GDB Frontend with C Pointer Visualization - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/rohanrhu/gdb-frontend <comment><USER2> I'm taking it for a spin and sharing my notes as I go:

        * UI has pleasant colors, I could get used to comfort of having all relevant info in side panes
        * The gdb starts in /opt/gdbfrontend directory, would be nice if it changed to dir you executed gdbfrontent in
        * I wish I could collapse Disassembly list - I don't want to see it ever
        * Icons don't have tooltips and some are not so clear
        * "Sources" pane doesn't actually have all the sources, some appear only after I set breakpoint in previously missing file
        * Breakpoints set manually through GDB console don't show up in UI breakpoint list
        * Usual shortcuts F10, F11... for stepping over and into don't work, while gdb commands n and s work only if lower pane has focus, so interface requires more mouse clicking
        * In my specific case it doesn't detect local variables or respond to added watches (fields to right stay blank)

This is where I stopped using it, don't have time to debug the debugger. I appreciate the effort and it looks like it might be extremely handy tool in future.

<comment><USER3> It would be more pleasant to read your post if you didn't use code formatting. [https://imgur.com/tYH8HWy](https://imgur.com/tYH8HWy)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This looks like a modern-day ddd [1]. Sorely needed. (Not much by me, since I don't do a lot of C these days, but I'd definitely use this if I did.)

[1]: [https://www.gnu.org/software/ddd/](https://www.gnu.org/software/ddd/)

<comment><USER5> That reminds me about that one day in at Sun back in the late 90's when I compiled Solaris in debug mode and set up KGDB.

I was running a full Solaris kernel while anothe rmachine was running GDB and DDD. I was able to visualise all the kernel structures in realtime. It was significantly more usable that I would have imagined it to be.

Can you do something similar these days with Linux?

<comment><USER6> curious - the Sun developers I saw in the late 90s had a multi-window debugger but the local variables Did Not Update, and had to be 'refreshed' manually; at the same time, I had MetrwoWerks IDE Debugger on a Macintosh, and easily had all locals, source code, stack, RAM inspection by structure and more, all updating with every change. The Sun devs were being PAID a LOT more, yet their tools looked primitive and the contextual knowledge to use them was much greater..

<comment><USER5> I'm not sure. I wasn't working as a kernel developer. I did have to debug stuff though to find bugs or explain certain behaviours.

I guess one reason it wasn't used much is because it was a hassle to set up, and I think it got a bit slow when you had a lot of information displayed. I do recall not using this setup much in practice, as just breaking into the debugger on the machine itself was faster and easier.

You had to lot of options when it came to working on the Solaris kernel, and the code was so easy to understand. In fact, I believe the Solaris code base is the best C code I've ever worked with. It's a pity what happened after Oracle took over.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> For those who aren't aware, gdb has a curses-based 'Text User Interface' (TUI), which can be launched using 'gdb -tui': [https://sourceware.org/gdb/current/onlinedocs/gdb/TUI.html#T...](https://sourceware.org/gdb/current/onlinedocs/gdb/TUI.html#TUI)

The interface is surprisingly good, and it's what I recommend to new gdb users if they aren't using an IDE. I still prefer the Emacs integration[1], but I don't recommend that to people who aren't already experienced Emacs users.

[1] [https://sourceware.org/gdb/current/onlinedocs/gdb/Emacs.html...](https://sourceware.org/gdb/current/onlinedocs/gdb/Emacs.html#Emacs)

<comment><USER8> Is it better than cgdb? [https://cgdb.github.io](https://cgdb.github.io)

<comment><USER7> I haven't tried cgdb. Based on the screenshots they look pretty similar.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> If you're looking for something more lightweight in between vanilla GDB and a full GUI frontend, I would highly recommend GDB Dashboard: [https://github.com/cyrus-and/gdb-dashboard](https://github.com/cyrus-and/gdb- dashboard)

It's just a single file (replaces your ~/.gdbinit) that wraps your GDB session with a nice TUI using the Python API. I've found it to be a nice middle ground.

</comment><comment><USER10> I see it is using PyQt5. Any favorite books/tutorials/guides on learning Qt5 or PyQt5? (I'm at 1/4 of Koenig's accelerated C++ and know some python to get my day to day script needs done)

<comment><USER11> "Mastering Qt 5" would be one of them.

[https://www.packtpub.com/eu/web-development/mastering- qt-5-s...](https://www.packtpub.com/eu/web-development/mastering-qt-5-second- edition)

<comment><USER10> There seems to be critical reviews against Packt publications but this one is good right? Have you read it yourself?

<comment><USER11> I have read it a while ago, it was kind of alright.

There aren't that many books on Qt, besides Packt ones, AFAIK.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Is this any different than the debugger visualisations that other editors/IDEs have?

Genuinely curious, because if I'm understanding this correctly, it's just another front-end like what VSCode/Atom(probably)/CLion/Visual Studio have been doing for years if not decades.

I guess what I'm asking is: does this do a better job than the others?

</comment><comment><USER13> Here is a related video, where Eskill Steenberg shows off his data debugger / live visualisation. It's networked so can be used remotely. Very impressive stuff.

[https://handmadedev.show/ep-13-2016/](https://handmadedev.show/ep-13-2016/)

Starts at 01:06:14

</comment><comment><USER14> There is also [https://github.com/cs01/gdbgui](https://github.com/cs01/gdbgui)

<comment><USER15> From the project page:

> Note: This project is no longer under active development.

<comment><USER16> Not having active development isn't necessarily a good reason to avoid something, since it still works perfectly well.. There are only so many features needed in a debugger and security is not a real concern.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Would be amazing if this could also integrate with a language server to provide code browsing functionality. These days I'm using Vim's gdb integration, which doesn't have any data visualisation features, but lets me use all of my code browsing plugins.

<comment><USER18> visual studio code is pretty good these days when you get the right extensions. I've setup my projects to be debugged with gdb with vscode as the GUI. My build system also generate a compile_commands.json to feed to clangd [https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=llvm- vs-...](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=llvm-vs-code- extensions.vscode-clangd)

Another good project that people love to hate is eclipse, if you want a GDB powered GUI, its always worth a shot.

</comment></comment><comment> globular-toast I did a double take on the word "extensionable". I think the word is extensible.

</comment><comment><USER19> This looks awesome. I've wanted to make something like this for a long time but keep putting it off. very cool

</comment><comment><USER20> With all of the improvements to static and run-time analysis that we see within compilers like -fsanitize, will it ever get to the point were tools like GDB become obsolete? It seems to me that as more work goes into this, it will become very hard for gdb/valgrind/... to compete with the full power/knowledge available to a compiler.

</comment><comment><USER21> Is there any video of what this looks like and how it works?

<comment><USER22> [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LNR8u19x6Y](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LNR8u19x6Y)</comment></comment>


One-on-one plus fun adds up to 'stunning' progress in maths - <AUTHOR> http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article6115670.ece One-on-one plus fun adds up to 'stunning' progress in maths <comment><USER2> The article is gushing with superlatives and amazing anecdotes. For instance, "The results have been excellent. One autistic child moved up a phenomenal amount and is proving to be a highly able mathematician." Is it really the case that after generations of struggling to do teaching right, the long sought after key to mathematical education has been discovered? ... and perhaps even the cure for autism?

... best taken with a grain of salt

From reading the article, it seems like an advertising campaign encouraging parents to count with their children (in addition to reading with them) might do just as much (or more) as this new educational program.</comment>


Ask HN: Diagram tools? - <AUTHOR> I'm trying to formalize some of our network and data flow diagrams. What tools are you guys using these days for building these types of diagrams? Vizio was my previous go-to but I'd like something that has some nicer defaults and is easier to work with.<p>I like Cloudcraft, but it's AWS-specific. <comment><USER2> I used draw.io, it has AWS images and supports embedding the diagram markup within a PNG on export so you can upload the master to your corporate wiki/share it with colleagues

</comment><comment><USER3> Archi [https://www.archimatetool.com](https://www.archimatetool.com) is very good if you are willing to follow Archimate.

</comment><comment><USER4> I like [http://plantuml.com/](http://plantuml.com/)</comment>


Transform your image overlays with on-the-fly manipulation - <AUTHOR> http://cloudinary.com/blog/transform_your_image_overlays_with_on_the_fly_manipulation

<comment><AUTHOR> How-to combine multiple images on-the-fly as overlays, while manipulating each image overlay dynamically to match your graphic design. Sample code included for Rails, PHP, Node, Javascript and other web frameworks.</comment>


Lenovo unveils new ThinkPad design - <AUTHOR> http://blog.lenovo.com/products/thinkpad-t431s-laptop-new-design <comment> old-gregg I have two nearly new Thinkpads right now and I don't need a 3rd laptop. But with this shit hitting the market soon, I am contemplating ordering a T530 and perhaps an x230 in top configurations and keep them in a closet for future use.

After this pinnacle of Lenovo engineering goes on sale there won't be a single laptop on the market worth using.

Not sure what I think of Apple right now. On one hand, they catapulted the laptop designers around the world into producing this crap. On the other hand, by creating the iPad they've started the process of moving consumers off laptops into dedicated facebook terminals AKA tablets, so perhaps the high-res IPS screens with quality keyboards+trackpads will soon be offered again for a premium price.

