Ligament.js, the smallest, lightest-weight JS MVC Framework - <AUTHOR> https://gist.github.com/313496e6ba9160dc6eb5

<comment><USER2> Or just use the 'new' operator and support every JavaScript implementation - rather than just the Object.create supporting ones.

<comment><USER3> But the word function is so many bytes...

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> We need a Todo example project to make this legit: [https://github.com/addyosmani/todomvc/tree/master/todo- examp...](https://github.com/addyosmani/todomvc/tree/master/todo-example)

</comment><comment><USER5> I suggest new-js-frameworks/second as a new speed unit.

</comment><comment><USER6> Now that's a micro-framework :P In all seriousness a recent JS project of mine uses <http://www.traitsjs.org/> to create a lightweight (in implementation not file size) framework. Traits.js allows you to use Object.create with older browsers as well.

</comment><comment><USER7> Wow, this framework has 48 times more lines of comments than lines of code.

</comment><comment><USER8> It may not provide MVC support out of the box, but I still think Vapor.js is the best light-weight JS library for general purpose use. vaporjs.com

</comment><comment><USER9> I wish it were a little more streamlined.

<comment><USER10> See romanvbabenko's fork: <https://gist.github.com/3136dbab372c54258973>

<comment><USER11> It's buggy.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Gotta appreciate some sense of humor.. Even when it comes in the expense of other coders ;)

</comment><comment><USER13> Ok, I found this to actually be pretty useful. In reading the comments it cleared up a spot where my understanding of javascript was a bit weak.

More seriously, though, there seems to be a new javascript framework every day... and at some point I'm going to need to pick one for the project I'm working on. Its hard to tell which ones are appropriate for servers, vs clients, etc.

I wonder if anyone has made a directory of javascript frameworks?

I'm not looking forward to the task of going thru all the ones I've bookmarked over the past few months and trying to decide which are most appropriate, and which overlap each other, vs. which provide separate functionality that could be used together.

<comment><USER14> Totally agreed about yearning for a directory of JavaScript frameworks.

I use a little jQuery, and I'm getting to the point where I'm ready to add a little more structure. But should I be using Backbone.js? Spine claims to be cleaner, but how do the communities/plug-ins compare? How does KnockoutJS compare? BatmanJS? Should I be abandoning jQuery for something more extensive like SproutCore or Sencha?

I'm also totally unclear on how compatible things are. A lot of the frameworks don't even seem to agree on basic things like how to do inheritance or whether they should use JavaScript or CoffeeScript. (Though I suppose they mostly don't break each others' namespaces any more.)

Is there some over-arching list of features that covers all of the existing frameworks, and that could be put into a table? If so, does such a table exist? If things are just a popularity contest, who is winning the popularity contest?

<comment><AUTHOR> You should dig around, ignore claims of cleanliness or ease of use, read a little source code, and see which one floats your boat.

One way to get a good idea about how useful these frameworks are in practice is what's being built with them.

(I work on Backbone.js) You can take a look at the sort of apps folks are coming up with by scrolling through here:

<http://documentcloud.github.com/backbone/#examples>

... keeping in mind that Backbone hasn't even been out in the wild for a year yet, at this point.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I never used those javascript frameworks that appear to be all over the place, so I'm not sure I get the humor... the joke is that they are to some extent unnecessary and introduce bloat. Ok, that was simply assumed, I would like to see some more sophisticated humor. Creating three empty objects feels like a joke that can be thrown at anything. Just my opinion.</comment>


Judge Orders Navy to Release USS Thresher Disaster Documents - <AUTHOR> https://news.usni.org/2020/02/11/judge-orders-navy-to-release-uss-thresher-disaster-documents <comment><USER2> I was a nuclear-trained operator on a boat of the same vintage as the Thresher. I joined it in 1970 just after it had been retrofitted with SubSafe systems and better operational procedures that came directly from the loss of the Thresher.

I'm convinced that the loss of the Thresher, as tragic as it was, saved a lot of lives.

As for the documents, you need to know that Rickover classified almost everything about the nuclear program. I suspect that kind of thinking still exists and is responsible for the slow release of the document.

<comment><USER3> I was involved with Level1 and SubSafe parts as a Machinist in the 80's. First on a Sub Tender then at a Naval Shipyard. I served as Controlled Materials Petty Officer and learned the nuances of material classification. All laymen need to know is that every part of a submarine is engraved with a number that can be traced back to the site where the minerals were mined. This includes every bolt, nut and washer. A very impressive level of accountability. I have dealt with alot of green tags in my day. Generated quite a few as well from manufactured parts. What I wonder is how much the price of a sub increased after SubSafe program was started. From a material point of view the cost was around 3X for roundstock.

<comment><USER3> The Iwo Jima incident was really horrible and preventable. [https://www.nationalboard.org/Index.aspx?pageID=164&ID=226](https://www.nationalboard.org/Index.aspx?pageID=164&ID=226)

Brass Nuts on a 600 pound steam system. What were they thinking.

<comment><USER4> Conspiracy nuts? You'd almost think they were purposefully replaced. If it was designed that way than that's incompetence on a level that I'm not comfortable with, you'd imagine _someone_ would have looked at that and said 'that's stupid'.

<comment><USER5> The report is pretty interesting. The ship was not designed that way. The nuts were installed as part of routine maintenance:

> By mid October, the _Iwo Jima_ had been operating in the Persian Gulf for > approximately two months and had developed some leaks and other repair needs > in the ship's 600 psi steam propulsion plant.

> The ship was granted permission to dock in Manama, Bahrain (a country on a > group of islands in the Persian Gulf, between Qatar and Saudi Arabia) and > conduct repairs. A variety of maintenance items were planned, including > overhauling the main steam valve that supplies steam to one of the ship's > turbine-driven electrical generators. This valve, incidentally, could also > be considered a boiler-boundary stop valve. The overhaul of this large, > rising-stem, bolted-bonnet gate valve was contracted to a local ship repair > company, under the supervision of U.S. Government inspectors.

The mechanic conducting the repairs didn't know the requirements:

> Ultimately, what was found was that a series of mistakes and > misunderstandings led to this accident.

> First, the mechanic wanted to replace the fasteners, but he did not have > any. He also did not speak English very well. Allegedly, the mechanic asked > one of the boiler room personnel for new nuts and bolts, and was given > permission to look through the boiler room's spare parts bins. He selected > parts that he thought would work.

And an inspection that might have caused the problem got lost in the shuffle:

> Secondly, with the case of the authorized inspection agency, it must be > taken into consideration that there was a massive build-up of troops and > ships in the Persian Gulf. It was assumed that the office was not staffed > for the increased workload. Consequently, many inspections were not being > conducted.

> And finally, the boiler room supervisor thought that one of his subordinates > had conducted an inspection. Sadly, it was never concluded that an > inspection had been made. If someone had conducted an inspection, possibly > he was not familiar with fastener markings, nor the job specifications.

> The end result was that incorrect fasteners were chosen, and controlled > inspections and testing were not fully accomplished.

Really, what surprises me the most about this is that the Navy apparently doesn't repair its own ships!

<comment><USER6> Even today there is a big push by the government for "checkpoints" to be reduced. The government pushed repair and overhaul contracts to FFP. The overhaul periods are going over schedule and they are trying to get ships out of the yards "on-time".

I see it every day. I do critical alignment work that involves very tight tolerances on the order of single digit arcseconds and single thousandths of an inch. Do you think when MARMC or SWRMC comes out to check the work item that they're verifying the alignment? That takes specialized equipment and knowledge.

If they reduce 25% of the checkpoints, but alert the shipyard of which checkpoints they are discarding don't you think that could cause some perverse incentives? They'd be better off sending out a list of checkpoints and then performing 50% of them without telling the shipyard.

Also of course the Navy doesn't repair all of it's own ships :) US Navy, including MSC, and the CG have the majority of their repair work done at General Dynamics, BAE Systems, Colanna's, and a whole slew of smaller shipyards around the country.

<comment><USER5> > Also of course the Navy doesn't repair all of it's own ships :)

I can think of two systems with obvious benefits:

1\. The Navy repairs its own ships. The big benefits here are that you don't have to let anyone else access -- or see -- the ships, and you can perform repairs in the field to the extent that's possible. (For replacing nuts, it's certainly possible.) This requires two types of training: knowledge of the ship's specifications, and skill in performing repairs.

2\. The manufacturer repairs the ships. This makes it a lot more difficult to receive repair, but it has similar secrecy benefits, and the manufacturer is well positioned to know how to repair the ship and what is or isn't important. You don't need to train anybody in anything as long as you have perfect, total confidence in the manufacturer.

The Navy here picked the option of having the ship repaired in random foreign shipyards where nobody knew the specs. That's a compromise that advantages ease of getting repairs -- but you lose out on the idea that the person performing repairs knows what constitutes good working order and what doesn't. I struggle to see the advantages; you get more ease of repair _and_ more reliability by doing it yourself.

<comment><USER6> The Navy does do minor repairs at sea and pier-side at Naval Stations. The majority of the work pier side is a continuation of an availability that overran time. It's very common these days unfortunately..

When the ship comes into a commercial yard for availability it is stripped down of confidential equipment. All of the radar/sonar/fire control/damage control equipment comes off. The work done in the yard is primarily mechanical. Deck inserts, foundation repair, lube oil system, oily waste, etc. I will install the foundation for a SPQ-9b antenna, but I will never see the antenna. At the end of the availability the combat systems engineers from MARMC/SWRMC will come out, install the equipment, record all "installed" alignment information, and program the systems.

The major new shipbuilders are rarely in the business of ship repair. They're too busy building new ships. General Dynamics is probably one of the few in the new build and repair business. When the ships come into a commercial shipyard the work items are all specced out by the planning yard. That's typically Huntington Ingalls in Mississippi or Bath Ironworks.

