New Urbanism - <AUTHOR> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Urbanism <comment><USER2> New Urbanism was one of the things that got me to take a hiatus from computers to get a degree in urban planning - I've read way too much about it and visited many of the featured communities. (My wife is a doll - "You want to visit a neighborhood outside of Gainesville? O...K...")

To address the major criticism (affordability and lack of economic mixing): each NU development requires haggling over special zoning, density, and street engineering, so there's a greater up front cost and risk for the developer which gets passed on to buyers. Second, there are very few NU housing units relative to standard suburban houses so demand outstrips supply, keeping prices high. Third, they make a conscious effort to be attractive and pleasant, both in the houses and neighborhood as a whole, so people are willing to pay higher prices. With explicit zoning approval, developers could build more units and there would be more competition so prices would go down. The end result would probably be prices about the same as standard houses, with a smaller lot, slightly smaller house, but in a more attractive, liveable neighborhood.

The biggest weakness I see is that they have only been done on the scale of a subdivision so it hasn't really effected shopping or employment patterns. Sure, many of them have pleasant town centers, but they get low traffic and are therefore much more suitable for professional offices or a few local things like a dry cleaner or child care.

New Urbanism is useful mainly as a showcase of how residential development could be. The work that has the potential to change the built environment much more are form-based zoning codes, also by Duany Plater-Zyberk. It basically specifies the envelope you're allowed to build in based on where you are but doesn't specify function. So in a dense district where 6 story buildings are allowed, it doesn't matter whether they are offices, condos, light manufacturing, etc, just as long as they're consistent with the form of the neighborhood and the road and transit capacity. Form based codes actually deal with the entire economy of residential, commercial, and office/light-industry, while New Urbanism only (in practice) deals with residential.

If a fast-growing municipality were to adopt these, it would give a good feel for what level of density and urbanity people were actually willing to buy. Urbanity and density that is a) low crime and b) has acceptable schools is extremely high priced because zoning has made it illegal to build almost everywhere.

<comment><USER3> > If a fast-growing municipality were to adopt these, it would give a good > feel for what level of density and urbanity people were actually willing to > buy. Urbanity and density that is a) low crime and b) has acceptable schools > is extremely high priced because zoning has made it illegal to build almost > everywhere.

Huh?

It's easy to find places in the US that will let you build something like that. It's only hard to do it inside a core city.

Yes, it's probably true that no one is willing to let you run their whole city.

FWIW - I've found that ideas that only work on an unattainable scale have other problems that are often fatal on smaller scales.

<comment><USER4> Zoning codes in much of the US do indeed prohibit mixed uses and urban densities and prioritize automotive infrastructure over human-scale street design. The cost for obtaining the necessary adjustments and exemptions by the usual permitting process could be prohibitive, but the law is just the most obvious obstacle.

There are entrenched business interests who fight vigorously to maintain the status quo. From site preparation crews to homebuilders to civil engineers to government bureaucrats, many people have invested over half a century in learning to do things in a certain, profitable, way and they do not want expensive and risky change.

Then there are ordinary people, who will oppose "cut through" traffic and dense (or any) neighboring development and commercial uses (next door though not across town). When they think retail, they think strip mall, and who can blame them for not wanting to live next to that? They want to preserve their property values by only permitting (more expensive and lower density) houses and green space on adjacent parcels. Most people don't care about things on non-adjacent parcels, although they will tend to dislike elitists or outta- towners who want to do something unusual in their regional vicinity.

We have an elaborate, comprehensive, uniform set of ideas and practices that are very well established in this country. Their scope is huge, governing everything from the (non)existence of street trees to the geometry of interstates. Although it's true that urban site designs complement each other, the problem with new urbanism is not that planning or design cannot work on larger scales. Pre-industrial towns and cities evolved urban design locally and without specialized professional oversight. Suburbia may not seem thoughtfully designed, but it is an existence proof that even ideas that do not work well at scale can nonetheless be widely adopted and carry enormous momentum.

<comment><USER3> > Zoning codes in much of the US do indeed prohibit mixed uses and urban > densities and prioritize automotive infrastructure over human-scale street > design.

The vast majority of the US has no zoning.

You're seeing obstacles because you're only looking at existing areas. It's quite reasonable for the current inhabitants to resist your takeover attempt. And yes, that's what it is.

> Suburbia may not seem thoughtfully designed, but it is an existence proof > that even ideas that do not work well at scale can nonetheless be widely > adopted and carry enormous momentum.

Suburbia works quite well for the vast majority of its inhabitants. This "scale" claim is just your attempt to try to convince them why they're wrong.

And yes, suburbia is "thoughtfully designed" - it just isn't designed to accomplish the goals that you value.

Your values are not universal. If suburbia doesn't work for you, get out. There are options.

But, stop trying to force people into your vision. And if you can't, at least stop complaining that they resist.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> It's fascinating how much positive-sounding language can amount to basically saying, "We fucked up on the whole suburban sprawl thing. It's pretty lame. Undo."

(Please note that, despite my tone in the above, I am very excited about the movement. :)

</comment><comment><USER6> Sounds like what you can still get in many European cities. Luckily. It's a sad day whenever some ugly shopping monster is built outside old city centers. Sprawl is a blight which has to be fought vigorously.

<comment><USER2> I'm no fan of sprawl, but once a critical mass of households own a car, it's economically much more efficient because people can travel point to point rather than fixed paths.

Sprawl can be made much nicer and less economically competitive by eliminating or raising maximum density limits, eliminating or lowering minimum parking limits, and channeling development into designated areas so that transit is easier.

For instance, look at Skarholmen, outside of Stockholm ([http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q...](http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=skarholmen,+stockholm&mrt=all&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Sk%C3%A4rholmen,+Stockholm,+Sweden&ll=59.267372,17.8969&spn=0.060091,0.154324&t=h&z=13)) . It's Stockholm's sprawl, built in the 60's to handle population growth as Sweden urbanized.

The subway runs parallel to the highway, with regional draws (factories for employment, big shopping like Ikea) by the highway and local shopping like a grocery store, a small mall (Skarholmen Centrum), post office, etc clustered around the subway stop (the "T" on the map). There are apartments (3-6 stories) clustered around the Centrum, then townhouses beyond that and some houses beyond that. Nearby stops have small grocery stores (similar to a CVS or Walgreens) and apartments around them, and if people need more stuff they ride the train to Skarholmen. For specialized stuff they ride into Stockholm or drive/bus to the big stores by the highway. So most people don't need cars even for work or shopping.

Overcrowding? No, apartments are very affordable so people don't need to pack into them. Concrete jungle? Hardly, there are parks between every apartment building and raw forest less than a mile away.

So what's missing from here? That's not rhetorical, I'd really like to know what is bad about this compared to American-style suburbia. The only thing I can really think of is that very people have a private yard or an apartment big enough to entertain a lot of people.

<comment><USER5> It sounds like most people are driving cars instead of walking or cycling and small businesses are virtually nonexistant. This seems like a problem to me.

<comment><USER2> No, most people are walking or riding trains. Very few people have cars.

Small businesses were about as common as in US suburbs.

<comment><USER5> > No, most people are walking or riding trains. Very few people have cars.

I guess I misinterpreted your "once a critical mass of households own a car" comment.

> Small businesses were about as common as in US suburbs.

Virtually nonexistant in the US suburbs I come from. I think this quality is representative of suburbs in general, but mine may also be an extreme case.

<comment><USER2> I started out saying that auto-burbs are economically efficient once enough people own cars, then gave Skarholmen as an example of how it could be.

The lack of small businesses is typical of suburbs, which are primarily places to live without a specific local economic purpose. Exceptions are typically hair salons, small restaurants, dry cleaners, etc.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I've been going to Seaside FL (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seaside,_Florida>), one of the early NU towns for many years, and just had my wedding there.

The highway 30A coast, which includes Seaside has at least four examples of New Urbanist towns within a 20 mile stretch that is all bike-able. If you're into this kind of thing, it makes a great vacation spot.

If you want activities or restaurant recommendations, check out my wedding website which is still up: <http://mattandmeara.com/more/>

</comment><comment> lobo-tuerto I have been longing for the ideas of Christopher Alexander to be put to good (world wide) use. Or at least wishing for them to be noticed outside the little circle of minds that "get it".

</comment><comment><USER8> This reminds me of a wonderful site from a few years back: <http://carfree.com/>

The basic premise being to deliberately create small, architecturally distinct neighborhoods with swaths of greenspace separating them, then joining them all together with a highly efficient public transit system.

