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Why you shouldnt join an accelerator - prostoalex
http://blossomstreetventures.com/blog_details.php?bcat_id=87&utm_campaign=Mattermark+Daily&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=38905427&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--29ibnuPT1REKKwKpWPd51yPlSueoHPA2EgmT2oLad53JLTZfkFn1dY41YdpF-rqIWWO4SWTI1E8peUnDh2kJWLwIahw&_hsmi=38905427
======
gumby
Where are the successful accelerators? I count "success" as "have nurtured a
number of companies that went on to be successful".
I think YC counts as one. But I think it counts as _the_ one. Accelerators
(AKA incubators) go back a long way (e.g. techfarm back in the 1990s) and yc
is neither the first or last. But I've looked at the proliferation of
accelerators and have not seen a lot of success. There is idealab, but that's
more a bill gross shop (like Kamens' operation) than a true accelerator IMHO.
My sole metric here is successful companies: those that went on to have
significant impact.
Not to pick on anyone, but lets look at techstars's own report since to their
credit they publish one:
[http://www.techstars.com/companies/](http://www.techstars.com/companies/) .
Two things jump out: they _did_ nurture a significant company: digital ocean.
They list Sphero, who is doing great with BB-8, but who already had $40M
invested and were willing to pay techstars' large fee basically for an
introduction (that was hugely valuable). The rest of the companies, well,
apart from sendgrid I haven't really heard of them (or the couple I have heard
of are struggling). Worse, TS's published metric is funds raised by alumnus
companies. It's hard to find a better metric but funds raised don't
necessarily predict success, and after all these years you'd think they'd have
more than 28 companies on their list.
------
HugoDaniel
Stating the obvious: it is better to learn with the mistakes of others than
with your own mistakes.
I enjoyed the reference to [http://autopsy.io/](http://autopsy.io/) this is a
good resource to have. Reading this text was worth it as a bootstrapper even
though i dont intend to join an accelerator.
------
CalChris
You can look at the graduates of an accelerator to get an idea of that
accelerator's judgment. Then ask whether 7% for some cash is worth it.
| {
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Did You Know? HTML5 Tag Omission - BasDirks
http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/syntax.html#syntax-tag-omission
======
quink
We knew :)
<http://www.brucelawson.co.uk/2010/a-minimal-html5-document/>
<!doctype html> <html lang=en> <meta charset=utf-8> <title>blah</title> <body>
<p>I'm the content
| {
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July 8th Gezipark Turkish Police Fires with Tear Gas and Water Canons - Page 1 - l8in
http://www.wikileaks-forum.com/index.php?topic=20328.0#.UdsH99RoxHA.hackernews
======
lifeguard
related:
[http://occupygezipics.tumblr.com/](http://occupygezipics.tumblr.com/)
[http://www.livestream.com/revoltistanbul](http://www.livestream.com/revoltistanbul)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Big Phones? So Over. - linhtran168
http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/29/big-phones-so-over/?grcc=33333Z98
======
sebandr
There's only two formats that succeed: briefcase size and pocket size,
anything else better fit in one of those two otherwise it's a Betamax.
------
anigbrowl
Takes one to know one...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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How would go about building an online store in 2020? - ricedigi
======
Nextgrid
Shopify is nice to get started.
When you get big enough or have custom requirements you can develop your own
solution.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Infrastructure Automation with Chef - zemanel
http://www.slideshare.net/jweiss/infrastructure-automation-withchef
======
lusis
FYI, this is one of the better decks I've seen on puppet/chef/devops. Very
well done.
| {
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Clarify Your Story: Internet Businesses - RiderOfGiraffes
http://www.sramanamitra.com/articles/clarify-your-story-internet-businesses/
======
RiderOfGiraffes
From: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1134810>
Related: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1127461>
Links to: <http://mylifeandart.typepad.com/1m1m/>
The question in <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1134810> is how many
people here know of the "strategy" and are intending to use it.
| {
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More than 1,000 Nokia employees walk out in protest at Symbian phase-out - adambyrtek
http://www.hs.fi/english/article/More+than+1000+Nokia+employees+walk+out+in+Tampere+in+protest+at+Symbian+phase-out/1135263743059
======
RiderOfGiraffes
Also here: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2206437>
... with many, _many_ comments.
| {
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Apple macOS 10.15 vs. Windows 10 vs. Ubuntu 19.10 Performance Benchmark - truth_seeker
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=macos1015-win10-ubuntu&num=1
======
user9837
I'll just leave this here
> Where macOS tended to perform the best was with the Firefox web browser
> benchmarks
| {
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Amazon ECHO - syshackbot
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00X4WHP5E/ref=s9_pop_gw_g451_i2?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=desktop-7&pf_rd_r=1NA8YZ60W55V0MXKEWM7&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=2090151022&tag=facebookoffer15-20&pf_rd_i=desktop
======
heavymark
Confused, why is this trending. What's the new news about the Echo?
~~~
JoeAltmaier
Maybe it got cheaper? $179 is less than the beta price I think...
~~~
bauer
beta price was $100
seems like spam to me
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Redecentralize: Taking back the net - mortenjorck
http://redecentralize.org
======
dang
A dupe of
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6543846](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6543846).
When an item has had significant attention, HN generally doesn't allow reposts
for about a year.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Bret Victor: A Personal Note about "Media for Thinking the Unthinkable" - dirtyaura
http://worrydream.com/#!/MediaForThinkingTheUnthinkable/note.html
======
ColinWright
Significant discussion: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5781072>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Ask HN: How to get PHP lamp or mamp on Ubuntu 19.10? - futurechange
I recently changed my pc from windows to Ubuntu 19.10 I Love linux so much faster and simple than windows<p>but I want to learn php on this machine what's the best way to get MySQL php lamp or apache and all that good stuff for PHP development on this ubuntu machine?<p>everything seems outdated or there is always new stuff and new code hard to differinate what to use and keep up with.
======
roosgit
Try tasksel. It has a simple wizard-like setup. I used it to install Apache,
PHP and MySQL on a server by following a video tutorial. You can preview the
whole process in this video
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxuAwCKIoKg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxuAwCKIoKg).
Unfortunately, it doesn't also install phpMyAdmin like MAMP does. But from a
quick search, it seems that phpMyAdmin can be installed by running a single
command in terminal.
------
monoideism
Haven't worked with PHP in years, but I found a good LAMP install tutorial
from Digital Ocean:
[https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-
inst...](https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-
linux-apache-mysql-php-lamp-stack-ubuntu-18-04)
Probably, you'll use the same process on 19.04 as on 18.04.
~~~
futurechange
seems like getting PHP dev on Ubuntu is more complicated than a simple MAMP on
OS X or Wamp on Windows.
~~~
monoideism
Yeah, it is, but it's also much closer to how PHP is deployed on a production
server if you're not using a shared host, so it's good for someone to learn
these kinds of command line skills if they have any plans of working in the
software industry.
------
lovelearning
I generally use Bitnami's stacks. There's one for LAMP too.
Benefits: Fairly latest versions. Everything in one directory (I usually
install them under /opt). No effect on system packages. No need to add PPAs
for new versions.
Drawbacks: Can't update an existing installation; have to install a new
version of the stack in another location and migrate.
[1]:
[https://bitnami.com/stack/lamp/installer](https://bitnami.com/stack/lamp/installer)
[2]:
[https://bitnami.com/stack/lamp/README.txt](https://bitnami.com/stack/lamp/README.txt)
~~~
futurechange
this looks interesting and it works for Ubuntu? I can have PHP/MYSQL and
phpmyadmin ?
I like this, so basically it's the MAMP or WAMP version for like Linux ubuntu?
~~~
lovelearning
It works on Ubuntu. I use it on Ubuntu.
It's LAMP. There are different ways to deploy LAMP on Ubuntu but they are all
LAMP stacks at the end of the day. 1)From system packages is most common. 2)
From PPAs if you want latest versions. 3) As virtual machine. 4)As containers.
5) As software bundles like the Bitnami stack 6) Building all components from
their sources.
~~~
futurechange
wow main you're a life saver this worked perfectly on ubuntu. most of the
online saved was outdated this helped a lot thanks
------
LarryMade2
Ubuntu runs a little behind in the PHP versions...I think it is mainly for
compatibility sake (which is good if you are looking long-term without much
breakage)
I switched to Linux Mint recently (which is a offshoot of Ubuntu) to have more
recent PHP/MySQL versions. There are many guides out there for getting LAMP up
and running with Mate as well as Ubuntu. Just include the version with it
(i.e. search install php mysql ubuntu 19.10 )
------
saluki
[https://cpriego.github.io/valet-linux/](https://cpriego.github.io/valet-
linux/)
Check out laracasts.com [https://laracasts.com/series/laravel-6-from-
scratch/episodes...](https://laracasts.com/series/laravel-6-from-
scratch/episodes/4)
See comments about linux.
~~~
monoideism
Note: that first program installs Nginx, not Apache if OP wants true LAMP.
------
p0d
Just to segway a little I am a fan of lxc. I would be happier fiddling with
PHP in a container than the main os.
I run lxc containers and PHP on another box and run sublime seemlessly on the
remote box to edit code.
------
tyzerdak
Check digital ocean / linode tutorials
| {
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Ubuntu lockscreen bypass by removing hdd, devs say fix unlikely - codedokode
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity/+bug/1777415
======
codedokode
Article with detailed description, machine translated from Russian:
[https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ru&tl=en&js=y&prev...](https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ru&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fhabr.com%2Fcompany%2Facribia%2Fblog%2F416425%2F&edit-
text=&act=url)
It says the OS had user's home directory encrypted, but not the whole
filesystem.
For those who prefer video, here is what you can do if you forgot your or
someone's password:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGu5AFCQ1Uw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGu5AFCQ1Uw)
Also, I think this bug also deserves a name, but nothing comes to mind.
"hddunlock" maybe?
~~~
mindcrime
_Also, I think this bug also deserves a name, but nothing comes to mind.
"hddunlock" maybe?_
hddbleed?
------
slededit
With this it attack it should be possible to extract the keys and access the
encrypted home partition. Disk encryption and TPS chips are supposed to
mitigate physical attacks. Its worrying if Ubuntu doesn't care about that
vector.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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An evolved circuit, intrinsic in silicon, entwined with physics (1996) - timdierks
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.50.9691&rep=rep1&type=pdf
======
timdierks
Moral: evolved complexity ≠ designed complexity.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Eric Schmidt is stepping down as Alphabet’s executive chairman - dcgudeman
https://abc.xyz/investor/news/releases/2017/1221.html
======
Overtonwindow
Previous Discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15983211](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15983211)
| {
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Ungit – Git UI that makes you understand git - rplnt
https://github.com/FredrikNoren/ungit
======
rplnt
Quick video introduction:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkBVAi3oKvo](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkBVAi3oKvo)
Some discussion with the author present on reddit:
[http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/1kqotu/ungit_ne...](http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/1kqotu/ungit_new_git_ui_that_makes_you_understand_git/)
~~~
fuddle
You should add this or a screenshot to the Github page.
~~~
anigbrowl
Indeed. Life is short - if there aren't screenshots, I'm not willing to put in
the time to find out whether I'm interested or not. As it happens, this is a
very nice looking project, which makes the absence of screenshots even more
surprising.
------
dz0ny
I'am not comfortable using this, because by default he is collecting all debug
and analytics data. If he is from Europe he might be also breaking the
law(depends on country) by doing this.
PR ->
[https://github.com/FredrikNoren/ungit/pull/91](https://github.com/FredrikNoren/ungit/pull/91)
Edit: added PR
~~~
mjs
Going from the comment in the config file, "debug" data is only collected if
the application crashes.
Google Analytics is hooked up by default though, which is unusual. (Actually
I'm not sure how that's going to work, since everyone's going to be on a
different domain name.)
[https://github.com/FredrikNoren/ungit/pull/91/files#L0L16](https://github.com/FredrikNoren/ungit/pull/91/files#L0L16)
------
norswap
From the video, it looks like all changes are automatically staged. Ignoring
the staging area is not going help users understand git I think.
Otherwise, it looks very very cool.
~~~
StavrosK
I think the staging area is a horrible idea. It greatly complicates the UI
("diff --cached"? Really?) without providing many benefits (if you want to
commit just some files, you could simply specify the names at commit time.
I really love bzr's UI in this respect, and I understand Mercurial is similar
too.
~~~
Nervetattoo
You couldn't run tests only on your staged changes pre-commit without the
staging area. Right now my pre-commit hook stashes any non-staged changes,
from inside the same files that has staged content, and then runs tests. This
ensures I can create commits with just the stuff that works of my changes
without first removing the ongoing work.
The staging area surely adds complexity, but if you do not like it then simply
don't use git.
~~~
StavrosK
> This ensures I can create commits with just the stuff that works of my
> changes without first removing the ongoing work.
If I have ongoing work I want to remove, I just stash it, as you said. I don't
need a staging area to stash things, and it's pretty rare that I'll have
unrelated work anyway.
> The staging area surely adds complexity, but if you do not like it then
> simply don't use git.
Ah, the old "your arm hurts? Just cut it off!" solution. Yes, I will just not
use git, I will just email my team diffs.
------
ivan_ah
screenshot: [http://i.imgur.com/hovCdWP.png](http://i.imgur.com/hovCdWP.png)
VERY COOL. I love the idea.
If you can make somehow easier to use (for non developers) this could be a
life saver. Your designer is not expert at git... so you decide to just email
each other stuff.... OR.... you show him/her how to use ungit and BAM! they
are in your world with no command line invocations required.
Could you drop the node.js dependence and wrap the entire UI as a chrome
extension? Is there git in the browser? Of course, you would still need some
"server" to access the file system...
------
iaskwhy
GitHubg related: FredrikNoren got unlucky with the GitHub generated avatar.
Maybe they could provide the users with a way to generate a new one.
~~~
Mithaldu
He can upload whatever he wants, so i don't see the issue.
~~~
iaskwhy
I believe he can only upload a picture to Gravatar which then is used by lots
of apps. Even Gmail if I'm not mistaken. So it's either the middle finger or a
selected Gravatar everywhere. I still prefer my suggestion.
~~~
killercup
If you have more than one email address set up in GitHub, you can choose which
one's Gravatar to display.
------
pedalpete
I watched the video, and it looks really cool, but the way I was taught to use
git was to create a branch, make your changes, commit the changes, then merge
back to master, rinse and repeat.
Is that not the standard way of using github? How does that look in this
scenario? Everything almost always being in a straight line, and the author
always working on 'master' makes it a bit confusing to imagine in a real-world
scenario (based on my Git usage).
~~~
jlgreco
If I am only working on one thing at the moment, I typically just make a lot
of commits on master then rebase them all before publishing them. I only start
branching if I'm doing multiple things at once. (And it is pretty easy to move
changes to a branch later if you want to start work on something else.)
~~~
zeppelinnn
I think this is correct for personal projects, but when working with teams
it's better to create dev branches especially for major feature/functionality
additions. I personally try to stick with separate branches and then merge
just to uphold that practice, as well as being able to revert/find your mess-
ups quicker.
~~~
jlgreco
Feature branches in git most frequently only live on the developers machine,
often for only a few hours, _(unlike feature branches in centralized version
control systems, which are almost always long-lived)_ so there is no harm in
not branching if you're only working on something thing . If it is a feature
that multiple people need to work on, or needs to be worked on for more than a
few hours, then a separate feature branch is of course the correct thing to
do.
Branches in git are literally just pointers to commits _(write a sha1 object
to any file under refs /heads to see what I mean)_ so they don't really buy
you much if you're not frequently switching between locations in the DAG, but
can be created retroactively with zero hassle if you do find yourself needing
them.
Basically, what you do with your private DAG doesn't matter at all, what is
important is that you only publish things that are sensible.
------
tunesmith
The tree graphics are really cool. I'm trying to figure out how that was done
- it doesn't look like it's D3.js, which still lacks graphviz-style layout of
trees. It looks like it might actually use graphviz behind the scenes, but
then I'm not sure how it animates from one tree to the next when it changes.
~~~
xxbondsxx
Most likely a custom algorithm -- I had to make my own for LearnGitBranching
since most tree algorithms don't exactly fit the needs of a VCS visualization.
Imagine the author did the same, but its all open source
------
btbuildem
Very nice, installing now.
Please add the video to the GH page.. I almost meh'd out of there, but was
lucky to notice someone's comment here mentioning the youtube vid.
EDIT: just tried it.. Dear god, our repo looks like a swarm of drunken spiders
was hard at work there..
Also, +1 to the request to change the default config and not track everything!
------
flog
Great. I hate the git CLI and constantly shoot myself in the foot with my
ignorance.
UX wise I don't know if the drag and drop works 100%. As a suggestion to the
author, how about drawing lines instead from the working node to a future node
state? 2c
------
contingencies
I put some of our non-devs on _git_ today for managing a complex and growing
set of legal documents. They use SourceTree[1], which is a great GUI that
Atlassian bought recently. All they needed to understand was 'add' (to index),
'commit', 'push' and 'pull', which took about 10 minutes to communicate on
Skype.
[1] [http://www.sourcetreeapp.com/](http://www.sourcetreeapp.com/)
------
guynamedloren
This is awesome. I'm building a 'github for non-developers' and I think I'm
going to fork this and integrate it into my project. One of the goals is to
have all of the features and benefits of git but masked behind a clean,
intuitive UI. This project fits that goal perfectly. Thank you!
------
ecuzzillo
One of the most common failures of understanding I come across when people
first start trying to use git is that there are two dimensions of parallelism:
between branches in one repo, and between repos. This can't address that, as I
understand it, because it works on one repo at a time.
------
jtagen
info: Inception error sending error to bugsense 0=null, status=402, data=[],
error=Throttling limit reached.
Excellent.
------
pertinhower
Neat. Not vastly different from gitk. Crashes for me after I try the fetch
button.
------
perlgeek
I teach introductory git courses at work, and I think I'm going to use ungit
to show the commit graph is built, what happens when you leave a comit behind
etc.
------
kemist
Great work! You're off to a good start. I like the visualization, the intro
video, and the easy install. I look forward to seeing it improve.
------
johnnyg
Love the concept.
The npm install errored out, I got it going via sudo, loaded a large project
with it and it crashed.
I will be back in a month to have another go. :-)
------
shangxiao
I personally believe that "tig", a TUI for git, is easier to use than this.
------
denrober
Works for me but almost unusable on anything but the simplest of repositories.
------
jonahx
This UI is slick. The whole thing seems well designed. Very nice work!
------
jtagen
Crashes like crazy for me. Hopefully report to bugsense will help.
------
twodayslate
This is awesome. Thanks for sharing. It looks really clean.
------
jliptzin
Cool. Won't replace Tower though, for me at least.
------
denysonique
It would be nice if you packaged it in node-webkit
------
a5m0
How does this compare to gitorius or gitlab?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Wat by Gary Bernhardt - coreyp_1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20BySC_6HyY
======
Zekio
Been a long time since I last watched that, still makes me laugh every time I
watch it haha :)
| {
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Show HN: RoughJS – Create hand-drawn graphics now supports both SVG and Canvas - shihn
https://github.com/pshihn/rough
======
shihn
Hi, I launched Rough.js a month ago
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16571827](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16571827))
and was overwhelmed by all the love.
Now Rough.js renders SVG nodes as well. This would be great for creating more
interactive graphics. [http://roughjs.com/](http://roughjs.com/)
| {
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“There is no justifiable reason to be working 100+ hours a week." - minimaxir
https://facebook.com/groups/759985267390294?view=permalink&id=1424100054312142
======
seldo
Reminds me of this great presentation:
[http://lunar.lostgarden.com/Rules%20of%20Productivity.pdf](http://lunar.lostgarden.com/Rules%20of%20Productivity.pdf)
Especially this graph of productivity over time:
[https://slides.com/seldo/makersquare-6-stuff-everybody-
knows...](https://slides.com/seldo/makersquare-6-stuff-everybody-
knows/live#/102)
TLDR: if you crunch for 4 weeks it will take you so long to recover that it'll
be as if you never crunched.
~~~
maverick_iceman
Source? Also is the 4 weeks time a universal constant?
------
codingdave
I recall an interview once where I was told that everyone on the team put in
60+ hour weeks, every week. They then said something along the lines of, "Hey,
nobody has ever turned down a job with us before, just because we work too
hard."
They honestly looked surprised when I offered to be the first and walked out.
~~~
pmiller2
I'd be the second if they told me that. Places like that, with their "live to
work" culture are always shitshows.
~~~
convolvatron
i've worked 100 hours for a year at a time. thats not living to work. that's
being a useless zombie
nothing quite stings like being woken up from sleeping underneath your desk at
8 am, not having left the office for a week and smelling like a rabid dog and
being told that your level of commitment is disappointing.
~~~
nodesocket
I'm sorry to hear this. Was this for a company? If you can say, love to know
which one so I know to never apply or recommend them. I really can only do
around 5-7 hours of solid productive programming a day. Otherwise my brain
gets fried and quality, innovation, and speed diminish.
I've done three bootstrapped startups (none ever raised VC capital), and while
I usually work every day of the week, it is typically 4-10 hours a day.
------
minimaxir
OP of the rant here:
I wrote this in response to another post about a "15-year old founder who
works 130 hours a week ‘pure hustle’" and the backpatting that followed in the
comments:
[https://www.facebook.com/groups/hackathonhackers/permalink/1...](https://www.facebook.com/groups/hackathonhackers/permalink/1422409584481189/)
~~~
wheelerwj
okay that's just absurd and literally inhuman. 18 hours of
sleep/eat/rejuvination is.. not possible.
best case scenario this is one of the 'runrate math' scenarios where someone
worked one 18 hour day and multipled by 7.
~~~
WalterSear
It's also bullshit, every single time.
------
darkstar999
I work for a web agency who bills my time directly to the client, but I get
paid salary. I would have a very hard time working more than 40 without
feeling like I'm getting ripped off (since I get paid the same amount
regardless of time). I don't understand those of you putting in 60+ unless you
have stake in the company.
~~~
karmajunkie
I have a really hard time billing more than about 30/week without feeling like
i'm being taken advantage of in those situations. There are all kinds of non-
billable activities that you do as an agency developer that need to be
accounted for; hitting 40 billable hours means I did 50+ actual hours,
minimum; oftentimes more.
I went out on my own again after a couple of W2 jobs and this time resolved to
calibrate everything on the assumption of working 20 hours a week, including
my rate. End result: I'm not overworked (not on my client work, anyway), I
don't feel stressed about making my quota, and I have more money coming in
than I ever did as an agency dev. I will probably take another W2 job at some
point but after burning myself out several times on my own startup, compared
to how I feel about my client work (nice and rosy feeling) I feel pretty
confident that I won't let myself get pushed into it from an employer again.
------
kabdib
In my 20s I regularly did 80 hour weeks.
In my 30s it was probably 60 hour weeks, but I once did six back-to-back 100+
hour weeks to ship a feature. Took me a few months to recover from that.
When I was in my late 40s I did a three-week reprise of those back-to-back
100+ hour weeks, and again it took me months to recover. I escaped that
particular group just ahead of a year+ death march that I probably would just
have quit in the middle of.
Sure, you can crunch. There is a cost. I probably would have been a lot
happier not working so much, but honestly I didn't know _how_.
It's still easy to get sucked in, but I'm both too wise and too old to do
heavy crunch hours, though I will happily spend the odd few late nights
getting something out the door.
~~~
edblarney
Agreed. Past 35 there is quite a noticeable recovery period.
Also - I find it's not the actual work ... it's the stress and the relentless
nature of it. 100 feels like watching 3 toddlers every waking moment of the
day.
------
jpeg_hero
Founder of Cisco:
[https://youtu.be/mhz24AR3nIc?t=1m20s](https://youtu.be/mhz24AR3nIc?t=1m20s)
"Sincerity begins at 100 hours per week..."
~~~
andars
I can see dedicating the vast majority of one's time (even 100+ hours a week)
to doing something you deeply care about. I would say, however, that the vast
majority of people, even entrepreneurs, are not in a situation where their
work satisfies that condition. I can only suppose Mr. Bosack's work did.
Nonetheless, idolizing 15 year olds who work 130 hours seriously rubs me the
wrong way.
~~~
mickronome
We already have 10-11 years old that are burnt out by performance related
stress even without such idols, so I'd say idolizing 100hours week for 15
years old are patently insane.
The age of onset for serious stress related psychiatric issues has been
dropping for quite some time, it's all very concerning.
~~~
mickronome
But yes, I agree with you in principle :)
------
yarou
I find it strange that in certain tech shops, the measure of your productivity
is not efficiency, but how many hours you spend physically in the office.
Doesn't this select for inefficient and incompetent employees?
~~~
Mz
No doubt. It is likely rooted in (or related to) the high school thing of
grading good students apparently based on how much they sweat rather than the
quality of their work.
The world at large seems to generally do a poor job of figuring out how to
measure productivity in a good way that promotes the best practices.
------
spdionis
I think 40+ hours weeks happen only in the US. This is one of the reasons I'd
be reluctant to ever work there.
It's very hard to program effectively (effective being the keyword) more than
4-5 hours a day for most people. Sometimes you get that day/week when you're
inspired and work more, but otherwise it's just pointless, maybe even
detrimental, to force yourself.
------
a3n
[http://dilbert.com/strip/1994-12-25](http://dilbert.com/strip/1994-12-25)
------
Ezhik
If you keep pushing yourself like this, you'll crash and burn, and it takes a
_long_ time to recover, trust me on this. Get your 8 hours of sleep, and
remember that you are not a robot. Take care of yourself.
------
carlmcqueen
I'm curious to see what the definition for most here as to what those 100
hours would be. All in the office?
I work for a big corporation and do 40-45 hours a week. I'm paid well, and
have great work life balance. I started at the bottom however where I was not
paid well, worked 50-55 hrs and did not have any balance but endured to help
support the family while my wife completed her doctorate.
My wife practices as well as teaches now. Teaching requires grading and if you
add up all the hours she thinks about her students and takes their emails and
waits for them to turn things in at 11:59 she easily works 50-60 hours but not
'traditional hours'. We have a great night and she comes home and guiltily
brings her laptop to bed to get a little work done, etc.
Maybe I just don't have the drive to make more money than I need to live in
the cheap mid-west and that's a huge driver? Live to work, work to live
differences I suppose.
------
AndrewKemendo
I come at this from the opposite side: Under what circumstances is working
100+ hours a week optimal? I can think of quite a few actually.
Building/updating life critical systems come immediately to mind. Security
vulnerability work, in the same vein.
Let's also not ignore that plenty of people are working 100+ hour weeks. Many
Nurses/Doctors, laborers & construction workers, deployed military members,
movie producers, financial brokers.
I've seen all of these first hand - hell I've done it for extended periods.
Near Christmas of 2010, about a month after I got back to the Pacific from 8
months in Iraq (Those were 90-100 hour work weeks at a minimum), the Koreas
got into a little fracas [1] and it looked like war time for PACOM. That first
week I worked 136 hair on fire hours with 38 of those being straight through.
That's 20 hours working, 4 hours of sleep (usually on a cot in a meeting room)
with meals eaten while reading message traffic and reviewing documents in the
bathroom. The following months were better, but not by much.
In my experience 100+ hour weeks are usually less than 12 months and then a
break. Often though, the break is short (a week or so) and it's time to start
again.
So it's actually not that crazy, but you have to be committed. Most people
aren't that committed, and I find that sad, as there is so much worth
committing yourself to.
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardment_of_Yeonpyeong](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardment_of_Yeonpyeong)
~~~
will_hughes
> Under what circumstances is working 100+ hours a week optimal? I can think
> of quite a few actually. Building/updating life critical systems come
> immediately to mind. Security vulnerability work, in the same vein.
I would say the opposite.
If someone is working on critical systems where literal life and death is at
stake, I want them rested and at full mental capacity with the ability and
time to think through repercussions to choices they make.
~~~
AndrewKemendo
Agreed generally. I think the rub is where you get systems that are so
specialized that you can't throw bodies at them. The Apollo missions are a
great example of this [1].
So while it would be ideal to be able to have 3 shifts that work on the same
project or codebase, to get the desired speed you need, in practice generally
only a handful of people can manage the complexity.
[1] [http://www.airspacemag.com/space/apollos-
army-31725477/](http://www.airspacemag.com/space/apollos-army-31725477/)
~~~
will_hughes
I'm not suggesting throwing more bodies at a problem is a solution, it's often
not.
Apollo is a good example of artificial deadlines pushing development effort.
What would've been the impact of pushing back? A launch delay? Okay, maybe a
considerable delay. No life was in jeopardy by pushing it back. It was all
political (and maybe some orbital mechanics too).
Similarly for folks working on life critical systems today - sure, $Company
might launch their new thingy sooner, and perhaps nobody dies as a result of
shitty code getting shipped. But a week or two's delay is probably worth it.
If you're responding to an emergency - that's an entirely different situation.
Maybe everything's on fire and you're losing money hand over fist or someone's
life is actually in danger - sure, fine, work the stupid hours to solve the
immediate problem.
------
tomrod
Graduate school found me working more than 100+ hours a week in measured
doses. I have the 40 or so white hairs to prove it.
~~~
hyperbovine
It's funny how much your perspective on graying changes in your early 30s: I
feel like I _earned_ those hairs (for which I also have a PhD to thank) / am
just grateful to have hair at all. My 18-year old self would appalled.
~~~
tomrod
I hear that!
------
crdoconnor
I've noticed that the managers and companies that do this seem to be fostering
cult-like behavior.
It's obviously deleterious to productivity, but where people consider
themselves to be doing it of their own volition (as opposed to being
threatened with termination), it does seem to breed loyalty and dedication.
The non-loyal get weeded out and the half convinced convince themselves that
they wouldn't be working 100 hours a week without a good reason.
Economically it only makes no sense if you assume that companies are
optimizing for productivity.
------
burger_moon
In a field I used to work in we did 84hr weeks (7-12s) for a few month
stretches then a little break to normal hours or time off before ramping up
again. This was physical labor work however. There's no way I could work that
schedule productively in a programming job. That was one of the hard things to
get over when I went from skilled trades jobs to programming. It's a different
kind of exhaustion you feel from working long ass hours and it's much harder
for me to concentrate on code after hour 10.
------
Mandatum
As a contractor, I'm OK with companies that want me to work 100 hour weeks. If
I get a 3-month contract, that year I'm only working 3 months.
~~~
chii
The problem comes when they want to pay you like you worked 30hr.
~~~
slowmotiony
So...? I can just refuse, can't I?
~~~
AnimalMuppet
Not only can, but should.
------
wheelerwj
big fan of measuring the quality of work vs time invested. ive been working on
this myself. i don't necessarily plan to work less over all, but i think id
like to work on other projects. if I can spend 4 hours managing, 4 hours
coding, and 4 hours researching things, and I can accomplish 50 or even 60% of
my my normal 12 hour single topic work load, I'm way ahead and not burning
out.
------
johan_larson
I have to wonder how many of the claims of heroic work-weeks really are true.
I think I have worked something close to 80-hour weeks once in my life, and it
left me a complete zombie.
------
mlnhd
No politics.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
College President Gives $90,000 of His Salary to Lowest-Paid Employees on Campus - praneshp
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/04/president-gives-up-salary-psu_n_5647997.html?ncid=dynaldusaolp00000255
======
radmuzom
Great gesture, however not a solution to the systemic problem. It is only when
the government mandates a much higher minimum wage and universal healthcare in
the US, irrespective of what the market demands or thinks, will the lives of
ordinary citizens improve.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Hacking an Android TV in less than 2 minutes - vmulas
https://medium.com/@drakkars/hacking-an-android-tv-in-2-minutes-7b6f29518ff3
======
vmulas
LinkedIn article: [https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/hacking-android-tv-less-
than-...](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/hacking-android-tv-less-
than-2-minutes-valerio-mulas/)
YT Demo:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpdVk7Vv-C8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpdVk7Vv-C8)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Building Fizzbuzz in Fractran from the Bottom Up - braythwayt
https://malisper.me/building-fizzbuzz-fractran-bottom/
======
braythwayt
Previous discussions around John Conway's FRACTRAN esoteric programming
language:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23142232](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23142232)
and:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14202367](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14202367)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Tails is a operating system that protects your privacy and avoids censorship - Sami_Lehtinen
https://tails.boum.org/?new
======
dang
Lots of previous discussions, so the project home page is probably too generic
to make a good HN submission.
[https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...](https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=Tails%20comments%3E3&sort=byDate&type=story)
The reverse is also true: if the project hadn't had much attention on HN
before, this would make a fine submission.
I wrote about this issue recently:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23071428](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23071428)
------
LockAndLol
Is tails supposed to be run as an OS installed on the main disk or even as a
main OS? From this it looks like it's supposed to be for temporary use in
high-risk situations.
~~~
secfirstmd
Mainly from a USB stick so that you run it in memory where possible
------
RikNieu
My first question is who's behind it?
~~~
upofadown
Crypto AG shows us that you should assume it is entirely owned by the CIA...
You should evaluate stuff like this independent of your feelings towards the
people that did it. Ultimately you can't trust anyone but yourself.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Psd.rb - chamza
http://layervault.tumblr.com/post/56891876898/psd-rb
======
artagnon
This programmer has written about the PSD format in colorful detail: "Trying
to get data out of a PSD file is like trying to find something in the attic of
your eccentric old uncle who died in a freak freshwater shark attack on his
58th birthday."
[https://code.google.com/p/xee/source/browse/XeePhotoshopLoad...](https://code.google.com/p/xee/source/browse/XeePhotoshopLoader.m#108)
(ref: first link in the article)
~~~
nja
I think that comment itself was posted on HN or somewhere -- I know I've seen
it before.
~~~
_delirium
It was a front-page story on HN, but four years ago:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=575122](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=575122)
~~~
guiambros
Thanks for the link. I still remember that thread and the original post. It
was indeed awesome.
