to bloviate about
other nations, and their "failures to respect intellectual property law".
At what point are those nations going to lose enough patience to point out the
unbelievable corruption, cynicism, and mind-bending incompetence with which
the law is administered in the first place?
~~~
throwaway8487
>> unbelievable corruption
Any proof?
~~~
steveklabnik
Every time Mickey Mouse is about to go out of copyright, the term mysteriously
gets extended...
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_mouse_law>
~~~
bioh42_2
There is nothing mysterious about it. This is what I call "legal corruption".
Lobbying is fully within the law of the land. It may not be _right_ but it is
legal.
Unfortunately I don't see a way of changing this. Not within a republic with a
representative government. And I don't see America switching to Swiss style
direct democracy either.
(Americans seem to have a reflex to Goodwin any thread as soon as someone
mentions "direct democracy", please don't today. And please do read up on how
a certain someone actually got to power.)
The only hope I see is technology (Pirate Bay!) not to "fix" copyright and
patent law, but simply to make their enforcement less effective.
~~~
alexqgb
The issue isn't lobbying per se. After all, you can't have a viable
representative government if you're not allowed to talk to your
representatives (or petition them, as the Constitution puts it).
At the same time, you can't expect those same lawmakers to govern effectively
if they feel their re-election prospects hinge less on the will of the voters,
and more on the value of campaign donations provided by the very industries
they're supposed to govern.
A lot of people dislike the idea of public election finance, since they don't
want 'their' tax dollars going towards 'candidates they don't like' (as if
taxation depends on liking each and every thing the government does). But as
sharper wits have observed, you pay no matter what.
Moreover, you pay a _lot_ more for the corrupt alternative. Exhibit A is the
bazillions of dollars spent bailing out the most politically influential
banks, while protecting their shareholders from any major losses and shielding
fraudulent managers from richly deserved criminal investigations.
In retrospect, a few publicly-financed elections for one-one thousandth the
cost of 2008/09 would have been an exceptionally good value. Extra added
bonus: not cratering the global economy. Extra extra bonus: Patent Reform that
doesn't die every time it hits the Senate floor.
It's one thing for third-world kleptocracies to run themselves into the ground
(see Tunisia). But when the largest, most consequential economy on the planet
starts operating in the same way, it's a serious problem.
------
bmr
Obligatory exercise your cat with a laser pointer patent:
<http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5443036.html>
This was always included on the first day of any patent class in law school.
~~~
pyre
I'm curious what the bias of patents classes in law school are (at least in
your case). Are lawyers really taught that when an engineer brings them an
'invention' to patent they are supposed to try and expand the scope of that
patent to absurd levels just because they think that they can sneak it past
the patent examiners by making the language so obtuse that the simple act of
inhaling and exhaling clocks in at 2,000 pages?
~~~
arethuza
Having been coerced into having work of mine patented I can honestly say that
once the IP "professionals" are finished with your description of your work
you will barely recognize the content - straightforward claims and
descriptions are translated into vague, overly general, statements of the type
that seem to be specifically designed to annoy technical folks.
I found the whole process deeply unpleasant - but as it was mandated by our VC
investors, even though I was CTO, I couldn't say "no".
~~~
CamperBob
Actually, people in your position can, and have, said "no" to demands by
investors to cooperate with patent filings.
It takes a hell of a lot of guts, admittedly, but doing the right thing often
does. The decision has to be made at a pre-investment stage, because you don't
want to be placed in a breach-of-contract position later.
~~~
arethuza
This was a while ago (about 10 years) and I only had a vague idea that patents
were a bad idea from a practical perspective - I was mainly motivated to try
and avoid doing them because it was a huge amount of work, I hate reading
"legalese" and I thought there were better things I could be doing.
So my objections were mainly selfish rather than principled. I like to think
these days I would act on principle...
------
chmike
I'm currently examining the following patent proposing the use of mail quota.
[http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=mFrNAAAAEBAJ&dq=s...](http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=mFrNAAAAEBAJ&dq=spam+mail+quota)
This patent is filed in 2000 and issued 10 years later ! In 2006 it was
apparently extended to international. Does this mean the validity of the
patent is 20 years starting from 2010, or is it from 2000 ? This is weird.
Note that I'm in europe and don't know US patent particularities.
~~~
cpeterso
If email quota is patented, does that mean webmail providers like Gmail and
Hotmail are no allowed to limit my email inbox size? :)
~~~
chmike
The quota is on the ongoing mail, not the storage. Many ISP are using this
method to limit spams or virus propagation from their clients. I think google
does it too.
But this is not original. On the net I found Freedom, initially published 23
nov 1999 which includes outgoing mail quotas
([http://www.homeport.org/~adam/zeroknowledgewhitepapers/arch-...](http://www.homeport.org/~adam/zeroknowledgewhitepapers/arch-
notech.pdf)). For the initial date, check at the bottom.
~~~
chmike
I ment outgoing mail. I can't edit anymore. Sorry.
------
terinjokes
If you scroll to the bottom, it was amended so that claims 1-20 were
cancelled.
There were only 20 claims.
~~~
Yzupnick
True, but it took four years for that to happen.
~~~
uriel
And as somebody else pointed out, they were cancelled due to prior art... in
other patents!
------
brown
I didn't believe this at first. Sadly, it is real:
[http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-
Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sec...](http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-
Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6360693.PN.&OS=PN/6360693&RS=PN/6360693)
~~~
mono
If you're in need of a good startup idea: Claim a patent for crossing fingers
to build a luck generator.
~~~
drndown2007
My son saw this and wants to patent bricks now. I'm so proud :)
------
Vivtek
Yup, an appropriately shaped stick seems to be claimed in claim 1. You might
be able to hit that "adapted to float in water" - does "adapted" require a
process in patentese, or can you simply discover a "pre-adapted" stick, for
example?
Good find. For certain values of "good".
------
pinstriped_dude
Its not just the US. A man in Australia once patented a "circular
transportation facilitation device", yes a wheel!
[http://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/auspac/07/02/austr...](http://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/auspac/07/02/australia.wheel/)
------
yason
We would be better off if we turned the patent office into a mere notary
service where you can just timestamp descriptions of your innovations, and
then go to court yourself fighting for them if you think you have a chance to
win.
~~~
adrianbg
The patent system ensures that your description is defensible so that when the
time comes to defend it you don't suddenly find out you're screwed.
------
EGreg
Thanks, this is another illustration of my point that I often make.
Intellectual monopoly needs to be re-addressed.
------
lotusleaf1987
Everyday it becomes clearer and clearer how completely broken the US patent
system is and how deeply it needs reform.
How much worse is it going to get before it actually gets better?
------
buzzblog
Patent attorney at link below explains why this stick patent is useless in
addition to being silly. He also notes that it is no longer held because the
"inventor" failed failed to pay a fee.
<http://ipwatchdog.com/2010/10/06/animal-toy-patent/id=12711/>
|
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|
Making QUIC Quicker with NIC Offload - ederlf
https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3405796.3405827
======
secondcoming
> We find that the kernel to userspace communication, ... often the cause of
> application performance degradation
Assuming they're talking about Linux here, I wonder if they used io_uring.
~~~
muststopmyths
>Lesson #1: Data copy between user and kernel space costs around 50% of total
CPU usage. This can be avoided by using kernel-bypass techniques as adopted in
Quant.
>Lesson #2: In the presence of a kernel-bypass optimization, crypto operations
become the new most expensive operation, requiring up to 40% of CPU resources
per connection.
I suppose they did an equivalent optimization ? I have no experience with
io_uring, but I assume the gains are similar to kernel bypass optimizations.
------
dsimms
This gets reinvented as a system matures, I think.
IBM mainframes had TCP offload in the early 90's at least. (The NIC in that
case was a PC running PS/2 plus some routing software. Worked great.)
~~~
dsimms
and they surely weren't the first to do that either, I assume now.
~~~
Cyphase
FYI, it's possible to edit comments to add further thoughts. :)
~~~
salawat
Only for two hours.
As it turns out, my average time to return from distraction to proofread is a
little bit more than two hours.
~~~
Cyphase
Indeed, that does seem to happen often. Though in GGP's case the reply was
posted within a minute of the original comment.
------
exabrial
Have we addressed the privacy issues with QUIC?
~~~
10000truths
What do you mean by privacy issues with QUIC? As I understand it, it’s just
another application layer protocol.
~~~
exabrial
Iirc, Brave browser began disabling QUIC because the connected server was able
to fingerprint the connecting party, and they deemed it an intentional part of
the protocol design. Essentially connecting anonymously to a server is not
possible. I'll try and dig up the blog post.
~~~
salawat
This one?
[https://content.sciendo.com/configurable/contentpage/journal...](https://content.sciendo.com/configurable/contentpage/journals$002fpopets$002f2019$002f3$002farticle-p255.xml)
------
gojomo
Hmm, researchers with the 'National University of Defense Technology' propound
on the benefits of offloading encryption/decryption to a separate
processor/FPGA on the Network Interface Card. Just for speed, I'm sure!
~~~
trasz
This has been done for years, eg with Chelsio NICs, and indeed it can speed
things up quite a bit.
~~~
sbierwagen
Wiretapping has been done for years, yes. NOBUS encryption compromise has a
long history, and speeds things up a lot. (for the NSA)
~~~
aseipp
How do you imagine this wiretapping works? This NIC is installed in your
servers, and is fed AEAD keys that are derived from key exchange with a client
by your TLS stack (and so private keys exist on the host, not on the NIC).
This allows the NIC to decrypt/encrypt flows that pass through it and free up
CPU cycles. QUIC requires forward secrecy for key exchange, so every flow will
use a different AEAD key already, meaning any snooped key can only be used to
decrypt the current flow, not any others. Every modern offload NIC uses this
basic design, more or less. Where's the wiretap? Is the NIC going to somehow
store every intermediate AEAD keys and escrow it to the NSA somehow? What does
NOBUS have to do with any of this? And why wouldn't they just backdoor the
motherboard/OS/CPU itself to acquire private keys directly?
~~~
takeda
Since NIC is used to encrypt the traffic, it can purposefully have
vulnerability that NSA knows about?
Fixing NIC is not as easy as fixing software.
~~~
aseipp
Okay, but I'm asking what does it look like? What kind of vulnerability? They
presumably aren't using SuperDuper Secret Wifi to mirror data wirelessly to
the moon, right? There are a limited number of outcomes at some point. They
can't exactly change the encryption algorithms, otherwise clients fail to
connect, and modern TLS (and QUIC) are designed to reduce algorithm agility in
the name of preventing downgrade attacks and insecure suites. And they can't
just break AES with an alien computer, because if so, why bother with the NIC
at all? And again: How do they _escrow the data_ they want out of the network,
considering the extremely variable (and potentially secured, unknown, hostile)
network conditions? If they can do that with some kind of host exploit or
whatever, why not just take private keys in the first place? They could just
snip ground cables then and be done with it, which is exactly how they got
Google. (The most realistic case I can think of is somehow compromising
entropy generation, perhaps.)
And finally, why do _any_ of this when you can almost definitely just issue a
gag order to a legal council, or behind-the-door threats to a foreign
government agency to tow the line, or any number of things? You're dealing
with governments who have immense global influence, not scrappy hackers who
only have their wits and old laptops about them.
I'm not saying agencies don't have exploits, or they don't use them, or they
don't spy on a lot of data, or that even some backdoors aren't real. But if
you're looking a NIC offload device, immediately claim "Wiretapping", and
can't actually explain how it wiretaps anything or what the attack model is,
it's really just random speculation and fear mongering.
~~~
predakanga
While I don't think it's likely, it's not hard to conceive a scenario where
the NIC purposely weakens the security for attackers in the know.
Purely theoretical (and I'm not a crypto guy, so please do correct me if this
is nonsense), but imagine a scheme whereby the IV is chosen to be the first
few bytes of the private key xor the port tuple.
This could reduce the difficulty of brute forcing the key, and no extra
traffic need be generated - we already know that the NSA operates passive
observers, and has even placed such systems inside corporate networks in the
past.
EDIT: As to why they'd do this instead of getting a gag order - because they
can? Because there's less oversight? Safest to assume that any technical
capability will be abused sooner or later.
~~~
aseipp
> but imagine a scheme whereby the IV is chosen to be the first few bytes of
> the private key xor the port tuple.
Again, the NIC doesn't choose the IV. It is given an IV by the host system,
which is derived from key exchange in software, and that IV must match what
the other side of the link derives from its own key exchange operation. It has
no choice but to use the IV given. Otherwise, the two parties can't
communicate. So the NIC would have to attack the host system somehow to engage
in this attack, but then it could just steal a private key anyway and get all
communications forever. This is basic Diffie-Hellman/TLS 101.
This kind of "I'm not an expert, but let me make up a scenario completely
divorced from reality..." thing is what I'm talking about when I say
speculation/FUD. It sounds sufficiently "techie smart" to pass a trivial smell
test but otherwise instantly falls apart.
> As to why they'd do this instead of getting a gag order - because they can?
> Because there's less oversight? Safest to assume that any technical
> capability will be abused sooner or later.
Any person in your life that you know could suddenly commit a horrible crime,
just "because they can." Do you think they will? Is that reason to _assume_
they will? "Because they can" ignores a basic aspect of how decisions are
made, which is understanding their motivations and reasoning.
And less oversight from what? These gag orders are already enforced in secret
courts. Governments exert pressure on each other, behind closed doors and
through agreements like trade sanctions, to force other governments to comply.
Theres's _already_ "no oversight" in the process, by design it avoids
oversight. Spooks can literally walk into your datacenter and pull a rack out
of the cage and there's nothing you can do about it unless you want to get
thrown in a dark hole for 500 years. Even if they had to resort to techie
tricks, why is the scenario you imagine any more plausible than a thousand
simpler, alternative options? Multi-million dollar corporations get
ransomware'd all the time, and it's not like the culprits need hardware
backdoors to do it.
Again: these agencies have exploits, and for a reason. They certainly use
them. They have backdoors. That doesn't mean we just get to turn our brains
off the instant something we don't understand mildly spooks us and assign
complete impossibilities as the culprit. You're not far from just doing high-
brow "lizard people control society" stuff at that point.
|
{
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}
|
Fast AMF0 library written in pure TypeScript - Zaseth
https://github.com/Zaseth/AMF0-TS
======
tonetheman
If only somewhere on the page it explained WTF amf0 is ...
~~~
dragonwriter
My guess is that the people a fast amf0 library is trying to reach know what
amf0 is.
For the rest of us, there's always
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_Message_Format](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_Message_Format)
|
{
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|
How did Europe become the richest part of the world? - pepys
https://aeon.co/essays/how-did-europe-become-the-richest-part-of-the-world
======
ttsubotai
The article overlooks a very important factor, that only Europe had colonies
in the Americas, and that brought massive wealth to the continent since the
XVI century. Before that, the Middle-East, India and China were , in general,
more technologically and scientifically advanced than Europe.
~~~
jcranmer
Well, the key question is why did the Arab World and Asian civilizations fail
to do the colonization that the Europeans did. Also, the parity between Europe
and the rest of Eurasia was largely achieved around the 1400s, which is to
say, prior to the first wave of colonization.
~~~
bluedino
>> why did the Arab World and Asian civilizations fail to do the colonization
that the Europeans did
Perhaps because of the sheer size of Asia. Western Europe isn't exactly large.
~~~
clort
Western Europe? Do you mean the landmass that extends all the way from the
Atlantic ocean to the Pacific? You can walk all the way from the Bering strait
to the Atlantic Ocean, and down to the tip of Africa.. thats a pretty large
landmass and there was no gulf between Asia and Europe. (its pretty
inhospitable in parts I agree, but the Mongol Empire reached the
Mediterranean)
------
flukus
> The costs of European political division into multiple competing states were
> substantial: they included almost incessant warfare, protectionism, and
> other coordination failures. Many scholars now believe, however, that in the
> long run the benefits of competing states might have been larger than the
> costs. In particular, the existence of multiple competing states encouraged
> scientific and technological innovation.
I wonder if this is still true today and if globalism will ultimately make us
worse off?
~~~
anotherarray
So, should we give up on relative peace for the sake of scientific and
technological innovation?
Not an attack, but an actual question.
~~~
reacweb
About utopian world, this may interest you: [http://io9.gizmodo.com/how-rats-
turned-their-private-paradis...](http://io9.gizmodo.com/how-rats-turned-their-
private-paradise-into-a-terrifyin-1687584457)
------
mercer
While I only just got started, there's a Cousera course named "The Modern
World"[1] that, based on the introduction, explores this topic (among others).
[1]: [https://www.coursera.org/learn/modern-
world](https://www.coursera.org/learn/modern-world)
------
pan69
There is an interesting documentary series by Naill Ferguson on this subject.
In his series he discuses the "6 killer applications" that made the West
dominate the rest:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR6SFLhD32Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR6SFLhD32Q)
~~~
vyodaiken
Seriously, Naill Ferguson is a poor historian.
[https://global.oup.com/academic/product/before-european-
hege...](https://global.oup.com/academic/product/before-european-
hegemony-9780195067743?cc=us&lang=en&)
also
[http://piketty.pse.ens.fr/files/Pomeranz2000.pdf](http://piketty.pse.ens.fr/files/Pomeranz2000.pdf)
------
hugh4life
I remember coming up a book one time(maybe reviewed by Razib Khan) that made
this exact point that much of Europe's progress came from it's internal
conflict but I have not been able to find it again... does anyone have a clue
what I may be thinking of?
~~~
fbonetti
You might be thinking of "Guns, Germs, and Steel"
~~~
UncleMeat
Note that GGS is not actually held in high regard by academic historians. Its
pop history.
~~~
woodandsteel
That's really not true.
Do you have any specific arguments against it? Is it your view, for instance,
that non-euasian continents could have achieved the power of eurasia, in spite
of their lack of suitable plants and animals, and if so, what accounts for
what actually happened?
~~~
UncleMeat
This just comes with close personal association with a whole bunch of history
PhDs. I myself am not an expert on the topic, but they talk about this book
the way that psychologists talk about Gladwell. If you want an example of
respected history that follows this sort of geographic history model you
should read Braudel.
------
FreekNortier
Europe was great before she had any colonies. Living in Africa my entire life
I can see that Europe and the countries where her children settled(USA,
Canada, Aus, Nz) are the light of the world.
------
snambi
Simple, because they stole from the rest of the world.
~~~
pm90
Not that simple, I'm afraid.
~~~
Cuuugi
FALL IN LINE WITH THE NARRATIVE. WHITE MEN = EVIL INCARNATE
------
ThrustVectoring
The article does not even mention geography, which is extraordinarily
important for generating wealth. You need to feed people and ship goods in
order to make stuff, and it's way cheaper and easier to use navigable rivers
through arable farmland than any alternatives. This represents a huge chunk of
free capital, and the network in Northern Europe is one of the largest ones
(iirc, second to the Mississippi River).
------
woodandsteel
The author mentions that there were a great many lucky accidents involved in
the rise of the West. That is a factor that I think helps explain the Fermi
Paradox. It is not enough to have an intelligent species, what they produce
over the long term would seem to be civilizations that lack the sort of self-
perpetuating technology dynamics that we have had in the West.
------
lazyjones
Interestingly, they completely ignored the Hanseatic League, one of the most
powerful economic and political entities for centuries:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanseatic_League](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanseatic_League)
Perhaps it was one of the most important contributing factors to Europe's
success.
------
dzonga
Simply, the quest to kill your enemies or paranoia of getting killed by them.
Internet, GPS, Drugs etc to have an advantage in warfare
~~~
distances
I have a feeling you didn't read the article.
------
kartan
No. War is not progress. War has cost a lot to European countries, being WWII
one of the major loses in history in human lives and resources.
I have hear other, more plausible, explanations. Weather is one. The fact that
Eurasia is wide means that it has similar conditions in large portions of
land, so you can reuse technology for agriculture across all of it.
In Australia and Africa weather is not so good for agriculture. America is
rich, but being narrow you need to create new agriculture techniques as you
move south or north, as the landscape, weather and other factors are changing.
War is present in all cultures. So some more unique qualities should be looked
for. And luck can't be discarded.
~~~
arcanus
'In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and
bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the
Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of
democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.'
-Harry Lime, 'the third man'
~~~
rsync
"In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and
peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."
Well, they also produced _switzerland_.
Have you been there ?
It's the best place in the world - and not just the scenery.
~~~
geodel
Best for those who are there. Others with wrong-{skin color, religion,
continent etc} must stay away.
~~~
rsync
That's not true at all.
I suspect that, unlike my own country, they enforce and respect the
immigration laws on the books - truly a shock.
However, even outside city centers you run into people of all types. On my
last trip I found myself in Gruyere and there were muslim families and east
asians touring at the rest stop.
Inside Zurich there's a roughly Minneapolis-level background of racial
diversity.
~~~
senthil_rajasek
"Minneapolis-level background of racial diversity" Here is what the
Minneapolis Fed bank president has to say about that,
[http://www.marketwatch.com/story/feds-kashkari-shocked-
black...](http://www.marketwatch.com/story/feds-kashkari-shocked-black-
unemployment-isnt-better-understood-2016-08-31)
~~~
rsync
He's talking about national statistics. He just happened to be working in MPLS
at the time:
"Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said Wednesday he was “shocked” that
the persistently higher national black unemployment rate relative to the rate
for whites was not better understood."
People who live in MPLS know that it has a huge immigrant population of somali
and other east africans as well as (I think) the largest Hmong/Cambodian
population in the United States. That is, in addition to the inner-city
diversity of american blacks. Also, unlike many other cities, there are native
americans.
So it's not NYC or LA, but it's not Denver either. In fact, I think my
original comparison may be off - MPLS is probably more diverse than Zurich.
(I have lived in MPLS on two different occasions - 6 and 5 years each. I own a
business in Zurich.)
~~~
senthil_rajasek
I am saying having racial diversity without equity is not a desirable outcome.
