Common Species Of Code - <AUTHOR> http://www.willa.me/2013/11/the-six-most-common-species-of-code.html?m=1 <comment><USER2> The startup one is eerily familiar. I sometimes think the most frequent comment I write is along the lines of "TODO: Should really write a better version of this, but it works for now..."

I've even started writing those comments before I've written the function :(

<comment><USER3> ADD - Apology-Driven Development

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The Enterprise code brings back awful memories of working with a framework architected by someone who had obviously read the Design Patterns book and had the take-away of "Use these as often as they can be wedged in to have a better system."

God forbid I needed to add a single boolean field to a single screen. By the time I submitted the DB change request, then changed the abstract factory interface, then the abstract factory class, then the factory interface that generated, then the factory class, then the abstract DAO interface that generated, then the abstract DAO class, then the parent DAO interface, then the parent DAO class... _pauses to catch breath_ ...then the child DAO interface, then the child DAO class, then the controller object interface, then the controller class, then the actual page, then the unit test, it was 4AM and time to go to sleep.

Let this be a cautionary tale to any future architects out there.. remember that flexibility is a MEANS, with the ends being less time and money spent coding and maintaining code. It's not an ends to itself, and can even be a hindrance to the ends.

</comment><comment><USER5> Closed-form expression [0], good up to n == 71:

       def fibonacci(n):
            gr = (1 + (5**0.5)) / 2
            return int((gr**int(n) - (-gr)**int(-n)) / 5**0.5)

[0] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci_number#Closed- form_ex...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci_number#Closed- form_expression)

<comment><USER6> I wanted to mention this as well. There is actually a closed form (as you indicated). Also good to know: This is or was a interview question at Google. You had to know Moivre-Binet's closed formula from the top of your head to pass.

<comment><USER7> I don't even know what is Moivre-Binet what the fuck.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> In a similar fashion, "The Evolution of a Haskell Programmer" (I'm sure there are for other langs also) [http://www.willamette.edu/~fruehr/haskell/evolution.html](http://www.willamette.edu/~fruehr/haskell/evolution.html) :)

<comment><USER9> Evolution of a Python programmer:

[https://gist.github.com/fmeyer/289467](https://gist.github.com/fmeyer/289467)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> A CS 101 student apparently writes the most readable code.

<comment><USER11> Except it is not correct.

<comment><USER12> I like how both the student and the Startup hacker mess up bounds-checking, except the student doesn't realize it in the initial case, and the hacker misses it as the codebase gets progressively larger and he or she gets more tired.

<comment><USER13> I don't get it, what's incorrect about the code?

<comment><USER11> Try calling the function with 0 or a negative number.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> The Large Company version is way too small. It should have at least 20 code files and is provided to other departments as a hosted service that no one has access to due to security restrictions, and the only documentation for how to use it is a powerpoint that is 3 years out of date.

<comment><USER15> [https://github.com/EnterpriseQualityCoding/FizzBuzzEnterpris...](https://github.com/EnterpriseQualityCoding/FizzBuzzEnterpriseEdition)

Serious business.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Don't forget the tests of each. The startup's tests are all commented out because they failed at some point or another, the large company's tests are five times as long as the actual code they test, and all other categories consist of the stubs provided by the IDE.

</comment><comment><USER17> Why do they all(except Hackaton) use an exponential complexity algorithm for a polynomial time problem? Linear, even.

<comment><USER18> The math phd one is constant time :)

<comment><USER19> It's not. Multiplication can't in general be done in constant time (and the exponentiation algorithm is inefficient as well). You might argue that we're working with ints here, so yes it can, but in that case all of these are constant time.

<comment><USER17> It depends on what you consider an operation, doesn't it? You can consider multiplication to be an operation, or you can count more basic operations, such as MOVs and SUMs. I think for Fibonacci, number of additions is a good measure of complexity.

<comment><USER20> > It depends on what you consider an operation, doesn't it?

Exactly. I see far too many people lately who want to point out the technically correct (a.k.a. best kind of correct) version of algorithmic complexity where e.g. multiplication is not constant time. Often this is paired with the contrasting complexity analyses having different meanings for the N in the big O notation, e.g. bit complexity of input vs. number of elements input. Note, this is not the case above, but is often what I see happen. It's very sloppy to directly compare the two as they are making wildly different assumptions on what is constant time. The model matters. An example used in a parallel computing class I took was that comparison based sorting on P parallel processors could be done in log N time (less than the Nlog(N) lower bound of comparison based sorting) in the PRAM model where memory access across parallel processors is still O(1).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I've been watching my son go through MIT 6.00.1x. He's working on the first midterm this very minute.

One of the things I've noticed is that, yes, code quality is from OK to horrid sometimes. Rather than stand behind him and correct every little detail I've let him navigate the problem sets and quizzes mostly on his own. When he gets stuck I give him a shove in the right direction and see what happens.

I've reflected on this as I've never really looked at student code. By the time I was a college student taking my first programming course I had already built a number of microprocessor boards, learned how to program them in machine language and moved on to Forth and C. I think my code was reasonably clean by that stage. Still, I know it wasn't professional grade by any measure.

It's easy to forget where we all started from and, as a result, criticize student code as naive. Well, in most cases, it is. That's a fact.

What I have now realized from watching my son learn to code as well as interacting with him through the process is that he is not learning to code. He is learning to think. He is learning about dissecting problems into small conceptual units that he can then translate into code. Sure, he is learning python in the process. However, the problem solving, solution structuring and problem representation skills that are very much necessary to be a good software developer are mostly language agnostic.

Realizing this, the fact that he is writing code that isn't the cleanest or the slickest possible solution to a problem stopped bothering me. I want him to learn how to think first.

Not to say that I've completely ignored the issue. I let him finish the assignments on his own and then we sit down and do a code review session where I point out where and how things could be better. We've had cases of a dozen lines of code replaced by just a couple. And that's OK. That's how he is going to learn.

</comment><comment><USER21> Oh man these samples are really well done. Really hilarious.

</comment><comment><USER22> I wrote an explicit-formula fibonacci function once. I think you lose precision before n=100. It was disappointing.

<comment><USER23> Yes but the mathematician considers the numbers under 100 to be very small fraction of the numbers under, 1000, or 10^12 or something. Or, in math language, a very small portion of the natural numbers.

<comment><USER24> As some one who rights stats libraries, I can see it now.

"Bug: code does not work with an input of 1"

"1 is of approaching-zero-significance when you consider all of the other test cases we are meeting. 1 is not the responsibility of this lib. Feel free to fork. </comment></comment></comment><comment>= issue closed."

</comment><comment><USER25> and the cat writes the most correct code according to most programming best practices - except for giving meaningful names to constants, variables and functions

<comment><USER26> Many years ago I remember coming across some code to page through a table. One of the variables was "STARTREK". There were a few moments of "WTF?!?", until I realized that the variable should have been named "StartRec" (allowing for the fact that language of the day was case insensitive, and only allowed 10 letter names)

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> The startup code is the cs101 code with two additional cases handled (and minus the contrived x==2 state), and a lot of documented thought about what could be done to improve.

</comment><comment><USER28> I think this pretty much nailed the reality. ^^</comment>


A Call to Google From an Android Developer - Check Your Stats - <AUTHOR> http://minicompact.com/mobiletalk/?p=93

<comment><USER2> Why anyone would want to develop for embedded Linux from Windows is beyond me. I work on embedded Linux all day everyday, and not one of the engineers at our company even has Windows installed. Honestly the time it takes to install Ubuntu is about 45 minutes max, and the productivity gains are well worth it.</comment>


Category Theory Reading Lists - <AUTHOR> http://www.logicmatters.net/categories/

<comment><USER2> I'd add to this list Algebra, Chapter 0 by Aluffi. It's very clearly-written, even for a total beginner like me, but not dumbed down at all, and has a boatload of exercises which IMO is very helpful for learning the material. While its focus is on algebra and not specifically a textbook on category theory, it introduces categories very early on and, to me anyway, explains them as well as or better than any other treatment I've read.

<comment><USER3> How does it compare it with Pinter's Book of abstract algebra ? I have been planning to settle on either one of them.

<comment><USER4> From Aluffi's text:

 _This text presents an introduction to algebra suitable for upper-level undergraduate or beginning graduate courses._

 _In this text, categories are introduced around p. 20, after a scant reminder of the basic language of naive set theory, for the main purpose of providing a context for universal properties. These are in turn evoked constantly as basic definitions are introduced. The word 'universal' appears at least 100 times in the first three chapters._

That means Pinter's book is more elementary.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> In my experience if you have or are willing to invest on the side to gain the necessary abstract algebra background then MacLane's Categories for the Working Mathematician is the go to source.

