News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

anondon

Re:Why many Indian politicians have a criminal record on Tuesday February 07, 2017 @11:49PM (#13595843)
The videos you linked were so hard to watch.

> India is a land of lawlessness and that's a reality.

It's a little more subtle : well connected people to whatever they want and get away with no consequences. People who dare to oppose these powerful people discover the true meaning of hell. It's true practically everywhere in the world including the US.

IMO for all the shit that social networks receive (for good reasons), one of the side effects is that it's a lot easier to share such gross violations of law an example of which are the above videos. In a way social networks give people power.

> in order to justify and perpetuate his own wealth.

Where does he try to do this?

> 1. Introversion

There is an implicit assumption in his definition of an introvert that is introvert == cut off from society. This is just plain wrong. An introvert is a a shy, reticent person and this does not imply that he is cut off from society or does not understand social interactions. I would argue that it's the exact opposite. Introverts understand social relationships and the "real world" very, very well. They just don't actively take part in social interactions much.

> The first is the idea that measurement of things like quality and success can be objective, perfect and fair. These are not objective facts, they are highly contextual and can be manipulated by power struggles, charisma, clever marketing, or outright fraud.

The article is concerned with startups with a very small team working on it. Measurement is easier than in large teams of people. I don't see OP disputing this directly. The question of power struggles, charisma etc does not arise in startups with a small team.

> A second critical assumption being posited in Graham’s essay is that one person’s direct contribution can be disentangled from that of others.

No, it's easier to have a better idea of what people in a small team contribute than in a large team.

> Although he never says this payoff is guaranteed, he doesn’t deny it either

First valid criticism.

> Here is the crux of Graham’s assumption that programmers are the real engine of the value chain. He ignores the fact that without the infrastructure and ancillary components of the business, it isn’t so easy to simply translate that new piece of software into pure profit.

That's exactly what small startups do, where the founders manage everything from code to sales to legal work (in the initial stages of a startup).

> Graham so desperately wants to justify his own wealth as the righteous product of his own personal labor without acknowledging the effects of either luck or power

Uncalled for personal attack, but yes, luck plays a major role.

> “Smallness = Measurement”. Here, he uses the analogy of the “ten best rowers” who, if you take them out of a large system and put them together with a shared goal, will necessarily be superior.

In comparison to large teams, measurement is easier in small teams. Team dynamics are still important, whether the team is small or large.

> It is amazing how well this piece serves as marketing fodder for Graham’s venture capital arm, Y Combinator.

Looking at it from a cynical perspective, yes. Nothing stops people from questioning or rejecting (or dismissing) his work publicly as lots of people on HN and twitter do.

> Libertarianism != Meritocracy

This section has some valid criticisms of libertarianism and PG's implicit bias towards it.

Re:What should you think about when using Facebook? on Friday February 03, 2017 @12:01PM (#13561218)
Facebook provides an option to download an archive of your data, you should have downloaded it before deleting your account. Apart from having all your data, it would have been the final nail in your Facebook coffin. To say the least, the data scared the f*ck out of me : they knew me better than any of my family or friends. The ad tracking data was...bang on target, they had facial recognition data, all the locations I signed in from. I sometimes joke that Fb knows more about people than the Government of the user. It's true!
Re:What should you think about when using Facebook? on Friday February 03, 2017 @11:27AM (#13560917)
Genuine question : do you think a privacy oriented social network where users pay a small annual fee (around $5) would work? Think Whatsapp (use phone number as an id, no native discovery, only connect through phone contacts, encrypted user data only to prevent database leaks from causing damage) + Facebook (feed like feature, share photos, videos, direct messaging, group messaging). No user tracking, no ads, just a no bullshit social network where the average Joe would feel right at home and also one which the HN crowd would use, assuming social networks have a place in their lives.
Re:What should you think about when using Facebook? on Friday February 03, 2017 @11:17AM (#13560827)
You are not missing out on much.

The only productive use of Facebook is to keep in touch with people. If you do this using alternative methods (Whatsapp, email or direct phone calls) then you save yourself from the continuous stream of garbage that is the news feed.

Regarding gitlab, they have decided against moving to bare metal for now. (Can't find the HN comment from the gitlab ceo to link here)
Re:6.S191: Introduction to Deep Learning on Wednesday February 01, 2017 @11:15AM (#13541893)
If a story was posted earlier and got significant attention (comments and upvotes) and the same story is posted again, it would be considered a duplicate or [dupe] the second time around. The timeframe to repost a story that got significant attention is one year i.e you can repost a story one year after it got significant attention and it won't be considered a dupe.
Re:6.S191: Introduction to Deep Learning on Wednesday February 01, 2017 @11:09AM (#13541821)
That story had no comments, so this would not be considered a duplicate.
> It's very disappointing to see the level of vitriol directed towards people who are just trying to build a better life in this country, especially here on HN.

This line along with the rest of the comment is completely written out of context. I have no idea how your reply is relevant.

I get the impression that this new bill is like putting lipstick on a pig which is the current system. I was hoping the amendments to the H1-B bill would be one of the silver linings of a Trump presidency, but I guess not anymore.
> Based on Telegram app, most secured and fastest messenger in the world.

Red flag right there.