------
pm90
> The Indian subcontinent and the Middle East were fragmented for much of
> their history, and Africa even more so, yet they did not experience a Great
> Enrichment.
eh what? The Indian subcontinent was one of the most productive regions of the
world, accounting for almost 25% of the world GDP right before being colonized
and having its creative/artisan class decimated. If no deliberate effort had
been expounded to destroy its artisan/merchant class, Enlightenment ideas
might have spread faster and created a much more dynamic economy.
------
fauigerzigerk
This sounds like little more than pure speculation.
Based on the exact same factors the article very selectively chooses to
highlight, you could just as well claim that it wasn't competition but a very
high degree of integration that has made Europe so successful and that all the
competition and war between states has just obscured this fact.
You could then go on and invoke the example of the United States to show that
even deeper integration without too much internal warfare resulted in an even
better outcome in terms of wealth.
This is nothing but fluff. You could pick and choose your variables to prove
anything and its exact opposite based on that sort of reasoning.
What's the empirical basis for any of this? Why should we believe this theory
and not some other theory? I don't see it.
~~~
hodgesrm
History is like that sometimes. The root causes are tangled and we have to do
the best with what we have. That said, I don't think this article is framing
the question well.
If you focus just on one part of the wealth, namely industrialization, it's
clear that different countries have done this in different ways. For example
if you compare England (first mover) vs. Japan (catch up driven in large part
by defense) the outcome was still quite similar in that both countries
successfully mastered mass production with corresponding economic benefits to
the country as a whole. Yet the details of the societies at the start could
hardly be more different.
It's hard to escape the conclusion that many regions would sooner or later
would have met the conditions for rapid economic growth. The question of why
it happened in Europe is not necessarily the most interesting one.
------
stuckagain
By defining "rich" in such a way as to put themselves at the top.
------
kenning
Welcome to the social sciences
~~~
dang
Please don't post snarky dismissals to HN. The comment you replied to was
fairly substantive, so your reply takes the thread in the opposite of the
desired direction.
We detached this comment from
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13670932](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13670932)
and marked it off-topic.
------
vyodaiken
Go to any major European city. Look at all the loot in the museums. Figure it
out.
Mea culpa - too snarky. But there is a lot of research in this field and way
too much self congratulatory material. A look at the Opium Wars should be
enough to convince that more guns goes a long way to an explanation. Also
Graeber's "Debt" gives some sense of how Europe managed to construct an
economy that produced a desperation for loot that was quite remarkable.
~~~
mafribe
This begs the question: why didn't nobody else succeed in looting the
Europeans.
It's not like the other Empires around the world were Gandhian paradises of
peaceful coexistence. They were waging war on each other, looting, and going
on slavery raids just like Europeans. Go and look at Aztect ruins in
Mesoamerica sometimes and marvel the the monuments where the prists were
sacrificing humans.
Yet, despite the experience with war and violence, they (almost) never managed
to beat Europeans, and certainly never colonised Europe (after the Muslims
were thrown out of Europe ... Well ... depending whom you ask, the
(descendants of the) Ottoman Empire are still colonising parts of Europe today
... Just ponder why Constantinople is no longer called Constantinople).
Why? What did Europe have they didn't?
~~~
arjie
Does the question make sense? The idea of a unified Europe is modern. Rome
conquered Gaul, Serbia was in the Ottoman Empire, the Mongols traveled quite
far west. The idea that Holland invading and capturing Britain meant different
things then than it does now. Now they're both European nations. Then they
were just two different nations.
At least two books that provide hypotheses with some supporting evidence are:
_Guns, Germs, and Steel_ ; and _A Splendid Exchange_.
One thing that I found incredibly interesting in common was superior
technology and the positive feedback loop with that. By this, I mean financial
technology (loans, trade, financial derivatives) as well as weapons and mills.
------
skookumchuck
One explanation is the book "Triumph of the West" by Roberts. He makes the
case for it being the culture.
------
elevenfist
Looking at the comments in this thread, I'm really starting to get sick of the
stupidity and ignorance of the hn community. I hope you're all just paid
provacateurs.
War isn't some special attribute of european history or success. While some
people (mostly on the narc spectrum) are motivated by competition, many aren't
Historical Counterexamples:
Chinese warring states periods, Japanese warring states periods, post gupta
and mughal empires in India, west African pre colonial history, and there's
many more.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Show HN: Affordable counseling by future psychologists for people in tech - selimjeffrey
http://www.talk-buddies.com
======
selimjeffrey
Hi everybody,
I noticed there where so many people in my environment who suffered from
psychological problems like a burn-out or feeling down but couldn't find the
right help. Cause psychological help is expensive, there is a long waiting
list, and often no chemistry with the psychologist.
At the same time you got so many skillful students psychology who have a
master psychology but can't find work.
Talk Buddies are students or young professionals with different backgrounds
that have a BSc or master degree in psychology or are finishing their masters.
No life coaches or volunteers, but real skillful conversation partners.
The concept is that a user can chat with different Talk Buddies until he/she
finds the one that he/she has the most chemistry with. For a affordable price.
Love to hear your feedback ,ideas, comments and suggestions!
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Ask HN: Can we build Ironman's Jarvis with 2019 tech? - hsikka
I was rewatching movies in preparation for the new Marvel movie, and I felt some nostalgia and childhood fascination when I saw the depiction of Jarvis in the Ironman movies.<p>I work in ML research and am currently in graduate school, and I know we're nowhere near real intelligence. But some of those features, question generation, voice commands, object detection, image reconstruction, and others are certainly doable.<p>Do you think we could build something starting to approach Jarvis in 2019, at least in function i.e. helping your everyday work?
======
escapologybb
I'm pretty much doing that very thing. I'm quadriplegic, so every single
action I want to take in the world has to be mediated through a third party.
That said party is anything from another person to one of the digital
assistants.
As another poster mentioned I think, I control pretty much everything in my
house including but not limited to unlocking doors, windows, climate control,
the lights, posting to Twitter and on and on and on with a cobbled together
solution of many different components from different companies.
It's done with a combination of all three of the digital assistants, various
scripts and the very wonderful Home Assistant[^1] mostly gluing it altogether.
It is by no means a single complete solution, but when I'm controlling the
house using just my voice and somebody sees me doing it they react as though
I'm some sort of dark wizard.
I love having an automated house and I think Home Assistant is probably one of
the best solutions for making all of the different IoT devices communicate at
the moment, I think the further down this road we go the more a single
solution will probably evolve.
I would have to say though that the home automation stuff that enables me to
call for help in an emergency is the most important thing that it does, I can
flash the lights different colours when I need help depending on the level of
assistance I need. Or if my Fitbit notices that my heart rate has gone below
40 BPM for more than 10 seconds I get a notification, as it is almost
indicative of an attack of Autonomic Dysreflexia. I can honestly say that this
home automation system has actually saved my life without an ounce of
hyperbole.
[^1]: [https://Home-assistant.io/](https://Home-assistant.io/)
~~~
oulipo
And if you want to add a 100% offline and private-by-design Voice AI which can
run on a Raspberry Pi 3 (and iOS, Android, Linux), take a look at what we are
building at [https://snips.ai](https://snips.ai) (it also integrates to Home
Assistant)
It works for english, german, french, japanese, spanish, italian, and more
coming soon!
~~~
guzik
Looks awesome! Any plans for FreeRTOS?
~~~
dvndvn
Snips.Ai runs as docker container in home assistant. I'm sure you can docker
stuff on FreeRTOS
------
setquk
Siri is still half deaf and tries to send me to the chip shop when I ask it to
send a message and they have a ridiculous amount of budget behind that so
probably not.
At the moment our technology is like Zorg’s desk in Fifth Element. Stuffed
full of toys but ultimately will let you down too often to be relied upon.
~~~
arethuza
"send me to the chip shop"
Do you have an accent by any chance - pretty much all voice recognition
technology (Android, Apple, cars...) appears to be utterly flummoxed by my
fairly mild Scottish accent.
[Edit: to be fair, my accent is probably fairly mild by _Scottish_ standards,
not compared to RP].
~~~
hondadriver
Must be it, a golden oldy about Scottish speech recognition (2010):
[https://youtu.be/NMS2VnDveP8](https://youtu.be/NMS2VnDveP8)
~~~
arethuza
I have to stop myself posting that every time the subject comes up (I know
what it is without opening the link) :-)
------
ovi256
You could probably get 90% of the utility with a janky collection of shell
scripts fronted by a voice recognition engine. Think Alexa/Google
Assistant/Siri/etc with a bunch of company- or task- specific scripts. I
purposefully ignore the robot-arm in an open universe capability, because
that's still too far away, AFAIK.
Jarvis in the movie was Hollywood smooth: made to look _great_ in a movie.
Even the goofs were great, and it behaved like a puppy, to be likable to the
audience. You don't need that in a work assistant. But if you remove that,
plus the robot-arm, you're left with a voice controlled Outlook assistant,
which is useful, but not sexy.
~~~
threeseed
Actually you could've built Alexa/Siri etc back in 1997 with DragonDictate and
a whole bunch of scripting.
And in many areas it would've been just as good as what we have today.
~~~
TeMPOraL
I had a better UX around playing music with WinAMP, Microsoft Speech API, and
a little program I wrote to glue the two together via Win32 API WM_ messages,
in 2007, than I have today with Google Now.
Today the problem is a) the voice recognition part, which happens on-line
though it shouldn't (introducing large latency and unnecessary Internet
dependency), and b) scriptability, which is something none of the voice
assistant vendors want to give to you, for business reasons. A better reality
would have voice parsed on-device (possibly with models from on-line service
providers), and available as a voice-to-text API that could be easily accessed
by local scripts.
------
undecisive
I'm guessing this is where the Dragon Helmet [1] is headed - it has software
(open source) that hopes to fulfil the responses and command execution. And of
course mycroft [2] et al.
I think the real problem is getting the computer to do things that you haven't
programmed it to do. If you imagine an Alexa / Google home where you have a
conversation like:
"Hey Homexa, do a web search for an image of a piece of cheese, enlarge it to
2000x1500 pixels and email it to me please"
If it then came back with "Ok, please tell me how to enlarge an image" and you
could give it step by step instructions, that would be amazing. But I don't
think the comprehension required is quite there yet. But when we do, and
especially if we can crowdsource the learned commands, things could get very,
very interesting.
[1] [http://dragon.computer/](http://dragon.computer/)
[2] [https://mycroft.ai/](https://mycroft.ai/)
------
basetop
I don't think we are anywhere close to Jarvis which is general AI ( aka real
AI aka "conscious" AI ) no more than we are anywhere close to building
Ironman's nanotech suit. But we are improving on "dumb/unconscious" AI like
Alexa, Siri, etc that could help with day to day life whilest spying on you
24/7.
------
harrygeez
I think before we talk about capabilities we should talk about UX.
Even the first version of Jarvis shown in Iron Man 1 was way ahead in terms of
understanding speech and context compared to the cutting edge we have now that
is Google Assistant.
At least Google Duplex sounds super natural now. I think when digital
assistants can really understand us, adding all those capabilities is just a
piece of cake. But I have a feeling we are just probably at most a decade away
from something that vaguely resembles that, and I'm super excited about it.
------
_bxg1
The movies (and the major real-life assistants) tend to focus on the idea that
you're talking to your computer as if it were a person, but this makes the
problem an order of magnitude more difficult than it needs to be. What if we
looked at it more like a vocal command prompt? What if we applied the Unix
philosophy of composing programs and data transformations into more complex
use-cases? You'd have to memorize the commands (though there could be vocal
"man pages" too), but could finally do more than toggling lights and asking
what the weather is like.
There's some precedent for this; in Avengers Endgame (I'll keep it vague),
Tony gives some very precise and technical commands to the system when running
a scientific simulation. He's not conversing and quipping, he's basically
calling parameterized functions with his voice. I think that would be very
doable today.
------
guzik
Ha, this is how we've been advertising our wearable, personal assistant
(aidlab.com) during the launch on Facebook (such a copyright infringement!).
We've been facing the hardware limitation to add the NLP directly on the MCU,
as we wanted to omit the 3rd parties. Secondly, adding ‚reasonable’ voice
commands like setting appointments, wiki search or alarms is nothing we could
have done alone, so we’ve discontinued this idea for now.
If we define J.A.R.V.I.S. as a pseudo-intelligent assistant, with a basic
understanding of voice commands and biosignal tracker then it’s certainly
doable, as there are some commercial implementations. Otherwise (like real-
time voice chat, or even accurate suggestions based on every-day habits), it
is still too soon IMO.
------
harperlee
I think we are closer than we think.
The problem is that all voice control up until now is a closed app with
simplified intents.
In my opinion what we need is a programming language whose REPL UX is voice-
oriented, that eases the separation between using and extending the system.
Prolog or a lisp could be quite near but we would require some changes such
as: syntax easily read (:- in prolog is not very good), the ability to manage
ums and ahhhs, the ability to “play” or “test” with functions through voice,
etc.
~~~
decasteve
We need some type of Structured Query Language, call it SEQUEL, or maybe
abbreviated SQL for short. /s
Jokes aside, maybe a LISP-like Sentence Processing Language might be the
future of this type of HCI.
~~~
harperlee
Look into Attempto Controlled English for an alternative closer to what I was
thinking about :)
------
silversconfused
I wrote a little shell script that lets you move the mouse around with your
voice, ask what time it is, etc. My thinking for future applications is that
specific appliances should take specific commands, so there would be little
intelligence needed. Oven: preheat to 350 degrees. Lights: on. Music: off.
Etc.
------
new_guy
Sure you can. Services like Alexa are just glorified paperweights and aren't
reflective of real world capabilities.
If you want to build your own Jarvis, don't listen to anyone else just get
stuck in. You'll be surprised just how far you can get with it.
~~~
kaybe
You could also build on top of one of the open source versions, eg Mycroft.
[https://mycroft.ai/](https://mycroft.ai/)
~~~
krick
That's interesting. Basically the only reason I don't use Alexa or something
like this is that I don't want 3rd party listening to me 24/7, so an open
source alternative would be of great use. But I don't understand: it says it's
open-source, yet the first thing I have to do is to create an account on
_their_ platform. So, what's that "open source" thing I ought to download and
install, is it just a client? Can I use the thing completely self-hosted?
Also, how does it compare in terms of usability to Alexa/Siri? In fact, I'm
not even sure I've seen a good open-source TTS at this point, nothing
comparable to proprietary stuff. Is this mycroft thing better?
~~~
ewang1
I've recently started playing with a Home Assistant set up and came across
Snips ([https://snips.ai/](https://snips.ai/)). A bunch of Raspberry Pis with
microphones running Snips is what I'm looking to try next. IMO, the
offline/on-device processing is a key differentiator.
------
sandreas
Well, for the speech detection part, I think, there are some projects that
look promising.
I recently found [https://github.com/gooofy/zamia-
speech](https://github.com/gooofy/zamia-speech), which works for english and
german. German is pretty bad atm, but english should work fine.
Nice part: You only have to spin up a docker container and a python script and
can perform offline speech to text :-) Microphone input is also supported.
------
rsyring
If you are really asking for it to be like Jarvis, where "like" implies some
reasonably similar approximation, then:
No. Absolutely not. Not even close.
------
thewhitetulip
Surprised that nobody mentioned this
[http://jasperproject.github.io/](http://jasperproject.github.io/)
~~~
synesthesiam
Shameless plug:
[https://github.com/synesthesiam/rhasspy](https://github.com/synesthesiam/rhasspy)
Rhasspy is inspired by Jasper, but works by having you specify intents/voice
commands via a grammar (rather than via Python). It then trains a speech and
intent recognition system together to recognize those commands. Recognized
commands are published over MQTT or POST-ed directly into Home Assistant.
------
alexheikel
You would be able to integrate Hal
([http://halisback.com](http://halisback.com)) that’s is the best assistant
out there to all the different components from different companies and make
him do basically everything
------
overcode
If we could, we would have. But we haven't, so we can't.
~~~
krageon
Without context, this statement means nothing new should ever be done. It's a
terrible axiom. Even within the context of this question, if we used this
reasoning for the next 500 years we would surely never solve it.
~~~
overcode
Oh sure, but that's why you have the context. My point is that the time gap
between a tool like this becoming technically possible and someone executing
it successfully will be incredibly small. So the chances of the current moment
in time being in that gap is tiny.
------
kthejoker2
Everyone here is focusing on the voice assistant and IoT piece, but the thing
that's really missing is the idea of a contextually rich personal API and some
POSSE mechanism to selectively share that API with others and vice versa.
Quantified Self movement is maybe 30% of the way.
Until this space matures we're kind of a standstill. Commercial options have
to be generic or face the wraith of GDPR, data breaches, and privacy
advocates.
The only way to square the circle is let people own their data completely and
then incentivize them to share with your service for the benefits you provide.
I think the killer app is an Alexa/JARVIS clone that "spies on you 24/7" but
keeps your digital twin 100% offline and owned by you. It's the learning and
the "personal schema" that's compelling.
When it knows _why_ you want to turn on the lights we're getting somewhere.
|
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Catalonia Declares Independence as Spain Gets Power to Hit Back - merqurio
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-27/spanish-senate-gives-rajoy-the-power-to-oust-catalan-government-j99z8pj1
======
ColinWright
Discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15568078](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15568078)
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Show HN: Games from a jam with a 1 BTC prize - jajoosam
https://gamejam2019.repl.co
======
jajoosam
This is a gallery featuring the winners, along with all other entries in the
repl.it game jam, where the winner won a Bitcoin.
There are some really amazing games in thee, many built by high school
students using repl.it!
Some more info on the jam: [https://repl.it/jam](https://repl.it/jam)
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Binary tree traversal in Python with generators - pkrumins
http://thatmattbone.com/2009/09/binary-tree-traversal-in-python-with-generators/
======
pkrumins
This is a test. I had my previous two submissions go [dead]. No idea why. So I
test one more time with a random URL.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Show HN: Chime - A Notification Center for the Web - trq_
http://www.chimeapp.com/
======
Yzupnick
This looks great, congratulations.
1) Do you have any plans to allow arbitrary RSS as notifications, or
integrating with ITTT? This could allow people to create notifications for
services that you don't support.
2) While I don't believe everything has to be monetized, I was wondering if
you do have a plan to make money, and if you do, would you mind sharing?
~~~
fananta
Thanks and great questions!
1\. We're currently looking at creative options to support personalized
notifications. One possibility is something similar to what Rapportive did and
provide sites with a way to deliver notifications.
2\. We honestly did this because it was a need we had. We're looking at a
number of strategies. The most likely is a set of premium features for a one-
time fee. That said, we might just leave it free too.
~~~
victoknight
What about limiting the number of services for the free version; say the first
five are free, then a one time fee to unlock additional.
~~~
fananta
This is certainly one option and we're still thinking. Our main goal is to
make cool stuff that people love, and then we'll focus on monetization. :-)
~~~
k3n
That's the only way to go about it, IMO.
It seems that in today's world, too many companies get a hair-brained idea
from some executive that thinks they've got it all figured out, spend 100's of
thousands building it, and millions to market it... only to discover that
nobody actually likes it and/or will ever use it.
I don't want to name names (as I'm not looking to start a flamewar), but off
the top-of-my-head I can think of several very prominent, very successful
(historically) corporations that seem to use such a marketing-driven approach:
instead of letting users fall in love with the product by their own devices,
instead the corp tries to make the product and only then do they try to sell
the user on why they should love it.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but when it doesn't it can be a
costly mistake. When you have a compelling product or service, marketing is
minimal; word-of-mouth is king!
Cheers, your service looks very cool.
~~~
fananta
Really appreciate your comment! I really do agree with your sentiments.
------
trq_
Just launched 5 days ago! Over 100k notifications served.
We're completely client side, so there are no privacy concerns.
~~~
aam1r
Congrats on the initial success!
If you are completely client side, how are you tracking the total number of
notifications served? I would assume you would have to send some data back to
the server to keep track?
~~~
gurumx
Haha, that's true. We use google analytics for anonymized data.
------
Erwin
I read that as "Crime" for a moment, thought it would be some kind of real-
time notification centre for when a crime is happening near you. I suppose
police radios are encrypted these days, otherwise it could be interesting to
recognize location from the calls, and show a pin on google map say: "bank
robbery in progress 2.1 miles north of you; adam-4 responding". Then you can
also add a social element: like foodspotting... but for criminals.
~~~
fananta
Hmm.. foodspotting for criminals. I like it. Do they get OpenTable
integration? haha.
------
dylangs1030
This looks fantastic.
Just one bit. Are you proudly developing this only for Chrome, or is that just
a support limitation right now?
I ask this because you didn't write something along the lines of expecting it
to be released elsewhere soon - you wrote "exclusively" for Chrome.
I ask this because I currently use Firefox most frequently (although I
installed Chime on my Chrome installation to test it). It might be a bit of a
market limitation later when you try to monetize this if you only develop on
Chrome.
And also, do you have any plans to allow independent hackers to write in their
own notifications? Will I be able to write in notifications for platforms too
obscure or unpopular to make a mainstream update for?
EDIT: I forgot one thing. Would you consider doing this for desktop
applications as well, like Growl on Mac?
~~~
fananta
Thanks! We developed Chime for Chrome first just to get it out in the hands of
our users. Based on the responses in the first week since launch, we're
already looking at support for Firefox/Safari.
I also mentioned this elsewhere in this thread, but we're hoping to create a
way for other sites to deliver notifications through Chime. Haven't considered
independent hackers just yet, but it is something we'll keep in mind.
~~~
ricardobeat
There are platforms like CrossRider[1] or trigger.io[2] that allow you to
deploy cross-browser add-ons, should be easy to port to since it's already in
javascript.
[1] <http://crossrider.com/> [2]
<http://docs.trigger.io/en/v1.4/modules/browser/index.html>
------
martius
Exclusively for Google Chro(Ctrl+W).
(But I liked the screenshot).
~~~
fananta
Haha, that's alright. We're considering support for Firefox and Safari soon
depending on the initial response. Thanks!
