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Ask HN: How to approach two competing job offers - is bidding war an option? - mbord
I studied Computer Science, and I recently graduated as a bachelor. I went on to apply to two major Silicon Valley companies, let's call them A and B, and aced the interviews.<p>I got an offer from A, which I would have happily accepted had I not had another company still contemplating their offer. Now B contacted me, not yet ready to give an offer, but they mentioned that their offer would likely be significantly larger if they would be able to see the offer from A in writing.<p>I got my offer from A both verbally and in informal writing to my e-mail. I find it clear that if I asked them for the offer in writing now, they would certainly know what's happening (given that I've kept them waiting for some time now). I told this to B already previously, they understood, but it would certainly benefit me if I had it in writing now.<p>How should this game be played in your opinion? I actually prefer A, and if B's offer were roughly the same size, I would be very happy to take A. However, I am wondering whether I am a wussy if I play it safe now, and take no action, and should I instead try to get some competition between these two. There's also a small chance that A is trying to lowball me with their offer, since I might be too humble analyzing my own value. All this leads me to think that I might just want to get the offer in writing, not caring what they think about it, but I am very very open to other ideas.<p>Also, I know that I should probably never try to bluff, and that's my intention, too - I'll never try to inflate my offer if I am not really willing to take the competing one. These both are great companies, and B can become better in my mind if their offer triumphs on the financial side.
======
gvb
_Now B contacted me, not yet ready to give an offer, but they mentioned that
their offer would likely be significantly larger if they would be able to see
the offer from A in writing._
I see nothing but red flags here.
It also sounds like you are already dabbling with a bidding war... you are
holding back on A, B knows about A, B is "offering" to out-bid A. Now you are
wondering if you can leverage a questionable offer from B to up A's offer.
If you escalate this further into a full out bidding war, the probability is
high that it won't turn out well. If B wins, you work for a sketchy company
just for the money... or they don't come through with a _real_ offer, A drops
out (note that you do not have a _formal_ offer from A yet), and you are
screwed. If A wins, the person you work for knows what you did to them and
resents it.
Sorry to be harsh, but from the outside looking in, B sounds pretty sketchy
and your line of questioning doesn't reflect well on you.
------
antidoh
"I recently graduated"
"aced the interviews"
"I got an offer from A"
" I actually prefer A"
"B can become better in my mind if their offer triumphs on the financial
side."
I believe that last is the only untrue thing you've said.
You're young, capable and have a lot of years in front of you. Work where you
want and enjoy it.
------
helen842000
I think B only want to see the letter in writing so that they can go slightly
above what A has offered.It makes no sense to go largely over.
Why not ask B to make a blind offer based on the value you can bring and what
you're worth, tell them you're not interested in them upping A's offer, just
formulating their own based on value not competition. You want to hear what
they would have offered without company A in the picture.
Not only do you come across less money-motivated but I think you're more
likely to get a higher offer from B this way. Plus if you do get company B's
offer in writing - maybe you can take that back to A.
After all if you prefer company A, you should be going with them regardless.
------
ggk
IMO, there is no harm asking for formal offer letter (probably a soft copy).
But I would suggest choose the job which is of your interest. Salary should be
the second factor. If you choose a job of your interest, you will perform well
there and your career growth will be much faster there.
~~~
pmtarantino
That's my opinion too. I worked in two different jobs in the last years. One
of them was in company A, which I always wanted to be part of. The salary was
not amazing (in fact, after of some talk with friends, it was low), but I was
happy. Then, I worked in company B. The salary was superb, it was higher than
average, but I was not happy. That was not what I wanted. I quit.
------
lsiebert
ask for offer in writing, explain why, and that you'd prefer A, see if they
are open to matching B's offer. If so, you might want to take their initial
offer to B.
Get B's offer in writing and go to A. Tell A if they match it, you'll work for
them.
Do so, that is, if they match B's offer, work for A. Explain to B, but invite
them to contact you sometime in the future to see if you are happy at A. Use
B's contact to either move to B if A isn't great or to negotiate from position
from strength at A.
But work at A to start with.
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How to market my NoSQL technology - tom_andersson
I have been developing a technology which best can be described as an object oriented / graph NoSQL database, and I need some ideas on how to market it. Check out my web site at: http://www.clear-objects.com/clearodb<p>The end users would be software developers who writes distributed applications. I haven't thought to much about it's use for web site development, but maybe that could work too.<p>I am a bit lost as to what approach to take to get this out. I think, the best way is to somehow find individual users who can see the value and that way step by step build up a customer base. I don't think open source is necessarily the way to go (in my life as a professional developer, I have never made a decision to use a technology based on whether it is open source or not, but rather whether it will save me time). I guess the main problem is to convince people that this technology will save them time.<p>Questions:
- Anyone who has launched products to a similar market who has any experiences to share?
- Any thoughts on whether an open or closed source approach is better? Would I be more successful in making money long term, if I have a large number of users who use it for free?
- I don't really want to sell this as a database technology, but rather a cost saving tool for creating distributed applications (that was really the problem I tried to solve in the first place, it just turned out to be a graph database). Any thoughts on this?
======
opendomain
There are over 100 different NoSQL databases - so you have to definately show
something on how your software is better. Most NoSQL are open sourced and are
free to use for limited installs, so it will be very hard to make money with
licensing. Some offer a base version for free, but offer clustering or other
advanced features at a cost. Some charge money for consulting. Where does your
db sit on the CAP spectrum? How is it the best for a specific use case?
~~~
tom_andersson
Yeah, I realise there are quite a few nosqls around. But only a few have just
recently started to gain momentum. It is still very easy to find developers
who have never heard of anything but traditional relational databases (not
sure if I would dare to say the majority of all developers). In most cases
relational databases is the best option for what they are doing, but I think
there are many situations where people choose the old sql just because they
don't know better. So, although there might be a point in comparing and
competing between different NoSQL technologies, I think all within the NoSQL
movement can gain from better marketing to all these relational database
users.
Anyway, I think what you are saying is I need to be very good at describing
why my technology is better than others, which as a developer I find very
difficult. It is easy to be technical about it, but how to describe something
at a level that makes sense to the average guy is something I am still trying
to learn.
What my solution does very well is integration with object oriented languages
and where the data is described by complex inheritance structures and
ownership relations (say a financial model with different types of financial
instruments, different types of market data, static data, deal data, etc which
would be described by a number of class hierarchies; and all linked together).
With the risk of getting too technical, if you are building a C++ application
for example, you only create your C++ classes (with any inheritance structure
which can be single/multiple etc), and you can use pointers to other objects
(polymorphic pointers and cyclic graphs are ok), use standard collection
classes etc. Basically what you would normally do when designing a C++
application. You use a minimum amount of declarative code as C++ doesn't have
built-in reflection. You send your C++ classes to the database and receive the
data as your C++ classes. It traverses your objects to find all linkages to
other objects prior to sending and links objects together upon retrieval. In
short, the solution tries to make life as easy as possible for an application
programmer.
What my solution does in terms of CAP and ACID: Atomicity - A transaction is
either committed in full or not at all. A transaction may consist of one or
multiple objects.
Consistency - No consistency checks in the sense that there are defined
constraints on the member fields. However, all objects are versioned, and if
two clients are trying to commit the same version of an object, the second
client will fail and it would have to retrieve the most recent version before
updating the object.
Isolation - All transactions are processed in isolation, i.e. all objects in a
transaction are locked prior to being updated
Durability - Transactions are never overwritten, i.e. new transactions are
always added to the end of the data store. If a transaction has completed
successfully, you can be certain that the transaction will be completed even
after a server crash.
Availability - Concurrency is handled by locking objects. Many clients can
read simultaneously, but if you try to read an object that is locked for
writing by someone else, you will have to wait (there is room for improvement
here). If you try to write to an object that someone else is writing to, you
will fail. I have not looked into performance of a large number of clients,
however the simple answer is that consistency is prioritised above
availability.
Partition Tolerance - None at the moment. I have not looked into distributing
the database yet.
~~~
opendomain
Please contact me - I would love to discuss. [username] at NoSQL dot com
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FBI director: Cover up your webcam - grej
http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/295933-fbi-director-cover-up-your-webcam
======
6t6t6t6
From all they ways I can be spied, the webcam is the one that concerns me the
least.
At the end, all they will see is a bearded man staring to the front. May they
be able to see me naked? Well, probably, but I honestly don't think that they
will make a lot of money by selling my naked pictures... My wife tells me that
I still look good, but I suspect that she is being nice to me.
What would scare more is that they manage to capture what is on my screen, or
install a keylogger, or activate the microphones to hear my conversations, or
that they access my hard disks and steal data, including my private keys.
Hey, but putting a sticker on your webcam is a way to show how 1337 your are!
I prefer not to have to bother removing stickers every time I want to do a
Skype call.
~~~
matt_wulfeck
You're displaying a common trope I see sometimes with security:
> "because this particular thing does affect me personally, it doesn't matter.
> And because it doesn't matter to me it doesn't matter at all"
Blackmailing people with pictures taken from webcams is not theoretical. It
happens[0] and it's good advice to tape up your cam. It may not affect you
personally, but it may affect your wife, daughter, or sister in a much more
sinister way. Believe it or not this kind of thing can ruin someone's life.
[0] [http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240209018/US-teen-
hacker...](http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240209018/US-teen-hacker-
pleads-guilty-to-webcam-blackmail)
~~~
iceman99
I know someone whose camera and microphone were taken over. A window showed on
her computer where the person watching her chatted with her and told her
things that he only knew because he was watching her. It scared her to death
and made her cry.
Beyond blackmail, it is probably close to the psychological equivalent of a
stranger just suddenly appearing in your home watching you.
I think that every electronic camera and mic device should have a hard
switch/button that physically disables both the camera and mic. Having to use
tape or a cover does not keep you from being spied on; it only eliminates the
visual spying. The attacker can still listen.
~~~
zyngaro
Smartphones represent a bigger security risk in that regard. Front facing rear
facing, mic all ones personal data, pictures and so on.
