How Benedict Arnold went from wartime hero to resentful traitor - <AUTHOR> https://www.weeklystandard.com/gordon-s-wood/benedict-arnolds-villainous-perfidy <comment><USER2> "Modern scholars haven't gone so far as to describe Benedict Arnold as a hero for turning against this rather squalid and nasty revolution"

Refuted in the same article in the next paragraph. Outside of tabloids I don't know that I've read something more intellectually dishonest recently.

The actual heros of the revolution however shitty by modern ethical standards were building their peice of the only hope for a just world we have. Democracy however shitty we still are is a transition like unto agriculture is necessary for our progress as a species.

He betrayed this for status and gold.

There are two sides of this of course his is just disgusting by present and modern standards.

</comment><comment><USER2> It seems remarkably clear that his own status and wealth were his primary motivation.

Nothing in the article made any sort of case for a more complicated explanation.

Had his career trajectory continued upward he would merely be a footnote regarding a successful general.

</comment><comment><USER3> More American Exceptionalism and Navel Gazing (tm) This is not history, but rather rhetoric and nationalistic propaganda.

As an American by birth and upbringing, I really wish that these people would travel and realize: 1) every nation has their "unique and special history" 2) every nation uses that mythology to boost national pride 3) this nationalistic "but we are special" tone only functions for a given domestic audience, given that this is its intended target 4) It therefore contributes NOTHING to international relations & dialogue.

Imagine the silly world of 2018 where Belgians would still go on and on about the Belgian revolution vis-a-vis the Dutch. Get over it. It's literally history.

While the "reformist" historians that the author decries may indeed turn things inside out and distort the lense in an effort to expiate our national sins (which really were sins and shouldn't be defended ad nauseaum) the author himself seems to have divorced himself from any concept of academic dispassionate truth-telling and be actively engaged in defending nationalist propaganda to a laughably obvious degree. The author should visit nations where actual dictators former and present have created similar "Gods Children" mythos and realize the banal stupidity of such a position as adults in a world we all share.

God does not prefer any grouping of humans to another, and most definitely does not approve of politics nor nationalism. God told me this just now, so you can rest assured that it's true.

The author and his myopic defenders may accuse me of being a "Left Wing Radical" (tm) to which I may response "indeed" given another context. In this particular context I'm merely 1) right 2) being the voice of reason in the face of emotional rhetoric defending a belief system with the full force of a religion, quite a dangerous belief system, when you consider that.

Please, no operating heavy machinery under the influence of "I am the son of Amon Ra" nonsense...

<comment><USER4> > More American Exceptionalism and Navel Gazing (tm) This is not history, but > rather rhetoric and nationalistic propaganda.

I read it as a rather damming characterization of the revolution and those behind it and participating in it, in both an ideological and logistical sense. It is an article about how someone generally vilified as a great traitor for his greed might have had more complex motivations.

Do you have specific instances in the article you would like to point out to support your point? Since my interpretation of it is at odds with your assesment of it, I'm left wondering if you actually are addressing the article in question, as your first paragraph seems to to indicate, or if you are just using it as a stepping stone to launch into your own diatribe?

I don't condemn you for holding those views, but I do condemn you for both forcing them into a conversation in a way they don't fit and with such condescension as to be detrimental to useful discussion. To do so implies that the reason for you speaking out was not inform or discuss, but simply to vent ant the expense of others, which is selfish in nature.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> > In the end, writes Taylor, it was a white man's revolution whose success > came at the expense of everyone else—blacks, Indians, and women.

Talk about rewriting History! At the time the American Revolution was widely regarded as a sign of progress - remember that no country had achieved freedom from oppressive monarchs in Europe, and the Americas led the way to true democracy. And the Founding Fathers, instead of establishing an aristocracy on their own (which is what most revolutionaries do), created the Constitution and gave power back to communities and states.

Looking at History with the eyes of the modern man is laughable. Progress has to start somewhere.

<comment><USER6> Why is it laughable to consider that, for example, from the perspective of the large slave population at the time of the Revolution, the event was not so much progress as regress, and signified what was possibly an extension of their slavery? Acknowledging that does not make the founders of the country any less brave or singular, nor does it suggest we should judge them against modern standards, nor does it even remotely cause us to forget the context of the revolution in the course of European political history. Instead it reminds us that behind every great movement there can be and often is great horror.

<comment><USER5> > extension of their slavery

First, during the revolution, all slave trade was banned by the new government of the US. And after the war, it became of matter of state jurisdiction: several states went ahead and abolished slavery on their own in less than 10 years following the independence war. Isn't what what you call progress when institutions made it a possibility?

<comment><USER7> A cynical take on that would be that Jefferson and the other southern aristocrats wanted to limit the supply of slaves so that the value of their estates would skyrocket. I don't actually know much about the time so don't take that musing too seriously.

<comment><USER8> I would recommend reading about the founding fathers, including Jefferson. Jefferson wrote extensively against slavery and even included as such in the initial draft of the declaration of independence (without going so far as to make it unlawful) - but that was apparently stripped out by the Continental Congress. In 1784 he attempted to pass legislation federally banning slavery - it failed to pass by one vote.

Of course this might seem hypocritical given he indeed did own a substantial number of slaves, but as today the appeal of convenience often outweighs ideology when systems are widespread. For instance Warren Buffet has argued that a larger tax on the ultra-rich would be socially beneficial and I think he certainly does believe that, yet of course he himself does everything he can to minimize his own tax bill in the mean time. On the consumer level, I doubt any of us really support slavery or systems of near slavery yet it rarely stops us from buying Apple products in the near slavery case, or Hershey/Nestle/etc chocolate in the literal slavery case.

On abolition versus the phasing out issue, Jefferson also wrote there. He wanted to phase out slavery and ensure the slaves were skilled, educated, and had sufficient resources to make it on their own. He felt that abruptly abolishing slavery would lead to violence, both from dependent slave owners who would not go peacefully as well as from slaves themselves. He also thought that abrupt abolition would lead to poor outcomes for the slaves as they would set free in a land driven by the merit of the individual with generally minimal to no education, skills, or ability.

To avoid the system you mention where slave owners would simply entrench themselves by 'banning competition', he even proposed the notion of the US government buying slave children for a nominal fee, training them, and then sending them abroad (to Santo Domingo in particular) to make their way as skilled freemen. Essentially, a way to ease the transition from slavery to freedom for slave owners and slaves alike. One must say such a system feels dystopic, yet on the other hand it's interesting to consider whether such an idea would have had a better social outcome in the longrun. The civil war divides of this nation remain to this very day, as does the inequity of the now long distanced descendents of former slaves.

[https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Founding-Fathers-and- Sl...](https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Founding-Fathers-and- Slavery-1269536)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson_and_slavery](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson_and_slavery)

<comment><USER9> Nestle claims to have a zero tolerance policy toward slavery, see [https://www.nestle.com/ask-nestle/human- rights/answers/nestl...](https://www.nestle.com/ask-nestle/human- rights/answers/nestle-child-labour-supply-chains)

 _We have zero tolerance for illegal trafficking or slavery. If we find any evidence of it then we report it to appropriate authorities immediately._

<comment><USER8> I'm curious. Did you expect them to praise and embrace slavery on their website?

Slavery enables companies such as Nestle to source their resources for costs far below what they would have to pay otherwise. They do so while simultaneously condemning slavery and making some token efforts to combat it. Just enough to keep their carefully crafted public relations positive enough that it doesn't effect their bottom line. Though for what it's worth, I doubt that any of Hershey, Nestle, etc actually 'like' slavery, but they love the profits it enables, and that's undoubtedly been the story throughout much of history.

<comment><USER9> Good points, thanks for the thoughtful response.

I started reading this[1] Wikipedia entry. Troubling.

1\. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_labor_in_cocoa_productio...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_labor_in_cocoa_production)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> > Arnold's career, written, as many of the best and most readable histories of > the revolution are written these days, by an independent scholar who is not > caught up in the academic world's obsessions with race and gender.

Possibly the most neckbeard thing you can write. Race and gender matter. To ignore that is to say that they don't. But, this article is celebrating a white man ignoring both those things?</comment>


Assault weapons described - <AUTHOR> http://reason.com/blog/2013/01/30/assault-weapon-described

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm beyond words about this. How is it that a modern, civilized country fails to see the correlation between guns and people getting killed by them? Why would you want to keep a firearm near you and your children?

The whole 'bad guys have guns' argument is moot, it's a chicken and egg thing. It's the exact same right that allows people to buy guns that gets the guns into society in the first place.

Another argument is that cars kill more people each year than guns. Fair point, but cars are meant as means of transportation, but the sole purpose of guns is to kill.

I understand the appeal of guns, but shouldn't we keep them locked up at the gun club? Why bring them home?

I grew up in The Netherlands, a country with very strict gun control laws and, sadly, one known case of a spree killer. I travelled a lot in the Middle East, where gun ownership is a lot higher. I can honestly say that I feel safer in The Netherlands, without people carrying guns to 'protect' themselves.

Banning assault weapons is not a finite solution, but IMHO a baby step in the right direction.

<comment><USER2> Wrong forum

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> My favorite: "ANY GUN IS AN ASSAULT WEAPON"</comment>


India's top 20 Web 2.0 sites  - <AUTHOR> http://infotech.indiatimes.com/quickiearticleshow/4530503.cms

<comment><USER2> Another one of those sites where you have to click through 20 pages to see them all. I was curious, but not that curious.