The days of foreign shipyards is all but over as far as I know. They brought the USS Cole all the way back to the USA on the Blue Marlin. In fact, she went to Pascagoula, but I don't know if it was to Huntington Ingalls or VT Halter. I'd imagine HI.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'm currently reading "Blind Man's Bluff" [0], which I think I found in an HN comment, which, in addition to Thresher, also discusses the loss of the Scorpion. The authors come pretty close to claiming that during the investigation into Scorpion the Naval Ordnance Department covered up a known problem that could cause a torpedo to explode inside the vessel. This information may not have saved the boat (the problem was discovered just days before the accident) but seems to have been deliberately withheld from the investigation (and the documents have mysteriously been destroyed, somehow without leaving an audit trail like they should have).

It's an interesting book, so far.

[0] [https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0089EMLGK](https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0089EMLGK)

</comment><comment><USER8> Oh boy oh boy, I look forward to seeing this. The sinking of the Thresher has been of interest to me ever since a party I attended 25 years ago, where a very inebriated nuclear engineer apparently mistook my security clearance (none whatsoever) or my identity (absolutely nobody), and randomly decided to tell me the _real_ reason why the Thresher (which I'd barely even heard of, previously) sunk.

The real reason, per his telling, was actually very close to the official reason: the welds on the coolant intake failed. The coverup, however, was this: the welds had actually been made using a new, then-highly-classified technique (some variation of electron-beam welding, I think), which the grunts doing weld inspection didn't have clearance to know about. So they were told to skip the inspection on those particular welds. Which yielded predictable results

I've spent the last 25 years wondering whether I'd accidentally stumbled across something classified, or was just being bullshitted by a drunk at a party. I look forward to finding out!

<comment><USER9> appropriate clearance is a prerequisite, but true need to know is the primary thing of course. wonder what kind of world of shit they'd get into this day and age.

stuff like fabrication still in use would likely be redacted anyway but we'll hopefully see

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> For what its worth, I used to hold a clearance in the US nuclear navy and the story on wikipedia is what I was always told. Im not sure there is anything of value in the documents to be released, but im sure curious to find out.

<comment><USER11> Sure, but a great deal of people hold clearances in and outside of the US Military (over 1.5 million hold Top Secret according to Wikipedia) - doesn't mean you were privy to information that was sensitive or you didn't need to know.

Not saying there's anything more to the USS Thresher itself, just commenting that a clearance doesn't automatically entitle you to all the information about everything.

<comment><USER10> Definitely true, but the article is about releasing unclassified documents

<comment><USER11> > unclassified documents

That part seems odd from the article. If they were not classified, seems the FOIA request would have had an easier time getting them released... or they would have been released already. The Navy generates enough paperwork that it's not reasonable to expect all unclassified documents to be released... but these seem to have been a little more closely guarded than that. They are releasing them in batches after they are reviewed too - which is usually part of a declassification process.

I'd wager they are being unclassified as part of the release here.

<comment><USER12> From the wording of the article

> The requested documents – more than 50 years old – should be unclassified > and releasable by now under federal declassification rules

...

> "The plaintiff believes this document review is overly complex," Eatinger > said during the hearing. "When we filed this case, the records were in an > automatic 50-year review project. We were told it would be complete in May > 2019."

these are (or should be) formerly classified documents. The Navy seems to be dragging its feet with the mandatory declassification review. As Eatinger said, it is well past time that the review should have completed and de- or re-classified as appropriate.

<comment><USER10> Eh. betting on incompetence over malignance is easy money. Could this be a conspiracy? Sure thing. Subs do all kinds of very secretive things, and select few subs have singular missions of international importance. More likely two or three quality assurance & design failures occured and american sailors died.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Context: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Thresher_(SSN-593)#Sinking](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Thresher_\(SSN-593\)#Sinking)

</comment><comment><USER14> The article refers to the analysis of Bruce Rule. For those of you interested in the loss of Thresher, Scorpion and especially the loss of K-129, I really recommend you read his articles. See

[http://www.iusscaa.org/articles/brucerule/](http://www.iusscaa.org/articles/brucerule/)

The analysis of the loss of K-129 is especially interesting in that he posits that the SOSUS data shows that it had a "dead mans" capability to launch its missles.

See

[http://www.iusscaa.org/articles/brucerule/acoustic_detctions...](http://www.iusscaa.org/articles/brucerule/acoustic_detctions_of_the_loss_of_the_golf_class_ii.htm)

</comment><comment><USER15> The currently-available reports[0-3] are a worthwhile read for anyone interested. The evidence (given the silver braze joint failures on Thresher and other boats) was there before the accident, but nobody connected the dots.

[0][https://www.jag.navy.mil/library/investigations/USS%20THRESH...](https://www.jag.navy.mil/library/investigations/USS%20THRESHER%20PT%201.pdf)

[1][https://www.jag.navy.mil/library/investigations/USS%20THRESH...](https://www.jag.navy.mil/library/investigations/USS%20THRESHER%20PT%202.pdf)

[2][https://www.jag.navy.mil/library/investigations/USS%20THRESH...](https://www.jag.navy.mil/library/investigations/USS%20THRESHER%20PT%203.pdf)

[3][https://www.jag.navy.mil/library/investigations/USS%20THRESH...](https://www.jag.navy.mil/library/investigations/USS%20THRESHER%20PT%204.pdf)

<comment><USER16> Assuming the silver braze joints played a role of course:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Thresher_(SSN-593)#Alterna...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Thresher_\(SSN-593\)#Alternative_theory_of_the_sinking:_electrical_failure)

Pretty legit theory considering the mysterious lack of evidence of very loud leaking onboard.

PS - Technically it doesn't matter which version of the story is true. The safety improvements that resulted from the accident would have been the same in both cases (since the reactor was still scram-ed, with possible steam restriction, and ballast tanks still faulty).

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I cannot imagine the journey Lieutenant Raymond McCoole must have taken after the disaster. He truly believe he could have save the ship if he was still on it.

</comment><comment><USER17> Songs of _Thresher_

[http://www.oldsaltblog.com/2013/04/four-ballads-of-the- uss-t...](http://www.oldsaltblog.com/2013/04/four-ballads-of-the-uss- thresher/)</comment>


an idea for a start-up - <AUTHOR>

I hate Captchas that make no sense and I routinely feel a reprieve when a catpcha has common lettters in sequence.  For example, "dogbat" is easier than "hgzxmp".  So how about a captcha that makes use of this.  Maybe call it EZCaptcha or something. <comment><USER2> Well, then you give spammers some apriori information, right? Spammers that know your system is used could tailor a solution that has a higher chance of defeating the captcha. This limits the reach of your service.

Captchas are entering the realm of machine solvable. Soon enough, humans will find them so annoyingly hard to discern, many won't bother. And artificial artificial intelligence (e.g. humans solving captchas for porn) make them only a low fence.

All around, it's a dead end.

Recognizing humans isn't necessarily a dead end. Using a system of warped characters is.

</comment><comment><USER3> Have a look at reCAPTCHA: <http://www.captcha.net/>

The words shown come directly from old books that are being digitized. So you can stop spam and help digitize books at the same time.

</comment><comment><USER4> sounds like a feature not a business</comment>


The 10:10 Code (2010) - <AUTHOR> http://blog.jgc.org/2010/06/1010-code.html?

<comment><USER2> That's a lot of digits.

It would be interesting to interlace the latitude and longitude bits in such a way that any prefix is a valid code of reduced resolution, and you can add arbitrarily many digits for increased precision. I think geohash does this? Or does reducing precision give you a geohash that isn't a prefix? Anyway...

Each digit of such a code might be roughly equivalent to one decimal digit of both latitude and longitude. For example, maybe the first three digits would get you to within about a nautical mile.

But that's dumb. While short codes are nice, a short code that only gets you within a mile is mostly useless. It would be better to use a suffix than a prefix. You can still get arbitrary precision with a decimal point.

First, specify a fixed "unit" of precision. Say 10m. Any short code is assumed to be the least significant digits. If my math is right, you could specify any point closer than 2 km +/\- 10 m using maybe 2 digits. Most buildings in most cities will need maybe 3-5 digits.

You could invite somebody from the same city to your house, telling them you live at YA9. Their GPS would assume that the missing prefix digits match their current location. If you want to give them the location of the centerpiece on your dining room table, you could add a decimal point and more precision: YA9.7R.

You could even use short-codes that look like Mapcodes: US-DC, YA9. The location provides the context for the missing prefix digits. But you always have the option of specifing the full code to avoid ambiguity or lookup tables.

One problem is the check digit. Maybe there's a way to interlace the check bits too, so you don't need a full check digit for every code. Is there a checksum algorithm where a prefix of the checksum is a checksum of a prefix? That obviously couldn't detect a one-digit typo. Or, maybe just put a check digit at end. All codes become 2 digits minimum. The checksum algorithm wouldn't need to be fancy since you can assume the rest of the digits based on your current location.

Another easily fixed problem is mentioned on the Geohash wikipedia page: locations near the equator and prime meridian could have wildly different codes than other locations nearby. The solution to that is easy: Translate lat/lon into a different system. Translate latitude into a number from 0 to 180, with 0 being the south pole. Similarly translate longitude to a number from 0 to 360, with 0 being at the international date line. Then encode those translated numbers. Nobody would ever see those intermediate numbers. You always display either lat/lon or the code, but the translation ensures that you don't have vastly different codes for nearby places (at least in any place with a significant number of people).

<comment><USER3> Check out Military Grid Reference System (MGRS) [1], referenced in the article. Increasing the number of digits increases the precision of the location.

1: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_grid_reference_system](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_grid_reference_system)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> If you're looking to add a checksum, why not use an existing format that does things like variable precision and proximity well like geohash ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geohash](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geohash)) and just tack on a checksum digit?