~~~
JohnStrange
Hardly. You put your phone on the desk and it's going to show the ceiling. In
contrast to this, people do all kinds of weird things in front of laptops.
I've even heard once of someone who allegedly masturbated (!) in front of a
laptop. Of course, that must have been an extreme outlier ...
------
janvidar
Isn't this really just a sign of flawed hardware design?
In my opinion hardware should be designed so that the camera LED lamp should
always be lit if the camera is used. If there is a malfunction with the LED,
then the camera should also not work. Also there should be a hardware LED for
when the microphone is being used which should work in the same fashion for
laptops with built-in microphones.
In the webcam drivers I have looked at the LED is controlled independently of
capturing, although drivers do enable the LED when the camera is used. This
essentially means that hackers can record and disable the lamp.
I've been considering hacking together some piece of software that will
continuously use the camera (/dev/video) in order to block it for other
applications, and have it fail with visible alerts if unable to block the
camera. Not sure if the same thing can be achieved for the audio recording
devices due to multiplexing.
~~~
awesomerobot
>If there is a malfunction with the LED, then the camera should also not work.
Many would argue that this is the more flawed design.
~~~
Kadin
It seems like a "fail safe" to me. The current design is a bit closer to a
"fail deadly" in that it creates a mode that's the worst-case from the user's
perspective: the camera works but the indicator doesn't.
It is probably worse to have an unreliable indicator light than it is to not
have any indicator light at all.
------
_Codemonkeyism
"The head of the FBI on Wednesday defended putting a piece of tape over his
personal laptop's webcam, claiming the security step was a common sense one
that most should take."
One needs to ask why is the head of the FBI telling you this? Cui bono?
This is a red herring.
The FBI has no interest in filming you through your webcam.
They want to listen to your microphone, watch your screen, get the keys you've
typed, see the websites you've visited, read the emails you've sent.
Watch you on video? Nah. This is a red herring.
That is the reason the head of the FBI tells you to cover your webcam.
I wish the The Last Psychiatrist would come back.
~~~
tingol
The FBI isn't telling you this so you could protect yourself from the
government. They are telling you this because they know how easy it is for
someone else to take control of the camera and make your life hard. So it is a
common sense step for you to take if you're concerbed about security.
You took a pretty huge jump from that to the FBI listening to your mic.
------
ipsin
If you're so concerned about having your webcam subverted, it seems like the
first step would be to insist on a hardware LED that can't be subverted in
firmware. If nothing else, it would serve as a canary, indicating that your
machine has been thoroughly compromised.
~~~
gkoberger
And who do we trust to do that? More importantly, is it even possible?
~~~
krastanov
In terms of electronics it is fairly trivial and it can be inspected by eye
(or microscope) if the manufacturer decides to not encapsulate everything on a
chip (which presumably would be the point of such a feature).
Just have the only positive voltage rail going to the camera be the same one
that is directly powering the LED. The firmware will be turning this rail on
and off, hence turning the camera and the LED on and off simultaneously.
~~~
1_2__3
Idle though on possible attack vectors:
Convince the firmware to use a lower voltage, one that doesn't hit the
breakover voltage on the LED but still powers the camera.
Strobe the line, get snapshots without the LED doing more than very faintly
glowing.
~~~
umanwizard
LED activation voltage is less than what cameras typically require.
------
white-flame
I said it then, and I say it now:
\- Encryption is our webcam tape.
That tape cannot be thwarted by any remote attacker, legally warranted or not.
It's perfect, unbreakable security from webcam visuals being exfiltrated,
exactly the security features that Comey says we shouldn't be allowed to have
for our data.
~~~
pdkl95
"What if everyone believed that law-abiding citizens should use postcards for
their mail? If a nonconformist tried to assert his privacy by using an
envelope for his mail, it would draw suspicion. Perhaps the authorities would
open his mail to see what he's hiding. Fortunately, we don't live in that kind
of world, because everyone protects most of their mail with envelopes. So no
one draws suspicion by asserting their privacy with an envelope. There's
safety in numbers. Analogously, it would be nice if everyone routinely used
encryption for all their email, innocent or not, so that no one drew suspicion
by asserting their email privacy with encryption. Think of it as a form of
solidarity."
~ Philip Zimmermann, "Why I wrote PGP"
[https://www.philzimmermann.com/EN/essays/WhyIWrotePGP.html](https://www.philzimmermann.com/EN/essays/WhyIWrotePGP.html)
~~~
drvdevd
A brilliant point and a salient quote. Why must we continue to live,
collectively, with our heads in the sand?
------
meowface
I know this thread will probably get politicized, but I see nothing wrong (or
necessarily hypocritical; he's law enforcement, not IC) with his advice here.
~~~
waterphone
It's not a bad thing to do, it's just hypocritical of him to value his own
privacy but tell everyone else they need to give up theirs and let the FBI and
NSA have access to everything they want to keep private.
~~~
nathancahill
Why would you be concerned about the FBI or the NSA knowing about the content
of your digital communiques if you have nothing to hide? Even the most ardent
supporter of personal freedoms will admit that the government observing you
over a network is the same as taking pictures of you with a telephoto lens on
a busy street. The truth is the same: there are too many people and you aren't
special enough to deserve personal surveillance.
~~~
anexprogrammer
> there are too many people
Oh _please._ They can probably harvest the lot. It'll be some algorithm that
deems you worthy or otherwise or gets you on an "of interest" list. Let's keep
"personal surveillance" for '50s spy movies and Banksy murals.
More generally, what about the chilling effect on legal and legitimate
conversation?
~~~
jeremysmyth
_It 'll be some algorithm that deems you worthy or otherwise or gets you on an
"of interest" list._
...or your association with "Occupy" or some other political protest movement
that someone in power disagrees with, or that your wife bullied some
politician's wife for two weeks in school, or that your interfering neighbour
with a petty dislike of how you landscape your garden works as a government
clerk and can access your data.
There are many reasons why some individual might want to know private things
about some other individual. When individuals with some tiny (or vast) power
want to wield it over _anyone else_ , especially when they can do it with
little oversight, it's very tempting.
That "the government" has access to my private information does not mean it's
blind and faceless. It's made up of people with complex motivations.
------
sotojuan
The webcam cover up is interesting to me because it's the only "weird privacy
thing" I've seen regular, non-technical people do. A good amount of people at
my university, most of which use social media liberally and don't care about
encryption, cover their camera up.
~~~
pseudonymcoward
This is only idle speculation but:
A web cam resembles an eye staring at you all the time. This makes people feel
weird, like something is staring at them. The threat to privacy is right in
their face and on a gut level.
That's the reason so many people cover them even when they won't take other
basic online privacy precautions.
~~~
Sylos
Also just in general, people understand what a camera does. It's much harder
to understand the implications of abstract "data" going off onto the internet.
------
rdtsc
This is like the coal burning power plant telling you to make sure to sort
your recyclables into appropriate containers, to make the environment cleaner.
Also people enjoy and feel good about accomplishing small things. Putting a
sticker on your laptop is a small easy task. Do it and they feel more "secure"
in an instant.
------
benevol
Every electronic communication device (laptop, mobile, tablet, etc) should
have _1 hardware switch per sensor_ (camera, mic, motion/acceleration, etc)
which disables the sensor.
Why manufacturers still haven't introduced this is beyond me.
~~~
pwg
>Why manufacturers still haven't introduced this is beyond me.
Expense and lack of demand.
Some older laptops used to feature hardware kill switches for the wifi (this
was prior to the advent of a camera in every laptop). The old Dell D820 model
was one such laptop. Eventually they were dropped all around because from the
makers point of view, the presence of the switch had no effect on the sales of
the laptops.
Anything you add to the BOM (Bill of Materials) for the device raises the
final net cost, and there is still enough competition in the laptop/phone
space that keeping the costs down is necessary to compete. Additionally,
twenty-five cents per unit does not sound like much, until of course you
multiply that by 10+ million units built (where a twenty-five cents difference
per unit amounts to $2.5+ million difference in the end). So if having the
switch or not having the switch made no difference in sales, the maker could
either raise their profit, or lower their price (or more likely split the
difference) by dropping the switches.
The lack of demand is that not enough purchasers are telling manufacturers
they want hardware on/off switches (the purchasers do this by buying only
laptops with them, and by not buying laptops without them [which may be
difficult to bootstrap now, given that almost no laptop has a hardware on/off
switch anymore]).
~~~
jcadam
I've found many of those supposedly 'hardware' wifi kill switches were
software controlled (When I installed Linux on an old Dell, it completely
ignored the state of the wifi switch).
I want a switch that physically cuts power to a device, but no... :(
------
Hilyin
I guess this is just as good place as any to bring this up. In current OS X,
you cannot disable your mic. You can turn down the input volume, but never
disable. All malware needs to do is raise the input volume and it can listen
to you to its hearts content.
And its worse with your iPhone.
~~~
the_common_man
Can someone confirm if this is actually true? Sounds too far fetched that you
cannot disable the mic (i.e not muting, I assume?).
~~~
Hilyin
Just look around on the internet, you'll find the same thing. I researched
this a few weeks ago and was amazed.
You basically have to disable the audio driver in OSX to disable it, and doing
that, means you can't play audio at all. And even that isn't enough, it
technically can be hijacked at an even lower level.
------
ssebastianj
I was looking for a way to cover the mics and webcam integrated in my laptop
which doesn't require a tape. So, I grabbed a couple of those magnets stripes
usually found on fridges and then , using a scissor, made two little
rectangular stripes and a larger one. Next, I glued the little stripes on the
laptop, near close the mics. The nice thing is that the large stripe covers
both, the mics and webcam. For me, it's an easy way to cover/uncover fast.
------
boxkite
I keep mine covered because I work remotely a lot and I don't want to
accidentally shirtless video chat someone from bed when I meant to make a
different type of call.
~~~
3chelon
It was unusually hot and I actually did that myself just the other day -
embarrassing!
------
conradev
I use a MacBook Pro as my daily driver, but I recently purchased a Lenovo
ThinkPad to play around with. Sometimes I forget how awesome it is to have a
repairable and modular computer.