</comment><comment><USER3> I have heard about 3-4 of them and haven't used any.

Since many of them seem to be social networking sites, I would like to point out that Orkut was and still is the biggest "web 2.0"/social networking site.

It'll be interesting to stack them up against Orkut for market share.

</comment><comment><USER4> A very ordinary article. Except common-floor and kwench, there is little innovation or originality in the others.

<comment><USER5> Agreed. Nothing much to see there. Most are social networks which are not even 1/10th the size of orkut or facebook. Disappointed that they didn't feature dimdim, zoho , slideshare or cleartrip which are indian companies or have strong indian connections.

<comment><USER6> interestingly enough cleartrip is written in Common Lisp.

"We built most of cleartrip with Common Lisp to start with. All the folks we trained, about 6, found it difficult to start off but now will not touch anything else."

Reference [http://danweinreb.org/blog/the-failure-of-lisp-a-reply-to- br...](http://danweinreb.org/blog/the-failure-of-lisp-a-reply-to-brandon- werner#comment-668)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Interesting study. Leaving all the social networking sites which definitely can not beat orkut and facebook, good ones are burrp.com, commonfloors.com, tell-a-friend. I think that they shud have covered other indian companies like cleartrip, flipkart, slideshare and zoho also.</comment>


If Singapore is the most expensive city, then why Redmond costs more? - <AUTHOR> http://cutecoder.org/career/living-cost-redmond-washington/?utm_campaign=HackerNews_140315&utm_source=HackerNews&utm_medium=SasmitoAdibowo&utm_content=SingaporeExpensive <comment><USER3> To answer the question in the title, you should look at the purpose of the study. The study naming Singapore as the most expensive city come from the Economist Intelligence Unit's Worldwide Cost of Living Index, which is supposed to "help human resources and finance managers calculate cost-of- living allowances and build compensation packages for expatriates and business travellers" and is "based on the assumption that an expatriate has a right to live at the assignment site in the same manner and with the same kind of goods and services he would find at home" (source: [https://www.eiu.com/public/topical_report.aspx?campaignid=Wc...](https://www.eiu.com/public/topical_report.aspx?campaignid=Wcol2014), [http://www.worldwidecostofliving.com/asp/wcol_HelpWhatIsWCOL...](http://www.worldwidecostofliving.com/asp/wcol_HelpWhatIsWCOL.asp)).

In other words, it's comparing the price of living a Western executive lifestyle, not the cost of living for a regular person. Transport costs are high because Singapore has very high taxes on cars (more expensive than the cost of the car itself) - the target audience isn't going to be using a bus pass. Food costs are based on prices at high-end Western restaurants, not $5 worth of groceries. The housing comparison definitely isn't based on a studio apartment. And so on and so forth.

</comment><comment><USER4> The calculation the Economist Intelligence Unit uses is very different from the one presented in this blog post. For instance, the price of a car is not factored into the blog post as the author assumes a "student lifestyle."

For instance, in Singapore, a new Toyota Camry costs almost US$150,000 while the same car in Seattle costs at most $30,000. The difference is worth the downpayment to an apartment in Seattle. A public transport pass in Singapore (EZLink Season Pass) is $134, which is more expensive than Seattle anyway.

<comment><USER5> > in Singapore, a new Toyota Camry costs almost US$150,000

Wait, what? Surely that's a typo! If not, what makes it so expensive?

<comment><USER6> Among other things the government wants to discourage the use of private cars: Singapore is too crowded a city for everyone to have a car, you reduce noise and pollution levels, the petroleum dependence of the country...

<comment><USER7> To emphasize the point : In Singapore, the MRT (subway) and bus systems are excellent & frequent (and you can get exact ETA info via your phone). Taxis are everywhere and cheap. There's even less reason to own a car in Singapore than in NYC.

<comment><USER8> Except that more and more wealthy people are moving to Singapore and so there's no shortage of people buying up Mercedes and Lamborghinis...

<comment><USER7> I understand that wealthy people may be conspicuously buying Mercedes and Lamborghinis : But that doesn't change the facts about the MRT, busses and Taxis...

Agreed, it doesn't boost the morale of the general population to see, but it also really doesn't make living in Singapore significantly worse (particularly since the absolute numbers are pretty small, even if it's a popular/populist talking point).

<comment><USER6> Exactly. Seeing a Ferrari does not boost their morale, but it also does not boost mine and I own a car.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> Al-Khwarizmi I lived in Singapore for a while last year.

Lodging and housing is indeed very expensive, I was living in a shared apartment in a university dorm and I had to pay like 1K € per month. Certainly very expensive, although not _that_ far from what I've seen in other expensive places like some parts of Sweden or the UK.

On the other hand, food is ridiculously cheap. You can go to hawker stalls and eat a fine meal for less than 3 €. In most European countries you can't have a decent meal for less than 8 €. Damn, here in Spain I don't think I can even match the price of Singaporean hawker stalls if I buy groceries and cook myself, unless if I only eat fried eggs or pasta with tomato, and in Singapore I was eating like a king.

Transportation is outrageously expensive if you need a car, but it's rather cheap if you use public transport, which has a great coverage and is really good. I don't really see much of a reason to use a car in Singapore, except if you are a car-aholic. Even if you need to go somewhere out of reach of the subway and bus network, taxis are cheap too.

To sum up, I would say that the relatively cheap food and transportation compensate for the very expensive accomodation, and the overall result is that Singapore is rather expensive, but there definitely are more expensive places (at the very least in the north of Europe). I'm surprised that people are saying it's the most expensive city.

<comment><USER9> Three words: Work life balance

The average Singaporean is working an extra 15-20 hours each week than the average European in an expensive city for about the same amount of money and a similar cost of living. That 15-20 hours makes a huge impact on overall quality of life

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> These prices are likely a dramatic underestimate.

1 bedroom Apartments start at ~1400 a month. You can of course go cheaper if you rent a larger house with room mates (which in fact many people do). Food prices are outrageous, expect to pay at least $10 per person per meal if you go out to eat, $15 is more common.

But this page also doesn't mention any of the quality of life benefits of living in Redmond.

For one thing, crime is almost non-existent. Police vehicles regularly patrol the area 24/7\. There is no noise, no one partying outside, no cars driving around blasting music, none of that.

And the city is maintained in an almost pristine state. The roads are damn near perfect. Pot holes are fixed within a week, if not days. City services are all around amazing, heck even the police are polite and a delight to deal with.

The commute to work is excellent. From out my door to into the work parking lot is about 5 minutes.

Direct access to Seattle, 15 minutes to downtown Seattle during non-rush hours.

And finally, the math in this Article is so bonkers, it seems like it'd apply to almost any major city. Rent in a "won't be stabbed" part of Seattle is higher than it is in Redmond. Rent in NYC or SF for a comparable quality of life is going to be much higher! (Can you even rent a place in SF proper that in in a neighborhood with virtually no crime?)

Perhaps my main complaint about living here is the scarcity of restaurants that deliver!

<comment><USER11> Apparently residential areas that mean, "won't be stabbed" equals, 1400 a month && 15 dollars per meal.

<comment><USER12> How is $15 per meal outrages? Never been to Swiss or Denmark or London before? The problem with Redmond is it's quite suburban and boring. Better to live with the chance of getting stabbed, but Seattle is quite safe for something a bit more grimy.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Interesting analysis, but just to set expectations there is no way you will be taken seriously if you ask for $199k/year as a fresh from college new hire at a large software company in Seattle. $200k+/year in Seattle is well into very senior/principle/partner engineer territory.

<comment><USER14> Please stop perpetuating this myth.

Post-economic-crash, equity packages have added quite a lot to salary.

$200k total money comp (incl 402k, bonus, equity) is well in range for a career/intermediate software engineer.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I've read this article a half dozen times, there is no mention of Singapore in it, let alone how much it costs to live there. So I guess I'm supposed to just take this made up headline at its word?

Also keep in mind, the author wants to SAVE $120K a year

<comment><USER16> I must be overlooking something. He mentions several times this is to "maintain your current savings rate". Is $9,400 per month a normal savings rate in Singapore? Perticulary for a student?? Everyone a millionaire in 10 years?

Secondly, just want to correct a few points for anyone who indeed is looking to move to Washington (and you should, it's lovely here and we'd love to have you).

Redmond is not the most expensive place to live, in fact, as long as you move a small distance away from any MS campus, it is a good value.

We have the Puget Sound and a few large lakes in the greater Seattle area. As a general rule, prices increase rapidly as distance to water decreases (most expensive: Bellevue, Kirkland, Downtown Seattle). If you like urban living, try west Seattle, for suburban, Issaquah.

Lastly, $5 a meal will get you nowhere. Period.

<comment><USER12> West Seattle isn't that cheap given that it's surrounded by water. I love it though, but commutes to ms would be hard. Lake City and surrounding in the north is going to cheaper, or even kenmore/Bothell (or Lynwood for the desperate). As for south, Renton has some affordable places...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> As someone who posted adverts for $10/hr coding gigs around Redmond and got decent applicants, LOL @ $200,000 figure.

However your other expenses are near the mark for a 'student' lifestyle, but a little on the low side...

Congrats to you if you currently save at that rate.

</comment><comment><USER18> $5/meal? I spend more like $12-20 when I cook for myself, and $20-30 if I eat lunch out.