------
mistercow
>Adobe has never produced an easy way for developers to work with the format.
That's not entirely fair. Adobe has openly released a comprehensive
description of the format which is, as far as I know, accurate. The problem is
that the format itself is a heap of features piled on year after year with
apparently no regard for doing things consistently.
~~~
meltingice
The file spec released by Adobe ([http://www.adobe.com/devnet-
apps/photoshop/fileformatashtml/](http://www.adobe.com/devnet-
apps/photoshop/fileformatashtml/)) is actually outdated, wrong in some places,
and can be incredibly vague at times.
~~~
ejstronge
A bit off-topic, but is there a spec for Illustrator files? It seems the only
one I see on Google is from an old version of AI...
~~~
TheZenPsycho
As noted, newer illustrator files are just PDF's (perhaps with extra data for
editing).
Older illustrator files are in fact, EPS files. This is somewhat tricky since,
an EPS is not actually so much a data format as it is a turing complete
programming language. Sooo... yeah, who knows what black magic they did to
pull off reliably reading and writing it.
~~~
gcr
You can read an EPS file by interpreting it and remembering the shapes it
renders on the page.
You can write an EPS file by emitting your list of shapes without using the
turing-complete features of the language.
Not that hard, at least conceptually.
~~~
TheZenPsycho
That's all fine and good at least up until you have to kern a line of text.
Then what?
------
tommoor
Wow, fantastic work and a lot of respect for open sourcing this lib when it's
clearly an important part of LayerVault.
------
blt
Does anyone else think it's weird that they decided to make this library in
Ruby? It drastically cuts down on the audience. Why not C/C++ with wrappers
for all the dynamic languages?
EDIT: nevermind, it makes sense now that I see their main product is a version
control system for designers. Still, it would be nice to see this ported to
native code some day.
~~~
stormcrowsx
Most of the work is done, get off your ass and start porting.
~~~
blt
I might just accept that challenge!
------
gburt2
I just wrote a script with this that takes a directory of PSDs and outputs
PNGs for each one. It took about 2 minutes. This is great.
~~~
justinator
Wow, everything old, is new again ;)
I think with an actual copy of Photoshop, and a little Applescript, this is
something you could have done > 15 years ago.
~~~
jdboyd
But this way I don't have to keep paying $20/mo to Adobe CC so that I can run
the script again next month.
~~~
jlgreco
I _suspect_ that you could probably also manage it with GIMP/guile, but I
don't suspect it would be particularly pleasant.
~~~
_delirium
If you want to script it, ImageMagick or GraphicsMagick are probably a better
bet than trying to hack up something with GIMP batch processing:
[http://www.imagemagick.com/www/formats.html](http://www.imagemagick.com/www/formats.html)
If you just want to do basic conversion ignoring layers, it's quite easy:
for f in *.psd; do
convert "$f" "${f%%.psd}.png"
done
~~~
picomancer
You can use find/xargs for this. It'll be faster because you can parallelize
it with the -P option, for example, for a 4-core machine:
find . -iname "*.psd" -print0 | xargs -0 -P 4 -n 1 -I I convert I I.png
For best results, change the number "4" in the above command to the number of
cores you have.
~~~
neeee
The same with GNU Parallel, only it picks the right number of cores
automatically and removes .psd from the file name:
find . -iname "*.psd" -print0 | parallel -0 convert '{}' '{.}.png'
------
mhd
Is this more feature complete (esp. regarding to newer PS versions) than e.g.
libpsd?
[http://sourceforge.net/projects/libpsd/](http://sourceforge.net/projects/libpsd/)
~~~
meltingice
libpsd and PSD.rb both have features that the other doesn't have. For example,
PSD.rb parses text/font data, while libpsd can handle images with zip
compression.
libpsd was actually a great reference in building PSD.rb, especially since it
was correct during the times that the actual file spec was wrong and more
explicit in the type of data being read.
------
adamwong246
Idea: Use this to dynamically "compile" photoshop files into png, jpgs, etc on
the rails assets pipeline.
------
tluyben2
Thank you very much for doing this! I wish all people hacking the PSD format
would join forces and help with one project. There are too many partial
implementations which scratch an itch instead of trying to be a full
implementation.
~~~
voltagex_
I get this feeling with many open source projects, but merges happen much less
often than forks.
------
nja
Does anyone know of a similar tool for Python?
Not trying to start a Ruby/Python fight or anything; Python just happens to be
my preferred language.
~~~
kmike84
A shameless plug: you can give [https://github.com/kmike/psd-
tools](https://github.com/kmike/psd-tools) a try.
I've read PSD.rb docs and a bit of its code; the implementation is one of the
best and complete I've seen (I've checked almost all PSD reader
implementations some time ago).
But it seems that psd-tools is mostly on par with PSD.rb. It also have some
features that PSD.rb doesn't have, e.g. full support for 'zip-with-prediction'
compression, including 32bit layers. Such images are very common in practice,
and parsing them is not easy because the compression format is not documented
anywhere, and "zip-with-prediction" for 8 and 16bit layers is totally
different from "zip-with-prediction" for 32bit layers (for 32bits it is really
tricky).
If PSD.rb authors are reading this, I urge them to check the decompression
code in psd-tools ([https://github.com/kmike/psd-
tools/blob/master/src/psd_tools...](https://github.com/kmike/psd-
tools/blob/master/src/psd_tools/compression.py)) or in Paint.NET PSD plugin
([http://psdplugin.codeplex.com/](http://psdplugin.codeplex.com/)) to not
waste the time.
psd-tools also knows how to export individual layers, and there is an
experimental support for exporting layer groups; it seems that this is not
implemented in PSD.rb yet.
PSD.rb has some features that psd-tools doesn't have, e.g. it parses "Font
data" which is really cool and hard because the format is not described
anywhere.
~~~
tluyben2
I checked out psd-tools and it's good. Any chance of you adding their features
to yours or vice versa? I know I know, I should do it myself and do a pull
request, but just asking if you are planning to?
~~~
kmike84
Unfortunately I'm currently very busy with other projects, so I probably won't
implement PSD.rb features myself anytime soon.
I'm trying to provide feedback for psd-tools pull requests, merge them and
release new psd-tools versions in timely manner; the testing suite also helps
here, so you know, pull requests are welcome :) Most improvements over last 6
months came from pull requests submitted by other great people.
I think that the "reader" part of library is feature-complete. psd-tools reads
all the information, but it doesn't decode all Photoshop data structures (some
of them are available only as binary blobs). So I think implementing a PSD.rb
feature will most likely involve checking PSD.rb code and decoding a binary
blob (already loaded to memory) to a Python data structure.
~~~
tluyben2
I didn't check your codebase (I just used the library for a few projects a
while ago), so you don't have to answer. But if you want to enlighten others
as well as me; am I right in thinking that you have a reader while reads the
file and then have a 'decoding module' for every blob. So it would be rather
straight forward to port from Ruby such a decoding part and plug it into your
library?
~~~
kmike84
Yes, that was the idea.
The whole process is divided into 3 stages: reading, decoding and providing
"user-facing API":
\- on "reading" stage PSD file is read and split into binary blobs (I think
this part is done);
\- on "decoding" stage "decoding modules" are called for each binary blob;
decoding modules should produce Python data structures that closely resembles
internal PSD format;
\- on "user API" stage decoded data is converted to more convenient format
that is easier to work with (e.g. this include building layers hierarchy, and
the PSDImage/Layer/etc classes).
I hope that providing new decoders will be rather straightforward, and it
seems to work this way so far: contributors haven't touched "reader" part, and
I haven't touched it for a while as well. But software development is hard, so
we can never be sure :)
------
freerobby
Great work and thanks for building this. There's a lot of room for improvement
in automating manipulative photoshop exports, and I look forward to seeing
what people do with this, especially in terms of building command line tools.
------
netforay
I have been trying to do this from last 3 months. But I intend to make
modifications to layers (turn on or off, change colors) and export to PNG.
When I saw Psd.rb I thought it is done. But it just exports the channel data
saved by Photoshop. So our modifications wont reflect in it.
~~~
jawngee
Use extendscript or the creative suite extension builder SDK.
~~~
netforay
Unfortunately I want it to run on a Linux server and I don't want any UI as it
needs to be a service.
------
captainbenises
I reckon a good tool (that this psd.rd wouldn't actually help write, but),
would be one that rendered an html/css page - and exported a layered PSD, so
you could prototype an app, render it to .psd and send it to your designer
friend to make it look rad.
------
carlosdp
Thank you! There's quite a ton I can do to this. Will definitely be
contributing soon.
------
smickie
This is a great example of why open source is brilliant. Everybody wins. We
get a PSD parser. LayerVault benefits from the world improving they're core
product too.
------
envex
I feel like this could be used to automatically convert a simple .psd web
layout to non-shitty HTML and CSS.
~~~
gnufied
Look up markupwand.com an YC alumni. The problem is harder than it looks. Now,
I am not an expert in PSD format but a PSD that can be automatically converted
to HTML has to be specifically formatted. For example, if you merge text
layers with image layers, it becomes difficult to extract the information.
~~~
thesunny
We've actually solved this and will be launching in about a week. We've been
working on it for over a year now.
It runs inside Photoshop (there is no upload stage nor do you have to open up
separate software) and it generates HTML and CSS that looks like a designer
wrote it and slices up all your images. It also outputs LESS, SASS, HAML,
Slim, Jade and I think there are some other formats I may be forgetting.
Text is output as text. If you use a Google font, it automatically links the
fonts in for you.
It does not use absolute positioning so if you modify things like text and it
grows taller or shrinks shorter, other items will be positioned properly
(initially we did it with absolute positioning but later I figured out an
algorithm to make it work the way it should, even with overlapping elements).
It's definitely not an easy problem to solve (hence why we've been working on
it for over a year although not full time).
We've done some outputs now and the results are amazing.
I would link you to the website but it looks so bad right now that I don't
want to show it. Anyways, we will launch in about a week so look for an
announcement. If you have any questions about it, please leave a comment.
Sunny
~~~
tluyben2
There are a bunch of those tools which run inside PS, but the point is that I
really don't want to run PS. Ever. My designers do and now I have to pay /
upgrade licenses too because there is no solution. I think PS is overused and
abused for anything 'design' while for programmers it's an annoyance more
often than not.
------
smtm
So, will there be writing .PSD files as well? This would be the über thing.
Imagine: upload a .PSD and get back a clean HTML layout +
bootstrap_overrides.css
~~~
mistercow
>So, will there be writing .PSD files as well?
Writing PSD files is considerably easier than reading them. To write, you need
only support the features you actually use. To read, you must support
everything. For example, Photoshop always saves its layers RLE compressed (or
it did when I last wrote code to write PSD files, which was about five years
ago), but the format supports uncompressed layer data just fine. So if you're
just trying to get basic interoperation with Photoshop, you don't have to
worry about RLE at all.
>Imagine: upload a .PSD and get back a clean HTML layout +
bootstrap_overrides.css
Why would that require writing .PSD files?
~~~
smtm
Well, so you could iterate on your design - and pick up the changes made in
CSS back into the design PSD. And work onwards from there
------
cveigt
These are great news for developers and an easy way to communicate between
designers with developers. Is the beginning of a solution for a big problem.
------
primitur
I'd pay for a Lua port of this. Anyone interested? Drop me a PM.
------
isaacjohnwesley
Truly awesome, cant wait to think of the possibilities with this.
------
jheriko
nice. now if someone can port it to C so that everyone can benefit... :)
------
aftermathvc
awesome!
------
Radle
// PSD is not my favourite file format.
I see bro...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Installing NextStep OS (OpenStep) in VirtualBox (2018) - gjvc
http://stuffjasondoes.com/2018/07/25/installing-nextstep-os-openstep-on-virtualbox-in-2018/
======
homarp
You can also emulate a whole NeXT via the Previous emulator:
[http://previous.unixdude.net/about.html](http://previous.unixdude.net/about.html)
"previous"ly on HN:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19084769](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19084769)
and
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8745943](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8745943)
And the Previous Forum (not much activity lately):
[http://www.nextcomputers.org/forums/index.php?topic=2642.121...](http://www.nextcomputers.org/forums/index.php?topic=2642.1215)
~~~
pmarreck
Silly question though, how do I obtain a NeXT Install iso disk?
~~~
gjvc
[https://winworldpc.com/product/nextstep/3x](https://winworldpc.com/product/nextstep/3x)
[https://archive.org/details/Openstep4.2](https://archive.org/details/Openstep4.2)
------
xiaomai
This is really cool. I never got to play with a proper NeXT machine, but
WindowMaker was my window manager of choice for several years in the late
90s/early 2000s. I always wished that GNUStep could have gotten more traction
on the desktop.
I love the NeXT aesthetic, I'm ready for the the next UI design trend to go
retro.
~~~
ken
As someone who used a real NeXT machine, I could never figure out the appeal
of window managers like WindowMaker. It's like those Aqua 'themes' for Windows
XP. It's superficially similar (more or less) but it's missing the guts.
Window managers are an add-on, and consistency isn't something you can get
with an add-on.
~~~
mhd
This is a bit of a nirvana fallacy issue. The Next-like window manager family
wasn't sold on purely visual merits, and thus even just having the window
managers themselves provided some benefit. I don't see that as much in the
Aqua-likes, as the functional changes are pretty minimal (scroll-bar buttons
on the same side, back when that still was a thing) or even counter-productive
(keeping all the window buttons together).
Back when bowman/afterstep/wmaker came out, pretty much no one who used them
was familiar with the NeXt interface, beyond having seen one in a magazine or
knowing its look-and-feel via Win95 copying some of it.
As far as I can remember, the popularity rested on a few pillars: For one,
it's a pretty sleek look compared to twm or mwm. It also had a rather good
resize functionality -- big enough handles to grab at the bottom, while saving
a few valuable pixels at the sides.
A lot of people also like(d) the dock apps that came with it. Even other
window managers adopted them.
Can't say a lot about general dock/shelf usage, as I never got into that.
Window shading was nice and probably introduced into common usage by that
family of WMs.
------
jamesfmilne
I used these instructions to install on VMWare, although it's pretty similar
to the above. It works really well in VMware, including networking. I had to
use a static IP as DHCP wasn't working.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVCxfoG8bv4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVCxfoG8bv4)
You can download the drivers for VMware graphics, mouse, sound and networking
here:
[http://www.nextcomputers.org/NeXTfiles/Software/NEXTSTEP/Dev...](http://www.nextcomputers.org/NeXTfiles/Software/NEXTSTEP/Developer/VMWare_Image_Tools/)
------
TickleSteve
If anybody wants to try the real thing instead of virtualised, I have two
nextstations available for a small fee if you're close to Cambridge, UK.
~~~
TickleSteve
(My email is in my profile) I'm trying to offload them, as they're taking up
far too much room in my garage.
~~~
gjvc
I can't see it. (Is that because I have lower HN karma than you?)
edit: think it might be because one needs to put it in the "about" box as I
have just done.
~~~
TickleSteve
Updated my bio.
------
galonk
Note that the instructions say you can have _either_ the normal install ISO
_or_ the Install-Dev ISO in the optical drive, but this does not seem to be
correct -- using the Install-Dev ISO causes an error trying to read /etc/init.
You need to use the normal install ISO instead.
~~~
gjvc
This is absolutely correct.
~~~
boudewijnrempt
Do you also know how to use the install-dev iso to install the development
tools?
~~~
gjvc
mount the install-dev CD and run as root
/NextAdmin/Installer.app/Installer /OPENSTEP_4.2_DEVELOPER/NextCD/Packages/*.pkg
~~~
boudewijnrempt
Thanks!
------
AdmiralAsshat
I'm surprised we've had several front-page articles in the past few weeks
about getting NextStep installed on a VM or on hardware, but nothing on
GNUStep, which has standard installers.
~~~
mattl
GNUStep is a framework for writing applications not a GUI/desktop environment.
~~~
AdmiralAsshat
This is true. I probably should've clarified that nothing about etoile has
reached the front page, which IS more of a desktop environment written in
GNUStep:
[http://etoileos.com/](http://etoileos.com/)
But to be fair, the project looks like it's stagnated.
~~~
JulianMorrison
Recent headlines, one in 2014, the rest in 2012.
------
forgotmypw
Does anyone know if there is a copy of WorldWideWeb floating around out there
somewhere? Or was it exclusive to TBL's computer?
~~~
adjagu
Is this what you are searching for?
[http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/LineMode/Defaults/Distribu...](http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/LineMode/Defaults/Distribution.html)
There is more available at the following website:
[http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html](http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html)
~~~
1_player
The FTP server at info.cern.ch mentioned in the first link is offline :(
~~~
adjagu
Apologies. I should have tested the ftp server. I did find another source and.
I tested the WWWLineMode_x.xx.tar.Z and they worked for me.
[https://www.w3.org/2016/11/ftp-
shutdown/info.html](https://www.w3.org/2016/11/ftp-shutdown/info.html)
------
Jaruzel
Last time I tried this, the mouse was so laggy it was impossible to use. I
might give it another go at some point tho, maybe even on a mini-iTX
motherboard in a cube case ... for that full NeXT experience. :)
~~~
Narishma
The mouse lag is probably because of the lack of guest-additions for the OS.
Same thing happens for Windows 3.1 or 9x in VirtualBox.
------
Macuyiko
Very cool -- on a semi-unrelated tangent: I really hope SerenityOS takes off
(contributors, supporters), as I've been itching to run some old-looking OS on
newer hardware.
~~~
umanwizard
OpenBSD works fine on a lot of new hardware :)
------
bloopernova
Please, please examine closely the license for VirtualBox before using it.
It's Oracle, after all.
~~~
zymhan
Uh, unless you're building a money-making venture on it, you're fine.
There is also VirtualBox Open Source Edition that would be fine for this.
------
pndy
Looks more promising and easier to deploy than Rhapsody DR2 installation in
VMWare I did once
~~~
scruffyherder
I have a VM running OS X Server 1.0's kernel & userland rebuilt using DR2 for
over 900 days!
[darwin:~] root# uptime 12:34PM up 922 days, 15:02, 2 users, load averages:
2.71, 2.16, 2.03 [darwin:~] root# hostinfo Mach kernel version: Kernel Release
5.5: Sun Apr 30 10:53:53 SGT 2017; root(rcbuilder):kernel-7/BUILD/RELEASE_I386
Copyright (c) 1988-1995,1997-1999 Apple Computer, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Kernel configured for a single processor only. 1 processor is physically
available. Processor type: pentium (Intel Pentium) Processor active: 0 Primary
memory available: 512.00 megabytes. Default processor set: 36 tasks, 61
threads, 1 processors Load average: 2.33, Mach factor: 0.30
It's on VMWare ESXi 5.5 ... It's been surprisingly stable.
------
choiway
That GUI has aged well.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
“It shall be unlawful for any person to manufacture..encryption products” (1997) - declan
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/cpquery/T?&report=hr108p4&dbname=105&
======
cogburnd02
There are some interesting ways around government crypto restrictions.
Ciphersaber [1] is designed so that you can _memorize_ how to write a program
to implement it. Bruce Schneier proposed Solitaire, [2] which is designed to
be carried out with playing cards rather than on a computer. (Later, Paul
Crowley discovered some weaknesses [3] in Solitaire.) Diceware [4] is a method
of generating secure passphrases with (you guessed it) regular dice.
[1] [http://ciphersaber.gurus.org/](http://ciphersaber.gurus.org/)
[2]
[https://www.schneier.com/solitaire.html](https://www.schneier.com/solitaire.html)
[3]
[http://www.ciphergoth.org/crypto/solitaire/](http://www.ciphergoth.org/crypto/solitaire/)
[4]
[http://world.std.com/~reinhold/diceware.html](http://world.std.com/~reinhold/diceware.html)
------
tbrake
Am I reading this GPO link wrong or did that not make it in? Section 2804 here
actually eliminates an enforced key escrow, so I don't know.
[http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-106hr850rh/pdf/BILLS-106h...](http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-106hr850rh/pdf/BILLS-106hr850rh.pdf)
~~~
declan
The history here is non-intuitive; I'll try to explain it. I was living in DC
during the Crypto Wars of the late 1990s and covering them as a reporter (I've
since shifted to working on [http://recent.io/](http://recent.io/), of
course).
The SAFE Act as originally introduced in the House of Representatives was
designed to be generally pro-crypto by relaxing export controls. But as it
made its way through the various committees, the anti-crypto forces got their
hands on it and turned it on its head. It became a ban-non-backdoored-crypto
bill instead.
More precisely, in 1997, a House committee approved a ban on domestic
encryption without backdoors for .gov access. Here's an excerpt from the
amended anti-crypto version of the SAFE Act:
_" After January 31, 2000, it shall be unlawful for any person to manufacture
for distribution, distribute, or import encryption products intended for sale
or use in the United States, unless that product [...] permits immediate
decryption of the encrypted data..."_
Here's how one of the anti-crypto politicos, Rep. Bill McCollum, who went on
to be Florida's attorney general, justified it while debating the House
Judiciary version of that bill:
_" Because this bill will promote greater use of stronger encryption, law
enforcement may not be able to gather evidence that it can use to investigate
and prosecute cases. Imagine a situation where the police with a search
warrant seize the computer of a terrorist but cannot decrypt the list of
people and places that he intends to strike next. Or the situation where the
police seize the computer of a purveyor of child pornography but cannot
decrypt the files to download the images to prosecute him."_
[http://www.techlawjournal.com/cong106/encrypt/19990324mcc.ht...](http://www.techlawjournal.com/cong106/encrypt/19990324mcc.htm#1)
So yes, you're right that sec. 2804 in _one_ version of SAFE eliminates
mandated key escrow. But other versions, including the one approved by that
House committee in 1997, went exactly in the opposite direction.
~~~
ipsin
I agree that this is non-intuitive, and we've arrived at another time in DC
when time has looped back on itself, and wars have to be re-fought.
Your site, [http://politechbot.com/](http://politechbot.com/), was one go-to
source for information during the last crypto war. These days I could consult
the EFF, EPIC or the ACLU, but I wonder if there's a place again for a
cypherpunk-ish focus on DC policy, or if you've found sources covering the
current policy with a politech-like mindset.
In either case, thanks for all those years of good reading.
~~~
declan
<ipsin>: Thanks for your kind words! I've felt the urge to restart/resume the
Politech mailing list a few times in the last few years but haven't been able
to dedicate the time such an effort deserves. Also it works better if
moderated by a practicing journalist, I think.
The short answer is I don't think there is such a source. EFF has good action
alerts and blog posts (even if I may occasionally disagree with some of their
legislative endorsements). EPIC and the ACLU are often more DC-centric, and
Marc (who runs EPIC) is essentially an anti-cypherpunk in his views about the
private sector.
Among advocacy groups, TechFreedom.org is a relatively new entrant with free-
market, liberalize-crypto views. But Berin, who runs it, is a lawyer, not a
technologist, and is spending a lot of time on topics like Net neutrality and
telecom regulation nowadays.
If anyone is thinking of starting such a source of information with a
cypherpunk-ish/politech-like focus on DC policy, I'd be happy to offer some
advice, tips, and introductions.
------
slowmovintarget
The short version: Get it (encryption software) while you can.
~~~
RankingMember
I can't imagine anyone'll be able to keep encryption software out of people's
hands, even if it gets as dire as requiring fallback to sneakernet.
------
known
"Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it."
\--Einstein
~~~
socceroos
The benefit of hindsight, eh, Einstein?
------
xnull2guest
"(3) Encryption
A telecommunications carrier shall not be responsible for decrypting, or
ensuring the government’s ability to decrypt, any communication encrypted by a
subscriber or customer, unless the encryption was provided by the carrier and
the carrier possesses the information necessary to decrypt the communication."
[http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/1002](http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/1002)
"18 U.S. Code § 2703 - Required disclosure of customer communications or
records
(a) Contents of Wire or Electronic Communications in Electronic Storage.— A
governmental entity may require the disclosure by a provider of electronic
communication service of the contents of a wire or electronic communication,
that is in electronic storage in an electronic communications system for one
hundred and eighty days or less, only pursuant to a warrant issued using the
procedures described in the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure (or, in the
case of a State court, issued using State warrant procedures) by a court of
competent jurisdiction. A governmental entity may require the disclosure by a
provider of electronic communications services of the contents of a wire or
electronic communication that has been in electronic storage in an electronic
communications system for more than one hundred and eighty days by the means
available under subsection (b) of this section.
(b) Contents of Wire or Electronic Communications in a Remote Computing
Service.—
...
(c) Records Concerning Electronic Communication Service or Remote Computing
Service.
..."
[http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2703](http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2703)
~~~
declan
The first statute you're quoting, 47 USC 1002, was part of the 1994 CALEA
legislation. A basic principle of legal interpretation is that newer laws
trump old ones if that is clearly the legislative intent.
So if the 1997 ban-strong-crypto bill had been enacted, it would have
overriden that portion of CALEA -- effectively repealing it -- to the extent
it was in conflict.
Put another way, if Congress has the power to say X one year, they typically
have the power to say not(X) the next year.
~~~
xnull2guest
It would be interesting to see what a crypto ban would do if it were to
override CALEA and the Stored Communications Act. Where a key escrow solution
was previously required, a sudden ban on encryption would do what - force the
companies to change key sizes? Since companies are already required to give
plaintext access to communications and records (if they provide the security
themselves), what difference would a crypto-ban really achieve other than
removing the companies in question from knowing which records law enforcement
sought to access?
~~~
declan
Well, there is no U.S. law requiring key escrow. There are a very few laws
that impose escrow-like requirements on some sectors. If you're a financial
services firm you may be required to monitor employees' email, which makes
some forms of encryption tricky. And even the CALEA excerpt you quoted above
authorizes telecom carriers to provide secure end-to-end crypto (they wouldn't
have "the information necessary to decrypt the communication"). CALEA doesn't
apply to the tech firms HN knows and loves; they're not telecom carriers, a
term of art.
But putting all that aside for the moment, banning crypto without backdoors
would, at a minimum, create real difficulties for U.S. companies and require
many open source/free software projects to move overseas. It would also make
felons of many HN readers. That's no exaggeration; an ex-Mozilla fellow now
building the crypton.io framework wrote to me this evening saying: "That bill
would have made my work criminal."
[https://twitter.com/deezthugs/status/556678844120576000](https://twitter.com/deezthugs/status/556678844120576000)
To be clear, I don't believe the FBI|NSA|DOJ|DEA|DHS|CIA|etc. cadre of TLAs
are pushing for a ban on domestic crypto now. But they tend to take the long
view. Look very carefully at what _is_ eventually proposed. Is it a ban on
whole-disk encryption without backdoors? Would it extend to PCs? What about
open source projects and AOSP? Would mere possession of non-backdoored crypto
be a crime, or distribution, or commercial sale? Etc.
I view a lot of this as the Feds trying to pressure Apple and Google into
adopting an escrowed solution for encrypted devices -- without actually
enacting a law. Laws are public, subject to legal challenge (a federal appeals
court in the Junger case held there are 1A issues involved in a crypto ban),
and tend not to make it through Congress very quickly. But extralegal pressure
can be applied in secret, is not subject to legal challenge, and can happen
much sooner.
HN threads in the past have discussed some of these extralegal pressures that
can be brought to bear. Multi-billion dollar .gov contracts are a big one too.
~~~
xnull2guest
Thank you for the informative post.
By letter of the law, CALEA does not require key escrow. Do you believe that
in practice along with extralegal pressure in the manner described above, that
CALEA and associated laws amount to near ubiquitous key escrow?
~~~
declan
Nope. I think the opposite, in fact. But it's late in the SF area, and it's
time for me to go to sleep. Happy to resume this in the morning.
~~~
xnull2guest
Cheers for good sleep!
Do you believe that the USG can get access to nearly any telecommunication
record in close to real time for emergencies if it needs it, and to nearly any
telecommunication record history up to some amount of time later for
investigations? If you do not, could you defend this belief - it runs counter
to conventional wisdom.
Presuming you do believe that access to telecommunication records can be made
post hoc and/or on demand: do you believe this is because of weak crypto
(KASUMI, A/5, etc) or because there is no encryption for there to be escrowed
for large or critical parts of the infrastructure? Or is it something else?
~~~
declan
There are too many questions here crossing too many areas of the law to answer
in an HN comment; some of the language you're using includes legal terms of
art where the meaning is not necessarily intuitive. A blog post would be more
suitable and I can't take that much time away from my work on
[http://recent.io/](http://recent.io/)
But briefly: You should assume, as I've written in many places in the past,
that your records in the hands of the AT&T/VZ/etc. phone companies can easily
be accessed by TLAs. The NSA itself brags of a surveillance "partnership" with
those companies, as I wrote in this CNET piece:
[http://www.cnet.com/news/surveillance-partnership-between-
ns...](http://www.cnet.com/news/surveillance-partnership-between-nsa-and-
telcos-points-to-at-t-verizon/) In those cases, crypto has little to do with
it.
In this HN comment yesterday, I wrote here about some of the privacy
differences between our favorite Silicon Valley companies and AT&T/VZ/etc.:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8902638](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8902638)
~~~
xnull1guest
Thanks. From what I can tell you agree with:
> there is no encryption for there to be escrowed for large or critical parts
> of the infrastructure
That is to say that TLAs get access to records before encryption is ever
applied to them (I would tend to agree with this) thus obviating the need for
escrow. Laws requiring key escrow, then, become red herrings to the larger
discussion about the legality of access.
I personally would classify 'partnerships' under extralegal pressure. Under
this interpretation you do seem to agree with the GP comment - though I would
understand if one were to argue that for some important semantic reason I
asked the question with the wrong word. I would probably agree that
'partnerships' are only a strict subset and not synonyms for extralegal
pressure.
It does appear that there are partnerships with some digital corporations and
that PRISM is a program for corporations that resist 'partnered' access to
records. Given the history of telecoms and their development of partnerships,
current development of partnerships in our industry and known applications of
extralegal pressure in our industry, we ought to be especially watchful.
~~~
declan
Briefly: There has been plenty of misreporting about PRISM. I tried to correct
some of that in 2013 here: [http://www.cnet.com/news/no-evidence-of-nsas-
direct-access-t...](http://www.cnet.com/news/no-evidence-of-nsas-direct-
access-to-tech-companies/) (Note the Washington Post backed away from their
initial claims and rewrote its original PRISM story.)
~~~
xnull1guest
Thank you again for your reply. I am aware of the confusion regarding PRISM
and its 'vernacular' use to encompass the activities from other disclosed
programs in addition to confusion about its particular details.
In your haste I'm afraid you may have drafted a response that is not on the
topic of its parent, though this is okay since it appears the conversation
found a natural and agreeable conclusion.
------
chernevik
Could someone please post a comment or link on the state of constitutional
protection for strong encryption?
I think I've read that the courts have ruled that dissemination and use of
strong crypto algorithms is protected by the First Amendment, but I'm not sure
of that.
~~~
frostmatthew
_Bernstein v. United States_ [1] maybe?
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernstein_v._United_States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernstein_v._United_States)
~~~
tdaltonc
and Junger v.Daley
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junger_v._Daley](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junger_v._Daley)
[http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1342657?sid=2110509888...](http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1342657?sid=21105098883821&uid=4&uid=2)
~~~
declan
This is the big one.
The late Peter Junger, who brought this case, was a principled civil
libertarian and law professor who deserves to be remembered for dealing the
final blow to the federal government's anti-encryption regime. He was the
first person to secure a precedential court decision that said this:
"Because computer source code is an expressive means for the exchange of
information and ideas about computer programming, we hold that it is protected
by the First Amendment." [http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-6th-
circuit/1074126.html](http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-6th-circuit/1074126.html)
(The 9th Circuit in _Bernstein_ didn't go that far, despite valiant efforts by
EFF, as I recall it.)
Peter was a computer tinkerer as well as a lawyer. He once did me the favor of
speaking to a class I taught at Case Western, and, in addition to discussing
his own encryption case, talked about setting up a mail server --I recall the
school let him place a colo'd box in one of their server rooms because he was
an emeritus. He also wrote an article called "You Can't Patent Software:
Patenting Software Is Wrong": [http://samsara-
blog.blogspot.com/](http://samsara-blog.blogspot.com/)
TLDR: One big reason why we haven't seen a proposed US law restricting mobile
device encryption today is because of what Peter Junger did in the 1990s.
~~~
chernevik
Thanks, all
------
rokhayakebe
Many are quick to jump and state that we should all have 100% privacy, and
that governments should not look into our communications. At the same time we
are asking for the government to protect us. Something like 9-11 happens and
we blame our national security officials. Something like the Boston Marathon
happens and we do the same.
At some point we have to choose: Natural Freedom or Societal Freedom, but we
cannot have both.
I for one believe that we should TRULY consider recording every message we
send/receive.
We should have a very high threshold for using these communications against
people, and making sure they can only be used for matters of the people's
security.
~~~
mhuffman
I am baffled as to why you think a criminal or terrorist would follow the
rules set forth by the US Congress and not use unbreakable encryption in their
communications. The only people that would be successfully watched would be
law-abiding engineers of products and law-abiding users of those products.
~~~
rokhayakebe
Certainly having the ability to read all messages is not built with the
intention that we will find a message from the chief of ISIS emailing his top
generals.
As a strategist, to disintegrate/infiltrate any terrorist cell, you will not
begin from the top and work your way down.
Every organization is more fragile at the bottom, hence you can expect someone
will make the mistake of using the system and leaking information, allowing
national security officials to work their way up from there.
~~~
mhuffman
So your theory is that we should all be spied on in the off chance some of the
low-hanging fruit in a hypothetical criminal organization simply makes a
mistake or goofs up enough to put it in the officials lap.