~~~
martius
Happy to read it, I'll give it a try when it's available :)
~~~
fananta
Awesome, make sure to follow @ChimeApp on twitter to stay in the loop
------
k3n
One feature that I can see possibly being valuable here is the ability to
filer, prioritize, or otherwise throttle the notifications.
An example would be my usage of Google Reader; there's a Chrome app[1] that
shows notifications for new items, but I haven't been under 1000 new items in
years ("1000+" is as high as it tracks). Yes, I have many feeds I need to
prune out, but even then, I may get upwards of 100 new items a day in my
reader and I sure as heck don't care about them all. I really just care about
items from a few select sources, but without a way to filter out the noise
it's useless.
I'm not sure if that use-case would be very common for your app, although
there's times when I make a popular FB post that I tend to ignore the
notifications once they get past about 10.
1\. [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-reader-
noti...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-reader-notifier-
by/apflmjolhbonpkbkooiamcnenbmbjcbf?hl=en)
~~~
fananta
Hmm.. this is interesting, something we'll look into for the future of Chime.
For now, we only have filtering by sites.
------
wamatt
Color me impressed gentlemen. A useful idea with great execution.
Now how about:
1) Ability to sleep/snooze on notifications. The use case would be when we are
working in the browser and require focus. Some of us feel overly compelled to
click little red notification badges, which can be distracting. Yes shame on
us! :)
2) Make coffee and walk the dog
~~~
fananta
Thanks!
1\. This is definitely in the works. 2\. Uhh... yes, we'll put that on our
"backlog"
:-)
------
ne0phyte
All my Gmail notfications are 43 years old. I'm in europe so maybe it can't
handle the 24h time format?
Apart from that it's really great! Would love to see some common forums
supported (but that would be tricky as you would need access to many different
domains).
~~~
fananta
Thanks! This is something we've had a few reports about this morning so we're
working hard to fix it right away.
------
Swizec
This looks really cool, but one thing I'd love to see/know before I install.
Do you send me a notification whenever something happens, or can you pool them
together and only interrupt me every few hours? Hint: I want the latter.
~~~
gurumx
Right now we send a notification as soon as it happens. We're looking at
implementing a pause mode, so you wouldn't get interrupted by notifications
when you need to focus.
Pooling notifications is interesting, we'll definitely be looking at that in
the future!
------
josscrowcroft
Beautiful, thanks very much. Is it possible to not receive popups when new
notifications arrive? I prefer notifications to be totally silent until I
decide to look at them..
~~~
fananta
Thanks! Of course, click on the Chime pop-up ==> Settings ==> turn off desktop
notifications.
------
bluetidepro
Wow, this is a slick interface. I love the Windows Metro look and feel. Great
job with this, I'm excited to use this and not have to worry about keeping a
bunch of tabs open! How often does it check for new notifications? It would be
nice if you could set a variable to check for new notifications every 1 min, 5
mins, 15 mins, etc.
Do you have a donate link or something? I would love to say "thank you" with a
little money gift to thank you guys for your hard work! :)
~~~
gurumx
We added a small donation link to the bottom of our Help page:
<http://chimeapp.com/help>
Great to hear that you like Chime! The frequency is different for every
service, and is also based on a few other metrics. It'll pick up notifications
within a few minutes, usually.
------
edparry
Always the simple products that come through.
Quick question: I'm logged into multiple Gmail accounts - will it grab from
both, or just the active account?
~~~
fananta
Currently, just the active one. We're definitely working on multiple gmail
accounts, so hold tight!
------
pioul
This definitely looks like a great piece of software.
However, I believe different services, hence different types of information,
should have their own way of being displayed.
For example, seeing a one-line summary of an email doesn't appeal to me that
much.
That's why I always prefer using the web app itself (or a dedicated extension
in the case of Gmail).
~~~
fananta
Thanks! We tried to cater to the way users interact with different services.
We can look into adding more options to customize notifications down the road.
~~~
pioul
That'd be nice. Is there a way to be notified when such a thing goes live
(mailing list)? That'd be a shame if you didn't, seeing all the coverage
you're having!
~~~
fananta
You can follow @ChimeApp on twitter! If you have Chime installed, you'll see
the updates automatically. :-)
------
slajax
I didn't realize how little was going on in my extended internet life until I
installed this app.
~~~
fananta
I felt the same way... Thanks for the comment though!
------
will_work4tears
Looks pretty amazing so far. I've gone through a couple Google mail
extensions, and using Chrome for Linux and Chromium for Linux with my google
sync setup, I've had trouble finding one that works properly.
This seems to work great for Chromium on Ubuntu.
~~~
fananta
Thanks! The three of us working on it are all using different platforms and
we've had awesome beta users who have helped us out a lot!
------
bitskits
Love this idea and execution. Any plans to add rich notifications for G+? It
would be great to see info about the notification (and ideally interact with
it) from the extension (vs a notification page or redirect to
plus.google.com).
~~~
fananta
So we spent a good deal of time trying to do this. Google explicitly does not
provide notification details for G+[1] so our hands are bit tied here. Chime
does its best still convey your new G+ notifications with that limitation.
[1] [http://code.google.com/p/google-plus-
platform/issues/detail?...](http://code.google.com/p/google-plus-
platform/issues/detail?id=96)
------
CWIZO
I like this!
One problem though: if I click a notification for gmail (probably others too)
it opens a new tab. I already have gmail opened (I have it pinned), can you
please use my existing tab to open the email in (or make it configurable)?
~~~
fananta
Thanks! We've heard this feedback from a few others and probably will add a
few different configurations in the next update :-)
------
bmuon
Why Chrome only? This looks like something that could work just as well on
Firefox
~~~
fananta
Yup, we built Chime for Chrome just to get the product out in the hands of our
users. We've realized the response for Firefox/Safari is overwhelming so we'll
be looking into support for those browsers as well.
~~~
bmuon
Ah ok. Sounds great then! I was just surprised to read "exclusively for Google
Chrome"
------
cheez
Any plans to add other "social" source code hosting services?
~~~
fananta
We have Github already, but have had an overwhelming amount of requests for
Bitbucket. So it's on our radar!
~~~
cheez
Excellent, that was the one I had in mind.
------
notatoad
For people who don't want to be productive ever again.
Sorry, I shouldn't be so negative, it looks like a great app. I just know
that's the effect it would have on me.
~~~
Zak
I've actually found that having instant notifications about events on
distracting sites keeps me from _checking_ those distracting sites and coming
across other distractions on them. Net win.
~~~
fananta
I agree with you. Having my FB notifications delivered through Chime, I rarely
have to actually go on Facebook now. That said, everyone has a different
preference for their notifications. :-)
------
Meai
Not sure how this would work, but if I want notifications from everywhere,
this would need to include IRC chat when people ping me with my name.
~~~
SnowLprd
Perhaps the Chime folks would be kind enough to write a ZNC module to allow
for that type of integration: <http://wiki.znc.in/Modules>
~~~
fananta
Perhaps...
------
the1
can I have Microsoft Exchange OWA integration?
~~~
fananta
Thanks for the feedback! We're definitely considering putting this on our
roadmap.
------
floydpink
Great work. Really love the well refined interface.
Not that I care about it much, but as a feedback, I am not able to get
LinkedIn to work.
~~~
fananta
Thanks! Can you send us an email at support@chimeapp.com describing the issue
that you're having. Are you logged-in to LinkedIn?
~~~
floydpink
I am logged in, and I tried a browser restart, and a logoff-login as well, to
no avail
~~~
fananta
Send us a note support@chimeapp.com with a screenshot please of the "All
notifications" page :-)
------
jmduke
This looks awesome. What plans do you have for other services (off the top of
my head, I'd love Dribbble and Tumblr)?
~~~
fananta
We're looking at adding some of the most requested services (like multiple
Gmail accounts) first. We'll definitely add any requests to our backlog, so
I'll put your requests on there as well.
~~~
Zarel
I've been trying to find a replacement for One Number, a Chrome extension that
notifies for Gmail, Google Reader, and Google Voice.
Google Voice notifications aren't a big deal since I get them in e-mail
anyway, but having Google Reader notifications would be really nice.
------
factorialboy
Is it open source? Can I see the code?
Edit: Specifically I want to validate the claim "all my data stays on my
browser"
~~~
trq_
Feel free to inspect the background page and look at the network requests
we're making. We're doing requests to Google Analytics to store counts (e.g.
how many installs we have, how many notifications are clicked, etc.) but there
is absolutely no data from the notifications or any personally identifying
information about you.
------
extesy
I get this error on Chrome 26.0.1403.0: "Could not install package:
'COULD_NOT_GET_TEMP_DIRECTORY'"
~~~
fananta
Please ensure you're logged into Google Chrome as this is enforced by Google.
This may also be due to the instability of the nightly build for Chrome Dev.
------
gingerlime
Looks really neat and professional. Any chance to get notified about HN
comments/karma changes?
~~~
gurumx
Hey gingerlime, unfortunately hn doesn't offer notifications itself, so that
would be difficult to implement, and outside the scope of Chime. I'm
definitely feeling your pain right now, though =P
------
est
Reminds me of Friendfeed. Few quick mashups could do the same in the good ol'
Web 2.0 way.
------
slajax
Would love to have this on my iPhone lock screen with intelliscreen.
~~~
fananta
We would love to be on your iPhone's lock screen. That would mean a different
type of app for us though, with a server and all.
~~~
gurumx
Heaven forbid we have to actually _use_ a server.
~~~
slajax
I'll provide the server, you provide the client. _deal_?
~~~
fananta
Possibly haha.. Feel free to email us feedback support@chimeapp.com or tweet
us anytime @ChimeApp
------
dailyrorschach
Anyone else seeing the error: "Download was not a CRX"
~~~
fananta
It means you're not signed into Chrome on the webstore, which Google requires.
Are you sure you're running the most updated version of Chrome? If you're
still having trouble send us a note support@chimeapp.com :-)
~~~
dailyrorschach
Thanks, never saw that before. Was logged in to Google Account on the browser
sync, but apparently not the store.
------
binarymax
This is so awesome. Any chance of yahoo mail?
~~~
fananta
You're the second person to mention this (the first was my dad), so we'll
definitely look into it.. :-)
------
ricardobeat
The "Clear All" button is not working for me.
~~~
ne0phyte
I did a "Clear All" and the notifications just disappeared from the extension,
my Gmail mails are still unread.
~~~
gurumx
Clear all will just hide all notifications from Chime. Marking them as read is
too undo-able, we wouldn't want users to accidentally mark a ton of important
emails as read.
Perhaps we should change it to "Hide All"...
------
swlkr
This is really cool, nice job!
~~~
fananta
Thanks!
------
mehrzad
This supports the only browser thats ruining the Internet. Oh well. It looks
nice though.
~~~
gurumx
Hmm, why do you think that it's ruining the Internet?
~~~
mehrzad
It's creating a Google monopoly over the web. Chrome's not open source. Chrome
has light to moderate tracking issues. Developers are starting to only support
one or two browsers (talking about websites not extensions) , which I think is
absurd and it reduces competition. I think Firefox is a better browser than
Chrome/ium in a few ways and vice versa. You're the developer I'm assuming.
You've made a great product for a popular browser, so there's nothing to worry
about for you, but I think if people switched to Firefox, the Internet would
be a better place. Good luck!
~~~
mehrzad
Whoa, sorry for all the super short sentences, I can't seem to figure out
linebreaks, I don't comment often.
------
filipmares
This is awesome Fahd!
~~~
fananta
Thanks Fil!
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The reason riding a unicycle is difficult - mariorz
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/07/the-reason-riding-a-unicycle-is-difficult.html
======
RiderOfGiraffes
That's only true if you learn unicycling purely by trying it until you get it.
I've taught dozens of people how to unicycle, all of whom felt they were
constantly making progress, all of whom could see the goal getting closer and
closer.
I wonder if Seth actually unicycles, or if he simply picked this as a
charicature of something difficult. Main lesson to learn - don't talk about
something of which you're ignorant.
And even if he _does_ unicycle, clearly he doesn't know how to teach it.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Amazon becomes fastest-growing music streaming service - artsandsci
https://www.ft.com/content/60633178-a282-11e9-974c-ad1c6ab5efd1
======
UMBReate
Can I read this without a subscription?
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Forget silicon – SQL on DNA is the next frontier for databases - LopRabbit
https://www.zdnet.com/article/forget-silicon-sql-on-dna-is-the-next-frontier-for-databases/
======
not_a_cop75
Encoding what is essentially able to produce random proteins by backing up
data to it.
What could possibly go wrong?
------
epiphanitus
"Simply put, at this pace, there soon won't be enough data storage and compute
material to go by. Which is why people have been looking into alternative
storage media for data for a while now."
If this is true, then why is cloud storage so cheap? What's wrong with just
building bigger data centers? Does anybody know what the technical benefit of
this technology would be?
In any event, there's something amazing about humans using the same data
storage that living organisms use.
------
rdrock
[https://brandonsanderson.com/books/legion/legion-skin-
deep/](https://brandonsanderson.com/books/legion/legion-skin-deep/) Legion:
Skin Deep is a modern-day thriller/mystery with some science fiction
undertones. In this story, Stephen is taken on a case to find a corpse with
important information encoded in its DNA.
------
basicplus2
Make a great movie plot.. data base written.. creating new killer bacteria
that wipes out humanity..
~~~
mywittyname
Alternatively, a dystopian future where big media companies mine human DNA for
copyright infringements and courts will order said people to purchase
licensing rights to exist. With the alternative being slavery, suicide, or
having the offending portions of DNA removed.
The act could be called the DNCA.
~~~
TomMarius
Or because of patent infringements... some biotech corporation might have
these
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Gut bacteria may change the way many drugs work in the body - idl3Y
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/gut-bacteria-may-change-way-many-drugs-work-body
======
tachyonbeam
Not to take away from these findings, but in general, individual genetics can
radically change the way many drugs work, and even doctors seem blissfully
unaware of this. Caffeine, for example, has a different elimination half-life
based on your genetics. There are also genetic polymorphisms in adenosine and
dopamine receptors that can change its effects:
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4242593/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4242593/).
Another obvious example is how some people can't process alcohol.
If you think about this for a minute, it sheds some light into how primitive
medical research is. We generally assess the effectiveness of a drug based on
how it affects one metric _on average_ for a large group of people. It could
well be that a drug is helpful to some and detrimental to others based on
genetics, microbiome, etc. It follows that we are very likely to be giving
people drugs that are harmful to them, and rejecting drugs in medical studies
that could be helpful to some but are unhelpful to most.
~~~
Medicalidiot
These are all salient points and I would like to comment as someone who has
experience in medicine. We are truly on the precipice of so many breakthroughs
in the medical field. Cancer is going to be a chronic condition soon. HIV will
likely be gone in our lifetime. Congenital diseases will be eradicated very
soon.
What's going to also happen that mainstream media has failed to grasp the
gravity of is pharmacogenomics/pharmacogenetics. Essentially what we are going
to do the second you enter the ED/PCP/PreOP is sequence your DNA. Then we will
tailor your drug regime based on your phenotype (What traits/characteristics
you have expressed). This kind of thing was just imaginary, but last year I
listened to one of the world's leading pediatric pharmacogenomicists that had
a half dozens cases he shared; one of them was having a 16 y/o female that
presented with depression that was not ameliorated with first line SSRI. Upon
sequencing her genome they realized that her phenotype was incompatible with
this SSRI, switched her and upon 4 week followup her symptoms were
significantly reduced.
The 20th century was the century of physics, the 21st will be the century of
biology.
~~~
Thebroser
It truly is incredible! The cost of sequencing one's genome is only getting
lower (like this company that sequences it for $999 >>
[https://www.veritasgenetics.com/myGenome](https://www.veritasgenetics.com/myGenome))
and the possibilities that this brings to designing custom tailored
interventions is something we have never seen before.
I'm currently involved in some synthetic biology research and I still can't
believe that we are getting to the point where hijacking the very machinery of
cells and other living organisms to do things we want them to do like say act
as biological sensors for a disease or have them synthesize and deliver
compounds on their own could become as commonplace as taking a pill.
We are still a ways off, but we are getting there fast and like you say, it
seems that outside of academia/the medical field not many see the impact this
sort of tech is going to have.
~~~
mariushn
> I'm currently involved in some synthetic biology research
What is some open source software that I can contribute to in order to make
these easier? I'd prefer your recommendation for something actually
used/promising, instead of simply searching github. Thanks
------
wpasc
I'm really glad to see the microbiome and the immune system finally getting
their due respect insofar as their contribution to literally every bodily
function. I suffer from an autoimmune disease (ankylosing spondylitis) and
I've anecdotally felt like the immune system has been neglected research-wise
because it is such a difficult, complex system to understand.
Three cheers for microbiome and immune system research :)
~~~
shdh
Lupus has been shown to have a correlation with gut biome balance as well. [1]
It makes sense though, certain bacteria's feed off of the sugars in our gut
and release harmful chemicals. Beneficial bacterium do the opposite.
[1]
[https://ard.bmj.com/content/early/2019/03/01/annrheumdis-201...](https://ard.bmj.com/content/early/2019/03/01/annrheumdis-2018-214856)
~~~
wpasc
IBD [1] as well but I guess that association is more obvious :)
My hope is that ankylosing spondylitis, which has a significant genetic
overlap with crohns and UC (combined referred to as IBD) and they have
significant incidence overlap, may also be treated or at least ameliorated
through the microbiome.
My larger hope is that all autoimmune diseases can be treated via the
microbiome. All the current autoimmune treatments we have are blunt objects
targeting major pieces of the immune system with very undesirable side
effects.
[1] [https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/05/new-
findings-...](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/05/new-findings-
from-harvard-reveal-how-ibd-disrupts-gut-bacteria/)
~~~
will_brown
What kinds of things do you do personally to promote a healthy microbiome
and/or combat IBD?
I’ve really been experimenting with my diet in the past few years to improve
my running which I just started about 5 years ago. At one point when I was
really focused on my microbiome (to the best of my ability with limited
knowledge), i experienced changes that made me realize I’d kind of always
unknowingly had some symptoms of Chron’s, and I only realized it when they
went away. I have long since adapted my diet losing focus on promotion of a
healthy microbiome and these symptoms have returned. Coincidentally at the
time I was also taking creatine (not as part of my focus on the microbiome)
and I subsequently read some antecdotes (no formal studies) of people with
Chron’s who got benefits from creatine. But I feel I had similar benefits as
they described, only I haven’t previously got them with creatine when on
different diets.
Another anecdote I wanted to share, there’s a famous retired UFC fighter, GSP,
who got UC and has been very outspoken about it and his recovery (you can find
multiple interviews on youtube). He has really found success with intermittent
fasting and time restricted eating. I’m not sure if they have formally studied
it in humans but there have been formal studies on mice and the benefit of
fasting and their microbiome. One really cool study they did was they fasted
mice to promote more brown fat, they then transplanted the fasted mice
microbiomes into non fasted mice and they too began recruiting more brown fat,
that’s mice but it’s amazing to think you can possibly transfer some of the
benefits of fasting to nonfasted people through a microbiome transfer.
~~~
wpasc
I had no idea GSP had UC. Personally? I don't think I do enough, but when I'm
fully adhering to my own protocol, I:
-Don't drink alcohol
-Follow a paleo-autoimmune protocol (with the inclusion of white rice). I can't promise it works but I encourage self experimentation. There's been research around SCD (specific carbohydrate diet) and GAPS diet which you may want to look into because of its effects on crohn's (somewhat researched).
-I eat fermented foods (no affiliation to the company, but I eat from realpickles.com [seriously no affiliation, just sharing where I get from])
-Because my joints are in pain, I can't exercise much so I do pilates. Kinda funny, 26 year old male with a bunch of ladies in their 60's, they find it funny and so do I
-Try to sleep enough and meditate for stress levels.
-I intermittently fast, but not through much effort. I just skip breakfast which naturally leads to ~6-8 hr feeding window.
------
octosphere
I made an effort to help my microbiome by eating/drinking various things. I
consume all the following:
\- Kimchi / Sauerkraut / Pickled red cabbage (or anything fermented)
\- Apple cider vinegar (Actually a 'pre-biotic' not a pro-biotic)
\- Kefir grains grown with organic milk and then separated (and drunk) each
night
\- Greek yogurt
\- Kefir water drinks (you can buy these at the health store)
\- Pro-biotic drinks (you can buy these at the health store. Note: avoid the
ones made with sugar)
~~~
lymeeducator
Fasting, water or dry, has been quite beneficial for me. Nothing longer than
48 hours yet.
~~~
wincy
I have terrible sweating problems even at comfortable temperatures. I’m just
always sweating. If I fast this problem ceases.
~~~
andy_ppp
I wonder if your body is desperately trying to get rid of something in your
diet (like organophosphates?) - have you also tried regular saunas?
------
hangonhn
I was recently at a lecture given by a colleague of the Yale researcher.
Apparently the Yale cancer center is going to re-run most if not all of their
drug trials because of these findings. So drugs that didn’t do well during the
trials may actually have some efficacy if the protocol were changed to take
into account gut biomes. The work in gut biomes are having a huge impact on
medicine.
------
rolltiide
I wish that nutritionists were able to do this level of research.
The general underpinning of their holistic approach is understandable, where
they need to treat an individual's body as an individual system. I understand
why it is therefore impossible to follow known practices of peer review and
repeatable results. But it is then used to rationalize extremely random
remedies or preventative dietary regimes that no two nutritionists would ever
independently come to.
There is seemingly no body of research or work toward any other method,
instead just a general rejection of the words "science", "drug" and "pharma",
to rationalize any procedurally generated remedy.
------
inflatableDodo
The inverse is also true. I can actually digest things properly now since
quitting drinking.
~~~
stronglikedan
I was never affected by drinking per se, but IME, cutting out sugary drinks
did wonders for my digestion related issues. I wonder if that's related, since
most alcohols contain a good amount of sugar.
~~~
inflatableDodo
I think it was largely the quantity of spirits I was consuming. I loved things
like brandy, tequila, rum, vodka and whisky, but they all loved me back a bit
too much.
