spenvo

I had the opposite experience (illustrating that our stories are just anecdotal), but I don't blame Product Hunt at all -- I was grateful for the chance to be featured on their main page. My Show HN brought ~6K visitors in the first two days where my PH post brought <1K. I didn't know anyone, just emailed their team and... added PH to the extension (no one asked me to, just thought it'd be cool).

[1] Show HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9992735 [2] PH: https://www.producthunt.com/tech/kiwi-conversations

Admittedly, it was a bit humbling to see a cat "meow" soundboard quickly surpass my project on PH -- but like I said, no regrets.

Written as Google eases its stance on operating in China [1],[2].

It's not ok when fear erodes our values, but, by the same token: it's not ok for profit/growth-potential to erode our values.

"That is why it’s so disheartening to see the intolerant discourse playing out in the news these days — statements that our country would be a better place without the voices, ideas and the contributions of certain groups of people, based solely on where they come from, or their religion."

^^ China's "toleration" of Tibetan monks, the truth (just Baidu 'Tianamen Square' (from a Chinese IP)), and basic encryption/privacy [3], etc manifests in ways that land countless people in political prison or worse - and should inform Pichai's stance on (not) working with that government.

Google is the flag-bearer when it comes to keeping the web (and information at large) open and accessible: let's hope it doesn't cave for a third of the world's population. We'll see in 2016.

[1] - http://www.forbes.com/sites/miguelhelft/2015/02/26/exclusive... [2] - http://www.reuters.com/article/us-alphabet-china-idUSKCN0T91... [3] - http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/24/business/international/chi...

"Bill Whitaker: I'm sure there are some who would be watching this and would say, 'Heroin addicts are junkies and they brought this on themselves, so why should we care?'

Tracy Morrison [nurse of 30 years, parent of two relapsing addicts]: 'Because we don't throw diabetics who sit on the couch eating Bon Bons and smoke and they weigh 300 pounds in prison. We don't belittle them, and there's not a big stigma. We don't do that to people that chain smoke and develop lung cancer. [Heroin addiction is] a chronic relapsing brain disease, period, amen, end of story, and we need to accept it-- even if it makes people uncomfortable. And if people don't like that, I'm sorry.'"

There's a perception problem in the USA -- where society seems content with only keeping problems "out of sight, out of mind" - that leads to less focus on rehabilitation.

I haven't had too many personal run-ins with drugs -- but opiates in prescription pill form were prevalent at my high school (between 2000-2004). Just last year though, out of nowhere, one of my best friends let his family and close buds know that he had become addicted to heroin. It had started with prescription pain killers.

One hypocrisy is that while the TPP aspires to more-perfect law enforcement around copyright infringement (to be a shared responsibility between member nations[1]), imperfect copyright enforcement has played a role in the success of some products of the (now incumbent) companies. Most recently, in Facebook's rise to compete against YouTube, "freebooting", a practice whereby random Pages steal YouTube content without attribution, has been a major issue that is only being addressed after critical popularity has been achieved in Facebook video numbers. [2]

[1] - http://thenextweb.com/insider/2015/10/09/leaked-tpp-agreemen...

[2] - http://www.theverge.com/2015/8/7/9114149/facebook-freebootin...

> I hope Google can expand it

A few days ago I remarked on Twitter: "sad that Contributor, a great alternative to ads/tracking, is owned & marketed by Google, which has more to lose than gain from promoting it"[0]

The idea behind Contributor is a powerful one: one that if aggressively marketed and expanded, could (at least conceivably) provide a viable hybrid model for online content publishing (that could coexist with ad-tech).

But Google is a one-trick pony (with ads, obviously) and has everything at stake here. That makes Contributor feel like more of a defensive "moat" initiative -- there to passively discourage others from pursuing (or investing in) similar ideas. Maybe I'm being too cynical. I too am happily subscribed to Contributor--the most dramatic difference is The Next Web -- where the crazy canvas-flying ads are toggled off.

[0] - https://twitter.com/spencenow/status/646480765794975744

The "emissions cheat" in question altered the output of the car when it was being tested. So, they were testing the emissions that came out of the car.

"EPA regulators said that Volkswagen adopted a 'sophisticated' algorithm that turned on vehicles' full emissions controls when it detected they were being tested for emissions performance." - http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2015/09/18/epa-accu...

3 days later: I have responded with an update to the extension that addresses the privacy concerns here. Whitelists have been implemented, privacy defaults have changed to start with Research Mode 'off', and commenter/Houshalter's problems were fixed. Now Kiwi can fetch Reddit posts that have been hidden by moderators. Full changelog report here: http://www.metafruit.com/kiwi/changelog/2015/08/06/kiwi-conv...