I am rooting for Dell here. Now when Lenovo is gone, their Precision series is probably the closest one to take advantage of this.

Does anyone want to apply to YC with a novel idea: _make computers for people who make money using computers?_

<comment><USER2> Have you looked into System76's machines at all? Right now I am using their Gazelle Professional model (<https://www.system76.com/laptops/model/gazp8>). I have to say it is the best damn laptop I've ever owned and this is coming from a long-time Thinkpad user

<comment> old-gregg I look at them every time I'm shopping for a laptop. They never offer anything comparable to a proper Thinkpad. The laptop you're linking to lacks nearly everything imporant:

      * No trackpoint
      * Touchpad buttons are in the wrong place (must be on top, under thumbs)
      * No IPS display
      * Keyboard is crippled. Compare to a proper keyboard [1]

The #1 and #2 basicaly mean _"this laptop has no mouse"_ Apple-style touchpad is useless for people who type a lot (you can't use them while your hands are in FJ-position).

#3 means _"cannot work with images with more than 65K colors"_.

[1] Proper keyboard: <http://www.notebookcheck.net/typo3temp/pics/ea701ff5cd.jpg> Things to notice:

      * Giant "Esc" key
      * Dedicated forward/backward buttons for browsing
      * Full-sized Fn keys
      * Dedicated blocks for navigation keys
      * Because it's ergonomic, it's not a dumb rectangular shape. Lenovo hates
        this IBM design because it is more expensive to produce.

Also, look at how UltraNav works: you can use the mouse by keeping your hands in a typing position (FJ). This way you can nearly instantaneously replace the previously typed word by using the trackpoint + buttons under your thumbs. This speeds up your typing or coding significantly. This gives Vim/Emacs users superpowers! :) Cheap laptops force you to move your hands a lot to switch between the mouse and keyboard.

<comment><USER3> I always hated the forward-backward buttons. In Eclipse and VS, I kept hitting them when reaching for Shift or Cursor, and ended up in a different file.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I've been a loyal Thinkpad user for more than a decade. There are three things that have kept me buying new thinkpads: The keyboard, the trackpoint, and the high degree of serviceability.

I recently got a T-530 and was extremely disappointed with the changes made to the keyboard. The chiclet change was lame, but it was something I could ignore. The changes to the layout are a complete disaster. Important keys are gone, and other keys are poorly positioned.

I joked that the next version thinkpad will eliminate the trackpoint and be as non-servicable as a Macbook.

Well, it looks like I underestimated them. They didn't _eliminate_ the trackpoint. They just took the buttons away...

My next computer won't be a thinkpad.

<comment><USER5> I believe the trackpoint buttons are still there at the top of the trackpad. At least that was my reading of the post:

"We unified the clickpad by integrating the trackpoint buttons into the elegant glass touchpad..."

I sincerely hope they never discard the trackpoint, no matter how many times The Verge laments it's "confusing" presence.

<comment><USER6> _We unified the clickpad by integrating the trackpoint buttons into the elegant glass touchpad, making it appear even larger and more streamline. The trackpad now has five buttons which you can customize for Windows 8 gestures via the device driver._

Hardcore long-time ThinkPad fan. This breaks the way the computer is used.

I don't even know what I'll do. The only other quality hardware maker I know is Apple.

<comment><USER7> There's still DELL. I was a long-ish time ThinkPad fan and when I switched to DELL I liked it even more. Serviceability was the same, keyboard was surprisingly better, trackpoint with buttons was there as well. It's over a three years old model though, don't know where they moved since.

<comment><USER6> I honestly though Dell sold only cheap crap to gullible consumers. "Dude, you're getting a Dell!"

Is there some specific "line" of computers that Dell makes that are for serious users?

<comment><USER7> They have a "business" lines of products for notebooks, desktops, servers, .. they even have top of the line monitors. In the case of laptops, look for "Latitude" which is basically equivalent to Lenovo's ThinkPad.

I have E6400 and it has all the nice perks - metal-ish body so it's not squeeky and wiggly like a plastic notebook, one screw to remove bottom (to clean up fan, change ram, ...), one screw to change hard drive, "multi/ultra"bay slot so you can swap the useless optical drive for battery or hard drive, only few screws to change keyboard (so you can get an underlit one), docking station, international next business day care (with accidental damage) ... They just don't look so good as ThinkPad did/does. But that's a matter of opinion of course.

I haven't seen any of their books recently but if I were to buy something new I would definitely look into them.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I absolutely despise the removal of the trackpoint buttons. If I wanted a Mac, _I'd buy a fucking Mac_.

Whatever happened to not alienating long time thinkpad users?

<comment><USER9> _Whatever happened to not alienating long time thinkpad users?_

Presumably long time thinpad users switched to macs, is what happened.

<comment><USER10> One of the things those long time ThinkPad users love about their machines is the TrackPoint [1]. There's no TrackPoint in a Mac, so I think the steadfast ThinkPad fans are among the last people you'd find switching to Macs.

There is a decent ThinkPad USB keyboard [2] that works with Macs; I use one with mine. The TrackPoint response isn't as good as it is on a ThinkPad with Windows, though. And there's no way to get a MacBook of any sort with a TrackPoint. So I prefer using my ThinkPads except when I need to test on the Mac.

[1] <https://www.google.com/search?q=love+trackpoint>

[2] [http://www.amazon.com/ThinkPad-USB-Keyboard-with- TrackPoint/...](http://www.amazon.com/ThinkPad-USB-Keyboard-with- TrackPoint/dp/B002ONCC6G)

<comment><USER11> For what it's worth, I use one of those ThinkPad external keyboards with my Mac. It's a great solution for those of us who can't work without TrackPoints.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> See also earlier HN discussion on the new ThinkPad:

<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5392298>

</comment><comment><USER13> If Lenovo put the Chrome Pixel display on a T4xx machine I would buy one in a femptosecond.

</comment><comment><USER14> The laptop has only one look for Christ's sake! Blue Steel, Ferrari, Latigra? They're the same face! Doesn't anyone notice this?! I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.

</comment><comment><USER15> > we want to retain the right amount of ThinkPad-ness that satisfies our loyal > customers who've always valued it while modernizing ThinkPad under the > influences of consumerization's focus on simplicity, interoperability and > connectedness

Why not just use/create another brand like the IdeaPad?

<comment><USER16> Isn't that what they did with the Thinkpad Edge?

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> " The trackpad now has five buttons which you can customize for Windows 8 gestures via the device driver. There are subtle red lines on the surface indicating the trackpoint buttons. "

I'm going to keep calm and assume that these trackpad buttons work perfectly while using the trackpoint.

At least they didn't change the key laout again. I just got used to the new layout. It takes more effort to use though. There's a horrible wrist-crank that goes on while trying to page down with a pinky.

Anyway, I'm hoping my next computer will be little more than a keyboard (thinkpad travelnav) with something like a raspberry pi at the bottom and hdmi display glasses.

</comment><comment><USER18> That's not a Lenovo, that's a Toshiba. Great. The one computer no one had managed to fuck up.

</comment><comment><USER19> I used to buy ThinkPads all the time. But they just keep getting worse (along with all other Windows laptops).

As for the new Thinkpad described in this article... lack of physical mouse buttons = instant fail. This seems like a weird style-oriented consumer move, not a business-user kind of move. I don't understand why everyone is in such a hurry to try and copy the MacBook (badly).

At this point, availability of physical mouse buttons is very high in my list of selling points for a laptop. I doubt I am alone.

</comment><comment><USER20> I can't believe they left the pageup/pagedown right near the arrow keys. I hit those by accident several times a day.

<comment><USER21> This is the absolute worst 'feature' on a thinkpad. When browsing those buttons are forward/back. Other that I'm not sure why they can't get a decent trackpad. Even though synaptics makes both the thinkpad and macbook trackpads, the mac is far better. It must come down to software/drivers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> "Nothing material-wise has changed with the hinges, and we kept them visible so you still know strong the laptop is."

Translation: "Don't pay any attention to the body that is made out of cheap plastic, look at these shiny metal hinges!"

</comment><comment><USER23> OK... Having trouble loving this.

I'm an MBP fella but for the past few years Thinkpads have been the PCs for which I've secretly lusted. Lenovo, becoming more Mac-ish only makes long for you less.

Wouldn't a better monitor be a better thing than flipping the logo?

</comment><comment><USER24> Using the same ThinkPad w500 for 4+ years, running 1920 x 1200 resolution.

I'm utterly fed up with the consumerization of power notebooks at the expense of the needs of productivity workers.

The last few years have been an outright de-evolution of screen resolutions for laptops ... i'm still waiting for a clear upgrade path.

I'm a technology marketing specialist. I design graphics and develop software and websites using Adobe Creative Suite, Visual Studio, and various other apps that require lots of screen real estate. It seems like computer companies think everyone buys notebooks to watch movies.

There are a millions of power users that require high resolution notebooks including engineers, CAD/CAM designers, architects, graphic designers, developers, etc. These groups form the best litmus test for determining quality wrt high-end technology.