I also realised that there is no real need to play life at the hardest
difficulty setting all of the time.
------
lpolovets
Here's an example of a YC startup that's exploring this area:
[https://persephonebiome.com/](https://persephonebiome.com/). They are
developing microbiome therapeutics that improve the effectiveness of certain
classes of cancer drugs. (We're a small investor.)
------
joncrane
Not only that. Drugs often change your gut bacteria.
|
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2 California men fall off edge of ocean bluff while playing 'Pokemon Go' - elmar
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-pokemon-go-players-stabbed-fall-off-cliff-20160714-snap-story.html
======
Cpoll
Tunnel vision is a scary thing.
On the other hand, some of the other anecdotes are, I think, completely
coincidental. With such a large adoption rate, some people are inevitably
going to have bad things happen to them while they're playing Pokemon Go.
------
J_Darnley
Natural selection at work. They were not a good fit for their environment so
their environment killed them.
~~~
bertiewhykovich
They survived, dude -- sorry to frustrate your ghoulish glee.
~~~
qbrass
Natural selection at work, they were sturdy enough to survive the hazards
their ignorance lead them to.
|
{
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Experimenting with sweet.js macros - int3
http://jezng.com/2012/11/experimenting-with-sweet-js-macros/
======
int3
For those who don't know what sweet.js is: It's a macro system for Javascript,
designed by the folks at Mozilla. With any luck it'll pave the way for macros
in post-ES6.
|
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Why humans can't draw - KennethMyers
http://techno-anthropology.blogspot.com/2011/07/why-humans-cant-draw.html
======
Jupe
_Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain_ is an excellent book. I still use
some of the techniques to "turn-on" my right brain, and turn off the analytic,
sombol-based left-brain (comes in handy when you need it).
As i recall the boldest statement from the book: "If you have enough dexterity
to write your name, you can draw. You just need to learn how to see."
I'd suggest this book to anyone - whether you want/need to do "life drawing"
or not.
|
{
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Why we made Vorlon.js and how to use it to debug your JavaScript remotely - codepo8-hn
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/eternalcoding/archive/2015/04/30/why-we-made-vorlon-js-and-how-to-use-it-to-debug-your-javascript-remotely.aspx
======
orand
How is this different from weinre?
[http://people.apache.org/~pmuellr/weinre/docs/latest/](http://people.apache.org/~pmuellr/weinre/docs/latest/)
~~~
nyam
maybe vorlon is usable
------
NoMoreNicksLeft
I tried to use this, but I kept getting mysterious error messages like "the
avalanche has already started it is too late for the pebbles to vote" and
"divide by zero".
------
archgoon
So, when does Microsoft release their Genetic Algorithm / Z3 based Fuzzer
called 'Morden'? It's what I want at least.
------
kodeninja
I cloned the project from
[https://github.com/MicrosoftDX/Vorlonjs.git](https://github.com/MicrosoftDX/Vorlonjs.git)
to play around with creating a plugin. The code in the plugin TS files (e.g.
`Plugins/Vorlon/plugins/sample/sample.ts`) keeps reporting errors like `Cannot
find name 'Core'`, `Cannot find name 'RuntimeSide'` etc. Is that expected?
I have run `npm i` from the project root.
$ node -v && npm -v
v0.10.36
1.4.28
~~~
deltakosh
Can you please try a npm install at the root folder level?
------
endergen
I was hoping this was finally a release of Microsoft Research's Rivet
Debugger:
[http://research.microsoft.com/apps/pubs/default.aspx?id=1618...](http://research.microsoft.com/apps/pubs/default.aspx?id=161835)
~~~
endergen
Here's a more entertaining video of Rivet:
[https://www.usenix.org/conference/atc12/technical-
sessions/p...](https://www.usenix.org/conference/atc12/technical-
sessions/presentation/mickens)
James Mickens is a crazy productive/smart dude.
------
gpvos
I'm still reeling from a Microsoft web page showing commands at a Unix prompt.
~~~
teddyh
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenix](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenix)
------
decasia
Anyone know what sort of auth or security provisions are involved? It seems
great for developers, but if I were a user, I would worry about giving someone
a remote session at my browser's javascript console.
~~~
tracker1
It won't have any access the hosting website doesn't already have... It's just
interactive instead of strictly the delivered JS.
~~~
decasia
I'm sure that's the intended state of affairs. But there's a difference -- at
once psychological and technical -- between "trusting someone else's
application code" and "letting their developers have remote debugging access
to your machine."
~~~
tracker1
They don't have any remote debugging access they wouldn't have... the JS still
runs in your browser, sandboxed to the window with their website in it... it
can't do anything else that any JS could do... it may be a psychological
difference, but it's not a technical one...
I've considered a number of times about actually shipping dom-diffs so that
support could _see_ what a user is seeing. This technology has been around for
a while.
------
brandonjlutz
I'm getting the following popup when I visit the page:
The page at blogs.msdn.com says:
The target of the callback could not be found
I really want to like Microsoft, but it's the little things like these that
make me uneasy. Especially when you're blogging about debugging javascript.
~~~
deltakosh
Really sorry about that. Our blog platform is a crap. You can directly go to
www.vorlonjs.com for more info and better web site:)
------
mkj
Anyone see what clients it supports? Could it be used to debug IE6?
------
angersock
_Based on this, the second reason is because the Vorlons are one of the wisest
and ancient race of the universe and thus, they are helpful as diplomats
between younger races._
What? No. That's not how the Vorlons worked _at all_.
Also, Javascript is basically the Shadows (mordon.js lol).
Wonder what langauges/frameworks map onto other Babylon 5 concepts?
Angular -> Earth Alliance? Enterprisey but not super elegant, and collapsing
under its own weight and propaganda?
~~~
doktrin
> What? No. That's not how the Vorlons worked at all.
Maybe OP has only watched through season 3
~~~
xenophonf
Dude! Spoilers!
------
nickhalfasleep
I'm disappointed if like it's namesake it doesn't give vague, disturbing,
portent information to the console.
"If you go to 'undefined', you will die"
~~~
angersock
" _this_ is a three-edged sword."
~~~
krapp
"You are not ready for immutability."
~~~
tarice
"What's inside there?"
"One moment of perfect Javascript."
~~~
doktrin
"I will not be there to help you when you pollute the global namespace"
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Ask HN: Should external links open in the same browser tab or new tab? - srisaila
I know links opening in the same page is the default behavior. Do you set same behavior (links opening in same tab) to both internal and external links?
======
lsiunsuex
As a web developer, I feel external links opening in the same tab / window
take the user away from my site (or the site I'm building) so I generally
always force external links to open a new tab. The goal is always I think, to
keep people on your site as long as possible. Opening an external link in the
same tab stops that - maybe from the external link they find something else
they want to read / do and don't come back? That would suck.
As an internet user - I'll generally force a link (command click) that might
look external to open in a new tab so I can come back to reading what I was
reading without having to reload the page.
~~~
srisaila
I agree with your points. I do not think even most users would want a link to
take them away from the page they are on. I am wondering why links on HN let
go of its visitors!
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Show HN: 5400 TED talk texts open sourced - svig
https://github.com/saranyan/TED-Talks
======
levistoddard
I have a cool way to use these transcripts. One question... I noticed the MIT
Licence... but did TED authorize this? or have these just been scraped without
explicit permission?
(No judgement, but wanted to know this before using the texts in a project)
~~~
svig
Hi, no TED did not authorize it. Neither, they said otherwise. I tweeted a
note to Chris with a link to the project.
~~~
svig
BTW, I built this on top of the data.
[https://ted.saranyan.com](https://ted.saranyan.com)
------
spog314
hi svig: What you did with TED talks is cool. I'd like to know how you did
this? Please share technical details. Thanks in advance.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
NASA's $1B Jupiter probe takes mind-bending new photos of the gas giant - MilnerRoute
http://www.sfgate.com/technology/businessinsider/article/NASA-s-1-billion-Jupiter-probe-has-taken-12478909.php
======
SHAKEDECADE
Oh man, I want to find some High-res versions of these.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
“Nearly 25000 allocations are made for every keystroke in [Chrome's] Omnibox” - dustingetz
https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/forum/#!msg/chromium-dev/EUqoIz2iFU4/kPZ5ZK0K3gEJ
======
dang
Comments moved to
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8704318](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8704318).
------
teraflop
Duplicate of
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8704318](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8704318)
which is also on the front page.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
No ‘carmageddon’ on auto-free Market Street: study shows bikes and buses benefit - luu
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Results-of-car-free-Market-Street-so-so-for-SF-15087210.php
======
Symbiote
The linked article (1) says the redesign will have "sidewalk level bike
lanes".
If there's a way for local people to comment on this, please encourage these
to be changed to in-between-road-and-sidewalk level. (Or road level with a
continuous kerb in between).
This makes it much, much easier for pedestrians not to accidentally wander
into the lane. (2)
1 [https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Car-free-
Market-...](https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Car-free-Market-What-
happens-to-the-side-14999923.php)
2 [https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/copenhagen-
denmark-...](https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/copenhagen-denmark-
april-28-2015-people-273751205?src=r5lx0IqAiK-ujRzrOcMg6Q-1-1)
~~~
brnt
As a Dutchie blunders like the one you mention are so stupifying... Takes you
a ten minute visit to NL to figure out why you need to separate modalities
consistently, yet even as close as Germany and France cities are designed so
obviously by people who never ever bike.
~~~
ChuckNorris89
Same in Austria, we simply grew accustomed to bikes sharing the road with
cars, busses and trams which I'm sure would be terrifying to someone from NL.
The problem is, after the post war boom, the cities were planned for cars and
now there's simply no space left for cycling lanes unless we ban cars which as
much as I wish for will never happen in my lifetime.
~~~
Quequau
I live in Graz and I'm hard of hearing. Hearing aids make locating where some
kinds of sounds come from difficult, so I miss a lot of acoustic cues that
pedestrians use to navigate their way through busy places.
I've been run down once by a bicyclist and once by a skateboarder while I was
walking on mixed use pathways. The skateboarder took a harder fall than I did,
still helped me up, and sincerely apologized. I fractured my wrist in my fall
when the bicyclist hit me and not only did they not stop, they yelled at me as
they cycled away.
Anyway, I too would support limiting the use of cars as well as on street
parking in city centres and other similar zones.
~~~
close04
Bikes shouldn't share the lane with pedestrians any more than they should
share it with cars. In an ideal world they would look more like Danish ones,
with all 3 separated by at least a small kerb. This helps pedestrians,
cyclists, and drivers alike. Cycling in Denmark was the best cycling
experience I ever had relative to the way bike lanes are designed (definitely
not related to the cyclists that were sometimes falling like bowling pins when
the huge crowd was starting to move at a green light).
Getting used to some bad compromise hardly makes it good.
~~~
ehnto
Bikes can certainly share pedestrian areas, they just need to ride slower, the
walkways need to be wide, and the walkways should be easy to enter and exit in
the case you need to ride around groups of people (shallow curbs you ride up
and down). Look at Osaka, you have almost free reign on a bicycle there. Bikes
are slow, cars are slow, but it all flows. Bikes even join foot traffic in
shopping precints. But when it's too busy people are no longer on their bikes
anyway, because the whole place is walkable.
It takes a level of empathy and cooperation I think doesn't exist in the bike
versus car debate, because it has become an "us versus them" debate and
everyone is trying to win not collaborate.
~~~
labawi
Cars can certainly share cycle paths, they just need to ride slower, the paths
need to be wide, and they should be easy to enter and exit in the case you
need to ride around groups of cyclists.
Pedestrian areas, yes - people usually don't commute through there. Sidewalks
vs. cycle paths vs. car lanes - not a good idea.
When people propose path sharing among pedestrians and cyclists, they often
mean cyclists slowing down to speeds (e.g. 10km/h, or even 5-7km/h), which
they would find unacceptable for cars, even if multiplied x3 (try telling
drivers to go 30km/h so they share with cyclists going 15-30 km/h).
~~~
ehnto
I want to be clear, I'm talking about the city metro areas. Not commuting from
suburbia. We should have fully separated bike paths for longer distance
commute bike traffic, because mixed speed traffic with cars just doesn't work
when cars are going faster, and unprotected bike lanes are just a bandaid
solution to that problem.
But once you're in the metro area, everyone should slow right down. The
dominant traffic in the city is foot traffic.
Cars go at 50km/h through my city, meaning they need to be separated really
strictly. Slow them down to 20km/h with narrower roads, and you can reclaim
the area for mixed pedestrian traffic, allowing more free movement for
everyone in the city. Something as simple as crossing the road shouldn't take
10 minutes for 200 people just so five cars can cross the road.
With narrower streets and slower traffic, you can reasonably cross the road
anywhere you want. That also allows bikes to move reasonably along the road
but slowly on the footpaths, you open the whole area up for the people using
the city.
It's all a balance, not everywhere in a city should be like that. I'm just
advocating to move away from the heavy car-oriented lean many places currently
have for their city centers.
~~~
brnt
There is no difference between city centers and suburbia in much of Europe.
Apart from that, the Netherlands has a few bike highways now to cater to
faster intercity transport.
What you want to do is enable fast biking everywhere (so a bike first infra)
and seperate modalities for safety and comfort. Any urban transport research
will show that bikes in foot traffic is a Very Bad Idea(tm).
------
Tepix
Just the fact that riding a bicycle got more attractive and 25% more people
are using their bicycles now means that there will be less people left stuck
in traffic in their cars.
Not to mention the people who are exercising by using their bicycles will have
health benefits as well.
~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
Will 25% more cyclists have much of an impact on the number of cars on the
road?
25% more of a small number is still a small number.
~~~
abyssin
It will have an impact on congestion. For instance in Brussels, a 10%
reduction in number of cars on the road translates to a 40% percent reduction
in traffic jams.
~~~
bagacrap
Which seems like it would translate to at least 10% more people being willing
to drive...
~~~
rcMgD2BwE72F
And yet, even more will discover than riding a bike is more pleasant than
driving a car once the city has been designed that way.
I'm one of them, and many of my friends are just waiting for the
infrastructure to be further improved to make the switch. More space, better
markings (…), just more reasons to drop the expensive, polluting, stressing
space-taking cars and take a breath of fresh air while commuting.
~~~
u801e
> And yet, even more will discover than riding a bike is more pleasant than
> driving a car once the city has been designed that way.
Most people aren't going to find cycling more pleasant than driving in
inclement weather, cold weather, hot weather, low traction conditions, uphill,
or carrying cargo.
------
stevenwoo
There was a world wide meeting on transportation similar to the Paris climate
change one, same result, almost everyone but USA committing to better
standards for future -
[https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/02/1057721](https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/02/1057721)
The USA response that the market and self driving cars will fix this was
pretty delusional.
~~~
J5892
Any responses from the US from about 3 years ago to between 1 and 4+ years
from now are going to be delusional.
------
tiku
Studies? Just check out how we do this in the Netherlands. It works great here
in most bigger cities.
~~~
asjw
You live in a flat country, were cities are quite densely populated and you
don't have to travel a lot.
Mine is not.
~~~
re-actor
The flatness is almost entirely canceled out by the relentless 20km/h+ wind
~~~
chinesempire
You get pretty strong winds in southern Europe as well, without the flatness
------
scarejunba
I thought it would be mayhem but traffic overall didn't change at all. It's
exactly the same.
~~~
wahern
That's because most cars were taken off Market St in 2015:
[https://www.sfmta.com/project-updates/turn-restrictions-
mark...](https://www.sfmta.com/project-updates/turn-restrictions-market-
street-going-effect-aug-11-2015)
Since then most cars on Market St north of Van Ness seem to have been Uber and
Lyft. Now they're finally banned. If buses are actually running faster--not
just a consequence of less traffic during the winter months--it goes to show
how much Uber and Lyft have contributed to traffic in the city. They drive
slow, erratically, and stop in the middle of the road on main arteries to pick
people up and drop them off.
~~~
Areading314
It still doesn't make sense that they let the "yellow" taxis continue driving
on market. They are on average much worse drivers
~~~
new_realist
There are fewer of them and they are more efficient, running at higher
passenger utilization.
~~~
thedance
This can’t be true. Taxis often run with zero passengers, whereas a private
car never does.
~~~
wahern
I could only find two studies on capacity utilization:
* Judd Cramer, Alan B. Krueger, "Disruptive Change in the Taxi Business: The Case of Uber", 2016, [https://www.nber.org/papers/w22083](https://www.nber.org/papers/w22083)
and
* Y.M. Nie, "How can the taxi industry survive the tide of ridesourcing? Evidence from Shenzhen, China", 2017 [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0968090X1...](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0968090X17301018)
Both seem to confirm that ride-hailing has better utilization rates, though
Nie qualifies that--e.g. sometimes too many private cars might turn out.
However, at least in San Francisco all the licensed taxi cabs also use ride-
hailing apps, so their utilization should be at least as good as unlicensed
cars.
The real issue with ride-hailing is induced demand. In places like San
Francisco public transit took a huge dip, and ride-hailing simply isn't
anywhere as efficient as mass transit. Studies have shown that ride-hailing
has contributed to a _substantial_ increase in traffic and traffic delay:
[https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/5/eaau2670](https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/5/eaau2670)
Ride-hailing can even be worse than personal cars because a personal car has a
100% utilization rate at minimum, whereas the average utilization rate for
ride-hailing, even accounting for multiple riders (e.g. >100% for any
particular trip) is <100%.
Ride-hailing only pencils out for the last mile--to and from transit hubs in a
local vicinity. But too many people take it to cross town. It's hard to blame
ride-hailing companies, though. Cities need to be build more subways. Perhaps
companies like Uber, if they were allowed to build subways as cheaply as The
Boring Company can do (i.e. small diameter tunnel, though still larger than
London and Budapest; no red tape; no extravagant stations) and to capture the
revenue, would invest the money. They'd finally be able to ditch drivers, too,
because driverless cars will probably only ever work, if they work at all, in
moderately dense residential areas.
~~~
eru
Personal car usage doesn't have a 100% utilization: lots of time is spent
cruising for parking and coming back from some out of the way parking. You
can't really count that as being productively utilized. It's the opposite.
------
closeparen
Market St. has never been a significant thoroughfare for private cars. Of
course there’s no traffic impact.
Try the same thing on Mission, Howard, Folsom, Harrison, Geary, Van Ness, etc.
and you’ll see a very different story.
~~~
rabeener
Can you clarify your point? I read the article but don’t see any mention of
trying this on any of the streets you listed. It looks like the city of SF
made a good call here and the first part of your comment supports that.
~~~
closeparen
Doing this for Market St. is basically free. There are no real risks or
tradeoffs. Of course it’s a good call.
But to frame this as a triumph against critics predicting doom is just weird.
No one was seriously predicting doom on this one. The only people driving on
Market are confused tourists. But then it’s going to be held up as an example
for other streets that actually _do_ have risks and tradeoffs.
~~~
jvagner
The news media kept hammering the potential for cArmageddon.. which was weird.
It was a non-story, and it still is, but I guess someone needs content to
promote.
------
rhn_mk1
There are numbers on speed, but are there any on throughput?
~~~
thedance
Throughput doesn’t change with speed, just like with cars the rate is the same
at 5 or 75MPH because the spacing in terms of time stays constant. What
improves is the latency for individual riders, and the reliability of the bus
arriving on schedule.
------
hamandcheese
I take the 5R nearly every week day. Anecdotally, it seems like it’s been
better lately (though it’s always been adequate), but I didn’t connect that
with the market street car ban until now.
------
tmpz22
Great for buses, bikes, taxis, cars that accidentally make a wrong turn, and
bikes running red lights to slice through crossing pedestrians (sometimes
avoiding collisions sometimes not).
------
flyinghamster
Chicago tried this decades ago with the State Street Mall project [1]. It
turned out to be an overall flop, with stores seeing reduced traffic, and by
1993 it was gone and good riddance. As a pedestrian, I hated it when I worked
downtown.
Maybe they'll do something on Market Street that will work better, or perhaps
it might be a better fit there than in Chicago, but I wish them luck, because
they're going to need it.
[1] [https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-
opinion...](https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-opinion-
flashback-state-street-pedestrian-mall-20191025-cos5svz7w5dvzgznqouu2xqimu-
story.html)
~~~
lotsofpulp
The weather in Chicago is markedly worse for being outside for half the year.
~~~
rconti
Probably more like 10 months. I imagine there's a shoulder season in the
spring and fall where Chicago is more desirable, from a weather standpoint,
than cool and windy SF, before it gets too hot and humid in Chicago's summer.
------
gok
The main problem with Market Street for pedestrians is the heroin and poop,
not cars.
------
iblaine
There is an impact for some retail businesses. I tried shopping near market
street for items that require a car to transport. I gave up trying to get
through traffic, and instead did my shopping online. This is an acceptable
trade off for me, and demonstrates how some retail businesses may need to
adjust.
------
Camillo
The only redeeming feature of that part of Market Street remains the subway.
------
turbostyler
I don’t notice any difference on Market from before the car ban. I also see
cars driving on the street all the time.
------
Traster
>His conclusion: When cities shut streets off to cars, people drive less. The
myth of a “carmageddon”-style traffic jam is apparently overblown.
This seems to completely ignore the fact that what actually has occured here
is that the reduction of drivers is a negative for those drivers. Those
drivers now either have to cycle or use public transport instead of their cars
or have to move. That might seem positive to the people who don't have to make
those sacrifices, but it's a massive negative impact on the people effected by
this.
~~~
dbingham
Well, and the externalities of the driver's carbon emissions are a massive
negative impact on all of us. In a city as dense as San Francisco, transit,
walking, or biking can easily cover most people's transportation needs. The
more we build safe and effective infrastructure for those modes, the more
people will use them. And that will be good - in the end - for the remaining
few who do absolutely need to drive (though I believe that if we get creative,
with things like bike rikshaws, we can even cover that segment with out cars).
If we don't change these sorts of habits, the climate will change them for us.
