Hacker News Reader

Sarkion DR Congo measles: More than 6k dead in world's worst outbreak

Nope, you misread me, I clearly stated the term "irrationality".

I consider myself as educated, though having your own kids and being responsible for their life and well-being is what makes you doubt vaccines, especially when you read about people developing multiple sclerosis or other neurodegenerative symptoms following a vaccination.

Sarkion DR Congo measles: More than 6k dead in world's worst outbreak

This mostly comes down to the irrationality regarding risks when you're having kids.

Out of my own experience, and given the worst cases scenarios you hear from it's difficult not to fear for your loved ones (and I mean you literally feel it in your loins) especially when YOUR decision can have even the slightest chance of ruining their lives. -- Edit: Please don't get me wrong, I have kids, and their vaccines are up to date (like mine). A chat with an hospital pediatrist can help, for me it's when he clearly explained that without vaccines a kid can be gone within 2 hours. And virtually it's as narrow minded as refusing to take antibiotics.

Sarkion The 16-inch MacBook Pro is a repudiation of the ‘Ive Doctrine’

That's the reason why there was a USB port on each side of the original Apple keyboard (not the wireless one of course). These ports (on the back) are most likely located there with the idea of having a device pluggued in for good and not moved so often.

Sarkion Programmers can’t write algorithms without help

I agree, what's more important IMHO is education/knowledge of existing data manipulation, after all 99% of the work is reuse not pure creation (incremental vs pure innovation).

Algorithmicians (? - well... algorithm researchers, obviously) and programmers are not working in the same field of work, even though the boundary might seem thin for most, there's a world between both.

Must all painters be artists?

Sarkion The Day “/Proc” Died

And that's why you must monitor your servers health. You know, for when they're starting to act funny.

I'm not related in any way with them but as a personnal favorite (I even use it at home) I'd recommend Zabbix as it's open source and quite straighforward to install and deploy its agents, once configured you can even forget about it.

Gosh, its default alerts will give you hints on things you never considered checking before while the integration of new/bespoke software can be done in a matter of minutes.

Sarkion Show HN: Create dynamic comparison matrices for your wesbite without coding

Hello HN,

Founder and main developer here.

Archyn allows to build comparison matrices were any change on an Element is seamlessly cascaded everywhere without hassle.

I've built this because I wanted to have a smart comparison matrix generator without spending too much time on the logic and necessary orchestration.

For the record, all the examples you see in the landing page where built using this generator.

Basically to make your own Matrix you need to:

- Declare the Elements and Groups you'd like to compare,

- Create Qualifers and Affinities to link them (thing 1 "likes" thing 2),

- Create a Matrix and select which Elements or Groups you want to compare,

- Publish your Matrix and copy/paste its proposed code,

- Voilà!

Once done, your Matrix becomes live: any change to its Elements or Affinities will be cascaded down to it automatically.

Some sample data is already loaded when you sign-up so that you can play around to give you an idea about the concept.

Don't hesitate to give the free version a run, it's ad free with no time limit, and any thing you do remains private in your own Workspace (no sharing).

Also with any paid version you get the possibility to publicize your matrices so that you can embed them in your own website as well as an access to the JSON API for more complex scenarios.

AMA, suggestions and critics are welcome.

Sarkion Show HN: Define links between concepts then build comparison matrices on the fly

Hi HN,

Founder and main developer here.

I've built this because I wanted to have a smart comparison matrix generator without spending a minute on the logic and necessary orchestration.

For the record, the examples you see in the landing page where built using this generator.

Basically to make your own Matrix you need to:

- Declare the Elements and Groups you'd like to compare,

- Create Qualifers and Affinities to link them (thing 1 "likes" thing 2),

- Create a Matrix and select which Elements or Groups you want to compare,

- Voilà!

Once done, your Matrix becomes live: any change to its Elements or Affinities will be cascaded down to it automatically.

Some sample data is already loaded when you sign-up so that you can play around to give you some idea on the concept.

Don't hesitate to give the free version a run, it's ad free with no time limit, and any thing you do remains private in your own Workspace (no sharing).

With any paid version you get the possibility to publicize your matrices so that you can embed them in your own website.

AMA, suggestions and critics are welcome.

Sarkion The Elites of Pueblo Bonito (2018)

They most likely used quipu for this I think. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quipu

Sarkion Don't deploy on Friday and 3 other unwritten rules of software engineering

Point "2. Maintain regular backups." should rather be "2. Maintain regular backups and validate your restoration process."

How painful it can be when you realize that your backup process was wrong from the beginning and you're left with a useless gigabytes sized blob when in need to restore your DB...

Sarkion Science confirms it: People are not pets

Yeah, well thanks for stating the obvious...

When you have kids you come very quickly to the realization that rewards aren't a mean to efficiently motivate. However intrisic motivation is exaclty this: intrinsic.

So what? Unless you can do Inception in your kids dreams to push them to realise that what you ask them is not what you want but what's actually good for them, you're bond to use rewards because that's the only thing that actually works.

Intrinsic motivation comes from the realization that you must do something for good (your own or others, but in the end it's only for you... but that's another ethical topic).