It's an interesting read.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> For a lot of great videos about what new urbanism is all about (mostly for walking/biking/transit infrastructure), check out the excellent:

<http://www.streetfilms.org/>

They're part of the Livable Streets organization..

</comment><comment><USER9> Anybody who's interested in this and lives in the Bay Area should take a drive over to Hercules on the east bay. They build a whole town complete with mixed use urban center

</comment><comment><USER10> I think a lot of us played SimCity when we were little.

</comment><comment><USER11> NU is the pretty face of the death of private property in America. If you own something, you have control of it; zoning removes your control over property you own.

<comment><USER12> "Old" or "New" -Urbanism has never been about absolute property rights. City dwellers have, for generations, traded the conveniences of density over pure private property rights.

How would you feel about your next-door neighbor turning their home into a slaughterhouse or paper mill or adult bookstore?

<comment><USER11> Can you point to examples in Houston, TX, where this has happened? Houston has no formal zoning code.

<comment><USER12> Zoning is just one of many ways that people, through democratically elected governments, restrict private property rights in cities.

While Houston doesn't have formal zoning, a quick Google search (I've never been there) shows they do have extensive land-use regulation, including minimum lot size for single family homes (5000 sq feet) and requirements for parking for businesses.

So, if I wanted to place two single-family homes on my 9000 sq feet of land, or open a retail shop without providing parking, my private property rights would be infringed.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> New Urbanism comes from a belief that cars and lawns are bad.

If you agree with that premise, it might be okay although it's not clear that it's a significant win over other urban forms.

If you disagree with that premise, it's a total disaster.

The typical response by new urbanists to folks who disagree with the premise is ridicule.

Note that the folks who disagree with the premise are perfectly willing to let the new urbanists do their thing.

<comment><USER13> > _"New Urbanism comes from a belief that cars and lawns are bad."_

I like how you coupled something a lot of people think is bad, with something few people think is bad, and present it as an all-or-nothing choice.

> _"Note that the folks who disagree with the premise are perfectly willing to > let the new urbanists do their thing."_

I disagree. Suburban developers, along with the people who live there, are currently in the process of torpedoing a new mass transit rail system in Seattle - this is something that will take a _lot_ of cars off the road, create new residential and commercial corridors with excellent transit coverage, and make communities more connected. Suburbanites fear the accessibility will destroy the exclusivity of their enclaves (which is probably true), and thus are trying to prevent this from being built.

Whether or not you agree or disagree with the concept of effective mass transit, there's no way you can claim that pro-suburb folk are a-ok with urbanist policies. American cities are littered with stories of urban initiatives torpedoed by people in fear of the destruction of their suburban lifestyles.

<comment><USER3> > I like how you coupled something a lot of people think is bad, with > something few people think is bad, and present it as an all-or-nothing > choice.

It's not my coupling - it's the new urbanists' coupling.

I don't know what a "hate cars, like lawns" or "like cars, hate lawns" vision would be, but neither is relevant if we're discussing new urbanists.

> > "Note that the folks who disagree with the premise are perfectly willing > to let the new urbanists do their thing."

> I disagree. Suburban developers, along with the people who live there, are > currently in the process of torpedoing a new mass transit rail system in > Seattle

Not so fast - they're refusing to pay for it. That's very different. If it was such a great idea, if there actually were people who placed as much value on these things as they cost, you wouldn't need funding from other people.

> this is something that will take a lot of cars off the road, create new > residential and commercial corridors with excellent transit coverage

These are things that you value - they don't.

> Suburbanites fear the accessibility will destroy the exclusivity of their > enclaves (which is probably true), and thus are trying to prevent this from > being built.

"exclusivity of their enclaves" sounds like projection.

> American cities are littered with stories of urban initiatives torpedoed by > people in fear of the destruction of their suburban lifestyles.

Not at all. They're merely refusing to pay for the lifestyle that you'd prefer.

<comment><USER13> > _"Not at all. They're merely refusing to pay for the lifestyle that you'd > prefer."_

That hammer swings both ways - infrastructure costs substantially less in denser, more urban areas. Hell, here in Seattle the per-mile operating cost for buses is _three times higher_ in suburbs than it is in urban areas. Us urban folk are paying for your excesses too - garbage generation, water usage, the sheer amount of pollutants those 2 cars in your garage are pumping into the air... practically all resource usage on a per-capita basis is much higher in suburbs. This is well before we get to the gigantic amounts of money we have to pay to support the roads you insist on clogging up.

It's hard to say where the balance lies - whether, after all is said and done, the suburbanites are subsidizing the urban lifestyle, or vice versa. Whichever it is, the truth is far less clear-cut than you're trying to project.

> _"It's not my coupling - it's the new urbanists' coupling."_

I've met many urban planning proponents, and none are against lawns. I think this is projection on your part, more alarmist "they hate our way of life" shit.

> _"I don't know what a "hate cars, like lawns" vision would be"_

Then you haven't learned enough about this. Urbanism is not solely the idea of high-rises and towers of glass and steel, it is also a large part about walkable neighborhoods with a central focus on mass transit. None of this precludes, for example, townhouses where you can maintain your yard and private spaces. There are _many_ ways to be sustainably urban _and_ maintain many of the main perks of the suburban lifestyle (backyard BBQ? check). To suggest that you can't IMHO is fearmongering amongst suburbanites who think that removal of the automobile from their life would mean wholesale destruction of their lifestyle.

<comment><USER3> > That hammer swings both ways - infrastructure costs substantially less in > denser, more urban areas.

And you see the savings. Since suburbs pay for their infrastructure....

> Hell, here in Seattle the per-mile operating cost for buses is three times > higher in suburbs than it is in urban areas.

You're confusing your numbers. The operating costs-per mile (consumables, employee salaries, capital costs, maintenance) should be roughly the same to lower in suburbia (slightly higher mpg and lower maintenance because not as much stop and go). The ridership is probably lower, but that's not operating costs.

Then again, it's mostly dumb to run buses in suburbia. We do it because urbanites think that doing so benefits them and/or because they insist on "regional funding" and suburbia says "if we're paying, you're serving us too".

If the cost of buses in suburbia bothers you, don't do it, and don't ask them to pay for urban transit either. (Take all you want at the fare box.)

> the sheer amount of pollutants those 2 cars in your garage are pumping into > the air

Cars in the garage don't pump anything into the air.

The pollution costs are in the noise. And suburbia pays for gas.

> This is well before we get to the gigantic amounts of money we have to pay > to support the roads you insist on clogging up.

If we're talking about suburbia's roads, those roads are paid for by gas taxes and developer fees and "donations" in the suburbs. (I've been involved in some development. The land for roads is typically "donated" by the developer, which means that the home owners actually pay for it. The roads themselves are built by developers.)

If you're talking about urban roads, shut them down and do transit your way. Since you're paying, do as you will.

And no, you can't have gas tax money if you're not serving cars.

> Urbanism is not solely the idea of high-rises and towers of glass and steel, > it is also a large part about walkable neighborhoods with a central focus on > mass transit.

It's interesting that "new urbanists" seem to think that live-work and the like is new. It isn't; it's actually quite old. More to the point, one can find it in most major cities.

New urbanists come in saying "let me run things and we'll all have free ponys". They don't bother explaining why this time will be different.

I've seen the pitches. They're heavy on the asserted benefits and light on explaining why they'll actually happen, especially given the actual experience.

Goals aren't arguments.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


End-User Programming - <AUTHOR> https://www.inkandswitch.com/end-user-programming.html <comment><USER2> If you look at PC magazines from the late 80s/early 90s, you'll find Asm program listings for small but useful utilities. DOS batch files, another form of programming, was common too.

From several decades before that, I have an engineering textbook from the early 60s which devotes an entire chapter to the basics of how computers work and writing programs (once again, in Asm) to use them for solving problems.

Thus I'd say "End-User Programming" has been around for a very long time, but it's only recently that the rise of "user-friendliness" and locked-down walled-garden environments contributed to its demise.

<comment><USER3> Could be that it's just tough to do user-programmable web apps in a secure way.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The problem with end user programming is that no matter how much easier you try to make the interface to use, programming requires some ability to think logically and understand systems and anybody who can do that is going to get frustrated by guard rails and just want to do 'real' programming eventually. There's never going to be the magic interface that unlocks coding for everyone because most people just don't think that way and the people that do, don't need a more intuitive interface.