It is certainly "for the Working Mathematician", so don't make bones about that, but to not include it in a reading list is criminal. If nothing else, buy it and keep rereading it from the beginning as a barometer for how much you're learning. As you penetrate it more and more you can judge that as meteoric increase in understanding.

</comment><comment><USER6> There is also Benjamin Pierce's Basic Category Theory for Computer Scientists:

[http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/basic-category-theory- computer...](http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/basic-category-theory-computer- scientists)

</comment><comment><USER7> This is way too much. You're better of grabbing "Category Theory (Oxford Logic Guides)" by Steve Awodey and then augmenting it as necessary.

</comment><comment><USER8> Quite complete and interesting.</comment>


Nintendo Switch - <AUTHOR> https://www.nintendo.co.jp/switch/index.html <comment><USER9> That[1] was masterful marketing of an upcoming videogame console on all fronts. From the beginning it emphasises mobility with a (hopefully good!) smartphone app to manage online/local wifi matches, as well as multiple levels of play while on the go. It's reasonably priced (matches current generation in total at the register) and has an incredibly diverse range of titles to be excited about this calendar year. It managed to loop "The Americas" in with a Reggie appearance that worked well, and upsold Skyrim and Fifa, two gigantic American games with international appeal. They also talked up Dragon Quest X, which is an MMORPG, launching on Switch, as well as Dragon Quest XI, which until tonight was a PS4 exclusive.

Essentially, they placed value squarely in the face of everything your PC/enthusiast-level gaming rig won't ever replace. The ability to pick up and play elsewhere. Like the Wii, it's not even trying to compete with the current crop of consoles. It's value proposition will be placed somewhere a bit obtusely, between your mobile phone and everything else you leave at home. Yes, this obviously functions as a home console as well, but I can't help but suspect Nintendo absolutely meant to go for what makes handhelds great. If any company can do it, they can. So what if it cannibalises their current 3DS offerings? Pokemon seems to be going strong with its fanbase.

The whole presentation, from the demonstration of the hardware to especially the finishing trademark "One more thing!" with Zelda making a predictable but nonetheless amazing launch date. It's a strategy that worked wonders for the Wii, remember, so why not?

Nintendo absolutely killed it, and I'll be keeping a really close eye on this thing. But the marketing and presentation was honestly textbook.

[1] [https://youtu.be/uuC4YLLkqME?t=33m20s](https://youtu.be/uuC4YLLkqME?t=33m20s)

<comment><USER10> 'Nintendo absolutely killed it'

I'm afraid I have to disagree. Here's why:

\- price: much more expensive than most people were expecting (£280 vs for example, £200 for a PS4 with a game)

\- battery life: potentially only 2.5 hours? Really not good enough for a handheld.

\- storage: only 32gb, will run out very quickly

\- online offering weak vs ps4/xbox as only NES/SNES games and you only get them for a month

\- very few titles on launch and key titles (e.g. Skyrim) delayed until much later in the year

Battery life and price are the real killers for me. I can see Nintendo slashing the price soon, just like they had to with the 3DS.

Edit: It seems like many others weren't impressed either. e.g. [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-01-13-nintendos- preca...](http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-01-13-nintendos-precarious- reveal-runs-risk-of-switching-off-fans)

<comment><USER11> > battery life: potentially only 2.5 hours? Really not good enough for a > handheld.

Whoah, can you source that? If that number is even remotely true the thing is completely useless as a handheld due to requiring 2-3 extra batteries for any longish trip.

<comment><USER12> From the presentation. They mentioned it was 2.5 to 6, but expect worst case with battery life. You can plug a USB-C to charge it with a power bank from what I gather.

<comment><USER13> Yep, the Nintendo 3DS came with a 1750 mAh battery and that lasted for 3-5 hours. Get a small power bank or a 10,000 mAh one and you're set for the whole day. I don't think battery is too much of a problem.

<comment><USER14> Y'know, the correct solution would be that it came with one

<comment><USER15> I personally really like not being forced to pay extra for a big battery when I buy a new device. I already have enough batteries I carry around.

On the other hand, I think it could be a nice touch to give the customer an option to buy a case/battery combo, designed by the same manufacturer.

<comment><USER16> Yup, agreed. I have a big powerbank i use for everything at home and i see no reason to increase the bulk of the Switch itself to include a bigger battery.

Likewise if it wasn't built in but came with the product, i'd be wanting a lower priced product not including the external battery.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> This is the first Nintendo platform from the "next generation" of developers at Nintendo that studied under Satoru Iwata and Shigeru Miyamoto. During the presentation, the heads of software development (Yoshiaki Koizumi and Shinya Takahashi) introduced the hardware, and the head of hardware development for Switch (Kouichi Kawamoto) introduced the launch title 1 2 Switch. Staples of such presentations like Miyamoto, Reggie Fils-Aimé and Eiji Aonuma were notably absent (though they did appear in a short video at the end of the presentation).

They didn't mention this at all, but I think it was a brilliant way to demonstrate that the next generation of Nintendo is as integrated and collaborative as ever, and let the games and the hardware speak for themselves. It also demonstrates the efficiency of the teams now that both the portable and home console teams are working together in one building at the new head office in Kyoto. A great subtle touch to an otherwise quite clear, explicit conference, and reminds me of how similar Nintendo and Apple are.

<comment><USER18> IGN brought this up too in their aftermath video - this presentation showed a lot of people we've just never met before. And the games (like the mario one) had something NEW to them which was exciting, and it's exciting that nintendo's letting the new generation try it out.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> I had to laugh when during the livestream they were going through each of the innovations of their past systems, and the only thing they could mention about the Gamecube was that it had a handle :)

But overall I think they continue to show real innovation in gaming. They're the only company who puts so much effort into maximizing their software with the uniqueness of their hardware.

<comment><USER20> Haven't watched the presentation yet, but I believe the GCN might have been the first console to come standard with "analog" shoulder buttons (dutifully demonstrated by its use in Mario Sunshine to control the spraying power of the backpack).

EDIT: Oh also, the Wavebird controller was the first wireless first-party controller.

<comment><USER21> Sega Dreamcast had analog triggers and came before gamecube.

<comment><USER22> The Saturn 3D pad also had analog triggers. Not sure if anything actually used then though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Kudos to Nintendo for supporting Vulkan and OpenGL. Nitendo do a lot of wrong stuff in regards to how they handle fan made games for instance, but adopting open, cross platform graphics APIs while their major rivals are stuck in the backwards thinking lock-in mentality, is a good decision.

<comment><USER24> All due to Nvidia's influence. Hopefully this will make the hardware more compelling to 3rd party studios.

<comment><USER25> I work at a major games publisher and literally all we care about is DirectX for PC/X1 ports, and the weird graphics library we use for PS4. I don't know of any game released by us in last 10 years which even had an OpenGL backend. From what I gathered from our graphics devs, their reaction to vulkan was "meh, it's nice but we already have PC covered with DirectX which we have to write for X1 anyway, and it's not like PS4 is going to support it, so what's the point?"

<comment><USER23> That's a pretty bad reaction, and also highlights the absence of good cross platform development in your studio, because of lack of common tools. You should release your games for Linux for a change.

But this also highlights, that pragmatic value of cross platform tools is apparent when they are really cross platform. I.e. the wider is their availability, the higher is their value. OpenGL didn't quite reach that, because of opposition from lock-in minded companies. So this is a welcome change in Nintendo's approach, because it advances Vulkan as a cross platform API.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> In line at the NYC store. I'm #2. There are a few people hanging out looking into store which is holding an event with a bunch of kids. Fewer people overall than I expected but there are 9 hours to go.

<comment><USER27> I'm confused, what's happening in 9 (or 8, now) hours? I haven't watched the entire video yet but the release date isn't until March 3, yes?

<comment><USER28> They're demoing the system.

<comment><USER29> Wow, queuing just to try it, not even to buy it? That's extreme.

<comment><USER30> There's a ton of love out there for Nintendo.

<comment><USER29> less and less however. kids play a lot on phones these days.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> I'm hoping someone can chime in to this, but putting the American market aside, is it just me or is this extremely marketable to the Asian market? Most of my Asian or Asian American friends exclusively play games on their phones. They play a wide selection of MMORPG to RTS games on their phones daily. Asians value games that are more repetitive (like EXP farming or turn based games, such as FF) and have great character development. I expect they will be receptive to a hybrid portable gaming system (not sure what to call this). [1]

Secondly, I'm surprised with how many people here find that the Nintendo Switch overpriced. We're all comparing the pricing to consoles that are sold at a loss (such as the PS4, they're essentially subsidized by the gaming industry). I bought a 3DS at about $200. For $100 more you get a tablet and console in one. I'm willing to bet like the 3DS, you'll be able to use this as a ad-hoc tablet for browsing the web as well and use it to play movies. I would jump on this if I had more time to game.

