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New best story on Hacker News: SolarWinds hackers were able to access Microsoft source code
552 by accountinhn | 338 comments on Hacker News.
New best story on Hacker News: Happy New Year HN
574 by thunderbong | 162 comments on Hacker News.
Thanks to the mods and to all the members of HN for one of the bright spots of 2020. So many submissions, so many comments. Most of all, so many intelligent discussions. Also, so much guidance in how to live life - with curiosity, empathy and optimism. Times, both bad and good, will come and go. Lives will be lived and time will move on. But seeing the humanism of people, in my humble opinion, is reason for hope for a better future. Have a wonderful new year everyone!
New best story on Hacker News: Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?
441 by orbOfOrthanc | 1187 comments on Hacker News.
I love asking new colleagues this question, figured I would open it here as well. What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?
New best story on Hacker News: Ask HN: Why does Pinterest dominate Google text search results?
545 by Winterflow3r | 271 comments on Hacker News.
More and more often when I search (using text queries, not image search, which I know has been polluted by Pinterest for years), I get pages upon pages of Pinterest results, sometimes the same Pinterest page but from the different pinterest country domains like pinterest.fi for Finland and pinterest.se for Sweden. Does anyone know if Google gives Pinterest preferential treatement in SEO rankings? Edit: A few comments were asking what my queries were to generate search results where Pinterest dominates, so clarifying that a bit. I run a site that has a colour search engine for lipsticks and since Google is one of the dominant ways in which people land on my site (searching for things like "nyx budapest lipstick dupes"), I was studying various makeup related queries to see which sites ranked highest . Edit2: Edited the title for clarity - I mean text search, not image search
New best story on Hacker News: Ask HN: Best Talks of 2020?
554 by sid6376 | 134 comments on Hacker News.
2019: https://ift.tt/2sbFTaf 2018: https://ift.tt/2KrA5P8 2017: https://ift.tt/2qauEx1 2016: https://ift.tt/2dHkYEA Ever: https://ift.tt/2AaxNzG It's been a weird year, wonder if there were still good tech talks in 2020.
New best story on Hacker News: Sick of spending time on Auth, we built an open source 'Stripe for Auth'
446 by advaitruia | 265 comments on Hacker News.
We (my cofounder and I) have built several startups previously and spent an unnecessary amount of effort on auth. This led us to build an open source alternative to Auth0 and AWS Cognito, that’s called SuperTokens. We’ve spoken to 100s of developers and startups to understand the pain points with current services and we hope you find this useful! Why did we build this? To be able to control our user data and have it stored in our own database. Have certain customisations that other identity providers do not offer We couldn’t afford to pay It took too long to understand the documentation of alternate service providers How are we any easier? We think that Auth0, Firebase etc are great services but auth is complex. There are many different use cases for different types of apps. Since services have to cater to each of these, they tend to become complex in their implementation (due to no fault of their own). SuperTokens takes a modular approach - making it possible to pick only the features you need for your use case. This means you need not worry about complications associated with other features (eg: SSO and OAuth if you don’t need it) and this in turn makes it easier to implement and manage SuperTokens. We are still early in the journey and working hard on building more functionality. Please see our website: https://supertokens.io/ Our GitHub: https://ift.tt/2EIS58i Do let us know what you think - specifically whether you would consider SuperTokens for your app. Why or why not? What can we change or offer? PS: We did a "Launch HN" post earlier when our product was only for securely managing session tokens ( https://ift.tt/2YIHUb2 ). We realized we need to build more of the auth stack (signup / signin, social login etc) and hence we're excited to announce that we've built basic login functionality.
New best story on Hacker News: Show HN: After 10 years my side project has hit $8k/mo in revenue
427 by sanity31415 | 204 comments on Hacker News.
Back in 2010 I had an idea for a service that would allow people to easily create semi-permanent email aliases so that they could give an email address to people and websites without revealing their real email address. These aliases will continue to work indefinitely unless you choose to block them. My brother and I spent a few months building the initial version and launched the website in July 2010. For the first year we had about 50 signups per month, by 2013 this had increased to 1500 and it's currently around 3500 per month. Similarly, our revenue grew consistently but slowly - doubling about every 18 months, reaching its current level of around $8k/mo. Over this time we redesigned the website, and found a company to create an explainer video for the service (both through 99Designs). We have not spent much on paid user acquisition, we experimented with it a bit a few years ago without positive results. I think the difficulty is that some user education is required for them to understand what the service does and the value of it. The website is called 33Mail ( https://33mail.com/ ). My plan is to spend the next few weeks focussed on trying to accelerate 33Mail's growth, in particular I want to try Google and FB advertising, and we've also been thinking about setting up an affiliate program through something like Commission Junction. But before diving into that it would be really helpful to get some feedback and suggestions, it can sometimes feel like we're too close to it to see it objectively. I would be super grateful if you guys could take a look at it and see if any suggestions come to mind.
