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Multiplatform GPU benchmark adds macOS/iOS Metal 2 support - apecat https://www.basemark.com/benchmarks/basemark-gpu/ ====== apecat As a starting point for real numbers, Guru3D has run Basemark GPU 1.2 on 20 GPUs, on Windows [https://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/basemarkgpu- benchmark-...](https://www.guru3d.com/articles-pages/basemarkgpu-benchmark- review-with-20-gpus,1.html)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
The Strange Paradise of Paul Scheerbart - dnetesn http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2015/12/16/strange-paradise-of-paul-scheerbart/ ====== reasonattlm Technological utopianism is a great thing and we should have more of it as a thread in the great global conversion. It has a very interesting history if you're prepared to go chase it down, something in every decade from the late 1800s on. Cosmism ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_cosmism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_cosmism)), Bernal's The World, the Flesh, and the Devil ([https://www.marxists.org/archive/bernal/works/1920s/soul/ind...](https://www.marxists.org/archive/bernal/works/1920s/soul/index.htm)), and the more recent paradise engineering of the Hedonistic Imperative ([http://hedweb.org/](http://hedweb.org/)) spring to mind among many, many others. People like the author of this article have a way of looking at the early transhumanists and saying "well, then the ugly parts of the 20th century happened," and somehow then discarding the original point, the goal, the wonder of the possible. The point still stands, however: that we can in principle engineer utopia, build technologies to eliminate pain, suffering, and death, and create wonders of macroscale engineering along the way. As a species we continue to move in that direction. Despite the intervening mass upheavals and deaths in the past 100 years, isn't 2015 so very much better to live in than 1915? And the 160 million people who died due to war in the 20th century are a small fraction of the ~3 billion (very approximately) who died in total. War is not a big part of the problem, for all that Serious Thinkers seem ponder little else. More people should be for technological utopianism, with eyes open. It shouldn't be remarkable to sit up and say "we can and should do more to stop suffering and death, and there is no point in stopping until it is all gone." Perhaps it would go faster if it wasn't just the science fiction authors, scientists, and philosophers who gave a little time to appreciate the bounds of the possible.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Breaking the Seal on Drug Research - gruseom http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/30/business/breaking-the-seal-on-drug-research.html?pagewanted=all ====== tokenadult The previous submission [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5970873](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5970873) received minimal attention from the HN new page earlier today. My thought on the overall implications of this article is that the scope of the new era of transparency will be much broader than discussed in the article. Any product or service claim that purports to be based on research may eventually have to be based on TRANSPARENT research, lest consumer fraud be suspected. That would apply as much to "alternative" treatments [http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/sense-and-nonsense- about...](http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/sense-and-nonsense-about- alternative-medicine-in-usa-today/) as to prescribed treatments ordered by licensed physicians. It would apply to the claims of automobile manufacturers and to the claims of ergonomic keyboard manufacturers. It would apply not just to claims by established big companies, but also to claims by Soylent or DropBox or any other startup that promises benefits from a new product or service. And that would be a good thing, on the whole. If the economy continues to operate on a free-enterprise basis, companies new or old, large or small, might continue to be able to puff their products and services, and consumers continue to be able to buy most that aren't actively harmful. People aren't likely to be required to be rational and evidence-based any time soon. But if consumers decide to only buy drugs, transportation vehicles, foodstuffs, or other products or services that have reasonable evidence demonstrating their safety and effectiveness, that is an exercise of freedom too. I'd be glad to have a lot more data about what data are out there about how well products and services I might pay for actually work. All the startup founders who read Hacker News might well devote some thought to how their business model will develop in a world in which nearly all product and service claims can be tested by independently gathered and analyzed evidence. ~~~ Alex3917 Research into alternative medicine is generally less problematic in terms of transparency because most of it is government funded. So you don't have pharma companies hiding data they don't like, bribing journals to publish data they like, etc. Occasionally you'll get supplement makers funding small trials, e.g. with zinc, but most of these you'd already be ignoring for other reasons anyway. ------ VengefulCynic To my mind, this sort of thing is a lot like crypto research. As a workman programmer, I know next to nothing about crypto algorithms so I can read the documents, but I can't provide much in the way of meaningful research. That said, I know that there are lot of interested crypto researchers out there who can provide meaningful analysis and who have an incentive to speak up if they find something. But on government-funded closed-source crypto algorithms, I have to take the NSA's word for it... ------ gwintrob "results of only about half of clinical trials make their way into medical journals" Sounds like an incredible problem not only for bringing new drugs to market, but also for all of the medication that's currently prescribed. ~~~ kvb Journals are typically interested in publishing novel results. Why would it be a problem if studies which find that a drug works as expected are not published, as long as they are still submitted to the FDA and assessed there? ~~~ gruseom Because it's bad both for science and for the public interest to keep this data secret. Also, many of the studies that have been suppressed do not "find that a drug works as expected". Nobody's saying that journals have to publish every study, just that the data should be available for review. That's so bedrock a principle of science that it's hard to imagine a credible argument against it. ~~~ cup I think the problem is the fact that pharmaeutial companies are trying to turn a profit to ensure their survival. If you invest a billion dollars in a new drug (which is the average cost these days) and its a flop, are you going to adverise it or is it in your inerest to be silent and hope another drug company makes the same mistake as you and suffers the same opportunity costs, therefore minimising your losses. This is a quintessential problem between public and private research. ------ Fomite While as an epidemiologist I wholeheartedly endorse the push for making corporate research data more open, this sentence: "they relied too heavily on the assumption that the articles published in journals accurately represented the results of all clinical trials that had been conducted." Is a little misleading. Meta-analysis, which is what Cochrane reviews are, are very conscious of the "file drawer effect", and looking for evidence of non- publication is a rather fundamental aspect of doing meta-analysis.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
PolarSSL is now a part of ARM - fcambus https://polarssl.org/tech-updates/blog/polarssl-part-of-arm ====== _stephan Congratulations! Who knows, maybe a part of the "exciting plans for 2015" is to release PolarSSL under a liberal open source license... ~~~ edent It's GPL 2 - [https://polarssl.org/how-to-get#open- source](https://polarssl.org/how-to-get#open-source) I'm not saying that's the nadir of licenses - but it's pretty good, no? ~~~ feld GPLv2 crypto will never dethrone OpenSSL ~~~ rurban Who should care if GPL is bad for a SSL library? First of all it needs to be correct and PolarSSL is the only one in this field. It is trusted, and it is fast enough. I would never trust GnuTLS, NSS or OpenSSL over PolarSSL. ~~~ getsat > Who should care if GPL is bad for a SSL library? An entity which actually ships software? ------ nly I would have expected Facebook or Google to do this ages ago. Particularly Google, rather than pursuing 'BoringSSL'. Still, it's nice to see new and different flows of investment in to TLS. I hope this is a sign that at least one British company is taking our privacy and security seriously. ~~~ tptacek Why exactly would Google want to buy someone else's SSL library? ------ shanemhansen Clearly ARM sees an opportunity for synergy with PolarSSL. I've built a few services on top of ARM based SOC and being able to fully utilize on onboard cryptographic coprocessor for file serving applications can be a performance challenge. There are some options [[http://www.altechnative.net/2011/05/22/hardware- accelerated-...](http://www.altechnative.net/2011/05/22/hardware-accelerated- ssl-on-marvell-kirkwood-arm-using-openssl-on-fedora/)] for getting openssl hardware accelerated on common arm boards, but it could be made much easier to get a performant configuration if PolarSSL and ARM worked together. I hope that this acquisition will pave the way to an encrypted internet of things. ~~~ ChuckMcM Exactly! A common SSL that works on all ARM SOCs that you can get for 'free' from ARM is critical to the security of distributed smart devices. If done well, this can be a huge win. ------ clopez What exactly it means that PolarSSL (a crypto library) is now part of ARM (a CPU architecture) ??? ~~~ Tarang It probably means ARM will create ASIC type encryption on their chips. May be helpful saving battery life. ~~~ notacoward It _might_ , but I wouldn't say _probably_. It might also mean more resources devoted to ensuring that PolarSSL runs well on the ARM architectures/chips that are (or will be) out there anyway. That's probably more interesting to most people, except for those making dedicated network hardware. ~~~ xgbi I don't see the problem, PolarSSL runs on ARM very well! ~~~ notacoward Who said there was a problem? I'm sure PolarSSL runs very well on ARM already. However, it's also extremely likely that it could run even better if the PolarSSL developers were more fully plugged into what the people who work on the ARM crypto hardware know. It's amazing what one can do if one knows _exact_ details of what's going on within each functional unit, between them on the internal coherency bus, etc. ARM probably saw an opportunity, not a problem. ~~~ bravo22 I don't think it is that. ARM doesn't make the crypto. The SoC makers put their own crypto cores so it wouldn't help ARM that way. I think just like they bought Keil (a dev tools maker) this is a strategy play to make it easier for end devs to add SSL or other crypto to their products. One shop solution. ~~~ notacoward Actually ARM does make crypto. It's part of ARMv8, licensable as an option for at least the Cortex-A53. [http://infocenter.arm.com/help/topic/com.arm.doc.ddi0500e/DD...](http://infocenter.arm.com/help/topic/com.arm.doc.ddi0500e/DDI0500E_cortex_a53_r0p3_trm.pdf) (section 2.1.4) There are undoubtedly other bits as well, as part of their "trusted computing" blahblah. Even if that weren't the case, knowing more about the internals of current and upcoming ARM IP could help optimize even an all-software implementation of PolarSSL. You could be right that it's mostly about "one stop shopping" but that doesn't mean there won't be other benefits. ~~~ bravo22 You are correct. However, Trusted Computing crypto is different than the crypto accelerators you find as peripherals in an SoC. I should have been more clear that I meant crypto peripherals. There are crypto instruction extensions but don't require a separate library implementation -- just asm code optimization in something like openSSL. PolarSSL is also targeted (mainly) towards much lower power than A53 or Cortex-A. It is targeted towards Cortex-M where you are dealing with KB of data and often don't have an MMU. You can't just port OpenSSL to those platforms and run it at will, hence their optimized libraries. ------ ctz I guess this is part of ARM's IoT push. ~~~ errordeveloper It's funny how in issue #1 users are asking for DTLS. I'm pretty sure this is what's finally going to get implemented and probably will appear in mbed OS soon too. [https://github.com/polarssl/polarssl/issues/1](https://github.com/polarssl/polarssl/issues/1) [http://mbed.org/technology/os/](http://mbed.org/technology/os/)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
The cost of messaging - rayvega http://ayende.com/Blog/archive/2009/02/09/the-cost-of-messaging.aspx ====== CalmQuiet No: topic is actually about demands of _writing_ message objects: [http://codebetter.com/blogs/gregyoung/archive/2009/02/09/cos...](http://codebetter.com/blogs/gregyoung/archive/2009/02/09/cost.aspx)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: Examples of things that are MORE successful due to coronavirus? - andrewstuart Some businesses/events/organisations have discovered they are MORE successful as whatever they morphed into due to coronavirus.<p>It would be great to read a list of them.<p>Here's an example:<p>Melbourne International Film Festival numbers way up as digital-only festival proves a huge hit.<p>https://www.theage.com.au/culture/movies/miff-audience-numbers-way-up-as-digital-only-festival-proves-a-huge-hit-20200820-p55nqh.html<p>Do you know of any business/organisation/event that has found that its new Covid/isolation/remote configuration works better than the old? ====== schappim E-Commerce, Shopify, Apps, Home Improvement / Hardware (Bunnings), Consumer Electronics & TV Sales (JB Hi-Fi, Amazon) Acceptance of Government Authoritarianism and reduction of privacy to aid the fight against COVID-19. Nationalism, de-globalisation (closure of borders, lower interstate and international travel). ------ zanecraw Amazon, and other online businesses for sure. Netflix/Hulu because everyone has more time now at home. Gaming platforms and video games. Even those "meal boxes" services like hello fresh and blue apron ------ rdtwo Camping and outdoor activity, real estate prices, new housing starts. Sales of gym and excercise equipment, playgrounds, video games, really all the hobby sectors boats I think. ------ markus_zhang mobile gaming, e commerce, pornographic websites, basically everything addictive and online... ------ markus_zhang Another one, real estate...	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Single-atom transistor discovered - prakash http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091206085833.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29 ====== scottw It was also discovered on Saturday: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=979559> and again yesterday: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=978074> ~~~ prakash sorry, didn't see those links.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
The Appalling Stance of Rand Paul - d4vlx http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/12/opinion/blow-the-appalling-stance-of-rand-paul.html?hp&rref=opinion ====== rthomas6 This is off topic for Hacker News per the guidelines. [http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html) ~~~ drhayes9 Standard reply to those posting about going against the guidelines: "...Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups." It got voted up to the front page. Why do you feel it's off topic? ~~~ rthomas6 Because a NYT op-ed about how heartless Rand Paul is is not part of an interesting new phenomenon, or even interesting at all in a hacker sense. I feel like people upvoted it because they agree with it and feel strongly about the issue, but it's just partisan politics. Politicians say crazy things all the time and I enjoy being able to go to HN and NOT see politics plastered everywhere. ~~~ d4vlx FWIW I posted it for the social commentary on the perception of the poor in the US. IMO the personal attack on Paul was a minor aspect, more of an inspiration to give commentary than a personal attack. Social commentary frequently shows up here.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
A Newly Discovered Memory In Which People Remember Every Day Of Their Lives - jamesbritt http://singularityhub.com/2011/09/29/hyperthymesia-%E2%80%93-a-newly-discovered-memory-in-which-people-remember-every-day-of-their-lives-video/ ====== wallflower I remember a hypnotist at our college orientation taking an audience member and having them recall who they sat in homeroom with (their names, what they looked like). Supposedly we retain almost all memory but lose recall to it over time.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Apple Sues Nexus One Maker HTC - budu3 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/03/technology/03patent.html?ref=technology ====== invisible The problem is Apple didn't really INVENT[1][2][3] the concept and technology for multi-touch. They just implemented the first realized product (in a phone). So what if they filed a patent for that product? It doesn't mean it wasn't an obvious technological concept. 1) <http://www.macworld.com/article/49738/2006/03/interface.html> 2) [http://www.ted.com/talks/jeff_han_demos_his_breakthrough_tou...](http://www.ted.com/talks/jeff_han_demos_his_breakthrough_touchscreen.html) 2) <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Surface> ------ michaelkeenan Paul Graham wrote an essay on software patents in 2006. I found it helpful to get an overview of the wider issue: <http://www.paulgraham.com/softwarepatents.html> I wonder whether this part is relevant: "When you read of big companies filing patent suits against smaller ones, it's usually a big company on the way down, grasping at straws. For example, Unisys's attempts to enforce their patent on LZW compression. When you see a big company threatening patent suits, sell. When a company starts fighting over IP, it's a sign they've lost the real battle, for users." ~~~ loganfrederick Paul's thoughts are in the right direction. To extend his writing (to apply to this situation), if a company starts fighting over IP, it's a sign they've lost the battle for users or fear that they will and are attempting to preemptively kill the competition. ------ kgrin Among the more absurd patent claims being litigated: "Unlocking A Device By Performing Gestures On An Unlock Image" Seriously? I'm not sure if it's a step above or a step below one-click, but it sure as hell ain't far from it. ~~~ stse Also Neonode did this back in 2004/2005 with the N1. Apple's patent is a month old. Demo @ <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj-KS2kfIr0#t=4m00s> Edit: from question to statement. ~~~ vaporstun The date Apple received the patent is very different from when they filed the patent, or even when they first came up with the idea. So in spite of the fact that it's a bit absurd, it is inaccurate to claim that anyone who had a lock screen more than a month old constitutes prior art. ~~~ ZeroGravitas However if you read it (though, IANAL) you'll see that it is a direct translation of lock screens from standard phones to those with touchscreens. It's on the same level as a patent for "standard thing X but with a computer", or "X on the internet", now it's "X with a touchscreen". ------ jsz0 Looks like a straight forward patent money grab. Apple just has to win on a few of these patents to negotiate a license fee with HTC. With one win under their belt they can extend it to other handset makers without too much trouble. All the sudden Apple is making some money off every cell phone sold as dumb phones disappear and get replaced by SmartPhones (or they just get smarter and infringe) Obviously Apple would never license iPhone OS to third parties so this seems like an attempt to simply license some of the technologies instead. I don't know the math but just based on the huge volume of cell phone sales alone it's gotta be worth a ton of money. If Apple loses in court other handset makers just continue to use these technologies and nothing changes. Unfortunately that's how the system works. Apple share holders were probably not too happy about the prospect of leaving all that money on the table. ------ Batsu My curiosity is who declared war on who in the Google v. Apple nonsense. Just a little over a months ago, Steve Jobs took some jabs at Google, calling them out on their motto ("Don't be evil") and saying they want to kill the iPhone with Android.[1] Now we have Apple suing HTC over Android devices - glancing over the documents[2] "HTC Android Products" is mentioned over and over and over, though WinMo phones are cited as well. In the past, Google has intentionally removed features from Android in respect to Apple's patents, even at Apple's request[3]. This isn't exactly the case now, which is why I'm asking the question... did Google start adding in these patent infringing features first, or did Apple feel threatened first? I don't think it's a coincidence that HTC is the largest manufacturer of Android handsets. Is it possible that Apple foresees a significant loss in market share over the coming years and wants to stem the flow? [1]: [http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/01/googles-dont-be- evil-...](http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/01/googles-dont-be-evil-mantra- is-bullshit-adobe-is-lazy-apples-steve-jobs/) [2]: [http://documents.nytimes.com/apple-patent-lawsuit-against- ht...](http://documents.nytimes.com/apple-patent-lawsuit-against-htc#p=1) [3]: [http://digital.venturebeat.com/2009/02/09/apple-asked- google...](http://digital.venturebeat.com/2009/02/09/apple-asked-google-not- to-use-multi-touch-in-android-and-google-complied/) ~~~ jkincaid I believe that Apple 'declared war' first, when it began rejecting Google's iPhone applications last summer. First it rejected Latitude, then it rejected Google Voice, which is when things really started to get nasty. Google has been slightly more subtle with its shots back. It released Navigation for Android, which I strongly doubt will be making it to the iPhone any time soon. It acquired AdMob before Apple could. And then it launched its own phone (less subtle, that one). I'm curious how early Jobs found out about Google's plans for the Nexus One. I'm sure such devices take a long time to make, and if he heard last spring/summer that Google was making its own phone, that might have sparked all of this. That's just speculation though. ------ sofal I don't understand this patent world. From everything I've read, it is obvious to me that I could get about 5 patents out of every casual conversation I have with my fellow grad students each day. Is everyone in the judicial system completely oblivious to this insanity? ~~~ dagw Accepting patents is a lot less paper work for the patent office than rejecting a patent. You need to give a good reason to reject a patent, but no reason to accept a patent. Their basic operating theory seems to be accept them all and let the lawyers sort it out. ------ Auzy It seems to be more of an attempt to attract attention. Synaptic were working on Multitouch sensors before Apple Patented, and researchers have been for years before Apple too. And looking at the patents, they are obvious. Hopefully Apple don't win this. ~~~ danudey The issue is that Apple hasn't patented multitouch; they've patented heuristic algorithms to determine gestures based on multitouch input (the '949 patent'). That's why all Android phones (and the Palm Pre) shipped with multitouch- capable screens, but no multitouch-capable software (until the recent Nexus One update). ------ greenlblue Nobody wins in these things except the lawyers. Also, at this point Apple is starting to look like a 5 year old baby throwing a temper tantrum. The negative publicity with the app store combined with taking jabs at google just makes them look really bad. ------ ortusdux Would it be smart of Google to buy HTC? Many people speculated that YouTube would have been sued to oblivion had Google not bought them. ~~~ rbrcurtis its funny you say that, because I remember everyone saying that youtube was going to get sued into oblivion as soon as it was obtained by a company with deep enough pockets to make it worthwhile. ~~~ romland The deeper the pocket is, the further away the oblivion is. ------ sofal Earlier conversation on this topic: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1161467> ------ nikils Reminds of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Computer,_Inc._v._Microso...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Computer,_Inc._v._Microsoft_Corporation) ~~~ mark_h That was about copyright though, this is about patents. ------ j23tom As we see it's not true that corporations buy patents 'just in case'. It's nice tool to axe the enemy :)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Freud and Cocaine - gnosis http://www.historyhouse.com/in_history/cocaine/ ====== xijuan Freud, Freud, should I love you or hate you? ------ johndlafayette <http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/freud/freud03a.html>	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
E-Book Price War Has Yet to Arrive - iProject http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/24/technology/e-book-price-war-has-yet-to-arrive.html?_r=0&adxnnl=1&ref=technology&adxnnlx=1356382553-nDwmZT11xS/9qZqgGxJmRw ====== johnrgrace The price war will come in 2013. Contracts have only just been put in place under the DOJ settlements. Also I suspect that Amazon may be holding since they've done a boatload of TV ads and I can't see that they raised prices. I would guess that there is a reasonable chance they'll lose money in Q4. ------ mtgx I would rather pay more for the hardware, and get cheaper content, than get cheaper hardware, but then expensive content.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
iPhone logs my complete movement profile - ladino http://board.protecus.de/t42771.htm#360301 ====== tsycho That's how the iOS core location API works (and it has been this way since iOS 5 atleast, if not earlier). In particular, there is a \|startMonitoringSignificantLocationChanges\| method ([https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/CoreLo...](https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/CoreLocation/Reference/CLLocationManager_Class/CLLocationManager/CLLocationManager.html#//apple_ref/occ/instm/CLLocationManager/startMonitoringSignificantLocationChanges)), which "callbacks" into apps that have registered with the Core Location framework for significant change updates. The update is provided generally only when cell towers change, so it is not a battery drain (or not a significant one). Hence, your mobile operator definitely has this data, and is most likely already tracking it and/or piping it to the NSA etc. Significant change monitoring is used by Google Now among other apps (I believe Facebook also does this, I find that more sneaky since they have no obvious need for it). Google Maps _navigation_ does not use this, since it needs more granular and accurate data hence it uses the more battery-intensive location APIs. If the complaint is that it's okay for Apple to collect this data for apps to use, but there is no need to log it, especially since the user might choose to not allow any apps to access their location data, then that's a fair point. I don't know if iOS shows these logs only on the beta versions, or whether they are stored persistently on release versions as well. Source: I am a iOS dev, and have built location based apps. ~~~ eddieroger One _really_ important bit of information to add to the first full paragraph is that when the app tries to use startMonitoringForSignificantChanges: for the first time, the user is asked whether or not they want the app to. If they select "Don't Allow", then it's game over for that app until the user changes the setting in Settings. This doesn't stop iOS from doing what it's doing, but should quell fears that random apps are just logging all kinds of user data and sending it to who knows where. ~~~ rismay Very true. I wasn't even aware of that part of the Settings app until I started developing. Apple should at least allow developers to "deep link" into the settings screen to remove that friction. ~~~ 6chars Apple used to allow that (well, developers figured out the right URIs to use), but they broke it in iOS 5.1.1 or 6 IIRC. ------ julianpye If you want to build transparent context-aware services, your system will need to create this information. Nothing new to do with the iPhone, since Telcos already have had this information for ages (and could use them anonymously) - it's good at least that in this system you see how the data is being analysed and associated with Work/Home, etc... and not that it is hidden in the background. ~~~ Eduard Given current affairs, it's bad that this system doesn't inform the user about a new feature being activated on default. It is hidden in the background. ~~~ nicholassmith Actually when you setup your iPhone (including these betas) it _does_ ask you if you want to have the feature enabled. It certainly wasn't on by default for me, I agreed to it. Granted it doesn't go into incredibly great detail of exactly what it was tracking but it does give you the gist. If the NSA wants to track you, there's far simpler ways than asking Apple to build a new product feature than can be disabled. ~~~ deveac _> If the NSA wants to track you, there's far simpler ways than asking Apple to build a new product feature than can be disabled._ I don't know...letting a plethora of private entities collect and aggregate user data for easy access with (or without in many cases) a court order seems almost like the epitome of simplicity. Most of the hard work (both resource- wise and legal) has been done for you or is easy to do. Just cause one could design a simpler system of acquiring user data doesn't mean that features like this aren't profoundly simple and useful to them. I take your point though, that the NSA doesn't need to direct a company to code features that collect data...because so many companies already do. It's a waste of their breath. They just need to concentrate on grabbing what has already been grabbed. We've been the product for a long time now, and we're either being sold to the government, or the government is taking what they want under (il)legal cover. ~~~ nicholassmith Which is why there's an off switch for the feature. Of course we don't know if the offswitch is an offswitch or a 'hide this from the user' switch but then we have to start mistrusting all the technology around us. ------ Watabou Android does this too with Google Now. iOS7 uses frequent locations, pretty much like Google Now, to provide the travel times, with traffic, between your frequently visited locations. Here's a screenshot: [http://cdn.macrumors.com/article- new/2013/06/location2.jpg](http://cdn.macrumors.com/article- new/2013/06/location2.jpg) ~~~ raverbashing Yes Google Now is bordering scary Here's what happens on Google Now when you travel 1 - Search for a place (this is usually the hotel you're going to) 2 - Get there 3 - Google Now will give a traffic alert "xx minutes until $PLACE" (the place you searched for in n.1 ) ~~~ eddieroger I didn't even mind that. What really freaked me out about Google Now is when it started showing package tracking cards based on having shipping notices in my email. Of course Google has access to all of that, but it weirded me out the first time I saw it. ~~~ pwelch Agreed. Most of the times I check invoice emails I am looking for the Tracking Information. This is what makes it tough to move away from Google. Yes they give the NSA access to my data and border on scary by analyzing all of my usage but they offer some really handy options. ------ rsynnott You mean that thing it asks you for permission to do when you set up the phone, and gives you a slider to disable? It actually does it? Well, I'm shocked, I tell you, shocked. ------ thejosh Atleast they will show you the data, unlike phone companies who hold all this data anyway. Once you have a phone device with an active signal you are tracked, and that's just not being paranoid either. ~~~ donquichotte But how much of the collected data do they show you? IMO services like this should be opt-in, rather than opt-out. ~~~ ladino it's currently ios7 beta, i really hope they do it opt-in in the future. ~~~ pilif The difference between ios7 and previous versions is not that ios7 is logging. It's that ios7 is telling you that it's logging and what it is logging. Location Services always worked this way - it just wasn't exposed to the user. ------ BitMastro The same happens with Google Maps [https://maps.google.com/locationhistory/](https://maps.google.com/locationhistory/) unless you disable location history. I think it's naive to suppose that your location information is not stored anywhere. Moreover, your location can be determined also if you're using a dumb-phone using cell towers triangulation. ------ willvarfar A long time ago, when the first iphone location logs got attention, we made a little web-page for people to visualise this: [http://markolson.github.com/js-sqlite-map- thing/](http://markolson.github.com/js-sqlite-map-thing/) Blog post: [http://williamedwardscoder.tumblr.com/post/15210221400/visua...](http://williamedwardscoder.tumblr.com/post/15210221400/visualising- iphone-tracking-data) > It turns out people have no squirms dragging and dropping their private > backup files - often all their files, and not just picking out the files we > ask for even - onto a webpage running code we wrote. ------ antonID I have been using the iOS7 beta since it came out, and before doing this, it had asked me for permission. This is opt-in, so if you don't like it you don't have to use it. ~~~ ladino yes on install it asks if it is allowed to use location services at all (for all apps) but not for this tracking feature. ~~~ Terretta Both iPad and iPhone iOS 7 betas asked me separately about this feature. ------ jbrooksuk What's wrong with this? Apple are openly providing this information for you to view - rather than others who don't even warn the user. Plus, it's improving their services which you more than likely need. Why complain? You can opt out. ~~~ _ak > Why complain? Because the person in the article is German, and Germans love their privacy- by-default and opt-in. Datenschutz über alles. ~~~ aw3c2 Germany has the "benefit" of having experienced the Gestapo and Stasi so there is knowledge how dangerous omniscient parties are. ------ digitalengineer Why do our European leaders even plan RFID in licenceplates? With this in the default 'ON' position on all smartphones they can already keep an eye on everybody. [http://www.autoblog.nl/images/wp2013/tweet-2.jpg](http://www.autoblog.nl/images/wp2013/tweet-2.jpg) ~~~ philjohn Stop being paranoid - they can already track you from cell tower data. ~~~ rogerbraun We should stop being paranoid because we are already being tracked? ------ 37prime It is nothing new. In previous iOS, this data was not presented to users at all. Android does this too. At least you can turn this off in iOS 7 beta 5. ~~~ ladino \- It was invisible to the normal user! \- It collects these exact data since iOS 7 beta 4 and shows it since beta 5! ~~~ reaperhulk This is just flat untrue. It has collected this data since b1 and I found the screen that showed it in b2 or b3 (but it was probably present in b1 as well). It also explicitly asks you if you want this feature (separate from the location services opt-in). ------ octo_t It also does analysis, similar to Google Now, that tells you how long it will take to get home from where you are now. ------ northwest Society has accepted to be tracked all the time/everywhere with the introduction of mobile phones. If we don't like this, we should start to talk more proactively to people about the dangers our technology brings. ~~~ greyman In my opinion, "accepted" is not the most precise word to describe it. If telco companies would say at the beginning: "You can buy mobile phone from us, but the part of the deal is that you will be tracked. Do you accept that?" If most people say Yes, that would be accepting it. The reality was, that it was slowly revealed over time that the tracking is being done, and most people realized it only after mobile phones became a norm and very hard to get rid of. ~~~ northwest True. I'd say that it's the responsibility of those familiar with technology to reveal what possibilities it opens up. And of course it's the responsibility of the Press to give these points the visibility they deserve. And one problem of the past was probably the disconnect between tech people and Press people (tech was not understood by the people behind the presses). Today, we have tech bloggers and social media. Let's hope this will make up for something. ------ lukashed Since this is a developer preview, there are plenty of other logging options as well. For example, if you got to the Settings -> Developer -> Logging menu, you can dump all your network traffic. You can also do this on (some) application-levels, e.g. if you go to the iMessage preferences, you can enable "iMessage Logging" and "Registration Logging", same for FaceTime (though I'm not sure why any developer would need this, it looks more like this is an Apple-internal thing that they forgot to disable for the public). ------ ltcoleman I'm pretty sure this is completely against the NDA...No respect. ------ wsr Wow, this is an amazing find. I can understand that Apple/govt would love this information. But anyone has guesses on why this would be a public facing feature? ~~~ julianpye Four years ago I led a project like this. In this slideset you can see on page 4 what we wanted to build and on page 5 whate we would need: [http://www.w3.org/2008/09/msnws/slides/vodafone- pye.pdf](http://www.w3.org/2008/09/msnws/slides/vodafone-pye.pdf) ~~~ ronaldx This is a super-interesting project, but not something I would be interested in using. If I arrive at Piccadilly Circus, I don't want my phone to tell me what service I [should need/should be using] - I want to easily and consistently access any service that I want from my phone. I want to be in control of my phone, not for my phone to be in control of me. ~~~ julianpye Even then people were overwhelmed by the phone functions and could not navigate the directory when they needed something quick. With people having installed tens of apps nowadays, this problem is even worse... ~~~ ronaldx I feel that the correct solution to this is approximately the one that now exists: allowing people to control how the navigation screens look, and control for themselves how to access the apps they use. ------ eknkc BTW, it asks specifically if you want to share the information with Apple to improve maps data before activating that feature. ------ rumbler What depresses me is, I see how this information could be used in many kinds of amazing ways, but since I cannot control who gets it and what they will do with it, I refuse to use it for fear that it will be used against me. It is the tragedy of the modern connected world, one that Stallman and others saw coming years ago. And it will keep getting worse. ~~~ voodoo123 iOS let's you choose: \- Whether this information is collected at all \- which specific apps can access it \- whether apple can receive an anonymized copy of it to improve their maps The data is stored securely on your device and you can see it delete it. What more control do you want? ------ andrewingram Looks like they're just making visible what they've been doing for years, hardly a new controversy. 2011: [http://www.pcworld.com/article/225845/Why_Apple_Tracks_You_V...](http://www.pcworld.com/article/225845/Why_Apple_Tracks_You_Via_iPhone_It_Not_Why_You_Think.html) ~~~ fnl True, but we all know from marketing/propaganda lessons that frequent repetition is the only way to drive a point home in most cases... :) ------ incanus77 This was covered in The Verge this week: [http://www.theverge.com/2013/8/5/4590794/ios-7-will-ask- user...](http://www.theverge.com/2013/8/5/4590794/ios-7-will-ask-users-to- help-improve-maps-by-sharing-frequent-locations) ------ joering2 Im not related to this project, but I thought its worth mentioning here: [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/offpocket/off- pocket?ref...](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/offpocket/off- pocket?ref=category) ------ yalogin I thought this only happens with your permission. I remember this is in the first few screens after you update. Also in the screen shot of his it clearly shows he gave permission to remember location. Why is this news? What am I not seeing? ------ ladino a bit scary to see exactly how often and when i was where with my gf... nice to see they added a microphone privacy setting. Anyway imho it's close to a perfect surveillance system. ~~~ northwest I don't think it's wise to trust any such "privacy setting". What devices really need is a hardware switch allowing us to physically disconnect cameras and microphones. I've never understood why this was not introduced as a standard when laptop cams/mics started being built-in. ~~~ bruceboughton How can you trust a hardware switch any more than a software switch? Granted you can take your hardware apart to inspect it, but: \- can you put your laptop together again? (especially tablets) \- will you be able to see the switch innards to ensure it is disconnected? \- who will bother? ~~~ teddyh Someone could take apart such a switch once and verify that it works, and then tell everyone else who owns such a device. With software, this is very hard, and when software can be updated at any time it is impossible. ------ blizzard30 This does not exist :)) looked for it, and I have the same beta. ~~~ M4v3R It does. Maybe you didn't look very closely, or maybe it doesn't exist on older devices (I have iPhone 4S and I have this feature). ~~~ blizzard30 iPad mini here A1455 ~~~ taspeotis If anybody was wondering, A1455 is the cellular model. So it should be able to collect this information accurately. Although, let's look at the title: > iPhone logs my complete movement profile (iOS7 screenshots) (protecus.de) We're not talking about iPads here.