And I live in a cheaper city than Redmond.

</comment><comment><USER19> On a completely unrelated note, I've felt for some time that students of english should be taught to say "how come" instead of "why"; it doesn't trigger the auxiliary inversion that "why" requires. Go ahead and note that it's informal, but it would do a lot of good.

<comment><USER20> "How come" is antiquated. I understand what you're saying and actually agree. I think a better way to do so would be "How is it", as in "How is it that you think you will be able to ask for $200K as a graduate programmer in a very IT heavy city?"

<comment><USER19> Where do you live? I use "how come" frequently. To me it's a formality / feel thing.

<comment><USER20> Born in Scotland, lived most of my life in Australia, now in Washington State.

I hear it all over the place, but it's also less correct than how is... but you're right, definitely more common.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> A a "Singaporean" founder I would ask: Does Redmond have: Gardens by the Bay, Clarke Quay, Sentosa, Universal Studios, Casinos, Top Universities, huge Asian Financing Hub, vibrant and multi-cultural environment, safety, affordable health-care all within a 45 km radius?

<comment><USER22> Redmond allows me to write about whatever I want, whenever I want. It also allows me to chew gum. And, as of this year, I can partake in marijuana use, something that in Singapore would earn me the death penalty.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Damn, how does anyone live in these places? What supports this? Quantitative Easing? ;)

Isn't minimum wage in Washington under $8 / hour? What do they eat?

Philippines...

Rent: You can get a decent house or apartment for $150 / month.

Food: I can eat a street meal here for around 50 cents. For something fancy, I can eat out for $1.50. McDonald's is an expensive meal at $3.50 for 1/4 Pounder w/ cheese meal. A nice restaurant might charge $6. To get more expensive than that you have to eat at a European owned place which imports food I have never heard of with names I can't pronounce.

Electric: ~ $35 / month.

Water: ~ $15 / month.

Internet: ~ $25 / month.

I have lived here long enough that I have become completely out of touch with the prices in places like the U.S. and Europe. Singapore is right in my backyard though.

<comment><USER24> What about wages and quality of life there? Seems like an interesting place to be...

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> Realistically, because the lists of the world's "most expensive cities" usually only include cities with populations over a million, with exceptions for capitals and smaller international jetset/business/gov't towns like Geneva or SF.

</comment><comment><USER26> I find it funny how people calculate ridiculously low rent prices and an impossible $5/meal (isn't even unhealthy fast food slightly higher than that?), yet magically come to the conclusion that at least $200,000 are necessary.

<comment><USER20> Well, bear in mind his goal, realistic or otherwise, is to save $10,000 a month after all expenses. That contributes a huge deal to his $200K demand. But sorry, walk into MSFT out of college and ask for $200K as a developer your first year and you're not going to get it, despite what someone upstream claims (source: myself, an ex-MSFT Group Program Manager - a few levels above. This is fairly accurate: [http://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Microsoft-Group- Program-Mana...](http://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Microsoft-Group-Program- Manager-Salaries-E1651_D_KO10,31.htm))

<comment><USER26> Totally agreed. It's also a bit odd to want to save 10,000 a month after tax on a normal salary in general. The ratio between living expenses and savings is somewhat off. I can also come up with wonderful ideas like 'oh I want to be able to earn enough to save 200,000,000 a month and only spend 2000/month - <USER2> I need to earn at least 4 Billion Dollars a year. Good'

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> i'm a singaporean here

most expensive city? not sure too expensive to live? definitely

you ever heard of certificate of ownership? it's a cert that requires you to own a car. a mazda biante here cost around $150k SGD, not sure about other countries though.

furthermore, there's a lot of taxes we need to pay and we don't even know where these tax goes to! it doesn't really even help the poor as far as i can see. Furthermore, ministers' salaries are in millions per annum and there are so many ministers and you defiinitely need to pull strings to get that job

still have a lot of more to complain, but then i'm too tired to keep typing so much

<comment><USER28> Here, let me help you: [http://youtube.com/watch?v=3S0mEJ- aajM](http://youtube.com/watch?v=3S0mEJ-aajM)

<comment><USER29> That is pure awesomeness =).

My parents are from Singapore, and I've been back enough that I at least got some of those jokes...haha.

Very cool.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Not sure how much more expensive Redmond is compared to Seattle, but Numbeo [1] would also be a good start when comparing locations. (Numbeo has no numbers for Redmond.)

[1] [http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of- living/compare_cities.jsp?coun...](http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of- living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=Singapore&country2=United+States&city1=Singapore&city2=Seattle%2C+WA)

</comment><comment><USER31> is that in Singapore Dollars? (comes to USD160K) still waay too much money for a fresher. You also want to save 9k per month? hmm... looks like you have put in a lot of time on analysis/charts, so when you surveyed for rental prices - didnt you bother asking your friends if it these figures were even realistic?

</comment><comment><USER32> Very detailed work but you shouldn't be using cost as your primary basis. It's more important to look at average salaries for your position and see how it varies by city & state. That will give you an accurate depiction of how the industry views relative cost of living.

</comment><comment><USER33> Very literal naïveté.</comment>


Show HN: What worked for us. With actual data, screenshots, and tips. - <AUTHOR> http://qbix.com/blog/index.php/2011/03/phase-1-successful/

<comment><USER2> The tip about the support / bug report button is very helpful. It's one of those that seem obvious in hindsight, but I suspect is helpful in reducing negative reviews on the App Store. This gives the user another outlet for expressing negative feedback. Thanks for sharing this.

</comment><comment><USER3> Calendar is stupidly useful. I was looking for the exact app a couple of years ago. I would pay for this in a heart beat.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! We are adding more stuff to it soon, like weather ... any more stuff you would like?

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> By the way, here's the link to the main site:

<http://qbix.com>

<comment><USER4> You may want to change the Chat icon- IIRC, that was the icon for a Mac app called Proteus.

<comment><USER5> Thats not what Proteus' icon looks like. Here's a screenshot of it: <http://cl.ly/062u0R2G270o160A2x2u>

<comment><USER4> That is definitely Proteus's old icon: <http://www.flickr.com/photos/wyctim/2244734208/>

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Gregory Magarshak should change his name to Gregory Magashark.</comment>


Show HN: NamesToFaces - Inspired from this weekend's "web app ideas" post. - <AUTHOR> http://www.namestofaces.com

<comment><AUTHOR> Original post: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2745371>

This was #6, thought it was neat so spun up something similar.</comment>


Switching from iPhone to Lumia800 using a Mac - <AUTHOR> http://ts3t.de/en/page/switching-from-iphone-to-lumia

<comment><USER2> Beez as a twitter app, Bank of America app, Spotify, Facebook's app, all have a real sense of the Metro UI but look different from each other. Foodspotting is another good example as well. I think when the complaint is that all apps look the same it is due to those apps that use the styling of the people hub. Black background, with just text everywhere.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes it's true the apps you mentioned have a unique UI but they don't work reliably, as for example the Facebook and Beez app, I don't use them because they work so bad. Concerning the Foodspotting app I think this is just the boring UI that I was talking about; how can you put a photo as a background for an app?

This really needs to get a step further - well working apps and at the same time well made UI. The only app on wp7 that i've seen combining both is the Sports Tracker which is not my taste of design but at least it has a UI design.</comment></comment>


Mapping Uber Cabs in real time on the web - <AUTHOR> http://uber.will3942.com

<comment><USER2> it sometimes shows some taxis, most of the time it doesn't…

currently showing just a feew (2-3) cabs in london which probably is incorrect (like kevingibbon also noted).

apart from that it's slightly annoying you start zoomed at some street level when you pick a city (in my case london as that appears to be the only one having data…). if you're exposing your own location it would make sense to zoom in at street level, but if you're not i think an overview of the selected city would make more sense

<comment><AUTHOR> That is because of the load of the Uber server. Also afaik (the api doesn't explain) it only shows available cabs, i'm currently seeing around 20 in London.

<comment><USER2> "it only shows available cabs"; that indeed would explain the rather small amount of cabs and the difference in the # of cabs after refresh…

nice project btw. reminded me of the traintimes one [http://traintimes.org.uk/map/tube/](http://traintimes.org.uk/map/tube/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Cue DMCA takedown in 3... 2... 1...

</comment><comment><USER4> only works for london. plus there is no way thats accurate, only shows 10 for london.</comment>


Show HN: How to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail at any fitness level - <AUTHOR> It isn't an accomplishment, it is an honor. It is an amazing wonder we are incredibly lucky to experience. Before you say you can't,I've seen the legally blind, amputees, octagenarians all finish. Athletic types counterintuitively have a lower completion percentage than the introverted individuals not in particularly good shape. couch potatoes, smokers even. Because unlike a race, you come back to it every day so you have to leave some in the tank, never red-line yourself. Just walk, and eat and rest when your body wants to. It's learning not to push yourself, but hold yourself back
What worked for me was to forget about miles hiked in the beginning and just focus on time hiked. Hike 8 hours a day at whatever pace is comfortable. Take breaks when you need them, eat when hungry, take a zero days, sleep as late as your body seems to need. Don't pick up the pace until comfortable hiking 8 hours. When you struggle, slow down and breathe
pretrain by getting your ankles,knees strong and lung function through deep breathing exercises. Don't think about cardio or miles until you start.
The trail is tough in Georgia & Maine and the hiking is slow, so if you are focused on miles in the beginning, it will get into your head. For most this puts you at 12-15 miles a day 3–4 weeks in and minimizes risk of injury. Focusing on miles pulls more off of the trail than anything else. You will get into shape without trying. Cost was $3K for gear and food and lodging 6 months I had $1200 left after gear tent,cookware, stove, h20 purification, high end backback, good sleeping bag, good boots, good socks & liners) <comment><AUTHOR> Women often do better late in the trail over men because they are much more efficient at metabolising fats and at the end they look great and the guys usually look like concentration camp survivors. So, if you are the latter you must force the protein and calories at times to keep from hitting a wall nutritionally. Oddly, you'll find that you can live on the densest of foods like sausages and little debbies and "cameling up" on periodic breakfast buffets and sweet trail town cuisine whenever you can and is essential for many to maintain weight. For many it will be one of the only times in their lives they will experience the feelings of fat deficiency. Get the tuna in oil over water and use all of it with your dehydrated ramen.

