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Don't comment your code. Refactor it. - mcrittenden
https://critter.blog/2020/09/15/dont-comment-your-code-refactor-it/
======
jfengel
The most important "comments" in your code are names. Taking a chunk of code
and giving it a name gives you a small bit of free text to explain what it
does. The function signature gives you a few more words to play with: foo(Bar
x) -> Baz is a function that foos a Bar into a Baz. (Another reason why
functions should have as few arguments as you can manage.) A well-named piece
of code will often read almost like natural language text.
People tend to ignore comments anyway. The fewer of them you have, the more
likely they'll take notice of one that's actually important.
------
valand
> Explaining why the most obvious code wasn’t written. (Design decisions)
This is actually the most important thing in this article. The technical why
of things are often overlooked in today's software development. It rarely is
the problem until the original maintainer moves out to other project. Non-
technical contributor sometimes won't or can't be bothered with it because
either it is pretty complex, they have a lot in their plates doing non-
technical stuffs, or both.
While commenting on the what is DISCOURAGED because 1.) comments can be
quickly outdated and they are not tested/compiled 2.) they can be replaced
with self-documenting code, commenting on the why must be ENCOURAGED, unless
the software has a dedicated technical manuals / design document, which is
pretty rare these days.
> The problem with comments is that they have no compile-time check and tend
> to be forgotten. It’s very easy to change your code but forget about the
> comments.
I write a bit of Rust and they have partial comment check on compile time. We
can write example in the comments and they actually runs and get converted
into a documentation. Neat!
------
mariaanton89
agree...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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The Myth of Multitasking - robg
http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/article_detail.asp?id=414&css=print
======
bryarcanium
If you are interested in time and multitasking, look at some of anthropologist
Edward Hall's stuff.
Monochronism and Polychronism have been co-opted to apply to individuals but
they were coined by Hall to describe patterns of culture. A highly monochronic
culture would be Germany; things happen one at a time, from start to finish,
where a new thing starts. A highly polychronic culture would be a lot of latin
cultures, where whatever is most important that second takes precedence, no
matter when you started it (this is usually determined socially;
family>customer, for example).
Most cultures are more complex than that, though. Japanese business tends to
be highly polychronic in the planning stages, where a consensus must be
reached and all the time in the world is taken to reach it. However, once the
decision has been made, the implementation is not only wicked fast but highly
monochronic.
He's worth looking into if you really want to make the leap from how multi-
tasking affects individuals to how it affects complex systems.
------
lvecsey
They conflate a few different issues here, the first is interleaving which is
ok since you don't really suffer a performance loss or mental setback. The
other one is a context switch, for example when a manager interrupts you with
something trivial. Theres nothing more effective at stalling a high speed
pipeline than that.
~~~
scott_s
Can you explain what you mean by interleaving? My intuitive definition ends up
being the same as multitasking.
~~~
cconstantine
I'm guessing the grandparent post is talking about working on multiple (2,
maybe 3) tasks. While waiting for something from one task like a compile/test
run to complete or a response from another developer on a question, you can
work on the other. This allows you to fill empty time with something
productive and lets you context switch at favorable times.
That kind of soft context switch is fairly easy to manage. A task coming and
forcing a context switch in the middle of something incurs a much higher
penalty.
~~~
scott_s
Still sounds like plain 'ol multitasking to me, as does the other reply.
~~~
fallentimes
But with multitasking you're working on something at the direct cost of
working on something else and indirect cost of time lost switching context.
With this, you work on things while other items are being autoworked on (e.g.
running a test or a crawl, downloading a file).
------
carruthk
Multitasking is a pernicious evil of our times! Also the cost of context
switching (especially for developers) can be hours per day.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Fuck-That Money - joshuap
https://www.honeybadger.io/blog/f-ck-that-money/
======
JohnFen
This essay is spot on. I'm a big believer in having "fuck that" money. When I
have less than that, I feel trapped for obvious reasons. When I have more than
that, then the money itself brings additional headaches and pains that also
grind me down.
~~~
joshuap
Thanks John!
------
downerending
Agree, though it's kind of an odd way to express the idea. Looking at it
another way, make sure your expenses always remain so low that you can simply
walk away from any job. That's the only way to remain free.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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HTML5 Scorecard: Chrome for Android Beta - mariuz
http://www.sencha.com/blog/html5-scorecard-chrome-mobile-beta/
======
ypcx
"This item cannot be installed in your device's country."
Whoever did that - I'd deny them access to any cafe or restaurant not located
on their home street, because you know, it's not on their home street!
APK download links from the XDA forum (I've installed from the first one):
<http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22987550/com.android.chrome-1.apk>
[https://dl.dropbox.com/0/view/h01lx63elymar7i/com.android.ch...](https://dl.dropbox.com/0/view/h01lx63elymar7i/com.android.chrome-1.apk.zip)
~~~
nextparadigms
Very strange that they did that. Any one care to guess why they only allowed
it in some countries? Is it just because the developers forgot to check all
the country boxes?
------
poutine
Doesn't look it supports server sent events, a pity as they're much nicer to
deal with than websockets (which it does support unlike the native browser).
Still going to be a long time until we can depend on these technologies for
android as uptake on chrome is going to be slow.
------
leeoniya
"Happily, the very new -webkit-overflow-scrolling: touch property, which
debuted in iOS 5, is also now available in Chrome for Android. It’s smooth and
fast. (Nice job Chrome team!)"
vendor prefix glorification :`(
~~~
polyvole
Many good things in CSS3 started out as a vendor prefix. Don't be silly.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How choosing the wrong cloud provider could kill your SaaS startup - ponderatul
http://blog.howtoweb.co/2015/11/cloud-infrastructure/
======
stephenr
Not a single mention of the biggest risk that apparently no one considers
anymore: Vendor lock in.
If your business is tied specifically to Amazon or Google or Azure "cloud"
services, you might as well get out the hacksaw because you've already shot
yourself in the foot and it's turned gangrenous while you had a circle jerk
about how your startup is so "cloudy".
Besides that. Jesus fucking christ 2MB of shit to serve me 12KB of text on a
white page? Are you fucking kidding me?
~~~
ponderatul
Well, everyone is speaking about what they have encountered. But I see your
point. Companies should look ahead to when they reach a bigger scale.
~~~
stephenr
Vendor lock-in isn't just an issue with scale.
You can be a small player and still get fucked over when your sole vendor
increases prices/stops running a service/changes a service drastically/has
large amounts of downtime/etc
If you use standard components that you deploy yourself, you are beholden to
no single provider, and you can even split your hosting between DCs operated
by different companies, to reduce the chances of 'whole-of-org' issues.
Honestly a server vendor should be treated how most people _want_
phone/internet companies to act (dumb pipes): a dumb VM/Physical Host
provider.
------
ponderatul
Hi,
I don't post much, but I read a lot from the content here and haven't seen too
much written about choosing a cloud provider for a SaaS Startup.
It seems to me a critical decision in the life of a startup, that if you get
wrong, can cost you at least a few months of catching-up to get back to your
initial pace.
Does anyone have any similar experiences to share ?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Docker and Security - mwcampbell
http://blog.docker.io/2014/02/docker-and-security/
======
kogir
Containers are great for isolating trusted applications from one another to
ease deployment, but using them for multi-tenant security is ill advised.
Since all containers share the same kernel, any local privilege escalation
vulnerability in Linux can be used to escape the container. Such
vulnerabilities are much more common than vulnerabilities in mature
hypervisors, so virtualization is the safer choice.
~~~
tptacek
This, and also bear in mind that kernel crypto state, particularly for the
RNG, is shared.
~~~
sneak
Oh, fuck. I hadn't even _thought_ of that. That's disaster.
~~~
SvenDowideit
only if you're expecting containers to somehow be a unicorn that lets you give
people you don't know have your root password. :)
------
aroch
So, does Docker run their blog in its own docker container? If so, it crashed!
~~~
jamtur01
Oops. Looks like a little hiccup but we're back.
------
voltagex_
Was this written in response to an irresponsible disclosure?
~~~
jamtur01
Hi
We didn't have an irresponsible disclosure. We did recently present some of
this information and were asked about our security policy. That policy wasn't
yet published or announced so we decided it was important to get it out there,
especially leading up to the Docker 1.0 release.
Please feel free to contact me, james@docker.com, if you have any questions or
concerns about the policy.
Thanks!
~~~
voltagex_
Hm, maybe my comment sounded more harsh than I meant it to - I was more
curious because I've seen similar statements from other companies after
something bad had happened. Thanks for clarifying.
------
kbar13
502 Bad Gateway _
| {
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} |
Bill Ackman Scored a 10k% Return Amid Coronavirus Market Meltdown - spking
https://observer.com/2020/03/hedge-fund-bill-ackman-profit-coronavirus-market-crash/
======
cjbenedikt
Let's not jump to conclusions before we can see the losses on his portfolio
which he will have to net off. After all it was a hedge...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
What Is Apache Beam and How Is It Used? - johnson_mark1
http://www.talend.com/blog/2016/05/02/introduction-to-apache-beam
======
ericand
Google's take: [https://cloud.google.com/blog/big-data/2016/05/why-apache-
be...](https://cloud.google.com/blog/big-data/2016/05/why-apache-beam-a-
google-perspective)
Data Artisan's take: [http://data-artisans.com/why-apache-beam/](http://data-
artisans.com/why-apache-beam/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A Nixon Deepfake, a 'Moon Disaster' Speech and an Information Ecosystem at Risk - LinuxBender
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-nixon-deepfake-a-moon-disaster-speech-and-an-information-ecosystem-at-risk/
======
mellosouls
Currently being discussed in another thread:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23896996](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23896996)
~~~
dang
Comments moved thither. Thanks!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Business Card Ray Tracer (2013) - harel
http://fabiensanglard.net/rayTracing_back_of_business_card/index.php
======
eat_veggies
Also see this one:
[https://mzucker.github.io/2016/08/03/miniray.html](https://mzucker.github.io/2016/08/03/miniray.html)
which generated the logo for the IOCCC!
~~~
mroche
Andrew Kensler did it again for Grace Hopper Celebration 2018 for Pixar's
Recruiting booth:
[http://fabiensanglard.net/postcard_pathtracer/index.html](http://fabiensanglard.net/postcard_pathtracer/index.html)
Pictures of the postcard can be found in the footnotes of that page.
------
sehugg
Look at that subtle off-white coloring. The tasteful thickness of it. Oh, my
God. It even has a watermark.
------
wurst_case
You like that huh? [https://www.dwitter.net/](https://www.dwitter.net/)
------
r-w
They misspelled “Courier” in the CSS.
------
RandyRanderson
Honest question: why do ppl do this?
~~~
alanbernstein
I dunno, why do people play golf?
------
rimher
This is so fascinating!
------
Criper1Tookus
I see a bug in the code. Columns 14 and 17 do not appear to be working. If the
vector values are replaced with 524251 (which is the sum of 2^0 through 2^18)
we should get 9 rows of 19 shiny spheres, but we get 9 rows of 17 shiny
spheres with the spheres at positions 14 and 17 missing from each row. Can
anybody say why this might be?
------
bitmadness
Really neat project, beautiful code.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Show HN: Nabaroo, discover and collect media from social networks - rtrankler
http://nabaroo.com
======
mercnet
What exactly does this do? Does it crawl my social networks for pictures,
videos, and links? Please add more information, a demo, or a video to the
landing page. Also, the background is straining my eyes.
~~~
rtrankler
Using the APIs, it gives you ability to search and discover photos, videos,
and audio from your social networks authenticated with the site. Users can
then hand pick their favorite media and organize it collections.
Functionally it's similar to pinterest but with a broader range content.
Thank you for the feedback!
------
hsx
I think this is a great idea but do you store these images? If someone were to
set the content to private, would it still be available through Nabaroo ..?
~~~
rtrankler
No, we don't. The content is accessed dynamically so the private content
wouldn't be accessible once it is set to private.
Also, on Nabaroo you can choose to keep your collections private w/ an option
to invite select users only.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Show HN: Golang Websocket Chat Room Server - starlineventure
https://github.com/dafinley/websocket
======
starlineventure
There's an ios and android app setup to work with it:
[https://github.com/dafinley/twilio-video-app-
android](https://github.com/dafinley/twilio-video-app-android)
[https://github.com/dafinley/twilio-video-app-
ios](https://github.com/dafinley/twilio-video-app-ios)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Umami, the fifth basic taste - nyellin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umami
======
metafunctor
...which doesn't actually exist:
[http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/2000s/2008/07/scienceofflavo...](http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/2000s/2008/07/scienceofflavor)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Ask HN: I am turning 20 today.Got some advice?(as an entrepreneur or a developer) - pvsukale1
I am a newbie web developer. and a wannabe entrepreneur . I am confused about a lot of things .like grad school , to focus on studies or some idea. I am asking for some advice you got for me as an developer or entrepreneur.
======
thecupisblue
I am not much older than you and started working professionally when I was
your age, tho I did toy with programming since I was a kid. There is one quote
I like that really makes the huge difference in everything.
"No matter how you feel, get up, dress up, show up".
Go to meetups. Considering another language? Go to their meetups. No meetups
for your field of interest? Start one. Join slack communities. Join local
facebook groups. Help others. Like, if you know someone who wants to learn
development, needs help finding a job, needs advice or similar - as long as
they aren't a leach/asshole, help them, it will come back to you. Reputation
matters. Learn from older developers around you. Ask questions, be polite, if
you think they won't help, try their ego: "Hey, I know you're an expert on
X...". As people below said, learn about marketing and sales, learn people
skills, knowing that stuff is a ticket to be more than a code monkey and will
make you a better entrepreneur. Speak at as many conferences, panels, talks as
you can. Don't tie your identity to the company you work for. Read books by
people smarter than you. Don't argue with people on the Internet, it's
useless, especially on social networks.
~~~
pvsukale1
thank you for your advice. being part of developer communities really helps.I
have gained a significant amount of knowledge in these online meetups, forums.
------
FlopV
Do everything you do, with a sense of passion. Don't half ass anything. This
isn't limited to learning web development or starting a company as an
entrepreneur. Have passion in your personal relationships, your health, your
fun, your downtime. Enjoy the ride and execute, don't be afraid to make
mistakes and don't get stuck "thinking" about what you need to do, you're
better off "doing".
~~~
J-dawg
Do you have any practical tips for doing this on a daily basis? I read your
comment and completely agreed with the sentiment, but then found myself
thinking "what can I do differently?"
I'm a lot older than the OP, and fear I have spent a lot of my life living
without passion.
~~~
FlopV
1\. Get quality sleep, if I don't sleep well, my mind is foggy all day, and
I'm just going through the motions. 7-9 hours is key for me depending on the
night. 2\. Wake up a little earlier than you need to be up. This way you won't
be rushing to start your day, and you'll feel a less stressed. 3\. Write
down/be aware of your goals. Break them into small achievable tasks, this way
you aren't overwhelmed, but you're constantly working towards them. 4\. Block
your schedule for what you want to achieve, this way you do that specific
thing, instead of trying to do 10 things, and focus on what that block is for.
5\. Look at things with prospective, you've only have so much time on this
earth. This is tough and my own view changed with a near death experience,
although I'd avoid that one...ha!
~~~
pvsukale1
yeah and the "you've got only one life" perspective kept me inspired many
times. and good sleep is rare (I am in college) but I have realized the
importance of it . :) I am trying to wake up early and go for running and
stuff !
------
trost
Read the book "So Good They Can't Ignore You" by Cal Newport. It's not about
web dev or entrepreneurship, but it's well worth the read. (I'm a web dev
turned entrepreneur, so I know it suits your situation). I'm finally reading
it and it is eye-opening. In short: Become really good at what you do through
deliberate practice. This will open doors and get you where you want to go.
~~~
pvsukale1
thanx man for the suggestion :-) will read that book ..for sure.
------
BjoernKW
Learn about marketing and sales. Talk to and connect with people. More
importantly, listen to them first.
Don't try to focus on ideas, rather train your mind to be aware of problems -
big and small - around you. Take notes about problems you noticed and review
those notes from time to time.
Talking to people and noticing things will let you discover true opportunities
while thinking about ideas for yourself is more like a gamble: You might fluke
it but it'll really be down to sheer luck.
A word about passion: Doing something you love is essential but don't limit
yourself to something that you've determined to be passionate about early on.
As with problems around you rather be open-minded and let passion come to you.
There can be passion in the most unlikely places (I for one am quite
passionate about creating boring enterprise software because there's plenty of
improvement to be made in that area, particularly in terms of usability and
UX)
~~~
pvsukale1
thank you for your advice. and yeah it is true ..unless you keep an open mind
you don't know what else are you passionate about :)
------
kdamken
Happy birthday. Go to this site, and read through this article -
[http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/02/22/getting-rich-
from-...](http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2013/02/22/getting-rich-from-zero-to-
hero-in-one-blog-post/).
Focus on saving. As a developer, you can save a lot of money by the time
you're thirty, likely enough that you won't ever need to work again. I'm not
saying you'd have to, but you can give yourself the ability to choose when you
work, how often you work, and what you work on.
~~~
pvsukale1
thank for your advice ! :)will keep this in mind!savings!
~~~
kdamken
No problem! Basically you'd want to follow these steps:
1\. Keep your living expenses as low as you can while increasing your salary
as much as you can.
2\. Try and save at least 50% of your income. After you have six months of
living expenses saved as an emergency fund, focus on maxing out your tax
sheltered retirement funds - your 401k and IRA's. Make sure to invest in low
cost index funds.
3\. If you have money left after, open a brokerage account with Vanguard and
look into investing in their low cost index funds as well. Poor as much money
as you can into this.
More on picking index funds
[https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Lazy_portfolios](https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Lazy_portfolios)
------
noir_lord
Don't take your health or general physical condition for granted.
It's _a lot_ harder to get back in shape than stay in shape.
~~~
pvsukale1
sure will keep that in mind!! ;)
------
MalcolmDiggs
Work less. Smile more. :)
Seriously, this is one of the best times of your life...unless you take a job
that squeezes every bit of energy and life out of you. Achieving work-life
balance early in your career will make this profession sustainable for you in
the long run; so I'd focus on that.
Beyond that: do whatever jobs interest you at the time, live on less than you
make, and don't forget to backup your work.
~~~
pvsukale1
:) thanks. I just want to ask .. work-life balance is it important in your
20's ?
~~~
MalcolmDiggs
Life is important in your 20s. If you max-out the time you're working, you'll
miss some of the best parts of life. You're only young once.
------
sharemywin
entrepreneurship is about sales. Even the SV hype machine is doing a major
sales job on people. If you don't like to sell or know some one that does that
you like to work with. Find a hobby you'll be happier.
~~~
pvsukale1
ok ;)
~~~
sharemywin
I've built several sites/businesses that if I could sell I would be a
millionaire.
~~~
pvsukale1
what you gonna do about the selling part? I mean how do you develope it ?
~~~
sharemywin
I mean sell a service not sell the sites.
------
dividual
Don't seek trophies. Nearly every endeavor in our modern world is some form of
gamification. Degrees are gamification, or traveling is gamification (Think of
those stamps they put on your passport. Did you really travel just to get a
little stamp, or learn something new?).
Build on strengths. We all have weaknesses and it is worthwhile finding these
weaknesses early so that you're not hung up about them later. You can only
build on strength. Don't waste a thousand lifetimes fixing weakness.
Get a routine. The secret of success is invariably found in daily routine.
Everyone has their own routine. The key is to make progress with the routine
and have an 'upper hand' over others.
~~~
pvsukale1
thank you very much for your advice!that gamification thing is really true!
------
max_
Beat Procastination!!!
[http://waitbutwhy.com/2013/11/how-to-beat-
procrastination.ht...](http://waitbutwhy.com/2013/11/how-to-beat-
procrastination.html)
~~~
pvsukale1
:) procrastination is a major issue
------
alc90
Just start - build things - don't stop. Don't fear failure. Make big bets
starting yesterday - because at 20 you have nothing to lose - no wife, no
kids.
~~~
osullivj
Yes! Take risks, try new stuff, follow your muse. Later on, possibly with
responsibilities like partner, kids & mortgage you won't have so much freedom.
~~~
pvsukale1
thanks :). I am trying to build stuff !
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11674372](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11674372)
------
hvo
First of all,happy birthday to you. My advice to you is to avoid distraction
at all cost.When you set goals to achieve something meaningful in life,you
will almost always come to face distraction at some point.Distraction can come
in different shades and shapes. I encourage you to learn how to separate
signal from noise. I wish you well.
~~~
pvsukale1
thank you very much for your advice!
------
bo_Olean
Just Two things:
1) Always be writing code to build things.
2) Be selling what you build.
Without (1) you won't grow professionally.
Without (2) you won't survive.
~~~
pvsukale1
thanks :) . how to learn about the selling part?
------
savoiadilucania
Stay off the Internet and read books.
------
tmaly
try to identify patterns of things that work for you. No one likes taking
advice, but if you can figure out some good shortcuts, you can focus on
creating value.
I am just finishing up an audio book of Linchpin by Seth Godin. It has some
great ideas in there in regards to being a remarkable artist instead of being
a cog in the machine. I think this is important, especially as we are moving
away from a manufacturing based economy.
~~~
pvsukale1
:) can you explain a little more about creating a value? thanks
------
erac1e
When you are 30 you will probably be less enthusiastic about cutting code.
Have a backup plan.
~~~
pvsukale1
:)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Wireless vehicle-to-vehicle communication would be required in new cars - serg_chernata
http://www.theverge.com/2016/12/13/13936342/wireless-vehicle-to-vehicle-communication-v2v-v2i-dot-nhtsa
======
blendo
From the fact sheet
[https://www.safercar.gov/v2v/pdf/V2V_NPRM_Fact_Sheet_121316_...](https://www.safercar.gov/v2v/pdf/V2V_NPRM_Fact_Sheet_121316_v1.pdf):
What data is exchanged? The data, known as the “basic safety message” (BSM),
is exchanged between vehicles and contains vehicle dynamics information such
as heading, speed, and location. The BSM is updated and broadcast up to 10
times per second to surrounding vehicles. The information is received by other
vehicles equipped with V2V devices and processed to determine collision
threats. Based on that information, if required, a warning could be issued to
drivers to take appropriate action to avoid an imminent crash.
Will drivers’ privacy be at riskw hen V2V is deployed? By design, the V2V
system will not collect, broadcast, or share information linked or linkable,
as a practical matter, to individuals or their vehicles. V2V-enabled vehicles
exchange only generic safety information. The system is designed to operate
without using any personal information about specific vehicles or drivers.
The details are at:
[http://www.safercar.gov/v2v/pdf/V2V%20NPRM_Web_Version.pdf](http://www.safercar.gov/v2v/pdf/V2V%20NPRM_Web_Version.pdf)
See particularly "Proposed V2V Basic Safety Message (BSM) Content". This
includes a 32-bit random id, transmitting 10 messages per second, to include
time, lat/lng/elevation, speed, heading, acceleration, and yaw (yaw being the
rate at which the vehicle’s direction is changing (i.e., the rate at which the
vehicle’s face is pivoting towards the left or the right).
Range will be about 300 meters.
And this goody: A PER of less than 10% aligns with the ASTM standard E2213-03
(2003) 4.1.1.2 where “(2) DSRC devices must be capable of transferring
messages to and from vehicles at speeds of 85 mph with a Packet Error Rate
(PER) of less than 10 % for PSDU lengths of 1000 bytes and to and from
vehicles at speeds of 120 mph with a PER of less than 10 % for PSDU lengths of
64 bytes.”
I expect real benefits when traffic lights could also transmit messages such
as "Hey you people coming from the North and Sound, I'm going to turn red in
10 seconds."
And as an urban pedestrian, I want a portable unit. Sorry, Tesla owners, your
"Ludicrous" mode may be periodically downgraded to "Meek and Mild" mode.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Check if your data was shared with Cambridge analytica FB check tool - askari01
https://www.facebook.com/help/1873665312923476?helpref=search&sr=1&query=cambridge
======
forkerenok
The cynic in me keeps wondering whether this is a genuine attempt at getting
some transparency points or FB wants to more precisely analyze how many people
actually care...
~~~
panarky
This only applies to the leak of 84 million profiles to Cambridge Analytica.
This leak was less than 4% of a much larger leak that's not getting much
attention.
Why doesn't Facebook alert users if their profile was leaked to "malicious
actors" who collected profiles of "most of its 2 billion users worldwide".
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-
switch/wp/2018/04/04...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-
switch/wp/2018/04/04/facebook-said-the-personal-data-of-most-its-2-billion-
users-has-been-collected-and-shared-with-outsiders/)
~~~
aylmao
I think the reason this isn't being reported much on is because it wasn't a
leak. It sounds like it was just a scrape of data from the site.
Scraping websites to collect public information is nothing new. Malicious
actors do it all the time, as do non-malicious actors too. Google literally
does it.
EDIT: I'm all for facebook messed up and we need more guarantees but lets be
objective though. The CA issue is an issue, this 2 billion thing is just a
web-crawler.
~~~
panarky
No, this wasn't just garden variety web crawling.
Sites can control whether they get crawled or not.
Facebook, for example, stops Google from crawling Facebook profiles.
But Facebook allowed "malicious actors" to access to user profiles for "most
of its 2 billion users worldwide".
These 2 billion users didn't choose to expose their personal information to
"malicious actors", Facebook did it without their consent.
------
devilmoon
What about those of us that actually deleted Facebook after the scandal? How
are we supposed to check if our data was shared with CA if Facebook requires
you to be logged in to check?
~~~
hshehehjdjdjd
If Facebook purged your information, how could they verify your identity? They
don’t want to provide the ability to check if an arbitrary person was leaked,
because that has its own privacy issues. So in this context I wonder what you
expect them to do.
~~~
devilmoon
Facebook takes up to 90 days to purge my information from their systems (if
ever, I am quite sure a ghost account will always remain and it will be a
strong one as well since they've collected so much information on me
throughout the years). They have my email address, they could just email
everyone whose data was shared.
------
creo
Hey Facebook, how about you notify people, not other way around?
~~~
andrewguenther
Everyone who was impacted is getting a notification at the top of their feed.
Looks like it isn't showing up for everyone immediately though, I first heard
about it two days ago and I just saw it today.
~~~
primitur
They've got my email. They can send me an email notification.
Methinks they don't want to do that because lawyers.
~~~
HenryBemis
I won't downvote you, I will just say: duh! the objective is that you spend
more time on Facebook, NOT on your mailbox :)
~~~
notheguyouthink
Is "duh" really a meaningful statement here? We're discussing this because
Facebook is already in "trouble" for scummy tactics. Doesn't _" duh, of course
they want you to login"_ sort of accept one of those tactics?
Imo, yes - email should totally be possible, without logging in ideally, if
they wanted to truly save face. The fact that they aren't is, of course, a
clear indication that they aren't being honest, instead they're primarily
concerned with using this as a scummy tactic to get their hooks into your
brain again.
So.. no, not duh, imo. If we accept "duh", we start lowering our expectations,
in the same way that American politics has as of late. We lose our base
position, indicating when we should be outraged/etc.
------
kerng
Step 1) Login to Facebook.
Sorry, that's not how breach notification works. Facebook attempts to continue
making money off of their customers data being leaked.
------
tudorw
"you must log in first", er no, I deleted my account, I'd still like to know
what they shared, is that possible ?
~~~
nevi-me
I think there's no incentive to do that.
\- "I deleted my account 3 months ago, so how come my records still exist on
your servers"?
\- If a class-action or some other litigation takes place, proof that n+1
people's into was shared is worse than n people's info. If an account is
deleted, perhaps less risk.
\- If the only non-creepy way of verifying who I am is logging in, and I can't
log in anymore, any other option is bad PR for FB, and is subject to abuse.
~~~
tudorw
I have not checked, but it would seem likely I still have some rights to know
what they know about me, does anyone know their current legal obligation to
fulfil my right to be forgotten ?
------
gjm11
One thing I find interesting about this is the very cautious wording of the
message you get in the "good" case.
'As a result, it doesn't appear your Facebook information was shared with
Cambridge Analytica _by "This is Your Digital Life"_.'
They don't say your information wasn't shared with Cambridge Analytica. They
don't even say your information "doesn't appear" to have been shared with
Cambridge Analytica. They say it doesn't appear to have been shared _by this
particular route_.
Mere caution on general principles? Or do they know or suspect that there may
be other means by which Facebook users' data have been shared with Cambridge
Analytica?
------
verteu
Is there a tool to check if my social graph data was scraped by the Obama
campaign? Or is this only a scandal when it helps Republicans?
[1]
[https://twitter.com/cld276/status/975568130117459975](https://twitter.com/cld276/status/975568130117459975)
[2] [http://thehill.com/opinion/technology/379245-whats-genius-
fo...](http://thehill.com/opinion/technology/379245-whats-genius-for-obama-is-
scandal-when-it-comes-to-trump)
~~~
btown
There is a subtle difference in that the Obama campaign obtained consent from
the friend who volunteered their subgraph to use that data for political
purposes, whereas Cambridge Analytica’s academic sources obtained no such
consent from anyone. One could argue that the distinction is less meaningful
as Obama’s usage was not very well informed consent. But it’s a distinction
nonetheless. And beyond that, Facebook has no incentive to expand the scope of
their PR problem by advertising this lesser known fact.
As the tweet cites, Facebook was politically biased in a specific enforcement
action in the past. That does not itself indicate that there is any political
reasoning behind the decision not to release an Obama tool today.
------
aphextron
>”You must log in first.”
~~~
jsendros
I'm not sure how you expected to avoid this.
~~~
aphextron
Because I deleted my account immediately upon learning about the disclosures.
I assumed the notifications would come via email or SMS. They've never had
trouble doing that before now. For FB to turn this into yet another data
collection vector, as well as tricking people who may have “deactivated” their
accounts into logging back in and stopping the deactivation process, is just
the height of evil absurdity. This is beyond the pale even for them.
------
blablabla123
Check, probably not shared for me and my friends.
That's not surprising though as I'm from Germany. And of course it's "not
shared" for most Facebook users. However this is highly misleading as this is
just one example of data harvesting on Facebook.
------
stuaxo
I find it very hard to imagine that "This is your digital life" was the only
source CA used.
It's more logical that they would have had an ongoing effort to keep
collecting data.
------
Tycho
What’s funny about this whole thing is that nobody really cares that _their
own_ data may have been accessed by CA, they are just angry that _other_
people, meaning gullible Trump supporters, may have been affected.
~~~
aksss
It’s a ridiculous narrative (the trump thing). Any explanation for behavior of
a group that depends on patronizing assumptions rarely reflects a true
understanding of that group’s motivations. It’s not a reason to let up on
Facebook but it’s always been a stretch to think that in an election with
billions spent that Hillary lost because of this shit. Try a simpler
explanation: Hillary was a shit candidate who many distrust, and she worked
very hard to get that reputation.
~~~
vostok
> Try a simpler explanation: Hillary was a shit candidate who many distrust,
> and she worked very hard to get that reputation.
It seems to me that many people who are not Clinton worked very hard at
manufacturing this reputation.
------
itakedrugs
Is it possible to know if they target democrats?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
What Do Real Thugs Think of The Wire? - tyn
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/09/what-do-real-thugs-think-of-the-wire/
======
whimsy
Full list of links to the story.
1: [http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/09/what-do-
rea...](http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/09/what-do-real-thugs-
think-of-the-wire/)
2: [http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/18/what-do-
rea...](http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/18/what-do-real-thugs-
think-of-the-wire-part-two/)
3: [http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/what-do-
rea...](http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/what-do-real-thugs-
think-of-the-wire-part-three/)
4: [http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/31/what-do-
rea...](http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/31/what-do-real-thugs-
think-of-the-wire-part-four/)
5: [http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/07/what-do-
rea...](http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/07/what-do-real-thugs-
think-of-the-wire-part-five/)
6: [http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/12/what-do-
rea...](http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/12/what-do-real-thugs-
think-of-the-wire-part-six/)
7: [http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/22/what-do-
rea...](http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/22/what-do-real-thugs-
think-of-the-wire-part-seven/)
8: [http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/28/what-do-
rea...](http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/28/what-do-real-thugs-
think-of-the-wire-part-eight/)
9: [http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/what-do-
rea...](http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/what-do-real-thugs-
think-of-the-wire-part-nine/)
(This is worse than multi-page stories. =( )
~~~
pavel_lishin
> This is worse than multi-page stories. =(
But I bet dead simple to write. I mean, sure, getting in touch with these
people and getting them to speak honestly to you is hard, and keeping them
coming back probably isn't easy either, but... you go hang out with them,
write down what they say, and type it out.
~~~
whimsy
Ah, I was merely commenting on the format of the story. It wasn't HARD to get
this list, but it was non-trivial.
------
jonathanjaeger
The Wire is, in my opinion, the best show in the history of television (or at
least of what I've seen). The Wire seems to have received a lot of critical
acclaim and a cult following, especially after its end. Too bad it never got
the popularity it deserved when comparing it to The Sopranos. Although I like
The Sopranos, I think The Wire brought a lot more to the table in terms of
writing, gritty realism, and pure entertainment.
~~~
proemeth
One thing that can be both a quality and a problem, is that The Wire is very
demanding. A lot of what happens is implicit or not directly seen on camera.
Also, episodes are not as self-contained as, for instance Mad Men, where you
can watch one stand-alone, without needing too much background on who's who,
and what happened before.
~~~
jonathanjaeger
Exactly, especially when story arcs last a complete season and sometimes
longer. You find that many people can't commit to it. It's not Law & Order..
------
thristian
On a related note, a video game journalist gets Yakuza bosses to play and
review Sega's "Yakuza 3":
<http://boingboing.net/2010/08/10/yakuza-3-review.html>
~~~
prodigal_erik
Cool. Have to admit I'm surprised they sought anonymity. I remember Dave Barry
writing
> The _yakuza_ are about as clandestine as the National Football League.
> Everybody knows who they are. Many of them get large tattoos and chop of
> finger joints to demonstrate loyalty or some other important gangster
> quality. Also they're the only people in Japan who wear double-breasted
> suits, white ties, and sunglasses. "Hi!" their outfits shout. "We're
> gangsters!"
~~~
wahnfrieden
Everyone knows who is a yakuza, but they don't necessarily broadcast their
individual identities.
------
rudenoise
As I see a few Wire fans replying here, I'd like to recommend two related
books that will give more insight and provoke some thought (if you haven't
done so already):
Homicide (a year on the killing streets), David Simon
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homicide:_A_Year_on_the_Killing...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homicide:_A_Year_on_the_Killing_Streets)
The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood, David Simon and
Ed Burns
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Corner:_A_Year_in_the_Life_...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Corner:_A_Year_in_the_Life_of_an_Inner-
City_Neighborhood)
------
mise
Spoiler alert for the first point.
------
WalterBright
Apparently this reporter is capable of actually doing real research on thug
life, rather than the Harvard professors who use "The Wire" as a lazy
alternative to studying reality.
------
ojbyrne
They got some things right, as I recall:
"Shine proposed that Marlo would kill Prop Joe; the youngest attendee, the
29-year-old Flavor, placed $2,500 on Clay Davis escaping indictment"
~~~
kenjackson
In the Netflix era, spoilers son, spoilers!
I would have been interested to get their take on Omar.
~~~
llimllib
I suspect it would require some heavy editing to be suitable for the Times.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Yummy cookies across domains - Killswitch
https://github.com/blog/1466-yummy-cookies-across-domains
======
ultimoo
This is a great article. It is nice that github is comprehensively explaining
how they are protecting user data to reassure their users.
However, this is one of the rare blog posts that go on to educate the reader
about the technical aspects of something (in this case -- cookie attack
vectors) that they can put to use somewhere in their own projects. Unlike a
high level gloating blog post that is meant to inspire awe in the readers
about how awesome company X is doing thing Y.
------
0x0
Very well written blogpost, but it would be nice if they didn't downplay the
severity of the original blog post:
A PoC of how you could clone private repositories, such as the github.com
source code itself at github.com/github/github (as an assumed example)
~~~
homakov
Until the fix everything was possible.
I think they meant "within this few weeks period you could not fixate CSRF
token"
------
samarudge
Would adding a HMAC string to the cookie value not get around this issue? For
example, Tornado has the set_secure_cookie method
([http://www.tornadoweb.org/en/stable/web.html#tornado.web.Req...](http://www.tornadoweb.org/en/stable/web.html#tornado.web.RequestHandler.set_secure_cookie)),
would this not prevent this sort of attack? Even if a script modified the
cookies, they would never (well, hopefully never) be able to generate the
correct HMAC token so the server could just discard the cookies. You'd still
be able to sign a user out but there wouldn't be a security issue (I think).
Anyone smart able to verify/refute?
~~~
X-Istence
You as the attacker can visit the page and get yourself a session cookie that
is valid and set that on the victim's computer...
~~~
samarudge
Would it increase security to include the user-agent, or part of the user-
agent, in the HMAC secret? So the secret was "abc123Mozilla[etc]", that would
then presumably require identical browsers to work, at the expense of logging
everyone out every time their browser updates. Or include all, or part of the
IP address to restrict the network.
~~~
X-Istence
Using the IP address to restrict it would work, since now the attacker would
need to have the same IP address to get a session that will stick, but this
may cause users to be logged out when their ISP changes their IP, or when they
move from home to a coffee shop for instance.
------
magic_haze
Doesn't this issue affect Tumblr (and Blogspot, and Wordpress) as well? They
all allow arbitrary javascript to be injected by the user in a subdomain, so
how are they tackling it?
~~~
arb99
IIRC only the blog front ends are on the blogspot.com domain. All user
logins/blog admin etc are on the blogger.com domain (and no *.blogger.com
domains).
(not used their services for ages, so there might be more overlap than i
remember)
------
cpeterso
It sounds like Rack should fix these cookie vulnerabilities, so users don't
need to rely on middleware workarounds.
~~~
tanoku
These are not vulnerabilities in Rack (necessarily), but in the way the cookie
spec has been drafted and the way Chrome decides to implement it. There's
nothing that can be "fixed" in Rack: the only definitive fix is a domain
migration.
------
samholmes
What sort of malicious things can be accomplished with a cookie tossing
attack?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Pretending it isn’t there: how we think about the nuclear threat - monort
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/06/pretending-it-isnt-there
======
qubex
Like the author, I spend a significant amount of time pondering the utter
horror that nuclear war would entail, the death and destruction it would rain
upon innocent _hundreds of millions_ of innocent civilians. I find myself
pondering whether my own home city of Milan, a relative backwater
strategically, would nonetheless be worth a deliberately targeted warhead
"just for the sake of thorougness". What that would look like, what it would
cause, what would happen to me and everybody I know, what the aftermath would
be. It's truly horrifying.
In a certain sense I get annoyed whenever I read or hear endless hand-wringing
over the latest terrorist attack (Manchester and, as of last night, London now
featuring largely in the European public discourse, as well as the
bewilderment that Italy itself has not yet been a theatre for such
atrocities). Why does it annoy me? Because in terms of impact what these hate-
fuelled young men can do is negligible compared to what a single high-impact,
low-probability event involving thermonukes could entail.
Every morning I wake up and read the latest outrage tweeted by Trump, and I
find myself quaking in fear at the thought that whilst he rabidly poked at his
twitter account in the dead of night an aide was not far away with a nuclear
briefcase that can inflict essentially infinite damage upon the world, and
that it'll be in his possession for the next 1,326 days and nights.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Developers vs iphone - sinzone
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/12/facebook-please-back-developers-vs-iphone/
======
bluebird
Surprise, surprise... Yet another post against Apple on TechCrunch.
------
nikcub
bad title, I know - and you mangled it further, but still, +1 from me.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Simple Binary Data Visualization in R - tincholio
http://martin.varela.fi/post/simple-binary-data-visualization/
======
rcthompson
For the observation toward the end that compressed files seem highly uniform,
this makes sense intuitively. If there were any visible patterns, that would
imply that the data is further compressible, which would mean the compressor
didn't do it's job very well.
------
lottin
> as.tibble(cbind(x,y,z)) %>% na.omit()
Why on earth would anyone write that instead of
na.omit(as.tibble(cbind(x,y,z)))? Baffles me.
~~~
confounded
Alternatively,
x %>%
bind_cols(y, z) %>%
as.tibble() %>%
na.omit()
Makes the order of execution a little clearer (and uses more dplyr
conventions). I still nest functions when working interactively with a REPL,
but for code I'll have to reread in the future, the pipes save me much head
scratching. Death to the pyramid of doom.
~~~
minimaxir
For emphasis, bind_cols is a dplyr function (meaning it gets the speed boost
from using Rcpp, albeit not much difference when adding a few columns), while
cbind is a base function which does not.
dplyr nowadays obsoletes most of the basic building blocks of data frame
construction, although they are hidden in the docs.
------
fractal618
thank you for sharing this! i'd like to try and recreate this in R.
~~~
tincholio
Hi, author here. You can use the code in there as a starting point, it's
rather simple!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Understanding Slices in Go - codezero
http://www.goinggo.net/2013/08/understanding-slices-in-go-programming.html
======
AYBABTME
Understanding slices :
- slice.c, http://golang.org/src/pkg/runtime/slice.c
- Dynamic arrays, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_array
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
AVR support merged into Rust nightly - zargon
https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/commit/e91bf6c881dc8fa50dc18fc2f518a6c22424ddb5
======
shepmaster
Note that there is still plenty of work to be done in LLVM, Rust, and the
ecosystem.