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Show HN: Arima – A Q&A site for mass opinon - winstonl http://arima.io/?utm_source=hacker%20new&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=hn ====== diminish correct the title, "opinon".	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Caddy – The HTTP/2 web server with automatic HTTPS - joshmanders https://caddyserver.com/?hn ====== bketelsen I use caddy for everything I serve on the web now, and have been for roughly a year. It's an amazingly stable server -- fast and easy to configure. The team has continuously updated Caddy, and been extremely responsive to any feature requests and support questions. [https://www.gophercon.com](https://www.gophercon.com) and [https://blog.gopheracademy.com](https://blog.gopheracademy.com) are both served (with Let's Encrypt!) from Caddy. ------ mchahn I wish the website had some bullet points comparing features to nginx, my current go-to server. ------ Apreche But does it support WSGI? ~~~ mholt It can proxy to uwsgi	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Hello ECMA-408, the new official Dart Programming Language Specification … - priteshjain https://plus.google.com/+dartlang/posts/DnCSv8jrXMF ====== dang [https://hn.algolia.com/?q=dart+specification#!/story/forever...](https://hn.algolia.com/?q=dart+specification#!/story/forever/0/dart%20specification)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Epidemiologist: Social Distancing Guarantees Second Wave of Covid-19 - giardini Dr. Knut Wittkowski: "at the Rockefeller University for 20 years, Head of the Department of Biostatistics Epidemiology and Research Design, and before that, I worked for 15 years with Klaus Dietz, one of the leading epidemiologists in the world in the German town of Tubingen in the Eberhard Karls University."<p>Complete interview at:<p>https://ratical.org/PerspectivesOnPandemic-II.html<p>Selections from the Interview of Dr. Wittknowski at:<p>https://www.thecollegefix.com/epidemiologist-coronavirus-could-be-exterminated-if-lockdowns-were-lifted/<p>Some quotes:<p><i>>WITTKOWSKI:"However, if we are preventing herd immunity from developing, it is almost guaranteed that we have a second wave as soon as either we stop the social distancing or the climate changes with winter coming or something like that.<"</i><p>[30:10.16] JOHN: I see. And so, to summarize, you are saying that’s going to flatten and extend the epidemic and create the second wave that we are being told to fear?<p>[30:21.00] WITTKOWSKI: Yes. The second wave is a direct consequence of social distancing. ====== mullingitover Oh, it'll be more than two waves if we're lucky. See figure 4 from the the Imperial College paper[1]. Note that that paper assumes R0 of 2.2. A paper in CDC's Emerging Infectious Diseases written by researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory shows evidence that the real R0 could be as high as 5.7[2]. This guy's argument is wildly reckless, he's basically advocating for the rejected "herd immunity by infecting everyone at once" strategy that would've killed millions. He gives absolutely zero thought to the health care workers who are already dying en masse even with a quarantine strategy. [1] [https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial- college/medicine/s...](https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial- college/medicine/sph/ide/gida-fellowships/Imperial-College-COVID19-NPI- modelling-16-03-2020.pdf) [2] [https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/7/20-0282_article?deliv...](https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/7/20-0282_article?deliveryName=USCDC_333-DM25287) ~~~ giardini mullingitover says _> " he's basically advocating for the rejected "herd immunity by infecting everyone at once" [a] strategy that would've killed _millions_."<_ "Herd immunity" is not "rejected". For example, the Dutch and the Swedes have chosen to use it against Covid-19.. Furthermore, the total number of Covid-19 __cases__ in the USA is less than a million! to claim that the herd immunity strategy would have "killed millions" is nonsense. Deaths in USA due to Covid-19 are < 17,000 as of today, April 9, 2020. ~~~ himlion Not true, the Dutch have been on quasi lockdown for the last 4 weeks. ~~~ giardini Well, it _is_ true, they did and it was official: _" Dutch embrace 'herd immunity' as dire death warning prompts UK to change course"_ [https://pjmedia.com/trending/dutch-pm-announces-he-opts- for-...](https://pjmedia.com/trending/dutch-pm-announces-he-opts-for- extremely-risky-herd-immunity-in-battle-against-covid-19/) ~~~ himlion It was a gaffe from the PM and quickly retracted, see for example: [https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2020/03/mps-back-ministers- on-...](https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2020/03/mps-back-ministers-on- coronavirus-herd-immunity-is-not-the-aim-says-rutte/) ------ himlion Well, I think two waves that stay manageable for the healthcare system is preferable to one wave with people dying without treatment in overcrowded hospitals. ------ rdtwo If we can build enough masks and enough hyperbolic chambers for wave 2 sure but there isn’t much effort. Vents are mostly useless and most people on vents either die immediately or have poor long term outcomes. ------ computerphysics Social distancing just flattens the curve. Lockdown lifting necessarily implies a second wave unless Suppression is applied. [https://miro.medium.com/max/1344/1Xey24l-zNkU8pScTu7st5A.pn...](https://miro.medium.com/max/1344/1Xey24l-zNkU8pScTu7st5A.png) [https://medium.com/@juan_marketpayio/please-america-do- not-f...](https://medium.com/@juan_marketpayio/please-america-do-not-follow- us-991939b9a5e1)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
“Information is not knowledge. Knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom is not truth.” - chumchum http://florian-michahelles.blogspot.com/2015/04/information-is-not-knowledge-knowledge.html ====== MichaelCrawford Data is not Information.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
How to cause utter chaos on Facebook - thomasdavis https://gist.github.com/968060 ====== program It all began when a user pasted the value of the _jsText_ variable in the address bar. The script create a new _script_ DOM element and append it to _head_ injecting the malicious links (so that there is no more need to run the bookmarklet-like link.) The problem here is that the (old) Facebook prompt_page.php page: <http://www.facebook.com/connect/prompt_feed.php> doesn't sanitize feed_info[action_links][0][href] allowing _javascript:_ links. ------ kooshball Can someone post an image of what the "Remove this app" picture actually looks like? does it show as part of the newsfeed? ~~~ oomkiller <http://i.imgur.com/wljHt.png> Seems to be a decent example. ------ wilshire461 It seems as though she is more the victim of some asshole that may or may not know her, that is now trying to extract some revenge by making her life a miserable hell while this mess gets sorted out. ------ rottyguy seems like a better way to cause a dns attack on the file hosters machine no? better title: dns attack from facebook. ------ thomasdavis Makes a vulgar post on a users wall, if the user clicks "Remove this app" it then post it to all your friends walls. Reddits reaction thus far <http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/search?q=nicole+santos> Edit: I think facebook has already taken it down, it lasted about 30 minutes. ~~~ guywithabike It was Dropbox that took down the file, though I bet it was taken down by some sort of automatic hotlinking protection system. ~~~ thomasdavis The Dropbox link went down quite fast, it was mirrored by another site nearly instantly and the hack remained in working condition. Then I'm guessing Facebook took down the App and deleted all the comments that were spread. ------ bhickey Great, you found a script injection. However, I think you misunderstand "Hacker News" ~~~ thomasdavis Wasn't me and I don't understand this comment.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Smart scale goes dumb as Under Armour pulls the plug on connected tech - close04 https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/01/smart-scale-goes-dumb-as-under-armour-pulls-the-plug-on-connected-tech/ ====== _Microft Only half a week ago we had a thread that _Smart homes will turn dumb overnight as Charter kills security service_. I suppose I could just copy my comment from there but you might want to look it up as some discussion followed. "The manufacturer should never be able to either deactivate or otherwise disable the functionality of a device they sold in a form that requires a service to function. [...]" [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22083881](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22083881)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Makeitopen.com – new Open Source learning site from Facebook - mjohnston4 http://makeitopen.com/ ====== thrusong Does anyone know why Facebook never followed through with open sourcing Haystack, the photo storage tool which I believe is now powering inbox attachments as well? ~~~ captn3m0 Had never heard of Haystack before. A few relevant links in case anyone is interested (It is the system powering facebook's photo storage infra): \- [https://www.usenix.org/legacy/event/osdi10/tech/full_papers/...](https://www.usenix.org/legacy/event/osdi10/tech/full_papers/Beaver.pdf) \- [https://web.archive.org/web/20140906020211/https://www.faceb...](https://web.archive.org/web/20140906020211/https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=76191543919) (The note is not up anymore) \- [http://www.niallkennedy.com/blog/2009/04/facebook- haystack.h...](http://www.niallkennedy.com/blog/2009/04/facebook- haystack.html) ------ gfosco Lots of great and thorough content here, and I'm really happy that it uses Parse Server! [https://github.com/parseplatform/parse- server](https://github.com/parseplatform/parse-server)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Paradoxes of Material Implication (1997) - olooney https://legacy.earlham.edu/~peters/courses/log/mat-imp.htm ====== tr352 Let me copy/paste my reply from the same discussion yesterday ([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18531650](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18531650)): There's another "solution" to this paradox: if we assert something we are guided by a set of "conversational principles". For example, asserting "X implies Y" if we know that X is false is inappropriate. If X is false, "not-X" would be the appropriate assertion. According to this theory, there's nothing wrong with the truth-functional meaning of "X implies Y". We just need to take into account what is implied by asserting "X implies Y", rather than e.g. "not-X", or "X and Y". Same with disjunction: "X or Y" is true if we know that X is true. However, if we assert "X or Y", it is implied that we're not certain that X is true, otherwise we would have used "X", which is the simplest way to convey what that fact. This is known as Grice's Pragmatic Defence of Truth-Functionality. ------ foldr The claim that the material implication analysis preserves the validity of valid arguments is pretty questionable. Consider the following argument: No student will succeed if he goofs off Every student will succeed \|- No student will goof off Analyzing the 'if' in the first premise of the argument above as material implication, we get: For every student x, it's not the case that [x won't goof off or x will succeed]. = For every student x, x will goof off and x won't succeed. The following argument is valid only trivially, as the premises contradict each other (assuming the existence of at least one student): For every student x, x will goof off and x won't succeed. Every student will succeed \|- No student will goof off I suspect it's quite easy to construct other similar examples involving quantifiers where validity is not even trivially preserved. (It's easier to find examples of the material implication analysis failing to preserve the invalidity of invalid arguments.) ~~~ a-nikolaev No student will succeed if he goofs off = Forall x: (GoofOff(x) -> not Succeed(x)) = not Exist x : (GoofOff(x) and Succeed(x)) ~~~ foldr Sure, but then you're doing violence to the structure of the original sentence. (How did the negation get into the consequent?) If you're allowed free reign to paraphrase, then you can always get the right result. "No student will succeed if he goofs off" is a standard example discussed in the semantics literature, by the way. What you're pointing out, in effect, is that this sentence seems to mean "No student who goofs off will succeed". The problem is that it's unclear how to get to that interpretation given the actual syntactic structure of the sentence. In other words, you can't get there just by following a direction to interpret if...then... as material implication. ~~~ a-nikolaev I agree that you cannot just mindlessly parse "if ... then ..." as implication, especially in the context of other things going on in the sentence and hope it will automagically work out as a correct interpretation of the sentence meaning. ~~~ foldr Right, but that means that material implication can't be used as an analysis of the meaning of "if...then..." in English. If you have to make ad-hoc adjustments for different kinds of sentence, then you don't have an actual theory of the interpretation of "if..then..." \-- you just have a toolbox of techniques for paraphrasing it. Note that it is possible to do much better than this, so it's not an unreasonable goal to have in mind. See e.g. [https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/95781](https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/95781) for an overview of modern approaches to the semantics of conditionals in natural languages. On the preceding point, virtually everyone agrees. I was questioning even the weaker assertion that analyzing "if...then..." as material implication always preserves validity. ~~~ olooney Trying to map natural language onto logic is a mug's game, although the converse - mapping logic _into_ natural language - is possible. Leibniz was perhaps the first to understand that the solution to this was to abandon natural language and replace it was an artificial, perfect language, where connectives and grammar had one and only one clear meaning: the calculus ratiocinator and the characteristica universalis. Although Leibniz didn't succeed in his lifetime, he inspired Frege to write the Begriffsschrift[3] which was an early and very complete presentation of what today we would call predicate calculus. One of Frege's insights was that quantification ("there exists x such that..." and "for all x...") needed to be explicit and could only be made unambiguous if the exact order and name of each quantification was used consistently - hence the idea of "bound variables." Without explicit quantification, it is impossible to determine the meaning of a statement such as: "All mice fear some cat." Does this mean that for every mouse, there is some nearby cat which that mouse fears? Or does it mean that there is some kind of King Cat, feared by every mouse in the world? Natural language is ambiguous on this point. (Note also that this particular example is one which _appears_ to be a syllogism, but which cannot be fully analyzed using Aristotelian logic.) However, if we use explicit quantification, we write either: ∃x ∀y My ∧ Cx ∧ yFx (1) ∀y ∃x My ∧ Cx ∧ yFx (2) Or, in the stilted yet precise jargon of mathematicians: There exists a cat x such that for all mice y, y fears x. (1) For all mice y there exists a cat x such that y fears x. (2) The __only __difference between (1) and (2) is the order of quantification, and this is not something English or other natural languages is careful about tracking. This is why you feel like you have to butcher sentences to rewrite them in this form, and also why this re-writing cannot be done by rote but requires human judgement and understanding: because this critical information is in fact missing from the original natural language sentence! These are not particularly contrived or unusual examples, by the way. One of the fundamental notions in real analysis is that of the limit, which is defined as follows: the limit of the sequence a_n as n goes to infinity is C if and only if for every delta > 0, there exists N such that \|a_n - C\| < delta for all n > N. Such a thought cannot even be precisely _articulated_ unless one has the necessary language to talk precisely about statements involving multiple quantifiers and bound variables. Which is why early presentations of Calculus (Leibniz, Newton) relied of unsatisfactory notions of "fluxions" and "infinitesimals"[4] while later mathematicians (Weierstrass, Cauchy,) armed with a more sophisticated mathematical language were finally able to give a satisfactory foundation to calculus.[5] We see the same category of problem when we try to interpret "if... then..." as the material implication of formal logic. Not only do we have the problem of conversational implicature[6] but we have the so called paradoxes described in the original article. Similar problems exist for common words like "or" which is often taken to mean "exclusive or" rather than the inclusive "or" favored by logicians, and even simple words like "is" don't necessary map purely onto the Law of Identity[7] the way logicians and philosophers would like them to.[7] The way I see it, the fault lies fully on the side of natural language, which is too squishy and imprecise and overloaded to be useful to convey precise formal arguments. But that doesn't mean you have to learn an artificial language like Lojban[8]. Mathematicians do quite well by speaking in a kind of restricted subset of English (or whatever native language they're used to) simply by giving exact and precise meanings to certain words and formulations like "if and only if" or "implies."[9] When a mathematician says "implies" in a paper or lecture, you can be quite sure he or she is speaking of material implication. But as for pining down the meaning of natural language in the wild, as it is actually spoken... well, that's a rather more difficult problem, don't you think? [1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Characteristica_universalis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Characteristica_universalis) [2] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calculus_ratiocinator](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calculus_ratiocinator) [3] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begriffsschrift](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begriffsschrift) [4] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_calculus#Newton_and...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_calculus#Newton_and_Leibniz) [5] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limit_(mathematics)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limit_$mathematics$) [6] [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/implicature/#GriThe](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/implicature/#GriThe) [7] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_identity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_identity) [8] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lojban](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lojban) [9] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mathematical_jargon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mathematical_jargon) ~~~ foldr >Trying to map natural language onto logic is a mug's game Not really. Modern linguistic semantics has done a pretty good job. Check out the link to the overview article that I posted in the grandparent, or the von Fintel & Heim textbook here: [http://web.mit.edu/fintel/fintel-heim- intensional.pdf](http://web.mit.edu/fintel/fintel-heim-intensional.pdf) (sections 4.3-5 in particular). It's possible to give precise logical analyses of natural language conditionals to a pretty significant extent. It's just the material implication analysis that doesn't work. > because this critical information [about quantifier scope] is in fact > missing from the original natural language sentence! You're moving a bit too fast there. The information can't be recovered from the sequence of words, but that doesn't mean that it isn't present in the structures that underly interpretation. A precise logical analysis can be given for each of the possible interpretations of an ambiguous sentence. Semanticists treat quantifier scope ambiguities using such mechanisms as quantifiying in [1], quantifier raising [2], type shifting [3], or even continuations [4]. No-one is suggesting, by the way, that formal logical analyses of the meanings of English sentences are useful _for the purposes of doing math or logic_. But the "paradoxes" in the original article relate to the use of material implication to gloss the meaning of "if...then..." in English. This naturally raises the question of whether there might be better analyses available. [1] [http://www.coli.uni- saarland.de/projects/milca/courses/comse...](http://www.coli.uni- saarland.de/projects/milca/courses/comsem/html/node96.html#sec_clls-scope.qi) [2] [https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/16287](https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/16287) [3] [http://lecomte.al.free.fr/ressources/PARIS8_LSL/Hendriks- TCS...](http://lecomte.al.free.fr/ressources/PARIS8_LSL/Hendriks-TCS.pdf) [4] [http://www.nyu.edu/projects/barker/barker- continuations.pdf](http://www.nyu.edu/projects/barker/barker- continuations.pdf) ------ dwheeler I created the "allsome" quantifier to reduce the risk of some of these confusions. Details here: [https://dwheeler.com/essays/allsome.html](https://dwheeler.com/essays/allsome.html) ------ leoc Graham Priest's book is great: [https://www.cambridge.org/ie/academic/subjects/philosophy/ph...](https://www.cambridge.org/ie/academic/subjects/philosophy/philosophy- science/introduction-non-classical-logic-if-2nd-edition) ------ gus_massa Original title: " _Paradoxes of Material Implication_ " ~~~ pierrebai About the example given with teh number 3, I prefer this even more absurd form: if the number 3 is not the number 3 then the number 3 is the number 3. It's true! ------ ninegunpi Descendants of Aristotle still find limitations of the system amusing, that’s amusing itself. I hope to live to the day when philosophical advancements of 20th century (or re-discovery of 2500-old Indian logic, if you like), formalized in accessible forms, get widespread acceptance, could leave plenty of people who’se job it to juggle limited abstractions with the need to pick more useful jobs. No pun intended, these are terribly useful abstractions we’ve built our world on, but they barely hold up against thorough reality check and leave out a lot as ‘paradoxes’. ~~~ myWindoonn Please add some substance, or I will make your argument for you. Yes! We all need to get on board with constructivist mathematics [0][1] already. Construction is very similar to computation, and it is not inconsistent to take "all reals are computable" or "all functions are continuous", the same rules Turing discovered, as axioms if we like. We can therefore move computer science fully onto a foundation that is _more_ rigorous than typical maths. [0] [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mathematics- constructive/](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mathematics-constructive/) [1] [https://www.ams.org/journals/bull/2017-54-03/S0273-0979-2016...](https://www.ams.org/journals/bull/2017-54-03/S0273-0979-2016-01556-4/S0273-0979-2016-01556-4.pdf) ~~~ ninegunpi You've made far better one than me below. Hats off.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Zurmo, an Open Source CRM - grobmeier http://www.grobmeier.de/zurmo-open-source-crm-03012013.html ====== raysto Great article	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
The state of SIEM: How to rock security ops in the age of DevOps - whichwaytogo https://tracking.feedpress.it/link/16145/6935183 ====== mtmail When submitting use direct URLs, not tracking URLs or URL shorteners. Those will be blacklisted on Hackernews.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Algolia raises $110M Series C - vvoyer https://blog.algolia.com/algolia-series-c-2019-funding?2 ====== redox_ Congrats Algolia! ~~~ papa_ogre GG \o/ ------ Julie90210 Boooom	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: How to handle sales tax for SaaS side projects? - billconan I just realized how complex sales tax is. It seems to be a huge overhead for small projects. How can I handle it with ease? ====== billconan I asked this also on Reddit, and got this really nice answer: Pasting it here hoping it will help others too [https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/brvxgc/how_to_handle_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/brvxgc/how_to_handle_sales_tax_for_saas_side_projects/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app) I ran into the same issue with my startup. There are two options: Use a service like TaxJar / Avalara / Quaderno to automatically calculate taxes. Keep in mind that there are costs to getting a sales tax ID in certain countries / states and that you'll be losing valuable time by having to file returns (autofile isn't supported everywhere). Also, you'll need to consider that they may not support every country that has a sales tax implication either. Use a payment processor that acts as a reseller of your digital products (Paddle, 2Checkout, FastSpring) Because they will act as the merchant of record for a transaction, they will be responsible for calculating and remitting sales taxes. The disadvantage of this method is that there's much higher fees. For instance, Stripe charges 2.9% + 30 cents per transaction, while Paddle charges 5% + $0.50. Not having to worry about sales tax is well worth the added cost in my opinion. ~~~ davidgh Agree. When you have a digital product or service, intended or not, you have a global customer base. Sales tax, VAT is just one of the burdens a company will face to keep on the right side of the rules. Denied party screening, export controls, various data protection and privacy laws, to name a few. By selecting a provider that acts as the “merchant of record” (or reseller of your product), you offload many of those regulatory burdens to a party that has the proper economies of scale to provide the service for a lower cost than you can do it on your own. Modern platforms that provide you with the option to be the merchant of record usually provide a host of other features that making running an online SaaS business much easier. And to your customers, it won’t feel like your sending them off to some unrelated store to buy your product, you can generally customize your integration so that the transition during the purchase process is mostly seamless. Source: I’ve been in the business of providing a service that acts as merchant of record for more than 20 years. In the early days, people came to us mostly to for the online payment processing. These days, many of our customers express that it was the reduction in regulatory burden that they value the most. ~~~ alt_f4 Whilst I am happy for you and that your business of providing these services is doing well, it is a sad state of affairs when small online businesses have to cough up anywhere between 3%-7% of revenue to deal with the regulatory mess the governments have created. ~~~ davidgh I look at this from a different angle. Doing business is always going to be associated with some regulatory overhead. Traditionally, the footprint of a small business was the owner’s local area, where the scope of rules and regulations is small enough that it can be managed. With the advent of the Internet, it is now possible for a small business to have the same reach as a large multi-national. Along with this market potential comes a massive number of jurisdictions, each with their own particularities. I find it quite liberating that a small business has the option to go to the entire world market by paying a small percentage of their sales (a cost that can be quantified and factored into their pricing model) rather than being forced to spend massive amounts upfront, without any idea if their investment will pay off. Of course, there’s also the option to simply ignore the regulations, which many small businesses do (often out of ignorance). But as a business becomes successful, not following the regulations of the jurisdictions it does business in becomes an ever-growing liability. I was a witness to a transaction where a small business was approached by their much larger (publicly traded) competitor. The larger company made an offer to buy this small business for many millions of dollars. During due diligence, the buyer discovered that the small business had not been collecting VAT in the EU for the digital products it sold there. The small business asserted that since it did not have an EU presence, the EU couldn’t force it to do so. The buyer, however, did have an EU presence, and worried that with the acquisition, it may inherit the large liability of many years of uncollected VAT. This nearly wrecked the entire deal. The resolution was that the small business had to indemnify the buyer that if a claim was made by the EU for the uncollected VAT, the small business would be on the hook for most of it. So, to me, paying a very small percentage to an external party to not only take on the burden of managing the regulations, but also to assume the risk of penalty for being out of compliance with any one of the thousands of governmental jurisdictions around the world seems like a very good value. ------ danieka If you are in the EU remember that sales to companies will have reversed tax, just make sure to get their VAT number and then you don’t have to apply VAT. But I think that the invoice/receipt has to say that reversed VAT should be applied. Sales to individuals should be declared in MOSS and the VAT of the country where the customer is located should be applied. But (at least in Sweden) there is an exception that if your revenue is under 10000€ per year you many declare all VAT in your country using your country’s VAT. Also, IANAL. ------ mikeyouse Most states have sales thresholds to hit before you have to worry about dealing with it in their jurisdictions. Here's a decent roundup of when you'll have to start to care: [https://blog.taxjar.com/economic-nexus- laws/](https://blog.taxjar.com/economic-nexus-laws/) Essentially, take care of the tax in the jurisdiction you're in and wait until you're much further along before worrying about other states or territories. ------ jmhyer123 We ran into the same problem with our SaaS. We haven't gotten to the point where we need to solve the problem yet but in my research I ran into TaxJar ([https://www.taxjar.com/](https://www.taxjar.com/)) and was confident they will be one of the easiest solutions to the problem when we get to that point. This of course assumes a US-based product/users. ~~~ billconan So I found a service [https://paddle.com/](https://paddle.com/) Saying that they can handle all sales tax for me, because they are a reseller of my product. Is this true? Is anybody using it? Any other alternatives? ~~~ jerriep I use Paddle and so far I am happy with them. The integration was simple enough and their support has been responsive. I cannot use Stripe in my country, so I had to look for alternatives. Paddle is more expensive, but they have many things built in that you would have to pay extra for on Stripe. One of those is the handling of sales tax. The other, which I will implement soon, is built-in handling of affiliates. ~~~ techsin101 I think stripe can calculate taxes ------ johnwheeler I’m not sure I follow. Services are exempt from sales tax [https://www.alvarezandmarsal.com/insights/sales-taxation- sof...](https://www.alvarezandmarsal.com/insights/sales-taxation-software- service-relatively-new-frontier) The law is murky at best. Doesn’t feel like something a startup should devote much energy to. ~~~ HillRat In Texas, if nowhere else, it’s established that SaaS is a “business service” and taxed appropriately either via sales or use tax. (Texas is unusual in taxing business services, however.) ------ vebu I tried to do the sales tax management myself but ended up with incorrect calculation on some occasions. I would highly recommend getting a professional tax consultant for guidance. They'll know how to handle tax for your project. Once you start making revenue, the cost of consultant would become affordable.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Global Unicorns ($250mm+ valued startups) - salar https://global-unicorns.silk.co/ ====== ddorian43 at least put a website link so we can know what they do	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Slides: Responsive web design from the future - bergie http://speakerdeck.com/u/kneath/p/responsive-web-design-from-the-future ====== kneath For the curious, here's a few extra links from this talk: <http://warpspire.com/talks/responsive/> Hope you enjoy! ------ jasonwatkinspdx I'm glad that designers are starting to see the problems with page state that's not tied to URL state. Nearly all the sites I've seen using #! state have got this wrong. ------ idan I loved the site hosting the slides—does anybody here have an invite or the ability to setup a new account? Would be much obliged. ------ abredow The infinite scroll example he linked to in the presentation is very nice. Putting the max_id in the URL is a great way to save the state. <http://warpspire.com/experiments/history-api> ~~~ wiradikusuma the idea is good, but the implementation (from user perspective) is not 100% correct. try scroll somewhere, say you see text "My dad just told me I'll get my late grandfather's cornet" on top and refresh the page, you will see different stuff. ------ aresant Loved this, would suggest anybody further interested in real data on page load speed to check out: How site speed impacts conversion rate / engagement: [http://www.webperformancetoday.com/2010/07/01/the-best- graph...](http://www.webperformancetoday.com/2010/07/01/the-best-graphs-of- velocity/) How site speed impacts Google rankings (and tools to asses / fix): [http://www.conversionvoodoo.com/blog/2010/04/official- google...](http://www.conversionvoodoo.com/blog/2010/04/official-google-news- low-website-speed-will-lower-you-page-rank-and-your-landing-page-conversions/)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Understanding Quaternions - njn https://www.3dgep.com/understanding-quaternions/ ====== amai Sorry to spoil the party, but this is the old 19th century way of teaching quaternions (and also complex numbers). It is much easier to start with some [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_theory) and then you understand that quaternions are simply matrices of a specific form: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaternion#Matrix_representati...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaternion#Matrix_representations) . Quaternion multiplication is simply matrix multiplication of these matrices. And that's it. No mysteries, this is just simple linear algebra (you do't even need complex numbers, the real representation is enough and makes the connection to 4d rotations manifest). ~~~ gmadsen it shouldn't be an either or with geometry and algebra. both are valid and it helps to know both. representing H as a matrix is certainly valid and makes computations easier, but I dont really think that is building intuition ~~~ earthicus The modern approach is not lacking all geometry, and the 19th century presentation is not lacking all algebra. Any respectable treatment will include both, the question is which makes the relationship clearer? The abstract algebraic approach talks of 'the rotation group' which maps on to geometric concepts as cleanly and directly as possible. Then we talk of different parameterizations or representations of this group, with the unit quaternions being the 'double cover' of the rotation group (which gives rise to the primary difficulty in understanding them - that a rotation by 360 degrees reverses orientation, and 720 degrees returns us to where we started). I think the modern approach is much clearer - the geometric ideas appear more directly, and the algebra is far less messy. ~~~ edflsafoiewq > I think the modern approach is much clearer - the geometric ideas appear > more directly, and the algebra is far less messy. Can you show us an example? ------ foobarbecue In case you missed it, 3B1B has a brilliant video introducing quaternions: [https://youtu.be/d4EgbgTm0Bg](https://youtu.be/d4EgbgTm0Bg) ~~~ raffael-vogler His videos are really incredibly intuitive and well-made. He deserves an award for his channel. ~~~ foobarbecue Yep, and all the source code is developed in the open as well! [https://github.com/3b1b/manim](https://github.com/3b1b/manim) ------ umanwizard Possibly off-topic: why does practically any description of quaternions include the anecdote about somebody carving something into some bridge in Ireland? I’ve learned about plenty of mathematical concepts while having no idea who discovered them or under what circumstances. Why are quaternions the exception? ~~~ nj65537 I think the story is told as a sort of cultural marker of what a Big F-ing Deal this discovery was/is. Mathematics, collectively, struggled for a long time to find a way to make 3-dimensional numbers into an algebra in a way that extends the algebra of complex numbers. (The cross and dot products are unsatisfying, because they don't have division.) The shock that this can be done in _four_ , -- not three -- dimensions is still sort of reverberating, and that's what I think this story marks. It's a short stand-in for the longer story I've just summarized, and it evokes (or is meant to evoke) the mind- shattering thrill of discovery. I don't necessarily think the story _accomplishes_ this -- your question is but one piece of evidence that it doesn't -- but I think for those who spend a good amount of time with these kinds of algebra questions, it comes to take on that role, and that's why I think it's repeated. (Teaser -- if you want to know more about these kinds of questions, Google for "real division algebras". There are not very many, and they way they are organized is not, I think, something one would expect.) ~~~ xelxebar Also, in Hamilton's time they didn't have the view of mathematics as axiom systems that could be played with. Math was a way of finding Truth, so the idea of making up multiplication rules at your convenience probably seemed like an extremely non-obvious move. The discovery of complex numbers and quaternions probably played a big part in getting people to question what math _is_ , leading to Hilbert's program to study Foundations etc. Hamilton's story is a nice, rare single instance we can point to, symbolizing this discovery. ~~~ umanwizard Fair point, but hadn’t complex numbers been around for a while by the time quaternions were discovered? ------ adamnemecek Dual quaternion are even whackier. They are the best formalism for reasoning about 3D space developing over time. Here’s a cool example [http://www.chinedufn.com/dual-quaternion-shader- explained/](http://www.chinedufn.com/dual-quaternion-shader-explained/) ------ splittingTimes Previous discussion [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7364442](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7364442) Those who like to have a print version: [https://github.com/frankMilde/interesting- reads/blob/master/...](https://github.com/frankMilde/interesting- reads/blob/master/3d-game-engine-programming_jeremiah-van- oosten_understanding-quaternions.pdf) ------ kuwze I remember being introduced to quaternions recently by this post[0] which recommended this book[1]. [0]: [https://www.haroldserrano.com/blog/best-books-to-develop- a-g...](https://www.haroldserrano.com/blog/best-books-to-develop-a-game- engine) [1]: [https://www.amazon.com/Quaternions-Computer-Graphics-John- Vi...](https://www.amazon.com/Quaternions-Computer-Graphics-John- Vince/dp/0857297597/) ------ nraynaud I had a question about quaternions: does anyone use them for anything else than multiplying a rotation by a scalar? In particular, it feels a bit like a waste of coding space to always use unit ones. ~~~ macawfish The remarkable thing about quaternions is that you can describe rotation around any arbitrary axis! Try doing that with real rotation matrices and you will bump into a major problem: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimbal_lock](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimbal_lock) Because matrix multiplication is not commutative, you can't easily compose a matrix representing rotation around an arbitrary axis from "component rotation matrices". With quaternions/clifford algebras, you can say "here's the vector I want to rotate about and here's this is how much I want to rotate", and it just magically works. ~~~ billfruit I find that many articles explaining how to describe the orientation of a rigid body rotated along an axis by an angle in a confusing manner. Normally in 3d space you will have to construct quaternions for rotations along yaw, pitch and roll, and then take their product to get the quaternion of the orientation of the rigid body. That is, when using quaternions to describe orientations,we are actually describing the rotations done to bring the body from its default orientation to its present orientation. ~~~ twtw > Normally in 3d space you will have to construct quaternions for rotations > along yaw, pitch and roll, and then take their product to get the quaternion > of the orientation of the rigid body Is this not just using Euler angles via quaternions? If I understand correctly, tracking rotation via yaw, pitch, and roll will still run into issues of gimbal lock because it's the same parameterization just using quaternions. ------ edflsafoiewq Anyone know an easy way to show that multiplication by a unit quaternion is a unitary operator? ~~~ joppy Unitary in what sense? Clearly multiplication by a unit quaternion preserves the quaternion norm. ~~~ edflsafoiewq In the sense of preserving the dot product, x.y = (ux).(uy). ~~~ joppy Since the quaternion norm is induced via the quaternion dot product, any transformation that preserves the norm automatically also preserves the dot product. This is a standard result for inner product spaces. ~~~ edflsafoiewq Ah, polarization? And for it preserving the norm you can use the conjugate. Easy! Thanks! ------ wink I found these videos very helpful: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCbpxiCN0U0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCbpxiCN0U0) ------ aaaaaaaaaab Protip: learn Geometric Algebra. ~~~ dbcurtis Can you recommend any good references? ~~~ aaaaaaaaaab Here’s an appetizer from Eric Lengyel in the context of game development (or 3D graphics in general): [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WZApQkDBr5o](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WZApQkDBr5o) And here’s the in-depth stuff: Geometric Algebra for Computer Science: [http://www.geometricalgebra.net](http://www.geometricalgebra.net) ------ choonway Please use Lie Groups/Algebra instead. ~~~ formalsystem Do you mind on elaborating on that? Any nice books or tutorials you've seen on the subject? ~~~ choonway Skipping the formalism you can get directly into the practical aspects in this book. Modern Robotics by Lynch and Park Chapters 3 and 4 pre-preprint of book / more info available here [http://hades.mech.northwestern.edu/index.php/Modern_Robotics](http://hades.mech.northwestern.edu/index.php/Modern_Robotics) ------ bnolsen left handed thingies. go to geometric algebra for the real meal deal. ------ paulgrant999 I have no idea why they insist on using such horrible graphs to explain a simple idea. Go to wiki/quaternions. scroll down to about 2/3rds of the way ;)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