If you have the opportunity to thru-hike, do it or accept that you are going to take a different path. That window doesn't stay open long for most people so don't assume you have plenty of time later in life. Doing it changed everything for me.

Good luck! Please ask me any questions.

</comment><comment><USER2> > _Cost was $3K for gear and food and lodging 6 months I had $1200 left after > gear tent,cookware, stove, h20 purification, high end backback, good > sleeping bag, good boots, good socks & liners)_

Isn't this excluding the opportunity cost of a 6-month vacation? Most people can't afford even a 1-month vacation...

For someone who gets health insurance through work, you're also adding another ~$3k (or they're uninsured, which would be insane when walking the AT).

So I'd figure the minimum cost at more like $40k (for someone who makes $80k/yr) + $3k insurance + gear/lodging/etc., and that's assuming they have a job right when they get back.

<comment><AUTHOR> But you make a good point that it is harder and harder to make it happen the more encumbered your life becomes. I'd suggest it as a sabbatical between high school and college. Maybe on a break? Once the career and family starts it gets hard to break away.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> (Hardest things? Bugs (mosquitos in south and blackflies in north and the ignorant little gnats that have no goal apparently than to try to bask in your breath and land on your eyeballs) and suffering through poor choices trying to time cold weather and cold weather gear)</comment>


Discrimination in the Age of Algorithms - <AUTHOR> https://arxiv.org/abs/1902.03731 <comment><USER2> The paper's authors have the best of intentions, but to me race-aware algorithms programed for social justice sounds completely dystopian.

If a black man and a white man rob a bank together, is it fair that they receive the same sentence? Or is it fair that a sentencing algorithm give the black man probation and send the white man to jail to correct for disparate outcomes based on race?

<comment><USER3> The problem you mentioned is not the one that is being tackled. The real challenge is that being blind to just race _isn 't enough_. For example, zip code is often highly correlated with race, so using zip code to predict whether an applicant would repay a loan may implicitly be discriminatory. We need to know race to determine whether a given covariate is okay to use. But we would usually not use race to predict outcomes (except possibly in a limited number of affirmative action settings, such as college admissions).

<comment><USER4> Ok, help me reason though this. Let's say that native americans are poorer on average and therefore less likely to repay a $1k loan. Therefore, if you give out loans based on the probability that someone will be able to pay them back you will be discriminating against native americans (not the individual native americans with good credit scores, but you will be denying more native americans on average). So, you shouldn't try to compute how likely it is for someone to pay their loan back. I keep hearing things like, "you can't use zipcodes as input because zipcodes are correlated with race and it is illegal to discriminate on race." However, some races have better financial situations on average, which means that financial situations correlate with race, and by the same argument you shouldn't take finances into account when you review a loan application.

Obviously that is absurd, but where does it go wrong?

<comment><USER5> Nope. You are exactly correct. The way to approach removing bias in all personal financial decision making, algorithmic or otherwise, is to only allow it to be based on previous individual financial behavior.

The solution is pretty much that simple. I would argue that all correlative models dealing with human beings will always be discriminatory.

Will loans become more expensive for many people? Sure. But that is the true solution. Sometimes the right decision is simple but unconfortable. In my opinion, this is one of those times.

<comment><USER4> > _is to only allow it to be based on previous individual financial behavior_

Your financial history includes your rent or mortgage payments, which are for living at your zip code. Restriction to financial history is not all that much of a restriction.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> As soon as you label people based on superficial personal traits that are outside of their control and without their consent, that's discrimination.

If you start giving some people special treatment just because of their ethnicity or gender, you're going to be opening up more cracks in the system for other people to fall through - and it will hurt those people even more because they will rightly feel that the whole system is working against them personally; down to the core specifics of who they are (unfortunate individuals who don't fit under any special label).

Modern anti-discrimination approaches are often racist or sexist. They should not try to classify individuals into superficial groups, instead, they should be decided on an individual case-by-case basis based on the individual's history.

The root of injustice is simply bad luck. Ethnicity and gender are only loosely correlated with bad luck but there is no causal relationship between them (not so much anymore at least).

Anti-discrimination efforts should be aimed at averaging-out the effects of bad luck in people's lives; so that means we need a way to quantify luck on an individual basis. It's a difficult problem to solve, but it can't be solved by making gross generalizations.

<comment><USER7> > The root of injustice is simply bad luck. Ethnicity and gender are only > loosely correlated with bad luck but there is no causal relationship between > them (not so much anymore at least).

This is wildly ignorant and ahistorical. There are literally thousands of books, articles, studies, movies, etc. disproving this. Literally just this week a study was released showing that predominantly white school districts collectively receive $23 billion more in funding than predominantly black districts, and that: "For every student enrolled, the average nonwhite school district receives $2,226 less than a white school district,".[1] That isn't bad luck; that is a system designed to reinforce a system of racial segregation, and it's just one example of thousands, all of which are a moment of research away if you actually cared about this.

[1]: [https://www.npr.org/2019/02/26/696794821/why-white-school- di...](https://www.npr.org/2019/02/26/696794821/why-white-school-districts- have-so-much-more- money?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20190226)

<comment><USER8> The NPR story you site contains this quote: "As Rebecca Sibilia, founder and CEO of EdBuild, explains, a school district's resources often come down to how wealthy an area is and how much residents pay in taxes."

Based on that, any causal relationship between race and school funding is far from simple.

> That isn't bad luck; that is a system designed to reinforce a system of > racial segregation

Who you believe is designing the "system" for the purposes of segregation, and what evidence do you have to support it? Asking because everybody I've met who works in education seems to genuinely want all students to thrive.

<comment><USER9> You can only say "The root of injustice is simply bad luck. Ethnicity and gender are only loosely correlated with bad luck but there is no causal relationship between them" if you ignore the years of segregation and red- lining and other racist policies designed to keep the Black man down.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> From Jon Kleinberg also, I highly watching his recommend his presentation [1] on the inherent trade-offs when trying to achieve algorithmic fairness.

It's a little more technical than this paper, and presents very well why removing discrimination in algorithmic decision making is a complex task.

[1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X3Z7FPwkA8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X3Z7FPwkA8)

<comment><USER2> Note that this paper is arguing _for_ race-aware algorithms, not removing discrimination.

If I'm understanding the authors correctly, they're saying that blind algorithms don't have equal outcomes by race -- so they're reintroducing race to the algorithms so they can adjust for disparate outcomes.

Basically they're arguing for affirmative action algorithms.

<comment><USER11> it is way more complicated than this. i know i underestimated how complicated these issues can be at first. there are many different failure modes.

the race-blind models aren't necessarily really race-neutral; they could implicitly have something like "affirmative action" in either direction, and reintroducing an explicit race variable could be the only way to get rid of it. or the opposite might be true! it takes real care to get this stuff right whether notion of equality you aim for.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> This cuts both ways, of course - in some ways, I think we _want_ automated systems to be able to discriminate. A good example is speed cameras - in days past, a man speeding to get his wife to the maternity ward could be pulled over and then hurriedly wished good luck, maybe even getting an escort. These days, he gets a fine in the post three weeks later.

<comment><USER13> How would an automated system actually deal with that scenario?

<comment><USER12> In theory, the same way as a policeman - assessing the situation and the context, and then making a decision not to issue the fine.

But in practice, I don't think it can, without having _total_ surveillance capabilities - not to mention essentially sci-fi quantities of AI advancement.

<comment><USER14> In principle both systems permit this kind of correction: you could contest the ticket by going to court.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


HLS Video on Demand streaming - <AUTHOR> http://www.razvantudorica.com/12/hls-video-on-demand-streaming/

<comment><USER2> HLS has no benefit. what do you gain by not simply serving the mp4 file?

it is only annoying, convoluted and non-standard.

you only have a little gain by serving crappy videos that nobody will watch more than a few seconds, than it is as useful as youtube dash(?) thing... that only serves to annoy people that want to watch one movie for longer periods.

</comment><comment><USER3> Great tutorial, thanks!</comment>


Is your B2B startup New Enterprise or Old Enterprise? - <AUTHOR> http://brandonb.cc/is-your-b2b-startup-new-enterprise-or-old-enterprise

<comment><USER2> Our products are Open Source, but I think we're still more "old enterprise" than "new enterprise" by the model presented early in the article. Yes, a single individual can download and install the product for free, and yes we want to try and eventually convert (some|most) of those users to purchases of subscription - but that's not the main way we anticipate selling our stuff. Why? Because the products are complex and will require a measure of top-down support and adoption to provide the most value anyway (at least in most organizations).

