hrodriguez

Thanks for the link. I looked over the code on the main page only (did not delve deeper) and honestly... it's like night and day. The code by sukeesh is as easy to follow and modify as a simple scripting language. Truly a work of art:)

I've come across similar code that I've been able to immediately cannibalize for personal use on my system. The last time was a script that displayed colored quotes whenever I opened the terminal. Learned an awful lot about coloring text output, randomizing the text and a bit about arrays because it was easy to follow and the app was complete and useful to me. As opposed to learning by snippets.

The tutorial code at pythonspot.com... not terribly friendly I'm afraid (without a detailed tutorial):-( I can understand how an advanced programmer can see logical similarities but the actual code itself scared me away.lol Sorta' like writing the same program: one in rexx and another in bash.

This has already been flagged for some unstated reason...

Unlike come of the other comments, as a non-programmer, I really like this. The code seems so easy to follow and tweak. I'm already getting some ideas on how I can expand on this in terms of coupling the easy english syntax to the underlying linux commands in order to display both outputs (so that newbie command-line users see what's happening behind the scenes). A few other things pop to mind but need to spend some time on the code.

In fact, I think an app like this could probably be even more useful with additional comments embedded in the source - as a learning tool. It's this kind of easy to follow code that gets people excited about programming (especially when they can tweak it right away). It's a program that works very well for what it does, doesn't need documentation except for commenting the code.

The newws.py, for example, is a little difficult to follow right away (and modify for entry-level programmers, non-programmers like myself). Commenting here would have been nice:)

I personally would love to see more apps/code like this but maybe HN isn't the place for this:-( I understand why, it's not a criticism on any deficiency here - as the audience is much more advanced.

Device and information insecurity, overzealous surveillance by governments — these are real concerns that call for real attention.

I'm looking forward to The NY Time's Zeynep Tufekci's real discussion about Operating Systems that spy on us, collect our data and share that data; tracking across the internet; lack of security updates on phones; a tie-in with PRISM (allowing the NSA unfettered access to company databases) and anything else her top-notch "security researchers" turn up.

Maybe she can add a few words about the lack of oversight, transparency and accountability our tech & phone companies enjoy for the privilege of cooperating with certain government agencies. Let's get your "sources" to add a few words about backroom deals that circumvent The Constitution and the laws of this land too. It's a big topic with many players.

Be careful though, Mrs Tufekci. This kind of real news will get you into hot water with your masters.

I'm sure she'll get to it after another hit-piece on Wikileaks for actually bringing this discussion to the table instead of trying to kill it. That is, once she gets over her political biases (which are sprinkled throughout the article) and does some real journalism.

Security and Privacy are issues that need "real attention" and not something that gets tacked on at the end of an article and forgotten.

*edit: word

Lovely machine but I personally can't stomach the 16:9 aspect ratio. This usually limits my options when it comes to hardware. Wish Dell came out with similar but sporting a 3:2 or 16:10 screen (with Linux support).

George Orwell's 1984 and Isaac Asimov (just about everything he's written, especially love his shorter stories).

I still see no reason why they couldn't reboot the project and agree with his thinking here: "Create a mid-range tablet ... Carve out a niche in developed markets first ... Firefox OS was actually five years too early!"

I always thought they were trying to put a ChromeOS competitor on a phone when it actually belonged on laptops, tablets and 2-in-1s (to start). I would have been very interested in a device running an extension-rich privacy-respecting browser, using open tech, focused on education and as a device to develop for.

It's essentially Mozilla's mission statement made into physical form. Dealing with corporate interests, as the article suggests, forced Mozilla to diverge from their base (end-users). It was a learning experience, that was all.

I don't actually expect the project to be revived and that's a real shame given the hostility of the alternatives (not including Linux, etal) available to (the rest of) us.

The very idea is insane. I think we need to do a better job of fighting the divisive forces attempting to destroy this country, led by a domestic terrorist like George Soros.