I didn't want the webcam or microphone in the ThinkPad… so I took 30 minutes
and removed it. Easy as that.
~~~
csydas
Well,to be fair you could just open the MacBook Pro and unplug the ribbon for
the webcam. iFixit will have instructions. Removing it entirely granted is
another matter, involving opening the screen, but you'd have to do the same on
any modern laptop with an integrated camera wouldn't you?
~~~
wruza
For my mac I just used a knife to open screen and shoved black paper strip
before camera.
------
greglindahl
I experimented a bit with an Apple laptop microphone, and it took 2 layers of
electrical tape to block the mic. There doesn't appear to be any way to block
an iPhone mic without blocking the speaker, too, and I'm not confident that it
could be blocked at all.
------
mpetrovich
But what about his computer's built-in mic? Unless he's pantomiming all
sensitive info...
------
neom
It's pretty sad that he used the word "authority" in this sentence: You do
that so that people who don’t have authority don’t look at you. I think that’s
a good thing.”
------
throwaway13337
It's relatively common to have access to private security cameras. Some are
even google indexed.
The software included relies on the users protect the web interface.
Obviously, this is the vulnerability. Especially with things like default
passwords.
Here's an article about it:
[http://www.networkworld.com/article/2844283/microsoft-
subnet...](http://www.networkworld.com/article/2844283/microsoft-
subnet/peeping-into-73-000-unsecured-security-cameras-thanks-to-default-
passwords.html)
A lot of these cameras are controllable and have speakers.
People now do live video streams of pranking people through this means.
Pictures: [http://imgur.com/a/0WImd](http://imgur.com/a/0WImd)
------
skybrian
Back in the day, SGI workstations had a hardware shutter. I still think it's a
good idea.
------
24gttghh
My Asus 1015PEM netbook from 6 years ago has a physical screen that slides
over the camera; sliding the screen also turns on the camera. Why don't more
laptops have this feature if this is such a 'big deal'?
------
throw2016
The hacker news readership is focussed on startups and technology. It's a
career, a business and in some cases an interest in technology.
So privacy as a social good may not be the primary perspective and it often
devolves into how this affects readers personally rather than the society they
live in or side tracks into technology nuances.
Technology is enabling new negative possibilities but it does not follow that
technologists can make a difference. There is no ethical code of conduct. Like
everyone else they are another cog in the wheel and software engineers may not
have an interest or priority on privacy, social and political issues.
There are a large number of folks working in the nsa, gchq, google, facebook,
palantir, hardware vendors and elsewhere actively enabling this.
Like technology itself politics, liberty, privacy and the evolution of modern
system from the time of feudalism requires interest and priority. From this
perspective the need to tape up your webcam may have completely different
ramnifications.
------
xcasperx
I agree with what most people are saying on here, but I believe there's a
bigger picture to it.
Let's say that your computer has been completely 'pwned', and that you are
currently reading an article with an ad for Cow Porn, or whatever, on the
right hand hand side of the site. The hacker can write some code to check what
your eyes, and eyebrows, did when you looked at the ad. If it peaked your
interest, the hacker can maliciously add more 'Cow Porn' ads to sites you
visit - via swapping out the regular ones.
Now one day you get curious and click on it, and boom they take a screen shot
and try to blackmail you.
This is obviously quite outlandish but think about purposefully planting
posts, lets say on reddit, by switching out posts. They then look at your head
movements, and, or, eye movements then boom, you're added to some list that
you wouldn't have be added to if it weren't for your eye movements.
------
dingo_bat
I have never covered my Webcam because I trust the light to come on if the
camera turns on. Is it possible to bypass that led?
~~~
Steuard
In addition to the attacks that others have mentioned here, I've also heard
folks comment previously on the possibility of turning on the camera very
briefly, just long enough for a single still shot. If it was done fast enough,
the brief flicker of the LED might not be noticeable.
(Like you, I had always assumed that the power for the webcam was literally in
series with the LED, so that disabling the LED would render the camera
inoperable. That seemed like the obvious way to do it if you wanted to provide
a truly reliable signal. But evidently that's not the case.)
~~~
abraae
Perhaps you mean in parallel. An LED is driven by 20 mA, whereas a camera
requires more like 200 mA, so it's not feasible to wire them in series -
either the LED will burn out or the camera won't power up.
~~~
Steuard
Yeah, I was pretty sure I was being a little sloppy by using the term "series"
(for shame, physics prof, for shame!), but I was hoping to evoke the general
sense of "if current doesn't flow through the LED for any reason, the camera
can't turn on." Honestly, I'm not 100% certain offhand of a way to wire that
(which is why I didn't want to be specific earlier, despite using a specific
term: shoulda added some weasel words :) ). Do the LED and the camera run off
of the same _voltage_? (If not, then parallel wiring won't work, either.)
------
pjc50
Previously: [http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-
tech/yah...](http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/yahoo-
webcam-users-intimate-images-intercepted-by-gchq-spy-programme-snowden-files-
reveal-9158140.html)
------
eosrei
What about the cameras in your phone and the microphones in everything?
Security theater isn't security.
------
krinchan
I'm about to die laughing at the hoops people are jumping through in the
comments to claim they've never pulled up some porn and enjoyed themselves in
front of their laptop. Ever. _EVER_
------
laurent123456
This article describes how to turn off the led light on Windows, which is
surprisingly easy:
[http://blog.erratasec.com/2013/12/how-to-disable-webcam-
ligh...](http://blog.erratasec.com/2013/12/how-to-disable-webcam-light-on-
windows.html)
TLDR: Webcams follow the UVC standard and, according to this standard, the LED
indicator light is controlled by the host software. So a simple hack is to
find the webcam driver DLL, find the function that controls the LED (such as
TurnOnOffLED()), make it return immediately, done.
------
tedmiston
Does anyone feel the need to cover their iPhone front facing camera?
~~~
e1ven
Yes. I cover both the cameras on my phone with tape, and only remove it when I
want to take a picture.
That said, I have a lot more faith in the security of a whitelist-based model
like the App store, versus the blacklist model of a PC with antivirus.
------
foobarcrunch
Unless you're using Prey[0] and want an opportunity to photograph would-be
crooks.
[0] [https://preyproject.com](https://preyproject.com)
------
markyc
in this day and age how come we don't see laptops carry a physical on/off
switch for the microphone and camera?
~~~
Shanea93
This is the day and age of removing headphone jacks to make a phone slimmer,
taking away your disk drive, etc. Most companies care more about aesthetics
than functionality at this point.
~~~
ojii
can I have a laptop without a webcam/integrated mic then?
~~~
soylentcola
How courageous of you!
------
awesomerobot
Also remove your microphone and don't use a keyboard? If I were hacking you
I'd _much_ rather log your keystrokes or hear what you're saying.
The number of scenarios where having a visual would be useful would be
incredibly low by comparison.
Putting a sticker over your webcam is like putting a lock on a screen door.
~~~
maxerickson
Most screen doors I can think of do have locks.
Even quite home made ones often end up with a hook that kids can't reach.
~~~
awesomerobot
That's my point. It does one thing, but it's by no means security.
------
piedradura
I prefer to have a computer composed by parts, so I attach the webcam to the
computer when I need to, same thing for the audio and many other applications.
I only need 1k of ram to send a secret message, so no virus or malware could
be in my tiny computer.
------
zelos
Didn't all Sun webcams used to have little irises that you could close on
them?
It seems like a sensible precaution: makes it less likely I'll accidentally
log into a company conference call in my dressing gown with my camera enabled.
------
whitenoice
Just saw the prescreening of snowden movie with online live event with movie
cast and snowden post movie, and this was exactly what was depicted in the
movie and in the event talk.
------
andrewflnr
So the guy who decries "going dark" when it comes to encryption wants us to
literally go dark with our webcams. It's like a dystopian comedy setup.
------
JustUhThought
At some of my house parties I require guests to check their phone at the door.
Price of admission. (I keep a landline and am ok with giving that number out
as an emergency contact number). Boy does this get the conversation started.
I can tape my phn camera, but what about the other 20 phns in the room? I have
no control over them to keep them from posting photos of me drinking or
whatnot during a party, photos I do not want online.
From the tin-hat perspective one must do (much) better than consider their
personal devices. One must consider _all_ devices in their _personal
proximity_.
~~~
GarrisonPrime
It'd be amusing to have a little Faraday cage by the door for them to deposit
into. :)
------
demonshreder
Aren't these attacks primarily for Windows? Would using Linux (say Arch)
mitigate these?
Edit: Shouldn't we be more concerned about phones and tabs?
~~~
facepalm
Nice attempt at humor :-)
------
codethief
In case anyone's looking for something a little bit more sophisticated than a
sticker to put on his/her webcam:
[https://soomz.io/detail/webcam_covers_a10](https://soomz.io/detail/webcam_covers_a10)
Been using it for a while and it works like a charm. (Though on a phone it
does tend to attract a bit of dirt and the color wears off over time. If you
keep your phone in the pocket of your pants, that is.)
------
chrischen
Quick question for HNers: why isn't something like the camera insicator light
implemented for the microphone?
------
SG-
Anyone know what kind of laptop he uses?
------
wickedlogic
Please cover your webcam, it is distracting while we are trying to listen to
what you are clicking on.
------
listentojohan
What I don't understand is why he has to defend it? (Yes, it might seem
hypocritical.)
------
bobsoap
Instead of a sticker, one could also use this clever, simple, magnetic gadget
(not affiliated):
[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1893116150/nope-20-live...](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1893116150/nope-20-live-
free)
~~~
bobsoap
Seriously, downvoted without an explanation? That's quite poor. If something
about my post offends anyone, I'd love to know about it.
------
mangeletti
I swear this is a true story:
I worked at Staples when I was 19, and when I first started I was a "front end
lead" (read: the only full-time cashier), so I would work behind the service
counter at the front.
Once, I was standing up front while there were no customers when all of the
sudden the voice of the general manager (we'll call him Bill) popped onto the
phone's speaker, "Hey, Michael". I looked up and noticed the light next to
"Manager's Office" was on. I instinctively replied, "Hey, Bill; what's up?",
despite the fact that it nearly gave me a heart attack.