[1] Completely based on my opinion and might be subjected to cognitive bias and dissonance

<comment><USER32> > I would jump on this if I had more time to game.

I'm getting it as I hope having a portable console will give me more time to game. It'll fit in my suitcase and plug into nearly all hotel TVs. That is pretty awesome.

<comment><USER31> Agreed! Especially if it can play movies. I hope they make some sort portable display dongle.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> I haven't worked in game console hacking since the Wii days, but I'm getting a Switch day one to do just that. I can't wait to be able to use this as a hackable game tablet _and_ be able to throw it on the dock to play emulated games on the TV.

I really haven't seen anything like this before. I'm super excited to break it.

Edit: For those interested in working on this or following along, I created a Discord server for collaboration. Invite link: [https://discord.gg/hSMpnuG](https://discord.gg/hSMpnuG)

<comment><USER34> I'm excited about this too, esoecially after the recent boom in /r/3dshacks and /r/vitahacks

Hopefully it won't take long for a jailbreak to emerge.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> How come Nintendo keeps having to completely reinvent itself every couple of years? They go from being on the verge of bankruptcy to a hit then back again. It seems like one tiny misstep and they're done. Microsoft is still spending accrued value from the 90's after tons of mistakes, why doesn't Nintendo have an easier life?

<comment><USER36> Nintendo's never been on the verge of bankruptcy. That's a ridiculous myth that's always tossed around by news sites to get more clicks. Nintendo is a surprisingly tiny company with billions in cash in the bank.

As others have mentioned, they don't have backup cash cows like the other conglomerates so their short-term profits do vary wildly depending on the success of each platform, but the premise of one generation being a matter of life or death is a false.

<comment><USER37> They've never been close to bankruptcy, but at times it's only been because of the gameboy/DS line.

<comment><USER38> "If it wasn't for the popular things they sell, they'd be out of business!"

<comment><USER37> You're right, but there have been times where their handheld domination has looked shakey, which makes their whole future look shakey.

<comment><USER38> What handheld has come anywhere closer than smelling the GameBoy family's farts?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> Wow, I wonder where all this skepticism and negativity come from.

The Nintendo Switch has me so excited, I can't wait for the launch day!

Finally, I'll be able to have one piece of hardware for playing at home and on the go. If you don't see the awesomeness of playing Skyrim on your commute then probably are not in the right target group.

I like the Switch because it looks so versatile. You can play at home, on the go, alone, with friends, sitting down, standing up... There is going to be so many new experiences once the console is out.

<comment><USER40> > Finally, I'll be able to have one piece of hardware for playing at home and > on the go.

Until you're done playing both games, and then what ?

<comment><USER41> If it is like the Wii U older titles will also work. Games like splatoon, mario u (we love playing this as a family)and all older titles (via emulation) should be available.

<comment><USER42> Why would you assume that wii u titles would work? The switch only takes cartridges, virtual console titles are already tied to the console and don't even carry between wiiu systems, and the switch uses an nvidia tegra (arm) architecture where as the wiiu uses powerpc and an AMD graphics chip.

Not even the wiiu controllers will work with the switch.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> As pointed out by many gamers on Twitter: Switch officially ends the era of consoles with free online services[1].

[1] - [http://www.theverge.com/2017/1/13/14261018/nintendo- switch-p...](http://www.theverge.com/2017/1/13/14261018/nintendo-switch-paid- online-subscription-service-membership)

<comment><USER44> Define "online services". Xbox Live still lets you do quite a few things for free. (Although I gladly admit the free capabilities suck compared to the Gold capabilities.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER45> The page loads these two images:

[https://www.nintendo.co.jp/switch/assets/img/event/top/exper...](https://www.nintendo.co.jp/switch/assets/img/event/top/experience_img01.jpg)

[https://www.nintendo.co.jp/switch/assets/img/event/top/exper...](https://www.nintendo.co.jp/switch/assets/img/event/top/experience_img02.jpg)

and these two:

[https://www.nintendo.co.jp/switch/assets/img/event/top/prese...](https://www.nintendo.co.jp/switch/assets/img/event/top/presentation_img01.jpg)

[https://www.nintendo.co.jp/switch/assets/img/event/top/prese...](https://www.nintendo.co.jp/switch/assets/img/event/top/presentation_img02.jpg)

Any idea why?

<comment><USER46> The images are the same (same hash).

</comment></comment><comment><USER47> The one question that still hasn't been answered is will purchased eShop titles from the Wii U carry over to the Switch?

Wii purchased titles could be transferred and played on the Wii U, but the Wii U had the "Wii Mode" to handle that and Wii disks.

Right now it seems, sadly, backward compatibility is something that is dying off with this generation.

<comment><USER40> Wii U eShop titles are linked to the console, not to the user's account. Ignoring the fact that the Switch runs on completely different hardware, you can't even transfer your purchases games to a new console if yours breaks. Your only option is to ask Nintendo nicely to link them to your new console and hope they will.

</comment></comment><comment><USER48> Looks incredibly interesting. If Nintendo opens this platform to indie developers it could become hugely successful

<comment><USER49> According to their twitter feed[1], Nicalis is at least publishing two titles for the Switch, including the Binding of Isaac (they did release a previous version on the 3DS though).

Yacht Club Games [2] is also porting their retro-platformer Shovel Knight along with all its extension to the Switch. They also have a previous experience with Nintendo with a release of their game on 3DS and Wii U.

So at least 2 indie developpers I like are working on the Switch.

[1]: [https://twitter.com/nicalis](https://twitter.com/nicalis) [2]: [http://yachtclubgames.com/2017/01/switch- up/](http://yachtclubgames.com/2017/01/switch-up/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER50> A good plot twist:

Nintendo just sells these left & right Switch controllers you stick to the Switch screen BUT tries to get other smartphone manufacturers to integrate connectors to the left & right Switch controllers PLUS builds there own mobile phones. This is still the biggest bummer when playing games on phones—no physical buttons.

At the end of the day, Nintendo must get into the smartphone market and if it's just as a modded Android distribution or heck, just a pure Android with their own game app store (like Steam). They would have the killer properties to gain significant traction and enough users who would install a new app store just to play Mario (but they gave this opportunity away to Apple...).

<comment><USER51> And then being Android everyone would just steal their games since they would be available on Pirate Bay and startups everywhere would be trying to "disrupt" the games industry by making Nintendo JoyCon knockoffs. At which point Chinese manufacturers would be selling them on Alibaba for $2 each.

Somehow I don't think this would be good for Nintendo.

<comment><USER50> DRM?

<comment><USER52> DRM only means that the pirates, with their fancy DRM-removed cracked copies, have a more pleasant experience than the legitimate users who have to put up with whatever fuckology the DRM forces on them.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER53> Current concern on the gaming forums is the lack of high-profile launch games, with Splatoon 2 and Mario not being present at that time. Can Zelda alone sell systems? (probably yes)

<comment><USER54> They don't call them Zelda Boxes for nothing. I'll admit I'm biased, but I see nearly every Zelda game as easily in the top 3, if not the killer app of each Nintendo system.

Legend of Zelda - <USER2>

Link to the Past - <USER3>

Links Awakening - <USER4>

Ocarina of Time - <USER5>

Wind Waker - <USER6>

Twilight Princess - <USER8>

Skyward Sword - <USER8>

Heck, even the promise of how perfectly the WiiU's controller could have been for a Zelda game, was enough for me to buy the system.

I guess that makes me a fanboy. As long as Nintendo keeps making Zelda games, I'll keep buying the necessary hardware.

<comment><USER52> _They don 't call them Zelda Boxes for nothing. I'll admit I'm biased, but I see nearly every Zelda game as easily in the top 3, if not the killer app of each Nintendo system._

Maybe so, but there's no way[1] I would by a console just because I want to play a single game. It takes at least half a dozen exclusives that interest me (announced, they don't all have to be released yet) for me to consider buying another console.

[1] Not actually true: I'm considering buying a PS3 so that I can play Demon Souls. But a second hand PS3 is very cheap, so its not really the same thing IMHO.

<comment><USER55> Monster Hunter has become a console seller for me after playing it for the first time on the Wii, so it looks like I'll be getting a Switch too.

(Cost of the console / number of hours played on Monster Hunter alone) always justifies it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER56> The Wii U didn't sell a lot. The 3DS did sell a lot.

The Wii U has a higher price than the 3DS, and that is revenue Nintendo needs.

So how to create something as successful as the 3DS, with but as valuable as the Wii U... this seems to be their answer.

Then, "software sells hardware" is Nintendo's motto. They do not license their intellectual property, all games are exclusively released on Nintendo consoles.

Now, it has always been challenging for game studios other than Nintendo to profit a lot by releasing on a Nintendo system. Mostly because specs are always lower than the current generation of competitor consoles.