"ezs42cw4" becomes "ezs42cw4 f3" and my client can generate the checksum for me so I just have to verify, rather than enter the last two digits.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Also, there's the 10:10 Code FAQ: [http://blog.jgc.org/2010/06/1010-code- faq.html](http://blog.jgc.org/2010/06/1010-code-faq.html)

And the original idea from 2006: [http://blog.jgc.org/2006/07/simple-code-for- entering-latitud...](http://blog.jgc.org/2006/07/simple-code-for-entering- latitude-and.html)

<comment><USER5> I guess today is the day for talking about encoding locations on earth on HN: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8052908](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8052908)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I thought I could maybe do better with a binary search system. Here is some napkin math:

Circumference of earth: 40,075,000m

Number of choices to get 10m accuracy: log2(40,075,000/10) = 21.9 ~ 22 bits

We need two numbers for latitude and longitude = 44 bits

We can get 5 bits from each alphanum character = 44/5 ~ 9 alphanum characters

Add the checksum character and you're at 10 characters.

Anyone have better methods that only use capital letters and digits?

This system has the disadvantage of two nearby locations potentially having totally different codes.

<comment><USER7> As the others have said, there are too many bits used at the poles. You might be interested in sphere point picking:

[http://mathworld.wolfram.com/SpherePointPicking.html](http://mathworld.wolfram.com/SpherePointPicking.html)

x = sqrt(1 - u^2) * cos θ

y = sqrt(1 - u^2) * sin θ

z = u

θ ∈ [0,2π)

u ∈ [-1,1]

The idea is to pick θ and u uniformly instead of latitude and longitude, which ensures equal spacing anywhere on the globe (no squishing at the poles). If you visualize the areas of the side of a cylinder and a sphere:

AreaOfSideOfCylinder = 2 * π * * r * h = 2 * π * r * (2 * r) = 4 * π * r^2

AreaOfSphere = 4 * π * r^2

You can see that the areas are equal, but if you think of the triangular sections of a basketball, a uniform distribution uses just over half the bits of lat/long. That's because the sections bulge out, and also latitude isn't as susceptible to pinching (perhaps someone who works with distributions can provide the exact ratio). So my guess is that this scheme would use perhaps 6 or 7 digits, depending on whether a checksum is desired.

I've used the formulas on that page with great success for things like random stars in OpenGL. This is loosely related to quaternions but I don't have enough math to describe how exactly. Quaternions sweep uniformly, whereas Euler angles pinch and suffer from gimbal lock.

<comment><USER7> Too late to edit my own post but mturmon is correct, my guess about the number of digits was incorrect. Even with a uniform distribution, it still takes 8.44 digits in base 32 and 7.04 digits in base 64, not counting checksum:

[https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=log+base+32+of+%28%285...](https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=log+base+32+of+%28%285.1e8%29*1000*1000%2F%2810*10%29%29)

[https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=log+base+64+of+%28%285...](https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=log+base+64+of+%28%285.1e8%29*1000*1000%2F%2810*10%29%29)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> The trick is to get Google to recognise these codes. If I can type it into maps or the search box and it comes up with a longitude or latitude then that will make is useful.

</comment><comment><USER9> I was going to put together a tray widget tool for this, but even the example code given doesn't work for me, as far as I can tell. For the coördinates of the UK Eurotunnel terminal, it gives me: MEQ N6G 7NY5. Problems on a trivial level like that don't encourage me to think this idea is important to its creator — especially since I see the blog comments are full of people who noticed the same thing, with no response.

</comment><comment><USER10> There is also the Maidenhead Locator System used by Amateur Radio. I always thought it was very useful and could have applications outside of Amateur Radio:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maidenhead_Locator_System](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maidenhead_Locator_System)

</comment><comment><USER11> Assuming we don't see floating barge-cities and antarctic dome-habitats popping up, you might be able to achieve some substantial savings with a system that's limited to major continents and islands. That's a ~70% shrinkage in the coordinate-space.

Alternately, maybe some form of huffman coding that assigns shorter representations to common zones...

<comment><USER12> I'd doubt limiting land space would be very helpful -- given that the each character encodes 33 possibilities (alphabet + digits, without O, I, or L for clarity), you'd need to reduce the space by a factor of 33 (~97%) to remove a single character.

Huffman coding would be interesting, but the tradeoff would be that since locations are no longer standardized to 10 characters, you'd lose the validation aspect of it (not to mention you'd have to change the name =).

Edit: Apparently S and Z are also missing, so 31 possibilities.

<comment><USER11> Alternately you could keep the same number of characters and use the "extra" to encode more accuracy. Trimming it from 10m accuracy down to 3m sounds very useful for finding stores and homes in denser cities.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> As the comments note, encodings for humans should probably skip letters and numbers that are easily confused.

<comment><USER14> This is reflected in the code:

        var alphabet = 'ABCDEFGHJKMNPQRVWXY0123456789';

perhaps not perfectly, but 2 vs Z, 5 vs S, 0 vs O are solved for.

<comment> squeaky-clean It's certainly better than nothing. The system now cannot direct the user to the wrong location if they input the wrong, similar, characters. But it does not make the user feel confident that the input was correct.

This only works if you know 2 is a possible character, but Z is not, and etc. Otherwise an average user still isn't sure whether '0' means zero, or the letter O. But at least the system will refuse the incorrect version.

You could make it a little more user friendly if you replace all the non- existent characters with their similar partner before interpreting ('Z' becomes '2'), but then it still is not clear to the user if the code they entered should have been 'ABC123' or 'ABC1Z3'. Even though they are identical to the system, the user cannot know this (always assume the user will not read your FAQ).

<comment><USER15> It's a one way relationship though, digits always trump the letter look- alikes, so that helps.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I would probably map the longitude and latitude on a hilbert curve so there is better locality of the codes.

<comment><USER17> The codes are already pretty "local". A small change in location only makes a small change in the code.</comment></comment>


Surging solar in 2011 proof of Ray Kurzweil's bold prediction? - <AUTHOR> http://singularityhub.com/2012/09/24/surging-solar-in-2011-proof-of-ray-kurzweils-bold-prediction/

<comment><USER2> I'm surprised to see Singularity Hub of all people spend so much time arguing that even though the rate of growth is right on track, the absolute size is still too small to care.

The tldr quotes seem to eventually come down to "The last 20 years have shown exponential growth in solar power—and rising sustainable energy subsidies in parallel." and "For example, last year's solar capacity growth set records because firms expected dramatic cuts in government incentives, thus pulling future demand into the present."

</comment><comment><USER3> geuis, I would suggest you limit submitting articles which base their argument entirely on exponential extrapolation without regard to physics or other factors. If you do believe what the author wrote, or it spoke to you in some way, share with us as an additional comment after submission what you found compelling about the article.

Edit: and this comment "That's pretty positive news. As Kurzweil notes, _"We are awash in sunlight." Just 1/10,000 of the sunlight falling on the Earth's surface can satisfy humanity's energy requirements. And that doesn't imply a landscape littered with panels—in fact, an area equal to just a few percent of the Earth's unused deserts would suffice."_

Has been thoroughly debunked several times by the fact that you can't actually transmit all of the worlds power from an 'unused desert' to its consumers. When we have super conductors tracing through the planet more densely than we currently have networking cables, then we can start talking about putting all the power generation in a 'couple' of places.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the thoughts. I personally don't like adding comments about submissions, as the point to submitting stories is that they should be interesting and self-explanatory on their own merit. I believe the community, if it finds something interesting enough, will upvote it. If its something that is pointless but gets upvotes, then enough people will flag it for removal.

In regards to the "1/10,000" comment, some people have conceived of designs where energy production is centralized in desert areas. While if built, indeed the amount of power would be sufficient, but this is more often simply meant as an example of the amount of land area that would be needed world-wide. It does not in itself imply that this is the strategy that should be pursued.

In the same way that we say, "faster than light" instead of "speed of electromagnetic waves in a vacuum" and "half a dozen" instead of 6 (and I've never understood where this phrase came from), it is simply a metaphor that lets uninformed readers better grasp the concepts being imparted. In reality, what is implied is that globally it would only take an equivalent amount of land distributed world-wide to achieve the same effect.

<comment><USER3> Thanks, this is where we disagree I think _"I believe the community, if it finds something interesting enough, will upvote it. If its something that is pointless but gets upvotes, then enough people will flag it for removal."_

That statement is true, but carried to excess we submit the entire Internet of stories to HN to be filtered by the flag it or die process. I try to read the stories on the /new pages and vote up ones I find interesting, or comment but my willingness to do that is harmed by having a lot of material that should never be submitted in the first place. The auto-killer does its part, I've seen /new with 90% auto-killed content sometimes, but it has to be careful as well.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> No. (As per Betteridge's Law of headlines, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridges_Law_of_Headlines>)

<comment><USER5> This will become the hacker news law. On any submission with a headline ending with a question mark somebody will point out the stupid betteridge law.

<comment><USER6> I downvote any comment that does nothing other than cite the stupid thing. I encourage others to do the same.

<comment><USER7> Sadly, I don't know what else to discuss about this article.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


8 Companies That Shouldn't Make a Tablet - <AUTHOR> http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2375995,00.asp

<comment><USER2> Short version: only Apple should make tablets (to which I say thpth!)

<comment><USER3> They said Amazon should make a tablet. For most of the rest the reasons given were not because they aren't Apple, but rather because they weren't hardware companies, or because they've shown they suck at it, or because they have problems they need to address first before going into a new line.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> most of the small chinese companies at CES that were "making" tablets just buy kits and assemble them.</comment>


What a Texas town can teach us about health care - <AUTHOR> http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/06/01/090601fa_fact_gawande?printable=true

<comment><USER2> To me the author makes one fatal mistake in the article and that is assuming all hospitals could run as well as the Mayo Clinic. The Mayo Clinic is the best managed medical institution in the country. There are books written about it's management ([http://www.amazon.com/Management-Lessons-Mayo-Clinic- Organiz...](http://www.amazon.com/Management-Lessons-Mayo-Clinic- Organizations/dp/0071590730/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243324775&sr=8-3)). Assuming every hospital can match it's efficiency isn't realistic.