Bill proceeded to tell me to run something he needed to the back, which I did,
and that was the end of that.
Then, one day I was helping a customer with some Cross pens behind the
counter. I stood up to grab a key that was next to the register when I noticed
out of the corner of my eye that the phone's "Manager's Office" intercom light
was on. It made my heart jump because I hadn't talk to anybody through it, and
I knew that Bill was in the back office. I immediately realized, 'oh my god,
he's probably spying on me to see how my service is!'. It made me feel
uncomfortable, until I realized it was an opportunity to be extraordinarily
helpful and jovial with the customer and be "candidly" observed by my manager.
So I did that. I rang the customer up and she left. The light went off after a
few minutes of silence.
After that, I noticed the light come on a number of times on different days,
which surprised me. I even ran to the back after helping a customer once,
while the intercom light was still on, sneaked around the corner, and looked
into his office window to see if it was really him. He was sitting there
looking at his phone. I looked for just a moment when I heard from the speaker
above, "<beep!> cashier to the front". I ran.
Bill was probably the greatest manager I've ever known, such a hard worker, a
really cool guy to talk to, well respected by everyone, etc. In fact, if all
managers were like him, Staples would probably still be a force to be reckoned
with. So, it never bothered me the way it probably would have, had it been
some creepy manager. This is necessary for the rest of the story, because had
it not been the case, I would have probably called him out, etc.
Eventually I started being extra jovial all the time, because I never knew
when I'd miss seeing the light come on and miss the opportunity to impress
Bill.
Bill was so impressed with my service that I was given a raise and promoted to
manager of the copy & print center about 6 months later, which eventually led
to me opening my own print company and quitting Staples (after seeing how high
the margins were), which led to me learning how to use Adobe Creative Suite
and graphic design, which led to me shifting my focus to print design for
clients (brochures, cards, etc.), which led to me meeting some guys who ran an
Internet marketing company one day while trying to sell my print design
services. They wanted to hire me full time, and did, so I began learning web
design, then web development, then back end code, etc.
I always tell myself, 'I was probably destined for this kind of work', but the
reality is that my entire life might have been changed by simply knowing I was
being spied on by my Boss. I realize that it probably worked out for the
better in my case, but the fact is, knowing that somebody is watching you
causes you to change who you are. It's a form of control in and of itself. In
fact, it doesn't even need to happen to you. Now that we have all seen that
the government does spy on people, it's hard to imagine all the tiny ways that
it might change your behavior and the things you say (e.g., online).
~~~
repler
I worked at Staples too (Business Machines!), the management was not shy about
reminding us about mystery shoppers.
My managers would always walk around the corner right at the instant I would
sit down for a minute when it wasn't busy 5 hours into my shift. Never failed.
Ugh.
I know we didn't have surveillance cameras in the store at the time though,
because it was a sore point (and against Staples policy at the time).
------
mmaunder
I wonder if he covers front and back cellphone cameras.
------
caub
Laptops have a LED showing when webcam is in use
------
stanislavb
Hypocrite!
------
orthogon
What about the part where we stop buying products with integrated cameras?
What about the part where we stop buying devices that we have seeemingly no
hope of control over?
What about that?
Is boycott a word too strong?
Gee, you're right.
We should all just give up, and accept that what we're sold, is that which we
must buy.
~~~
deathanatos
I think you're being a bit quick to judge people here…
Having an integrated camera is obviously a lot easier to deal with,
logistically, than lugging along an external USB camera.
I think a lot of the people here would love to have hardware-level kill
switches for their video camera. And mic. And WiFi. (I would; I used to own a
Thinkpad with a hardware kill switch for WiFi. It was useful, even aside from
the privacy benefits.)
~~~
orthogon
I think you're neglecting a key detail: alternatives are hardly even on the
shelves, and NO ONE QUESTIONS IT.
> Oh, well, that's just
supply and demand, of
course!
> Everyone just WANTS an
always on internet connection!
> Why would anyone ever remove
the battery from their
cell phone???
> It's more cost effective
to build the device
like that. Common sense!
> Everyone wants a unique
identifier, GPS and 911
service. It's safer!
Yup, no one would ever want things any other way. It's silly to question why
the invisible hand of the market works as it does.
~~~
derogator
The really amazing part about the downvotes here, is that HN is unable to
reconcile the realities of mass surveillance that tend to conflict with profit
motives, and yet the collective overtone of HN professes itself to be a
bastion of progressive futurist space exploring tranhumanism. Few seem to
notice the cognitive dissonance.
Sort of a cruel prank. Those in the best position to release the yoke, are
only motivated to tighten it.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
|
Simple example of machine learning in TensorFlow - jostmey
https://github.com/jostmey/NakedTensor?bare
======
dbcurtis
I like these kind of "Hello, world!" examples for TensorFlow. As a TensorFlow
beginner, I need all the references I can get. Here is what I need right now:
"Hello, we meet again!". I can build a neural net model, and train (albeit,
often badly) a model, but saving and restoring the trained weights so that I
can run the model again is giving me fits. I am clearly missing something
fundamental about how to restore a TensorFlow NN model.
For your next tutorial, may I suggest: 1) a list of do's and don'ts for
constructing a savable/restorable model, and 2) a wee bit of example code.
Of course, now that I have discovered Keras I'm moving away from low-level
direct TensorFlow. But I suspect I'm not the only one a bit foggy about the
whole save/restore work flow.
~~~
pmalynin
As a person that uses TensorFlow for his day job:
I find that saving and restoring are of the weirder things with TensorFlow,
you can either go all out an decide to save out all the variables, or only the
ones needed for the model.
You usually don't want to save out gradients (which are also variables) since
they take up a bunch of space and aren't actually that useful to restore. Now
on the other, what are model variables -- do you want to save model variables
+ the moving averages ... or just the averages. But then when you're loading
you'll have to "shadow" the moving averages to the real variables that
actually run in your model.
Good news though, most of the scaffolding code you can write once and re-use
it over and over again.
~~~
minimaxir
In Keras, it's just a simple model.save() [to a hdf5 file] and load_model().
This includes both the weights and the architecture.
Models with a few million parameters result in a file around ~50MB, which is
still reasonable for modern production use cases.
~~~
glial
Keras makes using deep learning for simple-ish use cases sooooo easy.
~~~
matheweis
I second this - I'm really excited about Keras being integrated into the core
of Tensorflow (other than the chance it might lose the Torch compatibility).
------
pred_
That's nifty; I was looking for something like that just a few weeks ago for a
work demonstration! Ended up doing
[https://gist.github.com/fuglede/ad04ce38e80887ddcbeb6b81e97b...](https://gist.github.com/fuglede/ad04ce38e80887ddcbeb6b81e97bbfbc)
instead.
~~~
rhcom2
Thank you to you and OP for both sharing these resources. Really helpful.
------
nemo1618
I wish there were more TensorFlow examples written in Go. I made the mistake
of checking out TensorFlow as my first intro to ML and it flew about 10 miles
over my head. Slowly learning now, but most of the documentation and tutorials
are written in Python.
This blog series was also helpful on a conceptual level:
[https://medium.com/emergent-future/simple-reinforcement-
lear...](https://medium.com/emergent-future/simple-reinforcement-learning-
with-tensorflow-part-0-q-learning-with-tables-and-neural-
networks-d195264329d0#.4znc3ulur)
~~~
make3
as a deep learning professional, the deep learning community is something like
99% Python. You'd probably better learn Python at least well enough to
recreate the corresponding Go code in your mind instantly.
------
calebm
>>> You are one buzzword away from being a professional. Instead of fitting a
line to just eight datapoints, we will now fit a line to 8-million datapoints.
Welcome to big data.
LOL :) (Side-note: 8 million is still not big data)
~~~
mcrad
Big Data is a reference to complexity of the data & underlying system that
data represents, NOT the number of datapoints.
lol
~~~
pyromine
Big data is really just a buzzword that no one knows what it really means,
because everyone's definition is different
lol
~~~
happycube
I always think in terms of Munchkin: "any data that is not Big is small"
------
JonathonCwik
So I'm still wrapping my head around some of the math (I haven't had a math
class in a handful of years)...
I get the output of the model (y_model = m*xs[i]+b), it's the y = mx + b where
we know x (from the dataset) and have y be a variable.
The error is where I start to lose it, so I get the idea of the first part
(ys[i]-y_model). It's basically the difference between the actual y value
(from the dataset). I get that we want this number to be as small as possible
as the closer to zero it is for the entire dataset that means we get closer to
the line going through (or near) all the points and the closest fit will be
when this total_error is nearest to zero.
What I don't get is the squaring of the difference. Is it just to make the
difference a larger number so that it's a little more normalized? How do you
get to the conclusion that it needs to be normalized? Same thing with the
learning rate? I believe these to be correlated but I can't tell you how...
~~~
cowabungabruce
Squaring gets you guaranteed positive numbers. Remember, we are adding all the
errors together to optimize the model: If we get
sum_errors_A = 4 + -3 + -1
sum_errors_B = 1 + 1 + 1
B is obviously the better model, but it has a higher error than A when
comparing. If we squared all the terms and then added, B would be the stronger
model.
~~~
JonathonCwik
Ah, gotcha! Makes a lot more sense now.
------
Kiro
This is awesome!
I currently have a small pet project where I think some simple ML would be
cool but I don't know where to start so these things are great.
Basically my use case is that I have a bunch of 64x64 images (16 colors) which
I manually label as "good", "neutral" or "bad". I want to input this dataset
and train the network to categorize new 64x64 images of the same type.
The closest I've found is this: [https://gist.github.com/sono-
bfio/89a91da65a12175fb1169240cd...](https://gist.github.com/sono-
bfio/89a91da65a12175fb1169240cde3a87b)
But it's still too hard to understand exactly how I can create my own dataset
and how to set it up efficiently (the example is using 32x32 but I also want
to factor in that it's only 16 colors; will that give it some performance
advantages?).