And these groups are being alienated by technology companies -- both software and hardware. This includes the latest Windows 8 craptaculous dr. jekyll mr. hyde release, along with the numerous laptop vendors all trying to shove consumer-focused technology down the throats of power users that primarily use technology to PRODUCE THINGS.

The most insulting and infuriating thing is that the ThinkPad brand in particular grew famous from the loyalty of power-users like me. And instead of listening to us and delivering products that meet and exceed our needs, Lenovo (and other manufacturers) blindly chase after new consumer oriented customers at our expense.

The marketing morons at these companies (i know their "work" very well) are focused on generating growth and chasing after new markets -- at all costs. That's fine. Create a new brand to do that.

My advise to manufacturers of high-end products for long-term success:

\- Create new brands to enter new markets

\- Deliver high-end products that meet/exceed the needs of your most demanding customers

\- Evolve core brands CAREFULLY

\- If you don't use the product as your demanding customers do, then you don't understand the product, so you should not make drastic decisions that affect it

ac

</comment><comment><USER25> I can't believe they call out rotating the logo as a new feature.

<comment><USER26> It's like they're saying "We're almost as good as Apple". Aside from the 180deg. hinge, is there any innovation that they've listed that's not an innovation previously done by other vendors (like Apple)?

Seriously? Why parrot that you're behind the times?

<comment><USER27> The 180° is not an innovation. All ThinkPads I ever had had this feature, and I had many ThinkPads, around 10 still in use.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> I really hope they will sell this with no OS. My current computer is a two- year old X201, the only brand that sold laptops without windows, it was more powerful and even cheaper model... I love it, and works beautifully with ArchLinux.

Had to service twice (the monitor cable broke once because of the lots of opening and closing, and the fan died once), and maybe will have to fix my headphone jack, but it was always painless, free and speedy in the service centre....

<comment><USER29> do you know how well other thinkpads work with ArchLinux? I'm looking into x230, X1 carbon, and T430s

<comment><USER28> I think they should be all fine. Here's some others' info about it, partly from the (excellent) Arch Wiki, and from a blog:

<https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ThinkPad_X230> <https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X1> <http://blog.burntsushi.net/lenovo-thinkpad-t430-archlinux>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> I used to have a Thinkpad T61. Best laptop I ever had. When it came time to upgrade, I looked in disbelief at the current Thinkpad line, and felt the same emptyness in my heart as when my old HP 42S calculator died and I went to HP's site to find what their RPN calculator line was up to these days. How sad it is when a line of beautiful, well-engineered machines become extinct, supplanted by mediocre, cheaper tools.

<comment><USER31> Same. I got a MacBook Pro.

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> Lenovo needs to slowly remove the bizarre and seemingly random vendor/OS specific features of their machines, and simplify (if that's an option). For example, I know there is an Intel processor in the machine an Windows as a default install, so please don't put hard to remove stickers on my machine. I'm a big Lenovo fan, but they need to take a step back.

Side note, PM me if you want to buy a nearly never used maxed out X220.

<comment><USER10> Funny thing about the stickers: my current two ThinkPads (W520 and X220 Tablet) had three stickers each: one was Intel, I think the other was Microsoft, and the last one was Lenovo Enhanced Experience.

The Intel and Microsoft stickers came off easily and cleanly.

(Pro tip: Use the plastic toothpick from a Swiss Army Knife. The flat point is just right to get under the corner of a sticker and lift it loose. Then the rest of the sticker is easy to peel off.)

The Lenovo Enhanced Experience sticker? Quite a bit more tenacious. It was a real pain to get it loose at all, and then it left a bunch of residue behind. Some kind of Enhanced Experience!

I hate stickers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> Am I the only one to actually prefere a big enter key ( <http://i.imgur.com/NMwiGAR.jpg> ) to a smaller one ( <http://imgur.com/G54Jua5,NMwiGAR#0> ) ?

Also, I'm one of those who want the CTRL key to be at the corner (no bios workaround).

</comment><comment><USER34> Yet again, they're pushing out 16:9 screens in a case obviously designed to take a 16:10 display. It look ridiculous.

These are premium machines, they can clearly afford to get decent IPS displays produced in whatever aspect ratio they choose (as both Apple and Google have done), but they continue with this 16:9 bullshit.

I'm not fond of any current laptop hardware as they're all too compromised.

I second the sentiment that in a year or two it'll be possible to have a simple keyboard attached to an ARM based mini computer (raspberry pi but better), outputting to some wearable display / hooked to a monitor. This might in fact just be a phone of course.

I'd love to be able to just carry a nice mini mechanical keyboard with me, rather than use laptop keyboards.

</comment><comment><USER35> I think the high point of the Thinkpad line was around the T61/X61t. They were fast, durable and had nice high resolution display.

I was desperately waiting for an update to my X61t w/ 1400x1050 display and no such option come from them and after many years, still none! Such a disappointment.

I saw the photos in the article and then noticed they removed the trackpad buttons. They're moving away from why I liked them before.. that's fine, but they're not making big enough hardware improvements to offset those changes.

<comment><USER36> The Thinkpad X1 Carbon is 1600x900. Surprised that is not that well-known, as you're the second person on this thread I've noticed with that misconception. I upgraded from my old X200s to the X1 Carbon and it's great.

<comment><USER37> I've been wanting this model for months. How is the video performance on it? Movies, games etc?

<comment><USER36> I'm going to say "fine", as I've honestly never noticed an issue at all. I still do video editing on my desktop as it's way faster. I don't play games, so I can't answer that one for you.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> Not a big fan of the changes here either. However, I must note that this:

"At the same time we added a living element to it with a new LED in the logo middle giving it a "heartbeat" of sorts. It's functional too, showing the PC's status of on or in sleep."

This feature has always let me distinguish my high-end T420 from other cheaper, worse models which have the ugly red led. With T420 I somewhat feel like this is the last good Thinkpad of the T-series, but of course I am biased.

</comment><comment><USER39> They should've never ditched the blue enter key. Any machine with the 3-color IBM logo and a blue enter key is gonna be the hottest machine on the block.

</comment><comment><USER40> I really like ThinkPads, but I think if they count rotating the logo to face up while open as a new feature, they should also include the feature of memorable model names. T431s? That's a SKU, not a model. Lenovo is experimenting with it's consumer-grade IdeaPad line—there's a Yoga, for instance—but it can still feel like a business machine with a memorable name.

<comment><USER6> Disagree. What could you possibly call a computer, that's not just arbitrary and dumb? Yoga is one of the worst names I've ever heard for a computer.

</comment></comment><comment><USER41> people still use vga ports?

<comment><USER42> My guess is that if you're a businessman travelling around to do presentations at different places all the time, you probably need maximum compatibility. Sort of a differentiating factor. It also has a LAN port, of which one might ask the same question. Just a guess though.

<comment><USER15> You can't compare wired Ethernet with the wireless one. The wired one is more reliable, faster and a bit more secure.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I'm a macbook user and absolutely hate my thinkpad. However, I realize the people who love the thinkpad are all about function over form. Making the thinkpad more mac like (or consumer like or whatever) is just going to alienate the people already buying these.

</comment><comment><USER43> I love MacBooks, but even I am a little disappointed the new ThinkPad is more like a MacBook.

</comment><comment><USER44> Don't know about 431 but I absolutely do not like them moving the keys around in 420. The PrntScrn is no longer where it used to be. The Home, End, PgUp, Down keys are all at different places.

<comment><USER45> This drives me mad. At least Lenovo kept the buttons. Other laptops like Apple and now Dell have dropped them entirely. And for what? "Minimalism" or "elegance" I guess. I'm going to have to hang on to my aging Dell for as long as I can, just for the keyboard :(

<comment><USER27> But it didn't even keep the buttons.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER46> I am happy with my X60, but just in case I might fancy an upgrade, which is the last model worth of it?

Maybe the X230 but the screen frame still looks too big / noticeable.

</comment><comment><USER47> I may order one when its refresh time. If I dont like it, I know I like the MBP with Retina, I do however like the touch point more than a trackpad.

</comment><comment><USER35> I have the Thinkpad X22, X40, T40, T60p, X61t. After the X61t, I saw nothing remotely compelling from their Thinkpad line.

</comment><comment><USER48> I had to laugh out loud because it still looks the same. Or was that the joke?

</comment><comment><USER49> That ugly trackpoint (that red dot in the middle of keyboard) and that extremely irritating swapped position of Fn and Ctrl keys are the two things that keep me away from this otherwise excellent laptop. (Though the Fn and Ctrl keys can now be swapped from BIOS, but _why_? )

<comment><USER17> Ugly trackpoint? Are you trolling? Trackpoint is one of the most significant reasons people buy a thinkpad over any other trackpad only laptop.

I've heard the ctrl and fn placement is an issue for many people, but I don't understand why you'd want the more frequently used key further away than a hardly ever used key. Or maybe people actually use fn more often than ctrl? That doesn't seem likely.

<comment><USER50> Don't think further away. Think _corners_. Corners are easy to hit, you know where they are. Second from the corner requires more effort. Same reasoning as "hot corners" in operating systems.

<comment><USER17> I can understand that. I guess I've gotten used to the close pinky curl-under that hits Ctrl just right.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER51> this is very, very nice, but centering the trackpad to have to align with the trackpoint feels like an awkward mistake

<comment><USER10> What makes it an awkward mistake? Doesn't look as balanced and centered?