The site itself seems to be run by children[1]. This is where HN news is coming from now?

http://waitbutwhy.com/wait-but-who

/rant/ So another hit piece on someone that supports Trump. This is the new left-wing extremist strategy... ie, destroy powerful voices fighting to safeguard our country and improve American lives. The Mainstream Media wants to be taken seriously with this tactic. Never heard of cnsnews.com either. Went through it and it's rather right-wing conventional. Nothing like this over-the-top ranting lunacy of an "article" disguised as journalism.

The author made sure to paint another Trump supporter in a bad light by using words like antisemitic, islamophobic, scary, brainwashing, disrupting the MSM, extremist sites, creepy, propaganda, amplify particular political narratives, playing to emotions. These words and many others have become their divisive talking points. I was surprised that I didn't see Hitler, Fascist, Racist and Sexist too. It's laughable if they weren't so transparently vulgar.

There's also stuff about tracking and usage habits but not a word about Google, Facebook, Twitter, George Soros (and his countless disruptive sites) and the REAL power (the MSM) - all engaged in extremist misrepresentation, censorship, outright lies, news coverups, blacklisted topics, paid rioters, banning users, manipulation of trending topics, physical assaults on the public by paid thugs. He mud-slings terms like "ethical regulations" in regard to Mercer when the real power has been documented to have long crossed the line and hold the details of our lives in their data-sharing databases with NO accountability.

He segues into "playing the victim". The privileged elite that has long held the reins of manipulating public opinion is (laughably) the victim now. The MSM, which has engaged in massive coverups to support their candidate, that has used fear-mongering through misinformation, that holds ALL the keys and power is now the victim. I would borrow the following from the race-baiting left... "check you privilege at the door", in response.

I started off as a fairly objective person during the political process. I liked Bernie, grew to despise Hillary and her divisive rhetoric (and noted how often the MSM media blacklisted explosive stories about this corrupt politician who was selling our country away, piece by piece). I wasn't even a Trump supporter and NEVER visited anything right-wing. I was long sold on the idea that the right-wing was racist. I got ALL my news from the MSM. They betrayed my trust and continue to do so daily. The author has learned nothing.

I needed an easier, to digest, read...

Professor Valter Longo, from the University of Southern California, explained "Our conclusion is that by pushing the mice into an extreme state and then bringing them back - by starving them and then feeding them again - the cells in the pancreas are triggered to use some kind of developmental reprogramming that rebuilds the part of the organ that's no longer functioning."[1]

Feast and famine diet may restore insulin production in diabetes:

[1] http://www.news-medical.net/news/20170224/Feast-and-famine-d...

It's funny how articles showing Americans in a bad light, vis-a-vis immigrants, always pop up here on HN. The insinuation that this is the result of our President is always the underlying theme. It isn't about some random crackpot - as it should be.

The misrepresentative and inflammatory title should be enough to have flagged this long ago.

It doesn't matter that the manipulative and lying media, as well as the George Soros funded domestic terrorist groups have created problems by misrepresenting the immigration issue.

I can post 15 articles right now showing immigrants or foreign-born in a bad light. That would be stupid (much like this article) unless the behavior is associated with undermining The United States and it's people.

It's just more race-baiting from manipulative activists attempting to usurp another website and undermine this country in the process. Growing up in the Bronx, I could provide lots of examples of "reverse" (whatever this is) racism. Another pointless endeavor aimed solely at dividing us as Americans.

As a community here at HN, we should do better than to continue to allow these types of slanted, racist, politically-driven articles from gaining a foothold.

Muchas Gracias, Amigos y Amigas! Que pasen un buen dia! That is all.

Law Enforcement Using Facebook and Apple to Data-Mine Accounts of Protesters

Protesters or George Soros funded paid thugs and rioters? There's a distinction.

Click bait title with a touch of fear-mongering from another MSM outlet.

"as they searched for an undocumented immigrant who had received a deportation order to leave the United States."

"The search was conducted at the request of Immigration and Customs Enforcement"

Seems completely reasonable.

She can go through my phone anytime she wants. But maybe I don't want her to see me tell a user to go fuck himself... hard:) because he decided to project his SJW personal issues or warped interpretations onto a single sentence from a benign comment covering a number of real-world use cases.