</comment><comment><USER57> I already paid for the game and now I have to pay again for multiplayer, when the prior two generations were pretty much free MP (when it even worked, that is.)

Why, Nintendo?

<comment><USER58> Well, seems like they are following the industry in this. You need Xbox Live Gold to play multiplayer on Xbox.

<comment><USER34> Same with Playstation multiplayer as of this gen (PS4).

The obvious answer would be that multiplayer servers cost money to run.

<comment><USER57> A more obvious answer would be "Bring back the ability to host our own servers in-game, the hardware is obviously powerful enough."

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER59> First off, I'm super excited by this. However, is it just me or is it a little disturbing to see Mario and his crew greatly out of proportion with the other "humans" in the world of Mario Odyssey ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ti9rFafwTw&t=65m49s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ti9rFafwTw&t=65m49s))?

<comment><USER60> I found the whole "Mario in the real world" disturbing overall. A bit nightmarish.

<comment><USER61> Then definitely do not watch the 1993 Hollywood Super Mario Bros. movie, which is Mario in the real world complimented with really weird and distributing makeup/prosthetics: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtMZKYnLg5c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtMZKYnLg5c)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER62> The Nintendo Wii was innovative and fun .. even the Wii U was a bit innovative and fun (ever play Mario Chase with friends .. worth buying Wii U for). Though... Switch does anyone see anything innovative besides a GameCube like system that is also portable?

<comment><USER20> The Wii U gets deserved flak for its paucity of titles, but there were some unbelievable gems sprinkled in there. The Nintendo Land pack-in game is an utter blast as a party game. And Mario Maker is probably the first "players build the levels" game whose interface doesn't feel arcane and esoteric, it really is a triumph of friendly UX.

<comment><USER63> Aaah yes. Nintendo Land is the ultimate party game. As far as my Nintendo Wii U purchase goes, I think all the hours of fun me and my friends had with Nintendo Land was worth the asking price alone. Then of course Mario Kart and Super Smash added some extra competitive and skill based fun for when we tired of Nintendo Land. And for some co-operative fun we had a blast with Rayman Legend, perhaps the best Rayman game to date!

I really have no regrets from buying the Wii U. It was such a good couch console!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER64> Wow! I believe Nintendo can make this a great experience for mobile gaming. It looks so good. I really like how you can engage your friends to play together.

</comment><comment><USER65> I wonder what their plans for the 3DS will be given how the Switch is also portable.

<comment><USER66> As the dimensions of Switch is only a bit larger than the New 3DS XL, the XL is their best selling model and 3DS is already 6 years old and too slow even for direct Wii game ports without downscaling the textures, though it's still selling well - so the 3DS production will probably end in 2017/18.

<comment><USER65> So they are pretty much becoming a one console company. This is a huge gamble given how successful the portables have been.

<comment> chalupa-man I think something had to change eventually. When the 3DS was announced, iPads weren't on the market (so tablets were still a very niche thing) and smartphones were still quite new. In the 7 years since, they've become omnipresent, and it didn't take long for them to become massively more powerful and capable than the 3DS while also being much more portable. I think Nintendo were justifiably worried that if they stayed on their current path, the next handheld wouldn't survive 7 years, just being utterly demolished by phones and tablets. At the same time, the Wii U was a relative failure, and it looked unlikely that they'd ever recapture the audience that made the Wii a phenomenon -- for related reasons, the Wii was an affordable novelty smash with people who weren't big game fans, and that market has all their needs satisfied by their phones and tablets now. So it makes total sense for them to fuse the handheld and console worlds together and focus all their efforts on one platform.

To my disappointment, personally. I wish it were a home console rather than a handheld for reasons that are entirely based on my own needs and tastes (I'll never take it outside so it adds cost for no benefit, the need for portability means games can never really make great use of the motion controls, a lot of multiplayer seems based on the joycons which look absurdly small for adult man hands).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Nintendo Switch Product Pages:

JP: [https://www.nintendo.co.jp/switch/presentation.html](https://www.nintendo.co.jp/switch/presentation.html)

USA: [http://www.nintendo.com/switch/](http://www.nintendo.com/switch/)

Each of these pages has videos from the presentation.

</comment><comment><USER67> I've pre ordered it, but £280 is quite a large pill to swallow, especially when the US is getting it for $300.

Not sure if that's inflation or brexit or what, but damn.

Will see what happens in the next few weeks before deciding whether to cancel or not.

<comment><USER68> If £280 is the retail price then it's £233 before VAT (20%) is added. At the current exchange rate that's $283 (US).

</comment></comment><comment><USER69> I'm excited for the switch. I hope the Joy-Cons are comfortable. If it is, I have to admit it looks like a very versatile controller. Only downside is how expensive they are. The accessories really cost too much.

It was interesting to see how all previous Nintendo consoles made controller improvements. Reminded me why Nintendo won so many generations. It seems they're trying the same with the Switch.

Arms looks pretty cool. I'm looking forward to more games that smartly use the controller's features.

</comment><comment><USER70> Even for a portable system I think Nintendo might have set the bar too low on graphics this time. Most of these games just don't look very good to the point of being visually distracting. It's almost an uncanny valley sort of thing where the graphics are _just_ sort of good enough that the bad parts stick out like a sore thumb. It's most noticeable in the Mario game. Not sure that real world environments + weak graphics hardware was a good choice.

</comment><comment><USER71> Just pre-ordered on Amazon UK for £279.99. Interestingly Tesco, a large retailer, are running an Adwords campaign advertising it at £499.99

</comment><comment><USER72> Did anyone else think this looked like prep for taking over the low-end VR space, given all the emphasis on motion tracking? It seems like all they'd have to do is release a headset like Sony is doing with the PS4 and you'd have a good portable VR setup. Probably with a better library than Samsung gear too.

<comment><USER73> Splat ion 2 appears to be showing dual-wielding gyroscopic aiming. The joy- cons are already full vr/at constrollers, and I cloud see Nintendo moving to AR instead of VR

</comment></comment><comment><USER74> Watching the graphics quality of the Zelda demo, I can't help but think: If only this weren't on Nintendo. The graphics look equivalent to Elder Scrolls: Morrowind (2002). As with so many Nintendo demos; I find myself wishing they were a cross-platform game studio rather than a lagging hardware company.

<comment><USER20> Art direction makes up for it. By now, photorealism in games is becoming bland. Given a screenshot of most any random modern AAA game, without the HUD, I don't know if I could distinguish them. I won't argue that more graphical fidelity isn't better, but we've reached a saturation point where graphical fidelity alone won't sell your game.

<comment><USER75> I couldn't agree more. Over the years I have become less and less interested in games as they have become more and more realistic graphically.

The games I still enjoy playing have poor low resolution graphics, but they're challenging and fun.

This is one of the things I respect so much about Nintendo; they haven't given in to pressure to make everything realistic. They keep their focus on the game play and allow players to use their imagination when it comes to graphics.

<comment><USER76> There's still plenty of room for artistic style in graphically "realistic" games. Dishonored and the recent Deus Ex games (particularly the Human Revolution) are pretty good examples of both good graphical definition and a very strong sense of style. Going back a little further there were the Bioshock games, which also just ooze style (as well as being top tier in the realistic graphics dept for their time).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER77> OT: There is a popular program/interstitial in Japan called Pythagoras Switch[0]. I wonder if the name is a partial reference to that.

0: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0B1hgP1tlE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0B1hgP1tlE)

<comment><USER78> Loved that show while I was in Japan, but I doubt there is a reference here.

</comment></comment><comment><USER79> Since the initial reveal, I have been utterly underwhelmed by this product. I fail to see a viable market or a satisfactory use case for such an oddly designed and artificially limited gaming device, and am confident that it will be yet another failure in a long line of Nintendo failures.

No touch screen? Not a single camera for AR content and/or social communication? The controllers look miniscule in the actor's tiny hands. The dock HAD to cover the screen of the device? I foresee the controller sliding and locking mechanism wearing down over time, leading to sloppy interconnection between the controllers and the device.

I could go on with the horrible design choices, but I cannot think of a single redeeming quality. It looks like the market is 6-12 year olds.

<comment><USER80> _" I could go on with the horrible design choices"_

You can create hundreds of _speculatively_ horrible design choices, but not one of them would mean a thing until you try the product and check if they apply right?

<comment><USER81> It's easy to analyze in a frictionless vacuum.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER82> I admire Nintendo's effort but I think they need to make a phone to really compete and they need something graphically powerful. That is to say, they need to raise prices at launch of a new device to ensure the hardware has enough of a shelf life. Spending $300 on a portable for gaming after spending twice that on a phone capable of gaming seems like a hard sell to the mass market/casual gamer.