Coming up with a universal system for anything requires planning for the worst possible scenario not the best.

<comment><USER3> He's given examples of several other healthcare systems that are of similar low cost and high quality.

<comment><USER2> I guess I shouldn't have singled out the Mayo Clinic but the same point applies to McAllen or any other Examplery institution. You can't build a solution by assuming hospitals will have excellent management because most won't (which is why the one's who do are considered excellent in the first place)

</comment></comment></comment><comment> barry-cotter that if you take enough small pseudo random samples, you'll get one far outside the norm eventually, by pure chance.

</comment><comment><USER4> Anecdote: several years ago, I had some pain in a rather delicate area. I did some research online before seeing my doctor, and noted several likely causes for my symptoms. There was one minor ailment which seemed the likeliest culprit (and was, as it turned out).

In the course of this research, I found that several medical sites based in the US (WebMD among them) mentioned corrective surgery as a possible remedy. The UK-based sites I came across made no mention of surgery, only lifestyle changes and other palliative measures.

<comment><USER5> Did you follow the palliative treatment? Did it solve your problem?

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Lots of health care is pointless and has no net health benefit (i.e., benefit - side effect). But some is useful, and we don't want to cut that portion. This has been known for years by health care economists, and is ignored by everyone else.

As far as I'm aware, there is only good filter for determining which medical procedures are useful: the ones patients are willing to pay for out of pocket. This was the conclusion of the RAND experiment.

Robin Hansen wrote a great review article on this topic.

[http://www.cato-unbound.org/2007/09/10/robin-hanson/cut- medi...](http://www.cato-unbound.org/2007/09/10/robin-hanson/cut-medicine-in- half/)

</comment><comment><USER7> In the UK, the National Health Service pays doctors a flat fee per patient, so doctors have a powerful incentive _not_ to provide treatment. On international measurements of how healthy the population is, the UK scores about as well as the US does (i.e., pretty mediocre for a First World country)--but the UK spends only 40% as much as the US does for health care.</comment>


Nvidia  robot reference platforms - <AUTHOR> https://developer.nvidia.com/embedded/community/reference-platforms <comment><USER2> that looks like a scanse.io lidar on the racecar. I've have a preorder on one of those for almost a year now, wonder how they got it so early.

<comment><USER3> Scanse.io lidar units are out now. I got my Kickstarter unit a few weeks ago, anyway.

<comment><USER4> For those interested, either wait for Quanergy S3-qi if you can, or opt for the better RP Lidar A2.

[http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/comparing-two-low- cost-s...](http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/comparing-two-low-cost- scanning-lidars)

<comment><USER2> I'm surprised the scanse lidar performs so poorly. Its advantage is supposed to be that it's a "real" ToF lidar vs the triangulation thing that RPlidar does.

Has there been recent news on Quanergy? The latest I could find was from last year saying they'll be out early this year. The price point and specs all seem too good to be true, leaving me a bit skeptical, but I would be very happy to be proven wrong.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm more interested in the simulator at the moment. Any news about that?

</comment><comment><USER6> No prices?

<comment><USER7> $500 (for the Jetson TX2 Developer Kit) :(

<comment><USER8> Half off with a .edu email.</comment></comment></comment>


What the Failed $1M Netflix Prize Says About Business Advice - <AUTHOR> http://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanholiday/2012/04/16/what-the-failed-1m-netflix-prize-tells-us-about-business-advice/

<comment><USER2> "The failure of the Netflix prize is a timely reminder that basically all the books and blogs on social media are bullshit."

Is it just me, or is this a total blanket statement? A failure of one company and a contest they ran means ALL of books and blogs on social media are bs?

<comment><USER3> I think he's talking about 'best selling authors or bloggers'. The author pokes fun at big blogger's opinions that congratulates or praises netflix's crowdsourcing contest....because it validates their own books and makes them look smart or sound right. (wikinomics, freakonomics, jarvis..)</comment></comment>


US Dept of Energy AS32982 Network Possibly BGP Hijacked by China Telecom - <AUTHOR> https://bgpstream.com/event/171779 <comment><USER3> So? What is the significance of one single event? Looking at that site it is not that uncommon. Did this event catch your attention simply because it had the right keywords (US Dept of Energy and China)?

MIT hijacked someone's route? [https://bgpstream.com/event/171889](https://bgpstream.com/event/171889)

An US ISP? [https://bgpstream.com/event/171683](https://bgpstream.com/event/171683)

Another US ISP? [https://bgpstream.com/event/170328](https://bgpstream.com/event/170328)

China Telecom could have been a victim too? [https://bgpstream.com/event/155707](https://bgpstream.com/event/155707)

The list goes on...

(edited: formatting)

<comment><USER4> "Who is responding to such an event during the government shutdown?" was my first thought. Assuming nefarious intent, now would be an ideal time to stage an attack.

<comment><USER5> DoE is currently not affected by the partial shutdown. It's business as usual at the national laboratories and with other employees/contractors. The way it's funded means that there would have to be a prolonged shutdown before DoE would have to start shutting down, but I think even then security and safety essential personnel are exempt.

[https://www.directives.doe.gov/directives- documents/100-seri...](https://www.directives.doe.gov/directives- documents/100-series/0137-1-border-b-recertified)

<comment><USER4> But is ESnet [1]? They are the org responsible for providing inter-org networking services between US DOE labs and other associated institutions.

[1] [http://es.net/](http://es.net/)

<comment><USER5> The plan includes pay for external contractors and security-essential functions, so yes I would assume so (though I don't know firsthand about them specifically). To the best of my knowledge, DoE will continue to run entirely as normal until carryover funding from previous allocations runs out. Couple months at least. After that it basically goes into hibernation, but I expect that communications and network security would be considered as essential and hence would remain funded even then.

<comment><USER4> Thank you!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> It's not neccessarily AS4812 / China Telecom announcing this themselves. Anyone could be announcing AS4812,220.127.116.11/24\. For some degree of attribution, you need to go and figure out where the actual announcement is coming from.

The "beauty" of BGP :)

edit: It's also interesting to note that the bogus announcement is for /24, which is more specific than the original /23, so it takes precedence.

<comment> CKN23-ARIN For reference, the path observed by BGPMon was:

      11039 The George Washington University
      46887 Lightower Fiber Networks I, LLC
      6939 Hurricane Electric LLC
      4134 China Telecom Backbone
      4134 China Telecom Backbone
      4134 China Telecom Backbone
      4812 China Telecom (Group)

Hurricane Electric has been known to not apply route filters to large peers, leading to hijacks like this. I suspect that was the case here, too. Although you are right, this path could have been spoofed by GWU or Lightower (or BGPMon!)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Article describing BGP hijacking. It is the first article from a DDG search, and I know nothing of the topic so YMMV.

[https://www.internetsociety.org/blog/2018/05/what-is-bgp- hij...](https://www.internetsociety.org/blog/2018/05/what-is-bgp-hijacking- anyway/)

<comment><USER8> Wikipedia article: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BGP_hijacking](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BGP_hijacking)

<comment><USER9> The article mentions there are mitigations to this type of attack available. Does anyone know of how an individual user could (practically) reduce their exposure to this type of attack?

<comment><USER10> By using encryption. That way if such attack occurs, the only negative effects is downtime, rather than data exposure.

<comment><USER11> Encryption does not help BGP hijacks at all. You need to filter the accepted upstream routes. But filtering ultimatively defeats the purpose of BGP - <USER2> learning is no longer fully dynamic and need some manual approvals.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Just noticed this one, too: [https://bgpstream.com/event/170070](https://bgpstream.com/event/170070)

Does it mean an Iranian telecom hijacked some of AT&T's traffic?

<comment><USER13> Notionally yes, though as with a lot of these hijackings it's really a question of how far it propagated/who is correctly filtering routes. This happens with Iran Tele from time to time, typically when they are trying to block something specific internally and let the route leak out (e.g. their Telegram block back in July).</comment></comment>


Web 2.0 Startups in Seattle - <AUTHOR> http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/venture/archives/111566.asp <comment><USER2> Interesting, I especially liked the idea of interconnecting already popular applications to increase overall functionality. Adding iCal would have been trivial compared to the amount of traffic it must have garnered.</comment>


Google Apps users are 2nd rate citizens. WTF? - <AUTHOR>

Let me say this very succinctly: Google really dislikes Google Apps users.
Google promised us Google Apps users we'd be able to buy extra storage for Gmail after the transition to some new infrastructure. Reversed course and said the storage could only be used for Picasa and Docs.
Google said more services would be available after the transition. Yes, more services are available, but I still can't have a youtube account liked to a Google Apps account if Youtube is not available in my country - and it's only available in like 20 countries.
Then Google promised +1 and Profiles, and therefore Google+ to Google Apps. It's been 6 months and I still don't have a Profile.
I mean, really, WTF?
I have to move email from my sorted 25GB Gmail Google Apps account to offline storage (i.e. my local folders in Postbox) so I can make room for incoming mail. WTF do I use Gmail for then?
Google Apps used to have forwarding email addresses. Google decided they were too expensive to keep up and that those forwarding email addresses had to become Google Groups or you had to move your domain outside Google Apps.
My problem is that I can pay $20 for 80 GB of storage on regular Gmail. I fracking want to pay more than that for Google Apps space.
Thing is... I feel betrayed. Google kept promising to provide additional services, in this case storage - in exchange for cold hard cash so please don't get all holy on me - and has kept users lingering on and then has failed to deliver or even completely reversed course.
Seriously now... What the frack? Is it just because paying Google Apps Premiere users also turn off ads? <comment><USER2> I'd put my money on some technical debt they need to address before then can move on. Google maintains a huge portfolio of immensely complex products (at the scale they operate, anything is immensely complex) and I am not surprised they hit some problems every once and then.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'd definitely say you're right if two years and at least one course reversal hadn't gone by.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> They haven't even finished writing Google+ for "normal" users yet, there's no way they could offer support for it.