For example, function pointers accessed in global variables have the incorrect
relocation applied. This notably affects the ability to use futures executors.
However, a lot of things do work, and we are always looking for more people to
contribute!
Check out [https://book.avr-rust.com/](https://book.avr-rust.com/) for more.
------
pedalpete
Perfect timing, I just started learning how to get Rust running on Arduino
Nano yesterday.
The Arduino tooling left a bit to be desired, and we don't want to re-write
when we move from prototype to production.
I'm sure I'll make mistakes which means I'll have to re-write a ton, but at
least this is starting to get me part-way to a good working environnment.
------
mfgs
What does this mean for someone who is quite familiar with AVR but new to
Rust? How much of what I can normally achieve in my AVR projects can now be
done under Rust?
~~~
zargon
In theory, Rust can completely replace C for AVR development. Based on what
shepmaster said, certain Rust features may not work yet. I'm also a Rust
newbie. This article is a great intro to Rust for microcontrollers (but it's
for ARM Cortex): [https://interrupt.memfault.com/blog/zero-to-main-
rust-1](https://interrupt.memfault.com/blog/zero-to-main-rust-1)
------
karmakaze
This is really cool. I had seen some ATmega microcontrollers but not it's AVR
naming.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVR_microcontrollers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVR_microcontrollers)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
An Interactive Quine in Clojure - tosh
http://blog.klipse.tech/clojure/2019/01/08/quines-in-clojure.html
======
DannyB2
I think that using any kind of self-referential technique in a quine is
cheating.
If you learn how to write a quine in an 'ordinary' language, then the same
technique works in Clojure or anything else.
SPOILER
There is basically a pattern to how it works. The program consists of a Start
and a Finish section. In the middle are two arrays of strings. The first array
is the strings of the code of the Start section, and the second array is the
Finish section.
The Start and/or Finish section are the mechanics that prints out the two
arrays of strings.
First print out the first array, eg, the Start section.
Next print out the first array again, but 'quoted' in a way that it actually
forms the code that initializes the first array.
Next print out the second array in the same quoted way that it actually forms
the code initializing the second array.
Last, print out the second array.
------
Insanity
I quite like Quines :) Here's a bunch more of them:
[http://wiki.c2.com/?QuineProgram](http://wiki.c2.com/?QuineProgram)
------
Scarbutt
Clojure is a great language on its own, like many articles show. But it feels
like a big chore when you are doing business apps. You are between these two
worlds, debugging imperative java code/libs and debugging clojure functional
code/libs at the same time.
~~~
tombert
I have to respectfully disagree. I find that Clojure makes dealing with Java
pretty straightforward, and in fact is (in some ways) a "nicer Java than
Java", especially if you don't mind paying the cost of runtime reflection.
For example, the way you call a method is by using the (.myMethod args)
syntax. Imagine we have something like this:
(defn myCoolFunction [myarg]
(.myMethod myarg "some argument"))
This effectively gives us a level of structured typing...I don't particularly
care _what_ myarg is, as long as it has myMethod defined.
There are other features that make interop with Java pretty pleasant. The
`doto` macro allows you to have a nice encapsulated system when you have to do
a bunch of property setting methods.
(doto (MyClass.)
(.setSomething 1)
(.setSomethingElse 2)
(.setSomethingElse 3))
Or, for that matter, the ability to directly compose methods and functions
together without intermediate variables with the threading macros
(-> myObject
(.myMethod 1)
(.myOtherMethod 2)
(some-regular-function 3)
(.anotherMethod 4))
My point is not to be a salesman for Clojure (even though I love the
language), but rather to point out that the interop with Java tends to work
very well, at least in my experience.
------
jjtheblunt
Is that "quine" not similar to the y combinator?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Evil Within the Comparison Functions (C,C++,C#) - DmitryNovikov
https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/the-evil-within-the-comparison-functions
======
jepler
This is why you should use clever language features such as macros (C) and
pointers to member data (C++). If your code looks like this, there's no scope
for accidentally comparing two fields in the same object, or comparing
different fields in the two different objects:
return less_helper(pt1, pt2)(&pt::x)(&pt::y);
with pt::x and pt::y being integers, this ends up the same size as the open-
coded version on the clang versions I tested, but two instructions longer on
the gcc versions I tested, because gcc does not succeed in eliminating a
needless comparison of y<x. (x86_64 in both cases) This could be fixed by
taking away the automatic conversion to bool and requiring the last comparison
in the chain to specify that it _IS_ the last one.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Autify – driving UI overlay - zdedu
https://www.producthunt.com/tech/autify-driving-ui-overlay
======
zdedu
Hey guys, so I just launched my newest startup Autify. I’d love to hear your
feedback. Autify about gesture based smartphone controlling.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
I hate Forth - dimitar
http://www.embedded.com/story/OEG20010731S0028
======
gvb
My observation of Forth is that it is used to write an _undocumented_ [1] DSL
and then solve the actual problem using that DSL.
This is great if you were the one that wrote the DSL and thus understand it
intimately (having a prodigious ability to memorize is pretty important too).
On the other hand, it sucks if you didn't write the DSL and have to understand
how to use it or fix bugs in it because you first have to reverse-engineer the
DSL. Reverse-engineering the DSL may take as long as writing it in the first
case.
[1] The biggest documentation failure I typically have seen in Forth is a
failure to document the word's parameters, i.e. the stack contents going into
and returning from words. This is aggravated by the stack manipulation
operations duping, swapping, etc. that look more like a game of "15 squares"
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifteen_puzzle> than an algorithm.
~~~
chipsy
Stack languages present a troublesome problem for documentation. Forth in
particular is untyped, but my own experience was with a small
compiler/interpreter I wrote over a dynamic language(haXe). The language was
easy to implement, and it solved one domain problem very well(in-game
dialogue) and another not so well(choreographing two-dimensional movement
patterns). I've filed it away as "cool experiment." My implementation allowed
the same syntax to be used with different semantics - a batch compiled word,
or words sliced up into lists of function calls, which made them usable in
continuation-passing style - very useful for my in-game dialogue.
The debugging I encountered mostly revolved around correcting stack
manipulations so that things lined up with the right parameters. The brevity
of these languages comes from the stack allowing implicit parametrization;
just list your data and then the word you want to use. The downside comes from
this property also allowing the stack to leak when under or over-parametrized
- enabling mystery behavior or crashes that you wouldn't see with C-style
calling conventions.
On the other hand, a major plus: Working with the stack lets you avoid
littering your code with named variables. This is what enables Forth words to
have extremely high density and readability, and I've incorporated more of
this style into my coding elsewhere, so that in the most extreme case, I might
go ahead and set up a stack in(for example) an object, and then list out
method calls like a high-level Forth operation:
obj.wordA(); obj.wordB(); obj.wordC();
Blending this with more imperative or functional constructs, I can get the
best of both worlds: something compact and readable but also self-documenting,
with decent type and parameter safeness.
------
CapitalistCartr
Reminds me of cats. Ask someone who hates cats to describe cats, and cat
lovers will agree with the description. Cat hater ends with something like,
"And that's why I hate cats," while cat lover ends with, "And that's why I
love cats." Both to the same description.
~~~
DannoHung
I like cats, but I am really allergic to them, and thus hate being around
them.
What is the similar situation for a programming language?
~~~
zck
I have had people assert that they are allergic to parentheses, causing them
to hate Lisp.
Of course, offering to make them a read macro to let them use any two other
characters in place of parentheses didn't help, but such is life.
------
jrockway
What a strange article. He's upset because it's easy to experiment and test
with Forth? OH NOES, TEH TERRIBLES!!
If you don't like interactive development, then just type everything into a
file, compile it, and run. The choice is yours.
If there's something to complain about with respect to Forth it's the
flakiness of concatenative programming. I'd rather write a program in terms of
function application or sending messages than in stack transforms. That's why
I don't like Forth, and is probably the only _real_ reason to dislike it.
Everything the author dislikes is in his coworkers, not in the language.
------
pvdm
He mentioned everything I like about Forth. Peek and poke machine registers.
Quick check out of hardware. Forth should be in the toolkit of any one
bringing up new hardware. What is there to hate about it ? Every tool has it's
limitations and should be judiciously applied to each task.
------
colig
Note the article was written in 2001.
------
csmeder
"Well, now when this all is over, I want to tell you that thisarticle
definitely was a joke. ... But why people did not take this article as a joke?
Because one has to know Forth to understand this joke. Given that most people
do not know Forth, distribution of such articles is anti-education."
The article was satire?
------
csmeder
Are any HN users using forth in your personal life at work? I haven't seen it
mentioned here much.
~~~
vineeth
It's used as a shell interface in Open Firmware. So, it's in more places than
most realize.
BTW, the phrase "personal life at work" is amusing.
~~~
csmeder
haha, oops. I meant to say "personal life or work"...
------
Daniel_Newby
This seems to be a rant about the limitations of certain language tools, not
the language itself.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Vruby alpha – like virtualenv, but for ruby - joefiorini
https://github.com/joefiorini/vruby
======
joefiorini
For the last few months before I stopped doing Ruby full time I was using a
workflow (on OS X) in which I downloaded a binary Ruby build (the one rvm uses
when you do "rvm install --binary" on OS X) and extracted it to
"/opt/rubies/2.1.0". I created a script called "activate" that exports the
environment variables necessary to run Ruby and placed it under "bin".
Then for each project I would copy the entire ruby installation to my project
root in a folder called "vruby". To load ruby for that project I would run
"source vruby/bin/activate". It would setup all the environment variables with
GEM_HOME pointing to a ".gem" folder under the project's root. Therefore gems
are isolated to each project. To unload, I just close the terminal.
The vruby project automates this workflow, by installing a binary ruby using
Traveling Ruby and symlinking it to the local project using GNU stow. The plan
is to eventually support multiple Ruby versions and more platforms than just
my Linux box. Unfortunately, I no longer do Ruby full time and don't have the
bandwidth to make it as robust as I'd like. If you like this solution and need
help setting it up, don't be afraid to get in touch.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
'Tap Tap Revenge 3' going free today as Tapulous bets on virtual goods - fromedome
http://www.businessinsider.com/tap-tap-revenge-3-going-free-today-as-tapulous-bets-on-virtual-goods-2009-12
======
cmelbye
I want a version of Tap Tap Revenge that is $5.99 _without_ advertisements.
Video interstitial ads? Guess which iPhone game I'm going to be avoiding now.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Interview: Creating a FOSS printed circuit board design tool - Jefro118
https://www.sourcesort.com/interview/urban-bruhin-librepcb
======
redis_mlc
FYI: KiCad is very good and is funded by CERN: [http://www.kicad-
pcb.org/](http://www.kicad-pcb.org/)
Licence is GPL3/AGPL3.
KiCad has high-end drawing features, but the commercial tools will always have
better parts libraries.
------
Jefro118
Editor here. This interview is a great example of a useful project emerging
from frustration and tinkering. Urban was unsatisfied with the proprietary
tools for making PCBs while building a quadcopter, and ended up making
something much bigger in the course of solving his own problem.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Gitter – Chat, for GitHub - ejdyksen
https://gitter.im/
======
rileytg
Looks really nice but you guys ask for too many permissions! SSH keys??
[http://cl.ly/U1pP](http://cl.ly/U1pP)
~~~
mydigitalself
Hey,
I've answered this numerous times in this thread, but I'll say it again, very
loudly and very definitively: WE DO NOT WRITE TO YOUR SSH KEYS, EVER. EVER.
EVER. We don't even read them.
Unfortunately, as beautiful as GitHub's API is, they've got their scopes for
permissions completely wrong and we know they are working to fix this.
Short answer: [https://gitter.zendesk.com/hc/en-
us/articles/200178961-Why-d...](https://gitter.zendesk.com/hc/en-
us/articles/200178961-Why-do-you-ask-for-write-access-to-my-profile)
Long answer: [https://gitter.zendesk.com/hc/en-
us/articles/200176672-Authe...](https://gitter.zendesk.com/hc/en-
us/articles/200176672-Authenticating-with-GitHub)
Mike
~~~
mdcatlin
I see your explanation in
[https://gitter.im/login/explain](https://gitter.im/login/explain) and it
suggests a business solution that doesn't require me to believe the promises
of someone I don't yet trust.
"In order to create a good first-time user experience that allows people to
create and join chat rooms for public repositories and organisations... [the
rest of the technical explanation]".
Stop doing this.
Make this feature optional. I don't even want a public chat room for my
company's private repo.
~~~
mydigitalself
It has nothing to do with your company's private repo, it has to do with
getting a list of ORGS you belong to.
In fact chats for private repos is a completely separate matter and we allow
users to upgrade their access to GitHub's repo scope if they want access to
private repos.
Otherwise we'd have to do: * signup (only public repos) * upgrade permissions
-> org chats * upgrade permissions -> repo chats
And so then users need to understand three levels of permissions and scope and
I don't want to burden people with that level of cognitive overload. It's hard
enough to explain to people that they need to elevate privileges to get
private repo access.
Whilst a few people share your view, we've had nearly 10,000 grant us this
access in a very short space of time and so it's not massively affecting our
product right now and we have confidence in the future that GitHub will change
their permissions and introduce a read-only permission that we will then
switch to.
------
mydigitalself
Hey, thanks for posting. Mike here from Gitter.
I know a lot of this audience are pretty bullish on IRC and so we're also busy
testing an IRC bridge for Gitter. Once you've signed up, feel free to go to
[https://irc.gitter.im](https://irc.gitter.im) and give it a whirl.
Feel free to leave any feedback on Gitter here or get in touch with us via our
chat room:
[https://gitter.im/gitterHQ/gitter](https://gitter.im/gitterHQ/gitter) or
[http://support.gitter.im](http://support.gitter.im)
~~~
coherentpony
Mike? Why did you have to change you name? _He 's_ the one who sucks!
------
mikexstudios
This is really cool, but is there a reason why the authorization permissions
requires r/w access to: Private email addresses, and SSH keys?
~~~
mydigitalself
Hey Mike,
We don't ever write anything to your profile. As explained in the link below,
this is a standard GitHub permission.
PS your SSH keys are 100% public:
[https://api.github.com/users/mikexstudios/keys](https://api.github.com/users/mikexstudios/keys)
Mike
Short answer: [https://gitter.zendesk.com/hc/en-
us/articles/200178961-Why-d...](https://gitter.zendesk.com/hc/en-
us/articles/200178961-Why-do-you-ask-for-write-access-to-my-profile-)
Long answer: [https://gitter.zendesk.com/hc/en-
us/articles/200176672-Authe...](https://gitter.zendesk.com/hc/en-
us/articles/200176672-Authenticating-with-GitHub)
~~~
misterdai
Any idea if GitHub will ever alter the way that works so you can avoid it
giving you write access. I was all ready to give Gitter a go until I saw the
permissions that would be granted. Sure you're trust worthy but us IT types
can be paranoid ;-)
~~~
suprememoocow
Hi, this is Andrew from Gitter.
And we completely understand. We're waiting on Github to update their OAuth
scopes, and we understand that they're working on it.
If you're not comfortable with the OAuth permissions Gitter requires, you
could try Gitter's sister product, Troupe [https://trou.pe](https://trou.pe).
It's got most of the same features, but with less Github integration and no
markdown or syntax highlighting.
------
imjared
Pretty cool but I can't see having another chat client on top of Hipchat. Wish
there was some way to bake this into Hipchat since the features look awesome.
Great work!
~~~
mydigitalself
Thanks! We've got a few people migrating from Campfire and Hipchat to us... :)
------
sunkarapk
I have been using this since the beginning for my open source project
[https://github.com/pksunkara/alpaca](https://github.com/pksunkara/alpaca).
They provide very good support. And the features are awesome.
Short story, Gitter is awesome!
[https://gitter.im/pksunkara/alpaca](https://gitter.im/pksunkara/alpaca)
~~~
suprememoocow
Thanks for all the brilliant support Pavan!
In fact, Gitter uses Pavan's excellent Octonode library
([https://github.com/pksunkara/octonode](https://github.com/pksunkara/octonode))
for all it's communications with Github.
------
dangoor
We've been testing it for Brackets:
[https://gitter.im/adobe/brackets](https://gitter.im/adobe/brackets)
It's a really cool service and I think one of the big considerations for us
right now is that our freenode channel (#brackets) has 86 people in it as I
type this. We've potentially got some inertia to overcome.
------
mariocesar
Awesome :)
I just integrated with sorl-thumbnail, I don't know if it will be a fully
replacement for our IRC channel, however I'm sure most of the devs will give
it a try.
Gitter Room: [https://gitter.im/mariocesar/sorl-
thumbnail](https://gitter.im/mariocesar/sorl-thumbnail)
~~~
mydigitalself
Feel free to give our IRC bridge a go to. It's very new and still very much in
test phase.
[https://irc.gitter.im](https://irc.gitter.im)
Let us know you get along with it:
[https://gitter.im/gitterHQ/gitter](https://gitter.im/gitterHQ/gitter)
[http://support.gitter.im](http://support.gitter.im)
Mike
------
joeblau
Could you guys add the Webpage Icons[1]?
[1] -
[https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/AppleA...](https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/AppleApplications/Reference/SafariWebContent/ConfiguringWebApplications/ConfiguringWebApplications.html)
~~~
mydigitalself
Great request, will certainly look into it. We'll also have an iOS app out
soon.
~~~
joeblau
That was going to be my original question until I actually used my _reading_
skills.
------
namuol
Reminds me a lot of Slack[1], but the gh-flavored-markdown and tighter issue
and CI integration make Gitter stand out.
Any chance of BitBucket integration?
[1] ([http://slack.com/](http://slack.com/))
~~~
mydigitalself
BitBucket is coming soon! Follow us on twitter for updates (@gitchat)
------
yssrn
Is there a privacy policy or ToS? I don't see one on the site.
------
jbranchaud
It looks great, I'd love to try it, but I am not comfortable with how many
permissions it requires on my Github account.
~~~
mydigitalself
Hey,
We don't use those permissions, unfortunately as good as GitHub's API is,
their scopes are very limited.
short answer: [https://gitter.zendesk.com/hc/en-
us/articles/200178961-Why-d...](https://gitter.zendesk.com/hc/en-
us/articles/200178961-Why-do-you-ask-for-write-access-to-my-profile)
long answer: [https://gitter.zendesk.com/hc/en-
us/articles/200176672-Authe...](https://gitter.zendesk.com/hc/en-
us/articles/200176672-Authenticating-with-GitHub)
~~~
mynameisfiber
Maybe a good solution would be to request a less privileged token if the user
doesn't want integration with private repos. Then, if they want to upgrade to
integration with private repos they need to get a new oauth token with the
relevant privileges.
I'd love to try this service out, but I also don't want to hand out oauth
tokens that can read my ssh keys.
EDIT: Just read more comments and saw that my github ssh keys are completely
public. I guess that makes sense since they are public keys!
------
hartator
How do this compare to HipChat? Seems interesting.
------
twir
Where's the privacy policy?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Liked the Stripe CTF? The World's Largest Student-Run CTF is this Weekend - dguido
https://csawctf.poly.edu/
======
dguido
There are 700+ teams currently registered. The competition is open to anyone,
but only students are eligible for the over $200,000 in prizes and travel
scholarships to attend the final round in NYC.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Uncertainty of Science by Richard Feynman (1963) - micaeloliveira
http://fermatslibrary.com/s/the-uncertainty-of-science
======
joaorico
Feynman has another fantastic talk on "What is Science?" [1].
Among other things, at a certain point in that talk, this is how he lays out
his "best definition of science":
"What science is, I think, may be something like this: There was on this
planet an evolution of life to a stage that there were evolved animals, which
are intelligent. I don't mean just human beings, but animals which play and
which can learn something from experience--like cats. But at this stage each
animal would have to learn from its own experience. They gradually develop,
until some animal [primates?] could learn from experience more rapidly and
could even learn from another’s experience by watching, or one could show the
other, or he saw what the other one did. So there came a possibility that all
might learn it, but the transmission was inefficient and they would die, and
maybe the one who learned it died, too, before he could pass it on to others.
The question is: is it possible to learn more rapidly what somebody learned
from some accident than the rate at which the thing is being forgotten, either
because of bad memory or because of the death of the learner or inventors?
So there came a time, perhaps, when for some species [humans?] the rate at
which learning was increased, reached such a pitch that suddenly a completely
new thing happened: things could be learned by one individual animal, passed
on to another, and another fast enough that it was not lost to the race. Thus
became possible an accumulation of knowledge of the race.
This has been called time-binding. I don't know who first called it this. At
any rate, we have here [in this hall] some samples of those animals, sitting
here trying to bind one experience to another, each one trying to learn from
the other.
This phenomenon of having a memory for the race, of having an accumulated
knowledge passable from one generation to another, was new in the world--but
it had a disease in it: it was possible to pass on ideas which were not
profitable for the race. The race has ideas, but they are not necessarily
profitable.
So there came a time in which the ideas, although accumulated very slowly,
were all accumulations not only of practical and useful things, but great
accumulations of all types of prejudices, and strange and odd beliefs.
Then a way of avoiding the disease was discovered. This is to doubt that what
is being passed from the past is in fact true, and to try to find out ab
initio again from experience what the situation is, rather than trusting the
experience of the past in the form in which it is passed down. And that is
what science is: the result of the discovery that it is worthwhile rechecking
by new direct experience, and not necessarily trusting the [human] race['s]
experience from the past. I see it that way. That is my best definition."
[1] Feynman, R. P., "What is Science?" The Physics Teacher Vol. 7, issue 6,
1969, pp. 313-320
[http://www.fotuva.org/feynman/what_is_science.html](http://www.fotuva.org/feynman/what_is_science.html)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Truth About Rod Vagg - maxharris
https://medium.com/@rvagg/the-truth-about-rod-vagg-f063f6a53557
======
wolco
"It is evidence to others that Node.js may not be serious about its commitment
to community and inclusivity."
When a project focuses on other things unrelated to the core reason why they
exist things like this happen.
To the outside world these issues seem unrelated to why they use the language.
Inclusivity seems more like creating documentation in different languages
rather than kick someone out over a retweet with an acceptable message to the
average node user.
~~~
curtisblaine
Does Node _need_ to be inclusive anyways? We're taking for granted that
inclusivity is good for a technical project just because it feels "right", and
because they told us that it is right. But does it help or does it harm? Does
it really help to take people onboard who are less technically and more
politically oriented? Does it really help to hold down criticism to not offend
anyone, risking a situations where points are never made and emphasis is never
placed? We have an example of a successful and long lived open source project
- Linux - which is famous for being exclusive and "snarky". Yet, it has taken
over the server and embedded world. Would it have been the same if it had a
committee kicking out and reprimanding people for not adhering to a Code of
Conduct where everyone has to be kind and mindful and avoid criticizing the
way things are done? Because people, when they're working, will eventually be
not nice to each other. They will write snarky comments and they will be rough
and they will always prefer qualities related to the work they're doing
(technical / architectural proficiency) to qualities related to the social and
politics sphere. Technical projects are technical, deal with it.
~~~
zimpenfish
> Yet, [Linux] has taken over the server and embedded world
I would posit that this is nothing to do with Linus being a dickbag to people
and everything to do with a) they focused on "getting shit working" over
"purity", b) were (as best I can tell) much more open to contributions and
partnerships than the _BSDs, and c) expanded rapidly to cover just about every
little niche there was.
Any of the _BSDs (or other OSs, I guess) could have had the same viral
trajectory if they'd focused on the same things instead of their ideological
purity, code stability, et al.
> But does it help or does it harm?
I believe there are several studies that show increasing diversity can improve
technical projects because this reduces "situations where points are never
made".
> Does it really help to take people onboard who are less technically and more
> politically oriented?
That depends - does your project exist in a world that contains politics? Is
it meant to solve problems for human beings? Both of those benefit from
diversity because, and this will shock you, a very small percentage of the
world is comprised of privileged white dudes.
~~~
curtisblaine
> a) they focused on "getting shit working" over "purity"
Also, they focused on "getting shit working" over "making sure to not offend
anyone".
> b) were (as best I can tell) much more open to contributions and
> partnerships than the BSDs
And they managed to be more "open to contributions" despite having a "dickbag"
as benevolent dictator and an "hostile environment" (as you probably would put
it) to beginner devs. And not having a CoC for 20 years. So maybe it's not
terribly essential to be forcibly inclusive in order to be open to
contributions?
> c) expanded rapidly to cover just about every little niche there was.
Again, they managed that _being a non-diverse environment_ , by most meters of
(modern) judgement. So maybe it's not so essential to be inclusive when you
manage to cover _all_ niches in no time? It was so exclusive that managed to
cover _everyone 's_ needs? How's that even possible?
> I believe there are several studies that show increasing diversity can
> improve technical projects because this reduces "situations where points are
> never made".
Indeed, but you have to consider that being overly-inclusive opens the doors
to bike-shedding and, for example, wanting to exclude perfectly capable
programmers just because they communicate aggressively. I believe that more
points are made (and I don't find difficult to believe studies prove that),
but are highly capable people valued correctly in such an environment? Is it
an _overall_ gain, in all aspects?
> That depends - does your project exist in a world that contains politics?
A lot of stuff exist in a world that contains politics, but doesn't have to be
political. Is medicine political? Obviously yes. Are you "including" surgeons
based on their right to be there? No.
But I concede that there should be an overall body with actual powers
controlling that a series of Code of Conducts, known and approved by anyone
(by representation) are respected. And that this body should be periodically
elected democratically. Oh, wait... we have one - it's called "Government" and
the CoC are called "laws".
Having that, do we really need to tell people on Github to avoid telling
others to "stop saying bullshit" because it's offensive? Do we need to make
kindness mandatory? Do we need to favour inclusion over technical prowess?
Sounds like the recipe for a disaster.
~~~
zimpenfish
> more "open to contributions"
Yes - and Linus wasn't involved in most of them (since he delegated subtrees)
which makes your "despite having a dickbag in charge" completely irrelevant.
> Maybe it's not terribly essential to be forcibly inclusive in order to be
> open to contributions
But you'll note I specifically said "more open [...] than the BSDs" \- it
wasn't an absolute. The Linux kernel is very much not open to contributions
per se -but- compared with the *BSDs etc. it is a paragon of welcome.
> exclude perfectly capable programmers just because they communicate
> aggressively
Being able to communicate effectively - and that generally excludes
"aggressively" \- is an important part of being a capable (and better)
programmer.
> Are you "including" surgeons based on their right to be there? No.
What?
> you have to consider that being overly-inclusive opens the doors to bike-
> shedding
Ironic that you call it "bike-shedding" when that was coined from a project
that wasn't "overly-inclusive". Almost as if your link between the two is
fanciful nonsense.
It's clear your only argument is "I don't like inclusivity" and that's fine -
you're on the wrong side of history and doomed to fail.
~~~
curtisblaine
> which makes your "despite having a dickbag in charge" completely irrelevant
So not having a CoC and having a dickbag in charge is OK? Cool! QED!
> Being able to communicate effectively - and that generally excludes
> "aggressively"
It doesn't. Aggressivity doesn't exclude efficiency. Aggressivity is a human
interaction with a purpose. If used correctly it can express emphasis with
amazing efficiency.
> Ironic that you call it "bike-shedding" when that was coined from a project
> that wasn't "overly-inclusive".
Bike-shedding is a reality in non-inclusive project like FreeBSD. Now imagine
in "inclusive" projects where every word has to be carefully weighted in order
to not offend anyone. People fighting not only over the color of the bike
shed, but also on the political undertones of supporting bikes, on the
percentage of male and/or white bike riders, all while constantly accusing
each other of being threatening. Exponential bullshitting and no work done :)
> It's clear your only argument is "I don't like inclusivity"
Actually, I like it. But, in a technical project, it should always come after
the actual "getting shit done" part.
> you're on the wrong side of history and doomed to fail.
Am I? I was there in the 90s, when riot grrrls were all the shit and PC
peaked. I wasn't terribly impressed back then and I'm not impressed now :)
------
nailer
Half the case here has been assisted by the removal of details for the thread.
Unless you read the archived version with working links (available online but
also reproduced in this article) you'd have no idea what Rod actually tweeted.
Linking to a Quilette article and screen capping abuse you receive doesn't
mean you're a 'known hostile' and all the various hyperbole that's been around
in the last couple of days.
------
lord_jim
(after reading through
[https://github.com/nodejs/board/issues/58](https://github.com/nodejs/board/issues/58)
and other issues related to this situation)
The Github comment revision needs to stop. It makes it impossible for people
who were not involved in the original conversation to understand what actually
happened. Without a full archive of all revisions, you cannot even judge if
the edits were made in good faith or if the current text represents the
author's original intent. It casts doubt on everything.
The whole mess is even worse on long threads like the ones linked to. Editing
a comment that other users responded to can make the responding comments look
silly or stupid, or completely change the meaning of their response.
This is mostly a process thing but Github also needs to improve how edits are
handled.
------
zaphirplane
This story is everywhere, i don't feel you are drumming up support by this.
The options of the responses seem negative to the ppl behind the fork
~~~
nailer
Is 'you' Rod, Max or the people behind the fork? Having trouble parsing your
comment.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
STF - Use commodity hardware to build your own scalable storage system - draegtun
http://stf-storage.github.com/
======
draegtun
Daisuke Maki gave a talk on using STF at livedoor.com - _Serve Billions Of
User Uploaded Media On PSGI and Commodity Hardware_ |
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SR4xAY7eno>
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How to handle Payroll for remote “employees” payroll outside the U.S.? - hichamin
======
raooll
I work as a remote employee for a us based startup out of India. I raise and
invoice every month corresponding to the salary account.
For all legal purposes, I'm a consultant to the company.
------
thisone
every time I've looked at remote (out of country) work, it was always as a
contractor/consultant. Never as a true employee. That way the company pays an
invoice, the contractor handles all their own taxes.
Treating your "foreign" remote workforce as employees I imagine will land you
in some tricky international waters much better suited for your accountant,
tax attorney, and your general business lawyer.
------
busymichael
All of my remote contractors invoice me weekly. We just use a shared google
spreadsheet that track times on one tab and sums it on another by week.
I actually handle payments via xoom.com -- it is now owned by paypal. It takes
a little work to setup a new payee, but once you have paid a person once, you
can pay them again very easily.
------
gt2
If they are US citizens then whichever way you would pay the non-remote
probably. If they aren't, then they will tell you which is best for their
situation/country according to what's available there and the lowest fees.
------
hemantv
Www.rippling.com
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Frameworks vs. Libraries in PHP - pauljonas
http://www.otton.org/2008/08/05/frameworks-libraries-php-zend/
======
cousin_it
Can't help but link to IMO the best piece on libraries vs frameworks: "I’d
really like to give you this fork Jimmy, but you’re gonna need a knife and
plate to use it." <http://an9.org/devdev/why_frameworks_suck>
~~~
Hexstream
That seems a gripe about _monolithic_ frameworks... There's no reason a
framework can't be organised as a coherent collection of libraries of which
you can pick only the ones you need and that lets you assemble an
"instantiation" of the framework by choosing a variant of each type module you
need.
~~~
cousin_it
Here's my humble perspective on code reachability and the fork/knife/plate
thing.
Good: a library function with no dependencies, that accepts and returns
primitive data structures.
Worse: a library with lots of dependencies, and a set of idiotic "data types"
or "classes" I have to construct just to access the functionality.
Worst: a "framework" that calls your code itself, and requires a specific
"environment" that should be "set up properly".
------
markbao
I use Kohana primarily. It is an excellent framework supporting only PHP5,
with a great ORM engine and extensibility. It's fast, efficient, and
organized.
Their community isn't yet as strong as CodeIgniter's, but it's growing rapidly
(2.2 just released!)
~~~
jamongkad
Been hearing alot of good things about this framework and community. Currently
I'm submitting libraries to the CI hive. Will they be compatible with Kohana?
~~~
markbao
Depends. It would probably need certain customizations to fit into the Kohana
system. Definitely check into the Kohana IRC channel, the lead developers who
ported the CodeIgniter libraries themselves will be in there and will be there
to help you (#kohana on irc.freenode.net.)
The fundamental differences (general structure, etc.) between Kohana and
CodeIgniter are currently pretty low, so it shouldn't be too much.
------
richtaur
Eh, not much value in this article. Really, you take a fantastic set of tools
like symfony, and shrug it off with a one-liner like "over-engineered?" Lousy
and unfair.
~~~
MrFantsyPants
I've been working on a symfony project for the last six months, and after it
ends, I hope to never see it again. Over-engineered fits, but I also have
issues with many of their choices. In the end, I would have built a better
product in the time allotted using something else, even my own primitive
codebase.
Having come to know it pretty damn well, I'd have trouble recommending it to
anyone else.
~~~
pauljonas
I looked at Symfony, CakePHP, and a few others (at time, Zend was not anywhere
near production ready), and all just seemed like (a) overkill or (b)
inadequate. In the final analysis, I wrote my own framework.
On the flip side, homebrew framework development has become a larger project
in recent years. Nowdays, you need to include in AJAX integration, slicker
client UI, mobile phone accommodation, web services API, multimedia handling,
etc.... And you're going to be reliant on 3rd party libraries that you need to
research, choose, perhaps configure and upgrade at intervals.
Have used Rails for a few projects and it provided a constant stream of
annoyances as anytime you attempted to do something that didn't quite fit into
the DHH "vision", it was a hassle. Though I liked the DB migration setup in
spite of the lock in to autoincrement integer keys.
------
lyime
has anyone used Kohana php here?
~~~
gigawatt
I'm in the middle of learning PHP with plans to learn a framework afterwards.
I had pretty much decided on CodeIgniter since I'm such a big fan of
ExpressionEngine, and EE 2.0 will be based on CI. But Kohana definitely looks
interesting - based on CI, but with full PHP5 support. And the payment library
looks particularly enticing. The one thing that makes me a little leery is
that the CI docs looks a lot more complete than the Kohana docs, and I am
guessing the CI community is more robust. I'd love to hear some feedback from
anyone who has used both CI and Kohana...
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Will cryptocurrency bubble as large as the dotcom bubble? - codewithcheese
As the Ethereum market cap approaches Bitcoin and ICOs are going on sale every week. How would one compare the cryptocurrency bubble to the dotcom bubble in terms of scale?
======
airbreather
Bubble will continue while there are still new victims to attract.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Blocklist Facebook domains - z0a
https://github.com/jmdugan/blocklists/blob/master/corporations/facebook/all
======
jiaweihli
I highly recommend using uMatrix[1][2] if you're very privacy-conscious. It's
the full-blown everything-at-your-fingertips console.
By default, it blocks third-party scripts/cookies/XHRs/frames (with an
additional explicit blacklist). You then manually whitelist on a matrix which
types of requests from which domains you want to allow. Your preferences are
saved.
It is a bit annoying the first time you visit any new domain, because you need
to go through a bootstrapping whitelist process to make it work. After a while
I find I do it almost automatically though.
I use it in conjunction with uBlock Origin and Disconnect, and it _still_
catches the vast majority of things. As a nice side-effect, I find I keep
pretty up-to-date with new SAAS companies coming out!
\---
[1]
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/umatrix/ogfcmafjal...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/umatrix/ogfcmafjalglgifnmanfmnieipoejdcf)
[2] [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/umatrix/](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-
US/firefox/addon/umatrix/)
~~~
joeblau
Any browser plugin is inferior to using a hosts file. Hosts file's blackhole
_any_ network request before even attempting to make a connection. These
browser plugins only help if you're using the specific browser — they aren't
going to help that electron/desktop app that's phoning home. They wont help
block inline media links (Messages on a Mac pre-rendering links) that show up
in your chat programs which attempt to resolve to Facebook. They also wont
block any software dependency library that you install without properly
checking if it's got some social media tracking engine built in.
I don't even waste time or cpu cycles with browser based blocking
applications. Steven Black's[1] maintained hosts files are the best for
blocking adware, malware, fakenews, gambling , porn and social media outlets.
[1] -
[https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts/](https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts/)
~~~
geofft
> _they aren 't going to help that electron/desktop app that's phoning home._
What's your threat model? Mine is third-party tracking cookies, and desktop
apps don't share my browser's cookie jar. So while technically I can be
tracked by IP from a desktop app, Facebook can't tell if it's me or someone
else at the same coffee shop.
In particular, one nice thing about Chrome extensions is that they _don 't_
apply to incognito windows. I regularly use HTTPS Everywhere in block-all-
HTTP-requests mode + an incognito window on wifi connections I don't trust,
because the incognito window will permit plaintext requests, but it doesn't
read my cookies or write to my cache, so it's sandboxed from my actual web
browsing. I can safely read some random website that doesn't support HTTPS
with my only concern being my own eyes reading a compromised page; none of my
logged-in sessions are at risk.
> _any software dependency library that you install without properly checking
> if it 's got some social media tracking engine built in._
... is this a thing? (I totally believe that it's becoming a thing, I just
haven't seen it yet and am morbidly curious.)
~~~
traviscj
Browser fingerprinting is an easy path toward a “stronger than ip”
correlation. [1] is an interesting starting point.
1: [https://panopticlick.eff.org](https://panopticlick.eff.org)
~~~
chopin
That works only with JavaScript active which uMatrix blocks for 3rd party. The
sites one visits mainly are not known for 1st party fingerprinting (that's
mainly done by the ad networks). The extra paranoids (like me) can also block
JS for certain 1st party sites.
I use uMatrix only experimentally (I rely on NoScript) but it offers a
fascinating flexibility of control if one is in the mood. As well, NoScript is
near useless when doing stuff with AWS where uMatrix offers the right
flexibility (allow from site Y, but only when fetched from site X).
~~~
traviscj
Derp, I missed the obvious. Thanks.
I had heard of uMatrix but didn't realize it had that functionality, which is
pretty cool! Thanks for sharing!
------
Digital-Citizen
Yet again, software freedom fighters got there years ago.
Free Software Foundation got there earlier. From publishing
[https://www.fsf.org/facebook](https://www.fsf.org/facebook) published on on
Dec 20, 2010. FSF & GNU Project founder Richard Stallman has been rightly
objecting to Facebook for years in his talks and on his personal website at
[https://stallman.org/facebook.html](https://stallman.org/facebook.html).
Long-time former FSF lawyer Eben Moglen rightly called Facebook "a monstrous
surveillance engine" and pointed out the ugliness of Facebook's endless
surveillance (at length in
[http://snowdenandthefuture.info/PartIII.html](http://snowdenandthefuture.info/PartIII.html)
but in other places in the same lecture series as well). See
[http://snowdenandthefuture.info/](http://snowdenandthefuture.info/) for the
entire series of talks.
~~~
heretoo
Yes, but where do they offer solutions to transition (emphasis on transition)
from what people currently use to a more open ecosystem?
At least in the software licensing arena, having personally visited a lecture
from Stallman, I was left with the impression that he wasn't offering a
solution, just a vision of a Utopia without any guidance on how to transition
to it -- more specifically, how would we make money from open source software,
when currently proprietary software is the default for making money.
~~~
cyphar
> how would we make money from open source software
There are many existing examples, so this is clearly a solved problem already.
You charge for support, or for feature requests, and so on. That's how SUSE
and RedHat make their money.
The flaw with looking at proprietary software's monitisation is that it
usually just boils down to "pay for the binary". This obviously won't work
with free software, you need to charge for development rather than access
(though you can also use a seat-based model where you only provide support for
machines that have valid licenses).
(I work for SUSE.)
~~~
heretoo
That definately is one solution, but perhaps made possible by restricting
distribution of software in the first place to get a leg up (see comments
regarding improvements and distribution restrictions regarding installer
scripts in SLS
[http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/2750](http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/2750)).
This suggests that it isn't a solved problem, because the initial conversion
to an open source model (or free software) with support on the side may have
required a different model to start the venture.
None the less, it's admirable, and hopefully a net benefit for everyone.
My point was more about Stallman and co calling foul with regards to software
freedom, codifying their own ideal, but not giving directions to reach that
ideal. This feels like a safe pulpit to sit upon, where their view isn't
falsifiable, useful when they want to say "I told you so", and eventually
taking all credit for everyone else's efforts in between to make the end goal
possible.
~~~
cyphar
> perhaps made possible by restricting distribution of software in the first
> place to get a leg up
This is incorrect, you can download the full ISOs for SLE from the SUSE
website, with 30 days worth of updates. The source code (and the system
required to build it) is all publicly available on
[https://buid.opensuse.org/](https://buid.opensuse.org/). I beleive RedHat
have something similar.
I'm also not sure that an interview _from 1994_ with the creator of Slackware
is a good indicator of the current state of distribution business models.
Though even in 1994, both RedHat and SUSE were selling enterprise
distributions.
~~~
heretoo
Since the past determines the future, the relevant part of the 1994 interview
is "... Instead, he claimed distribution rights on the Slackware install
scripts since they were derived from ones included in SLS...", which as I
understand it, is the restriction of distribution I was referring to (perhaps
redistribution is more accurate).
This suggests that the business model benefited from restricting
redistribution and modification of the source code, so breaks the assumptions
that the business model was purely based on making money from open source, and
so doesn't fully support the idea that proprietary software is unnecessary, in
the case where we take SUSE as an example of saying it is "already solved".