The One Way XML Beats JSON - impostervt https://medium.com/@john.titus/the-one-way-xml-beats-json-8613b9484463#.idj810skw ====== PaulHoule There are a lot of ways to add metadata to JSON or otherwise enrich it with XML-like capabilities. My favorite personally is JSON-LD [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSON-LD](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSON-LD) because it is compatible with RDF and you can use SPARQL queries, rule engines and similar techniques. There are methods of language tagging that are idiomatic and also the XSD schema primitives and a namespace mechanism that has fewer mathematical singularities than XML.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Google pledges $2 million in prizes to hackers who exploit Chrome - evo_9 http://arstechnica.com/security/2012/08/google-pledges-million-in-hacking-prizes/ ====== DanielRibeiro Limiting Daniel J. Bernstein to _the creator of djbdns_ is quite an understatement. He is a very important cryptographer, to say the least[1]. Specially for a man that has been ulogized[2,3] as _the greatest programmer in the history of the world._ HN has in the past done a good job telling his great story[4] [1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_J._Bernstein> [2] <http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/djb> [3] <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=890034> [4] [http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=Bernstein+&...](http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=Bernstein+&sortby=points+desc) ~~~ casca So true, djb is a legend in the field. To give an example, he wrote qmail as a replacement for sendmail and the last stable release was in 1998. There have been no identified security vulnerabilities in that time. If you want to learn how to program securely, read ""Some thoughts on security after ten years of qmail 1.0" - <http://cr.yp.to/qmail/qmailsec-20071101.pdf> ------ casca Link to the actual announcement: <http://blog.chromium.org/2012/08/announcing- pwnium-2.html> If I had a "Full Chrome exploit: Chrome / Win7 local OS user account persistence using only bugs in Chrome itself", I could sell it for far more than the $60k on offer. Why not offer $1m? ~~~ mda Nowadays this sort of exploits in Chrome uses a chain of several bugs, (remember flash now runs in a strong sandbox as well); I would say it is probable that your exploit would be obsolete before you find a real buyer in the market. So I would argue that taking the money on the table immediately would be the right thing to do. Also added bonus karma of not dealing with shady organizations, compromising innocent peoples computers, etc.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Google Visualization API & R - john_horton http://r-ecology.blogspot.com/2011/01/r-and-google-visualization-api.html ====== instakill This is brilliant, thanks for the link. Busy wrapping my brain around R and knowing that you can export R graphics into interactive charts makes for interesting learning. ~~~ john_horton What would be really wonderful (and what I'm hoping will get built) is way to generate web-friendly visualizations directly from the amazing ggplot2 package.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
The Busier You Are, the More You Need Quiet Time - happy-go-lucky https://hbr.org/2017/03/the-busier-you-are-the-more-you-need-quiet-time?utm_source=pocket&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pockethits ====== 11thEarlOfMar > "the disadvantages of noise and distraction associated with open office > plans outweighed anticipated, but still unproven, benefits " [0] I'd say that the CFOs of the world are a bit selectively biased when it comes to analysis of employee satisfaction and productivity of open office vs. private space offices. Other studies discussed on HN have pointed to the importance of a space you can personalize as well, so even shared private spaces may not be optimal. [1] Prime office space in SV (Palo Alto) is currently going for $100/sq ft per year [2]. So an 8'x10' private space would cost $8,000/yr. at premium rates. If a company is paying $200,000 for a fully burdened engineer, as many do in SV, it seems a relatively small investment (4% of cost to employ said engineers) to offer them private offices as an option. Other functional positions pay nearly as well, so really, at least giving the employees the option of private vs. open office should be considered. Outside of Palo Alto, it would probably make even more financial sense. [0] Previously discussed at some length: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13373526](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13373526) [1] [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13668762](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13668762) [2] [http://www.cityfeet.com/cont/ca/palo-alto-office- space#](http://www.cityfeet.com/cont/ca/palo-alto-office-space#)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Google Signs Deal to Buy Manhattan Office Building - siculars http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/nyregion/03building.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print ====== siculars Real-estate postering aside, this deal does not "a rebounding real estate market..." It is no coincidence that Google's East Coast offices are located in this specific building. The building happens to be a major internet peering point for the entire NYC region. So no, I do not see a major rush to buy entire city block sized buildings unless there are other enormous, industrial grade, internet peering hubs floating around NYC. ([http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/01/business/smallbusiness/01h...](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/01/business/smallbusiness/01hotel.html?pagewanted=print)) Also, the NYC tech scene is on fire, <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1957538>.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
FreeBSD Bhyve WiFi PCI Passthrough - dddddaviddddd https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/t480-bhyve-wifi-pci-passthrough ====== Seenso That's interesting, but wouldn't it make more sense to have a compatibility system that would allow Linux drivers to be used? Apparently there's one for Windows drivers: [https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=ndisgen&sektion=8](https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=ndisgen&sektion=8)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
New Facebook rollout commences - sanj http://blog.new.facebook.com/blog.php?post=30074837130 ====== furiouslol I guess I'm one of the crazy guys out there who prefer the old design. The nice Newsfeed aside, i find the redesign unintuitive.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (Niosh):Hydrazine - rolph https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npg/npgd0329.html ====== chupa-chups Interesting, but way more information is found on wikipedia: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrazine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrazine)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Pandora and Spotify Rake in the Money and Then Send It Off in Royalties - jamesbritt http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/24/pandora-and-spotify-rake-in-the-money-and-then-send-it-off-in-royalties/?ref=television&gwh=0E551F7612AEE5E7D138ABC9DBFC8F3F ====== pvnick As someone who was entrenched in the music startup world for a while, I've concluded that the only way to save the music industry is for the major labels to die or become obsolete and for new, innovation-friendly content producers to emerge in their place. We need for music what Netflix is trying to do for movies/tv (see Lillyhammer, new Arrested Development season). It's that broken. ~~~ willwhitney I would be very excited for Spotify to start signing artists directly, without the major label middleman. It could let Spotify turn a profit on those artists while simultaneously paying out more to the people making the music. As an insider, pvnick, do you think Spotify could ever pull that off without burning the bridges of its current label deals? ~~~ rm999 Spotify already lets unsigned artists add their music through music aggregators like cdbaby: [http://www.spotify.com/us/work-with-us/labels-and- artists/ar...](http://www.spotify.com/us/work-with-us/labels-and- artists/artist-page/) I suppose the music aggregators are a modern day take on record labels. ~~~ k-mcgrady Not really, a label does much more than get an artists music in a store. Distributing the content is probably the easiest thing for artists to do on their own. Marketing, touring and merchandise are more complication and labels are still the best solution. ~~~ rm999 Well, that's why I said "take" on it. These companies are actually doing quite a bit that a traditional label would do: they store the media (the digital version of manufacturing it), distribute it, and market it. I don't think a traditional label is always the best solution, especially for groups that will never be big enough to justify the huge upfront costs a label puts in. These aggregators are really for the tail end of the spectrum: the 90% of bands who represent 1% of music listening time and don't have much hope of getting signed. ------ ricardobeat I wonder how much of that combined $380m ended up in the artist's hands and wasn't consumed in industry "fees". ~~~ jaylevitt Some history, for those not in the know: [http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110707/03264014993/riaa-a...](http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110707/03264014993/riaa- accounting-how-to-sell-1-million-albums-still-owe-500000.shtml) <http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100712/23482610186.shtml> [http://www.salon.com/technology/feature/2000/06/14/love/prin...](http://www.salon.com/technology/feature/2000/06/14/love/print.html) Spoiler: bands get about 20% of what the label gets. Your album can sell 1 million copies and your band might still owe the label $500,000. Labels take 10-20% off the top for _breakage_ fees. Breakage. As in vinyl records that broke during shipping. ~~~ ricardobeat Yes, but that's for the recording/release/marketing/tours side. Royalties continue to be paid long after the production costs are covered. I imagine they _should_ go 100% to the artist, but wouldn't be surprised if they don't. ------ Sambdala "With artists and labels hit hard by declining sales over the last decade, it’s hard to argue for lower royalty rates." It isn't really. Changing times sometimes call for drastic measures. What you were able to charge in one medium might not be the same as you are able to charge for a new medium. It might not be fun for the people who were at the top of the heap before the paradigm shift, but that just means they should have made preparations for that shift when it was easiest for them to do so. ------ unabridged As bandwidth increases and hosting gets cheaper, someone is going to create a nonroyality paying music (and eventually video) streaming site with the ability to select any song. And it won't even have to be hosted from countries that don't reliably enforce copyright, as the number of cloud providers and hosting resellers increase it will become easy to rent new servers to repopulate their CDN faster than they can be shut down by the government/RIAA. ~~~ ladzoppelin So wait nobody gets paid for anything? Where does the music come from? ------ stickfigure _Pandora paid $149 million, or 54 percent of its revenue, for “content acquisition,” otherwise known as royalties._ What does Pandora do with the other $127 million plus?!? It's incredible to me that they can't operate a profitable company on that kind of cash flow. I'm genuinely curious - where does it go? ------ brady747 Still waiting for one of these or Mog or Apple or Rdio to sign artists themselves... ------ monsur This is really a shame because these companies are making a shitload of money. ------ paulhauggis Pandora and Spotify may rake in the money, but they never actually created the content. It would be like me starting a business that resells Microsoft software and complaining that it's too difficult to make a profit because I have to pay Microsoft for the content. I would be much more impressed if they signed their own artists and made a huge profit. ~~~ JasonFruit A popular and easy-to-use medium for finding and listening to music is a valid product, and they deserve to be paid for it. Spotify is useful enough to me that I'm happy to pay for it, and I listen to more music than I would without it. I hope that labels make enough from these services that they allow them wide enough margins to stay in business. ------ miratom Aww, you mean a CEO can't stay rich by giving away other people's creations for free? What a tragedy. ~~~ timmyd I don't think that's fair. These 2 companies have done more for music and promotion of music than anyone in the modern age - from an industry renown for collusion between the four majors (one falls into line and they all do etc). They have basically rescued a dying industry that essentially built its modern day business model on litigating everyone through RIAA and so on. That's not innovative - that's stupid and idiotic. Instead, what you have now is two companies who are trying to save a dying industry through subscription and the music industry trying to milk every single penny out of them. The dichotomy that creates is that these companies aren't sustainable long term - they are hemorrhaging cash re-the article: _Spotify’s accounts for the last year, recently filed in Luxembourg, show that it lost $57 million in 2011, despite a big increase in revenue, to $236 million ... On top of that it had more than $30 million in salaries, and more than $30 million for various other expenses. That is how you lose $57 million on $236 million in revenue._ That's just sad. The only incentive these companies have is to be ultimately purchased by the recording industry who can then dictate pricing on their own terms - and that's bad for everyone because then they are going to push prices up insanely. In fact, if these were purchased by the recording industry - it might be the worst thing to happen to music because we are all again at the mercy of the industry. They will want to maximise pricing and I believe, given their history, they will maximize anti-competitive behavior by essentially price fixing competing services out the market. By staying out the USA for 2 years, it was evident Spotify pushed (to some degree) the music studios to capitulate on their pricing - they both gave a little because the industry was desperate for cash. It's obvious to anyone that's the only reason Spotify weren't in the USA sooner - it wasn't economically feasible because the model was _already proven to be a hit_ in Europe. I don't, for one second, believe that the Music studio's are paying this out to the artists. They are dumping this straight into the bank - the industry in that regard is now basically running on live shows and tshirts for artists to survive. So don't be so quick to judge "giving away for free" - because thats not what they are doing. They have produced amazing services in my mind - and there should be some reward for that by the industry in recognizing and enabling them to create sustainable businesses. ~~~ willwhitney Not to mention that Spotify and Pandora are making it possible for young, poor people to be active music consumers without turning to piracy. When I was in high school, my options were to pay $15 an album, and thus only have access and exposure to a tiny music collection, or pirate music, hear a lot of great music, especially from smaller artists, and drag my friends to their concerts every time they were in town. Now I'm in college and still broke, but I pony up the $10/month for Spotify, and I continually encourage my friends to do so as well. They've created an experience that's dramatically better than piracy (even with nice private trackers), pays out at least some to the artists along with the moneypile that goes to the labels, and enfranchises people like me. I've always listened to an extremely wide selection of music, and now that I can pay to do it, I'm very happy to. And I still drag my friends to every good concert in town. ~~~ nilliams Exactly, I'm proud to pay my Spotify membership and I feel I get my money's worth... I'd probably pay more. I have now gone over 2 years without torrenting a single album (the exception being one quite-large Canadian band who happened to not be on Spotify at the time ... I'd already bought the album on vinyl so I didn't feel to bad about it). Before Spotify my best effort at _trying_ to be legal was to splash out every couple of months on some vinyl copies (nice to own... I still do this sometimes) of albums I'd already _stolen_ via bittorent. Spotify, is a music-lover's dream and it's how music distribution should work.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: Remember if a user has completed a first-use feature tour? - aen Example: http://www.ebizroi.com/Portals/176237/images/new-facebook-share-message.jpg<p>By cookie? But he'll be prompted to do it again when he logs in from another device. Database? Overkill? What's a good design? Caveats? Any other ideas? ====== jufemaiz Alternative option for DB is to not remember each feature tour completion, but rather have feature tour table and store last feature tour completion and just show the ones since then? ------ onion2k Think of the value as a user preference along the lines of "Do you want to see the product tour? [Yes\|No]". How would you store any similar user-set preference? In Usable Requirements ([http://www.usablehq.com](http://www.usablehq.com)) we use an untracked JSON object as part of the user document for preferences (this is in MongoDB). This means we don't have to keep a schema up to date - the front end can essentially put anything in that object (subject to some validation obviously). Consequently the front end code has to be tremendously defensive as values may or may not be there, but that's a good thing anyway. ------ davismwfl My question would be, user or visitor? If user than I equal that to a logged in or known person and therefore I would store it in a cache of some sort that is also persisted for those times you have to reload. If for a visitor, meaning you have no clue who they are then I'd store a cookie, and give them the option to skip out of the tour if they have already seen it. ~~~ aen It's going to be a logged-in user. I suppose I'd use a tour_completed KV store for a bunch of tour_type : boolean. ------ gumballhead redis (with persistence) or a serialized user config field in a database. It's not overkill, because you'll likely wind up needing to store more user-specifc data in the future.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Google promoted Texas gunman fake tweets - dberhane http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-41915065 ====== colemannugent My summary of the article: An algorithm designed by Google engineers to promote upcoming stories does exactly what it was supposed to do, and people who don't understand why Google employees did not manually review just one out of one hundred thousand things that the search engine indexed that day are suprised. Google Search is a content aggregator that show you what it thinks you are most likely to click on. It does not know about politics, it cannot fact check, it does not think care about effort journalism, the only thing that matters is what stories generate more ad revenue. Of course, Google will try to police its results better after this incident, but they can't effectively do this without mass censorship. If you don't believe me, see the recent YouTube drama over monetization. ~~~ maxerickson Could you explain why it is good for society for Google to not give a shit about what it promotes? I mean, the point of limited liability is not to give investors a path to profit regardless of all other things, it is to encourage investments that are beneficial to society. If it isn't working, we should retink it. ~~~ lettergram > I mean, the point of limited liability is not to give investors a path to > profit regardless of all other things, it is to encourage investments that > are beneficial to society. If it isn't working, we should retink it. From my understanding, a limited liability company exists to protect the business members and shareholders from legal action of their private persons. I.e. if the business goes under due to a poor product or something, they can't be held personally liable. That doesn't mean they are excused from criminal behavior, they can still be liable for some of that. However, in either case there is no "benefit to society" clauses. It's simply a legal construct to protect people. In this case, Google did what they did... They probably weren't criminals though ~~~ ams6110 Yes, exactly. The point of Limited Liability is _not_ simply to create a guaranteed path to profit (in fact it does no such thing; LLCs go bankrupt every day, and members can lose every penny they have personally invested). Though there is no explicit "benefit to society" clause, that is the basic rationale for limited liability. It's an incentive to allow members to define the extent of their personal financial exposure. In so doing, they are more willing to invest in businesses, which can produce a net benefit to society (e.g. by employing people, paying taxes, etc.). ------ beaner I feel like there's a big push to blame "fake news" and related phenomena on tech companies right now. Fake news is created and shared by people. Tech is just one of the vehicles through which we share it. The problem isn't tech, it's people. Fix the root cause with education and the tech will reflect it. ~~~ PostOnce The problem is that tech companies aren't just showing you everything everyone says... they're picking and choosing what to show you. The 10,000ft overview is that they show you whatever keeps you coming back or staying on-site longer. This gives them more ad impressions and makes them more money. Therefore, if their algorithms determine that showing you fake news, lies, and other socially-destructive and false propaganda is more profitable... they can and will do that. So the question is, how do we regulate what the tech-utilities get to filter from your view? Should we regulate? It's not the regulation of speech, but rather the regulation of the willful filtration of speech for profit. i.e., "dont show this guy dissenting views to his position or he'll stop coming back", where does that fit into our needs as a society and how should our laws tackle it, if at all? ~~~ opportune I just wish people were able to collectively give up social media. I completely abhor the stranglehold its placed on culture and media, especially for the younger generation. It has dumbed everything down into what will get clicks, and is extremely invasive to boot. The only thing we "gain" from having social media as a society is advertisement.... which is essentially a way to get us to consume goods we wouldn't be consuming otherwise (i.e. waste). I don't see anything good coming from replacing the more or less natural human social structure that evolved over millions of years increasingly with an app designed to get us to buy goods we don't want, or get just 5 more minutes of attention. Such a waste of humanity's minds and effort. Ultimately I really don't think you can say that Google/FB's dominance is a net positive for humanity. Sure we get to enjoy a lot of "free" goods, but those goods are merely a vector through which advertisements can learn more about us. Google/FB wouldn't be rolling in it if advertisers weren't making money off from advertising through them. I see it almost as a maladaptive coping mechanism adopted by our society at large. We have a completely self-destructive reliance on perpetual inflation- beating growth, and at this point some of the most important mechanisms driving this growth are highly sophisticated advertisements designed to squeeze every last bit of consumer spending out of the economy as is possible. Not only that, but they've collectively convinced almost all of humanity to whore out all of their own personal information just so they can browse meme pages or check up on old high school acquaintances. It's absolutely disgusting behavior that to me resembles the informed preying on the ignorant. ~~~ PostOnce A couple points and devil's advocacy on a couple as well: Search is as bad as social, even if we give up social, it'll be hard to replace search (I read Wikimedia is working on something... a nonprofit search would be a fantastic asset to the world.) Advertising generates a lot more than waste, in fact it may advertise to you a tool that you didn't know existed that prevents waste. Maybe rechargeable batteries or a water filter so you don't buy water bottles or who knows what, that sword cuts both ways. The ethics of advertisers and the lack of regulation in advertising though is easy to attack. That stuff is a mess. As for Google being a net negative, I lean to your side of the argument but I think it'd be difficult and both sides would have a lot of merit; other search engines are just less efficient; think of all the man-hours of wasted research Google has saved by giving you the right result the first time, it must be billions of hours annually, maybe more. A lot of time and money has been spent competing, and the competition hasn't gotten much closer in terms of actual search results, so, if Google didn't exist, we may just be at a loss for that stuff. ~~~ annabellish Neither is intrinsically bad for society, merely the monetisation model. "State owned" search/social would obviously be even worse, however, so there isn't a clear path to having a version of either of those things which actually have as their primary aim the things Google/Facebook claim to. ------ runesoerensen Not sure what to think here... Google's 'public liaison for search' says _" Google briefly carried tweets with dubious info "_[0] without defining further what that means - except their Twitter results are changing _" second by second"_[1], and later assuring that it _" only happened for a few thousands who searched for his name"_[2]. This was not my experience. I took a screenshot of my search results at 9:06PM ET [3], e.g. 1-2+ hours after the egregious tweets (which were already prominently featured within 30-40 minutes, if not earlier, as several other sources suggest[4]). I might be missing something, but it seems disingenuous to suggest that this only happened for a short period of time, while downplaying the matter by vaguely and generally hinting at second-by-second dynamic tweet update algorithms. Also I even think the claim that only a few thousand people saw this may be disproven by Google's own statistics. According to Google Trends, searches for Devis Patrick Kelly peaked between 7-9PM ET [5] - so before I took the screenshot that night. I find it very hard to believe that only a few thousand people saw this over the 2+ hours when this peaked on that night. Based on the Google Trends graph[6] it seems the vast majority of searches happened during the peak, and I suspect it's reasonable to assume that millions have searched for his name since his name was publicly revealed? [0] [https://twitter.com/dannysullivan/status/927713318172635137](https://twitter.com/dannysullivan/status/927713318172635137) [1] [https://twitter.com/dannysullivan/status/927713426440253440](https://twitter.com/dannysullivan/status/927713426440253440) [2] [https://twitter.com/dannysullivan/status/927713578827653120](https://twitter.com/dannysullivan/status/927713578827653120) [3] [https://imgur.com/a/ao4kK](https://imgur.com/a/ao4kK) [4] [https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/11/06/google_twitter_fake...](https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/11/06/google_twitter_fake_news/) [5] [https://imgur.com/a/lAh12](https://imgur.com/a/lAh12) [6] [https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=2017-11-05T05%...](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=2017-11-05T05%202017-11-08T06&q=Devin%20Patrick%20Kelly) ~~~ csydas More than likely it is Google trying to downplay it, but it's their search being gamed - the BBC article is actually inaccurate as far as I'm aware, as at least in the case of Sam Hyde, I was under the impression he was in on the joke, though I may be wrong. Regardless, the length of time probably isn't as important as the frequency with which this occurs, as the search frequently returning verifiably wrong or fake information is probably a bigger issue. The length of time it lasts is just a symptom of the tool providing news without the news being curated. ------ mythrwy Yes, there is bad information on the Internet. Yes, when you aggregate tons of user content some inaccurate things will be there. Go somewhere else BBC, NYT, WaPo. We know, you'd like to see a content regulated Internet. I wouldn't and I'm weary of seeing these articles day in and day out. Beside why are articles from newspaper on HN front page so much lately? From HN guidelines: Off-Topic: "Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon....... If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic." This self serving media policy seeking doesn't belong here IMOP. It's not interesting, it's not informative. Shouldn't be constantly on front page day after day. ------ tclancy >Google's Danny Sullivan - "We want to get this right" I feel like in a better world that would be, "We are legally obligated to get this right or stop trying." ------ imdhmd A little off-topic, but on similar lines: searching for "demagogue" on google, gets you a Trump's picture: [https://i.imgur.com/qFJk9io.png](https://i.imgur.com/qFJk9io.png) I wonder how that ends up happening, is google able to sum up popular opinion or is this someone's mischief? ------ amelius I wonder when we finally get mandatory electronic locks on guns. Having an electronic license for a single gun could have prevented this man from using a whole battery of guns. It makes little sense that we can have more sophisticated locks on an iPhoneX than on guns.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
React Demystified (by HN's haberman) - swah http://blog.reverberate.org/2014/02/react-demystified.html ====== swah _" How does introducing an extra layer make things faster? Doesn't that imply that the browsers have sub-optimal DOM implementations, if adding a layer on top of them can speed them up?"_ A great little meta insight on how to think about stuff.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
A list of facts about Google - tedsanders https://www.tedsanders.com/on-google/ ====== tedsanders Another fun fact about Google: both Google and Domino’s IPOed in 2004. Since then Domino’s stock has done better. [https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2020/02/25/dom...](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2020/02/25/dominos- stock-yields-higher-returns-than-google-since-ipos.html)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Tim Cook is stepping down. Apple is looking for a new CEO in Barcelona (Spain) - soci http://www.jobsbcn.com/offers/apple-ceo-english-ios-mac-osx-d14801?result=0 ====== xae Although he definitely shouldn't be stepping down from his position he absolutely needs to come to Barcelona and open a development center in the city. Quality talent at 1/3 of the cost	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Company claims to "track exactly who is visiting your website" - replics https://www.relead.com/ ====== tzaman Hopefully I'm not the only one feeling uncomfortable with this. I mean it's okay for advertisers to know some info about me - but _everything_? ~~~ rcush It looks as though this site is not able to track individual people, but only companies. I'd guess they're doing this by querying each visitor IP with a database of known IP addresses used by companies. If so, it's not particularly sinister, not particularly useful, and not particularly accurate. The discussion being had here - <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4891637> \- deals with a site that is allegedly identifying visitors individually somehow, most likely through something to do with social media. However, I'm skeptical. ------ josscrowcroft I hate them just for the website alone... all the scroll effects kill the experience ------ james-singh Then why is it asking for my name during registration? ~~~ Svip It looks like it is only companies it can track for you. ------ Tactix47 This site's tracking is covered in another thread: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4891637> I agree with tzaman that there are serious privacy concerns here... ~~~ NaturalDoc I must agree with you and tzaman on this. In a time when we are fighting hard to protect our personal privacy online, companies like this are trying to take more of it away. I hope beyond hope that this company fails miserably! ------ bmaguire This is a pretty strong argument for using TOR. These guys may not be seriously malicious but they are definitely seriously creepy.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
UK Parliament publishes 250+ pages of sensitive, internal Facebook documents - burtonator http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-05/seized-facebook-internal-emails-published-by-u-k-lawmakers ====== mtmail discussed in [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18608658](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18608658)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Show HN: Browsergram, a one hour Chrome extension that Instagrams everything. - hazelcough https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/browsergram/nfimhjenbdbaofikdffcinpepgpmcmcb ====== jeffehobbs Haters gonna do the thing that haters are naturally best at.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