New best story on Hacker News: Google Outage
1520 by abluecloud | 417 comments on Hacker News.
various services are broken - youtube returning error - gmail returning 502 - docs returning 500 - drive not working
Fox News Breaking News Alert
White House confirms cyberattack on U.S. Treasury by foreign government.
12/13/20 2:24 PM
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First trucks with Pfizer coronavirus vaccine leave Michigan facility, the start of shipments to all 50 states
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Wisconsin Supreme Court to hear arguments on Trump campaign's election appeal
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FOX NEWS POLL: Was Trump robbed in the election? Here's what voters think.
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FOX NEWS POLL: Was Trump robbed in the election? Here's what voters think.
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Fox News just asked Joe Biden if his son committed a crime. Here's how he responded.
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EXCLUSIVE: GOP congressman files complaint urging House Ethics Committee investigation into Swalwell allegations
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Cuomo suspends indoor dining in NYC, is backed by de Blasio
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From 'smear campaign' to 'Russian disinformation,' liberal media teamed up to dismiss Hunter Biden news
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Biden, Harris named Time’s ‘Person of the Year’
12/10/20 9:13 PM
New best story on Hacker News: Show HN: After 2.5 years on my side project, it has hit £500/month revenue
495 by gigamick | 252 comments on Hacker News.
It's been a long slow hog and I almost gave up a few times (more than a few) but when covid hit this year it gave me some time to really focus on my product. There were stupid user journey things that I knew needed fixed. There were some features I knew needed added. And I knew the pricing was wrong. I spent some hardcore time working on these things back in March / April and since then my MRR has continued to grow. My product is SongBox ( https://songbox.rocks ) - it's an alternative to things like bandcamp and soundcloud for creators who need to share audio files privately. I'm at a stage now where I've bottomed out all the work I've wanted to do and I'm looking for a fresh round of feedback. Would love you guys to check it out and see what you can think of. Thanks!
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FDA panel endorses Pfizer's COVID vaccine, here's when it could be available.
12/10/20 2:39 PM
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Biden taps Susan Rice to lead Domestic Policy Council, also announces pick for VA secretary
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Minneapolis cuts police funding by $8M amid crime surge following summer riots
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WATCH: SpaceX Starship high-altitude flight test ends in explosion
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Hunter Biden tax investigation sparked in part by Suspicious Activity Reports linked to funds from China, other foreign nations,
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Hunter Biden reveals his taxes are under federal investigation.
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Hunter Biden reveals his taxes are under federal investigation.
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These states just made a big move to support Texas in bid to delay presidential elector appointment.
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Ex-intel officer: China has sent spies to 'sleep with lesser-known members of Congress and staffers'
12/09/20 11:50 AM
New best story on Hacker News: Ask HN: What's the best paper you've read in 2020?
520 by luizfelberti | 143 comments on Hacker News.
I know there are classics that get posted every time this question comes around, so bias them towards more recent ones :)
New best story on Hacker News: Travis CI is no longer providing CI minutes for open source projects
505 by jameshilliard | 180 comments on Hacker News.
I guess it was inevitable https://ift.tt/3lPHB6R https://twitter.com/james_hilliard/status/133608177669184307... Hello James, Thanks for writing in. At the moment, credit allocation for OSS projects is on hold as per directives from management. Sincere apologies please. We will provide updates once we get additional approval from management. Thanks for your patience -- MK Your Friends @Travis CI Test and Deploy with Confidence.
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Biden is expected to nominate Rep Marcia Fudge as HUD secretary... but she comes with a controversial past.
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Biden is expected to nominate Rep Marcia Fudge as HUD secretary... but she comes with a controversial past.
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EXCLUSIVE: 2021 CPAC will be held in person... but there's a catch.
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Biden unveils his plan to tackle the coronavirus... and it includes a mask mandate.
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President Trump says U.S. just 'days away' from first COVID vaccine. What you need to know.