</comment><comment><USER4> I can't help but agree, especially with regard to g+.

</comment><comment><USER5> Bradley Horowitz talks about Apps users in depth here:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5sRC67s9fg#t=23m20s>

Basically they want to make sure they get it right before deploying to paying users.

<comment><AUTHOR> Says nothing about canceling extra storage for Gmail for Google Apps.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> +1</comment>


Mermaid – Generation of diagrams and flowcharts from text - <AUTHOR> https://mermaidjs.github.io/mermaid-live-editor <comment><USER2> For anyone interested in generating diagrams from text, I recommend also taking a look at Graphviz[1] and PlantUML[2]. Graphviz excels at box-and-arrow kind of diagrams as well as graphs, I frequently use it to visually map out dependencies, processes and state transitions, etc. There's an online version here[3]. PlantUML I use less, both because it's slower (you pay the JVM startup tax on every invocation) and because I have less use for the kind of diagrams it specializes in.

[1] [https://graphviz.com](https://graphviz.com)

[2] [http://plantuml.com](http://plantuml.com)

[3] [https://dreampuf.github.io/GraphvizOnline/](https://dreampuf.github.io/GraphvizOnline/)

<comment><USER3> A quick correction to citation:

[1] [https://www.graphviz.org/](https://www.graphviz.org/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> We used mermaid.js for a while. I didn't like the fact that it worked only in a browser, and installing phantom.js (which installed a whole pre-compiled binary of Chromium) was painful.

We also ran into some limitations on how we could control the final display.

So we moved all our diagrams to PlantUML and found ourselves quite happy with it.

</comment><comment><USER5> Thanks for sharing! Just tried some UML sequence diagrams and this looks like it'll be a lot more convenient than other UML tools.

Here's the syntax guide: [https://github.com/mermaidjs/mermaid- gitbook/blob/master/con...](https://github.com/mermaidjs/mermaid- gitbook/blob/master/content/sequenceDiagram.md)

Edit: And here's a plugin for VS Code that adds a live render pane to the text editor - [https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=vstirbu....](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=vstirbu.vscode- mermaid-preview)

</comment><comment><USER6> This is integrated with Gitlab, you can use it in every textbox.

</comment><comment><USER7> typora.io renders mermaid and some others in markdown documents

[https://support.typora.io/Draw-Diagrams-With- Markdown/](https://support.typora.io/Draw-Diagrams-With-Markdown/)

<comment><USER8> Not "in" markdown documents but "from". In the documents the diagram markdown is rendered as itself . When exporting markdown to pdf for example, the diagram markdown is rendered as a diagram.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I've used mermaid for documentation, through plugins for mkdocs and Sphinx. What's great about it is that the diagrams are stored as readable source text in the documentation, which is easy to diff and modify along with the rest of the doc (search and replace when renaming a component etc).

That's a huge benefit compared to storing rendered bitmaps, with a source file next to them. There's much more friction involved in keeping those up to date, the changes don't display usefully in PRs etc. They're almost never up to date as a result.

Another thing mermaid lets you easily do is generate sequence diagrams from code such as testcases, because the format is so simple and line-driven. The outpout can also be included in documentation as samples, and is guaranteed to be up-to-date.

</comment><comment><USER10> We use this to diagram our systems at a high level in documentation. It can be fiddly to get it exactly how you want it but it's a lot faster and easier to version control then, say, PowerPoint.

</comment><comment><USER11> Has anyone managed to make decent looking org charts using Mermaid or one of the other text-based diagram generators mentioned in this thread? I've been looking for a way to make it easier for the one person we have who is working in HR to update the org chart each time we make a new hire. As bureaucratic as an org chart can be, keeping our up-to-date makes it easier for new people to figure out who everyone else is, and also helps existing staff figure out where newer employees fit in.

</comment><comment><USER12> FYI: Mermaid is supported in Markdown on both GitLab and GitHub.

It's awesome, I hope they continue to extend it.

<comment><USER13> Can you provide a source for Github support? I have looked before and been unable to find a way to use Mermaid in Github markdown.

<comment><USER12> Wow - you are correct.

I must have imagined it.

GitLab FTW!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Does this offer something different from Ditaa or Graphviz?

<comment><USER15> Sequence diagrams for one. You could probably do those in graphviz but not without serious fiddeling/invisible nodes and other tricks that would make your source far from being succinct, which is kind of the whole point

<comment><USER4> PlantUML supports sequence diagrams, and a whole lot else.</comment></comment></comment>


Searching "www.Google.com" gives me "Sexy Bacon Bra" #2 result. - <AUTHOR> https://www.google.com/#hl=en&sugexp=les%3B&gs_nf=3&gs_rn=0&gs_ri=hp&tok=Um-WeYoxCjTM_d-fnnZMsg&cp=5&gs_id=53&xhr=t&q=www.google.com&pf=p&tbo=d&output=search&sclient=psy-ab&oq=www.g&gs_l=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.&fp=6b248429b05b6670&bpcl=39650382&biw=1440&bih=739

<comment><USER2> This must be a customized result for you. Have you been looking at lots of bacon bras lately?

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Seriously. No one thinks this is kind of odd?

<comment><USER3> I'd think it was odd if I saw it too, but I don't. Your link just brings up very meta google results for more links to google.com.

What kind of bizarre search history does google have on you to give you those weird results? :-)

<comment><AUTHOR> Well I'm on the corporate network, so I'm not sure how that works. www.google.com. If I use google.ca it seems that it is fine.</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Simple Mail Reminders - <AUTHOR> https://mailreminder.net

<comment><AUTHOR> It's kind of a hobby project I made. I get lots of e-mail from clients and using todos and pins to remember to follow up became a pain. So I created mailreminder.net, which let me forward any email to a mailreminder.net address, which will trigger a reminder at the approriate time.

I built mailreminder.net with privacy in mind, and mailreminder.net's servers will never read or store the contents of you emails.</comment>


Ask HN: Rackspace email addresses hacked? - <AUTHOR>

We received an email this morning - anyone else? Just enough information to scare the snot out of you but not enough for you to make intelligent decisions.
<comment></comment><comment></comment><comment>==
Urgent Information Regarding Passwords for Accounts You Administer
Dear Rackspace Customer,
We have recently corrected a potential vulnerability that may have allowed external access to some of your end-user's credentials. To be safe, we have initiated a process to reset the passwords for some of your users' mailboxes.  If any of your users cannot access their mailbox, please log in to your Admin Control Panel to change the password and to allow access to your user once again. Please note that your admin credentials were not at risk.
We apologize for the inconvenience this causes you and/or your end users. As with any potential security threat, it is recommended that you monitor your account(s) for any unusual activity and recommended that you use strong and unique passwords.
</comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment>== </comment><comment><AUTHOR> Just got off the phone with RS and what happened was that, during a migration, there was "concern" that "the CSV file that contains the encrypted passwords for about 8% of mailboxes" was "not as secure as our standards dictate it should be." I was told they have no evidence of a hack or of access to the file but that they did a manual scramble of those 8% of email account passwords "just to be sure".

</comment><comment><USER2> Whats does the header of the E-Mail look like?

<comment><AUTHOR> On the off chance you aren't trolling, I know 100% it's from RS.</comment></comment>


Get expert help with building your company - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/big-ideas/5fbf356347f2

<comment><USER2> I am already signed up since the first announcement. I like the added insight about customizing the experience by selecting the areas you need help in.</comment>


Ask HN: Why is the DOM still slow? - <AUTHOR> Why do we need to use a vDOM to gain performance? Why aren't efforts being made to make DOM itself fast? Is the DOM really slow enough to justify the extra dependency of a vDOM? <comment><USER2> I know very little about the DOM so please take this with a grain of salt. Perhaps someone can correct anything wrong I say:

Changing values/adding nodes/removing nodes in a DOM isn't the expensive bit.

The expensive part is what happens after something changes in the DOM.

When a node is changed it triggers an invalidation of the current screen. The modified DOM means that something different should be on the screen compared to last render.

Naively this means that we recalculate the position and size of each node according to rules (CSS and otherwise) of the node, the node's parent and the node's children.

Now imagine we have 1 root node with 5 children nodes. Each of those children nodes have 5 nodes and those children have 2 nodes. Each node is display:block

Now a script is run. The first leaf node has the height property changed.

Now you have to recalculate the size and position of each node in that tree.

Okay that's fine but wait, the script continues to run. It's also increasing the height of the second leaf node. Recalculate the height of all the nodes again.

It turns out that the script was a for loop and it's increasing the height of all the leaf nodes.

So you've just remeasured the DOM 50 times when you could have remeasured once by using a virtual DOM.

To reiterate I know nothing about the DOM so I'd appreciate someone else clarifying and correcting my comment.

<comment><USER3> This is pretty much the root of it, it's not so much the DOM as it is the dependencies involved in layout, paint, and compositing.

Anything that might re-trigger layout in particular will have a noticeable impact on complex sites. That can be adding or removing nodes or just adjusting some CSS rule or adding/removing a class.

There is a lot of work being done recently to allow browsers to distinguish exactly which CSS rules can cause relayout, and which nodes can be changed in which ways without affecting other nodes. There's also work to better separate out exactly which stages depend on which pieces so that more work can be done in parallel and more work can be re-used (don't need to re-render this sub- tree X if we know for certain that a change over here in Y can't possibly affect it, that kind of thing).

Mozilla Servo/WebRender is probably the most interesting project right now if you want to dig deeper.