It seems kind of essential if they're using the touchpad top edge as a replacement for the TrackPoint buttons.

</comment></comment><comment><USER52> And yet the 13" screen on the 11" body (tiny bezel) Dell XPS still has a high _er_ -res screen than this 14" screen. WAKE UP LENOVO, I really wanted to have a hard decision when choosing to replace my Macbook Air, but I guess the XPS 13 is an easy choice. Your X1 Carbon is equally gorgeous with an equally crappy screen.

Now if only any store anywhere carried the Chromebook Pixel so I could check it out...

edit: After more reading, rumor has it of a retina MBA 2013. Maybe I'll wait it out.

<comment><USER36> "Your X1 Carbon is equally gorgeous with an equally crappy screen."

I believe you have incorrect information. I own a Thinkpad X1 Carbon. Its screen resolution is 1600x900, which is not only higher than the typical 1366x768 resolution found on most laptops, but it's a nice resolution that doesn't require switching into and out of "retina" mode.

I'm quite happy with my X1 Carbon, FWIW. My favorite feature is the rapid charge, which charges your laptop to 80% battery in 30 minutes or less. This is a laptop where it's actually worth hauling out the AC adapter when you have 10 minutes before you board your next flight. Very awesome feature.

<comment><USER52> >It's a nice resolution that doesn't require switching into and out of "retina" mode.

I use an OS that fortunately isn't encumbered with those problems. I use a 2560x1440 monitor, a 2560x1440 tablet, and a 720p phone, the fact that a 14" screen is inferior to all of those is embarrassing. It does make a difference, especially when I'm considering switching from my MBA (which already has a higher density than the X1 in question) to an XPS 13 that has a full HD (1080p) display.

I can assure you, I would love more than anything else to buy the Touchpad X1. I don't like Dell's quality or customer service. The EFI implementation on Macs is piss-poor and their firmware doesn't support USB3 (you have to boot OS X/Ubuntu and have the drivers kick in). My first "real" laptop was a Thinkpad before they stopped making Thinkpads. But frankly, the screen is a deal break. The screen on my T61P was the worst screen I've ever owned, and I'm not buying another until it's competitive with the equivalent competition.

I'm sadly well aware that many other laptop manufacturers skimp on displays, but both Acer and ASUS offer full HD laptops that are in the same spec/dimension/price range.

<comment><USER53> I completely agree with your sentiment. My impression is they're releasing more models, redesigned like this, in the near future; we can only hope they'll have a high-res option.

I really don't mind paying $200 extra for a great screen.

> 2560x1440 tablet

If that's the nexus 10 you're referring to, it's actually 2560×1600 :)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


The Blimp Tech Stack: Frontend - <AUTHOR> http://blog.getblimp.com/2013/01/the-blimp-tech-stack-frontend/

<comment><USER2> None of that makes a good argument for why you need to reconsider your frontend, it's just a list of cool libraries.

Developers like to try new technologies, and like to improve things and make their life easier (which often involves some form of re-write). This is natural. But does the new stack justify the time that was spent moving over?

I'm assuming it was worth it, but it would be nice to see something actually backing that up.

<comment><USER3> I _did_ think the same way, but started drinking the Backbone / MD / Marionette / Mustache kool-aid back in December.

Really this is a _revolution_ in how Javscript is used in the standard web stack. Huge chunks of the work of a web stack is moving into the client, and the old-skool approach to javascript really does not cut it. (I used to be a javascript maven back in the day - it has taken weeks to get partly productive)

There is a knock on effect at the server end - basically slimming the whole server end down to little more than RestFul JSON servers. This is a good thing, and is pushing a move to smaller frameworks and more composable servers and the whole asynchronous thing.

There is a huge amount wrong with this new eco-system, its messy and there are few clear winners - not surprising as it is still in the process of being built - but it certainly is innovative means to solve existing real problems.

Drink the kool-aid - but a good guide is necessary.

<comment><USER2> I wasn't necessarily thinking any certain way - I haven't done much front-end development in a few years, so I don't know much about any of the frameworks mentioned. I was just trying to politely point out that the post is fairly content-free.

However, reading about a project switching technologies every few months does make me raise an eyebrow. Nothing wrong with doing it for a personal project, but does it fundamentally move the business forward and let it do things it couldn't before? Or is it just developers playing with shiny new toys?

Edit: I will be reading more about it to wrap my head around how it all works. I'm probably a bit less receptive to "the cool new thing" than usual because I've spent the last few days trying to revive and migrate an "ancient" Rails 2 project and dealing with a lot of no-longer-supported stuff.

<comment><USER3> There is a lot of "cool new thing" in the, for want of a better term, "new- style javascript world", but javascript is _the_ ubiquitous platform, and it is not a classical OO language - so taking advantage of its small functional foundations to allow more expressive work is a Good Thing.

We are moving towards a situation where composability is the watchword on the client side - which is a nice place to be.

Honestly I would not try reading to "get it" - it does not work. but I suggest you read and then implement in this order

* What is AMD v CJS

* CoffeeScript (Yes, I know)

* CoffeeScript annoyances

* Backbone.js - build a model, a collection and view, that makes a AJAX call

* Marionette - replace the view with marionette views (much easier to control)

* back to backbone for sync and watching model changes

Then start to think about better ways to arrange your app - and better ways to define areas on screen. I am toying with some thoughts but clearly poeople want to take this exprerssiveness on next - and the most OO-classical-config- heavy area is how to change the DOM. Lots of config and magic in there. THat will need cleaning out. probably with another package :-)

<comment><USER2> Thanks! Saved for future reference for when I have a bit of time to play with this :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Why do you change the title when you post it here to be so provocative and arrogant? Linkbait?

"Why you need..." just sets you up for a negative reaction such as "who are you to tell me what I need to do?" and "what makes you think this is at all relevant to me?" and "what arrogance to think you have all of the answers for everyone"

The actual post you are linking to has none of the presumptive arrogance implied by the "why you need" titling and reads like quite a reasonable discussion of choices the author made that made sense for their particular requirements and environment. None of it applies to me and my situation, but I can read it with a much more open mind that I was initially inclined to based on the "why you need" language.

</comment><comment><USER5> slightly off topic. I REALLY wish GetBlimp showed pricing on the site before signup. only thing i see is "start with our free plan, then prices start at $12" on the homepage, then signup page etc i have no idea what prices will rise to.

<comment><USER6> Plans and pricing here: <http://bit.ly/VLzg3v>

<comment><USER7> Aka [https://s3.amazonaws.com/uploads.hipchat.com/12763/40986/n5j...](https://s3.amazonaws.com/uploads.hipchat.com/12763/40986/n5j6xi7odyvm8yp/Screen%20Shot%202013-01-28%20at%201.08.10%20PM.png)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> REST API bound simplistic and stateless frontends are easier said than done. Does anyone know a DRY way of achieving this. I like the AngularJS approach of keeping state(of DOM - a.k.a what the user sees) and let it flow. But still, as a Javascript noob, every library seems messy and unworkable :(

Any advice on this?

</comment><comment><USER9> "You should try Angular"</comment>


How WeChat Is Losing the War for Users' Attention - <AUTHOR> https://walkthechat.com/how-wechat-is-losing-the-war-for-users-attention/ <comment><USER2> It's an interesting analysis. But without knowing their goals, it is easy to come to the wrong conclusion. For example, it may be that WeChat aims to generate more quality content from select users? If that were true, then it makes sense for them to limit video creators. Anyway, I am speculating ... It could be quite true that they don't know how to innovate. MySpace faced the same issue.

</comment><comment><USER3> Walkthechat, without saying too much, be careful with that site (and it's so- called data). Double-check any facts before you trust it.</comment>


Self Ban Registry for Addictions - <AUTHOR> http://joelx.com/self-ban-registry-for-addictions/12381/ <comment><USER2> Casinos have lists of people that aren't allowed in for one reason or another. It is possible to add yourself to that list.</comment>


Apple Photos app don't accept photo downloaded from iPhone because it's not JPEG - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/krzyzanowskim/status/1264290950806937602 <comment><USER2> Should be "Apple's iCloud Photos _web app_ doesn't accept HEIC photos _uploaded_ from iPhone."

The non-web Photos apps work fine with HEIC images.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> and I find it hilarious after 3 years since iOS 11 where it became default image format for photos.

<comment><USER3> You would nearly think Mac Photos is not an important application for Apple</comment></comment>


Hacker News Search - <AUTHOR> http://ycombinator.com/newsnews.html#4jun11 <comment><USER2> I like hnsearch a lot, but I'd like us to take a second to thank whoever was running SearchYC, which for the past couple years has been practically indispensable in keeping up with this community.

<comment><USER3> I miss searchyc and feel sad that they went compleatly dark with no real explanation.

<comment><USER4> [http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:_FVEnmE...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:_FVEnmEbigYJ:searchyc.com/post/6027748746/why- is-searchyc-down+searchyc)

<comment><USER3> Yes, I saw that the first time around thanks.

It describes an action, but explains nothing.