These links turned out to be extremely valuable feedback. Reddit's response is formed differently for them (as opposed to what it gives 95% of the time). I'll have an update very soon. [Update: new version has pushed to Chrome -- Kiwi should be processing all Reddit results now. Firefox update will be pushed tonight.]

Thanks. Maybe reddit's API filters out some results that have zero comments. I looked for an attribute in their API that would ask for all results but couldn't find anything. Also - I'd like to inspect Reddit Check's code but can't find an open-source repo https://www.reddit.com/dev/api#GET_search

Terrific comment, thank you. First, I've un-minified the Chrome extension code (only added 2kb in size), and it will remain that way going forward. It will take up to an hour for it to propagate to the Chrome Web Store, but the Firefox extension code is un-minified currently : https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/kiwi-conversa... (thanks to their review process, which requires it not be minified). The Chrome code is also available on Github : https://github.com/sdailey/kiwi

As for the results vs Reddit check -- maybe Reddit check uses a home-rolled API that crawls more frequently than Reddit's official API? Could you either tweet me the specific links or reply to this comment?

I agree and will say that I'm as pleasantly surprised by the review process Mozilla has for its add-ons -- as I am dismayed that Chrome has no equivalent process. I'm in-queue of the Firefox review (takes on average 10 days) and have exchanged emails with their volunteer-team on best practices to adopt.

Ultimately it comes down to winning the user's trust, and I'm trying to address as many questions as I can up front.

In response to another comment, I've also un-minified the Chrome extension code and will keep it un-minified going forward (will take up to an hour to propagate [update: fresh installs are now un-minified / and the current-install base will get the update within 6 hours])

I like the idea of adding a whitelist to complement using the extension with Research Mode turned "off". I'll add that to the todo list! Thanks!

Thanks! BTW, I love the idea behind your extension -- because Chrome's history search is almost always a frustrating let-down. Provided you can solve the privacy issue, I'd use it in a heartbeat. I'd also be very curious to see your final implementation

Thanks for sharing your approach. In the end, I decided the API results didn't need to be persisted in storage -- they get stored in a local variable and jettisoned with Javascript's garbage collection. My primary concern was: to-what scope did the data belong? (Check my other comments to see my dissatisfaction with Chrome's dev-doc's language on this topic.) I decided that the user history did not need to be precisely-known, so - my strategy here was to hash the url, cut the hash to a much shorter string (to increase likelihood of collisions), and then pad the shortened-hash with a random number of characters on either side, and concatenate that string to a large blob of text. The extension would then be able to perform an indexOf search on that blob to be reasonably sure that the user had been to that URL. This uses localStorage. (This keeps the extension from repeatedly querying commonly-visited URLs but also does not prove you were at any given URL since collisions are expected to happen.)

Sounds fantastic for your extension, but it would be too heavy for Kiwi. The entire Reddit, HN, and Google News data sets would (easily) be too large

faceyspacey echoed that sentiment below too -- I've added expandable inline comments to the todo list (thanks!)

I wanted explicit language from Chrome's docs about how it scopes storage.

Firefox provided it: "The simple storage module exports an object called storage that is persistent and scoped to your add-on." https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Add-ons/SDK/High-Level_A...

But all Chrome's docs said were the previously mentioned warning about not using it to store confidential user info.

So, to answer your question: caution

Actually, if you go back to my init commit on Github - you can see that I originally used the chrome.storage API. I extricated it from the code - except for the non-sensitive settings

chrome.storage docs: "Confidential user information should not be stored! The storage area isn't encrypted." https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/storage

Its default usage does. The idea is that it returns enough value in exchange to be worth it. It also has a "Custom Search" feature that is useful without sharing your history.

It uses Reddit's API, Algolia's HN API, and the Google News Api. Any of these services can be toggled individually in settings.

[0] - Reddit - https://github.com/reddit/reddit/wiki/API [1] - HN - https://hn.algolia.com/api [2] - https://developers.google.com/news-search/v1/devguide#gettin...

Also, it can be set to search a-la-carte by toggling Research Mode.

Ha, took a few minutes, but now it's showing up in the API results. :)

No, you're right. Adding it now (thanks!) (update added to landing page and pushing out to the Chrome/FF stores)

That was a major concern of mine. You can set the Research mode to "Off" by default and check URLs on a case-by-case basis and still do custom searches. Admittedly, it takes some of the serendipity out of it, but it addresses your concern.