Which isn't to say that quality of life improvements aren't important, I just don't think they'll turn non-programmers to programmers in any great number.

<comment><USER5> >There's never going to be the magic interface that unlocks coding for everyone because most people just don't think that way and the people that do, don't need a more intuitive interface.

Strongly disagree. The "magic" interface will be a machine that understands verbal instructions well enough to convert them into logic, figure out which cases are undefined and non-obvious, and then ask clarifying questions. I'm not saying we'll necessarily get there in 10 years, but barring civilizational collapse we should get there in n years. It's both useful and theoretically possible, so we _will_ eventually build it.

<comment><USER4> Sure when we have general intelligence they can do the coding, but those people won't be doing coding any more than the guy submitting a feature request in Jira is doing coding.

<comment><USER5> General AI isn't necessarily necessary for this, though it could be what brings it. And I suppose I never compile anything since I don't do it by hand? Why bark when you have a script?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I am surprised that they used yahoo pipes as an example for "flow based" programming instead of something a bit more modern such as Node Red (1). My own experience wit trying to design a flow based system for mobile ([http://flowgrid.org](http://flowgrid.org)) was that input seemed just to cumbersome (compared to typing) and not dense enough (compared to text) -- at least on mobile.... Labview / lego would probably be worth looking into, too....

1) [http://nodered.org](http://nodered.org)

</comment><comment><USER7> Just yesterday I was thinking that I like the iOS Clock app but hate the time picker, and it's not very OO of it that I can't subclass the app and fix it. Also that Maps cleverly picks an appropriate scale but there's no way for me to use that functionality from my app for my data.

iOS apps aren't unique in this. Modern software isn't very flexible.

<comment><USER8> You'd be able to fix the Clock app if your phone was Jailbroken. There's a system for modifying existing apps called Cydia Substrate, and it's _very_ robust.

For simple modifications, there's also Flex, which doesn't require any programming! Flex provides a list of variables and methods, and lets you to override them with whatever value you want. I changed setSwitcherStyle from 1 to 2, and now I have the iPad's "grid" app switcher on my iPhone.

iOS software isn't inherently inflexible. Apple is just preventing you from modifying it.

<comment><USER7> I think there's a big fundamental difference between "programming" (with source code) and "reverse engineering". Cydia Substrate definitely looks like the latter.

I also think there's a big difference between "programming" and "toggle a single bit of configuration". You got a different behavior which didn't require programming because someone else had already gone to all the effort of programming it, and you only needed to find the secret switch to enable it.

If there's any system in common use today which allows subclassing applications to permit users to change arbitrary behavior, or plucking out a single function to re-use in a different context, I'd love to hear about it. We've got open-source, but most of those are really not at all designed for end-user programming.

The closest example I can think of today is Greasemonkey.

<comment><USER8> Creating Cydia Substrate certainly involved a ton of reverse engineering, but I get the sense creating tweaks _on top of_ Substrate is a lot closer to Greasemonkey. There are also tools like Flipboard Explorer[1] that make it easy to see how an iOS view is constructed and what needs to be modified, very similar to a web browser's inspector.

There's a line in a blog post[2] Saurik (Substrate's creator) wrote a while back:

> In general, I also believe the algorithms for reverse engineering have > started getting better faster than the technology behind binary obfuscation. > [...] I believe that we will find the distinction between closed source and > open source crumbling—not just for people like comex and myself, but for the > average developer.

He also references a longer talk he gave on the subject. Disclaimer that I haven't watched it. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D91jVZ4Z6og](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D91jVZ4Z6og)

Note that all of this absolutely still requires _programming_ though. And Flex is absolutely not a programming tool, although the wealth of options it opens up is very substantial, since you can modify the return value of just about _any_ method.

\---

[1] [https://github.com/Flipboard/FLEX](https://github.com/Flipboard/FLEX) (Note: Flipboard Explorer's abbreviated name is "FLEX". It has no relation to the other software I mentioned, "Flex".)

[2] [http://www.saurik.com/id/22](http://www.saurik.com/id/22)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Ugh, for 1,5 months I've been trying to find a way to duplicate flow based programming in c# ( like node-red does). If anyone has some ideas on how to create the "engine", please contact me..

Tried everything I can think of. Currently, not much luck.

<comment><USER10> You mean, visually? or conceptually?

Visually is more complex, you need to build a UI.

But the concept, that can be done with a DSL, combining the concatenate/stack/tacit programming paradigms. How much nice, depend in what you want...

<comment><USER9> Visually is kinda easy. There are a lot of UI tools for that on Github.

The concept, can't be done in a DSL. Because node-red makes exceptionally well use of the dynamic programming paradigm ( and with the optional payload property).

Just converting it to a Dictionary<string,object> when it enters || exits a node doesn't seem enough. + A huge performance drain

<comment><USER10> How you think > dynamic programming paradigm is implemented?

With something like Dictionary<string,object>. Yep, exist some tricks you can apply, but to make things "dynamic" you will need to use something like that.

C# have the buildings blocks for make something like that, like the Expando object and the whole meta programming.

However, a custom interpreter could be best.

P.D: I'm implementing a custom programming language, and research about it a lot. BTW, the use of hash maps with a decent hash function will not be necessarily the bottleneck...

<comment><USER9> > Because node-red makes exceptionally well use of the dynamic programming > paradigm

Because of flexibility around the payload/context property. I can map anything generic through abstracts and T1,T2,... In c#, but it's not enough

Not sure about anything use related. Or I need to reduce the flexibility that I wanted before and look to the mapped properties only and ignore the rest. Which would be a lot easier

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> > In fact, the opposite: today our computing devices are less programmable and > less customizable than ever before.

Ohh, I'm not at all sure I agree with that -- but then again, I am pretty sure I have an above-average number of scripts for my Android phone's Automagic app, and before that Llama. I have all sorts of automation and customization set up on my phone and workstation -- but granted, this is far above the trodden path for Joe User.

</comment><comment><USER12> In my case, my end-users are not programmers, their daily job has nothing or very little to do with computer. They don't need customized environment for them to customize by themselves. They need their program to have enough functionalities for them to get job done. To the downvoters: Please read my comments below or at least provide the reason you think the comment is invalid. My end-users are different than yours for some reasons.

<comment><USER13> Does that mean they can't use spreadsheets?

If their work has very little to do with computers, then they don't really need any functionality to do their job. So this article is kind of irrelevant.

<comment><USER12> Before computer era, one of use case is librarians. They just want to store metadata into the computer for them to easier to search. Without any computer, they also get the job done. But with a computer, it's more productive for them in their job.

<comment><USER14> But when librarians got their OPAC systems, they started writing reports to analyse lending patterns and identify stock that was not being borrowed, and identifying lenders that had overdue books &c.

So the decrease in effort needed lead to an increase in analysis of the information captured in the system - new uses.

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

<comment><USER12> I'm not sure about other regions, but in my region, non-tech users are too lazy to "program" their customized job. The reason is many, but it's just the fact to let you know. "Programming" in any kind is a hard work, and not all end-users like to do it. They're lazy to do brain work.

<comment><USER15> > I'm not sure about other regions, but in my region, non-tech users are too > lazy to "program" their customized job.

You know this how? Not a single non-tech user would even try?

I would suspect that the quality and accessibility of the implementation has a huge impact on this, far more than the region or domain.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Tech giants are becoming defenders of democracy. Now what? - <AUTHOR> https://www.wired.com/story/microsoft-facebook-tech-giants-defending-democracy/ <comment><USER2> Did Wired miss the Google memo?</comment>


Move Fast and Fix Things - <AUTHOR> http://githubengineering.com/move-fast <comment><USER2> The posted link redirects to [https://github.blog/2015-12-15-move- fast/](https://github.blog/2015-12-15-move-fast/)

And note that the article is from 2015. Maybe still relevant, but the year of the posting should still be noted.</comment>


V002 Camera Live – Zoom with Your DSLR as a Webcam via USB - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/v002/v002-Camera-Live <comment><USER2> Am I the only one with strong objections to using Zoom as a verb?

Putting aside the fact that it's already a verb, which courses plenty of confusion, I can go along with using Photoshop as a verb, because it is objectively the most powerful and widely used tool with a very long legacy.

But Zoom is a clunky insecure mess with impressive, but not nearly leading market share. Is this really who we want to be gifting the recognition (and money) that comes with generic verb for all videoconferencing? At least Adobe did something to earn their verb...