Just off the top of my head here are some unanswered questions: Why did Comcast shut them down? why did comcast have the authority to shut them down? Why didn't the searchyc admins take their site somewhere else? Why have they said nothing here on hn? Why were they shutdown mere days before pg announces an official search (hopefully just a coincidence). What happened to their data (it's especially valuable now that we can no longer see comment scores). Etc.

<comment><USER2> Jiminy. Can we skip the outrage! this time?

You obviously haven't even looked at HNSearch if your big concern is comment scores.

Sheesh!

<comment><USER3> No outrage intended sorry if it came across that way.

I was commenting on the abrupt departure of searchyc not on the new search. Haven't seen the new search yet since it's not working on my blackberry for some reason. And I don't have my laptop with me.

<comment><USER2> Not everything that isn't explained in crystalline detail is a conspiracy or even evidence of significant drama.

<comment><USER3> You seem to be reading an undertone into my comment that simply wasn't there.

<comment><USER2> "Hopefully it's just a coincidence" that SearchYC lost its Comcast connectivity right before Paul Graham announced HNSearch. No. I don't think I misread the undertone.

Regardless, we don't need to beat this to death. Have a good weekend.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> _ThriftDB is the software they had to write to do Octopart's electronic parts searches; no existing software was up to the task._

Can the Octopart guys comment on why no existing software was up to the task? Also, I'm curious if there's something that makes ThriftDB a particularly good choice for HN search as well.

<comment><USER6> A search engine has many moving parts and we found that the existing technology worked but with great pain.

Lucene/Solr is great for search but it's useless without a fast datastore. Additionally, you can't expose it to the open internet so you need to build a REST API wrapper around the DB/index.

One particularly acute problem we had at Octopart was search across a frequently changing schema. We have 15M parts in our database so it was a real pain to change the schema. ThriftDB uses the Thrift serialization protocol internally to maintain a flexible schema so you can change the schema independently of the underlying data.

The current implementation of ThriftDB takes advantage of solr in smart ways to simplify app development dramatically. At Octopart we found that we were spending a lot of time building custom search solutions. Now we're using the same backend technology to search for electronic parts on Octopart and comments on Hacker News.

Using ThriftDB for search is like going from a compiled language to a scripting language. It takes care of a lot of issues so you can focus on app development.

Hope that explanation helps! Please let me know if you have more questions.

<comment><USER7> _One particularly acute problem we had at Octopart was search across a frequently changing schema. We have 15M parts in our database so it was a real pain to change the schema._

Solr can be run without a schema quite easily, or use the very common trope of the dynamicField typed schema (string_ _, text__ , int_* or whatever)

 _Lucene/Solr is great for search but it's useless without a fast datastore._

This is true at real scale (EN has 500m docs in our bigger solrs and we have to back it w/ TT) but for 15m docs, no way. Stored data in lucene/solr is certainly fast enough at that level. Think <50ms including data even on AWS.

 _Additionally, you can't expose it to the open internet so you need to build a REST API wrapper around the DB/index._

This I don't get. Surely you have a web app layer that talks to your services? That is, you don't have a text field in HTML hitting solr on port 8983, you call your web app's search which then hits solr's HTTP API?

<comment><USER6> _Solr can be run without a schema quite easily, or use the very common trope of the dynamicField typed schema (string_, text_, int_ or whatever)_

We're using solr dynamic fields in our current implementation of ThriftDB. ThriftDB adds a layer on top though so you can change attribute names on the fly.

 _This is true at real scale (EN has 500m docs in our bigger solrs and we have to back it w/ TT) but for 15m docs, no way. Stored data in lucene/solr is certainly fast enough at that level. Think <50ms including data even on AWS._

In our experience, stored data in lucene/solr doesn't scale well.

 _This I don't get. Surely you have a web app layer that talks to your services? That is, you don't have a text field in HTML hitting solr on port 8983, you call your web app's search which then hits solr's HTTP API?_

It sound like we're saying the same thing. If you use solr you're responsible for the web app layer. With ThriftDB you get a JSON REST API out of the box for every collection you create.

<comment><USER7> OK, thanks I think I get what thriftDB is a little better. It's hosted (only) -- so instead of booting a solr on your own boxes, you just hit api.thriftdb.com to create indexes, add data and do queries. So thus my "API" confusion -- I was assuming this was software I run on my own box and I don't know what I would get from the API that I wouldn't get hitting solr direct. But a turnkey search service is a nice idea.

But do you guys have a lot of experience with solr / lucene scaling (I mean well beyond the 15m docs octopart has)? What happens when an API customer starts ingesting >100m docs? And then 10 do it at once? Are the indexes on different boxes? Are you on AWS? What's the disk backing it? Does each index fit in RAM? Does the user have any control over caches, tokenizers, stemming, triefields? Like... when I add a date, you're not indexing it with millisecond accuracy, are you?

After EN gets bought on accident by the norwegian fish cannery I plan to retire on giving speeches of 5 years of Solr scaling woes. Unless Otis G is running it there's no way I would trust a hosted solr solution that I didn't have full control over.

<comment><USER6> Exactly! Would love to get more feedback if you have a chance to try out ThriftDB (<http://www.thriftdb.com>).

We have a lot of experience scaling faceted search with solr. 15M docs might not sound like a lot if you're doing full-text search but faceted-search adds another level of complexity:

[http://octopart.com/partsearch/#search/requestData&q=cap...](http://octopart.com/partsearch/#search/requestData&q=capacitor)

As far as scaling goes, most of the demand right now is for smaller indexes so that's not a problem. We know how to scale out though so we're pretty excited to get customers with >100M docs.

We're hosted on AWS but we're still iterating on the architecture. The indexes fit in RAM. Currently you can't control caches, tokenizers, stemming, etc. but that's in the pipeline.

Good luck with your new Norwegian cannery owners! I hear you on hosted search. We're trying our best to create a headache-free hosted solution.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I should add that HNSearch has an API

<http://www.hnsearch.com/api>

which should be a lot faster than crawling HN itself to get the same data.

<comment><USER8> This is cool, but the API looks a bit cryptic. Is there a way to simply lookup an item by URL?

Edit: Nevermind, figured it out: [http://api.thriftdb.com/api.hnsearch.com/items/_search?prett...](http://api.thriftdb.com/api.hnsearch.com/items/_search?pretty_print=true&filter\[fields\]\[url\]\[\]=http%3A%2F%2Fycombinator.com%2Fnewsnews.html%234jun11)

<comment> news-yc Or, by "id"? I looked, but I wasn't able to figure out, for example, how I'd get pg's top-level comment here from the id "2619846". I was able to find it with this search, but it requires a second-part to the "_id" that I don't know where to find: [http://api.thriftdb.com/api.hnsearch.com/items/_search?q=...](http://api.thriftdb.com/api.hnsearch.com/items/_search?q=&filter\[fields\]\[_id\]=2619846-a30f9&pretty_print=true) (Trying to filter for "id" instead of "_id" throws an error, for some reason.)

<comment><USER6> The `_id` attribute for each item is its submission id plus a signature. ThriftDB references objects by their unique `_id` attributes.

The `id` attribute on the other hand is an item's submission id. It's not indexed though so you can't do lookup by id.

<comment><USER9> could you please index the submission ids? i can think of a few reasons this would be useful

<comment><USER10> Exactly.

How do I find this comment through the API? How do I find its replies?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Will you move the search box to the top right hand corner? Perhaps just below my username?

<comment><USER12> Please do this. Having the search box at the bottom of the page makes no sense to me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Why at the bottom? I'm sure it's supposed to be more important than the footer. You could use SmashingMagazine resources when it comes to UX and design. It looks like you made almost all the frequent mistakes:

       Placing the search box at the bottom of the page, or hiding it in the navigation menu.
       Making the input field too short; users are forced to use short, imprecise queries, because longer queries would be hard and inconvenient to read.
       Making the submit button too small, so that users have to point the mouse very precisely.
       Making the search box hard to find.

Source: [http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/12/04/designing-the- hol...](http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/12/04/designing-the-holy-search- box-examples-and-best-practices/)

</comment><comment><USER10> Comment scores are back! (in a convoluted way, through the API). I can see that at this time that the top comment of this page currently (tptacek's) has 58 points:

[http://api.thriftdb.com/api.hnsearch.com/items/_search?filte...](http://api.thriftdb.com/api.hnsearch.com/items/_search?filter\[fields\]\[username\]\[\]=tptacek&sortby=create_ts%20desc&pretty_print=true)

<comment><USER10> Looks like it's been changed. Points seems to be always null through the API now.

edit: just removed from the search. still here: [http://api.thriftdb.com/api.hnsearch.com/items/2619811-02e34...](http://api.thriftdb.com/api.hnsearch.com/items/2619811-02e34?pretty_print=true)

expect to be gone soon.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Interface improvement suggestions:

When the search results page comes up, the search box is active. This makes any keystrokes I type appear in the search box instead of being passed on to my browser to do things like scroll down the page of results.

This is pretty annoying, and makes me have to click outside the search box before I can use the keyboard to scroll down the page, etc.

So please make it so that the search box does _not_ have focus when the search results are returned.

The other suggestion I have is to allow people to use their keyboards to go to the next page of search results. In Opera, I do this simply by hitting the space bar once I get to the bottom of the page.