~~~
Traster
I'm not advocating for designing life around increasing car ownership. I'm
pointing out that re-designing existing systems to disadvantage a specific
group of commuters is more than a little problematic. Let's put it this way -
how would you feel if we shut down your nearest train station and used the
money saved to give everyone a tax break.
We can also decrease carbon emissions by just shutting down every power
station in China, but targetting a single group of people to take the vast
majority of the cost of fixing climate change is not reasonable.
~~~
wpietri
Your point is that changes can be bad for some people while being good for
others? I'm pretty sure everybody knows that.
Given that they spent 10 years planning this, and given the enormous
infrastructural support cars get, I'm quite sure the city was aware.
------
UI_at_80x24
Am I the only one disappointed that the author was NOT referring to the PC
game Carmageddon in the title.
Expected summary: "Well, we were pleasantly surprised that shutting down the
streets didn't lead to a rage-induced, car-killing-spree murder rampage."
------
yellowapple
Translation of the first couple paragraphs: "SF street traffic is already
abysmal, and yet we still managed to make it a little bit worse."
Market Street was already pretty devoid of non-bus/taxi traffic before "a
month ago". If you want a better test, try closing off Van Ness or Embarcadero
and see how well that goes for y'all.
"No carmageddon"? SF is _already_ a carmageddon.
------
everyone
A big traffic jam would be nothing like 'Carmageddon'
An extremely popular series of computer games starting in 1997, where u race
around smashing into other vehicles and running over pedestrians.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmageddon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmageddon)
Why do they keep saying carmageddon????
~~~
wpietri
I think you could call that moderately popular at best. 20+ years ago.
They keep calling it that for the same reason the game got that name: it's a
cute term that quickly conveys "giant automotive disaster".
------
pleasecalllater
I'm always wondering what about people with disabilities, older people with
problems with walking, pregnant women, families with four kids, etc.
Sometimes the public transport for such people is problematic and using taxi
all the time is too expensive. Total banning cars makes a great space for the
healthy ones, the rest is happily ignored. And this is sad.
I like decreasing the number of cars, not forbidding them at all.
~~~
99052882514569
>people with disabilities, older people with problems with walking, pregnant
women
Are precisely the kinds of people _less_ likely to be able to drive.
Accessible and convenient public transit is a better option for them, provided
of course that it's accessible and convenient throughout their journey - that
means sidewalks, intersections, transit stops, building access, etc.
If families with 4 kids don't need a vehicle at all, it's a huge financial
benefit for them. Here in Canada a mini-boat on wheels large enough to
accommodate such a family is friggin' expensive. Cities tend to have free or
very cheap tickets for kids, so if you can get away with doing commutes by
transit and have a Corolla for weekend errands and groceries that you don't
have to shove all 4 into, you win $1000s every year.
~~~
Valgrim
I'd like to add another thing to consider: good urbanism, specifically mixed-
use development, which reduce the distances immensely.
I live in Montreal and I use my old used "mini-boat on wheels" maybe twice a
month to see my family outside the city. I intend to sell it actually. I
travel to work on public transport because most of the city is covered 24/7
with a pretty acceptable bus and metro.
Everything is close enough that I can simply walk, even in winter. There are 5
schools, 4 parks, 3 pharmacies, 2 grocery stores, a bunch of shops and
restaurants, two medical clinics, two metro entrances, several of my friends,
etc, all within 15 minutes on foot.
And I don't even live in a "dense" area. It's actually considered a food
desert compared to the rest of the city.
------
ARandomerDude
It would be awesome if you had something like a bicycle, only more comfortable
that could hold you, a friend, and some of your things. You could enclose it
to protect you from the weather, too. For longer distances, or people with
disabilities, you could add some mechanical contraption in case you can't
pedal that far.
That'll be the day.
~~~
r_klancer
Some of those already exist! At increasing levels of car-like-ness:
* [https://www.wired.com/gallery/best-electric-cargo-bikes/](https://www.wired.com/gallery/best-electric-cargo-bikes/)
* [https://www.contemporist.com/5-examples-of-enclosed-bike-des...](https://www.contemporist.com/5-examples-of-enclosed-bike-designs-that-are-taking-over-the-roads/)
* [https://www.arcimoto.com/](https://www.arcimoto.com/)
(Studiously ignoring parent's intended snark)
In all seriousness, I'm expecting an explosion of these new light vehicle body
types in the coming decades, as global trends of cheap electric drive +
batteries, increasing urban congestion, and less car-oriented urban planning
trends converge
~~~
paradox101
"I'm expecting an explosion of these new light vehicle body types in the
coming decades, as global trends of cheap electric drive + batteries,
increasing urban congestion, and less car-oriented urban planning trends
converge"
Don't motorcycles already serve that purpose? Its already the chief form of
personal transportation in most of the Earth's population.
The problem I see with all the concepts you posted is that they have all the
drawbacks of a car and a motorcycle. They would fare as well as a motorcycle
in a crash, and have almost the same footprint as a small car. Also, a
motorcycle will handle much better than a trike with narrow tracks and short
wheelbase at higher speeds.
Then, there are electric assist bicycle. They have two main problems that
small motorcycles/scooters don't suffer from. A 350lb scooter/motorcycle is
much harder to steal than a 50lb electric bicycle. I own a rather expensive
electric assist mountain bike that I don't feel comfortable parking it out of
my sight. You can't travel on the highway with electric bicycle unlike
motorcycles.
~~~
kqr
I think you might be underestimating the size of a modern car -- they're
_huge_!
~~~
paradox101
By small car I meant Smart ForTwo, or Fiat 500. These not-a-car trikes/quads
have comparable footprint to these cars. Which isn't small enough to fit in-
between 2 lanes.
~~~
kqr
Sure, but those are exceptions to the modern car size, and the median car size
on the street is far bigger than that. If everyone would switch to Fiat 500
sized cars, that would be an amazing start.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
The SF Hacker Loft - newy
http://euwyn.com/post/4087921596/the-sf-hacker-loft
======
neurotech1
Noisebridge, another hackerspace is in SF. (www.noisebridge.net) It's located
at 2169 Mission St (Between 17th and 18th)
Drop by. I'm a member and regular visitor.
------
hparra
It's this "let's hack together" mentality that seems to be lacking in Southern
California, where so many schools & companies still insist on cubicles. Time
to take the train up to SF...
~~~
dweekly
There are a bunch of people in Santa Monica who are looking at starting a
Hacker Dojo...
~~~
billpaetzke
Sweet! I would be all over that. There's really only one good coworking space
there: CoLoft. But it's marketed to all freelance/remote workers--not just
hackers. Would be nice to get a dedicated hacker place.
------
jdavid
I live in soma and would love to find a place to hack. find me on twitter.
@jdavid
------
yan
Ah sweet. I met Euwyn in NY in the '09 HN meet, I think in January. Awesome
that you're now in SF and hacking away. (Unless I'm thinking of a totally
different Euwyn Poon)
~~~
newy
Yup, that's me. Great hearing from you Yan. I left NYC for SF for YC last
summer :)
------
baberuth
Hi,
I've been in NYC and I'm hacking obsessively and around the clock. My biggest
problem has been finding a place where I can seriously plunk down and work
without distraction.
Would LOVE to be in a space with like minded people trying to hack and would
also love an excuse to go out to SF.
I've been largely very impressed with the NYC tech scene and would love the
chance to hack out there for a while too.
ftlogrtmfb@gmail.com
~~~
brianbreslin
Want zero distractions? The stacks in the basement of any college library
would be perfect
------
krakensden
You should change Opzi's web page, it still refers to you as headquartered in
Palo Alto.
~~~
newy
Great catch. We're in the process of updating the site :)
------
dweekly
Awesome, Euwyn! This feels like maybe the start of an SF Dojo...? :) :)
------
enki
hanging out here right now, discussing backbone.js and getting work done! the
opzi guys rock! :)
------
DarrenLyman
Interested.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
JEP 295: Ahead-of-Time Compilation - yarapavan
http://openjdk.java.net/jeps/295
======
valarauca1
Seeing as nobody is reading the fine text
* Only 64bit Linux on AMD64 is supported, so no ARM or Android support _currently_.
* Files must be ran on computers they were compiled on, or identical hardware
* Still needs GC, only G1 and Parallel GC are supported
* No dynamic byte code (Lambda Expressions, Dynamic Classes, etc.)
* The only supported module is java.base
* No decrease to JVM start up times
* Still need the JVM
* Some decrease to spin up as there will be less JIT passes that require stopping the world.
Effectively this just lets you pre-load .class files into the codecache
directly rather then running the ~10k initial byte-code passes before they'd
receive a JIT pass and that would happen.
Lastly .so is just used as a container so I doubt we can expect to dynamically
link against AOT compiled Java in C/C++/Rust land.
~~~
brianwawok
This is clearly still great for a few places. For example in the trading
industry, you would have a few seconds of being very slow when starting up for
the week - or anytime you crashed and needed to reboot midweek.
Also risk of "hot pathing" the wrong paths if the server comes up during say a
market closed time...
~~~
OldSchoolJohnny
I'm surprised to hear anyone running Java in the trading industry. Isn't speed
a huge factor in that industry?
~~~
eternalban
> Isn't speed a huge factor in that industry?
Exactly. There are a lot of high performance system written in Java. For long
running systems, the startup cost is irrelevant. And for networked systems
(such as fintech) you are going to be IO bound. The main issue as far as Java
and high performance is the GC related pauses and that is a concern shared
with any GC'd runtime.
~~~
PeCaN
And for Java it's actually much less of an issue thanks to the crazy manhours
put into developing fast GC for Java. I suspect Azul Systems's pauseless GC is
probably quite popular in HFT.
~~~
brianwawok
They are trying to sell it for sure. They attend a lot of events.
I am not aware of any trading company using it. May be some.. but the high
perf people I know go other ways.
------
adamnemecek
The great language convergence is happening! It seems like everyone is moving
to expressive statically typed, compiled, functional, oop languages. Not that
I'm complaining.
This means that we might actually get a language that becomes the new c in
terms of popularity.
~~~
duck2
functional, oop
Do these have any intersection except Scala?
~~~
Sharlin
Depends on how exactly how functional you want to go, but latest versions of
C++, Java, JavaScript, and C# definitely qualify. Rust, too, though it's not
strictly OO. And Python, Ruby, Swift.
~~~
belovedeagle
If Rust is OO then the term is meaningless. No inheritance; dynamic dispatch
only via explicit indirection (Boxed traits); methods are (therefore) just
syntactic sugar for regular functions.
~~~
qznc
Lisp CLOS does not have inheritance for methods either, but is OO by
definition.
Imho, OO is about polymorphism [0] and Rust provides that.
[0]
[http://beza1e1.tuxen.de/articles/oop.html](http://beza1e1.tuxen.de/articles/oop.html)
~~~
belovedeagle
Rust fails many of the other tests mentioned. As for polymorphism, is Haskell
OO? If so, then I think my claim that the term is meaningless is justified.
~~~
qznc
This is the punch line. Once you have a definition of OO, which fits all
languages usually considered OO, the definition also fits Haskell. :)
------
bit_logic
For the JVM experts here: how realistic is it for OpenJDK developers to add a
command line "-useGreenThreads" option? In Golang, you can create thousands
and thousands of threads and there's no issue. If I tried that in the JVM, it
would quickly crash. But if there was a "-useGreenThreads" option, I could
create Java Executor threadpool of size 50000, use existing http client
libraries, and get full concurrency.
~~~
mi100hael
> I could create Java Executor threadpool of size 50000, use existing http
> client libraries, and get full concurrency.
No, you'd get a slow illusion of full concurrency. The JDK ditched green
threads ages ago because native threads were far more robust.
~~~
bit_logic
I probably shouldn't have used the term "green threads" since that has history
in the JVM. I meant whatever Golang is doing which is similar (M:N threading).
With an AOT option for Java, this becomes even more of an option. Golang has
shown this works, why can't Java implement the same idea and let all existing
libraries benefit from it?
~~~
valarauca1
Green Threading is M:N threading. Go-Routines are M:N threading. Q.E.D. M:N
threading isn't a new idea. Go just offers a backed (or compiled) in run-time
that does M:N threading by default for you.
While nearly every other Green Threaded language offered as an additional
library/option. This hurt adoption. While Go just forces you to use Green
Threading.
With an AOT option for Java, this becomes even more of an option.
Not in the slightest.
why can't Java implement the same idea and
let all existing libraries benefit from it?
A laundry list of reason:
1\. Change what functions do and don't block can cause huge issues with down
stream libraries/people who depend on system libraries behaving the same thing
tomorrow as they did yesterday.
2\. Refactoring all code around system calls so they never block.
3\. Write a multi-core and multi-socket scheduler.
4\. Write a scheduler to balance multi-core and multi-socket thread load.
5\. Determine how you will do polling, and write a polling strategy to figure
out what green threads are/are not blocked, then figure out how to communicate
this information efficiently.
6\. Repeat the above 5 steps for EVERY platform Java runs on.
~~~
paulddraper
Well, it was a runtime option that was requested, and runtime options don't
have to be identical on every platform.
~~~
valarauca1
Actually they do. That is the entire point of Java.
~~~
paulddraper
No, the point was to make compile-once run-anywhere software. It's natural for
tuning runtime parameters to vary.
The hotspot JVM will accept both -d32 (32-bit data model) and -d64 (64-bit
data model) everywhere, but they will only work on certain platforms.
------
StevePerkins
This is very exciting, but still a long way from what people probably think it
is at first glance.
This isn't "compile your application to an EXE", like Go or Rust. This is
"compile some or all of your application to a DLL, and then have the Java
runtime use that DLL".
In other words, you still need a JRE available. The use case for this is
simply optimizing hotspots in some very specialized situations.
~~~
pjmlp
Anyone willing to pay for them, can buy a commercial AOT compiler for Java
today, there are quite a few available.
This is significant for those that want to AOT Java without paying for it.
~~~
dleskov
Some info for those that want to AOT Java without paying for it:
The entry-level edition of Excelsior JET is free (as in beer) since the end of
August 2016. Licenses for the more senior editions have been available for
non-commercial use at no cost for many years.
[https://www.excelsiorjet.com/free](https://www.excelsiorjet.com/free)
------
alistproducer2
This is very exciting! Question for the experts out there, do you think this
has the potential to do away with using the JNI in new projects for the speed
boost?
~~~
teraflop
This change has nothing to do with JNI whatsoever.
The JVM has always (well, not always, but for 15+ years) run Java code by
first compiling it to native code. The only difference is that the JVM will
now allow you to optionally do the compilation ahead of time, in order to
decrease an application's startup overhead. This actually hurts performance of
the compiled methods, since runtime profiling is not available to the AOT
compiler (but the document also describes a "tiered" mode, where AOT-compiled
code can be dynamically replaced with a better JIT-compiled version at
runtime).
If you want to link your Java code with native code written in a non-Java
language, that's a totally different requirement, and JNI will continue to be
the way to accomplish it.
~~~
wtetzner
> and JNI will continue to be the way to accomplish it.
Although if you don't like JNI, you can use JNA [1] (which I believe uses JNI
to link to libffi, and libffi for the rest).
[1] [https://github.com/java-native-access/jna](https://github.com/java-
native-access/jna)
------
samfisher83
C# had this for a while with ngen.
~~~
buster
C++ had this for even longer. Assembler doesn't even need a compiler..
~~~
FrancoDiaz
Right, Assembler only needs an assembler
~~~
valarauca1
Still needs a linker
~~~
lomnakkus
Pffft... you're using a libc, or something? Direct Syscalls[1] are where it's
at.
[1]
[https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/X86_Assembly/Interfacing_with_...](https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/X86_Assembly/Interfacing_with_Linux)
------
shuntress
Isn't java already compiled ahead-of-time?
You give the JVM a .class file, not a .java file.
Though this is a technicality.
Java 9 will be able to compile java source code to java byte code then compile
that java byte code to native machine code, correct?
~~~
mason55
It is compiled to intermediate byte code but not machine code. You still need
the JVM to JIT the byte code to something the CPU can deal with.
~~~
jsprogrammer
Not necessarily. Java byte code can be run directly on a JPM (Java Physical
Machine).
~~~
jerven
Are there any that support the current class file format? ARM jazelle is no
longer being worked on. So I would be surprised if there is anything that can
do Java SE directly. JavaCard of course being quite different than standard
Java.
~~~
imtringued
Java bytecode is too highlevel for it to be suitable to run directly on
hardware. Each instruction can map to multiple machine instructions. A JIT or
AOT compiler can optimize the code on a lower level. A hardware implementation
cannot do inlining, loop unrolling, hoist array length checks out of a loop,
etc...
------
erl
Important restriction:
_for the initial release, the only supported module is java.base_
I.e, we will not be able to compile our own code ahead of time just yet.
~~~
Alupis
> I.e, we will not be able to compile our own code ahead of time just yet.
That's not really true. From the same doc:
> AOT compilation of any other JDK module, or of user code, is experimental.
So it's "experimental", but possible to do.
------
aaron987
What, if any, effect might this have on Android, given that its all Java?
~~~
gleenn
Android and Oracle's Java have been diverged for quite a while. There aren't
any Java 8 features available to Android now, so you sadly shouldn't hold your
breath for any Java 9 features either, it will probably be a long, long time.
~~~
ChemicalWarfare
>>There aren't any Java 8 features available to Android now
that is incorrect.
[https://developer.android.com/guide/platform/j8-jack.html](https://developer.android.com/guide/platform/j8-jack.html)
Just plopped this into my activity to make sure:
someList.stream().map(String::toUpperCase).forEach(System.out::println);
As long as minSdkVersion is 24 or higher you should be good.
~~~
pjmlp
Except it doesn't work and is full of bugs.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/androiddev/comments/59gcr9/who_is_u...](https://www.reddit.com/r/androiddev/comments/59gcr9/who_is_using_jack_how_is_it/)
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
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Is there such a thing as the NoMock movement? - sentiental
http://henk53.wordpress.com/2012/09/11/is-there-such-a-thing-as-the-nomock-movement/
======
boyter
Pointless example. There is no value in testing the method for success.
However how it deals with failures/exceptions inside the dependencies might be
worth testing.
Anyone with some amount of testing experience knows that testing isn't a
silver bullet, and sometimes its not worth testing methods (straight getters
and setters for example although there may be value there in a dynamic
language).
As with many things, people jumped from one extreme of test/mock everything to
test/mock nothing. The correct solution is usually somewhere in the middle.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
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Does your startup use MSFT technology? - bootload
======
bootload
_'... One thing that causes me more alarm, is that I see a lot of startups
using MSFT technology these days. See, startups give you early warnings on
trends of what people use. Something is going here. Startups are the early
warning signs of on-coming floods. ...'_
Added this after reading this article
(<http://marcf.blogspot.com/2007/05/microsofts-long-demise.html> ) from this
thread (<http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=214250> )
I thought the costs alone would have made this prohibitive? Unless of course
your idea involves MS apps.
~~~
nostrademons
I'm not seeing it, unless your app _has to_ use Microsoft software (eg. shell
extensions, Winsock LSPs, IE toolbars). The small college-kids-in-a-garage
startups I know tend to use Python or Ruby (or occasionally PHP). The better-
funded enterprise startups tend to use Java. Once in a while you'll see
someone using .NET, but it's usually because they _need_ to do a desktop
client.
~~~
bootload
_'... small college-kids-in-a-garage startups I know tend to use Python or
Ruby (or occasionally PHP). The better-funded enterprise startups tend to use
Java ...'_
Thats pretty much what I would have thought. Though I did run across a post
here where someone wanted to work with an exclusive MS toolset. Seems using MS
tools these days is a bit like trying to find people who remember "Get Smart"
- you just get blank stares.
~~~
gibsonf1
" _who remember "Get Smart"_ "
That was a seriously funny show!
------
SwellJoe
I haven't seen a web application built with Microsoft tools since the first
boom. But, I'm probably just not hanging out with the folks that think that
way. They must exist...right?
It just seems so counter-productive. The tools in the Open Source world are
just so much better, and so much more widely varied. One of my consulting gigs
involved lots of MS ware (desktop apps) a couple of years ago, and I was able
to look at all of the development tools via MSDN. I just don't get the mindset
that leads to Visual Studio and .Net and such.
------
sbraford
That one web-based MS-Word knockoff startup used ASP.Net (no offense intended,
they were the best in the space) - eventually they were bought by Google.
MySpace also uses "MSFT technology".
I'm personally not one to hate. If you can get your rocks off on MS tech, then
so be it. FeedBurner rocks some incredible stuff out in Java, in amazing time.
I personally wouldn't start something in anything but RoR or Python these
days.
------
gibsonf1
Not our startup.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
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Nice Read on Hardware Startups - nlolks
https://blog.bolt.io/keurig-accidentally-created-the-perfect-business-model-for-hardware-startups-18e9c3b4e796
======
appedus
Good read indeed. Kindle example was good.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
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Self extracting tar archives - izabera
https://github.com/izabera/selfextracttar
======
jepler
I went and researched this before reading the link, and found a slightly
different solution than the author. By taking advantage of python's 'tarfile'
module, it was easy to create a (us)tar-compatible header. My solution is
here:
[https://gist.github.com/jepler/f86255a6e054d9b6ca540d0c7afe1...](https://gist.github.com/jepler/f86255a6e054d9b6ca540d0c7afe136b)
~~~
jepler
.. only tested with gnu tar, but all the world's a vax eh?
~~~
izabera
that's an interesting approach but your extracting script is limited to 99
bytes at most, right?
~~~
jepler
yes.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
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Revolut Prepared for Brexit - aginovski
https://blog.revolut.com/how-we-protected-our-customers-from-brexit/
======
ChrisRR
I'm glad to see someone is prepared, but it's annoying that they had to spend
money to prepare for the possibility of a no deal brexit, just because we're
past the deadline and people/companies still have no idea what's going to
happen.
