Ask HN: MS Word alternatives for writing academic reports - <AUTHOR> Right now i am searching for an alternative for writing academic reports (master thesis). in the past i have written such reports (bachelor final projects) with MS Word and it is NOT an enjoyable experience. Whereas latex is widely used for academic reports, i don't really want to learn something so complex only for academic reports, i want to learn something that also can be used for general usage (documentation, blog writing, etc).
Here i found out about restructuredtext and markdown as a markup language for documentation. After some reading i concluded that restructuredtext is more in tune with what i am trying to accomplish e.g: it can be converted into latex if i want to incorporate bibliography from latex
What are your experiences on using markup language for writing general or academic documents(using figures, tables, bibliography, etc)? do you have suggestions regarding this topic?
PS: I mainly using linux
amd Here are some applications for writing markup language that i found:
https://notex.ch/ (rst, markup, latex) -- it seems to be made with GWT
http://rst.ninjs.org/ (rst)
https://github.com/github/markup (many)
http://sourceforge.net/projects/retext/
edit:
i agree with the expression "when you have a hammer, you see every problem as a nail" as stated by commenters.
but right now i am not proficient enough with a tool to switch or compare with another one.
some commenter suggest that i really invest in learning latex. i was starting to learn latex from wikipedia wikibook when i got intimidated by it and went to searching for alternatives.
based on the commenters some ways/applications to ease this learning are:
1. lyx
2. www.writelatex.com
3. using latex templates
4. scrivener
any other suggestions? <comment><USER2> The first thing you need to know about is [http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/](http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/) which is a fantastic tool.

So I would say that it might be worth reconsidering LaTeX because it has [http://www.bibtex.org/](http://www.bibtex.org/) which is excellent for academic papers. The investment to get competent with LaTeX is certainly several hours, but it pays itself back quickly. See [http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX](http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX) for a good learning resource.

For myself, I mainly use [http://orgmode.org/](http://orgmode.org/) for emacs. This can export as LaTeX, and from there to any of the vast multitude of formats that LaTeX can be converted to. However, if you're not willing to learn LaTeX, then you're probably not willing to learn emacs either: where LaTeX is a matter of hours to learn competently, emacs takes weeks.

I used Markdown to write the bulk of my text for a while, but I found it didn't scale very well to large documents. It is great for blog posts and the like.

<comment><USER3> MultiMarkdown might be more suitable for large documents, as it allows the inclusion of files between documents, cross-references etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Maybe [https://www.writelatex.com/](https://www.writelatex.com/) can help you become familiar with LaTeX? I'm not huge into type-setting myself but there are numerous text editors and markup formats that can export to LaTeX. The bonus is that you can script most of the workflow and cargo-cult what you need to get the document working until you properly figure things out.

<comment><USER5> I'm a cofounder at wL. If you're new to LaTeX, you might want to check out our online course [1], and we also have a 'rich text' mode that renders equations and some commands inline in the editor, for quicker feedback [2].

[1] [https://www.writelatex.com/blog/7-free-online- introduction-t...](https://www.writelatex.com/blog/7-free-online-introduction- to-latex-course-part-1)

[2] [https://www.writelatex.com/blog/81](https://www.writelatex.com/blog/81)

<comment><USER6> Sorry for being off topic, but I have a writeLaTex feature request/question.

There's only one thing about writeLaTex that convinced me to stop using the service (which I used while learning LaTeX) and to start doing all editing locally. This is the behavior when the connection is lost/dropped momentarily. The red bar appears at the top of the screen, but I'm still able to type, only to have my typing disappear a few seconds later and the cursor reset to the top of the input box. This is incredibly annoying even when it only happens once every 15 minutes. It seems like this could be fixed very easily (just store what I'm typing locally and then sync it to your servers).

Also, this isn't so much a complaint but a feature request: I'd be much less paranoid about writeLaTeX going down when I need to print/access a major report or something if there was a way to automatically save files locally. This could be done using the Dropbox or Google Drive APIs. For an example of these feature, you can try editing a file in Dropbox with [https://draftin.com/](https://draftin.com/) .

Thanks a ton, besides these warts I love the product!

<comment><USER5> Thanks for the feedback. That should now be better: we remember the cursor position for when the connection picks up again. If there's anything else we can help with, just let us know. :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Have you considered LyX? Designed for people with a problem like yours - wanting the benefit of TeX output without the effort needed to learn something new. It's also a pretty good structure oriented (rather than WYSIWYG) editor.