Sarkion Are Black Holes Actually Dark Energy Stars?

That's what is explained in the Janus model, both universes coexist in the same space and are rejecting each other through gravity, matter "won" over antimatter only by a tiny bit but sufficient to allow large portions of matter to remain. Though the appearance of both at the early times of the universe was in beyond colossal amounts, both being annihilated by each other when they met.

edit: typos

Sarkion Are Black Holes Actually Dark Energy Stars?

Thanks for the clarification, perhaps I was misleading, the point being that black holes have been deduced by mathematical interpretation, not observation of a phenomenon and today as per your own example we're still trying to find proof of their existence.

On the other hand, based on my understanding of the Janus model as I said in my first comment, the location of the seemingly void places are actually explained by the concentration of antimatter, which repulses matter through gravity. A possibly wrong summary of what I'm visibly struggling to communicate: This model explains how on the same way matter concentration attracts matter and rejects anti-matter, antimatter concentration attract antimatter and rejects matter.

Sarkion Are Black Holes Actually Dark Energy Stars?

Actually, as far as I get it, black holes just don't exist: it's a journalist term coined for a mathematical concept. In short a black hole is how we call the possible existence of a place in the universe where there is no time nor energy, but it's no more than a mathematical possibility in the end as these are common variables in astrophysics.

Sarkion Are Black Holes Actually Dark Energy Stars?

On another note a theory which seems to fit particularly well is called Janus. The concept lies in the existence of a twin universe (ours being matter based the twin being antimatter based) merged together where the black holes are basically where the antimatter is concentrated and thus repulses all the matter hence this seemingly void. This is a succint summary but I hope it makes sense to the more knowledgeable readers of HN.

Sarkion Florida man jailed for failing to unlock his phone

"Florida man"... Has Gizmodo changed into the Onion or Reddit now?

Sarkion Nasa to test ‘quiet’ supersonic flights over Texas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetohydrodynamics

But yeah, it's a breakthrough...

Oh look https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetohydrodynamic_drive

No one mentions as well that the optimum form factor for such a technology consists in two round plates facing each other (wink-wink).

Sarkion JSON-Based Universal Messaging Format (2017)

Relevant comment by Linus Torvalds on standards: "I've said this before, and I'll say it again: a standards paper is just so much toilet paper when it conflicts with reality. It has absolutely _zero_ relevance. In fact, I'll take real toilet paper over standards any day, because at least that way I won't have splinters and ink up my arse." http://www.yodaiken.com/2018/06/07/torvalds-on-aliasing/

Sarkion From Microsoft to Apple, and Back Again

So, another ad-financed blog post, right?

Also the following is ridiculous: "It's also obvious why it makes no sense to ask "Why don't you ditch Windows and install Linux on it?". Because no Linux distro has Pen support, whatsoever. The performance base also has a physical key that you need to press in order for the hinge to release the display."

Wacom has been developing Kernel modules FOR YEARS. I've personally been using a Samsung XE700T1C for 4 years with full pen support without any problem.

I've even been surprised to see Ubuntu 17.10 supporting automated screen rotation, on-screen keyboard pop-up out of the box.

Sarkion Ask HN: Product Managers, how did you get there and what's your background?

Glad to see that my understanding was correct, also congratulations on the new role :)

If I may give you one huge hint on your product's SWOT at least functionally speaking and especially in a global market: Ask your delivery teams, basically they're your eyes and ears on the harsh reality of the trenches.

After being a Product Owner I became a Global Delivery Consultant, and you can't imagine how much insight you get from the guys if you find the right mean.

Personally the best approach I took was a give and take quarterly worldwide meeting with the delivery experts and their top management to list the good the bad and the ugly from their own perspective (in any aspect of the product) while product management was providing insights on what was coming and a light update on the looks of the ongoing development schedule.

I can guarantee you that 3 Regional Delivery Heads telling you that feature XXX must be reworked is invaluable info and something you can't get from sales, support teams or even your own feeling. Added bonus: They will provide you with realistic business scenarios and expected behaviors and would be interested in taking part of the validation process for you.

Likewise, delivery guys will be more relaxed as they will be aware of the development fitness ahead of the official schedule and therefore won't sale features at risk (they're in projects all the time, they have to deal with the unexpected on a daily basis).

Because Delivery Teams are the closest to the product they are the first ones to proof it, support it and also bridge all the gaps for your customers. The rest is only paperwork and planning.

Sarkion Ask HN: Product Managers, how did you get there and what's your background?

Junior positions I think not, especially as a Product Manager (well depending the size of your structure) is supposed to have lots of contacts, all the time, even when he's overloaded with tasks.

I know I wasn't in the same role, just mentionning what I witnessed regarding Product Managers where I worked in the past.. Having been a Product Owner for a couple of years in a 10k+ employees international company, just to name a few guys you need to meet regularly for the sake of your product, from makers to users :

Developpers teams, QA teams, Product Support Teams, Marketing teams, Finance teams, Sales teams (Global, Regional), Delivery teams (Global, Regional), Training teams (See a trend here?), Customers (from time to time, not counting support escalations).