It's unfortunate that so many companies have had to spend money to prepare for
scenarios that may not even happen, or that companies are massively unprepared
because the government has strung the negotiations out giving companies no
time to prepare.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
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ZFS on Linux still has annoying issues with ARC size - protomyth
https://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/linux/ZFSOnLinuxARCShrinkage
======
twic
There's a good lesson in operability here: log reasons for decisions!
I have had to re-learn this lesson over and over again with my own software.
"Tom, why did the system just do that?!" scream my users. "Er, let me check",
i respond, already feeling that sinking feeling. "EDUNNOMATE" says the log.
So, i add some logging around the decision (the data feeding into it, the
choices made, the actions resulting), redeploy, and wait for my users to start
screaming again, hoping that this time, i will be able to give them an answer.
------
mapgrep
The author calls ARC autotuning “opaque” which surprised me given a well
regarded paper has been published on it:
[https://www.usenix.org/legacy/events/fast03/tech/full_papers...](https://www.usenix.org/legacy/events/fast03/tech/full_papers/megiddo/megiddo.pdf)
[https://youtu.be/F8sZRBdmqc0](https://youtu.be/F8sZRBdmqc0)
...that said the author has been writing on the ARC for more than 10 years
judging from his blog links so perhaps that paper did not answer his
questions.
------
higels
Before I ditched ZoL for persistent storage for a few hundred NGINX caches, I
saw this behavior too.
Setting zfs_arc_min to something like 50% of arc_max stopped it from dumping
the ARC every 10 minutes.
YMMV.
~~~
m11r
Out of curiosity, what did you happen to move to (and why)? Back to ext4/xfs,
or to Btrfs or something else more involved?
~~~
higels
I just mount each SSD as its own XFS filesystem and use NGINX’s split feature
to fill them up.
Not resilient on a system level, but refilling the cache is cheap.
ZFS was generally pleasant from an operability viewpoint once we ironed out
the quirks, but the perf hit from no sendfile was too much.
~~~
m11r
That’s a good point; I never looked at what the perf impact of disabling
sendfile would be on even a moderately-loaded webserver.
It’d be really nice to see that fixed like the recent DIRECT_IO additions.
~~~
Quekid5
Of course the people around these parts tend to have very particular needs and
use cases, but for anything resembling the "common case" the performance
impact of not using sendfile should be negligible.
(I'll just point of that using sendfile means that traffic is unencrypted...
which is probably fine on an internal network, but I've started adopting the
stance that even internal network traffic should be encrypted unless there's a
very good reason not to do that. An absolute requirement for performance might
be a good reason.)
~~~
atomt
If nginx decided to support ktls they could use sendfile for encrypted traffic
as well. Unsure if it is worth it just to make sendfile work however.
~~~
m11r
I was going to mention kernel TLS hopefully enabling sendfile for mostly-HTTPS
workloads, as that’s the direction everything is heading anyway, and without
it we don’t get zero-copy for those connections.
Now I’m more curious about the actual threshold where not having sendfile
begins causing noticeable performance problems… at what point before you
become Netflix?
~~~
namibj
If your cache can face-tank a HTTP-DDoS, you don't need fragile fingerprinting
techniques to distinguish bad from good, thus reducing the user impact (less
accidentally-blocked users). The less cost you have for filling that 100 Gbit
NIC with your TLS cache traffic, the more boxes you can afford. Internet
exchanges are surprisingly cheap to connect to.
Of course sharing resources between a couple services would be good, as NICs
and switch ports are sill a way from free.
------
sneak
I have very weird read performance issues on read using the stable ZoL in
current Ubuntu LTS, on a box with over 200GB of ram and a few TB of L2ARC fast
flash.
The default settings for L2ARC fill rate are also super low.
I haven’t had time to track down exactly why it’s so slow, yet.
~~~
blackflame7000
What’s the topology of your array? How many disks? L2ARC doesn't help with
that much ram because your main memory will be faster than even mirrored nvme
caches
~~~
sneak
8x 10TB HDD, 4x 512TB flash, all 6gpbs SATA. 256GB ram, 40 cores. The HDDs are
all in raidz2, with the SSDs all as L2ARC.
I have an ubuntu mirror on the machine that's around 150gb, and doing a `tar
-c $MIRRORPATH | pv > /dev/null` shows lots of reads from the HDDs, even on
second, third, fourth runs. It confuses me.
------
kissgyorgy
I have the same problem. Sometimes it just drops the whole cache suddenly and
I don't have a clue why:
[https://walkman.cloud/s/zXLp7DF9sDFwr7z](https://walkman.cloud/s/zXLp7DF9sDFwr7z)
~~~
rincebrain
You may find it informative to graph MRU/MFU - I suspect you will find that
the MRU is being dumped. [1]
I personally can't decide whether I think it's a bug or not, since if the MRU
is all old items there is an argument to be had that you don't want it in
cache any more...but dumping 100% of it strikes me as a bug either way. :)
[1] -
[https://github.com/zfsonlinux/zfs/issues/7820](https://github.com/zfsonlinux/zfs/issues/7820)
------
cracauer
I still have this bug.
[https://github.com/zfsonlinux/zfs/issues/8396](https://github.com/zfsonlinux/zfs/issues/8396)
Page faults from NFS client side aren't served by the server when they should
(readonly map, reading a page). I could imagine this is related.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
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Good Things Happen to Bad People - brendancahill
https://brendancahill.io/blog-3/blog-post-title-three-epnlm
======
event-horizon
Is this suggesting that only bad people get knocked off their horses? Or that
everyone does.
If it's the former - do you believe the universe is keeping track of and
making judgements on people?
If its the latter - would you rather not succeed at all?
Seems like an easy way to console oneself about feelings of jealousy/regret
but i'm not sure how effective that would be for me. Feels better to focus
energy elsewhere.
~~~
Nonchalant
Thats a good way to respond for me life is a game of choices I don’t believe
in god but don’t get me wrong I believe in chance there is a possibility of
there being one but let’s just say there was not one then we just do happen to
exist in a place with no rules those in power made rules to better control the
people and animals follow the rule of the jungle big fish eats small fish
small fish eats shrimp one just has to accept that the situation one is in is
because of your own choices and your wealth because of your ancestors choices
don’t expect to be extraordinary by living a ordinary life and a safe life get
out your safe bubble and you will see what I mean for me this is something I
learned the hard way expecting something to change in a ordinary cycle of a
peaceful life I wanted for things to change but did not want to change myself
DONT fear the unexpected it’s what gives life it’s colors because it can’t be
controlled one just has to accept and keep moving never regret on the past
actions or dawn on your life Because it it’s what made you who you are
difficulty is what gives ones achievements it’s felling of accomplishment
because if all things where easy then nothing would be worth striving for
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
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Students Support Socialism, but not when it comes to their GPA - tomohawk
https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=12038
======
jimrhods23
They only support it because they feel like they will never be wealthy and
won't have to pay the tax increases. This is also most people that I know that
support radical changes to the current system which involve government-run
programs funded by sharp tax increases on the wealthy/middle class.
I feel like there is something wrong with our system when people get to vote
on things that will not only never effect them negatively (IE: tax increases),
but will get all of the benefits (free health care/money).
~~~
samayylmao
I agree that "wanting free stuff with no cost or contribution" is as you put
it "wrong". I would like to see what a government-run single payer healthcare
system would look like;also, raise my taxes to cover this. rough math says the
government would need to increase my taxes by over 10% for the increase in
taxes to equal my current premiums.
Right now we pay more for healthcare than other countries because our system
is so flawed. we pay more for both services and the same exact prescriptions
that other countries do. I work for a healthcare system and the amount of
charity care and unpaid medicare bills are astronomical. If your'e interested
I can share a publicly published report that breaks this down. These are also
part of the reason that we pay so much more, the people that actually pay need
to make up the cost for those that don't.
on top of that, medical claims processing and billing is overly complicated,
time consuming, and expensive due to multiple insurers.
My premiums to have my family covered are almost as much as my rent. (
disclaimer: i live in a state with a very affordable housing market)
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
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Peeping Tom: A free (open source) site pinger - duck
http://terrbear.org/?p=253
======
Roridge
Excellent Terry, nice and simple and free, have bookmarked this for use very
soon.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
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Reddit Is Down - ropable
https://www.reddit.com/
======
kevingrahl
Works for me and their status page [1] looks good too..
[1] - [https://reddit.statuspage.io](https://reddit.statuspage.io)
------
ropable
"Service Unavailable". Only noteworthy because it's Reddit, man.
|
{
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The Geomagnetic Apocalypse — And How to Stop It - ffernan
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/2012storms.html
all I can say is:<p>AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!<p>Entitled "Severe Space Weather Events — Understanding Societal and Economic Impacts," it describes the consequences of solar flares unleashing waves of energy that could disrupt Earth's magnetic field, overwhelming high-voltage transformers with vast electrical currents and short-circuiting energy grids. Such a catastrophe would cost the United States "$1 trillion to $2 trillion in the first year," concluded the panel, and "full recovery could take four to 10 years." That would, of course, be just a fraction of global damages.<p>Needless to say, shorting out the electrical grid would cause major disruptions to developed nations and their economies.<p>Worse yet, the next period of intense solar activity is expected in 2012, and coincides with the presence of an unusually large hole in Earth's geomagnetic shield, meaning we'll have less protection than usual from the solar flares.<p>The report received relatively little attention, perhaps because of 2012's supernatural connotations. Mayan astronomers supposedly predicted that 2012 would mark the calamitous "birth of a new era."<p>But the report is credible enough that some scientists and engineers are beginning to take the electromagnetic threat seriously. According to Lawrence Joseph, author of "Apocalypse 2012: A Scientific Investigation into Civilization's End," "I've been following this topic for almost five years, and it wasn't until the report came out that this really began to freak me out."<p>Wired.com talked to Joseph and John Kappenman, CEO of electromagnetic damage consulting company MetaTech, about the possibility of geomagnetic apocalypse — and how to stop it.
======
electromagnetic
I personally love that people associate the end of the Mayan _short_ calender
(most people claim it as their predictive end of the world, when in reality
their long calender ended millions of years in the future) with the end of the
world. The Mayans associated the end of the short calender as a party, because
a new b'ak'tun was to them like the new millennium was to us.
We're about to hit the 13th b'ak'tun, which some people claim is the end of
the calender. However, it's generally regarded the count is supposed to go up
to 19 b'ak'tun (they counted 0). Incidentally the end of the 20 b'ak'tun will
be in the year 4,376.
What all the end of the world nuts are too ignorant to see when they obsess
over these things, is that despite the end of their calender being thousands
of years in the future, they'd already fixed the problem. There's four larger
integers in their calender: piktun, kalabtun, k'inchiltun, and alautun. If the
b'ak'tun is in fact a cycle of 20 then each of these are also a cycle of 20.
This puts the end of the world about 400 million years away, which is probably
very close to when the Earth will actually be uninhabitable as in about 1
billion years the sun will have gotten so hot that the oceans will have
evaporated.
I give no credence to this guys argument, first he has no clue how the Mayan
calender works, just like all doomsayers, they only see what they want. The
fact that the earth hasn't ended in the 23 previous solar cycles that we've
recorded, seems to lend credence that the 24th won't end it either. Just
because it's the end of the Mayan short calender doesn't make it in the least
bit more special.
My prediction, this is another load of bunk, just like the predictions that
the world would end in 1999, 2000 and pretty much every year.
------
russell
We had a solar flare in 1859 of this magnitude. It caused telegraph wires to
catch fire and would have fried the electrical grid, had we had electricity.
Something like this could shut down civilization as we know it for years
because replacement transformers and the like have multiyear lead times.
~~~
ryanwaggoner
What isn't clear from the article is _why_ they have multiyear lead times...is
it a materials or manufacturing constraint that can be overcome by incredibly
desperate demand? Planes and bombs took a long time to deliver before WWII,
but we needed them so badly that we converted factories and started cranking
them out with remarkable efficiency.
Granted, it would be harder to do that without a proper power grid, but I
sometimes wonder if people misjudge the ingenuity of our collective society in
the face of monumental disaster.
~~~
tlb
Absolutely. In normal times power projects are planned years in advance so
there's no reason for short lead times. But if the system was down, people
would wind transformers by hand if they had to. It's not that hard.
It does seem lame that the power grid is so close to capacity. Instead of all
this smart grid stuff that lets us get from 97% to 98%, let's just add 50%
more capacity and have no worries.
~~~
blogimus
I'm pretty sure that the capacity problem is due in no small part to pollution
control regulations, like the EPA effectively stopping new Coal power plants:
[http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1859049,00.ht...](http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1859049,00.html)
"The board's decision will force the EPA to consider CO2 when issuing permits
for new power plants, potentially making it at least in the short-term all but
impossible to certify new coal power plants. That's because the EPA will need
to reconfigure its rules on dealing with CO2, which is found in greater
concentrations in coal than any other fossil fuel"
About half of the U.S.'s electric power comes from coal:
<http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epa/figes1.html>
I'd love a cleaner world, we need it, but there are trade-offs we need to
face.
Ask a Las Vegas area resident what he thinks of all the fresh water demands
that the solar cells require because of cooling needs.
[http://current.com/items/89979048_solar-power-and-water-
issu...](http://current.com/items/89979048_solar-power-and-water-issues-in-
the-southwest.htm)
And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Want a nuke plants? where are you
going to put them? and how long is it going to take to build?
So yeah, it's lame that the power grid is close to capacity. And yeah there
are potential new and evolving energy supplies but the solution isn't so
simple as "add 50% more capacity and have no worries."
To paraphrase Steve Yegge, "Have you increased the energy grid significantly
and simultaneously reduced greenhouse gases ?"
~~~
ubernostrum
Of course, it's not all environmental.
I live in Kansas. There's a long-running feud going (several years now) over
permits to build several coal-fired power plants in the western part of the
state; the legislature keeps passing bills ordering the permits to be granted,
and the governor keeps vetoing them (thus far the legislature's been unable to
get enough votes to override her).
While various folks here love to complain that it's just some sort of
environmental agenda being pushed by our (liberal) governor, there's a
powerful economic reason to say no to these plants: although they'll be built
in Kansas, although they'll use resources from Kansas, although they'll dump
pollution into the air and water of Kansas, not one single watt of power from
them will go to homes or businesses in Kansas (the plants, if they're built,
will be built by out-of-state power companies to produce electricity which
will be used elsewhere, mostly in Colorado).
Which raises a valid question: if Kansas is going to bear the cost of having
these plants, why shouldn't Kansas get any of the benefits? They won't
generate nearly enough jobs to cover the impact they'll have on the state in
other ways, so I don't see how any sound economic argument can be made in
their favor.
From what reading I've been able to do on the subject of power-plant
construction, it seems Kansas isn't alone in facing this sort of situation.
Though it may feel like a variation on NIMBY, I think it's entirely reasonable
for one state to ask why it should bear costs while another reaps benefits,
and to refuse to enter such an obviously one-sided deal.
------
blogimus
This is especially interesting in the light that there is now a more concerted
effort to get automobiles "on the grid"
Just for starters, see Shai Aggassi's blog
<http://shaiagassi.typepad.com/>
~~~
TJensen
I really want an EV, but the effect on the grid is a real problem that needs
to be addressed as well.
------
mynameishere
When I got to "1 to 2 trillion" I stopped reading. I'm pretty sure the
treasury blew that much last weekend.
|
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An Introduction to Static Site Generators - azat_co
http://www.mickgardner.com/2012/12/an-introduction-to-static-site.html
======
graue
Previous discussion: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2489040>
The posting date says December 2012, but as you can see there, this article is
over a year old. It looks like the author has migrated to Blogger and somehow
ended up giving all the articles a December 13, 2012 timestamp.
~~~
theanalyst
ya agree on that, remember reading the same article, probably not on blogger
though
------
TazeTSchnitzel
The bizarre thing about static site generators is they are nothing new. Online
API docs have done this for years (Java, Python, etc.)
|
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China’s Grueling Formula for Success: 9-9-6 - shubhamjain
https://www.wsj.com/articles/long-days-a-staple-at-chinese-tech-firms-1487787775
======
koolba
> Chinese labor law dictates a 40-hour workweek and extra pay for overtime,
> but many companies circumvent those rules by asking employees to sign
> contracts that say their jobs require flexible work schedules.
Being able to supersede labor laws by _forcing^W_ asking employees to sign a
contract that nullifies them is suspect at best. I get that office tech
workers aren't the factory assembly line workers for which these laws were
originally designed but the exclusions need to come from the other direction.
> Huawei Technologies employees work on the last Saturday of each month, and
> that earns them an extra 12 days by the end of the year that they can take
> in pay or days off. A year into their jobs, Huawei’s Chinese staff can sign
> a “dedicated employee agreement,” voluntarily forgoing paid vacation days
> and overtime.
That quote links to a different article[1] explaining this further:
> A year into their jobs, Chinese staff may sign a “dedicated employee
> agreement,” voluntarily forgoing paid vacation days and overtime. One Huawei
> engineer said he signed the agreement four years ago to start receiving
> shares as part of his compensation. The closely held firm says its shares
> are owned entirely by its executives and employees.
So the deal is " _Work an extra 12 days per year for 12 days of pay /vacation.
Then give it up along with all the rest of your vacation days and maybe we'll
give you some equity. Also, we can probably claw back the equity. Also, you'll
probably never be able to actually cash it out._
[1]: [https://www.wsj.com/articles/huaweis-founder-casts-a-long-
sh...](https://www.wsj.com/articles/huaweis-founder-casts-a-long-shadow-over-
telecom-giant-1480715055)
~~~
sevensor
> I get that office tech workers aren't the factory assembly line workers for
> which these laws were originally designed but the exclusions need to come
> from the other direction.
Maybe they're not operating the machines, but even in the U.S., white-collar
engineers at a fab will often find themselves working north of 60h every week.
Because you're salaried, there's no overtime pay. Also, you'll carry a pager
and be responsible for answering it 24 hours a day, every day. And since the
fab doesn't stop on weekends, you either work a shift or rotate weekends with
your team. PTO is usually approved, but using a substantial fraction of it
will result in a bad review. A capped portion of the remainder gets cashed out
at the end of the year, and the rest evaporates.
And that's the United States. I'm sure China takes this to a whole other
level.
(Source: recovering semiconductor process engineer.)
~~~
anoonmoose
Also, you'll make 2-3x the average salary in the US. TANSTAAFL
~~~
macNchz
There are quite many routes to making 2-3x the national average salary that
don’t require 24/7 pager duty. I’ve done on-call rotations, but being ‘on’
nonstop sounds like torture and a recipe for burnout.
~~~
avs733
I did 11 months of 24x7. My managers were so normed to it they actually
documented it. No one seemed to notice my contract called for that time to be
compensated.
After I ended my employment they seemed shocked when I asked for that
compensation to be paid out. They then denied that I had been 'actually on
call' (note: managers, don't lie to your HR department - especially the
investigations people). Thankfully I had documented all the listings of me
being on call and pointed out that their policy required an on call engineer
to be available and noted that no one else in the group was certified to be on
cal.
We settled before I had to take it to court.
~~~
sevensor
Yikes, you were the only person in your group who was competent to answer
pages? We had several, and there were a number of factors that determined who
would get paged first for a given issue, including whether you were in a fight
with manufacturing. (Don't ever get in a fight with people whose job
description includes paging you at odd hours.) I usually got woken up a couple
times a week. Sounds like you had it a lot worse.
------
rocqua
Does anyone actually believe this kind of schedule is actually effective?
I don't see how anyone performs well under these circumstances unless they are
horribly overqualified for the job. In order for a programmer to be even 60%
effective at this kind of schedule, the work has to be essentially trivial. I
don't see any debugging happening in this kind of situation.
The only explanation I see is that there is a 'social status' for bosses to
have their employees work a lot. Because I do not believe this actually yields
decent commercial results for anyone.
~~~
SlowBro
I’m currently working from about 8am until 10pm every day, and usually in bed
reading something that applies to my job between 10p and 12p and yes, 6 days a
week. I’ve got a day job but am also spinning up a hardware manufacturing
business.
Been doing this for over a year. My clarity and productivity haven’t suffered
that I notice, but I do not anticipate doing this forever. I’d burned out once
before ten years ago doing even more hours and days. This is about my limit.
You have a point though. Look at the crap China churns out.
Edited to add: Having experience the burnout lesson the hard way, I do pace
myself. Sundays are for friends, church, and family. I get all the sleep I
want. I stop at times to read YC news and talk to others :-) I get bike rides
and watch a movie now and again. Life is not all about work.
~~~
fnordsensei
Passion and interest can keep you going at a high pace for quite some time.
However, you're statistically more likely to eventually burn out with a job
that you truly enjoy, than you are with a job that's easy to put down at the
end of the day. There's more incentive to eat in to your long-term energy
storage in the former case.
In the case of 996, it's almost as if the employees are being asked to behave
_as if_ they are wildly passionate about what they do, as if it is their
destiny and calling. I can only presume that they will burn out all the more
quickly.
Although I suppose, if, as others have implied, the job is actually a non-
complex assembly line-ish thing, then perhaps employees are easily
replaceable, and it makes economic sense to use one up until it is empty, and
then proceed to the next one.
On the other hand, if the job truly is easily represented by some simple
algorithm, why not teach a machine to do it cheaper and more consistently?
Seems more likely that they are fooling themselves, and that the entire setup
is there to give upper management a sense of satisfaction rather than to
create actual productivity.
~~~
jcadam
> On the other hand, if the job truly is easily represented by some simple
> algorithm, why not teach a machine to do it cheaper and more consistently?
Because in a country with a large population of poor people such as China,
unskilled and semi-skilled (as in a typical factory job) labor has got to be
dirt cheap, such that it makes sense to have humans performing trivial tasks
that could be easily automated.
~~~
fnordsensei
There's a lot of variables surrounding employing humans that can make
automation worthwhile even if pay is very low. The "maintenance" of people,
such as hiring, managing, loss of production because of absence—those sort of
things.
I'm just speculating, I've no idea how they are reasoning. But I do suspect
it's more cultural/personal rather than practical or to maximize productivity.