A Silicon Valley School That Doesn’t Compute - lsr7 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/technology/at-waldorf-school-in-silicon-valley-technology-can-wait.html?hpw ====== pessimist “The idea that an app on an iPad can better teach my kids to read or do arithmetic, that’s ridiculous.” In my experience this may be empirically false. My 4 year old could barely count, but after spending 2 months in the summer playing a couple of iPad games, he's adding 2 digit numbers and subtracting 1 digit numbers, and doing simple math puzzles. His elder brother couldnt do those till Kindergarten, and I dont think the difference was aptitude. ~~~ ericd Yeah, I learned my early math skills primarily by playing math games on a Mac 128k. That person doesn't know what they're talking about - interactive teaching systems can be engaging in a way that pen/paper has no hope of matching. ~~~ JEVLON Playing "Maths Circus" and Lemmings on beige macs were the most powerful educational tools for teachers to use as a reward for good work to get me to perform well. Sadly that stopped a grade or two later, and my interest dropped, and so did my performance. Hopefully soon our computational freedoms for big actual work won't be relegated to computer monitors. Laptops and tablets are great, but they make you focus/stare at one area for a long time. There is often a wall behind that monitor, we are basically staring at it, for many hours, most of my adult life is staring at a wall. <http://worrydream.com/KillMath/> There's a Microsoft Research concept video that showed people interacting with computational environments within their natural environment. Statistical information could be represented for any data needed, and people were not bound to their seats. Problem is, I don't see things being able to change much for people that work in the terminal. Basically, what I am trying to say with my thoughts is, the positives of both worlds will interwine and the negatives of both will mostly disappear. ------ nchuhoai I think their are just approaching the problem from the wron side. They are right in saying that the computer is being used wrong, but wrong in saying that not using the computer is the solution. I'm more in alignment with what Mr Wolfram from WolframAlpha is saying: Computers can helkp you with tasks that are repetitive and inhuman, you should learn what is needed to solve a problem efficiently. That is actually more in alignment with what the Waldorf system says: Creativity through hands-on. Denying kids access to technology is just stupid, because if you think about your own life: Doesn't technology make it easier and more efficient to get things done? ------ Aloisius Maybe they don't let students use computers because when you search for information about the Waldorf schools, you get all sorts of stuff about them being some kind of cult. In my admittedly limited research, I found information about astral bodies, Atlantis, soul nourishment, clairvoyance and and a dislike of the left handed. From the Skeptic's Dictionary: _Waldorf schools reflect Steiner's education theories, which hold that children advance through three stages....during the first stage, birth to age 7, the spirit inhabiting the body of the child is still adjusting to its surroundings, hence lower grades in Waldorf school offer minimal academic content. Reading is not introduced until second or third grade. During the second stage, ages seven to 14, children are said to be driven primarily by imagination and fantasy, so students are introduced to mythology. After age 14, the third stage, an astral body is believed to be drawn into the physical body, creating the onset of puberty._ ~~~ Cushman Waldorf schools are based on some crazy-nutty voodoo philosophy. They also, more or less coincidentally, work really, really well. ~~~ gruseom _more or less coincidentally_ That's too easy. How can we know that? On the contrary, it would be surprising if how well the schools work were unrelated to their philosophy. ------ gruseom My sister-in-law has taught at a Waldorf school for years. The school the article describes sounds typical. Waldorf is actually based on an extremely deviant philosophy. They get away with it because they deliver results. In particular, their kids routinely decimate all standardized tests. ~~~ nightski Hmmm. Kids from affluent families who likely have highly educated parents working at high tech companies do well on standardized tests created to cover the entire spectrum of children? nowai ~~~ gruseom Please don't interject that kind of rudeness here. The school my sister-in-law teaches at has little in common with your demographic description. It's bland middle class with mild (very mild) alternative tendencies. What it has in common with the school in the article is basic Waldorf principles: eschewing technology in the early grades, emphasis on imagination and handwork and so on. The Silicon Valley aspect of the article is a red herring, no doubt because it's attention-getting, but perhaps also because the author doesn't realize this is simply an instance of a type. ~~~ gruseom Edit: I was unfair to the author. The article clearly discusses Waldorf schools as a type. ------ wollw There seems to be a false dichotomy being made between hands on education and the use of technology in the classroom that bothers me a bit; why should they be separated? I see no reason why a collaborative, hands on approach to education is precluded by the use of technology. The developers of Racket (formerly PLT Scheme) have an after school program called Program by Design (<http://programbydesign.org/>) and one of the things they found was that some of the students started wanting to learn _more_ math because they needed to know how to add things to their programs! The extreme view presented in this article seems to be based more upon fear of technology than any kind of understanding of it. ------ dcrankshaw I went to this school for kindergarten through the first half of sixth grade. Being an elementary school student I was less familiar with their guiding philosophy than the actual execution. But I can say that they did some things really well for an elementary school child, one of which was not burdening their students with homework. This gave me free time to read everything I could get my hands on, which I think has been incredibly valuable to my development and later education. But I left when we were covering fractions for the 3rd year in a row (when I was in sixth grade), and I felt completely stifled and unchallenged. I have no regrets that my parents sent me there, but at least when I was there, the execution of the philosophy began to fall apart when I turned 10. For some context, I am now a CS and Physics major and don't feel that an unfamiliarity with computers when I was 8 hampered my math or computer skills at all. ------ paul We send our kids to Waldorf inspired schools. Most schools (especially public schools) give me a sense of dread, like a twelve year prison sentence would. The Waldorf schools have a warm, human feel that actually makes me a little jealous of my kids. I would rather my kids be raised as whole humans, not little test-taking machines. ~~~ tricolon Could the Waldorf schools be a reaction to the new concept of simply dumping one's child at a school to be raised? ~~~ gruseom The schools themselves have been going for about a hundred years, so they aren't a reaction to it. Perhaps some parents are. I hope so. Unfortunately, I think the social trend is the other way around. Where I live (Canada), debate tends to center around how wonderful it would be if children could be raised by day-care workers before being handed off to school workers, so the parents can go be workers someplace else. ------ pnathan Well, there's a limit to the practical use of gadgets in the classroom. Learning human interaction, motor skills, and other parts of being human are best done with other humans. It's also pretty clear to me that equating computing to the use of Word, Excel, and Google leads one to the conclusion that computing is easy and not a big deal to pick up. Naturally, as a software engineer, I disagree vehemently with that. I think that some level of _real_ (not turtle or other games) programming should be taught from middle school on to the point where a HS grad can successfully write a small program to deal with the small needs of life: things like accounting, sophisticated searching for files, etc. I believe - have faith - that a programming-enabled population can do some pretty amazing things when set free to do them. All it takes is the knowledge and the eyes to see what can be automated to do so. ~~~ stan_rogers Please don't diss the turtle. I was too old for the Logo scene (by quite a bit, actually) but I learned (and grokked) recursion reading an article about Logo and turtle graphics. I made _Gödel, Escher, Bach_ a much easier read in '80 than it would have been otherwise. ------ schlichtm I went to Waldorf for 10 years (preschool - 8th grade). Didn't get a computer until I was 12. Now > [http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2011/10/19/how-two- te...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2011/10/19/how-two-teenagers- broke-in-to-silicon-valley-and-the-music-industry/) ------ Groxx _“The idea that an app on an iPad can better teach my kids to read or do arithmetic, that’s ridiculous.”_ Ugh. Also read as: "Something I haven't seen doing something I don't expect it to? Ridiculous!" The correlation between students at Waldorf schools and prestigious schools later is _extremely_ easily explained by a single character: $ That said, something different than our current, standard public-school fare probably stands a decent chance of doing better. Anything with more attention to the methodology stands such a chance. But I'd be willing to bet that many of the successes also simply reflect parents that are more aware of their children's education. ~~~ adam Your specific comment about "$" may be false. Waldorf schools in urban areas are indeed $15k+/year/kid, but there are Waldorf schools in rural areas that charge far less for tuition. Not having kids myself but knowing parents of kids who go to Waldorf schools, your second statement seems more accurate: from what they say the parents are very involved in the schooling - in fact the Waldorf methodology is insistent on it. ------ tikhonj I think that this approach is basically absurd. I easily learned more during my lunches in the computer lab, going through HTML, CSS and then JavaScript tutorials or writing batch files to do silly things than anywhere else during my time in middle school. Not only this, but (especially further on, in 7th and 8th grade), I learned other subjects more effectively thanks to computers. I still remember _The Crucible_ because I made a website (complete with red text in Chiller, uncontrollable music and animated drops of blood for the background) for it; I learned factoring by writing a simple JavaScript game for it. I think this easily beats spending weeks cutting up fruit and shunning technology. Had I not been playing around with computers and the internet since a young age, not only would I probably not have found my true calling-- CS--but I would also probably have had a worse education in all the other fields as well. ------ namank I agree with the philosophy. Foundations of learning should not be built on use of Google as a search engine. Foundations should he a mix of the things necessary for brain and personality development. Its synonymous to the debate about letting kids use calculators for simple (or not so simple ) math problems. ~~~ nightski Isn't it sad that the computing experience is now defined as using Google? What a waste. ------ joshu Curiously, it's in Los Altos. So are the first schools to adopt the Khan Academy platform. ~~~ gruseom Rich freethinkers. ~~~ joshu Is that good or bad? ~~~ gruseom Good on both points in my book. (Was going to say "rich hippies" but thought better of it. I mean freethinker in the original sense, someone who doesn't follow norms.) ------ ethank I went to a Waldorf type school (called a multi-year back when I was in elementary school). My classroom was 90 kids, grades K-3 in a room that was four classrooms with walls knocked down. No desks, self-directed curriculum, etc. I was in a 4-6 after this, which was more structured but still self directed. <http://fsd.k12.ca.us/rollinghills/multiage.html> This was my program. My sister and I went through it. To this day a lot of us still keep in touch with our teacher. It was not strict Waldorf, more inspired by it and still is to this day. ------ devs1010 wow these "tech" worker parents are seriously pretty messed up. I'm pretty sure my early computer use and curiosity led to my current career as a software developer, I can't imagine not knowing how to use a search engine until eighth grade, I was messing around looking at HTML code and stuff in like 5th or 6th grade ------ michaelochurch One thing that saddens me in education is the death of Long Division. I took a couple math-ed courses in college and I was shocked when I learned that most it's not being taught in most schools. It's "too hard" and it's "useless", some say, so it's being taken out of the curriculum. Bullshit it's useless. Multiplication tables are memorized lookup tables. That's "rote" but important, but it's not when math starts to become interesting. Long multiplication and division are the first time people have to use an algorithm for a problem too difficult to do in any other way. And yes, it needs to be done by hand and if it takes a few months for the average student to get it right, fine. It's important. Not the actual skill of dividing 83914 by 203, but the process of carrying out a mechanical algorithm by hand. Should computers be a part of education? Absolutely. Should programming be taught in school? Yes. Should we abandon the process of running algorithms by hand, as a mechanism for understanding rule-based computation at an early age? No. Interesting fact: early computers (in the 1940s) were not competitive with human "computers"-- savants whose jobs were to do arithmetical calculations. They were actually slower. What made mechanical computers such a win was that they could keep going and remain reliable, whereas human computers would start making mistakes after 8 hours. If you've gone through the humiliating process of trying to calculate a 6-by-6 determinant by hand and getting it wrong, you understand this, and you know _why_ the rigor offered by mechanical computation is so important. If you haven't, it probably doesn't make sense to you.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: Business models for single dev OSS - chuhnk Hey HN,<p>I've been working on an OSS project called Micro (https://github.com/micro/micro) for over a year now which has seen production use by a number of companies. I was fortunate enough to get an enterprise company to sponsor the OSS development of the project which allows me to work on it full time but I'm now starting to think about long term sustainability and next steps.<p>I've read about Mike Perham's experiences with Sidekiq and am interested to hear more from the HN community about appropriate business models for OSS as a single developer. I imagine there are countless developers here who would also probably like to hear about ways to build a sustainable business around OSS.<p>I'm currently thinking about the dual-licensing model that aligns with what Cockroach Labs plan to do https://www.cockroachlabs.com/blog/how-were-building-a-business-to-last/<p>Please share your thoughts and experiences on the subject.<p>Cheers Asim ====== lukaseder Dual licensing is a great option. I.e. don't wait for someone to be "generous" and "pitiful". Demand money. Make it a business. Screw OSS, because after all, you're not doing it for the philosophy or Richard Stallman's beard, you're doing it to support your family. And you worked hard for it. The only reason why you should pick OSS is because it gets you more market traction more quickly (but also, you're commoditising your own product by making it free, so how to increase its value again?) We've been quite successful with it for jOOQ ([http://www.jooq.org](http://www.jooq.org)). Here's some reading on how we fared (and why we should've done it earlier): \- [https://opensource.com/business/14/1/how-to-transition- open-...](https://opensource.com/business/14/1/how-to-transition-open-source- to-revenue) \- [https://opensource.com/business/14/1/5-lessons-open- source-r...](https://opensource.com/business/14/1/5-lessons-open-source- revenue-based-model) ~~~ chuhnk Thanks for sharing your experience. Curious to know, how did you determine pricing for jOOQ? ~~~ lukaseder There are different things we did (emphasis on "we". YMMV): \- Check prices of other products in the same market (by market, I don't mean ORM in our case but all libraries, including UI libraries like Sencha's products, or ZK) \- Never compare with prices of products from other markets (e.g. tools in our case. The value proposition of a library cannot be compared to that of a tool like IntelliJ, or a database like Oracle). \- Ask existing users (that's gold!) \- A bit of this: [http://dilbert.com/strip/2010-10-20](http://dilbert.com/strip/2010-10-20) \- Testing different price plans (express, professional, enterprise) \- Testing different subscription terms (monthly, yearly, perpetual) \- Testing different discounts (hint: don't offer discounts in a B2B product) The biggest win (for us) was to introduce tiered pricing (check the bottom of [https://www.jooq.org/download/price- plans](https://www.jooq.org/download/price-plans)), as this got rid of discount discussions which are humiliating for both parties without adding real value, and helps high volume customers keep admin work low. They don't want to count the exact number of licenses needed. What we don't do: \- Offer special reseller discounts (I don't see why we should, resellers would work with us nonetheless - they can add their margins on top of our price) \- Have country-specific pricing (that's just too complicated to track and validate, at least for us) \- Raise prices for existing customers (not yet, and no plans yet), even when they purchase more licenses. \- Probably tons of other things we hadn't thought of (yet) ~~~ chuhnk Thanks thats some good insight. Will definitely take them into consideration as I move forward. ~~~ lukaseder Sure! Ping me if you have more questions. I'm curious to learn from your use- case. ------ jsegura I've been following your project since a year ago and I only have to congratulate you for moving forward. I think that Dual licensing is a good way to go but, just to know, have you ever thought in providing some components on a privative way? ~~~ lukaseder What's the difference between dual licensing and "providing some components in a private (= restriced licensed) way" ? ------ jetti I have no experience in this so take my opinion with a grain of salt but what about charging for support contracts? While the project is open source and anybody could make changes/fixes it isn't always an option for a company to have somebody jump in the code to try and get a handle of the codebase to make certain changes. If they had a contract with you, somebody who is intimately familiar with the codebase, then bugs and changes could be implemented faster and better. ~~~ tonyedgecombe Doesn't that just make you a technical support person? I don't know about the OP but selling support sounds like hell to me. ~~~ jetti It does. But a software company of 1 will always make you the technical support person, unless you just don't want to give support. ~~~ chuhnk Echoing tonyedgecombe, I'm not interested in the support model. I've spent a number of years as a sysadmin and developer on call, it's not the most enjoyable part of the job. Appreciate the comment though. ~~~ jsegura I know that pain very well, but for me it's difficult to think in a dual licensing model without providing support. How it will look like? ~~~ tonyedgecombe There is a difference between providing support for something you sell and making it the whole of your business. I've been running an isv for years and support rarely takes more than 30 minutes in a day. ------ mperham Kudos for even thinking about the long term and sustainability. So many people just create a project with nothing more than the first/next release in mind. Good luck, whatever you do. ~~~ chuhnk Thanks much appreciated. It was always a thought from day 1 knowing the way OSS goes. Hopefully dual licensing proves to be a good option.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Show HN: WP Pluginator – A WordPress Plugin Development tool - outsourceappz Hello All,<p>We've created a WordPress Plugin Development tool called as 'WP Pluginator' which makes its super easy to create WordPress Plugins. It integrates quite a bit of functionality right off the bat. Here is the link - http://www.outsourceappz.com/products/wordpress-pluginator-orm-migrations<p>PHP has improved leaps and bounds over the last few years and so has PHP tooling, frameworks etc. As a result the learning curves and hence entry barriers are much lowered. WordPress plugin development process hasn't changed much. This tool aims to fill that void.<p>We would really appreciate if you can critique your impressions. Any advice on how to market it would be appreciated as well.<p>Thank you! ====== aarondf Did you steal your doc design from [http://laravel.com/docs/5.1](http://laravel.com/docs/5.1)? [http://www.outsourceappz.com/docs/wordpress-plugin-orm- plus-...](http://www.outsourceappz.com/docs/wordpress-plugin-orm-plus- migrations/4.1/queries) Certainly looks like it... ~~~ mikeschinkel Steal? I thought the whole idea of open-source was to allow people to remix and reuse? Why is their use of Laravel's code not applauded instead of being derided? ~~~ outsourceappz Thanks Mike, Its MIT license [https://github.com/laravel/laravel.com/blob/master/composer....](https://github.com/laravel/laravel.com/blob/master/composer.json) . However I have had people point it out that designs aren't. Not sure if they are correct. Anyhow to keep focus on my product rather than this unwanted controversy I've changed it to plain bootstrap for now. Hopefully this should rest the case [http://www.outsourceappz.com](http://www.outsourceappz.com) p.s: My intention wasn't to rip it off as I believe I was permissible to do within the license. Regards ~~~ aarondf I actually believe that you got the licenses mixed up. Not totally unreasonable. The code is definitely open source, but the design of the website is not open source. ~~~ outsourceappz Thanks arrondf. I am glad you could see the other side of the coin. ------ jcr For feedback, you want "Show HN" rather than "Ask HN" so it will get listed under "show" in the HN top menu. The rules for doing a "Show HN" submission are here: [https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html) I don't use WordPress, so I won't be able to help much. One thing I did notice on your site was the use of the word "opinionated" to describe your plugin. (i.e. _" Pluginator is an opinionated scaffolding tool"_). I know what a scaffolding tool is, but I do not know what an "opinionated scaffolding tool" is. The term "opinionated" tends to have an aggressive and negative connotation/association that you might be better off avoiding. ~~~ chrisan > The term "opinionated" tends to have an aggressive and negative > connotation/association that you might be better off avoiding. Opinionated in software is not negative to me. You know going in the author designed the ___ to fit his preferred workflow/goal/stack. For example, opinionated might mean: Doctrime ORM, LESS, and Bootstrap. If he left out the opinionated part I would assume it works with many various things where I could pick Doctrine, Eloquent, Propel etc and choose between LESS or SASS and Foundation vs Bootstrap. This is much like yeoman: [http://yeoman.io/](http://yeoman.io/) > Through our official Generators, we promote the "Yeoman workflow". This > workflow is a robust and opinionated client-side stack, comprising tools and > frameworks that can help developers quickly build beautiful web > applications. We take care of providing everything needed to get started > without any of the normal headaches associated with a manual setup. ~~~ outsourceappz Thanks Chrisan ------ mgkimsal The video shows me nothing of value. There may be value there, but the fact that there's a video I sat through which shows me nothing useful is a potential strike against you. If you're going to have a video, show actual utility beyond "enter your plugin's name". Show structure, show management screens, show ORM code, show... something of actual usefulness. I'm browsing the docs and this looks like it might be useful, but anyone just watching the video definitely won't get that. ~~~ outsourceappz Very good point. I'll get it sorted. Thanks mgkimsal. ~~~ mgkimsal cool. good luck. ------ rememberlenny Are you just charging money for the existing free templates that other developers have made? \- [https://github.com/DevinVinson/WordPress-Plugin- Boilerplate](https://github.com/DevinVinson/WordPress-Plugin-Boilerplate) \- [https://github.com/hlashbrooke/WordPress-Plugin- Template](https://github.com/hlashbrooke/WordPress-Plugin-Template) ~~~ outsourceappz No. Its not just boilerplate. The links you showed above, just create the plugin structure. I've incorporated ORM, database manager, validation etc on top of boilerplate and planning to introduce more functionality on top to make lives easier for plugin developer. Appropriate credits are given [http://www.outsourceappz.com/docs/wordpress- plugin-orm-plus-...](http://www.outsourceappz.com/docs/wordpress-plugin-orm- plus-migrations/4.1/releases#credits) ------ scarecrowbob What does it do that this doesn't (other than add an ORM and migration tool?): [http://wppb.me/](http://wppb.me/) ~~~ outsourceappz I think you've said it. It add functionality on top of a plugin structure. The additional functionality like ORM, migrations, validation, etc etc. Makes life easier for plugin developers. We intend to address other areas where we think we can safe time for developers doing the daily mundane stuff. I've certainly had issues with doing repeat stuff so scratching my own itch. I am sorry, I couldn't convey the benefits much better. Any suggestions you would like to give? ------ punjabisingh It would better if this could integrate (and be listed inside) wp-cli, which is becoming the standard for interfacing with WordPress using cli. ~~~ outsourceappz great point punjabisingh. We will certain consider that option too. We are currently trying to gauge if what we've provided solves a problem for someone. If it becomes successful, we would be very willing to interface with wp-cli.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Court limits liability for using tainted code (innocent customer absolved) - grellas http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202457477366&Intel_Off_Hook_for_Buying_Tainted_Software ====== JabavuAdams Judge: "Seldom have so many trees died for so little." ------ ableal I was going to ask for your (grellas) opinion on the case, but I guess it's in the title ... I remember a similar story with EDA software, back in 2000 or so, with Cadence's code in Avanti products. Silvaco is a smaller company. I suppose the point of the suits is that the first baker wanted the customers to buy his pies, or be paid for the pies they should have bought from him. The back story linked ( [http://www.law.com/jsp/lawtechnologynews/PubArticleLTN.jsp?i...](http://www.law.com/jsp/lawtechnologynews/PubArticleLTN.jsp?id=1202447616842) ) said that "Silvaco sued 12 semiconductor companies in 2003 and 2004 that bought CSI software" and seven settled. Don't know how harsh the terms asked were, but it might have gone the other way - apparently the big guys decided it was worth fighting. ~~~ grellas An odd footnote here: I incorporated Silvaco and represented them through about the mid-1990s, though I have not been connected with any of the lawsuit activity described in this article. The style of the company can accurately be described as "aggressive."	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: Better to use Javascript or CSS - dillon I have a lot of animations to fulfill on my website, right now I'm doing pure CSS for these animations. Is it better to use CSS or is it better to use Jquery? ====== karlclement Hello there, I would have to agree with symmet, you need both. This way if a user doesn't have a recent version of Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari or Opera you can have jQuery to fall back on. -You can use browser detection to conditionally enable jQuery scripts on page load. You can use Javascript/jQuery or a server-side script to detect exactly which browser is loading the page. -You can also check out <http://www.modernizr.com/>. It adds classes to the html element which allow you to target specific browser functionality in your stylesheet. Let me know if you need any help with that, Good luck! Karl ~~~ hypotenuse I agree. Here's a Javascript snippet I saw recently that is a useful start for doing this (read the comments for some ideas of what you may or may not need to modify): [http://www.bradshawenterprises.com/blog/2011/a-jquery- functi...](http://www.bradshawenterprises.com/blog/2011/a-jquery-function-to- animate-using-css3-transitions-if-possible-with-the-animate-fallback/) ------ symmet My approach is to do everything in CSS animations for browsers that support it, and then fall back to jQuery animations for those that don't. CSS animations can take advantage of hardware graphics acceleration and they render very nicely on mobile browsers. So, my answer is: both. ------ jet3june Both and several other javascript frameworks	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Track Santa with Google Maps - flowerpot http://www.google.com/santatracker/#/tracker/dashboard ====== littlemerman This is pretty fun.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
There's nothing wrong with making a mistake (2002) - luu http://denbeste.nu/cd_log_entries/2002/10/ItsOKtobewrong.shtml ====== cableshaft But HN just told me yesterday that engineers should be held to a higher standard and should be executed, firing range style, when there are bugs: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10488991](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10488991). Now I don't know whether I should kill myself or pat myself on the head! ~~~ vezycash I think this Chinese quote can summarize the article: "He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; he who does not ask a question remains a fool forever." In terms of lean methodology, "Fail fast and fail often."	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Burning Man Seeks to Change ‘Convenience Culture,’ Boots Camp for Wealthy (2019) - masonic https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/15/business/burning-man-tickets.html ====== masonic 2020 gathering cancelled: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22839503](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22839503)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Intel can’t supply 14nm Xeons, HPE recommends AMD Epyc - davidgerard https://www.semiaccurate.com/2018/09/07/intel-cant-supply-14nm-xeons-hpe-directly-recommends-amd-epyc/ ====== gumby I really think Intel lost its way back in the Barrett era and never managed to find it (and I think AMD is really significantly exceeding its historical trend line right now) but despite all that I am dubious about semiaccurate. Looking back at other submissions from that site ( [https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=semiaccurate.com](https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=semiaccurate.com) ) it appears many HN readers are too. Based (only) on the submissions, it looks a bit like an AMD fan site. ~~~ throwaway2048 Semi accurate most definitely has a big bias against Intel, but they are pretty open with it. They have a ton of insider information that nobody else does, there is a reason they have an insanely expensive paywall, and people gladly pay it. ~~~ C7H8N4O2 > They have a ton of insider information that nobody else does Are you willing and able to elaborate? ~~~ throwaway2048 They have a (slightly out of date) page on the very topic [https://www.semiaccurate.com/fullyaccurate/](https://www.semiaccurate.com/fullyaccurate/) Some things since then, they were the first media outlet to talk about how Intel's 10nm was a disaster, The first media outlet to talk about Zen chiplet technology and predict AMD had a homerun on their hands. ~~~ mtgx They also "predicted" Intel's delays and ultimate failure with Broadwell (basically a 6-month product), too. ------ zachruss92 Honestly, this seems like another instance of Intel dropping the ball, and AMD is more than happy to pick up the slack. AMD is already testing their 7nm Epyc chips with OEMs to be released Q1'19. My takeaway from this is that server manufacturers are starting to recommend Epyc is a solution which will increase AMD's market share. This will just create more competition between Red and Blue which will give consumers faster innovation and better prices. ------ DeepYogurt Can anyone explain the shortage of 14nm chips? This article simply mentions that most readers are aware of this fact and I am unable to find supporting articles. ~~~ tristanj [https://www.tomshardware.com/news/14nm-processor-intel- short...](https://www.tomshardware.com/news/14nm-processor-intel- shortage-9000-series,37746.html) Because Intel's 10nm process is delayed, their 14nm fab is overbooked leading to a chip shortage. ~~~ dman But isnt the positive spin on that they are selling every chip they could make? ~~~ hajile No. Two fabs output more chips than one fab. Intel has deals with other companies for both 10nm and 14nm production and some of those deals are undoubtedly based on Intel moving their own chips to 10nm. At capacity and unable to increase as expected means customers move to other companies that make compatible, competitive products. Once those companies move, they may not come back. This is quite a bad position to be in. ~~~ dman Are there other companies that are using Intel fabs with real volume? ~~~ chx [https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/25/17614930/apple- iphone-201...](https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/25/17614930/apple- iphone-2018-intel-cellular-modems-qualcomm-legal-dispute) [https://www.tomshardware.com/news/14nm-processor-intel- short...](https://www.tomshardware.com/news/14nm-processor-intel- shortage-9000-series,37746.html) > That ramp is occurring as Intel is also bringing production of its 14nm XMM > 7560 modems online for Apple during the second half of this year. The new > Apple contract, which consists of millions of modems for iPhones, will > certainly be a top priority at Intel's fabs. ~~~ chasil I had heard that Apple will be dumping Intel modems after that contract is complete, with Mediatek the likely new partner. This might have something to do with the Qualcomm lawsuit over Apple breaking NDAs by sharing sensitive information with Intel. Assuming this to be so, Apple may not be allocated the highest priority. ------ acd Arm chips will most likely replace Intel even for servers. I think we may se massive core count with lower clocked frequency chips as die shrink will be come too expensive. “Rock's law or Moore's second law, named for Arthur Rock or Gordon Moore, says that the cost of a semiconductor chip fabrication plant doubles every four years“ [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_second_law](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_second_law) ~~~ vardump CPU side channel attacks, speculative execution leaks, throttling and cache effects, might eventually benefit the ARM server camp. Maybe instead of virtual machines we'll end up running (some) workloads on cheap, low power and isolated ARM CPUs, directly on bare metal without potentially leaky virtualization. Something like 4-16 GB of ECC RAM over 1-2 channels, quad core Cortex A73, A76 or similar. (Some ARMv8 designs are actually not that far behind of x86 chips in scalar performance anymore. SIMD (vector integer/floating point) is another matter, but I guess it's not impossible to slap a few 256 or 512 bits wide SIMD units in ARM designs.) ~~~ gfody I wonder if AMD has the fortitude to try again after the premature ejaculation that was [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SeaMicro](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SeaMicro) ~~~ djrogers SeaMicro wasn’t ARM though- it was X86 (intel Atom to be specific). ------ martin1975 Feels a bit like Apple's resurrection from the dead when Jobs came back to take the helm after having been 'fired'... now AMD is eating Intel's pie left right and center. ~~~ xattt Are there specific people that are back at AMD that had not been there during the last decade? ~~~ martin1975 the new CEO, her name eludes me, a Chinese lady, she's very much responsible for AMD's recent success and capitalizing on Intel's mistakes ~~~ dragontamer Wikipedia says Lisa Su is Taiwanese-American. Rumor is that she's somehow related to NVidia's chief. Like 2nd cousins or 3rd niece / something-something removed or something of that nature. Just for some delicious irony. EDIT: Found it. Jen-Hsun Huang is apparently her Uncle. [https://babeltechreviews.com/nvidias-ceo-is-the-uncle-of- amd...](https://babeltechreviews.com/nvidias-ceo-is-the-uncle-of-amds-ceo/) > Technically, Lisa Su’s grandfather is Jen-Hsun Huang’s uncle. They are not > exactly niece and uncle, but close relatives. ~~~ ksec Jen is 表舅, So it should be Lisa Su's mum ( it has to be on her mum's side and not her dad ) 's Dad or Mother's ( Grand Pa / Grand Ma ) , and their brother or sisters's son. ------ ItsTotallyOn Intel used to keep less important products, like chipsets, on trailing nodes (right now, that's 22nm). Now the company is fabbing the chipsets on 14nm, too. That's mainly because of the late move to 10nm. Intel's processors SHOULD be on 10nm, but they aren't, so chipsets are eating into 14nm production capacity. Intel has to create one chipset for each processor produced (in most cases), so this adds up to a lot of chips. ------ LinuxBender How many server models have HP and Dell switched to using Epyc? ~~~ JohannFlobuster HPE Solution Architect here -- HPE has 4 lines, 3 public / 1 private. DL385 and DL325 are rack based servers aka traditional pizza box. DL385 is your workhorse platform. DL325 is a 1P design based for heavy PCIe connected (read: NVMe) devices. The CL3150 is a cloudline server and will likely be more consumed in the service provider space, in my opinion. The Apollo 35 is available to top 200 volume accounts (which has been annouced publicly, but is not available to your everyday customer.) This type [of information leak] is my worst nightmare as someone who works with resellers, letting these types of documents in the wrong hands or somehow access is breached like this. Edit 2: I am a server SA, MASE. I configure servers all the time. If customer demand shows the swap, you _could_ see the proc move over to other lines, such as blades and the HPC markets. ~~~ old-gregg Super-curious: have you seen much customer-driven demand for AMD EPYC, i.e. for reasons other than Xeon availability? AMD processors have been affected to a lesser degree to speculative execution exploits, they're cheaper and (if I'm not mistaken) offer more PCIe lanes, etc. Also, do you expect 7mm EPYC to do well in your space? Thanks! ~~~ JohannFlobuster Depends on market segement. I've seen alot of demand for Epyc in workloads that are sensitive to memory bandwidth. Just so much to offer when you max out 8 channels. They are cheaper due to fabrication process. The PCIe lane story is stuff of fanboys. It comes at a cost, power and heat. Secondly, anyone looking at an NVMe box should be looking at AMD in my opinion. The trick is if you are doing a VM farm, mixing Intel and AMD aint the best idea, as you all know. I see EPYC ticking up fast. In terms of exploits like Spectre/Meltdown, I'm pretty sure the exploits AMD claimed were not vulnerable, they ended up pushing out microcode for anyway. So its a moot point. I HAVE come across alot of customers who have DOUBLED their core count due to Spectre/Meltdown mitigations, and they are attracted to AMDs, high core, lower cost options. But remember, the power draw is different and always test/PoC! ~~~ mmt > The PCIe lane story is stuff of fanboys. It comes at a cost, power and heat. Could you unpack this a bit? Specifically, I'm curious if the cost is a premium per lane (e.g. W/lane greater on AMD than on Intel) [1]. Also, is that cost at all affected by the I/O volume or merely the CPU being power-hungry overall? [1] Of course, that assumes everything else being equal, which it can't be, as well as equal proprotion of PCIe utilization, which is unlikely. ~~~ JohannFlobuster Ive had a few customers test AMD and found a higher operating temp and determined it was due to higher power consumption. On paper, you get more lanes at a lower TDP w/ AMD. In practice, as always, your results may vary. Test! PCIe lanes and counting them is funny math. Do the homework on system boards, how they communicate, and the tax of moving information between processors. However, I would say their tests were short, and AMD processors have 3 power operating modes. There was also a neat blog posted somewhere (I think on here...) a little while back suggesting that the AMD proc did not need to run at advertised power on the customer procs. It was about compile times and how much power still resulted in good times. That was consumer-grade Ryzen chips tested though. ~~~ mmt Unfortunately, higher temperature says less about power and more about thermal design (often of the overall system and not just the chip). > On paper, you get more lanes at a lower TDP w/ AMD. I was hoping you (or anyone) had at least some real-world anecdata. However, the theoretical power cost being lower suggests it's unlikely that if there's a premium in practice, it's unlikely to be significant. > PCIe lanes and counting them is funny math. Do the homework on system boards It's not _that_ funny. Latency "taxes" are certainly a concern for some workloads, but, ultimately, if there's not enough bandwidth to get the data to the CPU, such that it might end up idle, that can trump any tax. The difference between 40 and 128 lanes of PCIe 3.0 in transferring 64MiB is on the order of 1ms. Finding a mobo that allows access to all the lanes might be more challenging when there are 128 than when there are 40-48, but I expect the popularity of NVMe to reduce that challenge somewhat. OTOH, it seems Epyc uses half those lanes for communication between CPUs, so the usable lanes doesn't go up for 2S vs 1S, so perhaps the comparison is really 128 lanes vs 96 lanes. ~~~ m_mueller yes, latency vs. throughput, the main idea also behind GPU computing. It worked there well, and CPUs are incredibly going to sacrifice latency for throughout as well. ------ tanilama What is wrong with Intel...Haven't seen this level of inaction from a major firm for a while. ~~~ beerlord Like what happens at any big monopoly... sales and marketing are prioritised over product development. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1rXqD6M614](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1rXqD6M614) ~~~ leadingthenet I knew what it was before I clicked, but I still watched it to the end. He was a really smart guy. ------ lolc This reads like a hit-piece. What are the relative volumes of Xeon versu Epyc? that would be kinda important to know. Maybe I just didn't see them mentioned in the article. ------ trhway back in 2002 it was a struggle for AMD to sign up any big one to offer servers with Opteron chips. This time it looks different. ~~~ micv Opteron servers were the absolute business for a few years in the mid/late 2000s. They were a preferred supplier for a few years while Intel wallowed. 2002 was before my time, but that was the era of SPARC in the business I work in. ------ chx The actual newsletter is on this page [https://h41360.www4.hpe.com/partner- news/cat-enterprise.php](https://h41360.www4.hpe.com/partner-news/cat- enterprise.php) ------ lmz Very nice of them not to blur out the email recipient's address at the bottom of the email :) ~~~ exikyut No, I can't imagine that not being a major goof. SA may have just lost a source, or at least some goodwill. It's entirely possible this was deliberate but I call it unlikely. ------ aidenn0 Is it me, or did SA leave Aaron Weston's e-mail address in the image? ------ craftyguy > The page is marked, “Confidential \| HPE Internal & Authorized Partner Use > Only” but it is quite open and does not require a login. (Note: We are not > linking it because of all the sites that steal our stories, rip us off, and > don’t credit) Oh please. ~~~ TheForumTroll I don't think you are aware how much background other writers grab from them and no one credits them, ever. They have a reputation of knowing lots of insider stuff and there's a reason that they can survive with a paywall while hardly anyone else can (I can't think of a singe site writing about hardware that is subscription based?). ~~~ nottorp And what a paywall! I was reading semiaccurate for the entertainment factor when it was free, now you can't even think of subscribing unless their info actually means money to you. ------ faragon Intel previous technology to 14nm is 22nm (2011 [1]) [1] [https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/process](https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/process)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Google Researchers Introduce System to Rank Web Pages on Facts, Not Links - rejfyl http://searchengineland.com/google-researchers-introduce-system-rank-web-pages-facts-not-links-215835 ====== sparkzilla The increasing co-dependency between Google and Wikipedia, has basically has turned unwitting Wikipedia editors into Google's unpaid fact checkers. [http://newslines.org/blog/google-and-wikipedia-best- friends-...](http://newslines.org/blog/google-and-wikipedia-best-friends- forever/) ~~~ webnrrd2k Aren't they every ones unpaid fact checkers? Isn't that the point of Wikipedia? It would be nice if Google would donate some more money, though.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