<comment><USER2> Thanks mate this is great info. I'll read up on servo when I get a chance.</comment></comment></comment>


Modernizr 2.0 beta released - customizable downloads - <AUTHOR> http://modernizr.github.com/Modernizr/2.0-beta/

<comment><USER2> irony? <http://i.imgur.com/qp5I1.png>

<comment><USER3> Apparently Typekit and Firefox were disagreeing about stack order. Should be fixed now, and yes, there's some irony in it (but also, keep in mind that the page itself is part of the beta release, and thus, a beta version itself).</comment></comment>


Who owns what? How to split equity in a new startup company - <AUTHOR> http://www.techflash.com/seattle/2010/01/who_owns_what_how_to_fairly_split_equity_in_a_new_startup_company.html

<comment><USER2> The problem with this article is that the author is basing ownership of the company on things arguably irrelevant to the actual company- qualifications rather than contributions.

For example, his partner may have equal qualifications. But who is to say that his partner will contribute an equal amount to the company?

A better way would be to come up with an agreement on how to evaluate equity X years in the future, based on their performance. This also accounts for future hires who deserve equity. Of course, part of the equity would have to be split up at the beginning- but, no more than 20%.

Why should someone get equity merely because they "worked in film before web development"? Instead, they should get equity because of the awesome demo video they made.

This is certainly harder, but it makes more sense. There's no rush to split up equity- after all, with the odds of flipping a company is relatively low and IPOs being nonexistent, it's something that can potentially be dealt with after a year or two.

<comment><USER3> Strongly disagree about waiting 1-2 years to deal with equity issues -- equity should be dealt with immediately up front. Everybody should be issued equity via an ISOP based on their expected contribution over the next 4-6 years. If somebody outperforms the expectation, they should be issued more ISOP. If they underperform, they should be fired.

<comment><USER4> Except when you say to someone, I'm going to keep x% and you're going to get y% (where y is much less than x) because your future contribution isn't going to be as much as mine, that person is either a) going to walk away or b) have no motivation to perform at startup levels because you just screwed them over, especially if you're not out there killing yourself every day.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This article will read really differently in four or five years once they've either made some good money or gotten funded, or both, and one of the partners wants to leave for a 'different opportunity.'

It misses: voting control vs ownership of financial benefits, the absolute preference of capital over labor in how funders and the government think about businesses, LLC vs corporation issues, dead-weight partner problems, title- related compensation issues,governance and a few other things I can think of.

I tend to think of a simple best-practices setup in a situation like this to be:

a) 50-50 voting control e.g. Class A Stock for the partners. b) if one was deemed to get '60%' by the article's method, that owner would get the remainder in Class B non-voting stock.

c) If a corporation: a valuation should be chosen upfront, and all non-labor soft or hard contributions should be recorded as giving additional non-voting stock, or (a bit easier with a partnership), as paid-in-capital.

1) if an LLC, paid-in-capital gets returned first, always, no exceptions (until they're funded)

d) Lock salaries until the two owners are a non-majority on the board. All additional money can come out via distributions.

e) If either partner leaves, company can buy out at fair valuation, with some sort of note, or can convert up to 100% of leaving partner's stock to non- voting.

That's a start at a workable situation in my opinion, I'd be interested to hear people poke holes in it..

<comment><USER5> p.s. post-hoc equity contribution conversations (e.g. a few years in) don't work very well in my opinion: who got the equity benefits in the meantime? A two-person review of equity later in the game is just going to cause problems. It's better in my opinion to negotiate like a man up front, get all the advice you can, get the best position you can, and live with the consequences. My advice on this is wildly different if there's one founder and he's bringing in a second partner later in the game, by the way.

p.p.s To elucidate the 50.50 vote option: typical valuations for minority stock that does not come with good leverage, meaning one founder has majority voting rights, discount the value by roughly 50%. Therefore, if you are not protecting your right to vote, and shave off 1% to your founder, you have ended up with about 24.5% of the economic interest if you ever need to get rid of your stock. Also, good luck keeping your job if your partner decides he hates you.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> The article misses the most important point -- who gets shares and who gets ISOP? In the specific example behind the article, what happens if one of the founders quits? The non-quitting founder is screwed because he gave up half the company equity to a dud partner and has no way to get it back. The company will probably die.

Actual issued shares should only go to investors with cash money, tangible assets, or founder(s) with patentable intellectual property. Everybody else (including founders who may have received actual shares for their intellectual property) should get ISOP shares whose present value, when added to their startup salary, would equal the salary they could make in the real world at an established company. The ISOP should have a small cliff so founders who quit after a few months don't get anything.

In my startup experience, most of them had issues like this with founders payouts not reflecting their fair contribution. In one case, the founder quit after 18 months but the company hadn't issued ISOP so he got his full cut when the company was sold in 4 years.

In another case, founders got stock in direct proportion to what they initially invested in the company. But they burned through the money in three months, didn't get funded, and everybody worked for free for another 12 months before they could start paying salaries. They didn't issue ISOP to make up for the non-paying period, so a founder who invested $20k and worked for free for a year got four times as much as a founder who invested $5k and worked for free for a year.

<comment><USER6> This sounds like a great way to end up paying short-term capital gains tax on a liquidity event. Why give an additional 15% or so of your money to the government? Get your stock up front, file an 83(b) election with the IRS, and subject the founders to reverse vesting -- a buyback right in the event the founder leaves that gradually expires over time. That way you own the securities immediately and long-term capital gains rates kick in after a year.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> "Our big challenge though, and one unique to a company started by two extroverted developers, was the decision as to who should be CEO and CTO. The titles aren't too important at the moment, but they certainly will be as we begin to depend on each other for managing different responsibilities."

Is it just me, or is the idea of a company with two employees, both of whom call themselves "chief ... officers" absurd on its face?

You _are_ allowed to change your job title later on, no? For instance, if there are multiple officers two years from now, you can call some of them "chief".</comment>


Ask HN: What sould 17-years old web designer sould do? - <AUTHOR>

Hello fellas,
I'm 17 years old guy with a problem. I cannot get work. I live in Slovenia where it's nearly impossible to find any work, even in factory. Even if I could work in some design company I need proper education.
When I am searching for work on internet there is another problem. My portfolio is too small to be even noticed. I have worked for one semi big company, other two were collaboration with my friend.
What sould I do to fill my portfolio? Freelance sites are no go, Indians rules those sites...
Help me <comment><USER2> "Your portfolio is small because you can't get a work, you can't get a work because your portfolio is small." This situation is very common, one of the first solution is working as internship or volunteering. Meeting the right person is the key.

Offer low-cost/free service to your local charity or school for start. Keep your relationship with people you work tight and friendly. And don't advertise yourself like a amateur.

</comment><comment><USER3> Do you have time to create a project of your own? E.g. write a program that parses the link collection at [https://github.com/sindresorhus/awesome](https://github.com/sindresorhus/awesome) and renders it as a flexible discovery resource.

If you create something interesting, your name/brand will be exposed to a global tech audience, making the site a good reference for your skills.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for this awesome idea!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Hi there - I'm a startup founder and would love to discuss potential opportunities with you. I don't mind or care if your portfolio is small as long as you have the skill/passion to build great user experience. Feel free to email me

<comment><AUTHOR> I would like to work with you. Mail me: miha {at} vidakovic {dot} si

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> do you code with the following languages PHP, MySQL, HTML, CSS, Javascript?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, I know and use all listed languages.

<comment><USER5> would you like a job from me, would be delighted to have you on the team

<comment><AUTHOR> Drop me a email: miha {at} vidakovic {dot} si

<comment><USER5> will definitely do

<comment><AUTHOR> Great.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: your experience Migrating from Chrome to Edge(Chromium) ? - <AUTHOR> Being FF my main driver and avoiding Chrome, new Edge has no much effect on my routine. Chrome is still my fallback when apps (grr Skype business) do not work properly on FF.<p>I've seen Chrome extensions are OK in Edge, so my question is : Can i Fallback on Edge instead of Chrome ? <comment><USER2> Works as well as you'd expect for a Chromium based browser. It has some features that Google chrome does not have, but that's just a matter of extensions. It does tie in with Windows as one might expect. Don't know how much better Edgium is regarding privacy and telemetrics.

However I would want the browser to be updatable from Windows update instead of running it's own updating process. This seems like a small issue but it would accelerate the adoption of Edgium in enterprises networks. AFAIK this is not the cause at the moment

</comment><comment><USER3> For personal use I've switched to 100% Edgium. The transition was mostly seamless, just know that your search engine keywords aren't automatically imported.

</comment><comment><USER4> I have pretty much stopped using Chrome on Windows, and I was a die hard Chrome user. The transition to "Edgium" has been seamless for me.

A feature I really like - being able to turn a site into a PWA (just don't do it with Youtube, for some reason it caused playback to start stuttering whether in "Edge proper" or the PWA itself).

</comment><comment><USER5> Seamless. I was using FF before, then SlimJet, then Edge Chromium. Instantly noticed Edge Chromium is much faster to open, and overall it's as fast or faster than FF. Didn't see any bugs yet. Most Chrome extensions work, scrolling is super smooth as well. Overall a smooth experience;</comment>


Facebook Erases Hundreds of Alternative Media Pages in Mass Purge - <AUTHOR> https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2018/10/facebook-erases-hundreds-alternative-media-pages-mass-purge.html <comment><USER2> Scary. Are there independent sources confirming that?</comment>


Zeplin (YC S15) launches to improve designer and developer collaboration - <AUTHOR> http://venturebeat.com/2015/07/20/y-combinator-backed-zeplin-launches-app-to-improve-collaboration-between-designers-and-developers/#

<comment><USER2> Hey folks! I'm Berk, one of the co-founders. With Zeplin, we're actually scratching our own itch, working for a world where designers and developers can collaborate with maximum efficiency.

We've just released 1.0, with a brand new UI and the long-awaited asset export feature. We'd love to hear your feedback and answer any questions!

</comment><comment><USER3> How does this benefit me after the initial MVP build? Most of my time in conversation with Designers is spent guiding them back to the same set of reusable components, reminding them we already have a way of doing X, and should be as consistent as possible.

<comment><USER2> We feel the same way and actually started doing this with colors. There's a guideline section in the app where designers create a color palette, define all the colors that they'll be using. This way, when you're looking at the designs, you can instantly see if there's a color that is not defined in the palette.