------
alcover
I wonder how Facebook devs feel when they read such posts. Do they feel
rejected ? shameful ? Does their salary really outweigh this collective
disapproval of their peers ?
~~~
secondarychris
I actually just got a job there out of school, starting in a few months.
Reading these comments is certainly interesting although it's not news to me
that Hacker News hates Facebook.
I've long been skeptical of the effects of social media though, and I'm taking
this job mostly just because doing otherwise seems like a really poor career
choice. Plus it seems like Facebook is here to stay, and I can dream of
helping to fix the problem instead of just enabling it.
~~~
not_kurt_godel
You are enabling it. You know that and it will gnaw at your soul and make you
deeply unhappy as long as you work there.
~~~
joering2
I spilled OJ at myself when I read his post. I mean its great he is so
gullible to believe he can change something at such big corp, and he reminds
me when I was 16 with big head of dreams how to change the world.
But seriously - do we know any single example of an intern coming to a big
corp and "saving it" \- by that I mean steering it off the dark and deceiving
waters and actually bringing it into light for the good of society and people
in general??
~~~
Grangar
Didn't Snowden have intentions to leak NSA documents right from the start..?
------
lwhsiao
Pi-Hole [1] is another nice way to filter domains at the DNS level network
wide, if you want a wider reaching solution that supports wildcards. Great way
to use an extra Pi if you have one sitting around.
\---
[1] [https://pi-hole.net/](https://pi-hole.net/)
~~~
madez
Sadly, Pi-Hole is not integrated into Debian. I feel uneasy running software
not from the Debian repository. I hope Pi-Hole will be packaged soon.
~~~
arbitrage
Debian has had its share of fuck-ups in its package management system. There's
very little difference between blindly trusting debian, vs blindly trusting
pihole. Don't pretend you check out the contents of all the packages you use.
~~~
madez
That is unnecessarily aggressive. Also, besides the snarkyness, it is a bad
argument. What you write seems to be an appeal to hypocrisy. To see that, the
following analogon might be helpful: One doesn't need to personally comprehend
every decision in a democracy to have more trust in it than in a dictatorship,
and one can say that without living in a democracy.
------
bhauer
Looks like this is already covered by the "Social" add-on to StevenBlack's
hosts:
[https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts/blob/master/extensions/...](https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts/blob/master/extensions/social/hosts)
~~~
joeblau
Steven Black's list is better. More complete and also has hosts for other
social outlets, ad networks and trackers to block.
[https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts/](https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts/)
~~~
thelittleone
Is there a way to redirect to a local HTML file for any blacklisted host file
addresses? Something like "You tried to access a site that's blocked in hosts
file"? I tend to add blacklists like this then few months later wonder why
some site doesn't work.
~~~
hjek
Yes. As the hosts file redirects to localhosts, you can run a local server,
displaying a notification. As root:
while true; do printf "blocked by hosts file" |nc -q 1 -l -p 80; done
------
tartrate
Is it really any use trying to enumerate all variants under *.facebook.com and
similar?
The counts:
307 facebook.com
295 fbcdn.net
250 tfbnw.net
12 whatsapp.com
9 instagram.com
3 fb.com
3 edgesuite.net
2 metrix.net
2 fbsbx.com
2 fbcdn.com
2 facebook.net
2 edgekey.net
2 cdninstagram.com
2 akamaihd.net
1 fb.me
1 appspot.com
~~~
SjuulJanssen
A bit further down in the replies reustle mentions: `It's a shame /etc/hosts
doesn't support wildcards`
~~~
TremendousJudge
I find that ridiculous. Is there a reason why it's that way?
~~~
lnx01
It's been around since the beginning of time itself I guess. You can try
something like dnsmasq. One liner in the conf file:
address=/.facebook.com/127.0.0.1
edit: For Ubuntu this should work (one versions from Trusty and newer):
sudo touch /etc/NetworkManager/dnsmasq.d/local
Put these lines into the above file and save:
address=/.facebook.com/127.0.0.1
address=/.fbcdn.net/127.0.0.1
address=/.tfbnw.net/127.0.0.1
address=/.whatsapp.com/127.0.0.1
address=/.instagram.com/127.0.0.1
address=/.fb.com/127.0.0.1
address=/.edgesuite.net/127.0.0.1
address=/.metrix.net/127.0.0.1
address=/.fbsbx.com/127.0.0.1
address=/.fbcdn.com/127.0.0.1
address=/.facebook.net/127.0.0.1
address=/.edgekey.net/127.0.0.1
address=/.cdninstagram.com/127.0.0.1
address=/.akamaihd.net/127.0.0.1
address=/.fb.me/127.0.0.1
address=/.appspot.com/127.0.0.1
And then: sudo systemctl restart network-manager
------
rawland
Let's put this in global context:
Adblocking is a non-trivial task, but there are trivial solutions.
1.) Install hosts-gen from http://git.r-36.net/hosts-gen/
% git clone http://git.r-36.net/hosts-gen
% cd hosts-gen
% sudo make install
# Make sure all your custom configuration from your current /etc/hosts is
# preserved in a file in /etc/hosts.d. The files have to begin with a
# number, a minus and then the name.
% sudo hosts-gen
2.) Install the zerohosts script.
# In the above directory.
% sudo cp examples/gethostszero /bin
% sudo chmod 775 /bin/gethostszero
% sudo /bin/gethostszero
% sudo hosts-gen
Add a cron job, and enjoy your faster and adfree-er internet. Further, you can
add your custom (this FB) block to the local files in /etc/hosts.d, which then
will be concatenated automatically.
[source]: [https://surf.suckless.org/files/adblock-
hosts/](https://surf.suckless.org/files/adblock-hosts/)
------
rvshchwl
This is a good thing to enable, but I think that smartphones contribute
exponentially more data to Facebook services than laptops and browsers do.
Smartphones give easy access to location, background running services,
microphone. Even if you block these permissions to the app, Facebook gets the
data from their data providers that use Facebook ads.
~~~
rs86
"Exponentially" means nothing here. Perhaps you are looking for "orders of
magnitude"
~~~
nostromo
[amount of data collected from phones]=[amount of data collected from
desktops]^[some exponent]
~~~
btrettel
If the exponent is less than 1 then the amount of data collected from phones
is less than that from desktops.
~~~
hueving
When you hear 'exponential back off algorithm', do you envision one that keeps
retrying faster and faster?
~~~
btrettel
I'd say better than 50% chance that the delay increases. But the phrase would
be unambiguous if it were called an "exponentially _increasing_ back off
algorithm".
~~~
marksomnian
This is unnecessarily pedantic. An exponential back off algorithm has a 100%
chance of increasing the delay, that's the whole point. Nowhere other than
pure mathematics would I see the phrase "exponentially" and even consider a <1
exponent.
~~~
cmstoken
I think "needlessly" would work better than "unnecessarily" there.
------
dontchooseanick
I advocate for iptables instead of DNS filtering.
Process of enumerating and rejecting facebook IPs :
* Query the RAD [http://radb.net/query/](http://radb.net/query/) , search for AS32934
* Enumerate ip ranges by [http://radb.net/query/?advanced_query=1](http://radb.net/query/?advanced_query=1)
* Check inverse query by origin, use AS32934
* Grep the response route and route6 CIDR ranges
* Build a netfilter script with REJECT
Gives those scripts for iptables (updated once in a while) :
* [https://cdn.rawgit.com/smigniot/mu/ea0f32867907b855063c56ae8...](https://cdn.rawgit.com/smigniot/mu/ea0f32867907b855063c56ae8dbd7237d35913f1/fbmute/no_facebook_in_ipv4.sh)
* [https://cdn.rawgit.com/smigniot/mu/ea0f32867907b855063c56ae8...](https://cdn.rawgit.com/smigniot/mu/ea0f32867907b855063c56ae8dbd7237d35913f1/fbmute/no_facebook_in_ipv6.sh)
* [https://cdn.rawgit.com/smigniot/mu/ea0f32867907b855063c56ae8...](https://cdn.rawgit.com/smigniot/mu/ea0f32867907b855063c56ae8dbd7237d35913f1/fbmute/no_facebook_out_ipv4.sh)
* [https://cdn.rawgit.com/smigniot/mu/ea0f32867907b855063c56ae8...](https://cdn.rawgit.com/smigniot/mu/ea0f32867907b855063c56ae8dbd7237d35913f1/fbmute/no_facebook_out_ipv6.sh)
To enable :
* iptables -I OUTPUT -j no_facebook_out
* iptables -I INPUT -j no_facebook_in
* ip6tables -I OUTPUT -j no_facebook_out
* ip6tables -I INPUT -j no_facebook_in
By design, instagram and connect-with-facebook get muted too.
~~~
DavideNL
To get a list of all Facebook ip's:
whois -h whois.radb.net '!gAS32934' | tr ' ' '\n' | awk '!/[[:alpha:]]/' > facebook.list
whois -h whois.radb.net '!6AS32934' | tr ' ' '\n' | grep '::' >> facebook.list
------
frawley
I don't see [https://messenger.com](https://messenger.com) or
[https://m.me](https://m.me) (which also leads to messenger)
~~~
pksadiq
The last commit to the file is on 4 Oct 2016. So you could expect that.
~~~
dang
Ok, we've added 2016 above.
Unsurprisingly, there is recent stuff on
[https://github.com/jmdugan/blocklists/pulls](https://github.com/jmdugan/blocklists/pulls).
If anyone notices it getting updated, could you tell us? hn@ycombinator.com is
best.
------
source99
Its actually quite annoying to block all of facebook. There are a lot of
innocuous sites that have at least some small reliability on facebook and
blocking all of facebook makes using these sites a tad bit difficult / poor
UX.
~~~
checkyoursudo
Any examples? I have blocked Facebook for many years, and I can't think of a
single time where it has mattered.
I run without JavaScript by default, so maybe I just don't notice those kinds
of things after years of conditioning.
~~~
__alias
you run without js by default? God your internet must be boring :)
~~~
__jal
Only whitelisted sites run JS in my browser. If by 'boring', you mean vastly
less annoying, yes, it is terribly boring.
I'd likely never look at the bulk of commercial websites if I had to render
them the way owners intended them to render.
------
epiapp
For anyone who's interested, I also maintain a tracking protection list for
Internet Explorer. It's based originally on the Ghostery and Disconnect lists,
but I now update it independently. It's designed to be concise and speedy, yet
also comprehensive. Note, however, that due to the limitations of tracking
protection lists in IE, it can't block everything. You may need to supplement
it with a small hosts file. Check it out here:
[https://github.com/amtopel/tpl](https://github.com/amtopel/tpl)
------
angadsg
Created a pi-hole friendly blocklist
[https://gist.githubusercontent.com/angad/3db2da1cb50a4432c9e...](https://gist.githubusercontent.com/angad/3db2da1cb50a4432c9ea3cfa2bb249f5/raw/7fd0fddc08dd23ed205ec488fd5068c195662fe0/facebook.txt)
------
reustle
It's a shame /etc/hosts doesn't support wildcards
0.0.0.0 *.facebook.com
~~~
rbritton
You could sort of work around that by just blocking their IP ranges:
[https://stackoverflow.com/a/11164738](https://stackoverflow.com/a/11164738)
~~~
topranks
The ranges could change over time.
If you run your own DNS resolver you can use the wildcard trick.
Something like this in an RPZ zone should do it:
facebook.com IN CNAME .
*.facebook.com IN CNAME .
facebook.net IN CNAME .
*.facebook.net IN CNAME .
fbcdn.com IN CNAME .
*.fbcdn.com IN CNAME .
fbcdn.net IN CNAME .
*.fbcdn.net IN CNAME .
fb.com IN CNAME .
*.fb.com IN CNAME .
fb.me IN CNAME .
*.fb.me IN CNAME .
tfbnw.com IN CNAME .
*.tfbnw.com IN CNAME .
~~~
zaarn
*.facebook.com IN CNAME .
should be unnecessary since the DNS zone above it, facebook.com is already
CNAME'd. Most resolvers will take a CNAME as "any further requests go to
here", which to my experience usually includes NS servers.
(This is also why you don't CNAME your root domain, CNAME conflicts with any
other record type)
------
digitalbase
Someone should start a business for this:
Provide people that care about privacy with a public DNS server they can use
that auto blocks those domains (and update's its lists). I would pay for it
(few dollars a month)
Feature suggestion: allow people to add their own entries so I can purposely
block reddit or hacker news to reduce distractions.
Pretty sure I would set this DNS server on both my phone and desktop.
------
thetruthseeker1
Can somebody elaborate why this link from 2016 is gaining steam here? Is it
because Cambridge Analytica misused FB data? May be I am missing something, do
we know if facebook was wittingly complicit?
~~~
RealityVoid
I'm not a big fan of Facebook but I do find it useful. That being said, this
feels to me like a coordinated attack campaign. Take an issue, blow it up,
attach various other nebulous bad things and push it to a public that was
already primed against that very service. Seems to be working great.
I do not know who or why is pushing this campaign but it definitely feels
organized and calculated.
------
nielsbjerg
The whole conversation, without having read into everything here in absolute
detail, seem to be very tool oriented. Am I the only one here overwhelmed by
the sheer amount of domains involved?
~~~
Moru
It's mostly subdomains since windows can't use wildcards (*.domain.com).
Setting up such a large hosts-file might slow down your computer a bit though.
There are some tools that lets you run wildcards in the hosts-file but can't
remember the names at the moment.
~~~
nielsbjerg
Again, a tool concern. Not trying to downplay the possible solutions, but
rather bring attention to the magnetude
~~~
Moru
I'm not sure what you mean, I see 13 different domains in that list, the rest
is subdomains of the same 13 domains. You can't count that as "sheer amount of
domains". Our company probably have 2000 different subdomains on 5 domains?
Subdomains we can create as we want to, it's just some letters before the
domain part of the adress. Eg: Subdomain.Domain.com. That is what the wildcard
is for, *.Domain.com catches them all no matter how many extra we create.
Wildcarddomain is needed for example on an SSL certificate to accept any
subdomain for the domain you ordered.
------
yorby
block all of Google's IP addresses:
[https://support.google.com/a/answer/60764?hl=en](https://support.google.com/a/answer/60764?hl=en)
(note: your internet (the web) will stop working properly if you do block all
of those IPs, which is a big problem)
~~~
cbdumas
Can you be more specific about your internet not working with those addresses
blocked? What exactly doesn't work?
~~~
rphlx
A lot of sites pull in popular js libraries from google; the idea being that
they'll already be in a user's cache and even if they're not, google has a
better (cheaper, faster and/or lower latency) CDN than the site author.
~~~
908087
Most of this can be worked around by installing Decentraleyes, which replaces
common CDN-loaded resources with local copies.
~~~
geokon
I'd like something so I can use the web from China (without a VPN) . Right now
a lot of the common JS/fonts/etc from Google break - and webpages go wonky. Is
there a way to preload a cache?
------
malloreon
does this include instagram, messenger, and whatsapp domains too? I'm not sure
if these services use their own domains.
'fb' itself will eventually be, if it's not already, just a data holding
company for these and other acquisitions.
~~~
flixic
Yes it does. But you could have found this out way faster by just searching on
the page.
------
paxy
I wish it were that easy. Good start, but Facebook will still:
1\. Get your data from other websites/apps that you allow
2\. Get your data through your friends that use Facebook
~~~
dwighttk
shouldn't this keep javascript from facebook domains from loading?
~~~
paxy
Yes, but a lot of data transfer happens on the backend without the client
being involved.
~~~
freedomben
This is certainly possible but hasn't been my experience. Most of Facebook
stuff is xhr that is easy to block on the client side.
It's certainly possible that services are doing this on the backend, but it
seems far easier to plug in Facebook's libraries in the frontend.
------
heckanoobs
Why would you block all the domains but still keep your account that you would
no longer be able to access? The account is the problem not the domains. You
would have to block the domains on every device you use. Just kill the problem
at the source and delete your entire surveillance account with facebook.
~~~
lnx01
Because facebook tracks you even if you don't have an account.
------
knowThySelfx
Why only Facebook? All companies which store data are suspect.
------
walrus01
Similar solution to blocking things at your local recursive DNS resolver,
assuming you have a captive pool of devices, let's say in 10.240.0.0/24) in a
LAN, all of which are given DHCP addresses and DHCP-assigned DNS resolvers,
and you're in control of a bind9 server that's on the same LAN.
Not going to prevent people with admin rights on their workstations from using
another DNS resolver (or VPN, or whatever), but a fairly low effort solution.
[https://community.jisc.ac.uk/library/janet-services-
document...](https://community.jisc.ac.uk/library/janet-services-
documentation/how-block-or-sinkhole-domains-bind)
------
mockindignant
There is more coverage of this topic here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11791052](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11791052)
------
throwaway84742
Does anyone have this for Google ads domains and/or YouTube?
~~~
amarka
I don't have a list that I can easily share, but you can curate your own off
of
[https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts](https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts)
~~~
throwaway84742
Didn’t know about this. Thanks for the link!
------
odammit
Man, that person put in some effort. That’s a lot of good lists.
Scrolling through them it’s really interesting to see the other sites
companies own.
I always forget WhatsApp is Facebook.
------
RickS
This list presumably updates/moves around often.
Is there a service that, say, subscribes to a live list of this domain set
(like adblock consumes easylist) and updates my hostfile automatically?
If not, that is a piece of software that I would find useful and worth paying
for (with the ability to audit the software's ability to phone home about the
rest of my hosts file)
~~~
dao-
Your host file, hmm. Maybe something based on disconnect.me. If you're mostly
worried about the browser (which seems sensible for most users), you can just
enable tracking protection in Firefox: [https://support.mozilla.org/en-
US/kb/tracking-protection](https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/tracking-
protection)
------
stirner
I wrote a small tool that translates AdBlock Plus filter lists into hosts file
format [1]. It can only translate simple domain-name rules but might be of
interest to people in this thread.
[1]
[https://github.com/wwalexander/hostsblock](https://github.com/wwalexander/hostsblock)
~~~
zackmorris
Thank you, I didn't know about the `cat -` trick to read from stdin (works the
same as `echo hi | cat /dev/stdin`). Even after all this time, I still learn
something new every day.
~~~
stirner
echo hi | cat -
is also equivalent to
echo hi | cat
You only need the - if you are concatenating other files with stdin [1].
Incidentally, any use of
echo x | y
can be replaced (at least in Bash) with
y <<< "x"
This is called a "here string" [2].
[1]
[https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=cat&manpath=FreeBS...](https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=cat&manpath=FreeBSD+9.1-RELEASE)
[2]
[http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/x17837.html](http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/x17837.html)
------
Pete_D
A lot of commenters mention dnsmasq. I wrote some scripts a while ago to help
minimize a dnsmasq config that had been generated from a hosts file. People in
this thread might find them useful.
[https://petedeas.co.uk/dnsmasq/](https://petedeas.co.uk/dnsmasq/)
------
Mizza
I made one of these for Google:
[https://github.com/Miserlou/nogoogle](https://github.com/Miserlou/nogoogle)
also: [https://github.com/Miserlou/Poop](https://github.com/Miserlou/Poop)
~~~
throwahey
Your list does basically nothing for Google tracking domains. Here is mine:
(note that this blocks recaptcha which a lot of websites are now using for
login annoyingly). I add entries for IPv4 and IPv6 (0.0.0.0 and ::1
respectively).
0.0.0.0 google.com
0.0.0.0 www.google.com
0.0.0.0 fonts.googleapis.com
0.0.0.0 google-analytics.com
0.0.0.0 apis.google.com
0.0.0.0 tpc.googlesyndication.com
0.0.0.0 ssl.google-analytics.com
0.0.0.0 www.google-analytics.com
0.0.0.0 www-google-analytics.l.google.com
0.0.0.0 stats.g.doubleclick.net
0.0.0.0 clients.l.google.com
0.0.0.0 pagead.l.doubleclick.net
0.0.0.0 pagead2.googlesyndication.com
0.0.0.0 googleads.g.doubleclick.net
0.0.0.0 www-googletagmanager.l.google.com
0.0.0.0 googleadapis.l.google.com
0.0.0.0 gstatic.com
0.0.0.0 ssl.gstatic.com
0.0.0.0 www.gstatic.com
0.0.0.0 www.googletagservices.com
0.0.0.0 www.googletagmanager.com
0.0.0.0 securepubads.g.doubleclick.net
0.0.0.0 tpc.googlesyndication.com
To login to a google service such as gmail or enable captcha, comment out the
three (*.)gstatic domains.
~~~
mito88
nice!
------
xyrouter
I can block domains on my laptop, no problem. But I have not been able to
figure out any convenient way to block websites on my Android phone. My
Android phone comes with a Chrome browser. Any ideas about how to block
websites reliably on an unrooted/jail-not-broken Android phone?
~~~
bronco21016
Block at DNS level on a device (router or DNS server) and proxy all Android
traffic to said device.
I use a pfsense router running OpenVPN and pfblockerNG. PfblockerNG sinkholes
all DNS requests to domains from a list such as this one. Then by using
OpenVPN I simultaneously encrypt my connection when roaming remotely and I can
specify to use my home DNS server to sinkhole ad/tracking domains.
~~~
xyrouter
Thanks for the suggestion. I think this will work fine in a home network that
I can control. But this is not going to work when I am traveling and using my
carrier's 4G network. Am I right? Is there any nifty solution to address the
later?
I am a little disappointed that I can't do something as simple as install
plugins for my phone browser that can block sites.
~~~
moviuro
> But this is not going to work when I am traveling and using my carrier's 4G
> network.
That's what VPNs are for. See openvpn, for example (or tinc, strongswan, etc)
------
yumraj
Minor segue, is there any easy way to Geo-block URLs, both by ccTLDs and by
geolocation of IPs from certain countries.
I have pi-hole running but it doesn't support that currently, best it does is
wildcard but even for that it needs domain and won't do just on the ccTLD.
~~~
dredmorbius
ASNs, kinda, maybe.
------
snowpanda
Nice to see HackerNews create pull requests to make the list more up to date.
I hope they get committed.
[https://github.com/jmdugan/blocklists/pulls](https://github.com/jmdugan/blocklists/pulls)
------
ryanlol
This is a terrible approach. Facebook can rotate many of these names whenever
they feel like.
------
cyberferret
Interesting to see several domain names/servers with 'mqtt' referenced.
Wondering if Facebook interacts with IoT devices routinely, or perhaps they
use MQTT for Messenger message transfers etc.?
------
HenryBemis
I want to share my favorite HOSTS file provider [1] which includes FB
addresses.
[1]: [http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/](http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/)
~~~
mito88
goatse!
:)
------
DavideNL
on macOS i use a bash script to get all Facebook ip addresses:
whois -h whois.radb.net '!gAS32934' | tr ' ' '\n' | awk '!/[[:alpha:]]/' > "/etc/pf.anchors/usr.home.sub/facebook.list"
and then use a pfctl anchor to block them all
table <facebook> persist file "/etc/pf.anchors/usr.home.sub/facebook.list"
block drop quick to <facebook>
------
amelius
I need something like this that I can install on friend and family's
phones/iPads/computers whenever they ask me to fix something for them >:)
~~~
FabHK
Gas Mask is a neat macOS app to manage hosts. You can subscribe to a remote
hosts file, too.
------
jakeogh
My setup:
[https://github.com/jakeogh/dnsgate](https://github.com/jakeogh/dnsgate)
------
partycoder
A blacklist approach to this is for sure a cat and mouse game. A better
approach is to incrementally whitelist the domains you trust.
~~~
rphlx
In general blacklists are a better choice overall for non-technical users. Do
you really want an angry text message or phone call every time $FAMILY_MEMBER
has some site that's rendering poorly because they haven't properly
whitelisted one of the 12 legit domains it hits? And do you really trust them
to _not_ whitelist some ad & tracking domains?
~~~
megous
Presumably, $FAMILY_MEMBER would have to get past the phone number whitelist
too. So it might not be that bad.
------
anonu
I might do this. Just curious if this will break the internet for me... Will
certain non Facebook pages fail to load?
------
ChoGGi
The list has fbcdn-profile-a.akamaihd.net, but it missed fbcdn-
creative-a.akamaihd.net
If anyone wants it
------
jason_slack
Are there any implications to having 40,000+ lines in your /etc/hosts?
~~~
nomercy400
It's basically a big lookup table, trading storage for speed.
The most noticable effect is that your web pages load faster, because a lot
requests for unnecessary data (eg. Facebook in this example) complete
immediately. Occasionally you will miss out on a webpage that depends on it.
Think uBlock Origin, but not for just your browser but your entire system.
~~~
jason_slack
Thanks I have used /etc/hosts for a long time. I however just realized exactly
how big mine is getting.
------
dandigangi
One of the posts I wish I could upvote more than once. Thank you.
------
alpb
This list must've updated a lot since 2016.
------
mito88
what is the difference between 0.0.0.0 and 127.0.0.1 with respect to redire
ction?
will redirecting to localhost eat more cpu cycles?
~~~
dredmorbius
0.0.0.0 is no host. 127.0.0.1 is localhost, and will still generate a query.
If you've a webserver there, its logs might get busy with the blocked traffic
requests.
------
imhelpingu
It's pathetic that it takes a literal propaganda campaign to make people see
the problem with facebook after 10 years, but whatever I'll take it.
------
drchiu
Any way to do this at the router level?
~~~
spaceandshit
Pi-hole on a raspberry pi
~~~
mito88
Beavis?
:)
------
stiangrindvoll
This is quite a powerful message!
------
CiPHPerCoder
Why would you block WhatsApp?
~~~
binarysaurus
Owned by FB.
~~~
CiPHPerCoder
It may be owned by Facebook, but it's one of the viable secure messaging apps
for people what don't use Signal. The other is Wire.
~~~
908087
It's only viable if you're comfortable sharing your contact list and metadata
with Facebook.
~~~
CiPHPerCoder
E2E encryption that isn't MTProto? Done.
------
halamadrid
Wow the hate/dislike is very real.
------
mito88
merci.
------
Froyoh
Why not do something like *facebook.com?
~~~
dredmorbius
Hosts syntax doesn't allow for that.
DNSMasq would, however, allow you to only specify each TLD.
------
computator
I'd like to mention a problem with blocklists like this that you put into
/etc/hosts. I've noticed that many sites trivially evade the blocklist by
adding a redirect. I.e., if example.com is blocked, but it redirects to
example.ru or example123.com or example.team, then it still works. The
spammers and advertisers don't have to change all the existing links to
example.com -- they simply need to add a new redirect every few weeks.
~~~
rem7
that's not how /etc/hosts works. the domain listed in /etc/hosts (example.com)
will point to 0.0.0.0 (or 127.0.0.1)... you'll never even make it to the
server so you won't get the redirect.
~~~
computator
Oops, you're right. I discovered that it was my browser that was "helpfully"
adding www in front of lots of domains I had blocked in /etc/hosts. For
instance, if I blocked example.com, my browser would automatically try
www.example.com (which might then redirect to something else entirely).
In my case, I'm using Firefox. I can stop this behavior by setting
"browser.fixup.alternate.enabled" to "false" in about:config.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Socks - A javascript UI toolkit inspired by Shoes - desheikh
http://wiki.github.com/petejkim/socks
Introducing Socks. An easy to use javascript UI toolkit with Shoes (http://www.shoooes.net) like syntax. Build webapps quickly and easily with no knowledge of HTML or CSS.
======
Sephr
IMO, a better MIME type would be application/socks+ecmascript or
application/socks+javascript instead of application/javascript-socks. That
looks closer to how content types that are built on XML have their MIME types.
For example, XHTML's MIME type is application/xhtml+xml, not application/xml-
xhtml.
Also, a shoes-like syntax is already available in JavaScript, though it would
be very hard to utilize as-is (in <JS 1.7, wrap in a function and use `var'
instead of `let'):
app: {
stack: {
para("Foo 1"); // para as a function
para: "Foo 2"; // para as a label
button: {
let bar = new Button("Bar");
bar.onclick = function() { alert("Baz!") }
};
flow: {
style: ({ // CSS block
color: "red",
after: {
content: "!"
}
});
para("This is red and ends with an exclamation point");
}
}
}
~~~
raingrove
thanks a lot for your insight. will look into fixing those in future releases
------
chaosmachine
This project makes the same mistake Prototype does: Using the unmodified name
of an existing tech concept.
------
omouse
I started a similar project last year during the summer:
<http://github.com/omouse/sandals/tree/master>
I called it Sandals and it's dead mainly because I'm lazy but also because I
find it stupid to re-invent the wheel. YAY yet another UI toolkit to learn
_grumble_
------
helium
Hmmm... pretty cool. I wrote a little sample app for this that will generate a
sierpinski triangle:
[http://cloud.github.com/downloads/petejkim/socks/socks-
chaos...](http://cloud.github.com/downloads/petejkim/socks/socks-chaos.html)
And the code: <http://gist.github.com/113435>
------
andreyf
That doesn't look like JS syntax... am I missing something, or are they using
JS to parse/interpret it?
~~~
jayro
It's JavaScript object literal syntax.
~~~
misuba
No - the application/javascript-socks scripts are putting Ruby-style code
blocks in places JavaScript doesn't generally allow them. Presumably that's
the reason for the alternate MIME type on the script.
------
jcapote
Looking over the api it's pretty thorough and the custom controls look very
polished; nice work.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Agent-Based Modelling for Hospital Resource Allocation in Viral Crises - floodedhere
https://github.com/jetnew/COVID-Resource-Allocation-Simulator
======
MrK93
Having developed a discrete event simulator myself for my master's thesis I
can guarantee that the usefulness of tools like this one depends heavily on
the veracity and quality of the time parameters and the random distributions.
This one is a very cool exercise, but applicability is dubious.
Anyway, does anybody have any suggestion about job positions where the job
requires developing this kind of stuff (simulators, process optimization,
heuristics)? Being a fresh graduate in this time period is pretty bad, but
doesn't hurt to do some research on interesting job positions. I only see web
related job positions and "machine learning" job positions lately.
~~~
7thaccount
If you're interested in MIP/LP optimization models and have either AIMMS or
GAMS experience and either CPLEX or GUROBI knowledge, the vendors of most
power systems simulators probably have some openings. They're large codebases,
but actively saving billions annually in the US. The problems of unit
commitment and economic dispatch are well understood, but the business rules
framework is massive for all the US RTO/ISOs and is always changing.
~~~
MrK93
I have research experience with MIP/LP and GUROBI but didn't know about the
field of power systems simulations, so thanks for the suggestion!
~~~
7thaccount
No problem. Vendors are GE, Siemens, and ABB. I'm sure at least one is hiring.
They generally prefer some industry experience, but a Masters or PhD would
likely go far, especially with some research projects.
These models are amongst the most difficult out there as far as size and time
requirements. One of the founders of GUROBI got involved with the industry
recently to try to help some researchers speed things up.
If you want a decent example/starter model to analyze, there is a unit
commitment model someone made in Xpress that is free online if you Google for
it that shows the fundamental formulation although they are much larger in
practice.
~~~
MrK93
This paper?
[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269636462_Implement...](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269636462_Implementing_a_Unit_Commitment_Power_Market_Model_in_FICO_Xpress-
Mosel)
Amazing, thank you! Having a lot of time in my hands I could try to implement
it in some other environment.
~~~
7thaccount
This has the full link:
[https://arxiv.org/abs/1412.4504](https://arxiv.org/abs/1412.4504)
Unit commitment is the MIP problem that combines linear and integer
constraints and tries to determine the least cost set of units to bring online
for each hour of the day. Constraints include things like the minimum amount
of time the unit has to remain offline before being started up again, the
minimum amount of time it has to run once online, how fast it can move (ramp),
how much capacity it has..etc. You try to minimize the costs of starting up
the unit, the cost of the unit just being online, and energy costs. The
economic dispatch problem is much simpler and asks, with the set of units that
were given to me by unit commitment, where should I set each one. The
commitment problem runs the day ahead at hourly granularity for the next day
and is also run periodically throughout the day. The dispatch problem
generally runs every 5 minutes 24/7 365. There are also other constraints like
not burning down the transmission grid.
------
jetnew
Hi, I'm the creator of this project. Seems like someone shared it here. This
is a school project and a current work-in-progress, and I'm open to any
feedback available. The usefulness of a simulator is heavily dependent on how
well it approximates to reality, which I have yet to do. It is currently a
baseline experiment without any reference to current research on COVID-19, but
stay tuned as I'm working on it! And thanks for sharing :)
~~~
joemccall86
It sounds like you and I are thinking along the same line:
[https://github.com/joemccall86/cap5600-project2](https://github.com/joemccall86/cap5600-project2).
I am also taking AI this semester and was considering expanding upon something
like this for my masters' capstone project. The application of machine
learning to this type of situation is going to be very interesting to say the
least.
Just wanted to say good luck!
------
juskrey
Basically optimizations and "modelling" are the reason resource allocations
are total failure in the case of rare emergencies, like ongoing. You assume
the worst "one in a 1000 years" case, multiply by 2..10, depending on your
cash flow, and keep allocations up to date. Period.
And the simple truth again: you can't immediately allocate during a crisis.
------
coderthrow
I am modelling with American Community Survey complete raw data, physically in
Berkeley, California.. using PostGIS, python and an SEIR model; Urban Planning
background.. suggestions welcome
~~~
coderthrow
example output, US Persons by Age-Sex 50+ by Census Tract, nationwide.. exec.
time 1230 ms. local, no clouds
-[ RECORD 221408 ]----+
mtable_2_pkey | 18744349
geoid | 08000US361198400084000000900
geo_name | Census Tract 9, Yonkers city,
Yonkers city, Westchester County, New York
Total_Population | 2307
Male | 1085
male over 50 est. | 285
Female | 1222
female over 50 est. | 272
-[ RECORD 221409 ]----+
mtable_2_pkey | 18754394
geoid | 08000US421338704887048000900
geo_name | Census Tract 9, York city, York city, York County, Pennsylvania
Total_Population | 7100
Male | 3934
male over 50 est. | 1453
Female | 3166
female over 50 est. | 1347
-[ RECORD 221410 ]----+
mtable_2_pkey | 18776479
geoid | 14000US42133000900
geo_name | Census Tract 9, York County,
Pennsylvania
Total_Population | 1169
Male | 667
male over 50 est. | 226
Female | 502
female over 50 est. | 240
------
nrjames
If you find this interesting, check out Project Hospital on Steam:
[https://store.steampowered.com/app/868360/Project_Hospital/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/868360/Project_Hospital/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Developer Bootcamp in Vancouver BC - jasonh1234
http://codecore.ca
CodeCore is an intensive 8 week, full time course that will teach you the necessary skills to excel in the software development industry.
======
jasonh1234
It's about time Vancouver got one!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
A Bitter Pill - hourislate
http://www.theverge.com/2016/5/4/11581994/fmt-fecal-matter-transplant-josiah-zayner-microbiome-ibs-c-diff
======
goldhand
That's awesome! He's real mad scientist! Super cool.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How To Use Twitter and Not Be a Douchebag - twism
http://www.darowski.com/tracesofinspiration/2009/05/26/how-to-use-twitter-and-not-be-a-douchebag/
======
jnorthrop
Am I the only one who couldn't get past the author's tone. I'll paraphrase the
way I read it: "Hey kids, I've been doing this a long time, and I know what do
to, and you are doing it wrong, so listen to me... And by the way your a
douchebag." He comes across as elitist -- about Twitter!
Twitter is an open service and you can do with it what you like as long as it
is within the terms of service. That is it.
~~~
jackowayed
It was kind of condescending, but I see where he's coming from. Basically,
he's saying "a lot of people on Twitter tweet annoyingly. Here are some major
offenses that people should avoid."
And the tone probably made it a more effective piece of writing. The putting-
off effect of his tone is counteracted by people being more likely to read it
because it sounds more extreme/interesting and people's desire to avoid being
a "douchebag", which is stronger than their desire not to be "someone who
tweets kind of annoyingly."
That said, it was kind of annoying and elitist. But for accomplishing his goal
of getting the most people to remedy these poor tweeting habits the most, it
was probably more effective than just complaining about annoying ways people
tweet.
------
jgrahamc
The @ reply information is useful, the rest is obvious and I'm guessing that
if you are a douchebag then you won't follow his advice.
~~~
swombat
I'm not so sure... some people jump into Twitter without knowing much about
it. If they "meet" the wrong people at the beginning, they may adopt
behaviours that those noisy and spammy individuals think are ok, without
actually being comfortable with them themselves.
Sometimes, you're a douche because you're a douche. Sometimes, you're a douche
because you don't know better (yet).
~~~
axod
I don't see much of it as "douchebag" on Twitter, obviously there's some who
are just playing the numbers game etc, but Twitter is obviously also an
effective marketing tool.
Using Twitter to make money isn't really the same as being a douchebag. Of
course for users at the receiving end, it's irritating, but you can't blame
people who have flocked to Twitter to promote and market.
~~~
Raphael_Amiard
or can you ?
I never understood this mentality, how is it ok if it's for
promoting/marketing purpose ?
how is making money always ok ?
~~~
axod
I didn't say it's ok, I'm just saying it's not necessarily 'douchebag'
behavior, if Twitter is setup in a way that makes it very attractive for
marketing/promotion.
------
imp
I didn't know the details of the reply stuff. That's good to know. I also hope
people stop the automatic DM with each follow. That really is annoying.
~~~
sant0sk1
If I follow somebody and they auto-DM me with some canned message, I
immediately unfollow them. It really is a douchebag-indicator.
------
tdm911
The point I liked the best was 6. Don’t break the system. I know people loved
the see all tweets option, but 97% of us had it turned off for a reason.
Adding a character to the front of a tweet (which thankfully seems to be
stopping) just inconveniences your followers because you're trying to make a
point. I don't appreciate that.
------
tlrobinson
Twitter is infested with these "social media experts", aka multi-level
marketing assholes. It's quite annoying.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Working as part of an interview, for free? - meesterdude
I recently applied to a startup for a development position. I was told I would do a "trial interview" which was really just a feature implementation they needed. I was sent an NDA which also talked of when to invoice and had "rate: TBD" which i put in my rate next to. the spec was large, and I wasn't expected to do all of it, but I implemented the core of it, which was nontrivial; it took me over 25 hours to implement.<p>Now, I just talked with the boss today, and he said I wouldn't be paid for that time; that's part of the interview, he says. But I sank more than half my work week into this, and thought this was just a 1099 until i may or may not go on full time, because i was delivering a business feature and not just doing an arbitrary test.<p>Anyway, what should I do? I'm not so worried if I get the job, but if I don't then I feel like I've been cheated.
======
mtmail
If you sent back the NDA, it mentions an invoice, you included your rate and
they accepted the document you might now have a valid contract.
A lawyer will sort this out for you. Until then enjoy the classic 'f*ck you,
pay me' video [https://vimeo.com/22053820](https://vimeo.com/22053820)
------
lsiebert
Actually, if you signed a contract and provided a rate, and they accepted it
and they didn't pay you, they have (I am not a lawyer so in my opinion and
this isn't legal advice) violated the contract. That may mean the NDA is not
enforceable, depending on the terms.
If you have not been paid then you also still have copyright over the code.
For small claims, I think you want to be able to prove that you invoiced them,
then serve them.
Or talk to a lawyer.
------
davismwfl
Personally, whichever startup did this is a douchebag and I wouldn't want to
work for them regardless.
I have never heard of an interview done this way. I am familiar with and okay
with a coding test, ok with a proof of your abilities, not ok with
implementing code for the company sans payment.
My 2 cents, is they agreed to a price and code so they should pay. Frankly,
I'd ask an attorney to send them a letter stating as much on your behalf.
Might cost you a few bucks but seems reasonable. If they still refuse, I'd
seriously consider a public shaming, although I know this isn't likely a good
idea, it just seems so appropriate. lol
------
thekonqueror
Dilbert covered the same topic today [0]
[0]:
[http://dilbert.com/strip/2015-08-01](http://dilbert.com/strip/2015-08-01)
------
steven2012
Companies that don't compensate interviewees for their time working on actual
features are not the type of company you want to work for.
Culture is set from the top and it sounds like the company culture sucks.
Don't join them and I hope you didn't send in the code.
------
anon3_
I see kickstarters trying to use this to weasel out free work.
If they're engaging in such activity, their financial predicament probably
isn't too good to begin with.
------
stray
What should you do? Stop whining.
If they didn't tell you upfront that you'd be compensated for your time -- you
have no reasonable expectation of getting compensated for your time.
More than likely that "business feature" is the same task they give every
applicant -- they just want to see how you do with something that looks like a
real-world task.
We do that here: We have a fake project that we pull a fake task out of, and
have applicants pair with one of us on its solution. During the "work", the
boss will throw us a couple curve balls too -- it's interesting to see how
applicants react.
We do however, pay them a modest amount for their time.
~~~
meesterdude
i would not take issue if this was a fake project meant to test my skillset.
it's replacing app functionality with a more robust solution; it is a feature
request for a change to be made to production which i implemented the core of.
It is very clear that this will go on to be user facing. What is not is if i
will receive any kind of reimbursement for doing the work; or if this is just
a tactic they employ: get people to work for free in an interview, don't hire
them, repeat. I truly hope that is not the case.
~~~
stray
Each of our applicants believes the fake task we give them is meant for
production too.
In reality, it's a very old, inactive project. We simply adjust timestamps to
make it _look_ current.
It is presented as if it were the bread and butter of our biggest client. And
we do our best to make everything seem realistic.