So even though we're Open Source (and I mean _real_ Open Source, as in "ALv2 license, open bug tracker, code on GitHub, open mailing lists, the whole bit"), we still expect that direct sales through sales-people will be our primary avenue to gain paying customers.

We're Fogbeam Labs - we provide software that helps people make better and faster decisions by putting relevant knowledge at their fingertips. [http://www.fogbeam.com](http://www.fogbeam.com)

</comment><comment><USER3> Fantastic post. Just saw an interview on TC talking about the two types of sales. I'll reach out to you to chat. We're definitely top down, but we're hoping to find ways to get our product in people's hands. We do the free trial and super easy sign-up, but we know that a sale always comes down to shaking hands in-person.

We're SimpleLegal. We developed software that reads legal bills and figures out what lawyers are actually doing. Simplelegal.com

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I'm the OP, happy to answer any questions or chat with any B2B startup founders out there!

<comment><USER4> Interesting perspective on the enterprise space. Where do you think we are positioned? Our product can be installed by anyone in the company, but ultimately we end up talking to IT decision makers. www.synergyse.com

<comment><AUTHOR> The way the site is written, it definitely looks like New Enterprise. But to figure out what the right model is, I'd want to understand how your customers prefer to buy the software. So far, are most of your customers coming from individual employees who sign up, and then you talk to the IT decision-makers? Or from trainings organized by IT?

I'm tempted to say the Yammer model might work if there's a viral component. I.e., can an individual employee who uses Synergyse invite others, have it spread through the organization, and then you can contact IT once a bunch of people are already using you?</comment></comment></comment>


Photoshop CS6 beta now available to download - <AUTHOR> http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/123179-photoshop-cs6-plenty-of-goodies-for-everyone

<comment><USER2> The layer stack system is getting really tired. Here's what I'd like to see:

\- Node-based layer system, like Quartz Composer and Max/MSP. Right now, any complex nesting of layer styles has to be done via Smart Objects, which is a terrible hack that has you saving, seeing what the effect on the final image is, then going back and making more changes, repeat.

\- It's 2012. There should not be destructive filters anymore. All filters should just be another node in this layout. If you'd like to apply them, you should be able to right click a node and merge everything that feeds into it. Brushes should also be usable as layers. Composite everything.

\- Where's this layer system going to go? Obviously, it will go on screen, but how about an iPad app that pairs with Photoshop for displaying and altering it? They already have something sort of like this for tools.

\- Photoshop badly needs usable variables of some sort. I'm tired of jumping around 5 different places because I decided I want to change a color.

\- Going with the last one, documents should be able to contain multiple images, like Illustrator does. This would be a great addition for icon design, since you could (easily, without ugly hacks) have all of your sizes in the same document. Combine that with variables, and...

\- Finally, stop the sucky non-native UI already. Stop replacing perfectly good Cocoa widgets with terrible Air ones.

Adding fancy new features is nice and stuff, but the fundamental UI of this application is getting really dated.

<comment><USER3> Definitely agree with the non-native UI point. I've been using Photoshop for years on my Macbooks, and the interface has always had a clunky, slow, unnatural, and Flash-era feel to it. I wonder what the reasoning behind using this terrible UI vs Cocoa is?

<comment><USER4> Portability. It would be very inconvenient to maintain two completely separate UI codebases.

<comment><USER3> Yes, but shouldn't some portability be sacrificed? Google Chrome, for example, has the same interface on OS X and Windows, but is fast and has a native feel on both platforms.

<comment><USER5> There's a vast, vast gap in the complexity of Chrome's ui and Photoshop's. I maintain an app with a cross-platform ui (Mac/Windows/*nix), and it adds an enormous amount of time re-doing everything on different platforms, particularly Mac.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Nice list of new features here: <http://bjango.com/articles/photoshopcs6/>

Seems they addressed a lot of criticism, and improved the UI for web designers in particular.

</comment><comment><USER7> I think this is going to be the Photoshop where people _seriously_ start considering a web-based alternative. Not because CS6 will be poor software, but because I think the division among users who use Photoshop for photo editing/professional photography/restoration/stationary/brochure design and those who use it for designing web sites and applications is getting greater. The latter needing less of the options available in Photoshop today, let alone CS6. I say this with over 10 years of experience as a designer/developer – Photoshop needs a Basecamp simplicity-inspired derivative. I think as we move to more institutional, common & predictable UI (if we do), we'll find that we're doing very simple tasks and that those tasks can be taken from Photoshop and automated for the purpose of web/app design and execution. I know there are a few alternatives to Photoshop already, but of all the ones I've seen (yes, even Pixelmator) none of them really go for _just the web industry_. I think the market for such a tool (hopefully web-based) would be pretty great at this point – and given the audience – using state-of-the-art browser API wouldn't be much of an issue.

Long ago, Adobe had this product called "Photoshop Server" or something similar. I believe it was based off of Macromedia's Generator (which generated server-side Flash content). The concept was neat - place variables within a PSD, upload it and allow the server to render out based on what you wanted to show. The problem with this, of course, was that it was proprietary, heavy, expensive and overall pretty crappy. It would be really interesting to see someone create a web-based web design/development application that interacted with some OSS library that most hosting companies would allow (like gd, ning, etc), read .json and interpret data within the image.

Probably a bad idea, but how big would a .json-based image be compared to the average jpg? Pretty big, I'll bet. But I wonder with gzip compression how manageable could it be? Would be really cool to define information (text inside of the image, accessibility, SEO capabilities) within a .json-based image. No license required and it would be readable by any human or software.

      {
        "dimensions": { "width": 3, "height": 3 },
        "data": [
             ["rgba(255,255,255,1)","rgba(255,255,255,1)","rgba(255,255,255,1)"],
             ["rgba(255,255,255,1)","rgba(255,255,255,1)","rgba(255,255,255,1)"],
             ["rgba(255,255,255,1)","rgba(255,255,255,1)","rgba(255,255,255,1)"]
         ]
      }

Yep. That would be huge. I suppose that is a massive digression of the topic but this would be my ideal image format, outside of svg/canvas of course.

<comment><USER8> _I think this is going to be the Photoshop where people seriously start considering a web-based alternative. Not because CS6 will be poor software, but because I think the division among users who use Photoshop for photo editing/professional photography/restoration/stationary/brochure design and those who use it for designing web sites and applications is getting greater. The latter needing less of the options available in Photoshop today, let alone CS6._

Photoshop is used by creative professionals first and foremost. It's a $600+ software package.

(The people using Photoshop that don't need much of it's power are mostly those that use a pirated copy for some basic home use).

That said, there is Photoshop Elements already, a cut down version.

And there is a web version made by Adobe too.

That said, web editors: sucked, and still suck. For some very basic stuff ok. But try even uploading your last 100 12mo pictures you took with your compact camera. Even uploading and editing one by one, it will take ages, usually taking down the browser at some point.

<comment><USER9> _(The people using Photoshop that don't need much of it's power are mostly those that use a pirated copy for some basic home use)._

I disagree.

I did pirate a copy for home use - I was a youngling, the version was v5.0 (not CS5), and that early curiosity turned into a career full of purchased Adobe products.

Along the way I've learned a lot of new tricks, but my core practices are largely similar to what they've always been. I struggle to think of any other tool or skill that's changed less over that length of time - for me, the new useful bits are largely codifying and refining old manual processes.

It's precisely because the core has remained so untouched by age that the simplified version can be translated to iPads and web apps - Photoshop is a classic case of 20% of the features are used by everyone, and the rest is deemed absolutely essential by specific groups. This happens to most successful programs over time.

Building Photoshop again for other mediums can't help but discard a lot of cruft while discovering a bunch of significantly new things to do - it's actually a pretty exciting time for image editors as they rediscover purpose and set new charters.

<comment><USER8> _Along the way I've learned a lot of new tricks, but my core practices are largely similar to what they've always been. I struggle to think of any other tool or skill that's changed less over that length of time - for me, the new useful bits are largely codifying and refining old manual processes._

Well, the "codifying and refining old manual processes" is what software like Photoshop is all about. Where do you draw the line?

A lot of stuff introduced AFTER version 5 is used everyday by almost anyone. In fact, Layer Styles (version 6) is the number one requested feature for Pixelmator.

Other stuff:

fully vector text, camera RAW (7),

Shadow/Highlight, Match Color, Lens Blur, Hierarchical layer groups, 16 bit per channel, support for files over 2 Gigabytes, type on a path (8),

Smart Objects, Smart Sharpen (9),

Smart (non-destructive) Filters (10)

And other stuff, maybe not visible, but that we couldn't live without AT ALL, like Intel Mac support, and 64-bit support, plus the "how did we work before" GPU support, all introduced in later versions than 10.

<comment><USER9> Good points! I actually don't have much of an argument to make, just the evolution of old+successful software is an interesting topic. It is definitely a fuzzy line between "new thing" and "old but better", and your list has a bunch of must-have-every-single-day features that haven't always existed. I admit I'm glossing over the "invisible" work like Intel Mac support. I'm mostly interested in the interaction.

But - that list is fairly short, and things like nondestructive filters, hierarchical layer groups, type on a path, etc are exactly the codifying of manual processes I was talking about. They've certainly replaced duplicating layers and using complicated naming conventions to manage all the bloat.

