The Hacker's Diet:  Losing weight the hacker way - <AUTHOR> http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/www/hackdiet.html <comment><USER2> I followed this Diet back in 2003 and lost 40 Kilos (about 88 pounds) over 6 months, most of them in the first 3. The key things for me were:

Giving up alcohol for two months Not eating much at all Doing the fitness regime to boost metabolic rate

By the time I stopped I was on level 45 of the ladder, had never felt fitter in my life and wasn't ripped per se but was certainly toned.

Since then my weight has gone back up largely due to work and old habits coming back - I've taken up cycling which is definitely having a positive effect, but I'm not sure it'll be as effective without consideration to other areas (crap food, booze etc.)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Four years after reading this the first time, I still remind myself of one insight: engineer vs. managers and "fixing problems" vs. "managing problems".

You can find this discussion under the heading "Problems: managing, fixing, and solving" here <http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/e4/eatwatch.html>

It's pretty brilliant. Even when my (manager) head knows I should be just managing problems, my (engineering) heart really, really wants to just fix them.

</comment><comment><USER3> Has anyone tried the Shangri-La Diet? Seems too simple not to try it. From wikipedia:

"The diet itself consists of taking 100–400 calories in the form of extra- light (not extra-virgin) olive oil or sugar water per day, either all at once or spanned throughout the day. This must be consumed in a flavorless window, which is at least one hour after flavors have been consumed, and at least one hour before flavors will be consumed.[4] The consumption of these flavorless calories supposedly lowers the set point, and therefore, lowers weight."

I just mention this because I've read the authors paper "Self-experimentation as a source of new ideas: Ten examples about sleep, mood, health, and weight" and it seemed really interesting. Available here:

<http://sethroberts.net/science/>

<comment><USER4> > Has anyone tried the Shangri-La Diet

No, but I've tried the Get Off Your Ass and Don't Eat More Than 2000 Calories Per Day diet, and it works really well.

<comment><USER5> And by 2000, I presume you mean 1500 or less. Most people's bodies can probably easily adjust to 2000 calories at something near their current weight. In fact, for most people who want to lose weight, it would probably be easier just to keep calories/day to "about 1000" rather than trying to hit a precise target like 1850 or whatever their height and build should require.

<comment><USER4> No, those numbers are way off. If you eat 1000 calories a day and are male, you will almost definitely be in poorer health. You will lose muscle and gain fat %, and while you may be "lighter", you will almost definitely be fatter.

Use fitday.com or something to ACTUALLY TRACK (yes, actually, as in EVERY DAY) the calories you eat. You can't "guess" something like this. Furthermore, google for 'daily caloric expenditure calculator' and find out exactly how much someone of your height and build is burning, and eat accordingly.

Stop guessing! It obviously doesn't work.

<comment><USER5> Of _course_ you'll be in poorer health. You're losing weight, and if you keep it up you'll eventually starve. The process of "losing weight" has to be temporary. However, if you could determine the calorie count that would keep you stable at your desired weight, you will never be able to reach that weight on that calorie count (all else equal: no extra exercise, etc), because your body will lower metabolism enough that you'll level off above that.

I have lost weight in a sustained fashion to accomplish a goal just once in my life so far (~310 to 187 at my lowest; let's agree that I wasn't fatter at 187, eh?), and it would have taken years to drop it had I just started eating 2000 kcal a day. Even 2500 kcal is probably enough to _maintain_ 300 lbs if you don't exercise and don't actively try to build muscle.

<comment><USER4> > if you don't exercise and don't actively try to build muscle.

Which is why I said "Get Off Your Ass".

<comment><USER5> I parsed that as a modifier to the bit that followed, rather than a separate prescription. :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'm on this "diet" and have lost about 45 pounds so far.

Getting skinny always seemed like black voodoo or something. Looking at it the way I would look at hacking together a system made it really, really, really easy.

</comment><comment><USER7> The hacker's diet is a perfect example of a watched metric improving just by being watched.

When I needed to lose weight recently, I watched what I eat (in a google docs spreadsheet) and weighed myself every day, and lost 10kg in about 10 weeks.

<comment><USER8> Can you see yourself doing that for the next 30-40+ years?

<comment><USER7> No, but the principle of the hackers diet is to keep doing it.

I'm hoping that something I read recently about people likely having two different weight equilibriums (can't find a link) holds true.

<comment><USER8> Your weight equilibrium is definitely not fixed. It depends almost entirely on your hormone levels. If they are brought in to balance, your weight equilibrium will fall somewhere in a healthy range of 14%-20%. The good thing is it will stay that way. You'll have to keep your blood sugar and other things like cortisol under control, but you won't have to count calories.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> The link is interesting - it's a diet by the guy who founded AutoDesk (AutoCAD), and has some good discussion on plotting trends of weightloss, taking into account large noisy fluctuations in water weight.

There's an unofficial site you can join and plug data into to get those graphs here: <http://physicsdiet.com/>

</comment><comment><USER8> He's right about the fixing versus managing. Although for sanity's sake you really should think of it as permanent lifestyle changes, not "management." And also you should try to optimize for overall health with your lifestyle changes, not weight loss (which comes with improved health anyway).

One place this approach falls down is that it doesn't distinguish the effects of various types of calories. Just pursuing "variety" isn't going to cut it. You can eat a ton of fiber (with high caloric content) but you'll actually absorb very little of it. If you eat a ton of sugar you'll crash your metabolism, your insulin will skyrocket, and you'll put on pounds even if you started out burning more than you consume (plus you may induce diabetes).

Really, a hacker approach will acknowledge that what you're really trying to reduce is fat, not weight alone (is anyone here trying to lose muscle?) And calories input do _not_ go directly to fat. There is a sophisticated set of hormone feedback systems that govern whether fat is stored or broken down for energy, and until you hack your hormone system you may well be chasing your tail.

</comment><comment><USER10> The simple formula of 'Calories in - calories out = change in weight' has always been interesting to me. More recently i've been wondering if there is some way to measure calories burned accurately using some sort of skin-contact device. I've seen the "bodybugg",[1] but I have trouble believing a few sensors and a microcontroller is worth $250+.

Anyone have any experience with this sort of electronics? The "bodybugg" website claims that it does its measurements with an accelerometer, a 'heat flux sensor', a temperature sensor, and a sensor that measures galvanic skin response.

The more I look around, the more this looks like a market ripe for a quality start-up.

[1] <http://www.bodybugg.com/science_behind_bodybugg.php>

<comment><USER11> Suunto T6 owns this market. To use it right, tho', you need to have a VO2max test done.

Also, it's not as simple as that. You might think "I'm eating less so my body must burn fat" but your body is thinking "shit, I'm starving, better conserve energy" and turns down your metabolism, prioritizes fat storage, etc. A whole bunch of survival mechanisms kick in. Cutting more than 500 calories/day doesn't lead to sustainable results. There's no quick fix.

<comment><USER12> You right. So you do not need to eat less. You need to eat less calories, right? Eat meat instead of burger - you will be satiated for much longer time with much less calories. Also you need to eat vitamins - they will help organism to convert fat into energy when necessary and you will be less hungry in average.

<comment><USER4> > Also you need to eat vitamins

Since when did "vitamins" replace "fruit and vegetables"?

<comment><USER12> While on diet, you need more vitamins than usual.

Fruits and vegetables has calories too. Look at tables: <http://www.fatfreekitchen.com/calories.html>

1 apple is about 200g (five apples per 1kg), thus it is equivalent to 2 tablespoons of sugar.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> This Diet is way to complicated. A better way is simply:

* Don't drink alcohol. Alcohol has calories like fat. * Don't drink stuff with calories. The best is plain water * Cut back on carbs. Don't eat outside. Most food you buy is not suited for dieting * Eat your veggies. Eat at minimum one pound per day. It is a must. It is healthy and fights your hunger. * After you are down to the desired weight, don't get back to normal. Still eat your veggies and you are fine.

<comment><USER8> The diet isn't really too complicated, it just puts the emphasis in the wrong areas. What you eat is actually slightly more important that how much you eat.

Your recommendations are a good start, but you should add that 50-70% of each meal should be protein. Protein is the fuel for your metabolic fire (long term), and will cause your calorie burning to outrun your caloric intake in general terms.

Part of why the veggies are such a good idea is that they can be mostly fiber, which are calories that are not absorbed at all, but help you absorb the other, more important nutrients (protein, minerals, vitamins).

And to maintain this you must view it as a lifestyle and the goal is overall health, not a certain weight. The right weight will happen as the result of being healthy.

<comment><USER14> That kind of protein intake is absolutely nuts.

On average, the Japanese get over 50% of their calories just from _rice_ and over 80% from carbohydrates. They also have the longest lifespans in the world and far lower obesity and heart disease rates than similarly developed places.

<comment><USER8> You're probably talking about the Okinawa Diet (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okinawa_diet>). It contains 25% of the average Japanese intake of sugar and 75% of the average Japanese intake of grains in general. It is very low calorie.

To get the long lifespan, low obesity, and low heart disease of an Okinawan you'd have to truly live like an Okinawan... eating exactly the kinds of foods they eat and having little stress, similar sleep habits, and similar genetic dispositions. People have not been successful in replicating the approach elsewhere.

The approach I described is the way to eat to stoke your metabolism and keep your blood sugar low. It's good for fat loss, muscle building, high energy levels, and general good health. There's more to it than I described (such as eating 5 or more times a day), but those are the basics.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I followed this diet 3 years ago and it did have great results. I think that the exercise had the biggest effect on me, as I was completely flabby. I'm planning on starting again as I have reverted to my old chubby self the past couple of years.