Right now, this was my first thought.

and know the form of your voice is out there forever.

Lots of these types of sites usually have some limit. That is, if the page hasn't been visited in 6 months - out it goes. Curious what the time limits are.

Also, unable to test (site under heavy load) but is there an edit link that's made available after making a post? From the comments, that doesn't appear to be the case. So if I wanted to use it as a knowledge base for something, I wouldn't be able to keep updating it. I think this is the missing (basic) feature.

My first thought was how easy my wife could get this on my phone (or vice versa) - as the article points out. How easily the app could be installed by law enforcement, airport security, etc when they demand access to the phone and walk away with it.

Secondly, I thought how easily someone (boss, co-worker, spouse, etc) could use this as a surveillance device. Just leaving the phone lying around and remotely turn on the mic and camera. (I'm aware of other apps that have this functionality).

Thirdly, I thought it could be useful if my phone was ever lost or stolen. But at the same time, I would be enabling a backdoor into my phone. Trusting a company that develops spyware is a huge leap too.

Fourthly... and actually this was my first thought: Many have already given the Operating Systems they use daily carte blanche to do the very things these spyware apps are able to do. Toss in data-mining and even worse... data-sharing and these spyware apps look like amateur attempts at spyware.

There are a number of use cases but most seem to be pretty bad. Even their followup article[1] is scary (hard to remove even after a factory reset, best to use another phone).

[1] https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/how-to-protect-yo...

Exactly. For example, I don't consume alcohol. When I do so on the rare occasion, just a little hits me very hard. Regular drinkers don't have this issue. I would never think of going from zero alcohol to consuming a bottle of vodka every day.

I also enjoy a pretty healthy diet/lifestyle - low-salt, low-fat, fruits, veggies, plenty of fiber, regular exercise... I find that my body reacts very badly if I "treat" myself and indulge throughout the day in whatever everyone else consumes so freely. No such issue if it's just a single meal.

I need to taper in (ie, the Holidays are a good example). High salt, high-fat meals are especially hard hitting. I can counter this with lots more water, fiber for example. I also know that if I remained on these richer diets, eventually my body wouldn't react so strongly but I would also need to make other dietary changes. Damon Gameau admits he did not make other changes to his diet.

The experiment was a non-stop, high-dose, sugar binge (40 tsp is incredibly high) that went from 0-100 mph in a microsecond.

I didn't watch the film or do other research except for reading the article. I just wonder what the effects of a lifetime of bad eating, smoking and who knows what else... did to his body previously. He may have already built-up some medical issues.

Any problems he had previously weren't reported and analysed in the article. A "healthy" diet for 3 years doesn't miraculously erase his past. To suddenly go into a divergent new shock diet without a slow adjustment period could have the body reacting in ways that were unforeseen as a way of protecting itself.

I'm not suggesting, in the least, that 40 teaspoon of a sugar every single day is good for anyone(LOL). It just seems that lots of people in that range would have off days where they hit that high for a day or two... followed by lower sugar intakes for several days (giving the body time to heal or adjust).

It just reminds me of the "Deadly Facts about Water" meme:

https://imgur.com/gallery/hv8sL2J

it may have actually cared about Yahoo's disastrous data breaches and its cooperation with the NSA. But because is Verizon, the cooperation with the NSA and the spying infrastructure being already in place is probably why Verizon didn't want to cut too much from the price.

Exactly what I was thinking. Verizon seems more desperate than Yahoo. Been trying to figure out what a phone company wants to do with these online user accounts. The only thing I can come up with is data-mining, surveillance and data-sharing. This seems to be what motivates those in power these days. It's about control.

I just don't see a telephone company getting excited about email, news feeds, Yahoo Answers and some of the other properties available for it's own sake.

The next question is: how deep is Verizon into surveillance already and, aside from marketing and ads in a business they know little about, what their ultimate goals are?

Facebook is still trying to figure out how to censor news and bury voices without too much backlash. The twitter way.

The amount of shills infecting HN with the deluge of petty posts from mostly fake news sites is far more annoying.