Will this really be able to stand up against iPhones and Android devices in a year or two? I sadly don't think so... the maxwell X1 it's shipping with will be under power as soon as a device is released and woefully as soon as other device manufacturers start shipping X2 (I think that's the name) Pascal or whatever new PowerVR chipset debuts soon based devices.

I think a lot of the tech going into VR like motion controls and low latency displays will destroy some of Nintendo's technical advantage they're as no longer the only game in town with it.

Finally, while making the SDK better by using open standards I think most devs would prefer a larger market; which, both iOS and Android provide.

I've been a Nintendo fan in a big way for 25 years and want to be wrong but I worry if they don't go big in another decade they'll be in the same place as Sega. I bought a Wii U solely for Smash Bros and will buy a Switch when it's (Smash Bros) ported but I don't think most folks are quite so obsessed or willing to invest that much for one game.

Glad to eat my words in a few months, hopefully I do.

Edit: updated with reference to another GPU manufacturer. For my point it's not the exact SOC that matters it's the speed of iteration/capabilities on the near horizon.

Edit 2: Here's a year old benchmark showing how the maxwell X1 stacks up:

[http://wccftech.com/snapdragon-820-benchmarks/](http://wccftech.com/snapdragon-820-benchmarks/)

Edit 3: added "casual gamer" after mass market for clarity.

<comment><USER83> Power doesn't matter. Phones get slower with each passing year as more bloat is added OTA. Consoles get faster as new games exploit more and more of the power available at launch. The experience has almost always been better on consoles, and not the most powerful ones.

If it were about power we would wax nostalgic about the NeoGeo, TurboGrafx 16, and Atari Jaguar.

<comment><USER29> The Neo Geo is still popular for all famous arcade games like King of Fighters. And people still play them for competition. You can't really say the same thing for the Super Famicom and the like.

Plus "power does not matter" does not make sense. It worked for Nintendo before. The SUper Famicom was the most powerful console at the time and it sold better than the Megadrive. The N64 did not beat the playstation but it was more powerful 3D-wise but they made the wrong choice to go with cartridges then. Nevertheless the N64 sold well and had very good games too.

The started dropping the ball with the Gamecube in terms of Raw Power - it was not better than the Xbox or the PS2 or at least not significantly to make any difference. And guess what, this is when Iwata was leading the design of the console. He is at the root of "we don't care about graphics, old-gen is the best". It did not work well. Even the Wii was not so much of a success- they sold a lot of hardware but very few games per system. Most consumers bought it for Wii Sports and left it at that and most units collected dust soon within a year of purchase.

<comment> Al-Khwarizmi The reason for Neo Geo being more popular than SNES in competitions is probably that the Neo Geo catalog was almost all competitive simultaneous 2-player games (as they doubled as arcade games), while in the SNES most iconic games are single-player. For SNES games with the simultaneous multiplayer mode (e.g. Super Mario Kart) championships are also healthy.

In my opinion SNES and Neo Geo were, each in its style, the best consoles of all time, and in general they have aged really well, as can also be seen by the persisting popularity of their games in 2017. I think this is probably because they were the pinnacle of 2D gaming. Of course 3D bought amazing possibilities to gaming, but for example the precious artfulness and attention to detail in Last Blade II (IMO a much better game than the overrated KoFs, by the way) is something I am still yet to see in a modern fighting game. On the other hand, when I play an early 3D game like many PSX releases, I just see things that can be done much better now, which makes the game look more dated.

<comment><USER84> The Neo-Geo is truly a way to bring games you would find in an arcade home while the SNES has long single player games which don't work in an arcade setting. So it's not that surprising the Neo-Geo games are more suitable for competition than most SNES games.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER85> The big question is how many people are willing to carry another device to play games vs using their phone with a good controller case. Are phone controllers at least standardized yet?

</comment><comment><USER69> Would be awesome if I could use the Switch to also stream my PS4 and my Steam games to it. Don't it will, but that'd be cool.

</comment><comment><USER86> What are some of the reasons why Nintendo Switch isn't just phone + app + chromecast-like device + bluetooth controllers?

<comment><USER87> Who would buy that? Screen is too small to be of great utility for gaming, cellphones have awful battery life for gaming, controllers wouldn't be as nice to bind to such a device while sticking it in a pocket, and it directly brings it into competition with Apple and Android phone vendors.

I love gaming as much as anyone else, but that makes a lot less sense than what Nintendo is currently doing. The Switch isn't a pocket-sized console, and doesn't pretend to be. It is big and powerful enough to drive a TV-based experience, while being portable enough for trips/public transit.

<comment><USER88> > cellphones have awful battery life for gaming

The video says the switch, depending on conditions has a battery life between 2.5 and 6.5 hours. That doesn't sound particularly better than a cellphone.

<comment><USER89> Unplug your phone and play (or record) videos for a few hours. See where the battery is.

<comment><USER88> I do that regularly. And that's why I'm saying that the announced 2.5-6.5 hours doesn't seem like much difference with a cellphone.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER90> I will buy this if it has sports games.. and I don't mean Wii Sports like games... I mean... EA, 2k and so on.

<comment><USER91> EA was there and announced a FIFA game, so I'm assuming their other sports games are coming as well.

<comment><USER90> Sweet. I saw a 2k17/18 on another site. So that gets my hopes up. I'm a casual gamer, and this seems to be a good in between full console vs mobile gaming.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER92> The gaming community's receptions to the Switch seems to be somewhat sceptical:

[http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=382](http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=382)

[https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2016/10/26/youth- adjacent](https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2016/10/26/youth-adjacent)

<comment><USER93> To be clear, these cartoons are from 2016 and aren't based on yesterday's presentation.

</comment></comment><comment><USER94> Looks clunky as hell. How big is that thing? I notice that the video doesn't show actual humans playing it.

</comment><comment><USER95> That controller gives me RSI just looking at the controller..... no thanks

</comment><comment><USER96> Will 6 people play it on all 6 demo Sundays (in 6 cities)?

</comment><comment><USER97> Overpriced, low battery life compared to iPad and only good game announced was 2011 released Skyrim.

If Nintendo wants to stay in game business they need to get serious. This press info was much worse than I expected it to be.

</comment><comment><USER98> The pricing is on the level of Apple for some reason.

</comment><comment><USER99> No info released on battery, RAM and GPU? Fishy.

<comment><USER100> They never do that. Specs are not Nintendo's thing. They're more interested in how much fun you can have with it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER101> So on launch we have the choice of Zelda... or the milking the cow game... really...

<comment><USER102> No titles at launch is common for Nintendo. SNES had F-Zero or Super Mario World. n64 had pilotwings or super mario 64. Gamecube had Luigi's Mansion, Wave Race something or other, and Super Monkey Ball.

Admittedly, Wii had a bunch of launch games.

</comment></comment><comment><USER103> Oh for fuck's sake Nintendo. Just put all the NES and SNES games on a little ARM box, sell if for 100 bucks and watch the money pour in.

// ThatPlayer: Of course not, but they could make deals for the popular ones, etc.

<comment><USER104> [https://github.com/jasarien/Provenance](https://github.com/jasarien/Provenance) An AppleTV 4 can be had for ~$150 with controller.

<comment><USER103> A Raspberry Pi might do it as well (at least for the likes of us.)

I'm just worried about Nintendo. They had some money troubles a couple of years (?) ago and I'm not sure this thing is going to fix it.</comment></comment></comment>


What Citrix is doing with Xenserver - <AUTHOR> https://xenserver.org/blog/entry/what-is-citrix-doing-with-xenserver-org.html <comment><USER2> I recommend everyone using XenServer to move to XCP-ng [0]. They take the XenServer sources, remove licensing restrictions and add some great new features etc (like nfs4.1, ZFS etc.). They're from the same people behind Xen Orchestra (web-based console for XenServer) [1], and offer pro support like Citrix [2].

I was about to move off XenServer with the recent changes to licensing [3] (tl;dr they removed a bunch of features from the free edition), but XCP-ng has allowed me to continue with XenServer whilst make few changes to my already- working setup.

[0] [https://xcp-ng.org/](https://xcp-ng.org/)

[1] [https://xen-orchestra.com/#!/xo-home](https://xen-orchestra.com/#!/xo- home)

[2] [https://xcp-ng.com/](https://xcp-ng.com/)

[3] [https://xenserver.org/blog/entry/xenserver-7-3-changes-to- th...](https://xenserver.org/blog/entry/xenserver-7-3-changes-to-the-free- edition.html)

<comment><USER3> > They take the XenServer sources, remove licensing restrictions

Um, how exactly? You generally can't take software with licence X, and republish it with license Y...

<comment> yjftsjthsd-h I don't know about this case, but it's not that rare to see source code published under ex. Apache 2 while official binaries are proprietary or something (see ex. Caddy), in which case it's easy enough to just grab the source, enable all features, and distribute the result. Arguably similar to what AWS did with Elasticsearch recently.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> It's funny how they went from renaming completely unrelated projects to "XenSomething" (like XenApp) to removing "Xen" from "XenServer".