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Judge dismisses Michael Flynn case after Trump pardon
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14 soldiers fired, suspended from Fort Hood after widespread violence, sexual harassment
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Loeffler made one point crystal clear about Warnock during Georgia's high-stakes debate. Here's what she said.
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President Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani tests positive for COVID-19.
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Federal judge restores DACA program
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Breaking News: House passes legislation to decriminalize marijuana at federal level
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KILLED IN THE LINE OF DUTY: Cop shot in the face dies two days after traffic stop ambush
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Could PA halt further certification of the presidential election? It could now be up to the Supreme Court.
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Four Americans held in the British Virgin Islands released
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Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe urges Biden to let Russia probe run its course... and that’s not all
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New best story on Hacker News: Ask HN: Top Coursera Courses?
460 by joshlk | 154 comments on Hacker News.
In any field that “interesting” to HN
New best story on Hacker News: Tell HN: Thank You Dang
855 by sinak | 117 comments on Hacker News.
Since it’s Thanksgiving here in the US, I thought it would be nice to say a big thank you to dang for his tireless work moderating HN. Thank you dang. You keep this community vibrant and interesting, yet civil.
New world news from Time: Netanyahu Said Trump Was Israel’s ‘Greatest Friend.’ How Will He Cope with Biden in the White House?
On Nov 8, the day after Joe Biden’s acceptance speech, Israel’s far-right defense minister Naftali Bennet tweeted his congratulations to the President-Elect. Bennet’s more effusive language, however, he reserved for the man still occupying the Oval Office: “You brought us peace without giving up land,” he wrote, “You made it clear the focus of the region is not the Palestinians. We will never forget this and we will always remain thankful.”
In the four years since Bennet declared “the era of the Palestinian State” over upon Donald Trump’s poll-defying win in 2016, Bennet’s views—on the White House, at least—have gone from fringe to consensus. Where in 2016, polling showed most Israelis favored President Hillary Clinton, the vast majority preferred Trump in 2020.
That’s largely down to the unprecedented favoritism Trump showed to Israel on issues related to the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. His team of special advisor Jared Kushner, special envoy Jason Greenblatt (since departed), and U.S. ambassador to Israel David Friedman championed some of the ambitions of hardliners like Bennet, who aspire to a Biblical vision of Israel that stretches from the Jordan River to the Sea of Galilee, incorporating the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
But the proposed annexation of swathes of the West Bank was suspended over the summer as a condition of the UAE and Bahrain’s recent normalization deals with Israel. Under Biden, unequivocal in his support for a two-state solution, it might be off the table completely.
A Democratic victory strips Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of support from a U.S. president he described as Israel’s “greatest friend,” at a moment when he is facing weekly protests over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and a felony corruption trial. It could also leave him exposed to challenges from hardliners, whose views Netanyahu helped bring into the political mainstream.
“There’s no question that Bibi is losing his patron,” says Shira Efron, a senior policy researcher at the Israel Policy Forum, using a popular nickname for Netanyahu. That hurts the prime minister domestically, but it also diminishes his stature on the world stage. Netanyahu promoted the idea that “only [he] has an open door with the White House,” Efron says. “So, he didn’t just lose Trump, he lost the ability to mediate with other governments.”
Netanyahu’s own loss of prominence is mirrored by the one Israel can be expected to undergo. Biden will inherit a deeply divided America struck hard by a pandemic. His transition team will contend with a lame-duck president that has still refused to concede defeat. When compared to the challenges he faces in China, North Korea, and Iran, “I don’t think Israel–Palestine is going to be the number one priority for Biden,” says Yossi Meckelberg, an international relations expert at Regent’s University, London.
How Netanyahu and Biden will get along
Netanyahu and Trump may have been kindred spirits politically but the prime minister’s relations with Trump’s predecessor, former President Obama, were decidedly frostier. They were at their coldest when Netanyahu circumvented the White House to become only the second foreign leader since Winston Churchill to address Congress directly—denouncing the Obama administration’s signature foreign policy deal on Iran.
In his congratulatory note to Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Nov 8, Netanyahu appeared keen to assert his friendship with Obama’s Vice-President. “Joe, we’ve had a long and warm personal relationship for nearly 40 years, and I know you as a great friend of Israel,” he wrote. “I look forward to working with both of you to further strengthen the special alliance between the US and Israel.”