I doubt any applicant, before being hired, has ever figured out that the
"feature" they had worked on was something that had been built dozens of times
already.
It's always the same.
The "product" they're working on is the remnants of a side-project that went
nowhere.
But like I said, we _do_ pay people for their time unless we hire them. We do
it onsite. And we do one 7-hour workday. And we pay $250.
And we do that mainly so nobody is suspicious that they had been duped into
working for free.
It's _possible_ but imo, unlikely that your work is actually making its way
into a shipping product.
~~~
meesterdude
It sounds like you guys do it a respectable way. But I don't understand why
you can't accept the facts as I present them, as I have given no reason for
you to doubt my claims or abilities to properly assess the situation. Maybe
you think it's just too crazy to be true? Because that's what I'm thinking for
sure... But them be the facts despite my preference of otherwise.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What is a good free alternative for Picasa for photo editing? - foo101
Now that Picasa is end-of-life, I would like suggestions about an alternative photo editor that is amateur-friendly. I am not a professional photographer. I am a programmer. But I do like to perform some quick enhancements on the photographs (like altering brightness, shadows, etc.). Is there a good free alternative (free as in free speech or free as in free beer)? If it works on all three of Mac, Linux and Windows, it's a bonus!
======
brudgers
Gimp. Darktable. Learning to do simple things in either is probably a matter
of a few hours but only one time. Then either is as fast as anything else.
Yes, 'a few hours' sounds like a lot of time, but I have often found myself
spending many hours on Google chasing software that does not exist.
Philosophically, the user spending a few hours learning Free software does not
seem entirely disproportionate to the thousands of hours developers have spent
developing it. Picasa was closed source because it was written to make money.
------
nip
Not free but rather cheap (around 30€), but you should look at the Affinity
suite (Photo in your case, and Design if you are at some point interested in
vector drawing).
I made the exact same research a couple of years ago: I couldn’t afford
Adobe’s products and wasn’t feeling Pro enough to use Photoshop nor
Illustrator.
It’s snappy, easy to use and has lots of features for me not to feel
constrained whenever I use it.
Best software purchase so far.
------
baccredited
There isn't a good alternative. I prefer to pay for Acorn flyingmeat.com/acorn
and pay $30 only once, rather than pay an eternal $10/mo to Adobe.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
AT&T Throttling Unlimited Plans after 2GB Data Use - mediamaker
http://www.johncozen.com/2012/02/att-throttling-unlimited-plans-after-2gb-data/
======
lpolovets
One particularly nasty thing about automatically throttling the top 5% is that
it is completely divorced from costs and level of usage. Over time, if heavy
users try using less data, that will just depress the amount of usage required
to be the in top 5% -- but 5% of customers will still be affected by
throttling.
On a side note, I wonder how the cost of supplying customer service to address
the complaints of the top 5% compares to the cost of just letting people
consume as much data as they like. I would guess even a few minutes of a CS
rep's time is more valuable than letting someone download an extra gig of data
per month.
~~~
click170
That is why I made as much noise as possible about the (IMO) abusive
throttling practices of my previous ISP. Don't take this cr*p lying down, call
them and tell them youre unhappy, ask them to disable it on your connection
(they won't) and when they refuse, demand to speak to the supervisor. Rinse
and repeat. Make it cost more to throttle than it does not to.
------
mikeash
I wish ISPs would just give up on the whole "Unlimited" concept. Clearly it's
not practical for them to offer truly unlimited service, so let's just cut the
bullshit and go to usage-based billing.
Unfortunately, the tech community hates usage-based billing about as much as
they hate throttling. Baffles me as to why.
I think we need to make it illegal to advertise "unlimited" without it
actually being unlimited. I would have thought that existing truth-in-
advertising laws would cover this, but apparently they don't.
Make it illegal to promise what you never intend to deliver and this whole
problem goes away. If unlimited is practical to offer, then it will be
offered. If unlimited is not practical, then ISPs will no longer be allowed to
pretend that it is, and will be encouraged to make the limitations of their
offers obvious up-front instead of using shady nonsense like this.
~~~
sliverstorm
As I see it there are three reasons the tech community hates usage-based
billing.
\- First, any time a company tries usage-based data billing, they charge
absolutely criminal rates. If you paid attention to usage-based cell service
over the years, you'd know what I speak of.
\- Second, in an "unlimited" model, some users use more, some use less. In
general the tech community will be the ones using more- so they benefit at the
marginal expense of other users. They pay comparatively less by volume for
their usage.
\- Third, in my opinion there's at least a tiny bit of entitlement going
around in the online community as a whole. Nobody wants to pay for anything.
You know, because "information wants to be free!" and all.
~~~
mikeash
AT&T's overage rates are pretty reasonable. They charge $10/GB, which is about
what you pay for the initial monthly data plan anyway. Of course, there's
probably leftover sentiment from times when overages were much less
reasonable, and there are still plenty of such places remaining.
The second two I agree with, but they're sad reasons.
~~~
sliverstorm
Rates _have_ gotten better, I agree.
------
alexqgb
As recently as 18 months ago, I routinely got solid customer service from
AT&T. While the wireless service itself was really sketchy in NY and SF, any
account problems were handled with competence and care.
Given the incredible blowback they'd received from their poor iPhone support,
I always felt compelled to tell the people I ended up talking to that they
were doing great jobs, and that in spite of what was said in the press about
them not having their act together, I found them to be on their game, and that
I really appreciated the effort they were making.
Then something changed. Intelligence and responsiveness went off a cliff. On
the occasions I did have to call I ended up so deeply infuriated that I'd find
myself becoming angry BEFORE having to call again - even months later. It
almost seemed that they'd adopted a posture of calculated incompetence,
specifically designed discourage people from calling them.
Within a year (and after a series of truly appalling encounters) I'd gone from
publicly defending them to hating them with an intensity bordering on
incandescent. Were their service any less vital to my life in general, perhaps
I'd feel more sanguine. But given the central importance of wireless
connectivity, a "service" relationship costing north of $100 per month and
delivering nothing by dropped calls and furious anger quickly made it to the
top of of my dump-judiciously list.
------
rmc
Part of the shock the OP had is their suprise at 2.1GB putting them in the top
5%. That seems believable to me. I worked in a residential ISP and once ran
the numbers on about how much data people use. Something like 90% of people
didn't go above 5GB or so. And this was on residential DSL, not on mobile
internet.
Of course in theory this is going to reduce the average usage of AT&T users,
since someone is always on the top 5% (by definition 1 in 20 customers will be
affected). It also seems a little unfair to have a rule that you can't know in
advance.
~~~
X-Istence
5 GB makes the 250 GB Comcast cap look overly generous, when I can tell you
from experience that 250 GB with two people using the Internet on a daily
basis is too little.
New games come in at 10 GB or more when you are downloading them from places
like Steam, add in two people downloading new games and you can easily see
100's of GB's going to just gaming. If I rebuild my Windows desktop and have
Steam re-download all of the games I tend to keep locally I myself use about
150 GB of transfer. On top of that comes watching TV Shows (on Hulu/NetFlix)
and movies (iTunes/NetFlix/Hulu) and various other downloads. The latest Mac
OS X update weighed in at a hefty 1.38 GB, split across 4 devices.
Granted, I am a technology person, I am a programmer, I spend more time behind
a computer than doing almost anything else (including sleep). My usage pattern
is going to be vastly different compared to grandma and grandpa that check
their email. The thing is though that I want higher quality content delivered
to me instantly, Hulu's 480 is nice and all, but I would love to have it in
720p or 1080p for my large TV. All of this uses up bandwidth/transfer.
As for mobile data, I don't tend to do a lot of streaming of music and the
like, so far I haven't had any issues with going over the allotted 2 GB from
AT&T, that and when I do want to stream I am near Wifi.
~~~
jff
Yet as another anecdote, even when watching Netflix streaming basically every
night, and downloading the occasional Steam game, I have never once passed my
250 GB Comcast limit. Much as I dislike these kind of caps, it is pretty damn
hard to go over 250 GB. That's, what, 200 hours of reasonably high-quality
streaming video? 300+ Linux ISOs (the only reason you run bittorrent, right?)?
Sadly, I don't think "unlimited" internet is a sustainable model, because
generally speaking every bit you send costs the provider money, and the rise
of things like Youtube mean that people actually use more bandwidth. However,
250 GB plus a reasonable per-GB charge after that should be reasonable for a
very larger percentage of users.
~~~
X-Istence
I don't run bittorrent at all (nobody on the home network does), mainly has to
do with my current employment. Between my room mate and I we do 200 GB on
average, we've had one warning sent out for getting to 245 GB.
Here is our yearly usage chart: <http://i.imgur.com/wZbU1.jpg> (since the
router/gateway was last rebooted). Do note that there is NO illegal
downloading at all. NetFlix, Hulu, Pandora, Spotify, Steam, Dropbox, WoW and
many others.
------
evolve2k
I would suggest that 'Unlimited' has a very clear meaning to the reasonable
person and that they are now breaching their contract as it was initially
advertised to the public. Assuming it was initially advertised as 'Unlimited'
with relation to speed and data.
Of note; Lets say you were in Australia you could take this case straight to
the ACCC or the Communications Ombudsman and from experience I would be fairly
confident of you getting what you want.
~~~
Zakharov
Are you sure? Most companies here offer "unlimited" home Internet plans that
are still capped.
------
lancewiggs
While the main thrust of the story is concerning, what really makes me feel
ill are the scripted responses. The service agents are just picking responses
from a list and hitting send. They appear to have no ability to apply thought
to the process, and no authority to delegate up. I'm sure the staff are smart
and frustrated, and I'm reasonably sure that they are constrained by their
systems and processes. But how good would it be if the very first agent was
able to actually address the question. My suggested answer would be "yes, this
does seem very low, but that's what we are told - 95% of people use less than
2gb per month. It seems a little ridiculous. I can switch you to the 3gb plan
of you like - it's cheaper as well (my guess). " No matter what the response
it's time to stop this cruel and unusual punishment of both CS staff and
customers.
~~~
seanp2k2
All that sounds great and I agree with you 100%...however, since they're a
public company, their first priority is to maximize profits, and that is
exactly what they're doing here. Since USA citizens are so lazy that they let
telco lobbyist groups write the laws and don't riot over them when they're
passed by bought politicians, we have to deal with idiotic support as
described above.
This is also the reason that the sales drones at Best Buy just read the
product packaging when you ask them a question about it. Unskilled labor is
cheap, and these days, almost all level 1 support is unskilled (think across
industries, not just IT; IT still has some great lvl1 support if you look hard
enough.)
~~~
JonWood
Is causing your customers to think you're ripping them of, and making them
look elsewhere for service actually maximising profit though?
Given the cost of acquiring a customer they should be bending over backwards
to keep existing customers.
~~~
ilmare
Yes, since they know customers have nowhere else to go.
------
rexf
AT&T is vile garbage. I'm grandfathered into their unlimited plan, but
throughout NYC, at work, and at home, my reception is spotty at best. As
discussed in this thread, their customer service is non-existant.
With an unlimited data plan at worse than dial-up speeds, the data service is
useless. I'm planning on switching to Verizon when my iPhone 4 AT&T contract
is up, but I'm not holding my breath for any better customer service from
Verizon. There really is no cell phone company in the US that I want to give
my money to.
~~~
CrazedGeek
If you don't mind me asking, why are T-Mo/Sprint/US Cellular/etc not options
for you?
------
ghshephard
I tried to finish - but the author was either being dense or argumentative. I
think AT&T has made their position pretty clear - Unlimited doesn't have
overage charges, but you get rate limited when you hit the top 5% of usage
(currently 2 Gigabytes). AT&T also offers 2 Gigabyte and 3 Gigabyte plans,
with overage charges.
Happily, AT&T has been prevented from taking over T-Mobile, so we still have
at least four providers for wireless data in most major markets - let's hope
it stays that way.
~~~
seanp2k2
While oligopoly still > than monopoly or duopoly, it's still < free market.
You think the wireless ISP biz is a free market? Try to start one. Try to get
cities and tower owners to give you permission to put your gear up. Who will
you get fibre interlinks from for those towers? Who will issue permits to dig
trenches to lay fibre all over the cities? Wireless ISPs ("wireless telcos"
but I consider them ISPs because ALL their calls, SMS, MMS, and data is now
digital) know the game and make no mistake, it is this way on purpose. They
have done everything they can to ensure an anti-competitive market.
EDIT: I'm sure someone will mention that you could just resell service as many
regional WISPs do. Again though, WISPs know the score here, and they price
reseller service so that it basically matches what they're offering direct to
consumers. At my old company, we'd resell SBC-ATT-Yahoo-Cingulair-Bell-
BellSouth-Ameritech-Edge Wireless-Cellular One-Centennial-Wayport DSL (yes,
those are all just known as "ATT" today) and the cheapest we could offer
1.5mbit DSL service was $25/month.
~~~
ghshephard
I've never suggested it's a free market. I'm just saying there are four
vendors who you can chose from based on your feelings about price and quality.
I'm just happy it's not three.
------
warfangle
My virgin mobile (35 per month) unlimited data plan will start getting
throttled in march - after 2.5gb.
I'm so glad I left ATT behind. Sure it's a little slower, and I can't get an
iphone or the latest or greatest android phone. But it's one of the best
values out there, and I didn't need to sign a freaking lock in contract.
~~~
damptrousers
So it starts throttling at a half gig later? And you have to deal with crappy
phones? Great deal you got there.
~~~
warfangle
At a third of the price. Price-to-value ratio is much better.
And while the LG Optimus Slider has a smallish screen, it still runs android
2.3. And with a slide-out keyboard, SSH sessions are a lot easier. It's "good
enough."
------
furyofantares
They didn't throttle mine, they simply changed my plan to the 4GB plan and
told me after the fact. They did this to my wife's account as well.
And if I change it to the 2GB plan and then tether using an unofficial
tethering app, they automatically change my plan back to the 4GB tethering
plan.
------
TYPE_FASTER
And there goes my last remaining reason not to switch back to Verizon.
------
bryanh
Anyone have any experience in the process of switching an AT&T iPhone to
Verizon? Worth it? Any gotchas?
~~~
johngalt
Won't work. Different network and different hardware.
~~~
seanp2k2
The 4S has CDMA and GSM radios built in. You could just unlock it and move it
over if you can find the right CSR to add your IMEI to Verizon.
~~~
modeless
You can't "just" unlock it. Unlocking is risky: it voids your warranty, makes
the process of updating your OS difficult or impossible, and has a very real
chance of bricking your phone.
~~~
SoftwareMaven
Unlocking does not void your warrantee. I've had many unlocked iPhones
replaced under warrantee. That said, if you brick it while unlocking (and the
4S tools are _very_ new), you won't be covered.
~~~
modeless
Perhaps your local Apple Store doesn't check for unlocks before warranty
replacement, but unauthorized unlocking absolutely voids your warranty in
principle and Apple would be well within their rights to refuse service. If
you don't believe me here's the relevant section of the warranty (written by
Apple in _bold_ ):
"This warranty does not apply: [...] to an Apple Product that has been
modified to alter functionality or capability without the written permission
of Apple".
------
yabai
I received the dreaded text from AT&T at around 2GB of use. I have an
unlimited plan, and believe that it should be "unlimited" without any
throttling. I am upset about this situation, but feel a bit helpless.
I applaud the comments and the post. Perhaps enough outrage will spark a
revolution.
------
joelhaasnoot
Unfortunately, this is "standard industry practice" for most mobile
providers...
------
ouchiboy
Ouch. They wouldn't like the 3.9 TB of my last 16 month...
~~~
tzs
That's almost 250 GB a month. How do you use that much on a mobile device?
That's more than most people use on their regular Internet connection.
~~~
ouchiboy
Tethering. _cough_. You can do that with many non-thethering plans on some
jailbroken devices to save money or get around no-tethering allowed companies.
I'm not going to lie and say that more than 10% of that traffic accounts to
youtube videos and torrented linux distributions...
------
mrhyperpenguin
Can anyone think of any rational behind this? Why would they want to switch
people to tiered data plans when there is no effective difference to them?
~~~
ineedtosleep
Why?
> …You may also consider switching to a tiered data plan if speed is more
> important to you [...] Customers on tiered plans can pay for more data if
> they need it, and will not see reduced speeds. (from the blog post)
That's why. AT&T has shown that nearly every move they make is for the sole
purpose of squeezing out all the money they can from their users.
~~~
tomjen3
They are a company and as such is in the business of making money. Of course
they want to squeeze every last bit out.
In this case the problem is that they offered an unlimited plan and then did
stick with their offer.
~~~
montecarl
The problem is that they can get away with it. That is the cell phone market
has very little competition.
~~~
jcnnghm
There really needs to be a movement to address the collusion in the
telecommunication industry. I priced out a business cell plan (with > 5
lines), and there was not even a single penny price difference between ATT and
Verizon, and both refused to negotiate at all. No matter what options changed,
the prices matched to the cent. Strong regulation needs to be introduced, the
major players need to be broken up again, or their infrastructure needs to be
nationalized. Working, efficient, non-crippled and inexpensive communications
infrastructure is too economically important to leave it in the hands of these
bozos.
It is unconscionable that wireless communication, which is fast becoming a
necessity, amounts to a $100/month/person tax on the citizens of this country,
payable to the corrupt interests of two or three companies. The government has
laws to prevent this, they should be enforced.
~~~
TheAmazingIdiot
It's unconscionable that _you_ pay 100$/person for cell service.
I pay for my and my SO's cell service. The combined bill is 55$/mo. That
includes unlimited calls, unlimited txts, and for the time being 20k/s data
bandwidth. Note that I did not pay extra for the data.
And yes, I'm within the US, using a division of T-Mo.
------
epikur
I used precisely 5 gigs last month and received no notifications. I guess that
means I'm in a higher capacity area?
------
SoftwareMaven
So all the unlimited users need to use over 4gb to raise that "top 5%" number
significantly.
------
creativityland
Yep, I can confirm about this.
------
rorrr
Find people like you. Class action lawsuit.
~~~
quellhorst
I also have a grandfathered at&t unlimited plan and would be willing to join a
class action lawsuit.
------
executive
facepalm.jpg
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: is http://www.fcc.gov/comments down for anyone else? - dmschulman
So if I have this correctly, the FCC set up an app to get public comment on FCC related issues (most notably right now Net Neutrality) and the public comment period is something they're obligated to do under law, yet the system they've created does not work or fulfill its purpose:<p>http://www.fcc.gov/comments<p>Has this site just flat out not worked for anyone since the public comment period began May 15th?<p>Is this an issue of the site being overloaded at the moment?<p>Maybe it's some kind of ironic commentary on how user rights and free speech will suffer under the FCCs new proposed rules?
======
doctorshady
Last I checked an FCC proceeding on Friday it worked. Not so much right now,
though. I just get an error saying "Cannot open connection" after a long
pause.
My suspicion is someone might be ddosing it out of outrage, but it could just
as easily be their own problems. The commenting system did stop working once
in February or so.
EDIT: Their main site seems to be up, so I assume it's not anything shady.
~~~
dmschulman
Yeah, I should have been more exact in my initial wording. This is the error I
was receiving as well, though I check it now and instead am getting an error
from my browser ("No Data Received") instead of getting the "Cannot open
connection" error from the service.
I noticed on Techcrunch today there was a segment on John Oliver's Sunday
night HBO show where he discusses Net Neutrality. I didn't watch the clip but
maybe the outage is related to this.
------
dragonwriter
> Has this site just flat out not worked for anyone since the public comment
> period began May 15th?
The site is up and shows 45,647 comments on Proceeding 14-28 "Protecting and
Promoting the Open Internet" in the period since comments opened on it (which
is more than 30 times the activity of the next-heaviest over the past 30
days), so it clearly has worked for some people. I suspect any errors you are
encountering (the only error I see is if you attempt to click through the link
to the existing public comments) are because of an unanticipated activity
level resulting from the fact that the comment link is being broadcast with
many opinion articles/broadcasts on the issue accompanied by calls to flood
the system.
------
shayna123
This is crazy, I can't believe this insanity. If not for John Oliver I
wouldn't even know about net neutrality. Who thought this up anyway!!!
------
ozten
I had to re-submit 4 times before it saved successfully.
Their EJB prints SQL back to you. Wonderful.
to retry: Hit back, confirm, submit again.
------
leftydunne
is this the fcc? a lobbyist should not be able to influence regulations that
are contrary to the public good. he should be excused due to conflict of
interest. as a matter of fact, the whole motion should be excused!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
New Shepard's 8th test flight [video] - thibran
https://www.blueorigin.com/#youtubeZUV53Nn3PhA
======
ChuckMcM
Congrats Blue Origin Team! That was nicely done. I am always amazed when
something so complicated is made to look "easy."
With Virgin Galactic getting back into test flights after losing Spaceship 2,
the possibility that non-astronauts might be making suborbital flights seems
so much closer.
I share the suggestion with other commentators here that using metric units
might be more useful, even if your target audience (the tourists that fly)
might not understand them, is a good one. Even if they don't understand them,
tourists will recognize when something looks "Just like NASA does it" and that
will instill confidence.
The dynamic range on the BE-3 is particularly impressive. I don't believe
anyone else's restartable rocket engine has a similar range of operation.
I can't wait to hear when you guys start taking applications for passengers.
~~~
jackfoxy
Or use both units of measure. Is there a reason not to?
~~~
cm2187
Here is one:
[http://edition.cnn.com/TECH/space/9909/30/mars.metric/](http://edition.cnn.com/TECH/space/9909/30/mars.metric/)
~~~
SmellyGeekBoy
I think jackfoxy was referring to their press releases, not their engineering
team.
------
evv
The behavior of the booster landing looks very different than SpaceX's.
Blue Origin's booster seems to switch to a different control logic at ~30ft
up, from a rapid descent to a slow controlled touchdown procedure. Meanwhile,
SpaceX has a very smooth touchdown that seems to use a single control logic.
I'm sure that the SpaceX approach is better for fuel consumption, but the
slower Blue Origin landings seem better for spectators!
I love watching the physical effects of somebody's code, and I'd love to hear
more about the decisions that led to this behavior.
~~~
pilsetnieks
F9/FH cannot throttle down enough to do a hover landing, so they have to do a
suicide burn (i.e., fire the engine just so the speed goes to 0 m/s at 0 m
altitude.) The engine is too powerful and the body is too light to hover.
Blue Origin might eventually encounter just that problem with New Glenn.
~~~
walrus01
I don't know where you're getting this idea. The grasshopper hovered all the
time in tests and uses the same single-engine as the F9 full thrust.
[https://www.google.com/search?q=spacex+grasshopper+video&num...](https://www.google.com/search?q=spacex+grasshopper+video&num=100&client=ubuntu&hs=kOO&channel=fs&source=lnms&tbm=vid&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiorJPOm-
HaAhVmVWMKHY1WBeUQ_AUICygC&biw=1493&bih=2011)
~~~
doikor
They probably just put extra weight (fuel) in the grasshopper for easier
testing. The F9 on the other hand is basically an empty soda can with engines
at the bottom and small fins at the top when it’s landing so even when firing
just a single engine at minimum power it will generate too much thrust to
hover.
------
jordanthoms
Keep in mind, yes this is just a small suborbital vehicle but Blue Origin is
making a lot of progress on their New Glenn rocket, which has a reusable first
stage and capabilities between the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy with a single
core. They'll be built right next to the launch site in Cape Canaveral and use
Methalox rather than RP-1 (SpaceX is moving to Methalox for the BFR rockets).
I'm a big SpaceX fan and they've got a big lead in terms of actual launches
and recovery experience, but don't count Blue Origin out.
------
51Cards
One difference I find is that Blue Origin's videos almost seem too polished to
me? With the advertising-esque overlays, the rock music, the editing. Always
feels like I'm watching a commercial vs. an actual space flight. SpaceX has
done this but usually it's just during their 3D sim videos. I guess the
difference is that Blue Origin really needs to market this to the "general
public" as that is their projected income source for now.
Edit: I also found it interesting that they chose to show the closeup of the
capsule landing in "slow motion".
Edit 2: Seems they have just added the full live stream video vs. just the
polished edited version I was commenting on earlier.
~~~
_wmd
Maybe stating the obvious, but you are watching a commercial :)
------
nordsieck
Start 31:16
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=31m16s&v=ZUV53Nn3PhA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=31m16s&v=ZUV53Nn3PhA)
Launch 1:09:50
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=69m50s&v=ZUV53Nn3PhA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=69m50s&v=ZUV53Nn3PhA)
~~~
nordsieck
Looks like they edited the livestream.
Launch 38:41
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=38m41s&v=ZUV53Nn3PhA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=38m41s&v=ZUV53Nn3PhA)
------
loeg
Direct link (to the video included in the article as of this writing):
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSDHM6iuogI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSDHM6iuogI)
.
(Edit: Note that it's an earlier launch from December. They've pulled the
livestream video of this launch, which is
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUV53Nn3PhA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUV53Nn3PhA)
.)
~~~
wmf
Note that's from December; there's another flight today but that isn't it.
~~~
rory096
The webcast was removed from Youtube when it ended — we'll have to wait for
them to recut and reupload it.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUV53Nn3PhA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUV53Nn3PhA)
------
iamcreasy
Can anybody answer me, why BlueOrigin has to detach the passenger module?
Can't they just land the passenger module with the booster since the booster
have such controlled landing?
~~~
jessriedel
I don't know, but one possibility is that they think it's easier to ensure the
extremely high degree of safety with a separate parachute capsule. If the
boosters can be recovered 99% of the time, but are destroyed 1% of the time,
that would be plenty reliable to drastically cut the cost of the trip but
obviously not reliable enough for humans. And it might not make sense to bring
that reliability to something like 0.1% or 0.01%, which you need for humans,
if it doubles the cost of the booster.
------
ckdarby
Curious what happens if the parachute for the landing capsule fails or only
one deploys? Does it spin out of control and not land at 1 mph?
~~~
shirro
They tested that already. They can land with two just fine. There is video on
their youtube channel
[https://youtu.be/xYYTuZCjZcE?t=2m10s](https://youtu.be/xYYTuZCjZcE?t=2m10s)
where they test this.
They also tested an emergency escape from the booster near maximum dynamic
pressure
[https://youtu.be/ESc_0MgmqOA?t=51s](https://youtu.be/ESc_0MgmqOA?t=51s)
~~~
greglindahl
Yes, a one-chute-fails test is standard for these sorts of systems.
~~~
ckdarby
What about a two-chute fail?
------
callesgg
It is fun to see that they are trying to get some publicity the same way that
spacex has pulled of so nicely.
I guess they could work on the polish of the video.
I have become quite used to the insane production value levels that spacex
has. I have asked myself how many people is involved in just the
filming/streaming of spacex launches on multiple occasions.
------
elvirs
'beautiful soft landing' ? really? at the beginning of the video she said the
capsule will touch the ground at 1-2 mph speed because the rockets will come
on kicking up dust and all. no visible dust and speed went from constant 16-17
mph in last 5 seconds to 0. Did the rockets fail?
~~~
rory096
As she said, it happens in the last _milliseconds_. You can see the cloud of
dust kicked up just before impact at 49:00 in the video — that the speed
reduction didn't make it to the on-screen indicator is probably more a
reflection of the short time window than the rockets failing.
Compare to the nominal landing at 1:14 in this video.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSDHM6iuogI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSDHM6iuogI)
~~~
plicense
Pardon me for the stupid question, but how is bringing the speed down to 0
milliseconds before landing by firing the rocket thrusters different from just
letting the capsule hit the ground? I thought the thrusters were there to make
the passengers not feel the inertia due to sudden arrest of speed from
16-17mph to 0mph. Firing the thrusters milliseconds before landing seems to
have the same effect as just letting the capsule hit the ground? Or is it to
protect the capsule itself?
~~~
kevan
I'm a bit rusty on my physics, but the general idea is that with both methods
the total impulse (force over a time interval) is the same. The capsule goes
from 16mph to 0mph.
But, if you let the ground stop you, you end up with all of the energy
transfer in a few milliseconds. Because the time is so short, the force spikes
to crazy high levels. This breaks equipment and people. The rockets firing
spread out that force over a longer period of time.
For example (all numbers made up):
Time the ground takes to stop you: 25ms
Time rockets fire before touchdown: 100ms
Landing capsule weight: 2000kg
Impulse needed to stop capsule: 7.15264m/s * 2000kg = 14300Ns
Assuming in both cases the force is evenly applied over the time period...
Force from the ground stopping you: 14300Ns / 25ms = 572,000N
Force from the rockets + the ground: 14300Ns / (100ms + 25ms) = 115,000N
------
akaryocyte
It feels odd to see such a transparent exhaust from a rocket
~~~
saagarjha
The Space Shuttle burned hydrogen and produced water, none of which are really
easily visible to the human eye. If you look closely at a launch you might be
a able to catch a glimpse of the heat shimmer from the main engine.
~~~
greglindahl
Worth noting that you're talking about what's going on after the SRBs finish
firing. The solids produce a lot of visible exhaust.
~~~
exDM69
The space shuttle main engines did fire at liftoff while the SRBs were firing.
They may be a bit hard to see at launch but the exhaust mach diamonds are
clearly visible e.g. in [0]. They were much more clearly visible in the 7-ish
seconds before liftoff, after the SSMEs had been ignited but before the SRBs
go off.
[0]
[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/STS120La...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/STS120LaunchHiRes-
edit1.jpg)
~~~
greglindahl
Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that the SSMEs were not firing at liftoff. Since
they fire for a few seconds before the SRBs get lit, I suspect most people
know what's going on with them.
------
newnewpdro
Didn't it seem like the capsule speed suddenly dropped from ~18MPH to 0MPH at
landing? I was under the impression there would be a short burn smoothing that
transition, it did not appear to be the case to me.
Also, the whole commercial advertisement format of the launch is far too
contrived. Hearing the host describe the capsule window as gorgeous cheapens
the entire thing, it's like I'm watching home shopping network.
~~~
jessriedel
The burn just before impact is very short. It is designed to ensure there are
no injuries, but not to make the landing feather soft. I don't know what the
technical restrictions are that motivate this, but I'm sure the design choice
is deliberate; the Soyuz landing is very similar.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l7MM9yoxII&feature=youtu.be...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l7MM9yoxII&feature=youtu.be&t=17m38s)
------
__john
The exciting bit
[https://youtu.be/ZUV53Nn3PhA?t=4202](https://youtu.be/ZUV53Nn3PhA?t=4202)
------
zargath
Im a huge SpaceX fan, but Blueorigin's New Shepard does seem more robust.
Maybe just because its a smaller and more thick rocket, but somehow by not
being as spectacular it makes space travel more "normal" as we all hope it
someday will become.
~~~
ceejayoz
> Im a huge SpaceX fan, but Blueorigin's New Shepard does seem more robust.
That's a little like comparing a F1 racer to a wheelbarrow, isn't it? Both are
immensely useful for specific things, and would fail miserably if applied to
the other's thing. New Shepard is cool, and I'd love to hop in it some day,
but it's doing a little up-and-down suborbital hop. The two launchers have
totally different purposes, and are constructed in entirely different ways as
a result.
------
pipboy
why not show metric units, only on screen if not while they present. Please :)
------
FPGAhacker
Hey listen, people that work at these companies also like and read hackernews.
Maybe try to have a little compassion before you sound off with thoughtless
comments like “it looks cartoonish compared to spacex.”
People work pretty damn hard on these things that you piss on without a care.
~~~
jessriedel
More important than the feelings of employees is probably just the fact that
HN doesn't need uninformed comments talking exclusively about how the music in
the video makes the commenter feel, or which company they think is cooler.
~~~
bkor
> uninformed comments talking exclusively about how the music in the video
> makes the commenter feel
If someone is talking exclusively about themselves, why is this considered
uninformed?!?
~~~
jessriedel
I don't mean "uninformed about the comment's claim", I mean "uniformed about
the topic of discussion"
------
jacquesm
I hope internally Blue Origin uses the metric system, it's been a long time
since Miles per hour and feet were used to talk about rocketry, NASA learned
this the hard way.
[http://edition.cnn.com/TECH/space/9909/30/mars.metric.02/](http://edition.cnn.com/TECH/space/9909/30/mars.metric.02/)
~~~
rory096
>it's been a long time since Miles per hour and feet were used to talk about
rocketry
Falcon 9 is built on the imperial system, as are Atlas and Delta. SpaceX is
only switching to metric with BFR.
~~~
justinclift
Ouch. They use Siemens NX, which AFAIR has to be set to _either_ metric _or_
imperial for all models and assemblies.
Getting them mixed up sounds potentially risky. :/
Definitely would expect they've added some automatic safety checks around
that, which is quite do-able in NX from memory.
------
notaki
BO, lol.
------
pavs
Looks a bit cartoonish compared to falcon9. I know they have a different
purpose and are different in size.
~~~
CommieBobDole
I agree, though 'different purpose' might even be understating it a bit. While
impressive, New Shepard is really just a small-scale test vehicle, designed to
do exactly what you see here and nothing more; it goes straight up and comes
straight down; it can't get anywhere near orbital altitude or orbital speed -
on the latter, it maxes out around 2000 mph, which is about 15,000 mph short
of orbital velocity.
I don't want to minimize what Blue Origin is doing here; they've got a good
test vehicle, smart people, lots of funding, and ambitious plans, and they
will no doubt be very successful, but what SpaceX does with the Falcon 9 on a
regular basis is orders of magnitude more difficult and impressive.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The best car in the world - cocoflunchy
http://gearpatrol.com/2015/08/10/best-car-world/
======
JoeAltmaier
...except for the 50-minute refuel time.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Bauhaus: Last Rites - daddy_drank
https://the-easel.com/essays/bauhaus-a-failed-utopia-3/
======
eternalban
And that is not "Bauhaus". The building in question definitively looks like a
Corbu clone.
[https://www.archdaily.com/806115/ad-classics-master-plan-
for...](https://www.archdaily.com/806115/ad-classics-master-plan-for-
chandigarh-le-corbusier)
I've always admired Nervi's concrete works:
[https://www.google.com/search?q=nervi+concrete+buildings&btn...](https://www.google.com/search?q=nervi+concrete+buildings&btnG=Search&hl=en&tbm=isch)
------
xtiansimon
Meis dismisses the Breuer and Nevi church which is shown at the opening of the
article: “It is a sheet of concrete that pretends to be nothing else. It looks
more or less like a giant sidewalk lifted up and placed horizontally across
the sky.”
Strikes me as manipulating criticism. The author freely admits to having not
visited the site, so his criticism is really about his impressions of the
photograph.
Of the Eiffel Tower, it’s said French author “...Guy de Maupassant ate lunch
everyday at the base of The Eiffel Tower, because that was the only place in
Paris from which he could not see it...”
I’ve not visited this church, but I can fully imagine if you stood underneath
the bell tower would cast a most unique shadow and not have the same
impression of lifted sidewalk. Pfft!
Now, Breuer’s Norton Shores church? Looks like a hideous bunker (in the
photo). Haha
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Intercepting USSD calls in Android - scorpioxy
http://www.codedemigod.com/intercepting-ussd-calls-in-android/
======
scorpioxy
Happy to answer any questions.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Making of Apple’s Emoji - Doubleguitars
https://medium.com/@agzmn/the-making-of-apples-emoji-how-designing-these-tiny-icons-changed-my-life-16317250a9ee
======
xwvvvvwx
Must be an incredible feeling to have designed and drawn what is fast becoming
a core part of our language.
Although looks like the pile of poo and ice cream no longer use the same
swirl:
[https://emojipedia.org/pile-of-poo/](https://emojipedia.org/pile-of-poo/)
[https://emojipedia.org/soft-ice-cream/](https://emojipedia.org/soft-ice-
cream/)
~~~
pantalaimon
They are still the same in WhatsApp
~~~
Slartie
WhatsApp seems to be an interesting case with regard to Emoji history anyway.
Am I right that they appear to have copied Apple's emoji library at some time
in the past and reused those on all platforms (except iPhone, of course)
instead of the native emoji symbols that those platforms also started to
provide? Are they still doing that today?
I remember talking to confused Android users many years ago, when all this
Emoji and WhatsApp craze started (I'm from Germany, where there are a lot of
Android users and WhatsApp is king among messaging services due to its
multiplatform capability, while iMessage isn't used nearly as much due to its
inherent limitation to iOS) and people saw me using Emojis in other apps on
iOS that were not WhatsApp. They were like "hey, how did you get those cute
WhatsApp icons out of WhatsApp and into that other app?". It got pretty clear
that many Android users associated the Emojis directly with WhatsApp instead
of recognizing them as a feature provided by the operating system, and that
seems to have been caused mostly by WhatsApp copying the iOS Emoji library
early on, when Android did not yet have Emojis or had different-looking ones.
~~~
mxstbr
Not only did they ship the iOS ones on Android for the longest while, but they
recently started testing a completely self-designed set of emojis on Android
that looks unlike any other!
See [http://www.androidpolice.com/2017/10/03/whatsapp-
introduces-...](http://www.androidpolice.com/2017/10/03/whatsapp-introduces-
emoji-set-latest-android-beta-v2-17-364/) and
[https://emojipedia.org/whatsapp/](https://emojipedia.org/whatsapp/) for the
full list.
~~~
currysausage
My girlfriend recently switched to iOS just because she wants those emojis
back for WhatsApp. Can’t even blame her!
~~~
acct1771
Hieroglyphic society....
------
ElmntOfSurprise
I liked the old Android emoji much more and was disappointed that they lost
the race for becoming the standard. It used to be possible to express the
emotion of being content that is not exaggerated by showing teeth or blushing
[1], and "weary face" could be used to humorously express exhaustion [2] while
it now seems to stand for "my house burned down" [3] (I especially miss "weary
cat face" [4]). The Apple emoji look like they were designed for people with
emotional agnosia.
I guess one could argue that emojis are supposed to express the essence of an
emotion to the fullest extent, but just like with color pigments it is nice to
have dilutions.
(At least they got rid of that awful, awful grinning emoji [5].)
[1] [https://emojipedia.org/google/android-4.4/smiling-face-
with-...](https://emojipedia.org/google/android-4.4/smiling-face-with-open-
mouth/)
[2] [https://emojipedia.org/google/android-4.4/weary-
face/](https://emojipedia.org/google/android-4.4/weary-face/)
[3] [https://emojipedia.org/apple/ios-11.2/weary-
face/](https://emojipedia.org/apple/ios-11.2/weary-face/)
[4] [https://emojipedia.org/google/android-4.4/weary-cat-
face/](https://emojipedia.org/google/android-4.4/weary-cat-face/)
[5]
[https://assets.change.org/photos/2/by/dr/IcbYdrlxwuCPHHJ-800...](https://assets.change.org/photos/2/by/dr/IcbYdrlxwuCPHHJ-800x450-noPad.jpg?1474087343)
~~~
_xander
There's a study that was done on that grinning emoji - and the
miscommunication it can cause. I'm glad they fixed it:
[https://grouplens.org/blog/investigating-the-potential-
for-m...](https://grouplens.org/blog/investigating-the-potential-for-
miscommunication-using-emoji/)
------
fredley
See also this interview with Susan Kare, who designed the first set of icons
for Mac:
[https://web.stanford.edu/dept/SUL/sites/mac/primary/intervie...](https://web.stanford.edu/dept/SUL/sites/mac/primary/interviews/kare/trans.html)
------
kuroguro
_> I had no idea that within a few months of completing such project, it would
revolutionize our culture’s way of communicating_
I'm pretty sure emojis were all over the internet before apple - forums, chat
apps, IMs etc? Were they the first ones to include them in the default SMS app
or something?
~~~
oakesm9
I believe they were used a lot in Japan and Apple created them initially for
that market as well. They were one of the first to make them accessible in the
west though.
~~~
archagon
IIRC, for the longest time, you couldn't even get the emoji keyboard on
Western devices without some sort of weird kludge.
~~~
rangibaby
Putting a magic number into the “magic number” app unlocked emoji on any
iThing iirc.
------
aglionby
Smilies on the old phpBB [0] forum software etc. must've been around for
longer than emoji. This[1] particular set gives me a lot of nostalgia, but I
can't remember what forum software it was packaged with. Things got pretty
extravagant, I can't really imagine these[2] being useful in everyday
conversation (potentially slightly NSFW)! Hell, even MSN Messenger had them.
Looking at these brings back all kinds of memories from the BBs I frequented a
decade or so ago.
[0] [http://i.imgur.com/LuZeOn7.png](http://i.imgur.com/LuZeOn7.png)
[1] [https://4.img-
dpreview.com/files/p/E~forums/58700537/8eea8bf...](https://4.img-
dpreview.com/files/p/E~forums/58700537/8eea8bf64a73466d8929da0488d74605)
[2]
[https://forums.somethingawful.com/misc.php?action=showsmilie...](https://forums.somethingawful.com/misc.php?action=showsmilies)
~~~
gsnedders
> Smilies on the old phpBB [0] forum software etc. must've been around for
> longer than emoji.
Emoji started appearing in the late 90s; phpBB is "only" 2000.
------
asmosoinio
Can someone explain to me what these parent could be about?
> It should be noted that although Raymond and I, Angela Guzman, are the
> original Apple emoji designers responsible for the initial batch of close to
> 500 characters ( _and were awarded a US patent for them_ )...