~~~
nl
[https://blog.keras.io/building-powerful-image-
classification...](https://blog.keras.io/building-powerful-image-
classification-models-using-very-little-data.html) is what you want.
------
cosmicexplorer
What is the meaning of the "?bare" query string in the url? I googled around
for the meaning of query strings on the github site but only found rnandom
repos on github (not sure how to narrow the search). The first time I tried
removing it I saw another folder named "to_do", but this is gone now so it
might give a version which is cached for longer somehow?
~~~
cosmicexplorer
OK, found out what a bare repository means and pretty sure that's what it
refers to. Still can't find any documentation for the query string parameter
and don't know how that makes sense for github's repository view page.
------
blauditore
I'm not sure about the rules, but shouldn't posts linking to own, personal
projects be prefixed with "Show HN:"? I've seen a lot such posts lately where
the poster was clearly the author as well.
~~~
pvg
No, Show HN is a different thing with its own (generally stricter) rules. You
don't have to add it to things just because you happen to be the author.
[https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html)
------
kyleschiller
I think you meant bare bones.
------
mediocrejoker
I'm guessing english is not your first language, so I just wanted to point out
that "bare bottom" is generally synonymous with "uncovered buttocks" ie. in
the context of changing an infant's diaper.
Perhaps you were meaning to put "bare bones"? Google's definition of the
latter is "reduced to or comprising only the basic or essential elements of
something."
Don't want to detract from your point but I think your title is throwing some
people off. I know I would be hesitant to click something at work that sounds
like it could contain nudity.
~~~
dekhn
I think the last example was a clASSifier, so it makes sense.
------
bencollier49
"Bare bottom"? I'm not clicking on this.
~~~
bencollier49
Downvoted! The title might have changed now, but the original one was
completely indecipherable. As far as I could tell it was genuinely some sort
of image recognition algorithm for naked buttocks.
------
BonoboBoner
Simple example? Before finishing the first paragraph, it says
"The slope and y-intercept of the line are determined using gradient descent."
What on earth does that mean? Maybe they should teach mathematics in english
at universities outside of english speaking countries. German mathematics does
not help here.
I wish there was a 4GL like SQL for machine learning using dynamic programming
for algorithm selection and model synthesis like a dbms query planner.
PREDICT s as revenue LEARN FROM company.sales as s GROUP BY MONTH ORDER BY
company.region
~~~
sampo
> _" The slope and y-intercept of the line are determined using gradient
> descent."_
Slope and intercept are very standard names for the parameters of a linear
regression model. Gradient descent is the name of the algorithm used.
|
{
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}
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Arch Linux – Best Distro Ever? (Update with Pacaur and Linux-Zen) - akitaonrails
http://www.akitaonrails.com/2017/01/10/arch-linux-best-distro-ever
======
ake1
I love arch and would be using it if my hardware worked better out of the box.
Having to tinker with blacklisted drivers and manual pulseaudio configuration
is only fun the first couple of times. Nowadays I just install xubuntu and add
bspwm on top and everything works.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
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Windows 10 marks the end of 'pay once, use forever' software - aceperry
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/07/31/rising_and_ongoing_cost_of_windows/
======
chmike
I have my finger hanging over the mouse button ready to click install Ubuntu.
I'm not a cash cow waiting to be milked.
~~~
Rockdtben
I will be switching to Ubuntu as well. I have encouraged my friends to do the
same.
------
teaneedz
What will Microsoft be doing a year from now in regards to pricing and
services? This really requires some clarity, because so far Win10 is not
looking good from a privacy perspective IMO. It's not easy to recommend an
upgrade right now with so much unanswered questions regarding data usage and
price roadmap. What is their strategy after the first year?
~~~
matthewarkin
Pricing for Windows 10 has been announced, $110 for Home and $199 for Pro. You
have 1 year to upgrade for free, then you have a license for Windows 10
forever for that machine and you'll be supported for the lifetime of that
device (as defined by Microsoft). If you don't upgrade within that year then
you'd have to pay for the upgrade.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
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Ask HN: Looking for few testers for my website & associated open-source darknet? - mikeliu8
I'm a dual-class programmer/lawyer who's decided to use my powers for good. I've made an open-source system to let you copy/lend/share files and media privately with friends. It plugs into a site where you can add friends and recommend stuff to them.<p>The website is called LibraryMixer. The open-source system is called the Mixologist.<p>Many have tried before to create software that builds darknets (decentralized, private networks that connect only to your friends). However, darknets have a lot of difficulties that have kept them from being user-friendly enough to gain traction.<p>I've designed a hybrid system where basic, non-sensitive information such as friends lists are handled through the website, and adding friends or notifying them of your activity is as easy as using Facebook, while all of the communications and file transfers over the Mixologist are direct, encrypted P2P connections and still fully decentralized and private.<p>The real benefits emerge when you add reviews and lists of what you have or want on Librarymixer, highlighting them for your friends. The world of media is oversaturated with interesting stuff out there, making the problem not how you should get stuff you want, but how you should find the wheat among the chaff. When used together, LibraryMixer and the Mixologist offer the integrated experience of recommending music or videos or books to your friends via your reviews, and if they're interested, the ability to immediately ask to get those from you using the Mixologist via a single click on LibraryMixer.<p>It's also possible to just drag-and-drop entire folders on your computer into the Mixologist, which your friends can then browse. Or, if you're purely interested in the media reviews and listings, LibraryMixer itself is a fully functional, independent website, and you don't even have to install or use the Mixologist at all.<p>Unlike past P2P file sharing services that have realistically only had minimal non-copyright infringing uses, this system provides a whole range of other functionality besides just sending copies of files, such as lending and borrowing files, responding with automatic messages (think: "Got your request, will bring it next time I see you."), privately browsing and downloading from your friends' personal collections such as their photos, etc. In this sense, like GMail or instant messengers that are neutral tools, it makes it possible to treat users as adults and place the responsibility of staying within legal limits on the users of the tool. In other words, like back when we had VCRs (if you guys still remember what those are), the VCR had the capacity to record ten thousand copies of that Blockbuster video tape you rented, but at the end of the day, it was only you that prevented yourself from doing that.<p>I'm hoping for a small group of tech-savvy volunteers to help test this before I launch. Testers would add each other as friends on LibraryMixer and also use the Mixologist for a week or so to give me some honest, substantive feedback.<p>If this goes anywhere at all in the future, you'll be sure to get some sort of special recognition for helping alpha test.<p>I'd be super grateful if any of you would be willing to help out, and I can set you up with an account if you email me at mikeliu@librarymixer.com.
======
nyellin
Remove your html tags and add double lines for newlines.
~~~
mikeliu8
Thanks, fixed.
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
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US/UK news has been responding to Coronavirus since 2020 - massanishi
https://public.tableau.com/profile/masatoshi.nishimura#!/vizhome/CoronavirusMentionedinNewsPublishers/ResponsestoCoronavirusby5MajorPublishers?publish=yes
======
massanishi
I analyzed 46,601 news over the past 3 months from the major US and UK
publishers (New York Times, CNN, Forbes, BBC, Guardian). It measures how often
the word "coronavirus" is mentioned. The second graph shows how different
countries are covered, mapped with the outbreak incidents.
It demonstrates how our attention has shifted more to the virus and jumped
among different countries based on the outbreak occurrences.
I've used my project for the data source. If you like to visualize your
reading, come check it out ([https://kaffae.com](https://kaffae.com))
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
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PostgreSQL Monitoring Cheatsheet - websec
http://russ.garrett.co.uk/2015/10/02/postgres-monitoring-cheatsheet/
======
dijit
Reddit discussion;
[https://www.reddit.com/r/PostgreSQL/comments/3nhcnh/postgres...](https://www.reddit.com/r/PostgreSQL/comments/3nhcnh/postgresql_monitoring_cheatsheet/)
I actually met the author before, he's a nice guy and a good sysadmin- I'm
glad he incorporated feedback from reddit (even if he was downvoted).
|
{
"pile_set_name": "HackerNews"
}
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Graceful Athiest – What If I Grant You That? (2016) - logicprog
https://gracefulatheist.wordpress.com/2016/11/26/what-if-i-grant-you-that/
======
logicprog
I'm a Christian but this is a particularly well thought out and fair anti-
apologetic piece. I thought it would be interesting to see what HN thought of
it (as a long-time lurker :)
------
microwavecamera
In fairness of disclosure I'm not a Christian or an Atheist but I think it's
ironic every Atheist's argument I've read so far uses the exact same dubious
logic, unscientific reasoning and cherry picking of facts that they criticize
Christians for.
~~~
diehunde
argument for what?
~~~
microwavecamera
Check out the article.
~~~
diehunde
I did but you said every atheist, not the author. So what argument are you
talking about
~~~
microwavecamera
I did not say every Atheist. I said every Atheist's arguments I've read so far
which, so far, fall victim to the same logical fallacies they argue against.
I'll try cover some of the broader points I keep seeing repeated without
writing a book here.
1\. Assuming all Christians believe the same thing.
I'm Irish-American, my father's side of the family are Catholic and my mother
side are Protestant. I can tell you from first hand experience "Christians"
don't agree on crap when it comes to Christianity. And the author leaves a
telling clue to this towards the end when they mention most of their
experience is with Evangelicalism. The Evangelicals are a small minority among
Christians worldwide, and most mainstream Christians think Evangelicalism is
way out in left field. The author makes no effort to address this issue but
instead builds their arguments off assumptive axioms without explanation or
clarification.
2\. Christians aren't the only people who believe in the Biblical "god"
The author again homes in on specific cherry picked tenants of Christianity,
specifically the question of the divinity of Jesus, as an argument against the
existence of God. Jews and Muslims don't share that belief. Hell, not even all
Christians agree on this point. In fact, the first schism of early Christian
church was over the question of the divinity of Jesus. Why is this never
addressed?
3\. Skepticism = Science
This is another common fallacy I keep coming across. Skepticism itself is
inherently unscientific and attempting to contort science to fit an opinion is
equally unscientific.
4\. Science is an opposing view to belief in "God"
The author attempts to make this same core argument I see used repeatedly.