<comment><USER8> Isn't LyX WYSIWYG ? Personally I would say it is. (and also @vancomycin below). Sure there is also the "WYSIWYM" category, but it's more of a pun and not broadly known.

<comment><USER7> LyX is not WYSIWYG and I'm not sure how to argue this point. What you see in the editor window doesn't look like the paginated output - it's not really up to someone's opinion to decide.

<comment><USER8> It's not the paginated output but it's close, especially compared to LaTeX code. And I believe many people understand WYSIWYG broadly as a point and click interface with visual feedback, in contrast to writing some code.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Lyx is a good option for a sort of WYSIWYG LaTeX ([http://www.lyx.org/](http://www.lyx.org/))

<comment><AUTHOR> thank you, i will look into it

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I recommend latex, as once you get going it is not really all that complex, what with all the packages available.

<comment><AUTHOR> i am considering learning latex, but it looks like it has a steep learning curve compared with markup language like rst or markdown and also it seems very verbose i.e, presentation and content are written whole/completely

<comment><USER11> LaTex is not a writing application, it is a typesetting application. LaTex should be your last stop before publication.

You can, of course, write natively in LaTex but the program wasn't designed for that.

<comment><USER12> > You can, of course, write natively in LaTex but the program wasn't designed > for that.

Hard to know precisely what you mean by this, but if you mean that you shouldn't be writing things like

        \documentclass{article}

        \begin{document}
        Hello world.
        \end{document}

then you are mistaken; the LaTeX book (and many other documents) describes what to do. If what you mean is that a person is somehow meant to use a front end such as LyX, then you'll get a lot of disagreement (such as from me).

<comment><USER11> What I mean is that in your example the only content is "Hello world." The rest is typesetting. The original question asked, "what tool should I use to write?" LaTex answers the question, "how can I typeset what I have written?" BTW, Lyx is a terrific program. My only complaint with it is that I haven't found a way to mimic a word processor's tab behavior consistently. The tabbing package doesn't do it for me. \qquad does, kind of, but that's six keystrokes. The problem is that in some kinds of writing text placement may have meaning and this conflicts with LaTex's underlying paradigm of automating typesetting decisions.

<comment><USER12> LaTeX was certainly intended for a document such as I wrote so you are wrong, as documented in Lamport's book.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> You may not want to use the same tools to write academic reports and blog posts. It's best explained by the popular programming quote that "when you have a hammer, you see every problem as a nail."

LaTeX can get hard, but templates lower the learning curve. Google "latex report templates," learn how to compile them, play with them. Even if it's harder the first day, it will be a lot more useful in the long term.

The learning curve is not a fair excuse not to try it. If you try it, build things with it, and don't like it, you'll know what you're not missing.

</comment><comment><USER3> Look if anyone in your institution has created a dissertation template for LaTeX, or if you can use one [from elsewhere]([https://github.com/briandealwis/ubcdiss](https://github.com/briandealwis/ubcdiss)). I personally found the formatting to be the hardest part, not the actual writing, especially since you can find helpers for various text editors, like LaTeXTools for Sublime etc.

As pointed out elsewhere in this thread, don't make your hammer solve all of the problems.

</comment><comment><USER14> As other commenters have mentioned, Pandoc[1] is an incredibly useful tool for converting documents between formats. I do not, however, think that its usefulness in a solution to your specific problem has been framed clearly enough. It uses a version of the markdown syntax which is slightly-modified to ease writing of lengthier or academic documents. For example, a citation to a BibTeX bibiliography (usually performed in LaTeX by typing `\cite{McElroy-2000}`) is written `@McElroy-2000`, headers can be tagged to simplify internal references, and actual LaTeX commands can be called if you need them. Since the changes from standard markdown are minimal, you can write using any of the many markdown editors which are available.

As to my particular setup, I write Pandoc markdown in Vim using a plugin which I wrote for that purpose.[2] Nothing fancy, mind you, just light syntax highlighting, some keyboard shortcuts for (1) exporting to html or pdf (via- LaTeX) and (2) jumping between headers, and document folding, the latter of which is especially useful for outlining and organizing lengthy documents.