P.S.: I see no mention of Zoom in the page. Does this fall under the "don't mess with titles too much" rule of HN?

<comment><USER3> Until recently "to Skype" was the generic term for video calling among most of my friends and family. Given that nobody has actually used Skype for that purpose for 5 years, this crisis has accelerated it's decline and Zoom/WhatsApp/facetime is creeping into our vernacular.

So one crappy clunky video conferencing verb being replaced by another.

<comment><USER4> What's wrong with just"video call"?

<comment><USER5> Yeah that's what I've been using, guess I'm turning into an 'old' as evidenced by my hair now approaching ponytail length.

<comment><USER6> "Teams-meeting" has become the norm for video-conference. One of my annoying pet peeves is pointing this out and calling it "meeting on Teams" \- if that's where it is.

Since I use up to 5 different platforms each day...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Please take care when using your DSLRs for video. Often the sensors are not adequately cooled for long term usage as a video camera (>30m). You have the potential to damage the sensor if it is not designed for continuous use and doesn't have proper thermal protection. Newer cameras will shut down if they get too hot, or have limits to how long you can run in video mode.

Stackoverflow discussion: [https://video.stackexchange.com/questions/21932/can- continuo...](https://video.stackexchange.com/questions/21932/can-continuous- video-capture-damage-my- dslr#:~:text=It%20depends%20on%20the%20camera,heat%20as%20they%20capture%20images.&text=Most%20modern%20cameras%20have%20temperature,as%20you'd%20like%20to).

<comment><USER8> Old wives tale.

Even the stackoverflow answers say as much. Most of the thermal ramping occurs in the first five minutes and then stabilizes after cache is exhausted. As all these dslr's allow you to record 29m50s videos back to back all day long it's also indicative that it's not a big enough issue in returns to warrant addressing in their firmware.

As you're not writing to the SD card, hdmi passthrough should yield an overall lower operating temperature after an hour than writing to the SD card when recording video after even 10 minutes.

I tried getting to the source of this rumor. Didn't find one particular origin, just speculation amongst Redditors and Twitch users about the 30 minute limit and bypassing it with the Nikon or Canon firmware mods will void your warranty.

It _will_ however introduce more noise. Particularly at higher ISO's. Astronomy photographers (a major driver of the firmware hacks in the first place - see "Nikon stareater bypass") have cooling solutions available there too.

<comment><USER9> Correct me if I'm wrong, but the 30m limit is due to some taxes or regulations on "video cameras", right?

Edit: Yup. [https://petapixel.com/2012/05/21/30-minute-video-limit-in- di...](https://petapixel.com/2012/05/21/30-minute-video-limit-in-digital- cameras-may-be-on-its-way-out/)

> At present [2012], digital cameras' video cuts off after 30 minutes to avoid > them being classified as video cameras (which attract 5.4% duty because they > are considered to be video recorders

<comment><USER10> Reminds me of those light trucks that get ripped apart to create passenger cars.

EDIT: I had it backwards. The tax is on trucks and it gets circumvented by importing them as passenger cars: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax)

<comment><USER11> Nah, light trucks are in a whole other category (or exempt, I don't know) in "CAFE" standards, so that's why you see so many SUV's in America.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Why not use Canon's own EOS Webcam Utility?

[https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/about/news...](https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/about/newsroom/press- releases/press-release-details/2020/20200428-Webcam/20200428-Webcam)

<comment><USER13> Canon's app only supports Windows

<comment><USER14> They just released the Mac version of EOS Webcam Utility. [https://petapixel.com/2020/05/27/canon-unveils-free- webcam-s...](https://petapixel.com/2020/05/27/canon-unveils-free-webcam- software-for-mac-users/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Switching to a "real" camera has been such a huge, huge improvement for me on video calls all day, I machined a custom vesa mounting arm to hold my camera in just the right spot.

[https://lightroom.adobe.com/shares/088254b7439745b982784c0a4...](https://lightroom.adobe.com/shares/088254b7439745b982784c0a4ca7a9e2)

<comment><USER16> Could you elaborate on how it's been an improvement? I always thought it'd be overkill for regular business calls.

<comment><USER15> In a word: bokeh. I'm running a 50mm f/1.8 lens on a full-frame sensor. My job requires me to interact with external customers, sometimes in a pre-sales role. Appearances shouldn't matter, but they do. Anything I can use to present a more professional and "expert" image is a win for me.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> This is possible in Linux using v4l2loopback and gphoto2.

<comment><USER18> Indeed.

I use my Sony a7r II as a webcam on Linux using gphoto2 with v4l2loopback:

[https://daniel.lawrence.lu/blog/y2020m03d31/](https://daniel.lawrence.lu/blog/y2020m03d31/)

        sudo modprobe v4l2loopback devices=1 exclusive_caps=1 card_label="pupcam"
        gphoto2 --stdout --capture-movie | ffmpeg -i - -vcodec rawvideo -pix_fmt yuv420p -f v4l2 /dev/video0

<comment><USER17> Nice! I have a Canon 70D for which I simply use:

      sudo modprobe v4l2loopback

And then the identical invocation of gphoto2 as yours. Seems gphoto2 includes a wide range of camera support.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> For folks with Nikon DSLRs and Windows, there's an app called SparkoCam which uses the your camera as a video feed source and appears to the host operating system as though it were a webcam. Works for Canon as well though Canon and at resolutions higher than are currently supported by Canon's "use your camera as a webcam" software.

The best results require the use of an HDMI capture device... and all of the good ones sold out almost immediately when the quarantine started.

</comment><comment><USER20> For non-Canon cameras I've been having luck using Cascable Pro Webcam:

[https://cascable.se/pro-webcam/](https://cascable.se/pro-webcam/)

<comment><AUTHOR> I tried Cascable with my Fuji X-T30. Works well for wireless connection but not for wired.

Another option is Ecamm Live: [https://www.ecamm.com/](https://www.ecamm.com/)

Camera Live does work with other cameras. Nikon is coming in the next release. See github issues.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> It works(ish) but worked better before most of the major players locked virtual cameras out with updates. Issues with unsigned code, so then some folks started unsigning apps smh. Still works with Chrome based version of several tools, and it's cool when it works, but definitely a bit on the fragile side. The Canon software has the same limitations and just lets you use software from a perhaps more trusted source depending on your perspective…

<comment><USER22> And what is/was the point of locking out the virtual cameras?

<comment><USER23> Making it a touch harder to use Snap Camera and other silliness, as well as Xsplit, OBS or other video produced sources, for "Zoom bombing".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> I listed the gear I use for high-resolution video calls at [https://slack.org/high-resolution-video-calls](https://slack.org/high- resolution-video-calls), along with links to other people who've done the same.

</comment><comment><USER25> > The camera sends the image used for Live View - the dimensions will not > match the camera's movie recording settings.

This sounds like a bummer. I want to try this anyways to give my old Powershot a new purpose.

Did anybody check this out yet?

<comment><USER26> The Elgato Cam Link is worth checking out if you're serious about this - it's an HDMI video capture device which presents itself on the computer end as a UVC compatible USB webcam and will accept the HDMI streams DSLRs usually send. They're expensive though.

There are other similar devices on the market too but not sure how good they are for this situation.

<comment><USER27> Elgato sells other capture cards (eg. HD60), which still seem available.

I recently bought a raspberry pi hi quality camera (and lens) to tinker with, and was able to connect it to my mac via pi->hdmi->capture-card to make a nice webcam view with the bokeh effect.

the total cost of this example does add up, but still cheaper than a DSLR setup.

<comment><USER28> If you use the usb gadget mode of the raspberry pi to present the PI as a USB WebCam, you can forego the HDMI-connection, and thus the need for the HDMI capture card.

<comment><USER29> I've been trying to get a FPV drone camera feed into my Windows 10 computer so OpenCV can muck around with it.

OpenCV easily recognizes Webcams, but sucks at picking up 'video adapter' kinda stuff. (That is, I'm going to be using an RCA to USB dongle, such as EasyCap.)

If you can 'trick' OpenCV into thinking a webcam is attached at the USB, everything is golden.

Can you describe this raspberry pi method of 'presenting' the device as a USB WebCam? That sounds promising...

edit: Forgot to mention OpenCV is part of a c++ 64bit program I'm writing.

<comment><USER27> here's a couple of links discussing how to set up and working through the issues.