That belief in "God" comes from ignorance of science and rejection of rational
thought therefor believing in "God" is unscientific and irrational. This
argument is just illogical. If this were true, we should be able to deduce
that most scientist are also Atheists but we know that's simply not true. Even
Einstein believed in God. One doesn't negate the other. Again this is never
addressed.
.....
You'll have to excuse me if that was disjointed and doesn't cover everything.
That's off the top of my head, I wasn't expecting to get into this today. And
look, as I mentioned before, I'm not a Christian or an Atheist and if you're
an Atheist, that's fine. I'm not criticizing you for what you think or
believe, but as an outside observer, I don't see much difference in the
arguments the author makes and the particular "Christians" they single out to
refute.
~~~
diehunde
That's fine. But you know, Einstein didn't believe in god. That is a lie
spread out by Christians probably to refute the same point you're trying to
make. Also most of the modern scientists (the ones that know or knew about big
bang, evolution, etc) also don't believe in god. I bet they don't even call
themselves atheists. Today we are reaching a post-theistic stage in which
people don't want to waste their time thinking in religion or stuff like that.
I personally hate the "atheist" title. Is ridiculous, just like it would be
ridiculous to have a name for someone who doesn't believe in ghosts or
goblins.
Finally, any serious person that knows about science and philosophy of science
knows that religion and science have nothing to do with each other. You can
perfectly be both. What you can't do, is call yourself a person of science,
and don't accept scientific evidence for something that was scientifically
measured.
~~~
microwavecamera
> Einstein didn't believe in god.
"I am not an atheist" \- Albert Einstein
> Also most of the modern scientists (the ones that know or knew about big
> bang, evolution, etc) also don't believe in god.
Who? Research it, their views pretty much run the gamut like anyone else's.
For example:
"Although I am now convinced that scientific truth is unassailable in its own
field, I have never found it possible to dismiss the content of religious
thinking as simply part of an outmoded phase in the consciousness of mankind,
a part we shall have to give up from now on. Thus in the course of my life I
have repeatedly been compelled to ponder on the relationship of these two
regions of thought, for I have never been able to doubt the reality of that to
which they point."
\- Werner Heisenberg
Pascual Jordan was Christian, Enrico Fermi was Agnostic, Max Born was a Jewish
Lutheran but was just completely apathetic to organized religion while Niels
Bohr, Richard Feynman and John Bell were self avowed Atheists. Schrödinger
called himself an Atheist but had a strong affinity for Eastern spiritually
and Oppenheimer was into Hinduism. And if you want to get into some _really_
weird stuff, look up Jack Parsons, founder of JPL at NASA.
Scientists are just people like the rest of us and grapple with the same
questions in life all of us do.
|
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Project to Run RTL-SDR Dongle with Microcontroller Host - fallingmeat
https://fallingnate.svbtle.com/portable-rtl2832-usb-dongle
======
fallingmeat
I started this project a while back and am just now releasing the results
piecemeal. If anyone has experience running SDR DSP operations on an MCU, I'd
be very interested to hear about it! So far, this seems very feasible for at
least small-ish bandwidth applications (ie ~100 KHz) and simple modulation
schemes. Looking forward to pushing the limits of ~450DMIPS processor...
|
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Merb ♡ Rails - qhoxie
http://merbist.com/2008/12/02/merb-loves-rails/
======
Locke
Yes, it's clear that Rails blazed the path for Merb. At the same time, the
Rails people really shouldn't be surprised (or feel badly) that their
"opinionated software" has created a market for flexible, agnostic software.
Both projects are great, and will probably appeal to different sets of
developers. In a lot of ways I think of it like the dynamic between Python and
Ruby. Both are excellent languages with very similar capabilities, yet they
appeal to different developers. It's like there's an element of personality in
there, and there's nothing wrong with that.
~~~
jamesbritt
" In a lot of ways I think of it like the dynamic between Python and Ruby."
I see more of that in the contrast of how Ramaze (and, previously, Nitro)
approaches things and how it is with Rails/Merb.
I've been trying to get my head around Merb, but it's still too Railszy to get
me excited.
Ramaze is to Merb (and Rails) as Ruby is to Python.
------
shabda
And for the same reason, I use Django everyday, but I ♡ Rails. Rails, Django
(and Merb, Ramaze)are not fighting each other for mindshare, but Struts and
company.
------
gamache
Yet another chirp from the echo chamber...
~~~
bk
I will cautiously agree with that - cautiously because I don't want to become
a part of it exacerbating the problem.
To everybody wondering why there is such an echo chamber in the rails and
(increasingly) merb communities: consultants. They all try to build a profile
online to get better paid gigs (and to boost their egos).
Resorting to the rules of (self-)promotion, these consultants write link-bait,
(fake) flames/controversies, etc. They give noobs and hype sheep the warm
feeling of "being part of something big" and enterprisey folks can point to
the "wide adoption" and "active communities" around them. That does not make
them great or better than other solutions technologically. (As an aside,
they're still very good web dev tools, no doubt, but not the second coming of
<deity of choice's son>).
------
mikeryan
Anyone else notice that Ruby was actually 11th on the language list?
~~~
Locke
Not that I follow it too closely, but I think Ruby _was_ in the top 10 until
it slipped a few spots recently.
------
siong1987
I am a Rails. But, I am more a Ruby(Rubyist).
~~~
Herring
I think you forgot the in that sentence.
------
jamesbritt
"Without Rails, we would not have all the other cool Ruby frameworks"
The author is delusional.
|
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Ask HN: Getting a Cs Degree After 15 Years in the Industry? - empath75
I’ve been in the industry for 15 years and I’m a senior software engineer at a very large company, but I also dropped out of community college and I’ve never taken a cs class.<p>I have, however invested a lot of time learning higher math and advanced computer science topics on my own and I’d like to get a degree, but the idea of having to spending all the time and money going through undergraduate prerequisites feels like a waste for me.<p>Is there some way to get credit for work experience so I don’t have to spend a semester doing a basic algorithms and data structures class and so on?
======
mangoleaf
Here is what I would do: 1\. Find online degree at REAL university. 2\. IF
they don't let you challenge the final exam, then let the videos run on a
separate machine while you work. THEN take final.
List of REAL universities that offer REAL degrees online:
[http://ecampus.wisconsin.edu/](http://ecampus.wisconsin.edu/)
[http://online.unl.edu/](http://online.unl.edu/)
[http://online.missouri.edu/](http://online.missouri.edu/)
[http://bamabydistance.ua.edu/](http://bamabydistance.ua.edu/)
[http://asuonline.asu.edu/](http://asuonline.asu.edu/)
[http://ecampus.oregonstate.edu/](http://ecampus.oregonstate.edu/)
[http://online.wsu.edu/](http://online.wsu.edu/)
It took me a while to compile this list. They don't advertise. I'm sure there
are others that I missed. Many good PAC-12 schools in that list!
~~~
ultrasounder
Upvoting this as some of the analytics programs look really interesting with a
good mix of Traditional Statistics and Learning. Also the turion plus fees
make them much more attractive than a boot camp with possibly better
recognition. Thanks for sharing and doing all the hard work.
------
Jackypot
A colleague of mine read and thoroughly recommended 'The Imposter's Handbook'
for devs in this situation - it's a CS overview for developers without CS
degrees. Data structures, Big O etc.
I don't think going to university after 15 years of industry experience will
reap any benefits. Something like this could just plug the gaps in your
knowledge for less than a hundred dollars and a fraction of the time.
[https://bigmachine.io/products/the-imposters-
handbook/](https://bigmachine.io/products/the-imposters-handbook/)
~~~
jolmg
> I don't think going to university after 15 years of industry experience will
> reap any benefits. Something like this could just plug the gaps in your
> knowledge for less than a hundred dollars and a fraction of the time.
I think OP knows this and just considers it for the piece of paper at the end,
probably to help ensure future employability.
------
deepaksurti
I am making an assumption here as you have not stated so explicitly. May be
you are less challenged at your job and hence the thought to go get a degree,
as getting a degree has probably always been at the back of your mind.
You are already learning higher math and advanced CS topics, so better to
design your own curriculum and go for a more difficult domain, if you are not
in one.
Instead of a degree, do side projects related to the curriculum you design,
get it added to your portfolio, if possible keep publishing the stuff you
learn and it will be a better ROI.
Also leaving job and just going to school may not be so much fun in other
aspects as well (no income, working on subjects that you may not enjoy
learning); for the no income part if you go do it part time, it can be insane
hard work.
------
toomuchtodo
Look at CLEPing out of as much class time as possible.
[https://clep.collegeboard.org/](https://clep.collegeboard.org/)
~~~
sloaken
I love CLEP. I did it a long time ago, no prep just walked in and knocked out
12 semester hours. I was a freshman, would have scored 18 hours but I had
already taken calculus.
You can easily get out of your first year. Cost now is about $85 a class. But
you need to check that your targeted university accepts the CLEP.
Western Governors is an interesting choice to consider.
------
theonemind
Once you get admitted somewhere, you can perhaps talk to the faculty about
skipping classes. You should have an advisor or set of advisors to talk to,
and they should help you get something out of your education, including
skipping requirements for things you know.
You'll have to do a certain number of credit hours either way, but you can
perhaps avoid sitting through a lot of stuff you already know if you can
convince them you know it and just don't want to waste the time (not just your
advisor; they might have you talk to faculty who can evaluate you); you can,
perhaps, skip to classes full of material you won't know, perhaps even
graduate courses for credit as an undergraduate. You'd probably have to know
the stuff you want to skip pretty well.
Honestly, your advisor should work with you to make sure that you're not
wasting your time at a minimum. If not, you can drop out of the program.
------
DoreenMichele
_Is there some way to get credit for work experience so I don’t have to spend
a semester doing a basic algorithms and data structures class and so on?_
There are books on this subject.
As someone else suggested, you may be able to get class credit via passing
standardized tests. The CLEP is the most common one, but it's not the only
one. I can't think of the other big name right now.
Some colleges will assess your experience and give credit.
