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bootloadon How the CIA Forgot the Art of Spying

"The new kind of spying, the kind my colleague was jumping into, was done by officers based in military compounds, only able to leave with a Glock on the hip, in armoured personnel carriers, guarded by armed men and women in uniforms with the American flag sewn on the arm."

Forget the scenario, it's worse than that. The biggest failure of the CIA, replacing seasoned field-officers with desk jockey Analysts and ^zero fieldcraft^. [0] Fieldcraft was a casualty post-911. [1]

[0] Bob Baer, "Dagger to the CIA" ~ http://www.gq.com/story/dagger-to-the-cia

[1] Bob Baer, “The place is broken” ~ http://www.salon.com/2004/05/12/baer_2/

bootloadon Why the 1930s were a golden age for chocolate (1996)

"My passion for chocolate did not really begin until I was fourteen or fifteen years old..."

Bit of a background. Dahl going to school in the 30's got the chance to taste all these chocolates (Sweets/lollies) as a tester for Cadbury resulting in a sweet tooth. [0] These stories are told in "Boy" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory".

Interesting facts: Dahl got the cane for putting a dead mouse in a jar of gobstoppers while at Cathedral School, Llandaff. Credited with creating the word, ^Gremlin^. [1] Dahl collected the silver foil wrappers of chocolate he had for lunch, rolled them into a ball [2] that sat on his desk, the writing shed at Gypsy House. Sharpened pencils at the side, board across his knees and feet on his mothers old suitcase. [3]

Nowhere in the article is the a ^reason^ why Cadbury developed so many classics in this period. There seems to be a fair bit of innovation working out how to get Cadbury chocolates lighter, and no Thatcher didn't have a hand in this. [4]

Reference

[0] https://www.roalddahl.com/roald-dahl/archive/archive-highlig...

[1] You can hear Dahl talk about the mouse, the thrashing he got, gremlins and chocolates ~ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p040dzz0

[2] https://www.roalddahl.com/roald-dahl/archive/archive-highlig...

[3] https://www.roalddahl.com/roald-dahl/archive/search-the-data...

[4] https://www.theguardian.com/politics/reality-check/2013/apr/...

bootloadon The Head Of Uber's AI Labs Is Latest To Leave The Company

confirmation: https://www.facebook.com/gary.f.marcus/posts/101551485602847...

bootloadon White House Echoes Tech: ‘Move Fast and Break Things’

"Political Detox Week had nothing to do with any of this. Leave Dan and Scott out of it. I was as hopeful about that experiment as they were."

While I agree with the sentiment, the irony of being told to pipe down, discussing a contentious issue related to YC/Whitehouse is not lost on me.

bootloadon White House Echoes Tech: ‘Move Fast and Break Things’

"I cannot fathom how Sam Altman thought that it would be a good idea to be a source for this article, let alone provide the specific quotes that he did. How does YC benefit from this?"

@tptacek follow the money. The key to understanding this [0] is the YC relationship with Thiel. It has long been my opinion that Thiel is a protected species with YC. It was obvious almost 100 days ago on ^Political Detox^ day. (message to HN, 'don't make waves for us when Thiel is meeting president) [1] A key test: Positive political stories like this one are supported, negative ones flagged.

Reference

[0] "Y Combinator has no problem with partner Peter Thiel funding Donald Trump" https://qz.com/810778/y-combinator-has-no-problem-with-partn...

[1] "Tell HN: Political Detox Week – No politics on HN for one week" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13108404

bootloadon Startup School – YC’s Online Class

"30-40% of these will be recorded advice sessions with startups—we’ve always heard from entrepreneurs that this is some of our most helpful content."

Excellent. Learning online is best served by using video. Following the model of getting the best on tape, distributing to a mass audience. cf: MIT online 6.001 lectures. I'm thinking the Hal Abelson lectures from '85)

"We’ll have an online community via Slack and email where you can connect with other entrepreneurs in the class."

Expedience. Not a fan of slack. Is a YC discussion/mooc platform being planned?

"4) At the end of the class, participants will have a chance to share what they’ve built with a wide audience."