~~~
tinus_hn
Probably a design patent, which is a completely different thing than a patent
you get for an invention. It grants someone an exclusive right to an
ornamental design.
~~~
asmosoinio
Interesting, had never heard of a Design Patent before. Or at least was not
actively aware what that is.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_patent](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_patent)
------
checker659
What is Raymond's full name?
~~~
reubenmorais
Raymond seems to be Raymond Sepulveda -
[http://www.xanthic.net/about/](http://www.xanthic.net/about/)
~~~
checker659
Thankyou
------
barronlroth
What about Willem Van Lancker, who claims to have created 400 of the 500
original emoji characters at Apple?
[http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/emoji-2012-12/](http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/emoji-2012-12/)
------
amelius
I just noticed that HN strips out the unicode emoticons.
For example here's supposed to be a smiley face:
(but it's not there)
[http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/263a/index.htm](http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/263a/index.htm)
~~~
applecrazy
I think comments are in ascii, not unicode.
~~~
eric_h
¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
HN strips out a bunch of emoji unicode, but some unicode is allowed to get
through.
------
gadders
//OFFTOPIC
The author says:
>>Designer at Google with a RISD sleeping pattern.
What is an RISD sleeping pattern?
~~~
healeycodes
She's referring to the Rhode Island School of Design, her alma mater.
~~~
gadders
Thank you. I thought it was some disorder or type of polyphasic sleep or
something.
------
erikrothoff
I remember first seeing emoji on Github and that they were very early those
emoticons. I'd love to know more about the story there. I did some Googling
and found nothing...
~~~
whyever
GitHub is not so old, it started in 2008 IIRC.
------
amelius
I'm missing two smiley icons:
-big hypocritical smile
-not impressed
And I'm missing the option to create and send my own emoticons as SVG.
~~~
oblio
I basically want all the old Yahoo Messenger smileys, updated for higher
resolution displays: [https://usefulshortcuts.com/yahoo-messenger/smileys-
emoticon...](https://usefulshortcuts.com/yahoo-messenger/smileys-
emoticons.php)
We have a billion emojis yet we're missing some of the basic ones...
~~~
mixmastamyk
Those were great, the hug for example is so much better.
------
yuhong
I wonder if Sundar would be willing to attend Unicode UTC meetings.
------
ivanb
Either I'm too old or I don't get how to use Emojis. I only use them to add
tone or express my feelings or attitude so I use maybe five to ten most common
emoticons. Eggplant, ice cream or almost any kind of other "factual" icons are
completely useless to me. I would rather have more readable and expressive
emoticons than hundreds of useless figurines. It would be nice to see if
people indeed use them.
My favorite emoticons are Koloboks [1][2]. They are very expressive and
adorable. There were also static versions of the emoticons and they were
almost equally as expressive.
[1]
[http://www.en.kolobok.us/content_plugins/gallery/gallery.php...](http://www.en.kolobok.us/content_plugins/gallery/gallery.php?smiles.2)
[2]
[http://www.en.kolobok.us/content_plugins/gallery/gallery.php](http://www.en.kolobok.us/content_plugins/gallery/gallery.php)
~~~
tabs_masterrace
Its about being a standard. The good thing about Emojis is they are part of
Unicode and are now almost baked into everything natively. Vendors have
slightly different art, but the same meaning is always conveyed. And there's a
whole lot of them. It's like a international standardized pictogram language,
and no surprise it became popular in Asia first. Just think about how you can
already use Emojis to do some basic communication with someone on the street
of Beijing or Tokyo.
~~~
madeofpalk
> but the same meaning is always conveyed
Debatable. [https://medium.com/matter/lost-in-emoji-translation-apple-
vs...](https://medium.com/matter/lost-in-emoji-translation-apple-vs-
android-648fdd57ca25)
Old article, and Android is/has ditched the blobs, but still highlights the
importance of the art in conveying the same meaning.
~~~
andrepd
That article misses the gravest one in my opinion: toy water gun vs actual gun
[https://emojipedia.org/pistol/](https://emojipedia.org/pistol/)
~~~
Fej
That has to be the most idiotic emoji implementation - clearly not what the
Unicode Consortium intended, and borderline against the specification.
~~~
abritinthebay
> clearly not what the Unicode Consortium intended, and borderline against the
> specification.
While I think the change was a bit silly so this this hyperbolic and unfounded
statement.
The specification merely states "pistol" and uses a silhouette of a gun as
it's reference. Even if you argue that the reference is clearly an automatic
pistol (reasonable) the specification in fact specifically states _" The
shapes of the reference glyphs used in these code charts are not prescriptive.
Considerable variation is to be expected in actual fonts."_
So, as much as I disagree with the change (the intent was... well meaning if,
I think, misguided) it is not only _not_ "against the specification" \- it's
directly in line with guidance of the specification.
------
craigsmansion
These just about symbolise everything wrong with the modern web.
Whereas the humble ascii emoticon was a fun exercise in pareidolia--as an
emotional aside to whimsically add a little lightness to proper writing, they
have now been standardised, streamlined and commercialised, and are used as a
substitute for proper writing, turning everything they're supposed to
represent into a lie--a Web of lies.
Popularity seems to be the death-knell for anything cute, quirky, quaint, or
mildly amusing with its initial charm being brutally curb-stomped by the one-
size-fits-all boot of commercial interests.
> it would revolutionize our culture’s way of communicating
Thanks for that :'( Sic transit gloria mundi. And no, I'm not being snooty: I
am _that old_!
------
rplnt
First of all, I absolutely loathe emojis and hate that they are on by default
with no (easy) way to disable (turn into flat glyphs in the color of the text,
not :some_stupid_name: as some applications offer).
Having dozens of sets of emojis that look quite different doesn't help either
(on web in particular). And there's not that much coherence within the sets
either. Apple in particular is really bad at this. For example, beer[1] looks
like a photo, whereas crap[2] is in a completely different style. Each
individual one can be nice and well thought out, but it makes them all look
bad if they don't fit together.
(Twitter's are much better in this regard)
1\. [https://emojipedia.org/beer-mug/](https://emojipedia.org/beer-mug/)
2\. [https://emojipedia.org/pile-of-poo/](https://emojipedia.org/pile-of-poo/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
This Is the First Known Image of DARPA's Submarine-Hunting Drone Ship - ourmandave
http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/exclusive-this-is-the-first-known-image-of-darpas-subm-1759205822
======
PhantomGremlin
Weird. If it's unmanned and unarmed, whats to prevent pirates from boarding it
and taking it over?
Said "pirates" could perhaps come from a nearby Russian trawler? Or maybe they
could be actual pirates from Eastern Africa? Maybe they're planning on keeping
these things way out in the ocean, 1000+ miles from any potentially hostile
coast?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
MetaLab's Andrew Wilkinson redesigns TED.com - alibosworth
http://dribbble.com/shots/702217-TED-com-Rethink
======
eps
Meh would be the word. TED has personality and vibe. This doesn't, or rather
its vibe is that of an iPhone app site - generic and instantly forgettable.
------
oxwrist
It's pretty, but that's about it. I like the current design better.
------
onetwothreefour
Meh.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Mudflap: Pointer Use Checking for C/C++ - nkurz
http://gcc.fyxm.net/summit/2003/mudflap.pdf
======
tolmasky
I really wish I could use Readability on all these Scribed PDFs.
~~~
chronomex
Seriously. Why do people publish to PDF anyway?
~~~
_delirium
In a lot of cases, like the one here, it's because they're publishing for a
conference or journal that takes submissions as PDF, not for the web. Then
they just put the same PDF on the internet.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Show HN: SvgVerlet.js a SVG-based physics library - miketucker
http://mike-tucker.com/
======
miketucker
Github Repo: [https://github.com/miketucker/svg-
verlet.js](https://github.com/miketucker/svg-verlet.js)
All pages are based on an SVG file, such as: [http://mike-
tucker.com/13/svg/hello.svg](http://mike-tucker.com/13/svg/hello.svg)
After loading into the engine, optional plugins and effects are added:
Gravity, wind, mouse attractors, etc.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Tinker – Create duration-based goals on your iPhone - joekndy
http://leef.io/tinker
======
carlaldrich
It would be cool to track some history / time spent on different things. As it
stands it does not seem differentiated enough from the native timer (or a
watch, for that matter).
------
shadesandcolour
I hope that their next feature is the ability to queue up a bunch of goals for
the day. Scheduling something for an hour from now is nice, but being able to
say "I would like to do x,y and z today for this many minutes each" would be a
nice thing to have. As it stands right now this is pretty similar to the built
in clock app.
~~~
c3
there's an app called Habit List (ios) that pretty much does that.
------
Artemis2
No Android app, no Windows Phone app. This is not an application suited for
modern smartphone world.
~~~
andr
As an app just launching it'd make sense to try product-market fit on one
platform before investing in all three.
~~~
noahtkoch
I don't know, he has a point, look at Instagram, Vine, and Clear. All very
unsuccessful apps, all launched exclusively on iPhone first. /s
~~~
dpcx
Using the term "unsuccessful" with Instragram and Vine is a bit misleading,
IMHO. Instagram got a rather large (even if undeserved) purchase, and Vine is
huge.
~~~
ceejayoz
I think that was the (sarcastic) point.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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NPM v5.7.0 - el_duderino
http://blog.npmjs.org/post/171139955345/v570
======
r1ch
Beware that this release seems to destroy your filesystem if run via sudo.
[https://github.com/npm/npm/issues/19883](https://github.com/npm/npm/issues/19883)
~~~
fabian2k
This is a pre-release not a final one. But running npm update -g seems to
install the 5.7.0 pre-release, due to a second bug, so some people will still
hit the filesystem permissions bug in practice, even if they don't try to
explicitly install this specific release.
~~~
lolikoisuru
>This is a pre-release not a final one.
Which is __not __mentioned anywhere in the linked blog post.
~~~
fabian2k
Which is why I explicitly mentioned that, as the blog post is likely to
confuse people in this regard.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Why “Growing the Economy” Doesn’t Even Make Sense - mindstab
https://medium.com/@girlziplocked/why-growing-the-economy-doesn-t-even-make-sense-c2a3900d8403#.wxul8jcxb
======
AnimalMuppet
The assertion is "growing the economy does not benefit the average person; the
rich take all the gains". Well, let's think about moving in the opposite
direction: "Shrinking the economy does not hurt the average person; the rich
will take all the damage".
When I put it that way, the statement seems (at least to me) much less
believable. So we have a statement about the shape of the productivity-vs-
personal-well-being graph that seems believable if we move one direction, but
seems unbelievable if we move the other direction. That makes me much more
skeptical of the whole idea.
I think it's more likely to be the case that we aren't recognizing all the
ways that productivity is enhancing the average person's well-being.
------
bufordsharkley
This is sloppily argued, but it's essentially right about a lot of things.
(You can hear the same arguments, albeit made with much more clarity, 150
years ago in Henry George's "Progress and Poverty.")
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
"This page is best viewed from the United States" - jodoglevy
http://chronline.posterous.com/this-page-is-best-viewed-outside-the-us
======
morsch
I thought this would be about content restrictions that prevent international
users from seeing the same stuff as US users.
Most of his arguments seem to apply to access from the US just as they apply
to international access. He describes his experiences with slow network access
in various countries, but slow mobile internet access exists in the US (and
other developed countries) as well -- either because you're so rural that
you're lucky to get even 2G data, or because you're _so urban_ that the 3G
bandwidth is clogged. Granted, slow access is probably more widespread in non-
US, developing or underdeveloped countries.
Either way, yes, obviously you should try to minimize your site's download
size, and a full-featured but minimalistic version of a site is a very good
thing to have.
The only thing that seems to me to apply only to international access is the
advice to make your site available through an international CDN.
------
latch
I wish people didn't use S3 in lieu of a CDN.
From Hong Kong on a 100mbps line (and I can hit 11MB up and down):
10mb binary file
S3 US Standard avg 112k/s took 1:31
S3 Singapore avg 1290K/s took 0:07
S3 Tokyo avg 895K/s took 0:11
Cloudfront avg 8758k/sec took 0:01
Latency to Singapore is around 50ms, latency to Cloudfront is < 4ms.
~~~
dredmorbius
CloudFront _is_ S3-backed CDN.
~~~
coderdude
You can use S3 as an origin server for CloudFront but it's not serving files
directly from S3. CloudFront has "edge locations" that you can push files to
from S3 -- which "stores the original, definitive versions of your files."[1]
[1] <http://aws.amazon.com/cloudfront/pricing/>
~~~
dredmorbius
Thanks. Still picking this up myself.
~~~
enjo
It's important to note that Cloudfront also supports custom origins, so it
doesn't even have to involve s3 these days.
------
xiaoma
> _"Some big cities like Taipei, Beijing, and Singapore have government
> sponsored free public wireless more or less all throughout the city"_
Bullshit. I just moved from Beijing. Not only is there no government sponsored
wireless all throughout the city, but internet cafes must record each
customer's ID info before you can log-on. Even McDonalds' free internet for
customers requires identification (which is troublesome for foreigners or
anyone without national ID cards).
I was in Singapore less than three months ago, and found no public free wifi
during my stay. On the good side, many, many cafes there offer wifi and it's
not locked down like in Beijing.
Taiwan, on the other hand is making strides with their new service rolled out
last October.
------
swiecki
This could really use a lot of editing. Far too much of it is whining about
slow internet that doesn't reach a meaningful conclusion, but instead
generalizes from his anecdote.
If anyone is reading comments before reading the article, I recommend scanning
it quickly. You won't miss anything.
------
sandieman
Not that this matters but relative to the other sites listed going after
"world domination" dukechronicle has much higher % of US based traffic.
------
chsnow
Good article, thanks.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How I came up with my product name - infocaptor
http://www.mockuptiger.com/mockuptiger-in-the-zoo
======
code_duck
Thinking up names sure can be tricky. Name trends are silly for web
businesses, no doubt - word+ ster, word +r, and now word + ly.
MockupTiger actually fits a name trend I call 'adjective animal', which is
very popular in the jewelry and gallery world - Sleepy Lizard Designs, Golden
Swallow Jewelry, Soaring Eagle, stuff like that. I suppose there are web
businesses with that sort of name, too, MailChimp for instance. It's a good
combination - animals are symbolic, memorable, and having a mascot works well
for many types of marketing and branding.
Just make sure nobody confuses you with my personal favorite auction site,
<http://valuetiger.com/> !
~~~
infocaptor
I forgot about mailchimp. yep that one is an animal :)
------
infocaptor
Does anyone else find the number + word naming strategy annoying? I am
referring to people naming websites similar to 37signals
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Thesis Theme is now using a split GPLv2 license - PStamatiou
http://twitter.com/pearsonified/status/19288707443
======
briandoll
This has been really interesting to watch unfold. Starting with Andrew
Warner's tweet (<http://twitter.com/AndrewWarner/status/18538556171>) "How can
I get @photomatt & @pearsonified on Mixergy right now to talk? I bet I can
bring peace here."
I've loved the Mixergy interviews in the past, but this shows just how good
Andrew really is. He never pit them against one another, and really helped
them each clarify their points in a last-minute interview that easily could
have turned hostile.
Now that the code is on the GPL (the php at least), we can thank Andrew for
brining peace!
~~~
pavs
It couldn't have turned hostile, because one of the two was level headed and
non-combative. The other guy was just talking gibberish.
~~~
slouch
i contend that the audio quality on the live feed was degrading a few of
matt's smart-assed sentence-ending chuckles. he also made one completely
inflammatory comment that andrew condemned. sure, chris let his passion get
the best of him, but matt trolled him more than once.
------
PStamatiou
and in another tweet:
"The PHP is GPLv2; CSS, JS, and images are proprietary."
<http://twitter.com/pearsonified/status/19288875981>
~~~
cheald
Which is perfectly reasonable, according to what I know of the GPL and how it
has been ruled to apply to software packages in the past.
Good on him for license compliance.
------
pavs
Finally, sanity ensured. Maybe he watched his own interview and realized how
dubious his reasoning was.
~~~
duck
Maybe he watched his own interview and realized Matt might actually take him
to court.
------
joshuacc
Finally. It seemed to me completely obvious that CSS, images, etc. couldn't be
forced into GPL. The PHP still seems a bit of a gray area, but at least now
there's a semblance of consensus.
~~~
gabrielroth
I don't think CSS and images were a sticking point. If my recollection holds,
when Matt asked the Software Freedom Law Center for an opinion on Thesis, they
said that the PHP would have to be GPL'd and the other elements wouldn't have
to be.
------
dotBen
Twitter status update aside, I couldn't find this documented/posted on
Thesis's diythemes.com site.
I'd like to see the license and exactly how and what has been dual licensed.
Anyone have any info?
~~~
slouch
"@keener You can view the split GPL license in the new DIYthemes Terms of
Service: <http://bit.ly/a4WozG>
<http://twitter.com/pearsonified/status/19294129775>
~~~
PStamatiou
from the site:
2\. Intellectual Property License
Thesis General PHP License The PHP code portions of Thesis are subject to the
GNU General Public License, version 2. All images, cascading style sheets, and
JavaScript elements are released under the Thesis Proprietary Use License
below.
Thesis Proprietary Use License The Thesis Proprietary Use License is a GPL
compatible license that applies only to the images, cascading style sheets,
and JavaScript files contained in Thesis. These elements are the copyrighted
intellectual property of DIYthemes and cannot be redistributed or used in any
fashion other than as provided in this Agreement.
NOTICE: Distribution of Thesis in its entirety inherently violates the Thesis
Proprietary Use License. Further, use of the Thesis brand (trademark) to
distribute the GPL portions of Thesis is a violation of trademark law.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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IEEE publishes draft report on 'ethically aligned' AI design - miraj
http://www.zdnet.com/article/ieee-publishes-draft-report-on-ethically-aligned-ai-design/
======
miraj
the report :: (.pdf)
"Ethically Aligned Design: A Vision for Prioritizing Human Wellbeing with
Artificial Intelligence and Autonomous Systems (AI/AS)"
[http://standards.ieee.org/develop/indconn/ec/ead_v1.pdf](http://standards.ieee.org/develop/indconn/ec/ead_v1.pdf)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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The EU's bizarre war on memes is totally unwinnable - jkaljundi
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/eu-meme-war-article-13-regulation
======
DanBC
Because most people on HN have never read this, here is article 13:
Article 13
Use of protected content by information society service providers storing and
giving access to large amounts of works and other subject-matter uploaded by
their users
1.Information society service providers that store and provide to the public
access to large amounts of works or other subject-matter uploaded by their
users shall, in cooperation with rightholders, take measures to ensure the
functioning of agreements concluded with rightholders for the use of their
works or other subject-matter or to prevent the availability on their services
of works or other subject-matter identified by rightholders through the
cooperation with the service providers. Those measures, such as the use of
effective content recognition technologies, shall be appropriate and
proportionate. The service providers shall provide rightholders with adequate
information on the functioning and the deployment of the measures, as well as,
when relevant, adequate reporting on the recognition and use of the works and
other subject-matter.
2.Member States shall ensure that the service providers referred to in
paragraph 1 put in place complaints and redress mechanisms that are available
to users in case of disputes over the application of the measures referred to
in paragraph 1.
3.Member States shall facilitate, where appropriate, the cooperation between
the information society service providers and rightholders through stakeholder
dialogues to define best practices, such as appropriate and proportionate
content recognition technologies, taking into account, among others, the
nature of the services, the availability of the technologies and their
effectiveness in light of technological developments.
------
wmf
Sorry to rain on the outrage parade, but I don't see any evidence of a "war on
memes". Sure, the EU might force Imgur to implement some kind of content ID
system and Hollywood _could_ register source images in that system to block
some memes, but the motivations for this new copyright law appear to have
nothing to do with memes.
~~~
probably_wrong
If I understand you correctly: it's not that this is a law against memes.
Rather, blocking memes is one of the unintended effects that the new law would
have, for the reason you said.
"War on memes" is a catchy nickname, the same way the Patriot act is not
really about patriotism.
~~~
Rjevski
Honestly, blocking memes would be the only good result of this law. I can’t
wait to see social networks cleaned of that crap.
------
malmsteen
But who is at the source of such a law ? I mean who's interest does it serve ?
Who had the idea.
Because afaik movie and music creators are already winning the piracy war
right ?
~~~
raverbashing
Old legislators that have no idea on how the internet works heavily backed by
copyright heavyweights that think they can still win this fight
------
goldenSilence
It's laughable to state that such a war is unwinnable.
Totalitarianism is a historic precedent which demonstrates the possibility of
propaganda supremacy.
It's only impossible to win a fight like this, if one refuses to do harm to
those who engage in the behavior being controlled. Make an example of a few
people, and wow, look at how quiet it gets.
(HN Moderators, feel free to chime in, lol)
------
mabynogy
It is. Make the EU collapse.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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SF Supervisor Pushes to Remove Zuckerberg Name from Hospital - Jerry2
https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/california/SF-Supervisor-Pushes-to-Remove-Zuckerberg-Name-From-Hospital-501491461.html
======
mc32
You know what? I dislike Zuck's company and what he does as much as anyone,
but this is naked revisionism and opportunism and pandering. Back in the day
the Supes were wagging their tongues and smiling broadly at the prospect.
No, sorry, give those $75 million back, if you want to remove the name. Don't
be a hypocrite.
My unrequitted wish is that one day SF gets a new city charter made for adults
with kids in mind. These supes always, always look for the lamest things to
hang their hats on and boast what a wonderful job they are doing. You got
needles, you got homeless, you got people who can't afford rent, you have
jobless, drug abuse, infrastructure which needs retrofitting, MUNI, etc., etc.
let’s not worry about that. Let’s take a name down!!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Testing a e1/t1 card before shipping to haiti - aaronzinman
Hi friendly HN peoples,<p>We're shipping a server to Haiti, ideally Friday for an MIT project (konbit.media.mit.edu). It is a voice-based service that interfaces with the public via ordinary telephones. The goal is to make it easier to employ Haitian nationals rather than bringing in foreign contractors (the norm). It is 100% free & open source.<p>It will be hosed by Digicel, the main telcom down there. We have a Digium telephony card that connects to them via E1 channels. The card can do T1 and J1.<p>Does anyone have any equipment/T1 lines we can use to test the actual card before shipping it? Once we ship it is will be very difficult and expensive to try to deal with any broken cards.<p><obvious>We're in Boston/Cambridge, so you should be too.</obvious><p>We're reachable at konbit at-sign media.mit.edu<p>Thanks,
Aaron & Greg
======
noonespecial
We use sangoma here. (Far more reliable than digium in our experience). We
just set up a test bench with extra cards (a cisco 1720 with t1 wic for data
and an asterisk box with another sangoma in master mode for simulating a
telco). This allows us to test with any of the bazillion different line
protocols you're likely to face on site (especially in a 3rd world setting).
Also when we face the inevitable problems on site, we can simulate Apollo 13
style at home base to work out solutions.
~~~
aaronzinman
That's a good idea. What were your problems with Digium cards?
Problem is we are on a very tight budget. Any money spent on testing is not on
phone calls, which means less jobs for the population.
~~~
noonespecial
We had problems with Digiums vanishing from lspci and never working again (mid
operation). Tech support vanished as well.
Sangoma was a completely different animal. Techsupport wrote patches _just for
us_ to help us get going on our wacky custom kernel for embedded devices. I
think if you called sangoma and told them what you're up to, you are quite
likely to get a steep discount or even free gear.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Progressive Enhancement Makes Me Sad - oliverdunk
http://www.heydonworks.com/article/progressive-enhancement-makes-me-sad
======
fishtoaster
This is a weird piece, since it's clear by the end that it's satire, but he
has a few good points (whether he knows it or not):
1\. "But who’s to say there’s going to _be_ any users?" -> Which is true. If
you're just starting a project out, you have to decided whether it's worth an
extra X hours/days/weeks for any given bit of technical improvement, whether
it's progressive enhancement or something else. If it expands my potential
user base by 10%, but doubles my time to market, it may not be worth it.
2\. "The less time I spend on creating a robust architecture (boring) the more
time I have for creating features." -> Ignoring the "boring" remark, this is
true. I could spend a near infinite amount of time improving my architecture,
but at a certain point I reach diminishing returns. Where I cut off my
robustness work depends on the nature of the project, but every project has
_some_ point at which you'd improve user experience more by adding a feature
than improving performance. For an early prototype, that point may be quite
soon.
3\. "It’s all web apps now" -> I think the author is aware of this, but there
_are_ many apps which just don't fit particularly well into a document. It's
not clear whether the author really thinks all such apps are trivial (eg
detecting your dog's age), but I'd argue there are plenty of substantial apps
that don't fit that model well, and benefit substantially from being a full-on
js-heavy web app.
~~~
smadge
> whether it's worth an extra X hours/days/weeks for any given bit of
> technical improvement, whether it's progressive enhancement or something
> else
Progressive enhancement leads to less initial effort. Single page and script
heavy applications are more complex and take more time to develop and debug
than server side rendered applications. They often duplicate logic between the
client and the server. Alternatively, throw together some database queries and
hook them up to html templates, and you have the foundation for a
progressively enhancing site. You can then expend the extra effort to ENHANCE
your site by sprinkling in client side code and cutting edge css features.
~~~
fishtoaster
I suppose this is entirely subjective, but I have to disagree that an SPA is
inherently more complex and time-intensive that building equivalent
functionality mostly server-side. I split my time about evenly between
serverside development (Rails, then PHP before that, then Java before that)
and clientside (React, then Angular before that, then Backbone before that,
and jquery soup before that). I think it depends on the app, but I definitely
find certain kinds of apps are a lot easier in a large clientside framework.
Now, there are cases for each. Building a simple blog, you'd be right: a
server-rendered app with a sprinkling of JS for flavor would probably be a lot
easier. On the other hand, a site that behaves more like an app might be
quicker to build as an SPA. For example, an e-commerce site with complex
filtering (you can filter by size, but it goes 0-20 for shoes, sm-xl for
t-shirts, 10-70 for jeans, etc) and complex UI interactions available in-page
on each item such as one-click buying, searching for similar items, setting up
a price-alert, etc). You _could_ do that mostly server-side, but I'd argue
your frontend (at least on the item-browsing page) is heavier enough that it
may be easier to just build a js-first site to start with.
~~~
smadge
It all depends on the use case. I'm just trying to refute the parent comment.
In some situations, e.g. when you are starting with server side logic and
rendering, progressive enhancement is actually less effort. You get it for
free since all user agents support html. Some applications might justifiably
start out as single page applications. Other make more sense using the
metaphor of hyperlinked resources.
~~~
sanderjd
Here is my own personal experience: You're fighting user expectations by doing
things this way. Your users almost unanimously don't care how you architect
your application, but they are used to using Facebook, Gmail, Dropbox, AirBnB,
etc. etc. and they will eventually expect and ask you for the same sort of
experience, at which point you will put more time into tacking on dynamic
features to a static application than you would have spent designing a dynamic
application to begin with. Then you'll probably end up re-writing the complex
portions (and eventually all portions, because hybrids suck to maintain) in a
front-end framework and pulling out the back-end logic into a convenient API,
and coming to the conclusion that you would have started that way if you knew
you were going to end that way. Then you'll start looking at new applications
through that lens of whether your users will ever want that sort of dynamism,
and you'll start concluding pretty much every time (because nobody _ever_ asks
you to build a blog or publication site) that your users will want that sort
of thing, so you're better off going dynamic up front. Now you just have the
(smaller, IMO) problem of what to do about the users who don't want the
dynamic stuff, and if you're successful enough that you can afford to invest
in it, you can put the time into progressive enhancement, which (in my
opinion!) is easier than retro-fitting rich front-ends onto static apps.
This may all be wrong at each step, but hopefully it illuminates a bit how a
lot of us (otherwise sensible developers) ended up thinking it makes more
sense to start most things as rich-front-end+API apps.
------
rvdm
To me, the awkward "is this funny or not" approach to writing this article
fits in perfectly with the sentiment of the author (and my own) about the
subject.
In my 18 years as a web dev I've tumbled down every rabbit hole and been
caught by every trap ever.
We wanted animation? Great, learn some ActionScript. Now you want databases?
Add some MySQL and PHP. But then those weren't cool anymore and everything had
to be RoR and jQuery. Then we ended up writing monsters of jQuery code trying
to make sites feature packed and along came Backbone. After that there was
Angular, but then people realized SEO and accessibility still need to be
considered so now I spend my days writing what should have been as simple as:
<h1>Hello World</h1>
Like this:
React.createElement(
'h1',
{},
'Hello World'
);
So the solution to HTML is now to simply give up on HTML and write everything
in JavaScript…
I like React, Redux, Node, etc a lot. The fact we can have Universal and
Native React and that there finally is a robust solution to most ( all? ) web
dev problems is fantastic. But the overhead in development time is
significant. When possible I use these tools, but in a lot of cases, I just
give up on it all and end up writing straight up HTML divs without any
flexboxes or animations or shivs or shims or 5's or 3's. Just the good old
stuff I was writing back in 1998.
When comparing web development to something like developing for iOS, this full
circle we've made does feel painful ironic. So much so it's hard to tell if
it's funny or not.
Small note to the author : love the beautiful big font on your site but you
have some colliding elements on iPad portrait.
~~~
fishtoaster
If you can accomplish what you want with just html, you absolutely should! :)
It doesn't work for a lot of use-cases, but it's great if it fits your use-
case.
------
ebiester
For the most part, I think people are talking past each other. For sites that
are document-based toward a wide audience, progressive enhancement makes the
most sense. For application-centric sites (For example, an internal admin app,
or a B2B application where SEO and phones aren't the primary interface) why
would I spend the money for the extra work?
It's almost as if your use case should determine your strategy.
~~~
aarongustafson
> For application-centric sites (For example, an internal admin app, or a B2B
> application where SEO and phones aren't the primary interface) why would I
> spend the money for the extra work?
If you have control over the end-user's environment, by all means do whatever
you want. But when you don't (let's say your building an online banking site),
you should ensure your real users can access it (and their money) no matter
what.
Of course locking into specific technologies is why IE6 continues to persist
(Intranets, South Korean banks), so that's some additional food for thought.
It may not be a concern in your specific instance but it's a risk if you don't
use web standards.
> It's almost as if your use case should determine your strategy.
:-) I wish more folks thought that way. When all you have is a hammer…
------
pmalynin
We've faced this problem when we were deploying our Meteor application. The
issue in particular was mostly for crawlability purposes and Twitter/Facebook
metadata. The first issue (crawlability) -- which, of course, directly impacts
users who cannot run javascript such as search engines [1] -- can be solved
trivially by sticking phantomjs in front and redirecting server-side depending
on UA. Combined with NGINX's caching you can then serve these rendered pages
without needing to hit phantomjs every single time. The nice thing is, if you
don't prune the "script" tags from the rendered pages, you can then just serve
these cached pages back to the user. The HTML will be rendered, then if you
have JS enabled the Meteor (React | Angular | JSFrameworkOfChoice) it will
just re-render the page.
[1] I am aware that Google now can run JavaScript, but I've found it to be
rather bad and to mangle my pages in quite horrible ways.
------
jschwartzi
I completely agree with this post. Most people don't realize what a burden it
is to write websites that function while taking less than a gigabyte of ram
and four cores. You shouldn't be browsing the newspaper with a device that's
older than two years anyway.
~~~
hashkb
Read it again. You actually disagree with it.
~~~
dack
I'm pretty sure jschwartzi was kidding :)
------
hashkb
I was hoping for good arguments so I could justify laziness but am almost as
pleased to have that hope lampooned.
------
bjterry
Any additional technical requirements lead to more work (or less quality), and
progressive enhancement is obviously a technical requirement. I think this is
obvious if you think of even the most basic web interaction: form submission.
With progressive enhancement, you have to have one form submission that
doesn't use AJAX, which means it POSTs to the server and the server accepts
the POST and replies with a fully-formed HTML document. Then, because you want
to delight your users with animations and a responsive low-latency feel, you
have an AJAX version of the form, which posts to the server and receives a
JSON response for client-side template rendering. You can share some code
between these two, but because rendering the whole page requires completely
different data from rendering just the component you are updating, there is a
bunch of conditional code.
You essentially have to build two models of your application, one on the
server side which knows the state of your application (is this modal open, is
this widget showing, have they collapsed this widget) and one on the client
side that separately maintains all the same state and has transitions between
them that will result in identical html. It has to be this way, otherwise your
UI is not going to be responsive, animated and delightful for users, and
you're going to lose in the marketplace. Since you have two models of the
state of your app, now you have to make sure they are always in sync. All the
testing and bugs and complexity maintaining that dual state could instead be
spent on building the next great feature for your users.
Now obviously, this is sensitive to context. If you work for a giant
enterprise and have more programmers than you know what to do with and clear
product requirements set by the market, you can spend the time to build a
product that addresses 99% of the users, even if going from 80% to 99% takes
80% more work. But if you are a startup, and you are either racing with
competitors to build out the functionality demanded by users, or still
exploring the functionality that will see successful adoption of your product,
you'd be crazy to slow yourself down to get every user running NoScript, IE10,
or whatever other old browsers. You just need to get your product working for
some subset of passionate users, then you can spend more engineering resources
on supporting users with older devices once you've proven out the market.
Otherwise you may not be around to do so.
~~~
kuschku
Have you worked with GWT before? Or Grails? Or RoR?
A lot of web frameworks do all those tasks for you.
In Grails, I can just specify a single piece of backend code, and it’ll work
as REST API with data in JSON or XML, it will work in webbrowsers, and I can
usually easily integrate it into mobile applications, too.
~~~
fishtoaster
I've done a bit of work with Rails' js tools. I hear they're getting better in
5, but I haven't paid attention to them in a while. Last I looked, they were
great if all you wanted to do was take a basic html form and make it act
pretty much the same but actually submit via ajax. If you wanted to do
anything more complex, it got tricky.
------
cmrx64
Poe's law has struck me down here. Either author is an asshole, or author
doesn't know how to do good parody.
~~~
dllthomas
Up until 3, I was leaning "not parody", but 3 _has_ to be parody.
_" Then there’s trains. Urgh. So you’re having trouble downloading a client-
rendered, blocking-javascript-dependent web page over 2G because you’re on a
train? The solution’s staring you in the face: Stop travelling by train.
Either get a pad in the city center near your place of work or sleep under
your desk. That’s what I did, why can’t you?
Honestly, take some responsibility."_
~~~
mrgoldenbrown
The "take some responsibility" line is actually very close to what I hear real
people say all the time in discussions on poverty. Many people seem to firmly
believe the idea that poor people are only poor because they're lazy. It is
not hard for me to believe there are developers out there who would actually
say something like this.
~~~
dllthomas
I don't disagree that there are echoes of things that are actually said -
that's to be expected of parody. But it's the combination that's so over the
top. "If you (and your partner?) are not living in the (same) city center
where you (both) work, _you_ are responsible for our app's poor experience."
------
daigoba66
> There’s no “document” version of an app that guesses what age your dog is. I
> mean, what would that even look like?
I guess the author doesn't realize that code can live on a server. And the
answer to his query can simply be a "document".
Edit: I did not catch that the article is supposed to be a joke. If that's
true... I suppose it's not very funny.
~~~
oliverdunk
I'm not sure how apparent it is, but the post is a joke aimed at pointing fun
at people who agree with the arguments (I didn't write it, by the way)
------
chris_wot
I'm not really sure why progressive enhancement is considered hard...
~~~
chriswarbo
Yes, it's strange. Progressive enhancement _was_ the idea that you throw
together a simple, working site with HTML and POST forms, then once it's
working you can burn as much time as you like adding fanciful doodads with
CSS, Javascript, etc.
Now it's apparently easier to build a fanciful doodad than it is to write a
string of text.
------
jff
It's a little off-topic, but this was one of the few websites where I've had
to _shrink_ the text to make it readable. I'm not complaining, completely the
opposite--it just reminded me of an article the other day that said it's
better to be more accessible by default, and for instance my dad would have
probably been pretty happy with the default text size.
------
zeveb
Heh, excellent. He really had me there for a moment.
------
wahsd
#3 Encourages Bad Behavior ... I was in the middle of Silicon Valley at a
hotel that barely had a medium 3G signal and a weak LTE signal in pockets...
and that was outside the building facing the bay. If not even SV can muster
good signal strength that point is moot.
------
jhpriestley
The premise that server-side HTML generation is faster than client-side HTML
generation is simply false. See here for experimental confirmation:
[http://www.onebigfluke.com/2015/01/experimentally-
verified-w...](http://www.onebigfluke.com/2015/01/experimentally-verified-why-
client-side.html)
Why would offloading computation to a heavily-taxed central server speed
anything up? It doesn't make much sense. Nor is HTML generation a bottleneck
in most realistic applications.
~~~
joekrill
You almost confirm his point:
> Well, I’ve got a pretty good setup for starters: Fibre, 16GB RAM.
You're using a fairly decent desktop setup, and a top-of-the-line mobile
setup, and there's no talk about server-side specs. So yes, it's true that
"The premise that server-side HTML generation is faster than client-side HTML
generation is simply false." \-- in your one particular, very specific use
case.
~~~
JoeAltmaier
The server has to do it for everybody, right? If it scales at all, no server
is powerful enough. But mobile makes it more complex.
~~~
Retric
If you can afford to do X on a server. Then spending 10x the resources to load
in 1/10 or better yet 1/100th the time scales just fine.
Consider, there is no way for a single users machine to do a Google search in
any reasonable time frame. Google search works because they can scale out to
enough machines to keep everything important in RAM which drastically reduces
the workload per request. They can also cache results.
------
placeybordeaux
What is up with HN and promoting barely parody pieces?
~~~
wcummings
People enjoy entertainment. Satire is entertaining.
~~~
placeybordeaux
I enjoy satire, but so many of these pieces are barely satire.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Uruguay's president at Rio+20 saying what needs to be said - gcmartinelli
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cQgONgTupo
======
pitiburi
It's a pity the translation is so, so bad.. The speech is just brilliant, the
thoughts are deep, and the guy is just amazing. He is a south american
Mandela, he has been prisioner for 15 years in solitaire confinement under the
militar government, and now he is president. He lives in his farm, in a very
simple little house, and gave the presidential palace to be used for housing
people without houses.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What personal projects/goals are people working on for this summer? - techdemic
Well, school's out for summer, but the learning doesn't stop. Jobs and internships aside, what personal projects/goals do you hope to accomplish during Summer 11'?<p>---<p>I just had my wisdom teeth (all four) removed, and to help pass the time I've been working through Zed Shaw's 'Learn Python the Hard Way'. My end-goal is to have a few Python/Django projects in my portfolio come September.
======
swhopkins
I started my summer a bit early: In Feb. I quit my job and moved to Guatemala.
Here I'm spending the mornings learning Spanish, and the afternoons playing
with Rails and Javascript. After I finish my current project, I'd like to look
some into iOS development.
~~~
cj
What brought you to Guatemala?
~~~
swhopkins
Cheap spanish classes (cheap everything, really) and nice weather. The
internet could be a little faster, but I guess you can't have it all.
~~~
czheng
If you get a free weekend, and have an extra $75 or so, you should spend a
couple of nights at Casa del Mundo on Lake Atitlán. Amazing.
------
benreyes
Interesting question, techdemic. Just to mention for questions like this on
HackerNews it's often common to prepend the post with 'Ask HN:' in the title.
\----
As for what I'm working on in the summer. If everything goes to plan.
\- A directory of startup tools
\- Brush up on my probability and statistics with the help of the Khan Academy
and some text books.
\- Then explore machine learning. Hope to go through the Stanford Machine
learning video lectures. Then apply some of the modelling to the project
above.
As for goals, I'd like to be ramen profitable with the tool/service directory.
~~~
techdemic
Thanks for the tip Ben, regarding questions for the HN community; it's been
noted.
I'm interested in learning more about this "directory of startup tools" you
mentioned. Will it be a self-compiled directory, or something more
collaborative in nature?
~~~
benreyes
No worries, happy to help. What I'm working on right now is a manually curated
directory for the MVP and hopefully I can get it to ramen profitability during
that phase.
Then will spend some time to work out the algorithms to do the automatic
curation of the services & tools. Hence my interest into exploring probably &
statistics modelling / machine learning further.
I'll send you an email.
------
DTrejo
I'm writing an app that helps you become a better programmer by recording
statistics on your coding style and habits. It is built with node and CouchDB.
If you want to beta test, sign up at <http://hackharder.com/> (really ugly,
gonna fix it soon).
Alpha testing has not yet started, but soon :)
------
lkozma
I'd like to:
\- learn the 4 balls mills mess juggling pattern (almost there)
\- become fluent in German (still quite far)
------
dkersten
I am currently working on (and will be all summer):
\- MIDI Controller-related stuff (just finished a hardware project, moving on
to some new and advanced firmware mods for the Midifighter).
\- 2D SciFi viking game, using a custom C++/Lua engine, using OpenGL 3 for
graphics, Intel Threading Building Blocks for multicore, SDL 1.3 for windowing
and input, GLM for math, Bullet for physics. Component entity system based. No
audio yet.
\- Backend web development for money.
\- Tinkering with various bits and pieces: a Qt-based mini-dwarf-fortress type
thing; programming language concepts; bitcoin related stuff...
Amount of time spent on each is roughly in the above order, from most time to
least time.
------
beck5
Building an app in Node.js, so will be learning that along with MongoDB.