</comment><comment><USER16> I think he's optimizing the wrong parameter. What's the ultimate point of hacking weight? For me, it's having good health. Health is not just about weight, health is composed of quantity and quality of food, frequent aerobic and anaerobic exercise, and adequate sleep. Hacking the diet is necessary but insufficient without the other two parts.

</comment><comment><USER17> The main beef I have with his "hack your weight" approach is that he's strictly counting calories, and not the kind of calories.

Yes, it'll "work," but if you use McDonald's calories instead of Trader Joe's calories (you get the general idea), your body will be much worse off with the junk food, even if your weight is down.

</comment><comment><USER18> I'd like to try this. It seems like he only has spreadsheets available for Excel though. Anyone tried to make something similar for gnumeric or maybe google spreadsheets?

<comment><USER19> He also has a webapp that does the same thing:

<https://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/HackDiet>

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I stopped drinking a 6 weeks ago and I've lost 15 pounds.

You might be surprised how much alcohol (not just the calories) is contributing to your fat ass.

<comment><USER20> This is a lifestyle thing. It's not just alcohol, but yeh, out partying and drinking leads to 2am takeaway, hangover foods and the calories in and of itself in alcohol are bad.

Like everything, you will find people who tell you "the best way to lose weight is X" ... employ a multi-faceted approach and you'll get the best results. There is no silver bullet. Some people will not stop snacking, some people will not stop eating greasy takeaways and some people will not stop driving 3 blocks instead of just walking. Try "Being healthy" and if you find it difficult to do everything at once, take baby steps. Eat healthy food on Tuesdays and Thursdays only, building up one day at a time every two weeks. Sometimes it can take a while to get used to not being full of MSG-ridden salty foods and stuff like removing caffeine from your diet can be difficut. Getting used to the taste of wholegrain this and low fat that takes a while. It's better introduced slowly... you'll find it more difficult to keep to some sort of strict that requires that you eat stuff that you don't like 3 times a day.

It is important to do as much as you can to increase your metabolism. This means not being sedentary! Get out, go for walks, exercise, go for a jog. Whatever. Measure, rinse, repeat.

Take a sensible approach to changing your lifestyle and it can definitely come about. Fad diets, exercise machines, stomach crunchers etc. are useless without you recognising that you want to be healthy. It's not just about losing weight and remember that! There are people of average weight living extremely unhealthy lifestyles who will die younger too.

<comment><USER4> > This is a lifestyle thing

"Losing weight" is a lifestyle thing... people with healthy lifestyles aren't fat, no matter what. I believe this is one of those rules to which there aren't any exceptions.</comment></comment></comment>


CloudFlare Warp attack mitigation will soon support any TCP/UDP protocol - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/eastdakota/status/913437599448092672 <comment><AUTHOR> On one hand I'm really enthusiastic to see attack mitigation tech like that becoming available for more people, but on the other hand I'm worried that this is just another step in centralization of The Internet. We've seen CloudFlare change their policy once and shut down a controversial website, and if they're one of the only people able to keep services online in an attack- ridden web, that gives them far too much power.

Not to mention the already-present breakage of the SSL "contract" by CloudFlare running a MITM proxy on secure webpages.</comment>


The iPhone Franchise - <AUTHOR> https://stratechery.com/2018/the-iphone-franchise/ <comment><USER2> I see a lot of complaints here about the size (trend) and lack of smaller, SE- like option. But if product cycles really do take around 3 years (from conception to release), then 2019 might be the year. The SE was released in 2016 and was supply-constrained for quite a while. Obviously this is pure speculation but if Apple was sufficiently surprised by its success, maybe they decided in that year to "completely re-imagine" (sorry :) that form factor. And retiring the SE this cycle, given the apparent absence of good alternatives in the Android camp, might store up some demand to boost next year's sales. Like I said, pure speculation, but I wouldn't give up hope just yet.

[addendum: I'm just listening to the latest ATP podcast episode to put myself to sleep, and lo and behold John Siracusa takes pretty much the above position while Marco Arment takes the opposite side. So now they've got a bet going on. Fun little coincidence. Check out the podcast if you don't know it yet, it's right in the ballpark for people who would comment on this article.]

<comment><USER3> After lamenting the size of the 6🅂 following my iPhone 5, I was happy to get an iPhone SE as a burner for DEF CON this year. I was shocked at how small it felt. I've gotten so used to the extra space afforded by the 6-8 form factor. I still think the 6/SE is my favorite design, but would find it hard to go back to it as my daily driver.

Now I'm looking at the X🅂 and have the same reservations. I don't want a larger device in my pocket (and have pockets that the 6🅂 is already unsuited for), but will probably like the extra screen space once I'm used to it.

<comment><USER4> Call me out of touch if you like, but why would you buy a burner phone at a price point that's higher than what many Android users are willing to spend on their main phone for 2 or more years?

<comment><USER5> Because at DefCon, you are likely more secure on iOS over Android...

<comment><USER4> That's the only reason I could think of, yeah. And sure, DefCon is expensive anyway, but... do you need a smartphone if you can bring a burner laptop for <200 bucks?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I can't beliebe they don't even mention the iPhone SE, arguably the best value 'out of band' iPhone

<comment><USER7> The iPhone SE is essentially non-existent in the US. Its primary target is developing markets like India where the phone is made. Most people I know aren't even aware the SE exists. If they see it in stores, they just assume it's one of the older iPhones. Hacker News is the only place I see the SE getting any significant attention.

<comment><USER8> The iPhone SE is very popular with _many_ women I know due to its size and ability to fit into women's pockets. Women's pockets are terrible in general. Many further refuse to buy a new iphone until another smaller one comes out.

Happy to provide links to articles on the topic, but <insert search engine of choice> will easily find them too.

<comment><USER9> True - exactly why my wife chose one earlier this year. Her main criteria was "it has to fit in my back pocket" \- which meant 4.5" screen. There's so few of those devices in the modern smartphone market - and yet I wonder why? I'd happily keep my phone small if it didn't mean compromising on performance...

<comment><USER10> Performance gets mentioned a lot, and I'm curious what people are doing with their phones that demands so much of it.

Is the iPhone suddenly everyone's preferred device for playing Fortnite or something?

<comment><USER11> Do you not use the modern web?

<comment><USER12> I used a Moto G 2015 until earlier this year. With Firefox and uBlock Origin, browsing didn't seem slow to me at all. I browse a lot of sites but not a lot of webapps. I used native apps (Slide and Materialistic) for this site and for reddit.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Ok, but lets actually measure the temperature of the pot every now and then. I just bought an iPhone 8 _pre-announcement_ because my phone was broken and in the store I realized that the (original) iPhone X is just too large. And there wasn't going to be a better, smaller phone after the announcement. The trend might be for larger phones but extrapolated ad absurdum they will be tablets and people will wonder why they don't like phones anymore. I would have paid _more_ for a _smaller_ iPhone X, but that doesn't seem to be an option Apple will entertain.

<comment><USER14> The iPhone SE, while not the market maker by any means, still carries a non- negligible share of that market. It seems silly for Apple to just drop that entire size offering when there is clearly market demand for it.

Remember the iPod Nano and iPod Shuffle? Historically Apple has known that users care about device size, and us users do still do.

Here's an idea: take the iPhone SE, shrink it 1/4" but retain the screen size by giving it that edge-to-edge screen look like the others. Now you have a sexy iPhone Nano that you can offer to that customer segment before they look elsewhere.

Disclaimer: I am a male with normal sized hands that loves his SE.

<comment><USER15> Too late, I'm already looking at Sony Compact again.

<comment><USER16> Sony Compact phones although are powerful on the spec sheet, they usually perform badly in comparison to SE, specially on the camera department.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> The mistake that I see most analysts make with regard to the iPhone launch events is that they make them right away, based on their initial gut reaction to the keynote. While their analysis may make sense and be completely reasonable, there is a very big difference between the thought process one has when viewing the new models side-by-side at the keynote and viewing them side- by-side on the Apple site or in an Apple store with an intent to purchase.

While it may seem completely irrational to pay more money for a smaller screen with the exact same processor (XS vs XR), the truth is that lots of people (the type of people who buy iPhones at launch) typically gain a lot of their identity from their phones. They want the best model and getting the cheaper model just won't do. There is a practical argument to be made here as well: most people use their phones more than any other device they own. What's an extra $150 over the course of 2-3 years to have a better screen, camera, and construction?

If I were to buy a new iPhone right now, I would probably go for the XS over the XR. My reasoning would be that the XS+ is too big for my day-to-day use, but I would rather have a better camera and display. But even if I went for the XR, that's still a win for Apple. They want to remain top of the market in smartphones, but they also want to capture as much of the TAM as possible while doing so. What they have achieved and why I like the strategy they are using here, is that they are capturing max TAM at the top of the market. They aren't interested in competing with commodity phones at the lower ends.

Normally one could make the case for this being the definition of the Innovator's Dilemma and they are ripe for disruption. However I don't believe this applies to Apple because they have tie-ins due to software and services that make switching to another device extremely painful. There are lots of phone manufacturers who have been able to compete with Apple on hardware for years. But without the software and ecosystem, Apple customers will not consider switching. So it's not really a question of whether customers will leave Apple for Samsung/Google/Other, it's a question of whether customers will switch from one iPhone to another. I believe that even if this ever happened, say a surprisingly large number of XR's sold compared to XS's and the ASP came down, Apple would have lots of levers to pull to correct this and they'd still be in pole position. They could cut features from future base models or axe a third base model all together in the next cycle, for example.

<comment><USER18> I'm not even sure that other manufacturers can effectively compete on hardware.

I used Android for years (mostly Nexus devices), but eventually gave up because Apple's phones had higher build quality along with fewer bugs. Their security posture and snappier response time (when I switched at least) were just bonuses.