How is this happening? Slack?

bootloadon Nissan driverless car guilty of “close pass” overtake of UK cyclist

"The "dutch reach" (opening the door with your other hand which automatically makes you look over your shoulder) is unfortunately not commonly taught in driving schools."

Excellent idea, going to use that one.

bootloadon Cult of the Founder

"The cult of the founder came from a good place-- many VCs did overreach in the late 1990s and treated founders like shit. Mark Zuckerberg has proven that a 21-year-old kid doesn’t need a grown up CEO to run his company. But that doesn’t mean that founders are gods who should never be challenged."

Great observation and even-handed. Founders are inexperienced and need a lot of guidance to over-come their deficiencies. This comes with time and prudent advice. That is if founders are capable of taking it.

bootloadon Measuring how deadly our daily activities are

" crashing a car into a kangaroo is not considered a kangaroo-related death"

Roo ran into me. Ran up an embankment. I've been in other situations where the kangaroos (multiple) are window level travelling along roads at speed. Chance of kangaroo-related death is there.

bootloadon ‘The American dream is not working out here’

"if you make $1m/yr"

I'm pretty sure you'd be able to live in most large cities like a king for USD1M. What is the traffic and parking like?

bootloadon ‘The American dream is not working out here’

"The cost of housing is a common complaint among Bay Area techies. Engineers can expect, according to one analysis, to pay between 40% and 50% of their salary renting an apartment near work."

This is the core problem.

bootloadon ‘The American dream is not working out here’

"I don't care where you live, you're terrible at managing money."

Not necessarily. Everything in SF/Bay Area will require a compromise. Want to save on real-estate? You will pay in time traveled. Want to save on travel, you pay for somewhere to live. Either way you loose.

For all the hi-tech in these companies the question should be asked, "Why do you have to come to work to do your job?" Is it necessary every day?

bootloadon Measuring how deadly our daily activities are

"Interestingly, kangaroos (approximately 0.1 micromorts) pose a risk of death that is similar to that posed by sharks, but our cute national emblem does not evoke quite the same fear in us."

The fear of running into Kangaroos is real. Hitting an 80kg buck at 70km/hr looks like this:

- https://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/5037959035

- https://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/5037959047

- https://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/5038593608

- https://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/5147428118

bootloadon Revealed: how US billionaire helped to back Brexit

thx @mirimir

bootloadon What Happens to Your Body on a Thru-Hike

thanks for the great reply @hsitz. One thing I did notice that as a fitness marker was the authors heart-rate (BPM). His resting heart rate measured at 48bpm. This is unusual and is in the range of ^endurance athletes^. In fact, soldiers are tested on carefully for this marker. It indicates no matter how fit you may be, resting heart-rate is an indicator of ^endurance^ capability. That resting heart rate means he can push a lot further, longer than most people.

bootloadon Revealed: how US billionaire helped to back Brexit

"The strategy involved harvesting data from people’s Facebook and other social media profiles and then using machine learning to “spread” through their networks."

Never heard this before. Who is ^Cambridge Analytica/SCL?^

bootloadon What Happens to Your Body on a Thru-Hike

btw @hsitz I ask this question not to be rude, but to work out if overconfidence is driving the answer cf: ~ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13620745

bootloadon What Happens to Your Body on a Thru-Hike

"One thing that makes the CT a bit harder is that it lies mostly at altitudes over 10,000 feet, where the air is thinner. Hiking 18 miles/day is quite an effort in any case, "

Altitude would stop a lot of people. How long to acclimatise living at sea level?

bootloadon What Happens to Your Body on a Thru-Hike

"No, although I've done many days of more than 18 miles in the mountains, including 50 mile single-day mountain races."

With a pack? I ask because running over this terrain is hard. Hats off hard. But with a pack, things are different. You don't move as fast. Thanks @hsitz for the video.

"Most hikers carry only enough food for 3 to 5 days at a time, and resupply along the way"

Unsupported. I did't see if the original was unsupported - can't imagine carrying 30 days food. Even the PR1M I've used is pretty heavy. [0] Possible but you'd strip out all but the useful food. With re-supplies, do they have access to water?

"lower level of intensity."

Totally agree with this. Still hard yards.