The Girls Next Door - not_paul_graham http://www.5280.com/girlsnextdoor/?src=longreads&mc_cid=54948c4afe&mc_eid=99af5e345c ====== reubenmorais Took me a while to realize: you have to scroll down to see the content. ~~~ fernly In Chrome, it doesn't scroll. It appears to be only the image and the headline. (Edit: nope, nor Firefox either, for me) ~~~ jaredsohn It does scroll in Chrome. However, you have to scroll for a bit before anything beyond the scrollbar changes. ------ fit2rule Slavery in America is something that really needs to be discussed openly and in free society. People believing that slavery doesn't/can't exist in their modern world really need to be exposed to the truth: there is more slavery now than there ever was. ~~~ tmerr When you say there's more slavery now than there ever was I can't tell whether you're exaggerating or know something that I don't. As far as America goes, it seems like a stark difference between now and 150 years ago when 13% of the population consisted of slaves [0]. If you're referring to third world countries that's more understandable due to the number of young workers building products for wealthier countries. [0] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1860_United_States_Census](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1860_United_States_Census) ~~~ fit2rule [http://www.globalslaveryindex.org/report/](http://www.globalslaveryindex.org/report/) It is estimated that the US has 60,000 slaves _today_ , per definition. So no, its not over yet in the US. However, world-wide: approximately 30 million people fit the definition of enslaved humans. One thing, though: the US Prison System is considered by some to be industrialized slavery. If this is included in the statistics, the US enslavement index goes way, way up.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Google is now a certificate authority? - gary4gar http://i.imgur.com/waCb4.png ====== gary4gar It seems google is using self-issued SSL certs which do not generate warnings/promts to the user. Domain: plus.google.com Browser:Google Chrome 14.0.835.202 ~~~ sp332 The "Certification Path" goes to Google Internet Authority, issued by Equifax.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Are You Lightest in the Morning? [video] - yincrash https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL2e0rWvjKI ====== yincrash Essentially a video form of [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9416062](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9416062) where the host investigates what the public thinks as well as animation of the actual mechanisms.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
A Futures Site Coming to Bet on Movie Ticket Sales - unignorant http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/business/media/11futures.html?ref=technology ====== chasingsparks _"If the distributor shorts a $100 contract and the movie grosses $50 million, the distributor will make $50, thereby limiting the company’s total losses from a film."_ From what they have said, this does not sound like a viable hedging strategy for those in production. There is unlikely to be enough contracts traded. Instead, it seems more like a gambling operation with a CFTC gambling shield. I'm surprised they did this, given how much general anger there still is regarding derivatives and speculation. ~~~ steveplace The two differences between financial speculation and gambling are your odds and whether you wear a fancy tie. The odds are the more important one. If you can make statistical methods that show the risk of loss, you can then assign a premium to that risk and put it on the market. Whether it will get enough liquidity to get past the smalltime remains to be seen. ~~~ ericwaller At least in NY state, the exact odds and payouts are published. So you can certainly assign a premium to the risk involved, and you can do so exactly. But since everyone knows the odds, the lotto market is perfectly efficient and no one can win in the long run -- this is what makes it gambling. ------ jsm386 I remember playing the old Hollywood Stock Exchange (non-cash version) back in middle school. This seems like a fun idea, but how do you rule out the heaps of insider information that exist? ------ bryanh I am curious if the technique described in this paper (<http://www.cam.cornell.edu/~sharad/papers/searchpreds.pdf>) would give an advantage over the long run. I would imagine that if the majority of bets are placed for entertainment value based on guesses, this could be a quick way to rake in some dough. ------ mhb Seems like Netflix might have some insight into this market. ~~~ Aron Definately. 12M Customers can add movies to their queue prior to it even coming out at the theater. I would wager this is substantially predictive. Netflix could either bet themselves, or as perhaps more likely, sell this information directly. ------ jasongullickson This will certainly have a positive impact on the quality of films coming out of Hollywood.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Jeff Dean on Large-Scale Deep Learning at Google - charlieegan3 http://highscalability.com/blog/2016/3/16/jeff-dean-on-large-scale-deep-learning-at-google.html ====== hartator It seems to work fine for me, a link to the actual talk on YouTube: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSaZGT4-6EY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSaZGT4-6EY) Jeff Dean - Chuck Norris for us nerds - fact as a bonus: "The rate at which Jeff Dean produces code jumped by a factor of 40 in late 2000 when he upgraded his keyboard to USB2.0." ------ return0 Tangentially, watching the pace of papers coming out in machine learning is insane. It's so fast, people may literally cite powerpoint slides when the paper doesnt exist yet. The culture of openness seems to have fostered this insane pace. Contrasting that with the reclusive culture of life sciences explains why there is slow progress there. ~~~ hackuser If someone with technical expertise wanted to keep up on this field, but it wasn't their profession - i.e., they don't need to know every detail and don't have time to read a lot - what would be a good source? ~~~ p1esk Follow Yann Lecun's posts on Facebook. ------ milesward If you like this talk, come see him talk about what's even beyond that at GCP Next: [https://cloudplatformonline.com/NEXT2016.html](https://cloudplatformonline.com/NEXT2016.html) Disclaimer: I will be there freaking out because I work at Google on Cloud and Jeff Dean is rad. ------ YeGoblynQueenne >> If you’re not considering how to use deep neural nets to solve your data understanding problems, you almost certainly should be. This line is taken directly from the talk And this is exactly why Google's hype of their tech is getting dangerous for everyone else, who is not Google. Because they advocate, nay, they preach, that everyone should abandon what they're doing and do what Google tells them works. And, oh, look, we just released those nice, free tools you can use to do it like we do! Which is insane. Google is a corporate entity. It has financial interests. The purpose of its existence is to sell you its stuff, it doesn't give a dime if you'll solve your problems or not. This piece of advice is like Bayer, back in the day, selling its Aspirin as the cure of all ills: "If you're not considering how to take Aspirin to solve your health problems, you almost certainly should be". ~~~ dekhn Although Google is a corp and has financial interests, I think it's in Google's interest to share these ideas in workable form with the world. It can (and I hope it will) contribute a lot to improving a number of things that are wrong with the world. When I was an academic scientist in the mid 2000s, I ended up with more data than I could deal with, and none of the computing systems in academia at the time dealt well with that (they were tuned for HPC/supercomputers). The bigtable, mapreduce, and GFS papers were huge to me, because they provided a nicer framework for data processing. Although Google made those tools for Search and Ads (and profited greatly from them) they also published them, and Doug Cutting and others incorporated them into Hadoop. A similar thing is happening now, but Google got better at releasing their codes as open source, which reduces the time between publication of a good idea, and replication of that work by others outside the corp. (eventually, I went to google to get direct access to its infrastructure; built Exacycle, gave away an enormous amount of free computing time that cost Google rather than profiting it, the leadership _loved_ it even though it cost money, and I even managed to get Googler to apply machine learning to academic problems I cared about). So I don't think Google solely acts in its own short term financial interests. Also, aspirin has turned out to be amazing at solving a wide range of health problems, so I think bayer was probably right (if not for the right reasons) on that one. ~~~ YeGoblynQueenne >> So I don't think Google solely acts in its own short term financial interests. I think what your experience shows is that on the one hand individuals within Google (or any big corp) can and do align their own personal interest with that of the corp and on the other hand that the corp can benefit the community as long as it is making profit and serving its own purposes. Nothing surprising there. As to releasing its tools, here's my Thought for the Day: There's no such thing as a free lunch and the only people who pretend there is are the ones who want to steal your lunch money. Google releases its tools when it is in the interest of Google to do so, not when it's in the interest of anyone else. Yes, they're doing better now than in the past in open-sourcing stuff and I can't know what's on their mind. But I can tell that it doesn't hurt them to get people adopting their tech even as Google itself develops it further and further to something that can only be used by a corp with Google's resources. In short, I'm pretty sure that their friendly offer of, frex, TensorFlow is just some trick to get people roped in to their technology, in the same way that other corps have tried to do before- except that they also made you pay for the privilege. ^ ~~~ dekhn Did you really say that making TensorFlow open source is a trick to get people roped into Google technology? That doesn't make any sense to me. Another big point I think you missed is those individuals within Google influence the decisions about what gets open sourced. We have an entire team that facilitates taking Google-written code and opensourcing it. ~~~ YeGoblynQueenne OK, with the hindsight of a good night's sleep I admit that the bit about giving away TensorFlow does sound a bit tinfoil-hats on. Let me rephrase that then: I can't possibly hope to know why Google is giving away free stuff. I can certainly know that they don't do it out of the kindness of their hearts though. That said, I am indeed very concerned that Google is trying to shape, not only the market, but the science also, to suit its own interests. That could be really bad for everyone, including Google; if research stagnates, they too will find themselves unable to deliver on their big promises about ever speeding progress. ------ return0 He gave a similar talk at stanford a few days later: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7YkPWpwFD4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7YkPWpwFD4) ------ yeukhon Nice. Forbbiden. Did we manage to crash the site? highscalability.com supposed to be pretty high-volume site. ~~~ toddh Sorry about this. It means Squarespace has black listed your IP for some reason. Unfortunately I can't do anything about it. If you can try from another address it will probably work. ~~~ yeukhon Wow :-) I am working from corp office. But thanks! ------ goc I am very interested in AI that can teach itself(sounds too great). Where can I learn up about such AI(related concepts and the whole 9 yards) to start reading papers in the field? I am just looking for comprehensive sources(preferably textbooks). ~~~ knn AI by Russell and Norvig. Machine learning by Murphy, Elements of Statistical Learning by Hastie et al. Just a few good ones out of many! ~~~ gnahckire AI by Russell and Norvig is one of my favorite textbooks of all time. ------ sounds I wish I had more than one upvote for this article. Read the article. If you have the time, just watch the video. ------ unexistance you need to understand the data before it can be made to good 'use' [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11272473](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11272473) ------ giardini From the article _"...it seems like an excellent time to gloss Jeff’s talk..."_ "gloss" a talk? WTF? ~~~ npalli To gloss is to annotate some text (or talk)[1], the word glossary comes from that. That meaning is overshadowed by the more modern association with shininess but the annotation meaning seems appropriate here. [1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloss_(annotation)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloss_$annotation$)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
How mosquitos deal with getting hit by raindrops - davi http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2015/06/24/raindrops-keep-falling-on-my-head-a-mosquitos-lament/ ====== developer1 Of course the video doesn't show anything interesting, the mosquito's leg is hardly even grazed. I was definitely hoping for the version where a drop smacked the insect dead on target. Fairly strange for a lab result - if that's the only video that was captured, it really doesn't seem to divulge much at all. Where's the cool video? :D ~~~ e2e8 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ88ny09ruM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ88ny09ruM) ~~~ lucb1e Direct hit just after the minute mark: [https://youtu.be/LQ88ny09ruM?t=1m3s](https://youtu.be/LQ88ny09ruM?t=1m3s) ~~~ mordrax Watching it several times, it looks like only the left most mozzie came out unscathed. The other two took it hard and went down... definitely didn't 'walk off the bus' :\ ------ upofadown >A study says a mosquito being hit by a raindrop is roughly the equivalent of a human being whacked by a school bus, the typical bus being about 50 times the mass of a person. That is not a sensible comparison. When you scale something mass changes as the cube of dimension. Strength changes as the square of dimension. So small things are inherently stronger with respect to their mass. ~~~ abandonliberty [Citation Wanted] Very believable; how does the math work out? ~~~ troymc Galileo. _Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations Relating to Two New Sciences_. 1638. It's known as the square-cube law. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square- cube_law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square-cube_law) ~~~ abandonliberty Thanks - I hadn't realized that muscle strength was proportional purely to cross section. ------ dgemm > But because our mosquito is oh-so-light, the raindrop moves on, unimpeded, > and hardly any force is transferred. All that happens is that our mosquito > is suddenly scooped up by the raindrop and finds itself hurtling toward the > ground at a velocity of roughly nine meters per second, an acceleration > which can’t be very comfortable, because it puts enormous pressure on the > insect’s body, up to 300 gravities worth, says professor Hu. Interesting article, but in the span of one paragraph here we have confused velocity, acceleration, and pressure - and there are similar errors in the following one. For an article about physics, I would expect this to at least be proofread. The Gell-Mann Amnesia effect: [http://harmful.cat-v.org/journalism/](http://harmful.cat-v.org/journalism/) ~~~ joncameron From your link: > In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in > a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and > read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about > Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what > you know. Which is of course intriguing, since cat-v.org hosts frothing-at-the-mouth vitriol about topics like women in tech and gay marriage in the always trustworthy and well reasoned medium of reposted reddit and slashdot comments. And presumably I'm supposed to click over to the technical stuff with a straight face. ~~~ roghummal It's telling that you'd apply a derogatory label and attack the source medium rather than say anything of substance about the content that offended you. cat-v is chock-full of food for thought. You don't have to agree with any of it and in fact disagreement is a large part of the site. "Other than total and complete world domination, the overriding goal is to encourage and stimulate critical and independent thinking." ------ daniel-levin From an io9 article on the same research: >> [Hu] and Dickerson constructed a flight arena consisting of a small acrylic cage covered with mesh to contain the mosquitoes but permit entry of water drops. The researchers used a water jet to simulate rain stream velocity while observing six mosquitoes flying into the stream. Amazingly, all the mosquitoes lived. The researchers used _simulated rain drops_ on _six_ mosquitoes. There are more than six species of mosquitoes. They controlled for wind effects (which are part and parcel of rain). So they excluded horizontally travelling raindrops. My immediate reaction to the conclusion that mosquitoes can fly in rain was "Really? Not always". Here is a methodologically lacking and wholly unscientific anecdote: I have lived in Johannesburg my entire life, where mosquitoes are quite prevalent during the summer months. When it is raining heavily (it is usually quite windy as well), the local species of mosquito that feeds of humans do not present a problem as the number of airborne mosquitoes tends to zero. ~~~ joeyspn ^This I live in a mediterranean zone near a huge lake and during summer mosquitos are your every night companions (specially if you're working during late night hours). But when a summer storm brews the mosquitos disappear for two or three days. Why? This has been for me a recurrent question, and the answer has been always obvious: few of them survive being hit by raindrops. You can make 1000 theories about how our tiny vampire friends deal with raindrops, but it's pretty clear that intensive rain (>3hours) wipe out mosquitos population for several days... ~~~ soneca I also agree. > _" And yet (you probably haven’t looked, but trust me), when it’s raining > those little pains in the neck are happily darting about in the air, getting > banged—and they don’t seem to care."_ I have looked and I don't trust you. I live in Brazil where mosquitoes are present all the time, even in the city (obviously, on a smaller scale than places closer to nature). I do notice that whenever is raining there is a sharp drop in mosquitoes number flying inside our homes. They don't completely disappear, but is notorious they are in much smaller numbers. As this is common knowledge over years and years, across basically all the people, I don't consider it anecdote, but empirical observation. I cannot answer if that is because raindrops kill them, or they just preserve themselves sheltered in their nests, or they breed less in rainy days, or whatever. But the article (not sure about the research) is based on a false premisse. ~~~ daniel-levin Well, no, it's not empirical until we design some experiments to test the theory, make predictions, test them, come up with potentially observable data that would falsify our hypotheses, publish our results and let them be peer reviewed, reproduced elsewhere etc... The jump from anecdotes to empiricism is a large one that is not to be undertaken lightly. ------ nippoo "Had the raindrop slammed into a bigger, slightly heavier animal, like a dragonfly, the raindrop would “feel” the collision and lose momentum. The raindrop might even break apart because of the impact, and force would transfer from the raindrop to the insect’s exoskeleton, rattling the animal to death." Has anyone actually done any research on dragonflies being hit by raindrops, or is this just speculation? ------ chrismorgan The drawings in this article tend to be absurdly large, with the outcome that the document is, transferred, around 23MB, for no good reason. _Sigh._ ~~~ Jgrubb Because editors. ------ Kiro > In most direct hits, Hu and colleagues write, the insect is carried five to > 20 body lengths downward > If you want to see this for yourself, take a look at Hu’s video What? Nothing like that happens in it. ~~~ dasmoth Are you confusing wing span with body length? In the right hand panel of the video, the insect certainly moves several body lengths, and is still moving downwards at the end of the clip. ~~~ Kiro No, it says "20 body lengths downward, and then [...] gets up and “walks” to the side, then steps off into the air". In other words 20 body lengths while being in the raindrop, which doesn't happen in the video. In fact, the raindrop barely touches it. ------ ebbv If it wasn't for the cute child like drawings this would be a truly terrible piece of link bait. As it is it's still pretty and, and I expect better from NatGeo. Anyone who lives in a mosquito heavy area knows that mosquitos (like almost all airborne insects) go into hiding during heavy rain and/or wind. ------ jbert Does this places a reasonable selection pressure on the kinds of flying insects we can have? Big enough to shrug off a raindrop hit, or small enough to surf along the surface tension until it can slide off? ~~~ baddox Butterflies just seek shelter. [http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-do- butterflie...](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-do-butterflies- do-wh/) ------ theVirginian It would appear they haven't yet evolved to deal with being hit by cars quite as gracefully. ~~~ whoopdedo I think this can be approached the same as the "ants can lift 50 times their own weight" bit of trivia. It doesn't translate to "if a human were as strong as an ant he'd be able to lift an elephant" because size doesn't scale that way. Ants and mosquitoes get away with larger forces relative to their mass because the skeleton and muscles needed are still within reasonable material and fuel costs. A human-sized animal that wanted to survive being hit by a car would need to spend much more energy per mass than the insect does. ~~~ eru I think theVirginian was commenting about mosquitoes getting smashed on a car's windshield, not about cars and humans. ~~~ whoopdedo Oh, right. I thought it was a reference to "the equivalent of a human being whacked by a school bus" from the article. ------ rokhayakebe I just realized how making things fun and funny can help to teach anything. The drawings and the comical tone made this seem so approachable. I wish they had a series of 1000 of such lessons I could read. ~~~ KnightOfWords Here's his old blog on NPR: [http://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/](http://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/) Probably not 1000, but perhaps getting on for it. ~~~ rokhayakebe Thank you for sharing. ------ jokr004 Not really important but.. "nine gravities _(88 /m/squared)_" I don't get it, the scientificamerican blog that they are quoting has the right units, where did they come up with this? ------ mordrax > But because our mosquito is oh-so-light, the raindrop moves on, unimpeded, > and hardly any force is transferred. So if the mosquito's weight is insignificant compared to that of the heavier and denser water drop and that's what keeps it from having the force transferred, would this equally apply to hailstorms? (Where our mosquitoes are pelted by small hail balls the size of raindrops) ~~~ acyacy You don't really find mosquitoes where you're likely to find hailstorms. ~~~ RBerenguel In Spain we definitely have mosquitos, and most Augusts we have these summery storms, sometimes bringing also hailstorms (sizze varies though between drop sized ice and golfball sized ice) ~~~ acyacy You find them in these areas. When it gets cold there tends to be far fewer of them. And compared to the equators its nearly incomparible. ~~~ Dove Cold isn't required for hailstorms. The ice forms at altitude. We have a lot of hailstorms in the spring and summer in Colorado, and while it isn't the mosquitoiest place I've _ever_ lived, there _are_ mosquitoes. ~~~ acyacy Compared with where its mosquito haven like by the Equator? I suppose raindrop vs hailstone is a reason is one of the reason's the density issues are so different. ~~~ Dove Yeah. Mosquitoes are densest in the tropics where hailstorms are rare, but just about everywhere on earth short of Antarctica has _some_ mosquitoes. I'd think mosquitoes would meet hailstones occasionally, though I can't really see the mosquito surviving it. ------ mleonhard The article embedded a short video. Here's longer video with explanations: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ88ny09ruM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ88ny09ruM) ------ state Can't help but immediately notice: "Drawing by Robert Krulwich" ~~~ sohkamyung Yes, Robert Krulwich has joined the Nat Geo Phenomena blogging platform [ [http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/blog/curiously- krulw...](http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/blog/curiously-krulwich/) ] ~~~ k_brother I think the commenter meant that Krulwich actually illustrated the piece too. Who knew Krulwich could draw! ~~~ sohkamyung Ah, I see. My bad. Yes, Krulwich does draw pretty well. ------ dharma1 if you like watching slo mo videos, recommend this channel: [https://www.youtube.com/user/theslowmoguys/videos](https://www.youtube.com/user/theslowmoguys/videos) ------ bnolsen so if mosquiotos are oblivious to rain is there some way to make artificial rain with different properties that could destroy mosquitos en masse? ~~~ chinathrow Yes, it's called poison and it's being done a lot. [http://www.local10.com/news/plane-to-spray-for-mosquitoes- ov...](http://www.local10.com/news/plane-to-spray-for-mosquitoes-over-south- fla/27244642) Ah you mean different mechanical properties ;) ------ stillsut Send this to Bill Gates, that guy _HATES_ mosquitoes. ~~~ Kluny A man who thought, "When I'm a billionaire, I'm going to dedicate my life to getting rid of those nasty fuckers (mosquitoes)" and then _did_ it. ------ cJ0th very interesting article. It is a pity that his column has no rss feed. ------ blumkvist A commenter on the site says that some type of mosquitoes (Texas) are used in oil drilling. I tried googling "texas mosquitoes oil drilling" and variants, but didn't find anything. >"Why, one species even secretes an enzyme to dissolve the organic matter in blood leaving only the iron in haemoglobin. Then another enzyme causes the iron atoms to join to form biological drill pipe! These structures are known to be as much as 6 inches in diameter and to extend a mile deep." Is there something to it or he just went to on the internet to tell lies? ~~~ coconutrandom That is a joke that makes more sense once you've been bitten there. ~~~ briandear In Texas, we'd call that a tall tale. ~~~ dalke Up north a few winters back the weather was so cold that words froze up as you talked. People had to stand around a fire to have a conversation. When spring thaw finally came the sound of all the melting conversations was deafening. Then there was the time that Pecos Bill lassoed and rode a twister, but that's a tale for another time.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
The first ever accurate molecular simulation with quantum computing by Google - gri3v3r http://www.sciencealert.com/google-s-quantum-computer-is-helping-us-understand-quantum-physics ====== selimthegrim dupe: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12132700](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12132700)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
As Tesla struggles to exit 'production hell,' buyers complain of delivery limbo - Aloha http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-tesla-sales-delivery-problems-20180912-story.html ====== chmaynard Is it legal for a company to require full payment before the product has shipped? Most businesses don't operate that way.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Need to list related videos along with their published date in YouTube? - divyumrastogi https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/youtube-video-list-dater/mbaflkdlneldejanggphlhcepncjfaco ====== divyumrastogi check it on github: [https://github.com/divyum/youtube- dater](https://github.com/divyum/youtube-dater)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Norwegian lawyer had visa withdrawn after private chat with client on Facebook - Deestan http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=no&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.vg.no%2Fnyheter%2Finnenriks%2Fartikkel.php%3Fartid%3D10104089&act=url ====== belorn Be you a lawyer talking privileged to a client, a priest talking privileged to a follower, a hot-line worker talking privileged to someone thinking about suicide, or a social service person talking to a child who been sexually assaulted, every ones communication is equally collected. This is after all the result of ubiquitous surveillance. When people learn about it, the reaction is very simple. people stop talking. They do not call the lawyer. They don't call the priest. The person thinking about suicide won't call the hot-line, and the sexually assaulted child will stay quiet in fear of people finding out. After Germany introduced their ubiquitous surveillance law, this was exactly what the statistics ended up showing. I wonder, while hoping not, if the same result will happen in the US too after the current wave of news. ~~~ nikatwork Bizarrely, this whole scenario is very similar to the privacy issues explored in Brunner's 1975 book "The Shockwave Rider"[1]. Perhaps, as in the book, we need to setup an independent encrypted communication service where people can vent their frustrations at pervasive surveillance. [1] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shockwave_Rider](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shockwave_Rider) ~~~ Zigurd Never mind PRISM. The week before the PRISM leaks, the news was full of hack attacks by state actors against US business and government targets. Why are we emailing and talking in the clear? That's just dumb. Moreover, the toothpaste can't be put back in the tube. Short of transformative change in government, how do we know there isn't another PRISM at another TLA? The only way to restore confidence in communications is to secure them against all attacks. ~~~ fnordfnordfnord You're right, but I'd still like to see us make a giant collective bowel movement on the spilled toothpaste, and generally make it so undesirable for a government agency to use the toothpaste that they'll only do so when no other alternative exists, or only when it's actually very important to do so. ------ Vivtek Ah. This one is actually kind of credible. But if the client was already accused of terrorism, then this monitoring was on his end, and surely covered by a specific warrant. So this isn't (presumably) the kind of massive data hoovering that is the primary concern; every country does this kind of thing. (Back when I was running Despammed.com I'd get requests from various LEOs - one came with a real live subpoena for information related to an identity theft ring, and one was from Italian authorities pursuing an insult to Mary.) Where it gets to be a concern is revoking a guy's visa because he's defending a terror suspect. ~~~ drrotmos I know this isn't an opinion shared by the current US administration, but having a fair trial for one's crimes is a human right. It's a right guaranteed by articles 10 and 11 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Part of having a fair trial includes having legal representation, and the ability to communicate with your legal council in confidence. Eavesdropping on privileged lawyer-client conversations, regardless of legality is outrageously indecent and _should_ be illegal. Revoking a lawyer's visa because he is representing a particular client is equally outrageous, especially due to the chilling effects it causes upon the legal community making it much more difficult for suspects of serious crimes to find good legal representation. ~~~ rayiner It's not the view of any administration. The client was Norwegian-Chilean. Foreigners not in the US don't have A right to counsel (which is the constitutional basis of attorney client privilege in the US). And I'd argue that's the way it should be. Every time courts declare something unconstitutional, they use up limited political capital. I don't think defending the "human rights" of non Americans is a valid use of that political capital. ~~~ meepmorp > Foreigners not in the US don't have A right to counsel (which is the > constitutional basis of attorney client privilege in the US). Do you have a cite for this? I know that there's no right to counsel in civil trials, and this includes immigration courts (say in a deportation hearing), but thought that criminal trials do guarantee right to counsel regardless of citizenship. Edit: sorry, I misread what you wrote. It's totally reasonable and doesn't deserve downvotes. FWIW, web searching does seem to indicate that there's no explicit constitutional basis for attorney client privilege, and that it's just provided for by US (and often, state) law. ~~~ DannyBee Wong Wing v. United States, 163 U.S. 228 (holding that noncitizens charged with crimes are protected by the Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments) Fong Yue Ting v. United States, 149 U.S. 698 ((concurrence arguing that noncitizens are protected by the First, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments) Almeida-Sanchez v. United States, 413 U.S. 266 Bridges v. Wixon, 326 U.S. 135, 161 etc. The only holding otherwise is the 4th amendment one of a number of appeals courts. ~~~ meepmorp Thanks. I kind of assumed that those protections extended to non-citizens, but it's nice to have actual case law. ------ anologwintermut I'm shocked, shocked to find that the NSA is spying on a foreign terror suspect in a foreign country communicating with another foreign person.* Actually, I am shocked. Why'd the lawyer use Facebook for privileged communication? Why does the NSA care about someone who posted a threatening video in Norway? Hint: they don't. If they looked, it's probably because Norwegian Intelligence asked them to.( Which might well be a huge legal problem, for Norway) In fact, it seems there is little evidence that any of this happened. Marking messages as spam does not seem like something the NSA would do and as to denying him entry into the US: if US gov is in the habit of denying visa's to those who represent a foreign terror suspect, they didn't need Facebook to establish that. Note, attorney client privilege doesn't apply to cases completely out of US jurisdiction with lawyers who are not lawyers in the US ~~~ polemic It's hard to say without knowing what was said, but the fact that his visa was withdrawn on the basis of a conversation between a laywer and his client is alarming. In other words: did the US government consider him a threat, or was it a tactic to infringe the alleged terrorist's right to a fair trial? If the latter, then it's an abuse of surveillance privileges. ~~~ spinlock It would be alarming if a lawyer and his client were using facebook for privileged communications. That's your first hint you need a new lawyer. If they can't understand Facebook's TOS they can't possibly defend you. But, seriously, these are foreign nationals. We've had a longstanding distinction between foreign and domestic surveillance. Think of it this way, would you really want to need permission from Pakistan to surveil Osama bin Laden? He was an enemy of the USA and he was being harbored by Pakistan. Different rules apply in that case than in a domestic case. ~~~ cmircea Horrible example. In the case of Osama the US could have broken each and every law in Pakistan and nobody would give a shit. This is about a suspect, at best. Not the world's most wanted terrorist. ------ vidarh Here's a rough/quick manual translation: \--- Private Facebook-correspondance between John Christian Elden and a client charged with terror offenses was monitored by American security services (NSA), the lawyer claims. Elden was discussing scheduling of the case with the Norwegian-Chilean client (20), who was charged with publishing a video where he threatened Norwegian officials and the royal family. Elden says that he has documentation that it was American authorities that were snooping on his Facebook-profile, TV2 writes. \- That we as Norwegians are under surveillance by American authorities, I am not particularly happy about. It is uncomfortable to know that someone continuously reads what you write at communicate with other persons via what one believes is a closed channel, says the lawyer. The messages of the person in question got deleted on an ongoing basis, and in the chat-log they are now marked as "identified as offensive or marked as spam". Four days after the conversation, the well known lawyers visa was withdrawn. Elden says his client wished to show up in court, but that he no longer is able to contact him after the Facebook-profile was deleted. Facebook is one of the websites mentioned in The Guardian and Washington Posts revelations of NSAs surveillance of foreign citizens in the PRISM project. Ministor of Justice Grete Faremo has sent a request to the US, where the justice department requests a clarification about whether or not Norwegian citizens have been under surveillance. \--- The main thing to note is that the bit about the deleted Facebook profile was unclear in the machine translation. It appears quite clear in the original article that the reason his communication with his client ceased was that the client used Facebook as his only communications-channel with his lawyer, and so the deleted Facebook profile means Elden is _unable_ to communicate with his client. It is not made clear whether he suspects or claims that American authorities caused the profile to get deleted too, or if the client got spooked by the deleted messages. ------ Deestan Summary: Lawyer conversing with client accused of terrorism, via private Facebook messages. Client's messages suddenly deleted as "spam", and 4 days later the lawyer was notified that his US Visa had been revoked. ~~~ smartician In other words: A Norwegian lawyer notices something weird going on with his private Facebook messages, and four days after this, his visa gets revoked. Later, after reading about PRISM in the morning newspaper, he's convinced that the NSA has been spying on him. It's obvious! After all, spy rule #1 is "make sure your subject knows he's being spied on by marking his messages as 'infringing or spam'". And it's totally impossible that the visa thing coincided with this. ~~~ einhverfr Twice in my life I have noticed things that made me wonder. The first time I currently think was in my imagination. This time I am not so sure. I am noticing for example a cell phone whose battery level drops when connected to the charger and not in airplane mode. Google chat messages apparently long delayed. That this started after the Snowden leak makes it even more suspicious to me. I am an American citizen residing abroad. I could just be seeing things that aren't there. However as a vocal opponent of this sort of surveillance, it would make sense that I would be caught up in some sort of filter especially as the hunt for Snowden continues. (So note: If you are listening I think you might be. I am a patriot, as I believe Snowden is. I have not provided any active assistance for him, but I applaud those who do. My wife thinks I am too political but at some point my loyalty to my country, the United States, compels me to stand up to this sort of thing.) ~~~ Filligree Battery levels will drop when connected to the charger - because of code in the battery controller. It's bad for the battery to stay at 100% for any amount of time, so the controller will cycle it in the 95-100% area. Smarter controllers will hide what they're doing. Google chat messages can be delayed for any number of reasons, ranging from internal glitches to "Your network connectivity was bad at the precise moment the message was attempted to be delivered, thrice, and it retries at exponentially longer intervals." ~~~ einhverfr But go from 5% to 0%? I am used to glitches but there are oddities here that are either hardware issues (battery discharging while low and connected to the charger), network issues. This is beyond what I am used to. Again, I could be connecting the dots incorrectly but I would not be surprised if I am right :-P ------ woof The lawyer John Christian Elden defends several terror suspects, including Arfan Bhatti (now arrested in Pakistan) who was charged for terror planning agains the US embassy in Norway several years ago. * He disucussed a court meeting with another client on Facebook, it was not a attorney–client privileged discussion. Elden was briefed by the FBI on their e-surveilence in 2005 (with a group from Norwegian Justice dept.) so he probably has a good grasp on how private Facebook really is. * His US Visa was revoked four days after the conversation, the US embassy in Norway cites "Homeland Security" * Eldens comments gives the impression that he believes he's automaticly flagged, while still beeing a friend of the US. More facts: [http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=no&tl=en&u=ht...](http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=no&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dagbladet.no%2F2013%2F06%2F11%2Fnyheter%2Finnenriks%2Fovervakning%2Fusa%2F27658066%2F) ------ werid This lawyer is a known figure in Norway and not some guy looking for his fifteen minutes of fame. He has defended people on terrorism charges in Norway before, and gotten them acquitted on those charges (while other lesser charges still stuck). On his twitter, he claims that the US embassy doesn't know why his visa was revoked, only that "Homeland security's computers" are telling them it's revoked. This is then connected to NSA leak by journalists. He is still waiting for a proper explanation from the US embassy. ------ Zimahl Isn't the NSA supposed to be for foreign intelligence only? I don't find it shocking that the US would track the messages of an accused terrorist. What I find funny is that a lawyer used Facebook for privileged communication. ------ einhverfr Just remember, if you ever want to visit the US and you are not an American, you must be much more supportive of American foreign policies than most Americans are! ------ tropicalmug Isn't this a bigger deal than just monitoring supposedly private Facebook communications? This would also violate attorney-client privilege too, right? EDIT: This is just naïveté on my part. ~~~ saraid216 Why would the not-an-American-citizen lawyer speaking to a not-an-American- citizen have attorney-client privilege from the perspective of an American governmental organization? Edited to add: It's remarkably difficult to quickly find information about attorney-client privilege in settings other than US, UK, Canada, and Australia. I found a brief mention that the privilege does not apply to in- house counsel in the EU, and that Brazil breaches it with a court order, but that's all. I'd hope I could find more given some more time, but I need to get back to work. ~~~ anaptdemise Ha. Also, what kind of attorney would have the kind of conversation covered under attorney client privileges on Facebook, PM or otherwise? ~~~ nullc The same kind that run third party provided spyware on their personal computers in order to take exams in law school. (In other words: Practically all newly minted attorneys in the US) There is no education in law school in the US at least on responsible data handling, and— in fact— schools often direct students to behave irresponsibly with respect to data security. ~~~ andreyf _The same kind that run third party provided spyware on their personal computers in order to take exams in law school._ Do you have a specific case in mind? _schools often direct students to behave irresponsibly with respect to data security_ Why would they do that? Reference? ~~~ nullc Sure, the practice is ubiquitous Example software and policies are things like: [http://www.exam4.com/](http://www.exam4.com/) (used by Harvard, George Washington, etc) [http://www.law.wisc.edu/help/for_students/securexam/](http://www.law.wisc.edu/help/for_students/securexam/) [http://www.law.columbia.edu/academics/registrar/Laptop_Exams](http://www.law.columbia.edu/academics/registrar/Laptop_Exams) [https://www.law.umich.edu/currentstudents/registration/exams...](https://www.law.umich.edu/currentstudents/registration/exams/Pages/default.aspx) Most (all?) schools offer students the ability to take their exams on paper, but doing so is a substantial competitive disadvantage because examinations are usually timed and writing on paper is much slower, students are marked down for legibility and copy-editing noise, etc. I don't have a citation studying it— but by all appearances it's only a small minority of students that opt out of using their laptops. ("Most Stanford Law School students take their examinations on laptops") IIRC the California bar exam now also uses one of these spyware exam packages. I'm mostly amused that we have a whole information-security critical profession who is nearly required to behave negligently wrt information security from day one. :P ~~~ andreyf Wow, no kidding. Why the heck could it need "Administrator level account permissions" (both on OSX and Windows [1])? I guess you could run it in a VM and wipe it afterwards. 