When they finally had text forwarding and iMessage after Google let Voice languish for years in favor of an ever increasing amount of not very good chat applications there was no longer anything I missed.

At best the other devices are at par, mostly they're just cheaper with trade- offs in quality.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Anybody know where to get nice-looking iPhone SE 128GB, unlocked?

<comment><USER20> I'd recommend to give the next size up a chance.

I had a much-loved, carefully-charged and -protected iPhone 5 for about 3 years. I thought it was perfect and that it was all I needed.

When I finally upgraded I was given a 6s, and it took about 3 days for me to realise it was just much better. I still have the 5 somewhere, and it makes my hands want to cramp just thinking about going back to typing on it! The screen real estate is also a huge improvement for just about everything.

<comment><USER21> With the removal of the SE form the lineup, none of the phones that Apple currently sells fit in the average women's jeans pocket. [https://pudding.cool/2018/08/pockets/](https://pudding.cool/2018/08/pockets/)

That's straight up crazy. I can't believe the market decided "ability to easily place in pocket" is no longer an important feature of cell phones. Especially with Apple's multi-decade history of telling us that thinner and smaller are objectively better when it comes to computing devices.

<comment><USER22> If the margin on bigger-screen phones is a multiple of the margin on small- screen phones, then that gives Apple a strong incentive to pretend that people want big-screen phones even when they don't.

Also, being a company that relies so heavily on hype and branding, maintaining more than three or so offerings in a market segment is totally against their DNA. We're being dragged kicking and screaming into Apple's vision of it's future cash pile.

One more reason why I preordered a Librem 5.

<comment><USER23> but... just offer the same price then (or bump the price slightly to protect the margins). margin alone doesn't really explain enough.

Having an SE and an 7 for the same price would still give people choice, and possibly even _bigger_ margins on the SE.

<comment><USER22> I thought I had answered that in my second paragraph. Apple just isn't the kind of company that can offer real choice. Have you ever gone to a restaurant that had like a hundred different menu items? The chances of any one being really really good is practically zero.

Apple has a lot of product lines already. Phones, laptops, desktops, watches. Too much diversification of one product line effectively makes it two product lines, each of which needs its own department and management structure.

If Apple wanted to be Samsung, sure, I guess they could do that. But they don't.

<comment><USER19> Cheesecake Factory?

<comment><USER22> Not an exception. They do everything somewhat well, not very well, and even that level of quality is subject to human vagaries like how well the cooks are trained or even how well they're feeling today.

Whereas I can go to my local bar with like 3 main entrees and a rotating special and know that no matter what I order, it's going to be awesome. Seriously, I never knew how good sliders could be until I let them show me.

The Cheesecake factory is Samsung, and my bar is Apple, at least back when Apple was still great at everything.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Since the event yesterday I've been thinking about how these new models play out with Apple's history of selling the older phones at a discount for two years. The X was replaced by the Xs and is no longer for sale. I wonder if this trend will continue with only the Xr line remaining for sale for the following years. It would mean producing half the number of models of older iPhones going forward. Instead of 7, 7 plus, 8, 8 plus they would only have Xr and Xr 2019 replacement two years from now. Would this save them a significant amount of money?

<comment><USER25> I think the X is not for sale because the Xs is an identical phone, except for the newer A12 chip and increased water resistance by 1m. If they were to sell the X it would have to be at a lower price point, then who would buy the Xs at $1000?

<comment><USER12> They've generally kept older models around, haven't they? The 7 is nearly identical to the 8 and didn't get discontinued last year.

<comment><USER26> The X is too expensive to make for them to be able to significantly lower the price and keep selling it.

This is mostly caused by the OLED screen which is why this years lower end introduction has an LCD screen

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Many have made fun of the new names using roman numerals and moving to "Max" instead of "Plus", but I think it all makes a lot of sense when you look at the larger picture. They are clearly making a major change to the product line and the way we all think of the product line. They don't want the Xs Max to be seen as the newer 8 Plus, it's a completely new, higher-end product.

<comment><USER27> They needed to move to "Max" instead of "Plus" because it's significantly larger than the "plus" model phones. They should have just gone with iPhone XS++. :)

<comment><USER28> iPhone XS with classes.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> I have a cheap-ish (certainly compared to iPhones) Huawei and the design and quality of manufacturing is on par with Apple.

IMHO, Huawei is going to turn out to be a tougher competitor than Samsung.

Edit: I thought this was a mature place... Apparently not. Or you guys all work for Apple.

<comment><USER30> > design and quality of manufacturing

This is not all you get with Apple.

<comment><USER31> You don't only get it with Apple. Check out the Nokia 7 plus, or the Honor Play. See what you get for your money there too.

Also, not everyone thinks Apple stuff looks that great. Always looks boring to me, like expensive cars. Designed for people with money but no taste.

<comment><USER32> You do realize you're talking about featureless slabs of glass, right? Yes, I'm making a joke, but out of all possible objects acquired for reasons of taste, a phone has got to be one of the least personal fashion accessories. I suppose you could always put a colorful case on it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> Real link: [https://stratechery.com/2018/the-iphone- franchise/](https://stratechery.com/2018/the-iphone-franchise/)

<comment><USER34> Thanks. Changed from [https://stratechery.com/](https://stratechery.com/).

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> Articles like this are so far removed from reality it's hard to take seriously.

The screen on the XR is absolutely indefensible - it has the same PPI as an iPhone 4. It is worse than the 8, which is already worse than the screen in my 3 year old £200 Oneplus X. I have both and I would happily replace the 8 in a heartbeat if it wasn't a work requirement.

Yeah people will buy it because they've convinced themselves they're somehow cooler if they do, but not because it is in anyway a competitive product.

<comment><USER36> It's 326 ppi which has been the default on the iPhone 4 up to 8 and I think it's fine. You can't discern pixels on it (Typing on my 6S)

<comment><USER6> I absolutely can discern pixels on it. The comparison to an S8 is just not even close. It's an inexcusable PPI for that price in 2018 even being the "cheap" iPhone. I'm sure the X is fine but I haven't really used one much.

<comment><USER36> Yes you _can_ if you scrutinise it at 4cm and have good eyes but for everyday use at normal distances, you can't.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> With more powerful competitors and increasingly rational consumers, the question is how long can apple play this game?

<comment><USER38> Are you suggesting that they are, as it were, doomed?

<comment><USER39> Apple will only truly lose the "beleaguered" label when they finally perish, no matter how dominant they become.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> Sure, Apple still makes the best smartphones and will sustain its current momentum and cash flow for the foreseeable future.

It has gone from a company built around its products to a company focusing on its shareholders with a CEO that is absolutely clueless when it comes to product development.

It's sad but surprising? No.

<comment><USER41> > with a CEO that is absolutely clueless when it comes to product development.

I know, if only they'd appointed a CEO who would have developed new products beyond the things Steve Jobs had imagined, we might have had a popular smart watch, or maybe wireless earbuds that didn't suck.

And sarcasm aside, the homepod seems like some sort of me-too misfire, but it's not like apple hasn't had those for decades as well (apple tv, ipod hi fi dock... performa after performa...) not to mention actual misfires like the controlless ipod.

Whatever legitimate complaints there are to trot out, an inability to do product development can hardly be among them.

<comment><USER40> I agree with you on the smart watch and wireless earbuds (although perhaps the latter can hardly be called an achievement given the amount of resources Apple has).

They also managed to all but ruin their computing product line, to the point where people prefer to use ancient machines over recent ones.

<comment><USER41> > They also managed to all but ruin their computing product line, to the point > where people prefer to use ancient machines over recent ones.

The unhappy folks are pretty vocal, but I'm pretty sure Apple have good user data about how the machines are doing: as you say they have a lot of money to spend on the marketing. And historically they have been pretty unromantic about abandoning things that don't do well (iPhone 5c is discussed in this article).

FWIW I am typing this on a 2018 MBP and it's pretty good -- well worth the purchase to me (I can understand if other peoples' mileage may vary). The touch bar is plainly not aimed at me (it would require looking at the keyboard to use, and as I'm a software developer I have never used a function key in my life) but I simply ignore it. And I don't post about it in prominent sites. I don't use the thunderbolt ports either but I also don't wrote about that.

<comment><USER42> > as I'm a software developer I have never used a function key in my life

Gasp! How do you skip to the next song!

<comment><USER43> I press a button on my Bluetooth headphones :)</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Hiding HN Karma - <AUTHOR> http://www.acooke.org/cute/HidingHNKa0.html

<comment><USER2> I have occasionally been bothered by the scores of my own comments and the comments of others as they relate to mine. I would feel attacked or spited or somehow otherwise wronged if I saw my own witty scribbling voted down while someone else's similarly witty (and, might I add, less-awesome-because-I- didn't-write-it) comment voted up or untainted by a down vote.

This bothered me and sometimes I'd get disappointed in the community's apparent unwillingness to appreciate my obvious total superiority in all matters of opinion. Sometimes I'd stop commenting for awhile - after all, they don't deserve my great and valuable insights!

Eventually, probably in the shower, I began to realize that I was an idiot. It's stupid to get bent out of shape when people don't agree with your every word or understand your every joke. After reading over some of my lower rated comments, it also became clear that most of the time they actually sucked. :) I decided to make a conscious effort to watch myself for that kind of thinking and to curb it before it dominated my mood the rest of the day. It has influenced me deeply in ways that extend far beyond this site.

I'm now a chang(ed/ing) man. I'd be lying if the occasional down vote didn't still irritate me now and then, but I've successfully trained myself to use the comment scores as a reminder that we're not all the same and that it is a valuable and important thing to internalize. I try to learn from it.