[http://www.davidhunt.ie/raspberry-pi-zero-with-pi-camera- as-...](http://www.davidhunt.ie/raspberry-pi-zero-with-pi-camera-as-usb- webcam/)

[https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=148361](https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=148361)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> with your Canon* DSLR....

<comment><AUTHOR> It does work with other cameras. Nikon is coming in the next release. See github issues.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> Is there something like this but for GoPros?

<comment><USER32> Camlink adapter converts a camera with HDMI output to webcam.

According to following works also on certain GoPro models: [https://www.knowhero.com/guides/goprowebcam](https://www.knowhero.com/guides/goprowebcam)

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> Is there action camera or mirrorless camera that has webcam feature natively?</comment>


Microbiome startup uBiome cuts more than 50 jobs - <AUTHOR> https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/22/ubiome-job-cuts-more-than-50.html <comment><AUTHOR> Odd they are doing this just months after securing $80M in new financing. Their web site (careers) shows they are moving their lab from SF to Portland.

</comment><comment><USER2> They are going from self test kits to pharmaceuticals? That's a major pivot!</comment>


Renaming Tool - <AUTHOR>

I recently worked on a Java project, and the ease of renaming classes and variables (via IDE) was really refreshing.
So, I wrote a somewhat-crude tool to make the experience of renaming things in Ruby (or other dynamic languages)  a little bit nicer and more IDE-like.
The primary use case I had in mind was renaming a class, along with all of its associated "require" statements, all in one go.  For a heavily-used class, this can be a little annoying.
You can find the source here: https://github.com/skatenerd/rbname
And a video of a typical use case: https://vimeo.com/82157486
I'm wondering if this tool addresses a problem that other developers have encountered.  Is this useful to you? <comment><USER2> RubyMine does this for Ruby as well, if you're not against not using emacs/vim/needle&hand</comment>


The Road to $10k Profit from My Side Project Slack Bot - <AUTHOR> https://pawelurbanek.com/side-project-profit <comment><USER2> The topic of bots is interesting to me and I remember your original post here about your project.

Sadly I haven't heard about other successful bot related side projects.</comment>


Hardware support for UNUM floating point arithmetic [pdf] - <AUTHOR> https://hal.inria.fr/hal-01618698/document <comment><USER2> Woah, really cool. My understanding is that Posit, the successor to unum versions 1 and 2, is the future and is much easier to implement in hardware [0].

[0]: [https://posithub.org/about](https://posithub.org/about)

<comment><USER3> There is a Posit BoF at SC17 (supercomputing) Nov 14 DEN: [http://sc17.supercomputing.org/presentation/?id=bof135&sess=...](http://sc17.supercomputing.org/presentation/?id=bof135&sess=sess333)

Posit Paper: [http://johngustafson.net/pdfs/BeatingFloatingPoint.pdf](http://johngustafson.net/pdfs/BeatingFloatingPoint.pdf)

 _A new data type called a posit is designed as a direct drop-in replacement for IEEE Standard 754 floating-point numbers (floats). Unlike earlier forms of universal number (unum) arithmetic, posits do not require interval arithmetic or variable size operands; like floats, they round if an answer is inexact. However, they provide compelling advantages over floats, including larger dynamic range, higher accuracy, better closure, bitwise identical results across systems, simpler hardware, and simpler exception handling._

source: [https://twitter.com/daniel_bilar/status/920252363159539712](https://twitter.com/daniel_bilar/status/920252363159539712)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I am confused. I see half the performance and 3-5x the area of IEEE754, but the conclusion is that UNUM is comparable. That would not be my conclusion. What am I missing?

<comment><USER5> The idea is that computers spend much more energy moving data between the processor and memory than actually processing the data. Unums use a variable length encoding which makes processing more costly but reduces the amount of data transfer. At least in theory; whether this is a net benefit remains to be proven.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> please add a [PDF] to the header

<comment><USER7> Just wondering: why is it useful to know it's a PDF before clicking?

<comment><USER8> In my case, while I'm on my phone, the pdf is automatically downloaded and opened in a different app; so it is nice to have a warning.

<comment><USER9> It's also something of a legacy convention (though one I prefer to maintain), from when PDF files were a leading vector for malware.

Though even back then, malware concerns aside, people would curse when a link caused Acrobat Reader (or, depending on one's system, the full Acrobat program) to unexpectedly fire up. Once upon a time, browsers didn't have integrated PDF handling.

And, even now, with integrated PDF handling, said handling is not proof against exploits.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Apple Open Source - <AUTHOR> https://opensource.apple.com/ <comment><USER2> There was a time when Apple would use open source (and this website) as a marketing tool. Probably back in the Tiger/Leopard days. And they used to contribute their userland fixes to upstream BSD too. These days Apple doesn't seem as committed to open sourcing of its core OS software as it once did.

<comment><USER3> Did they not need to update the Copyright Date? Still only 2012.

They have confusing places, opensource.apple.com and Apple.com/Opensources are two completely different page with different content.

It just shows Apple really couldn't care much about it.

Why cant they have a single Page that shows everything they use and release in a nice beautiful way.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> They _could_ open source everything but secret keys for cloud, secure enclave, secure booting, etc. It's not like it would help knock-off iDevices or putting something other an iOS on an iDevice. Jailbreaking is almost dead and there hasn't been much movement on making more system features having third-party plugins (ie iOS 11 Control Center Custom Controls).

Ideally, I'd like to see an opensource software _and hardware_ phone with zero opaque binary firmware blobs, something that is independently verified by tearing apart, decapping and X-ray/microscope RTL verification. Security through crypto and the right eyeballs able to scrutinize end products with maximum information.

<comment><USER5> A true 100% open source phone (with optional isolated radio hardware to use a regular SIM) is an important step ahead... [https://puri.sm/shop/librem-5/](https://puri.sm/shop/librem-5/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> The iOS kernel is not open source, just the macOS version of XNU.

<comment><USER7> They released it: [https://github.com/apple/darwin- xnu](https://github.com/apple/darwin-xnu)

Edit: Except it's still missing crucial ARM code.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Haven't seen any offical annocement for this, but it looks like they open sourced every version before the current releases

<comment><USER8> Was there something new in here you found interesting? This site is posted quite often:

[https://hn.algolia.com/?query=opensource.apple.com&type=stor...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=opensource.apple.com&type=story&sort=byDate)

The most recent time was just a couple weeks ago, there was a large discussion along with it.

The most interesting thing to me would be if someone would highlight all the patches Apple has added to these packages.

<comment><AUTHOR> Sorry... I didn't see that it was a dup. Usually it tells you when the exact url has been submitted before?</comment></comment></comment>


New York Comic Con Tweets From Attendees' Accounts Without Permission - <AUTHOR> http://mashable.com/2013/10/11/new-york-comic-con-promotional-tweets/

<comment><USER2> This kind of behavior is absolutely insane on the part of a developer, but is also the kind of thing that happens when a platform doesn't vet its apps.</comment>


Robinhood raises $280M in push for global expansion - <AUTHOR> https://fortune.com/2020/05/04/robinhood-funding-series-f-global-expansion-sequoia-capital/ <comment><USER2> A stock trading platform is getting a spike in users during this time? That's so fascinating. Its interesting how "cyclical" and "countercyclical" industry breakdowns dont really make sense in this recession, which makes sense considering a lockdown like this is certainly not a cyclical event that would act like previous recessions. So strange.</comment>


Amazon wants to use delivery drones to surveil your house - <AUTHOR> https://www.protocol.com/amazon-surveillance-delivery-drones-patent <comment><USER2> Ya all understand that a delivery drone is going to sound like a leaf blower right?

<comment><USER3> It bothers me that not many people talk about this. The future in which the drone buzz above your head all the time is something I wouldn't be enjoying. Hope these things don't catch on.

<comment><USER4> The noise isn't even the worst problem. What happens if a drone fails during flight (e.g., a bird flies into it) and it falls on someone's head? I don't really want aircraft, no matter how small, flying and landing around my neighborhood. (Nobody seems to think about failure modes when talking about flying cars either.)

I can imagine that after the first few widely-publicized accidents, the use of delivery drones in residential areas may be regulated out of existence.

<comment><USER5> This is an area of active policy development. It's just not sexy so it's not on HN, but it's ongoing.

<comment><USER4> Do you happen to know if drone operations in the U.S. would be regulated by the FAA, or by state/local governments?