[1]: [http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/](http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/)

[2]: [https://github.com/shushcat/minimd](https://github.com/shushcat/minimd)

</comment><comment><USER15> Lyx. Full stop.

I've used it for two papers for arXiv, with equations and tables. It can write any math formula you can write on paper. You don't need to learn Latex _at all_ to use it. It's very clear and intuitive. It's not WYSIWIG, but it's clear what you're going to get, and what you need to do on-screen to get what you want.

And,if you're on Linux, you should be able to get it running with no sweat.

</comment><comment><USER16> Markdown and RST is what people generally use for documentation and blog writing.

However, LaTeX has features designed for academic writing (e.g. you can have references to sections / bibliography entries, so when you insert or delete new ones, the numbers in the text are updated automatically.)

You don't mention what subject your thesis is in, but if it involves mathematical notation, you will likely have a lot more work and poorer results if you use anything but LaTeX.

Specifically related to the question of using LaTeX's mathematical typesetting capabilities in documentation or webpages, MathJax [1] is a popular solution. The Python-based static blog generator Nikola [2] has support for MathJax.

As for being intimidated by LaTeX, and being too unfamiliar with alternatives to make a comparison, I suggest spending a day or so trying to write a small part of your report in LaTeX, then deciding after you've used it.

[1] [http://www.mathjax.org/](http://www.mathjax.org/)

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

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Thank you everyone for the suggestions and insights. After contemplating with the choices i have decided to go through with restructuredtext, and pickup latex bit-by-bit to incorporate scientific parts (it turns out you can do some inline latex in restructuredtext).

here are some factors that drive my decision:

\- i can start writing content right away without much initial learning

\- rst can be read/revised by my other peers with more ease than full blown latex document.

\- i can use latex parts (equations, typesetting, etc) inline with rst, and i can learn latex bit-by-bit on the way

\- there some libraries/program that can make attractive presentations using rst ([http://regebro.github.io/hovercraft/#/step-1](http://regebro.github.io/hovercraft/#/step-1))

so i will use rst and learn latex on the way.

</comment><comment><USER17> I'm also an academic. I use Scrivener, then pop it into LaTeX. Scrivener has a non-commercial version for Linux. It's not fully featured, but it still does a good job. You have to download it from their forum: [http://www.literatureandlatte.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=33&s...](http://www.literatureandlatte.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=33&sid=40d9c854a6f68a5b81399c30098eec7f)

Learning LaTeX is absolutely worth the time and effort. I realize it's not the easiest thing to learn, but it's invaluable for keeping track of citations, simple typesetting, and rendering equations. It is not, however, worth using for making slideshows or posters.

</comment><comment><USER11> 1\. Draft in Scrivener. 2\. Export to rtf. 3\. Open the file in Open Office. 4\. Export to LaTex. 5\. Typeset pdf.

You can also export directly from Scrivener to LaTex, but a thesis is going to require a good deal of back and forth and revisions before it is ready for typesetting.

If you don't want to have a typeset final product, you can write in Scrivener and export to many different formats. If you want to write using Markdown syntax, you can do so in Scrivener as well. It's a terrific program.

<comment><AUTHOR> it looks like a very nice application, but i forgot to mention that i am now mainly using linux and it seems there is no linux version? (and also free (as in free lunch version) :D)

<comment><USER11> There is a linux version, it's available here:

[http://literatureandlatte.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=252...](http://literatureandlatte.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=25201)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Word with Zotero makes for a rather painless thesis writing experience.

Just remember to mark headlines as headings, and don't just change the font size of your headlines. It's easy to insert references to formulas, figures and graphs.

LibreOffice + Zotero makes for the some fairly painless bibliography, table of content, internal figure referencing.

If you need to build advanced graphs from large dataset, there is no painless way about it, but LaTex is in no way more difficult than the other options.

</comment><comment><USER19> Check out asciidoc, it is quite mature. You can start using it quickly, but it's very full-featured and has a supportive community. Can generate text, HTML, Docbook XML, PDF output. Generates nice looking output, customizable, etc.

It's like markdown but more mature and scales to large documents.