If you want to hide the scores - more power to you. It's no skin off my back and it doesn't affect my enjoyment of the site in the least. You don't have to feel guilty about doing it. I would just ask that you consider putting some real time into trying to figure out why the scores bother you and decide, once a reason is identified, if it's something worth changing your mind over or not. Perhaps it isn't. No big deal. We all see the world slightly differently.

<comment><USER3> _I'd be lying if the occasional down vote didn't still irritate me now and then, but I've successfully trained myself to use the comment scores as a reminder that we're not all the same and that it is a valuable and important thing to internalize. I try to learn from it._

Upvoted to show agreement with this idea that comment scores can teach each commenter about how the commenter fits into a diverse community. Not necessarily every true comment will be upvoted for helpfulness, and not necessarily every funny comment will amuse other participants, but every comment obtains a score, and the person posting comments can learn in the aggregate from each and every score. Ups and downs come in life, and so upvotes and downvotes are attached to comments. But every human being has opportunity to learn every day.

<comment><USER4> I too had a time that I thought twice before commenting because of some down modes that I honestly didn't understood. But with the time I realized that it's my opinion that becomes a comment and what matters is whether I believe in my opinion.

However karma controlled me from posting everything coming in to my mind (I think it's a good thing to have a clean meaningful conversation). And the occasional comments that express my sense of humor were affected so I hesitate to share those.

Anyway HN is not what it used to be and there are many kinds of people here. So obviously they think different and there's a great chance there can be many people who disagree with you and actually go forward and downmod. But you should post your comment if you think your opinion is still right, after you think twice.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> PG actually hid comment karma for a while, but it was quickly restored. It's just a very useful shortcut for scanning comment threads.

<comment><AUTHOR> aren't threads already sorted by karma (amongst other factors)?

but anyway, i'm not saying karma is not useful - this just makes the way i use the site less frustrating for me. i threw it out there in case others felt the same way, is all.

<comment><USER5> The problem with that was threads with a 1 karma parent and a 100 karma reply end up at the bottom. With karma displayed, it's easier to spot important posts.

<comment><USER6> Maybe one can use colour based coding depending of the karma percentile?

So something at the top 10% percentile would have small green icon next to it. The colour would be a gradient till it reaches the bottom 10%, where it would show red.

This would make it even easier to scan, to look at top comments just search for green..... just a thought.

<comment><USER5> Actually, that was tried, too. There was an orange dot that showed up for comments with over 15 karma.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I've come to find the whole 'karma' thing the most absurd aspect of this site. I give not a s#&t about my 'score' anymore. A high score can indicate someone who actually submits useful entries....but just as often (or more) it's those who are "running with the herd". The most agreeable amongst the clique. It's group-think, largely.

Personally, carrying on a debate with people via keyboard is very slow and tedious. Carrying on debates with anonymous folks along with the so-called Karma system (I think it's more of an Applause Meter) tends to sway argument based on popularity and acceptance. The 'karma' system generally leads to: "Oh, you just insulted my iPad...minus 1 for you!", or "How dare you consider JSON to be stupid...minus 1".

Toss the "points". Besides, what prize am I working towards?

I'll troll here for good articles, but I've lost any interest in being "part of the community" (a.k.a. schoolyard).

<comment><USER8> You forget that it's a really good filter for new users. Over time, as your karma gets higher, I believe you'll think about it less - but for the new user who's likely to be rude and probably doesn't yet _get_ the community, karma is a rather useful tool.

I can attest to that - I'm a new poster; and I'm still getting the feel for the community here. Karma helps bring me up to speed far quicker than other existing forum systems.

<comment><USER7> Yes, the tool of group-think. "Rude" comes to mean disagreeing too often. Being critical is often deemed as "disagreeing". The same holds for "doesn't yet 'get' the community". All these loaded terms: get, community.

It's a great place to find references to good articles. I find participating in discussions, over time, a huge time drain and stress producer. It's anonymous debate with the masses (smart as many of them are), with an applause meter running the whole time.

<comment><USER9> Or where rude just means "rude".

Certainly, various geek social dysfunctions tend to get a free pass (empty snark, ridiculously aggressive tone, ignoring most of what someone's said to knee-jerk on minutia, etc.), but you'll get that in any geek crowd. HN does tend to react properly to other forms of rudeness.

I like votes as a clue to the reactions of the people reading threads, myself. I don't always agree with or approve of the reactions (this place is not exactly great when gender issues come up), but that's just dealing with people.

Mind, sometimes it just _isn't_ worth dealing with people - there's nothing wrong with skipping the chatter if it's not useful to you.

(Personally, _my_ main gripe is that people tend to vastly prefer a short, pithy remark over a clearly-written and more nuanced bit of, say, anything more than this comment's length. To see an offhand remark I spent a second typing get double the votes of something I've more seriously considered irks a bit.)

<comment><USER7> I love it! I just got downvoted (implying I have "bad karma") because I _thanked_ a poster for an entry I found helpful. I guess I was being "rude" by thanking him.

"Mind, sometimes it just isn't worth dealing with people". Agreed!

Again, a good place for articles, but I'll avoid the schoolyard from here on out. Enjoy your "community".

I know. Here it comes: 3-2-1.....down-voting ensues.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I like HN karma. Back when HN was new and there weren't many people around, it was a good incentive to stick around and contribute. Now that "leaders" is gone (although only hidden), I'm not sure there is that much incentive to contribute. The community is still small enough, however, that it's easy enough to identify the regulars, so maybe karma is not that important.

If there was one thing I would change, it would be how karma is doled out for submissions. It seems unfair that if someone submits my blog that I don't get any points for the post. But since I am usually first to submit my own stuff, I guess I don't really care :)

</comment><comment><USER11> Along the same lines, I realized that sometimes I was giving undue weight to comments depending on the author. This was also solved with Greasemonkey -- if anybody's interested, the script is at < <http://userscripts.org/scripts/review/67722> >.

<comment><AUTHOR> interesting idea. on the implementation: you might be interested in looking at the source for my code. i use a library called jquery and it allows for most things to be doing in "one line".

on the flip side there's a lot of boilerplate and it may make things run slower (i have no comparison - this is the first time i've written one of these).

<comment><USER11> I prefer to avoid jQuery for Greasemonkey, because the per-page performance hit of inserting it into the DOM / waiting to load from Google / running through various abstraction layers is IMO not worth reducing a 20-line script to 10 lines.

<comment><AUTHOR> ok, thanks - i was curious about that (i suspect there must be some caching, that ameliorates the cost of loading if you use a site regularly, but i have no idea about the rest).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> What do you think of this proposal by pg

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1006589>

from not quite three months ago?

<comment><AUTHOR> personally, i like the idea - it removes some of the semantic ambiguity about what voting means. something similar has helped on metafilter, for example (which already has less emphasis on votes).

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Note that you can do this stuff in Safari too using Greasekit: <http://8-p.info/greasekit/>

</comment><comment><USER13> Why do you find it "frustrating"?

<comment><AUTHOR> well, you can check my recent comments, but one way of looking at is that it's a "judgement" that doesn't fit with my own idea of what is good and bad. this is a simple way to avoid having to consciously reconcile the difference.

<comment><USER13> So you are frustrated because you feel it gets misused. Or that you don't enjoy having your opinions rated?

(I'm not trying to be factious, I'm genuinely interested)

I saw one of the things you listed in previous comments is you don't get up voted when you get closest to the correct answer. Is it that important?

<comment><AUTHOR> i think i explained it elsewhere as feeling like a judgement that's not consistent with my own standards. so both of the examples you give (misuse and rating) are part of that. it's a little like having a label stamped everywhere saying "good" and "bad" that you constantly have to ignore, because it's not _your_ set of values.

obviously the same kind of thing happens in real life, but there conversation is much more fluid, so these signs are transient and negotiable. also, there's not a finite number of rooms in which you can chat to other people - it's easier to adapt the context.

someone else has said how they managed to get over this in the shower. good for them. i got over it by writing a greasemonkey script. generally i find writing a script to be easier than changing my (largely subconscious) cognitive processes, but ymmv.

<comment><USER13> I am intrigued that it means so much to people that their opinions are accepted by everyone. Perhaps I don't understand completely, but when you wrote that you "got over it" that surprised me as I couldn't imagine there really is anything to get over.

I appreciate your reply though, I am always interested to understand peoples frustrations with such things. Whether it is with my own applications or other peoples.

<comment><AUTHOR> i am not saying that i want to be accepted by everyone. i am saying that i don't want to be constantly _reminded_ that i am not. in a "real life" social context such signs are transitory and adaptable. here, they were not. now they are.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Bill Gates says crypto-currencies cause deaths - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-43239781 <comment><USER2> _> "The main feature of crypto-currencies is their anonymity. I don't think this is a good thing"_

So I suppose cash causes death in Bill's world view then?

<comment><USER3> He replied to that point:

>Yes - anonymous cash is used for these kinds of things but you have to be physically present to transfer it which makes things like kidnapping payments more difficult.

Link to the reddit conversation: [https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/80ow6w/im_bill_gates_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/80ow6w/im_bill_gates_cochair_of_the_bill_melinda_gates/dux2mp7/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> To be fair, he's not really saying crypto-currencies cause deaths. He's saying _anonymous_ currencies can cause death. It sounds like he could be in favor of a regulated crypto-currency.

<comment><USER5> > He's saying anonymous currencies can cause death.

To be more precise, his point was that the ability to transfer large amounts of cash anonymously without any control or oversight is something that favours all sorts of illicit activities.

And cryptocurrencies in general and bitcoin in particular do just that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> How many deaths has Windows "caused", through military uses etc.? How about PowerPoint?