What's next? An OMG???!! article about how Trump once ran a red light (that was actually yellow when he crossed it)? Where's the downvote button?

Their new Ryzen chips look quite impressive. Reminds me of their success with the K6 chip which took the world by storm on budget computers. Hopefully AMD can seriously compete again. Always good for consumers.

I do object to the possibility of getting your favorite sites blacklisted by ad networks for low-intent clickthroughs or botting.

Haven't installed the extension for these two reasons.

Also, while I strongly believe that the tech industry re: surveillance, data-mining and data-sharing is completely out of control and deserving of a tool like this... I'm not ready to cross this line and become this kind of activist for change. There's a war going on and our online rights to privacy have been completely stripped away - with things getting so much worse.

As a result, I do understand others using this extension and hope that this tool (among others, especially long-needed legislation which the government opposes) changes things for the better. Whitelisting/Blacklisting could help solve the fav sites issue but it defeats the purpose of this extension when there is so much at stake.

Does it make sense to anyone that this kind of data should be layered on regular mapping applications (directions, traffic, shops)? Or is it too much?

I like the idea of visiting Google Maps, for example, and being able to toggle snippets of this kind of weather data onto the map itself. Other useful, one-click, toggles could include:

1. Real Estate Listings for a given area

2. Demographics

3. Forecasts & Historical weather info

4. Crime data

5. Local Events

6. Low-bandwidth settings

7. Access to publicly available real-time streaming cameras

I too was very surprised by the limited options. I keep seeing American companies investing overseas instead of building a stronger base at home. It's frustrating.

Now, don't get me wrong. I understand these are international firms and it's good to see CS education targeting other communities and certain imbalances in the system but...

Their are large swaths of communities right here in the US that could use the support of American companies investing right here in their home-base. As a result, I see these efforts by US firms as a marketing gimmick to help them further their interests in entering new markets and appealing to certain political alliances.

You or I or other technical folk might point the finger at particular apps but the typical consumer will just bemoan the "poor battery life on my phone".

You don't give people a lot of credit for even minimal logic with that statement. I've dealt with a large number of low-tech users and every. single. one. of them has understood the relationship between battery life and the applications they run.

They also understand what having GPS, active WiFi and watching a couple of hours of video will do to their batteries. The only ones that have a problem with this are the ones that pay $800 for a device that struggles with normal 2-day usage because thin trumps mAh.

paying for the order with someone who can barely stand to look at me, much less tell me to have a nice day!

My experience too in lots of places where there's "customer service" involved. I always blame management when I come across employees that obviously can't handle working with the public.

A looong time ago, I use to work retail and there was always a couple of people who would have a single bad experience with a customer and then spend the rest of the week taking it out on everyone else. They essentially created the hostility they faced everyday. Management always looked the other way as long as they had the positions filled.

Due process may still hold true (idk, inal, sounds about right) but there are a number of long-standing regulations governing re-entry. Let's not overlook the fact that there are regulations in the US regarding re-entry for green card holders which sound very reasonable to me - especially when compared to immigration law in other countries.

* have abandoned or relinquished your status as a lawful permanent resident

* have been absent from the U.S. for a continuous period of over 180 days

* engaged in illegal activity after leaving the U.S.

* left the U.S. while in removal or extradition proceedings

* committed one of the crimes named in § 212(a)(2) of the I.N.A. (such as one crime of moral turpitude (CMT), a drug or trafficking crime, multiple crimes, prostitution, money laundering, security violations, and so on), unless later granted relief under Section 212(h) or 240A(a)...

* are attempting to enter at a time or place other than as designated by immigration officers.

* if you have any criminal violation on your record, you should not leave the U.S. without consulting with an experienced immigration attorney first.

* it's a crime for immigrants not to submit immediate notifications to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) of their changes of address.

The one that confuses me a bit is "are attempting to enter at a time or place other than as designated by immigration officers".

Now, the issue of allowing re-entry from a very limited list of countries that are hotbeds of religious terrorism when the vetting process is suspect. That's the focus here.