Out of these exchanges you get your product needs and issues which you need to rationalise, plan and translate into features and fixes, plan a macro and micro roadmap including slightly-expected hotfixes, service packs, long term roadmap (to give your customers a sense of what's coming - up to 5y forecast sometimes), adding also various compliance rules on top of this (depending the market) and a frosting made of turn over rates plus international culture complexity.

Of course what I'm mentionning is not the whole world, but as far as I can tell it's a good picture of what you can expect from someone doing decent international product management.

Therefore, a junior Product Manager would be pretty much difficult to pull, unless you're hiring people who had the opportunity to cross the intellectual and business bridges (consumer/producer/user/support) a couple of times in their carreer (imagine yourself drafting your new product roadmap while travelling a plane to show up on site on a Friday in a customer's office to defend your product against a missing/crippling feature and try to propose a mitigation plan with the help of the local delivery team).

A Product Manager is in a sense a one man band, half Project Manager, half Architect, Salesman, Support Manager, Training manager, end user, customer, etc.

So, Junior without someone to back you up, I don't think so. Junior without having some experience of the Trenches, hardly, as you can easily be reckless toward the teams mentionned above and also miss some red flags ("ivory tower" syndrome).

If you find such an opportunity, be wary on the context and the expected work. This role can be more stressing and alienating than being a Project Manager because you are supposed to represent a Product in any aspect of it.

Sarkion One Man’s Quest to Hack His Own Genes

First of all, I'm not a biologist but a software consultant and have worked in several software companies as level 3 support.

My personal experience on tiny and sometimes unrelated changes having a catastrophic impact: software configuration changes, new hardware, other softwares bug, antivirus rules and updates, etc.

These points can be roughly related to a living being: psychological/environmental/habit changes, transplant/implant, organ failure/traumatism, immune system false positive (e.g. alergies?), ...

I'm not against the idea gene manipulation, just saying that his doings are very marginal and must not be praised.

If labs have been relying on white mice and drosophilae it's for some good reasons:

Common sense (how many people died because of charlatanism?), ethics and Human Rights.

What is at stakes here can lead either to a nobel price (I sincerely hope for him) or a darwin award (thanks to the ignorance of such red flags).

Sarkion One Man’s Quest to Hack His Own Genes

Am I the only one to foresee that such changes can do way more harm than good?

As comments went on a previous post on a similar topic: Genetic changes are a lot like assembler software changes.

The best part? In living things there's very little documentation, based on "poor" reverse engineering (as we know little about it).

Sarkion A Visa for founders, engineers and investors willing to join France

To summarize: It depends where you'll end up and which tech area you're specialized in. Paris is often a good spot, south east as well (Monaco, Cannes, Nice) if you're specialized in hardware. Regarding the south-east part, english might not be too much of a problem since international tourism is a big part of the local economy, I even heard that Google used to look for a spot there until some local political figure blew it up due to personal interests conflicts. Also for the record, Paul Allen's yacht is frequently seen cruising around when it's time for the Cannes festival.

Sarkion Diesel cars produce more toxic emissions than trucks and buses, EU study says

It depends on many aspects (car usage, quality, etc.) I recently bought a used diesel car (10 years old, 150k KM), the DPF was almost dead. Needless to say that is wasn't a pleasant surprise... Edit: Also the DPF is not the catalytic converter, these are two different elements.

Sarkion Diesel cars produce more toxic emissions than trucks and buses, EU study says

Except that it's forbidden in most European countries to remove it (full disclosure: I recently had to replace the it on my own car). Indeed the fine for driving without is expectedly way higher than changing the part itself. e.g. In France the replacement shall cost roughly 2500 €, the fine for driving without the part is 7500€. (source https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichCode.do;jsessionid=7563...)

Sarkion How One Goldman Sachs Trader Made More Than $100M

"The gains were the work of Tom Malafronte, a managing director on the bank’s high-yield-bond desk in New York."

A "Managing Director" so I'm pretty certain that he didn't do it himself, his team(s) did. Frankly annoyed by this recurrent praise for management people, at this level such a guy never dips a toe in the trenches.

Sarkion Flying Aquila: Early lessons from the first full-scale test flight

So this plane is supposed to fly continuously without landing gear? I hope they considered poor flying conditions lasting for weeks in their model, things like heavy rain for a couple of weeks or even hurricanes. Sometimes there's a good reason why the Internet is not yet available somewhere.

Sarkion LzLabs launches product to move mainframe COBOL code to Linux cloud

Having watched the video this seems like something one could achieve with GNUCobol, mainframe modules ported to the hardware of your choice and using some frosting made of nodejs/<insert hype web tech>. Why don't I feel enthusiastic?

Sarkion Reimagining the future of routers

Also think about sub networks: your entry point being in IPv6 while the rest remains in IPv4.

Even though the use of hostnames is convenient (and encouraged in IPv6) it's already a headache for knowledgeable people to set up, so imagine non tech guys (you're father or your grandma).

Unless we come up with a simple and easy process for this we're still miles away from a full IPv6 world...

Sarkion Snowden Tried to Tell NSA About Surveillance Concerns, Documents Reveal

I'd say this is valid for anyone, unfortunately...