<comment><USER7> Most folks would argue that the value people have derived from Windows and PowerPoint far outweigh any such downsides. Whether we can say the same about cryptocurrencies is much more easily debatable.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Forget drugs, I wonder how many people have been killed by the additional emissions from all the extra electricity being generated to power Bitcoin alone.

It's virtually impossible to measure something like that of course, but the WHO estimates about seven million premature deaths occur per year due to air pollution, and certainly some portion of that pollution comes from electricity generation. With the enormous amount of power being sucked up by cryptocurrencies, it's not unreasonable to think that they're directly causing some non-insignificant amount of sickness and death.

</comment><comment><USER8> Bill Gates, the philanthropist and former chief executive of Microsoft, is concerned about the craze for cryptocurrency, saying that the anonymity offered by the new technology has "caused deaths in a fairly direct way."

In the group interview, Gates had harsh words for other speculative technologies. Elon Musk's Hyperloop concept of using a railgun to pull a passenger compartment in a low pressure tube at several hundred kilometers per hour was rejected: "I'm not sure that the Hyperloop concept makes sense ", he said. . "Make security is difficult."

But Gates was optimistic about the general direction of technology, dismissing fears that increasing automation could have negative consequences for the economy in general, and citing natural language understanding as the most promising technology for the next decade. To learn more about this type of cryptocurrency news just visit [https://cryptonewstrends.com/](https://cryptonewstrends.com/)

</comment><comment><USER9> Bill can solve it by investing billions to build private quantum computer and then solve and disclose all private keys. Thus driving value of all bitcoins to zero.

Ohhh by then I guess quantum secure coins will pop up!

Never mind ....

</comment><comment><USER10> I'm trying to figure out just a single comment on this thread to point out the idiocy of but so far I'm unable to pick any one in particular. Hopefully there will be some rational comments here at some point.

I can't see any justifiable reason for _needing_ to hide crypto assets from the government in a developed country, other than _wanting_ to hide them. If you need to hide your assets, please move to a 3rd world country where the government doesn't spend large amounts of money to stop your neighbor from running into your house with a gun and stealing your possessions

<comment><USER11> Ah, the classic "Who needs privacy if you've got nothing to hide". I'm just glad most people don't think that way.

<comment><USER10> No, the classic, a government is justified in trying to prevent money laundering and I don't care about my neighbor's right to circumvent capital gains taxes under a false facade of a libertarian shield

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I think Bill's right. Anonymity for cash can enable many bad things, I can't think of many moral reasons for it.

</comment><comment><USER13> Bill needs to stick with what he actually knows about.

<comment><USER14> Where is Bill wrong?

Many cryptocurrencies _are_ well-tested vehicles for laundering money and conducting illicit business. Also, the speculative wave around ICOs _does_ introduce volatility and jeopardize long-term value. Speculative waves have always acted like a double-edged swords when it comes to long-term investing. They bring in capital and generate excitement, but they can also create turbid markets dominated by people who don't care about fundamentals or first principles.

> Bill needs to stick with what he actually knows about.

In the four years you've been on this site, you haven't exactly dazzled us with any insight. Maybe you can break your 2 sentence limit today and explain why Bill is out of his element.

<comment><USER13> Seriously??.. ROFL.. Sorry to burst your bubble there steeeeego with your pointing out of what's already obvious, but I have no need to dazzle anyone. Get a grip & get outside once in a while. Fresh air might do you well.

<comment><USER14> > Sorry to burst your bubble there steeeeego with your pointing out of what's > already obvious

Some may even say _condescendingly_ obvious

> I have no need to dazzle anyone.

I may have overstated things a bit for dramatic effect, but writing a short, cogent paragraph that shares your point of view will most likely not dazzle anyone. If anything, people will most likely simply read it like it was written by a regular user who uses the discussion board to discuss things.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Click bait headline, Oh BBC. What has life come to

<comment><USER16> how is it clickbait? he said this pretty directly

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Probably the major cause of deaths in the world is the US Dollar, and BTW Bill is totally outdated everyone doing something fishy as moved to Monero by now.

<comment><USER18> "Probably the major cause of deaths in the world is the US Dollar"

How did you come to this conclusion? At least Bill Gates gave his reasoning for his statement.

Also: Whataboutism.

<comment><USER17> With what the military complex is paid? With what are drugs bought and sold?

.... ....

If we follow Bill logic, the guns that are used in school shootings were bought using US dollars so the US dollar is responsible for the deaths.

I thought it was so self-evident that no explanation was needed.

<comment><USER18> You could still pay the military with any other currency, including crypto. You cannot buy drugs online or easily finance terrorism anonymously without cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency enables new illicit transactions and marketplaces.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Cucumbers also cause deaths. Around 95% of people who die ate cucumbers.

<comment><USER13> I know that everyone who uses a fork will die.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> _He was referring to the way digital currencies like Bitcoin are used to buy drugs like synthetic opioid fentanyl._

 _anonymity of digital currencies meant they were linked to terrorist funding and money laundering_

It sounds like he means drug overdoses, black market violence, and terrorists attacks kill people.

But at least he knows malaria kills far more people than those three combined. He should probably get back to solving that.

<comment><USER21> > But at least he knows malaria kills far more people than those three > combined. He should probably get back to solving that.

Good news he is :)

Honestly, some of the responses in this article are a bit defensive-- he was asked what he thinks of crypto currencies, and he answered that he doesn't think the social impact of anonymous cash is good. There's a sense in this thread that he is going around attacking crypto currency, when he is in fact expressing his view of how anonymous decentralized currencies can enable/facilitate dangerous things to happen.

<comment><USER22> The cryptocoin crowd is ridiculously defensive by nature. They have to be, the value of their funbux relies significantly on speculation so negative press is threatening to their pocket book.</comment></comment></comment>


This is the best 404 page ever - <AUTHOR> http://twist.snowburst.org:4747/404

<comment><USER2> Yeah, if only it actually served the purpose of getting the user quickly and easily to another page that might help them...

</comment><comment><USER3> That's actually been around for a number of years...

<comment><USER4> No, it seems like a rip-off of a better one that's been around for a number of years. I'll see if I can find it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Maybe a better one would delve into defining/tutoring some S-expressions with an introduction to Common Lisp? It could go on for hours.

</comment><comment><USER6> New idea: rent out advertising on 404 pages ;-)

<comment><USER7> Doesn't Microsoft do something like this? I mean when you type in a server name that does not exist.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I saw this around five years ago.</comment>


DroidParts 1.4 released - <AUTHOR> http://droidparts.org

<comment><USER2> Nice work! This looks quite useful. I'm definitely going to check it out. Big plus for having it on maven central.

I have a more general question -- where do I go to find more stuff like this? Do you also announce new versions somewhere with more of a focus on Android development?

I started doing more serious Android work about two months ago, and finding libraries has been more challenging than I expected. Through Stack Overflow comments, random conversations, and stumbling through things like Square's Github page I've managed to locate a handful of libraries that make development much better. It'd be great to know where this information lives, though.

<comment><USER3> I created an app that showcases Android libraries and lets you run their demo with the press of a button. It is called DevAppsDirect [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.inappsquar...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.inappsquared.devappsdirect)

You may also find this interesting. On May 6th we hit 50,000 demos (we are at over 70k now) so to celebrate I created a site that lists libraries in order of their popularity in DevAppsDirect: [http://www.inappsquared.com/devappsdirect_library_ranking.ph...](http://www.inappsquared.com/devappsdirect_library_ranking.php)

I also booked marked DroidParts. I will see if I can get it added soon

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Looks good! I've had DroidParts on my Stack O' Potential Coolness (TM) for a while, and it keeps sliding down - I think I'll bump it back to the top of the stack.

Even on the first intro page, I saw a bunch of crud I've written a dozen times code simplified.</comment>


Chrome freezes on new Thinkpads with the Spring 2018 Windows 10 update - <AUTHOR> https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=838809 <comment><AUTHOR> The bad combo is:

      * uses Google Chrome
      * has Kaby Lake processor
      * uses Intel graphics

A lot of the current line of laptops are included in this list.</comment>


Tim Gowers and Elsevier in Open Science Debate [video] - <AUTHOR> http://www.youtube.com/v/yELZ3kbFj1w

<comment><USER2> There's a summary here: [http://f1000research.com/2012/03/02/open-science-and- the-fut...](http://f1000research.com/2012/03/02/open-science-and-the-future- of-publishing-a-round-up-of-this-weeks-debate/)</comment>


Just turned off the python servers, Unscatter is now powered by Go. - <AUTHOR> http://www.unscatter.com

<comment><AUTHOR> I'll be adding some more sources soon. Streamified needs to be added back. Also considering a few other sources like Hacker News, Youtube and maybe Flickr.

Overall switching from Python (Tornado) to Go was a pretty good experience. Once I got a handle on the template package it was pretty easy sailing. The only non-standard library I used was gorilla/mux for some url routing.

I do think that the end result code is more manageable than what had turned into a pretty monolithic python script before. I also found using goroutines much more enjoyable from a programming perspective than tornado's callbacks and/or tornado.gen.

I did drop the multi-search functionality that unscatter had before. For those who didn't use it, as you performed searches it would queue them up making a big url you could book mark then quickly return to your searches. Right now I'm considering doing some sort of log in process and providing that functionality and maybe some other stuff at a premium. I'll also be experimenting with some forms of advertising. Trying things like infolinks on search results wasn't really working out.</comment>


Funded - <AUTHOR> http://mplanner.co/blog/funded/

<comment><USER2> That is awesome news, Emerson, congrats!