[http://www.methods.co.nz/asciidoc/](http://www.methods.co.nz/asciidoc/)

</comment><comment><USER20> i would probably try using pandoc's markdown [http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/README.html#pandocs- markdow...](http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/README.html#pandocs-markdown) and then generating latex from that. but that's because (imho) markdown is easy to edit / read. getting latex output any different from the default is going to involve "learning latex" i suspect.

pandoc is written in haskell and available on linux. for opensuse you can install it from [http://software.opensuse.org/search](http://software.opensuse.org/search)

[i wrote my own thesis in latex, but that was many years ago. another advantage of starting in markdown is that it's easier to get to other formats, like putting your thesis on the web.]

</comment><comment><USER8> We're beta-testing an online editor for technical documents, if you want to join we would be glad to have you (email/url in my profile). If you'd prefer a more DIY solution, in addition to LaTeX you should also check out asciidoc, it seems to support a lot of what you're after.

</comment><comment><USER21> If you want to go with reStructuredText, I highly suggest using Leo[1] -- it uses rST heavily internally, and provides fantastic tools for working with it.

[1]: [http://leoeditor.com/](http://leoeditor.com/)

</comment><comment><USER22> Write it in LaTeX.

</comment><comment><USER23> I would just learn LaTeX. As far as I know, it is essential to writing a decently formatted whitepaper.</comment>


Rethinking optimization for size - <AUTHOR> http://lwn.net/Articles/534735/

<comment><USER2> I'd never heard of the likely()/unlikely() macros in gcc for branch prediction. Interesting.</comment>


I think the Chinese leadership get it - <AUTHOR> http://www.samonsoftware.com/?p=502

<comment><USER2> FWIW, Wen Jiabao is the more liberal figure and was pro-student in the Tiananmen Square protest. From <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wen_Jiabao>, "...and accompanied General Secretary Zhao Ziyang to the Tiananmen Square during the 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests." Zhao Ziyang was removed from power and house arrested after the protest was crushed.

It's interesting to see how the governing-by-consensus-in-committee work in China, where each loosely formed faction having their representative in the committee. Even Wen Jiabao who was in the wrong end of a significant power struggle was able to become the prime minister later. Yet he's still unable to change the policies or reopen the Tiananmen case. It means no one faction gained upper hand and individual leader has little power. They have to get consensus from everyone else.

</comment><comment><USER3> I would approach these speeches with a hefty dose of salt. Historically, communism has been one big systemic lie. For goodness sake, even in a democracy you can't take the leaders' rhetoric at face value! Do you think the Chinese who've read the translated speeches of George Bush now think that the invasion of Iraq was about human rights and nuclear nonproliferation? You have to look at the actions, not the words used to mask them.

<comment><USER4> Forgive my ignorance please; but- what exactly (in your own words though of course) was the purpose of the invasion of Iraq?

<comment><USER5> to wage war.

<comment><USER4> Please, again forgive my utter ignorance, do go on.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I wouldn't be so hasty regarding Chinese development and overall politics. You should take into account the fact they're _Eastern_ country with _Eastern_ mentality. They take different approach from most western countries because they're different.

I guess, we shouldn't point fingers and say "Too bad they aren't democratic" or "Too bad communism is a lie" because we cannot really guarantee that what's good for us will be good for them.

FWIW, I think they'll continue to develop on their very own historical path disregard whatever western countries try to do.

</comment><comment><USER7> China's people will make it happen. Their government seems to be contributing. China has great strength, and they compete globally. They are in the game. The fact is, the Chinese would be stupid not to build a just, fair and democratic society, for the universal benefits it endows. They aren't stupid.

<comment><USER8> Dude, for fuck's sake. Intelligence and stupidity don't necessarily become key differentiators until _after_ you achieve a reasonable measure of intellectual freedom and individual sovereignty. Where by 'you' I mean 'you and most people around you'.

On balance it's better to be a smart person, that only goes so far when you are malnourished and worked 18 hours per day in a gulag. Or when you simply had to quit school before puberty in order to obtain food for yourself or your loved ones.

Finally: go to China and ask the people you meet how stupid they think it would be not to build a 'democratic society'. You will be politely educated and/or ridiculed, and realize that you are projecting your own (basically correct) way of thinking onto people who don't think your way at all.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> So they're self-critical when speaking to western media? That could just be a PR move and have nothing to do with their actual motivations. Is there anything to suggest that they're actually trying to increase personal freedoms?

If anything it seems that they're just continuing business as usual, with The Great Firewall and other similar efforts. But I'm not very familiar with China's politics.