Working off that theory, why not just not spy on millions of innocent
civilians and let the criminal bunglers bungle anyway?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Every Tech Startup Is the Same - NN88
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp57fPKcoRs
======
brittpart_
I'm on the outside of tech and I did 1 month at health-tech and it was the
epitome of this
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
NY Times: Entrepreneur Troubleshoots AdWords Campaign to Save Business - URSpider94
http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/26/my-adwords-debacle-a-wake-up-and-a-fix
======
URSpider94
I have never run a large-scale AdWords campaign, so this is back-seat driving,
but I wonder if Google's Pay Per Conversion pricing
([http://support.google.com/adwords/bin/answer.py?hl=en&an...](http://support.google.com/adwords/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2472713))
would be a way to attack this problem.
For example, send incoming customers to a survey. Pay $1 for customers who
self-identify as non-profit or academic, $10 for customers who identify as
Fortune 500. Google will go off and determine if it's more efficient to
deliver you 10x non-profit customers, or 1x corporate ones.
Folks who have tried something like this, does it work?
~~~
ccbean
The problem with using pay-per-conversion is that it works best (and only?)
when you can get a direct response from the site when a sale is made. For
example, send someone to your landing page, they buy a product online, and
then call the conversion code on the 'thank you' page, e.g. /order/complete --
this can be tracked as a conversion easily.
For sites with big ticket items where the transaction doesn't take place
online, it can be trickier to try and attribute the sale to a certain ad
campaign.
~~~
kanzure
> For sites with big ticket items where the transaction doesn't take place
> online, it can be trickier to try and attribute the sale to a certain ad
> campaign.
How do they do it? One method I can think of is to show different phone
numbers for users that have been cookied as coming in from different ads.
~~~
thecosas
The company I currently work for does exactly this for car dealer websites. We
have separate tracking numbers which display on car dealership websites
depending on the source.
We actually found another vendor that does this on a per visitor basis (ie.
each visitor gets their own tracking number). While I think THAT is overkill,
the technology is there to do this kind of thing without too much overhead.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Earn $500 by hacking some Python - _stryngs_
https://configitnow.com/challenge
======
masonic
Soliciting black hat activity on HN? Classy.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Reddit Is Down Following Routine Software Upgrade - dpflan
http://www.redditstatus.com/incidents/902y2bfc3bq4
======
_Marak_
Reddit Admin's made this announcement a few weeks back:
> A few days ago, we talked about a few technological and process changes we
> would be working on in order to improve your Reddit experience and ensure
> access to timely information is available.
[https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:0400SE...](https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:0400SEgkXj0J:https://www.reddit.com/r/announcements/comments/4oedco/lets_all_have_a_town_hall_about_rall/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us)
------
dpflan
The tweet:
[https://twitter.com/redditstatus/status/763864243015790592](https://twitter.com/redditstatus/status/763864243015790592)
Main Status Page: [http://www.redditstatus.com/](http://www.redditstatus.com/)
------
dpflan
Looks like it's back!
[https://twitter.com/redditstatus/status/763887002462760960](https://twitter.com/redditstatus/status/763887002462760960)
------
was_boring
Not a great week for the company -- it's the second major outage in as much
time.
------
samfisher83
It said an emergency outage. What went wrong?
------
SixSigma
Got to rejig again to keep down the_donald
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
This png encrypts to the same image - diafygi
https://i.imgur.com/WRxFKdq.png
======
diafygi
Command: openssl aes-128-cbc -K "55555555555555555555555555555555" -iv
"83deccd3f93b37c70d37297f319cf367" -in WRxFKdq.png -out OMG_SAME_IMAGE.png
Youtube Link: [http://youtu.be/wbHkVZfCNuE](http://youtu.be/wbHkVZfCNuE)
Previous discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7771568](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7771568)
~~~
_nullandnull_
Ange Albertini does some amazing work. If you haven't checked out his corkami
repo I would highly recommend it.
[https://code.google.com/p/corkami/](https://code.google.com/p/corkami/)
~~~
dominicgs
He's very enthusiastic about sharing his tricks too. I spent the day hanging
out with him at Troopers in March and we spent a lot of time discussing the
structure of PDFs.
He's the one behind the file tricks in the journal of POC||GTFO -
[http://www.exploit-db.com/wp-
content/themes/exploit/docs/poc...](http://www.exploit-db.com/wp-
content/themes/exploit/docs/pocorgtfo03.pdf)
In fact, he set a fun challenge - can you produce a PDF file that is different
every time it's opened? e.g. a bingo card generator.
The back of his business cards have cut down introductions versions of his
posters, so everyone takes something away from meeting him. It's fun watching
people decide which one they want.
------
yzzxy
Similar: the creation of an image that is it's own histogram.
[http://www.ironicsans.com/2007/09/idea_the_histogram_as_the_...](http://www.ironicsans.com/2007/09/idea_the_histogram_as_the_imag.html)
~~~
csense
Obligatory xkcd reference: [http://xkcd.com/688/](http://xkcd.com/688/)
~~~
dfc
The word you were looking for is _perfunctory_.
~~~
valleyer
Can you explain? “Obligatory” sounds reasonable here.
~~~
sockgrant
He's didn't mean obligatory was the wrong word. He's saying we could have done
without the xkcd.
~~~
jl6
Possibly derived from the Usenet habit of putting an "Ob" footer reference to
a piece of pop culture, to demonstrate hipness.
------
userbinator
Could this be considered a rather perverse form of a quine?
~~~
recursive
If it was really a quine, the process could be repeated. This one works only
once.
------
theoh
Reminds me of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupper's_self-
referential_formu...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupper's_self-
referential_formula)
------
mey
For others, you may find this
[http://projectnaptha.com/](http://projectnaptha.com/) useful to extract text
from the image inside the browser.
~~~
ultrafez
This image was the first time I've found it handy to have it installed. It's
not as useful in day-to-day browsing as you might think.
~~~
MasterScrat
Indeed, and it takes quite some memory, and it's for me the first extension
ever which actually crashed at some points (I'm using Chrome with a dozen
other extensions installed).
------
AdmiralAsshat
Novelty aside, if you encrypt to the same image, what was the point of
encrypting? Can you hide something in the metadata that wouldn't have been
visible until decryption?
~~~
gfosco
This would be a great form of Steganography. [1] Obviously, not having it
return the same image, but something different. Encrypting a given file into a
valid image file (like a meme.) It would pass by many things without raising
suspicion, and require private knowledge (key, iv) to recover the alternate
payload. It might even be plausibly deniable.
[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steganography](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steganography)
~~~
xentronium
To be honest, rarjpegs (rars attached after jpeg file contents, properly
unarchives by any software) have been used in the imageboards for a long time
and are super-simple to create (cat file.jpg file.rar > file.jpg).
It's actually rather interesting, if someone attaches some illegal content
into rarjpeg, will it automatically make you a criminal after you see it (and
store it onto your hard drive)?
~~~
robobro
Talking about illegal information is an inherently difficult task because
illegal information is, as I see it, an illogical concept. With time, we can
only hope that laws regarding information transmission loosen up.
Familiar with
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_prime](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_prime)
?
~~~
Houshalter
Think of it as the distribution of illegal information that is illegal. And
the idea of a "illegal number" is extremely misleading. Every number can
represent any content under the right encoding. It's also nearly infinitely
unlikely anyone would stumble across the data own their own by chance.
------
Houshalter
How on Earth does this work?
~~~
mkesper
Yesterday's article was more helpful: [https://speakerdeck.com/ange/when-aes-
equals-episode-v](https://speakerdeck.com/ange/when-aes-equals-episode-v)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Launch your subscription box business in 7 days - jointhebox
https://www.producthunt.com/tech/join-the-box
======
justboxing
Why linking to producthunt? Why not directly link to the website??
[http://jointhebox.com/?ref=HN](http://jointhebox.com/?ref=HN)
~~~
Paulods
Probably because its recently been linked here with the address.
I still don't understand the business though. Why focus on subscription
websites when all you seem to be doing is design and hosting? Does it come
with a subscription e-commerce platform built in?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why it is so much harder to do TDD with iPhone development than with Rails. - thinksocrates
http://joecannatti.com/?p=291
======
stevenwei
I think the biggest reason is that testing client side GUI code is generally
much harder than testing server side web based code.....regardless of what
platform you're working with.
It has less to do specifically with the iPhone vs Rails. I've experienced the
same phenomenon trying to test a Python desktop app vs something like Django.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Mondragon experiment - kelvin0
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondragon_Corporation
======
kelvin0
The documentary about this extraordinarly successful COOP
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-obHJfTaQvw](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-obHJfTaQvw)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Three things you need if you want more customers - zen53
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/02/three-things-you-need-if-you-want-more-customers.html
======
imgabe
It's weird how Seth Godin usually has a good general point, and then manages
to pick the worst possible examples to illustrate it.
_A service aimed at creating videos for bestselling authors_
[http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9448156...](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94481566)
_And a counseling service helping people cut back on Big Mac consumption_
Um..Weight Watchers? Jenny Craig?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
GoogleChrome/puppeteer: Headless Chrome Node API - mxfh
https://github.com/GoogleChrome/puppeteer#readme
======
nthcolumn
Duplicated here
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15028329](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15028329)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Trump weighs mobilizing National Guard for immigration roundups - secfirstmd
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TRUMP_NATIONAL_GUARD?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-02-17-10-22-45
======
MrZongle2
That's a pretty alarming headline. If I were in the United States illegally,
I'd be freaking out a bit after reading that.
Of course, you don't actually get a substantive quote until the fourth
paragraph: _" White House spokesman Sean Spicer said the AP report was "100
percent not true" and "irresponsible." ''There is no effort at all to utilize
the National Guard to round up unauthorized immigrants," he said."_
Fake news, indeed.
~~~
dekhn
It's not fake that somebody at DHS wrote, and distributed a memo proposing
this- that part is not being questioned (the memo itself has been obtained).
Linking it the the Trump administration or implying that it was being
considered, there is no evidence for.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Jig.com domain (tasty labs prev. owned) sold to Wal Mart - larrys
http://who.is/whois/jig.com/
======
larrys
Previous discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2927374](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2927374)
Whois info:
Registrant: Domain Administrator Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. 702 S.W. 8th Street
Bentonville AR 72716-0520 US [email protected] +1.4792734000 Fax:
+1.4792775991
Domain Name: jig.com
Registrar Name: Markmonitor.com
Registrar Whois: whois.markmonitor.com
Registrar Homepage: http://www.markmonitor.com
Administrative Contact:
Domain Administrator
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
702 S.W. 8th Street
Bentonville AR 72716-0520
US
[email protected] +1.4792734000 Fax: +1.4792775991
Technical Contact, Zone Contact:
DNS Management, Wal-Mart
DNS Management, Wal-Mart
805 Moberly Ln., M31
Bentonville AR 72716-0560
US
[email protected] +1.4792734000 Fax: +1.4792775991
Created on..............: 1995-03-07.
Expires on..............: 2016-03-08.
Record last updated on..: 2013-06-19.
Domain servers in listed order:
ns-930.awsdns-52.net
ns-1109.awsdns-10.org
ns-245.awsdns-30.com
ns-1804.awsdns-33.co.uk
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Microsoft Sandboxes Windows Defender - chablent
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-sandboxes-windows-defender/
======
Someone1234
This is great news. The old implementation was a little scary, they had a full
JavaScript parsing engine (and other similar parsers) running as SYSTEM. You
can get a sense of it via this Project Zero bug report:
[https://bugs.chromium.org/p/project-
zero/issues/detail?id=12...](https://bugs.chromium.org/p/project-
zero/issues/detail?id=1252)
That specific bug and others were of course fixed.
The issue is that such complex code is hard to write well in the language
they're using, and running as SYSTEM is just asking for a zero day take over
from simply visiting a site with a malicious file or an unread email.
I hope other AV vendors follow suit on the component sandboxing. They're
scanning untrusted files, who will happily try to crash or take-over the AV
process itself.
------
hs86
Microsoft's announcement:
[https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/microsoftsecure/2018/10/26/...](https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/microsoftsecure/2018/10/26/windows-
defender-antivirus-can-now-run-in-a-sandbox/)
~~~
ccnafr
Yo mods... can we stop the blog-spam?
~~~
mathnode
Recently I linked to a press release for a software acquisition, but mine was
marked as a dupe, and the blog link promoted.
I am not trying to get them sweet sweet up-votes. Just engage in my community.
~~~
xenophonf
Press releases are glorified advertisements. Please post something more
substantive instead. Even release notes or change logs are better. An actual
review like the really awesome in-depth Mac OS X reviews of yore would be even
better.
~~~
Ajedi32
I'd much rather read a glorified advertisement than a news article
regurgitating various portions of the glorified advertisement, interspersed
with a bunch of filler, ads, and background information I already know.
------
youdontknowtho
I know that sandboxing is desirable here, but it runs as SYSTEM. How do you
sandbox something running as SYSTEM? They must have changed the identity of
Defender. That's all I can come up with. Anyone else know how this works?
~~~
userbinator
I believe it runs with even higher privileges than SYSTEM --- a while ago I
had to deal with an unresponsive and 100%-CPU-consuming scanner process, which
I tried to kill it from a command prompt running as SYSTEM, and it still said
"access denied".
I know the reasoning is "if SYSTEM can kill it then so can malware", but still
a bit unsettling that there's processes running on your system that even the
owner doesn't have privilege to control.
~~~
ourmandave
_...but still a bit unsettling that there 's processes running on your system
that even the owner doesn't have privilege to control._
Welcome to Windows 10 Home Edition!
~~~
tbronchain
Can you get higher system privileges on other editions?
------
Too
Why not sandbox applications instead and remove any reason for defender to
exist in the first place.
~~~
viraptor
There's a reason for defender even with a sandboxed app. Exploiting the
sandboxed app may not allow the virus to access other parts of the system, but
it still allows messing with the apps memory and spreading online (you likely
got it from an app with network permissions in the first place)
------
excalibur
The diagram at the top of this article is amusing.
~~~
Lukas_Skywalker
Bugs me that the "secure sandbox" arrow isn't pointing from the label
_towards_ the sandbox. Makes it look like a flow diagram.
------
Lapsa
windows anti-malware-something frequently eats up half of my processor power.
got batch file on desktop to suspend it. sad
~~~
uryga
could you please share the script? i wanted to do that too but never got
around to it.
(it's especially bad when something creates a lot of small files, because
Service Executable starts scanning them, and whitelisting processes doesn't
seem to do much to deter it)
------
ahoka
From the official blog post:
"Users can also force the sandboxing implementation to be enabled by setting a
machine-wide environment variable (setx /M MP_FORCE_USE_SANDBOX 1) and
restarting the machine. This is currently supported on Windows 10, version
1703 or later."
------
ericcholis
Slight tangent, strawpoll on what everybody prefers for their Antivirus these
days. Corporate and personal. I've been using ESET for years and anecdotally
never had any issue.
~~~
EliRivers
You know, I've pretty much stopped using them. Haven't had one installed on a
Win machine for a few years.
I take a handful of basic precautions along the lines of closing ports,
installing OS updates, having my eMail text only and passive, disabling a few
things on the web browser and never downloading/running anything suspicious.
It's been good enough that the last time I installed a new Win, a dedicated
antivirus didn't even occur to me.
On occasion I'll run a malware finder when I'm seeing odd behaviour and want
to be sure, but I can't remember the last time there was a genuine positive
find.
~~~
52-6F-62
I’m pretty much in the same boat here for a few years now.
I believe I ran some Symantec search tool once when things seemed off and was
able to install a targeted removal tool by them and remove them afterward.
Same principles with my macs.
Any Linux machine I use tends to be virtual and pretty blackboxed save web,
ssh, and ssl ports. (And maybe a port open connected to a database)
------
RaleyField
Welcome to 2006. Only took them 12 years.
~~~
neolefty
Are there other sandboxed security scanners?
~~~
RaleyField
I hope I'm getting downvoted for my sarky tone.
There have been stories that other vendors are even worse but it doesn't
matter, they should've updated Defender 12 years ago concurrently with IE as
they were developing the tech for Vista, because.. Defender has high false
negative detection ratio and so is a plan B, hail marry kind of technology -
you should do everything so that you don't rely on it working as it works only
passably well for a percentage of stale threats. That's why if it and similar
software is enabled it should affect your security only additively and should
never contribute to attack surface. Instead in an effort to check if a file
contains any of months old malware you get pwned by a bug in decompression
function for a file that that you didn't even open that just passed your
system and so you'd survive the attack if it weren't for the system that tries
to help you survive attacks stupidly.
------
vectorEQ
"unless the attacker finds a way to escape the sandbox, which is among the
toughest things to do, the system remains safe."
How was that determined xD.... wtf. There have been trivial sandbox escapes
for most sandboxes in existence...
stopped reading there >.> pure speculation on how effective this thing will
really be in the first paragraph, casts doubt on the accuracy of the rest of
the information.
~~~
shawnz
It was determined by design. If the sandbox were trivial to bypass, why have
it at all? The sandbox has to meet those conditions or it's a non-starter. And
regardless, it would certainly be easier to audit the security of a small
component like a sandbox versus the entirety of the Windows Defender
application.
------
mtgx
I imagine Windows Defender has been and will continue to be (even after this)
nation state intelligence agencies' #1 way to get into users' Windows PCs.
I for one haven't trusted Windows Defender in a while, both because I don't
trust Microsoft not to be malicious with it (at the very least they've
steadily increased the amount and types of telemetry they collect through it)
and also because it's such an easy target for all sorts of attackers.
~~~
cwyers
If Microsoft was going to put in a backdoor into Windows PCs, _why would they
put it in an optional component?_
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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U2's Natural Logarhythm: Exponential Decay in the Delay of The Edge's Guitar - atularora
http://5cense.com/Edge_Delay.htm
======
anigbrowl
_This is to say, there was roughly three delayed notes per beat, or as Tim
Darling points out, it's roughly 3/16 tempo (though really I think he meant
6/16 time or 3/8 time, where 3/8 = 0.375, which is a close approximation to
0.36788)._
No, I think he meant 3/16, especially since he explains the derivation of that
value. It's a fixture in reggae music and dub because it provides instant
syncopation, and later found its way into a lot of electronic dance music for
the same reason. Get started with Dub at
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dub_music> and then study the early studio
history of Lee Perry, who pioneered a great many audio production tricks by
necessity. This 1978 track is a seminal work:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hs9Z2TEqSZo> All the sound effects going on
are done with a mixer and 2 delays, using tricks like splitting the output of
a channel back into 2 inputs and inverting the polarity on one.
The 'number of delayed notes per beat' comes in around 3 because the delay
unit is feeding back on itself, and a 4th repeat (being equal to 12/16ths) is
likely to fall exactly on a beat: 1/16, 5/15 and 12/16 are the strongest beats
in rock and dance music. If you hit the 9/16 beat it's straight rock or dance,
if you delay it by half a beat you get the basic rhythm of hip hop. You can of
course turn the feedback up higher but above a certain level it tends to run
away and make a horrible noise, independently of the delay time.
Edited to add: I hope that explanation didn't sound blithely dismissive of the
mathematical investigations. The 1/e hypothesis is compelling, but has the air
of being 'so beautiful, it must be true' - be careful of this! I have several
notebooks' worth of similar explorations of geometry, golden ratio and so
forth as applied to music. It's wonderfully inspiring, but it's easy to find
yourself trying to square the circle or retrieve the Lost Chord.
~~~
simplegeek
Per your comment I think you've got a good handle on Music and Math. I'm
totally naive but, briefly, what background should one have if he intends to
start working on extracting a melody from a song? I will appreciate your reply
(didn't find your email in your profile so posting it here, thanks).
~~~
anigbrowl
Can you be more specific - do you mean so you can learn to play the tune
yourself, or extract it via software?
~~~
simplegeek
Latter i.e. extract the melody via software?
~~~
anigbrowl
OK, then you want to get into the world of Digital Signal Programming, or DSP.
Before you do so, be aware that this is a Hard Problem if you want to achieve
more than the most basic results. The basic tool of DSP is the Fourier
Transform, which allows you to convert a 1-dimensional signal in the time
domain (such as an audio file) to a 2-dimensional signal in the frequency
domain (such as a spectrogram aka graphic equalizer display). Many problems
that look knotty or impossible in the Time domain are soluble with simple math
in the Frequency domain. So you do an FFT, modify or analyze your signal, and
then do another FFT if you want to convert it back to an audio stream.
This is a really excellent starter book that you can also download for free:
<http://www.dspguide.com/> It's far better written than most other books on
the field and will help you to develop an intuitive understanding of the
fundamental math. Many books just say 'here's the math,' without discussing
why it works or why you would want to do it one way rather than another. Many
more cover DSP from the point of view of radio or wireless communication -
although the same principles apply here as for audio, it's somewhat confusing.
This book is very audio-friendly.
The state of the art in pitch extraction from usic recordings is Celemony's
Melodyne: <http://www.celemony.com/cms/> The company was started in the
mid-90s by a German audio geek named Peter Neubäcker with his wife and a
programmer. He says in interviews that he's using a different approach based
on the shape of sounds, but has never published his methods. I've met him a
couple of times at conferences and trade shows, but he knows how to keep a
secret! However, you'd be well advised to try out the demo version of his
software. How he does is it is a mystery, but he's way, way ahead of any
commercial or academic methods.
If you like Matlab, this is the best academic work on the task so far:
<http://isophonics.net/content/reverse-engineering-mix> and you should also
grab a copy of Sonic Visualizer, which is a slow-but-flexible analysis tool:
<http://isophonics.net/SonicVisualiser> Be sure to follow up the links on the
Isophonics site, which will lead you to a rich variety of libraries and tools
for audio programming.
------
kree10
Reminds me of a use of math in rock that was actually calculated: the beat in
Queen's "We Will Rock You".
"I mixed all the tracks [...] with different delays, related to each other in
length with prime numbers, so there would not be any discernible 'echo'." --
<http://www.brianmay.com/brian/brianssb/brianssbsep07.html>
~~~
jcl
...which is expected from Brian May -- an astrophysicist rock star. :)
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_May>
------
wyclif
This was The Edge's "secret weapon" before they moved to all-digital
equipment: <http://www.ehx.com/products/deluxe-memory-man>
Still one of the best analog stomp boxes on the market.
------
luckyland
This technique, and some instruments outfitted with specific DSP components to
achieve it, was developed by Michael Brook.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Brook>
------
strayer
Since e is a number, not a function (the function is exp = lambda x: e^x) then
1/e is not log but one divided by e.
I once was told that using, say, 1/cos for acos is specific to English-
speaking countries. Does anyone know about that?
~~~
G_Wen
I think you're thinking of the inverse cosine function arccosine. The
reciprocal of the cosine function is known as the secant. I do not know if
this is specific to English speaking countries. However the Chinese version of
wikipedia suggests it is: <http://zh.wikipedia.org/zh/反三角函数>
------
turbodog
He lost me at sentence 3: "Even before he started using a delay pedal, like on
Boy".
Um, practically every U2 song ever makes heavy use of guitar delay.
~~~
mcobrien
Boy was U2's first album, so the sentence suggests Edge was using delay before
he started recording U2 songs.
------
gregschlom
Not to be pedantic, but logarithm is actually spelled with an i
~~~
phpnode
it's a play on rhythm....
~~~
gregschlom
Oops, sorry. Thanks for pointing it out
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Unbearable Lightness of Tweeting - sergeant3
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/02/the-unbearable-lightness-of-tweeting/385484/?single_page=true
======
gofishdigital
The unbearable heaviness of Periscope...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Hunting for a Canadian Legend: The Avro Arrow Jet Fighter - dnetesn
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/13/world/canada/avro-arrow-jet-.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=5&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0
======
aren55555
After the Avro Arrow project was cancelled a number of the employees involved
joined NASA to assist in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. It's a shame
that the same kind of "brain drain" occurs to this day. Canada produces a lot
of talented people and many of them head South.
~~~
eloff
Not just Canada, the United States has been very successful in attracting top
talent from all over the world. A large part of its success is due to that -
the USA does not produce nearly enough STEM graduates domestically. A huge
number of people come every year to study in US universities, still considered
the best in the world in many cases, and many stay afterwards. I think that
the USA could be considered to be an empire in decline once it can no longer
attract the top talent worldwide, and once those people graduate and go back
to their own countries instead of staying in the US.
In the Canada case specifically, the pay gap for software engineers between
the USA and Canada is about 2-3x if you're at the top of your field. The real
mystery to me is why Canada has any software engineers at all. I'm a Canadian
SE living in Canada currently and I wouldn't dream of working for any
companies located here, including e.g. Amazon or IBM.
~~~
danudey
> The real mystery to me is why Canada has any software engineers at all.
For all kinds of political and social reasons, I would never move to the US.
Key examples:
\- The disaster that is the US health care system \- Even more endemic
systemic racism than Canada has \- Even left-wing politicians are to the right
of what I prefer in Canada
All that, plus I'm not in this for the money. I make a comfortable living and
live in a gorgeous city, and there aren't any cities in the US I would want to
live in.
I'm happy in Canada. I'd probably also be happy in Europe or even Asia, but I
can't picture being happy in the US.
~~~
dogruck
Yes, but the top, hard driving, talent would make the trade and move to the
US. Your prerogative is to kick back and chill up north. I'm not hatin -- just
pointing out that you're not really a counter example to the point at hand.
~~~
fraqed
Maybe that's why Canadians are considered so nice, because all the "hard
driving" types have left the country and gone, mostly, to the US.
~~~
dogruck
A reasonable theory. Agreed.
------
guiomie
If you want to know more about the Arrow, I really enjoyed the movie "The
Arrow", not some big budget movie, but really interesting.
Being Canadian I must of heard countless time how this aircraft was like none
other and ahead of it's time ... Not sure how true it really is.
~~~
gerdesj
cf TSR2
------
filereaper
If anyone's up for it, CBC made an entire drama movie for it and its demise.
[1]
[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PMnlnqRex4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PMnlnqRex4)
~~~
KGIII
Three hours well spent, thanks. I'm not sure how historically accurate it is,
but it was fun to watch. I didn't get my Canadian citizenship until a half
dozen years ago, but it's neat to see that story. I knew of the plane, and a
few others, but not the details.
In a demonstration of my pride to be a Canadian citizen, I will eat ketchup
chips and apologize profusely when I go back across the border into Canada,
eh.
------
nils-m-holm
My father wrote (or edited, I don't remember) an article about state of the
art aircraft in 1958. Among others it covered the Avro Arrow, stating, among
other fun trivia, that more than 450 engineers worked on the design and it was
built from more than 38,000 parts, including 17,500 meters of cable.
Unfortunately he switched jobs shortly after that and worked for a fine
literature publishing house until retirement. I thought his earlier job was
way cooler. :) We still visited the local airfield every other weekend.
------
Mikeb85
As interesting as the Avro Arrow was, it's capabilities have been exaggerated,
and there were a decent number of Mach 2 capable jets of the same era. More
interesting is the downfall of Avro and the effect it had on Canada's
engineers and brain drain...
~~~
valuearb
The Convair F-106 Delta Dart from the same era was likely faster (Mach 2.3 vs.
Arrow's fastest test at Mach 2). And the Delta Dart was no great interceptor,
they only built a few hundred. This was the era where Air Power doctrine had
to painfully accept that high speed high altitude was becoming too vulnerable
to SAMs.
The fastest war plane of the era was the North American Aviation XB-70
Valkyrie, which was an enormous bomber which cruised at Mach 3+ and 70,000
feet for nearly 4,000 miles. Neither the Arrow or Dagger could touch it, but
SAMs could so it was canceled after a very successful test flight program.
The world changed to low altitude penetration, a role which would have cut the
B70s range substantially because it's design actually far more efficient at
Mach 3/70,000 feet than it was at Mach 0.95 at 1,000 feet.
~~~
pinewurst
I would disagree that the F-106 wasn't a great interceptor as it apparently
was (and was a pleasure to fly).
The issue is that by the time it made it to production, the major threat had
become the ICBM rather than the bomber. USAF Air Defense Command in general
was defunded but ABM never took its place.
~~~
valuearb
Well my greater point was that high speed high altitude intercepters were
becoming obsolete while the Arrow was being built. As much a pleasure as the
Delta Dart may have been to fly, it wasn't produced in great numbers because
it wasn't designed for the new threats.
------
Animats
The Avro Arrow was an impressive aircraft. There were a large number of cool,
but not useful aircraft developed in the 1950s, as jet aircraft were being
figured out.
Avro is remembered mostly for building a flying saucer, the AvroCar. It never
got out of ground effect, being both unstable and underpowered. But it looked
really cool. It can be seen at the USAF museum in Dayton, Ohio.[1]
[1] [http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-
Exhibits/Fact-...](http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-
Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/195801/avro-canada-vz-9av-avrocar/)
~~~
pjc50
I'd have thought of the Avro Lancaster or Vulcan instead. The Vulcan in
particular was part of the "V bomber" effort in which the UK government
commissioned 3 totally different supersonic nuclear bombers in the hope that
one of them would work and be delivered on time.
~~~
cstross
Ahem: the V-bombers were all subsonic (at least in service — the prototype
Handley-Page Victor went supersonic on at least one occasion and was
controllable in transsonic flight; the production Victors had various external
extras bolted on which made supersonic flight impractical).
The requirement issued for these bombers in the late 1940s, was for a mission
to carry ten tons of Atom bomb from the UK to Moscow at high subsonic speed
and able to penetrate Moscow's air defenses. They were pretty successful;
Vulcans carried out the longest bombing mission in aviation history prior to
Operation Desert Storm (the 8000-mile Black Buck raids during the Falklands
Conflict) and the last Victor tankers were retired in 1993. And we're looking
at designs that flew little more than a decade after the piston-engined
Lancasters and Halifaxes of RAF Bomber Command.
All three V-bomber types — the Valiant, Vulcan, and Victor — saw service
carrying Britain's nuclear weapons from the 1950s to the early 1970s. (They
were replaced in the deterrent role by Polaris submarines.)
More here:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_bomber](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_bomber)
------
SOLAR_FIELDS
Is the Apache Avro file format named after this plane? I couldn't find any
official documentation that states as much, but the logo hints at it.
~~~
grzm
After the British company, not specifically this aircraft:
[https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/AVRO/Index](https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/AVRO/Index)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro)
~~~
SOLAR_FIELDS
Thanks, after seeing the logos of both it is readily apparent.
------
perilunar
"Early models were cut apart and their blueprints destroyed along with the
machines used to make the aircraft."
That's just perverse: why would you destroy the blueprints? Couldn't they just
file them away in an archive or library somewhere? The cost to store them
would be minimal.
------
WalterBright
I'm partial to the Avro Triplane myself.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCZOcObmd0Y](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCZOcObmd0Y)
Probably the most beautiful pre-WW1 airplane.
------
jalayir
Wow looks a bit like the venerable MiG-25 foxbat
~~~
vaadu
And the A5 Vigilante.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_A-5_Vigilante](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_A-5_Vigilante)
US and Canadian intelligence had evidence that the KGB had a man on the inside
of AVRO who was providing ARROW plans to the Soviets.
[http://nationalpost.com/news/canada/the-spy-named-gideon-
boo...](http://nationalpost.com/news/canada/the-spy-named-gideon-book-tells-
story-of-russian-illegal-sent-to-canada-and-betrayed)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
2011: The Year the Check-in Died - mjfern
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/2011_the_year_the_check-in_died.php
======
harryh
So two points here:
1) Usage on foursquare is up 40% since the beginning of the year.
2) We've always seen the checkin as just the beginning of what we want to
accomplish. With the launch of explore and specials 2.0 we've started to get
more of our vision out into the world. You can expect more of this sort of
thing from us over the course of 2011.
-harryh, engineering lead @ foursquare.
ps: Want to be a part of it? We're hiring! <https://foursquare.com/jobs/>
~~~
chailatte
explore = chasing yelp
specials 2.0 = chasing groupon
Foursquare's vision appears to be looking backward. Dennis Crowley's been
thinking about this space for 10 years?
~~~
scorpion032
Those are the natural extensions to the product. What would you rather do?
ultra-checkin, super-checkin and more badges. "Cool quotient" is good enough
to begin you with; but you need to get some real value out of it as well.
~~~
IgorPartola
What real value can a checkin service potentially provide? (Serious question)
I think there are a few things: deals from local businesses, meeting new
people, interaction coordination.
Deals are booming now. Groupon and LS are huge and do manage to provide me
with value. I think Groupon's upcoming mobile offering is brilliant. The likes
of foursquare can use this model successfully as well.
Meeting new people is always a tough one, but it is what people want. Give
someine a way to make new friends through your service in real life in a safe
way and you'll strike gold.
Interaction coordination is probably the most interesting thing I can think
of. Imagine communities organizing events by using foursquare. You get
invites. You check in. You pay for the event from your phone. You monitor long
distance races by the participants' checkins. You participate in live events
virtually by having your name flash on a giant screen. At a town fair you are
randomly assigned a person and if you find them within a time limit and check
in together you get a prize. A giant game of assasin based on checkins.
The checkin itself is just a tool. Playing with a hammer is fun at first but
unless you have something to nail it will get boring.
~~~
scorpion032
Thats exactly what I meant to say.
Too bad the sarcasm in the first sentence is lost on you.
~~~
IgorPartola
No need to be brash. I understood your sarcasm. Just continued the thought
further.
~~~
scorpion032
My bad then. Since you were trying to make the same point as I was, I was
under the impression you got it wrong.
To be fair, most replies in HN are arguments than "thought continuation"
------
aaronmarks
Foursquare is something that became wildly popular at the same time smart
phones were becoming more and more ubiquitous. It is a cool sort of "Hey check
out what my new phone can do" kind of tool.
As smart phones are becoming more the standard and less the shiny-new-thing,
though, Foursquare and the like are turning out to not actually provide that
much value, and are losing their stickiness.
------
unohoo
Personally, I think that 4sq should have taken up the acquisition offer that
it supposedly had.