1\. [https://www.examsoft.com/dotnet/Default.aspx?f=mtlaw](https://www.examsoft.com/dotnet/Default.aspx?f=mtlaw) ~~~ nullc You're prohibited from running it in a VM, and at least some law schools have the students sign some form under penalty of the school ethical code yadda yadda that you won't do that. (And then— some students do it anyways, because thats the only way to use it on their otherwise non-supported system or because of some other incompatibility. And nothing comes of it... I guess until something does. Better not make too many enemies) ~~~ andreyf A friend in law school to explained that this software is used for in- classroom exams and prevents any other programs from being used while a student is taking the exam, as well as saving all the work incrementally (in case the computer crashes). It's certainly not the most secure thing to do, but they need to focus on studying law, not securing systems. I imagine that when lawyers are working on cases, they might end up using more secure devices than their old college laptops. ------ etchalon This story reeks. None of it makes any sense (the messages were marked as SPAM?). I'm filing this under the same rubric mentally as all those tea party lunies who suddenly swore their legitimate, random audit was caused by their membership in the Tea Party. ~~~ Filligree Elden is a top-flight defence lawyer. He's not any good with computers (clearly..), but I'm sure he told the truth as he understands it. ------ platz Two Facebook articles on foreign privacy events in one day? Where were these reports before Snowden hit the news cycle? ~~~ stackedmidgets Before that, you'd be voted down and hollered at because there would be little credibility for it among common idiots. This has been the case for years, because a lot of the information about the NSA published by journalists was built on anonymous sourcing. Now, there's more documentary evidence available to support it, so the US government no longer enjoys the benefit of ignorant doubt. Now, these stories can gain traction. ~~~ untog Conversely, these stories were previously ignored because of a lack of supporting evidence. Now that US surveillance is a talked about topic, these stories are gaining traction without people going through the critical thought processes they otherwise would have. Neither of these options are provably false. ------ XorNot Ok can anyone who reads Norwegian actually translate this properly? Because the Google translation certainly doesn't capture the nuance, and their are some notable inconsistencies in it - namely, why is someone's lawyer "no longer in contact now that their Facebook profile has been deleted". ------ deshmane what I am curious about in this and similar stories is whether the officials actually carry out due diligence in making sure the profile actually belongs to the person in question. after all, anybody can get an email and spoof a profile. ------ gcb0 This is the same a lawyer sending private information via a post-card. Plain irresponsible. But then again, which layer knows how to send PGP'ed emails? ------ brown9-2 Worth noting that the lawyer says he has evidence but has not presented it, and until then it's just his word. ------ mariuolo Just tell me what kind idiot would use Facebook for a private conversation. ~~~ vidarh Who are you talking about? Elden or his client? The article implies Facebook was Elden's only way of reaching his client, so the "idiot" appears to have been the client. If the client is not very technical it is not unreasonable to assume the client felt Facebook was easier for him to use to communicate covertly with Elden and didn't want to give out a phone number or other details. ~~~ mariuolo Either. Facebook retains forever anything done or written on their platform and that's a well known fact. Why anyone would use it for anything remotely confidential, is beyond me. ------ ttrreeww This is the generation in which freedom was lost. ~~~ hughes Or perhaps the generation in which freedom is to be reclaimed? It's too early to tell. ~~~ TillE It's extraordinarily difficult not to be pessimistic when you see the abuses initiated by one party continued and expanded by the other, after bleating on about their supposed opposition to such programs. I'm convinced that the Democratic Party is the biggest roadblock to accomplishing meaningful change in the US. It exemplifies the mushy, frightened middle in the worst possible way, and should be reviled by anyone with principles. For example: [http://www.people- press.org/files/2013/06/6-10-13-4.png](http://www.people- press.org/files/2013/06/6-10-13-4.png) ~~~ nikster It's hard to see any difference between Democrats and Republicans at this point. The entire system needs to be thrown out. I remember Ralph Nader was once asked why he is running for president when his candidacy might take away crucial votes from the Democrats and let the Republicans win; Wouldn't it be better if the lesser of two evils won? His answer: The difference between the Republics and Democrats is "the difference between Humpty and Dumpty". At the time, I didn't agree with him. But when I see what's going on now; how the Obama administration is basically run by the CIA and US big business; then I have to think of this quote and how right he was.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
How to Make a Computer Operating System - hitr https://github.com/SamyPesse/How-to-Make-a-Computer-Operating-System ====== joelg Another great free OS resource is MIT's 6.828: Operating System Engineering. "This course studies fundamental design and implementation ideas in the engineering of operating systems. Lectures are based on a study of UNIX and research papers. Topics include virtual memory, threads, context switches, kernels, interrupts, system calls, interprocess communication, coordination, and the interaction between software and hardware. Individual laboratory assignments involve implementation of a small operating system in C, with some x86 assembly." Lecture notes from 2012: [https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering- and-compu...](https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer- science/6-828-operating-system-engineering-fall-2012/) Video lectures from 2014: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDRHsNauoxk&list=PLfciLKR3Sg...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDRHsNauoxk&list=PLfciLKR3SgqNJKKIKUliWoNBBH1VHL3AP) ------ Jeaye Note that this book is half-finished and work on it has been discontinued (as of 2 years ago). If you want a good resource on OSdev, start here: [http://wiki.osdev.org/Main_Page](http://wiki.osdev.org/Main_Page) ~~~ dreta Got another great resource here [http://www.brokenthorn.com/Resources/](http://www.brokenthorn.com/Resources/) ------ OJFord > Chapter-1 > Chapter-2 > ... > Chapter-8 > chapter9 Aaargh!! ------ k_sze I wish people would stop teaching C/C++. I want a book that teaches writing OS using Rust. ~~~ pkaye And what is a good book on writing an OS using Rust? ~~~ dbaupp There's [http://intermezzos.github.io/](http://intermezzos.github.io/) ~~~ steveklabnik Maintainer here! We actually have more developed than the tutorial lets on; at Rust Belt Rust next week, we're running a six-hour class, so focus has been on material for that, rather than on writing more book chapters. I hope to get them out afterwards, though. There's also some open PRs with more functionality too! Basically, check out the kernel repo if you finish the book and want more :)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
For sale: an Enigma machine - epo http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/lot_details.aspx?from=salesummary&intObjectID=5370959&sid=5d471a41-553e-4a2d-b9ee-cf27e36133b8 ====== Robin_Message Also, the next lot is even more exciting: Some offprints of Turing's papers and manuscripts, formed by Prof. Maxwell Newman, guide price _300 to 500 thousand pounds!_ Apparently these are extremely rare; none have appeared in auction for 35 years! [http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/lot_details.aspx?from=sal...](http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/lot_details.aspx?from=salesummary&pos=10&intObjectID=5370960&sid=5d471a41-553e-4a2d-b9ee- cf27e36133b8) ~~~ KoZeN [http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/lot_details.aspx?from=sal...](http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/lot_details.aspx?from=salesummary&pos=5&intObjectID=5370965&sid=5d471a41-553e-4a2d-b9ee- cf27e36133b8) I'm surprised this hadn't had more attention here! _APPLE-1 -- Personal Computer. An Apple-1 motherboard, number 82, printed label to reverse, with a few slightly later additions including a 6502 microprocessor, labeled R6502P R6502-11 8145, printed circuit board with 4 rows A-D and columns 1-18, three capacitors, heatsink, cassette board connector, 8K bytes of RAM, keyboard interface, firmware in PROMS, low-profile sockets on all integrated circuits, video terminal, breadboard area with slightly later connector, with later soldering, wires and electrical tape to reverse, printed to obverse Apple Computer 1 Palo Alto. Ca. Copyright 1976_ ~~~ asmithmd1 Wow! a the Apple-1 is estimated to go for £100,000 - £150,000 I wonder if there are any artifacts from todays companies that we should be grabbing up ~~~ asmithmd1 Now I see why - it comes with the optional cassette interface and BASIC on a tape :) Seriously it is an exceptional artifact: original invoice (Salesperson: STEVEN) and a typed note from Steven Jobs explaining how to hook-up a TV and keyboard: [http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/ZoomImage.aspx?image=/lot...](http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/ZoomImage.aspx?image=/lotfinderimages/D53709/d5370965) ------ user24 I hope a museum gets it, but I think it will probably go for much more than the estimate. By the way, any UK HNers should definitely try to get down to the museum at Bletchley park and the national computing museum. Geek heaven :) edit: wow, they also have the first published ENIAC patents: [http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/lot_details.aspx?from=sal...](http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/lot_details.aspx?from=salesummary&intObjectID=5370963&sid=b1077a41-474f-47b4-8f48-25f5c24fca97) ~~~ shrikant Visitors might want to be a bit patient on the guided tour - largely seems a waste of time initially, with the guide talking a lot about the history of the land/park itself, and the WW2/code-breaking info being somewhat superficial. Then he takes you into the National Museum of Computing and demonstrates the machines, and sometimes lets you touch and feel as well - awesome! The guided tour ends on quite the high! ~~~ user24 depends on the guide I guess, I've been there about 4 times (used to live just down the road, and the ticket is for a whole year!) and took the tour twice, the code-breaking content wasn't highly technical, but it was covered in a decent amount of depth I felt. Riddle from the tour: What must you add to nine to get six? (and no, it's not -3) ~~~ user24 replying in case someone years from now reads this: Gur nafjre vf f. avar va ebzna ahzrenyf vf vk, nqq na f naq lbh trg fvk ;) ------ cromulent One day, I'd like to have a library like Jay Walker's to add this to. He's even got a Sputnik in there, along with his Enigma. [http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/16-10/ff_walker...](http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/16-10/ff_walker?currentPage=all) ------ wgrover Bay Area folks who've read down this far, you'll absolutely love the Computer History Museum, <http://www.computerhistory.org> ------ Luc That would look nice on the living room cupboard, but you can't beat this one for glamour: <http://www.tatjavanvark.nl/tvv1/pht10.html> Perhaps someone here will be able to decrypt that encoded Haiku... ------ pbhjpbhj I was interested in the many manuscripts in that sale. I wonder if Google would buy them, scan them and resell them ... they could buy through a third party/anonymous bid and only release the scanned copy after the resale to avoid a negative effect on price. ------ ljf Amazing piece of kit that would be great to own - but what would /you/ do with one? ~~~ brk You could probably gut it and put an Arduino inside of it that played MP3's. ~~~ astine With all due respect, wouldn't that be a little like upholstering your couch with the Bayeux Tapestry? While the Enigma machine isn't exactly one of a kind, it is quite rare and has a great deal of historical significance. ~~~ brk Sorry, I had a feeling the sarcasm in my initial post wouldn't fully come through :) I probably should have gone with the steampunk-themed comment I was originally planning. ------ tomjen3 30-50k pounds. Shit thats a high price. ~~~ user24 You think? I wouldn't have been surprised to see it fetch twice the high estimate. It's got appeal to people interested in: Computing Codes/Ciphers WW2 That's pretty broad appeal. I mean even if it was only of interest to Turing fans that's still a huge market, and Turing fans are only a small subset of those larger markets. Just my opinion, I've no idea if these things come up fairly often or not. ~~~ tomjen3 It may still fetch more, but honestly that doesn't change that it is a very large amount of money. ~~~ shabda > that it is a very large amount of money. Compared to what? People pay 100K$ for rocks which have no intrintrinsic value.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
IRS SSL problems - heyyeverybody https://sa.www4.irs.gov/irfof-efp/start.do;jsessionid=vNun6wfS+l+xKLt39TSDaOfF ====== heyyeverybody It appears to only give you a warning when using Windows, Chrome, and on a desktop. Says they are using SHA1 and RSA.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
The Commentaries of Julius Caesar [audio] - tosh https://archive.org/details/Commentaries_Gaius_Julius_Caesar ====== DrScump Interesting! This is an audio series (think audiobook) authored/translated by Henry Stuart Jones[0]. _Commentaries_ , _The Gallic Wars_ , and _The Civil Wars_ are included, broken down by books/chapters. [0] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Stuart_Jones](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Stuart_Jones)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Searching For Online Video's Holy Grail - myoung8 http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/04/technology/kirkpatritck_iamplify.fortune/index.htm?section=money_latest Guesses on what happens when you get people from Random House and McKinsey running a company, plus a CTO from Accenture? ====== myoung8 Guesses on what happens when you get people from Random House and McKinsey running a company, plus a CTO from Accenture? ~~~ xirium @0% affiliate fees on US$100 niche videos sounds really good. However, if the management doesn't understand their market then you'd be a fool to associate with this venture.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
French journalist "hacks" govt by inputting correct URL, later fined $4,000+ - Cynddl http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/02/french-journalist-fined-4000-plus-for-publishing-public-documents/ ====== steeve The ruling is more complicated than that. If you can read french, I suggest you read Maitre Eolas' take on it [1]. [1] [http://www.maitre-eolas.fr/post/2014/02/07/NON%2C-on-ne- peut...](http://www.maitre-eolas.fr/post/2014/02/07/NON%2C-on-ne-peut- pas-%C3%AAtre-condamn%C3%A9-pour-utiliser-Gougleu) ~~~ sejje I can't. Mind making a brief summary? ~~~ a3_nm The main count on which Bluetouff was found guilty is that of "maintien frauduleux dans un système de traitement automatisé de données (STAD)", namely, remaining "in" a computing system (STAD) without being allowed. The key point is that Bluetouff made an important admission, apparently during his 30 hours of "garde à vue", meaning, being under arrest at the police station, where he seemingly neglected to apply his right to remain silent: he recognized that, when going up the folder hierarchy, he landed on a username- password login page. From this, according to the court, he should have inferred that the documents were private and that he had nothing to do there. Instead, he spent several hours siphoning the documents _afterwards_ , which established his intent to remain in the system despite having found out that he wasn't supposed to. One can then discuss whether this law is fair or not, whether things would have been different had Bluetouff not made this key admission, whether it is reasonable to consider that the login page was sufficient to indicate that the documents weren't intended to be public, and whether the 3000 EUR fine is balanced or not. Meanwhile, Bluetouff has appealed the ruling to the Cour de cassation, France's last-resort court for civil and criminal cases, whose role is to break rulings where the law was not correctly applied (without discussing the findings, only the application of the law and the adequate forms). I do not think we know yet how Bluetouff will phrase his appeal, but Eolas estimates that there would be a possible way to attack the ruling based on the court's finding that Bluetouff's retrieving the documents constitutes "vol" (theft) though it does not fall within the scope of the formal definition of theft (because the ANSES was not deprived of the files). ~~~ jordanthoms This is a good time to remind people: Don't talk to the police. Ever, under any circumstances - it can only hurt you, never help you. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc) ~~~ pyre This is a very US-centric view. In some places, you have a right to remain silent, but that _can_ be used against you in a court of law... ~~~ nodata He means don't talk to the police until your lawyer is there. Which countries will use that against you? ~~~ ItendToDisagree UK or US, among other countries, if you are being held on 'homeland security' (read: Suspected terrorist) charges. IE: You are required by law to answer questions/turn over passwords when suspected of such things. David Miranda being a recent and well known example. ~~~ nodata "Let's wait until my lawyer gets here" will count against me? You got a cite for that? ~~~ ItendToDisagree Heres the first hit on google, I'm sure many more instances, citings could be procured. _According to former White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales (later the former attorney general), “[t]he stream of intelligence would quickly dry up if the enemy combatants were allowed contact with outsiders during the course of an ongoing debriefing.” Warren Richey, “Beyond Padilla Terror Case, Huge Legal Issues,” Christian Science Monitor, August 15, 2007,[http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0815/p01s08-usju.html](http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0815/p01s08-usju.html). Yoo also explains that introducing a lawyer immediately after capture of an enemy combatant would disrupt interrogation as any competent defense counsel would tell his/her client to remain silent. Yoo, War by Other Means, 151._ ~~~ refurb That quote is in reference to enemy combatants, not those who fall within the regular court system. I get your point though. ~~~ ItendToDisagree As my post said _' homeland security' (read: Suspected terrorist) charges_ who are not part of the normal court system. But this also happens to immigrants or those stopped at the border in general. [0] The right to counsel is being eroded at the edges (apparently not applied to non-citizens whenever possible). _Over the past year, the American Immigration Council, along with the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), has documented instances where the DHS immigration agencies—Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)—have deprived noncitizens of access to counsel. For example, ICE also has taken the position that there is no right to consult with a lawyer during an interrogation. Likewise, many CBP offices outright deny access to all lawyers._ [1] [0] [http://law.psu.edu/_file/Immigrants/LAC_Right_to_Counsel.pdf](http://law.psu.edu/_file/Immigrants/LAC_Right_to_Counsel.pdf) [1] [http://immigrationimpact.com/2012/01/23/its-time-to- improve-...](http://immigrationimpact.com/2012/01/23/its-time-to-improve- noncitizens-access-to-counsel/) ------ rch > Bluetouff ended up admitting in testimony that when he found the documents, > he had traveled back to the homepage that they stemmed from, where he found > an authentication page, which indicated that the documents were likely > supposed to be protected. That admission played a part in his later > conviction in the appeals court. Of course the fine seems absurd to me personally, but this excerpt hints at a couple things one should _definitely_ not do. ~~~ ben0x539 This seems weird to me. If I go to, say, the twitter homepage, I will find an authentication page, and yet most content on twitter is obviously intended to be public. ~~~ tempestn I don't know about France, but in many jurisdictions, a "reasonable person" standard is used. While I don't personally believe accessing publicly available files should be illegal in _any_ case, I do think that in the situation as described (with the admission of traveling up the path hierarchy to find a login page), most "reasonable people" would indeed infer that the files were not intended to be publicly available. ~~~ frobozz Not really. If I found a page that redirected me to a login, I would assume that that page is not intended to be publicly available, and that other content that I don't know about exists which is not intended to be publicly available. I wouldn't infer that just because (as noted by the parent comment) [https://twitter.com/](https://twitter.com/) requires a login, I shouldn't look at [https://twitter.com/twrbrdg_itself](https://twitter.com/twrbrdg_itself) Now, if all those pages I looked at before finding the login page had a banner saying "private, not for public consumption, don't share this with anyone who doesn't have an account", then I might think "hmm, perhaps I'm not supposed to be here". ~~~ tempestn That's not a fair analogy though. I agree that I wouldn't expect every page on twitter to be protected. But if you find a direct link to a random document indexed by Google, then check and the page that links to that document is protected, I personally anyway would assume the document itself was exposed accidentally. Obviously not everyone agrees though, which makes the reasonable person thing difficult to decide. As for the lock on the door comment, I'd say it's more like if you noticed a store is left unlocked in the middle of the night, and therefore assume you're welcome to go in and walk around. In fact, they probably didn't leave it unlocked as an intentional invitation. ------ gcb0 happened in brazil as well. everyone knows you only build large public projects there if money change hands. and it usually happens that the gov official get the quotes from all the companies, call the one paying him the most and tell the other quotes and that company submit a little lower than the lowest and get the job, later including several hidden fees, etc. the, for the sao paulo subway expansion, a journalist did a search and found documents proving all that for that specific job (yellow metro line) and published them. gov removed the documents, waited for all signs of it ever being indexed to disappear and then sued him. i think the trial is still going and they still deny those documents ever existed. ~~~ whitey-chan Do you have any links with further info on that case by any chance? Would be interesting to see how that turns out. ------ rurban How can government agencies still can get away with accusing someone of "theft" and accessing a "private computer" and "private documents" when they just publish documents on the web, and the public is consuming them? The fact that there was a HTTPAUTH protected login page in some up path on the site does not infer that the documents should have been protected. They are or they are not. And they looked legit, i.e. public. Esp. with government documents you are safe to assume that they are public, if they are public and look public. ~~~ MildlySerious Exactly. Also, the HTTPAUTH is directory based and does not necessarily include subdirectories, just like permissions on all Linux distros. So that doesn't imply in any way that subdirectories should have been private. ------ zacinbusiness I'm really on the fence with this one. As has been pointed out, the fact that there's some auth somewhere on the server doesn't necessarily mean that those specific documents were supposed to be private. However, as a journalist he decided to publish the documents on his blog which I think we can take to mean that he assumed they were, in some way, "juicy." And he wouldn't think that if he didn't at least suspect that they were supposed to be private. This is all assumption, of course, but I think it's pretty logical assumption. Still, freedom of the press is a strong right. Though freedom, as they say, isn't free (there can be and often are consequences to exercising your freedoms). In this case I think he's lucky to just get what amounts to a hefty access fee. If he had stumbled onto U.S. documents he may well have found himself taking a ride in a black helicopter. ------ higherpurpose How many years would he get in prison for this in US? While the interpretation of the law or the law itself are pretty bad here to begin with, at least the punishments are saner for stuff like this. US seems to have both completely terrible and easily abused hacking laws, but also extremely disproportionate punishments. ------ nswanberg This is more or less what happened to some kids applying to Harvard Business School about seven years ago: [https://freedom-to- tinker.com/blog/felten/harvard-business-s...](https://freedom-to- tinker.com/blog/felten/harvard-business-school-boots-119-applicants-hacking- admissions-site/) Their penalty was a denial of admissions, but their hack of using a specially- crafted URL was about the same. ------ thomasjoulin I don't understand why he's getting fine for that. Those were publicly accessible documents, even though they were intended not to be, as indicated by the login form that Bluetouff admitted to know about. If that's the law, then it needs to change. ------ fuckpig Reminds me of what happened to Andrew Aurenheimer, only iterated a bit more.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Google's Project Zero researcher discovers “major” security issue in LastPass - aloukissas http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/lastpass-hack-security-problem-password-manager-a7658806.html ====== sp332 Previous discussion [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13960097](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13960097) ------ kakarot If you use online password management for anything security-critical then you're a fool. It pains me to see Lastpass so readily trusted even by the HN community. ~~~ thraway2016 Agreed. A combination of cryptsetup luksOpen foobar && mount foobar && vim foobar/passwords.txt has always worked fine. I suspect it has to do with the modernist fetish of convenience. Not having all your data synchronized to all devices at all times is apparently a fate worse than death. ~~~ CobrastanJorji I started using LastPass because I found that for all but my bank, Google, and Amazon passwords, I was using the same password on every other page. I've found that it's really great to just let LastPass pick a lengthy password for every new site I join and know that I'll still be able to log into it later from my phone or my laptop or my desktop without problem. I get that it's got some serious security holes, but it's better than not using it, because if I don't use it then I'm just gonna start repeating the same username and password across sites again. The enemy I'm fighting is my own laziness. I'm not choosing between "use LastPass" and "lock my passwords in an encrypted fileystem." I'm choosing between "use LastPass" and "use the same password everywhere," and LastPass is better than that. ------ ry_ry So if they want 2fa enabled and users to avoid browser plugins it inadvertantly suggests a vector to start looking at. At a guess, an API vuln that issues a token of some description? ------ astrodust LastPass tire fire continues to spread.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Twins’ Facebook Fight Rages On - donohoe http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/31/business/31twins.html?_r=1&src=twr ====== strlen The fact that this travesty continues (and how it is portrayed in the media) shows what society still thinks of as a proper place for geeks like Zuckerberg[1]: to implement some business guy's vision. The message is loud and clear: "you may be smart, you may go to the same schools as we do, but you are an inferior being." Our skills are thought of as a commodity, that we can implement a site like Craigslist, Amazon or Facebook (in its modern incarnation) in a weekend: it's as if the idea is the hard part. This applies not only to Zuckberg, but also to the employees at Facebook who have been busy working nights and weekends building, scaling out and monetizing the site. Apparently, however, society thinks nothing of a wealth transfer from the workers to the privileged elite (i.e., the twins). I'll be the first to say: even if the allegations are true, fuck these jocks[1]: everybody and their mother had a "social network for X" idea; the idea wasn't unique, turning it into an a product users love was. [1] It's popular to portray Zuck as some PHP script kiddie, but that's not the case. He's written a Winamp plugin in high school, for which Microsoft offered him a $1mm bonus if he signed on as a full time employee (forgoing Harvard). His initial technology choices may be disagreeable, but he's still one of us. [2] <http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10016183-36.html> ~~~ alexgartrell Fuck these jocks So maybe I'm being a little oversensitive here, but attitudes like this toward athletes are total bullshit. I'm going to go out on an egotistical limb here and say that I'm a pretty fucking competent coder, but before I was I was a pretty decent Football player. Don't make this an "us vs. them" thing, because that's a false dichotomy if I've ever heard one. ~~~ strlen No, you're not oversensitive here. I am. I regret putting that comment in. It's a visceral, emotional gut reaction. Nonetheless, I'll leave it there: editing it out would be Orwellian. However, there's an interesting point: they spent their time perfecting their rowing skills to an olympic level, that's where their passion lays. It's difficult to be an olympic rower and a top notch hacker at the same time: it's one thing to dabble in both, it's another to master one. I work out for at least an hour 5-6 days a week, but I'm not an athlete. The hours I have to spend to become proficient at programming don't leave time for equal amount of hours (10,000 according to Gladwell) to be spent on sport. Winklevii made their choices, Zuck made his. ~~~ fingerprinter Going on a HUGE side tangent here b/c working out, fitness and overall health is a huge passion of mine... people don't know how to workout....and people don't know what an 'athlete' does when they workout. I've been around professional and collegiate athletes for quite some time and I think most people would be amazed to see how little they actually workout. The basic thought the past 20 years was 'more is better' when it comes to the body; more working out is better than less working out. What we are learning and something good trainers and athletes have known for some time is that the amount of working out takes a huge backseat to doing the right kind of working out at the right intensity level. It is more mythos created by the sports industry when we hear that someone is 'in the gym' 10 hours a day. This might be accurate, but the time they are actually working out is minimal (or, rather, it should be if they value their asset aka body). Now, to someone like you working out 5-6 days a week for (guessing) an hour...I guarantee that if I changed your routine and intensity levels you would become an athlete you never dreamed you could be. I could probably do it in literally half the time as well. I'll leave you with this...which do you think is more effective as a workout: 60 minutes on the treadmill or elliptical or 10 minutes of sprinting intervals @ 75 max effort? Did you know you can get one of the best and hardest workouts of your life if you just did 5 minutes of Tabata style kettlebell swings (20 seconds swings, 10 sec break for 5 minutes)? Knowing the body and being able to hack the body are so foreign to most folks they literally have no idea what it means to workout like an athlete. ~~~ moultano Have a good resource on "tabata style kettleball swings?" ~~~ fingerprinter The technical name is 'Tabata Protocol' and google is your friend here. Also, YouTube is awesome for finding good workouts if you know the right search terms. To get you started, this is a good video. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtgRcqaOqDo> Just note that you should be going much, much harder (more intense) than she is doing. Remember, 20 seconds all out, 10 seconds rest. You can also vary the intensity by weight of KB and not just speed. I use a 53 pound KB for single arm swings and a 70 pound for double arm swings (at the gym...don't have a 70 for the home yet). If you have a tough time counting 20 seconds and 10 seconds, the GymBoss timer (<http://www.gymboss.com/> ), available on Amazon is a great way to time. Some quick articles on tabata: [http://www.thefitnessmonster.com/2010/02/hiit- for-fat-loss-t...](http://www.thefitnessmonster.com/2010/02/hiit-for-fat-loss- tabata-protocol.html) [http://ezinearticles.com/?Kettlebell-Tabata-Workout--- Swings...](http://ezinearticles.com/?Kettlebell-Tabata-Workout---Swings-For- Rapid-Fat-Loss&id=3772838) You can do anything in a tabata fashion. For instance, you can sprint, you can do an exercise bike if you have some issues running (I'm rehabbing an Achilles tear so I stick to KB, swimming and some variants I'll talk about in a minute) or anything you can do for 20 seconds. I'll even make circuits for Tabata workouts. This is a great one that gets you quite exhausted and will boost your metabolism sky high as well... 2-4 rounds, 20 seconds of each exercise in order, 10 second in between exercises. Pushup - you can do any type: traditional, military, diamond, plyo. Even vary it up in the different rounds. KB swings - See previous Burpees - <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MGljX4bbps> Air Squats or Jack/Power Squats* - <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1FpWEfJW1s> \- [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEwitPuU0Xg&feature=relat...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEwitPuU0Xg&feature=related) Plank crunch (or variants) - <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31SbKgmHcmw> Once done...take a 10 second break and start over again going for 2-4 total rounds. If you do 2 rounds, that is 5 total minutes for working out. 4 Rounds is 10 minutes. This is very, very tough (honestly) and sometimes I have a hard time doing all 10 minutes w/ full intensity. ------ narrator Moral of the story folks. Be very careful about people you go into business with. If you smell a hint of "douche" or especially narcissism, just walk away. ------ snprbob86 Now that I'm working on a proper startup -- raising money, building a product, hiring a team, making deals, acquiring customers... I feel a renewed deep respect for people who _actually make things_. No amount of hearing "the idea isn't as important as the execution", no amount of startup culture indoctrination can really prepare you for doing it yourself. Building something that people want is just so much harder than anyone could possibly imagine until they try it. I don't think any typical judge could possibly understand. If they did, a case about "he stole the idea" would be instantly thrown out with prejudice. The idea is so unbelievably inconsequential in the scope of skill, determination, and heart needed to succeed. Even if Zuck mislead these guys into thinking he was building this exact product for them and on their time, I don't think they are entitled to anything. Even if the Harvard Connection was the most popular social network and Zuckerberg was hired as a 10th engineer and left and build Facebook to compete. I don't think they'd be entitled to a dime. Love him or hate him, Zuckerberg built an incredible business with a stellar team in a remarkably short time period. Luck was involved, but this was no accident. ------ edanm It still amazes me how different my perception is on starting successful businesses, versus most other people. I mean, there's the whole "the idea is not the important part" slogan, which is true to at least some degree, which seems completely lost on the twins. And take this quote: _When asked if they could have turned ConnectU into a site with hundreds of millions of users, like Mr. Zuckerberg did with Facebook, the twins replied in unison, “Absolutely.”_ Seriously, have you ever heard anyone who would say that they could _absolutely_ succeed with _any startup_? The optimistic chances of success for any startup aren't huge, what makes them think they would absolutely succeed? Moreover, they're not talking about the kind of success that YC is happy with, or even the kind of success that VCs are happy with. They're talking about the kind of success of a once-in-a-decade company. Lastly, I've worked on my own startup for almost the past year. It's been a year of attempts, false starts, "pivots", eventually throwing out some ideas altogether and starting from new. From what I understand, after the Winkelvoss twins approached Zuck, less than 2 months passed before he went and released Facebook. 2 months, to me, seems like such a tiny, inconsequential amount of time when you're talking about starting a startup. Any way you look at it, from the facts as I understand them, this just seems like 3 people who have no idea what they're talking about, trying to squeeze money out of someone successful just because they can. ------ kylelibra This is getting to the point of embarrassing. It is time to give it a rest. ------ naner [http://viewtext.org/article?url=http://www.nytimes.com/2010/...](http://viewtext.org/article?url=http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/31/business/31twins.html) ------ bl4k It seems you can't be successful, especially in tech/web, without a dozen people hanging onto your coattails claiming that you stole the idea or that you were lucky. MySpace were written off as lucky spammers, Zuck a theif, Bill Gates stole MS- DOS, etc. etc. ~~~ pyre Bill Gates stole MS-DOS? So far as I know, he _bought_ DOS to license to IBM. There's a difference between being a skillful hacker and being a shrewd businessman. Claiming that someone isn't a skillful hacker doesn't mean they are completely without brains/skills/etc. MySpace were 'lucky' in that people latched on to their horrible interface because it had features that they wanted (to put music, videos, media on their 'homepage'). People could have easily rejected the interface despite yearning for the features. Zuckerberg isn't necessarily a thief, but he certainly should have covered his ass a lot better with contracts and such. Though, with the amount of money that's on the line, there would be people coming out of the woodwork no matter how airtight of a contract they had. > It seems you can't be successful, especially in tech/web, It's the "I thought of that too, so where's my money" syndrome. "I thought of The Clapper first! I should be the one making money!" ~~~ bl4k I didn't say I agree with it - I said that is what you hear a lot of. Zuck and Bill deserve absolute credit for their successes. ------ blantonl It is pretty clear what is driving this - attorney's fees. The attorneys can conjure up all kinds of (remote) scenarios for additional, potential, settlements now that they had the taste of the previous settlement. ~~~ edanm Their original attorneys were fired, not paid, and had to go to court to force the Winkelvosses to pay them their attorney fees. The Winkelvosses withheld the money due to their claims of their lawyer's incompetence. ------ smokey221 If Zuckerberg was a more likable guy like Leo Laporte or Kevin Rose I'd feel sympathy for him. The Winklewosses might be tools but Zuckerberg is hardly more sympathetic. ~~~ younata Never met Zuck, but, I have far more respect for him than I do for the Winklewosses.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Someone Just Found an Embeddable Google +1 Button - It Works - Jsarokin http://techcrunch.com/2011/03/31/omg-someone-just-found-an-embeddable-google-1-button-%E2%80%93-and-it-works/ ====== trotsky Good job keeping up your journalistic standards in your headlines, TC. ~~~ robinwauters I read somewhere that the more braincells one has, the easier it is for a person to recognize sarcasm. ~~~ RiderOfGiraffes Sarcasm is _awesome!_ ------ aw3c2 Direct link: [http://www.yvoschaap.com/weblog/the_google_1_button_discover...](http://www.yvoschaap.com/weblog/the_google_1_button_discovered) ------ ck2 Ah so here it is [https://madrelease.google.com/_/doodad/button?url=http://new...](https://madrelease.google.com/_/doodad/button?url=http://news.ycombinator.com&height=100) [https://ssl.gstatic.com/s2/oz/images/stars/po/ESAPv1/buttonS...](https://ssl.gstatic.com/s2/oz/images/stars/po/ESAPv1/buttonSprite.png) Ugh so now we are going to see those everywhere. Google basically will now be able to track you across every last site, even if they don't use analytics or adsense. One more thing for adblock I guess. ~~~ tonfa My guess would be that the number of sites having a +1 button and not using analytics is __very __small. ------ jcapote ZOMG!!! ------ zachahack All those poor single people..	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