If you have taken any kind of courses at all, you may be able to get college
credit for that. For example, a lot of American colleges have standardized
what military courses they will count as college credit. From what I have
read, military members basically get exempted from having to take any kind of
PE classes.
Get a book on the subject. Contact local colleges and ask questions. You may
need to take some classes to wrap up a degree, but if you can cut it down
some, that can really help.
------
ohyes
I skipped undergrad CS and went directly to a masters.
There are ‘working professionals’ masters degrees that are geared towards this
type of thing. They don’t have the cachet of Stanford or whatever, but can be
interesting and useful if you apply yourself.
If they accept you, they will make you take a prerequisite class to ensure you
are at the right level.
I wouldn’t expect a monetary gain from this as college is quite expensive, it
isn’t clear a degree noticeably increases your salary. I would recommend doing
it primarily out of personal interest.
It does make the ‘foot in the door’ at a bigger company easier, but it’s not
clear that it has directly helped me in that way due to the size of companies
I normally gravitate towards. The knowledge has been very useful, however.
~~~
darpa_escapee
> I skipped undergrad CS and went directly to a masters.
Did you have any undergrad credits or degree?
~~~
ohyes
I had some credits, no degree. I didn’t want to take calculus and at the time
(I think it would have been 4 courses in it, amounting to 1/8 of my credits).
I wasn’t particularly bad at math, just uninterested in rehashing calculus.
Other stuff was more interesting than a double major. (Music, English,
Science).
I had been working as a software engineer for about a year, so that helped.
It also helped a lot that I have had some very supportive mentors in my life
(willing to recommend me).
------
mehh
Why? Why do you want a degree?
Is it purely a personal satisfaction thing, prove to yourself that you can do
it? If so then you probably suck it up and do the full thing.
Is it the nag that you missed something or may not be percieved as good as
others in your job? Moocs are a very good way of leveling the field here, get
the paid cert, get it on your linkedin, do some hard ones challenge yourself.
They are literally badges of merit, but don't do the simple trendy ones, do
the compilers one or some other advanced foundation CS ones (not be a data
scientist in 24 hours type rubbish).
------
vkaku
My personal advice is that while learning CS is helpful but University degrees
are expensive and may not give you a ROI.
The right course taught by the right person and learnt the right way will. And
often, I found that some MOOCs have a way better structure and content than
the ones I was taught in my University back in the day.
I'd suggest going through them and strengthening your concepts yourself - and
if you feel all you need is a degree (or) a course that offers you far better
discipline, then go for it.
------
seanwilson
> I have, however invested a lot of time learning higher math and advanced
> computer science topics on my own and I’d like to get a degree, but the idea
> of having to spending all the time and money going through undergraduate
> prerequisites feels like a waste for me.
If you know you can learn it yourself and you've got this far without a
degree, why do you want one?
~~~
IloveHN84
Higher salary?
~~~
seanwilson
Genuine question but after 15 years working experience when is a degree going
to make a difference when looking to get hired? Does it even make a difference
after a couple of years of experience?
------
bjourne
You do not need to be present in class a whole lot in most CS curricula. You
can do exercises and homeworks on your own and only need to be present for
exams and presentations.
|
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|
Linux users file EU complaint against Microsoft - recoiledsnake
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/thomson-reuters/130326/exclusive-open-software-group-files-complaint-eu-against-micros
======
neya
From the article:
Microsoft's relations with the EU executive have been tense since 2004, when the EU found that the company had abused its market leader position by tying Windows Media Player to the Windows software package.
But Microsoft broke its 2009 pledge and was fined 561 million euros by the EU Commission on March 6 for failing to offer users a choice of web browser.
I'm no Microsoft fanboi, but, let's put it this way - I develop my own
operating system, I develop my own browser, I develop my own media player. And
I decide to bundle it/promote it along with an operating system I DESIGNED and
DEVELOPED. What the fuck seems to be the problem with that?
I'm not limiting your ability in anyway - You can still install any other
browser/media player you like and you can remove the ones I've provided too,
just like any other..
Come on dudes, if I don't have the freedom to bundle MY software the way I
like, then how is it fair? It's like saying I can't bundle a headphone for an
Mp3 player I manufactured and the user should buy what he/she wants.
If I got something wrong here, please enlighten me..
~~~
rajanikanthr
stupidity of EU at peaks.. thats it
~~~
octix
Of course :) <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft>
------
javipas
Besides the previous comment from the EU, there's an article written by
Matthew Garrett (developer of the Secure Boot solution at The Linux
Foundation) that explains also the big difference between Secure Boot and
Restricted Boot.
<http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/23817.html>
That complaint is not really reasonable and is going nowhere, I think.
~~~
mjg59
The Linux Foundation developed their own solution, entirely separate from
mine.
------
nivla
My comment from another thread posted earlier with the same news that happened
to disappear from the front page[1]:
Alright this is getting ridiculous, we aren't living in the 90s anymore and we
should be encouraging healthy competition. We now have better alternatives
like Macbooks, Chromebooks etc. I can't buy into the reason that Microsoft
issued secure boot only to undermine Linux. Infact, Microsoft requires all x86
Windows 8 machines to be able to turn off secure boot and/or add their own
keys. This also applies for their own manufactured Surface x86 tablets.
I am really looking forward to something like secure boot. Why? Imagine using
Truecrypt to encrypt your entire hard drive with 3 layers encryption, and only
to defeated by a pesky 10kb keylogging bootloader malware. So unless someone
has an alternative solution to this, I am sticking up for secure boot and the
ability to add my own keys.
[1] <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5446148>
------
scholia
Which illustrates that, despite what you might think, it's possible to be
Linux user _and_ stupid.
------
kunai
Wait... Didn't Linus say Secure Boot wasn't a problem and that it was actually
a good thing?
Or am I just remembering things wrong?
[http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/06/microsoft-
windo...](http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/06/microsoft-
windows8-secure-boot/)
~~~
pslam
Wired is selectively quoting and interpreting. Linus is talking in
generalities and unfortunately that means he's missing the specific, immediate
problem that a lot of people are going to face.
Secure Boot in itself isn't necessarily a problem, and is a good thing in that
it can actually increase security. However, if you don't have the ability to
install your own certificate (or get a leaf cert), then it completely prevents
you from installing your own OS. If a PC comes with only Microsoft's cert
installed, then you can only install Microsoft software.
If the OS refuses to boot when you disable Secure Boot, then you can't dual
boot the pre-installed OS, and it takes a lot of effort to get things working
again. Plus, you lose Secure Boot for both OS's.
This is all a stupid mess which could have been solved by allowing users to
install their own certificates - and I don't mean the Fedora solution of also
having their cert installed and then handing Fedora a lot of money for a leaf.
~~~
cooldeal
>If the OS refuses to boot when you disable Secure Boot, then you can't dual
boot the pre-installed OS, and it takes a lot of effort to get things working
again.
What? Which OS refuses to boot when you disable Secure Boot?
>This is all a stupid mess which could have been solved by allowing users to
install their own certificates
Exactly which UEFI Secure Boot does. Here's a guide.
[http://blog.hansenpartnership.com/owning-your-
windows-8-uefi...](http://blog.hansenpartnership.com/owning-your-
windows-8-uefi-platform/)
~~~
pslam
> What? Which OS refuses to boot when you disable Secure Boot?
The one which was installed with secure boot enabled. My reading is the OS
will prevent forward progress when it notices secure boot was bypassed when it
expected it to be on. Never tried this myself - I'm likely misinformed.
> Exactly which UEFI Secure Boot does.
And apparently optional, and not something every machine implements, which was
the subject of a LOT of stories a year back. Did this ever get resolved as
being mandatory, and/or did all UEFI providers figure it was best practice in
the end?
------
alexsilver
Whenever these complaints/lawsuits come up, I always wonder why Apple is never
part of them...
~~~
mkr-hn
Apple is off in its own hardware and software ecosystem, so the potential for
widespread harm is small. Microsoft has clout with the people who make the
hardware most people use, so there's considerable potential for damage
depending on how Microsoft's will is implemented.
~~~
scholia
Apple has plenty of potential for harm via its iPhone and iPad ranges, both of
which are locked down.... However, neither has a monopoly maket share.
~~~
sounds
Exactly!
Why aren't people complaining about Samsung locking their phones? (both
carrier locks and locking the root account)
Ok, maybe the best solution is to vote with your wallet. It worked for me :)
------
VMG
As an European linux user, I'm not happy about the government meddling in the
hardware or software business, even if it is to my perceived benefit. Just
stay out of it and let the customers decide.
~~~
glogla
That would be hard, if Microsoft makes arrangement for you not to be able to
install anything that's not Windows on any laptop ever. Or even on any non-
crappy laptop ever.
~~~
VMG
How? It couldn't possibly pay off everybody.
------
IvarTJ
Can someone explain why bricking an infected computer is a good idea?
I might understand it if the boot sequence just gives a warning with
information, suggestions and a "Don't warn me again" option, but from what I
hear it just makes the machine unusable.
~~~
DanBC
Windows 8 is meant to be used by people who don't know much about computers.
Thus, the approach they take might not fit skilled users.
Ideally the novice user will take their machine to a clueful technician who
will wipe the drives and reinstall the OS, and then offer to set up firewalls
and anti virus software.
Unfortunately novice users often do not back up their data so wiping the drive
is unpopular.
And there are many technicians who think that malware removal without wiping
the drives is acceptable.
------
cooldeal
EU had already previously responded to this and I believe this complaint by a
"8000-strong" body is not going to change it.
>The Commission is aware of the Microsoft Windows 8 security requirements.
According to these requirements, in order to conform to the Windows 8
certification program, computer manufacturers (‘OEMs’) have to use Unified
Extensible Firmware Interface (‘UEFI’) secure boot.
>The Commission has at its disposal various legal instruments to ensure that
competition is preserved in the markets. The basic provisions are contained in
the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (‘TFEU’) in Article 101
and 102 TFEU.