No matter how much they try and innovate and launch new features, the premise
of 'checking in' is forcing a user behavior - and sooner or later, checkin
fatigue is going to set in. Just like most other shiny things, the shimmer
wears off real quick.
~~~
brk
I agree. Not to mention that for many places the whole check-in bit a moderate
hassle.
EG: Panera Bread.
Go in to get a coffe and a bagel in the morning. Take out phone, launch app.
Oops, can't connect. Panera has free wifi, but I have to open the browser on
my phone and check a little box and hit submit. Go back to the app, let it
figure out where I am. No, I'm not at Baby Gap (next store over) at 7AM, I'm
at Panera. Finally check in. And then... nothing... kind of anti-climatic
really.
Meanwhile, I'm juggling credit cards and rewards cards and a drink and a bagel
with the cashier.
If I'm lucky, I might get to be Mayor and get $1 off or something, which
equates to earning about 2 cents for every checkin.
I played with 4sq and some of the other location services for a while, but
just never got any value out of it proportionate to what I put into it time-
wise.
------
willifred
While the article raises some valid points, I question the use of compete.com
figures to make any claims about foursquare's declining traffic.
~~~
troymc
Compete.com measures _something_ , and whatever that something is, it's
declining.
~~~
barrkel
Latest stackoverflow blog post also shows that site declining on compete.com,
despite all other analytics showing it growing.
[http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2011/04/stack-exchange-
traffic...](http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2011/04/stack-exchange-traffic-
still-growing/)
------
bhousel
Location based checkin sites are basically games. The problem is that, like
all games, people eventually get tired of them and move on to something else.
~~~
Aramgutang
Tell that to Zynga and Blizzard. Social games (which Foursquare would fall
under) have a very long-lasting grip on people.
------
bricestacey
Foursquare reminds me of this fake RPG called Progress Quest[1]. It's like
SETI@Home, but for RPGs. In other words you do nothing while it automatically
advances progress bars on the screen and your character advances and there is
nothing else to it. Ironically, a lot of people actually wind up running it
for quite some time, myself included, but then the joke ends and they stop. To
me, it seems inevitable the same will come of Foursquare.
[1] <http://progressquest.com/>
------
po
Declaring a whole class of new and growing startups as "dead" is the most
hipster thing I can imagine: Checking in? I guess. _I_ haven't checked into a
venue since 2010.
There is some interesting thoughts in here but they're so mixed in with flawed
analysis that I don't think I actually learned anything from reading it.
~~~
URSpider94
True, except for the fact that Foursquare rode to prominence on the backs of
hipsters, roaming Brooklyn and SXSW in droves with their smartphones. So, one
might argue that if hipsters have moved on, then that's a leading indicator.
------
daimyoyo
When I first started using foursquare it was neat but I didn't get the appeal.
Then I grabbed my first mayorship and for a few months, I checked in
religiously. Recently, checking in to places has become a chore. I still do
check in when I remember to, but it's not a priority any more.
~~~
andybak
No-one has ever explained to me why I would want to be the 'mayor' of
anything.
I don't even see in what sense it's a game. What. I have to go to Starbucks
more than some other person to win?
I thought I was missing some important aspect like I did before I 'got'
Twitter but in this case apparently not.
------
baconface
Checking-in is tedious. Most of the benefits of location-based services are
happening through better uses of wireless communication. Excluding GPS,
Shopkick uses high frequency audio signatures and ZuluTime just patented some
new wifi based stuff ([http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/11/zulutime-issued-
patent-for-...](http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/11/zulutime-issued-patent-for-
location-aware-wireless-networks/)).
------
bergie
I was quite enthusiastic about check-ins when the good old Plazes service was
launched back in 2004. One of the great things about that service was that
originally check-ins were based on the WiFi access point you were connected
to. This made them effectively automatic.
Unfortunately they had a very problematic rewrite from PHP to Rails that lost
them quite a bit of their user base, and later Nokia bought the company.
Here are some notes from the one and only PlazeCamp they held just before the
acquisition:
<http://bergie.iki.fi/blog/plazecamp/>
<http://fourstarters.com/2008/01/17/plazecamp-wrapup/>
The key points with Plazes were: automatic check-ins (it only asked you for
information when nobody had connected to that network before), nice statistics
(how much you travel per day, who spends time in the same place as you), and
also some fun stuff like racing to see who registers most new plazes.
------
joe42
The author gives four reasons for why people check in. He didn't mention the
reason I would like to use a checking-in service (I'm not sure if there is a
popular one like this yet). I'd like to check in at a bar or a club (I often
go alone) and have the service match me with another checked-in person (or
people) to hang out with. Instead of using the service to hang out with people
I already know, I'd like a service to help me meet new people.
Seems like a check-in service could be a nice way to lower the barrier of
introducing oneself to a stranger. It's so easy to talk to strangers online,
it would be nice to bring that to the meat world.
~~~
URSpider94
I think the author's point is that this sort of usage is only actually
feasible with a very narrow demographic, in one or two places in the country
-- maybe New York, Boston and San Francisco. Elsewhere, the chance that there
would be even two people in a given bar or club running that app and looking
for new friends at the same time is basically zero point zero.
Besides that, in the introductions world, "meeting new friends" is marketing-
speak for meeting people to date, or more precisely, to hook up with. And, I
can imagine, as the author does, that women would be pretty squeamish about
getting involved with a service that announces their presence in a particular
bar and invites people to meet them.
In any case, Loopt has this service, or at any rate did at one point -- in one
of their iterations, they cordoned it off into its own application (Loopt
Mix). I turned it on briefly once, to see what it would do, and to be honest,
it was pretty creepy, a lot like the parts of Craigslist that have been shut
down ...
~~~
joe42
Yes, those would be the two big challenges:
* It needs to be widespread to work well.
* No creepy factor.
------
wazoox
OK, so please bear with me for a second. What the heck are these check-ins
about? foursquare? Huh, I can't make any sense of their horrid front page,
what is this about? Where is the explanation (no, not a video, thank you I
_can read_ )? Allow me to play the grumpy ol' man here, but this look like
another useless toy for teens. And yes, I include facebook and twitter in this
category, too.
~~~
mryall
You're judging a book by its cover. Why not try them out before you criticise?
Also, today's teens are tomorrow's free-spending twenty-somethings, so their
preferences can be quite relevant for many businesses.
~~~
wazoox
> _You're judging a book by its cover._
I'm judging a website by its front page, godammit. What else could I do? I
clicked a bit around, but my PC slowed to a crawl, so much for a first good
impression.
> _Why not try them out before you criticise?_
I could try it out if I could make any sense of it. I don't have time to open
accounts on random websites just in case it may be interesting. I'm tech-savvy
enough, but if I can't understand what a website is about at first glance,
either 1° it's definitely targeting an audience I'm no part of; or 2° there's
a serious presentation problem.
So I'm not criticizing, I'm leaning towards the gentler side : I'm probably
not their target. Or else, in case they're actually targeting 40yo geeks and
entrepreneurs, they may be doing it wrong.
------
mkramlich
I also thought Foursquare was a fad. Who cares if you checked in there? Who
cares if you're the mayor?
I actually have one LBS idea that for me would be really useful, I'd love to
have it, and thinking about building it. However I'm slammed with other stuff
right now and I'm loathe to switch to Yet Another Shiny Thing rather than
build up an existing project further.
(Credentials: I wrote the original Postabon/Signpost iPhone app (a deals LBS
startup now backed by Google Ventures), and the iPhone app for a different and
more recent AR/ecommerce LBS startup that's currently in stealth.)
------
dr_
I agree with the article's predictions with respect to foursquare, but I'm not
sure about Facebook, there's still tremendous potential there. Facebook
appears to have released Places without putting much thought into it beyond
allowing people to simply check in wherever they are and share it with their
friends. But I wouldn't be surprised if they were working on incorporating
deals with local businesses, etc on a much larger scale, some time soon,
either on their own or in conjunction with Groupon or Living Social.
~~~
klochner
facebook was actually pretty quick to launch deals:
<http://www.facebook.com/deals>
------
justinxreese
\- Look at compete.com traffic estimates
\- Extrapolate
\- Make assumptions based on extrapolation
\- Write sensationalist headline
------
Tichy
Missed one reason to check in: to promote the location (being a fan). That
alone probably isn't enough to sustain a checkin service, though.
------
neutronicus
The article made me wonder: are any of these accurate enough to be used for
"where did I park"? I would love it if my smart phone had a way to eliminate
"standing around in a parking lot looking bemused" from my day. I would love
it so much that I would permit it to have a "social" component.
~~~
StavrosK
Why can't you just add a star in Google maps or something? it should be
accurate to two meters... I bet there are tens of apps that do it.
~~~
mgkimsal
there are apps for it, but i've found launching any app as I leave the car and
head in to a shop to be too much trouble. By the time I get the app loaded and
ready to record, I'm many meters from the car's location.
It'd be better if the device had a feature to just replay your GPS locations
for the last 60 minutes.
------
cheez
And I thought this was about some new source control system that didn't need
checkins.
------
InclinedPlane
Yes, yes, sure, in the greater sense of things everything is dead or dying.
However, I think it's a bit silly to write off a phenomenon, market, or
product while it's still in the explosive growth stage. I personally don't
like foursquare but it seems to be going even strong as ever, which is all the
more impressive after having weathered some rather strong competition (such as
facebook).
------
jsavimbi
The check-in is way too egalitarian in order to transfer any perceived social
wealth through using the service.
What value can it have when I spend $300 on tickets to an event and some
schmuck in the nosebleed seats who spent $30 can check-in with the same social
weight? He's not in my class and I don't want him to be associated with me,
never mind competing with me in a game.
It's all fun and games until the normals start playing.
------
rwmj
Lacking context. What's a "check-in"?
------
jmtame
correction: foursquare is up to 7 million users, I spoke to dennis a week or
two ago. pretty impressive by comparison, I think Facebook had 6 million at
their year 2 mark.
~~~
teej
Woah there, wait just one minute. Facebook had 5.5 million active users after
two years _[1]_. Foursquare has 7 million registered accounts _[2]_. I
shouldn't have to explain how different those two metrics are.
[1] <http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?timeline> (active user defined as
having visited in the last 30 days)
[2] [http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/21/foursquare-closing-in-
on-7-...](http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/21/foursquare-closing-in-on-7-million-
users/)
~~~
jmtame
ah missed the "active" part ;) I quoted that from memory on my phone--not an
apples to apples comparison but makes me wonder. I'm interested in what
portion of 4sq's users are 'active', so I'll see if I can do some digging and
find out.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
NASA researches windowless cockpits; future businessjets might employ - DabAsteroid
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_channel.jsp?channel=defense&id=news/FA18101008.xml&headline=Blind%20Aft-Cockpit%20F-18%20Points%20To%20Biz%20Jet
======
SlowOnTheUptake
BSoD
~~~
DabAsteroid
Indeed.
<http://images.google.com/images?q=aircraft+birdstrike>
------
DabAsteroid
Article excerpt:
_Testing is under way of an F-18 with a covered aft cockpit to help prove
that a camera-equipped aircraft with no forward view windows could be a viable
option for a future supersonic business jet.
The external vision system tests involve Gulfstream Aerospace and are taking
place at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.,
using the agency’s F-18 systems research aircraft (SRA). The aircraft’s aft
cockpit canopy is shielded with only small cut-outs to represent side windows,
while the forward view is taken up with a a 22-inch high-definition (HD)
display. Gulfstream is exploring supersonic business jet configurations
affording little or no forward view.
The liquid crystal display, bolted in place over the glareshield, is being
used to display an image from an HD camera mounted behind the head-up display
in the front cockpit. A safety pilot flies in the front cockpit, ready to
assume control if the situation warrants, while the mission is flown from the
aft cockpit by a pilot using only instruments and the visual display on the
external vision system. ...
Five flights have taken place since mid-September, and the work is expected to
culminate with three night flights around the end of October._
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Persistent, Stealthy, Remote-controlled Dedicated Hardware Malware [30c3] - j_s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ck8bIjAUJgE
======
j_s
HN-er cfrantz2 mentioned this talk on today's discussion of the 'Secrets of
Intel Management Engine' explaining that it has been cracked:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8815765](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8815765)
The detailed overview of the presentation can be found here:
[http://events.ccc.de/congress/2013/Fahrplan/events/5380.html](http://events.ccc.de/congress/2013/Fahrplan/events/5380.html)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Strong candidate for worst graph of the year - DevX101
http://money.cnn.com/technology/interactive/tech_ipos/?source=cnn_bin
======
jtreminio
Hmm.. I don't know, I immediately grabbed the triangle scrubber and started
moving it to the right and it very quickly clicked for me what was happening,
and why the bubbles were growing or shrinking.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Rejected from Y Combinator Winter 2017, Want Feedback - theodin
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1a5eSou1VbeSpeWbk2yjXUIS6ZWiTs0u1K2BfxUwgfhI/edit?usp=sharing
======
CM30
Probably a stupid question, but did they specify a reason why you were
rejected? Or was it just something vague like 'sorry, but you weren't chosen
this year'?
Just wondering, cause something like that might help us understand where they
were coming from a bit better.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Desktop Muon Detector: A project for university students - sohkamyung
https://arxiv.org/abs/1606.01196
======
sohkamyung
Write-up about the project at Symmetry Magazine [1]
\- "The $100 muon detector" [
[http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/the-100-muon-
detecto...](http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/the-100-muon-detector) ]
~~~
brudgers
Recent discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12325943](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12325943)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament Russia Report - iamacyborg
https://docs.google.com/a/independent.gov.uk/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=aW5kZXBlbmRlbnQuZ292LnVrfGlzY3xneDo1Y2RhMGEyN2Y3NjM0OWFl
======
mhxion
Mostly things against Russia. Only one thing that was particularly interesting
that, unlike US, EU never did an investigation on possible influence of Russia
in their 2016 referendum/Brexit even though they were aware of it.
> We have not been provided with any post-referendum assessment of Russian
> attempts at interference, __*.53 This situation is in stark contrast to the
> US handling of allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential
> election, where an intelligence community assessment54 was produced within
> two months of the vote, with an unclassified summary being made public.
> Whilst the issues at stake in the EU referendum campaign are less clear-cut,
> it is nonetheless the Committee’s view that the UK Intelligence Community
> should produce an analogous assessment of potential Russian interference in
> the EU referendum and that an unclassified summary of it be published
------
klelatti
Eliot Higgins of Bellingcat fame is not happy about this report!
'It's honestly genuinely rare I get wound up about things, but this Russia
report has done the job.'
[https://twitter.com/EliotHiggins/status/1285517283159347201](https://twitter.com/EliotHiggins/status/1285517283159347201)
------
iamacyborg
Apologies for the Google Docs link. This is how the British Government has
chosen to release the report.
~~~
sorokod
Well, that is embarrassing. Taking back control and all that.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Interactive collection of artificial life, lambda calculus animations - xorand
https://chemlambda.github.io/collection.html#222
======
xorand
Some numbers: There are 264 posts with animations, a bit more than 1/2 of the
original collection, with the possibility to rerun in js the simulations.
Whenever possible there is a mol file attached to the animation. There are
about 490 mol files. If they are too big to be used without stalling the js
reduction, this is signaled by the message “mol too big” in the post. If there
is no mol which matches, this is signaled as “mol unavailable”.
Of all 264 posts, 36 of them fall in the “mol too big” category, 46 in the
“mol unavailable” and there are 6 posts which don’t have a chemlambda
simulation inside. So this leaves 264-88=176 posts which have matching mol
files to play with.
The original revived collection is here [1], but since 2 weeks the traffic is
too big, or something strange happens [2], I made a copy with smaller images,
to fit the github constraints.
[1]
[http://imar.ro/~mbuliga/collection.html#153](http://imar.ro/~mbuliga/collection.html#153)
[2] [https://chorasimilarity.wordpress.com/2020/01/29/ddos-
attack...](https://chorasimilarity.wordpress.com/2020/01/29/ddos-attack-or-
huge-number-of-hits-from-china/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ayurveda for building innovative organisations? - bakbak
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/features/corporate-dossier/Ayurveda-for-building-innovative-organisations/articleshow/6909645.cms?curpg=1
======
port80
Perhaps teams need a bit of combination of VP and VK to be truly great. If you
only have one then you will only get so far.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
RockMelt Unveils a Web Browser for the Facebook Era - bjonathan
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/08/technology/08browser.html?src=twt&twt=nytimestech
======
languagehacker
So, uh, what component of this browser isn't already addressed in a Firefox
plug-in? I doubt it has things like performance increases that would make me
choose it over, say, Chrome when I need to go faster than FF.
If its intended audience is less tech-savvy folks, I think they'll have a hard
time getting them to even try something that's not IE.
------
nickbarnwell
This is different than Flock (which was a failure) how?
~~~
alanh
To be pithy — Flock was for nerds (Del.icio.us users); RockMelt is for people
(Facebook users).
Not convinced they’ll catch on, but at least their target market is bigger,
no?
~~~
nickbarnwell
Neither is a particularly good idea. People find the current tools perfectly
adequate, and as 3/4 of them tell me "I use the big E" or "the red fox" when
asking what browser they're using, I doubt this is going to gain much
traction.
------
bhiggins
almost as underwhelming as what it turns out kiha is doing
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
CTF365 Real Time Cyber Attacks Map - kerosen
Hi everybody<p>CTF365 it’s a “Security Training Platform for IT industry with a focus on Security Professionals, System Administrators and Web Developers”. The Platform implements CTF (Capture The Flag) concepts and leverages gamification mechanics to improve retention rate and speed up the learning/training curve.<p>Because of its Security Gamification Engine, CTF365 makes InfoSec trainings become, entertaining, challenging, community driven with continuous improvement and hands on<p>We've manage to implement CTF365 Real Time Cyber Attacks that shows everything is happening on the platform.<p>It shows all the attacks and connected users on the platform http://ctf365.com/pages/map.<p>Blinking dots = CTF365 VPN connected users
Blue Balloons = Fortresses (servers) build by our users
Blue Doted Lines = The attacks<p>It's an work in progress and works on Chrome and IE. There are some bugs in Firefox. Also we'll add some gamification things in the future like most active users, perform levels and so on. Things that can help companies to see their employees improvements.<p>Any feedback would be more than welcomed.
======
nivertech
so these attacks are not real?
~~~
kerosen
Those attacks are real on our platform. There are teams around the world, that
have build servers on our platform and attack each other while defend their
servers. It shows you who attacks whom.
~~~
nivertech
Can those servers act as honeypots and attract real attacks too?
~~~
kerosen
No! Not that it can't but because not this is its primary scope. It act like a
private network where you can connect via VPN and start practice your hacking
skills against real users and servers and not "vulnerable by design" ones as
you find in any traditional penetration testing lab.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Nassim Nicholas Taleb: The Corona Crisis Is Not a Black Swan - kervokian
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb2pXXUSzmI&feature=youtu.be
======
cjbenedikt
Seriously? Does anybody care if it is or isn't?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Julia Language: Multiple Dispatch vs. Function Overloading [video excerpt] - open-source-ux
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kc9HwsxE1OY&t=392
======
ChrisRackauckas
That's a nice example, though I would like it if Stefan had the discussion
about templates inside of the slides to make that point really clear since
that's where the key difference lies. With templates, you can make static code
get generated for the different combinations, but it's still static. And it
will only generate the combinations that it knows about. If you compile a
shared library and ship this off, and then someone makes a new Pet type and
calls that function from your shared library, it won't get a new templated
call because the behavior is static and you didn't make this new variant.
Multiple dispatch is inherently dynamic and always specializes, and it's a
compiler optimization that it generates fast static code in Julia, though
that's not necessitated by the feature itself.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
New Zealand: Up to 85 cases of illegal spying uncovered - stfu
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10876344
======
owenwil
There's a real lack of context in that article so it's worth mentioning that a
less generic thread about this exists here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6093710](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6093710)
~~~
stfu
Problem is that these long-form postings are rarely getting to the front page
unless they are about personal issues. If both of our posts get buried try
submitting each of the articles over the day and I am sure we can get one to
catch on.
It seems to me that there are probably only a few dozen people actively voting
in the newly submitted category, so it takes a bit of luck to have the right
kind of people lurking at the right moment giving their vote.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Laboratory tests of vegan restaurants in LA find some aren't - mariorz
http://www.quarrygirl.com/2009/06/28/undercover-investigation-of-la-area-vegan-restaurants/
======
ankhmoop
The subject matter is interesting, but what I find most interesting is a blog
performing real, 'hard-hitting' local journalism, of genuine interest to a
very specific social subgroup.
~~~
dag
The mainstream media had this idea first, they picked up the story of the New
York highschool student who tested Red Snapper in various sushi restaurants
and found that it was often Talapia.
That story got repeated in some jurisdictions, now a year or so later someone
gets around to doing it with vegan food.
\-----
EDIT:
Sushi from New York:
[http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/22/science/22fish.html?scp=3&...](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/22/science/22fish.html?scp=3&sq=red%20snapper%20talapia&st=cse)
Sushi from Toronto (reported in Vancouver):
[http://www2.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=4381b...](http://www2.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=4381b239-db40-47da-
ae6b-b573bc5dc72c)
~~~
pyre
If you really want a "what food is advertised as isn't what it really is"
story search youtube for Vegan Marshmallows. (short: some guy was supplying a
'vegan' gelatin substitute to several groups (not just vegans) and when it was
tested it had animal products in it and the guy 'disappeared').
Revealing that some companies/restaurants aren't always truthful isn't a new
thing. Certainly not only a year old. It's really as old as investigative
journalism in general. Dating all the way back to "The Jungle".
Edit: and what you're really saying is that 'mainstream media' just copied the
idea too. And from a grassroots-level at that.
------
dtf
As a non-vegan, these recipes truly baffle me. Why on earth would anyone eat
that? Surely there are some nice, simple dishes you can make using fruits and
nuts and vegetables, rather than these massively processed soy products
pretending to be meat or fish or cheese? Seriously, what's the point?
~~~
theorique
I'm a vegan primarily for health reasons, so I generally agree with you. I eat
mostly 'plant-based whole foods', in the words of Joi Ito.
At the same time, it's nice to be able to eat a variety of foods. Some people
who are vegans primarily for ethical reasons rather than health or taste
reasons may miss meat and/or cheese a lot (especially in the early stages). In
this case, these products provide a substitute for the foods that they may
remember and enjoy but no longer choose to eat.
~~~
aristus
Doug Coupland called these kinds of people "crypto-carnivore". :)
I enjoy meat and veggie food but I draw the line at egg and milk substitutes.
Real vegan cheese is _appalling_ and no amount of processing can make up for
it. "Soy" cheese that uses milk protein is much better... and there are a lot
more simple vegetarians than radical-Shiite vegans. Nor is there always a
bright line. I have heard good arguments over whether honey is or is not
vegan.
------
shaunxcode
This is going to have some pretty big reprecussions for the restaurants in
question. A few years back the same thing happened on the east coast when
someone ate a vegan philly "cheese" steak at a vegan joint and swore down that
it could NOT be vegan. They ordered one to go and utilized their campus
laboratory to discover that, yes, it had casein in it. Turned out that the
supplier of the restaurants vegan cheese had not been entirely honest. It
looks like the same thing is happening with a lot of these cases. Most people
source their vegan "meats" from central import supermarkets and the people
doing the translation seem to be leaving out a few crucial facts i.e. "this
vegetarian fish contains fish" etc.
This is another great reason to source your food locally. When you are having
to trace the contents of what is going into your mouth across state borders
let alone oceans you're going to have some difficulty.
One of my long term plans is to open a restaurant which sources _everything_
locally (with in the county) - it will be inherently vegan but will not
champion that so as to not turn people off of the concept but rather push the
idea of healthy food supporting local business and thus the overall food
security for the community.
~~~
pyre
It's actually better to eat food that is _seasonal_ than local. Case in point,
if you buy local tomatoes during the winter they are grown in a greenhouse
that burns more energy than shipping tomatoes up from Mexico.
I recently found out that most (maybe all?) rice that's grown in California is
grown in an area where they need to pump the water uphill to irrigate that
area. Energy/greenhouse gas-wise it's more environmentally-friendly to import
the rice from India.
Load of people seem to think that 'local' implies something like a small town
and therefore must be better and/or closer to the earth or something, but
that's not always the case.
~~~
shaunxcode
I agree about seasonal eating patterns and I guess that is implicit if you are
eating local organic (i.e. no crazy hydroponic winter tomatoes). Living in
utah that would mean the winters would bring a lot of grains, canned/bottled
fruit and vegetables from the growing season etc. How does a fresh vegetable
stew with some home made bread not sound good?
On rice - I actually tried growing rice in my apartment using 5 gallon buckets
one suspended in the other so that there is a constant supply of water in the
bottom (I think the term is self watering container). I just threw in some
soil and tossed a hand full of organic brown rice and it sprouted within the
week! I am not sure how much I could have grown had I taken it past that point
but I was surprised that it even sprouted!
~~~
pyre
That's actually pretty cool that your tried to grow your own rice. My comment
is mainly because I know there are a lot of people out there with only partial
knowledge of the reasons behind things like 'local'. Some people think "it's
not being shipped in from Mexico or Columbia so it's obviously not using as
much energy" while others just do it to try and support local business. But
that first group is grossly misinformed.
------
grandalf
Casein is a huge problem. I went to the nearest grocer (a Safeway) and looked
at the ingredients in all of the "vegan" cheeses and psudo-meats. All
contained casein or some ambiguously named "milk protein".
Also, soy protein (isolate and concentrate) is harmful and is contained in a
wide variety of additional vegan foods:
<http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2005nl/april/050400pusoy.htm>
Bottom line: For best results eat foods in their natural state or as close as
possible, with minimal processing.
~~~
viggity
I'm assuming by "best results" you mean "the greatest probability of not
consuming any animal products whatsoever"
For the "best results nutritionally", you're probably better of eating animal
products, including ones that have been cooked.
[http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2008/09/15/he_co...](http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2008/09/15/he_cooked_up_a_new_theory_on_evolution/)
~~~
grandalf
Quite the contrary (that research makes the common logical error of assuming
that just because something may have conferred a selection advantage over eons
of evolution, that it does so today in a world with no calorie/nutrient
scarcity). See the following thread and article:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=676446>
and
[http://www.amazon.com/China-Study-Comprehensive-Nutrition-
Im...](http://www.amazon.com/China-Study-Comprehensive-Nutrition-
Implications/dp/1932100660/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246301048&sr=8-1)
------
biotech
I have been on a "gluten-free" diet for a couple years now. This means that I
have to carefully inspect the ingredients list of everything I eat, something
that I didn't really do before. The results are unappetizing to say the least.
Even worse, sometimes potentially harmful ingredients are not necessarily
listed, or are listed by some rarely-known name.
If you wish to have good control over what you're eating, whether that means
avoiding gluten, casein, animal products, soy, etc; your best bet is to
prepare all of your own food. Don't eat out, don't buy preprepared foods at
the market.
Disclaimer: I'm not quite disciplined enough to follow that advice, and I know
that I end up eating small amounts of gluten. It's a trade off between stress
and nutrition, I guess. Since vegans usually don't get sick by eating trace
amounts of non-vegan food, my advice is to just deal with it. And be happy
that you don't have a lot of real food allergies (unless you do, of course).
~~~
pyre
I guess the 'real' issue here is whether or not restaurants are knowingly
using non-vegan ingredients and lying to their customers (i.e. committing
fraud) just to turn a buck.
Restaurants lying about what is really in their food should tick _everyone_
off vegan or non.
------
buugs
Vegan and vegetarian always fascinated me why do they, or you if you are among
them, seek out normal foods that should not fit their diet, such as lets say
vegetarian hamburgers bacon etc.
Or even from the article why are they searching out quesadillas, cheese pizza,
pancakes things that me seem to clearly not be vegan other than that they may
have found a way to make remnants of them.
It just seems counter-cause to me.
~~~
moted
What makes a pancake inherently something 'not vegan'? The ethical concerns
which led me to veganism in no way removed pancakes from my desired diet. As
such, I make them on a regular basis.
Just because somebody doesn't eat meat doesn't mean they don't like the
concept of the meal in general. I make vegan versions of tacos, hamburgers,
chicken salad, and egg salad because I like everything else about the meal
other than the animal product. If I can substitute the animal for a plant
based alternative I can enjoy the meals I've always loved, why wouldn't I?
~~~
buugs
pancakes: milk and eggs is why i say it isn't vegan from the pictures the
vegan pancakes are not what I would call pancakes and maybe there is another
way to make them though
I can understand lets say tofu salad or tacos, things that the meat isnt
really the ruling taste I do not understand tofu burgers, cheese pizza,
quesadillas.
Thank you for your reasons though.
~~~
inc
For pancakes, you can use soy/rice milk and substitute apple sauce for the
eggs - this works in most baked foods also.
~~~
pyre
Before my wife went vegan, we never had milk/whole milk around the house and
soy/rice/almond milk works in pancakes even when using eggs.
------
wooster
This reminds me of the schoolgirls in New Zealand who tested Ribena and found
it contained almost no Vitamin C:
[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/mar/27/schoolsworldwide...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/mar/27/schoolsworldwide.foodanddrink)
~~~
rubikscube
If people ate 9 to 12 servings of fruits and vegetables a day, or better yet,
ate only/mostly fruits and vegetables as their entire diet, they wouldn't
think they need supplements like Ribena to get their Vitamin C, as well as a
host of other nutrients.
~~~
paragatelatte
Man,there are a lot of raw foodists chiming in on this article.
------
jrockway
I'm not vegan, but now I have to wonder what contaminants are in my food.
~~~
JimmyL
Have a read of _The Omnivore's Dilemma_ by Michael Pollan, and you'll be
wondering even more.
I'm not a vegetarian or vegan (meat is too tasty), but that book in many ways
changed how I shop for food.
------
tdavis
Why would a vegan blog do this in the first place? Presumably the vast
majority of vegans are so for ethical reasons; they can't possibly be allergic
to anything that has once been part of an animal. In which case, veganism (?)
is basically the definition of "what you don't know can't hurt you."
I applaud the blog for their investigative journalism, but all they've really
done is taken restaurant choices away from a group that already has a smaller
number of places to eat.
Right? Am I missing something?
~~~
pyre
What about people that are vegan/vegetarian for ethical and/or religious
reasons? While it won't 'kill' them, people are making money by lying about a
product to their customers (fraud). Is this a good thing?
Wouldn't you feel pretty violated if you thought that you were making an
ethical choice, only to have the person helping turn out to be a cheat? (e.g.
killing someone to put them out of the misery only to find out that they still
had a desire/will to live)
An even better example would be if you were boycotting the RIAA by buying
music from an independent label that claimed they weren't part of the RIAA.
Only to find out that .5% of their profits really _were_ going to the RIAA.
Wouldn't you feel violated if all that time you thought that you were doing a
good thing boycotting the industry, but you weren't entirely? Obviously it's
better than if you were buying directly from big name labels like Sony,etc but
you're still going to be pissed off at being misled.
------
pmorici
I wonder how many vegans and vegetarians are also pro-choice and how they
reconcile that inconsistency.
~~~
pyre
I debated whether or not to respond since you just sound like flame bait, but
I guess I'll respond...
Vegan/vegetarian is a description of a diet, _NOT_ a philosophy. People can go
vegan or vegetarian for a number of reasons: 1\. boycott poor treatment of
animals in the livestock industry 2\. health concerns and/or allergies 3\.
dieting/losing weight 4\. ethical concerns (not wanting to kill things) 5\.
religious practices
I'm sure there are many more. Pro-choice does not necessarily run counter to
any/all of those. But even if you don't agree with someone's decision you can
agree that they had a right to make it, no?
Edit: Just to add that years ago 'vegetarian' used to describe what 'vegan'
now describes. But there are a lot of people nowadays that have given up meat,
but not eggs/dairy so 'vegetarian' as a term has grown to largely describe
those people.
~~~
pmorici
Well, the thought just popped into my head because of the sites subtitle "meat
is murder" (clearly someone who is vegan by reason #4) and the fact that the
article deals with establishments in L.A. which people generally tend to
associate with a less conservative political view.
------
tel
Concerns about the results aside I found it wonderful that the people who
carried out the experiment, while not producing a bulletproof scientific
analysis, were very thorough and kept to the stated aim to have a fair
scientific trial. Blinded randomization, repeated measurements, and further
information about those tests would have been interesting to see, but the
article manages to largely avoid jumping to unwarranted conclusions. They
asked a fair question; performed systematic, documented experiments; and then
produced compelling research to support their theory.
Altogether it's a testament to using science to explore everyday questions.
------
whatusername
Reminds me of this story:
[http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSN26324168...](http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSN2632416820070326)
(Where two teenage girls found out that Ribena (Blackcurrent) Juice didn't
contain any Vitamin C - despite advertisements to the contrary. GSK eventually
admitted 15 breaches of the NZ Fair Trading Act.
------
cmars232
<http://failblog.org/2009/06/29/bulletin-board-win/>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Webify Me - tathagatadg
https://webifyme.org/en-US/quiz/
======
hammock
I just took the whole effing quiz and when I submitted it threw an error,
losing all my answers in the process. Great
_Forbidden (403)
CSRF verification failed. Request aborted._
~~~
reemrevnivek
Same here. First few questions were interesting, but my interest waned quickly
and I only finished it because I had already invested 45 seconds.
The message also includes "More information is available with DEBUG=True."
------
tmeasday
Doesn't work for me either. What do you guys think about the collage layout
though? I'm interested, as it's very similar to what we are trying to achieve
at bindle: <http://www.bindle.me/bindles/2>
------
tworats
Well, that sucked. Go through the whole process then ask for an email address?
Waste of time.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Woodworking, the opposite of software development - disposablename
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20180618-00/?p=99035
======
Finnucane
"Move fast and break things"\--said no carpenter, ever.