Netanyahu’s opponents in Israel argue that Democrats have not forgiven him, despite the prime minister’s claims he has maintained good relations on both sides of the aisle. “The disconnect between him and the reality of the situation is so dramatic that he doesn’t even know what the Democratic Party and the new administration think and say about him,” says Yair Lapid, chairman of the Yesh Atid party and leader of the opposition in Israel’s parliament. “Netanyahu took a dangerous gamble and endangered our strategic bi-partisan relationship with the United States. Only a new government can fix that.”
Experts say a return to the acrimony that characterized Netanyahu’s relationship with former President Obama is unlikely. When relations were at their sourest it was Biden who served as an intermediary—one Israeli diplomat that served under Netanyahu described him as the “good cop.” Biden, a Catholic, has in the past declared himself a “Zionist” and reportedly intervened to remove references to Israel’s “occupation” from the Democratic party platform—although last year he said that Netanyahu had drifted to the “extreme right” in order to survive politically.
But the Biden White House is likely to change direction from the past four years. It may slow settlement building in the West Bank, which accelerated under Trump. It could also encourage Arab States pursuing new normalization agreements with Israel to attach conditions that would benefit the Palestinians, according to experts who spoke with the New York Times. Palestinian leaders told TIME recently that they hoped Biden would re-open the shuttered Palestinian mission in Washington, restore funding to Palestinian refugees, and establish a second U.S. consulate for the Palestinian leadership in East Jerusalem.
Arab Israeli lawmakers aren’t expecting much more than that, however. “Biden will take off the table the deal of the century,” says Ayman Odeh, the leader of a coalition of Arab–Israeli dominated parties, referring to the Trump peace proposal. “But it’s hard for me to believe that he’ll put actual pressure on Israel to end the occupation.”
To annex or not to annex?
In Israel’s domestic sphere, a Democratic White House may benefit the hard right as much as the far-left, who remain a marginal political force. While Netanyahu will have to be cautious about aggravating the Democrats with overt plays to his base, says IPC’s Efron, hardliners in Israel’s parliament will feel no such constraints.
“As long as you had someone like Obama in office, it served as Netanyahu’s break when the right asked him why are you not annexing? Why are you not extending settlements or legalizing the outposts?” says Regent’s University. “Then comes Trump: not only is he not stopping him; he’s pushing him.”
Meckleberg believes that no matter how much Netanyahu trumpeted his intent to annex the West Bank, he did not intend to go against the advice of his security establishment and risk opprobrium on the international stage. For a prime minister known to be a cautious actor on foreign policy, annexing territory Israel already effectively controls doesn’t make sense, he argues. The normalization deals with the UAE and Bahrain allowed him to call it off without losing face.
Still, de facto annexation continues unabated. Days after Biden was declared winner, right-wing lawmakers in Israel began promoting plans to advance settlement infrastructure before Trump leaves office. Likud’s transportation minister Miri Regev on Oct 9 announced plans for new transportation infrastructure in the West Bank. Likud’s Tzachi Hanegbi planted a tree near Jericho—a tactic used by some settlers to lay claim to land they illegally occupy. Authorities are this week expected to release a tender booklet for Givat Hamatos, one of the West Bank’s most controversial settlements according to Israeli anti-occupation organization Peace Now.
In the interim, Israel watchers are waiting on Biden’s pick for Secretary of State and the makeup of the Senate for a clearer indication of the extent to which the Democrats’ progressive wing might influence foreign policy. Among the favorites are former national security advisor Susan Rice, whose selection would be read in Israel as a signal Biden plans to pick up where Obama left off, a former Israeli diplomat told Israel’s Haaretz newspaper. It would also be a blow for Netanyahu: Rice implied Netanyahu was racist in his angry response to Obama’s acceleration of peace talks with Iran, according to a 2015 book by former peace negotiator Dennis Ross. Ross also wrote that Rice’s “combative mind-set” had “damaged our relationship with Israel.”
When Biden addressed Americans on the evening of Nov. 7, some were struck by the magnitude of the task he faced. His acceptance speech focused on unity and healing the deep divisions that had spit America. To Meckleberg, it seemed unlikely he would deliberately seek contentious issues to tackle: “He won’t set himself to fail, which the Israeli–Palestinian conflict gives you: a high probability of failing.”
Fox News Breaking News Alert
Biden unveils Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board
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Biden's first move as president-elect? Mask mandate for all. Here's how he plans on doing it.
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Trump campaign to file more lawsuits in key battleground states this week, Giuliani tells 'Sunday Morning Futures'
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