WHAT IS INTELLIGENCE? - mikkokotila http://autonom.io/what-is-intelligence/ ====== dozzie INTELLIGENCE IS TO KNOW NOT TO USE ALL CAPS. [https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html) ~~~ waterswaters I was just about to say the SAME THINGGGGGGG	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: A web site that is vulnerable to a good competitor? - andrewtbham I have been thinking about how lots of successful web sites were late to the market, but were cheaper, or better designed. (stack overflow, plenty of fish, all the 37 signals products, etc.) Can you think of a site where a lean competitor could steal market share?<p>I have been thinking about survey monkey. ====== klapinat0r TVRage.com, or even TV.com, are both sites which are very good at certain points. TVRage mainly: having up-to-date episode listings. TV.com mainly: relevant news to the navigated page, extensive bio/episode description archive, respectively. Both sites have forums. Neither of which are particular active. TV.com's forum takes the lead in that area, however it seems the audience for tv-serie forums are located on fan-site forums instead. Both sites use userbased contributions (to some extend). TV.com seems more professionally handled (also endorsed, so obviously has an advantage), whereas TVRage summaries, bios etc., seem more random and not necessarily added to complete a show's info. Perhabs a better ranking/modding scheme could make for a TV.com/TVRage competitor? I haven't given it much thought, but taking something simple and easy to use like, say, up/down voting (which web users of today are familiar with) as an aid to moderate the info on the site could be an idea. An advantage of TVRage is it's open-ness and (willingness to have an) API. I've used this many times, and in a web-age where people want to present stuff at their own website how they want (kind of like a new-age "embedded link" or "widget"), APIs are a great way to show that your core speciality is information, and the accuracy of this, and if someone wants to present it in a blue/yellow website so be it, as long as people know where to go to get to the source: you. ------ keiferski Wufoo (YC 06) is essentially a better designed Survey Monkey. <http://www.wufoo.com> ~~~ andrewtbham That site does have great design... it's a little cartoonish, but well done. There are a lot of competitors in the space. ------ ig1 Well Plenty of Fish seems like a good target, bad design/UX makes it vulnerable Vault and eBay are another two examples. What these all have in common is requiring a critical mass of users to work, which gives them a barrier to entry that allows them to become complacent. ------ dawson Microsoft HealthVault	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Beautiful thumbnail hover effect using CSS3 - akashbhadange http://www.dzyngiri.com/index.php/beautiful-thumbnail-hover-effect-using-css3/ ====== mnicole Terrible UX. Not only does it make it nigh-impossible to hover over the other thumbnails, but transforms (scale most notably) often leave behind artifacts/borders as it does in this demo, putting white lines all over the images and their surroundings. ~~~ yen223 It didn't put any white lines or artifacts for me. Chrome 22.0.1229.94, WinXP ~~~ mnicole [https://img.skitch.com/20121011-k29i1jdb68u41g1ikhqdkemmjx.j...](https://img.skitch.com/20121011-k29i1jdb68u41g1ikhqdkemmjx.jpg) Chrome 21.0.1180.89, OS X (10.6.8) I've been able to replicate this in my own projects as well. ------ hnal943 It is easy to cause the image to constantly expand and contract by leaving your mouse over the thumbnail. That makes it very difficult to use. ------ fady my issue with this specific demo is that the hover effect makes the image too big to select the photos right next to the active one. maybe make it smaller or have the others shift so they're still accessible when one of the thumbnails is still active.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Show HN: My first iOS game released - jason_slack My first iOS game is released. It took me 2 weekends to develop and 9 day approval time.<p>Here are a few promo codes. If you take a promo code, can you please also leave a review?<p>Happy to answer any questions. An update is already being prepared for iPhone support as well as a more major update that adds difficulty adjustments and a "dreaded" twist :-)<p>The Game: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pop-corn/id905859076?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4<p>Promo Codes:<p>F79LRP4JNWT4<p>X94XXNNW77E3<p>PEWJ77FHTME7<p>9PHN99RLLE6W ====== chrisBob The game was interesting, but I have a few critiques: 1) The first thing I checked was to see if it was multitouch, and I was disappointed. I should be able to tap kernels with as many fingers as I have (or 11, whichever is smaller). 2) It is not obvious when a round will end. One lasted 41 seconds. Another lasted 44. There are not instructions, and I can't tell after playing a few rounds. 3) I would recommend giving your contact info either in the app description or on your webpage. If I can't find contact info then I am likely to complain about bugs via an app review because that is the only method you gave me. 4) Please give some visual feedback for which kernel is about to pop. Some are different colors, but there is no apparent reason as they are all the same type. 5) You only see the opening menu the first time you play the game. There is no way to get back to the menu after a round only a exit button which exited the whole app. That is possibly a bug and it just crashed. 6) After one of the rounds I didn't get any menu and had to force quit the app to play again. 7) If you exit the game (ie. with the home button) it does not stop the clock, and then it shows a large time when you resume and finish the round. 8) The splash screen flashes up for a fraction of a second. The recommended method is to have a splash screen that looks mostly like the menu screen, but maybe without the buttons, so that the launch looks smoother. ~~~ jason_slack Could you tell me which model IPad you have? Thank you for the feedback! I'll go over each of these with a fine tooth comb. I have a 1.1 version that addresses a few of these concerns already. 1\. Good idea on multitouch 2\. The round ends when you have 125+ kernels on the screen 3\. I'll update both today 4\. The time each kernel pops is generated at random. I think you are right, feedback is important. 5\. Its not a bug. I did it on purpose :-) Well my logic behind it was you either want to replay or quit. Getting back to the main menu right now felt weird since the only options are Play and About. 6\. I'll look into this. 7\. You are right, I have this fixed in the next build. 8\. I'll look into this. I used other games I was playing as an example and they all seemed to have a different launch image and main menu, etc. ~~~ chrisBob Its a 4th generation iPad. 1) depending on how you wrote this, it could be easy to implement. The easiest way would be to have each kernel be its own view, and then a touch makes it disappear. Then each view handles one touch each, but the result is a better experience. 5) This is the only app I have seen with an exit button. I did not even know that there was code to do this since there is a nice hardware button that does the same thing. 8) The splash screen makes more sense if there is a longer loading time. One option would be to have another view that is the same image and then hold it for 1-2 seconds. I have seen some apps do this. ~~~ jason_slack 1\. Each corn kernel has its own event listeners on it. I'll debug this. I actually (as well as my wife and son) tended to play it with 1 finger. Thanks for demonstrating another method of play. 8\. Good idea. ~~~ chrisBob It is interesting to find out how other people play your games. I had one where I knew to just touch and hold, but when other people swiped repeatedly it showed a problem that I would have never seen on my own. ~~~ jason_slack Just FYI There is a 1.1 update waiting for approval and I am submitting a 1.1.1 that utilizes full multi-touch. What a difference it makes in the game play.... ------ tjosten As far as I remember, customers who used a Promotion Code to buy something from the (Mac) App store are not able to leave a review for the app. ~~~ chrisBob I used the first promo code, and I can confirm that you can't leave a review if you use a code. ~~~ jason_slack I had no idea this was the case. Thanks for trying to leave feedback though.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Top 50 Tech Visionaries - edw519 http://www.pcworld.com/printable/article/id,145290/printable.html# ====== jpeterson This list is just silly. Herbie Hancock?? ~~~ jamesbritt Lists like this are no fun unless there is at least one WTF item. (Though I do think an argument could be made for Hancock.) ~~~ rms Definitely, but I think someone like Wendy Carlos or Kraftwerk would make more sense. ~~~ jamesbritt Very good point. ------ xenoterracide linus is too far down and rms is not on there. As if GNU and the GPL have't made an impact. Bad list. ------ yaj where is wozniak?	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Global secondary indexes - r4um https://lethain.com/global-secondary-indexes/ ====== r4um Spanner secondary index link is broken correct one [https://cloud.google.com/spanner/docs/secondary- indexes](https://cloud.google.com/spanner/docs/secondary-indexes)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Why computer programmers need to stop calling themselves engineers already - gukov http://www.businessinsider.com/why-computer-programmers-need-to-stop-calling-themselves-engineers-already-2015-11 ====== DrScump Original article posted days ago: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10513371](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10513371) ------ mohaine I've got to call bullshit on this one. Sure SOME engineers need certifications, but most do not. Pretty much just the ones that build buildings/bridges here in the US. I've got 2 engineering degrees(CE/EE) and when I got out college, I took the first half of the PE exam (need to take the second part after 5 years in the field to be a PE) but the only reason I took it is because it is almost impossible to pass after you leave college since it covers the entire field, not just your specialty. It was a "Better off safe" sorta thing. All my professors basically said an EE/CE will never need a PE but you never know... That said the term Engineer is definitely watered down, but this has been the case at least as long as "Custodial Engineer" has been a term. ------ sotojuan I would welcome an ABET accreditation for software engineering with open hands. It would get rid of the whole debate on what Computer Science degrees should teach. ------ wmat I'm pretty sure all Engineers in Canada get to wear the iron ring, including Software Engineers.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Apple blocking Google Voice blocking webOS App - davidcuddeback http://flpalmdev.blogspot.com/2010/02/apple-blocking-google-voice-blocking.html ====== boundlessdreamz He is comparing Google not providing an API to AT&T redirecting google.com to bing.com or apple blocking the voice app? Lost his argument, right there. Wish he provided more technical details instead of just just ranting. What is the "uper easy access number" and whats with the headline ? I understand he is frustrated but he is trying to reverse engineer a product. It is rarely easy. And since google voice has a mobile version, it is not even that webOS users are locked out. ------ ajross I'm not sure I get the complaint. It's Google's service, it's never been free software, and clearly they're going to exert some control over what clients get to connect. That's clearly within Google's power and rights to do, and it doesn't hurt anyone but competing voice app vendors who want to use Google's (!) service. How does that compare to banning a Google Voice app from the iPhone store, which while also within Apple's power and rights, is clearly harming _consumers_ who don't get to use the service? ~~~ briansmith I'm not sure I get the complaint. It's Apple's operating system, it's never been free software, and clearly they're going to exert some control over what apps get installed. That's clearly within Apple's power and rights to do, and it doesn't hurt anyone but competing app vendors who want to use Apple's (!) operating system. How does that compare to banning a WebOS app from the accessing the Google Voice service, which while also within Google's power and rights, is clearly harming consumers who don't get to use the service? ~~~ ajross You're being amusingly snide, but just plain wrong, sorry. Blocking Google Voice at the app store quite clearly prevents iPhone users from using Google Voice, a service Google wants to provide to them. But for a third party (Apple) those users would be able to use it, so without it they are harmed. Google doesn't want to provide/support service to WebOS, or other third party clients. These users wouldn't be served anyway, they aren't "harmed" except by reference to a utopian world where we all run free software all the time. It's like demanding that Apple support iTunes on the Linux or Palm Pre; it's a ridiculous argument. ~~~ jsdalton If all they were doing was not supporting third party clients or failing to provide an API, I would agree with you. However, from the article: > ...they are implementing byzantine security to actually prevent 3rd party > apps from accessing the same functionality that their Android native app is > capable of or their new mobile site is able to access. There's a big difference between failing to support and actively creating obstacles to use. Seems like Apple and Google are both equally guilty of this, to the detriment of end users. ------ mattmaroon This is the problem with "don't be evil". Evil all depends on your point of view. Google probably views the iPhone as evil given its closed nature, and thus Android is their attempt to save humanity from Steve's evil clutches. Thus anything they do to facilitate that, including closing off their own products, is morally justified. ------ caryme This seems to contradict Sean Kovacs' (the developer of GV Mobile) post at the release of the Google Voice mobile web app: <http://www.seankovacs.com/index.php/2010/01/im-in-love/> I don't know from personal experience, as I haven't tried to do any of this myself. Also, Kovacs' post was from a month ago, so something may have changed. ~~~ megaman821 That is why developer is complaining. Using that used to work but does not anymore, possibly because of security protocols. Also it seems like Google is using a secret api in the Android app. Why not just slap the tag 'Beta' on the api and publish it? It may suck when an api changes but at least it is in the developer's control to get his app working again. ~~~ caryme Got it. Thanks for the clarification. I totally agree with the beta api idea. ------ jsz0 Google probably wants to ensure that Android phones have the best GV integration. At some point, as we saw with Buzz, Google will start leveraging other popular services to compete. It's inevitable. Google Voice can be a killer app and could sell a ton of first party Google phones. ------ davidcuddeback I agree with the sentiment in this blog post, but I can't help but wonder if regulations on telecommunications services require Google to implement the extra security. ------ fnid2 If you are involved in advertising, marketing, and branding at all, you begin to realize that advertising is really taking all the weaknesses of a product and making them strength of the product. So, with Google, the engineers realize that it is impossible for a company with that much power and investment capital involved to avoid evilness, thus, they take the opposite of the company and make it the slogan, thus an evil company becomes a company with slogan of "do no evil." ~~~ stanleydrew This is kind of ridiculous. The "don't be evil" slogan originated in 2001 supposedly, when Google had $7 million in profit and very few employees. They were hardly a powerhouse, although things looked very promising at that point. ~~~ fnid2 The founders of Google were visionaries who understood the humanity involved in any large organization. The very slogan was introduced to help them remember not to do bad things when they get big. Unfortunately, it hasn't worked out that well.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Things You Should Do Immediately After Launching a Website - abraham http://sixrevisions.com/website-management/things-you-should-do-immediately-after-launching-a-website/ ====== bill-nordwall Be careful with these robots.txt suggestions. Disallowing your css/js files in your robots.txt is probably not a good idea - Matt Cutts said as much himself: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNEipHjsEPU> If you're running Wordpress, disallowing your /uploads/ directory will nuke your Google Image Search prospects, as Googlebot won't be able to crawl any of your images to begin with. Also, submitting to a paid directory such as Best of the Web or the Yahoo! Directory would be a much better use of your time. DMOZ is still a valuable directory (for a lot of reasons), but the likelihood is small that they will review, let alone add your site to the directory in a timely manner (if ever). A few other things worth doing: \- Create a Twitter account for your site. \- Create a Facebook page for your site. ~~~ gojomo Indeed. Blocking JS and CSS from all robots will also cause your site to render poorly in most web archives, like the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. ------ ary _After_ launching? Not to nit pick, but I'm pretty sure nearly all of these should be done _before_ you launch. ~~~ seiji Depends on what you are launching. A weekend project? Just get your work in front of people. Something you spent six months in stealth mode working on? Sure, get it all set up before launch during the development process. ~~~ ary Can't say I agree with you. Even with weekend projects I'll throw some analytics and other quantification tools in from the beginning as I want to see what kind of traction it gets. How else would I even begin to know if there's interest in what I've created? ------ thingie There is only one thing on the list that is not completely obvious -- dmoz still matters. Is it possible? Sure, it's a valuable list of sites touched by a lot of care and bureaucracy, but does anybody who wasn't online 10 years ago know about it? ~~~ dmitri1981 I can't imagine Google pays much attention to this anymore. Many of the categories have near absent editors and it can take over 6 months to be added. ~~~ carbocation 6 months? I've been waiting for 4 years in my category. ~~~ richbradshaw I've been waiting over 5 now! It's a joke! I even applied to be an editor for the category 3 years ago to try and speed it up... ~~~ zach At least you could submit. They had some sort of catastrophe four years ago when I tried to submit -- there was just some sort of "come back in a few months... yeah" blurb. I forgot all about it until I saw this, so I guess I'll check back sometime in 2013. ------ bryanh The same thing I said in their comments (dunno if they'll approve my blatant self-promotion): If anyone is interested in automating their fetish for checking their organic SEO rankings, I’d be happy to give you a free spin in my app <http://rankiac.com/>. Basically, you enter your keywords and domains, and we email you daily with changes in ranking. Hit me up at [email protected] if you want your account sprinkled with some free “Pro” subscription magic dust! Regardless, this is a good list and contains a few things I ALWAYS forget to do (site-map & Google Webmaster tools). ~~~ akronim Do rankings change often enough to need daily emails? ~~~ bryanh Some people like it as it keeps their mind on SEO and their keywords. We also offer a weekly option which might be more appropriate for some. ------ gabrielroth OK, to everyone who read this list and said, 'That stuff is all obvious': What would you add to the list? ~~~ alexro 1) Write a blog post about your launch 2) Let others know 3) Monitor Twitter for the chance of mentioning your product 4) Contact influential bloggers ADD: most importantly, understand why "they" don't come :) ------ olalonde For a more comprehensive list: [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/72394/what- should-a-devel...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/72394/what-should-a- developer-know-before-building-a-public-web-site) ------ citizenkeys Good organic seo is almost always the best way to advertise your site. Spending money on fleshing out your site with lots of pages with lots of relevant specific copy and keywords is much more cost-effective than simply spending money to advertise the site. A couple important things the article leaves out: 1) Create a cron script or otherwise automate sitemap creation. Otherwise, its easy to forget to manually add new pages. 2) Put a useful succinct meta description in the header of all your pages. Otherwise you leave the little blurb of text that shows up on google search results to chance and miss potential clicks on search results. ------ yread +1 for not saying "8 Things You Should do..." ~~~ ryanwaggoner Yeah, God forbid you should number your main points. Seriously, what is the problem with a list post? Yes, it's a hook. Why is that a problem? ~~~ AgentConundrum Personally, I don't really think there's anything wrong with a "x tips for y" title, but it does go against the submission guidelines for HN: _If the original title begins with a number or number + gratuitous adjective, we'd appreciate it if you'd crop it. E.g. translate "10 Ways To Do X" to "How To Do X," and "14 Amazing Ys" to "Ys." Exception: when the number is meaningful, e.g. "The 5 Platonic Solids."_ I think the point of the guideline is to keep things fact-oriented here, and to keep the amount of sensationalism, hyperbole, and "link-baiting" on HN to a minimum. ~~~ ryanwaggoner _I think the point of the guideline is to keep things fact-oriented here, and to keep the amount of sensationalism, hyperbole, and "link-baiting" on HN to a minimum._ I agree that we should respect the HN submission guidelines, but the OP seemed to be expressing approval that the original post wasn't titled as such. Additionally, I hardly think that numbering your main points counts as sensationalism or hyperbole. _Maybe_ it's link-baiting in some cases, but I think that's a stretch. ------ joshrule As someone just starting up their first website (<http://wayofthescholar.com>), there's a lot of helpful material here, and a lot I still need to work through. Although each item may be obvious and discussed in greater depth a thousand other places, a list is sometimes really helpful. ------ iworkforthem I would also redirect my feeds/rss to FeedBurner, just to have an idea the number of subscribers I might have, and which are the more popular items people read about me. ~~~ steveklabnik Not to mention that you can move feeds later and keep all of your subscribers. I've done this, it's super useful. ~~~ riledhel And you save bandwidth and gather stats... ------ Towle_ Wow! Sifting through sixrevisions.com ... they have some fantastic shit. Good writing, sure, but GREAT topics-- and that's _such_ a rarity. A big* high-five to abraham for the submission. *The kind that makes your hand sting. Because I love you, that's why. ------ coffee "Submit Your Website to Dmoz" Are you kidding me? Please, please don't waste your time... ------ terra_t uhhhh... i can't believe so much blogspam is getting in here ------ RtodaAV Dmoz? Good Luck getting in. ------ seociety XML Sitemap along with Google notifications goes a long way! Many sites do not notify google when their XML sitemap is updated yet it is a very efficient way to achieve instant indexing for new content! While large sites with high PR are crawled frequently, crawling rates for small/medium sites will never result in instant indexing unless they use this method. Use it and gain some search engine results momentum!	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Robert Scoble: I didn’t sexually harass women as I lacked power over them - briandear https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/10/robert-scoble-i-didnt-sexually-harass-women-as-i-lacked-power-over-them/?comments=1 ====== ColinWright [https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Robert%20Scoble&sort=byDate&da...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Robert%20Scoble&sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=story)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
How to surprise your website visitors this Halloween? - darielnoel http://darielnoel.github.io/articles/how-to-sorprise-your-websites-visitants-on-halloween/ ====== alialkhatib This is unrelated, but if people using the HTTPS Everywhere extension are seeing a broken page, it's the extension's fault; the page's CSS and JS files are all being called by the HTTP protocol, which browsers tend to frown upon when the page is HTTPS (or vice versa). To the author, you can avoid this by using a "protocol relative URL" (instead of calling for http[s]://... you would call for //...). More details here: [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4978235/absolute-urls- om...](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4978235/absolute-urls-omitting-the- protocol-scheme-in-order-to-preserve-the-one-of-the)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ogo, a new take on personal transportation - prawn http://ogotechnology.com/ ====== DavidSJ Looks very cool. One thing I noticed about the video introduction is the speaker is explicitly talking to the viewer as if he or she is not the target audience, e.g. "while you and I may take this for granted ..." and "the disabled are exactly the same as you and me ..." ~~~ notahacker The video is presumably made to be shared amongst a wider audience than the target market. And I guess that for a disabled person it would be a huge psychological win to have able-bodied people looking with _envy_ rather than _sympathy_ at their means of locomotion. ~~~ kevinmchugh Reminds me of this great TED talk, where one person is jealous that someone with prosthetic legs can change their height: [https://www.ted.com/talks/aimee_mullins_prosthetic_aesthetic...](https://www.ted.com/talks/aimee_mullins_prosthetic_aesthetics/transcript?language=en#t-405000) ~~~ harryjo Hmm, how does the law (DMV, passport office, etc) deal with that? ~~~ dereke I don't think it is illegal to wear heels so probably in a similar way. ------ paulsutter This looks like a huge improvement over a wheelchair (have you ever tried the joystick control on an electric wheelchair?). Way better mobility. And it looks cool. Completely the opposite feeling of watching someone on a Segway, which could make even the coolest person look like a mall cop. ~~~ scribu I agree and I think the cool factor comes from the fact that users of Ogo _need_ it in order to move without their hands being tied up and also that it actually takes a bit of muscle effort to operate. Compare to Segways, which are associated with laziness (at least in my mind). ~~~ TeMPOraL Segways are cool. Don't have one but I got a chance to test it once. I can see how they could be useful for things like malls and factory floors, in a similar way a kick scooter is. But you know what? Kick scooter is even cooler! The speeds you can achieve on a good concrete surface are exhilarating! ~~~ masklinn From the outside, powered monowheel seem cooler and less obnoxious than segways. The speed of some of them seems utterly ridiculous though (some brands/models are quoted at 20mph) ~~~ glibgil No, no they don't seem cooler. They actually trigger a grade school tripping reflex making others want to stick out their foot and topple the rider. ~~~ TeMPOraL People sometimes behave like douchebags. This is probably the same phenomenon that leads some to call users of another piece of technology "glassholes". ------ ThomPete It's very easy to get tied up in valuations, unicorns, growth metrics and living the life as a startups with a great idea but no way to monetize it until you get 500millioner users. But at the end of the day they most optimal recipe for success still is 1) Find a real problem 2) Build a solution 3) Start selling There are alternatives to growth-hacking and content marketing and what other tricks are out there. Just look around you there are real problem everywhere where the solution doesn't need a marketing budget. It just needs to make itself known. And it's revenue from day one. Love every single second of this. ~~~ triangleman While I agree with the spirit of your post, let us step back and think clearly about where your criticism lies. Think about what it means to "hack" on something. Today we often use the term to describe a programmer working feverishly on his software project "hacking away". But based on your use of the term ("growth-hacking") we can see that it can often be used in the sense of hacking a problem into something more manageable. Jury-rigging, taking a smart shortcut, duct taping things together. Working smart, not hard [1]. Is that not what most of the people here are aiming to do? So let's not get offended that someone else's hack is different from your own. You admit that selling is important, and yet a good solution "doesn't need marketing", because I suppose the product sells itself? This board is filled with hard-earned lessons from fellow hackers who had a great product but no market(ing), and ultimately failed. This "ogo" product is certainly not getting revenue from day one. [1] [http://threevirtues.com/](http://threevirtues.com/) ~~~ cushychicken Man, you completely missed the point of what OP was saying in your rush to talk semantics. He was saying that this product showcases a lot of thoughtful development to solve a problem that a non-trivial number of people have that can't really be solved through marketing shortcuts. And I think we both know exactly the sort of marketing shortcuts he/she is talking about - the apptification of everything, the hype endemic in software product launches, the VC blogosphere. That sort of hack doesn't apply here at all. Taking a Segway as an inspiration or starting point for this product? Maybe that's the hacking you're trying to associate with by posting this. But that's not what he was talking about. OP is saying what a breath of fresh air it is to see someone sink such time and effort into making a well designed solution to an actual problem, and that kind of effort creates marketability commensurate to the development. ~~~ triangleman I didn't miss the point. Of course I agree that it's wonderful to see a product that solves an actual problem. My point was that even in the case of a clearly useful and "marketable" product, it is not at all clear that it will ultimately be successful and change people's lives. The Segway itself is a great example of this: The product works, it does what it claims it will, but nobody owns one. Society is no better off because of it, unfortunately. I used the rubric of "hacking" to demonstrate that there is a middle road-- between inflated valuations/expectations and pure engineering prowess--that will ultimately create life-changing solutions to problems. Think about Apple's successful products: They did nothing new compared to what was already on the market. But by creatively _removing_ features they made their products more marketable and ended up changing the world. ~~~ cushychicken > I didn't miss the point. I'm not so sure you didn't. You keep bringing the conversation back to "hacking", and I'm really unclear as to why. Are you trying to equate hacking to product design? Because neither Apple nor Segway were hacking anything - they both saw a consumer experience they wanted to deliver, and then designed a product that was supposed to deliver it. Both companies took a focused, highly planned approach to delivering their respective experiences. That's just about as antithetical to the "try this and see what happens" hacker mentality as it's possible to get. The only real difference between your examples was the size of their respective markets. (I say that because the few people that buy Segways tend to be outspoken about loving them. Or maybe that's just Woz.) Now, if the question you were trying to bring up in the first place was "Do we have any indication that the product designed here actually has some appeal to its target market?", I would find your statement a little more credible. ------ netcan Looks cool, but I don't know anything about this market so I can't really comment directly on utility or prospects. But, to take a tangent: I think there's a shift that hardware oriented entrepreneurs might mine for some ideas. Around web 2.0 time there was a shift where people got more comfortable with the internet. They used real names, and pictures without expecting this would inevitably lead to serial killers at the door. Facebook worked because people agreed to tell the internet their name. Online dating went mainstream. Twitter, Linkedin, all sorts of sharing become common. The interesting part is that the technological trends like were only part of the picture. Cultural shifts were just as important. Tech is cool now, that's the new trend. Where a calculator watch in the 90s would get an 8 year old beat up, todays equivalents are status symbols. Interestingly, glasses became cool in recent years. So, ideas might be found by looking over old technology that is uncool and seeing if it can be re-imagined as 2015 tech. A regular electric wheelchair is uncool. This segway thing is cool. One real obvious device to think about Apple-ising is hearing aides. Hearing aids are so uncool 80 year olds don't want to be seen with one. They are all about being small, flesh colored and "invisible." I think there's a decent chance a bright green large ear piece might be cool. And speaking of hearing aids… Can hearing aids improve the hearing of non impaired people. Can you get better than normal hearing from a hearing aid? ~~~ randlet As a hearing aid wearer, I can probably think of a couple of ways hearing aids could be used to improve hearing of non-impaired[1] but you definitely don't want just "broad spectrum amplification" (hearing every small click, clack & whir gets old fast). Think more along the lines of decrease of external noise in a cafe so you can focus on a conversation, a tunable amplification of quiet sounds, as replacements for blue tooth headphones etc (sound quality is not great currently) stuff along that lines. > Hearing aids are so uncool 80 year olds don't want to be seen with one. They > are all about being small, flesh colored and "invisible." This might be true for older populations but kids can get brightly coloured hearing aids and moulds[2]! When I was first being fitted for HA's (at age 32) my audiologist assumed I would want the least visible model possible but I opted for larger more visible behind the ear models...I _want_ people who I interact with to be able to see that I have hearing loss. People tend to get annoyed if you ask them over and over to repeat themselves but are generally much more patient if they know you are hard of hearing. [1] Just FYI The term hearing-impaired is somewhat offensive to some people (not me) who prefer hard-of-hearing or deaf, or Deaf [2] [https://www.google.ca/search?q=kids+hearing+aids&num=30&sour...](https://www.google.ca/search?q=kids+hearing+aids&num=30&source=lnms&tbm=isch) ~~~ jessaustin I appreciate your healthy outlook toward your hearing loss. With my family background, it seems inevitable that my hearing will continue to get worse than it already is. I want to take your attitude as an inspiration rather than the less healthy attitudes that I often see. ~~~ netcan It's interesting that glasses, sitting in the middle of your face are seen as less of an issue than hearing aids. It's really just a random whim of fashion. I think this may change soon. It will almost certainly change if a device targeting non-impaired gets any traction. ~~~ stegosaurus I'm not so sure that it's a simple matter of fashion. Wearing glasses is, for lack of a better term, 'normal'. I don't know the statistics but probably a quarter of the population has impaired sight (I'm one of them). Additionally in the majority of cases it presents no handicap at all once corrected - often it results in acuity above the average. ------ nsxwolf Is "personal transportation" a new euphemism for "wheelchair"? I've never heard that before. ~~~ zyxley If it's not (legally) a wheelchair, it doesn't need FDA approval, and from what I understand FDA approval is an extremely expensive process (as in, "increase unit price by hundreds of thousands of dollars" expensive). ~~~ ljk So in the end this is a good move? People who need wheelchairs can get them for cheaper, like how gluten-intolerant people get a lot more choices now that gluten-free options are getting so popular ~~~ avian Probably not a good example. I've heard that gluten-intolerant people can no longer trust a label "gluten free" these days. It is now used as a marketing device for healthy people and not meaning that it is safe for those with the medical condition. ~~~ ljk Didn't know this was happening, sad but not surprised though.. ~~~ necessity You still don't, unless "some stranger in the internet said he heard someone say" is your knowledge of the situation. ------ dfan Judging by all the comments here from people who evidently didn't watch the video, they could really use a bit more explanatory text on the home page. ~~~ ams6110 Video is a bad way to convey information on a website, especially one targeting disabled folks. ~~~ vonklaus This is one of the better usecases for video. I can't parse a video quickly, and an interview is a rather lengthy way to receive information if the only value is spoken text. Not the case here. The number one piece of information people want when hitting the site is how it works. They went with bootstrap and the embedded video isn't responsive but no one really gives a shit because as long as it can be clicked you can get a product demo. ~~~ hugh4 A video is a good idea for this product, but there should be sufficient text to tell you what it is and what it does without needing to play the video anyway, eg if you're in public without earphones or have severely limited bandwidth, ------ JulianMorrison So basically a SegWheelchair then? That will work for people whose core muscles work, and don't flop or twitch. Which is not