</comment><comment><USER5> Hi there :) [XCP-ng project]([https://xcp-ng.org](https://xcp-ng.org)) founder here. I made a presentation during last FOSDEM for those who want to learn more about this free/libre/Open Source fork from XenServer/Citrix Hypervisor: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpGC5zuLjSs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpGC5zuLjSs)

25 minutes, questions included, with a recap on why and how!

</comment><comment><USER6> Does anyone actually use Xen as a VM host anymore? I thought it was pretty much dead?

<comment><USER7> Bit of a surprising comment - Xen is very widely used - even all of AWS is Xen (I believe), are you perhaps thinking of XenServer (Citrix's OS / Distro based on Xen)?

If you do mean XenServer, well - yes some large places are still using it but it's definitely dying out after they proved very slow to deliver new features then put a restriction on free / open source users as of 7.3 onwards that prevents clusters great that 3 hosts rendering mostly useless.

XCP-ng ([https://xcp-ng.org/](https://xcp-ng.org/)) is a fork of XenServer which is picked up where XenServer left off and is doing a lot in a short period of time (IMO) to add new features and build / support the community.

<comment><USER6> AWS has been maintaining there own custom version for more than 2 years based on the open source code, and mostly use KVM now from what I understand.</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: I created a script to download all videos from a porn site - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/bkvirendra/paintbottle-downloader/#

<comment><USER2> Your mother would be proud!</comment>


Driverless cars will lead to more sex on the road, study says - sahin-boydas https://www.nbcnews.com/business/autos/driverless-cars-will-lead-more-sex-road-study-says-n936801 <comment><AUTHOR> ok, what's the problem? The real danger is people having it now. I wonder how many crashes can be attributed to it. A bunch, I bet. If it's a problem then add more windows and a few cameras.</comment>


As of January 19th, 2018, IPDB will be shutting down - <AUTHOR> https://ipdb.io/ <comment><USER2> Apparently, this is because of legal liability that comes with permanent storage of arbitrary data: [https://twitter.com/BigchainDB/status/949305547731300352](https://twitter.com/BigchainDB/status/949305547731300352)

It's sad because a public blockchain database is somethat that ought to exist IMHO.</comment>


Scientists Tip the Scales Against Anglers (2011) - <AUTHOR> http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/the-hook-that-hurts-scientists-tip-the-scales-against-anglers-a-749956.html <comment><USER2> Definitely interesting times for animal rights. There have been a number of law changes making animal abuse as punitive as the human equivalent. But the general sentiment was for dogs and cats as far as I could tell and there are some nuanced questions that follow regarding how different orders should be treated. For instance, is a child with a pet goldfish that dies because they forgot to feed it an animal abuser, or does it not count because we see fish as lesser than mammals. Most wouldn't object to squashing a fly/mosquito/cockroach though.

And then it goes back to questions of animal consumption (directly - meat, and indirectly - eggs, milk etc) and how that relates to animal abuse or whether killing humanly makes it acceptable. Most vegans I know would say that even 'humane' killing is one that isn't sanctioned by a conscious animal being hence is effectively murder.

And to throw a virtual bone to HN world, what happens when we encounter this phenomena in the virtual or even robotic worlds with conscious machines?</comment>


Your dotfiles and you - <AUTHOR> http://www.twinbit.it/en/blog/your-dotfiles-and-you This is an introductory article describing what dotfiles are and why you should treat them as a life long software project. <comment><USER2> Related: See using GNU Stow for the same result

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6331485](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6331485)

[http://taihen.org/managing-dotfiles-with-gnu- stow/](http://taihen.org/managing-dotfiles-with-gnu-stow/)

<comment><USER3> Nice, never heard of that, thanks

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Wouldn't something like Dropbox (or some kind of hacky rsync/shellscript/cron replacement) be more appropriate for that? Usually you don't want to _version_ your configuration files; you just want them to be the same in all places. And with a repository I still have to think about committing, pushing and pulling.

<comment><USER5> My dotfiles have acquired enough cruft and interdependence in the many years they've been written that I certainly benefit from keeping them under version control. If all you have is a dozen lines in .bashrc and .tmuxrc it's ok, but once you pile up custom scripts and configs it gets out of hand quickly and you actually end up with regressions.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I've been meaning to look in to ThoughtBot's RCM [1] dotfile management system for something like this, btw.

[1]: [https://github.com/thoughtbot/rcm](https://github.com/thoughtbot/rcm)</comment>


Is it normal to buy multiple domains for 1 startup - <AUTHOR>

I've decided on the name for my startup but the name uses a word i'd like to own in the market, such as myspace owns www.ourspace.com ..  So is it normal to buy a lot of similar domains names like this? <comment><USER2> Yes, for branding reasons most of the time you'll want the .com, .net and .org. If you can only choose one, .com's are usually preferred.

</comment><comment><USER3> Its cheaper to buy it when you start than after you've turned a profit and someone else has picked up the names you want.</comment>


Things I Enjoy in Rust: Enums - <AUTHOR> https://blog.jonstodle.com/things-i-enjoy-in-rust-enums/ <comment><USER2> I use enums quite a bit in my code. Makes all my structs so small.</comment>


The $1 Millon Beyond the Box Digitization Competition - <AUTHOR> http://beyondthebox.aibs.org/

<comment><USER2> Not an expert in biology here , can someone elaborate what the problem statement is ? What does it mean to "create a technology that increases the speed and accuracy of digitization of a drawer of insect specimens and their associated data."</comment>


Mainland China service availability - <AUTHOR> http://www.google.com/prc/report.html

<comment><USER2> I think this page is the most interesting thing to come out of the whole discussion: the dashboard highlights how open access to information is becoming more and more a minimum requirement for business.

Maybe we ought to take this further and create a dashboard which includes other critical internet services that are not available in China, i.e. Facebook, Twitter, ...</comment>


Ask HN: How do you do change management - <AUTHOR>

After a full afternoon of fighting the change management process at my current employer, for what will be about 20 seconds of unavailability to an internal CMS server, it has left me wondering what do other people do for change management?<p>If your employer/company has a change management process do you find yourself fighting it or do you find it frees you from the responsibility of the change? <comment><USER2> Change management is a great thing to have if you regularly need to have bad projects killed. You route them to the CMO (change management organization) and it does the rest. Real projects which really matter have someone high enough up the food chain as a champion who shoves them through.

This sounds cynical, and it is a little, but there is more than a little truth to it.</comment>


Swift on Raspberry Pi - <AUTHOR> https://blog.lickability.com/swift-on-raspberry-pi-e44c79fc32f3 <comment><USER2> I don't want to be negative about this article, but reading over it left me with a little bit of disappointment.

I was hoping for an in depth dive into how Swift performed on a RPi compared to other languages (say, C relative to Swift on x86, then the same for ARM), and a little on how well Swift interacts with the Pi's hardware. But it was just a quick guide on setting up a Pi, installing Swift, and making a quick 'Hello, World' program. The only lines of interest came at the very end:

> Now that Swift is installed, there's so much more that you can do. To > control hardware — like LEDs, motors, and relays — you can use the help of a > library for hardware projects on Linux/ARM boards called SwiftyGPIO. Have > fun experimenting with Swift on the Raspberry Pi!

That said, SwiftyGPIO looks like a fun little library that I think I'm going to look into more and play around with.

<comment><USER3> "In-depth" wasn't mentioned anywhere in the title though. The author also defines hardware vs software... Clearly an introduction, and props to him for trying.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is a decent guide, but if you are interested in Swift on ARM in general, the crux is uraimo's Swift on ARM project [0], which is a huge resource for the community.

[0] - [https://github.com/uraimo/buildSwiftOnARM](https://github.com/uraimo/buildSwiftOnARM)

<comment><USER5> > ...but if you are interested in Swift on ARM in general...

I kind of was expecting this to be bare-metal Swift running on ARM with a Raspberry Pi, when I read both the OP's title and your comment. But I was disappointed to see that this was running on Linux. From the README.md...

> Scripts to clone, configure, patch and build Swift 5.0.2 on Linux ARM > devices.

Hopefully in the future, Swift would support bare-metal environments just like how Rust and Zig does.

<comment><USER6> Bare metal is almost entirely unnecessary in 2019, because you can configure Linux to only occupy one core for all of its processes and threads. The other cores you can assign to your own apps and they will never be schedule off of that core—zero context switching overhead.

And you can still SSH into your "bare metal" box, run gdb, etc. Best of both worlds.

<comment><USER5> > Bare metal is almost entirely unnecessary in 2019, because you can configure > Linux to only occupy one core for all of its processes and threads.