Reference

[0] https://flickr.com/photos/bootload/4549780731

bootloadon What Happens to Your Body on a Thru-Hike

" 8 hours a day, averaging 18 miles per day for 486 miles over 29 days is not that much."

Have you done this?

bootloadon What Happens to Your Body on a Thru-Hike

"My target time would be around 9 days. If you're trying to gauge how strenuous the types of effort I put forth when I go and do the things I do."

These are good points. The distance this bloke covered was 800km. Every day another 30km. That is hard.

bootloadon What Happens to Your Body on a Thru-Hike

"have you ever raced mountain bikes?"

No. I think the OP was referring to road racing. One question, "do you carry the bikes uphill?"

bootloadon What Happens to Your Body on a Thru-Hike

5. Uphill.

6. Repeat.

bootloadon Weaponizing PostScript

thank you @DonHopkins I'll be reading this with great interest. ... going through this, fantastic.

bootloadon What Happens to Your Body on a Thru-Hike

"One thing that stuck out with me is that they only hiked for 8 hours/day. That seems like a light day! compared to these races,"

Really. Carrying a 20kg pack for eight hours over rough terrain is less strenuous than bike riding? Do this for over 500 miles? Ever done this before? Hike on foot with 20kg packs on consecutive days? Make camp, make food, rest, break camp. Everything on your back. This is a lot more strenuous than you think. Hands down racing on a bike is much easier ^physically^ than hiking on foot carrying weight over broken terrain over long distances.

bootloadon Weaponizing PostScript

and here's some more:

- Open Source PDF Libraries and Tools http://pdf-house.blogspot.com.au

- gnu plot http://gnuplot.sourceforge.net/demo/index.html (https://opensourceforu.com/2011/01/plotting-is-fun-with-gnup...)

- Postscript software https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PDF_software

- Ghostscript https://www.ghostscript.com/index.html

- Adobe OS tools https://github.com/adobe/adobe.github.com

- xpost interpreter for the PostScript Language https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/xpost-discuss / https://github.com/luser-dr00g/xpost

bootloadon Weaponizing PostScript

ok here's a quick dump:

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PostScript

- language reference Adobe V3 https://www.adobe.com/products/postscript/pdfs/PLRM.pdf

- postscript as programming language http://www.ugrad.math.ubc.ca/Flat/lang.html

- First guide to Postscript http://tailrecursive.org/postscript/postscript.html

- L-systems in Postscript http://www.cs.unh.edu/~charpov/programming-lsystems.html

- The PostScript programming language http://www.cburch.com/csbsju/cs/portfolio/postscript.pdf

- Postscript Tutorial and Cookbook https://www-cdf.fnal.gov/offline/PostScript/BLUEBOOK.PDF

- PDF vs Postscript https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/kssyt/postscri...

- Learn Postscript by Doing https://staff.science.uva.nl/a.j.p.heck/Courses/Mastercourse...

bootloadon Weaponizing PostScript

Any references to best coding practice for PS? For example is there a PS lint? (will start hunting for this)

update 1: latex http://www.latex-project.org and http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/12668/where-do-i-star...

update 0: so open tools for postscript appear to be really interfacing AGPL ghostscript (postscript) api if you can handle the ^agpl^ restrictions ~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostscript

bootloadon Show HN: Booknshelf – Discover great books on different topics

Passes a basic test for me. Search for a computer language and get back a good book: https://booknshelf.com/books/search?q=haskell Worked for Eric Carle: https://booknshelf.com/books/search?q=eric+carle not enough Asimov: https://booknshelf.com/books/search?q=azimov

bootloadon Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders? (2013)

"confidence and competence."

There is an overlap of confidence and competence. For instance I'd rather be in a situation where a leader is projecting confidence because they've encountered a situation before. One way to evaluate this is asking yourself, "have they done this before?". [0] That question breaks down when novel situations arise. This is where relevant experience matters. Sometimes though, you may have to "fake" your way to allow a team to succeed in a difficult situation.

This is why I believe that good leaders will be competent in their area of expertise, recognise when they are not and be open to alternatives. This isn't confidence. This is belief in oneself, team and leadership to succeed. Belief and competence is a better description of leadership.

Reference

[0] "The curse of confidence" ~ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13620745