So they're technically "new features", but they're not reinventing what folks can accomplish, or even altering the fundamentals of how one thinks about a task. That's a big accomplishment for software that has to please so many existing+trained users, and I'm looking forward to CS6 precisely because it seems focused on improvements to what people already do every day, rather than cool but rarely appropriate features like magic background fills and bending spoons.

We've been given a huge toolbelt to work with - the move from desktop software to web and tablets is going to be pretty awesome as we look at the whole belt through a new lens, and (potentially) significantly improve on everything from palette-oriented UI to how we manage discreet and grouped elements in a complex composition. Even more opportunity as Photoshop begins to acknowledge its expansion of purpose from photos and graphics to quickly comping high- fidelity interactive UIs.

Relative to all that's coming, Photoshop hasn't changed much. Exciting times ahead.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I hope they're devoting some resources to Fireworks. For web & mobile app graphics I find it far more effective than Photoshop but there are still a lot of rough edges to smooth out.

</comment><comment><USER11> I'm downloading the beta now but a question for any Creative Suite users, have you had any luck getting CS apps to work when installed anywhere else but /applications on Mac? I have multiple users on this mac and only want CS to be usable for one user. I've moved the apps into ~/applications but updates break. :/ Also, Is it just me or do any other Mac users get infuriated with their folder/app structure?

<comment><USER12> > Also, Is it just me or do any other Mac users get infuriated with their > folder/app structure?

Adobe's complete disrespect for your file system is legendary.

And to make the experience even worse, if you move the 7 useless folders in say /Applications into something like /Applications/Adobe (that you never use anyway), their software updater breaks all over the place.

<comment><USER13> It's a hack, but if you have XCode installed, you can outright hide the directories.

        /usr/bin/SetFile -a V /Applications/Adobe\ Foo

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Photoshop is a classic example of bloatware taken to the extreme. I'm running CS5 and routinely run out of RAM with just a few modest files open. It's ridiculous. I'm going back to CS3 as soon as I find some time to _upgrade_

<comment><USER15> Disagree. Photoshop is a professional level tool. When they're building new features, they aren't listening to the common guy who uses 10-20% of the features every once in a while. They're listening to the design professional who has photoshop open 24/7. They guy who lives in photoshop is their customer. That's the person who's willing to drop $1k on a piece of software - the other common guy is just going to download the trial and block activate.adobe.com. If you think photoshop is bloatware, it's because you aren't using all of its features. Photoshop is vast in its depth. Keeping a thousand states of a high res picture in ram takes a lot of memory. Keeping hundreds of composited layers and transforms in ram is equally hungry.

You can curtail your ram usage if you want it to use less - the default is set to be fairly greedy. For myself though, I have photoshop set to use up to 20GB of RAM (and I routinely hit that mark) with a dedicated SSD for caching, but that's because I use 80-90% of the features in photoshop. If you're only using 10% of the program, consider switching programs.

<comment><USER14> Yeah that's a fair enough comment. The truth is that I'm probably using more like 2% of the program. I think for someone like me the perfect balance of features/performance was at about cs2/cs3 maybe even cs1, I cant remember. So I most likely will be downgrading.

<comment><USER16> Check out Pixelmator or Acorn?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Not related to CS6... but has anyone been successful using Photoshop with Linux? I've tried getting it to run through wine before, but never with any luck.

<comment><USER18> I've found CS2 to work with Wine. Wasn't there a story of Google contributing code to Wine to make Photoshop work? CS5 is listed as Gold on [http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application...](http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=17)

I use The Gimp anyway (I know, I know).

<comment><USER19> Actually, browsing that entry paints a bleaker picture. Of the five most recent testing reports, two are gold, one silver, one bronze, one garbage.

According to the bronze report:

 _The text tool causes the entire application to freeze (even with atmlib installed). The paintbrush works only very intermittently. Moving and docking panels was buggy, and the bluish docking indicators instead rendered as black rectangles making it impossible to see._

and:

 _What was not tested: Vector manipulations, filters, adjustment layers._

It's fine for playing with Photoshop on Linux a bit, but not something you'd want to rely on for your business. I guess a virtual machine with Windows is still the most viable solution.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Great overview of what's new from Marc Edwards <http://bjango.com/articles/photoshopcs6/>

</comment><comment><USER21> _Still_ can't install on a case-sensitive file system. Seriously Adobe, how hard is it to fix your Makefiles?

</comment><comment><USER22> I'm going to try Pixelmator again. There's absolutely no reason why this app should need an installer.

<comment><USER15> The built in GPU acceleration depends on quite a few libraries. Not only that, but the interface is entirely custom (based on air). Photoshop isn't some little stand alone app. It's a 2GB behemoth. Why wouldn't it have an installer?

<comment><USER22> My point was more big-picture. The app shouldn't have an entirely custom Air- based UI when there are great Cocoa libraries available. Hell, even a hybrid with some Cocoa would be better (ala Aperture). It _should_ be a stand alone app at this point.

The argument about "people wouldn't want to transfer to the new UI" is conjecture. Film pros have been switching to new versions of Final Cut Pro without complaint.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Download for free or the usual first-born list price?

</comment><comment><USER24> I get an Access Denied when trying to download the beta..</comment>


Show HN: DIYZER – Empowering to build devices - <AUTHOR> http://www.diyzer.com

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi folks!

We would highly appreciate your feedback on the project.

Here is a short summary:

DIYZER is a DIY platform for collaborative work on hardware projects. It targets hackers, makers and other people interested in electronics including but not limited to smart home systems, robotics, wearables, internet of things.

Our platform allows to share project ideas, build projects based on those ideas, work on assembling instructions and code simultaneously, collaborate with other users in the community and more.

Ultimate goal of the project is to make it possible for everyone to leverage open source electronics and be able to easily build custom devices for their home, work or just for fun.</comment>


Ask HN: Reccomend essays to a young, inquiring mind - <AUTHOR>

I am looking to expand my views and knowledge and want to know what essays YC recommends. As well as learn different essay styles of individual writers.
Varying views on the same subject, or similar views on different subjects. Anything is welcome.
Just looking for knowledge. <comment><AUTHOR> Politics and The English Language by George Orwell.

<http://www.ourcivilisation.com/decline/orwell1.htm>

</comment><comment><USER2> "Computing Machinery and Intelligence", A.M. Turing, 1950. This is where the Turing Test comes from. Technically a journal paper, but reads more like an essay.

If you're into computers at all, this is a must read. Alan Turing not only gave us modern computer science, he also kicked off the field of Artificial Intelligence with this groundbreaking paper. He opens it with the question "Can machines think?", and then proceeds to examine it from every conceivable angle. Not only does he predict strong AI, but Turing also provides methods of development and a robust framework for testing it.

This paper's massively important, but it's also a pretty good read. It's about 20 pages long, written in reasonably accessible style, and requires no serious mathematical background. Turing was an amazingly clear thinker, and that really comes through. There's also a lot of sly humor embedded in there. If you're looking for brain candy, this one's a gem.

There's a copy at <http://www.loebner.net/Prizef/TuringArticle.html>

</comment><comment><USER3> Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges is a must read. Especially ``The South'' at the end of the book.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ficciones>

<comment><USER4> Mandatory upvote for Borges, the three versions of Judas is also quite interesting.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> The Apology by Plato talks of the trial of Socrates and the Phaedo of his subsequent death:

<http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/apology.html>

<http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/phaedo.html>

</comment><comment><USER6> I really like Douglas Hofstadter.

Metamagical Themas is a good collection of his essays.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metamagical_Themas>

</comment><comment><USER7> As We May Think, Vannevar Bush, July 1945. <http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/194507/bush>

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_We_May_Think>

"As Director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, Dr. Vannevar Bush has coordinated the activities of some six thousand leading American scientists in the application of science to warfare."

The Computers of Tomorrow, Martin Greenberger, May 1964. [http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/flashbks/computer/greenbf...](http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/flashbks/computer/greenbf.htm)

"By achieving reliability along with capability, computers have won broad commercial acceptance. But what of the future? What can we expect as computers enter their third decade? Some conservatives have been predicting a deceleration of computer growth for at least five years now. Is there a plateau just over the horizon?

"Not if a recent turn in computer research is as significant as many of us believe it to be. General economic and political conditions permitting, this work will nourish a new wave of computer expansion. Computing services and establishments will begin to spread throughout every sector of American life, reaching into homes, offices, classrooms, laboratories, factories, and businesses of all kinds."

An essay about essays: <http://www.paulgraham.com/essay.html>

</comment><comment><USER8> Clay Shirky "Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable"... the invention of the internet has destroyed the cultural standard bearer's authority (NYT, MSM, etc) just like the invention of the printing press destroyed the Catholic Church's authority. It is impossible to say how it will play out because no one knows what institutions will form to replace the old institutions, i.e., we are in the early stages of the greatest social/cultural revolution in the history of western civ. Most people don't seem to grasp the import of Shirky's theme, they think its about the death of the newspapers.

Ayn Rand... many, many articles but three favorites of mine are "Egalitarianism and Inflation" and "Art and Moral Treason" and "The Anatomy of Compromise".

</comment><comment><USER9> Try Asimov's nonfiction works. He has a number of decent essay collections, if you can find them.

</comment><comment><USER10> Seems odd to suggest Paul Graham's essays on Paul Graham's site but his essays are worth reading.