Have another project to start and need to decide if I use as a tool to learn
Python by using django or if learning 2 new languages/frameworks at a time is
a silly idea.
~~~
m0hit
i'm working on building a node.js + socket.io realtime streaming web app. Also
hoping to run through some of the new javascript frameworks such as
Backbone.js for the frontend along with d3.js for visualization.
aiming to write some more <http://www.privacypatterns.org> so that I can talk
about the project more widely.
------
pkamb
Immediate goals for <http://www.onehandkeyboard.org/>
-Make/upload an example video
-Content... guides for different ailments, etc.
-First sale!
------
ad80
Being a non programmer I try to build my first web app in RoR, but as I am
learning from scratch it will take some time. Any others starting from scratch
here?
On the other hand I am completing a project I am really excited about, a long
kept idea, using external developers, which I hope to reveal in June -
<http://www.mindthebook.com> . Stay tuned.
------
czheng
I've been working on an idea for a data-driven, rule-based web templating
engine semi-inspired by CSS and XSLT. Been doing lots of research and working
on a spec. Maybe by end of summer I'll have found some collaborators.
Aside from that, trying to learn Python.
------
pavelludiq
I'm trying to teach myself how to write games using common lisp, and will be
documenting my experience in the form of a series of screencasts. Mostly
because i want to learn lisp better, learn game programming, and learn how to
produce good screencasts.
------
tritogeneia
Learning Python, Django, and JavaScript for a project; goal is to have a
prototype by the beginning of July.
Stuff to learn: numerical linear algebra, dictionary learning, Judea Pearl's
Causality
Research: diffusion geometry for databases (?)
~~~
stc043
Learning Django and Javascript and probably PostgreSQL.
------
nocipher
I am working on:
\- Learning Russian with a friend
\- Expanding my background in the core areas of Mathematics
\- Reacquainting myself with graphics programming and implementing at least
part of a game engine.
\- Finding a Thesis topic...
------
cfdrake
\- Keep up my blogging streak.
\- Write a small webapp or two (I've got a few ideas).
\- Learn either Node or a functional language.
\- Keep a workout schedule.
Somebody has to remember to repost this question in a month or so... :)
------
spcmnspff
My winter break is only about a month before I begin another semester of uni.
I will try to do as much of the following as possible: \- start going through
SICP \- learn python+django \- read up on some of next semester's courses
------
callmeed
\- get closer to my blue belt in BJJ, maybe enter a tournament
\- continue my 6 year streak of visiting Hawaii every year
\- potty train my youngest kid and break my 6 year streak of buying diapers
------
harrigan
A real-time fantasy sports website using Rails, jQuery, and Faye -- all new
technologies for me ;-)
<http://www.fantasy5live.com>
~~~
aderaynal
glad to see I'm not the only one here working on fantasy sports ! I've created
<http://pickemfirst.com> and I'd love to chat with you about your project.
email me at alain@pickemfirst.com
~~~
harrigan
You seem to be a a lot further along than me ;-)
------
Matt_Cutts
Training to run a marathon in the fall. There's a cool group called USA Fit
that helps folks find each other and run together.
------
jensnockert
\- Learn (basic) German
\- Brush up on statistics
\- Write a cloudish music player
~~~
DTrejo
jplayer.org is your friend :)
------
badkins
Officially launch my company's first product and snag a sale to a total
stranger.
------
taphangum
I'm trying to find a way to show people the ads that they really want to see.
------
imjonathanlee
learning another foreign language, going out of country for summer (i work too
hard, I really need a break) and meeting new friends.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Purification of Web Development - johnjlocke
http://cssconf.com/talk-gallagher.html
======
iends
Talks without abstracts are a waste of time. Why should I invest 5-10 minutes
watching to figure out what the talk is actually about?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Expounder – A small JavaScript library for more engaging tutorials - StavrosK
https://skorokithakis.github.io/expounder/
======
bart3r
My advice would be to somehow indicate exactly the text that was expounded -
maybe with a faint underline or something. When it expands out, it's sometimes
difficult to track the exact words that suddenly appear.
~~~
StavrosK
Ah, good idea. Right now you get a fade, but that's easy to miss. Of course,
the intent is that the expounded text becomes a part of the overall paragraph,
so you shouldn't _need_ to know what was just expounded, you just read on, so
there's definitely a balance there.
Also, the text is very very easy for the website owner to style, with just a
single CSS rule.
EDIT: I've added some styling information to the page, thanks.
~~~
NicoJuicy
This is the first time i heard about
[https://gitcdn.xyz/](https://gitcdn.xyz/) while checking your page source.
That's actually a smart idea for a CDN :)
~~~
StavrosK
Yep! We were using rawgit initially, but it went down on the first day for
hours, so we changed to that instead.
------
amk_
Interesting. I personally like to use sidenotes for this type of thing on my
website; it's nice to be able to scan the sidenotes for additional info
without clicking on anything. On the other hand, they really don't work on
mobile. BigfootJS[0] is the nicest footnote-inliner I know of that also works
gracefully on small screens (unpaginated media); if you haven't seen it, take
a look.
Feedback for this library:
\- It would be cool if you could set a few preset levels of expansion (TL;DR,
expert, beginner, ELI5) and toggle them at the top of the page.
[0] [http://www.bigfootjs.com](http://www.bigfootjs.com)
~~~
StavrosK
Thanks for the feedback, the tiered approach is also something I considered,
although with a different method. You would tag things with a number from 1
for outermost to N for innermost and then let the user expand to the specific
level. I haven't yet tried that concept, but I probably will soon!
------
polm23
This is an old idea in Hypertext called Stretch Text (since 1967!):
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StretchText](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StretchText)
Every so often someone hears about the old hypertext theory and implements a
Javascript or CSS version, but this is honestly one of the nicest
implementations I've ever seen. Good work!
------
Kinnard
This seems like something that could impact the nature of composition. I
wonder if writers would write differently if they knew they could "expound".
~~~
harel
Surely if you write with expounding in mind you'll take that into
consideration in your text. You DO write the expanded text after all...
~~~
Kinnard
No, I don't believe I do. I think this could be implemented into a blogging
platform— a new medium.
~~~
ponyous
Lol yeah, I feel like I want more examples to read. Easy way to filter data
you already know. I think I could learn so much faster with this if texts are
written properly.
~~~
StavrosK
I used it in "normal" usage here:
[https://www.stavros.io/posts/building-cheap-home-
sensorcontr...](https://www.stavros.io/posts/building-cheap-home-
sensorcontroller/)
EDIT: I've added a "real-world examples" section to the page with the above
included.
------
rawnlq
(As someone who can't write concisely (without inserting a lot of
(unnecessary) context)) I would love (to use) an automated version ((of this)
so I can just write with full context (and let people choose the level of
details they want (to read))).
I would love an automated version.
------
Negative1
Wouldn't a tooltip give the same information while taking up less space and
not messing up your carefully setup layout?
------
ivan_ah
Very nice, reminds me of telescopictext.
Here's an example that explains magnetic fields:
[http://www.telescopictext.org/text/pFjkqQY9bmfvQ](http://www.telescopictext.org/text/pFjkqQY9bmfvQ)
~~~
StavrosK
That's pretty much the same context, but I think the demo is lacking. For
example, clicking on "magnetic" replaces it with "B", which confuses me even
more. There's also at one point a link on "be", which is just baffling. What
is there to explain about "be"?
~~~
ivan_ah
Fully agree. Your semantics of "expounder" and "expounded" spans is much more
coherent.
It's a new modality, but I think it has a lot of potential: I love
explanations with "multiple levels" in general...
------
kaishiro
I feel like this could be a really interesting tool for wikis. It'd be neat to
be able to read what is, essentially, an executive summary of a topic, but
then be able to drill down into a path of discovery that you're interested in.
~~~
StavrosK
That's one of the reasons I developed this. You could essentially go into as
much detail as you wanted in the topic you wanted. Of course, the writer must
be careful not to overdo it, because sometimes the reader _does_ want to just
read everything, but it'd be great for things a reader might be familiar with,
or that not everyone will find interesting.
~~~
kaishiro
Yeah, nice work! I dig it.
------
watson
Reminds me a little of what Wait But Why is doing in his articles - e.g:
[http://waitbutwhy.com/2016/03/cryonics.html](http://waitbutwhy.com/2016/03/cryonics.html)
(look for "New to WBW? Open these.")
------
p0larboy
(Click -> Tool tip) works better IMO. The sudden append of words threw off my
reading rhythm.
------
steveklabnik
I've used something similar for talking about complex code examples. You can
show only the current line you're talking about, but have a button to expand
out the full example. it's pretty great. Excited to give this a try!
------
GroSacASacs
How does a screen reader handle that ?
~~~
StavrosK
I'm not sure (I'd appreciate some feedback by someone who uses one), but I'd
think it would just read the whole text. Depends on what it does with hidden
text.
~~~
GroSacASacs
I recommend reading [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAI-
ARIA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WAI-ARIA)
------
visarga
Great, a nice little used UI pattern. Now when will my Expounder Wikipedia
viewer come?
------
harel
Very nice and clever. I like it it fits seamlessly into the text.
------
ChristianBundy
I _knew_ that name looked familiar! Small world.
~~~
StavrosK
Haha, you bastard :P
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: Examples of good writing in computer science? - chewxy
Hey fellow HNers<p>I'm about to go off for a holiday and I'd have many hours to kill on the plane and I'd like to spend some time reading. I've started work on writing a book on virtual machines and ECMAScript, and I would like some examples of good writing for computer science for inspiration.<p>An example I liked is K&R C. It's clear, and to the point. It is however, also a little dry. TAoCP is also very dry and it takes a lot of work to read it. PRML is a good read but can be intimidating at certain points. I also found On Lisp to be a good read if a little meandering.<p>What are your favourite compsci books that are well written; easy to understand and follow; and caters to multiple reading levels, from newbies to advanced readers?<p>What to you, makes good writing?
======
swanson
Not strictly computer science - but the one textbook that I really liked from
my computer engineering degree was "Computer Organization and Design: The
Hardware/Software Interface" ([http://www.amazon.com/Computer-Organization-
Design-Fourth-Ed...](http://www.amazon.com/Computer-Organization-Design-
Fourth-Edition/dp/0123747503)). It was surprisingly readable and easy to
follow. It covers the design of a MIPS processor from the ground up (ALU,
caches, memory, pipelining, etc) and also is self-aware enough to not pretend
that x86/ARM don't exist.
------
vergeman
I suppose it depends on your approach - my two cents - is your book . . .
a. geared toward programming / learning a language? I've been surprised, given
the sparsity, the efficacy of a "showing-by-example" style of writing seen in
the Apache Thrift documentation. K&R (to me) is decent for language
acquisition, but even more useful as a quick "how did they do that again"
refresher. I've found "Linux Kernel Development" (Love) as a very nice book
blending concepts with programmatic examples. So the above is maybe a spectrum
within this style of writing that I've found helpful.
b. a more "textbook" / algorithmic approach? I remember thinking "Computer
Networking: A Top-Down Approach" (Kurose, Ross) was one of the lighter texts
that didn't necessarily feel "textbook." "Introduction to Information
Retrieval" (Manning, Raghavan, Schutze) also comes to mind, but more academic.
~~~
chewxy
I don't think I am ever qualified to write text book material. Bits of the
book I suspect will be "How I got to this point in the code".
There will be a lot of show-by-example. I've written half a chapter so far and
it does really feel like I'm just annotating my code, which isn't a good
thing.
~~~
vergeman
I hear that - skim through Love's Linux Kernel Development and see what you
think. It sounds like you're going for something much lighter, so maybe
something along the lines of the "Little Book on Coffeescript?"
------
ktf
Didn't even have to think about this one: _Eloquent Javascript_ , by Marijn
Haverbeke. He's an amazing writer and a brilliant all-around guy. Technically
it's geared toward new programmers, but it's worth a read at pretty much any
level.
You can find it free online here:
[https://eloquentjavascript.net/](https://eloquentjavascript.net/) or buy a
print version here: [http://nostarch.com/ejs](http://nostarch.com/ejs).
(Full disclosure: I'm listed as the editor on the print version, though in
this case my job basically consisted of nodding as chapters came in and
saying, "Yup, that's a damn good book.")
------
LocalMan
Programming Pearls: [http://netlib.bell-
labs.com/cm/cs/pearls/](http://netlib.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/pearls/)
Best Software Writing:
[http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/BestSoftwareWriting.h...](http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/BestSoftwareWriting.html)
Last resort: Bring a sleeping pill and sleep through the flight.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
One petabyte data loss at Australian Tax Office - juiced
http://www.itnews.com.au/news/hpe-storage-crash-killed-ato-online-services-444490
======
joshiej
Corruption!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Another awesome US immigration experience - nphase
http://seldo.tumblr.com/post/39891584034/another-awesome-us-immigration-experience
======
jacquesm
As long as you feel the benefits outweigh the downsides the only person you
can complain to is yourself. You're still going there aren't you?
I've had an episode quite comparable to this one and it was the last time I
visited the US. I don't bitch about it, I don't begrudge the border guards
their jobs or attitude (I assume they get a lot of shit heaped on them every
day, not an excuse for a non-professional attitude but I'm sure that it
eventually wears you down). I simply took my few-hundred-K per year benefit
for the US elsewhere, their loss.
Don't like US immigration? Good, don't emigrate to the US. Once enough people
do this that it starts to affect the US GDP I'm sure there will be some
change. As long as everybody accepts it this will continue or it will even get
worse.
I had a pretty lucrative offer about two years ago to become involved in a
company. The catch: the work had to be done in the United States. No thanks...
But call me when the TSA is abandoned and the border guards are no longer
treating immigrants like shit. You know, the way it used to be before
everybody went crazy.
And on an off-topic and non-related note, additional conditions would be that
Guantanamo is closed, the US ceases its drone program and the CIA gets
thoroughly reamed for their 'renditions' program, including full exposure of
all parties that were involved domestically and abroad.
Until then the US will have to do without me, I'm quite sure they don't care
one bit.
~~~
jimmaswell
> Don't like US immigration? Good, don't emigrate to the US. Once enough
> people do this that it starts to affect the US GDP I'm sure there will be
> some change.
Less immigrants would negatively affect the GDP? I've heard the opposite many
times, but I'm not an economist. Why is that so?
~~~
lbarrow
There's no realistic situation in which having another person working in a
country decreases its GDP. GDP is simply the sum of all goods and services
after net exports and investments. Given that a working person is, by
definition, producing a good or service, their contribution to GDP is always
positive.
~~~
ajg1977
Not always true - see Wall St circa 2008.
------
DrSbaitso
I'm a Canadian citizen and get this type of treatment all the time. Every time
I enter the US, which is about once a month or so, they send me to a back room
for secondary screening. The reason? Their system thinks I overstayed my visa
once back in 1995. What actually happened was my family took a road trip to
New England, and nobody bothered to check our passports on the way out, so
there was no departure record.
So for the last 18 years, they've sent me back for questioning every single
time, wasting countless hours of both my time and their time. They always ask
me if I worked illegally in the States in 1995 and I just tell them, "No, I
was nine years old." When I ask them if they can remove the flag on my
account, they say it's impossible because only the government department that
created the flag can remove it, and that department no longer exists.
~~~
adrianmsmith
Over the years, I guess you've tried various different approaches talking to
the staff at immigration. Friendly, apologetic, assertive, and so on.
What worked best? What would you recommend for someone else in that situation?
~~~
jzwinck
Say as little as possible. Speak clearly. And if entering the UK, have a bank
statement with you. They like people with money (this is not something I made
up, it's in the immigration rules, called "maintenance").
~~~
Nursie
If you have no money then you may be there to make some (is the thinking).
If you can show you have enough money to support yourself and get out again
then it will make your life easier. However they will already need to be
suspicious of you to take an interest in this.
~~~
nicholassmith
From what I've heard, Australia does the same and so do a few other places.
The question is often framed as "and how much money have you brought along for
your holiday?", which is doubly loaded as there's a right answer and two wrong
answers (nothing and X, where X is bordering on enough to kick start a new
life). Immigration sucks.
~~~
patrickk
Australia has an actual dollar amount (AU$3000 I think) that you have to have
before getting a one year work visa. A friend went there recently and that was
his experience.
------
zee007
I had many similar run-ins with immigration when I worked for Microsoft in the
Redmond area (brown guy with a beard, likes to travel the world [sometimes
taking trips as short as one weekend]). I've missed more than my share of
flights (at one time my name was in the do-not-fly list because it partially
matched the name of someone they wanted).
Final straw came when one time I was returning from an international trip with
my x-wife and kids when the immigration officer decided she didn't qualify to
accompany me (we were married at the time).
"No big deal, she'll just fly back to Canada" (we're Canadians). We were told
she couldn't do that, she had to be deported to the country she came from.
"But sir, we just had a single entry visa and cannot re-enter". "That's not my
problem, the law is the law. You need to be deported back to countryX". "But
sir, we have no ties to countryX. We dont have visa to countryX. We have a
Canadian passport, if you dont want to admit us then let us just turn around
and go to Canada". "Oh y'all can come in, but she can't".
So I ask for a supervisor and he refused (I later learned he wasn't allowed to
do that). Had us sit there for many hours with cranky kids after a
transatlantic flight and then said:
"You can take her now (take her??) but I'll hold on to her passport. She can
come before the judge in 30 days with the document and collect her passport or
she'll be deported to countryX".
I had to unnecessarily waste time and money hiring a lawyer to figure out what
the heck went wrong. She showed up 30 days later with our lawyer and the judge
couldn't figure out why she was there. Gave us the passport. My x-wife dropped
me home, told me to pack up and drove up to Toronto the same day. Even though
I was about to get my green card (everything including labour cert was done) I
told my employer to halt the process and moved back. For next few years I
continued to work for US companies but remotely from Canada and pulled in
close to $1 million in salary and stocks over the years that IRS wasn't able
to tax at all. Canadian economy (not the American economy) benefited from my
well over average spending over these years.
I can wrap my mind around "your name is similar to xyz we are looking for
[even though xyz was a different ethnicity with a different age, height and
everything]. But for me this made me realize how vulnerable non-citizens are
when it comes to US immigration and border patrol. To this day I have no idea
what ticked that guy off to single us out like that but I decided I did not
want to live in a country where I had such little rights. I am well educated,
make a lot of charitable contributions and spend a lot of time volunteering in
the local community. Everything the US used to benefit from but now Canada
does.
~~~
jacquesm
I have no idea why you got downvoted.
~~~
zee007
I don't either especially since I am not even bitter about the experience. I
am just confused.
The irony is that since then I've crossed the border 12+ times a year and the
experience is always pleasant (now I enter as a Canadian citizen for either
vacation or a short business trip). One would think they'd have preferred me
when I paid taxes there (and by the virtue of being on visa, they knew a lot
more about me).
~~~
SoftwareMaven
As a US citizen, I, on the other hand, am extremely bitter and angry about
these kinds of offenses. It makes me sick to my stomach and I really do
believe every day is one day closer to me becoming an expat.
~~~
kmfrk
Your government at work trying to make that as unpleasant as possible:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FATCA>.
~~~
jacquesm
That is - for want of a better word - an astounding piece of legislation.
What's next, a deal with the hereafter? I figure that the only thing this will
effectively accomplish is that a lot of American expats will go all the way
and will ditch the American nationality and that a lot of people in the United
States will be denied access to services. Brilliant move, the world-stage
equivalent of the schoolyard bully mentality.
------
rdl
I hate how hostile and incompetent the US immigration process seems to be for
foreigners. It's sad to go by an embassy basically anywhere in the world, see
the fortress that is the US embassy, and the huge lines and amount of
documentation needed for people to get US visas. Even worse is the non-
deterministic hell on actual arrival.
I'm glad I've never had immigration or customs problems anywhere, despite
going to some really sketchy places (flying into Iraq as a civilian at the
civilian airport with no visa a few times after the invasion...) or otherwise
bending the rules ($200k in computers, including 6 big 21" CRTs, on my way to
set up an office in Anguilla...).
~~~
jzwinck
I'm a US citizen, and recently visited my embassy abroad. I was denied entry
and told to make an appointment. The first available was about 10 days away.
This was for a simple document I needed signed by them. And I was leaving this
country in less than 10 days. The guard who turned me away said they used to
take walk-ins but not since mid-2012.
So as far as embassies go, being a citizen doesn't help too much.
~~~
patrickod
My experience with US embassies (both the one in Brussels and Dublin) has
never seen them refuse entry to a US citizen and tell them to re-schedule.
They usually have separate entrances as well with different procedures.
~~~
jzwinck
Well this was in London. It's a large embassy obviously. They do have separate
entrances--we went to the US Citizens one. We were blocked from even entering
the security lobby at all--the outermost door to the street was locked and the
guard who cracked it open gave us a postcard with the embassy contact
information to make an appointment. I called them immediately and explained I
was in front of their building and could I make an "appointment" for right
then, but they said I had to use the website. Which told me there was a 10-day
wait.
As I said, apparently this practice was instituted just last year.
~~~
patrickod
From my (albeit limited) observations I thought they never turned away
citizens but obviously I was wrong. Getting appointments with the US embassy
can sometimes be a challenging ordeal. They do however make allowances for
emergency appointments which can be very helpful at times.
~~~
rdl
Yeah, in general they help citizens pretty well, and help citizens a lot more
in dangerous places. Although to get US citizen services in Baghdad was really
complex; despite it being inside a fairly secure area (the "Green Zone"), I
wasn't allowed to carry inside, had to make an appointment a week in advance,
etc. I ended up just making friends with people at a nearby heliport who had
badges to escort me in. It turns out most of the extra security was because
they had slightly better quality food than the nearby military bases, and were
trying to keep military people and contractors from eating all of it.
The Embassies in Bangkok, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, etc. were all excellent, however.
------
ryan
If you have a green card you can avoid this by signing up for Global Entry[1].
Then you can avoid customs lines and just swipe your card at the kiosk - enter
the country without ever talking to anyone. As an extra benefit the kiosk is
always empty so you are through in minutes... hmm maybe I shouldn't be
spreading the word about this :)
[1] <http://www.globalentry.gov/>
~~~
onetwothreefour
Serious question: can you be non-white and get one of these?
~~~
jfb
Why would you think otherwise?
~~~
onetwothreefour
The same reason the "random checks" line at security isn't really random?
~~~
UnoriginalGuy
In Canada their "random checks" seem to be via a machine/automated process.
You stand on a mat and an arrow either directs you into a line or to
additional checks, so there can be no racial or otherwise profiling.
It is a great system, I really enjoyed it when I was there.
------
ta201301
This is precisely the sort of nonsense that made me decide to leave my job a
few years ago. I used to work for <household name Internet technology
company>. After some re-structuring I would have had to travel to the US a lot
more often, or possibly even move to the US. For me it wasn't really worth it.
The dehumanizing experience of subjecting myself to dangerously stupid,
underpaid, over-empowered, assholes on a bi-weekly basis made the decision
easy.
While I do love California, and the Bay Area in particular, it is still inside
the US. And I do not enjoy travelling to the US. To get to the US you have to
go through the twilight zone that is immigration and customs. Not to mention
the TSA.
I can remember travelling to germany as a kid during the Baader-Meinhof
terrorist era. I can remember that I felt it was somewhat unpleasant being
pointed at by germans with sub-machine guns. But you know what: they were not
even half as frightening as the sort of personel you encounter when travelling
to, from or within the US. Because with the germans you at least have the
sense that the people holding the gungs are not the lowest life-forms of their
society.
But I am not complaining. Taking this choice meant that I had to figure out
what to do. And now, some years later, over 100 people have jobs because I
don't want to travel to the US ever again.
------
blago
I am a US citizen and I had a similar experience. About a year ago I spent a
few months in Asia while working remotely for my US employer. Reentering the
states (after an almost 24 hour trip), the border agent really didn't like the
fact and went out of his way to find a hole in my "story" - "So you did work
in Asia?", "But your company did not send you there?" This dragged on for a
while.
This was the climax of the confrontation:
\- "Have you been in trouble with law enforcement before?"
\- "No, but you make it sound like I am now. Am I?"
\- "We'll see"
\- "I am a law abiding citizen and I've been giving honest answers to all of
you questions. What can I possibly be afraid of?"
Ever since, I DREAD reentering the states. I have dual citizenship, work
flexibility, and friends and family all over the place. I find myself spending
less and less time in the US.
------
iloveponies
So I've experienced something similar minus the overcrowded room with British
immigration. I watched the immigration official turn from apathy the moment I
handed my passport over into passive agression with loaded questions ("When
was the last time you were deported?" answer: "never") into apologies ("Sorry
for making you wait sir there clearly has been a misunderstanding") to vague
answers to the question of future prevention.
After being told "and there's nothing you can do to stop this happening
again", I tell every British immigration official I stand before briefly what
happens every time I want to come back here and they're usually understanding
about it all.
~~~
UnoriginalGuy
British immigration are as bad as US immigration.
They aren't even polite, which as a Brit' myself I am both shocked and
disappointed with.
I'd like to see changes there...
~~~
X-Istence
Until you Brits do away with the requirement for me to go through the porno
scanners I refuse to visit the country. Sorry, but just because I am traveling
from your country doesn't mean I want to go through a machine that to date
still hasn't been verifiable been tested by a 3rd party to not have negative
health risks associated with it.
~~~
iloveponies
As someone who goes in and out of the UK on a regular basis, this is news to
me as I've yet to be subjected to full body scanners.
~~~
X-Istence
[http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/no-
optou...](http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/no-optout-for-
passengers-on-body-scanners-6265565.html)
[http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ca6c8bd4-142b-11e1-b07b-00144feabd...](http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ca6c8bd4-142b-11e1-b07b-00144feabdc0.html)
[http://www.prisonplanet.com/despite-eu-ban-uk-makes-
radiatio...](http://www.prisonplanet.com/despite-eu-ban-uk-makes-radiation-
firing-body-scanners-compulsory.html)
------
Permit
>They keep taking breaks to crack off-color jokes about each other’s sex
lives, and moan about how hard they’re having to work tonight.
The jokes might be uncalled for, but you just told us they were under-staffed
and had hundreds of extra people to process. I can see why they'd be upset.
Especially when absolutely zero of the hundreds of people they talk to in a
day are happy to see them.
I get the impression you've never worked in the service industry or in retail.
The immense fuckup that is United States immigration is not the fault of its
lowest level employees.
~~~
mscarborough
One of the first rules of service industry is that you don't complain about
your job in front of the customers. I haven't worked retail but have done
plenty of years in restaurants.
I'm not sure how you can use "you've never worked in the service industry" as
some kind of trump card, as this kind of behavior could easily get you fired
from any half-decent service industry position.
~~~
tolmasky
That's in a private company. Here, for all practical purposes, there is no
incentive for things to get better. There is no one to complain to since the
"customers" here are completely antagonized and have no power, imagine on top
of all this complaining! There really isn't anyone to be held accountable,
period.
And no, "voting" is not the way these things get fixed. if it was, the DMV
would have stopped being miserable ages ago:
1\. As mentioned above, the people most affected can't vote.
2\. Even if they could, it's not clear at all how to use your vote to affect
change. Which candidate exactly represents better service at government
agencies?
3\. Even if you knew, you get effectively four federal representative choices
that _could_ affect this (president, 2 senators, and 1 house representative).
In those 4 choices you must weigh _all_ your grievances. How high on the list
is immigration staffing going to be?
The reality is that our system is not set up to deal with this kind of
particular issue well. There's no good gradual feedback loop. Things have to
get really bad, beyond where it's clear exactly what caused the problems, to
the point where _huge_ sweeping changes get made, probably over zealous and
too far in the opposite direction then.
~~~
jrockway
Isn't the whole DMV thing largely fixed? In Manhattan, they even have
"express" DMVs. I have to assume the idea came about due to voter pressure
rather than some altruistic bureaucrat.
~~~
tolmasky
I can't speak for New York but going to the DMV in California often means
committing an entire work day.
~~~
jrockway
Sounds like California.
------
rajeshd
His experience doesn't seem all that bad. It looks like they were merely doing
their jobs trying to ascertain that they aren't making a mistake letting him
in. If the immigration officer isn't sure of something (either because of an
unclear answer to a question or a nervous vibe), it's not abnormal for him/her
to ask for a more thorough check of the person. I wouldn't expect them to
clear everyone with a quick, cursory glance of a passport or a green card.
I sympathize with him, but it doesn't look like his rights were violated in
anyway.
~~~
GiraffeNecktie
You're setting a very, very, low bar for "doing their jobs". The reason we
employ human beings at border points is so that they will, theoretically, use
good judgement to allow the free flow of legitimate goods and travelers (i.e.
not create massive delays without a clear reason).
------
jfb
I like particularly the sneering attitude of superiority towards the initial
immigration officer in this article. I'm no apologist for the US immigration
system (Canada's, on the other hand, I have nothing but good words for), but
Jesus creeping Christ, having to deal with that sort of entitled horseshit ten
hours a day would turn the Buddha into Dick Cheney.
~~~
seldo
I can see why you'd think that, but I was totally polite and respectful to the
immigration officer at all times -- like I said, I'm a very nervous immigrant,
so I would never do anything to jeopardize my processing. I don't fidget or
roll my eyes, or indicate impatience. While I'm no fan of the staff of the
USCIS, I would never say anything to them to indicate it. Apart from it being
very impolite, it would be stupid, and I am TERRIFIED of these guys.
~~~
jfb
I understand the terror, particularly of the US ICE people, who are
unnecessarily militarized at the best of times. But why the puerile jab at the
officer's "educational attainment"? Needed to feel big? Story wasn't "punchy"
enough?
~~~
seldo
Partly because I think it's a relevant detail -- I think he genuinely didn't
understand that a web developer is a type of software developer. But partly
because they scared the shit out of me, and the system is stupid and
unnecessarily hostile, so, yes, I'm angry at them.
~~~
jfb
It's not only insulting and juvenile, it's irrelevant. I've met PhDs from the
LSE who wouldn't know the difference between email and snail mail, but that's
not material to a) how good they were at their jobs or b) whether or not they
were good people.
The system _is_ stupid, and hostile, and (in my opinion) totally self-
defeating. And people -- normal, decent people -- will act like petty little
tyrants in that sort of system. Isn't _that_ sufficient to call them out? An
asshole is an asshole, regardless of their eduction, no?
_EDIT_ : Too, it may very well be material that you gave a different answer.
There's only one word different between "landscape architect" and "naval
architect", and those are significantly and materially different positions.
How is J. Random Tyrant supposed to know that a is a member of the set b for
all given a?
_EDIT the second_ : Man, I was in love with the word "material", eh?
~~~
seldo
You're not wrong. On further consideration, I've edited the post to reflect
that it was a rude and unnecessary observation.
------
photorized
As someone who went though lengthy (10+ years) immigration process, from
student visa to work visa to Green Card to Citizenship, with extensive travel
in between - there is nothing particularly unreasonable about the experience
described. OK, so he was delayed for a few hours, due to some error or
inconsistency in the USCIS database... There's no reason to freak out.
And the condescending remarks about the officer not knowing the difference
between "web developer" and "software developer" were unnecessary.
------
flavmartins
I completely agree with your feelings here. I, too, am a permanent resident
with a green card. I live in fear of immigration deciding that "something
isn't in order" and then my life is completely upside down. I've grown up in
the US, my wife is a US citizen, my kids are all US citizens, yet dad always
has that crazy worry in the back of his mind.
AND...for those of you who brush this off. Please contact my wife and ask her
feelings about immigration. When I was going through my green card process she
just about went nuts at the immigration office and destroyed a few of the
workers. Eventually she had to stop coming to the appointments and just wished
me luck. She is more frustrated with the process than I am.
The problem is that we're talking about immigrants here. No one is going to
stand up for them. Citizens never have to deal with the these issues, and most
immigrants, once they've gone through the process, never want to look back on
it again, let alone try to fight it.
------
surfmike
It's embarrassing how poorly people are treated when entering the US. We
should put pressure on the government to improve that, but also pragmatically
if we want to keep attracting talented people from around the world we really
need to change this.
For the time being, I'd highly recommend to the poster to enter into Global
Entry (people with PR are eligible:
<http://www.globalentry.gov/eligibility.html>)
~~~
smsm42
Second that. All you need is your papers, short interview in a closest major
airport and you don't have to do this passport-fingerprint-photo stuff
anymore.
------
smsm42
Let's look at the incentives. The picture here is not pretty. There's a big
incentive to squeeze budgets, of course, anybody who watches US politics knows
you can't just get any money you want, especially when there's 2 dozen another
3-letter agencies competing for the same. There's some incentive to serve
citizens better - since once in the country, the citizen can call his
congressmen or his local paper and raise hell if he was mistreated, and if
bureaucratic middle-management hates something it is being featured in bad
press and asked unpleasant question by his superiors. But when it comes to
visitors, there's pretty much zero incentive to treat them better. I'm not
saying that immediately leads to bad treatment - I am a non-citizen, I crossed
US border more than a dozen times last few years and always was treated with
courtesy and respect, which I assign to the good nature of the people that
worked there. But there always are bad apples, and there's very little that
can keep those in check. If the immigration officer mistakenly denies entry or
costs a person 5 hours of their life, there are no consequences, ever. So
these things are bound to happen, unless some kind of incentive to become
better will be found.
~~~
seldo
One of those incentives could be if US citizens decided to complain about the
immigration system -- the point of the post is to attempt to marginally
contribute towards that happening.
~~~
jakejake
As sad as it may be I don't think the average US citizen is concerned about a
5-hour delay for non-citizens at the border. The ordinary Joe is likely to be
OK with 200 people being delayed if that results in a few people being
deported and 1 person being hauled off to jail (which is pretty much what the
OP said happened). I have a feeling the "average" consensus would be that it
was worth in in order to keep those 4 people out.
I'm not saying I agree with this whatsoever - I'm just saying my gut tells me
this mentality is likely to get you more votes if you are running for office
in a border state. The average citizen is not thinking about the relatively
small number of skilled IT workers and entrepreneurs entering the country.
They are thinking about all of the unskilled labor that is coming in and
"taking their jobs" as some people perceive.
That, plus I'm sure there is an aspect of "doesn't affect me - I have my own
problems to worry about".
------
ajg1977
_Pointless, wasteful bureaucracy_
I think few people would consider border controls to be any of these things.
You were flagged somehow and that sucks, but if you don't like the immigration
procedures of the US you are free to either a) live elsewhere or b) try to
take action to change it (we are a democracy after all). On the other hand,
venting on a blog isn't going to do anything but irk people who wish they were
fortunate enough to hold a US green card, or come back to haunt you if this
happens again and some cranky overworked agent google's you.
FWIW I'm a former, now naturalized, US green card holder and this happened to
me twice in six years. It sucks, but I considered it a very small price to pay
for being able to freely travel and work (or not work!) in this country.
~~~
natrius
"Venting on a blog" is most certainly considered action in a democracy. That's
basically what the Federalist Papers were.
~~~
ajg1977
Aye, they were just some guys blowing out their frustrations.
Or not.
------
Mvandenbergh
There is nothing unique to the US about this in my experience. There is
literally one part of the government that deals (by definition) with people
who cannot vote and do not have elected representatives.
If you want to know what it's like dealing with government agents in highly
undemocratic countries, it's precisely this. Except it's every day and it's in
your own country.
------
dkokelley
I would not want to be a non-citizen in America. I love my country, but I
agree with the general sentiment that we have things very wrong when it comes
to treatment of non-citizens. I believe that much of it stems from fears about
9/11. The Bill of Rights does lots to protect US citizens from an
agressive/repressive government. The spirit of the law is that there are basic
human rights that the government can't remove without due process.
Unfortunately those "human" rights in practice only barely apply to US
citizens.
~~~
philwelch
Perhaps when entering the country, and there is a risk of deportation, and the
difficulty of immigrating legally puts far too many people on unsafe footing
due to the constant risk of being reported, but on a basic, everyday level you
have the same rights. If you get pulled over on the road, the cop can't search
your car without a warrant, whether you're a US citizen or just a tourist.
~~~
dkokelley
This is true, but I would argue that it's only true because of the assumption
that random driver being pulled over is a citizen (or rather that you can't
ask a citizen if he or she is a citizen. This was part of the big deal with
Arizona's new laws a year or two ago).
When writing my post, I was considering the "unlimited detainment", and lack
of due process for non-citizens in too many special cases.
------
tlear
Was coming back from NYC (vacation over Christmas) and got the typical BS
bully treatment by the security guy, I made a decision there, I will not go on
vacation to US ever again.
------
tinbad
As a non-US citizen, I've had similar experiences where I was taken apart and
asked some more questions by border patrol. However none of those experiences,
although very similar to yours, came over as unnecessary harassment. I don't
quiet understand why you would be 'terrified' crossing the border if you have
all your shit together, which it seems you have.
The people "whose educational attainments have qualified them to sit behind a
desk stamping passports" were simply doing their job and from what you
described they did it without causing more inconvenience for you than
necessary.
Like some others commented, if you don't like to abide by the rules of your
new country of residence, nobody is forcing you to be there. Oh, and
downplaying other people's intellectual abilities does come across quiet
snobbish :)
------
trimbo
This story is true the world over. A friend got deported from India the other
day for a mistake they (as in the Indian government) made on his visa.
------
stickdick
There's somebody on the US no-fly list that has the exact same name as me. I
can't check-in online with any airline, and checking in at the desk anywhere
in the US results in some sort of warning on their computer, and a quick call
to somebody to come out from the back and check it out. Unfortunately I have
to fly at least once a month.
A quick look over the passport shows it's obviously not me (though I don't
have any details of the real bad guy). Must happen to quite a few because I
have a fairly bland, common British name.
~~~
UnoriginalGuy
Didn't they try to resolve this by issuing redress numbers or whatever? When I
enter my passport on most airline's web-sites it gives me the option to add a
redress number, which in theory should allow them to identify you as NOT the
individual on the no-fly list.
See this:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Fly_List#DHS_Traveler_Redres...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Fly_List#DHS_Traveler_Redress_Inquiry_Program)
~~~
stickdick
Interesting. I've never really looked into it, I just get over the fact I have
to check-in at the airport, and over time it's become less embarrassing since
I just expect to see the assistants face drop in panic, and be pulled to the
side.
It's never been mentioned to me either. I'm not actually a US citizen, so
perhaps it doesn't apply. I'll look into it further, thanks for the advice.
------
codegeek
Seems like you name might be similar to a name they had in their database who
might have the criminal/arrest record. These are false hits and irritating but
once the verify, they let you go. Hope they correct it soon for you.
Also, sometimes they randomly (not sure how random though) select individuals
for what they call "secondary inspection". Here, you are just asked "extra"
questions to ensure you are not a threat. I was pulled over once and the guy
had a great time asking me all kinds of questions.
~~~
seldo
It's highly unlikely to be a name match -- my name is not very common, and
combined with my gender is literally globally unique: there is no other male
called Laurie Voss in the whole world.
~~~
DoubleMalt
See ... very suspicious. No MAN is called Laurie. Seriously.
Sorry for your experence. WIll try to avoid MIA, as this is not the first bad
story I heard from there.
------
cunac
I am Canadian citizen and for two years I was traveling every second week to
US on TN visa. In all that time I got 1 "bad" experience from US side and 2
from Canadian side. (it wasn't that bad just longer questioning with 'trick'
questions) Question which confused me a most entering Canada was "How long you
plan to stay ?" , WTF , I have Canadian passport ? It took me a moment not to
say "Not your damn business." and just play nice.... But in general crossing
border is 99% no issue
------
alexkus
My first two attempts at entry to the US on my H1-B were simple, maybe one
question and in I go. It was the third entry that they asked more questions
and asked to see more paperwork (which I did have with me).
I guess it's to catch people who obtain visa/green-cards and then pass them
off to others or their situation changes (and they no longer qualify for the
visa). I'd also guess that frequent visitors to the US go through at least one
of these increased scrutiny experiences every few years. I don't think it's
unreasonable given the amount of problems they have with people trying to
sneak into the country; I know that I don't have a right to be there so I
expect some hassle.
The only other problem I had was coming back into the US after I'd gone to
Canada for a friend's wedding (all on a VWP); so UK->US, then two weeks later
US->Canada->US, and I wasn't due to fly back to the UK for another 2 weeks or
so. I was nowhere near the 90 days of my original VWP, but they might have
thought I was taking a quick trip to Canada in order to reset my 90 days with
a new VWP entry. It just took a few extra minutes explanation.
Other than that I've done lots of trips to the US (20 on the Visa Waiver
Program, 5 with my H1-B and another 10 or so since I moved back to the UK)
with no problems at all.
------
aneth4
Immigration processes millions of people each day. There are going to be
mistakes.
This sounds like they got a false positive, investigated, and released him.
That's how the process is supposed to work. Making this into some massive
anti-American rant says more about the author than America. This experience
sounds unpleasant, but like it was handled professionally.
I've spent an hour being searched by customs. I don't know why - perhaps
because I was returning from India and hadn't shaved in a month. It was
inconvenient, but also the job of customs. This did not bother me.
I fly domestically and internationally at least 20 times a year. I get caught
up briefly in all sorts of different ways all over the world. It's part of
travel, and it's really not that bad. This is how nations protect their
borders and enforce their laws, because not everyone is a saint like you.