This is how Google's interface works. In general, I think you can't go wrong by studying the design of their search interface carefully and copying it.

</comment><comment><USER15> It's a shame that, rather than embracing SearchYC which has existed and filled a needed feature for several years, you chose to use this as a plug for one of your companies...

</comment><comment><USER16> The feature that jumps out at me is that I can see comment karma scores for all the comments that I search up with a keyword search. Evidently the upvote/downvote buttons I see next to the comments in the search results don't change the comment karma scores.

<comment><USER17> I noticed the same thing, especially for current discussions. But then it changed. It looks like there's now a 5-day threshold for karma point exposure.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Would love to see the search box placed at the top-right of the site. Kind of a universal standard these days (and would mean no scrolling required to search).

The HTML5 `type=search` attribute would be cool as well :)

 _Edit:_ Additionally, use of `placeholder=Search` and the ditching of the label shouldn't be terribly controversial here. Given the audience, I have to imagine most users will see the placeholder text, no polyfill required.

</comment><comment><USER19> PG: Need to change the link in the bottom right of the page that says search to hnsearch instead of google with site:...

</comment><comment><USER20> This is a wonderful gain in functionality. Any chance pg and Octopart can implement search for pg's other forum? (Relevant HN thread at <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2620297> .)

</comment><comment><USER21> Should be a good test of the ThriftDB technology. Too bad the HN discussion about ThriftDB didn't come up in my test search, found it via Google instead.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2581652>

<comment><USER22> Really? That exact story is result #4 searching for "thriftdb" ([http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=thriftdb](http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=thriftdb)) and the only result when searching for stories ([http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/submissions&q=thr...](http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/submissions&q=thriftdb&start=0))

These results are as of 1pm EST on Saturday, as this very comment thread gets indexed the ordering may change...

<comment><USER21> Ah, I had JavaScript disabled. Once enabled, I got good search results!

<comment><USER20> Do you typically browse with JavaScript disabled? I would think that these days it would seriously change the browsing experience and many sites would be unusable. Just curious. :)

<comment><USER21> I have JavaScript disabled by default, and selectively enable it for the sites where I feel it is worthwhile. I'm a longtime NoScript user, and these days I use NotScripts with Chrome.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Is there any search engine that returns the right results for the term "C++"?

<comment><USER24> Both Google and Bing seem to handle it: [http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fnews.ycom...](http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fnews.ycombinator.com%2F+c%2B%2B) [http://www.bing.com/search?q=site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fnews.ycombi...](http://www.bing.com/search?q=site%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fnews.ycombinator.com%2F+c%2B%2B) Are there some particular cases where you see them screwing up?

<comment><USER23> Yeah sorry, I realize Google and Bing have fixed those issues but for the longest time, even Google didn't do it!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> This was by far the single feature that I wanted most for HN. Thank you

</comment><comment><USER26> Pardon me and I don't want to come off as ignorant, what is the big deal with this? I have been using Google to search hackernews articles by querying `<subject> site:news.ycombinator.com` and it has worked wonders.

Since hackernews is all publicly available, Googlebots must have indexed every single page of this site. And we all know how good Google has been with ranking and relevance. Why did HN decide to reinvent the wheel? Why didn't HN use the Google Custom Search plugin?

(I am just curious to know and not criticizing.)

<comment><USER27> The problem with Google Search for a site like Hacker News is that it doesn't have the same level of understanding of the metadata that makes up the site. A good example is sort-by-date (which Google can approximate based on the date something was first spotted by its crawlers, but it's not nearly as accurate as having access to the "date" field in the underlying data structures) - another is "just search comments by this username".

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> I search HN a lot, so am excited by this native implementation. I would be curious to know more about how the "relevance" sorting algorithm works though. When I did a test search for "domain registrar," for example, the top result was a comment with a score of -4. It seems like there are many ways to implement that feature, so would would be quite interested to hear more if the creators were able to share some thoughts on the general "relevance" problem.

<comment><USER6> We're using the HN hotness algorithm with some points boosts to surface older items. For a full explanation of the ranking algorithm check out the API docs:

<http://www.hnsearch.com/api>

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> The app flow is a bit unnatural. You get to it directly from HN, but the only back link to the main page is hidden in the footer.

That's still a great thing to have. Simple and efficient.

<comment><USER6> Good point. The UI is designed for someone coming directly to hnsearch.com. I'll see if I can tweak it for people coming from HN.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> any chance of integrating the search box into the top bar? i use some auto pagerize plugins that sort of get in the way. i know i could just turn it off, but that would brake its purpose. also, i suppose this would help with general _visibility_ of the search box, as most sites have theirs on top of their pages!

but it's definitely great to see search build into the site! will make finding stuff on hn _a lot_ more convenient.

<comment><USER31> Do you use Chrome? You can list this search engine as a custom search engine in Preferences > Basics > Manage Search Engines...

Add a new search engine -> Hacker News

Keyword -> hn

Url with %s in place of query -> [http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=%s](http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=%s)

You can do the same thing with a keyword bookmark in Firefox.

I've been searching HN all this time with a custom Google search including "site:news.ycombinator.com". I'll have to see if this is better. Google offers results filtered by date, which is really nice, since technology moves so incredibly fast.

<comment><USER6> You can add HNSearch as a custom search engine in Firefox as well. Just visit hnsearch.com, click on the favicon in the browser's search box and select "Add HNSearch".

For the Chrom custom search engine it would be better to use the non- javascript url: <http://www.hnsearch.com/search?q=>

That will get redirected automatically and won't change with the webapp implementation.

You can filter by date/points with HNSearch.

<comment><USER16> I can't reproduce the Firefox steps you mention. I click on the favicon in the browser's search box and I don't get a chance to select "Add HNSearch," but rather a message saying "This website does not supply identity information."

<comment><USER32> It's the favicon in the search box, not the location bar.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> Any reason for the search to be at the bottom?

PG: Can we please have it at the top, after submit?

</comment><comment><USER34> The search box should be on the top

<comment><USER20> I agree, but where would you fit it in? I'm trying to figure that out as well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> There should be a prominent link back to news.combinator.com from HNSearch pages.

</comment><comment><USER36> How is ThriftDB helping HN search? It'd be interesting to hear the details.

<comment><USER6> HNSearch consists of a simple javascript webapp hosted at hnsearch.com which sends ajax requests directly to ThriftDB. ThriftDB returns items in the search response which makes it ideal for this type of architecture. For a more detailed explanation checkout the API docs:

<http://www.hnsearch.com/api>

And here's a sample search response from ThriftDB:

[http://api.thriftdb.com/api.hnsearch.com/items/_search?q=fac...](http://api.thriftdb.com/api.hnsearch.com/items/_search?q=facebook&pretty_print=true)

<comment><USER36> So is HN data now being stored in ThriftDB? Or is it being replicated on your server? If so, what's the lag?

<comment><USER6> We wrote a crawler to download data from HN, parse it into JSON, and upload it to ThriftDB. The webapp at hnsearch.com sends requests directly to ThriftDB. There's a ~15min lag between HN and HNSearch.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> Finally. Could we get one on the arc forum as well ?

<comment><USER20> Thank you! I was wondering exactly the same thing: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2620297>

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> How about adding the search box in the top?

</comment><comment><USER39> I put together a simple safari extension that puts the bar after the submit link in the header. (not sure on the amount of safari users, but maybe a chrome version?)

<http://1821design.com/HNTopBarSearchField/>

</comment><comment><USER40> I'm really excited to start using this! Also - "built outside of Octopartitself" needs a space.

</comment><comment><USER41> I noticed a good percentage of the spam I received originated from SearchYC links (via links placed on HN under a different account name).

I would be interested to know if HN also receives less spam with the removal of SearchYC.

Does HN track stats on this?

</comment><comment><USER42> I don't know if it was left intentionally, but the search link in the footer menu bar still goes to google instead of hnsearch.

</comment><comment> daniel-cussen typo: "versionso" should be "version_so"

</comment><comment><USER43> This should cut down on duplicate submissions. That is, IF people remember to use it.

<comment><USER44> submission could automatically give search results on the title and/or url before confirming (like SO).

<comment><USER45> MetaFilter has been doing this for years too and it works ridiculously well. You have to see a list of potential matches before you can commit your post. So +1 to that.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER46> Wow, what an achievement.

</comment><comment><USER47> To who ever runs it: 'Yeserday' is spelled wrong. :)

<comment><USER6> Nice catch! Fixed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER48> First thought: Seriously, you guys couldn't just make SQL or something lucene- based work for this (like elasticsearch) ?

Second thought: Hmm, ooh well, I just use google with site: news.ycombinator.com

EDIT: It annoys me when people hate on SQL and act like it's OMGSOSLOW. I would agree that fulltext search BY ITSELF isn't amazing, but you can use something like Sphinx to wrap it and support awesome things like Soundex / Metaphone fuzzy matching. It's also stupid easy to set up. The NoSQL movement is, IMO, largely misguided. If you need to shard data and scale ridiculously, something like Lucene can probably do it. If you need bigger than that, use memcached /redis and shard and map/reduce queries....that makes sense, but NoSQL doesn't seem like a great idea for PRIMARY data storage. It seems like you better have amazing backups :)

</comment><comment><USER49> How about opening up an API and letting the hackers here have a bash at it?