Configuring the Linux kernel just to meet the requirements for bare-metal applications might work for some use-cases but not for security and safety- critical applications.

For instance, the IoT industry still suffers from typical security issues in the drivers and firmware due to these Linux/Busybox vulnerabilities in the system. There are alternatives that use safer languages or formal verification that are more secure than configuring Linux for IoT or bare metal development, like TockOS [0] (using Rust) or seL4 microkernel (a formally verified microkernel).

So, is bare metal almost entirely unnecessary in 2019? Security wise, I'd much rather use safer languages like Rust for bare metal in 2019, than to use Linux/Busybox for this use-case.

[0] - [https://www.tockos.org/](https://www.tockos.org/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> > We use apt by typing apt-get in the terminal

You can also use apt.

<comment><USER8> And the apt command is much nicer anyway, with a proper progress bar and a unification of all the apt-* commands.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> > The official programming language of Raspberry Pi is Python.

Huh? In what way exactly?

<comment><USER10> There are some sources for that, like engaget for example.

There are also a few shortcuts on the desktop if you install it with the gui... But yeah, it's ultimately a Debian deviate, so anyone with any experience will be able to use it however he wants

> _Raspbian comes preloaded with Python, the official programming language of > the Raspberry Pi and IDLE 3, a Python Integrated Development Environment._

<comment><USER9> I guess it was surprising to me because I don't know anyone who's ever used their pi for python stuff. I mostly use them for networking, though.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> > [apt] is kind of like the App Store for applications and packages on linux > machines.

i died a little inside

<comment><USER12> Yup, but unfortunately, it's the most relatable way to explain it. Yes, package managers were around long before any of these "app stores", but most people are unaware of that fact. It's the main feature that attracted me to Linux when I started using it, and the main pain point when trying to use something else.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Is arm an officially supported compiler target or is this just someone's port of swift to arm?

<comment><USER14> Swift is built on top of LLVM, the same way C,C++ and Rust are. Also note that the language was created by the original creator of LLVM.

So you can use any backend LLVM does.. theres a little runtime friction in porting a small Swift runtime to the target (but you would only need to worry about that, if its not a popular LLVM backend).

But given Apple is a first class consumer of Swift, arm is definetely a strategic backend for Swift, given it needs to run on iOS.

(its a little alpha i guess, but you can even compile your Swift code to run on WASM nowadays)

<comment><USER13> I don't think it's that simple. AVR was merged into LLVM, but I think you'd be hard pressed to get either rust or swift running on it right now.

> So you can use any backend LLVM does.. theres a little runtime friction in > porting a small Swift runtime to the target

More than a little friction, I would think.

I actually 'trust' the support if the language declares that they are going to support it. For example, Rust has said they will support the wasm target as first class.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> But not on windows. Apple's prioritisation of compiler targets makes me sad.

<comment><USER12> It's a _lot_ easier to support Linux than Windows since it's so similar to macOS, and they're already supporting ARM, so it really just comes down to OS features they need to support. Windows is just so different from everything else.

That being said, I'm sure it already works through WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux), so if Windows is your only platform, you can still probably play with it.</comment></comment>


Do any of the Y Combinator firms use Extreme Programming? - <AUTHOR>

<comment><AUTHOR> Some context. I am considering a startup. I was blown away by the intensity of Zenter's development schedule. One of my potential co founders is a bit of a fanatic about XP but some facets of the process (especially the religious sloganeering and the use of tests to "evolve" the design ("TDD") ) seems counterintuitive. Also I am a bit concerned that the "big names" of Agile (with a couple of exceptions) don't seem to be hackers just process consultants and most of the experience they have seem to be in creating inhouse corporate software.

If anyone here has used XP or other Agile methodologies (or even fragments from it like "TDD" for e.g) in their startup efforts, please take a moment to jot down your impressions.

How important is it to have the thefounders' coding "philosophies" mesh well?

Thanks in advance.

<comment><USER2> Some Ycombies may be using ideas promoted by XP, e.g. wide ranging automated testing, without chanting the XP mantra. I'd have thought good unit test coverage and web interface testing, e.g. twill, benefit fast site development, especially with today's dynamic languages like Python. <http://twill.idyll.org/>

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank You. We plan to use both automated unit and web interface tests.</comment></comment></comment>


Real-time Keyboard Heatmap visualizing character distribution of texts - <AUTHOR> http://www.patrick-wied.at/projects/heatmap-keyboard/

<comment><USER2> Is it just me or does it seem like a good 65% of all keystrokes are performed with one's left hand?</comment>


Where are you in your company's layoff list? - <AUTHOR> http://blog.kdgregory.com/2016/03/layoffs.html <comment><USER2> I've been a sys admin and/or coder professionally since 1996. I've been a manager and an individual contributor. I've worked for big companies (HP, Yahoo), and small (in the first dozen employees). I've been through a company growing from 100 employees to nearly 1000 and back down to 100 again. I've been through two acquisitions, and probably a dozen layoffs.

I've never been let go. No doubt I've been lucky. But there's a saying: luck favors the prepared. I consistently get shit done, and have a reputation for doing so.

Do your job. Do your job well. Make sure you're not invisible. The rest is out of your control, but it's worked for me.

Knock on wood.

<comment><USER3> The way I've seen it play out time and time again is the most expensive staff are let go first when money starts to run low. If you've _never_ been let go, have you considered you simply might be undercharging?

<comment><USER4> Which is to say, if you use the layoff list as a measure of "value received" and you the company gets some value from keeping you employed, and you get some value by being employed. Then being at the top of the layoff list means you are getting way more value out of being employed than the company is, and being at the bottom of the list means the company is getting way more value out of you being employed. So if you are aggressive shoot for the top, if you are defensive shoot for the bottom :-)

<comment><USER5> This comment pretty much nails it. I've definitely seen a pattern of highly compensated people getting sacked.

If someone does play the aggressive pattern I'd highly recommend saving up a lot of cash so you can weather longer spells of unemployment. This is especially true if you intend to be selective in who you work for after getting laid off.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Keep your resume always up to date? That is the kind of risk free but pointless advice you see here and there, but what is the point?

Are you going to forget the highlights of the work you have done? Not really.

Does it take a lot of work to update a resume, such that upon being laid off you have to delay your job search for a significant amount of time because you have to go into full time 'resume updating' mode for a month? Not at all.

Updating a resume takes like 4 hours. If you've been at the same job for 20 years, it might take 8 hours. There is just no reason to 'always keep your resume up to date'. Not a real reason not to do it, but no reason to do it either.

It's like advising people to always wash the bottoms of their running shoes with an old toothbrush after every run. Will it hurt? Not really. Will it help? Nope. Should you do it? If you feel like it or enjoy it, shit, go for it, but it's also a waste of time.

<comment><USER7> > Are you going to forget the highlights of the work you have done? Not > really.

I do.

I implemented a specific kind of distributed calculation in the financial industry before it was a thing. We (I didn't design the calculation) literally invented something that hadn't been done.

Totally forgot about it. It just got patented 15 years later. It's not on my resume.

Right now, I'm applying machine learning to a domain that hasn't yet had it applied and it feels similar: it's going to be awesome, going to do great things, and I probably won't remember it when I need to update my resume.

If I were to start all over, I would write down every single thing I ever did in the resume and when it came time to send that resume out, I'd whittle it down to the things that apply just for that job.

Here's to hoping I never need to send out a resume again, otherwise I'm screwed.

<comment><USER6> I refuse to have a resume that is more than the front of one piece of paper. I generally get complimented on it. When I add something new, it means something else comes off. I can update it in about 5 minutes if I need to, which is rare, because who uses resumes anymore? They are ridiculous.

The jobs that ask for a resume are the same ones I don't ever want to have again.

<comment><USER8> Out of curiosity, does this mean you drop older positions completely off the resume? Doesn't this make employers question the time periods not accounted for?

BTW, I've needed a resume a few times even when not looking for a job -- e.g. a potential investor or acquirer wants to see resumes of all key personnel.

<comment><USER9> > Doesn't this make employers question the time periods not accounted for?

At a certain point, you take the date of your degree off the resume, and if they want a full history, they can ask for it.

The best plan is to have two documents: a career tracking document that covers everything you did, _and how well you did it_ , and then your resume is simply a summary of the most important parts of that career document.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I have a friend who works for a big aerospace conpany, and he keeps an eye on his team members. One in particular is "the buffer". This person is apparently not that good at tasks.

If "the buffer" ever gets laid off, my friend has to be concerned. Until then, "the buffer" is a source of comfort to my friend.

<comment><USER11> More likely, they'll lay off the whole team.

<comment><USER10> Or the whole location. But having someone of questionable competence helps my friend's peace of mind. Don't know how much it slows down the team, though.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I loved this article, but I do have to disagree on one point: your productivity matters.