<comment><AUTHOR> I think there is a lot of evidence they are improving personal freedom and the rights of the individual, not dramatically so, not as fast as many would like.

Looking at property rights for example, the ability of people to appeal the decisions of local authorities, the ability of people to complain about local corruption and have action taken is reported to have improved greatly as compared to 10,20 or 30 years ago.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> A couple of interesting things I've read about China.

Firstly many Chinese don't tie democracy and individual liberties together in the same way people in the west do.

Secondly I read that in China much is freeing up but the "3 Ts and an F" remain very sensitive. The "3 Ts and an F" are Tibet, Tiananmen, Taiwan and Falun Gong

</comment><comment><USER10> It is quite amazing what totalitarian leaders are willing to say, but its always quite the opposite of what they will do. It always awes me when they speak, I think to myself "Yeah, exactly, they finally get it" but soon realize that its just talk.</comment>


(Android) Developer Income Report #6 - <AUTHOR> http://www.kreci.net/reports/developer-income-report-6/

<comment><USER2> I enjoy reading about your struggles and experiences in earning a online income.

Is it safe to assume that those earnings are for December 2010? If yes, I would have assumed that earnings for Android software would have increased quite a lot more as this month is typically the strongest for many developers - See <http://taptaptap.com/blog/million-million/> for a good example.

As for iPhone programming, feel free to check out [http://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/developing-apps-for- ios-...](http://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/developing-apps-for-ios- hd/id395605774) if you haven't already - There is plenty of material available from Stanford for free that will allow you to create your first iOS applications easily.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes - that is for December 2010. I know the link - but still considering cost of starting developing for iPhone (hardware) and time to learn new language vs outsourcing opportunity...

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> One commenter makes a comment that the developer "has no passion", to which kreci responds it is "just business". I have to agree with the commenter, that it is sad the apps are made for the sole purpose of ad impressions and the niche blog content is outsourced (and not very good content on top of that). All of it seems a bit shallow, but that is my opinion. In my own app development, I want my apps to empower people and enrich their lives. If I succeed in that endeavor, I will be rewarded.

</comment><comment><USER4> I haven't really been following Android dev income trends (other than Angry Birds' incredible ad revenue), anybody care to comment on the general state of Android revenue as compared to a year ago? (I suspect it's greatly increased, but even with similar numbers of phones out, I also suspect iOS devs pull in more money).

<comment><USER5> _I suspect it's greatly increased, but even with similar numbers of phones out, I also suspect iOS devs pull in more money_

The majority of iOS devs make little to nothing, documented countless times. Of course when you hear the rare success story it is presented as a norm, which paradoxically leads to a gold rush that really ensures that no one gets rich (and quick!).

And the same is entirely true for Android. While the user base has grown dramatically, the number of applications have exploded as well so there's significantly more competition.

<comment><USER6>
      The overwhelming majority of iOS devs make little to
      nothing, documented countless times

Not true. The majority of iOS devs I know make a decent revenue stream that involves making apps for the like of Fortune 500 companies and startups. Since they walk the company through the whole process of becoming a registered Apple iOS developer, you would never know the app was ghost-coded.

<comment><USER4> Are these typically free apps the consultants are developing? (Like say, Yelp's app).

<comment><USER6> In almost every case, the apps are funded by the marketing budget and are always free apps to promote the organization or company's brand. It is in essence another marketing channel. There are also cases where a non-profit gets corporate sponsorship.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> _Moreover I have hired a talented writer via Freelancer.com to keep my niche blog updated to gain more search engine traffic (he takes $1 per article!)._

You can't know if the guy is a talent or not, if you are not more talented than him. That being said, and with ridiculously low rate, I highly doubt if he is talented.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> As usual comments are welcome and very desired!

<comment><USER8> How many ad impressions does the $1,700 Android revenue correspond to?

Thank you again for posting these numbers every month.

<comment><USER9> I would REALLY like to know this too. I have a game getting 1.6 Million impressions every 6-8 hours and I only want to put ads on the game if it makes financial sense.

<comment><USER10> $400 - $1600 - $3200 per 6-8 hours?

No one can say without knowing about the specific app, the advert implementation, and the amount of users you loose because of the implementation. I'd guess something around that much though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> > Moreover I have hired a talented writer via Freelancer.com to keep my niche > blog updated to gain more search engine traffic (he takes $1 per article!).