You've convinced me to help push your goal higher now :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks Josh!</comment></comment>


The Master of Unknowing - <AUTHOR> https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2020/05/14/gerhard-richter-master-unknowing/ <comment><USER2> Restoring Catholic Churches when they were is beautiful especially pre- reformation built churches( somewhere at the beginning half of the second millenia) wow restoration art is such incredible job

</comment><comment><USER3> should check the stained glass windows made by Sigmar Polke here: [https://www.grossmuenster.ch/de/das-grossmunster/kunst-am- ba...](https://www.grossmuenster.ch/de/das-grossmunster/kunst-am-bau/polke- fenster/)

</comment><comment><USER4> It would have made more sense perhaps to commission Anselm Keifer. His art work is at least as spectacular as that of Richter and much of it is directly related to the Second World War and Holocaust. And of course, he's German.</comment>


Apple worried for getting sued for 3rd party app content - <AUTHOR> http://www.techradar.com/news/software/applications/app-store-threat-as-iphone-app-sparks-legal-action-628274

<comment><USER2> This is one of the key motivations behind the creation of a peer-review system, such as the one used by Xbox Live Indie Games: <http://creators.xna.com/en-US/review_detail>

By not approving games ourselves (in fact, Microsoft employees are banned from even looking at un-reviewed games), we achieve some sort of legal protections (which I lack the vocabulary to describe).

This process also scales better than a central review board model. Indie Games doesn't need that scale yet, but the back-end is generic enough to be used with other user created content which might demand the scale: <http://creators.rockband.com/>

</comment><comment><USER3> This could set an interesting precedent.

If Apple is going to say that it is not responsible for content in iPhone applications then that could mean that the review process will have to be relaxed. And that the SDK agreement will have to be changed.

Because right now they do look in detail at content in applications and numerous apps have been rejected based on their usage of copyrighted content.

<comment><USER4> I suspect that Apple will settle a lot of these out of court, like they have settled the recent ones out of court. And then quietly add more stringent requirements to the App approval process. After all, they already screen for content. Consider that you cannot get an App containing pornographic content through the App approval process. Somehow, the App in question got through because a reviewer did not recognize the image. What it probably means is that, in the future, Apple will probably ask for some proof of copyright for things like image content bundled with your app. That along with subtle changes to the TOS to include stronger indemnity clauses. Basically, Apple will be making the money, and the developer will be assuming more and more of the legal risk. Not good news.

That would be my guess anyway. That said, hey, here's to hoping!

<comment><USER5> I think its unlikely that Apple would settle these. IANAL so I have no idea of the relevant case law but likely Apple would want this to go to court to get a ruling saying "Apple is not responsible for the content provided by the app developers". Then they're off the hook permanently.

The device can download images and copyrighted content, apple can not control downloaded content so there's a nice out here.</comment></comment></comment>


Tor reportedly hires Verizon's PR firm to fight back against Pando's reporting - <AUTHOR> http://pando.com/2015/03/29/tor-hires-a-corporate-pr-firm-to-combat-journalism-from-pando-and-elsewhere/ <comment><USER2> I started out really skeptical about this, but as time progresses, I find myself trusting tor less and less. This move seems slimy; rather than hire another dev, they're hiring a PR firm. why does open source software need a PR firm?</comment>


Learning Path for Philosophy? - <AUTHOR> I have been consuming philosophy/philosophical themed content for a while, but I am looking to make my overview of philosophical discourse more structured. I need a well-planned learning path. The aim is not for me to become a professional philosopher, but to have an overall understanding that is deep enough to be useful. Naturally, as there is no set outcome, the journey should be preferably enjoyable :)
Stuff I have read/listened and enjoyed a lot:
- [PODCAST] Philosophize This  http://philosophizethis.org/
- [BOOK] The Cave and the Light, Arthur Herman  https://www.amazon.com/Cave-Light-Aristotle-Struggle-Civilization/dp/0553385666
- [BOOK] Platon: Apology | Sophist | Symposium
- [MOOC] Introduction to Philosophy: God, Knowledge and Consciousness  https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-philosophy-god-knowledge-mitx-24-00x-2 <- this was great in structure, but there was no clear continuation
- [BLOG] Philosophy Bro  https://www.philosophybro.com/ <- explains concepts clearly
- [BOOK] Camus: The Myth of Sisyphus | The Stranger
- [BOOK] The Logic of Scientific Discovery, Karl Popper <- loved the clarity
- these came into my mind
What I didn't enjoy:
- [BOOK] I tried reading Schelling's Philosophical Inquiries into the Essence of Human Freedom (got it as a present: someone thought I was patient/smart enough to read it, guess they were wrong) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_Inquiries_into_the_Essence_of_Human_Freedom
- I tried reading Kirkegaard, super depressing.
- Wittgenstein is the kind of philosopher who I really really want to understand, but the style of writing is so difficult I would need much more training to be able to follow it.
I enjoy Metaphysics, Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Mind and some parts of Ethics.
Do any of you have a good learning path?
I appreciate any input! <comment><USER3> > I have been consuming philosophy/philosophical themed content

That might be a good way to start but you should not see it as something to "consume". You can consume all the philosophical content of the world, but if you don't put in the work to reflect and internalise what you consumed it's not much better than consuming netflix shows. It's very easy to fall into this trap these days, lot's of podcasts and youtube channels about self improvement, making it fun &c. while in reality they're just scraping the top of a bottomless pit of knowledge. It's like a new form of entertainment / feel good hobby.

You also have to be careful about where you get your infos from, (over) simplification (like on [https://www.philosophybro.com/](https://www.philosophybro.com/)) can be detrimental. It took decades for some philosophers to articulate their ideas, you have to dig into their work if you want to truly understand the authors.

Find an author you like, stick to it. Read about him/her, naturally you'll discover other authors & themes gravitating around him/he. It'll slowly open up your horizons. Learn about the history of philosophy too, very interesting and it can give you hints about what you'd like to learn.

> Be careful, however, lest this reading of many authors and books of every > sort may tend to make you discursive and unsteady. You must linger among a > limited number of master-thinkers, and digest their works, if you would > derive ideas which shall win firm hold in your mind. Everywhere means > nowhere. When a person spends all his time in foreign travel, he ends by > having many acquaintances, but no friends. And the same thing must hold true > of men who seek intimate acquaintance with no single author, but visit them > all in a hasty and hurried manner. - <USER2>

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, this is great advice! Do you have any suggestions/favourite "master thinker" you think would be worth starting with?

Btw.: I used the word consume because I couldn't come up with a single word for reading books, listening to podcasts and going through a course :) I am not a native speaker.

<comment><USER3> Well I like down to earth philosophy that I can incorporate in my day to day life, I really enjoy Seneca and Epictetus in that regard. But it's not really related to > Metaphysics, Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Mind

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Read Ayn Rand's title essay in her anthology "For The New Intellectual" for the history and current state of Western thought.</comment>


Ask HN: Is Braintree as evil as PayPal? - <AUTHOR> I'm thinking about using Braintree for a new project in a jurisdiction where Stripe isn't available. However, I'm turned off because they're a PayPal company and have been for a while. Does Braintree treat their customers well, or are they just PayPal 2.0? <comment><USER2> I have never had a problem with PayPal, and the only stories I see of people having problems with PayPal are _always_ doing something obviously bad, such as presales or calling a payment a "donation" or purposely lying about their location to get an account. PayPal offers cheaper pricing than Stripe for smaller sales and faster ramps for bulk discounts on large numbers of sales. It also has had a "complete" offering with APIs capable of managing chargebacks and separated authorization and capture since before Stripe existed (features Stripe didn't even seem to understand are important), and has done so with extreme API and UI consistency (which is absolutely key for any infrastructure component, and has been a complaint I've seen against Stripe, who seems to like using their customers as guinea pigs). What has been the experience you had with PayPal that has turned you off from them so badly?

<comment><USER3> Seriously? [http://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/open- lawsuit-...](http://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/open-lawsuit- settlements/306260-paypal-account-hold-class-action-settlement/)

I don't know how much business you have actually done with Paypal or what you have done, but Paypal has screwed numerous good small businesses and charities with their horrid policies disguised as fraud protection. In the past 7 years I have worked with a lot of companies and done a significant amount of e-commerce work which involves payment resolution, and we almost always ran into issues with Paypal holding funds on good clients.

We had a number of clients where their marketing took months to get traction and then had an above average to explosive month only to see Paypal freeze the funds as they flagged them as "fraud". We could prove legitimate orders and had the product to ship, Paypal didn't care. One company almost went out of business because of it, luckily they were able to line up some insane interest rate loans to help cover themselves while Paypal fucked them over. Paypal doesn't care, they will sit on that money regardless of what you can prove -- did you see/read the class action lawsuit? BTW -- I personally don't have an issue with Paypal doing an initial hold when the account suddenly goes from charging say $5k/month to having a $15k or $45k month, or some variation of that, but once you can show them it is for valid orders then they should hand over the funds.

To the OP, I have no clue how Braintree is after the Paypal acquisition but I would never trust them to run my business from, solely because they are now subject to Paypal's corporate governance. One last point, I do not feel this was a Paypal employee issue, it is an executive level/corporate governance issue with how they decided to implement their fraud protection. It need not be this way as many banks and other providers have proven for years.

<comment><USER2> 1) I don't understand what you are hoping to show with that link: the court opinions seem to all side with PayPal. When companies settle out of court you can't really use that to show the side paying the money is wrong: I've settled out of court myself in situations where I was told I could win the case, but where the settlement would have been cheaper than continuing the battle.

2) I have done tens of millions of dollars of transactions over PayPal. I also once had my account put on hold back near when I was first going into business.