------
tonyedgecombe
It never bothered me when customers changed their minds. What did bother me
was when they changed their mind and expected the schedule to stay the same.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Fable of Edward Snowden - JackFr
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-fable-of-edward-snowden-1483143143
======
dbg31415
Dupe.
[https://hn.algolia.com/?query=http:%2F%2Fwww.wsj.com%2Fartic...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=http:%2F%2Fwww.wsj.com%2Farticles%2Fthe-
fable-of-edward-
snowden-1483143143&sort=byDate&prefix=false&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story)
------
grzm
From 16 hours ago:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13296003](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13296003)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Evolution of C Programming Practices: Study of the Unix OS 1973–2015 [pdf] - adamnemecek
http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/2890000/2884799/p748-spinellis.pdf?ip=71.227.158.231&id=2884799&acc=OPEN&key=4D4702B0C3E38B35%2E4D4702B0C3E38B35%2E4D4702B0C3E38B35%2E6D218144511F3437&CFID=797301950&CFTOKEN=27845792&__acm__=1465405943_032509c500cb9d511b5ad26aba7f33d7
======
adamnemecek
There's an associated Github repo [https://github.com/dspinellis/unix-history-
make](https://github.com/dspinellis/unix-history-make)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Zephyr – Collaboration for teams and freelancers - gotzephyr
https://zephyrplatform.com/demo/login/?fname=hacker&lname=news&[email protected]
======
bshimmin
I'll be honest - I find the UI impenetrable. It's dark and full of fiddly
icons and I'm not sure what I can click, what I can drag, etc.
If there's any way you can find someone amenable who has no personal
attachment to this project (ie. hasn't used it before, doesn't really know
what you're trying to achieve) _and_ has strong UI/UX sensibilities to take a
look over this, I really think you should. Sometimes when you've built
something and you're proud of it, it can be very hard to have an objective
perspective on how usable something is.
~~~
ericcholis
The UI is quite jarring at first, and doesn't give any call to action or
incentive to "try" anything. The "Join the Beta" window is overlaying the
"Welcome to Zephyr" box, which is confusing.
The dark color scheme is nice for a workspace, but the font size is difficult
to read with large quantities of text. This makes it harder to onboard a user.
Also, I took myself to the home page
([https://zephyrplatform.com/](https://zephyrplatform.com/)) in hopes of a
nicer pitch....and was presented with a sparse version of the demo.
~~~
gotzephyr
Good point on the overlapping cards, we're fixing that now. Thanks!
For our main website, soon as we release the full beta we will move that to a
more detailed website. It's just a basic splash page for now.
------
gotzephyr
This is our first release, built to showcase the card based UI and platform
command system, come and try packing and flipping our cards. Also modules for
chat, pinboard and storage for you to play with.
As we roll out beta there will be further modules added for productivity and a
suite of core enhancements, new command functions to push faster usage, the
Zephyr analytics engine and more.
Would very much love to have you onboard, also any feedback you have. Thanks!
------
fragmede
Does this have anything in common with the Zephyr instant messaging protocol
designed in the 80's created at MIT as part of Project Athena? A quick look at
the link didn't seem like it.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zephyr_(protocol)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zephyr_\(protocol\))
It's not the sexiest new protocol, but there are still pockets where it's
still used, particularly SIPB.
No other product (save Zulip which used Zephyr on the back end anyway), has
had the same notion of messages having both a class and instance which makes
it hard to replace, so I'm stuck on screen + barnowl for the time being.
~~~
gotzephyr
Ha, no. It's just the same name.
~~~
tux
Yeah there is also Zephir Language > [http://www.zephir-
lang.com/](http://www.zephir-lang.com/) Same names is very confusing.
~~~
gotzephyr
That's a different spelling. I see what you are saying though. Name's just a
name at present, a working title, and everything is under test to produce the
best product possible for launch.
~~~
tux
Oh you're right sorry, I did not even see that until you mentioned it.
------
gotzephyr
Thanks for all the comments, massively appreciated! Just remember its a first
demo release, we've still much more to do before we launch, especially on the
UI.
Everything has to start somewhere, but you will see many improvements as each
week rolls by, would very much love to see you all on our beta so we can show
you what we can do and how Zephyr will be progressing.
------
chandika
I'm struggling to understand the purpose of this compared to other
collaboration platforms. Could you elaborate why this should matter to a team
above and beyond other collab platforms out there?
~~~
gotzephyr
We're only around 20% of our final build functionality on this demo. It's just
a little taste of what Zephyr can do.
Tasks, events, screenshare, integration with mail and other 3rd party systems,
analytics and a lot more besides will be rolling out.
Basically you and your team will be able to create your data, visualise it how
you want, analyse it and store it on Zephyr. All on one platform, across all
your devices, fully secured.
This isn't our final product but if you do want to come onboard and see what
we can do and how we will benefit you and your business, sign up to the beta
as I would very much love your help in making Zephyr (even more) awesome ☺
------
almaspite
Super cool, well done!
~~~
gotzephyr
Thanks! :-)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
NetBeans 6.7 Released: New Interface for Mac OS X - mdasen
http://www.netbeans.org/servlets/NewsItemView?newsItemID=1399
======
st3fan
What I hate about NetBeans is that they ship the OS X version as a .mpkg. Why
not simply a disk image that has a NetBeans.app? I don't trust installers.
------
dpurp
Are there screenshots of the new Mac OS X interface available somewhere?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Hmmm: 2009 Bail out = $700B, investment in VC funds in 2009 = $15B - jasonmcalacanis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d51bAiXHkZw
======
schmittz
I honestly can't believe this guy is a financial reporter and doesn't know the
difference between TARP and the stimulus. I'm sorry, but you can't argue that
he works in startups as an excuse to have misunderstandings about major
macroeconomic policies that certainly, to varying degrees affect the business
he work in.
------
nhangen
What's interesting about this to me is that so few companies are going IPO. Is
there more money to be made by staying private, or is it just that they're
waiting for the right time?
Beyond that, I hope it's not a bubble, because if you ask me, this is the only
thing giving me hope in the economy. When VC's stop investing, the whole
sector is going to be in trouble.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The End of "Disruption:" Is that term even relevant anymore? - ohjeez
http://www.enterpriseefficiency.com/author.asp?section_id=1129&doc_id=264849&
======
VandyILL
I think the author misses the point on what is being disrupted. It sounds like
he thinks a law firm that adopts a better version of office is being a
"disruptive." He says that if a business is constantly open to change, then
what's the point of disruption? He confuses the role of adaptability and who
the disruptor is displacing.
Think about the first word processor compared to a typewriter. A company's
choice/ability to adopt the word processor didn't make them a disruptive
company. However, the word processor creator entirely disrupted the typewriter
company.
In the author's article, he references Office 365. Incorporating new features
of 365 as they role out does not make the 365 customer more or less
disruptive. What's disruptive is that 365 is attacking dropbox / google docs /
other service providers.
In fact, when the author asks is the term "disruption" relevent if businesses
become adaptable is kinda silly. Adaptable businesses open up opportunities
for more disruption. If a business is willing to take on new ways of doing
things then they are more likely to become customers of a new disruptive
product or service, whereas old non adaptable businesses would limit the new
product's potential client base / make it harder to find first adopters.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Open Rights Group has launched a UK Censorship Monitoring API and Botnet - namos
https://www.blocked.org.uk/
======
namos
For the past 8 months we've been working on building a series of probes;
\- Android
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.org.blocked...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.org.blocked.app)
\- Python
[https://github.com/openrightsgroup/OrgProbe](https://github.com/openrightsgroup/OrgProbe)
\- Raspberry PI images
[https://github.com/openrightsgroup/lepidopter](https://github.com/openrightsgroup/lepidopter))
And an open API to power them:
[https://wiki.openrightsgroup.org/wiki/Censorship_Monitoring_...](https://wiki.openrightsgroup.org/wiki/Censorship_Monitoring_Project_API)
This is helping to build a picture of what the UK Governments Internet
Blocking/Filtering/Censorship actually looks like.
You can submit URLs to be tested by visiting
[https://www.Blocked.org.uk](https://www.Blocked.org.uk) by installing the
Android app or by tweeting a URL with the hashtag #IsBlocked
Once we receive a URL it is dispatched to all probes over a period of time
where it is checked against a know list of blocking methods.
The results are returned back to the API for public evaluation.
For example:
[https://www.blocked.org.uk/results?url=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.yc...](https://www.blocked.org.uk/results?url=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.ycombinator.com)
Please help us build a picture of UK Internet Censorship by adding URLs to be
tested, by helping develop new probes (browser extensions, an iPhone client
etc etc) or just by spreading the word that
[https://Blocked.org.uk](https://Blocked.org.uk) is available.
Please also see
[https://www.blocked.org.uk/faq](https://www.blocked.org.uk/faq) which will
explain the level of filtering enabled on some of the probes which will
explain why some sites may appear blocked even if you, being on the same ISP,
can reach said URL.
~~~
mike-cardwell
Please consider freeing the data and make it downloadable as a simple CSV. I'd
like a list of all of the sites blocked by particular ISPs...
~~~
namos
Snapshots are made available:
[https://www.blocked.org.uk/assets/data/alexa_100k_isp_latest...](https://www.blocked.org.uk/assets/data/alexa_100k_isp_latest_status_2014_06_29.ods)
------
lucb1e
Wow, I had not expected this. My personal blog (which is about technology) is
being blocked by one of the ISPs. I don't host porn nor have I ever, so why is
it blocked behind their porn filter? Interesting....
[https://www.blocked.org.uk/results?url=http://lucb1e.com](https://www.blocked.org.uk/results?url=http://lucb1e.com)
Edit: TalkTalk live chat support reports that I am not being blocked.
Citation:
> I can confirm that is not blocked by our Adult Filters as your website does
> not have any adult content.
So it seems blocked.org.uk has a false-positive...
~~~
blueskin_
TalkTalk are a completely awful ISP. Not sure what the US equivalent would be,
but they're the kind who do promotions of "Broadband for £3/month"-level. You
get what you pay for service-wise, but they are also by far the most
enthusiastic ISP around when it comes to censorship; they have a spider that
follows their users to all URLs they visit to categorise the sites[1] (giving
them the nickname StalkStalk), and have been doing this long before the
current set of idiots in Parliament forced censorship in (at least since
2011).
I'm in a similar situation, one site I run is blocked both by StalkStalk and
BT. No porn, no other 'adult' content; it's deliberately kept PG-13 to use the
US ratings.
[1]Check your logs for HuaweiSymantecSpider. It obeys robots.txt though, so a
quick "Disallow: /" in robots.txt stops it, although they still grab content
from unencrypted pages via DPI.
~~~
lucb1e
No HuaweiSymantecSpider in my logs in the past 8 months (grepped access.log),
but the site is available over both http and https so they might have
classified it using DPI (talk about evil...).
------
justincormack
Ah I knew something was in the works as Andrews & Arnold were writing about
obtaining connections from ISPs to test what was blocked. Great to know what
is being censored (if you are not on A&A).
~~~
dfkvldfmv
"(if you are not on A&A)."
Or if you're on any of the ISPs who do not have filters, including but not
limited to A&A.
~~~
SideburnsOfDoom
Who are the other ISPs who do not have filters?
~~~
dspillett
There is no handy list that I know of.
The big six definitely do have the filters. Some smaller players do too, but a
fair few don't. The only people I know for sure are A&A because they put their
heads above the parapet and made a stand.
Some simply haven't implemented it because it would be work and they therefore
won't until forced to (rather than because of any moral objection) - they'll
not make any statement about not doing it as it will look bad if they
eventually do.
There may of course be others in A&A's position who haven't done as good a job
getting the message out.
------
spingsprong
I've been checking various websites I go on that are completely fine for kids.
It's amazing what's getting blocked. One example according to that website is,
TalkTalk blocks
"[http://www.writingexcuses.com/"](http://www.writingexcuses.com/") It's a
podcast that teaches story writing.
Blocking that is insane!
And the blocked website itself is blocked on two ISPs
[https://www.blocked.org.uk/results?url=http%3A%2F%2Fblocked....](https://www.blocked.org.uk/results?url=http%3A%2F%2Fblocked.org.uk)
~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
I think TalkTalk is either using a whitelist or an oversensitive keyword
filter.
~~~
vidarh
My personal website is blocked by Talk Talk apparently. I guess compiler
writing must be harmful for children.
~~~
keithpeter
Here we go. If a lot of harmless or potentially even useful material gets
blocked, people who want to use that material will simply opt out or route
round the blocking, hence making it pointless.
~~~
vidarh
I kind of hope they overreach drastically for exactly that reason. It'll be a
lot easier to get the filters dropped entirely if we can attack them with
"useful website X is blocked for no good reason" over and over and over again,
than if we have to argue using examples that many people would actually have a
problem with.
~~~
keithpeter
OK, so I'll be keeping an eye on personal Web sites put up by teachers (of
which there are many, a couple of examples[1], [2], neither blocked to my
knowledge) that can be accessed from UKERNA provided College connections but
become blocked by domestic connections.
[1] [http://www.hegartymaths.com/](http://www.hegartymaths.com/)
[2] [http://www.themathsteacher.com/](http://www.themathsteacher.com/)
------
blueskin_
I just learned that one of my personal sites is blocked on BT and TalkTalk...
there is zero adult or other inappropriate content on it. Time to complain, I
guess, but I'm sure they will just go straight to /dev/null :(
~~~
AlyssaRowan
Have you considered legal action?
~~~
blueskin_
Nope. It's a medium sized site I don't get any money out of, not linked to any
business. I suppose I could theoretically small claims court them, but I'm not
sure if I'd win as they can probably piss about with their customers'
connections in whatever way they please due to their T&Cs :(
------
jamesbrownuhh
Sad to see that The Best Page In The Universe
([http://maddox.xmission.com](http://maddox.xmission.com)) seems to be blocked
by a non-zero number of larger ISPs.
Obviously all those children need to be protected from harsh reviews of their
artwork.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
53 p.c. of Indian households defecate in open: World Bank - denzil_correa
http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/health/policy-and-issues/53-pc-of-indian-households-defecate-in-open-world-bank/article5367467.ece?homepage=true
======
claudiug
so the soil will be very very fertile! good for you India, good for you!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Italy mandates closing all shops but groceries - alanfranz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_UPvJOs1mE
======
alanfranz
Pharmacies and newsstands can stay open, too. Pubs and restaurants will be
closed, but home deliveries will be permitted. Factories can stay open if they
take additional prevention measures.
~~~
klez
And public transportation will keep running as well.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
DBGo: a light-weight relational database engine in Go - fogus
https://github.com/HouzuoGuo/DBGo
======
danieldk
From the README:
_"DBGo" is a light-weight relational database engine implemented in Go
programming language. It is a programming exercise I gave to myself when I
began to learn Go._
That's one epic programming exercise ;). Did anyone try how it performs,
compared to SQLite?
~~~
pflanze
I don't see any code for indexing, which should answer the performance
question.
Which I don't mean to be derogative, he mentions "A flat-file relational
database engine implementation" in every file, and it looks like it may be
neat code to learn from when you're interested in Go.
~~~
BarkMore
I took a quick look at the code and noticed that error handling is not
idiomatic Go. This might not be the best place to start if you want to learn
Go.
~~~
dextorious
How is this, say, not idiomatic Go?
fi, err := directory.Readdir(0) if err != nil { db = nil logg.Err("database",
"Open", err.String()) return db, st.CannotReadDatabaseDirectory }
~~~
BarkMore
The package uses integer to represents errors instead of os.Error.
This fragment of code is not idiomatic because st.CannotReadDatabaseDirectory
is not an os.Error.
~~~
dextorious
I see -I missed that part.
I think even os.Error is not idiomatic anymore, they move Error outside the os
package to a type of it's own in a later version.
~~~
BarkMore
The pre-declared type _error_ replaces _os.Error_ in the next release of Go.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A touch table you can stand on – see the video - humelab
http://humelab.com
======
qf433332
I want one
------
sfds323
nice! :)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Linux Mint 15 “Olivia” released - tebou
http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=2366
======
doug4hn
Surprised I haven't seen it announced on Distrowatch or OSNews yet. Also have
to admit I miss Live-CD images and minimal/network install images.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Wikileaks: A war for the future of the Internet - antonioono
http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2010/12/08/the-wikileaks-scandal-is-more-than-just-a-diplomatic-scuffle-its-a-war-for-the-future-of-the-internet/
======
DupDetector
Dup: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1988933>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Paraxial ray optics cloaking - mhb
https://www.osapublishing.org/oe/fulltext.cfm?uri=oe-22-24-29465&id=304785
======
thebooktocome
Disappointing that they don't cite the work of the of Greenleaf, Kurylev,
Lassas and Uhlmann:
[http://www.rni.helsinki.fi/~mjl/invisibility_publications.ht...](http://www.rni.helsinki.fi/~mjl/invisibility_publications.html)
They were the first to do conformal cloaking, which was later publicized in an
article in Nature circa 2008 that also failed to cite their work.
------
mhb
Video:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtKBzwKfP8E](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtKBzwKfP8E)
------
jasmcole
There is really nothing physically interesting in this - a two lens telescope
(in the geometric optics approximation) admits a point where rays from the
object are focussed. It's not surprising then that there are regions in
between which are unable to propagate rays to the collection optic.
------
Mithaldu
I wonder if this could be used to make traffic corners slightly less
dangerous. If it could be scaled up enough, you could maybe put a tube
diagonally through a hedge, with a big viewing assembly on one end.
Otherwise, i'm a bit at a loss as to possible uses of this.
~~~
tizzdogg
In this setup it looks like you can't obscure the center of the cylinder
defined by the lenses. That's where the background light goes. So the cloaked
region is actually a long tube with a hole through the middle, and probably
wouldn't work for street corners. It's a neat demonstration though. It seems
like the point is to show cloaking with the simplest materials and optics
possible.
~~~
Mithaldu
> the cloaked region is actually a long tube with a hole through the middle
Exactly, and if you can make that hole small enough and long enough with the
viewport being large enough, you could use this to tunnel view through static
large structures that aren't bothered by small tunnels through them.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Optiver Report on High Frequency Trading - zipstudio
http://www.optiver.com/hft.pdf#zoom=100
======
praetor
I love it how people stay silent after flaming several topics on this subject
in the past year.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
On Data Persistence...and Confide - jkopelman
http://redeye.firstround.com/2014/01/confide.html?utm_campaign=&utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=frc.vc-static&utm_content=awesmsharetools-publisher_static&awesm=frc.vc_tT
======
read
This is a great example of challenging assumptions. One of the most valuable
lessons I learned is to look at something in its existing, boring state and
try to imagine what it's opposite would be like.
Looking for opposites seems to be a way of seeing things that are obvious and
yet that you hadn't seen.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Science Is in the Details - robg
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/27/opinion/27harris.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&pagewanted=all
======
tokenadult
Relating this to your previous submission from the Boston Globe, is Francis
Collins the answer to the concerns raised about Richard Dawkins and PZ Myers,
or is he part of a worse concern?
Thanks in general for all the interesting submissions about imparting science
knowledge to the general public.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Misleading letter from app Nextdoor falls on several doormats in Groningen (NL) - the-dude
https://translate.google.nl/translate?sl=nl&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dvhn.nl%2Fgroningen%2Fstad%2FDubieuze-brief-van-buurtapp-Nextdoor-valt-op-meerdere-deurmatten-in-Groningen-24702543.html
======
the-dude
Nextdoor is impersonating your neighbours, which might be a crime.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Your Social Security Number Isn’t a Secret - SREinSF
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/09/13/opinion/your-social-security-number-isnt-a-secret.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
======
quuquuquu
>social security numbers aren't a good identifier because they can be spoofed
agreed
>biometrics are a good identifier because gov't employees id themselves like
this
sooooo um what happens when that database is hacked, like OPM was?
here's an idea. security questions with answers that aren't very guessable.
why?
I call my bank and they say, "tell me the x words that you selected as your
security combo, in order"
And I say "zebra john henry alligator cheetah mosquito cardshark"
And they say "great, now sign in to the website to see a verification code
we've sent to you"
"ok it's 15467"
"ok how can i help you today?"
It's not foolproof, but it proves ownership of the account and access to a
very long piece of data that the bank and I agree to use as a human readable
private key, that we can change at any time together if compromised.
They can also text or email me when a sign in to my account occurs.
This way, unless my account has been hacked and I am completely unaware of it,
any bad shit that might happen will be caught quickly.
I can't imagine this is worse than the current scenario.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Zuckerberg: Kids under 13 should be allowed on Facebook - mvs
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/05/20/zuckerberg-kids-under-13-should-be-allowed-on-facebook/?iid=HP_LN?cnn=yes
======
dlsspy
"That will be a fight we take on at some point," he said. "My philosophy is
that for education you need to start at a really, really young age."
Sounds like a great reason to avoid Facebook, because I can assure you the
kids who are spending time on Facebook today are doing it instead of expanding
their education.
------
pnathan
Oh, _brilliant_ , everyone's crush from the fourth grade gets recorded. The
least mature among us, given the power to blow their 'internet history' for
the rest of their lives. What am absolutely fantastic idea.
If someone wants to support education, they should try a _different_ startup,
one dedicated to improving education, instead of providing new ways to
distract onesself in class.
Anecdote: I used to TA - occasionally I'd sit in on the main class. Only the
'front row nerds' would be taking notes on the computer, as a rule. The rest
of the laptoppers were on facebook/myspace.
Admittedly, I don't like Facebook/Twitter/Foursquare and the rest of the self-
surveillance systems. So I'm biased.
------
indrekj
Most of the youngsters are spam machines.
~~~
phlux
Spam targets.
------
Ataraxy
Hook em young!
------
chrisjsmith
I don't think any humans should be allowed on facebook. Zuckerberg is a nasty
piece of work. Childish, careless and with obviously no respect for people.
Throws a few million dollars at the education system in the US to buy some
credit.
There are a lot of engineers and scientists who contribute more to this world
and they are utterly ignored in favour of that asshat.
~~~
fossuser
Seems like a pretty extreme judgement and based on what he's been doing
recently a bit unfounded.
~~~
chrisjsmith
Not really. It's a pretty reasonable judgement based on that fact that most
people see the positive things, rather than concentrate on the small details
which are intentionally hidden by the big gestures. The small details slowly
encroach on our privacy, our human rights and our ability to function without
such things as social networks.
------
phlux
Keep Zuckerberg as far away from kids as possible. He will treat them like
"dumb fucks".
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Uber loses court appeal against drivers' rights - andrewingram
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41940018
======
cabaalis
I have a US perspective so I'm interested in why this ruling was made. If the
driver doesn't want to drive on a given day, there's no one he has to call.
There's no approval of the time off. He just won't get paid because he isn't
doing work.
In the US, one central tenant of being an employee vs a contractor is that
your employer has power over your schedule, working location, and your work
methods, which I see none of in Uber (which I did drive for back in 2016.)
Uber drivers are allowed to drive for other groups and have other jobs.
So what basis was this decision made, if not "they are complaining and the
right thing to do is something, plus Uber=bad?"
~~~
doctor_fact
On what basis?
“92. ... The drivers provide the skilled labour through which the organisation
delivers its services and earns its profits. We base our assessment ... in
particular on the following considerations. (1) The contradiction in the Rider
Terms between the fact that ULL purports to be the drivers’ agent and its
assertion of “sole and absolute discretion” to accept or decline bookings. (2)
The fact that Uber interviews and recruits drivers. (3) The fact that Uber
controls the key information (in particular the passenger’s surname, contact
details and intended destination) and excludes the driver from it. (4) The
fact that Uber requires drivers to accept trips and/or not to cancel trips,
and enforces the requirement by logging off drivers who breach those
requirements. (5) The fact that Uber sets the (default) route and the driver
departs from it at his peril. (6) The fact that UBV fixes the fare and the
driver cannot agree a higher sum with the passenger. (The supposed
freedom to agree a lower fare is obviously nugatory.) (7)
The fact that Uber imposes numerous conditions on drivers (such as the limited
choice of acceptable vehicles), instructs drivers as to how to do their work
and, in numerous ways, controls them in the performance of their duties. (8)
The fact that Uber subjects drivers through the rating system to what amounts
to a performance management/disciplinary procedure. (9) The fact that Uber
determines issues about rebates, sometimes without even involving the driver
whose remuneration is liable to be affected. (10) The guaranteed earnings
scheme (albeit now discontinued). (11) The fact that Uber accepts the risk of
loss which, if the drivers were genuinely in business on their own account,
would fall upon them. (12) The fact that Uber handles complaints by
passengers, including complaints about the driver. (13) The fact that Uber
reserves the power to amend the drivers’ terms unilaterally.”
~~~
SyneRyder
Wow. If this ruling holds, it could also suggest that App Store developers are
employees of Apple / Google in the UK. Several of those points apply just as
much there, just replace driver with 'developer' and passenger with
'customer':
* "controls the key information (in particular the passenger’s surname, contact details and intended destination) and excludes the driver from it"
* "determines issues about rebates, sometimes without even involving the driver whose remuneration is liable to be affected"
* "handles complaints by passengers, including complaints about the driver"
* "subjects drivers through the rating system to what amounts to a performance management/disciplinary procedure"
~~~
kitd
The difference is that apps are in competition with each other and the app
store is more like a marketplace for developers. There is no physical
interaction between developer and buyer.
Uber could never call itself a "marketplace" for drivers. It operates much
more like a driver agency.
Edit: there are genuine online booking agencies for drivers in London, like
[http://www.kabbee.com](http://www.kabbee.com), which act as a front-end for
independent minicab drivers. I think this is much more that way it should
operate if the drivers weren't employees, as Uber argues.
~~~
Natsu
Drivers are in competition with one another in a way, though, in that any
given passenger can only ride with one of them at any given time.
~~~
grouchoboy
But they can not decide the price of their service. I think this is a great
difference.
------
koolba
The flip side of this is that if Uber considers drivers as employees they
could also prevent them from driving for their rivals.
I think the shift toward the "gig economy" is going to see the creation of a
third classification of worker that sits between employee and contractor,
likely with the negatives of both. The financial services sector has a version
of this by employing large numbers of contractors indirectly through body
shops. I wouldn't be surprised if we go that route here too with Uber/Lyft
owning the platform yet deferring employment costs to a separate company.
Their providers would be businesses, not people, and to sign up to be a driver
one would apply at one of those businesses.
~~~
danpalmer
In certain areas Uber strongly incentivizes drivers to only drive for Uber.
This is done by making driving only cost-effective at 40+ hours a week.
I understand this doesn't happen (or doesn't work) in some areas, New York
comes to mind, but I've never met an Uber driver in the UK for whom it a)
isn't a full time job, and b) who drives for other companies as well.
~~~
icebraining
_This is done by making driving only cost-effective at 40+ hours a week._
How do they do that?
~~~
koolba
Pay $x/unit if less than 10 units.
Pay $y/unit if between 10 and 40 units.
Pay $z/unit if between 40 and 60 units.
The values for x and y may be too low to be economical so a driver would need
to work more units (hours, miles, whatever) to get the higher z rate. That
would preclude them from working for a competitor as there a finite number of
hours per week.
~~~
icebraining
I'm not asking how they _could_ do that. danpalmer says Uber is already making
driving only cost-effective at 40+ hours a week, I'm asking how they are doing
so.
~~~
koolba
I’ve seen bonuses for driving at least X hours or Y rides per week. You can
only achieve them by being active as a driver for an extended period of time.
------
thisisit
Wow. This decision might upend the whole gig and sharing economy. Now every
company needs to tread carefully in UK. Uber is struggling to achieve proper
profitability even with "gig" and "sharing" economy and now this.
~~~
kuschku
Ending the "gig and sharing economy" is a good thing for society.
The sharing economy always was about exploiting workers (and externalizing
costs), and this has created an additional cost for society.
For example, DHL’s drivers are "self-employed", as result, in most countries
their healthcare is funded by themselves, or by society (instead of the
employer), and this means you (and your company) pay more taxes, just so that
Uber, DHL, Amazon and co can save money.
~~~
taway_1212
> The sharing economy always was about exploiting workers
Define "exploit". Depending on the definition, you could argue that all
economy is about exploiting workers.
~~~
PeterisP
The society has agreed upon a certain set of rights that all employers should
grant to all their workers, and a certain minimal set of "benefits" that every
working person should get - in this particular case, "holiday pay, paid rest
breaks and the minimum wage". Going below that level is considered
exploitative.
~~~
matz1
I'm in the opinion of if the government really care of it's citizen, they
should do it directly, by providing low cost/free basic necessity or basic
income, etc. This way their citizen is not "forced" to work with these company
you deemed "exploitative"
~~~
tom_mellior
> This way their citizen is not "forced" to work with these company you deemed
> "exploitative"
Yes. When the basic income comes, it will redefine all the parameters by which
we judge the qualities of jobs. But that doesn't mean that such jobs are not
exploitative _now_ , according to _current_ standards. Your snarky quotes are
unwarranted.
~~~
matz1
Still, the government can help their citizens Now, by providing cheap/free
basic necessity.
------
ed_blackburn
Hardly a surprise a contractor in the UK, I need to be careful I'm not
suddenly a "disguised employee". Uber do genuine independent contractors no
favours. I don't blame Uber. I blame successive UK govts. who won't make the
law clear and just let the courts decide on a case-by-case basis. My biggest
fear is that they'll come done hard on all contractors IT Consultants through
to taxi drivers.
~~~
kbart
I'm not intimately familiar with UK labor laws, but isn't they key difference
between contractor and a "disguised employee" is that _who_ gets the payment
money? If you get all the payment (excluding tax etc.) for a work done then
you are contractor, if the third entity takes a payment for _your_ work and
pays you percentage of it, then you must be employee and that third party -
employer - is responsible for taxes, insurance and other duties mandated by
labor laws. The latter part is what Uber tries to avoid at all cost. For the
same reason employment agencies are also not allowed to take fees for finding
a job and required to pay no less than minimum wage[0].
0\. [https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/rights-at-
work/agency...](https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/rights-at-work/agency-
workers/can-your-agency-charge-you-fees/)
~~~
vidarh
I think roughly, you come out right if you think the way you're doing.
But it's a bit more subtle in that they're going after two different types of
abuses:
1\. Agencies that want to rent out contractors rather than contract out
employees even when they treat these people as employees.
2\. Relationships where one or both sides want an employee to be a contractor
to benefit from tax savings.
Uber seems to fall largely in 1, while e.g. IT contractors sometimes fall in
2, or is at risk of falling in 2.
In our case the consideration tends to be that tightening the rules means
there's a whole checklist of things that makes it more or less likely that
HMRC will deem us to be de facto employed or subject to IR35 (making us pay
taxes similar to if we are in employment).
For #2 and to avoid IR35 there are a whole lot of considerations such as what
costs we incur, whether or not we use our own equipment, whether or not we
have sales and marketing costs; whether we employ someone; how many clients we
have; if we have our own office for the company etc. that centre around
whether or not the company has an existence independent from any given client.
The reason this is important for us too, is that one avenue for a business
like Uber to avoid problems with #1 is to try to restructure around not
pretending that drivers clients are the people they drive, but that their
client is Uber but that they're still independent. If they try stunts like
that, it may result in rule changes detrimental to other, genuine contractors
too.
------
manigandham
Another case of a small vocal minority creating unwanted regulation for the
rest. Over several years and 1000s of rides in the US, 100% of the drivers
I've asked liked being independent and did not want to be employees. Many of
them already had other jobs or were students or retirees that liked making
money on the side.
For some reason, people keep forgetting that being a professional driver is
easily available through Uber Black or any number of other transportation
companies. Anyone who wants a full-time driving job can already get one.
Rulings like these will end up hurting the vast majority of drivers who will
now have to show up for full-time shifts at locations and times that Uber
determines, while earning less money. Good luck to them.
~~~
mrtksn
Is it an absolute must to go to work everyday if you are formally employed?
Isn't it possible have the same flexibility if you put it on your employment
contract?
~~~
manigandham
Of course FT employment comes with vacation and sick time, but why would you
get the same flexibility? Uber is 100% in charge of determining where and when
you work, and you get paid the same hourly/salary regardless of how much work
there is, so they'll optimize for riders as much as possible.
In the long run it might be better for Uber, more tightly controlled supply
will mean cheaper and better rides while drivers make less. I can see surge
pricing becoming pure profit when you can just order drivers to be at a
certain place instead.
~~~
mrtksn
What about 0 hour contracts? What about literally writing down the flexibility
you want in the contract?
If you think about it, it's kind of ridiculous to pretend that drivers are
running businesses and employing themselves while all they do is ride a car
just like an employee. If there's a reason for employees to have certain
right, the same reasons should apply to the Uber drivers, therefore they
should receive the same benefits.
~~~
manigandham
Why would Uber accept those contracts? There are plenty of drivers, they're
not going to hire you if you stipulate all these conditions, especially if
they're paying a flat wage.
> _it 's kind of ridiculous_
Why? Many people are individual contractors, what is different about providing
transportation as a service?
~~~
mrtksn
Well, there could be other cases where a business may have disproportional
power and use it to exploit the elements of the society. That's when the
regulations kick in and in this case this is the way the British prefers their
society be regulated and protected.
Also, there being many people is not an argument, there are many people doing
all kind of things and they stop when measures are taken.
~~~
manigandham
I'm not sure what your comment is about. What other cases? There are plenty of
issues with monopolies but in _this case_ there was a small group that sued
and now the ruling affects all drivers. When 99% of a group does not want
measures, then it is absolutely a valid argument.
~~~
mrtksn
Can I see the source of the "99% of a group does not want measures" argument?
Anyway, even if that was the case(source please) you can't go against the law.
If you ask heroine addicts they would probably want more heroine but if the
society decides that it's not O.K. to use heroine, you shouldn't expect your
drug business to operate just because the heroine users are happy with it. If
you have a problem with the society's choice you can follow the regular
democratic routes.