$1 per acticle? I know the articles on the site (<http://www.minimotherboard.com/>, via a comment) are short and not really original content, but assuming he's spending even 10 minutes per post, he could be earning more working the drive-thru at McDonald's. I suppose he's agreed to it, and it's not your fault he's undervaluing his work, but that strikes me as insultingly low. I really feel for the guy if he's been forced into writing for what is essentially table scraps.

<comment><USER12> Just taking the latest artcile on the jetway mini-itx mobo, it's only 200 words. Your comment on the writer (quote not included) is 81. How long did it take you to write?

If she can bust out one article in 5 minutes, even with breaks of a few minutes in between to stretch or just clear her head, the writer can do 15 of them in an hour. And that's assuming kreci is her only client. I can see her making over US$100/day quite easily, and depending on where the writer is situated (and it seems that she is not a native English speaker/writer based just from her word usage alone), making between 25-30k year could possibly be no small potatoes.

FYI, I just wrote the preceding in 5 minutes and it's 118 words.

<comment><USER11> Maybe I'm just a slower writer, but 15 articles an hour seems impossibly fast, especially considering that the articles require some degree of research. Do you honestly believe someone could write 100 of those articles every day? Even if it were possible (and I'm not really sold on that), that sounds absolutely soul-crushing.

And yes, you (and other commenters) do bring up a good point in that $1 has a lot more value in many parts of the world. And while it still strikes me as a bit exploitative, I fully understand how untenable my complaining about this is considering basically every piece of electronic equipment on my desk was probably made by someone earning the around the same, if not less. The same is probably true of the clothes I'm wearing.

<comment><USER13> I know a reporter who can bust out 10 full-length newspaper-quality articles in an hour. 15 shorter pieces is certainly doable. You just have to be habituated to the sort of writing you're doing (and be a fast typist).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Regarding Amazon affiliate earnings, what are the ToS requirements regarding promoting affiliate links directly? Presumably, every affiliate sale makes Amazon money, but if one were doing a lot of sales, would Amazon accuse you of stealing money from them?

<comment><USER2> As long as we are talking about legitimate sales originating from real people, the 24-hour duration of the affiliate cookie puts Amazon into a very favorable position. I cannot see why AMZN should accuse you of stealing money.

[https://affiliate- program.amazon.com/gp/associates/agreement...](https://affiliate- program.amazon.com/gp/associates/agreement/)

<comment><USER14> I'm thinking of this - <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2049808>

<comment><USER2> The case you are referring to looks like a "cashback deal".

The purchasing party receives something (money,extension of subscription,...) in return for finalizing the transaction through your affiliate link.

As far as I know, this kind of deals is not possible through the Amazon Affiliate Program.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Can you share your experiences -- how you promoted your previous apps?

</comment><comment><USER16> What is the conversion rate on Android ads?

I ask because I have trouble believing that people click on the ads out of intention. I think I clicked on one by mistake before (although, honestly can't remember for sure).

I just find it hard to believe that Angry Birds makes $1M in ad revenue per month. I don't get why you'd click an ad when you're about to play a game.

<comment><USER17> I get anywhere from 1%-3% clickthrough, depending on the app, with AdMob. Whether your ads blend in with your app and where you place your ads affects this rate. AdMob recommends that you place your ads at the end of a user action, as in, once they've played a few rounds of a game, present them with their score and an ad. I think that's exactly what Angry Birds does.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> What is the niche blog?

<comment><AUTHOR> My Mini-ITX blog - <http://www.minimotherboard.com>

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Regarding iOS development, keep in mind that even if you outsource, you still need an iPhone to verify the work. Maybe you can borrow a phone from a friend.

If you want to develop yourself, you don't need the latest hardware. A used Mac Mini is enough and should cost around 300€.</comment>


Behind China's Twitter Campaign, a Murky Supporting Chorus - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/08/technology/china-twitter-disinformation.html <comment><AUTHOR> New York Times article sometimes have a soft paywall.

Link to no paywall version: [http://archive.is/qstnY](http://archive.is/qstnY)</comment>


Will Data Science Be Ever Automated - <AUTHOR> https://analyticsdrift.com/will-data-science-be-ever-automated/ <comment><USER2> Not sure how we jumped from data science automation to self-driving cars.