It would be a fun challenge to see who can come up with the best and most useful solution :)

<comment><USER22> There is an API, linked from the bottom of every page: <http://www.hnsearch.com/api>

For the next two weeks there's even an API contest going on! <http://www.hnsearch.com/contest>

</comment></comment><comment><USER50> How many more posts do we need expressing our displeasure that searchyc has gone AWOL?

Wake me up when there's an official status update.</comment>


Ask HN: Codecademy for blockchain dev? - <AUTHOR> Is there a free resource like codecademy for blockchain learning? <comment> knight-errantry Blockgeeks isn't free, but they do offer free week and you can get through a lot of the material in that time

</comment><comment><USER2> Crypto Zombies is useful.</comment>


Page Layers - Convert websites to layered Photoshop PSDs - <AUTHOR> http://www.ralfebert.de/apps/page-layers-photoshop-osx-website-screenshots/

<comment><USER2> Wow! I just decided 4 days ago that I would do at least 5 things _every day_ to improve or promote my apps.

To put the focus on putting my time in, not on getting immediate gratification. Like sending out a promo code for the app to an editor every day instead of checking the website statistics every day.

To get rid of my perfectionism, good enough is good enough. Like recording the demo video yesterday, which is FAR from perfect and deciding it's good enough, I'll put it out, I can always put out a better version later.

I take waking up and finding myself on the front page of HN as a sign that I should continue doing that :)

</comment><comment><USER3> Most designers that I've worked will have manually created a layered PSD file that the site's design is based from.

However, overtime this file can become out of date - or can get lost if you change designers or programmers.

Seems like this is a great way to restore your photoshop file from the working HTML. Would be amazing if it could link up to the vector graphic files as well. Smart Objects are perhaps the best thing to happen to Photoshop since layers.

</comment><comment><USER4> Text content should be converted to PSD Text Element. Some of CSS effects are better represented using PSD Layer Style effects. Check out the complete PSD file format here: [http://www.adobe.com/devnet- apps/photoshop/fileformatashtml/...](http://www.adobe.com/devnet- apps/photoshop/fileformatashtml/PhotoshopFileFormats.htm)

I haven't really try LZW compression for the image data, but it seems that generated PSD file for a single webpage is extremely huge (multi megabytes PSD file). Standard Photoshop App generate image data with mostly Packbit compression. There is probably room to improve on that.

</comment><comment><USER5> Could you build this into a web-service that non-Mac using folks could use ? Maybe you could use Amazon "Requester Pays" and Devpay [1] to make money out of the service.

[1] [http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AmazonDevPay/latest/DevPay...](http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AmazonDevPay/latest/DevPayDeveloperGuide/S3RequesterPays.html)

</comment><comment><USER6> This looks awesome dude. Looks like you also have some other nice apps up there. Can you make a living from the sales?

<comment><USER2> Not yet, but it makes a nice extra income every month. To make a living I also offer Git and iOS training classes in Germany. Combination of teaching and building my own apps makes me happy :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Once again, a pity the Mac App Store doesn't offer a way to try before buying (at least at that price point) -- I'd like to see what it does with text, notably, Google Web Fonts (rendered to Bitmap? Automatic downloading of Google Web Fonts to Photoshop?)

</comment><comment><USER8> Very cool. One of those "why didn't I think of that" apps.

</comment><comment> grey-area The strapline on your web page should be: _Converts your website into photoshop layers_ Not: _Converts your website in photoshop layers_

<comment><USER2> Thanks, I'll fix this today!

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I usually want to go the other way...

</comment><comment><USER10> Wow. Powerful stuff. What's the technology behind this? Native Cocoa code?

<comment><USER2> Yes, Objective C with a little bit of JavaScript.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> This is some cool tech! Really see myself using this.

</comment><comment><USER12> What rendering engine is this using?

<comment><USER2> WebKit/Safari</comment></comment>


What I Learned Working for Steve Ballmer - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@benbob/what-i-learned-working-for-steve-ballmer-afa677763973 <comment><USER2> Excerpts from infamous mini-msft blog (in 2005 another msft employee venting anonymously):

"I mean, what has he done or not done that is impacting the stock?"

\- along with Gates, made decisions that resulted in the company being found guilty of breaking the law twice(and counting)resulting in fines, restrictions...

\- along with Gates, invested over $10B of cash in failed telecom investments that ended up being written off

\- failed to make any meaningful investments at the bottom of the market crash when numerous companies were available for cheap..

\- invested $10B's in various "emerging" businesses that even years later represent only about 10% of MSFT's revenue, aren't growing at even 10%..

\- approved the onerous Licensing 6 program when many companies were hurting economically thereby pissing off a good portion of our customers and fueling the move to Open Source.

\- has been at the helm as MSFT failed to take security seriously and then has had to drop everything to play catch up, missed the paid search move and had to play catch up, missed the move to web services and had to play catch up, missed the portable music wave and had to play catch up, let IE stagnate and had to play catch up, and now seemingly can't ship any major product on time even stripped of formerly core features (can you say Longhorn, CRM, SQL, VS, etc. etc. etc?).

Continued...

[http://minimsft.blogspot.com/2005/03/old-school- competencies...](http://minimsft.blogspot.com/2005/03/old-school- competencies.html#c111169237226667511)

<comment><USER3> During Ballmers tenure, the company massively increased it's revenues and profits, and they were exceptional in other areas.

'Missed paid search' and 'missed music player' etc. etc. are all haughty claims - MS was never an internet oriented business, it's like saying 'Oracle missed the search business' \- well sure. Just like Google missed social? Or Facebook missed mobile? Or missed photo-sharing?

I'm no fan of Ballmer or MSFT, but if the goal of MSFT is to make money via decent products that work well enough in the eyes of their buyers, he did that. Just not in the way that you might want or expect them to.

I like Satya more, but give it a few years and we can judge then.

<comment><USER4> Satya is already wayyyy more succesful as a CEO than Steve Ballmer ever was. MSFT stock price took a big dip after 2000 and never recovered in Ballmer from 2000 - 2014. He was a decent CEO in the sense that he didn't kill MSFT like Marissa Mayer did to Yahoo.

He missed a ton of opportunities and messed a lot of things like Nokia and Skype acquisitions that barely panned out. He let Apple and Google steal the mobile show when Windows Mobile had been the smart phone king for a long time. Microsoft used to be #1, now they are behind Apple, Amazon and Google.

Granted, he was good at milking the Windows and Office cash cows that had been gifted to him from Gates era, but he spent an insane amount of money on things that never panned out.

MSFT has a lot of money in the bank account so I'm sure they'll be fine even if they put a rock in the CEO seat.

<comment><USER5> > like Marissa Mayer did to Yahoo

Sorry to nitpick, but for some reason this comment irks me. Your comment seems to imply that yahoo was healthy, they hired Mayer, and then Yahoo died as a result.

Yahoo was a sinking ship, and it would have been a tough turn around for anyone.

Not that I think Mayer was the world's best CEO or anything, but the idea that she "killed" yahoo seems absurd. It's like accusing a surgeon of killing someone that died in ER surgery; the reason the person was in the ER in the first place was because they were dying.

Microsoft dying under Ballmer would have been night and day different as Microsoft was basically the world's most valuable company, not a clusterfuck like 2012 yahoo.

<comment><USER4> Yahoo was behind, agreed! They had so many opportunities to sell though. Microsoft was willing to buy Yahoo at a huge premium and it didn't go through. Good for MSFT.

In ER terms, the surgeon could have cut the leg off and saved the person, but got a bit too greedy and ended up killing the person by trying to save everything.

<comment><USER6> Just to be clear, Microsoft tried to buy Yahoo for $45 billion in 2008, long before Marissa Mayer was CEO.

As the parent comment notes, your previous comment seems to suggest some kind of causation between Mayer's tenure as CEO and the eventual breakup and sale of Yahoo. This is the fallacy known in poker as "resulting".

Nicholas Carlson's "Marissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahoo" is a fair account of her first few years at Yahoo. Keep in mind that when she joined, there was something like a total dozen mobile engineers at Yahoo. The company had burned through 3 CEOs in a decade, etc.

Mayer was not a perfect CEO in terms of strategic vision or her choice of acquisition targets, but I don't think her time as CEO was particularly bad either.

<comment><USER4> I believe I got my facts wrong. Thanks for changing my perspective.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> This strikes me as "odd":

>Then he looked up, waited for a pause in the presentation, and said in a soft voice: "This number is wrong!"

>...

>Any other executive would have assumed his finance people could write Excel formulas and delegated the task.

All the (successful) executives I ever dealt with have a sort of "sense" for numbers, and surely do not really-really trust their finance people writing Excel formulas, or - better - they trust them as long as the results are reasonable and don't raise this "number sense" alarm.

<comment><USER8> Yes, and the funny thing is the author even didn't get the correct take-away from this event.

Ballmer looked at the bottom line, was surprised by the number he saw and then started looking at the math that produced that number in detail. It has nothing to do with being a math wizz. The lesson here is that good executives ignore noise (the speaker) and focus on importance (numbers).