Maybe stop spamming?
(Serious question) Where do you hang out to come across such sites? IRC channels, specific onion sites?
The way Signal handles key changes is a not very user friendly for non-tech users. When the user's key changes, Signal does not automatically resend dropped messages like Whatsapp does. Curious whether the Signal users in the Government are aware of this.
Re:Ask HN: Where do you get your news from? on Friday January 27, 2017 @10:40AM (#13500391)
Avoid getting your news from a single source.

Some ideas:

* Don't use social media as a source.

* Don't use social media as a source.

* Google news - aggregates news from a variety of reputable sources

* Washington Post

* NYT

* Russia Today, Al Jazeera, BBC, Chinese news outlets : Hear me out, you have to know how people in different countries think about world events

* Reddit

* Hackernews

* Pinboard on Twitter is a good source :)

When you have different perspectives on the same topic, you will be in a better position to have a less biased view on world events.

Having done this for some time, I can say it's also fun (and scary) to watch how news outlets are so biased in their reporting.

Re:Dutch secret service tries to recruit Tor-admin on Thursday January 26, 2017 @07:03AM (#13490638)
Something very similar happens in the movie The Recruit. Must watch for hackers.

I hope the authorities don't go after him for making this public though.

I don't know what it would take for Governments around the world to acknowledge the importance of encryption and anonymity tools. Access to private data cuts both ways, if the Government can do it so can the black hats. Maybe a large scale hack of Government networks devastating the economy will bring them to their senses.

Given the allegations of Russia's involvement in the recent election, whether true or not, I was expecting Governments around the world to think deeply about cyber security issues. Looks like that won't happen anytime soon.

Genuinely curious if anyone here experienced something similar (being asked to unlock all your devices) and if so how often?
Re:Don't Be a Free User (2011) on Saturday January 21, 2017 @09:42AM (#13450194)
> more like a big ad for YC

That is dumbing HN down a lot. This community is much more than that: hackers share cool articles, have vibrant discussions and the comments section is probably the least toxic of all comments sections. YC related posts are very popular and YC itself is promoted heavily, but the community is much more than just YC.

Re:Don't Be a Free User (2011) on Saturday January 21, 2017 @09:18AM (#13450097)
The term "free software" is used rather ambiguously in the article. The free software that is referred to in the article is free as in beer. The more commonly used meaning of the word (among hackers) implies free as in freedom. If you want to learn more refer here https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html
Re:Where have I been these past few years? on Sunday January 15, 2017 @08:35AM (#13403889)
Offer her an interview!
Cool stuff man, love the youtube videos.
Re:Unsecured MongoDBs taken hostage on Wednesday January 04, 2017 @05:55AM (#13317166)
Look at the btc address history: https://bitref.com/13zaxGVjj9MNc2jyvDRhLyYpkCh323MsMq

Looks like the guy pulled off these blackmailing/hostage tricks before as well.

Not to pile on to the already tense situation, would you be open to sharing how this happened, what the database contained etc, sort of like a post mortem without revealing any personally identifiable info.

Ask HN: How much traffic does your tech related blog get?

For those who have a personal blog related to tech, how much traffic does it receive per month?If you have any stats related to your to the traffic patterns of your blog, feel free to share.How much traffic does your blog receive when it makes the front page of HN?How much traffic does your blog receive when it receives substantial attention on one the tech/programming related subreddits?How...

( Read More... | no comments | 2 points | on HN )
Re:Gitea – A community-managed fork of Gogs on Monday January 02, 2017 @12:57AM (#13299363)
My major issue with Gogs and Gitea is that they lack a cache to store the git history/log. So if you work with repos that have many commits (example, the git repo itself or the linux kernel repo), you will forever be waiting for the commit message for each file to load because Gogs/Gitea scans the entire git log for each file.

This was an issue when I tested Gogs a few months and I don't see any mention of a cache so I think it's still an issue.

For smaller repos though, Gogs works incredibly well.

Regarding this fork, it makes sense if the owner of gogs is not giving write access to others. At the same time it would be a shame if Gitea becomes popular and overshadows Gogs. I hope they can work out a mutually acceptable solution and merge.

Re:In 2017, learn every language on Saturday December 31, 2016 @12:27PM (#13291993)
The problem with learning numerous programming languages with the implicit hope of learning about various programming pradigms is that it's not a focussed approach. Instead explicitly set out to learn different programming paradigms and hopefully avoid languages which have an overlap of programming paradigms.

So instead of "In 2017, learn every language" I would say "In 2017, learn every programming paradigm".

Ask HN: How would one build a business that only develops free software?

So I was reading Richard Stallman's blog on why you should not use google/uber/apple/twitter etc and I understand his reasoning. But what I don't understand is how would one go about building a startup or business that develops and distributes free software only and make good money doing so?For example, would it be possible to build a free software version of uber/twitter/facebook etc? How...

( Read More... | 6 comments | 12 points | on HN )
Re:Kalzumeus Software Year in Review 2016 on Friday December 30, 2016 @11:41PM (#13289525)
Why not?
Re:Science Increasingly Makes the Case for God (2014) on Friday December 30, 2016 @11:16PM (#13289434)
Click on the "web" link at the top of the page which takes you to a google search. Then click on the link to the article.

If google is the referrer, the wsj lets you read the article.

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