<comment><USER6> FAA controls all the airspace in the USA, so it would be the FAA

* exception: class G airspace

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> They wouldn't be the first: [https://www.sunflower- labs.com/](https://www.sunflower-labs.com/)

<comment><USER8> This is a really cool product. But how does it detect the arrival of people and _then_ launch the Bee? Surely the Bee has to be in-flight to know there are people there. Unless it's the other sensors that do that detection.</comment></comment>


How the Soviets Drilled the Deepest Hole in the World - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/multimedia/2008/08/gallery_kola_borehole <comment><USER2> And of course Wired leaves out the most important part of the story:

<http://www.orthodoxengland.org.uk/demonsscr.htm>

<comment><USER3> I.. seriously hope that this is a joke.

<comment><USER2> I too hope demons are not shooting out of a hole in Russia.

<comment><USER4> Well, if the theoretical demons were to come out of the hole, they'd either have to be in-part non-corporeal or they'd have to be skinny demons (look how narrow the hole is). Or maybe they were demon mice, able to squeeze through narrow gaps in the earth. Then again, if they were non-corporeal, I don't think they'd need a hole to come through, unless they were demon gas.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Shift-B then wait for 24 turns.</comment>


Britain explained in 105 seconds - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@p7r/britain-in-2016-explained-in-105-seconds-c5f2eed51350 <comment><USER2> I don't agree with this argument.

Everyone in the UK is incentivized to buy a home, and to buy a home larger than they need. Even if they don't want to own a home, or a large home, or don't want to own one right now, they need to be on the housing ladder or property inflation will price them out of the market later and they'll be turning down government subsidies that everyone else will take. On the other side, being a tenant sucks in the UK.

This has lots of bad effects, and it benefits basically no-one as were all running faster to stand still. Perhaps estate agents and older people who bought property a long time ago and with no children that they'll need to help to buy homes if they don't want them cluttering up the place are the only winners.

It's a systematic problem, and it's been encouraged because lots of people thought they were benefitting, but really they were just stealing money from their kids. We could have just run up the national debt instead and saved ourselves the bother.

Rich people who buy investment property here are just taking advantage of this phenomenon, they're not causing it.

</comment><comment><USER3> Relatedly unrelated.. if you want to understand the relationship between Great Britain, the UK, Scotland, England, etc.. then this CGP Grey video helps a lot: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNu8XDBSn10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNu8XDBSn10)

</comment><comment><USER4> lots of assertions, very little evidence.

House prices being are due to a lack of building, due to classic British nimbyism. They are not the fault of poor migrants or rich migrants.

<comment><USER5> If you just look around London it's covered in developments of new 'luxury flats' (actually just flats sized to a couple). There are space for thousands within walking distance from where I am, I have no idea how many are filled.</comment></comment>


With This Device You Can Connect Anonymously to Wi-Fi 2.5 Miles Away - <AUTHOR> http://motherboard.vice.com/read/with-this-device-you-can-connect-anonymously-to-wi-fi-25-miles-away

<comment><USER2> This went downhill pretty fast.

[https://www.wired.com/2015/07/online-anonymity-project- proxy...](https://www.wired.com/2015/07/online-anonymity-project-proxyham- mysteriously-vanishes/)

</comment><comment><USER3> I love the idea, however, it still transmits RF.

RDF is old but it still works. If you're transmitting, they can locate you.</comment>


True Containerized Development with Convox Code Sync - <AUTHOR> https://convox.com/blog/bidirectional-sync/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hi, Matt from Convox here. I'm happy to answer any questions you might have about this feature, Convox, or development workflows using Docker.

<comment><USER2> Thanks, Matt. This is timely but I don't have time to dive in right now.

Is convox-examples/node-workers up-to-date and pertinent to the new features?

<comment><AUTHOR> That repo could use a refresh. convox-exmples/rails is most pertinent here.

We're working on revamped examples for many popular languages now and expect to see them rolling out soon.</comment></comment></comment>


Unofficial Winamp Web Site - <AUTHOR> http://www.mywinamp.com <comment><USER2> On January 14, 2014, it was officially announced that Belgian online radio aggregator Radionomy had bought Winamp and Shoutcast, formerly owned by Nullsoft.

\- [https://www.theverge.com/2014/1/14/5263086/winamp- radionomy-...](https://www.theverge.com/2014/1/14/5263086/winamp-radionomy- acquisition-internet-radio-service)

So since this site was launched, it looks like you can now download Winamp from the Official Winamp website:

\- [http://winamp.com/](http://winamp.com/)

For those asking for old versions of Winamp, you can get them here:

\- [http://www.oldversion.com/windows/winamp/](http://www.oldversion.com/windows/winamp/)

For those asking for alternatives, there are some:

\- [https://alternativeto.net/software/winamp/](https://alternativeto.net/software/winamp/)

For other Nullsoft magic, including Gnutella and WASTE, see:

\- [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nullsoft](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nullsoft)

Also worth checking out founder Justin Frankel and his new company see:

\- [https://www.cockos.com/](https://www.cockos.com/)

LICEcap is great.

<comment><USER3> Heads up, the winamp 2.95 download from www.oldversion.com triggers a malware alert from Windows Defender. Another red flag is that the download is via regular HTTP, not HTTPS.

So I'd recommend avoiding oldversion.com.

<comment><USER2> [https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/ef1423999cbefd4f2a3a98ac...](https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/ef1423999cbefd4f2a3a98acee2b194a4260268cb4517abda9f12963e866b7e5/detection)

<comment><USER4> Let's not encourage people to take VT as gospel though. Lots of ways to get around the tools there. Fun malware does it all the time.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Thanks for sharing this useful information!

See, Winamp wasn't "just another player" for some of us. It was the first thing we fired up when we turned on the computer. So, seeing it go down the drain for the last 10 years or so, really hurt . Bloath, bloath and more bloath... damn, I would've opted for RealPlayer if it wasn't for the terrible UI. On the other hand, important features, like plugin playback compatibility was getting worse (for example, there wasn't a single version of Winamp after 5.24 that played back MP3Pro files correctly with the Fraunhoffer MP3Pro plugin, until now ).

<comment><USER6> Indeed.

And removing all traces of Windows Media Player was one of the first steps after installing Windows.

<comment><USER7> Ha! I had forgotten the crucial first steps of setting up new computers from back then.

A more recent habit, until recently (if I had to use Windows), I would also try to install most apps through Chocolatey to help keeping up to date.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> There's is a website that's keeping versions of Winamp, including the one I consider the best 2.95 [https://winampheritage.com/download-winamp- player](https://winampheritage.com/download-winamp-player)

<comment><USER9> Winamp 2 has been my music player for 20 years and it's still my main player that I use with the flac plugin. I never upgraded to Winamp 3 or 5, and Winamp 2.95 is still fully functional on Windows 10. Selecting "Double Size" makes it mostly fine on a HiDPI monitor, except some controls are a bit pixelated.

Winamp 2.95 didn't need to connect to the internet, there is no background service, no application manager bloatware, no ads or music recommendations, and it loads in 1/10 of a second without any startup service or preloader. It really whipped the llama's ass.

Straight up win32 software back then just was simpler, and the programmers back then like Justin Frankel, Ludvig Strigeus, etc. cared about program efficiency. A single programmer could write several popular applications within the decade, and now every application needs a giant team. What happened?

<comment> rlv-dan My only problem with Winamp 2 is that people laugh at me when they pass my computer and see it.

<comment><USER10> Yeah :-) Show them the keyboard shortcuts. Like the zxcvb set for the main 5 controls (prev track, play, pause, stop, next track), or pressing j (for jump) and then typing a part of the name of the song you remembered to play what you want at the speed of thought + typing. They'll understand that ~~it's really fast~~ it really whips the llama's ass!

<comment><USER11> Or you could globally remap them to the Quake-controls and do ctrl+shift+E to pause, next and previous with W and S, 5 sec forward/backward with A/D and on/off with Q.

Nothing like fragging your friends while playing loud music but able to skip a song if it doesn't fit the moment, all without even flipping active window. Never looked at another player because of this function.

Just had to adapt with ctrl+shift+B for next song since S was hard bound in some game.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Winamp was my first general-purpose music player. When I switched OS to GNU/Linux I switched to XMMS (originally called X11Amp), which was a clone of Winamp. XMMS was later forked to Beep Media Player, and Beep Media Player was forked to Audacious Media Player, which I still use today.

I use the GTK interface of Audacious Media Player now, because it works better with higher resolution screens, but the old Winamp-style interface is still supported, and Audacious Media Player still has all the speed and simplicity that made me love Winamp when I first tried it.