~~~
manigandham
It's in the article: 68 drivers in the lawsuit compared to all drivers
affected.
Nothing was against the law, the drivers were contractors. Whether that
classification is correct is what the case was about, and _now_ that the court
ruled against, the drivers are must now be treated as employees.
This isn't society's choice. Full-time driver employment already exists, but
is not something that Uber provided. These few people chose to drive for Uber
anyway and demand full-time employment, and then sued for it. They won their
case and now all drivers are affected by it. The democratic route would mean
majority voting, which is the opposite of what happened with this case.
~~~
mrtksn
how do you know that other drivers are against? why do you think that the
court’s decision was not based on the rule of the law?
You are making too many assumptions. Your motivation looks ideological,
apparently the british society choose not to go full libertarian.
~~~
manigandham
You're conflating many things throughout this thread. What does "based on the
rule of the law" or "libertarian" have to do with anything?
There was nothing illegal happening with drivers classified as contractors.
_Whether_ that classification should change is what was being reviewed by this
tribunal and they've decided on a change. No rule of law was ever broken, the
situation has changed, just like many rules and regulations are updated and
companies adapt from before the change to after.
In this case, a very small group create change that affects 100% of the
drivers. The fact that only 68 total drivers joined this suit, started by only
2 originally, is a clear signal that it was at the very least not the full
intent of the entire driving workforce. Perhaps they should've taken a vote
before passing this ruling, especially since these people demanded something
from Uber that was already easily attainable elsewhere (eg: a fulltime driving
job).
~~~
mrtksn
So you think that it was equally possible that they could have been classified
as au pairs? These things have a legal framework.
And the low number could have easily be do to the disproportionate power of
the company over the drivers. You can't claim that if 68 people are taking
action those who don't take action are against those 68.
And "Libertarian" has to do with the way the relationship between the
businesses, the workers and the clients is regulated. Your argument about
demand and supply is invalid because UK doesn't function purely on libertarian
principles so the state has the right to say if these people are contractors
or employees.
------
pimmen
It’s interesting how Uber takes two very contradictory moral stands. ”We offer
the ability for drivers to meet passengers, they should be glad they have this
opportunity in the first place to make money.”
”The UK says that we have the ability to start a business, register a
trademark and use the public infrastructure but they just don’t get that we’re
way too cool and special for these ”labor law-thingies”. Doesn’t anyone care
about how we feel about all of this?!”
------
setgree
I personally don't care for the frame of "Uber vs drivers' 'rights'". I wold
say that "Uber loses appeal against mandatory employment conditions" is more
accurate, i.e. that employing drivers is now conditional on providing them
paid holidays and such.
FWIW paid holidays in particular make little sense for this kind of employment
given that labor input is so variable.
------
hoppyluke
The article says drivers are entitled to minimum wage. I thought Uber drivers
choose their own hours so I don't see how this will work?
~~~
MarkCole
The minimum wage in the UK isn't a fixed monthly amount. It's a fixed hourly
amount. So for someone aged over 25 they should receive £7.50 an hour
The drivers will still be able to set their own hours, just they should be
getting a minimum of £7.50 an hour for those they work.
~~~
hoppyluke
If drivers can decide how long they are willing to work, even if there aren't
many/any passengers around, then Uber has no way to control costs.
Unless they already have something in place to manage how many drivers are on
the road in an area at any time? I thought that was just controlled by
supply/demand, but that gets skewed by Uber needing to still pay minimum page
when there is an over-supply.
~~~
lovich
And food producers are skewered by having to meet safety requirements when
they could save money by ignoring them. Sucks for Uber that their business
model doesn't win 100% of the time, but you don't allow individual entities to
just ignore laws that set minimums whenever it's not the best for them.
------
chewbacha
So, now the self-driving Uber is gonna come even sooner right? This is a huge
financial incentive to ditch the driver altogether.
------
londons_explore
I don't understand why Uber doesn't let drivers choose if they want to be
employed or contractors?
Those who choose _employed_ would have strict working hours, performance
requirements, etc. and if they miss any target even once would be fired. They
would be free to reapply immediately with no penalty.
~~~
Cthulhu_
> I don't understand why Uber doesn't let drivers choose if they want to be
> employed or contractors?
I do. Employees are a cost and a liability. They have to be paid
weekly/monthly instead of per gig. They would have to be paid even when
there's no rides. They have to be paid for if they end up sick, unable to
work, on pregnancy leave. They need to have payments in their retirement fund.
In the UK's case, they need to pay for the NHS. They need to buy them a car,
and pay for upkeep, maintenance, damages and fuel.
And they would fall under normal worker protection, so no, they wouldn't be
fired if they missed any target even only once, there's procedures and legal
requirements and such before formally firing someone.
So it's completely in Uber's interests to only do contractors, no obligations
or extra costs except for whenever they do a ride, and I'm fairly sure the
compensation per ride is much lower than is necessary to operate a business.
Where is the employee's benefits in this? Does Uber pay much more than they
would earn working for a regular taxi company? I mean sure it's a job that
people can do whenever they choose, but not doing it is a luxury. Assume most
people need a 40 hour work week, or the income of one. Can't get that with
Uber without working 80+ hours a week, and even then it depends on luck,
supply, demand.
~~~
doctor_fact
And employees have to be given paid holiday. And you have to pay them PAYE (so
~18% employer's side National Insurance Contributions). And if they're self-
employed below the VAT threshold, they don't have to charge 20% VAT.
Muuuuuuch cheaper.
------
CryptoPunk
What is it going to take to let people offer to work for whatever wage they
want? A ride sharing dApp on a blockchain? Or is the British government going
to ban peer-to-peer networks too?
>>When are we going to let companies pay their employees Slave wages, you
mean.
So it's okay if they offer to work for a "slave wage" as a self-employed small
business owner, but if they work through a third party, then it's not okay?
How it taking away an option in their interest? You're reducing the avenues
through which they can sell their labour, which cannot possibly be to their
advantage.
>>It's not going to happen - we tried that before, and it didn't work.
Remember the industrial revolution? Real good working conditions and pay in
those factories, eh?
It worked incredibly well. Wages grew rapidly throughout the industrial
revolution. What do you expect would have happened if a $15/hr minimum wage
were instituted in 1875, when per capita GDP was $1,000?
>>The universal basic income.
It doesn't make sense that people should be denied the freedom to offer to
work for whatever wage they want until universal welfare is implemented.
~~~
vidarh
> A ride sharing dApp on a blockchain? Or is the British government going to
> ban peer-to-peer networks too?
There'd be no need to ban peer-to-peer networks - the payment method does not
change anything. If there is an employer-employee relationship it'd break the
law if they don't follow the regulations for such a relationship. If the
drivers are genuinely small businesses, it wouldn't.
> So it's okay if they offer to work for a "slave wage" as a self-employed
> small business owner, but if they work through a third party, then it's not
> okay?
The implication is in part that the paperwork necessary to operate as a small
business acts as a deterrent for people to enter into it without at least some
degree of understanding of what they're entering into.
It is providing what you're arguing for (the ability to set whatever salary
you want), but at the same time protecting society against some of the worst
exploitation by providing some hoops you have to jump through.
> How it taking away an option in their interest? You're reducing the avenues
> through which they can sell their labour, which cannot possibly be to their
> advantage.
This is nonsensical. If I offer to pay you to work in conditions that are
guaranteed to be lethal, according to your arguments it can't possibly be to
their advantage, because I'm reducing the avenues through which they can sell
their labour. Clearly reducing the avenues alone is insufficient to determine
whether or not the decision is to their advantage.
> It worked incredibly well. Wages grew rapidly throughout the industrial
> revolution.
And through most of the period, worker activism grew rapidly as well. In a
great many cases, workers _died_ during actions taken to improve working
conditions and salaries. The fantasy that those improvements are purely down
to lack of regulation is just that. It took repeated bloodshed to bring about
those improvements, and a lot of regulations that were often also paid for in
blood.
If there is any takeaway from the growth in wages during the industrial
revolution, it is that aggressive direct action by workers provides results.
~~~
CryptoPunk
A DAO on the blockchain can be indistinguishable from a platform run by a
company from the point of view of the driver.
>>This is nonsensical. If I offer to pay you to work in conditions that are
guaranteed to be lethal, according to your arguments it can't possibly be to
their advantage, because I'm reducing the avenues through which they can sell
their labour.
There are no jobs that are guaranteed to be lethal. If there were, there are
only two conditions under which someone would work them:
1\. They are mentally incapable of making decisions for their own life, and
thus should be placed under conservatorship where they are not free to make
their own decisions.
2\. The jobs is fraudulently advertised.
In either case you don't need to resort to creating mandatory minimum
employment standards like minimum wage. What you're effectively endorsing is
conservatorship for the entire population.
>>And through most of the period, worker activism grew rapidly as well. In a
great many cases, workers died during actions taken to improve working
conditions and salaries.
I'm dubious about this claim. It sounds like another pop-history claim that is
baseless. Do you have a source?
I remember reading that workplace injuries were decreasing throughout the
industrial revolution era. From what I understand regulations had no positive
impact on this upward trajectory in safety.
What did definitely happen during the industrial revolution is that life
expectancy rapidly rose. The famines and starvation that frequently occurred
prior to to the 16th century became increasingly uncommon as the economy of
the West industrialized.
>>If there is any takeaway from the growth in wages during the industrial
revolution, it is that aggressive direct action by workers provides results.
The opposite is true. There were very few labour regulations and no minimum
wages instituted during the Industrial Revolution (thanks largely to legal
doctrines of substantive due process guaranteeing the freedom to contract in
place since the Supreme Court Lochner ruling). After the propaganda victory of
the socialist parties and labour unions, extensive labour regulations were
introduced.
This has accelerated since the creation of the OSHA in 1970. The last 40 years
have seen wage growth stagnate and life expectancy to even decline for some
demographics.
The Nirvana fallacy has cost generations improvements in their quality of
life.
~~~
vidarh
> A DAO on the blockchain can be indistinguishable from a platform run by a
> company from the point of view of the driver.
And it's entirely irrelevant. If the driver is genuinely acting as an
independent company, then it's not a problem. If the driver is being treated
as an employee, then some entity is the employer and that entity is on the
hook for the legal requirements, and it'll be down to courts to figure out who
to hold responsible.
> There are no jobs that are guaranteed to be lethal. If there were, there are
> only two conditions under which someone would work them:
You're evading the question by being pedantic. Reduce "guaranteed to be
lethal" to whatever threshold you prefer and it stands.
> I'm dubious about this claim. It sounds like another pop-history claim that
> is baseless. Do you have a source?
Each and every history book that covers the labour movement and workers
rights. I'm not going to fill in gaps in what is high school level history for
you. Go read some wikipedia pages for that matter.
> The opposite is true. There were very few labour regulations and no minimum
> wages instituted during the Industrial Revolution (thanks largely to legal
> doctrines of substantive due process guaranteeing the freedom to contract in
> place since the Supreme Court Lochner ruling).
Lochner post-dates the most significant gains in US labor history by decades.
> After the propaganda victory of the socialist parties and labour unions,
> extensive labour regulations were introduced.
... and so did this. By the 1920's the support for socialism in the US was
rapidly headed for collapse.
> This has accelerated since the creation of the OSHA in 1970. The last 40
> years have seen wage growth stagnate and life expectancy to even decline for
> some demographics.
Nonsense. Ca. 1920 or so the US lost it's leadership in labour rights
improvements, and especially so after World War II when the social democrats
had gained massive influence in Western Europe, and most European countries
built universal healthcare systems and expanded unemployment rights and other
welfare dramatically while the US mostly stood still.
If you want to blame US stagnation in the last 40 years on something, consider
that the US is lagging further behind Europe in workers rights and welfare
than it ever has, so whatever the cause is, you'll have to look elsewhere.
~~~
CryptoPunk
>>And it's entirely irrelevant.
I explained the relevance:
>So it's okay if they offer to work for a "slave wage" as a self-employed
small business owner, but if they work through a third party, then it's not
okay? How it taking away an option in their interest? You're reducing the
avenues through which they can sell their labour, which cannot possibly be to
their advantage.
To rephrase: when DAOs are created, drivers will be able to offer their
services without meeting these arbitrary employment standards, without going
through a company, and just as easily as going through a company. How is
making it illegal for a company to hire them under terms that don't meet
employment standards in their interest, when doing so won't prevent them from
working for terms that don't meet these standards, and when all it will do is
reduce the avenues through which they can work for terms that don't meet the
standards (translation: all it will do is reduce their market power)?
Maybe I'm still not clearly communicating my point. If it's not clear what I'm
asking please let me know and I'll try to rephrase it.
Either way, could you please address my argument?
>>You're evading the question by being pedantic. Reduce "guaranteed to be
lethal" to whatever threshold you prefer and it stands.
The pedantry is in you making this a point about how I worded the beginning of
my argument and ignoring the bulk of my argument, and its substance, that
applies to any threshold. Here it is again:
\--
If there were, there are only two conditions under which someone would work
them:
1\. They are mentally incapable of making decisions for their own life, and
thus should be placed under conservatorship where they are not free to make
their own decisions.
2\. The jobs is fraudulently advertised.
In either case you don't need to resort to creating mandatory minimum
employment standards like minimum wage. What you're effectively endorsing is
conservatorship for the entire population.
\--
I really don't have the patience to deal with bad faith debating. Just know
that if you win the public relations campaign through rhetoric and sophistry,
but you're advancing the wrong cause, you're hurting yourself too. So there is
no sense in debating disingenuously about public policy using these tactics.
Western Europe and the US have seen wage growth stagnate over the last 40
years due to the kind of behaviour you're exhibiting now.
Our human society only functions at all due to the extraordinary efforts of
numerous people to cooperate and honestly debate issues to reach a consensus
on the right way forward.
Even a small portion of the population acting in bad faith to push their own
narrow interests at the expense of society at large is enough to cause the
whole thing to break down, because it's nearly impossible for society at large
to arrive at a consensus on the truth about complex topics when there is a
significant amount of misinformation being injected into the debate. Please be
part of the solution.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
An AI to help language learners? - anasf
http://www.heyelena.com/?utm_source=ycom&utm_medium=hackernews&utm_term=hackernews&utm_content=hackernews&utm_campaign=hackernews
======
anasf
Hi guys, I am working on an AI with friends to help language learners practice
conversations, we are calling it Elena. What do you think of it? Any possible
features you want to see? check out the demo in the link posted and sign up if
you want to download the ios app when it's ready. Thanks guys!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Blocking a protein curbs memory loss in old mice: study - LinuxBender
https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2019/05/blocking-protein-curbs-memory-loss-in-old-mice.html
======
hirundo
> Impeding VCAM1, a protein that tethers circulating immune cells to blood
> vessel walls, enabled old mice to perform as well on memory and learning
> tests as young mice ... it subdued the inflammatory mood of the brain’s
> resident immune cells
So this suggests: ↓ inflammation = ↑ memory. In the short term inflammation
generally impedes function, so this is an intuitively reasonable result.
~~~
pfd1986
Specially in light of recent correlations found between inflammation and all
sorts of diseases including neurodegenerative ones, previously discussed on
HN: [https://harvardmagazine.com/2019/05/inflammation-disease-
die...](https://harvardmagazine.com/2019/05/inflammation-disease-diet)
~~~
caprese
I always wonder if this is a design flaw, or if there is another completely
worse state that the body is trying to prevent happening, a state we don't
even know about until we have "cured" inflammation and all these other
diseases
sort of like how we wouldn't be studying a lot of this stuff right now if such
a large portion of the population hadn't gotten so old
~~~
duckduckcow
There's a lot of evidence suggesting that it's a feature rather than a bug.
There's lots of bad things that happens as you get older and upregulation of
inflammation plays an important part in that.
The thing is it's not random though. It happens in a synchronized fashion.
It does seem increasingly likely that our genetic code contains instructions
to make us increasingly frail and sick as we get older,to slowly increase the
probability of death.
We see this more clearly other places in nature. Closely related species that
have ended up in different environments over time can have dramatically
lifespans.
I have seen various hypotheses for this, including models that suggest that
there's a tendency for older individuals to keep too much of the resources so
that the younger generations won't have enough resources to grow and flourish.
~~~
wrinkl3
Or it could just be that there was never a lot of evolutionary pressure for
the "stay fit while old" traits. Being healthy for long enough to reproduce
and provide some care for your progeny was usually good enough from the
evolutionary standpoint, so the frailty-at-old-age genes weren't actively
selected against.
~~~
duckduckcow
It could be, though with a bit of Googling I found this blog post summarizing
scientific studies that suggest otherwise.
[https://joshmitteldorf.scienceblog.com/2016/05/16/no-
animal-...](https://joshmitteldorf.scienceblog.com/2016/05/16/no-animal-dies-
of-old-age-in-the-wild/)
------
RcouF1uZ4gsC
From [https://www.jax.org/news-and-insights/jax-
blog/2017/november...](https://www.jax.org/news-and-insights/jax-
blog/2017/november/when-are-mice-considered-old)
it appears that old mice are 18-24 months old. While mouse models in general
are hard to apply to humans, I would guess that applying "old" mouse models to
"old" humans is likely to be even harder.
------
leptoniscool
Are there any foods we can eat to lower inflammation in general?
~~~
bad_user
The study was done on mice and the metabolism of mice is different from ours.
In humans refined carbohydrates and hyper-processed food in general (which
includes hyper-processed meat) contributes the most to inflammation.
~~~
Aromasin
There's growing research to say that eating any meat (specifically red meat)
increases inflammation. Among other things, it elevates levels of C-Reactive
protein, which the liver makes when there is inflammation in the body.[1]
Another studied suggests that meat intake increases levels of arachidonic
acid, which is another mediator in inflammation and aging.[2]
Those are just a couple of studies. There are plenty more where they came
from. I highly suggest reading 'How Not to Die' by Dr. Michael Greger, to all
those that are interested in way of reducing inflammation in the body. The
book is incredibly well referenced, and a joy to read. [3]
[1]
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24284436](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24284436)
[2]
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28146136](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28146136)
[3] [https://www.amazon.com/How-Not-Die-Discover-
Scientifically/d...](https://www.amazon.com/How-Not-Die-Discover-
Scientifically/dp/1250066115/&tag=httpwwwdrgreg-20?pldnSite=1)
~~~
bad_user
First of all, humans have been eating red meat for literally millions of
years.
Both those links are observational studies. The first link even admits that
the association is weak. And the second link is a population-level study.
Observational studies are important clues, but too weak to base conclusions
on, as in such studies it's hard to isolate the variables. For example given
that red meat has been a scare crow, you've got the "healthy user bias" [1],
in other words the people that tend to eat red meat are also those that tend
to engage in unhealthy activities like smoking, eating junk food or not
exercising. Scientists of course try to take such factors into account, but
that's really hard to do.
Also such science is reductionist because it uses markers that may or may not
have an impact on all cause mortality on or the quality of life, as such
markers need to be read in context (often in relation to other markers). And
since you mentioned "arachidonic acid", its rise isn't necessarily unhealthy.
Here's an article that debunks the notion that red meat is inflammatory:
[https://chriskresser.com/does-red-meat-cause-
inflammation/](https://chriskresser.com/does-red-meat-cause-inflammation/)
[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_user_bias](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthy_user_bias)
~~~
Aromasin
“For example, the traditional diet of the Masai was composed almost entirely
of red meat, blood, and milk – all high in Neu5Gc – yet they were free from
modern inflammatory diseases. (7)”
I get why people keep trying to fall back on Price’s research into the Masai,
but I’m afraid it’s misleading. The Masai actually had significant rates of
atherosclerosis, they just didn’t die from it, at least not the ones that
otherwise lived long enough to matter. [1] To say that article 'debunks' it is
disingenuous regardless. It is simply a counter-argument in article form; part
of a debate that could well be retorted by someone more intelligent than
myself (I'm sure Greger could give it a good rebuttal).
I think we can all agree that the best way to reduce inflammation is simply to
exercise. It's been shown time and time again. By using the Masai as an ideal,
we're simply looking at healthy user bias but in reverse. Justifying meat
consumption with a tribal population that often runs marathons to catch said
meat is baffling to me; it is not an excuse to dismiss a vast amount of
research, both observational and otherwise.
I've latched on to meat and its markers of inflammation because it's relevant
to the OP topic, but if we're going down the route of history, really we
should be basing diet on our genetic biomarkers. "First of all, humans have
been eating red meat for literally millions of years." should really be "First
of all, small populations of certain humans have been eating red meat for
literally millions of years." From my studies on ancestral human eating
patterns, it seems that most were almost entirely vegetarian, and may have
only eaten meat during celebrations a few times in a year. Scientific American
had a great article on the topic [3].
To quote a favoured read of mine, "Human gene variants promoting veggie-rich
and meat-rich diets are still distributed among modern humans. They fall into
patterns one might expect given modern cultural dietary traditions. A gene
variant that promotes conversion from plant based dietary food sources to
omega 3 and 6 fats necessary for brain development is found more often in
India, where many people are vegetarian. A different variant that slows this
conversion is found among arctic people who eat a fish-heavy diet already very
rich in these fats, according to a recent Cornell study." [2] This is why
nutrition science is so difficult. However, I still believe that with the
modern human exercising a little as we do - even 2 hours 7 days a week, a
massive amount to us now unless you're an athlete, is very little compared to
our meat eating ancestors - that a need for a plant based diet is higher than
ever, and that applies to everyone.
[1]
[http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/95/1/26.abstract](http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/95/1/26.abstract)
[2] [https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2018/03/30/why-humans-
sta...](https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2018/03/30/why-humans-started-
eating-meat-critical-diet/)
[3] [https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/human-
ancest...](https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/human-ancestors-
were-nearly-all-vegetarians/)
~~~
bad_user
> " _the best way to reduce inflammation is simply to exercise_ "
Exercise helps, but the evidence for it is mixed. I don't think there's any
amount of exercise you can do to undo the damage of a toxic diet, which the
standard diet tends to be.
And as proof there are professional athletes that end up suffering from
chronic illness and inflammation. Even more so, intense training like for
running marathons can make you sick, because it can lead to a suppression of
the immune system due to the stress involved [1]. On a cursory search I found
a meta-analysis on studies on the effects of marathon running on inflammation
markers and the results are very mixed, endurance running promoting both anti-
and pro- inflammatory markers. [2]
Therefore your claim doesn't stand to scrutiny, even though we can agree that
exercise is mandatory for being healthy in general.
\---
> " _Justifying meat consumption with a tribal population that often runs
> marathons to catch said meat is baffling to me._ "
In your original comment you pointed at a population-level study (your second
link). Why is mentioning a study on an indigenous population any less valid?
Is that a double standard I'm sensing?
We study indigenous populations because chronic diseases are very modern and
it has something to do with the modern environment, which includes the diet,
especially since many of these populations got sick after being transitioned
to the western diet.
The Masai might have been exercising more and live with less stress, which
might have contributed to their overall health, or maybe they ate that meat
with something else that reduced the inflammation, however this is an
admission that context matters and that reductionist statements such as " _red
meat is inflammatory_ " are wrong.
Also apparently we burn as many calories as hunter gatherers [3], so I would
be careful about such statements.
\---
> _" From my studies on ancestral human eating patterns, it seems that most
> were almost entirely vegetarian, and may have only eaten meat during
> celebrations a few times in a year."_
The article you linked to is entirely devoid of any tangible proof and given
the editorial style I can't take it seriously.
Indeed, the diet of apes and monkeys is composed of leaves, nuts, fruits and
insects. However this is a very bizarre argument. Us becoming omnivores and
starting to hunt animals and eat meat is what allowed us to adapt to harsher
environments and to grow our big brains. Eating meat is what made us human and
what drove us to develop tools made of stone for hunting or for collecting the
bone marrow, it's what drove us to use fire for cooking, in order to increase
the bio-availability of the meat and the starches that we eat.
First of all because our big brain can only be explained by the availability
of high-calorie foods. High-calorie foods are not very available in nature in
edible form. We couldn't have digested many of the high-calorie starchy plants
that were available. The prevailing theory is that fire was first used for
cooking in order to cook starchy plants that were toxic otherwise. But the
first known use of fire was only 1 million years ago [4] and does not coincide
with the expansion of our brains.
Use of stone tools however coincides with the expansion of our brains, yet
routine use of fire may have began only 300,000 years ago [5], which means
starchy plants weren't very available for us to eat, certainly not enough to
explain our high-caloric diet.
The best indications for what our ancestors ate comes from looking at modern
hunter-gatherers and we've got plenty of such populations observed [6].
Observed hunter-gatherers obtain most of their energy from animal foods [7].
From the groups studied in that reference, they found ...
\- 46 groups that obtained 85% of their energy from meat, fish and eggs (with
no groups obtaining this much energy from plants)
\- 133 groups that obtained 65% of their energy from meat, fish and eggs (only
8 groups that obtained 65% of their energy from plants)
\- the median average obtained 70% of their energy from animal sources, 30%
from plants
Note that this report has been criticized to have some flaws, but there is a
substantial body of evidence for the theory that, on average, hunter-gatherers
got 70% of energy from animals [8] [9] [10].
\---
[1] [https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/the-running-
blog/20...](https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/the-running-
blog/2015/aug/27/the-elite-athlete-paradox-how-running-a-marathon-can-make-
you-ill)
[2]
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5650970/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5650970/)
[3]
[https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...](https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0040503)
[4]
[https://www.pnas.org/content/109/20/E1215](https://www.pnas.org/content/109/20/E1215)
[5]
[https://www.pnas.org/content/108/13/5209](https://www.pnas.org/content/108/13/5209)
[6]
[http://eclectic.ss.uci.edu/~drwhite/worldcul/10-2gray.pdf](http://eclectic.ss.uci.edu/~drwhite/worldcul/10-2gray.pdf)
[7]
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10702160](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10702160)
[8] Cordain, L. “Implications of Plio-Pleistocene Hominin Diets for Modern
Humans,” pp 363-383 in Peter S. Ungar, ed., Evolution of the human diet: the
known, the unknown, and the unknowable, New York: Oxford University Press,
2006.
[9]
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10702160?dopt=AbstractPl...](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10702160?dopt=AbstractPlus)
[10]
[https://www.unm.edu/~hkaplan/KaplanHillLancasterHurtado_2000...](https://www.unm.edu/~hkaplan/KaplanHillLancasterHurtado_2000_LHEvolution.pdf)
------
jonhendry18
Before people start eating extreme low protein diets, that should be "Blocking
_a_ protein".
~~~
thrower123
Also, there is the whole "in mice" bit.
One of the more valuable science twitter accounts to follow is the one that
that just retweets every sensationally misleading pop-sci headline that ends
up being based on rodent studies with an all-caps IN MICE! comment.
~~~
pazimzadeh
Trendy, yes. Valuable, not sure. Maybe to keep track of the bleeding edge of
basic research. This is much better news than the headline "Nothing we do
seems to affect memory loss in mice." It means we're starting to understand
how memory works at a molecular level in mammals.
~~~
thrower123
Right, it's good that we have the very beginnings of an understanding of how
the process might work. In mice. Applications to humans are, if previous track
records are anything to go on, five to twenty years out and uncertain.
Meanwhile, gullible people with poor reading comprehension will see the
headline, or hear the badly interpreted third-hand reporting on the study
during the science puff piece section of the nightly news. Some fraction of
the hypochondriatic will take it up as gospel, and begin preaching it, and the
sum total is a contribution to the mountain of medical misinformation that is
floating around in the popular consciousness.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
False ballistic missile alert spreads panic in Hawaii - ilamont
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/1/13/16888374/false-ballistic-missile-alert-spreads-panic-in-hawaii
======
sctb
Comments moved to
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16140761](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16140761).
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Move over NSA, here comes the Obamacare Big Brother database - dyinglobster
http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials-verbatim/062513-661264-obamacare-database-hub-creates-privacy-nightmare.htm?p=full
======
cleverjake
The government will have access to a persons current status in other
government programs? How does that compare, let alone surpass the government
intercepting private phone calls and other communication?
~~~
falk
This article is nothing but partisan politics. People voted for Obama twice
knowing his healthcare plan/stance, but we didn't vote for the guy to have him
spy on us and take away our 4th amendment rights.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Geoff Ralston, Y Combinator President, supports gun confiscation orders, UBCs - wowzap
https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/1699-gun-control-letter-to-the-sena/3258ed616a016f80dfa3/optimized/full.pdf#page=1
======
yongjik
Stop editorializing the title. The link is just a PDF file of a public
petition to the Senate, where the bolded paragraph reads:
> That's why we urge the Senate to stand with the American public and take
> action on gun safety by passing a bill to require background checks on all
> gun sales and a strong Red Flag law that would allow courts to issue life-
> saving extreme risk protection orders.
And nowhere in the document appears "confiscation", "confiscate", etc.
~~~
wowzap
Red Flag Laws = Gun Confiscation Orders. Just because they aren't using the
most accurate terms doesn't mean I am editorializing the article. Look at
their implementation in the states.
All of these laws have the same ends, gun confiscation before due process.
Maybe the due process takes place in a week, maybe it takes place in a year,
in any case, these are gun confiscation orders with no conviction of a crime
and in many cases, no evidence that a crime has even occurred.
Red Flag Laws = Gun Confiscation Orders.
~~~
yongjik
Guns = Lethal Killing Machines, but if New York Times writes "Silicon Valley
luminaries want fewer lethal killing machines in society" I'm pretty sure
you'll be unhappy about the title.
Editorializing is editorializing.
------
mindcrime
It's sad to see an apparently intelligent person embrace this kind of
stupidity.
Rates of firearms ownership in the US have been declining steadily anyway, so
even IF you buy the idea that gun violence is increasing (and there's evidence
that it isn't), then you have to question how "more gun control" is the answer
when gun ownership and violence are already un-correlated (or even negatively
correlated).
~~~
wowzap
Those are my feelings too.. I understand how the public can be swayed by
inaccurate media representations, but it's Y Combinator which seems to portray
itself as a source of intelligent people.
~~~
mindcrime
The thing is, I can understand people who, swayed by inflammatory media
reporting and Bloomberg-funded propaganda, experience an emotional reaction to
these various shooting incidents, and immediately think "something MUST be
done". I get it, even if I think most of their proposals are useless, or
actively harmful, in terms of reducing violence and protecting the innocent.
BUT, I think a lot of people on the "more gun control" side are actually
pushing a very specific agenda, which has absolutely nothing to do with
"public safety" or "protecting the children" at all. It's an ideological /
elitist mentality that says "only WE should have guns, and the common riff-
raff need to be disarmed one way or another". This position I have zero
sympathy towards, and the only correct response to this, IMO, is "come and
take 'em".
#molonlabe
------
sarcasmatwork
@GeoffRalston, Who is giving you money to say and agree on dumb shit like
this? Go read the Obama era CDC research on gun violence and learn something
instead of agreeing to things that are not based on facts.
[https://www.gunsandammo.com/editorial/cdc-gun-research-
backf...](https://www.gunsandammo.com/editorial/cdc-gun-research-backfires-on-
obama/249799)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Easily get the user's Apple ID password, just by asking - migueh
https://github.com/KrauseFx/steal.password
======
beeskneecaps
Can’t believe this didn’t front-page. I’ll never type into one of these
without being on the home screen ever again! Thanks!
~~~
krausefx
It made it to the front page
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15441537](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15441537)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
3 Ways To Hack Facebook - charlesju
http://www.charlesju.com/2008/12/4-ways-to-hack-facebook.html
======
icey
s/hack/spam
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
John Oliver: Net Neutrality [video] - marai2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpbOEoRrHyU
======
gkoberger
This is blog spam; direct link:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpbOEoRrHyU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpbOEoRrHyU)
~~~
toomuchtodo
Mods, can we get the link updated?
EDIT: Thanks dang.
~~~
dang
Emphatically.
The submitted url was [http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2014/06/must-watch-john-
olive...](http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2014/06/must-watch-john-olivers-
funny-smart-and-dead-on-explanation-of-net-neutrality.html).
------
ghayes
Here is the relevant link to read or leave comments on the FCC proposal: [0]
[0] [http://www.fcc.gov/comments](http://www.fcc.gov/comments)
~~~
higherpurpose
This one is easier, and actually loads:
[https://www.dearfcc.org/](https://www.dearfcc.org/)
~~~
JoshTriplett
That one only allows sending a preconstructed template comment, not arbitrary
feedback.
------
SchizoDuckie
I love how he gets right to the core of the problem: Corruption in the US Govt
due to 'Lobbying', which basically boils down to the largest corporations
running the country.
Continuum anyone?
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1954347/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1954347/)
~~~
sanderjd
I hate the revolving door as much as the next person, but it's really hard to
find people who are both qualified to regulate an industry and completely
neutral in their politics and employment history. I'm sure a lot of us would
prefer someone with a history of lobbying _for_ net neutrality, but that is
only better from a political point of view on our side of the argument, not
from an ethical point of view.
You can't write a law that says "only hire regulators who agree with John
Oliver's and SchizoDuckie's and sanderjd's politics". You can write a law that
says "never hire any regulators who have been in any way involved with the
industry they are regulating", but would you want to?
------
codyb
The problem is that even when people understand. No one does anything.
I told my friends, who are computer programmers, that we need to start
fighting for net neutrality. And I give them the links to the video to the
comments section.
And it's just blank stares. "Why would I go there?" kinda thing. I tried. I
know nothing will happen. I'll tweet and comment. But it's just frustrating
that no one cares even if they spend 10 hours a day on the internet.
And that's what I've realized lately, walking around NYC. No one cares. A ton
of people don't even have opinions. A ton of people have very strongly held
opinions that they don't research, or put any thought into. They just "know"
things to be true the way they are. The homeless are lazy. The mentally ill
are evil. And no one cares. Or ever does anything.