everybody. But still a nifty thing. ~~~ azernik And for that subset, it might be _better_ (healthwise) than a regular electric wheelchair, since it keeps more muscles working. Smaller market than "everyone in a wheelchair", but I think (?) it addresses that market well. ------ JulianMorrison One downside I can see for this: it looks like, if the user had a seizure, it would be _extremely_ dangerous. It would keep them in the seat but interpret their movements as erratic hard accelerations and sharp turns. ~~~ bpodgursky Ok... so are cars (in fact, they are much worse), but we survive somehow. I mean, I guess this is true, but being paralyzed usually does not mean you are unusually predisposed to seizures. This criticism kind of feels like hunting for problems. ~~~ openasocket people who regularly get seizures are not allowed to drive. The laws vary a lot by country and state and can be looked up here [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epilepsy_and_driving](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epilepsy_and_driving) Most of the time the law is of the form "you must be seizure-free for <x> months in order to drive" ~~~ acjohnson55 Right, and I suppose one probably wouldn't buy this if they were prone to seizures, either. I presume there's enough of a disjunction between people with impaired mobility and seizure risk for that to not be such a big deal. ------ rco8786 Super cool. However I can't look at this thing and _not_ think Wall-E ~~~ khill Yep. I actually went as far as googling the Wall-E humans to see how close it was. ------ tajen Little marketing point: Shouldn't he put the subscription box on the main page instead of redirecting to another page? Excellent speech, excellent copy, short presentation. Is it legal not to write one's address and privacy policy? On the other hand, being European, I... applause him for not displaying the (mandatory) cookie header. ~~~ chronial As other people here pointed out / got confused by, the lack of textual information is probably a bigger issue. ------ bluedino The market for devices like these is a joke. You fall into two categories, expensive and not that well designed, and inexpensive and very cheaply made overseas. The problem you need to solve is getting the insurance companies and Medicare to pay for your device. You need lobbying and certifications and all that bureaucracy. No matter how mediocre your product is, you can then sell it like hotcakes. ------ vomitcuddle Q&A: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThwLzeEpP5I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThwLzeEpP5I) ------ t0mk The site could show a bit more info, e.g. the technical parameters of the thing. It would be interested to see even for the prototype. Also, is this how New Zealand accent sounds like? ~~~ syllogism Yes, that's a New Zealand accent. ~~~ gaz New Zealander here, its Australian. ~~~ stonith Australian here, suspect he's spent significant time in both countries because the way he says 'this' is not how an Australian accent sounds, but other parts of his speech sound very Australian. ~~~ pandler I thought it was kiwi too. I've spent more time in NZ than OZ though and am less familiar with the Australian accent. If this website[1] is correct, then the company is registered in NZ at least. [1] [http://www.infobel.com/en/newzealand/ogo_technology_limited/...](http://www.infobel.com/en/newzealand/ogo_technology_limited/otaki/NZ100610116/businessdetails.aspx) ------ agentgt I wonder if they have any plans on dealing with stairs. Honestly I think the arm freedom is a big deal so I think they could come up with some novel ideas for stairs or other terrain. Bipedal movement (or I guess any number of legs) is impressive in that it can handle a variety of terrain. A trite and cheesy observation... it seems we are trying to make machines learn to walk and humans learn to roll :) All in all I think the product/idea are great. ~~~ jdsullivan The iBot was able to "walk" up and down stairs: [http://www.dekaresearch.com/ibot.shtml](http://www.dekaresearch.com/ibot.shtml) In retrospect, it's a bit surprising they never enhanced it to operate hands free like this - it was made by the same folks as the segway and feels like a natural evolution. ~~~ EvanKelly I remember talking about the iBot with a wheelchair bound friend when it came out. His response was "the people who designed this have obviously never been bound to a wheelchair". I think I was in 9th or 10th grade at the time, so I don't remember his reasoning, but I remember the disdain for the invention. Any iBot users out there that could chime in? ------ visarga Looks great! What if they added spatial navigation by video camera and voice control to cover people who have trouble controlling the chair with their body position. At least for simple navigation I think the tech is mature enough to make it today. Just make sure to avoid obstacles and people and find your way from A to B. Couple that with the Google car fitted with an automatic docking station and you have an almost complete system of transport. ------ BillShakespeare Saw an article with a little backstory about this on Reddit today - [http://www.infoblizzard.com/the-blog-smog/engineer- invents-a...](http://www.infoblizzard.com/the-blog-smog/engineer-invents-a- hands-free-wheelchair-for-best-friend-who-was-left-a-paraplegic-after-skiing- accident) ------ notahacker For those people looking at the guy moving around by shifting in his seat and thinking "I want one!", it looks like this Segway modification is the closest thing you can actually order: [http://suigenerisseat.com](http://suigenerisseat.com) ------ AliAdams I worry that there might be difficulties leaning over and picking things up without the chair moving. Imagine dropping something and instinctively leaning over to catch / retrieve it. ~~~ taejo The Q&A video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThwLzeEpP5I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThwLzeEpP5I) shows a switch which disables side-to-side movement (and a joystick which can be used to turn when lean-to-turn is disabled). ------ london888 Great idea but I would worry about stability - I'd like to see what happens if people bump into you - can the user get pushed off the seat? ~~~ arbabu Even I was thinking the same. A handrest would have been really useful! ------ swayvil It's the end of man, obviously [http://imgur.com/deahE27](http://imgur.com/deahE27) ~~~ ljk Add TV on it - [http://www.chud.com/articles/content_images/117/WALLE3.JPG](http://www.chud.com/articles/content_images/117/WALLE3.JPG) ------ wgx It's what the Sinclair C5 could have been, if only battery/motor technology had allowed... [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_C5](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_C5) ------ erlend_sh It suddenly dawned on me that I'll most likely live to experience certain categories of disability that'll grant you access to technology which will make you altogether _more_ able-bodied than the average "non-disabled" person. ~~~ marcosdumay Well, footless runners are already faster than non-disabled ones. ------ sspross wheelchair from scalevo (ETH zurich), similar "segway tech." including stairclimbing [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lb_8nmy90c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lb_8nmy90c) ~~~ cowsandmilk scalevo appears to use a joystick, the hands-free nature of ogo is what I find the most interesting. ~~~ giarc Ya when I watched I pictured the user being able to carry their baby while moving down the street or in a mall. ------ bborud Unfortunate name. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcuSHwdmxM0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcuSHwdmxM0) (I'm probably going to get downvoted for this, but hey, I like to live a little) ~~~ nsxwolf He messed up the punchline! ------ rotten This is right out of Wall-E. ------ baconwagoneer Here's the founder's website if anyone else was curious like me: [http://khalsall.com/](http://khalsall.com/) ------ mirimir What I want is a human-sized quad copter :) Maybe they'll exist by the time I need one. ~~~ zo1 It's already here, they just need to improve battery tech for more fun: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L75ESD9PBOw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L75ESD9PBOw) ------ jfmercer This is a remarkable innovation. I wish Ogo Tech the best of success. ------ simonhughes22 Wow that's brilliant. Why didn't I think of that! ------ rasur So, this isn't mainly for disabled people, I take it? ~~~ mrweasel The title is a bit weird. I don't understand why they call it "personal transportation". I mean it is personal transportation, for people in wheel chairs, but not a new take on personal transportation in the way Segway tried to be. ~~~ prawn It is personal transportation, just focused on a particular set of users. ------ makenova How long till Segway decides to get litigious? ------ nitin_flanker Well the handicapped will feel awesome. This makes them super agile. ------ sigmonsays Looks like a wheel chair for the disabled. ------ dalacv If we all ride these, do you think that the handicapped will feel less alienated? ------ BtM909 I actually saw a disabled guy driving some sort of Segway but with a chair. That seemed more practical and useful compared to this. This was in Rome which isn't known for its nicely paved streets. ~~~ darklajid There used to be the iBot, which looked like an amazing product for people using a wheelchair today - but it is discontinued. I remember Michael Kaplan (a Microsoft guy, regularly linked from the old new things/Chen for character set/encoding/unicode stuff) praising his iBot in quite some posts. ~~~ ansible The iBot was apparently reclassified as a class 2 medical device, which makes certification easier. Allegedly, it is being redesigned, and will go back into production. [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBOT](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBOT) ------ andy_ppp Oh god, reminds me of the Wall-E hover chairs used by the humans who have basically ceased moving... [https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=wall-e+hover+chairs&tbm=is...](https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=wall-e+hover+chairs&tbm=isch) ~~~ teekert The movie seems to target disabled people, not fat/unhealthy people. ~~~ andy_ppp I thought this but the article title is "Ogo, a new take on personal transportation". I think I'm fine, unless the article title is wrong... It's been known to happen :-) ~~~ mintplant Watch the video. The inventor was inspired by a paraplegic friend. ------ ThinkBeat That is a with some pictures of a beefed up wheelchair and almost no information whatsoever. ~~~ codewithcheese Watch the video... ~~~ collyw Not always possible in work environments. ------ piyushpr134 It has come to this that able bodied men and women need a automated wheelchair to roam around! Wow. That shitty future that movies has shown is really here! ~~~ prawn The inventor designed it for his paraplegic friend. It's clearly shown in the video from the beginning. The entire thrust of the video is about the item empowering disabled people. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgat4a1TrEM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgat4a1TrEM)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Is a one word .co domain worth a few thousand dollars? - Spinosaurus Looking to purchase a domain/name for a new product, and have been in contact with a domain broker for a cool 1 word .co domain. I'm being quoted several thousand dollars.<p>Would it be worth it, compared to a longer two word .com domain? ====== tomcam Given the very very modest amount of information you’re giving us: no. Judging by your post several thousand is a substantial sum. If that’s the case reserve your money for developing awesome site content. All else being equal, .com domains still do better in SEO tests. The name spinosaurus.co is less good than spinosaurus.com, for example, but if your site is about nothing but the spinosaurus then spinosaurus.co will do better than spinosaurus-hq.com. Source: I do a fair amount of domain name business, and my most successful sale was $300,000. ~~~ Spinosaurus Hey, thanks for the response. Instead of spinosaurus.co vs spinosaurus.com, a better comparison akin to the two names i'm contemplating would be something like "eagle.co" vs "bluetable.com". In other words, a simple, 1 word noun .co vs a two word .com. Given the above example, should one opt for the two word .com instead of the one word .co, or would the one word .co be better to build a brand around? ~~~ tomcam SEO says the compound .com (hyphens are bad) will perform better. Sorry for the tardy reply. ------ foobarbazetc A domain is worth however much someone is willing to pay for it. :) Non .com are generally 10% or so of the equivalent .com price on namebio.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Programmers Are Hipster Librarians - throwaway344 http://omniref.com/blog/blog/2014/09/19/programmers-are-hipster-librarians/ ====== dalke For comments, see [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8341158](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8341158) from 6 hours ago.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: What happened to flutter? - sourabh86 There is this awesome app at flutterapp.com, I have been using this since some time now, but there have been no updates to it since they were acquired by Google. I thought now there might be frequent releases and many more supported gestures, but nope nothing! Anyone knows what happened? ====== dotcoma This? ;-) [http://www.youtube.com/watch?f&v=BeLZCy- _m3s](http://www.youtube.com/watch?f&v=BeLZCy-_m3s)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Facebook & Twitter down? - philco http://www.facebook.com http://www.twitter.com - I get a page with the following text on it "www.weblogsinc.com"<p>and on Facebook.com I get 404 not found...? ====== jacobr <http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/facebook.com> ~~~ philco Yeah, both twitter and facebook are down for me, oh well. Palo Alto, CA ------ ColinWright Fine for me - using both without a problem. UK.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ireland Lacrosse sacrifice place in 'Medicine Game' tournament for greater good - bryanrasmussen https://www.rte.ie/sport/other-sport/2020/0905/1163463-iroquois-nationals-lacrosse-ireland-world-games/ ====== chrisbennet Reminds me of Jack Sock vs. Lleyton Hewitt act of sportsmanship: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvhLq09FaZg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvhLq09FaZg)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Kaminsky, Mitnick pwned on Black Hat eve - madair http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/29/kaminsky_hacked/ ====== jacquesm <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=730664>	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: How do you “own your private keys” for cryptocurrencies held Exchanges - justboxing Context: In light of the Coincheck Exchange's hack in Japan, @VinnyLingham‏ tweeted this => https://twitter.com/VinnyLingham/status/938830553477824512<p>Text of Tweet<p>> #1 most important rule about owning Bitcoin. If you don’t own the private keys, you don’t own the Bitcoin. Do NOT leave your coins on exchanges!<p>What does he mean by "Do NOT leave your coins on exchanges"?<p>My question is, how do you "own your private keys" when trading and holding positions in cryptocurrencies at various exchanges.<p>The popular ones for US Residents are Kraken, GDAX (Coinbase), Gemini and I think Bitstamp also, so I would like to know the process of doing this if anyone knows.<p>If the solution is to move your cryptos out into a software or hardware wallet, then doesn't that add new complexities, in that you can really actively trade your positions without a whole bunch of steps and activities? ====== sharemywin safety versus ease of use. if your actively trading all of your crypto then there isn't much ability to but some of it in cold storage etc. you might look at holding multiple accounts on different exchanges so all your eggs aren't in one basic. ~~~ sharemywin I lost the paper with my private key for one of my addresses so much for that advice. so, depending on how organized you are. password reset my be more useful than an exchange getting hacked.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Wild IIlusions: 5 startups experiments I like to try - zaveri http://ac-idealog.blogspot.com/2009/04/5-startups-experiments-i-like-to-try.html ====== dmix Startups or applications? Scanning the list I see twitter, bit.ly tags, and firefox plugin. These might be experiments in creating products but I don't see any concrete businesses. ------ paulbaumgart #2 and #5 sound like they might actually have some revenue potential, but a startup based on a "Firefox plug-in to provide real time analytics for your links"? That sounds like a neat side-project, but I can't imagine how to found a company around that. ------ lacker Real time link analytics seems like a great idea. It would be neat to open a chat box on the corner of the page with someone who was using the site in a weird way, and start talking to them about what they were hoping for.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Tom Scott: How the First Ever Telecoms Scam Worked [video] - lifthrasiir https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPeVsniB7b0 ====== lifthrasiir I'm not a fan of video-first contents, but I'm linking to Tom Scott because he commissioned various source materials and their translations just for this video as it turned out that all existing English sources varied in details. I love this amount of dedication. (If you simply don't like videos, Wikipedia gives a reasonable article: [https://www.inc.com/magazine/19990915/13554.html](https://www.inc.com/magazine/19990915/13554.html))	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Self-Driving Cars May One Day Face Decision of Who to Save or Kill - jaequery http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/driving-cars-day-face-decision-save-kill/story?id=40072003 ====== jaequery "Would you get into an automated self-driving vehicle, knowing that in the event of an accident, it might sacrifice your life if it meant saving the lives of 10 other people?" Interesting dilemma. ------ yehosef Or with less sugar coating - "Robots will decide who to kill" ------ boznz I wouldn't want to write the if..then statement for that decision..	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Dave Winer: An open Twitter-like ecosystem - aaron-lebo http://scripting.com/stories/2012/07/25/anOpenTwitterlikeEcosystem.html#theresBeenALotOfDiscussionLatelyAboutWhetherAForpayOrAdsupportedModelWorksBetterWhatsBeenOverlookedIsThatTheresAThirdOptionUseTheWeb ====== michaelpinto I wish more people would embrace what Dave Winer is saying here and run with the ball. The current web as we know it has benefited from an open ecosystem: everything from the servers running Apache to web pages serving up HTML. I see a real long term danger in closed walled gardens like Facebook and Twitter, they're just not healthy. ~~~ bntly But there are celebrities and that hot girl from high-school within that walled garden.It sucks and i wish the products were better and more open but the bar for entry is mostly user draw, and T&A is what draws them in.. edited for spelling >_> ~~~ mvzink You just made me think of something. The common folk may as well continue using Twitter, and you're right about the bar to entry. We few, the vanguard of openness and reliability, can use approaches like Dave Winer's to provide an open, durable parallel "Twitter-like ecosystem" that integrates with Twitter—and once Twitter goes away (and Facebook and Google+ and even SMS) we will integrate with its successor—or hopefully, ideally, help create it's successor on top of the open web. It could be a durable base for future work, and a safety net for now. Also: any time I consider using identi.ca again, it's with this view. Even if it doesn't gain popularity, I can at least provide my own guarantees that it will be around (so long as some few others use it) even when Facebook or Twitter go away. ~~~ davewiner You got it baby! That's exactly the idea. It's a bootstrap. You use the systems that are in place now to boot up the successor. It's never either/or. You use everything that works, that has people on it that you need to reach, as long as they welcome you. This has been the problem with Google-Plus. They don't have an API that lets you post to it. But Twitter does. To everyone who follows me on Twitter, they don't have any idea that I'm not _really_ on their network. In every sense that matters I am. But when Twitter goes down, I keep posting, and people who are hooked in my feed still get the new stuff. ~~~ mvzink Good to know I got the point! :P Can I ask about your thoughts on StatusNet? ------ ammmir RSS? DNS? camelCased JSON? I don't know if you're going to entice many developers with that combination. What we need is a simple protocol (not an API), maybe JSON/MessagePack based with UDP signaling, that makes it easy to build distributed Twitter-like services, while also reachable by HTTP. The developer experience needs to be easy enough so that a distributed "hello world" service can be built in less than 5 minutes. It needs to come with a cross-platform P2P server component, and client libraries for a few popular languages. Make the barrier to entry so low that any dev can do "apt-get install <fancy-distributed-system>" to get the server/client bits. The average user doesn't know DNS (username.twitter.com) as well as they do email addresses ([email protected]) and URIs (twitter.com/username). If this is going to gain adoption, it needs to prioritize UX familiarity over technical superiority. Everyone has an email address, so use that for identification, but don't clutter people's inboxes by using them to transport or store app data. Make it super easy to federate with existing walled gardens by providing open- source implementations of server components so Twitter, Facebook, Google, etc. can get up and running quickly. ~~~ Feoh This has always been Dave's problem. He's a Big Idea Guy, but his implementations often end up being somewhat less than fully thought through. I say this as someone who has been following him for way more years than I like to think about (I wrote a bunch of Frontier code WAAAY back in the Classic MacOS days :) As always though, he's thought provoking and gets other people discussing better ways to do it, which I think he entirely approves of. ------ liotier Why reinvent the wheel when XEP-0277 (<http://xmpp.org/extensions/xep-0277.html>) and OStatus ([http://ostatus.org/sites/default/files/ostatus-1.0-draft-2-s...](http://ostatus.org/sites/default/files/ostatus-1.0-draft-2-specification.html)) have already accreted quite a bit of thinking about what open microblogging could be ? ------ Create <https://identi.ca/doc/source> ~~~ _pferreir_ You read my mind. identi.ca is a really good idea, it's a pity that it hasn't managed to catch up with Twitter in terms of user base. ~~~ shampoo ..and why is that ? Wouldn't what Dave Winer is speaking of have the same fate as identi.ca ? ~~~ riffic in my mind, identi.ca is a red herring. What really matters is the platform, StatusNet. This is a software package that, kind of like Wordpress, can be installed on your host allowing you to run your own microblog service. This package, and the underlying OStatus protocol, is where organizations that want to retain control over their own reliability and namespace should be looking. ~~~ shampoo I agree entirely. But identi.ca is the most popular implementation of status.net and it hasn't taken off. identi.ca, status.net, etc, need to offer something else that twitter.com, other then Freedom. ~~~ riffic I think that's a marketing problem, rather than technical. ~~~ msutherl It's a product problem, rather than technical. ------ dasht "3. To identify users -- please use DNS." Using DNS to identify users is unwise, in my opinion, because it means that people won't own their own on-line identities -- they'll have to rent them and for real money, too. And if some users are assigned a sub-domain on a shared domain, their identity won't be portable. I think it is worth doing a little extra work to make a user name system that doesn't have those problems. ~~~ mapgrep Inventing a new identity system that features 1, portability and 2, end-user price of $0 is surely possible, but surely more than "a little extra work." DNS has the virtue of being here now, being tested and refined over multiple decades, and offering a choice between subdomains for free or portability for a nominal annual cost. It's not perfect but it's good. ~~~ dasht To avoid building in a dependency on DNS does not require that the identity system problem be fully solved, first. It only requires ensuring a good abstraction barrier before too much code propagates that depends directly on DNS. For example, perhaps, URIs. ~~~ pyre Why can't the usernames be like email addresses? send email to [email protected] => lookup example.net => pull MX record => route email to example.com Looks like a SRV record[1] could be used for this. [1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SRV_record> ~~~ dasht "Why can't the usernames be like email addresses?" [in the sense of querying DNS to find them]. In this context we're talking about what it takes to avoid relying on DNS (because DNS is a centralized, highly politicized system). Your solution would still rely on DNS. ~~~ pyre A system which relies on DNS, but in which anyone can setup a node seems better than a system that relies on DNS but only has one centralized node (Twitter), no? In a truly decentralized system, you're not going to be able to have readable unique names without collisions. Why? What happens when the network splits, then people on either side of the split setup the same username. How do you rectify this when the network rejoins? How do you know that the network has split vs. a node going offline (if you wanted to do something like shut down new usernames until the network was whole again)? ~~~ dasht "A system which relies on DNS, but in which anyone can setup a node seems better than a system that relies on DNS but only has one centralized node (Twitter), no?" The concern here is that whoever is currently leasing the domain name has authority over users' identities. A better system would let users own their identities outright. "In a truly decentralized system, you're not going to be able to have readable unique names without collisions. Why? [....]" This is a well explored topic. A good place to start might be to look up "Zooko's Triangle" and then go forward from there towards various ways people have figured out to deal with such problems. (Zooko's wasn't the last word.) ------ chris_mahan Uh, DNS is too hard for most people. So is maintaining a web server. If you want any kind of reliability you're going to have to spend 10/year on domain name, 15/year on good DNS server, and 10/month on web hosting. That's $145/yr. Users can use twitter and facebook for free. Besides, the general public can't even use HTML well, so what chance do they have with xml? The other compelling thing about twitter is that 140 characters thing. Blogs enable people to train-of-thought-rant for pages before making their point (if at all). Tweets, on the other hand, force people to think and condense before writing. That's an awesome feature for readers. Also, twitter makes it very easy to follow and unfollow. ~~~ icebraining I think his suggestions are for the people who are planning on writing a Twitter-like open service: <https://join.app.net/> ~~~ pwpwp Except app.net isn't open in any of the ways Winer describes. ~~~ icebraining App.net isn't open nor closed, because it doesn't exist yet. ------ dasht "4. A user is a feed. So the name points to a feed." What if the user wants to have more than one feed? Or wants, sometime down the road, to have routable resources that are not feeds? Wouldn't it be better to say that a user name is a user name and that a default feed name can be automatically built given just the user name? ~~~ mapgrep This makes the "Twitter-like" system less "Twitter-like". Don't get me wrong, I see your point, and I can think of a technical solution (point to OPML feed collections instead of feeds), but the further this gets from the original popular thing (Twitter) the less support and momentum it's going to have, imho. On Twitter it's one stream per user, and that keeps things simple. And simplicity is a huge part of the value add of twitter. ~~~ dasht I agree that "emulate the user==feed simplicity of twitter" is the best counter-argument to "make the user name distinct from the feed name for greater flexibility" position. But here: In twitter APIs, can't you get something like, say, a user's avatar image by keying off the user name? So, even on twitter, a user name maps to multiple different things -- not just a single feed. ------ riffic Over and over I emphasize that Twitter is not a public utility. If you're an organization that has to get your micromessage out there, you're better off hosting your own services. ~~~ cube13 I don't get what an "open" twitter system will have over the current one. Unless I'm missing something, this is just RSS feeds. ~~~ riffic What goals are you trying to accomplish using the service, be it Twitter.com or an open alternative? Are you just trying to post/read feeds as an individual? If that is the case the open alternative does not provide you a benefit, and you will probably find it less convenient. On the other hand, what if you have many users under one org? How about you're just a member of a division of another org, and they have many division and subdivisions. And they really want be sure that your message gets out there, without relying on a third party. The public relies on those messages, for example a fire department posting about wildfires. Those are the use cases that will probably see benefits. ~~~ cube13 But in the second case, what's the difference between that and email? If you have the infrastructure to handle a setup like that, you should already have an internal email server. EDIT: After your edit, I think I've found where the disconnect is from my perspective. The problem with this method is that discovery(arguably the most important part of what Twitter provides) is still reliant on a third party's index. From a user's perspective, Twitter provides 3 key services from one URL: 1\. A unified feed for everyone you follow(This proposal also does this). 2\. An easy way to post/host content(This proposal does not deal with this). 3\. An easy way to discover new people to follow(This proposal also does not deal with this). Out of those three, I would argue that the second and third are the most important. The problem isn't getting the message out to people that are already subscribed with Twitter, email, or a hosted website. The problem is discovery, and giving people an easy way to actually find the information that they're looking for. The only way to handle discovery on this way is to have some hosted, third party method of searching through the users to find the ones you want to follow. ~~~ riffic The difference is, email isn't (usually) public. A status message is there, for anyone to see it, like a tweet. ~~~ look_lookatme If a message is posted in public and no one sees it, does it matter? People won't be using this new decentralized service. They'll be using Twitter. I guess you can feed into Twitter, but the last mile is still Twitter. ------ unimpressive Hacking together a microblogging system out of RSS and Atom with a little network glue is fine for a prototype. But in the long run you won't beat Facebook and Twitter by merely replicating their functionality. ~~~ davewiner Beating them is not in the cards. If you look at tech industry cycles the leaders don't get beat, they run out of room to grow, or evolve into something less monolithic. Hegemony is always short lived. Once you get on top of the heap it's usually a short time before there's a new generation rising up. ~~~ smoyer You HAVE been reading Orson Scott Card! ;) But you're right and for a very good reason. The barrier to entry has dropped to the point where a single guy in NYC (or elsewhere) can challenge the status quo. ------ gbog This article is a bit confusing, I'm not sure it is stating its view in the simplest way. Trying to explain that view to someone else I'd do like this: Twitter, Facebook and the like should be like emails: if you send me an email from hotmail I can read it on gmail or any other mall client. I should be able to subscribe to friends, interesting people or other social content provider and consume this comment from the client of my choice. Something that Google reader was not very far to provide. Wrote something about this view sometime ago: <http://www.douban.com/note/174513094/> ------ maxmzd_ We need to treat our data like we treat our email. Define the common attributes comprising data within a particular application and define how to access that data (through an API). Come up with a common vocabulary for all data (crowd-sourced based on the current stewards of that type of application) and tie those calls into user identity providers (again, built around the common attributes of a user identity). Every interaction between apps and users goes through the user to collect permissions. Permissions are based on signals gained from all other interactions that have passed through the user identity provider. Signals like how often you interact with the app or user requesting the data, which topics you've interacted on previously, etc.. Data is still stored on separate app providers, but we now have simple access. The app provider uses the signals to build permissions specific to their application. Users can transfer their data from one provider to the next easily since all of the data definitions have been translated (assuming the apps are similar in nature). More here: <http://GoPalmetto.com/> ------ maxw3st Great article. Loaded with links to things I need to learn and many good points. ------ rwhitman If someone can put this together in a package that consumers can wrap their head around, I think the open twitter movement would have a shot. Probably the best candidates would be all the Twitter client apps that are getting burned by their API lockdown ------ akkartik _"If you want to read what someone says on Twitter you have to use Twitter. Not a big deal it turns out."_ I have to go to all the trouble to maintain my webserver and setup DNS, then go to twitter to read others? Why is this not a big deal? ------ Raphael You could support existing RSS readers by putting the entire microblog post in the title field. And if you're worried about it being truncated, then duplicate it in the body. ~~~ aaron-lebo Was confused myself as to why he doesn't do this. He mentions not having titles being an issue in Google Reader, but the same issue is apparent if you try to add the rss feed of his linkblog in Firefox; you just get a bunch of links with no details. Do RSS titles have character limits? ~~~ smacktoward No, neither RSS nor Atom specify a maximum number of characters for TITLE elements. Which isn't to say that particular readers/clients don't truncate them, of course, just that the specs don't say they should. ~~~ aaron-lebo Interesting. So does anyone have any suggestions, technical or otherwise, other than "twitter posts don't have titles" that he does it this way? ------ rocky1138 Here's a link to his linkblog. <http://static.scripting.com/myReallySimple/linkblog.html> It's great, except it's completely unusable due to it being a huge download of a page full of disparate links with no organization other than by date. The trick is not in writing something like this, it's in making the information aggregated and easily organized. ------ smallegan He mentions the lack of a notifications system. Isn't there room in this open system for a ping type notification service or group of services? The benefit for such a service to be free would be that they could aggregate the data and mine it as twitter does. Then clients could fail back to polling should this service not be available. ~~~ icebraining pubsubhubbub A simple, open, server-to-server web-hook-based pubsub (publish/subscribe) protocol as an extension to Atom and RSS. Parties (servers) speaking the PubSubHubbub protocol can get near-instant notifications (via webhook callbacks) when a topic (feed URL) they're interested in is updated. The protocol in a nutshell is as follows: \- An feed URL (a "topic") declares its Hub server(s) in its Atom or RSS XML file, via <link rel="hub" ...>. The hub(s) can be run by the publisher of the feed, or can be a community hub that anybody can use. (Atom and RssFeeds are supported) \- A subscriber (a server that's interested in a topic), initially fetches the Atom URL as normal. If the Atom file declares its hubs, the subscriber can then avoid lame, repeated polling of the URL and can instead register with the feed's hub(s) and subscribe to updates. \- The subscriber subscribes to the Topic URL from the Topic URL's declared Hub(s). \- When the Publisher next updates the Topic URL, the publisher software pings the Hub(s) saying that there's an update. \- The hub efficiently fetches the published feed and multicasts the new/changed content out to all registered subscribers. The protocol is decentralized and free. No company is at the center of this controlling it. Anybody can run a hub, or anybody can ping (publish) or subscribe using open hubs. To bootstrap this, we've provided an open source reference implementation of the hub (the hard part of the protocol) that runs on Google App Engine, and is open for anybody to use. <https://code.google.com/p/pubsubhubbub/> ~~~ aaron-lebo I've run across pubsubhubhub before (geez that's hard to write), and it seems like a really useful implementation. What I wasn't sure of is when he mentions polling is that instead of pshh or would that work with it? ~~~ icebraining Polling always works, but if the feed and the client are PSHB-enabled, then they can use it. ------ quadhome There's more than one person named Alice, and there's more than one person named Bob. Like others, I'm allergic to DNS for identity. Yes, the UX is atrocious (see: OpenID). But, what about getting away from a global namespace? Let people refer to their friends however they want! Use marked up links to reference the underlying feeds. ------ tete There are also a great number of similar projects. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_social_network#Com...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_social_network#Comparison_of_projects) (Not all, but some of them follow a similar principle) ------ lecha "6. I think the part that's hard to scale is the notification." Why not email (SMTP/IMAP)? Deployed, standardized, widely supported. ------ squiggy22 I can't help but think that Google dropped the ball when deciding to be a closed centralised platform. Being open IS the marketing. ------ codgercoder let's call it Wintter ------ alpine It's fairly obvious to me that an open system, that incorporates Twitter-like functionality as a subset of a greater whole, could take over this space in less than 12 months, leaving Twitter/Facebook/ as AOL-like also rans. Winer appears to have functional solutions for many of the parts needed to deploy this ecosystem. What is missing is a spark of genius to fire people's imagination, such that they flock to the new tool(s) with an eagerness not seen since early days of the www when Mosaic _hinted_ at what could be done. I can't believe that all that is missing is a healthy dose of Mad Men marketing. Maybe that is the missing ingredient? ~~~ _pius _It's fairly obvious to me that an open system, that incorporates Twitter-like functionality as a subset of a greater whole, could take over this space in less than 12 months, leaving Twitter/Facebook as AOL-like also rans._ Big statement. How do you get critical mass when practically every journalist, celebrity, and person you went to school with uses Twitter or Facebook and not your new open system? While I definitely think an open solution _could_ eventually "take over the space" and leave Twitter and Facebook as "AOL-like also rans," it's far from obvious to me how one would do it in a year. ~~~ alpine It is a big statement, isn't it? I do believe it to be true, however. What I'm positing is that the technological pieces can all be deployed relatively easily. What is required is the 'spark of genius' that triggers mass adoption. The hook into the new system has to be easy; it has to be cool; it has to smart; it has to be desirable. Possibly even irrational.	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Child geniuses: What happens when they grow up? - MikeCapone http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/may/15/child-geniuses-prodigies ====== tokenadult "an IQ that is, at 160, the same as Stephen Hawking's" [citation needed] I'm not so sure that there is an attested IQ figure for Stephen Hawking, based on this interview with him: "What is your I.Q.? "I have no idea. People who boast about their I.Q. are losers." <http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/12/magazine/12QUESTIONS.html>	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }
Ask HN: Site That Parses “Who's Hiring?” Thread Replies for Keywords/Buzzwords - myrloc Do any of you know of a site that does this? Something even as simple as a table organized by keyword (e.g. blockchain) and posts that include the word. ====== IlyaStam somebody built shared this a few months ago: [https://hnjobs.emilburzo.com/#engineer](https://hnjobs.emilburzo.com/#engineer)	{ "pile_set_name": "HackerNews" }

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