<http://paulgraham.com/articles.html>

</comment><comment><USER11> Both inspiring:

Doug Engelbart's 1962 "Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework"

[http://www.invisiblerevolution.net/engelbart/62_paper_top.ht...](http://www.invisiblerevolution.net/engelbart/62_paper_top.html)

Herbert Simon's "The Sciences of the Artificial"

[http://www.amazon.com/Sciences-Artificial-Herbert- Simon/dp/0...](http://www.amazon.com/Sciences-Artificial-Herbert- Simon/dp/0262691914)

</comment><comment><USER12> Francis Bacon - Of Studies. Then read Samuel Johnson essay of the same name.

Edit: haha - wanted to flick you a link and discover about.com says more or less the same thing: <http://grammar.about.com/od/60essays/a/studiesessay.htm>

</comment><comment><USER13> _The Use of Knowledge in Society_ by Friedrich Hayek

<http://www.econlib.org/library/Essays/hykKnw1.html>

</comment><comment><USER14> <http://ycombinator.com/lib.html>

</comment><comment><USER15> Most anything from Noam Chomsky should be good.</comment>


Bootstrap 4 Alpha 6 Released - <AUTHOR> http://blog.getbootstrap.com/2017/01/06/bootstrap-4-alpha-6/ <comment><USER2> I'm really looking forward to Bootstrap 4, it's been one of those key productivity boosters in my arsenal of skills. So, many thanks to the Bootstrap team, you've made the world a better place (if anything, certainly my world).

Though, one thing I noticed going through the docs, the first thing I always look at is the "forms" section. For most apps, forms are probably the most important aspect (at least, for me they are).

I noticed that there are still two type of forms, normal ones and inline. However, when I work on larger apps that require more sophisticated input I often require a mix of both normal and inline forms. Maybe when you're working on SPA's it's easier to have multiple forms on a page and treat them as a single form but for old-school traditional page submit apps it's a little bit more difficult.

Anyhow, I wished they'd make the "form-inline" style more a form group thing rather than a form element thing. Currently the forms have a "form-group" which only contains a single control. To me (and correct me if I'm wrong), "form-group" should actually be named something like "control-group" so that "form-group" could be used to have both a normal and inline style form within the same form, maybe the ability to apply "form-inline" to a <fieldset> or something. If that makes sense..

Anyhow, I'm rambling. Love Bootstrap. Keep it up!

<comment><USER3> Hear, hear. This is a common issue for me as well. I have several forms in my web apps where I would like to use space more effectively by placing short fields (e.g. Start Date / End Date) next to each other under longer fields.

At the moment, I have to do the dance of creating a new "row" class and two "col-lg-6" DIVs to manually arrange these while still keeping things responsive (i.e. so the shorter fields appear under each other on smaller devices).

Would be nice if we could switch "form-inline" in and out easily on a normal vertical form, for sure.

<comment><USER4> I hear you two. I'll look into it for the beta. Opened an issue at [https://github.com/twbs/bootstrap/issues/21581](https://github.com/twbs/bootstrap/issues/21581) — feel free to chime in with any specific examples or requests.

<comment><USER5> Your link is broken. I think you meant this: [https://github.com/twbs/bootstrap/issues/21581](https://github.com/twbs/bootstrap/issues/21581)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> CSS was the one thing I dreaded before doing web stuff. I'm a PC/Console dev for many years, and never was able to get stuff to look 'decent' when trying my hand at HTML/CSS/WebApps. The 'default' look of most web widgets is dreadful in a browser ... and I'm not one to kit pick at visual design!

Bootstrap abstracts that whole bit (CSS mostly) and allows me to concentrate un functionality knowing that : A) It's at least going to look as good as Bootstraps default template (which is quite good for me!) B) It's also going to be responsive ... brilliant!

Kudos to the Bootstrap team!

</comment><comment><USER7> I'm not sure that mdo and the rest of the team get enough credit or thanks for all the work they put into Bootstrap, so here's another:

Thank you!

I'm loving the changes made in v4, especially switching to 100% SCSS. Bootstrap itself has had such a huge impact on getting projects off the ground.

</comment><comment><USER8> > Automatic equal-width grid columns (e.g., two columns are automatically 50% > wide)

This is not entirely accurate and I know it as the developer of Picnic CSS ( [http://picnicss.com/](http://picnicss.com/) , which has been using flexbox for a while).

The columns will only be equal width with the same content or some smaller content, similarly to how table works. Case in point:

[https://jsfiddle.net/q39rq6eu/](https://jsfiddle.net/q39rq6eu/)

If the columns were equal-width, we'd see in the example that the one on the right starts in the middle of the screen.

<comment><USER9> Off topic from OP but do you guys have a work-around for this issue in Safari that's still present to this day? [https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=137730](https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=137730) (test: [https://people- mozilla.org/~dholbert/tests/flexbox/compat_te...](https://people- mozilla.org/~dholbert/tests/flexbox/compat_tests/percent-height- grandchild-1.html)) It's been fixed in all other browsers and it's really killing the ability to go full blown flexbox

<comment><USER10> Remove 100% height, add "display:flex" to "containingBlock" and "content"

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> What is the best way to extend bootstrap without loosing an ability to update it in the future and also do not have a ton of duplicated code?

<comment><USER12> Use the Bootstrap Sass files. In particular, overwriting the variables as much as possible instead of just overriding the compiled css will give you flexibility, as they try to preserve those across versions. If you've minimized the amount of overriding css that you've written, then rewriting it will be easier.

<comment><USER13> This.

I've upgraded bootstrap styles using "Less" which is being replaced by "Sass". It takes a little bit to get set up (the jet brains phpstorm app builds it), but once its done its pretty great.

You can also customize your download leaving out the parts of bootstrap you don't want. (I originally did that for and older version bootstrap, while keeping some of my page styles). The customizer seems to now give you a json file, so you can download updates with the same settings as your original download, I have not tried this though.

[http://getbootstrap.com/customize/](http://getbootstrap.com/customize/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> We built our (niche B2B) app on Bootstrap and keep getting compliments from customers about how good it looks. I don't mind that lots of graphic designers hate it; Bootstrap has provided tremendous value for us. I bought the templates just as a way to thank them :-)

<comment><USER15> When the world expects GridViews..

<comment><USER16> You snark, but that _is_ what the world expects - a grid gives the user a simple, tidy, and _consistent_ layout across the whole of the app. It might be "boring" and it might result in an "all apps look the same" world, but it's hard to challenge when users claim they enjoy, and are willing to pay for, apps built with it.

Also, the whole "every app looks the same" opinion is only true if you're a developer or a serial startup beta tester. Most actual users who'll pay for your product don't see that many SaaS apps, so they don't realise so many apps use Bootstap. Their opinion counts for a lot more than a typical HN reader who might see it several times a day (obviously this isn't true if your market is HN readers).

<comment><USER17> Plus, is it really a problem that every app looks the same? I consider that a feature. If i run a program on windows i expect it to have the same type of buttons as every other program. Why should i have to relearn what a button looks like just because someone feels that their app has to be unique.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> To everyone contributing, congrats on shipping. Looking forward to beta.

</comment><comment><USER19> Any idea on what is the state of the react-bootstrap project ?

I see that the project is active on github, but for a long time, its been marked as under "active development".

</comment><comment><USER20> Why is there over 1000 !important's in bootstrap.css? I always thought 1 !important was a big no no.

<comment><USER21> Contrived example, but one that probably accounts for a LOT of the !importants are utility classes, say .bold. If you put on that class you want to be sure it's getting applied, regardless of the styles which may come before or after it.

<comment><USER20> Could that be avoided if the design of the framework would of kept specificity in mind or does that not matter in that case?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Impressive amount of changes between two alpha versions, it almost feels like a complete rewrite. Good job team!

</comment><comment><USER23> what is the compatibility store for third party components/themes based on bootstrap.

one of the things I love about bootstrap is being able to google "bootstrap <some component>" and get something that works and looks nice.

will these third party components need to be re-written and support multiple bootstrap versions?

<comment><USER24> > _what is the compatibility store for third party components /themes based on > bootstrap._

I can't speak to components, but for themes there's already a migration guide, and I'd expect to see tools that help with the conversion since they're conceptually similar.

[https://v4-alpha.getbootstrap.com/migration/](https://v4-alpha.getbootstrap.com/migration/)

> _will these third party components need to be re-written and support > multiple bootstrap versions?_

They'll need to be updated, but it's a one way trip. It wouldn't surprise me to see popular themes maintain Bootstrap 3 and Bootstrap 4 versions in parallel for a while.

<comment><USER25> «It wouldn't surprise me to see popular themes maintain Bootstrap 3 and Bootstrap 4 versions in parallel for a while.»

I recall that happened with the Bootstrap 2 and 3 transition with some components maintaining versions for both for a while.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> I sincerely hope BS4 is the last nail in IE9's coffin.

<comment><USER27> Out of curiosity, is there anything significant other than flexbox that's not in IE9 but is in IE10/11?

<comment><USER28> According to [http://caniuse.com/#compare=ie+9,ie+10](http://caniuse.com/#compare=ie+9,ie+10) there's a bunch of the HTML5 form stuff, reliable use of CSS calc(), web workers, WebVTT (subtitles for video), classList, etc.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Is Bootstrap still the most popular CSS framework?