I considered (and was planning on) adding a "block URL" feature - but the issue of how to store those sensitive URLs (to block) came up. Because localStorage and sync storage in Chrome is not sandboxed or encrypted, the blocked list would be "in the open" to other extensions. Yes, you could hash the urls you'd hope to block, but then there would be no way to read that list back to the user at a later point in time, and slight mismatches in URL schemes would lead to an imperfect system. So simply toggling Research Mode and researching pages of interest is the best option, IMO.

I don't cache any personal info in localStorage or sync storage (which at least Chrome does not encrypt :< ). The api results are stored in a local variable within the scope of the extension. And the "history" is a hashed and padded blob.

This is also why I released it for both Chrome and FF, since some people assign different use cases to different browsers. The code is also public/open-source.

There's nothing wrong with it. I find the term offensive as well.

But it's worth noting because decisions like this are somewhat arbitrary, and we invest in this platform (the visibility/monoculture of github and your "stars" are what make it sticky). So what happens when your repo doesn't conform to their interpretation of social norms?

It's a relatively obscure repo (and I'm sure we all have a few of those ;)), that adds to the whole "arbitrary" narrative.

Another reason it's worth noting: it runs against what Github has made headlines for in the past couple of years: fighting pressures to censor content. What happens if/when leadership changes at the company (it already has over its lifetime): will the policy won't be relaxed even further? Thought exercises like this help us appreciate how invested we are in the monoculture that is Github

If politicians don't care about their brand, they've pursued the wrong career.

The visible nature of a visit would be exploited. He'd be painted as guilty by association. Politics is petty... so much so that, in this case, a superPAC-funded negative campaign ad (running 24-7 in battleground states) would say: "Rand Paul visited the NSA 6 times since he's been a Senator, yet he preaches reform. So let's ask you Senator: 'why are you in bed with the NSA?'"

Let's keep in mind: there's no way if OP's story or sources are true --- maybe he has met with NSA -- and if he has, I'd hope he wouldn't go around blabbing about it, for the above reason ^^

Because visiting the NSA would enlighten him in any way?

Critics of the organization would likely be granted zero visibility into their decision making process. Just look how they have treated their own high level employees who voiced concern (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Andrews_Drake).

It would be a waste of a day. Maybe he could have met with Clapper - the man that perjured himself before Congress. Or Keith Alexander - the profiteer who is making millions off surveillance tech he was developing while head of the NSA. ( <-- That's the guy that made policy decisions on how invasive surveillance should be. FML) If the cronies want his ear: they should come to his office.

If anything, a visit to the NSA would bring negative connotations in the public's eye.

Cool! Let me know of any suggestions to make it better :)

- HTTPS is a premium feature not included in Internet.org's package...

- Internet services/sites are whitelisted - essentially by Facebook.

- ISP tracking is baked into consumers' access. (Like Verizon's SuperCookies, which have just been rolled back for US consumers.)

- Select developers get to develop for the web ... but based off permission from higher ups. Because we all trust Facebook as a caretaker of a dev platform... we already know there will arbitrary rate-limiting for these devs.

The best part of Facebook's story was that Zuck didn't need permission to build it. How ironic...

Facebook has hijacked the word "Internet" for this initiative.

At best this is a whitewashed and severely limited offering that works against the push for real Internet access. And it sets all of the worst kinds of precedents for first-time users across the world.

As for the PR spin around this campaign, some words that come to mind: "disingenuous", "delusional".

http://www.medianama.com/2015/05/223-facebooks-internet-org-...

Thought experiment: if gov programs were forced to be transparent, would they be any less brazen?

Not at this rate. I think officials see the Snowden-fallout and say, "hey, that wasn't so bad. the public barely cares. Yo Comey, hit the press & equate encryption to child abuse; we can win this narrative." Lack of transparency is certainly an issue, but i'd say the bigger one how to make sense of this information to the public.

So this has been going on since at least 2008... Extremely disappointing but not surprising.[0] What Americans forget is that GHCQ's policies affect us as much or more than the NSA's and that by 'backdoor-ing' crypto, as Cameron & Obama want, we forfeit our privacy to foreign governments as well.

How can democratic society continue to function if the state indulges its interest in journalists' and attorneys' confidential communications without any inhibitions?

This demonstrates that Cameron's pledge to only access laypersons' communication in the most "dire circumstances" (the case he makes for backdooring crypto) is pure rhetoric.

[0] https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/11/06/uk-surveillanc...