------
throwaway77384
This is horrific, inefficient and stupid.
Multiple speculative causes:
\- Social pressure. The bosses want to be able to say "look at how hard I can
make my workers work", probably without comparing productivity in any way
\- Social pressure. People competing with each other for how hard working they
are. This seems prevalent in many cultures. "Oh I am so tired / stressed".
When you claim those things, you can stop worrying about other issues, like
doing good work. I have always noticed that the busier I appear, the less
people would hold me to account for problems. Ridiculous.
\- A tired / overworked populace doesn't have the energy to get any
revolutionary ideas. The status quo is maintained, no matter what the cost.
This suits almost nobody, other than a select few. But, we do it to ourselves.
Like the herd of bison running from the lion, we do not realise our power and
instead accept whatever the oppressors (companies) force on us. So, we made
our bed and are lying in it. No point complaining unless we are willing to do
something about it. See points 1 and 2, this has never been about
productivity.
------
welanes
In the words of Alibaba's Jack Ma:
“ If we go to work at 8am and go home at 5pm, this is not a high tech company
and Alibaba will never be successful...If we are a good team and know what we
want to do, one of us can defeat ten of them.”
It's even more incredible watching him say it:
[https://twitter.com/humanismusic/status/963714910269079552](https://twitter.com/humanismusic/status/963714910269079552)
------
redm
The older I get, the more I find that making the right decisions, even in day-
to-day programming, makes your far more efficient and effective than throwing
time at a problem.
~~~
neor
Years ago I read a blog that I always remembered, very summarised it stated
that even though developers logging a lot of overtime are generally considered
to be hard workers most of them actually are horrible at planning their work.
The developers who don't log extra hours don't have to be less motivated,
sometimes they are just a lot better at prioritising their work.
~~~
internetman55
Isn't prioritizing work a manager's job ?
------
pipio21
I had worked as an European engineer in China. I worked European hours and
days.
IMHO the secret of success of China, if there is one(China is way poorer than
EU or USA), is accepting capitalism after centuries of stagnation with systems
that worked very bad for most people(worked for Emperors, communist dictators
and people in power thought).
To say that working 996 is the secret to success is just manipulation of the
wsj, which does not surprise me coming from this newspaper.
Not accepting patents in practice like US did with England could be the secret
of China industry advancing very fast but working too much is not.
Chinese spend a long time in work, they even sleep there but the energy they
have most of the time is very low precisely because of that. European system
is far superior.
------
madengr
Finally had a manager at my employer (in MO, USA) dumb enough to mandate 48
hrs/week in writing. It’s illegal in the state to expect continual,
uncompensated hours > 40\. The managers with 2 digit IQs demand it verbally,
once with a company wide voicemail.
~~~
seanmcdirmid
Not just state law, federal law as well.
------
gaius
Welcome to the race to the bottom
~~~
madengr
It only takes a few smart managers to start this in the USA.
------
jrochkind1
I frequently see WSJ articles on the HN front page. Is there a secret for
getting past the paywall that I don't know? How are y'all reading these? Or
are many HN readers WSJ subscribers?
~~~
Arun2009
I just went on incognito mode and googled the title of the article. From
google search results, I followed the WSJ link that showed up.
~~~
jrochkind1
Incognito, google title of article, click on it... I still get a paywall. Doh!
------
leemailll
still better than a postdoc
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Show HN: What I think Elon Musk means by ‚reasoning from first principles‘ - benjohnson1707
https://link.medium.com/NqoAewqtT8<p>I wrote a (relatively lengthy) case study about Musk and his ‚physics-driven‘ approach to problem-solving (my own research and interpretations).<p>Feedback is very much appreciated - especially if you think it‘s kind of useless as a framework (and why). Thanks!
======
compressedgas
[http://archive.is/z69K8](http://archive.is/z69K8)
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ACLU Has Concerns Over Military Weapons Used By Local Police - OGinparadise
http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2013/03/07/a-c-l-u-has-concerns-over-military-weapons-used-by-local-police/
======
aethertap
I was getting ready to go on a rant about how unfortunate it is that so much
more money and effort is spent on what you might call aggressive tactics
(guns, grenades, gas) versus peaceful resolution tactics (negotiation skills,
psychology training, de-escalation techniques). Then I realized that I
actually don't _know_ what the relative proportions are. Does anyone know
where to find that out?
------
eksith
Note, the case of the Michigan girl killed by SWAT :
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Aiyana_Jones>
This particular incident made national news, but when it happens to adults
(usually less privileged adults), sadly, it often goes unnoticed except by
local news. And then usually it's just a sentence or two on the local blotter.
~~~
huhhu
"Less privileged adults"? The hell is that supposed to mean?
~~~
walshemj
BME aka Black and other Minority Ethnic groups
------
walshemj
Maybe police should have to obey the Geneva convention:-) cops are allowed to
use ammo that would be considered a war crime if used by armed forces.
~~~
troels
Really? What kind of ammunition is that?
~~~
jonchang
Frangible rounds.
~~~
eksith
Aren't they designed so they couldn't go through a target preventing anyone
behind from getting shot by the same round? My knowledge of ammunition is
inadequate by any measure, but I thought the frangible rounds were supposed to
be more "humane", though I could have just been fooled by marketing.
~~~
jonchang
Yes, that's one of the reasons why police use them. As for what kind of ammo
is supposed to be more "humane", it depends on how you define the word. Keep
in mind that law enforcement and militaries tend to use different kinds of
weapons, and that changes the ammo they use.
------
forgotAgain
It seems inevitable that as more and more highly lethal weapons are found
among citizens, the police will justify militarization as the appropriate
response.
Like Joshua said "The only winning move is not to play".
~~~
OGinparadise
You are gonna get all Rambo wannabes with tanks, IED proof vehicles and drones
trying to act soldiers while arresting grandmas over not cutting the grass.
I use grandmas to highlight the fact that most arrests, by far, aren't of the
Al Qaida or Mexican drug cartel member caliber
------
lifeformed
That flash grenade example seems contrived. The incident sounds like the
result of poor decisions made by the police, not because of the usage of that
grenade.
~~~
mtgx
Don't give them military weapons and allow them to make such stupid mistakes.
Would you feel any better if they "made a mistake" with a tank?
~~~
bicx
A grenade that stuns your senses isn't even closely comparable to a tank.
~~~
aswanson
His point still stands in principle. The more powerful a weapon given to an
individual or group, the more irreparable damage they are capable of. It
therefore makes sense to limit their ability to cause harm with their social
charge and responsibility.
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160k+ students will only graduate if a statistical model allows them to - ishan_dikshit
http://positivelysemidefinite.com/2020/06/160k-students.html
======
hvinayak1968
Very Well Researched and written.Your analysis points out the outcome pitfalls
that IB and other educational institutions should consider and correct for.
Here are some of the additional views to consider, based on my sense of data
flow thru your model:
\- the fact that your model can predict gender, race and socioeconomic status
from the historical grades is rightly pointing out that today grades are
indeed strongly (and very unfortunately) correlated with these extra-
curricular environmental variables. This is a well established fact and many
social programs have been designed in an effort to flatten this bias.
\- so unless the model takes its own predictions and loops it back as X
variables, it should not reinforce the bias. The model accurately predicts
along the pattern of social bias that is Actually present today.
\- If we are bold enough we can decide thru this model to introduce counter
biases (feedback loop) against these factors so that we level the playing
field and truly measure the raw intellect and not the Environmentally
conditioned intellect - but that is debate for another time!
All in all a great research and write up - wake up call to folks who Blindly
assume predictions for truth! I will wait for your next part - “how do we
correct for these biases”! Harsh Vinayak
------
mail2kakoo
Fantastic effort in asking the question and raising awareness. Hopefully the
universities would consider the shortcomings of the process for the IB results
to base their decisions.
------
pankajk1
Loved the animated GIF of "the model" literally falling!
The coronavirus has thrown a lot of curveballs and each has sent impacted
groups looking for answers. As OP correctly concludes, there are no good
answers. Only worse and bad ones.
Besides the original problem, the OP's analysis is well presented and brings
out the worse in this not so well thought out solution. I hope IB is listening
and is willing to adjust their model to address issues pointed out by the OP.
~~~
ishan_dikshit
Thank you - I appreciate it. Some people on another forum actually informed me
of the fact that other educational boards in the UK are planning on adopting
this exact same 'model based assessment methodology'. I do not understand why
more people aren't upset about this.
------
macsj200
It's crazy the model can learn implicit biases even when you don't supply that
data!
------
rdubey
Use of statistical model to allocate grades to students may not be fair to
many students. Models should be used for estimation and not actual allocation
of grades.
------
ali_wetrill
Wild that they're doing this - really great analysis
------
atuld
I hope they relook at the model - wouldn’t want to see people suffering due to
the wrong methods being used to grade their work.
------
anupamdutta
Great analysis...IB should definitely look to tweak the model to eliminate or
reduce the biases identified!
------
ovasilis
It is crazy to think that this is happening in the world. Very well explained!
------
arun100
Good insights on the problems and issues with what IB thought was a good
choice
------
santri2804
Explained well... loved it
------
navyadixit
Very interesting!
------
spulle1
Great article.
------
sunitayc
Nice write up
------
pujapant
Great work
------
chunmun
Well done
------
m1shti
Brilliant!
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A dark day for the future of books - ColinWright
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/04/15/opinion/coker-book-publishing/index.html
======
ComputerGuru
I will never buy an eBook when I can get an actual used copy of the same book
in mid to great condition for a tenth or a twentieth of the price of the
eBook, both from Amazon. eReaders may have gained acceptance (I have a Kindle
and a Sony eReader) but they're not "better" than real books, at least,
certainly not better enough to justify paying fixed prices w/ no opportunity
for second hand sale (esp. for non-reference materials).
With almost any popular, still-under-copyright book, this is what the pricing
looks like on Amazon:
[http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Potter-Sorcerers-Stone-
Book/dp/0...](http://www.amazon.com/Harry-Potter-Sorcerers-Stone-
Book/dp/059035342X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1334507344&sr=8-1)
Paperback: 8.79 dollars. Kindle: 7.99 dollars. Used: 1 cent. Used via Amazon
Prime: 3.98
To save NINETY CENTS you get an arguably inferior copy that you cannot resell,
pass on, share, touch, or truly experience. No, thank you. And don't forget
that your Kindle cost a hundred dollars - you'll need to buy a hundred and
eleven such books before you're actually "saving" money.
~~~
jstabbac
To each their own I guess. Personally I love how awesome it is that I can have
one book in many places. I can read from my laptop at work, on my phone on the
go, and from my tablet at home. Each automatically syncs to the last read page
and my notes/highlights move between them. Mind you I don't actually ever USE
notes or highlights, but it's pretty cool that that option is there. Sure I
like to hold a book in my hands, but the convenience of an ebook is really
hard to beat.
Plus if I have a moment to read and I want a new book, I don't need to wait
3-5 days for shipping, I can download it instantly. If I'm ever out of the
country (as I am now for half a year) I can still get any book delivered to me
instantly. For me that's just a convenience, however it's critical for areas
that normally have to wait 15-20 days for shipping from a place like Amazon.
EDIT: As a quick note to your edit, you're really ignoring some of the best
parts of ebooks while pointing out their worst. I don't own a Kindle however
read ebooks through Amazon on three different devices.
~~~
ComputerGuru
Like I mentioned, I have a Kindle, and I've loaded it with tons of classics
and DRM-free materials. It's nice and convenient, and I really like it.
But buying something is different - buying is, by nature, a matter of value.
The fact of the matter is, buying a second hand book gives you more
value/dollar than buying an ebook at 3 times the cost. An ebook you read once
but cannot resell is eight dollars literally lost overnight. You no longer
have the eight dollars _and_ you don't have anything worth eight dollars. When
you buy the book second hand, you get the same (or better) value of reading
the book, but you also retain a residue value that lives forever.
~~~
jstabbac
I contend that I get eight dollars of value out of the conveniences the ebook
provides. Like I said, to each their own I guess.
------
homosaur
I essentially find his argument incoherent. What's he complaining about, that
publishers don't have the right to illegally fix prices? They can set prices
to whatever they want but can do so on their own marketplaces. Amazon has the
right to impose whatever it wants on their marketplace. You don't have to sell
there. Now we can once again make this argument that Amazon dominates the
marketplace and you HAVE to sell there to sell any books, but that argument is
ridiculous. Plenty of small publishers are selling books solely by themselves
or with limited agreements with independent marketplaces.
This seems like sour grapes from more middlemen who are unneeded. This is why
the music industry is so bitter--because the Internet makes them irrelevant.
There will be a need for promotion, yes, but I'd rather pay a smart literary
agent 15% or even 20% to handle that rather than some publisher where I'm
basically getting dimes on the backend. I'm not aware of any promotion that
Smashwords ever executed that reached me, so clearly they are not even doing a
great job.
It's a dark day for industry middlemen and that's it.
BY THE WAY, I will pay a premium well over $20 if you distribute your ebooks
in multiple DRM free formats. I just paid $40 for the InDesign CS5 Classroom
in a Book yesterday which came with a PDF and an EPUB. If publishers are too
lazy to do that, we have no use for them anyway.
------
jackfoxy
_...the responsibility for pricing decisions should rest with authors and
publishers. If they price fairly and competitively, customers will reward
them. If they price too high, customers will migrate to lower-cost books._
I agree authors and publishers should set prices, but not in collusion. As for
the argument consumers will migrate to lower-cost books, that may hold for
some genres, but books are not really fungible. The books I am interested in
are each unique works.
~~~
radicalbyte
If I understand his argument correctly, @markcoker is suggesting that if Lord
of the Rings is too expensive people will buy Eragon instead?
Okay, could understand the lack of knowledge of basic economics, but I'd have
hoped that someone who has started their own business would at least have read
a couple of wikipedia pages on the subject.
~~~
tzs
Are you suggesting that people will buy LoTR no matter how high the price? Or
are you suggesting that if LoTR is priced too high for someone who wants to
read it, they will give up on reading rather than entertain themselves with
some other book?
------
jaysonelliot
There are two major flaws with this article. The first is the author's
reliance on the reader's understanding of the phrase "agency pricing model." A
hyperlink to yet another article that presumably contains an explanation of
the term somewhere within it is not the same as a simple one-sentence
explanation.
The second is his assumption that "customers will migrate to lower-cost
books." Books are not fungible objects. If I want to read the latest Eric
Flint novel, I'm not going to pick up a Danielle Steele book instead because
it's cheaper.
~~~
Retric
I read a _lot_ and I don't really notice or care who wrote most of them.
Sure, I would be willing to pay 50$ to read the next _Jim Butcher_ novel right
now, but I also get a fair amount of free novels on my Kindle. If it's good I
am more than happy to buy something by the author, but there is a lot of free
stuff out there and I don't feel the need to spend money just because someone
was published.
------
jpdoctor
> _By assuming responsibility for the roles once played by publishers, authors
> are earning up to 70% of the list price as their e-book royalty versus the
> 17.5% paid by traditional publishers._
I'm trying to figure out why this is a dark day for the future of books. It
sounds to me like authors just got a sizable raise.
~~~
Hemospectrum
Assume for a moment that all authors in a given genre are interchangeable. In
other words, they're unskilled labor, and it's really the publishers who bring
all the value to the table.
Come to think of it, I am sure a lot of very successful people in the
publishing industry view it this way.
~~~
jaysonelliot
Since the author of this article is an "e-book publisher" (ugh), I think your
assessment of his viewpoint is spot-on.
He's a middleman who delivers a vanishingly small amount of value, and is
worried about being made redundant.
------
muhfuhkuh
I have an amicable solution. Don't let big publishing be a cartel setting
prices willy-nilly, and if it bothers him that Amazon or whomever wants to
have a sale on a book, they can negotiate a "bulk buy" of the paper or ebook
with the author or publisher and then discount it however they choose.
But, he's insane if he thinks collusion is the answer.
------
pgrote
The publishing industry has a chance to actually make the transition into the
electronic commerce world a success. What has worked in the past isn't going
to make the transition.
One of the larger problems is the lack of a second sale. Many people,
especially in non-fiction, looks to second sales as a way to add to their
knowledge base. Without second sale there has to be a more effective method of
engaging these people and it is price.
Collusion among the publishers ensures that the logical price dropping for
ebooks wouldn't happen as it should normally.
Smashwords has done a ton to ensure ebooks have entered the market by
mitigating the normal distributorship model. I can see where they are coming
from in terms of author royalties, but other publishers will look to protect
the old business models.
------
dyeje
One thing I've been noticing with arguments against this lawsuit is that
people are saying "If prices are too high, just buy from another publisher."
The thing is that it just doesn't work that way with books. If I want to read
Moby Dick but I think the price is too high, I'm boned. That publisher owns
that specific book, and I can't just get a knockoff book. There's only one
Moby Dick. They are the gatekeepers to that intellectual property.
------
alecco
Typical strawman. Authors and publishers are not a single group. Publishers
are just gatekeepers.
------
ChristianMarks
The author argues for a centralized command economy of e-book sales, in which
large bureaucratic institutions set prices based on the consumption patterns
of their executives.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Show HN: Search for a domain expert on Reddit - lettergram
https://redditprofile.com/
======
yorwba
If you want to find mods and bots, try searching for "please". It works on the
HN version to pick out dang and sctb and it seems to work on Reddit as well.
There are some false positives, however. E.g. a comment saying "Zuck Fuck"
being interpreted as discussing "please" might be due to uncleaned word
vectors.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/85y46f/facebooks...](https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/85y46f/facebooks_stock_tumbles_again_value_drops_by_more/dw1bxc4/)
~~~
jwilk
I tried
[https://hnprofile.com/author_profiles?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search=...](https://hnprofile.com/author_profiles?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search=please)
to no avail; there's neither dang nor sctb on the first 5 pages.
~~~
lettergram
So.. the system learns what the subject of a sentence is over time. It's since
learned "please" is not a subject, so I imagine that's what's dropped them in
the results.
Still appear first for YCombinator, because that's the links they constantly
post
------
ketralnis
Fortunately I'm not the kind of person people would be searching for, but this
just seems impolite. Posting to an internet forum on a topic that interests
you is not an opt-in to have random internet people or reach out to you asking
for free advice. If I were a domain expert I wouldn't _want_ to be searched
for on Reddit using a tool like this because the implicit goal is to then be
spammed about it. If I wanted to be reached out to, I'd say so on a web site
somewhere
~~~
megamindbrian2
Neither is it proof of being an expert.
~~~
scopecreep
But semi-anonymous posts on social media are?
If so there's a lot more Navy SEALs than I was lead to believe.
------
wingerlang
When I searched for my own account, it didn't show up. When I searched for a
topic, it showed me a user with the same name as the topic. When I did find
some users claimed to be experts, I found their mood over the year and the
main link was to a HN comment of them.
I am not sure how to use this, what makes a user a domain expert?
It's all kinda confusing.
~~~
lettergram
I only show accounts that were active in the past year (in the subreddits it’s
tracking).
Do you have examples of the errors? I’d love to try and figure out the issue.
Regarding a domain expert it’s identified by the terms a person uses and
related terms people are interested in. The learn more section might help
clear some of that up.
~~~
wingerlang
Not tracking all subreddits makes sense I guess. But I searched for
"Jailbreak". But got a user with that username.
Searching for "ios programming" shows me some guy wyager and the discussion
link is to HN, not reddit.
~~~
lettergram
Thanks for the heads up -_-
The full blown system creates what I call "metaprofiles" merging profiles
across various domains. Basically, it can identify people based on
conversation (regardless of username or domain). One thing I do, is create
these "metaprofiles" and will return the first linked account.
Apparently, I forgot to add a "data source" as an input to the function, thus
you may get some of the cross profiles.
------
DanBC
I searched for "suicide". I got a list of people back who had interesting
opinions in a thread about suicide, but who are not domain experts.
It's an interesting idea though, and it worked a lot better than I was
expecting it to. The limitations are clear from the description on the page
("note we only track a small number of subreddits").
------
thethirdone
A few characters (' ) ( :) (And probably more) lead to an error screen:
[https://redditprofile.com/author_profiles?utf8=%E2%9C%93&sea...](https://redditprofile.com/author_profiles?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search=%27)
[https://redditprofile.com/author_profiles?utf8=%E2%9C%93&sea...](https://redditprofile.com/author_profiles?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search=%28)
[https://redditprofile.com/author_profiles?utf8=%E2%9C%93&sea...](https://redditprofile.com/author_profiles?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search=%29)
[https://redditprofile.com/author_profiles?utf8=%E2%9C%93&sea...](https://redditprofile.com/author_profiles?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search=%3A)
~~~
lettergram
Thanks for catching the error!
Should be fixed now, for reference the error was because I was estimating the
count. Turns out that couldn't handle _only_ special characters.
------
jwilk
The same thing but for HN:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17942981](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17942981)
------
CarVac
I searched for photography and none of the regulars on /r/photography
(including myself) came up.
~~~
lettergram
FYI the system just looks at a subset of subreddits:
/r/dataisbeautiful
/r/news
/r/worldnews
/r/technology
/r/programming
/r/cars
/r/stock market
/r/cryptocurrency
/r/all
Basically didn't want to build an insanely large database for a simple demo.
~~~
chx
Well that kills it. The gems of reddit are to be found in small subreddits.
For example, awesome bag advice can be found in /r/onebag/ (41k subscribers)
/r/ManyBaggers/ (783 only but don't let that fool you, the knowledge in that
place is astonishing) and somewhat on /r/BuyItForLife/ (500k). Even that 500k
is very small.
------
jsonne
Interesting. As someone who has a marketing subreddit dedicated to my content
that's about 3k people I wish this was a bit more inclusive outside large
subreddits. There's a lot of value in the "longtail" subreddits as it were.
------
dewey
Can you just use the name “Reddit” in your Domain like that?