<comment><USER30> Yes and by far

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> I spent some time on a UI prototype project using Bootstrap 4, and I really liked it. I've been a big fan of ZURB Foundation for some time, and I still prefer it for content rich sites, but if I were starting a project that's principally an app UI, Bootstrap 4 is a no-brainer. Well done team!

</comment><comment><USER32> Another Alpha? Am I correct in feeling like the fanfare for BS4 was a little premature?

<comment><USER33> This is last alpha. Next release in pipeline will be first Beta.

Also I would cut BS folk some slack. They are maintaining most popular OS project on Github. The maintenance burden for previous release was unimaginable and terrific, effectively pulling them down until they decided to make harsh decision of ceasing work at Bootstrap 3 and focusing at BS4 exclusively.

<comment><USER34> It's also worth noting that the lead maintainer, Mark Otto, is also simultaneously heading design at GitHub as well. Not entirely two small things to deal with in your life, ha. :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> I'm really digging BS4, but I wish they had an official off-canvas menu. The slide-down menu is nice, but I think off-canvas is better in many scenarios.

</comment><comment><USER36> So everything is flexbox now? How about Safari compatibility then?

<comment><USER37> Safari supports Flexbox without caveat in versions 9 and 10 (versions 6-8 have varying degrees of support for the first version of the flexbox spec). I work on a decently large global web property (~5m sessions/mo) and Safari < 9 is about 0.3% of our total traffic, so reduced compatibility there sounds OK to me.

Thankfully the bulk of Safari users (unlike IE users) update to newer versions pretty quickly when they're available.

<comment><USER36> I think you happen to not have encountered the bugs described here:

[https://github.com/philipwalton/flexbugs/blob/master/README....](https://github.com/philipwalton/flexbugs/blob/master/README.md)

1\. Minimum content sizing of flex items not honored (only fixed in Safari 10)

9\. Some HTML elements can't be flex containers (not fixed)

11\. Min and max size declarations are ignored when wrapping flex items (seems to be fixed only recently)

14\. Flex containers with wrapping the container is not sized to contain its items (not fixed)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> I am not updated so just asking: did they solve the problem related to not passing even low values needed for color accessibility tests?

<comment><USER39> Bootstrap 3 launched with a handful of low-contrast default colours. Those got fixed a while ago, but that makes Bootstrap 3 adhere to WCAG etc. I don't know.

At any rate, the colours are parameterised, so supply your own.

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> thanks to all for making this happen!

</comment><comment><USER41> All about that flexbox. Web design went from _enigmatic version of Buckaroo_ to _Tetris with just the square and straight tetrominos_.

Easy.

</comment><comment><USER42> This site crashed my mobile chrome 3 times :(

Did they get smaller?

I'm using BlazeCSS right now because it's very small.</comment>


The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two (1955) - <AUTHOR> http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Miller/ <comment><USER2> Modern consensus is that 4 is the real magic number. Humans can store only four chunks in short-term memory tasks.

For working memory and visual memory the number 4 pops up again and again.

When you are holding 5-9 things in memory you can't 'work with them' effectively. You might be chunking objects together or alternating very fast. Verbal memory can be tricky that way. (computer analogy: 4 is number or registers, 3-5 other objects may be stored in L1 cache).

Good starting point: Visual short term memory [http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Visual_short_term_memory](http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Visual_short_term_memory)

[1]: Cowan, N. (2001). The magical number 4 in short-term memory: A reconsideration of mental storage capacity. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 24, 87-185. doi:10.1017/S0140525X01003922

[2]: Cowan, N., Elliott, E. M., Saults, J. S., Morey, C. C., Mattox, S., Ismajatulina, A., et al. (2005). On the capacity of attention: Its estimation and its role in working memory and cognitive aptitudes. Cognitive Psychology, 51, 42-100. doi: 10.1016/j.cogpsych.2004.12.001

[3]: The Magic Number 4 ± 0: A New Look at Visual Numerosity Judgements (1976) doi: 10.1068/p050327

[4]: The Magical Mystery Four: How is Working Memory Capacity Limited, and Why? (2010) doi: 10.1177/0963721409359277

</comment><comment><USER3> I don't want to start a religious war, but can't we all just agree that eight is the ideal magical number, thanks to its voluptuous roundedness and power- of-two-ness?

Behold eight's symmetrical beauty: 8

Seven is just so odd, gangling, unbalanced, and awkward in comparison, like it's just about to fall over: 7

<comment><USER4> On Discworld, at least, it is.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Fantastic, classic paper. Well worth the 20(?) minutes of attention it requires. Learning, memory, information theory...

</comment><comment><USER6> im in the minus two camp

</comment><comment><USER7> Tiny threads from 2015: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9700016](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9700016),

2014: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8516542](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8516542),

and 2010: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1882628](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1882628)

Related from 2009: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=808039](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=808039)

Url changed from [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magical_Number_Seven,_Plus...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magical_Number_Seven,_Plus_or_Minus_Two) to the paper.</comment>


Arbitrary code execution within Perl - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/alfiedotwtf/status/919190903222185985 <comment><AUTHOR> If a Perl script has setuid root, if it loads any libraries, Perl will try and read @PERL5LIB. The @[[]] within string interpolation executes code to expand the string value, but backticks work here too.

I think this is going to be a problem...

<comment><AUTHOR> Looks like setuid doesn't work because it needs to be set on the Perl binary itself and not the script

<comment><AUTHOR> My mistake... this way getting shell expanded, so didn't even hit Perl. Nothing to see here!</comment></comment></comment>


European Ruby Revolution - <AUTHOR> http://devonestes.herokuapp.com/the-european-ruby-revolution/ <comment><USER2> RubyDay 2016 was in Florence?

You Ruby devs get all the nice things...</comment>


Confessions of a Corporate Spy - <AUTHOR> http://www.inc.com/magazine/201302/george-chidi/confessions-of-a-corporate-spy.html

<comment><USER2> Sounds like bullshit.</comment>


We want to ditch Facebook (it sucks) but are reliant for events, what can we do? - <AUTHOR>

Facebook. Ok, so the world experienced a new level of social networking, connectivity and communication convenience. But I don't care anymore, I don't care about your status updates exclaiming how cute your dog is this morning, or the little red update icon on my iPhone telling me someone has commented on a comment on a photo that is in an album that I was tagged in 2007. I'm over the dodgy privacy issues, and where Facebook will go with them to pull in the profits they'll soon need to legitimize their enormous valuations. It was addictive, and kinda fun at times, but it's over for me, and I want out. But what now? I am left with 1 important and useful feature Facebook gives me; events. People invite me to events on Facebook, that's how it works. If I deleted my account, that would be an issue. I have chatted to many people over the last few weeks that feel the same. Facebook is getting tiresome and they also want out, but can't leave because of fear of event exclusion (and some others with the convenience of Facebook connect). Facebook is huge, and with the momentum they have will no doubt be around for a long while no matter what happens. So I ask you, Hacker community, what do we do? Do we leave a skeleton account that has no activity or purpose other than event invites, and the use of Facebook connect? Do we build the next, sleeker, cleaner, simpler social network centered around events and REAL relationships that is backwards compatible with Facebook using their API, so that friends using either can send invites or make simple interactions? How do we leave Facebook, without leaving Facebook? Where do we go from here? Exit strategy? Thoughts? <comment><USER2> Remove all your information, hide your wall, set your email preferences to only receive event information, figure out how to prevent the insidious "Like" button across the web from tracking you. There ya go.

When you are creating an event, use one of the hundreds of other websites for this purpose. eVite comes to mind.

</comment><comment><USER3> <http://plancast.com>

</comment><comment><USER4> <sarcasm type="unfair">

If only there were some site to manage meeting people that has existed since the Web 1.5 days.

It could be called Meeting, or Meet With, or Meet Up (though this last one would _never_ work). These days it would probably have a name like Meetr or Meetng.

Presidential candidates might use it and it could wind up being featured in the mainstream media as an example of how the world is being changed by the internet.

</sarcasm></comment>


Scheme from Scratch - Bootstrap v0.1 - Integers - <AUTHOR> http://peter.michaux.ca/articles/scheme-from-scratch-bootstrap-v0_1-integers <comment><USER2> Resonant for me:

"I remember a time when I thought only super-humans could implement an interpreter but a naive interpreter like this one is really just a matter of putting one foot in front of the next."

I too thought interpreters were arcane and mystical, until a year or so ago I just tried writing one. Mine was also for Scheme, although I cheated because my implementation language was Common Lisp (I was learning it and wanted a toy project to work on). By the end of a plane flight from the UK to Australia I had a minimal working Scheme, with functions, recursion, lexical scope and closures.

I didn't go on to turn it into a bytecode interpreter or a compiler - I didn't even get tail calls working right - but I'm confident that if I'd wanted to, they would also have turned out not to be as hard as I previously thought. I scratched the itch, and it was easy and fun.

I don't think this pattern is unique to programming, and there's probably a lesson to learn. Something you want to do - but don't because you think it's hard - probably isn't hard, so why not try it?

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm no C programmer, but I love how clean the code is. Good work!

</comment><comment><USER4> What is with the weird Music comment at th end of scheme.c?</comment>


How Thou Canst Maketh a Fine Program in Fortran - <AUTHOR> https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-thou-canst-maketh-a-fine-program-in-fortran <comment><USER2> That was fun. Note that gfortran supports the coarrays of Fortran2008, which affords convenient SIMD computation. More people should at least be aware of modern Fortran.</comment>