All you idiots saying you won't work in or travel to the US because of the TSA
searches - give me a break. EVERY country in the world I have ever been to has
nearly identical search procedures as the TSA and most countries have
stringent immigration checks. Many asking far more probing questions than
American immigration, including Netherlands, Israel, and Britain. I was nearly
denied entry to Britain because I didn't know the address of a friend who I
was staying with.
Sorry, I'm tired of all this false outrage about minor f-ups with the TSA and
DHS. These organizations have some major policy and procedural problems, but a
few hours one time while immigration officials do their job of making sure you
don't have false documents is not among them. If you don't like it, go
somewhere else where a $20 bribe instead of an objective investigation gets
you admitted - which is most countries in the world.
~~~
nottrobin
When was the last time you had to wait in one crowded room for 3 hours without
being allowed to use your phone, and without a seat?
The last time I was in a situation anywhere close to this was when I
accompanied my girlfriend to get her visa renewed in London. We had to wait
for about 5 hours in a fairly crowded hot room with pretty uncomfortable
seats. But we had each other's company and while there was a sign saying we
weren't allowed to use electronic devices, most people seemed to be ignoring
it, so it wasn't so bad.
But still worse than anything I ever have to experience in my normal travel as
a white British man.
~~~
aneth4
This is not a competition for the worst experience one can have. I've had
plenty of horrible ones. Ever been detained for several days in a crowded
third world jail for no legitimate reason and extorted a large sum of money to
be released? Ever been stabbed by thugs too powerful for the police to do
anything other than write a lie-filled police report? This is what happens
every day in the actual world away from privileged white developers with US
green cards.
This is a privileged person, someone who travels internationally, writes a
blog, was able to get a US green card (something tens of millions aspire to,)
is in one of the most lucrative careers on the planet, and is the founder of a
free enterprise despite being young and (presumably based on his caption) gay.
In the grand scheme of things, this experience doesn't even measure on the
pity scale, and to bitch and moan about such things reveals a major lack
appreciation for what one has and a sad sense of entitlement.
Sorry, no go.
~~~
adekok
> This is a privileged person, someone who travels internationally, ...
... and who has gone through extensive scrutiny to get a green card.
Exactly the kind of person who should hit red flags at the border, right?
~~~
aneth4
What's your point? Nobody is arguing whether this was a mistake, not even DHS
officer when asked. Nobody is saying the DHS is the most competent
organization on the planet or that it can't be better. In the vast majority of
cases, people enter the country without issue and in a tiny minority there is
some inconvenience.
Clearly many of the people in that room were there for a reason, as some was
arrested and some were denied entry.
The guy had to stand in a room for 3 hours before entering the country because
he tripped a false positive. We can hope that this won't happen every time -
if it does, he might have something to complain about, though still not
justification for the exasperation shown in this forum.
------
gadders
I know everyone hates on the US Immigration people, but as a fairly regular
traveller to the US (normally at least twice a year, mixture of business and
pleasure), I've never had a bad experience. The guards I've dealt with have
never been less than professional, and some have gone out of their way to make
smalltalk ("You have nice handwriting" (?), "Your birthday is the same as
mine.") etc.
I even got let back through immigration from baggage control as I had a bad
stomach and really badly needed to use the toilet, No guns were drawn on me.
Of course, it probably helps that I'm white and British, but I thought I would
offer up at least one counterpoint.
------
zobzu
I entered quite a few times under visa so far and my experience has been more
than fine (in fact, it's even been pleasant). Hopefully, it'll never get to
what you've had.
It happened a couple of times that the officer wasn't sure if I was doing what
I said I was, for whatever reason, and they generally just asked a follow up
question like "do you have an access card for this company and can I see it?"
which resolved the matter every time. Didn't realize it was so close to "wait
in the horror room for hours".
~~~
jzwinck
Ironically, it is poor security practice to print names on access cards. But
it is fairly common.
------
_pferreir_
I know what you mean. The bureaucratic establishment allows people in low
ranking public jobs to have a disproportionate amount of power over pretty
much anyone.
9/11 seems to have made things worse for pretty much everyone. Governments
went paranoid and chose the easy way: delegating extra authority on people
that were not prepared to exert it.
But border guards tend to be dumb and/or rude pretty much everywhere, so,
don't take it too seriously.
------
donohoe
This is why I choose citizenship.
I have kids so I cannot risk some guy having a bad day at the border ruining
my life.
------
y1426i
This is not an immigration issue. There is no place for common sense in
government matters. Some day computers will take over the decision making and
we will have a joyous experience coming in or happily avoid this country
because the decision will be known.
------
thawt
I haven't seen anyone say it, but I can tell you that the experience of
entering the US as a US citizen is only marginally better.
Leaving/entering the US is something I avoid at all costs. Sad but true.
------
nottrobin
Thanks so much for sharing this.
I think treatment of immigrants by border controls is shocking, and the
biggest problem is how little attention / voice the problem gets.
Please continue to write about your experiences.
------
rjzzleep
welcome to how germany treats their own citizen
~~~
sourishkrout
BS
------
madaxe
I have a simple solution for not dealing with US immigration's bullshit. Too
many trips marred by days spent in featureless rooms waiting for Godot, a
full-time employee of your border agency.
Anyway - simple solution - don't go to America. Don't work with Americans.
Europe and Asia are big markets.
------
tmktmk
This is the biggest non-problem ever:
1) Did the author get in? Yes
2) Did customs do their job and scrutinize the person's paperwork? Yes
3) Was the person held for an inordinately long time? No -- 3 hours is not a
"long time." If you can't deal with the fact that you just flew (potentially)
halfway across the world in an airplane
4) Was the author unduly molested or given harsh treatment, perhaps by being
denied food, water, medication, or otherwise harassed? No -- the author points
out that there was a water fountain and snack machines, and the author was not
strip searched, nor was he otherwise harassed/degraded. Sitting in a waiting
room while your paperwork clears is "not a big deal."
Please stop blowing things out of proportion, and criticizing the US for no
reason. I've immigrated to and lived in 3 different countries, and BY FAR the
procedure described here is not difficult or tedious. If you can't deal with a
a 3 hour wait, how can you deal with anything? Patience is a virtue.
BTW -- I was a paying awe.sm customer -- I just cancelled my account due to
this overblown blog posting. Enjoy.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Google Wants a Piece of Air-Traffic Control for Drones - smullaney
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-24/google-has-way-to-unclog-drone-filled-skies-like-it-did-the-web
======
Animats
This is actually an FAA/NASA initiative.[1] They're trying to figure out how
this can work.
The FAA's first round is out, with the proposed "drone pilot licenses" and
coordination with existing ATC for drone operations in controlled airspace.
That won't scale up to large numbers of drones, but can be done now. The FAA
is considering fewer restrictions on very small drones (<2KG). They have a
study indicating that in theory most 2KG drones won't damage large aircraft
jet engines enough to destroy them. But as yet, that hasn't been tested on
real engines. (Real engines are tested against bird strikes by firing frozen
chickens of various sizes into the engine, using an air cannon. That's going
to have to be done for drones, and it's not cheap.)
The FAA is trying to get this under control before some large quadrotor with
motors with cobalt-neodymium magnets gets sucked into a jet intake.
[1] [http://utm.arc.nasa.gov/index.shtml](http://utm.arc.nasa.gov/index.shtml)
~~~
sopooneo
Thank you for the information, most of which is new to me. However, one minor
point of correction, is that I believe the birds are thawed, not frozen, when
fired into jet engines to test them.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_gun](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_gun)
------
bluthru
>The idea really is anyone should be free to build a solution
I can't think of a worse outcome.
If drones and automated cars don't operate off of an open and public
communication system, it will be a massive failure.
GPS works because a for-profit company isn't in charge of it.
------
cmurf
Today, we're still using AM line of sight radio, on a frequency that can only
accept one transmission at a time.
First innovate a better system for drones. Then replace the legacy ATC system
in stages for Class A, Class B, Class C, Class E IFR, and finally Class E VFR.
And only then can the altitude restriction on drones be lifted, and integrated
into the rest of the ATC system. But even getting Class A and B under the same
modern and scalable system as drones, even if they aren't sharing airspace, is
something pilots, airlines, ATC, and the FAA have needed/wanted for a long
time.
~~~
ytdht
Enabling Super Wi-Fi[1] nation-wide would be a good start to a better system
for wireless communications for drones and other internet-connected devices
1\. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Wi-
Fi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Wi-Fi)
~~~
w-ll
I actually worked with Spectrum Bridge and the city on the implementation in
Wilmington, North Carolina while in college.
At the time it was called 'Whitespace Wifi' and we actually had a handful of
services other than public wi-fi. It was good fun.
~~~
ytdht
Do you know of any plans to expand it further? or was there any substantial
problems discovered that could not be solved?
------
swalsh
One thing i'd like to see from drones is a registration of the drones firmware
signature. So as a drone is flying, it would broadcast the signature, and you
can see above you what's flying around.
------
throwaway859876
Retailers will be in for a lot of heartache if they hope that the FAA will
"work with them."
ADS-B is already mandated for 2020. The spec is cast in stone, and the only
thing that could change is the month it's enforced.
As we've seen with the SoCal fires last week, integrated tracking is essential
for safe low-level flight.
Certified ADS-B avionics prices have ranged from $10,000 - $1,000,000+.
Experimental prices are around $2,000 now.
Obviously that's more than the price of most consumer drones.
Also, what load can the ADS-B system handle? How many drones would overload
it?
~~~
wheaties
This. Alot of drone guys or people who dream of drones forget that there's GA
planes up there. I've had to dodge stupid cameras on balloons while landing.
That's so dangerous
~~~
wmeredith
GA planes?
~~~
spc476
General aviation.
------
ams6110
The idea of centralized air traffic control for drones seems completely
backwards to me. Birds don't have air traffic control, they have eyes and a
brain and avoid obstacles and each other autonomously.
Maybe there will be a need for some defined airways for drones, but they
should be able to fly and navigate for themselves.
~~~
sarwechshar
Whilst I appreciate a bird analogy as much as the next guy (and it makes sense
from a mechanical perspective), I'm not sure if it works for regulation purely
because birds aren't responsible to anyone or anything else if things go
wrong. Drones are human products and thus someone, ie their creator or user,
would need to be held accountable.
------
jamespitts
This is very exciting, and inevitable. This sort of infrastructure will lead
to a lot of innovation because it alleviates many of the questions about
operating drones in shared spaces.
~~~
cmurf
It deals with drone on drone, but not really drone on non-drone. And also
doesn't deal with the "virtual pilot" firmware drones will run, that should
have an analog to FAR 91 rules such as the obstacle avoidance and being able
to avoid injuring people and property on the ground. I have to be able to do
that as a pilot, there's no good reason why an up to 55lb drone going up to
100mph should be exempt.
------
terminado
Skynet!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: How Would you purposefully slow down a specific website? - source99
If you could configure a VPN or Proxy or ??? How would you create a setup so that all traffic for a specific url was slowed down?<p>For example if I went to www.example.com, the website would still load but it would load much slower than if I were to be browsing www.example2.com.
======
pwg
The linux firewall includes a rate limiter module (several actually). That
would be one way to slow down data from specific IP's. And websites located at
that IP would be slowed down.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
The Day I Drove for Amazon Flex - clebio
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/06/amazon-flex-workers/563444/?single_page=true
======
spyckie2
The 'gig' economy reminds me very much of the state of factory workers in the
early 1900s. For businesses, it was very clear that forcing workers to work in
a very unfriendly way (doing a repetitive task as part of an assembly line)
was a multiplier for scale and productivity. However, associated with that was
the "price" unfair wages, long hours, stress, strain, and injury.
It took 30-60 years of unions and labor rights before the problem was 'solved'
\- the non-monetary economics of that kind of production sucked (worker's comp
+ regulations for human rights) and those factories shipped overseas to where
those things didn't exist.
The modern gig economy is really just scaling up distribution instead of mass
production. On paper, it is cheap and scalable. But add in all the socio-
economic components and you'll realize that it's not really that cheap, and
not an economic engine that can survive long term past the initial stages,
reason being that demand exists only because the price is subsidized.
Currently, shipping is extremely cheap, subsidized by Amazon, the government,
and more recently, the individuals who due to lack of opportunities live with
subsistence wages. If shipping was actual market price (where gig workers
earned a fair wage), the cost would be much higher, which would shrink demand.
(shipping was available as a function since forever, and wasn't ever a popular
shopping option until today).
If we wanted free shipping as a standard of living, we would need to subsidize
shipping on a governmental level, similar to how we subsidize food (especially
meat). Americans don't realize it but meat is cheap in the US, much cheaper
than the rest of the world. This is purely because of subsidies, which is a
perk to allow the american standard of living: [https://www.quora.com/Why-are-
meat-and-animal-by-products-so...](https://www.quora.com/Why-are-meat-and-
animal-by-products-so-cheap-in-the-U-S-despite-of-the-fact-that-it-takes-a-
lot-of-natural-resources-to-produce-them).
If you want to make the american standard of living free package delivery,
subsidize the wages from the US government, and force the tech companies to
pay real corporate tax.
~~~
amelius
Isn't subsidized pricing illegal?
See:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predatory_pricing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predatory_pricing)
> Predatory pricing , also known as undercutting, is a pricing strategy in
> which a product or service is set at a very low price with the intention to
> drive competitors out of the market or to create barriers to entry for
> potential new competitors. Theoretically, if competitors or potential
> competitors cannot sustain equal or lower prices without losing money, they
> go out of business or choose not to enter the business. The so-called
> predatory merchant then theoretically has fewer competitors or even is a de
> facto monopoly.
> Predatory pricing is considered anti-competitive in many jurisdictions and
> is illegal under competition laws.
~~~
shanghaiaway
Is Uber illegal?
~~~
rainbowmverse
Courts exist to answer this question.
------
sulam
It's not so great on the other end, either. My house has a gate to get to the
front door. The gate is very easy to operate and never locked. A driver (I
have to assume Flex) instead _threw_ a 20lb box with an ice maker in it over
the fence and into a rose bush that was clearly visible (the fence is just
wrought iron). It crushed a lot of roses and thankfully didn't damage the ice
maker. My wife was literally 20' away in her office when it happened and says
the driver simply drove up, threw it over, and drove away.
~~~
fapjacks
I know a person that uses a paintball gun to keep people out of his apartment
building's dumpster (identity theft from documents stolen out of trash is a
_huge_ problem where he lives) and also to tag delivery trucks and (yikes)
delivery drivers that do this kind of hit-and-run delivery. He'd had enough of
things being broken in this way.
~~~
lostctown
That seems a little excessive? I hope he sees judicial consequences for his
behavior.
~~~
dsfyu404ed
I'm not defending the GP's acquaintance but getting hit by a paintball is
lower than the typical risks you accept when you dig around in a dumpster.
Generally speaking dumpster diving isn't trespassing unless it's behind a gate
or something. It really depends on the dumpster in question.
If it's a good construction or scrap metal dumpster with a lot of nice
material in it then defending it with a paintball gun is very much a dick move
though.
I don't see why he's getting down-voted. He just said he knew a guy who did a
thing. He didn't even imply whether he approved of it or not.
------
extralego
_> Because of the way Flex works, drivers rarely know when blocks of time will
become available, and don’t know when they’ll be working or how much they’ll
be making on any given day.”_
_> ”Kelly Cheeseman, an Amazon spokeswoman, told me that Flex is a great
opportunity for people to be their own boss and set their own schedule.”_
~~~
Tsiklon
The Doublethink is real here isn't it?
I note a similar thing here in the UK - most of the folks working 'gig
economy' or more accurately 'single person zero guaranteed hour contractor'
jobs are doing this stuff full time and are pushed hard to make a workable
living out of it.
------
duxup
The Kobayashi Maru delivery situations where there are few parking options or
the customer simply isn't there seem terribly unfair.
~~~
tanagra
I’ve never before seen the term kobayashi maru used in the wild. Now that I
have, I think, it should be more widely used.
~~~
duxup
It feels like a very literary type term... I get my monocle out each time i
use it.... and my Star Trek badge.
------
moltar
Why there were never these articles for pizza drivers and other deliveries
before?
~~~
plankers
Because the companies they worked for didn't threaten to upend the retail
market of an entire nation, I'm guessing.
~~~
extralego
That makes sense in some clearcut ways and a lot of generally concerning ways.
I wonder if the sentiment from how it affects peoples’ lives is at play or if
it’s just Amazon being so big. It seems similar to Wal-Mart rage, which was
mostly the former.
------
ars
Sounds like non-drivable, only walkable, cities are a real problem for
deliveries.
~~~
Djvacto
I don't think this is a huge problem though, as it forces the use/development
of things like delivery lockers, last-mile bike/foot delivery, pickup
stations, and just generally pushing back on the idea that a car should be
able to go everywhere until a human is absolutely forced to get out of the car
and walk.
I think cities/bigger towns would eventually (in my idealistic world vision)
have major highways/roads that go around them, and have primarily
foot/bike/public transit traffic for everything internal.
~~~
glenneroo
Domino's recently opened up some shops in Vienna, Austria and they gave a lot
of their delivery people e-bikes. UPS also seems to have people delivering
last-mile with e-bikes. Seems to work out great and they aren't clogging up
the streets with delivery cars parked everywhere, blocking entrances, etc.
like most other delivery services.
------
jjoske
When google initially invested in Boston Robots I thought was to try and solve
this problem.
~~~
Zigurd
I think you mean Boston Dynamics.
------
tardo99
I mean, the truth is these jobs will go away relatively soon because of drones
and robotics.
------
Johnny555
_The security guard at the front door of the office building chastised me for
carrying the box, and told me that I should be using a dolly to transport it.
(None of the 19 videos I had to watch to be a Flex driver recommended bringing
a delivery cart or a dolly.)_
How could you not know this? Have you never seen another delivery driver? Do
you really need a training video to tell you that when you need to carry a lot
of heavy packages, you should use a dolly?
~~~
geezerjay
> Do you really need a training video to tell you that when you need to carry
> a lot of heavy packages, you should use a dolly?
Yes, you need.
Case in point, in the last half a dozen orders I've made that involved a
somewhat heavy and/or large package, not a single delivery service used a
dolly or delivery cart, even on orders from a certain multibational furniture
store.
You expect your employees to do their job safely? Then you explicitly cover
the safety procedure during training, and you directly and intentionally state
that it's in their best interests to do so. Otherwisr you can't possibly
assume they will comply with an implicit rule.
~~~
michaelt
in the last half a dozen orders I've made that involved a
somewhat heavy and/or large package, not a single delivery
service used a dolly or delivery cart
I work for a company called Ocado that does grocery delivery right to people's
kitchens (unlike Amazon Flex, our drivers are employees, paid by the hour, and
drive company-owned vans). I've been out with drivers several times. Drivers
are issued with dollies and trained in their use.
Dollies are inherently a mixed blessing. You can pile more stuff on them - but
if you've got to get up a kerb, you've still got to be able to lift that
weight, and the dolly as well, and keep everything from sliding off at the
same time.
And it's not just kerbs. They've got steps up to their front door? Can't use
the dolly. Old flat/apartment without a lift? Can't use the dolly. Lift needs
a key you don't have? Can't use the dolly. They've got a gravel path? Can't
use the dolly. They've got a thick-bottomed UPVC door frame? Can't get the
dolly through it. On a steep hill? Dolly will make things harder...
And it turns out, in a city like London, there are a great many buildings with
one or more of these defects - and the worse the parking situation, the
further away you park the van, the more kerbs and things you're likely to need
to cross.
Hence, even though drivers are issued with dollies and trained in their use,
many deliveries are made without the dollies because they don't make things
all that much easier.
~~~
throwaway426079
You also don't want the dolly in your kitchen because you don't know what it
rolled over before that. As an Ocado driver pointed out to me.
~~~
mcherm
> You also don't want the dolly in your kitchen because you don't know what it
> rolled over before that.
How are the dolly's wheels any different from the delivery person's shoes?
~~~
throwaway426079
Only one person wears the shoes and (maybe) takes care where they walk. Many
people use a single dolly over different shifts and don't know what the last
user did with it.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
US contractor fined $3.1M for outsourcing work to India - known
http://sakshipost.com/index.php/news/international/77667-us-contractor-fined-$3-1mn-for-outsourcing-work-to-india.html
======
esbranson
For those who prefer primary sources:
"STATE CONTRACTOR TO PAY MORE THAN $3 MILLION IN PENALTIES FOR ILLEGAL AND
COVERT OUTSOURCING OF MILLIONS OF FINGERPRINT RECORDS TO INDIA FOR DATA
ENTRY", New York State Inspector General Catherine Leahy Scott, 24 March 2016
(Press Release)
[https://ig.ny.gov/sites/default/files/pdfs/IGFocusedTechRepo...](https://ig.ny.gov/sites/default/files/pdfs/IGFocusedTechReportPR3-24-16.pdf)
"Investigation of Improper Outsourcing of Confidential Records", New York
State Inspector General Catherine Leahy Scott, March 2016 (contains report and
agreement/order by state IG)
[https://ig.ny.gov/sites/default/files/pdfs/FocusedTechnologi...](https://ig.ny.gov/sites/default/files/pdfs/FocusedTechnologiesReportandAOD.pdf)
------
dkopi
"The agreement arises from a USD 3.45 million contract..." "Focused paid the
Indian company just over USD 82,000..." "Overall, the Indian company performed
approximately 37.5 per cent of the work on the contract”.
~~~
zaroth
The Indian company handled 16m out of 22 million documents. Not sure what
other work there was which led to the 37.5% overall figure, otherwise last I
checked 16/22=73%...
~~~
USNetizen
It goes by tasks. Each contract is broken into a series of tasks (CLINs) and
assigned a value. The "prime" contractor typically has to perform 51% of the
work by value and task when some sort of set-aside preference is used (like
Veteran-owned, etc.).
------
abruzzi
My read is that the title here is a bit misleading. The article implies that
the illegality is not outsourcing to India, but rather that the Indian
contractor was not approved to handle the data it indexed. Am I misreading
this?
~~~
ksherlock
> Given the confidential nature of the information of the fingerprint cards,
> Focused was required to perform all of the work in New York and it could
> only use employees that had passed a criminal background check. It was also
> prohibited from subcontracting any of the work to any other entity.
(Breaching your contract is only illegal (as opposed to a tort) when the other
party is the government)
~~~
Spooky23
Not necessarily.
In this case, the contract involved a vendor bidding with/through NYS
Industries for the Disabled, which is a "preferred source" contractor that is
supposed to employ disabled people to perform work. Typically this is light
manufacturing work, although operating scanners for a purpose like this is
also common.
As a preferred source contractor, they have preference over any other
competitor -- if you bid on the contract and offered to perform the services
for $1, the preferred source vendor would win.
The issue is that this is a serious fraud, not just a case of violating some
contract term. I'm curious as to why the principles aren't facing criminal
prosecution.
~~~
newjersey
> "To advance special social and economic goals, certain providers have
> preferred source status under the law. The acquisition of commodities and/or
> services from preferred sources is exempted from statutory competitive
> procurement requirements. All state agencies, political subdivisions and
> public benefit corporations (which includes most public authorities), are
> required to purchase approved products and services from preferred sources
> in accordance with the procedures and requirements described in the
> Preferred Source Guidelines.
[https://www.nyspro.ogs.ny.gov/content/buying-preferred-
sourc...](https://www.nyspro.ogs.ny.gov/content/buying-preferred-source-0)
This is why the road to hell is paved with good intentions. It seems to me
that the people who should face criminal prosecution are the people who came
up with this nonsense "preferred source" scheme.
~~~
nl
You prefer welfare for blind people vs giving them meaningful work?
~~~
newjersey
If that means a level playing field, yes. Positive discrimination is
discrimination and should be banned outside of education.
Why the downvote? Is that for disagreeing?
~~~
nl
I didn't downvote you, but I would if I could. I both disagree with your view
and think that you haven't really argued your point very well.
Blind people aren't born on a level playing field.
I believe that a society should take care of people who are unfortunate, and
this method seems like a reasonable way to allow market mechanisms to improve
their life.
I'm assuming that you disagree that this is a role society should take.
However, the consensus of of most societies in history is that blind people
should be taken care of in some way.
I think it's reasonable that you should be expected to make a better argument
to overturn that view than you have.
------
bpicolo
For _illegally_ outsourcing a government contract
~~~
eplanit
Exactly. It's like immigration vs. illegal immigration. It's easy to drop the
"illegal" part and stir up racial emotion and thus divert attention away from
the real topic.
------
theflork
can someone with more knowledge of the legal code explain why no criminal
charges?
$3.45m - $3.1m - $0.082m = $268k profit
Also getting to hold onto $3.4 million for the 8 year time period since 2008
would net some good returns as well.
~~~
cheriot
There's also the expenses for the other 62.5% of the contract, the taxes paid
on the profits, and the business development to get the contract in the first
place.
I don't actually know how these things are calculated, though.
~~~
zaroth
Good points. They are certainly not making out after the fines. Now I wonder,
if the fine is tax deductible?
~~~
jacalata
It shouldn't be in general - [http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/business-
expenses-tha...](http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/business-expenses-
that-are-never-deductible.html)
------
EvanPlaice
Sounds like 'business as usual' to me.
Small company is granted preferential treatment on the contract reward because
the company fits under a 'special class'. For example SDVOSB.
The company doesn't actually have the skill/ability to fulfill the contract
requirements so they outsource a significant portion of the work; either by
picking up one of the bidders who lost as a subprime or bynoutsourcing to a
third-party. Passing off the responsibility violates the 'protected class'
certification threshold but there's no oversight to verify compliance so the
contractor is never held accountable.
Many/most small business defense contractors are simply administrative
companies that work the 'special class' certification process, pocket a
significant percentage of the funds, and either outsource most of the actual
work or hire people and provide substandard pay and provide little/no
resources to do the work.
Source: I used to work for one such company. Never again...
------
eddd
I love that kind of stories:
[http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-21043693](http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-21043693)
Capitalism! :)
~~~
0x264
It's like life imitates satire:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYaZ57Bn4pQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYaZ57Bn4pQ)
[Onion video]
------
mchahn
This reminds me of the story from a while back about a contractor who took
jobs and farmed them all out to Indian companies for a small percentage of his
take.
------
MichaelBurge
How did they catch them?
~~~
USNetizen
Contracting with the government means you open your books to them, essentially
whenever they want. They can audit you at any time.
------
jpoech
man, that was messed up!
------
Gustomaximus
So have these guys essentially lost $40k plus time involved? This doesn't
sound like much of a deterrent. There should really be criminal charges for
these blatant fraudulent behaviours. While I believe prison should primarily
be a rehabilitation, giving white collar criminals actual time will work as a
deterrent rather than a 'don't get caught' mentality.
~~~
ytpete
Don't forget lost future business too - good luck winning the next contract
bid with this kind of track record (hopefully). If that effect is strong
enough, it could potentially even put a place out of business.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Ask HN: What is your favorite screen recorder? - franca
To build video tutorial, what software and tools do you use?
======
lixtra
[http://www.maartenbaert.be/simplescreenrecorder/](http://www.maartenbaert.be/simplescreenrecorder/)
my version only works with X11, not wayland though.
~~~
oblib
I took at look at this and had to try installing it on my Raspberry Pi. It
worked great!
I couldn't get it to recognize my microphone but I didn't fiddle with that
much. It was easy to capture an audio track on my Mac while recording the
screen on the Pi and bring the movie over into Quicktime and sync them up.
I've been looking for a way to record the screen on my Pi so I thank you too!
------
sgslo
I have recorded many hundreds of hours of content. I first used Quicktime on
MacOS, it worked well enough. Great quality, fast, and easy to use.
More recently I moved over to OBS, which I consider to be far superior to
Quicktime for one important reason: more control over audio settings. With OBS
I can use just about any mic and get reasonable sound quality with a few
tweaks. At present, I'm using a $20 headset and it works just fine.
------
RandomGuyDTB
OBS has been useful, so has Overwolf, but I think the best tool I've used has
been Quicktime on OSX. It's much easier to use than most things. My go-to on
Windows is the XBox Game DVR recording functionality but I only use it because
the alternatives are pretty slow.
------
BorisMelnik
shareX for windows! Been using it for prob 10 years and its donate-ware
[https://i.imgur.com/qOQIWoi.png](https://i.imgur.com/qOQIWoi.png)
records in MPEG or GIF and lots of screenshot options as well. auto-upload to
lots of free sharing sites if you choose. for screenshots I use Windows10
built-in "snipping tool" you dont get any simpler than that.
------
tothrowaway
For simple recordings, I use [https://screencast-o-
matic.com](https://screencast-o-matic.com)
------
akulbe
My answers are platform-specific:
For Windows: Camtasia
For macOS: Screenflow
------
simonebrunozzi
Screenflow or Quicktime.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Securitas discriminates against Firefox users - afed
If you use Firefox you are not allowed to apply for a position on Securitas's web site. Apparently they believe open source users are not trustworthy or reliable. By trying to start the online application, Firefox users are routed to a page stating that Internet Explorer 6 must be used.<p>http://www.securitas.com/us/en/Career/Come-Join-Us/Start-On-line-Application/
======
jgoosdh
Its pretty common for big companies to have internal apps designed exclusively
for various versions of IE, because they can control what browsers their
employees use, but this is just plain ridiculous!
When you design and build a web app for public consumption you need to develop
for ALL major browsers or risk losing business. These guys are nuts!
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
ReactOS 0.4.0 Released - setra
https://www.reactos.org/project-news/reactos-040-released
======
orionblastar
I've been waiting for this, I donated money so they can reach the 0.4.0
version.
They have made a lot of improvements on it and added more hardware support
like USB and Sound cards. Even added a virtual 16 bit machine to run DOS code.
It is not ready for prime time yet, but it can be run in a virtual machine. It
is a Windows alternative that can run some Windows programs and shares code
with the WINE project.
It uses a low memory footprint, so you can install Apache, MYSQL, PHP etc on
it and use it as a server.
They are trying to make it XP/2003 compatible. So it is really designed for
older Windows technology.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Substrata - A Responsive, Semantic Grided Front-End Boilerplate - Hirvesh
http://shaunchurch.com/substrata/index.html
======
Hirvesh
via: [http://www.functionn.in/2012/12/substrata-responsive-
semanti...](http://www.functionn.in/2012/12/substrata-responsive-semantic-
grided.html)
[Check out <http://www.functionn.in> for more web resources to keep you
functionn.in']
Substrata, from the words of its developer is a lightweight, minimalist,
responsive, semantic grid powered, unstyled, front-end boilerplate. Substrata
was born out of the dissatisfaction with currently existing front-end
frameworks like Twitter Bootstrap, HTML5 Boilerplate or Semantic Grid System.
Substrata aims to find the balance between having too much functionality or
too little functionality. It borrows the best ideas from all the other front-
end frameworks and tries to make the perfect cocktail which allows you to get
started with your project with minimal restrictions.
Substrata is lightweight, with the CSS file’s size at around 8KB minified. It
also comes with several baked-in features like Google Web Fonts Code,
Analytics code, Modernizr.js, HTML5 Boilerplate’s .htaccess file and more.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Visualise the shift to blockchain by big companies - flywithdolp
https://www.producthunt.com/posts/shiftblock
======
verdverm
Shift or experiment or say something in the media?
This seems like a website / article aggregator for big co + blockchain
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
How to Get PayPal To Freeze Your Account in Four Easy Steps - jamievayable
As first-time entrpreneurs, we have of course hit many bumps and snags along our path to launch. But none have been more painful, irrational or bloody our perpetually-losing battle with PayPal. I have written the following to help other startup founders using PayPal fail faster.<p>How to get PayPal to Freeze your account in four easy steps.<p>1. Be a bootstrapping startup.
With no funding, transactions or big names behind us, we set up our PayPal merchant account like any innocent first-time founders would: by following procedure. We provided our Employer Identification Number, a summary of our business, a summary of how we would be using PayPal for our transactions, and all the other good details you’d a payment service to require. All good? It seemed so, but then we got greedy. We wanted to use PayPal Pro to streamline our transactions.<p>2. Apply for Payments Pro.
We first get a phone call from a representative at PayPal informing us that Vayable is conducting illegal activity by running a business without a Travel Seller’s license from the State of California. Without this license number, they tell us, we cannot use PayPal’s service. This is the first we’ve heard of needing to acquire a Travel Seller’s license, as we’re not actually selling travel, but I go ahead and look into it. Turns out, the State will not issue us a Travel Seller’s license even if we wanted one: they’re reserved for sellers of transportation, like airlines and bus companies. We do not do this. We are a community marketplace for individuals to buy and sell unique experiences from one another. Think Etsy or Airbnb for EventBrite for unique travel experiences-- Or whatever marketplace startup du jour you want to throw before “unique experiences.” (Note: Etsy, Airbnb and Eventbrite all use PayPal).<p>I call PayPal back and tell them that we in no way fall under the state’s definition of a Seller of Travel and therefore not only don’t need the license, but wouldn’t qualify for it. “Then we’re going to have to decline your application for Payments Pro” I am told by three different representatives. (I’m always a believer in calling back to talk to someone else if the first person doesn’t give you the answer you want). In this case, no one was giving us the answer we wanted. Time to pivot.<p>3. Comply with PayPal’s requests.
After failing to qualify to use Payments Pro, we decide to go with another one of their merchant products: Express Checkout, a free and streamlined merchant service PayPal released last fall that does not require a lengthy application process. While building it into our site, we receive a notification from PayPal that our merchant account is going under review (note: we have yet to test a single transaction yet). They are concerned that we are are not a real business, they say, and ask us to submit our Articles of Incorporation as well as our EIN number (which I had already submitted several times) in the enrollment process) as well as a statement of how we intend to use PayPal for our transactions. Of course, we comply. Within an hour of receiving the email from them, I have uploaded these documents to the Resolution Center, as requested, and wait. And wait. And wait. After several days of hearing nothing back, I call PayPal. I talk to a guy in their customer support department who informs me that the account is fine, but they just need to verify that the business name is actually Vayable. This sounds odd to me. So again, I provide them with the material and am assured by customer support that the account will be restored to good standing as soon as they look over the paperwork I’ve provided. Ten days later, our account status has not changed and I still cannot get any more information from PayPal customer support.<p>4. Stay Loyal.
With no new information, we decide to charge ahead and implement PayPal into the site. After all, we need transaction on the site and PayPal is the most widely recommended and seemingly accommodating platform. After a painful implementation process (which involved the server-side technical problems from PayPal throughout, making it nearly impossible to test and use the sandbox), we finally got our Express Checkout up and running. Seamless and perfect? Far from it. Functional and secure? Yes. Less than 12 hours after getting the service us and running, I receive the following email from PayPal:<p>Dear Jamie Wong,<p>Thank you for your response.<p>Per our Acceptable Use Policy, under credit card association rules, PayPal
cannot permit the use of the PayPal service as a funding method for payment
processors to collect payments on behalf of merchants. Upon review of
your account, it appears that you are offering an aggregation service that
allows multiple merchants to process transactions that are against various
Acceptable Use rules. The service you provide allows said merchants to
circumvent our policies.<p>While we wish you the best of success in your future business endeavors, we
respectfully ask that you seek another method of payment for your online
business.<p>Your PayPal Account has been limited and there will be no appeals to the
decision. Any remaining funds in your account balance will be held for 180
days from the date of the limitation. Once 180 days has passed, the funds
will be available for withdrawal.<p>If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us again.<p>Sincerely,
Julie
PayPal Compliance Department
PayPal, an eBay Company<p>Responses to this email address are not monitored. Please send any
additional questions that you may have to compliance@paypal.com.<p>Translation: Your account has been frozen and there’s nothing you can do about it.
Upon referring to PayPal’s Acceptable Use Policy, as they suggest, I find nothing to suggest we are not in compliance. In fact, we seem to be the exact kind of merchant PayPal would want using its services. We are bringing them new users by requiring our customers to pay with PayPal, we are building a global marketplace that is ideal case study for PayPal’s robust risk management and fraud management and we’re a budding new startup that enables a brand new community of merchants and transactions, off of which PayPal will be able to profit.<p>We’re still unclear why PayPal froze our account, but we’ve got a pretty good idea of how it happened, which really started with following procedure, followed by compliance, followed by loyalty to their service.<p>PayPal doesn’t want their cut of tens of millions of dollars of revenue we project in the next two years. Any idea of who does?<p>-Jamie Wong
Co-Founder, Vayable.com
http://blog.vayable.com
======
ig1
I can't say I really blame them, you're in a high-risk business which tends to
have lots of credit card chargebacks and you can't guarantee delivery of
service. If you went the merchant bank/credit card processor route you'd
probably have to put down a substantial deposit.
If you're operating a high-risk business you can't really expect PayPal or a
merchant bank to absorb that risk on your behalf unless you're willing to pay
for it.
PayPal's policies do forbid the kind of marketplace aggregation you're doing
(Unless you're using their Adaptive Payment split payment mechanism which is
designed for this sort of situation; but from your description I assume you're
not)
------
LiveTheDream
> tens of millions of dollars of revenue we project
Paypal's revenues are well over $3 billion/year and growing. They are also
known around these parts as a fraud detection company with a payment
processing component. Respectfully, I would first suggest you be happy that
those millions are still just projected and not sitting in limbo in a frozen
PayPal account.
Next, check out some other payment processing options. Here is a great place
to start:
[http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/startupswiki/Ask_YC_Archive#t...](http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/startupswiki/Ask_YC_Archive#toc85)
------
daimyoyo
Your solution here is obvious. Several times per week it seems there's a
thread here lamenting paypals policy's. My advice to you would be to start a
competitor to paypal. (yes they're owned by eBay, but remember that there's
potential antitrust issues if they harass you too much or refuse to allow you
to integrate your payments widget into the listings.) You certainly aren't
alone in your struggle, and were I in your position, that's what I'd do. Just
my $0.02.
~~~
wladimir
Aren't there already many competitors to Paypal? They're not as well-known,
but I don't think starting another web payment service is a very good business
plan. For example, I know Netteller has been struggling pretty much.
I agree that Paypal needs a bigger competitor though. They're really making a
mess of it.
------
JigSaw81
Your site looks pretty sketchy. Try to make it look more trustworthy, then re-
apply for Payments Pro in 2-3 months. They might reconsider.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Opinion: Google Is Still Bad at Selling Phones - wbsun
https://www.droid-life.com/wp-content/cache/page_enhanced/www.droid-life.com/2017/10/26/opinion-google-still-sucks-at-selling-phones/_index.html
======
dovdovdov
This is just market research, when they asked the community what they see in
the competitor,
people said 'no headphone jack' and 'overpriced crap'.
Google just delivered on these desires.
~~~
piyush_soni
Yes. Apparently, when they sold the amazing value for money Nexus phones
(especially the 5), no one wanted buy those "cheap plastic phones". Pixel 1,
the overpriced phone was the first one people noticed and bought. Sad, but
true.
~~~
rak00n
Remember the bootloop issue in 5x and 6p? They have a long way to go in this
market.
~~~
totalZero
My Nexus 6P soft bricked itself in exactly this way, by spiraling into a
never-ending bootloop. I contacted Google to ask for help, and they wouldn't
even send me the documents I needed to get my credit card's warranty service
extension program to replace my phone. I will never again buy a Google
hardware device as long as I live.
------
noncoml
Why would anyone buy a phone from an advertising company?
~~~
a012
Because they're advertised
------
NateyJay
Fixed link: [https://www.droid-life.com/2017/10/26/opinion-google-
still-s...](https://www.droid-life.com/2017/10/26/opinion-google-still-sucks-
at-selling-phones/)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Making a commit with the Github API - swanson
http://swanson.github.com/blog/2011/07/23/digging-around-the-github-api-take-2.html
======
zmanji
Very fascinating, a static file blog backed by git is powerful, back by github
would allow for a lot of features. I can see the power I get with editing code
easily applied to writing with the same usability I get from WordPress or
something similar.
------
follower
Off topic, but I noticed in your post you said:
> but I liked the idea of keeping an “engineering notebook” as I work.
I've created a site Labradoc
(<[http://www.labradoc.com/>](http://www.labradoc.com/>)) that is a low
friction way to keep an engineering notebook (or as I call it--a project log).
For me it makes a huge difference in being able to keep track of multiple side
projects.
You might like to try it out.
Also, thanks for the pointer to the Javascript Markdown parser "Showdown"--
I've been wanting to get a Markdown live-preview working for Labradoc and that
seems like it could do the job. :)
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Threats to macOS Users - heshiebee
https://securelist.com/threats-to-macos-users/93116/
======
taylodl
Phishing is an extremely effective attack vector. My company's security group
regularly and randomly sends out phishing emails. Those falling for it are
sent to training for how to identify a phishing attack. I've heard anecdotally
that some people have had to go to the training three times! Which I don't say
to gloat - but merely to point out how well that attack vector works.
------
java-man
I know of no email client that tries to detect and warn about phishing or
other forms of attacks.
Message contains executables masquerading as data files?
From: domain name is different from the received from:?
Homoglyphs in the domain name?
Tracking pixels?
White on white text?
Suspicious Javascript?
etc.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Sex and Gor and open source - healsdata
https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/26/sex-and-gor-and-open-source/
======
netaustin
I spent a good portion of my early career working with Drupal on large-scale
media sites and got to know some folks central to the movement. I liked almost
everyone I met, including Dries, but after starting my own agency, left the
platform and the community. Not because of individual conflicts, but because I
concluded that I did not want my agency to orbit Acquia. This is what happens
in commercially mature open source communities, and a huge source of mundane
conflict. The founder and BDFL of the movement becomes the founder and BDFL of
a venture funded, IPO-bound startup, and incentives start to become crossed.