We've heard back from a lot of designers using Zeplin saying that they're now more cautious about which colors they use. We're now working on a similar feature for reusable UI components.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Worked with them before, really nice bunch of people and a cool project that solves a true pain point.

Best of luck!

</comment><comment><USER5> I am using Zeplin for months and it is just awesome!</comment>


Watson Is Going To Be Open For Public Use on the Cloud - <AUTHOR> http://gizmodo.com/watson-is-going-to-be-open-for-public-use-on-the-cloud-1464264675

<comment><USER2> \- Any ideas on how this could be used in mobile apps?</comment>


Introducing the launch_daemon - <AUTHOR> https://www.haiku-os.org/blog/axeld/2015-07-17_introducing_launch_daemon <comment> vezzy-fnord Good to see this. Article was killed because of a new/penalized submitter last time.

I'm actually not a big fan of the launchd architecture, though Haiku's spiritual equivalent still sounds nice. It's good to see different ways of solving this problem, even if launch_daemon doesn't bring much in the way of novelty. The config syntax beats XML plists.

<comment><USER2> Out of curiosity, what are your complaints about the launchd architecture?

<comment><USER3> Here are my peeves. None of them are really things that make me actively hate launchd, they're just things that I think could be done better.

1\. Too many different launchd file locations. See for instance [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18502705/how-to-know-a- sp...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18502705/how-to-know-a-specifix- launchd-plist-file-location) \-- this can make it difficult to troubleshoot a startup issue or get a handle on what is and isn't being started and when.

2\. .plist files are a binary format, ostensibly to save space, which seems a little bit ridiculous on an operating system like recent versions of MacOS X. So you have to use a separate set of tools just to interact with them. This also means that it's harder to fix corruption of .plist files or troubleshoot strange values they may have; in a plain text format, you'd just open it up in vi or emacs or whatever, and if you know what you're doing, you could find and fix anything that doesn't make sense.

3\. The XML format in general isn't a very nice way to handle configuration files. Unless you've got syntax highlighting, it's hard to read.

4\. Complex declarative configuration files aren't my favorite thing regardless, because it's hard to know what your options are and what the right values for those options are. With simple configuration systems where there is are several sets of values, and each set of values has the same half-dozen or so options, it's not so bad. But, in cases where you can have hundreds of different options, and not all of them documented well, an optimal configuration can turn in to a bit of black magic.

I guess maybe #4 doesn't really apply directly to .plists, since they're not intended to be edited by the user, they're intended to just be for application developers. But I'm not sure that's a point in their favor either.</comment></comment></comment>


Most Tech Interviews Suck – The Only 4 Questions That Matter - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/lightspeed-venture-partners/most-tech-interviews-suck-the-only-4-questions-that-matter-1a71181ef4d4 <comment><AUTHOR> Question #1 is sorta ok if you're hiring a "full stack developer". And yes, everyone should have a basic understanding of how the internet works. But many modern frameworks/libraries take care of a lot of those details for you. If something breaks, you should be able to dive in and figure it out. But is it really important if you realize that your HTTP request is likely version 1.1 and not 1.0? Do you know how TCP works byte by byte?

Question #2 basically assumes you're a web developer (or desktop app developer). Lots of jobs do not involve writing webpages or desktop apps. Yes, even jobs that help create a "product". And an hour to turn json into a halfway decent webpage basically means you need a frontend specialist, and I'd guess even one of those would struggle to get it half done in an hour, especially if they're then adding tests and stuff.

#3 - Why do I want to work at your company? I can tell you, it's probably NOT for your product. It probably _is_ for the processes, the team, the culture. Don't forget, the interview is a time for the candidate to figure out if the company is a right fit for her, too. If you only hire people passionate about your product for its own sake, you're probably never get past hiring a cofounder.

But just because I don't think your product is the best thing since sliced bread, doesn't mean I can't think critically about the product space and do my best to think about how to make the product better. But don't expect everyone to know everything about your product space before joining your team. There are infinite product spaces out there... hopefully you have some sort of onboarding process to help get new hires up to speed on your own product space.

#4 - Want to grab dinner with the team? Nope, sorry. Gotta get home to my family. Lunch? Sure. But even then, honestly, enjoying spending time with the person outside of the office should not be a prerequisite for hiring them. You're hiring them to work during office hours, to get along with other employees _in_ the office. There's been a lot articles that explain why worrying about "culture fit" contributes to having companies of all young white American males. There should be _process fit_ \- having similar goals and methods for quality and productivity. And of course, they shouldn't be an outright jerk. Whether or not you'd want to have a beer with them is beside the point. You're hiring a developer, not a wingman.

I don't think these are awful questions, per se, but I also think that they could do with a lot of tweaking.

</comment><comment><USER2> I wish I would have used a version of this with my hires. At least something like problem 1 and 2.</comment>


"Less expensive" iPhone rumor corroborated on both sides of the Pacific - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/01/less-expensive-iphone-rumor-corroborated-on-both-sides-of-the-pacific/ <comment><USER2> I don't know, I find it hard to believe that Apple would try to compete by lowering the quality of the product, that's never been their thing. Their products have always been more expensive, and it was always because they built a nice solid product (i.e. made of durable metals, glass, etc.). Give me a hunk of metal over a piece of plastic any day of the week.</comment>


The Planet Needs a New Internet - <AUTHOR> https://earther.gizmodo.com/the-planet-needs-a-new-internet-1837101745 <comment><USER2> What happened to this "Internet 2" btw?

It was a faster, academic mostly, side-internet, which was a big thing in the early 00s... Haven't heard about it for ages...

<comment><USER3> As far as I know it still exists, it still provides a network for research institutions in the US.</comment></comment>


Hacker News Podcast is back - <AUTHOR> http://www.hnpod.com/episodes/hnpod-3-ouya-github-we-know-what-you-re-doing?r=hn

<comment><USER2> Is this run/authorized/curated by YC/pg et al or are you just hijacking the brand name to promote a third-party podcast?

<comment><USER3> It's unauthorized/unofficial. We could possibly make that clear in the /about page, though I think people are probably used to it from the many HN* projects around.

The show is certainly aiming to be based around HN though, not just a general tech show riding on HN's name. Guests are HN regulars and stories are those popular on HN.

<comment><USER4> I automatically assume "Hacker News"-related is not sanctioned / 3rd party. If it had Y-Combinator somewhere in its name I think that would be a bigger problem.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I'm delighted that Mike's carrying this forward - it's a lot more effort than it seems.

I'm without a stable internet connection at the moment - travelling a lot and about to start renovating a house in rural France. Trying to juggle three guests and a shaky connection is just too much.

</comment><comment><USER6> Random comment about the laughter at the ~2:30 mark: I am a developer, but I am _not_ a gamer. We are few, but we exist.

<comment><AUTHOR> Oh, I think I said that. I think its probably 99% accurate, and I find it's easier to speak in absolutes, rather than ruin something with disclaimers, esp. on something like a podcast.

<comment><USER6> I agree. I didn't really think you literally meant _everyone_.

<comment><AUTHOR> As it happens I almost never play games. It's hard to find time when you have a startup.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Yeeesh, yeah definitely put on an "unofficial" tag. Just because the stackoverflow community wants a podcast, I'm thinking this would be akin to stealing their name and starting "The stackoverflow podcast".

<comment><USER3> Sure, I'll ask Alex (the original HNpodder) to make it clear.

Also, the title of the podcast is HNpod and certainly no "the" in it. So it would be more like "SOPod" than "The StackOveflow Podcst".

<comment><USER7> As someone just coming across this now, the HNpod sounds fine. If I heard that I don't think I would assume it's official in any way.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Great to see (hear) the show is back! Even though there were only 3 shows in April, it had already become among my favorites.

</comment><comment><USER9> Good show; please expand the show notes. Would love to see links to everything mentioned.

<comment><USER3> Shownotes are a good thing, will do my best. Knowing the time commitment to podcasts, I'm gradually working with a virtual assistant to outsource as much as possible, in order to make the show sustainable. There's a training overhead there which means it will be a few weeks before we can realistically do something like this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Great to hear it's back, I've been missing it on my drives into work.

</comment><comment><USER11> Had just unsubscribed to this, guess I'm adding it back in.</comment>


Google Chrome 78 is out: Forced dark mode, DoH trials, no more XSS Auditor - <AUTHOR> https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-chrome-78-is-out-forced-dark-mode-doh-trials-no-more-xss-auditor/ <comment><AUTHOR> One feature I immediately found very annoying is Tab Hover Cards (when hovering over a tab a big panel pops up), to disable it or change style, visit:

      chrome://flags/#tab-hover-cards

</comment><comment><USER2> The Omnibox UI Hide flag has vanished for me. Once again my urls are truncated.</comment>


Elon Musk's Tunnel Plan Isn't as Crazy as SpaceX or Tesla - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-24/elon-musk-s-tunnel-plan-isn-t-as-crazy-as-spacex-or-tesla <comment><USER3> It is worth noting that everything that Elon is doing here is part of his goal of colonizing Mars.

One of the challenges will be building out underground habitats, and establishing mining for critical resources. Gaining experience with how to do that efficiently here on Earth will make it easier to set it up on Mars.

Furthermore when you start colonizing Mars, you're going to want high speed transport between locations. Rockets will work, but are wasteful. Airplanes don't work with thin atmosphere. But a hyperloop will.

So let's learn how to bore hyperloops cheaply and efficiently. Prove out the technology, make it repeatable. Then when SpaceX is ready to take us to Mars, we arrive with key pieces of technology that we'll need to colonize it.

The scope of his vision is breathtaking.

<comment><USER4> I love how transparent it makes his motives.

<comment><USER5> Are you sure it's not just good marketing?

<comment><USER6> Can't it be both?

Honesty has phenomenal draw in marketing when the recipient agrees with the message. Even if one's disagrees, the product is harder to attack when everyone around it is honest.