</comment><comment><USER13> Early Winamp was truly revolutionary in terms of UX and quality.

Highly intuitive, beautiful and always "just working", with an elegant plugin system.

It is no coincidence that the authors went on to create Gnutella, which could be considered the starting point of decentralized networking.

<comment><USER14> Justin has done the same for DAWS see https:/reaper.fm and gone full circle to making music.

<comment><USER15> Linux supported too!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> From Ars Technica: Winamp's woes: How the greatest MP3 player undid itself - [https://arstechnica.com/information- technology/2017/07/winam...](https://arstechnica.com/information- technology/2017/07/winamp-how-greatest-mp3-player-undid-itself/)

Winamp 2 & 3 were my sweet spot. I want to say versions 2.53 through 2.56(?) are the versions indelibly burned in my memory. Such a breath of fresh air from the Real garbage of the day. Hope Frankel and Lord are well.

<comment><USER17> What made you like Winamp3? All I remember about it was that it was a slow hot mess that didn't load my old playlists, and went back to 2.something after a month.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> If, like me, you only recently decided to start listening to your music collection on a linux desktop and were dismayed to find that xmms was split into some odd client/server model, you can still use the original xmms 1.x. I wrote up how I built it here, since I found it a bit fiddly: [https://blog.mclemon.io/debian-building-the-original- xmms](https://blog.mclemon.io/debian-building-the-original-xmms)

<comment><USER19> Just a quick note that, unless there's a very specific reason why you want the original XMMS (nostalgia, or a specific plugin?), it may be more convenient to go with Audacious. It has a "Winamp" mode that gives you the same interface. It also supports classic skins, from back when UIs weren't all flat and boring, so that you can look at your desktop without yawning for more than ten seconds.

Building heirloom :-) GTK and glib isn't a big deal, but Audacious is packaged by pretty much all distros.

<comment><USER18> Good point - it's purely a nostalgia thing for me. I will definitely check out Audacious though!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Does anyone know what happened to the company that bought Winamp? If I recall correctly they announced that they were going to be releasing modern versions of Winamp a few years ago but there's been nothing but radio silence.

<comment><USER21> Version 5.8.3660 was released 15 months ago in October 2018.

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> One could argue we made better ways to play MP3s on our computers.

But nothing has come anywhere close to improving or replacing Milkdrop

<comment><USER23> I would argue that WinAmp and XMMS where the last good audio players. Why is it that modern music players think that the need to do library management, why are they fullscreen applications?

We need to start maintaining winamp and the clones again.

<comment><USER24> For pure mp3 playing, foobar2000 is like winamp except still getting updated, with less ugly (more OS-conforming) UI. For even more simplicity, there's no reason you should need a separate app for mp3s and movies, and mpc-hc is the best no-nonsense media player.

<comment><USER25> I think there _is_ a reason to keep audio and video playback separate, because you approach them differently.

When you are watching video, it's usually where your attention goes, whereas listening to audio is something done "in the background", while your attention is elsewhere (reading, writing, playing a game, or even cleaning the house).

Therefore to me it is obvious that an audio playing application should behave like a good butler - readily available when you need to e.g. change the playlist, but invisible otherwise - and I would compare a video playing application to a live entertainer.

A video playing application should of course also get out of your way so you can focus on the actual video, but there is a subtle difference nevertheless.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Remembering all the time I wasted collecting and curating a personal MP3 library (now replaced completely by Spotify), I wonder what current practices I spend a lot of time on that will be become obsolete.

<comment><USER27> I still have my old MP3s despite only really using Spotify these days. I don't regret the time spent building and curating that collection in the slightest. If anything, I expect Spotify itself to be the thing that becomes obsolete, leaving me to regret that last several years in which I haven't kept up with adding new music to the collection that I actually own.

<comment><USER26> > If anything, I expect Spotify itself to be the thing that becomes obsolete

Almost certainly but there will be an alternative company with some migration path for your playlists. Unless omnipresent network connectivity stops being a thing, in which case there would be bigger problems than music.

<comment><USER27> It's already a problem on Spotify that my playlists rot over time with seemingly random songs being no longer available. Playlists are much less important than the music itself.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Is there anything for Linux that has similar functionality to the Jump To File mechanism for finding and enqueuing songs to play next within in a playlist without altering the playlist itself? It was so good that it was integrated into (IIRC) Winamp 3.

[https://winampplugins.co.uk/jtfe.html](https://winampplugins.co.uk/jtfe.html)

[https://old.reddit.com/r/winamp/comments/9rw9fb/winamp_58_se...](https://old.reddit.com/r/winamp/comments/9rw9fb/winamp_58_search_in_playlist_vs_jump_to_file)

(Bonus points of anyone knows of an MPD client that can make it appear like MPD has this feature? ;)

<comment><USER29> > _Is there anything for Linux that has similar functionality to the Jump To > File mechanism for finding and enqueuing songs to play next within in a > playlist without altering the playlist itself?_

In Clementine, that's Ctrl+D.

[https://www.clementine-player.org/](https://www.clementine-player.org/)

<comment><USER28> Yes! That's the right queue-within-a-playlist feature with numbers next to the playlist entries that I'm looking for. Even has a queue dialog window.

And there's an Android app that works as a remote, and it can http stream, nice.

Thanks! So long (for now) mpd..

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Ooh, DOSAMP! I used to use it to play MP3s in high school, when I was still a heavy DOS user and upgraded to a Pentium-133. Then, on Windows, I was firmly in the Winamp 2 camp.

</comment><comment><USER31> On a related note, we are just about to launch a VJ tool using Milkdrop.

NestDrop allows you to perform with high-resolution high-fps visuals which react in realtime to the music and then broadcasts the video via Spout. Since the Milkdrop engine is at the core you can easily bring in your own presets. Use any audio source to drive the visuals, even live audio. [http://www.nestimmersion.ca/nestdrop.html](http://www.nestimmersion.ca/nestdrop.html)

<comment><USER32> This looks cool, but there's absolutely nothing on the page about OS and hardware requirements. I can't even tell if it's for Windows, Mac or both.

<comment><USER31> Whoops. Thanks for the heads up! We just started laying out the webpage to prepare for the release.

Windows is the only supported OS currently.

Basically any range of GPU is supported, according to the resolution you want to run the visuals at. But if you have a decent GPU then you can run up to 4 different video streams concurrently.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> I remember there being a website (forgot the name/URL) where people could share their visualizations for Winamp. I downloaded so many presets from there and even recorded some to VHS because I thought they were so cool.

I made my own, too, mostly by taking something made by someone else and changing the code/numbers to see how it would react. I wish I could find those files again somewhere and just spend a moment immersing myself into that universe.

<comment><USER34> Depends if you are thinking about AVS or Milkdrop.

Me, being an AVS guy, can only recommend [https://visbot.net](https://visbot.net) .

In the olden days there were: \- [https://customized.org](https://customized.org) and \- [https://deviantart.com/](https://deviantart.com/)

DA is sadly almost unusable for finding AVS presets now (as I discovered today), so you may start with this page:

\- [https://www.deviantart.com/tobsiv/favourites/41261647/featur...](https://www.deviantart.com/tobsiv/favourites/41261647/featured)

for finding some of the more famous packs.

<comment><USER33> AVS was what I had, I never used Milkdrop for some reason.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> I loved how easy it was to create skins for Winamp ... here's the skin I created and have been using since 2012:

[https://www.deviantart.com/yboris/art/Lear-lite-YBoris- remix...](https://www.deviantart.com/yboris/art/Lear-lite-YBoris-remix-winamp- skin-286587311)

<comment><USER36> Making skins for Winamp was how I taught myself photoshop.

<comment><USER37> Me too. I made a pretty sweet custom Dave Matthews skin. I wonder if it is in the bundle here.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> Winamp is great, ah the memories. But just like my gripe with video media, is there anywhere to buy plain mp3s for all artists, store them on my hdd and manage them in winamp? Is that still an option in 2020 without a subscription to something?

<comment><USER39> Of course. 7digital comes to mind, HDTracks - and, of course, Amazon. The files are all yours to keep.

In fact, I find it easier to get non-drm music files than movies.

<comment><USER40> I would also bandcamp to this list!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER41> This is great.

In or around 2010, when I finally shed the last shackles of MS, I switched from Winamp to Audacious (w/Winamp Classic interface plugin).