2) You are not allowed to capture funds from someone using a credit card until you are imminently shipping the product to the customer. You say "had the product to ship", but then I'm going to have to ask: how did the company "almost go out of business"? If they already have the product ready to ship, then all we are talking about here is a delay in compensation. If the company needed a loan, PayPal is not a company whom you are allowed to get a loan from, and money collected from sales _is_ a loan until you _deliver_ the product. Your worst-case scenario here is that you should be able to get the loan you need on extremely great terms given if you can really show to someone that you have a ton of money that will be coming to you in 180 days (and the fact that these people could not obtain a reasonable loan really then undermines the entire premise that they had good documentation for PayPal's underwriting...).

<comment><USER3> 1) I agree, settling a basic lawsuit doesn't mean you are the "loser" necessarily, sometimes it simply is the smarter choice over spending money on attorneys and wasting a lot of valuable time. However, two big differences in this case. 1. A judge reviewed and granted a class action status to this suit which meant s/he felt there was enough evidence that a jury could conclude that Paypal was wrong and that there were significantly enough people "injured" to warrant a class action status. 2. When a company settles to reduce risk, they almost never admit anything or pay damages to the class. They may pay court costs and agree to make non-material changes, but essentially they are just capitalizing the small risk to reduce paying attorney's fees etc. On the contrary here though, when a company agrees to change their TOS in a material way and pay damages to the entire class, it is not a minor thing and it is a signal that they also felt the risk was reasonably substantial.

2) I am glad you have such great success with Paypal. But it isn't the truth for others, so being righteous and saying other people must be doing something wrong or illegal is just really out of touch.

3\. False. The truth is simple, when product sells it has to be replaced so it is available for the next order. If demand is rising it has to be replaced in greater quantities to keep up. So yes, product is going out the door, but now there are reorder points to fulfill to maintain inventory and satisfy new orders, shipping bills which must be paid, employee wages, sales tax to governments, employment taxes, rent, insurance etc, all which must be paid well before the 180 days are up. So if money is being needlessly held for long periods, a business can easily be put in jeopardy. Most e-commerce companies don't run on huge margins, so they do not have 12 months reserves saved to work from, which is essentially what it takes if they get a 6 month hold put on their funds. Worse, if they are really growing it will take much more then 12 months of reserves, which was true for a number of the business I was working with. And no, bank loans (or even factoring) to replace/purchase product are not "easy", "fast" or "low cost" for a small business, even with proven sales traction and new orders coming in. Instead these loans are generally treated as moderately high to high risk.

My point about Paypal and their offering loans to the same people whom have had funds held, stands separately and on its own. It is a horrid business practice and while not illegal that I can imagine, it sure does seem immoral. Again, I do not know if they are still doing this today, but you can search google and find examples within the last year of it taking place.

I really do hope you continue to have success with Paypal and your business. I also hope Paypal stops their "held funds" behavior as it relates to small businesses and give people their funds timely. I do not think it is too much to ask, banks and other clearing houses do it everyday and still provide solid fraud protection for everyone involved. As for anyone who asks me, I will continue to steer them to any provider other than Paypal, until I see that Paypal has made a change in reality not just in media speak.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Braintree is awesome and their customer support is stellar. I don't work for Braintree, but I've used their production API in an extensive project where Stripe basically told me to go fuck myself because of this so-called jurisdiction.

<comment><USER5> This.

I was integrating Braintree a year ago when some of the documentation was unclear. They're technical support was amazing on the phone, and cleared anything the documentation was lacking up.

Also, talking to them wasn't like talking to a tool. Didn't feel like a megacompany, but just another person on the other side of the line.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I've had only good experiences with PayPal and also Braintree. I have an account with Braintree for about 2 years and I like them.

Plus, they offer a great deal for startups, which get no fees for up to 50K in specific countries.

</comment><comment><USER7> I've been using Braintree as a processor before they got acquired by Paypal and have been a customer for about 3 years now. Customer service has been stellar, and I always can get someone on the phone (note that they are on CST though).

Post paypal acquisition I really haven't noticed any differences.

</comment><comment><USER8> PayPal isn't so bad--doing millions through them a year has caused no problems that couldn't be worked out.

I looked at Braintree before the acquisition and they seemed really cool. I was able to hang out in their IRC chat room and watch them work.</comment>


Ask HN: What kind of pomodoro technique app do you use? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> I use Toggl. It can sit as a small overlay on my screen, with a box and timer that asks, "What are you working on?" It has helped a lot. I love it.

</comment><comment><USER3> [http://melpa.org/#/org-pomodoro](http://melpa.org/#/org-pomodoro) with Emacs OrgMode</comment>


Show HN: RocketBlitz – A multiplayer space shooter built with Node and Angular - <AUTHOR> https://rocketblitz.com/ <comment><USER2> Nice of you to add the "Play as a guest" option.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, I hate registering for stuff with out actually knowing anything about it.</comment></comment>


Looking for Internship at Google - <AUTHOR>

So here it goes...
I've been interviewing around at large SV companies, but I'm really interested in getting an internship at Google. I haven't been able to get any interest from them, however. I'm from a top CS school with open source experience and a pet project. I've tried contacting recruiters on LinkedIn and still nothing. Does HN have any advice?
Also, I realize that many CS students have a huge Google bias and that HN can have the same. I realize Google shouldn't be an end-all, but it's one of the few large tech companies I haven't had the opportunity to interview with and I really would love to work there. <comment><USER2> I interviewed for an Internship at Google around September, as far as I know I had applied through the official Google jobs portal and I was contacted a few months later.

I had a fair amount of internship experience at local companies, Github, Bitbucket, a blog, and a well written CV attached. In my mind the most important thing is to be able to prove that you are valuable as a tech intern. Show them that you take the initiative to learn things and write small projects. Put everything up online, even if it isn't complete.

I ended up getting through all the interviews and assigned a project but was dropped in favor of another intern who was more suited to the task. So I'm currently interning at AWS instead.

<comment><USER3> > I ended up getting through all the interviews and assigned a project but was > dropped in favor of another intern who was more suited to the task.

Are you saying that Google gave you an offer and later withdrew it? That's what sounds like what happened here. Would really appreciate some clarification, because if true, that's pretty darn serious. Word of that would put a big dent in a company's reputation.

<comment><USER2> Nah not an offer as such but I was interviewed by a project manager and it all seemed to go well and got to the point of discussing dates for starting and ending with a recruiter. Suddenly I was told someone better was found and they'd contact me if another suitable project arose. They have a funky intern recruitment system.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> IIRC, less than 5% of juniors (3rd-years) in my class got internship offers at Google, and Google goes out of its way to fly recruiters to the University of Waterloo every four months. There were basically only two or three kids that got offers as freshmen (1st-years) / sophomores (2nd-years).

A much higher percentage of seniors (4th-years) get internship/co-op offers, but it's still not huge.

From what I can tell, a lot of recruiting at Google revolves around giving the impression of fairness and due process; trying to hack around it by contacting recruiters directly on LinkedIn sounds like a good way to get black-listed. Apply through their portal at [http://www.google.com/about/jobs/students/](http://www.google.com/about/jobs/students/) ; consider working at other companies (e.g. Facebook) to build up your resume if you don't have prior experience; be open to working at other offices; be open to working in multiple areas of the company (for example, it's really hard to get positions in Chrome and Android unless you're Liam Mcloughlin).

<comment><AUTHOR> Out of curiosity, have you heard of anyone being blacklisted? That does worry me quite a bit.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> First of all, I'd like to say that you should not view Google as the end all be all of software companies. I was also very interested in interning there, but was a bit dissapointed when I finally managed to get an offer.

How I did it:

I applied to about 30 big software companies in my freshman year. Obviously, nobody outside the country responded, but I managed to get an internship at Adobe Romania, which was a really useful and pleasant experience.

Once you have an internship under your belt, it's a lot easier to get interviews and offers, and also gives you something to talk about in your interviews. So, in my second year I interviewed with Jane Street, Google and Microsoft, and got offers from Google and Microsoft. Google offered me a position in web development, and Microsoft offered me a position in the Operating Systems team, so I chose Microsoft.

My advice would be to find an internship at a company where there isn't so much competition and use your experience to get an internship at Google next year.

Send me an email if you have any questions.

</comment><comment><USER6> What school are you at, what year are you in, do you have a github you could link to, do you have a resume to point to, what sort of work would you like to be on?

I understand if you don't want to post this stuff online, but you're not giving people much to work with.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's a fair point. I'm not entirely comfortable giving that information online, but I'll give as much as I can

I go to a top-2 public university and am in my junior year.

I have a github, but I'd rather not point to it. It contains some smaller projects I've done, as well as contributions to a large Python project and a website I built using Django/MongoDB.

I'm particularly interested in working on Infrastructure/Tools. I'm a huge Python fan and really enjoy backend coding.

<comment><USER3> I'm curious as to why you're not comfortable giving that information online. Your github is already public, presumably, and possibly your resume (through linkedin) as well. That aside, there doesn't seem to be any downside to maintaining a public presence. In fact, there are numerous benefits. I've had recruiters reach out to me through my public presence on the web.

<comment><USER7> In addition to this, there are plenty of people on HN that could throw you opportunities. You may want to reconsider posting your experience.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> If you are from a top 2 public university, your best bet is to go through campus interviews. Wait for your spring career fair or sign up through your online career portal and apply.

</comment><comment><USER9> Upload your resume at [http://www.collegefeed.com](http://www.collegefeed.com) and send a note to email@example.com.</comment>


Google: Please kill your Penguin update - <AUTHOR> http://www.change.org/petitions/google-please-kill-your-penguin-update-l

<comment><AUTHOR> This update is killing my ability to rank quality sites that have ranked for several months now. Only to be taken over by the Corporate giants and low quality sites with a billion pages of content. This if accepted can easily prevent any start-up company from ranking unless they dig in their pockets for advertisement money. This is obviously in the advantage of Google while many small companies will loose.