>Whether there is a violation of EU competition rules depends however on a
range of factual, legal and economic considerations. The Commission is
currently not in possession of evidence suggesting that the Windows 8 security
requirements would result in practices in violation of EU competition rules as
laid down in Articles 101 and 102 TFEU. In particular, on the basis of the
information currently available to the Commission it appears that the OEMs can
decide to give the end users the option to disable the UEFI secure boot.
>The Commission will however continue to monitor the market developments so as
to ensure that competition and a level playing field are preserved amongst all
market players.
From
[http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getAllAnswers.do?referen...](http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getAllAnswers.do?reference=E-2012-011084&language=EN)
------
recoiledsnake
>In its 14-page complaint, Hispalinux said Windows 8 contained an "obstruction
mechanism" called UEFI Secure Boot that controls the start-up of the computer
and means users must seek keys from Microsoft to install another operating
system.
Windows 8 contains no such "obstruction mechanism". It will happily boot even
if secure boot is not supported on that machine or if it's disabled. Maybe
they're trying to get some free publicity with misleading hyperbole and FUD on
this as the EU has already knocked down this kind of complaint before.
~~~
benev
I get your point, but I think that it's not quite right. If you get a computer
with Win 8 pre-installed, it won't boot if you turn off Secure Boot. However,
I don't have a Win 8 machine on hand to confirm this.
Of course, if you have the install discs, you could then re-install it with
Secure Boot disabled, but that's a significant extra step (and you can only do
it if your OEM supplied you with the discs).
~~~
recoiledsnake
> If you get a computer with Win 8 pre-installed, it won't boot if you turn
> off Secure Boot.
No, that's not true, it will continue to boot. There's just too much
misleading information being spread.
|
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|
Implementation of Direct Segments on a RISC-V Processor (2018) [pdf] - ingve
https://carrv.github.io/2018/papers/CARRV_2018_paper_4.pdf
======
JoachimS
Very interesting. But I was really surprised that the conclusions didn't
mention any performance results.
The problem description in the abstract states that "Past analysis shows that
big-memory workloads can spend 5%-50%of execution cycles on TLB misses".
I somehow expected that they would have presented some before and after-
performance results. In Conclusion they state that "Our preliminary results
show that the TLB-Miss overheadhas reduced significantly and we plan to do
further analysis onwhere to perform the Direct Segment lookup in hardware to
get thebest performance." So I guess they had a dealine to meet.
------
audunw
Very interesting. I think it would make a lot of sense for RISC-V to try to
innovate on the memory protection and virtual addressing schemes as well.
I found the solution used in the Mill architecture to be very interesting:
[http://millcomputing.com/wiki/Memory](http://millcomputing.com/wiki/Memory)
If you have a 64-bit address space, all processes might as well use the same
virtual address space, since there's still plenty of space for each process,
even with thousands of processes or more. Making the design such that access
protection and translation are parallel paths is also a good idea.
------
gumby
I like risc-V has brought us to the point that you can so easily spin up a
custom processor to try something out!
------
dooglius
Other architectures have solved this problem (excessive TLB misses) by
allowing for larger page sizes than 4KiB. Using larger page sizes seems like a
much superior solution because you can have arbitrary numbers of larger pages
while this only allows for one global segment to be used at a time.
~~~
AboutTheWhisles
Prefetching is another technique. If memory is accessed linearly, the CPU can
prefetch ahead of what is currently being accessed, and that will include the
TLB lookups.
|
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Yasnippet: TextMate snippets for Emacs - pookleblinky
http://code.google.com/p/yasnippet/
======
KirinDave
I use this library and like it. Snippet-like functuonality a one of the things
that got TextMate as much attention as it received.
It's particularly nice when you have Emacs's terrific electric mode on along
with yasnippet working with a relevant set of snippets. Code just magically
Ppesrs in screen, perfectly formatted.
------
grandalf
I have to recommend technomancy's starter kit. I've been using it (and slowly
customizing it to my own needs as I learn emacs) for the past couple of
months.
<http://github.com/technomancy/emacs-starter-kit/tree/master>
Some of the forks include yasnippet as well, which I too use.
------
dagobart
found yasnippet some days back, also that Chrononaut provides snippets
“automatically converted from the TextMate repository” to be used with the
yasnippet.
blogged a tiny howto to get it running. <http://is.gd/ruUx>
------
larrywright
I've been using this in my Emacs setup for a while now. It's really nice, and
works like a charm.
------
JoshRosen
I'm a vim user and I've been using snipMate:
<http://github.com/meese/snipmate.vim/tree/master>
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I've had enough of being a mindless drone. - jpalacio486
I've submitted my application for Winter 08 funding. <p>I am a 21 year old full time college student/full time employee for a Disney contractor doing tape backups for 12 hours a night. After I get off work at 7am I go directly to school. Not fun at all.<p>My partner and I hope that by submitting this application we've entered a rewarding new chapter in our lives.
======
cubicle67
Good on you.
Don't let your future be determined by the success/failure of your
application. Make a decision now to do what needs to be done regardless of
your application's outcome. You need to have the mindset "I'm doing this
anyway, and if I get funding it's a bonus"
Kudos for doing something to escape. Work takes on a different outlook now,
hey?
~~~
jpalacio486
Not only the funding but the contacts and guidance that YC provides is
priceless. If YC accepts us, it will be a very life altering situation.
------
dan97632
So when do you sleep? Don't tell me you don't sleep, we all know that's
impossible for more than a week or so.
------
Ultrapreneur
Like you my partner and I will be submitting our application for the winter 08
funding. We're from Canada, so if selected are looking forward to getting out
of the snow and hacking.
------
jpalacio486
Thanks for the comments guys. And to answer dan97632's question, I get home
about 11AM and go to bed from about 11:30 to 5:00 then I get up and do it all
over again.
------
Tichy
Don't forget to go for your idea anyway in case you are not accepted (or
another, improved idea, whatever).
------
abunz
Awesome dude! Good luck, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to apply as well!
------
raju
Good luck to you!
------
jonathan
Just go get it!
------
catalinist
best of luck ... don't give up.
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Software engineering: UK vs Silicon Valley - rjshade
http://80000hours.org/blog/26-software-engineering-britain-vs-silicon-valley
======
gamechangr
well said.
I'm an american who has been to London maybe twenty times. I have noticed the
difference in pay rate. London has very similar pay rate to places like Austin
or Boulder which are about 30% less in cost of living.
I would guess that Silicon Valley one would make about 25%-40% more than
London for top paying CS jobs with a very similar cost of living
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Sony Pictures Presents: The Propaganda Model [pdf] - cinquemb
http://cryptome.org/2014/12/sony-wurlitzer.pdf
======
matthewwiese
Cryptome contains a lot of interesting information. If you enjoyed the linked
pdf, just navigate to the main site and check out the rest.
------
xnull2guest
I'm not sure that Bill Blunden is writing in a style that will communicate his
point in the most effective way to those who aren't already "in the know", but
it's refreshing to see another broad summary with new citations (Garden Plot
was a new sound bite for me).
------
personZ
Not only does this pdf contain zero information, there is no reason for it to
be in PDF format.
I have to imagine that the few people who voted it up thus far did so while
avoiding actually loading a PDF, but assuming that it has some substance: I
mean...it's a PDF. Surely it must be full of rich graphics and charts, right?
Nope, several paragraphs of text.
~~~
xnull2guest
This is standard for cryptome. Honestly I don't know why they do it that way.
I do not think there is a good reason. It might be because they don't want
content crawled or something (does that reason even make sense - probably
not...)
The PDF however, contains a bunch of information. I would read what it links
to.
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Sex myths without substance: Mislabelling Japan - pjan
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/sex-myths-without-substance-mislabelling-japan-8911325.html
"These stories gain traction because they support a simplistic view of East Asia which is at best patronising and at worst overtly racist [...] The collective obsession with portraying Japan as a nation of tech-obsessed sexual deviants dehumanises its citizens and echoes orientalist attitudes that should be long since dead and buried."
======
mbubb
Glad to see this article.
I found that Guardian article very disturbing and anecdotal. The Vice followup
was worse (at one point characterizing Japanese culture as "South East
Asian").
~~~
pjan
I thought the Guardian article was ok-ish - it was hitting the point, yet
interspersed with anecdotes and definitely clickbait titled.
The worst was BBC's documentary (which I would expect to be of high quality
and standards) that was painting Japanese men as all being part of this in
fact very tiny niche of a niche of virtual-girlfriend-dating otaku from AKB.
As a westerner living in Asia, I must admit that some have quirky habits to my
standards (but then again, which nationality hasn't in the eyes of
foreigners), but the way they are portrayed in media is sensation seeking,
mostly plain wrong, and a caricature akin to "the infantile Africans in Tintin
in the Congo".
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Ask HN: Where can I hire developers for my dinky bootstrapped startup? - j32fun
I'm interested in some ideas, fellow HNers. I run a bootstrapped software business. It's small, but profitable. I want to expand the company, and I see myself (who's technical) as needing some hired help in expanding the codebase with features and maintenance of the code.<p>I've tried the usual routes in finding contractors and interns to see if they would make a good fit into the company. I'd say that I've had 0% chance of success in this.<p>Any suggestions on those who have made a similar journey from a company of 1 person?
======
techjuice
You may have to hire actual employees or highly paid contractors if you want
the best people working for you. Unfortunately, if you are not able to pay
really nice compensation you will get the bottom of the barrel people working
for you. Now that may not be very realistic due to you being bootstrapped so
you only have the following options: Hire an employee, hire better
contractors, change where you are hiring interns from pr bring in a partner
and make them a partner in your company that can help take some of the burden
or outsource.
If you want to outsource, you should insure you test the quality of the work
you get before signing long term contracts.
------
gus_massa
There are official monthly threads for jobs offers and freelance work. You can
try posting there in the correct one:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html)
For the latest post, see
[https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=whoishiring](https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=whoishiring)
~~~
j32fun
Thanks. I never paid attention to the monthly thread (was not in the position
to look for a job). I'll definitely be combing through it.
------
SlowBro
If it’s profitable could you demonstrate your profitability and outlook to
investors so that you could afford better help?
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