20 uninterrupted years of Bento Classified and whipping the llama's ass!

It's also pretty easy to replace all the standard Audacious icons with Winamp's (at least on Xubuntu). No disrespect intended to Audacious, simply for full effect.

Thanks to everyone behind Winamp and Audacious for building great software!

(Now to start up "The Matrix" on the media monitor and head on over to Slashdot.)

</comment><comment><USER42> 20 years on, and still kicking the llama's ass.

<comment><USER43> Memories....

</comment></comment><comment><USER44> I just wish my car would play "Winamp, it really whips the llama's ass" when I start it.

</comment><comment><USER45> Winamp for me is linked to the time internet was still internet without the giant corporations ruling and ruining the entire single single part with heavily overengineered saas solutions. It was the time of altavista, icq, popup explosions and 1mb download for a program. It was still unexplored cowboy/free for all land, ran by tech dudes. Now its dominated by the absolute evil of capitalism. Not tech, but marketing. bleh

<comment><USER46> A crude analogy:

\- early Internet - Homebrew Computer Club with a shared ethos of free software and free information for all

\- 2000s Internet and later - Bill Gates joins the HCC, refuses to share code, and before long the only incentive to create stuff is to sell it by the truckload, by any means necessary.

</comment></comment><comment><USER47> Nullsoft also created WASTE, although it was quickly shut down by AOL.

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

I wonder if someone is using that thing.

</comment><comment><USER6> Yeah, I remember when Winamp went to hell. I ended up using AIMP, which was fitting because I was "buying" music from some Eastern European "store" that operated under Russian copyright law.

<comment><USER48> AllOfMP3?

<comment><USER6> It was either that or MP3Sparks.com, I think. But it wasn't long before I discovered torrents.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER49> I've got a working macOS Winamp-inspired music player I've been working on. I was thinking of open-sourcing - anyone here interested in something like this?

</comment><comment><USER50> just came to say ive been a winamp faithful since 2.x and only this year finally found a worthy successor: audacious. open source, crossplatform, and bit perfect

</comment><comment><USER51> We're all having a collective nostalgia trip here.

</comment><comment><USER52> After Winamp closed shop, I begrudgingly moved to iTunes for awhile. But then I found Musicbee, which I find to be the best alternative to Winamp.

<comment><USER46> I used MediaMonkey for the longest time in the mid-to-late 2000s. I downloaded MusicBee and wondered if it was the same team behind both apps. The UIs were incredibly similar.

</comment></comment><comment> 5- Obligatory in-browser reimplementation: [https://webamp.org/](https://webamp.org/)

<comment><USER53> Was just about to post this, you beat me! Such a well done browser clone.

</comment></comment><comment><USER54> The Mac version does not work on Catalina (10.15)

</comment><comment><USER55> I still use Winamp and if I could have my streaming service catalog inside it I would be in heaven.

</comment><comment><USER56> I remember when Winamp was cool, then AOL applied its touch of death, 点脉; it was very effective

</comment><comment><USER57> I would be so happy if spotify would allow custom skins so I could have winamp + spotify.

</comment><comment><USER58> This was great to use back in the day. Do we have the sources for it?

</comment><comment><USER59> It really whipped the llama's ass.

</comment><comment><USER60> Has anyone created a Rust winamp that runs in web assembly yet?</comment>


Steve Jobs on intelligence - <AUTHOR> http://blog.leetsoft.com/2011/09/14/steve-jobs.html <comment><USER2> "Zoom out" (to get the big picture and connect ideas).

"Have different experiences from others" (to make different connections).

"Give something back to the world" (because it's a great feeling).

</comment><comment><USER3> He kinda sounds like a douche, either holding everyone in contempt or pretending to. It's like listening to Holden Caulfield trying to be polite.</comment>


Square Pricing Update FAQ - <AUTHOR> https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/6700-square-pricing-update-faq <comment><AUTHOR> Their rates changed from 2.75% to (2.6% + 10c). This results in a higher fee per transaction for any transaction under $66.</comment>


Show HN: I made a tool to visualize wasted time - <AUTHOR> https://begreat.me <comment><AUTHOR> As I began to learn to code back in February, I started to think about how I was spending my time. If I spent X less time on social media, that would mean I could learn Y, which would let me create Z. This idea of trade-offs has always existed but by directly comparing and visualizing my decisions, I was surprised with the results (way more distraction time than improvement time).

So I decided build Make Yourself Great Again - a tool that lets you input your weekly choices, that calculates missed opportunities and how this compounds over time. You can track how this evolves longer term and understand how your "multiplier" changes. There's also a section of tools to help you progress in the parts of life that you find important.

</comment><comment><USER2> Commuting is a distraction?

<comment><AUTHOR> In my opinion, yes. I chose the "distractions" with the thinking: "if I spent time on this for a year and looked back, would it have progressed me in any way?".

<comment><USER3> You can listen to audiobooks or bike to work in order to not waste time on your commute.

<comment><AUTHOR> I agree and included some of those in the tools section.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Repurpose : Video documentary about hardware hackers at Foulab in Montréal - <AUTHOR> http://montrealtechwatch.com/2009/05/24/repurpose-a-video-documentary-about-hackers-and-foulab/

<comment><USER2> I've visited this hackerspace and I have to say, Montreal has an amazing hacker/startup communities going. It must be something to do with all the pretty girls and bagels :)</comment>


The Secret Algorithm That's Keeping Students Out of College - <AUTHOR> https://www.wired.com/story/algorithm-set-students-grades-altered-futures/ <comment><AUTHOR> Yikes. The appeals process has a fee, and I believe the testing process has fees per test per student, but they are sometimes covered directly or indirectly by the student's school. In any case, this is a situation ripe for abuse due to the forced arbitration of going through the IB appeals process. We dearly need international standards bodies to make standardized testing truly standardized and accessible to the world. Private companies may have a role in this, but they need not be the only way to get test scores that are valid.

> Teen regrets about grades aren't unusual, but the way the foundation behind > the IB Diploma Programme calculated this year's grades was. The results, > released Monday, were determined by a formula that IB, the foundation behind > the program, hastily deployed after canceling its usual springtime exams due > to Covid-19. The system used signals including a student's grades on > assignments and grades from past grads at their school to predict what they > would have scored had the pandemic not prevented in-person tests.

> Nagpal and many other students, parents, and teachers say those predictions > misfired. Many students received suspiciously low scores, they say, > shattering their plans for the fall and beyond. Nagpal's backup plan if she > missed out on NYU was to study medicine in Germany, but her lower-than- > expected grades don't allow that either. "Like so many, I was extremely > shocked," she says. "I basically cannot study what I want to anywhere > anymore."

> More than 15,000 parents, students, and teachers have signed an online > petition[1] asking IB to "take a different approach with their grading > algorithm and to make it fairer." The foundation declined to answer > questions about its system but said it had been checked against five years > of past results and that disappointed students could use its existing > appeals process, which comes with a fee. The foundation released summary > statistics showing that this year's average score was slightly higher than > last year's, and it says the distribution of grades was similar.

[1] [https://www.change.org/p/international-baccalaureate- organis...](https://www.change.org/p/international-baccalaureate-organisation- ibo-justice-for-may-2020-ib-graduates-build-a-better-future)</comment>


Founders at Work - We like Weebly. - <AUTHOR> http://www.foundersatwork.com/1/post/2007/06/we-like-weebly.html <comment><USER2> That's actually their YC interview photo. We take photos of everyone so we can remember them. Jessica just happened to get into this one, because she was watching David give a demo.

</comment><comment><USER3> I like Weebly too! Great product, great guys.</comment>


Ask HN: How did you promote your Kickstarter campaign? - <AUTHOR>

Looking for what worked for people launching on Kickstarter.  What kind of media did you go after?  How did you do that?  Did you already have contacts or did you build them before launch? <comment><USER2> My Kickstarter campaign failed but here is what I learned.

Start contacting people before your campaign about backing you. Also contact local newspapers and blogs in your niche. Send them a short email about why this is relevant to their audience, and attach a press release they can use when writing their article. On launch day, send an email reminder to everybody you know to get funding. Tell them if they do not have money to give, then to please share it on Twitter and Facebook.

If you have a big first day, then you can get on the front page of Kickstarter. Being on Kickstarter's front page will drive a lot of traffic to your page.

R/Kickstarter, the subreddit for Kickstarter is a good place to share and get feedback on your project. Also, read through past threads to see what lessons you can learn.</comment>