I can't say I'm much better in terms of actions. It has become a very shitty
system where money holds the power and studies have shown your average
constituent in some hideously gerrymandered district with options between two
corporate funded parties has no say in the system[0].
[0][http://www.princeton.edu/~mgilens/Gilens%20homepage%20materi...](http://www.princeton.edu/~mgilens/Gilens%20homepage%20materials/Gilens%20and%20Page/Gilens%20and%20Page%202014-Testing%20Theories%203-7-14.pdf)
~~~
jerf
Beware the despair of getting too focused on your world, and forgetting that
others have worlds of their own.
One of my children has a rare genetic disorder you've probably never heard of.
How much have you given to research for it? How much have you given for the
thousands or tens of thousands of equally pressing causes?
Everybody carries their own burdens. It doesn't mean "they don't care"... it
just means their burdens and yours may not overlap.
And sure, some people know little, care less, and do nothing. But you can't
tell who that is just by looking at people walking down the street. You don't
know. That mental model of your fellow man you're applying isn't necessarily
accurate. You just don't know.
~~~
toomuchtodo
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about.”
-- Wendy Mass
------
krogsgard
One downside is that the very platform he is broadcasting on could help
pressure cable companies, but is perfectly fat and happy propping them up. HBO
is a huge influencer and should join the others against these changes. Though
I completely agree with his points.
------
rickdale
previously posted, and not discussed here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7839414](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7839414)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Graphene made with kitchen blender - efficientarch
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-27113732
======
ColinWright
Clearly a story that has grabbed some people's imaginations, but not others.
No comments (so far) on any of these:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7627892](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7627892)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7626865](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7626865)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7624404](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7624404)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7622657](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7622657)
Found when searching for duplications, this is different, but does have some
discussion:
A Solution For Graphene Production
(acs.org)
\--
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7614559](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7614559)
~~~
mk3
[http://jenslabs.com/2013/03/14/diy-
graphene/](http://jenslabs.com/2013/03/14/diy-graphene/) Skipped this one I
believe :) the method of making graphene using lightscribe
------
ljd
I'm having a hard time understanding why someone shouldn't make this at home.
This sounds like the perfect experiment I could run with the kids to get them
excited about material science. It doesn't need to be a perfect layer of
graphene, even a sludge would be good to show them, get them brainstorming
about how they would separate out the sludge.
Is there a real reason other than difficulty, why someone shouldn't try this
at home?
~~~
tbrownaw
_Is there a real reason other than difficulty, why someone shouldn 't try this
at home?_
Aren't most nano-particles suspected of causing cancer? I assume this method
would generate fairly small pieces that might make people worry about that.
Also the blender mix would probably (1) make lots of foam and overflow the
blender, and (2) stain everything it touches.
~~~
pdx
That was a concern from the 90's. However you are being exposed to the "nano
particles" everyday already. Rubber from car tires decomposes on the highway
into particles of the scale that they can be considered "nano particles", for
example. When ever you drive on the highway, you're stirring up clouds of
them.
~~~
atrus
While the general nano particle fear is a little extreme, some of the
structures (specifically carbon nano-tubes) have a similar shape as Asbestos,
which does cause cancer due to it's shape.
CNTs aren't graphine, and I'm not sure that graphine can be easily made into
tubes, but it still should give some pause for thought.
~~~
Osmium
Just wanted to second this: I don't think we know enough about how safe these
things are. It's very different to have something like graphene packaged up in
a computer chip vs. free-floating in the air. I also have no idea if common,
off-the-shelf respirators are effective at blocking such small particles.
Also worth bearing in mind is that, I believe, wherever you make one form of
carbon you'll probably end up making other forms too, e.g. buckyballs (C60)
and carbon nanotubes have both been found in soot. So even if graphene is
safe, I have no idea if this process will produce other potentially unsafe
things too. A friend is actually working on looking at the effect carbon
nanotubes have on lung epithelial cells, so I know there's interest there.
That said, I imagine you'd find all these products in a standard wood fire
too, but then I recall reading that smoke from wood fires is as bad or worse
for you as cigarette smoke so perhaps that's little comfort...
Note: I am not a doctor and not an expert in this field either.
------
troymc
The article didn't mention the sticky tape method of making graphene, but they
did put a link to an article about that [1].
Sticky tape (or Scotch tape) can also be used to make X-rays [2]. Now the only
question is how to use a blender to make X-rays…
[1] [http://www.bbc.com/news/science-
environment-11478645](http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-11478645)
[2]
[http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/28/science/28xray.html](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/28/science/28xray.html)
~~~
shill
It can also be used to see through frosted glass.
[http://www.wired.com/2011/04/scotch-tape-lets-you-see-
throug...](http://www.wired.com/2011/04/scotch-tape-lets-you-see-through-
frosted-glass/)
~~~
Lost_BiomedE
Very cool. I have jars I want to etch for a product. Now I am wondering if I
could get frosted jars and just clear labels.
------
ericfranklin
While this looks like progress, and a potential path for graphene production,
it still seems a long ways off from commercial viability. Diamonds went
through a similar hype. It may be technically possible to make diamond with a
torch or even peanut butter, but commercially producing large, clean gemstones
(rather than grit/powder) requires much more involved processes. In this case,
a blender could probably scale up easier, but it isn't "metre-scale sheets of
graphene" already possible with CVD.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Gogs: A self-hosted Git service written in Go - tombenner
http://gogs.io/
======
dang
[https://hn.algolia.com/?q=gogs#!/story/forever/0/gogs](https://hn.algolia.com/?q=gogs#!/story/forever/0/gogs)
| {
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Police-issued "courtesy cards" help friends and family out of minor infractions - danso
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/v7gxa4/pba-card-police-courtesy-cards
======
merricksb
If curious, see this discussion about the topic from early 2018:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16207890](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16207890)
------
anm89
The simplest way to fix a huge amount of problems that exist in the USA would
be to start holding the police accountable for their actions.
This is police corruption, an especially harmful category of corruption that
undermindes our entire legal system. It should be 5 years minimum in federal
prison. Police should recieve drastically stronger charges and sentences when
they violate the law, not the other way around. If someone above was found to
have known about it and didn't report it should be 2x.
You show me a problem in modern america (maybe except healthcare) and I bet I
could argue this one policy would fix it in one roundabout way or another.
It won't happen for a bunch of structural reasons unless a major party took it
up as a major part of their platform but it would work.
Come to think of it, this is one of the very few things one of the major
parties could do to get me to vote for them.
~~~
dsr_
Require malpractice insurance for police; require that they pay it themselves,
not as part of a union or from their civilian employer. Require insurance
companies to set prices solely by service record of the individual and of the
unit and of the city/county/state employer.
Commit a felony, lose your insurance coverage, be unemployable. Happens to
doctors; why shouldn't it happen to police?
Go to work for a misbehaving department, watch your premium rise.
Act professionally your whole career, watch your premium drop.
Everybody likes incentives here. Police don't have many right now.
~~~
SahAssar
Of all the systems the US has I think the insurance industry is the last to
come to mind to fix a problem.
~~~
an_opabinia
“Tort” (insurance’s cousin) is but one of the many gods in the cathedrals
people build to avoid blaming hate.
~~~
pjc50
Tory is not really anything to do with insurance; it is a very old legal
concept referring to any kind of job bodily harm to the interest of another.
------
helsinkiandrew
> he frequently receives PBA cards as a thank-you for extending cops small
> business favors and deals
This is corruption. I've never understood how things like this can happen in
the US - why is this tolerated?
If this happened in the UK I'm fairly sure it would be raised in the press,
then parliament and then the Home Secretary (in charge of policing) would be
forced to make a statement and likely do something about it.
~~~
ALittleLight
I think it's corruption too, but I have to roll my eyes at "If this happened
in the UK..."
The police, and city councils, in the UK have tacitly permitted, for decades,
systematic child rape as seen in the Rotterham grooming scandal [1] and
numerous others throughout the country. How can you suggest that cops wouldn't
look the other way for minor infractions when there are countless examples of
them ignoring obscene and severe crimes of the worst sort against the most
vulnerable?
I don't want this to come off as a "my country is better than yours" but at
the same time, I don't think using the UK police as an example of anything to
aspire to is a good idea.
1
-[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotherham_child_sexual_explo...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotherham_child_sexual_exploitation_scandal)
~~~
crispyporkbites
That’s absolute bollocks. The uk police has oversight from the IOPC and you
can read all about the ongoing conduct investigation for that cherry picked
example here [https://policeconduct.gov.uk/news/independent-
investigation-...](https://policeconduct.gov.uk/news/independent-
investigation-under-way-relating-gmp%E2%80%99s-operation-augusta)
~~~
ALittleLight
Cherry picked? The "see also" section lists another 6 "grooming gang" scandals
across the country and I have no reason to think that's comprehensive. UK
police permitting the organized rape of children seems the norm rather than
the exception from what I can tell.
The fact that there is an investigation decades after the fact doesn't really
negate what I've written.
My point isn't really about the grooming gang scandals though. My point is: UK
police look the other way for the crime of child rape, why should I believe
they don't look the other way for minor infractions?
------
spacedcowboy
What the actual fuck ?
From an outside-the-US perspective, the stack of “Things I’d never believe
about the USA, please, Alex” is just getting higher and higher.
How is it legal to have preferential treatment, no matter under what
circumstances, for ‘friends of the police’? Is Lady Liberty not famously blind
while balancing the scales of justice ? Does the maxim “justice must not only
be done, it must be seen to be done” somehow not apply in the USA ?
Over the last few years, it seems to me the rock that used to be the USA has
been overturned, and all the slimy creepy little nasties are being exposed to
the harsh light of day. What happens in a few months is going to be critical
to the soul of your nation. Get it right, I doubt you’ll recover if you don’t.
~~~
derwiki
I assure you, “friend of the police” cards have been going on for more than a
few years. And from what my military friends tell me, handing a cop your
military ID tends to work just as well.
~~~
geerlingguy
In some communities other memberships can also hold sway. I remember one
person mentioning some sort of scouting membership getting him out of a
traffic stop.
~~~
JoeAltmaier
The officer puts you in a category within seconds of meeting you - citizen,
perp or 'blue line'. Their response depends upon this judgement call.
My son the disable vet could not seem to get a ticket. He occasionally speeds,
not egregiously, but the Fort Benning parking sticker on his truck window and
the military ID in his wallet made a difference in the attitude of the
officer.
~~~
spideymans
In my city, you'll sometimes see people riding around with the official cap or
bumper sticker of the police union on the back of their car. It's no mystery
why.
~~~
Spivak
Is it really that surprising that ingratiating yourself to someone who has
power or resources on average makes you better off? Nothing about this has
anything to do with police.
You get a "baker's dozen" because the baker likes you.
~~~
ashtonkem
The baker isn’t in charge of enforcing laws. Nor is the baker given a gun by
the state with the expectation of using it.
There is a big, bright line between “favors for valued customers” and
“corruption”.
~~~
Spivak
But we’re not talking about bright line corruption here. We’re talking about
police being nicer and more lenient to their in-groups: veterans, other cops,
emts, firefighters, personal friends, family, politicians they like, police
union reps, the clerk at the Dunkin’ Donuts that always adds a shot of
espresso on the house.
The cards are literally corruption and bleh, but being friendly with the cops
(or anyone) getting you special treatment sometimes is a human thing.
~~~
kelnos
> _But we’re not talking about bright line corruption here._
Yes, we are. A public official doing a law-related favor for someone based on
their group affiliation is exactly what corruption is.
> _being friendly with the cops (or anyone) getting you special treatment
> sometimes is a human thing._
That is not a universe anyone should have to live in. If you miss out on an
extra baked good because you're not buddies with the baker, it's no big deal.
If a cop treats you more harshly because you're not a friend of the police,
that _is_ a big deal.
Bakers can't deprive you of your life and freedom. Cops can.
------
kemayo
I once got pulled over for speeding in the middle of Kansas. The cop who was
giving me my ticket told me that they had a program for avoiding having the
ticket reported so your insurance rates won't rise. So I went along with it,
and mailed the cost of the ticket plus a hundred dollars to that city's police
department, care of the "sheriff's benevolent association" (or similar -- it's
been a decade, the name is fuzzy to me).
...it remains one of the more blatantly shady-feeling things I remember
encountering in the US.
~~~
mNovak
In the same category of the "Unhooking fee" a tow truck will charge--you can
pick up your car from impound for $200, or you can pay the tow driver $200 on
the spot and save the hassle.
Though obviously lesser significance than the same behaviors from your police
force.
~~~
sokoloff
To be honest, it seems like if a tow truck had to be called out to tow you,
the tow company has earned something even if they didn’t tow you to impound.
~~~
mNovak
Depends, there's plenty of cases in some cities where the tow trucks aren't
called, they just prowl around for any minor infraction. I remember Columbus
OH being particularly bad about this--things that in a normal world might
warrant a parking ticket, you're towed in minutes.
------
woodruffw
For the curious: a more regional[1] form of this petty corruption in the NYC
area is placard abuse[2]. It's pretty common to see cars with these parked in
front of hydrants, in bike lanes, etc, being completely ignored by the police.
[1]: As far as I know, being a lifelong New Yorker.
[2]: [https://twitter.com/placardabuse](https://twitter.com/placardabuse)
~~~
Xavdidtheshadow
The Houston area PD has an organization called the "100 Club" [0] where you
can donate to get a nice sticker. Each year has a different color, so it's
easy to show how long you've been a member. [1]
Officially they're just to support the LEO orgs, but there's also anecdata in
my friend group that having one (or more) makes you more likely to get out of
most things with just a warning.
[0]: [https://the100club.org/about/#what](https://the100club.org/about/#what)
[1]:
[https://twitter.com/sighborgs/status/1246113527158497282](https://twitter.com/sighborgs/status/1246113527158497282)
~~~
woodruffw
Apropos of nothing: apart from being similar to the placard racket, I wonder
how many people who donate to this organization realize that their dollars are
being used to buy MRAPs[1], not pay for the educations of the children of dead
cops.
[1]: [https://the100club.org/newsroom/](https://the100club.org/newsroom/)
------
taneq
I couldn't believe it when I found out that these are a real, actual thing. I
don't see how anyone in the US can cast stones at any other nation for corrupt
police accepting bribes when you can largely get carte blanche just for being
'in the club' there.
~~~
wjp3
While I think this practice is bad and should end, it's not the same. Not
everyone has these cards, whereas anyone can bribe.
~~~
VBprogrammer
I'm not sure that is in the "better" column. At least anyone with access to
some cash can pass a bribe. Here we are making it a more exclusive to those
who hang in the right circles. That to me is more corrupt.
Even the signal it is sending stinks. The law should apply even to other cops
(on and off duty but that is another story) equally as any other citizen. If
just being friends with a cop gets you some special entitlement then what does
being a cop mean, near total immunity?
~~~
jdmichal
> If just being friends with a cop gets you some special entitlement then what
> does being a cop mean, near total immunity?
That's been more or less the case, yes. That and the systemic racism exhibited
while they get this near-total immunity is a large driver behind the recent
protests.
------
nip180
I find unequal enforcement of the law to be one is it’s worst aspects. There
is not only officer discretion, but there is also discretion several places in
the judicial system and privilege in being able to hire better legal council.
Some neighborhoods are policed more heavily than others. Some groups of people
are targeted more heavily than others. Some city police departments enforce
state/federal laws unevenly.
There should be one law for everyone, and if two random people with similar
criminal histories break the same law in different places we should expect
their outcomes and sentencing to be very similar. Right now this is far from
the case.
~~~
darkarmani
I agree, but at the same time the alternative is zero tolerance.
Maybe the big problem is not the discretion, but that it isn't recorded? For
example, i think it is complete corruption that LEOs and their families
generally get "professional courtesy". I've heard the argument that it is a
perk of the job. I disagree, but if you accept that argument, I would say: let
the judge and courts handle the forgiveness of the offense and have it
recorded in documents. Make it an official procedure and it will not look like
corruption.
~~~
nip180
> I agree, but at the same time the alternative is zero tolerance.
I think it’s unfair to use term zero tolerance to describe equal enforcement.
Zero tolerance is a specific sentencing pattern which uses harsh punishments
for crimes. Equal enforcement is about making sure all groups have the same
relationship with the law. If the laws on the books are overly harsh once
enforced than we should change those laws.
~~~
GurnBlandston
The public would be better served by reducing the number of things that are
illegal to only those things that deserve to be enforced with 'zero
tolerance'.
------
jopsen
The mere appearance of corruption in police is enough of a problem. Even in
minor cases.
Debating whether this is bribery or nepotism is pointless, because the
appearance this gives should be plenty to fire officers who hand out such
cards.
Conveniently, they supposedly write their name on the cards they hand out :)
------
djmobley
Sounds like the CHP 11-99 Foundation license plate frame, which could
(allegedly) get you out of speeding tickets [0]
[0] [https://priceonomics.com/can-you-buy-a-license-to-
speed/](https://priceonomics.com/can-you-buy-a-license-to-speed/)
------
stefan_
The big problem in the US is the lack of automated speed enforcement. When you
have officers doing traffic enforcement it inevitably turns into a corrupt
shit show, and if you're black, you might not even live through it.
Although its now 2020, where every 300 gram toy drone will automatically
refuse to fly anywhere near an airport. It took 0 drones taking down 0
airplanes to do that. Modern cars can trivially enforce the speed limit, but
we have ten thousands of deaths and counting every year and it's not
happening.
~~~
nitrogen
_Modern cars can trivially enforce the speed limit_
Not sure about everywhere, but speed limits are first glance limits in at
least some places, where other evidence can prove that a speed above the limit
was not "speeding". Speed limits don't know what traffic is doing, they don't
know road conditions, they don't know if you have an emergency. They're just a
number set by ideally an engineer, or less ideally a party with conflicting
interests (revenue).
I had to drive someone to an emergency room once. There wasn't time or money
for an ambulance. If my car was automatically enforcing speed limits, they
might have died.
Moreover there are _far, far, far_ fewer no-fly zones than speed limit zones.
A no-fly zone is a fairly simple polygon -- are you inside or outside. Every
street has its own speed limit, which can vary from 5mph to 80mph in the US,
and traffic on some freeways is consistently higher than 80. Some highways
have dynamic speed limits, e.g. 65 at night and 55 during rush hour. School
zones and pedestrian crossings have limits based on whether someone has
switched on a light, or times of day, or even just the presence of children.
So no, you cannot have, and do not want, automated in-vehicle enforcement of
speed limits.
~~~
stefan_
No, the fact that US people can't call an ambulance for risk of bankruptcy is
not a good reason to allow cars to accelerate to 120 mph in cities.
That's the point here: you can add cities as simple convex polys and you are
already 80% of the way there. Drones don't need to listen to air traffic
either.
~~~
rurp
The ambulance emergency is just one example, there are many more that you
aren't considering. As one more example there are many passing situations,
such as pretty much any two lane highway, where it's perfectly acceptable to
break the speed limit for a brief period. I can think of other exceptions too
and this is just after thinking about it for a minute, there are probably
thousands of real world situations neither of us could think of ahead of time.
Plus, this is all assuming such a system could be implementing flawlessly. In
practice, such a complicated and messy system would have a million bugs. Who
keeps the speed limit database of every single road in country up to date? How
are all of the precise boundaries of every single speed limit zone going to be
defined and recognized by every vehicle?
~~~
chki
> As one more example there are many passing situations, such as pretty much
> any two lane highway, where it's perfectly acceptable to break the speed
> limit for a brief period.
That's not true legally speaking and I'm pretty sure it's not true from a
driving standpoint. Why would it be acceptable to break the speed limit to
overtake somebody? If you need to speed to be faster than somebody you
shouldn't be passing them. If they speed up during the passing manoeuver you
should probably slow down and fall back.
~~~
nitrogen
It's a pretty frequent problem for someone to be going 10mph below a 55mph
limit. To pass safely you have to go well above the limit for a few seconds,
even if they don't speed up, so that you aren't in the oncoming lane for too
long.
_If they speed up during the passing manoeuver you should probably slow down
and fall back._
If there's oncoming traffic, sure, but not as a matter of principle. Once you
start passing, you should definitely finish unless it becomes dangerous to do
so.
------
throwaway0a5e
The fundamental issue here is that being a normal person puts you on the wrong
side of the law and/or the punishments for being on the wrong side of the law
are too severe.
~~~
TempLogsForOne
That is just a symptom of the problem as the tyrannical administrative
bureaucratic police state expands at exponential rates, to cheers and demands
for ever more control by mommy and daddy government.
But to your point, you are correct, the only people left on the wrong side of
the law are law abiding productive people who do not have personal connections
to law enforcement. Ever other group gets treated with a light touch and has
excuses made for them and criminals are now getting off the hook left and
right, while the anarcho-tyrannical administrative state increases it's abuses
of regular productive and peaceful people.
It's either by design, out of desperation, or due to incompetence; but it will
not end well for any of us, regardless.
~~~
throwaway0a5e
I find it unsurprising but disheartening that this was flagged.
The entire administrative bureaucracy is in on this racket and it's unfair to
pick in the police alone for it. In my state it's not just the police that
peddle influence like this. Many state agencies have little identifiers that
range from IDs to bumper stickers that they give to their employees with the
unspoken purpose of signaling "don't screw me, I work for your team". The most
coveted are the court system ones because no matter what agency is trying to
screw you none of them want to piss off people who work for the courts. My
state also has all sorts of ways to wave fines and whatnot for economic
hardship reasons (which I fully support). This creates effectively three
classes of people, those who are part of the in-group and treated decently by
government. Those who have money and are preyed upon by government. And those
who don't have money and are ignored by government unless they are committing
serious (i.e. violent) crime because the government gains nothing by cracking
down on them. Why can't the government just treat everyone like the former or
the latter or, even better, repeal all the stupid laws that have wildly low
compliance rates?
------
gwbas1c
You don't need a physical card.
A friend of mine who used to get into trouble all the time when he was a
teenager got away with a ton of stuff. His father was a chief or something, so
every local cop just knew who he was.
You don't want to arrest your boss's son.
~~~
pavon
Yeah, these cards are basically a way of extending behavior that has always
occurred in small departments to a larger force where the police can't
possibly know everyone they are "supposed" to give favors to.
------
mattlondon
There used to be something similar in the UK IIRC - the traffic police
nicknamed themselves "black rats". If you had a sticker of the black rat
mascot/logo on the back of your car then you were either a traffic officer, or
someone close to them (wife/husband/etc) and a wink and a nod an you were on
your way. I don't think it was a deliberate "get out of jail" move - just more
of a "Oh you have a sticker for my unit's mascot on your car!" recognition
type thing.
I think it kinda stopped when they started giving away the stickers on
"enthusiast" car/motorbike magazines etc
~~~
jopsen
Lol, I suppose as the cards carries no real legitimacy, it's not illegal to
fake them.
That said, being stopped by cop who notices that it's fake probably isn't a
good idea :)
------
kop316
I've also noticed in a lot of states that cars have the "fraternal order of
police" sticker, and it is affixed right on their licence plate.
I suspect its for a similar reason, that either if you get your plate's
picture taken or local police can see that right away.
~~~
nickthegreek
yep, its a signal to officers that you went out of your way to donate extra
money to the police force so that they are more forgiving as they approach
your car or just don't pull you over to begin with.
~~~
eplanit
I think that today a Trump 2020 bumper sticker would have the same effect.
~~~
joshstrange
There is a chilling effect in the other direction as well. I'm not too keen on
decorating my car to support various things I do support (candidate/BLM/etc)
because I know the cops might treat me worse with that on my car... fun times.
~~~
illirik
I just have two Seattle Mariners bumper stickers on my truck; haven't been
pulled over since putting em on, so they must think I have enough misery as it
is!
/s I think the real issue is that it has been decided somehow that it is our
fault for being policed and experiencing the frequent resulting injustices. A
police officer can pull you over, stop you walking down the street, etc. etc.
and fine you, jail you, or brutalize you at will, and in all but the most
egregious cases (that also must become a cause celebre), they can just do it
again tomorrow. There's always some justification, no matter how flimsy!
That's not to say this violence is evenly distributed among the population.
POC, the poor and working class, those who work odd hours and have to drive at
3 AM etc. certainly have a much, much, much harder time than e.g. the median
HN commenter. But the answer to the question "What's stopping a given police
officer from e.g. breaking my arm while pulling me out of my vehicle?" is much
less "they will suffer consequences if they do" and much more "they haven't
decided it's what they want to do today"
------
fareesh
In the USA legislators and others in government have publicly voiced their
support of, contributed to, and organized bail funds for specific groups of
people based on their views on particular topics. One Presidential candidate's
campaign (through its staffers) has also paid money towards something called
the "Minnesota Freedom Fund". Why is there a contribution only to this fund?
If you protest animal testing and are arrested for some similar crime, where
is your bail fund? In those cases you have to organize the money yourself,
people in your government don't organize it for you.
Philosophically, government is supposed to serve everyone equally, but
depending on the political views of the alleged criminal, or the self-
proclaimed cause that they are supporting while performing allegedly illegal
acts under the banner of "civil disobedience" or "peaceful protest", there is
an availability of bail funds, selective prosecution, and all sorts of other
features of the justice system available on a selective basis - i.e. the
banner under which the illegality takes place.
If the principle of selective/unequal dispensation of justice is wrong, it
ought to be criticized irrespective of the form it takes. When it is ignored
in some forms but other forms result in outrage, it's difficult not to
question the motivations of whoever is amplifying this particular flavor of
bias.
If it is acceptable for the system to consider banners and offer different
features to offenders depending on which banner they are flying when they
interact with the system, then this is also acceptable.
I personally would prefer a conversation that looks at the problem of
selective enforcement across many spheres.
~~~
ijtioerhgser
Or we could just eliminate cash bail, for everyone. It's been eliminated in my
state for most crimes, and they are trying it out in other states as well.
It's not perfect, but it results in a lot less people in jail because they
can't pay, and it hasn't made us any less safe.
Otherwise, I don't think you're going to solve the issue of "people only
donating bail money to people they like." Because people are going to spend
money the way they want.
------
dbg31415
My neighbor in Austin is a lawyer for the police union. He would hand these
cards out to everyone in the cul-de-sac along with some booze for Christmas
presents. There's a little "CLEAT" sticker that you can put in your back
window too.
I put the sticker in the window of one car but not the other.
In the car without the sticker... I got pulled over in West Texas visiting
relatives, and the cop literally had his gun drawn as he came to my window.
Alone on a dark and empty road, guy with a gun on you -- probably the scariest
moment of my life.
In the car with the sticker, in a similar small town in West Texas (lots of
speed traps between Austin and Midland)... as the officer was walking to my
car he saw the sticker and his whole body language instantly shifted. He got
to my window, "Hope I didn't scare you with the lights, you don't seem like
you're from around here. Are you lost? Just trying to be neighborly."
I was going 20-ish miles over the speed limit both times.
I looked into getting another sticker and it literally only cost me $25.
Significantly better treatment from police doesn't cost very much. Anyway, yup
corrupt as fuck... but as long as these exist, for a simple $25 donation,
might as well have a CLEAT sticker in your window.
Also, what really bugs me... Police in Texas are allowed to unionize, but
Teachers are not. Oof. Been here almost 20 years now, I love a lot of things
about Texas, but some of the politics still suck.
PS: Also I keep a Book of the Mormon in my glove compartment, that way if I
ever do get pulled over I just casually grab the book when looking for
insurance papers. For some reason seems like a lot of cops in Texas are
Mormons...
~~~
082349872349872
Lund, "Bible on the Dash":
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S00y75ebq8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S00y75ebq8)
~~~
dbg31415
Ha, spot on.
When you find a flaw, do you fix the system or game the system?
------
excalibur
> The cards embody everything wrong with modern policing.
That's a pretty broad claim. The cards aren't even big enough to LIST
everything wrong with modern policing.
~~~
thrwn_frthr_awy
The cards represent corruption, self-interest, and selective enforcement of
the law. I think a lot of problems would be solved or help accountable for if
those issues were resolved.
------
Grimm1
This has been a common thing forever. Whether it's right is very much and
should be up for discussion but I'm surprised at how many people seem to be
learning this for the first time.
Same thing worked with the small silver shields you could give out. I don't
really agree with how policing is done in the US and it has started more than
one fight with my long retired former police father but as a matter of
practicality I still carry his silver shield with me.
He hasn't been an officer since I was 5 or so but even in high school the
active police families and the families with ada's or prosecutors all had PBA
cards and would give them out.
~~~
snapetom
Very much been around forever. The PBA cards are common in NY and NJ, where
cops are basically a legalized mafia. In areas where PBA cards are not the
norm, a simple business card with the officer's signature plays the same role.
"If there's a problem, you can check with my friend Officer so and so. Here's
his card."
------
theptip
Presumably this sort of thing will become harder to maintain as bodycams
become more prevalent.
It seems plausible that anti-corruption NGOs could request the bodycam footage
(anonymized, I suppose) under public records disclosure laws. (e.g. see
[https://www.rcfp.org/bodycam-video-access/](https://www.rcfp.org/bodycam-
video-access/), though I'd be really interested in what others think about the
likely legal interpretations of disclosure requirements.)
Yet another reason to push for more bodycams, and auditability/disclosure of
that footage; sunlight is often the best disinfectant.
~~~
djaque
The problem right now is that camera footage is handled by the police
departments. Any oversight requires the police to operate in good faith.
Thinking back to how many news reports I've seen where the footage was "lost"
or "the cameras were not switched on" I don't have any trust in that type of
system.
We really need third party monitoring.
~~~
BitwiseFool
Plus, think of the thousands of hours of footage that is regularly collected.
Without some incident or reason to inspect the video, most of the incidents
would go undetected.
------
smaslennikov
Pretty confused why this post got flagged, but I did put together a (strong)
personal opinion a while back[^0] that touches on these topics. I didn't
publish it because a friend gave me a counter opinion I couldn't find a time
to respond to, but I suppose it might as well be public now.
[^0]:
[https://smaslennikov.com/posts/enforcement/](https://smaslennikov.com/posts/enforcement/)
------
qntty
The first step to being an authoritarian is separating the in-group from the
out-group so you can deal out harsh punishment to one and be forgiving to the
other.
------
PostPlummer
30 years ago (quite exact), we drove back after a 48 hour "party" in Berlin
(Roger Waters playing "the wall" at the broken down wall). We got stopped at
the border (Germany > Holland) and I drove. We where tired, still high and
half drunk.
When the border patrol asked me (the driver) for papers, it took me a long
time to produce them and one of my friends woke up, asked what was going on
and pulled out his official "bridge operator" badge. Showed it (before I was
even capable to find my driving licence and passport) to the trooper and just
said "Hi partner": we where waved through.
When I asked what the actual F just had happened, he told me his job made him
an "non commissioned officer" and that was all it took for us to be treated as
part of the blue family, who go to great lengths to "help each other".
Different times, different continent, same rules.
------
Kednicma
The equivalent in our industry is when somebody gets locked out of a
Google/Apple/etc. multi-service account, has no backup or rescue access, but
is put in touch with a friend of a friend who happens to work at the vendor.
It's systemic favoritism.
~~~
AlexandrB
I wish people would keep these kinds of situations in mind when discussing
whether or not a certain industry is a "meritocracy".
~~~
aaron695
I have no idea what you are saying?
Having friends in an industry is hard work, so it a meritocracy, it is well
earned to have made contacts that will help you.
In this article it's perhaps family, but a family that supports their
childrens career in a blue collar job like policing, in a meritocracy, also
deserve the reward.
In policing perhaps it's illegal or should be illegal. But it's still a
meritocracy.
------
CarbyAu
What I don't get is:
\- The police need social capital. It helps enormously if they can be take at
face value for "just doing their job". And this would help in the minor day-
to-day interactions that makes up the majority of their working lives.
\- Not only is it blatant corruption, the very existence of such cards harms
the whole police forces social relationship! It is a "associate infraction
with a cop!" card!
If I were a true friend of the police, I would:
\- let them do their job fairly (while not letting them get away with unfair)
\- not try to associate a cop buddy of mine with _my_ poor decisions!
------
aazaa
The recent focus on racial bias in policing has had a negative outcome: to
distract attention from the fact that the law is being applied unevenly across
the US.
Racial bias in police encounters is a symptom, not the disease.
~~~
86J8oyZv
This is true, but the racial bias is easier to get people to rally behind. And
it's gotten people talking more about the non-racial injustices in our justice
system, too.
------
specialp
This is real at least in the NY area. NY law gives officers "discretion" in
issuing violations (not crimes). That doesn't have a limit. So being friends
with a fellow PO is technically not an illegal reason to not issue a
violation. I agree that it is not fair. Generally though if you do something
like drive 30 over the limit, they aren't going to let you off with a card.
But a non connected person can get pulled over for something minor and get
every ticket they can. This snowballs for poor people that then have more
fines on top of fines.
------
HeavyStorm
So "get out of jail free cards" do exist. And here I thought that GTA came up
with them.
In 1997
------
nphd
I feel like we're at a crossroads: Hire huge battalions of union dues-paying
forever-rookie police behind an iron curtain and arm them to the teeth, or
Operate a modernized, transparent, outcomes-based criminal justice system. It
would be interesting to understand why so many politicians and police
themselves talk about the latter while quietly implementing the former. What's
in it for them?
------
donohoe
I had one of these.
I was given it not having slightest idea what it was for (was only in the
NYC/US about two years at that point). I was told its meaning a couple of
years later when I found it again during a move.
I've thrown it out.
While I appreciate the gesture from the person who gave it to me, I was
repelled by what it represented in terms of how privilege and the police
system work.
------
jrochkind1
Last paragraph:
“Policing was never meant to be held accountable in the first place, not in a
meaningful, substantial way,” Wall said. He cautioned against focusing too
much on the injustice of PBA cards. “Be careful that the outrage [doesn't]
become directed in too narrow a way. The real outrage should be directed at
the nature of policing itself.”