<comment><AUTHOR> Also, if you check out the link, you will find that there is already a movement to stop this, but we have found ycombinator and Hacker News has a more unique power system as seen in SOPA. Hopefully we can organize something here as well.</comment></comment>


Why I am letting my Google IO invitation expire - <AUTHOR> http://www.zeldman.com/2012/03/23/why-i-am-letting-my-google-io-invitation-expire/

<comment><USER2> I would love that code, if you can give those things away :P</comment>


Why Revlon and L'Oreal are supporting SOPA? - <AUTHOR>

While for the music and the entertainment industry supporting SOPA is understandable, I was completely foxed to see the names of Revlon and L'Oreal.Whats cosmetics to do with it? <comment><USER2> They want to shut down sites selling counterfeit products.

<comment><AUTHOR> Oh, Ok. But then, there are so many different categories of products whose counterfeit is available, but I dont see others.

<comment><USER3> Pfizer for one.</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Early founder compensation - <AUTHOR>

When a startup gets its initial round of funding, how do founders compensate themselves for the work they are doing and have already done?
If you've put 6 months of full time work into your startup, can you pay yourself a (moderate) chunk of money for previous work?  Can you set yourself a base salary from this point forward?
What kind of rules govern these kinds of decisions, or is this all between the funders and the founder? <comment><USER2> It very much depends upon the attitude of (and your agreements with) your earliest (Angel?) investors. However I would expect you should count past work as your investment in the company - that is why you (and your founding team) will have the majority of shares.

You might be lucky enough to find investors who can fund a modest salary or two but don't expect anything like "market worth" until you are cash positive.

<comment><AUTHOR> Doesn't some of the initial funding go towards hiring a team to more fully implement whatever has been developed so far? I assume you would have to be able to offer reasonable salaries for a small number of positions in order to make this happen.

Can someone point me to a good breakdown of what initial funding usually covers?

<comment><USER3> Here is an interesting case study I found that shows what happens when the CEO demands too big a salary.

[http://startuplawyer.com/venture-capital/series-a-startup- ce...](http://startuplawyer.com/venture-capital/series-a-startup-ceo-salary)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you for the link. It sounds like a founder should be able to negotiate a reasonable living wage, assuming the founder is going to work full-time on the project.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> You pay yourself whatever you feel is best for you, the business, and your investors. Naturally, there are some disagreements between those parties about what that means. You just have to work it out. In my experience, this usually means founders make jack squat or nothing, whichever is less.</comment>


What I learned from giving my game to a 3 year old - <AUTHOR> http://bufordtaylor.com/post/33907548340/learned-by-giving-my-game-to-a-toddler

<comment><USER2> I believe this is a lesson about consumer testing using actual consumers instead of engineers. Engineers in general suck at UI. I know, because I am one of them, and I am slowly evolving to evaluate things as they are instead of analyzing how an ordinary person would use them.

</comment><comment><USER3> There is no shame to kid games</comment>


Ask HN: What your linux workstation looks like? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER3> Kind of a broad question so I'll try to answer it with stuff I would like to know.

Arch + I3-gaps. (yes just like the running joke, also my dot files are heavily based on [https://larbs.xyz](https://larbs.xyz)) I use these IDE'S: Eclipse, Atom, VScode and (neo)vim.

Then I have these eco systems: \- Luarocks \- npm \- composer \- LLVM \- android studio

I use this laptop/mobile workstation for both work and at home so it's all over the place.

Specs: \- Intel I5 hex core \- 16GB ram (ddr4) \- Nvidia GTX1060M \- mSATA 128 GB (linux + tools) \- HDD 750GB (data, steam, etc)

I boot my laptop -> log in on tty1 -> keyring unlocks for session -> I3 launches(with video from the Nvidia card via passthrough) -> default stuff launches (firefox, thunderbird and terminal(tmux)) in their workspaces.

</comment><comment><USER4> I use i3-wm, with no desktop environment, and with a custom status bar I wrote myself; I otherwise start all programs from xterm. I have xterm for the terminal emulator.

For text editing I use vim, and for email I use Heirloom-mailx, and for Usenet/Unusenet I use bystand, and for IRC I use my own IRC client (which even has syntax highlighting).

4GB RAM, 500GB hard disk (although I only use 5% of the available disk space so far), DVD writer drive.

<comment><USER5> If you don't mind me asking, what sort of work do you do?

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I bought (at half the official price, from an enterprise reseller) a new elitebook 840 g5.

i5 8th gen 4 core 8 threads, 24gb ram, fullhd screen and ~11h battery life.

I switch os often, right now I am on kubuntu lts but until some months ago I was on Manjaro and as soon as wls2 is stable I will try windows 10 again.

At my workplace I connect it to an external 23-27 inches display.

I install instantly docker, dropbox, npm/yarn/npx, webstorm, vscode and intellijidea.

</comment><comment><USER7> debian, bspwm + polybar + dmenu-recency, sakura for terminal, emacs for editor.

Desktop looks like this:

[https://i.imgur.com/xH3mMU7.png](https://i.imgur.com/xH3mMU7.png)

(that's in a VM atm, but my linux install is identical (except for workspace 9 being forced to my 2nd monitor) across physical install, VM under windows and laptop

As for what it physically looks like, it's a fractal design C case so it looks like this:

[https://www.fractal- design.com/media/f05c4b6e-d88d-4962-af3a...](https://www.fractal- design.com/media/f05c4b6e-d88d-4962-af3a-d97bb55d561c)

imposing but featureless

</comment><comment><USER8> Linux Distribution - Manjaro Tiling Window Manager - i3 with gaps Coding and note-taking - Vim + tmux

Apps: reddit - rtv rss feeds - newsboat email - mutt music - mpd + mpc + ncmpcpp video player - mpv image viewer - <USER2>

</comment><comment><USER9> Currently:

Ryzen 1700 (8 cores), 16gb RAM, Nvidia GTX 960 (still works well enough), Arch + GNOME. I've been trying to switch to openSUSE, but I keep finding little things that make it hard to switch.

</comment><comment><USER10> Thinkpad p52s running Debian 10 and MATE. I've had a couple of issues with the Trackpad but besides that it runs pretty good. I primarily use Tmux + Vim/Neovim for coding and writing.

</comment><comment><USER11> I run Fedora on a ThinkPad X1 Carbon 2016, though I've also enjoyed running it on a T430 (need to replace the screen to keep using it).

<comment><USER12> Funny, I got almost the same machines -- I had a Thinkpad X1 Yoga 2016 and before, I had a T420. These are amazing machines. I am writing this text on my T420 which is now 8 years old but still has 8GB RAM, 1TB SSD, with this being better then many "high end" laptops selled nowadays.

Towards the software: I'm a Linux user since 15yrs. I ended with vanilla Ubuntu, because that's a good compromise of unspectacular updates ~ every year. I enjoy Linux for having access to the developer setups I love: Plain, easy. I code C/Cpp projects with Kate and GNU make. I am frequently vowed for my artwork done with Gimp, Inkscape, Blender, Libreoffice despite I am not a designer. I frequently install "fat" non-distribution codes such as [http://visit.llnl.gov](http://visit.llnl.gov) at ~/bin, where also non-open- source codes such as Mathematica or Maple go. Generally, I prefer minimalistic tools over fat solutions, despite I acknowledge the power of Mathematica or a Microsoft Windows installation inside Virtualbox or KVM/libvirt/virtmanager. I even have to admit, I enjoy KDE and, as I said, I enjoy a decent graphical editor such as Kate. I work on command-line-only tools on servers very often, but I could never warm up with vim. I just never took the time to climb the learning curve of vim. But I also don't want to work on servers with VNC/X2Go, because ssh is just faster. That's why I use the tools available when in place. I'm probably a Linux opportunist: I use the Linux desktop because it is accessible, on any machine -- much more accessible then Mac OS X or Windows.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> NixOS + i3 on surface pro. Couldn't really ask for a more convenient device really.

</comment><comment><USER14> Stock Xubuntu here.

<comment><USER15> I found Xfce on Arch to be much nicer than Xubuntu. Xfce is just more aligned with Arch in spirit.</comment></comment>


The Narrative Frays for Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/30/business/the-narrative-frays-for-theranos-and-elizabeth-holmes.html <comment><USER2> Not saying it's what happened here, but an unfortunate consequence of the publicity machine is that it's a lot easier to bullshit, overhype, and sell a story with certainty and simplicity than to be honest and talk about the details, with potential limitations and drawbacks. No one wants to write a story about that.

Even the "scientific method" as referenced in the article is not immune to this. There's are definitely similar issues in scientific research as well.</comment>


The Myth of the Millennial Entrepreneur - <AUTHOR> http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/07/the-myth-of-the-millennial-entrepreneur/490058/?single_page=true <comment><USER2> It seems the article is afraid to use the term Wantrapreneur. Entrepreneurship isn't a mentality, and the

"more debt and less risk-taking" is not the "answer[reason]" as the article states.

Entrepreneur today is the same as 'actor' or 'musician' was in the 80s and up. You don't have to be anything to call yourself an 'entrepreneur', you just have to say it. And just like all the out of work actors and musicians, todays 'entrpreneurs' are likely to live the same fate.

I've always hated the word, as it is so full of self-importance and arrogance, I feel like at any moment somebody who calls themselves an 'entrepreneur' could easily add 'bourgeois' as a prefix and not think they sound as stuck-up and foolish.

Don't be an 'entrepreneur', don't aspire to be an 'entrepreneur'. Build stuff, do something. Don't aim for a label. When somebody asks what you do, tell them what you do, not what label you aspire to. You don't 'entrepeneur', you 'make X so Y can do Z'.

Can we please get away from all this entrepreneur BS.</comment>