Lots of teams have someone who is not pulling their weight but the boss doesn't want to have to fire them.

<comment><USER13> I agree. I've been part of teams in which the person who was clearly most productive and most critical to the team's short-term and medium-term success was laid off. The organization was going through a "restructuring" which just meant that anyone making over a certain threshold in salary was fired and "replaced" with someone half as expensive but a thousand times less capable.

The bosses probably didn't enjoy doing this (the ones who had to actually break the news) but they also didn't care too much either. If firing the most experienced people really had an impact on productivity, then the team would just be reassigned to do different work, clients would be cut, budgets would shrink, whatever it required to ensure that whichever personnel you happened to have were acceptable for whatever work your team did.

I think a lot of people don't realize this. The company exists solely to service and enhance the lifestyle of executives. If the executives see a way to maintain the same lifestyle for less business cost, even if it means terminating an entire business line and upsetting many happy customers & laying people off who are doing great at their jobs, so be it.

They utterly don't care. It has literally nothing to do with productivity except as a totally unintended side effect of how to service the lifestyle of some executive.

As companies succeed and grow, they start investing in wargaming scenarios for effectively having total bargaining power over their staff. When HR types meet with executives in these kinds of firms to talk about strategies for hiring, a high priority is how to structure the business so that it is never "dependent" on employees.

If it means ending an otherwise profitable business line, so be it. It just depends on whether ending that business line is going to have any serious impact on the lifestyles of executives or not.

You see a lot of job advice that advocates working really hard to "become necessary" to your employer. It's just wishful thinking, though. Rule number one is: no employee is necessary. If we ever discover that an employee is necessary, then we simply restructure the business, changing as much as is needed, to make sure that property is no longer true.

The best you can hope for is to be "necessary" for a short period of time as the business recognizes that this is the case and immediately begins plotting about how to restructure so as to ensure no one in your position can possibly be necessary.

<comment><USER14> It comes down to a question of degrees I think. No employee can be allowed to be so necessary as to become a single point of failure. However I think it's all possible for an employee to be reasonable "necessary" without the employer actively trying to make that position replaceable.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> While the article is a nice run down, honestly there's not a whole lot you can do when "your number is up".

You may be told that you are low on the list or think you have a "buffer", but honestly if push comes to shove you _will_ be laid off. It doesn't matter where you may be positioned.

</comment><comment><USER16> While we're doling out life pro tips, mine wold be to "never make it so your value of self is dependent on your job." E.g. you can believe that you never having been laid off is a testament to your great skill and awesomeness, but that will only make the fall much harder when you _are_ laid off. I mean that in a positive way.

</comment><comment><USER17> This way of thinking feels a bit toxic. I don't do my job with the objective of not being laid off.

A business relationship such as employment works as long as it works for both parties. Pretty much like other relationships, when it stops working for one party, it's time to move on.

</comment><comment><USER18> I can relate to this article. While in UK, back in 2008/9, I was a senior developer (C/C++). The favourite topic during lunch times was who will be gone or who will be retained. One guy, who everyone thought would be safe was a Team Lead (of a system written in COBOL). This guy had been awarded topmost grade in recent appraisal cycle.

He was layed-off and I got the charge of handling his system, in addition to mine, with no promotion. Apparently the only thing mattered was how much "value-for-money" an employee is bringing to the table. I came to know later that almost all team leads were layed-off because the systems in question were in existence for last 10 yrs and were stable.

</comment><comment><USER14> Pretty far down - got key knowledge and experience on a key project. Definitely replaceable but would be painful for the company so I'm betting they'd rather not. My employer doesn't really do layoffs anyway or rather something pretty cataclysmic would have to happen to trigger it.

Its also not a big deal for me - employers are replaceable too. ;)

</comment><comment><USER19> M&A is also another interesting case for layoffs, in this case it might not follow this traditional format as it could be redundancies that are eliminated because of political reasons and not necessarily performance/salary.

It feels like the reasons for layoffs boil down to:

\- Money (Run rate/market/shareholders)

\- Strategy (Company decides to go in a new/different direction)

\- Politics (Internal to the company/executives/board)

</comment><comment><USER20> I'd like to think I'm safe, since I'm sleeping with the CEO - my wife, but since I'm the only other employee I guess I'm the first to go.

But my last job...

All of my product code, even stuff I'd inherited, had been stabilized, documented, and had decent test coverage. Strike one.

I was given a manager title but had no direct reports. Strike two.

I was moved to an architect role on a struggling cross-product effort. Strike three.

</comment><comment><USER21> As a Yahoo employee, I can say with certainty that I'm not in the bottom 15%.</comment>


Louder.me – a real-time game of your music journey - <AUTHOR> https://hackernoon.com/why-louder-me-isnt-just-a-music-platform-3820d57695b7 <comment><USER2> nice

<comment><USER3> New user registered a minute after the URL got submitted, just to leave a one word positive comment. Don't do that.</comment></comment>


Teaching Lean Innovation in the Pandemic - <AUTHOR> https://steveblank.com/2020/08/11/teaching-lean-innovation-in-the-pandemic/ <comment><AUTHOR> When the pandemic forced us to shift to online teaching, that experimentation turned into a necessity.</comment>


SpaceX Launches DSCOVR Satellite to Deep Space Orbit - <AUTHOR> http://www.spacex.com/news/2015/02/11/spacex-launches-dscovr-satellite-deep-space-orbit

<comment><USER2> "While extreme weather prevented SpaceX from attempting to recover the first stage, data shows the first stage successfully soft landed in the Atlantic Ocean within 10 meters of its target. The vehicle was nicely vertical and the data captured during this test suggests a high probability of being able to land the stage on the drone ship in better weather."

That sounds pretty promising.

There's also a picture of the "landing" on Elon Musk's twitter feed: [https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/565716774260576262/photo...](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/565716774260576262/photo/1)</comment>


Shakespeare's Son Died at 11. A Novel Asks How It Shaped His Art - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/17/books/review/hamnet-maggie-ofarrell.html <comment><USER2> Interesting. Coincidentally, a recent episode of EconTalk [0] taught me that the plague had a big impact on Shakespeare and his work.

[0] [https://www.econtalk.org/ben-cohen-on-the-hot- hand/](https://www.econtalk.org/ben-cohen-on-the-hot-hand/)

<comment><USER3> Newton also made many of his breakthroughs after retreating to the countryside to avoid a plague in London as well:

[https://www.biography.com/news/isaac-newton-quarantine- plagu...](https://www.biography.com/news/isaac-newton-quarantine-plague- discoveries)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Odd that this review doesn't mention that Hamnet's early death and its impact on the Bard are dissected in the "Scylla and Charybdis" episode of Joyce's _Ulysses_ , as well as echoing against the cornerstone of the protagonist, Bloom.

</comment><comment><USER5> Neil Gaiman's The Sandman has three episodes dedicated to Shakespeare (and one features his son Hamnet). This is a good analysis of how isolation and genius in art relates, in the context of Shakespeare in The Sandman.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhA0GVi_N4E](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhA0GVi_N4E)

</comment><comment><USER6> and in 1991, Gaiman won to date the only World Fantasy Award given to a graphic novel for exploring the same question: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sandman:_Dream_Country#%22...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sandman:_Dream_Country#%22A_Midsummer_Night's_Dream%22)

</comment><comment><USER7> Edit: My original comment

> how could anything be known about Shakespeare's son given the Bard's > identity is an open question?

resulted in downvotes and being compared to a flat-earther, plus one helpful answer to my question which remedied my ignorance. I'd love to freeze or delete my comment but all I can do is edit it. Thanks in advance for ignoring it and moving on.

<comment> spaced-out His identity is not an open question. We know exactly where and when William Shakespeare of Stratford was born and baptized (in those days they recorded baptism dates, not births). We know who his parents were, who his wives and kids were, the names of his 8 siblings, and the business ventures of his family...to name a few things.

We also know when he got started in the London theater scene, and how his career and skill developed (we've found early poetry of his which was not very good, for example). We even know that he became very wealthy and famous (he was famous even during his life) due to the success of his plays, and acquired quite a bit of real estate before he died.

<comment><USER8> There are also large, structural similarities across the plays and poems that suggest a single authorship; that 'not very good' poetry has interests and stylistic tics in common with the later, more universally revered work. It's also relatively recently (1800s on) that the plays gained that the reputation that they did. The argument that William Shakespeare couldn't have written the plays is one that is extremely recent, historically-speaking, and it relies on snobbish negatives ('A son of a glove maker who had an excellent education grounded in the classics and spent his life in the theater couldn't have written the plays') rather than any affirmative evidence against. We also have text of contemporaries that are generally trustworthy sources describing his work (and offering criticisms). It's not the exciting answer, but it probably was William Shakespeare that wrote the works in question.</comment></comment></comment>