The question is not if data science can be automated, but if, let say 80 % of it can be automated. I would argue for a big yes.</comment>


China backtracked on almost all aspects of U.S. trade deal – sources - <AUTHOR> https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-china-backtracking-exclusiv/exclusive-china-backtracked-on-nearly-all-aspects-of-u-s-trade-deal-sources-idUSKCN1SE0WJ <comment><USER2> I suspect Xi wants this dispute to continue for internal Chinese reasons. The tariffs impact different sectors and regions in China differently. It may be continued tariffs are reducing overcapacity in a manner that allows Xi to save face internally. It could be the tarrifs are breaking the back of powerful exporting provinces (eg. Jiagnsu) and helping Xi consolidate power. It may also be the case that things need to get much worse in China economically before Xi has a strong enough argument to persuade the Chinese military (a powerful economic force itself) to embrace a deal. Finally, the success of the Belt&Road strategy requires a shift from US/Western export to vast investment elsewhere; and it may be the case these tariffs provide the Chinese private sector a strong incentive to open new markets and long-haul decrease reliance on the US. Its complicated. I suspect a deal will be reached in 2-4 months.

<comment><USER3> I don't know how by cutting down exports Xi plans to consolidate power? Could you please expand on the mechanism by which this could happen? Tariffs are breaking backs of exporting provinces, may be they could be ill informed and Chinese propaganda can spin this to blame US.

<comment><USER2> Suffering constituencies (provinces, cities, banks, businesses) may have to make substantial concessions to Xi's leadership team/faction to obtain relief. Those concessions may be up front, or favors owed to be collected in the future. Politics 101.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Related to this and the censorship story already on the front page:

China is censoring internal news about these trade controversies. From family over there I know that the general public isn't seeing this on TV or anything. And even messages on WeChat are being taken down (my wife has had several private postings removed)

<comment><USER3> I don't know why and I am not a Chinese citizen but this kind of thing bothers me deeply. I hope Streisand effect takes over China in a self-propelling feedback loop until this whole show comes crashing down. People of China deserve better (once they're a solid middle class and taken out of poverty).

<comment><USER5> > People of China deserve better (once they're a solid middle class and taken > out of poverty).

You are implying that the current policies will bring them out of poverty which in a sense contradicts your first statement.

<comment><USER6> Countries have emerged out of poverty even with strong democracies. I'm not sure why the world thinks that a strongman regime like the CCP is needed for economic growth.

In that sense, China is (IMHO) actually an outlier, an exception where a Communist regime used fully capitalistic economic policies and foreign investment to bring people out of poverty. This could have happened even if there was a different form of government there.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> So basically China's stance is, we cannot change our laws so our bad trading practices must remain in place?

While we only get news of trade imbalances between US and China to include all their tariffs and restrictions can someone for the EU or elsewhere chime in with how their nations fare?

<comment><USER8> "So basically China's stance is, we cannot change our laws so our bad trading practices must remain in place? "

Reminds me of a lot of corporations. "This doesn't make sense but it's policy". Never mind that they wrote the policy themselves.

<comment><USER9> "this is not profitable so it should not be law".

Yeah I've heard that plenty over here in the US.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I think this is a very strange development. I'm a bit surprised they would backtrack at all.

Rather in the past they've agreed to various regulations and laws and ... just not enacted or simply enacted and not followed them. That last part being the real question in all these details, does it matter if a deal gets made anyway?

If anything the traditional route would have allowed the POTUS to declare victory and everyone just move on, but this is far more confrontational and unusual based on my understanding.

<comment><USER11> They're hoping for a democratic administration in 2020 to negotiate with.

<comment><USER12> Another year and a half is a long time to make your people suffer. And a lot of the supply chains that moved out of China might not come back. Waiting is a hell of a gamble.

<comment><USER11> I'm not sure a year and a half of unfavorable trade means much to a dictator who declares themself dictator for life, imprisons millions of citizens in re- education camps and engages in mass censorship.

<comment><USER12> Good thing the Chinese people have no history of violently overthrowing their rulers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Maybe China was just playing time and trying to time the trade conflict.

US elections are next year. If the trade war escalates this summer, the effect on voters and the US economy will be hardest 6 to 12 months from now. After that the US economy will start to adjust for the new normal.