------
SMAAART
Also available on eBay (of course)
[https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m...](https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1313&_nkw=PBA+cards+&_sacat=0)
------
ElijahLynn
I know two people who had these in New Jersey. One used to speed all the time
and never get a ticket or warnings. Super convenient for them. It was a legit
card, a metal one, I saw it. Pretty corrupt there in New Jersey.
------
caiobegotti
So... "protection" like under the mafia but only if you can afford the state
price, so its supporters invariably are high in the food^Wdecision chain. It
doesn't seem like a very democratic rule of law.
------
renewiltord
Hahaha, I love it. They literally formalized the old boys' network.
------
me_me_me
So we are now using monopoly rules to run a country?
A literal get-out-of-jail-free card!
~~~
dafoex
There's literally a monopoly "go" tile on it. Contrast this with the UK where
the coppers like to get "go to jail" t shirts.
------
xphilter
Wait till y’all learn about “fraternal order of police” fundraisers and car
stickers identifying donors, allowing “discretion” to be used by the cop to
let the violation go.
------
andrewxdiamond
In Ohio it’s is common to see license plates with police badges or stickers on
them. They are handed out to friends and family and deter officers from
pulling you over.
~~~
skizm
Almost all cops I know are specifically told to take all things that could
identify them as cops or friends of cops off their cars, windows, etc. since
there is so much targeted violence and crime specifically directed against
police. And this is in relatively safe NJ suburban areas. Tires on their
personal cars get slashed all the time due to having a badge in a window or
similar.
~~~
asdff
People drive pickup trucks with a 6' trump flag and a 6' thin blue line flag
mounted to each side of the bed in the midwest. different animal than the east
coast.
------
Ice_cream_suit
This is a common sort of corruption, worldwide.
Here in Australia, my receptionist has got out of a few minor traffic
infringements because her husband is a friend of a cop.
------
lawnchair_larry
The racial connection here is quite a stretch and sounds like more race
baiting. It has nothing to do with that. Knicks players have them. Yankees
have them.
------
classics2
Around here you see a lot of people with plastic stars they give out for
“donating” to police organizations screwed onto the rear license plate.
------
JoeAltmaier
Seems sketchy. But even the TSA has a 'safe list' of folks who can skip the
line - is this morally different? Law enforcement identifies folks who are not
habitual offenders, who support law enforcement and who if they abuse the
privilege will hear about it from a cop/friend, and give them a card. Not
sounding like such a terrible thing to me. Remember, nobody is getting away
with murder here.
<edit: elaborate>
------
cvhashim
Why is Vice always flagged on HN?
------
cma
Sounds like China's social credit system but maybe worse in some ways.
------
rsynnott
This can't _possibly_ be legal, surely? Wtf.
~~~
moogly
Only (or is it 'not even'?) the Police police the Police.
------
yadco
Can't find any evidence in this article.
------
bitwize
Literal get out of jail free cards. JHC.
------
EGreg
Hate the game, not the player. This is definitely corruption. BUT, at least,
it is supposed to be for _minor infractions_.
Unlike meter maids, police officers _should_ be given leeway to let people go.
It’s the mandatory minimums and fines you should worry about... cops doing
revenue generation for the city. And when their department doesn’t get enough
from taxes and tickets, police departments across the country turn to civil
forfeiture.
Ideally, the officers should act as if everyone has these cards.
[https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/local/20100607_Police_s...](https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/local/20100607_Police_say_don_t_confuse_courtesy_cards_with_a_free_pass.html)
~~~
nicoburns
> Ideally, the officers should act as if everyone has these cards.
Totally agree with this. I think part of the reason they are in issue is it
reduces the political pressure on this happening if some people can get this
treatment anyway.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Practical Networked Applications in Rust, Part 1: Non-Networked Key-Value Store - ngaut
https://arveknudsen.com/posts/practical-networked-applications-in-rust/module-1/
======
cpursley
Interesting! I'd love to take a structured distributed systems MOOC or course
in a modern language well suited for the domain like Rust, Go, Scala or
Elixir/Erlang. Does anyone know if something like this already exists?
~~~
lanekelly
MIT's 6.824 Distributed Systems course is taught in Go.
[https://pdos.csail.mit.edu/6.824/index.html](https://pdos.csail.mit.edu/6.824/index.html)
[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpl804R-ZwjKCOwWpTZ21...](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpl804R-ZwjKCOwWpTZ21eeaBS3uBrMfV)
~~~
zinclozenge
The company, PingCAP, that made the course in the linked article also ported
MIT 6.824 to Rust as part of their talent plan. You can check it out here
[https://github.com/pingcap/talent-
plan/tree/master/dss](https://github.com/pingcap/talent-plan/tree/master/dss)
------
civicsquid
I also worked through the courses in this series, up through Part 4.
I thought it was a great way to get introduced to Rust, especially when
concurrency comes into play. Having only ever written this sort of code in
C/C++/Java, the way Rust required me to rethink my design to properly
incorporate its concurrency model was really interesting to me.
For some reason sharing "references" in a formal way felt a lot different than
what I was used to, and I'm not sure why. I'd say I prefer it, perhaps because
it made my design feel more deliberate.
------
SpoofedHello
Question for Rust programmers, do you still use Rust for quick hacking and
exploration/prototyping or reach for another tool?
Rust is getting more attractive everyday, I wonder if there is something about
the language that highly influences lib authors to write quality stuff or if
the community has a high ratio of experienced devs.
~~~
asdkhadsj
> Question for Rust programmers, do you still use Rust for quick hacking and
> exploration/prototyping or reach for another tool?
I have replaced all my tooling with Rust, fwiw. Rewrote several things at work
with Rust _(which started this train for me lol)_ , and now all my projects
are in Rust as well.
I often say that Rusts complexity is oversold _(by myself, too, at times)_ ,
and it can be just as productive as Go, if used like Go. That is to say, Go is
often touted as being hyper productive because it takes decisions away from
you, such as Generics. You can apply the same tools to Rust, and suddenly you
lack a ton of features but also reduce the possible roadblocks you might be
wanting to avoid.
Personally I don't even avoid any Rust features these days, I use all of them
_(that I understand, at least lol.. which I think is all)_. I _more_
productive than in my Go days _(~5 years in Go, fwiw)_.
~~~
heavenlyblue
Do you use an IDE for Rust?
~~~
bluejekyll
I personally use VSCode with the Rust Language Server.
A lot of people seem to really enjoy the IntelliJ Rust plugin.
~~~
aknudsen
I use VS Code too, slightly curious about IntelliJ for Rust though since I
fundamentally like that environment.
~~~
pierreyoda
Their proprietary code analysis [0] is mostly better than the Rust Language
Server for now, even if I still use VS Code personally.
[0] [https://intellij-rust.github.io/](https://intellij-rust.github.io/)
------
morty_s
I’m currently reading through everything. It’s pretty cool, been seeing more
and more stuff like this lately.
It could serve as a great second or third project for someone learning rust
and the rust-ecosystem.
------
Scarbutt
Another nice(more lightweight) hands-on Rust tutorial that I came across with:
[https://docs.rs/csv/1.1.1/csv/tutorial/index.html](https://docs.rs/csv/1.1.1/csv/tutorial/index.html)
------
foobar_
How hard is it to build a c compiler with garbage collection and compile all
the the pre-existing code with safe garbage collection ?
~~~
mynegation
You don’t even need a compiler for this.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boehm_garbage_collector](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boehm_garbage_collector)
~~~
foobar_
I know about that one but can I compile mysql, httpd and all its dependencies
with it enabled? I don't care if it is 100x slow.
~~~
stormbrew
sure. free() just becomes a noop. But probably they'll leak a bunch because
conservative gc is kinda bad, doubly so in code that isn't made for it.
(it's really a little more complicated than that in codebases, like mysql,
that probably manage their own allocation and actually care about page level
stuff)
------
sittingnut
another rust hype article. with all that, readers of likes of hn, certainly
would have a skewed view of industry.
~~~
mcqueenjordan
Your comment isn't useful. Anything that ever becomes something was at one
point nothing. Rust gets attention because it's doing new things. Important
new things.
~~~
rgoulter
Yeah.
www.paulgraham.com/pypar.html In Python Paradox, the author argues that it's a
signal of quality that someone would take the time/effort to learn Python.
(Python is new and wouldn't land them a job).
Now in 2019, Python is popular. But I think it's fair to say instead that Rust
wouldn't be a good choice if you wanted to get a job using a language which is
popular in the industry.
~~~
paavohtl
From my experience people learning Rust are not people who are learning a
language to get a job. They are usually experienced developers with jobs who
know at least couple of languages, and learn Rust to expand their toolbox.
~~~
ps101
I'm learning Rust because:
1\. I want to add a low(er) level language to the ones I already know and use.
2\. Though I did some C/C++ in high school, getting really into depth with C++
at the moment seems really daunting.
3\. I don't need it for a job at this point so I can afford to learn a less
popular language that can potentially have a future and which exposes you to
new ways of thinking about code.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The great nutrient collapse - fmihaila
http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2017/09/13/food-nutrients-carbon-dioxide-000511?lo=ap_a1
======
jpfed
I wonder what math is being used, and whether there's some way to package it
in a way that's approachable to biologists.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ayn Rand interview (1959) - jobeirne
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ukJiBZ8_4k&feature=related
======
yummyfajitas
Good interview, but I didn't notice any mention of a pending economic
disaster.
~~~
jobeirne
That comes up in part 2 of this interview. I was thinking of just posting a
link to that, but it seemed discontinuous.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Amazon crowns winner of first warehouse robot challenge - oillio
http://www.engadget.com/2015/06/01/amazon-picking-challenge-winner/
======
Animats
That's a nice bin-picking system. Bin-picking is a classic robotic
manipulation problem [1], and they're doing a good job. They target the object
and approach it from an angle where pickup is possible. The unusual thing here
is the range of objects picked. Most bin-picking has a far narrower range.
It's a vacuum picker, which is limited; they couldn't pick up a perforated
metal pencil holder. But over 90% of the items tested were vacuum-pickable.
That's probably a reasonable figure for Amazon's inventory, since books are
vacuum-pickable. Amazon can sort their inventory into machine-pickable and
non-machine pickable.
The new system is really slow, but that can be fixed.
[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wh2GRA9enN4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wh2GRA9enN4)
~~~
peteretep
> since books are vacuum-pickable
Really? I'd have thought they were one of a class that weren't. If you latch
on to the outer cover, you'll splay the book, which can damage hard backs.
~~~
Raphael
Perhaps all the books are shrink-wrapped to hold them shut.
------
ck2
How can self-driving cars handle going down the road at 70mph, yet bin-picker
robots have to move so slowly to be accurate?
Seems like a contradiction to me.
~~~
ChuckMcM
They don't. It is a convergence problem. If you've ever seen a pick-and-place
robot in a factor you know they can be quite fast.
Simply put, the convergence problem is getting to the correct orientation and
position to positively pick up an item. Factory robots finesse that by putting
parts in a narrow area in the work space but modern car assembly robots can
pull parts in a wide variety of orientations and positions.
Current research has focused on visual systems as it is pretty cheap these
days to put a couple of cameras near the end effector to provide a
stereoscopic view to the effector converging on the target.
~~~
nulltype
Here's a pretty sweet pick and place robot for reference:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzHpDDttIBU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzHpDDttIBU)
~~~
dankohn1
That reminds me of the famous Lucille Ball chocolate scene [0], except in this
case the robot is keeping up just fine!
[0]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NPzLBSBzPI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NPzLBSBzPI)
------
thedogeye
Congrats to Team RBO!
And whatever is the antonym of congrats to Amazon's warehouse workers!
~~~
raverbashing
Based on stories about those positions, even though they'll lose their job,
hopefully they'll have a better position.
Amazon warehouse positions have high attrition and turnaround
~~~
MCRed
It's not just warehouse, it's engineering. Amazon as a company treats
employees (outside of the executive suite) like dirt. IT's a retailer, more
like Walmart than Microsoft, and so they have no respect for engineering. The
only reason AWS happened was Vogels had enough power to isolate his people
from the rest of Amazon (though I bet that team is suffering now too.)
My boss was trained to be a prison guard and couldn't operate spreadsheets,
after a re-org, his boss was, I kid you not, one of those DMV ladies who has
no interest in doing anything but covering her butt. (I mean, literally worked
at the DMV and then got a job at Amazon managing dozens of engineers.)
They like to say things like "only hire A players" but their entire management
is D players. It's hard to get a job as an engineer there but as an
engineering manager all you need is a college degree in basket weaving and a
demonstrated ability to kiss ass.
~~~
marincounty
I do agree Amazon is just another retailer in the end. As to being a cutting
edge technology company, I don't put Amazon in the same league as any of
Musk's companies, but what do I know? I know I'm tired of UPS trucks
delivering one package. I don't feel shopping on Amazon is good for the
environment. Maybe one day--when the drones deliver all the stuff we really
don't need? Sorry, I don't like these huge stores. In Amazons defense, they do
allow little guys to sell through their store. Is Amazon as evil as Wallmart--
no!
------
joars
Cool, it would probably be less complex if the items were at one place all the
time, like with a robotic warehouse:
[https://youtu.be/6EmR0KHBj_M?t=1m](https://youtu.be/6EmR0KHBj_M?t=1m)
~~~
peteretep
I have built an automated warehouse very similar to the one in the video; you
get different items in the same totes - any other approach is simply not
feasible from a space perspective.
------
sogen
say no to spec work
------
matthewrhoden1
I wonder if it would be better to have a smart bin that would simply push
products down a slide to a conveyor belt instead.
~~~
harmarsupercar
Yes, it does seem like they're using a robot to solve a human problem. If the
robots were the ones who decided how the shelves were initially stacked then
surely there would be more elegant approaches to this? picking and packing is
a tiny part of the whole ordering and delivery system which would probably be
best re-designed from the top down if all parts are to be conducted
automatically.
That said, I'm all for businesses encouraging research to be done in this
area. Automation will swallow us all eventually, but it's going to take a
while yet...
------
saosebastiao
There's nothing like giving away something for tens of thousands of dollars
that they could have sold for tens of billions.
~~~
melling
Can you skip the snarky comment and explain why this kind of contest is bad?
To me it seems like a great idea for everyone. The contestants:
1\. Can win money
2\. Gain exposure
3\. Network with other contestants
4\. Potentially get more funding
~~~
saosebastiao
If you could teleport packages to my front porch, would you be willing to give
that to Amazon in exchange for $25k and "exposure"? Amazon becomes the first
trillion dollar company in history and you get your name on a press release
and some snack money. I would never want any sort of exposure that told people
that I'm easily duped about the value of my brain.
~~~
robotresearcher
The problem is very very far from solved. Amazon is supporting students to
work on problems Amazon cares about, and these events are very important for
Amazon to recruit engineers. Some of these young people will go work for
Amazon and some of them will start companies that Amazon will buy. I don't
think they are being duped.
Amazon's robotics group is the Kiva Systems startup they bought for a huge
amount of money a few years ago.
I was at the conference and dropped in to this event. Lots of energy and
committed teams. Many/most teams did pretty badly. I heard (but couldn't
confirm) that only one item was correctly picked on the first day. It's not
easy.
~~~
phlyingpenguin
Do they fund the research groups?
Having been a grad student (EDIT: Hey, it turns out my research group has
published at ICRA! But not while this has gone on.), I get why these events
are interesting/important. However it seems like AMZ could do a little more
than <1/8th of an engineer in prize money (not counting the cost of running
the conference).
~~~
robotresearcher
I believe they did not directly fund these group's research. Just the
challenge.
Amazon does in-house R&D and is precious about the IP, like most companies.
Academic research needs to have flexible IP deals.
Most of the Amazon funding for this event went to supporting student travel
and registrations, plus gear shipping. Details are probably confidential but
think roughly an order of magnitude more than the cash prize. Shipping is
expensive.
Funding challenges is smart. Some groups are doing funded research anyway, on
more-or-less related things like grasping, vision, manipulation, planning,
whatever. The challenge gets teams to focus on a more complete and realistic
task, thus guiding the development of their general tech in Amazon's
direction.
Bottom line: Amazon, the historically conservative low-margin retailer, showed
up at the premier IEEE robotics research conference, brought some money and
hired some grad students. Students worked hard, learned a lot. Amazon and
winners got some good press. Awesome.
It's interesting how the best team was way ahead of everyone else. I'd be very
interested to see what Amazon can do internally.
~~~
marincounty
"Amazon, the historically conservative low-margin retailer"
They are slowly raising prices. It's off topic, but I have noticed their
prices are slowly rising. I saw this happen to Home Depot, and Costco. I'm not
knocking Amazon, I just got too comfortable clicking away, and should have
been looking around for the best price.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
McCabe Cyclomatic Complexity: the proof in the pudding - rbanffy
http://www.enerjy.com/blog/?p=198
======
billsix
if John McCarthy's eval/apply had a high cyclomatic complexity; would it
matter?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Donald Knuth used an Erlang-like notation - old_sound
http://videlalvaro.github.io/2016/10/knuth-first-erlang-programmer.html
======
fusiongyro
Knuth is simply defining a piecewise function here in ordinary math notation.
Functional programming languages borrow heavily from math, Erlang is a
functional language. The resemblance would probably be even more striking with
Haskell... which only serves to undermine the message.
Erlang's great though. Glad to see some irrational exuberance for it.
~~~
nayuki
Knuth's function would be written in Haskell as thus:
f [n] = [n]
f [m, n] = [m, n, 0, 1]
f [m, n, r, 1] = [m, n, mod m n, 2]
f [m, n, r, 2] = if r == 0 then [n] else [m, n, r, 3]
f [m, n, p, 3] = [n, p, p, 1]
It needs to be implemented with variable-length lists instead of fixed-length
tuples, in order to satisfy the type system.
~~~
old_sound
For me what's striking about Erlang syntax is the meaning of the semi-colon
and the period, as function clause separator. Most of the rest is just vanilla
FP lang syntax.
~~~
DanielMcLaury
To be fair that's just vanilla _English_ orthography.
~~~
old_sound
Yup, and still people get confused at Erlang's use of semi-colons and periods.
Do you think it is because other programming languages don't uses the semi-
colon that way? Or that periods are usually used to access class members, but
not to finish function declarations?
~~~
klibertp
I think it's because most people have no idea how to use semicolons in natural
languages too.
~~~
kbenson
I think this is true. Anecdotally, I've looked up the usage of semicolons a
few times now, and I _think_ I know how to use them, but every time I'm about
to I just rephrase what I'm saying so I don't have to. They are used so rarely
in English it's hard to feel confident through exposure.
~~~
adrianratnapala
I use semicolons all the time; they are easy and useful.
The two clauses separated by a semicolon are sentences; thus the semicolon is
logically and grammatically equivalent to a full stop. (As long as you
normalise the capitalisation). The difference is in nuance, flow, and other
soft things.
So when do you use a semicolon instead of a full stop? Whenever you want to!
The really difficult punctuation mark in English is the _full_ colon.
~~~
petertodd
What's a full colon? Hard/NSFW to google for that...
~~~
dragonwriter
Just a plain colon, as an emphatic distinction from a semicolon.
------
pmontra
To the eye of a developer used to more modern languages that also shows some
bad choices in the design of the Erlang syntax. Basically everything that
makes the source code less readable than the original: uppercased variables,
the minuses that prefix the module and export statements, the wierd =:=
operator. I add the also wierd <> binary and string concatenation operator,
not used in this example.
The semicolon-period statement separators/terminators are in the original and
in natural languages, but newer languages proved them to be useless. Probably
compilers in the 80s needed some help by the programmer to be fast.
Elixir fixed some of the worst offenders, kept others and added something.
Examples: the <> is still there but at least we can interpolate strings Ruby
like, the useless do at the end of almost every defsomething declarations (the
compiler should get it by itself.)
But every languages has its wierdnesses, the contest is to have the least of
them.
~~~
OskarS
It's worth noting that Erlang gets a lot of that weirdness from its progenitor
language, Prolog, where arguably some of that stuff makes more sense. For
instance, the =:= operator is an equality operator that forces arithmetic
evaluation, unlike = which is just used for unification. In Prolog, this is a
fairly crucial difference ("1 + 1 = 2" is false in prolog, while "1 + 1 =:= 2"
is true) and there needs to be language constructs that make the distinction
clear. Given that, having different operators is a sensible solution to the
problem.
On the other hand, it's arguably true that Prolog has an over-reliance on a
massive swath of operators. All of these operators represent some variation of
the concept of equality: =, ==, =:=, =@=, #=, and "is". The differences make
sense if you're deep into Prolog, and it's rich capacity for designing new
operators is arguably a strength of the language, but it's clearly an obstacle
to beginners.
I absolutely adore Prolog, but it's a real shame that development of logical
programming basically stopped with it. It would be as if functional
programming never properly progressed beyond early Lisps. Its a shame that
Erlang borrowed so much of its syntax, when the syntax is clearly not its
strongest suit (though it fits Prolog better than Erlang).
~~~
debacle
> The differences make sense if you're deep into Prolog
They make sense academically, but they only slow down language adoption.
------
unboxed_type
Its interesting how you squeezed 'Erlang language' into some syntax choices.
Erlang is about actor model, not about pattern matching. Joe had his
inspiration from Prolog - it is a well-known fact from publicly available
sources.
Anyway, thanks for the article, it sparked some emotions in my brains :-)
~~~
old_sound
I know all that. Long time Erlang dev, former RabbitMQ core dev, so yeah, I've
heard already about the Prolog story. Interesting you talk about the Actor
Model, since even Robert Virding has said that when they created Erlang they
had no idea there was a thing called "Actor Model".
~~~
unboxed_type
Wow! Ok. Well yes, as far as I know both Joe and Rob agree on that it is
accident that Erlang have implemented 'actor model' thing. Also its
interesting to note that functional nature of Erlang is very different to ML-
family languages. Authors used all these functional stuff because of
pragmatics in the first place and not because of solid theory underpinnings.
~~~
old_sound
Yup. See this convo
[https://twitter.com/old_sound/status/788349221946662912](https://twitter.com/old_sound/status/788349221946662912)
------
Xophmeister
Joe Armstrong's comment on this post is gold just for this:
But as Abraham Lincoln said - "don't believe everything you read on the Internet"
------
peterkelly
It's called pattern matching, and is present in most functional languages -
Haskell is a good example of something which uses this style extensively.
In a sense it's derived from the way that some mathematical functions are
expressed, e.g. i've seen the fibonacci sequence expressed in this manner a
few times.
The only thing this excerpt from the book has to do with Erlang is that they
both used the same (existing) idea.
~~~
old_sound
As mentioned already:
>For me what's striking about Erlang syntax is the meaning of the semi-colon
and the period, as function clause separator. Most of the rest is just vanilla
FP lang syntax.
It's strikes me that everybody notices the pattern matching part, but not the
way the clauses are separated, which AFAIK, it's something used by Erlang
Syntax only.
And yeah, after working in Erlang and other FP langs for the past 6 years I
kinda know this is called pattern matching ;-)
~~~
kqr
> _it 's something used by Erlang Syntax only._
Well... and English syntax. In English, you can specify a list of things by
separating each thing with a semicolon and then a sentence is terminated by a
period. Example:
> _Today I would like you to buy coffee; talk to Sarah about the party if you
> can, otherwise send her a text; drop off the kids; meet me at soccer
> practise._
You see how the sentence is terminated with a period, each individual item in
the list is separated by a semicolon, and the comma is free to use inside each
item to indicate related clauses. I've changed nothing about the structure of
that list, except replaced the items with function definitions.
> _Today I would like you to define f(m, n, r, 1) as f(m, n, remainder of m
> divided by n, 2); f(m, n, r, 2) as n if r is 0, otherwise as f (m, n, r, 3);
> f(m, n, p, 3) as f(n, p, p, 1)._
It's the same thing, only we've replaced the mundane everyday tasks with
function definitions. Now reformat the thing and we get
Today I would like you to define
f(m, n, r, 1) = f(m, n, remainder of m divided by n, 2);
f(m, n, r, 2) = n if r is 0,
f (m, n, r, 3) otherwise;
f(m, n, p, 3) = f(n, p, p, 1).
Sure, Erlang syntax happens to coincide with the syntax of English, and I'm
not sure whether this was intentional or not, but it certainly has nothing to
do with Knuth.
~~~
old_sound
Really you can use semi-colons on a sentence and then end the sentence with a
period? And I thought I had learned something during all my years studying
linguistics and grammar.
BTW, newsflash: many languages use semi-colons inside sentences. Spanish for
example, which could be argued to be older than English. So did Erlang copy
Knuth, or Erlang actually copied El Cid Campeador? I think Erlang comes from
El Cantar del Cid.
~~~
kqr
I just find it more likely that Knuth continued to use English for those
definitions, and not that he switched to Spanish, or for that matter Erlang.
~~~
old_sound
For me it's pretty clear he was trying to write the algorithms in Spanish,
therefore the semicolons.
------
sotojuan
Doesn't most of this syntax come from Prolog?
~~~
Turing_Machine
Likely that was its direct source (Erlang was originally developed in Prolog,
IIRC). However, the first volume of TAOCP came out in 1968, while Prolog dates
from 1972. It's possible that the Prolog team got the notation from Knuth, and
then Armstrong, et al carried it forward into Erlang.
~~~
4ad
Knuth didn't invent any notation here, it's just standard math.
There are a million languages out there that resemble math notation (mostly
functional languages), many of them resemble it much better than erlang does.
------
pwdisswordfish
This article reminds me of the "JavaScript is Scheme" meme from a while ago.
In that people wanted to increase the prestige of their favourite(?) language
by shoehorning it into a comparison with something high-status; which
comparison, when you think about it, doesn't make much sense.
> Interesting curiosity, which proves that the Erlang Syntax is some sort of
> Platonic Language Ideal that predates all programming languages.
Because it supports definition by cases and an if-then-else construct? And
because it uses the same punctuation marks that ordinary natural language
sentences do? Give me a break.
~~~
old_sound
Go get your break, while you are at it, get a laugh or two, because that's
what this article is supposed to be about. nobody is so silly to pretend Knuth
was describing Erlang on his book.
------
yellowapple
Are we sure it ain't just Prolog?
In particular, Erlang's syntax is heavily derived from Prolog's, so it's
natural to conclude that Prolog would be the closer relative to Knuth's
syntax.
In reality, though, it's probably the other way around; Prolog's syntax is in
turn more-or-less derived from the conventions in traditional math formulas
(especially with the uppercase variables and such).
------
4ad
Author confuses standard math notation with erlang, missing the fact that
other, more pure, functional programming languages even more closely resemble
math notation.
Nothing to see here.
~~~
rdtsc
> Author confuses standard math notation with erlang, missing the fact that
> other,
The article is silly whimsy, you know that? Knowing the author from online
presence, I can assure you the author doesn't really think Knuth was writing
Erlang at that time.
> that other, more pure, functional programming languages
Maybe the author doesn't care about other more pure functional programming
languages. They care about Erlang so they wrote about it.
------
rpcope1
Related:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRbY3TMUcgQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRbY3TMUcgQ)
------
KeytarHero
Uhh, TAOCP predates Erlang by quite a bit. Shouldn't the headline be, "Erlang
uses a Donald Knuth-like notation"?
~~~
rdtsc
> TAOCP predates Erlang by quite a bit.
Are you sure Knuth wasn't secretly programming in Erlang since the early 50's.
He is considered one of the original inventors, it was just too controversial
so it was covered up all this time.
I guess we need special whimsy and/or sarcasm tags so people don't take them
too seriously...
------
GnarfGnarf
Knuth also created in TeX the notation used by Microsoft's Rich Text Format
(RTF): {\b bold} etc.
------
ljbx
omg, wrong way round. It's more math or logic notation.
~~~
old_sound
More like satire logic notation, but who am I to tell at this point.
~~~
totallymike
Honestly I can't tell sometimes if HN is all just satirical internet comments.
I read the article, chuckled at the exchange with Joe Armstrong, then opened
the HN comments to look at all the grumbling.
Turns out there's plenty.
------
dang
This is a good case of where the HN guidelines call for changing a title of an
article: "Please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait."
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)
A good HN title is accurate, neutral, and close to the language of the
original article. If anyone suggests a better title, we're always happy to
change it again.
~~~
old_sound
It's not misleading or linkbait. It's just humor. Don't you have humor
guidelines at HN?
~~~
dang
Jokes certainly have their place but they're context-dependent, i.e. the same
title can work fine in one place but not another.
~~~
old_sound
Is the website title HackerNews not linkbait or misleading? I ask since I
usually don't see many "hacker News" around here…
~~~
dang
It's a category error to conflate article titles and website names, but I'll
play along.
Misleading? Arguably, but I don't think it's much of a stretch from "Hacker
News" to "news for hackers" to "anything that good hackers would find
interesting", which is the mandate of the site
([https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)).
Linkbait? I doubt it, but I'm biased.
------
gohrt
Clickbait title is clickbait.
minimal-syntax languages tend to look similar.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Children with high IQ more likely to do drugs as adults - casemorton
http://www.m.webmd.com/children/news/20111114/high-iq-in-childhood-may-predict-later-drug-use
======
tokenadult
Date of publication November 2011. Previous submissions of same underlying
story from other sites:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3237261>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2364425>
These discussions are about a single, unreplicated observational study. The
study doesn't prove causation and may not be generalizable to other countries
besides the UK (where the study occurred).
<http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
You Might Not Need Underscore - ville
https://www.reindex.io/blog/you-might-not-need-underscore/
======
haromaster
There is some really good points here. However, i feel a lot of these 'You
might not need...' articles are often a straw man response to the idea that
developers only use libraries because they are easier to code, not because
(some of them) solve cross-browser issues or provide better performance, offer
features that there isn't a 1:1 native method for etc.
~~~
oceanswave
Exactly this.
------
maroshii
One of the advantages of underscore (and lodash) is that you can iterate over
arrays AND objects indistinctly in most cases. How would you do:
var a1b2 = _.reduceRight({a:1,b:2},(memo,val,key) => key+val+memo,'');
or:
var two = _.find({a:2,b:3,c:4},(val,key) => key !== 'a' && key !== 'c' )
Until I see _.chain, _.compose, _.partialRight, _.zip or _.throttle (among
others) implemented in the standard library lodash is a no-opt.
With iterables and the "for of" loop javascript is definitely not going in the
direction of functional programming though.
------
LocalPCGuy
The article doesn't touch at all on the performance of lodash compared to
underscore or even native functions. In many cases it is more performant. So
while you do have to decide if the extra library load is balance by the better
performance in your specific use case, it should be considered.
Also, there is the simple fact a lot of people like the abstraction compared
to the native solution - it is often simpler to use and remember.
~~~
stymaar
> In many cases it is more performant Imho, choosing to use a library like
> lodash in the beginning of your project for performance reasons is a
> premature optimisation. In 90% of the projects, the speed of
> Array.prototype.map compared to _.map will never be part of the performance
> bottleneck.
> it is often simpler to use and remember Maybe people are used to one
> library's api, and expect the native counterpart to be more difficult, but
> the examples given in the article are counter examples to this statement.
~~~
jdd
You use something like lodash from the start so you know out of the gate
you're getting something modular, consistent, feature rich, that also happens
to perform well. Using a library like lodash gives wiggle room between you and
the language. This wiggle room allows for increased consistency, added
features, and performance improvements. For example ES6 introduces changes in
`Object.keys` to support string values. Lodash standardizes the behavior so
it's consistent across es3, es5, and es6 environments.
------
togakangaroo
Interesting post with a few neat things I didn't know (spread on an object?
Very cool)
But then you still have. To deal with awesome functional helpers like
denounce, not to mention insanely useful things like cloneDeep and zipObject.
Instead I'd note to use the natives tuff wherever possible and use lodash to
pull in just the functions you need piecemeal.
Oh and you should certainly mention Function.prototype.reduce and
Object.assign
------
fabien_
Underscore : _.each(array, iteratee) ES5.1 : array.forEach(iteratee)
And all the other elements...
Yes, you are right. But... The "array" is not always an Array.
document.getElementsByClassName( 'myClass' ) is not an Array but a
DOMNodeList. So document.getElementsByClassName( 'myClass' ).forEach(iteratee)
will not work. Same for map, reduce...
Underscore (or lodash) makes more that just polyfilling es5 methods.
~~~
julienng
Do something like: NodeList.prototype.__proto__ = Array.prototype;
------
GreLI
What about _.flatten()? E.g. to flatten an array before find()?
Just thought of 1-level flattening [].concat(...array). But it not that
explicit. Also, array.find(i => i.foo == 'bar') isn't as readable as
_.find(array, { foo: 'bar' }).
------
inglor
`Array.from({ length: n }, (v, k) => k + x)` this is a terrible way to create
a range, it only works incidentally. Please do not use it.
~~~
peferron
Which part of the spec makes you think it only works incidentally?
[http://www.ecma-international.org/ecma-262/6.0/#sec-
array.fr...](http://www.ecma-international.org/ecma-262/6.0/#sec-array.from)
~~~
inglor
The part where you're abusing an old "array like" and the way Array.from works
with it and uses the index argument in the mapper argument to force it into a
range. How many people do you think understand what `Array.from({length: 5})`
works?
~~~
peferron
Your comment sounded like it only worked because of implementation details in
the JS engines. That would have been a much bigger deal than just not liking
the style.
Out of curiosity, how would you do it yourself?
------
mc_hammer
true but underscore had the features first... so, i might not need es2015.
also i have no idea how to install es2015 or the browser compatibility it
brings.
thx for the info though. :)
~~~
ville
Check out Babel ([https://babeljs.io/](https://babeljs.io/)). If you're
already using some kind of build setup for your JavaScript, adding Babel is
very easy and quite a few projects are using it already.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
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