~~~
chatmasta
Probably Reddit could technically make a trademark enforcement claim, but it
seems they are unlikely to, given the long existence of sites like
redditlist.com
------
dimitry12
@lettergram In lettergram.com, when it says "{} opinion ({}) in {} separate
discussions" \- are these discussions from Reddit and HN?
~~~
lettergram
It’s what ever is fed into the system. So currently it’s monitoring 12 or so
data sources. I could monitor more, but I figure I’ll scale it with interest.
~~~
dimitry12
Cool! What are they?
Have you considered adding the feature of listing the conversations which
contributed to the score?
~~~
lettergram
100% of the conversations on this website come from subreddits (main ones
listed in another comment here). Overall I also monitor some forums, hacker
news, and others for [https://projectpiglet.com](https://projectpiglet.com)
which identifies company insiders then recommends trades. So I don't feel
comfortable with sharing exact sources.
Regarding the score - The paid version I'm offering to companies has said
feature. It also has a bunch of other items as well, find duplicate accounts,
automated related project notification, etc.
~~~
dimitry12
Thanks! I will consider trying paid version.
~~~
lettergram
> The paid version I'm offering to companies has said feature.
Should note! That is not the projectpiglet.com version (that wont show you any
user information, don't want you to pay unnecessarily). I'm offering the paid
version which can be hosted and deployed by a given company internally. To do
that you'll need to contact direct via email.
------
mothsonasloth
Interesting stuff, how do you calculate a users "mood". Are you willing to
explain your algorithm?
------
klohto
Everyone I searched for have an unhappy mood...
~~~
forgottenpass
Semantic analysis belongs to the third category in "lies, damn lies, and
statistics."
I'm sure it's slightly better for Metacortex's real use case - which is an
employee surveillance system - because people won't use strong language,
hyperbole, share their real opinions, or talk about certain topics as much in
professional communication. But I still find the whole domain to be a fraud
with just enough signal in the noise to trick people.
------
dsfyu404ed
This tool is interesting but it is fundamentally an exercise in turd polishing
because Reddit is a completely terrible place to get "expert" advice. It's
designed to be a place for show and tell with commentary and false appearance
of consensus.
If you want expert advice you should be asking for it somewhere that's
properly formatted for long form discussion. You should also seek out advice
in a specialized community, not a general one like Reddit. For every piece of
good advice on Reddit there's ten pieces of terrible advice and ten pieces of
mediocre advice you could find yourself on Google offered up by the riff-raff
that happen to be passing through that day. Reddit is just polite 4chan. If
you want expert advice to somewhere where only people who are interested in
the topic you want advice on are (usually forums).
Edit: Also this tool thinks I am an expert in hipsters. I like to think I'm an
expert in calling people hipsters.
~~~
fhood
Sigh. Reddit is not a completely terrible place to get expert advice. Yes,
there is a great deal of awful advice to be found there. But there are also a
fair number of subreddits that are the primary gathering place for that
community, and thus the best place to go for advice on that topic.
When I google something non-programming related, the correct answer is very
frequently found in a Reddit post.
Reddit isn't usually the absolute best place for advice on a topic, but
painting it as "completely terrible" seems like hyperbole to me.
~~~
PascLeRasc
Reddit's the best way to get lots of real people's opinions of stuff. Search
for "best Windows backup tool" and you get a pile of sponsored pages and fake
recommendation sites, and probably some malware. Search for "best Windows
backup tool site:reddit.com" and you get people posting in sysadmin
communities having real discussion.
~~~
Kagerjay
"site:reddit.com {{tool name}} vs ______" is something I use fairly
frequently. Its not perfect by any means due to astroturfing, but its better
than nothing
------
indentit
isn't "domain expert" and "reddit" contradictory?
------
josefresco
Searched for "trump", site returned PoppinKREAM so this seems pretty accurate!
~~~
mfoy_
Love his write-ups. Shame the people who don't want to hear his message can
just say "fake news" and carry on... :(
------
known
[https://redditprofile.com/author_profiles?utf8=%E2%9C%93&sea...](https://redditprofile.com/author_profiles?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search=HFT)
|
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|
Ask HN: How to get a job after a failed startup? - startuplife01
I worked it for 8 months. I've now completely exhausted my savings. Our product is live but the growth is super slow. There is no way I can see it reaching product market fit. Investors are not interested with such low numbers.<p>I am a product guy with moderate level tech skills.<p>Should I keep the startup on my resume (with reason for shutting down + lessons)? Or should I leave it out from my resume and instead add the product we built as a 'project'?<p>I'm looking at product management jobs or software engineering jobs.
======
vladislavp
I am trying to reconcile your question, with the one you just posted recently
(16 days ago)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21041836](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21041836)
>" ... Interests & life goals: Product Management, starting his own startup
(or a profit making lifestyle business), reaching financial independence
Recently graduated from an Indian college with computer science degree.
Don't have too much savings but have strong experience under belt from working
on several side-projects (with users) during college years.
What career advice would you give? Also, would you suggest he look into moving
and working in the West, (Germany or Canada) or stay in India?
…"
I may be totally misreading this, but it seems like are you are posting your
resume + availability, under AskHN umbrella.
With regards to your direct question on if a failed startup needs to be
mentioned.
I would say if you have things to show (eg a website/app link), and you feel
comfortable describing your contribution there -- it should be mentioned.
May be under 'other projects' section.
~~~
startuplife01
Thanks for your advice.
No, I have no intentions of posting my resume on HN. I respect the HN
community's advice more than any other software communities. So, it is natural
for me to want to ask advice here. And I can't ask for advice without posting
atleast some information about where I'm at. Also, I don't have any contact
details on my HN profile.
Moderators, if you feel the thread does not belong here, you may remove it. I
can't see an option to delete the original post.
~~~
aosaigh
Can you link to the startup?
------
seanwilson
My side projects were usually the biggest positives when I went for
interviews. Nobody is going to ask you how much money they made because it's
not important for software engineering jobs - you've shown you can use your
own initiative and finish projects by yourself. Not sure what you're nervous
about.
------
jmcgough
Put it on your resume if it's something you're proud of, even if it failed.
The fact that you were willing to give it a shot is typically a positive
signal. Be prepared to talk about it - a lot of interviewers will find that
more interesting than working at yet another startup, so if you can talk
intelligently about what you learned and the progress you made, it'll
definitely score you points in an interview.
------
icedchai
Focus on what went _right._ You designed, built, and launched a product.
Also curious, how slow is "slow" growth in percentages? Maybe it's not as bad
as you think...
------
Blakestr
You still had "wins" and hurdles you had to overcome. I'd leave it there. If
asked, focus on those wins. If I were building a drone company in 2006, I
could say I overcame engineering hurdles to design the product but failed to
reach market due to government restrictions, aka FAA. That way it looks like
anyone would have lost that game but you still have talent.
------
JSeymourATL
> I'm looking at product management jobs or software engineering jobs.
Suggest looking instead for the person you can best help. Think Founders/COO's
of early-stage firms.
Try to connect with that individual. Linkedin is good for this. They'll likely
relate to your story.
------
natalyarostova
Everything is marketing. You can spin failures into successes if you do it
right.
------
codegladiator
> Should I keep the startup on my resume (with reason for shutting down +
> lessons)?
yes, experience is what matters, not success or failure.
------
dlphn___xyz
how do you use a failed startup to pivot into a new industry (i.e. not tech)?
------
xFlaring
Try to create your own.
|
{
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|
Swift: Simple, Safe, Inflexible - aaronbrager
https://medium.com/@getaaron/swift-simple-safe-inflexible-68ff6fa927dc
======
Someone
_" Allow required initializers in extensions, and require subclasses to
implement these initializers (even if they just call super)"_
Is that possible? The subclass could live in your application, and the
extension method in a plug-in that isn't known to the application (needn't
even be on the system or _exist_ when you launch the application)
That may work, but I would have to think hard about all kinds of weird
scenarios before being sure of it.
~~~
smosher_
At some point you'll end up with breakage unless doing this _causes_ the
subclasses to implement the initializer with super (if not already present),
not just require it. I don't really like that, but it might actually work.
You shouldn't really get to mess with someone else's implementation... that's
partly what subclassing is for and that's where it should get fixed. I'm not
really familiar with the barrier here since Swift isn't available on my
platform, but I can't think of a reason for it to be such a problem, unlike
the the other road.
|
{
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|
New organ named in digestive system - DanBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38506708
======
CarolineW
In case anyone is interested there is some discussion of this over here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13308092](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13308092)
The same story has been submitted from other sources as well:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13315995](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13315995)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13315751](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13315751)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13313220](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13313220)
There may be others, if you're interested in the different reports from
different sources you can easily search for them.
|
{
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}
|
Wix Code - dna_polymerase
https://www.wix.com/code/home
======
jszymborski
Man-oh-man did that take a while to load...
You can always tell you've landed on a wix site when you're faced with blank
screen for a while.
Edit: 10MB... this page is 10MB.
[https://i.imgur.com/uAoc05H.png](https://i.imgur.com/uAoc05H.png)
~~~
WhitneyLand
But who cares? I don’t think their users do, and Wix is growing.
Everyone here is disgusted by it because, it is in fact disgusting from the
perspective of a developer.
I spent a few hours with with wix earlier this year while needing help a
family quickly get a funeral site up they could hopefully have some chance of
maintaining themselves. Getting started is actually pretty slick. The designer
software is easy to use and gets a basic decent looking site up extremely
fast.
Towards the end of the few hours I was hitting roadblocks left and right.
Artificial limitations, edge cases not supported, things that could have been
fixed on a real site trivially.
Still, what they’ve built, what it in turn allows pretty nontechnical people
to build quickly, is impressive. I think it may have been possible to do
better on performance and flexibility without compromising for other users. My
guess is it’s not mostly because they are just not obsessing on that part
much.
~~~
flukus
> But who cares? I don’t think their users do, and Wix is growing.
Do Wix users even realize? If they're building their own website then they
probably have enough of the javascript cached that they don't realize the
performance issues.
For other end users though, they care, they just don't know what's wrong or
they can't articulate the problem. They think their computer is getting to
slow, or the networks bad, or they have a virus. They'll use vague terms like
that because they don't know there's 20MB of javascript running. If a wix site
is slow then they're more likely to blame MS or dell or their ISP than to
realize wix is the problem.
~~~
mercer
I've found that many users of Wix and (shitty) Wordpress themes don't care,
and are very happy to get a site for a fraction of the cost to get it made
'professionally' (or free, if they just do everything themselves).
I've also found that there's been a steady uptick in clients who are having
some success with/through their site, and who suddenly _do_ start caring, for
all the reason that we are all aware of (performance affecting SEO, bad mobile
experience, the 'visual page builder' not being able to do what they want,
etc.).
While it's not always fun work, I do think there's a huge market there for
'people like us'.
I'm not sure what a good analogy would be in other businesses, but perhaps
it's a bit like someone with a limited budget starting a cafe with IKEA
furniture, finding success, and now having both the need and (some) means to
actually buy furniture that can handle the demands of cafe use.
And that's not even considering the huge number of potential customers whose
Wordpress site got hacked and who need a solution _NOW_.
What I like most about this situation is that it's not even entirely bad.
Perhaps sometimes it _does_ make sense to start a bar with IKEA furniture
because the chance of success is so small. I honestly tell many potential
clients to not bother paying me for a good, fast site because all they really
need at this point is a decent-ish Wordpress theme or Wix/SquareSpace site.
EDIT: I'm not saying Wix specifically would be an option I would suggest to
clients. My experience with it hasn't been too good, and I'm sure there's
similar and better options.
------
eropple
Database: some proprietary key-value thing. No performance descriptions. API
documentation that looks written for people who are dimly familiar with APIs.
"Dynamic Pages": whatevery CMS-ish CRUD frontend. "User Input": forms that
dump data into that database. It doesn't get better from there.
This is even more of a lock-in trap than Wix (and its similar competitors,
like SquareSpace) usually is. These people want to _own_ you and whatever
you're making. Avoid.
~~~
ioquatix
When I see "tables" from a "database" in a web browser, I have a good laugh. I
know it's not that impressive but our smallest non-trivial "table" has 100,000
records and our largest over a billion. Good luck trying to use a web UI to
manage that. Parse was like this too - and they had a 1000-record limit in
their APIs. Good times.
~~~
flukus
It seems like just about every javascript table library I come across expects
the filtering, ordering and paging to be done client side after retrieving all
the data. The make for some nice looking demo's but then I have to explain to
management (or other devs sadly) why things are so slow.
------
eranation
On a side note... tried to use their beta sign-up page. Form looks very
pleasing to the eye, but, sorry to be that guy, it's all sorts of terrible.
What annoyed me first was that the tab structure of that form was all broken,
instead of going to the next field, it just went to a random field down the
road. It also was not responsive, it felt almost as if someone just dragged
and dropped it on a visual form designer or something, you see where I'm
getting at. I hope that form was not built with Wix Code. *
A quick look at the HTML confirms, all fields and labels seem to be positioned
absolute, each. Might be a good workaround for an MVP form builder, dragging
on a grid and using absolute positioning is the easiest way to develop a
visual form builder I guess... (although I think a tabindex property would
have solved the tab issue, and a simple algorithm sorting divs by top / left
would have been able to do it automatically, but this is just MVP).
Maybe I'm wrong, maybe nice HTML doesn't matter, maybe they can fix the tab
stop problem, maybe responsive forms are not important to most customers. But
everything I was taught is wrong in a web form exists in the form that asks me
to sign up for a beta to a tool that builds forms without coding.
Maybe this is the way to MVP... maybe that form was built by an intern. Maybe
accessibility is not important for a beta (or maybe I'm the only one pressing
tab when filling forms) but this just reeks bad web design practice all over
it.
*EDIT: Yep, I guess it was, at the bottom it says: "This Website Was Created with Wix Code". Maybe the genius idea was just to build a fixed grid, forget responsiveness, and solve 99% of the problems of a WYSIWYG editor. All in all they built an MVP and I'm just ranting on HN, so perhaps they are onto something...
~~~
jlg23
I once ported a site designed in wix to plain html/css for a friend. Advice
from the bottom of my heart: Wash your brain with soap after looking at the
markup wix generates. Sandblasting might also be an option.
~~~
dom0
Sandblasting doesn't actually work that well with soft, spongy materials.
~~~
fencepost
> Sandblasting doesn't actually work that well with soft, spongy materials.
Is the markup Mythos-level bad? If so, sandblasting might still be
appropriate.
------
stevenjohns
Wix is a terrible company filled with some of the most incompetent people.
Once I reported a notorious scammer who was using their platform to their
support team. I provided tons of information (including investigations from
the press) and explicitly told them not to pass on my details. That was
actually a precondition before I had revealed any information, and they
ensured me that they will not pass on my details.
What do they do? They treat it as a DMCA request and give the scammer every
single piece of information they had on me (which included my phone number). I
woke up to a voicemail on my phone from the scammer saying he's "going to find
you motherfuckers" and "kill all of y'all".
After asking why the hell they did that, they basically told me to piss off
and denied doing anything wrong.
~~~
Can_Not
Do you think wix would be legally liable for sharing your personal details to
a malicious actor?
------
suyash
Staying away from this service due to their horrible Terms and Conditions.
Read carefully before you sign yourself up for something you might regret
later on.
In short: All your code and IP belongs to WIX.
[https://www.wix.com/code/home/terms-and-
conditions](https://www.wix.com/code/home/terms-and-conditions)
\-- AS IS from their T&C ---
By participating in the Beta Stage, you hereby assign to Wix without any
additional consideration, all right, title and interest to your Feedback and
all proprietary rights therein, including, without limitation, all patents,
copyrights, trade secrets, mask works, trademarks, moral rights and other
intellectual property rights.
You acknowledge that Wix retains ownership of all right, title and interest to
the Wix Code, including without limitation, its design and documentation,
derivatives and versions thereof, and all intellectual property rights therein
and thereto (including without limitation, all patent rights, design rights,
copyrights and trade secret rights). If requested by Wix, you agree to execute
and deliver any documents, statement, instruments, recordings or filings
deemed necessary by Wix to protect and preserve its right, title and interest
in and to the Wix Code under applicable law.
\----
~~~
kevindong
"to your Feedback"
Pretty sure that just means that if you submit feedback, that feedback becomes
property of Wix [0]. From a laymen's interpretation of that paragraph, your
content remains your own.
\---
The second paragraph sounds pretty standard for a SasS company.
\---
[0]: They explicitly define 'Feedback' in their T&C as follows:
> In consideration of the non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license
> to use the Wix Code granted to you by Wix subject to the terms hereof, you
> agree to serve as a “beta tester” of the Wix Code and to provide Wix with
> useful input on the Wix Code, including on any problems, bugs, failures,
> deficiencies and other challenges you may have encountered while using the
> Wix Code, and other input and ideas you may have on how to improve, enhance
> or upgrade the Wix Code, or any other feedback you may have and deem
> relevant (collectively “Feedback”).
------
__bjoernd
Unfortunate naming from a German perspective. 'Wixen' translates to 'wank/jerk
off' here...
~~~
Zekio
well luckily it is probably based on the surname Wix which is based off the
english word "Wicks"
~~~
tyingq
There doesn't appear to be much of a story behind the name.
_" Back at the beach, the three brainstormed what to name their new company.
Staying true to their idea, they had two requirements for the name: they
wanted a three letter word that started with a “W” and something that was easy
to remember"_
[http://www.rewindandcapture.com/why-is-wix-called-
wix/](http://www.rewindandcapture.com/why-is-wix-called-wix/)
------
donohoe
I generally avoid Wix like the plague and that seems like a good reason.
One more reason: [https://ma.tt/2016/10/wix-and-the-
gpl/](https://ma.tt/2016/10/wix-and-the-gpl/)
------
SOLAR_FIELDS
Though this obviously isn’t the kind of thing that will appeal to the average
HN reader, Wix does appear to be having success in the realm. How many of us
have a friend or three that wants to bootstrap a small business but can’t
afford proper web design/dev skills and are smart enough to figure something
like this out? You might argue to them “learn how to code and do it properly”,
but there is a group of people that are a large subset of the above group of
which no matter how you try to educate will have some sort of allergy to
writing actual code. This product is for them.
Side anecdote, in college nearly 10 years ago I had an entrepreneurship
professor that singled out Wix as one to watch for a good success story. I
guess he was right on that bet.
~~~
coding-saints
I think the answer these days should be "hire a programmer". Never would I try
and do a profession I did not understand, especially if it had something to do
with profit/income. While WIX does have a nice community paying for their
WYSIWYG, I would advise anyone to pay an experienced developer to
create/maintain their site over doing it themselves.
~~~
Silhouette
_I think the answer these days should be "hire a programmer"._
The difficulty with that answer is that the market for web development is
becoming bimodal.
On the low end, you have the site builder tools: Wix, WP, Squarespace, and so
on. These days you have to include Facebook pages in there as well. You can
set up a basic online presence for next to no money with these, and in most
cases you can buy a reasonably professional-looking theme to make your site
look decent for not much more. Of course you're limited to common features and
have few opportunities for customisation, but does a web page announcing your
local church events really need any more?
On the high end, you have bespoke development. Someone like me, or no doubt
many others on HN, can build you a site that does more or less anything and
adopts whatever distinctive branding you need. However, we're going to charge
about as much for an hour or two of our time as the whole thing costs with one
of the site builder tools, and your final bill is going to have at least two
more zeroes on it to do roughly the same job and probably more if we're doing
anything that makes it worth using us in the first place.
There isn't much room in between any longer. The days of getting your
neighbour's kid's school friend to build your company web site for $500 are
gone. The site builder tools have commoditised the low end of the market, and
for that kind of money they'll probably offer better results, while no agency
nor even any established freelancer is likely to get out of bed for a gig that
small.
In short, hiring a professional doesn't really make sense for a lot of small
business or community web sites any more. Either you need something truly
unique and customised, in which case you need the time and money to match, or
you're probably better off just using a site builder if you don't have the
resources available to do it in-house.
------
jtchang
I know lots of SMBs that use Wix. It's a solid platform to get started but can
be kinda slow and hard to work with at times.
For some background they are an Israeli company and a few years back they
opened up a Wix Cafe space out near dogpatch area. It was totally free with a
focus around the Wix platform (kind of like how Amazon has AWS popup lofts).
It went away I think but the idea was pretty cool. Hell I didn't mind the free
space.
~~~
elsurudo
I'm sorry... can you explain that second paragraph? What is a Wix Cafe space
with a focus on the Wix platform? what are Amazon AWS popup lofts?
------
nickstefan12
If you're looking for a website builder that doesn't load megabytes of
JavaScript, lock you in to the platform forever, or feel like a Fischer price
toy, check out:
[https://www.brandcast.com](https://www.brandcast.com)
------
ertemplin
Wow, that has to be the worst website I've visited in a very long time. The
page was white for about 10 seconds, the videos were laggy/stuttering, the
moving content below the first video had random black artifacts popping up.
------
foota
"Home page was delayed by 14ms due to code" _crying emoji_
------
yoodenvranx
I feel kinda sorry for their German sales/advertising team that has to deal
with their own company name. "wix" sounds _very_ similar to "wichsen" which is
a vulgar term for "to masturbate. I don't think their service will ever be
popular over here because of that name.
When I saw the title "Wix code" my brain automatically translated it into
something similar to "jerk off code".
~~~
dna_polymerase
Well they actually try to use that as a marketing gag [0].
"Million people jerk off daily" "Jerking off changed my life."
[0]:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AKDZmsy5yo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AKDZmsy5yo)
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Etsy: Crafting an IPO - sharkweek
http://blog.pitchbook.com/etsy-crafting-an-ipo/
======
jonathanpeterwu
Interesting infographic on the history of Etsys history to IPO. Including
details about their fundraising and what VC's participated in each round.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Interview: John McAfee Answers Your Questions - xpop2027
http://beta.slashdot.org/story/200403
======
mindcrime
Very nice. Maybe the best /. interview I've ever read. McAfee may be crazy (or
not, I don't know) but he sure as heck is entertaining. I'd love to sit at a
bar and drink with him sometime.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
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