Or in the case this case, incentives become entirely perverted.
So I have a darker take on this: Dries banned Crell as a face-value reason to
strip a competitor of a seat at the core contributor table. Crell works for
Platform.sh, a challenger to Acquia's main hosting platform product. Drupal
has lots of very senior architectural voices already, so losing Crell isn't
going to jeopardize the platform, and it's more convenient for Acquia for them
to work in the same place.
According to Crell's post about this [[https://www.garfieldtech.com/blog/tmi-
outing](https://www.garfieldtech.com/blog/tmi-outing)], the Drupal Association
apparently attempted to apply their code of conduct and found repeatedly that
Crell had done nothing wrong. But then Dries decided to ban Crell with little
fanfare. Hard to believe that Dries cares that much about Crell's sex life.
Easy to believe that he's become a cutthroat opportunist who would use the
Code of Conduct to optimize Acquia's outcomes. What would have happened if
Crell had worked for Acquia?
That's the thing about a BDFL. Give him enough VC money and ultimately all
that's left is a giant D.
~~~
nearlythere
There's an appearance of conflict of interest, and you are not the only one to
make this accusation. But this is a red herring.
It was also brought up on the related Reddit thread. Someone surmised this
might be "motivated by the direct competition."
To which rszrama (Ryan Szarma) said "As a co-founder of Platform.sh, I know
with absolute certainty this is not the case."
Assuming Ryan knows more than both of us, and he would be in a position to
gain from making such a claim -- it's important to note he emphatically said
NO.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/drupal/comments/60y9mq/larry_garfie...](https://www.reddit.com/r/drupal/comments/60y9mq/larry_garfield_on_harassment_in_the_drupal_project/dfcg0n8/)
~~~
netaustin
I'm with you 100% here, yeah, and I agree entirely with the points made here
[[https://subfictional.com/thoughts-on-recent-drupal-
governanc...](https://subfictional.com/thoughts-on-recent-drupal-governance-
decisions/)]. But I don't think Dries has the credibility to act in the
community's best interest and also in the best interest of Acquia. As an
officer of Acquia he has a fiduciary responsibility; his responsibility to
Drupal is purely ethical.
I'd argue that Ryan can't really gain from making a claim that Dries is trying
to damage his business, because then he's admitting that his business has been
damaged without any real recourse. But I do agree that he knows plenty that we
don't!
My thesis is not that Crell's behavior was acceptable. I know I don't have the
standing to opine on that. My thesis is that Dries isn't accountable for this
conflict of interest and the demands of running a venture-backed startup are
largely at odds with the demands of running a community worthy of its code of
conduct.
Of course, Dries is not the only BDFL with this kind of a conflict of
interest. Many of us who have a career on the Internet live in the shade of
one tree or another...
------
SexyCyborg
I'm not at all surprised by this. I'm not a BDSM enthusiast, but in my
personal life I wear clothes and have body mods that while legal and socially
acceptable in my country, many Westerners find outrageous and deeply
offensive. I have always complied with the standards and dress code of any
business event I attend. It's simply what I wear in my personal time.
It's been a huge obstacle to getting recognition when dealing with Western
tech media. Even when I don't appear at all with the project, simply the off-
camera creator's appearance being offensive has been sufficient excuse for
exclusion. I have no doubt that BDSM enthusiasts, or Furries, or many others
face similar issues even when they check all aspects of their lifestyle at the
door and it has no bearing on their projects.
As part of a knee-jerk reaction to community problems with sexism, parts of
tech are now deeply, deeply conservative and judgmental about anything even
vaguely sexual.
You can very easily have permanent damage done to your career prospects by
appearing or acting in some way different from what they feel is the norm.
Once that's done, there's no appeasement or washing away the stain- you might
as well embrace your eccentricity and resign yourself to whatever fringe niche
will have you.
------
tptacek
This article is written from one side of a complicated conflict.
It's the perspective of the ousted Drupal member that his beliefs are entirely
packaged up in the BDSM subculture that he takes part in, and that to have a
problem with his beliefs is to persecute his BDSM subculture.
It's the perspective of the other Drupal members who ousted him that his
beliefs are not in fact cabined in that subculture, but in fact bleed out of
it into his interactions with the broader world. They cite evidence.
Since the beliefs that we're talking about could be broadly and probably
inaccurately but by how much I don't know described as "females are subhuman",
it's the perspective of the Drupal members who did the ousting that those
beliefs matter very much to the project.
I don't know what the right answer is, but I do know that this TechCrunch
article basically defined away the controversy. That doesn't help anyone make
sense of it. I'm happy letting the Drupal community work this stuff out for
themselves though, and also flagged this story, which is, after all, really
just drama.
~~~
crawfordcomeaux
Community governance in a world where open source is increasing and privacy
decreasing will necessarily require drama as long as emotions are involved.
The article raises questions in the controversy worth exploring in countless
open source projects.
I didn't encounter evidence cited by the ousting members in the article. Can
you link to your sources?
~~~
tptacek
You didn't encounter pretty much any of the other side in that article, which
is not an accurate summary of the controversy. I'm not sure this article makes
a good starting point for discussing this issue, and I'm not sure the issue
itself is really worth mining to find a good starting point.
~~~
ajsalminen
In a way it looks very much like just the same issue that has come up before
with people getting banned from tech conferences for example: Should the
beliefs a person holds that are unrelated to the community in question be
grounds for ostracizing him from said community. I don't really understand why
you think that isn't an issue worth discussing.
~~~
tptacek
I didn't say it wasn't an issue worth discussing. I said that the article
we're commenting on is highly misleading. It would lead one to believe that
the community is penalizing consensual sexual behavior, when in fact the
concern has virtually nothing to do with his BDSM subculture.
~~~
ajsalminen
I don't think the article is that one-sided. It also raises another issue
which is that the total lack of transparency even to the person being
prosecuted is problematic.
The comments from the DA side about this have been few and self-contradictory
so that partially the reason the article is the way it is.
------
losvedir
Sad. I definitely agree with the article's "yes (no), hell no, hell no"
answers. But I wonder how many people would answer the same here as with
Brendan Eich being forced to resign or Curtis Yarvin being dis-invited from
LambdaConf.
Edit to be more clear: I can understand either position as long as it applies
consistently. I also think I may have pattern matched this incorrectly as
"person unfairly ostracized for his personal sexual preferences", when perhaps
the part that will get play in the tech community is "woman hating white
male", in which case this will fit right in with Eich and Yarvin.
~~~
tptacek
Yarvin was not disinvited from LambdaConf. LambdaConf was boycotted because
Yarvin presented there.
(To your edit: so far as I know, the issue with Yarvin has more to do with
outspoken racism than with gender equity).
~~~
tedunangst
Disinvited from strangeloop I think? It's hard to keep track of it all.
~~~
mcphage
Right, disinvited from strangeloop. When he was invited to speak at
LambdaConf, pressure was brought to bear to get him disinvited. When that
didn't work, people instead brought pressure against LambdaConf's sponsors,
speakers, and attendees, in an effort to get LambdaConf cancelled.
~~~
tptacek
That's a lurid way to describe people boycotting (pretty successfully) a
conference.
~~~
mcphage
Which claim are you objecting to? That people attempted to get him disinvited?
That people pushed LambdaConf's sponsors to pull out? That people pushed
LambdaConf's speakers to pull out? That people encouraged LambdaConf's
attendees to switch to MoonConf? Calling that "attempting to get LambdaConf
cancelled" doesn't seem particularly lurid, especially not compared to things
like "You chose to die on this hill."
~~~
tptacek
Again, all you're doing is rattling off a description of a boycott.
~~~
mcphage
Right, which is why I'm confused that you objected to it.
------
alexandercrohde
At first I thought this article would be linkbaity-gossip about a tech
individual's private matters. However I think it raises a good point:
Generally our attitude toward different sexual preferences (previously labeled
'deviant') is that it is _illegal_ and _wrong_ to use them to hold back
somebody's career. However fetishism thus far hasn't been approached the same
way as homosexuality, nor has the debate even begun in any public fashion.
I think this debate will have to happen and it's very nuanced.
~~~
di4na
Disclaimer : i am a dom/top/whatever you want to call it in my private life.
Even more interestingly, the majority of the fetish/BDSM community is heavily
feminist and open minded. (There are always grey nuance and complex case but
still) It is a community that is deeply rooted into consent and people that
submit making a conscious and informed decision.
You tend to meet people that accept someone else opinion or lifestyle, that
are team player and adapt to others, more than proselyts or zealots.
Interestingly, the legal implications are complex, and most of the time, in
the US, would not support the lifestyle that much. Consensual non-consent or
violence is a strange place legally.
But from the public information so far, it seems hard to believe that this was
about proselytising or promoting anything.
Just a witch hunt. Which, to be honest, do not surprise me.
I am semi public about my personal involvement since 50 Shades, because i
accept the problem i could get in exchange of informing people that need it
(50 shades is hated in a lot of the community for good reasons) It is not easy
and you get a lot of anxious/uneasy look.
~~~
tptacek
To be clear: the claim here --- not that you'd know it from the article --- is
that proselytizing was in fact an issue.
~~~
di4na
Well proselytising what ? Because once again, the fact he plays as a Gorean
master does not mean he believes women to be subhuman.
This tends to be the problem with most of these things. But in any case we
really lack information here.
~~~
aries1980
Regardless what he believes, whether it is in line with the mainstream western
values or not, it hurts the inclusion and tolerance to expel members based on
that. One's taste, political views (regardless how extreme it is) should not
be a subject of investigation in a professional community.
------
slang800
> More generally, is it OK for an open-source community to ban/ostracize a
> member purely because their “belief system” — perhaps better described as a
> complicated fantasy milieu in which they happen to spend their personal time
> — was doxxed? [hell no]
It's interesting to compare this with the TechCrunch article written after
Brendan Eich was ousted for his “belief system”:
[https://techcrunch.com/2014/04/03/brendan-eich-resigns-as-
mo...](https://techcrunch.com/2014/04/03/brendan-eich-resigns-as-mozilla-ceo-
following-criticism-of-his-support-for-prop-8/)
------
WillyOnWheels
[http://www2.rdrop.com/users/wyvern//data/](http://www2.rdrop.com/users/wyvern//data/)
------
mgbmtl
The Techcrunch article has a broken link to Dries' blog post:
[http://buytaert.net/living-our-values](http://buytaert.net/living-our-values)
The Techcrunch article focuses too much on BDSM in general. If I understand
correctly, the problem here is on the specific aspect of viewing women as
inferior and the fact that this contributor wields significant influence in a
community where (like many free software communities) gender is a problem.
This isn't very different than being anti-gay and being the lead of a big free
software project. Some people can pretend that their personal opinions have no
impact on their work, but that's very rarely the case. If there was more
diversity, this would probably be less of an issue.
~~~
tnones
It is both notable and unsurprising that the Drupal code of conduct [1] makes
zero mention of any of the topics in this debate. Nothing about sexuality,
nothing about feminism, or equality, ... Yet every discussion about this
immediately turns to gender politics. I think this shows the duplicitous
nature of COCs: no matter what the letter says, the intent, as understood by
nearly everyone, is to apply it to filter by reigning morality, under the
threat of public punishment.
When it comes to Drupal, the only gender problem it has is the people who keep
manufacturing major incidents out of minor slights, even when the people
involved don't mind. Case in point, the Drupal Association member who resigned
because he called his friend a pussy, who in turn didn't mind it.
It is disingenuous to uphold a code of respect, diversity and inclusion while
simultaneously expecting everyone to conform to the wishes of the most easily
offended. More so to act like the only way to be respectful to women is to
treat them like fragile flowers. Some people prefer traditional gender roles,
in or outside the bedroom, and some are women.
The last thing these inclusion activists want is diversity, it would expose
them as the sheltered and privileged upper class they are.
[1] [https://www.drupal.org/dcoc](https://www.drupal.org/dcoc)
~~~
mgbmtl
> Nothing about sexuality, nothing about feminism, or equality, [...]
From the DCOC: "The Drupal community and its members treat one another with
respect."
> When it comes to Drupal, the only gender problem it has is the people who
> keep manufacturing major incidents out of minor slights [...]
I don't know for Drupal, but gender is an issue in most computer-science
related fields, I doubt that Drupal is immune to this. Free Software has a
lower % of women involved than computer science in general. In any case, until
there is near parity, there is a gender problem.
I agree that 'we' are pretty bad at handling incidents. Damned if we do,
damned if we don't. There's been an evolution in the last 10 years, but
clearly more work to be done.
~~~
aries1980
> “The Drupal community and its members treat one another with respect.”
Frankly, the DCOC is vague. If we want to kick out people with a reference to
the DCOC, we have to define with mathematical precision what is “respect”,
“poor manners”, “people outside the Drupal project”.
> I don't know for Drupal, but gender is an issue in most computer-science
> related fields, I doubt that Drupal is immune to this. Free Software has a
> lower % of women involved than computer science in general. In any case,
> until there is near parity, there is a gender problem.
You can always find an aspect which is underrepresented. Gender, ethnicity,
solved tickets, religion, eye colour… Can we just focus on getting things done
and being a welcoming toward everyone who would like to donate free time until
that person does not restrict others to do so?
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Sad state of cross platform GUI frameworks - s9w
https://blog.royalsloth.eu/posts/sad-state-of-cross-platform-gui-frameworks
======
thomaszander
Its a great overall look, but I'd like to add some details to the Qt parts.
* he reviewed the QtWidget parts, and the designer for such. This is by now 15 years old tech that has not seen any new development for years. He didn't look at the QtQuick and QtComponents parts which people use now.
* He writes: «You can always buy a commercial license that gives you the rights to statically link your application but it comes with a hefty price.».
This seems an emotional conclusion. First, most people don't actually require
to statically link their apps. So this is only required for a small subset of
users. Shipping your app on mobile, for instance, can be done with the open
source version just fine. I think it helps to actually ask the sales team a
price instead of concluding it has a heafty price. Compared to visual studio
it actually is cheaper, last I checked...
* «Chart components are missing.»
Actually, there are several. Including 3rd party ones.
* he first states that QML allows one to use Javascript as a con, and then continues in his next line saying it is not nice to have to use C++. I think thats unfair. You can write your entire app in Javascript or C++. You can mix them. Your choice. This are add-ons. Like NPM can be seen as a bunch of add-ons to Node. Complaining about the ecosystem being diverse doesn't really sound like a negative to me...
------
s9w
> QT website is one big clusterfuck of corporate bullshit and hard to find
> stuff. They keep redesigning it and every year its getting worse and worse
That captures my own impression accurately
~~~
thomaszander
I would fully agree about their main website :)
but, yeah, its a website they use to sell stuff. Advertisements tend to work
better if they don't get stale.
On the other hand, the doc.* website (its on its own sub-domain) is almost
boring and just entirely functional. And that is what techies actually use.
------
_bxg1
I think the vitriol against JavaScript is unfair, but I absolutely agree that
if native cross-platform desktop development weren't so horrendous, many
things that currently use Electron, wouldn't. The web's main draw these days
is that it's a free, cross-platform GUI platform that sees _active development
and community support_. That's the bar.
All of that said - and I've said this elsewhere before - _JavaScript is not
the problem with Electron._ I'm so weary of hearing this. Even the web is not
really the problem with Electron. Electron's problem is that there's no way to
share Chromium instances across installations or processes. _That 's it_.
~~~
giulianob
It's both. Go look at your memory usage per tab and it's not uncommon to see
hundreds of megabytes for a simple static 2d UI. The way web renders is
extremely inefficient then you couple that with a language that has no regards
for how a computer actually works and you get to the sad state we're in today.
~~~
_bxg1
> hundreds of megabytes for a simple static 2d UI
Without a specific example that's hard to argue against, but I would wager it
has more to do with images, unnecessarily complex DOM, and possibly just poor
engineering, as opposed to JavaScript itself.
> that has no regards for how a computer actually works
You mean like Python? And Lisp? If you're taking issue with the very concept
of high-level languages then state it as such, and good luck making a case for
that.
------
giulianob
I recently went through this exercise and it really is sad. I actually decided
to use the Godot game engine because at the end of the day it's fairly
lightweight, you're in complete control over the rendering, the built in
components are great (the editor itself is written in the game engine), it
supports C#/C++, it runs literally everywhere, and it's completely free/open
source.
I'm keeping my eye on Flutter and Avalonia as well but so far Godot seems the
most mature on the desktop.
~~~
_bxg1
It's fascinating that a whole game engine ended up being the right solution.
Although, I guess I have heard of people doing the same with Unity. And I've
heard good things about Godot as a project in general.
FWIW here's one more relevant option that popped up earlier today:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22766639](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22766639)
It looks pretty Flutter-like.
------
lubonay
Flutter _may_ deliver, but Google has this nasty habit of killing projects
right after you personally buy into them.
------
gyrgtyn
> I can’t quite figure it out, why do people prefer writing Electron apps as
> opposed of having a thin backend layer that communicates with the frontend
> in the user’s existing browser via websockets or long polling or whatever.
that's not possible. For one thing, you need https.
~~~
Supermancho
A one-and-done installer for an existing browser is too sandboxed to work as
he describes, afaik.
If you ran local code and added some plugins with permissions, it would be
possible, maybe.
------
mixmastamyk
Interesting that the author understandably hates on C++, mentions Python
bindings but then never appears to try them. It is true often cross-language
docs are not great, but is pretty easy to convert between the two languages
with a few examples.
Also, I'd never heard of the limit of LGPL on static-linking. I have a few
pure Python projects under this but don't think the rule applies.
------
java-man
Missing from the list: java swing. Of course, it is missing latest eye candy
features like shadows, but otherwise it's rock solid.
~~~
RandyRanderson
Having developed in Java for many years now, primarily on Windows for the
desktop, Linux for the server side, the occasional MacOS desktop and even
Android and Android Wear, I'm very rarely reminded that there are differences
in platforms.
The biggest issues I've faced:
* On a headless server you can't load any GUI components (mostly my mistakes).
* Android is still effectively Java7. I blame Oracle and Google for this.
I've even recently moved from Java 7 to Java 11 with very little issue.
I'd be interested in people's thoughts about why "new is better"? My own take:
you can't sell tools, tutorials, books, conference tickets, etc for something
that just works and is well documented with great IDE support.
~~~
java-man
In the context, I take it the question is about why javafx is better than
swing?
I would say javafx produces better eye candy, and the programming model is
much better in terms of properties and bindings (not that one can't
reimplement a similar framework in swing, but in javafx it is just there).
I feel javafx is still lacking in many areas:
\- focus handling is still buggy: one can have multiple nodes having focus and
accepting keyboard input
\- WebView behavior differs a lot between 8/9/10/11
\- mouse subsystem has critical issues on linux
I wish javafx got more support from Oracle, but we know that neither Sun nor
Oracle viewed the desktop as high priority. I don't think the situation will
change, considering the fact that the majority of development switched to
browser-based js.
------
TurboHaskal
So, if you don't mind dropping some cash...
\- Delphi is great if you have a Windows machine and is still quite popular in
Europe if you _really_ want to make a career out of it.
\- Xojo is extremely well priced. I cannot say much about it but a friend that
is a former Lazarus programmer swears by it.
\- LispWorks CAPI is hands-down the best I've tried, but requires individual
licenses for each platform and if you want 64bit you'll be breaking the bank.
> Pascal is showing its age and feels a bit wonky in comparison to C like
> languages.
What makes Pascal show its age? Proper records? Generics? :)
~~~
badsectoracula
> a friend that is a former Lazarus programmer swears by it.
I'm not sure swearing evokes much confidence :-P
I've only tried the demo version of Xojo a couple of times but i found its
design to be _very_ macOS oriented. The GUI does work in Windows and Linux
(and actually i've tried it on both of these systems instead of macOS) but
pretty much everything about the layout and design feels macOS-y.
------
cocoa19
I have written multiple applications with Qt, GTK, JavaFX and your blog post
is spot on, on everything I read.
This is a very high quality post. It shows you really worked on learning the
frameworks, as opposed to writing a superficial post after 1 hour of playing
around with a framework.
------
pkphilip
Other interesting cross platform IDEs include imgui when used with Nim. This
is remarkably easy to use
[https://github.com/nimgl/imgui](https://github.com/nimgl/imgui)
------
arkanciscan
Never seen a cross platform gui that I'd rather use than a website.
~~~
ScottFree
Imagine you have seen a cross platform gui that you'd rather use over a
website. What would it look like?
~~~
pdamoc
Something like Elm but that compiles to native binaries. It should come with
Material Design level of HIG documentation and a tone of examples. The
compiler and the Native/Kernel parts should be implemented in a modern systems
programming language, maybe rust.
~~~
ScottFree
Why elm? It looks more like a DSL than a real language and a verbose one at
that. I'm looking at some of these examples on their website, like the random
number generator, and wondering why it takes so much code to print a random
number to the screen.
------
j88439h84
Beeware makes native guis on all platforms, android will be ready soon.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Online PSD to Sketch file converter - helloiamvu
http://avocode.com/convert-psd-to-sketch
======
helloiamvu
Hi everyone!
I'm very excited to show you our new tool.
It's a free online PSD to Sketch Converter. If you're manually re-creating
designs from Photoshop into Sketch, now you don't have to.
It converts named layers, layer groups, basic layer effects, layer masks,
vector shapes, text layers and more.
Let me know your thoughts. I hope you will like it.
~~~
agopaul
Nice! Are you using an ExtendScript script to extract all the info? Or is it
an in-house C++ extension for Photoshop?
~~~
helloiamvu
We're actually using our own technology to parse PSD files without using any
Photoshop API. We're already working on other design formats as well.
~~~
agopaul
That's impressive! I read a few stories about reverse engineering the PSD
format and how much technical debt it carries in it
------
Xoros
"Notwithstanding the above, you grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free,
transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to use, store, display,
reproduce, re-post, modify, create derivative works, perform, and distribute
User Content on the Site or Application or other third party websites or
application..."
Well... no
------
girvo
Neat! I've been a super happy user of Avocode for years, and I'm stoked to see
you lot continue to innovate :)
------
brailsafe
Works quite well so far. Opened some giant ass old PSD files and was able to
start tweaking the design right away.
------
goeric
Super useful, thank you!
------
dkonofalski
I'm guessing that the lack of detail on this is really an explanation for
expectations of this. It probably doesn't work well for anything complex but,
if it works halfway decently, this could be a boon for those trying to get out
from under the dark Adobe umbrella.
~~~
usaphp
> I'm guessing that the lack of detail on this is really an explanation for
> expectations of this
What details do you expect? It's a PSD to Sketch converter, what else do you
expect it to say? He could have filled it with a "gorgeous", "unique",
"innovative" marketing keywords but it would still be a PSD To Sketch
converter.
> It probably doesn't work well for anything complex but
I just tried converting a really big photoshop file and it worked pretty good,
why don't you try it before making comments on it's functionality?
~~~
on_and_off
Knowing in advance which kind of layers won't be converted successfully sounds
reasonable to me.
~~~
MattRoskovec
As the matter of fact, when you enter the website:
[https://avocode.com/convert-psd-to-sketch/](https://avocode.com/convert-psd-
to-sketch/) \- there is a call to action to "Read more about supported
features". If you click it, you would see a page explaining what will and what
won't be converted. Here's the link: [https://avocode.com/convert-psd-to-
sketch/features](https://avocode.com/convert-psd-to-sketch/features)
------
jbob2000
Ugghhh, if you're using this, then you don't really grok Sketch. Sketch has
all these wonderful tools for breaking up your design into reuseable
components and playing with them like lego pieces. If you're doing a straight
conversion from PSD to Sketch, you're missing all the things that make Sketch
great.
~~~
matousroskovec
When you're starting from scratch in Sketch it has a lot of great features
that are worth exploring. But what about making the switch to Sketch from PS?
Normally, you would have to recreate the whole design. Most people and
especially bigger design teams don't have time for that. So this service is
meant to save you all that time, convert your current design system and then
you can play around with the design some more and add all the wicked funtions
in Sketch anyway. And I'm sure others can think of more use cases.
~~~
jbob2000
Well that's my point. If you don't have the time to convert your design
system, then you might as well stick with PS until you do. You'd just be using
Sketch as PS-Lite. It's not a "cheap PS" or a PS-lite, it's a tool for a new
system of design.
It would be like using JIRA for Waterfall development. Sure, you _can_ do
that, but that's not really the point of JIRA...
~~~
Raphmedia
Consider the use case where the designer doesn't have PS but receive a bunch
of third party .PSD files.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Yet another massive Facebook fail: Quiz app leaked data on ~120M users for years - benryon
https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/28/facepalm-2/
======
john58
Tough time for Facebook
| {
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TSP in real life: Researchers Tell Umpires Where to Go - ColinWright
http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=researchers-tell-umpires-where-to-g-11-08-18
======
bumbledraven
Original paper: <http://moya.bus.miami.edu/~tallys/docs/umpires-inte.pdf>
| {
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The essential startup team: content, analytics, design, engineering - ColinWright
http://paraschopra.com/blog/entrepreneurship/startup-team.htm
======
NameNickHN
The article lists marketing almost as an afterthought whereas it's probably
more important than analytics and at least equally important as the other team
members.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
Show HN: Harness.io - Create Automated Tests for Your Web App in 60 Seconds - ralfthewise
http://harness.io
======
ralfthewise
Hey everyone, I'm one of the developers that worked on this, and am happy to
answer any questions or discuss feedback.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
} |
500 Lines or Less - divkakwani
https://github.com/aosabook/500lines
======
debo_
Hi, I'm the editor of 500Lines. Thanks for posting this! A few notes:
\- Code golf was strictly discouraged throughout the review process. When
authors were faced with implementing functionality poorly to fit more in, we
generally cut scope instead.
\- 500 lines was selected as a limiting criteria because it is easy to specify
and understand. You will see that the chapters written e.g. with Clojure do
"more" (for some definition of more), but that does not make the lessons
learned in the other chapters less interesting.
\- The "or less" moniker is grammatically a bit offensive but sounds cute on
paper, so we kept it.
\- If you'd like to learn more about the philosophy or story behind this
volume, Ruby Rogues hosted us a little while ago: [https://devchat.tv/ruby-
rogues/256-rr-reading-code-and-the-a...](https://devchat.tv/ruby-
rogues/256-rr-reading-code-and-the-architecture-of-open-source-applications-
with-michael-dibernardo)
\- The print version of this book (and the official launch on aosabook.org)
should happen sometime in the next 4-6 weeks. You can follow this issue if
you'd like to know when that happens:
[https://github.com/aosabook/500lines/issues/212](https://github.com/aosabook/500lines/issues/212)
~~~
avar
The first thing I looked through, the pedometer/ directory, has a project that
itself may be <500 lines, but is using compressed versions of JS libraries
like highcharts.js & jquery.js.
Don't you think including huge external libraries like that defeats the spirit
of showing things that are 500 lines or less?
~~~
rtpg
I don't think so. Would you rule out things like the python standard library?
Though external library size can be important, does it come into play when
talking about your own code structure?
~~~
Karunamon
Only if you assume it to be bug free in a way that your code will never
expose.
------
banthar
From:
[https://github.com/aosabook/500lines/blob/master/ci/code/hel...](https://github.com/aosabook/500lines/blob/master/ci/code/helpers.py)
s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
s.connect((host, port))
s.send(request)
response = s.recv(1024)
s.close()
Is that correct use of TCP? It seems to rely on response not being fragmented.
~~~
DSMan195276
It's definitely not right as far as the C interface is concerned - and Google
indicates that the Python interface doesn't do anything extra. That said, it
probably does generally work considering the small size of the messages,
especially if the dispatcher is run locally. It's unlikely that a two-byte or
ten-byte message would get fragmented, though it technically could - and
that's all that is sent by the dispatcher.
That said, this should be a loop that combines all the responses until you
receive a response of length zero, indicating EOF. The actual code to
correctly handle this is really simple if you don't do any extra error
handling - but it's not obvious if you haven't done some socket programming
before.
This code will probably work until the dispatcher and clients are expanded
upon, resulting in more complex messages that eventually lead to sporadic
fragmentation.
------
divkakwani
Here is a link to the pdf:
[https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/29696071/500L.pdf](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/29696071/500L.pdf)
~~~
arve0
This is "The Performance of Open Source Applications", not "500 Lines or
Less".
Edit: An older version?
~~~
divkakwani
This is 500L indeed. Don't know why the cover says POSA.
------
amelius
Offtopic. Why, in github, is the README always below the repository files, if
the first thing you want to read about a project is the README?
Edit: Could we take the convention on HN to always link to the README in a
github repo? In this case that would be:
[https://github.com/aosabook/500lines/blob/master/README.md](https://github.com/aosabook/500lines/blob/master/README.md)
~~~
marssaxman
I considered Github links to be essentially content-free noise for several
years because I did not know about their "README.md" convention. I think that
people who live and breathe github probably don't realize how confusing their
interface can be to a newcomer.
~~~
mjrbrennan
You didn't think to just scroll down?
~~~
marssaxman
I didn't know to scroll to the bottom, as I had never used github and was
unfamiliar with its interface. I thought it was basically just a prettier
version of the classic auto-generated "index" page for a directory, so it
didn't occur to me that there would be more to it than the file list if I
scrolled down.
~~~
pc86
> _I didn 't know to scroll to the bottom_
If only there was some sort of bar that could indicate your relative position
on the page. Maybe in the same spot on all websites to make it easy to see.
Maybe even part of the browser!
In all seriousness this seems much less a GitHub issue and much more about how
well you computers.
~~~
marssaxman
It is an issue of expectations and affordances. If there's no clue that what's
at the bottom is going to be different than what's at the top, and what you're
seeing at the top is not giving you anything useful, why would you scroll
further and waste your time seeing more of it? Perhaps for some people that is
natural, but different people navigate unfamiliar spaces in different ways.
What you see when you open a github project page is a file directory. If you
have no pre-existing reason to believe the page is something more than it
appears to be, it's reasonable to believe that the page you're looking at is,
in fact, just a file directory. There is nothing on the page which suggests
that it also contains a readme file viewer, hidden underneath.
I didn't scroll because the directory structure suggested to me that one would
navigate by digging around to see what was inside. After the first couple of
times I tried this without getting anywhere, I wrote github off as a waste of
time, and after that I simply closed such links immediately. It might have
been easier to discover README.md from some later link with a smaller
directory, where a smaller amount of scrolling down might have revealed it,
but by then I was no longer looking.
------
Bromskloss
Is there a compiled version somewhere? I don't think I will be able to build
this on my phone.
~~~
satai
Early Access: [http://aosabook.org/en/500L/](http://aosabook.org/en/500L/)
~~~
drauh
The embedded images seem to be broken.
------
sien
This is a really interesting book by some brilliant people.
I wonder if the problems selected are the ones that many people would select
though.
What would people here select as, say, the top 5 or 10 things to write in a
short amount of code. Say perhaps in 1K lines of code.
A web browser? A compiler? A simple relational database?
~~~
zem
interpreter for an interactive fiction language
------
falcolas
> canonical problem in software engineering in at most 500 source lines of
> code
I'll reserve judgement of the book for when its in a form I can easily read,
but this seems to come up on the wrong side of the "less isn't always more"
line.
I can implement a lot of logic in 500 lines of code, but I won't be able to go
back a month later and understand any of it, at least not without rebuilding
the logic from scratch. And I certainly can't also implement the safety
checks, corner cases, and tests in that line quota.
I would personally think there is more value in showcasing a single complete
and well commented solution instead of a slew of partial solutions with "the
error checking left as an exercise to the reader" (I'm not sure if this phrase
is in the book, I plucked it from any number of poor college textbooks).
~~~
fermigier
You probably misread the intent of the book editors and writers. As @debo_
wrote above: "Code golf was strictly discouraged throughout the review
process. When authors were faced with implementing functionality poorly to fit
more in, we generally cut scope instead."
------
exabrial
How about a competition to see who can write the clearest code for the next
guy, in minimal lines of code?
~~~
voltagex_
Sometimes optimising for the least lines of code leads to _less_ clarity than
being a bit more verbose and explaining yourself better.
I still haven't quite worked out the code vs comments ratio.
~~~
exabrial
Couldn't agree more.
------
archos1
*500 Lines or Fewer
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fewer_vs._less](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fewer_vs._less)
~~~
arsenerei
From your reference.
> However, descriptive grammarians (who describe language as actually used)
> point out that this rule does not correctly describe the most common usage
> of today or the past and in fact arose as an incorrect generalization of a
> personal preference expressed by a grammarian in 1770.
> Many supermarket checkout line signs, for instance, will read "10 items or
> less"; others, however, will use fewer in an attempt to conform to what is
> incorrectly perceived as required by the prescription although this is in
> fact a clear case of hypercorrection as explained in Pocket Fowler’s Modern
> English Usage.
> Less has always been used in English with counting nouns. Indeed, the
> application of the distinction between less and fewer as a rule is a
> phenomenon originating in the 18th century.
------
genos
Looks like there's code in different languages, so the arbitrary 500 line
count gets even more hazy. As an extreme case, consider 500 lines of APL vs.
Java.
------
nine_k
500 lines of _what?_ 500 lines of APL / J / Q is enormous; 500 lines of
Haskell / Scala / Ruby is quite a mouthful, 500 lines of Java or C is rather
moderate, and 500 lines of assembly is precious little.
Also, since a line of code can contain zero or more statements, something like
cyclomatic complexity, or just statement count, could give a better measure.
(Edited: fought autocorrect.)
~~~
chrisseaton
What on earth do you think this is? It's not a research hypothesis. Nothing is
being measured. It's a clever way to get people to show that ideas many people
think are beyond their understanding can be illustrated in just a few lines of
code.
'Cyclomatic Complexity of N or Less' would work against that goal as it says
nothing about length and is hard to explain.
What a mindless criticism of a worthwhile project.
~~~
nine_k
I'm actually all for books like this.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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One of the ways I am approaching the crowded iPhone Twitter client space - hboon
http://motionobj.com/blog/the-conversation-view-in-simplytweet
======
hboon
There are many Twitter clients on the iPhone at the moment. Most of seem to be
focused on implementing the API and offering integration to other services.
Some are doing very well and are very impressive.
While I'm also doing some of that, I'd like to experiment in a different way,
that of building new features. The conversation view, while it is not a
totally new concept (it is available in a similar form in the Summize page,
and the current Twitter search page), doesn't exist yet on the iPhone clients
and it's pretty interesting how much you can do in the backend to churn out
just a view of a conversation.
Digress a little: I've been working full-time on iPhone applications for the
past 3 months but have only started selling a few weeks ago (a delay of 3
months due to the paperwork blackhole!). And it's been a huge challenge to
break into the market and break even, but nevertheless an interesting
experience.
As I mentioned in the article, I have a few ideas (for features) in my mind
which I'll be experimenting with. If anyone of you have any ideas, please feel
free to share them and/or discuss/comment on what I have done.
~~~
sidsavara
This is interesting, why an iPhone application rather than something that can
be perhaps web-based?
I am working on (and by "working on" I mean, I created some messy code 5
months ago and then abandoned it but cling to the dream that I may one day
finish it) something similar, but wanted a web based UI - I have the same
issue whether it is on a mobile client or at my desk. I want a twitter client
that is smarter than a linear display of what's going on - and instead figures
out the context of tweets (like replies and retweets) and intelligently gets
me that context
It looks like you are trying to solve that issue with replies, kudos to that.
~~~
hboon
Being an iPhone application partially solves the selling part of the equation.
You still need to market and have a good product, but sales and delivery is
done for you, at the cost of 30% revenue and somewhat unpredictable release
schedules.
This particular functionality is actually a web service though. I built this
running on a server and the iPhone client talks to the service. This provides
some flexibility in terms of release schedules and most importantly works
around the default Twitted rate limit. There is just no way a standalone
Twitter thick client can do this without hitting the rate limit all the time,
making the feature useless.
It's interesting you mentioned retweets though, I haven't thought about that.
One thing I'm looking into is the timestamp, @names and some herestics based
on commonalities between tweets. I come from a search engine background, so
mining text and relationship is always interesting to me.
Why did you stop your work though?
~~~
thwarted
_Being an iPhone application partially solves the selling part of the
equation. You still need to market and have a good product, but sales and
delivery is done for you, at the cost of 30% revenue and somewhat
unpredictable release schedules._
Interesting. A web based application doesn't need delivery, but I wonder what
kind of marketing you could get by leveraging the app store to market your
product, but actually deploy it on the web. In other words, put a simple app
on the app store that is merely a shortcut to spawning the web browser and
taking you to your page. Could be free or paid, depending on how people
respond to it. You could do more frequent updates too, without having to go
through the app store, since it is web based. Do any apps do this currently?
~~~
hboon
If it's a web app, and you don't need/want the app store distribution, then
you probably want to build it as a web app and market it as such. The app
store itself is not much of a marketing tool unless you are already very
popular.
But then if it has no app store presence, how would you charge the user? I
might build a few more features around the web service approach to take
advantage of the rapid deployment benefit you mention, but probably not as a
full blown web app. I don't know of any app doing the latter, but I'm not
surprised if there is.
------
wallflower
Not to scope-creep but:
Have you thought about virtual Twitter follower groups (e.g. groups of people
you don't actually follow but still like to overhear and/or summize search
terms actings as groups)?
Also, have you considered implementing visualizations like these:
[http://personalpages.manchester.ac.uk/staff/m.dodge/cybergeo...](http://personalpages.manchester.ac.uk/staff/m.dodge/cybergeography/atlas/topology.html)
| {
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WARR Hyperloop pod hits 284 mph to win SpaceX competition - 0xbxd
https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/22/17601280/warr-hyperloop-pod-competition-spacex-elon-musk
======
eden123
Here is a video of the WARR pod going through the tunnel:
[https://www.facebook.com/WARRHyperloop/videos/67189321983076...](https://www.facebook.com/WARRHyperloop/videos/671893219830766/)
In another livestream video from the WARR team Elon Musk states that next
year’s competition will take place in the test tunnel of Boring Company. There
length of the tunnel will be 2 instead of 1.2 kilometers. At the end of this
video
[https://www.facebook.com/WARRHyperloop/videos/67170361318306...](https://www.facebook.com/WARRHyperloop/videos/671703613183060/))
| {
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Lisp, Jazz, Aikido – Three Expressions of a Single Essence - kuwze
https://arxiv.org/abs/1804.00485
======
PetitPrince
Previous discussions on HN:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16993330](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16993330)
------
peatmoss
At various points in my life, I’ve done all three of these things. But I see
no essential nexus between any of them. I mean, if we torture any metaphor
enough we can link anything to anything.
Most human activities of sufficient complexity are a mix of art and science.
All three of these activities are of this sort (neither being purely aesthetic
nor completely reduceable to settled science). But those kinds of pursuits are
common.
I’d gladly recommend aikido, jazz, and lisp to someone, but I’d also happily
recommend judo, rhythm and blues, and smalltalk. Or fly fishing. Or go (the
game or language). Or woodworking. Or... well the list goes on.
~~~
Animats
Right. From the article "My personal life has been revolving around three
major creative activities, of equal importance: programming in Lisp, playing
Jazz music, and practicing Aikido." This is someone who extrapolated their own
life to a universal.
Next!
------
xarill
Why on earth would someone publish a paper like that? This is absolutely
rubbish. A guy wanted to show the world how special he is because he writes
Lisp, listens to jazz, and practices Aikido, and wrote a whole meaningless
paper for that. I thought that papers where examined by some committee before
publication, and you need to have serious work done to get your research
published. This lookes more like an article on some lifestyle magazine or
personal blog, rather than a scientific paper.
~~~
SOLAR_FIELDS
This is ArXiV, a place where you can post preprints. Little if any moderation
is done here, even less if you post something outside of the topic of math or
physics. Presence of a paper on here does not mean it has passed peer review
or been published in a reputable journal.
------
Wintamute
"Science (what we can explain), and Art (what we can't)"
Er, no. This is a horribly limiting definition of both terms.
------
f2f
Neither of which is very effective. Aikido is not a very efficient form of
martial arts, even though it looks good. Jazz is not a popular form of music
even though it sounds good. Lisp is not a popular language even though it
writes good.
------
abenedic
I always have a small problem with trying to define art, and relate it to
science. It never seems to go well.
------
ballooney
In which Dean Moriarty writes a paper.
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Americans Strongly Dislike PC Culture - tszymczyszyn
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/10/large-majorities-dislike-political-correctness/572581/?fbclid=IwAR0BPxtpnc90jI4kBO9HJaWyZ7jyOPnRrayA4Ynuo35yq3QoTJfusuhu8Hg&single_page=true
======
detaro
previously:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18215215](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18215215)
------
amriksohata
America though part of wars, the mainland itself has been protected for many
years unlike Europe of constant invasion. Europe has been though all that and
doesn't want to again, it understands the cost.
~~~
lj3
Europeans don't like PC culture anymore than Americans do. The rapid and
sudden rise of nationalism and nationalist political parties across Europe
proves you wrong.
------
tonyedgecombe
_" By contrast, the two-thirds of Americans who don’t belong to either extreme
constitute an “exhausted majority.”"_
------
billwashere
Knn
| {
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Subsets and Splits