<comment><USER7> I feel like this is one of Musk's greatest strengths. His bread and butter is taking slow moving industries (see: rockets and cars) and coming in with smart people with a framework to succeed. As a marketing ploy, he then sells his grand vision (going to Mars, all self driving cars). I don't mean to say that he won't succeed in these grand visions; I think he will, but fundamentally his success is based on taking outdated, slow moving industries and taking them to the next level.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Is technology really the slow and expensive part of boring tunnels? To me it has always seemed that tunnels are expensive because:

* Planning the traffic impact and how it interacts with other transport lanes, all the above-ground building work to make the tunnel useful,

* Emergency ventilation and escape routes, and all other infrastructure that goes into the hole,

* Avoiding any building foundation piles, unmapped tunnels, pipes and cables, re-planning and fixing them if you do hit them,

* In Europe at least, archeological surveys.

<comment><USER9> I believe they're hoping to mitigate 3 and 4 by going deeper than most things. But wouldn't that make 2, emergency escape routes, a lot more expensive?

How do you make a very long, very deep, narrow-diameter, elevator-accessed tunnel safe from fires and toxic gas releases? You can make it a vacuum but then what if you have to escape a vehicle? How does this thing not become a death trap in the event of a fire?

Fire is the number one cause of fatalities in tunnels (remember it's the smoke that kills). Tons of engineering and expense goes into trying to devise shelter and evacuation solutions.

<comment><USER10> You won't get fires if there is nothing that burns.

<comment><USER11> So... passengers can't wear clothing or bring any belongings with them that can burn?

<comment><USER10> Things you can take on a plane would probably be alright.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Wouldn't it be smarter to start with a smaller project? Like maybe do the Chicago airport project before tearing up the east coast for a super tunnel. That seemed to work for Space X (start small, iterate).

<comment><USER13> If you're investing your own money, then you'd definitely want to test it out so that you can ensure that 1) it's easy to build and 2) people are willing to pay to use the tunnel.

However, if you want the government to subsidize it / provide tax breaks, then you want to be able to go to politicians in every state and show them how this tunnel is going to bring jobs and money. You pull up a big map and say, "This is going to go from San Francisco to New York, and if you are willing to help we'll make sure it goes right through your state!"

That's the political game that you play. (It also makes it politically unfeasible to shut down later. See: military contractors in every state)

<comment><USER14> "I've sold hyperloops to Brockway, Ogdenville, and North Haverbrook, and, by gum, it put them on the map!"

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I have a feeling that Musk loves being mocked for this. Wouldn't you love it if you pitched a crazy idea for which everyone made fun of you for, and then you delivered?

<comment><USER16> I was one of those people that was mocking him at one point... back when he started SpaceX. I honestly thought this guy was an idiot to be throwing his money away like this.

Once I realized I might be wrong about him, I started following him closely, watching all his interviews, and then seeing one success after another.

Nowadays, I'm flabbergasted by people that would mock his ideas when he's proven over and over again that his visions have a stubborn way of becoming reality, one way or another (sometimes late).

Can he stumble and be totally wrong and fail? Of course, I'm surprised it hasn't happened yet, but to mock him is just being plain ignorant.

<comment><USER17> _proven over and over again that his visions have a stubborn way of becoming reality_

This is the power of 1st principles reasoning. The power of physics becomes your power!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> The headline seems to be focused just on the drilling/tunnel part. Whether a hyperloop is as crazy as SpaceX or Tesla doesn't seem to be covered.

<comment><USER19> I recall reading the plan was to make electric sleds for cars (vaguely akin to car wash tracks) rather than hyper loops.

<comment><USER20> Correct. Here's a clip with a nice visual aid for what he's talking about: [https://youtu.be/hpDHwfXbpfg?t=1m18s](https://youtu.be/hpDHwfXbpfg?t=1m18s)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Elon should use the nuclear powered tunnel boring machines patented in the 60s to dril and melt rock-wall tunnels for the hyperloop.

<comment><USER22> I have a feeling residents would throw a complete shit-fit if someone proposed something like that. At best, you'd have clickbait headlines like "MUSK PROPOSES NUKING HIS WAY THROUGH YOUR BASEMENT".

<comment><USER20> He discussed this concern here: [https://youtu.be/hpDHwfXbpfg?t=9m15s](https://youtu.be/hpDHwfXbpfg?t=9m15s)

It sounds like he's less concerned about disturbing the people above, as it's apparently not an issue at certain depths (I am not an engineer). Seems like the existing underground infrastructure might be a bigger problem.

<comment><USER22> The concern I'm alluding to is a largely made up marketing one - <USER2> nuclear-powered anything under people's homes is bound to be misunderstood in the worst possible way.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Something just occurred to me: Is the levitating vac train concept just a feint? The technology developed for building electric semi trucks would also be useful for building highly streamlined electric trains. With automated piloting, the difference between the two would be blurred! Is Elon aiming to become the railroad tycoon of the 21st century?

I don't think air resistance is the largest cause of expense in transportation. Am I wrong here? How much does it cost to overcome air resistance per mile in trains and trucks?

<comment><USER23> > I don't think air resistance is the largest cause of expense in > transportation.

If you want to go fast (the plan for the hyperloop) then air resistance becomes a significant cost. The power it takes to overcome aerodynamic drag increases with the cube of velocity.

I imagine the hyperloop design where cars are independent makes drag costs worse compared to trains (compared at the same speed).

<comment><USER17> _I imagine the hyperloop design where cars are independent makes drag costs worse compared to trains (compared at the same speed)._

However, autopilot cars don't have to operate independently over long distances, in ways that specifically reduce air resistance!

<comment><USER23> Presumably you mean they could follow one another very closely. If they're traveling at several hundred mph, that doesn't give following vehicles much time to react if there's a problem with a leading vehicle.

<comment><USER17> You basically have the same problem with high speed trains, or even ordinary trains. It's just that all of the "control" is entirely passive. If your drive and control systems can be made as reliable as the passive systems linking train cars, then that should meet the same level of safety. Also, have you been on the highway during rush hour? There's not that much buffer against a pileup, in a system much more prone to failure!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I posted this in response to a comment below, but I think this interview clip provides a great overview of the technology that Musk is proposing, as well as answers to some common questions/concerns about the challenges this tunneling might create.

[https://youtu.be/hpDHwfXbpfg?t=1m17s](https://youtu.be/hpDHwfXbpfg?t=1m17s)

edit: added the word "interview"

</comment><comment><USER24> [https://urbanize.la/post/los-angeles-should-ignore-elon- musk...](https://urbanize.la/post/los-angeles-should-ignore-elon-musk-and- build-subway-tunnels-relieve-traffic)

</comment><comment><USER25> Too many unknown unknowns here.

When mankind first started to burn fossil fuels nobody anticipated that it would impact climate on a planetary scale. This is an idea that needs much more study before we rush into it.

</comment><comment><USER26> "...digging sure sounds easier than building a rocket that lands vertically."

It isn't. Just ask the builders of the Chunnel. It's only _31 miles_ long and went 80% over budget and 20% behind schedule. A tunnel from New York to DC would be nearly 10 times as long and run under some of the most densely populated land in the country. Rockets and electric cars are trivial by comparison.

<comment><USER27> 20% behind schedule? 80% over budget? Look at some of the projects by SpaceX.

<comment><USER26> Or look at the Big Dig in Boston. It ended up costing $24B (10 times the original estimate) and was eight years behind schedule. And that was for less than 4 miles of tunnel under a major city.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> If you're gonna dig some tunnels, a train on rails is a way more efficient way to move people around.

</comment><comment><USER29> when I first saw the tunnel plan, it was presented as a service-for- billionaires single use subway system for cars.

That's not what it is at all. It's a company that makes tunnels. Ultimately, they will be used for whatever infrastructure needs tunnels to work.

</comment><comment><USER30> [deleted]

<comment><USER31> The Boring Company has nothing to do with Vactrains

<comment><USER18> The first two paragraphs of the article ties them together. I'll admit you may be right, but the confusion here is driven by the article.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> One could even say it's _boring_.

</comment><comment><USER33> Many US cities need to solve their short distance public transportation problem first. I don't see how adding another long distance transport solves anything.

How does this help people stuck in LA traffic all day?

<comment><USER22> This also doesn't help people trying to lose weight, or the people who can't remember where they put their keys - but that's not who this is aimed at.

<comment><USER34> _but that 's not who this is aimed at_

I think a lot of legitimate criticism of HN's darlings starts with which markets and demographics they aim at, and whose problems they deem worthy of solving.

<comment><USER35> It's not about worthiness, it's about having a solution or not. If Musk has a solution for long distance but doesn't have one for commuters, should he not pursue the long distance solution because reasons? That seems absurd.

<comment><USER36> > If Musk has a solution for long distance but doesn't have one for commuters

He doesn't, because long-distance solutions depend on integration with local network solutions; you can solve local without long distance but not vice versa.

<comment><USER6> They are related, but there is not a strict dependency. You can put a new airport into a place without worry about local transport significantly. (edited for grammar and post structure)

Most airports just put in parking and sometimes a shuttle bus to move people around their massive parking complex, but even as large as those systems are they peanuts compared to the Airports main concern, Air Travel.

Why are tunnels different?

<comment><USER36> > They are related, but there is not a strict dependency. You can put a new > airport into a place without worry about local transport significantly.

No, you can't, which is why when commercial airports are actually built, they are either carefully sited near freeways with excess capacity or have new freeways built and/or capacity added to existing freeways, often have local rail connections built, involve major upgrades to local surface roads, and involve other extensions of local mass and individual transit capacity.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: I made an artsy protest website - <AUTHOR> http://www.thedailyblech.com <comment><USER2> no calls for immediate action through generous donations? no "it's all the fault of evil white Republicans?" your prophecies of doom are on a 10 year clock? where's the urgency in that?</comment>