Balmer isn't a superhuman who can listen to a talk, read slides and do higher level math simultaneously, but he can spot a bottom line number that is surprising given his mental model of the deal. He expected to see one number and saw something else. That's when he stopped skimming the slides and gave 100% of his attention to the math that produced that bottom line number. That's also the point where he tuned out the speaker completely.

Math genius is not required. Superhuman ability to divide attention is not required. The only skill Ballmer displayed here is ability to direct his attention to a number he didn't trust, which turned out to be the right decision.

Programmers of average ability have their spider sense tingle when they look at code with sql injections, or at loops that don't terminate, or suspect allocation/threading logic. Bad code looks bad. Not always, but often enough. Finance is no different.

<comment><USER9> I wish this were true of programmers of average ability.

<comment><USER10> In my experience most do. It's just that they work on project that leave zero time to do anything to fix the issue. Customer is paying to add feature X not to fix Y that still worked yesterday.

<comment><USER11> Often so busy it's like merging on to the expressway with someone behind you honking, you look over your shoulder, it seems sorta alright, so you go ahead.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Very interesting read! He might've made some big mistakes during his tenure, but if Microsoft's still there it's also his merit

<comment><USER13> Yep, a lot of techies fail to appreciate the extent to which this is true. For those who disagree and were around in 2000, where is Sun Microsystems, Compaq, Yahoo, AOL, and Netscape today?

<comment><USER14> They were all acquired or merged for a lot of money - and they were all highly profitable companies. None of those businesses failed. That is just natural business evolution for successful businesses.

<comment><USER15> I disagree, but I think it is a matter of perspective, if by "successful" you mean "do not end up in a bankrupcy sale".

But then by your metric, there are businesses that are "more than successful": they are not acquired, but acquire others instead

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I can't wait for Ballmer to become the lovable, goofy NBA owner instead of be remembered as the guy who dragged down Microsoft.

<comment><USER17> > who dragged down Microsoft

Did he?

<comment><USER18> By being unable to use his warchest on a changing market. As an example: missing the smartphone boat twice (once with Windows Mobile vs Symbian, and once with Windows Phone vs iOS/Android). Another example: Microsoft search / Bing.

Microsoft kept Office relevant though, made Azure relevant, and are reinventing themselves from a proprietary to a data company (like Google, Facebook, and Amazon) who also do a lot of open source (like the previously mentioned companies). But I suppose Nadella takes credit for that.

<comment><USER19> Bing has proved to be one of the best investments that Microsoft ever made.

Ballmer's failure as it related to Bing was trying to build an advertising platform to compete with Google and failing.

<comment><USER20> Genuine question - how is Bing a good investment? Isn't it essentially a non- factor in the search market?

<comment><USER21> My guess is the algorithms and infrastructure serve search functions across all of their products. The "search market" is really the "Display advertising" market, and sure, they suck at that because no one goes to bing. But bing isn't worthless.

<comment><USER22> I've lost trust on them the day they were busted copying results directly from Google ([https://www.wired.com/2011/02/bing-copies- google/](https://www.wired.com/2011/02/bing-copies-google/))

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> He raises a good point about the law of large numbers. When your core business is doing $75b and has 95% market share, it's near impossible to find other lines of business to complement that core in a meaningful way. I'd go as far as to say it's illogical to expect crazy growth or innovation at such a point.

<comment><USER24> That bit had me scratching my head. To me the law of large numbers had to do with stats. But apparently, MBAs have come up with their own completely unrelated "law".

<comment><USER25> I've never heard it referred to as the law of large numbers (which I also associate with stats). But I still remember a discussion I had with an exec at a large systems company a number of years back when I was a consultant. I don't remember the exact context but it was around the potential for some new initiative or other. The gist of his remark was to the effect of "If it won't be a minimum $1 billion a year business for us, it's in the noise and uninteresting."

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> "A leader falls on his sword for his team if and when needed."

I like this. It also reminded me of a lesson I learned when reading Maj. Richard Winters' memoirs: a good leader leads from the front. First one in, last one out.

<comment><USER18> Strange comparison. If you look at the leaders in WWII (Churchill, Eisenhower, Hitler, Stalin, etc), none of them were at the front. Generals generally aren't either. Its direct leaders such as corporals and sergeants who are leading from the front; not officers. As comparison: the direct leaders would be CTO, division leaders, or direct managers.

<comment><USER27> Political leaders don't lead troops. They lead department heads in decision making. In that field, good ones operate the same way: leading from the front, showing willingness to take risk on themselves, supporting their direct reports as needed.

Similarly, Generals don't (usually) lead troops. They lead company commanders.

And so on.

<comment><USER18> A peculiar definition of "leading at the front".

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> The Nokia fiasco is a big blot on Ballmer's record. For a good reason: It shows the consequences of great arrogance. Nokia's marching orders were to make Windows Phone a success, and not to dilute that mission with a drop of alternative products. Just because he could, he took one of the finest companies on the planet and trashed it with a doomed strategy, at a cost of tens of billions in foregone value to his own shareholders and Nokia's employees. He took that much money, put it in a pile, lit it on fire and blocked the fire brigades, whether for vanity or for a weakly articulated strategy.

</comment><comment><USER29> laughed at the notion that apple would ever be able to make a serious mobile phone

[https://bgr.com/2016/11/04/ballmer-iphone-quote- explained/](https://bgr.com/2016/11/04/ballmer-iphone-quote-explained/)

edit: added the word 'serious'

</comment><comment><USER30> I've just learned that Medium now has a paywall for free member. Are there any other place/copy of this article that we can read without the paywall?

<comment><USER31> Incognito window is your friend

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> No word that he was a psychopath and a Corporate bully, Instead we have a hagiography for Steve.

<comment><USER33> Clever ambiguity, or mere coincidence?

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> Interesting read but a pity that the author doesn't understand the difference between blog and blog post particular as one of his points was attention to detail.

If the author is reading this blog is the medium (like magazine or newspaper) and blog post or post is the individual what a blog is what one authors.</comment>


Twitter Litter: The Benefits and Risks of Contemporary Citizen Journalism - <AUTHOR> http://blog.newscred.com/?p=195

<comment><USER2> Why does everyone have to be a 'citizen journalist?' Just because you're sharing information with the world, it doesn't make you a journalist. Self- publishing is great and all, but the best journalists don't rely only on their personal impressions of the world (i.e. "I heard Mousavi is under house arrest TWEET"). They check up on things and publish things they didn't believe that turn out to be true. Most 'citizen journalists' are just citizens with a piece of a megaphone.</comment>


Hacker News: Bangalore Meet-up. Any takers - <AUTHOR> Do we have any already? If not then lets do it. If there is sufficient interest we can have a all geek day at Bangalore. Interested anyone? <comment><USER2> +1. I don't know of any meet-ups that's there already. I'm in. :)</comment>


Too Many Books? - <AUTHOR> http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2015/apr/16/too-many-books/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=NYR%20Einstein%20Plains%20Indians%20Chinese%20novel&utm_content=NYR%20Einstein%20Plains%20Indians%20Chinese%20novel+CID_6d8c6d3747e97ffa2f7e1c98dda3648b&utm_source=Email%20marketing%20software&utm_term=Too%20Many%20Books <comment><USER2> We built a Little Free Library at our house and while it gets used (I love watching the soccer mom screech to a halt, three kids get out, grab books, and go) we have been inundated with books. The weekly selections we put out are absolutely curated, but we have actually gotten choosy about what we even take to Goodwill. Authors from Fox News go in the trash immediately, as do all quick-rich schemes. And still the piles of books grow.

Anyone in San Diego have any interest in books?

</comment><comment><USER3> It strikes me as a valid point that when books are "easy" to get, they get taken for granted. However I don't agree with the thesis that abundance leads to less appreciation for good books. (whether they are electronic or printed)

</comment><comment><USER4> It takes a lot to make a stew

A pinch of salt and laughter, too

A scoop of kids to add the spice

A dash of love to make it nice, and you've got

Too many books

Too many books

Too many books

Too many books

Too many books

Too many books

Too many books

Too many books

Too many books</comment>


Show HN: Craigslist housing maps on iPhone - <AUTHOR>

I've been running cribq.com for 5 years now.  I move a lot so I use it a lot. :)
The iPhone app is finally something I'm proud of.  You can see all the Craigslist listings on a map, favorite them, take notes, zoom into neighborhoods, email with a custom template, and more.
Link:
http://itunes.apple.com/app/craigslist-housing-maps-cribq
I'm struggling with marketing, which is where I would really like some suggestions - right now usage is pretty good but I'm shooting for much more.
Thanks!
Some reviews from the appstore:
"A complete game-changer. Completely simplifies the Craigslist housing search."
"This is the best way I know to search for an apartment by location, narrowed down to neighborhood or block!"
"This app is def a time saver!!! It's now my # 1 most used app :) Thank you for making my transition from Southern Cali to Chicago an easier one!!!"
"Very, very helpful. It's the perfect apartment search app on the go. Wherever, whenever... :)" <comment><USER2> Are you hooked up with CL? See if they will promote you as a third-party app on their page. They benefit too!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks.

No - they don't partner with anyone when it comes to their content.</comment></comment>