<comment><USER12> How, exactly, do you envision the US economy being damaged by a trade war with China? As far as I can tell, the effects thus far have been basically nil. Whereas things are looking pretty bad in China at the moment...

<comment><USER14> >the effects thus far have been basically nil

This is quite factually untrue. [0] [1] [2] [3]

To be clear, this is entirely as a rebuttal to your claim, not as any broader statement about international policy or outcomes.

[0] [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-14/u-s- soy-e...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-14/u-s-soy-exports- won-t-reach-pre-trade-war-levels-for-years)

[1] [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/19/us/politics/farming- trump...](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/19/us/politics/farming-trump-trade- war.html)

[2] [https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesellsmoor/2019/02/24/under-...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesellsmoor/2019/02/24/under- trumps-tariffs-the-us-lost-20000-solar-energy-jobs/#1fcc880d76ba)

[3][https://www.minnpost.com/economy/2018/08/trade-war-pulls- por...](https://www.minnpost.com/economy/2018/08/trade-war-pulls-pork-prices- down-minnesota-farmers/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> The most recent tweets by Trump regarding this:

"The reason for the China pullback & attempted renegotiation of the Trade Deal is the sincere HOPE that they will be able to "negotiate" with Joe Biden or one of the very weak Democrats, and thereby continue to ripoff the United States (($500 Billion a year)) for years to come... Guess what, that's not going to happen! China has just informed us that they (Vice-Premier) are now coming to the U.S. to make a deal. We'll see, but I am very happy with over $100 Billion a year in Tariffs filling U.S. coffers...great for U.S., not good for China!"

<comment><USER16> The import tariffs are paid by the people inside the importing nation.

A US import tax on Chinese goods is a tax on American consumers and manufacturers.

The way to tax China itself would be an _export_ tax on money bound _to_ China, including the transfers of immobile or intangible assets to Chinese nationals or corporations via domestic exchanges or brokerages--and including the cash value of transferred intellectual property.

Imports are paid for by exports. If you're worried about a trade imbalance, you could always say that the other nation can keep sending more goods if they want, but we'll only pay for them with trade goods and services, not with cash, or ownership of land and capital.

<comment><USER17> Taxes on transactions, such as tariffs, are almost never paid only by one side. The side with less flexibility is going to pay most of it, adjusting prices as needed to make this so.

China has less flexibility. Idled factories are a huge problem, and there is no other buyer as large as the US. It is relatively easier for the US to buy elsewhere, both abroad and domestic.

About 83% of the tariff burden is getting paid by China. (analysis by European financial firm)

Even the part we do pay isn't all bad. It reduces the need for other taxes. It supports American workers, reducing income inequality.

<comment><USER18> Seriously, 83%? That's insane!

Seems things are going far better in this little trade war than I was expecting. If the 17% paid by US consumers displaces other taxes, that's a huge net gain.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I don't understand the hate Trump gets for doing what needs to be done. All these issues esp. theft of intellectual property, IP transfer, currency manipulation are much more important in the long term than some tarrifs.

One shitpost tweet crashed SZSC by 7%, most of China couldn't even read it. Trump is in a position of power at least with this negotiation.

China deserves the pain train for backpedalling.

<comment><USER20> The trade war isn't helping anyone. It's costing US consumers, companies, farmers and the stock market.

Just a quick search, I couldn't find any mainstream, usually Republican leaning economists, magazines, or newspapers that said it was a good idea.

<comment><USER12> It isn't costing consumers much. I run a company that was affected by the tariffs. If we had kept manufacturing in China, cost of goods sold (COGS) would have gone up by 25%. But COGS are only 50% of the price customers pay for our products. So the price increase to our customers would have only been 12.5%. But we didn't keep our manufacturing in China, we moved it to Taiwan and Vietnam. As a result, our COGS went up by roughly 8% (prices are higher at our new factories), which works out to a 4% increase in prices to our customers. And our products have an unusually high COGS relative to most things consumers would buy at, say, Walmart. So the real impact of the tariffs to the prices most consumers are paying is in the very low single digits, percentage wise. Not really a big deal. Mostly the tariffs are/were very inconvenient for US business that manufactured in China.

<comment><USER20> _It isn't costing consumers much. I run a company that was affected by the tariffs._

So you're generalizing your experience from a "company you run" to a country with a $19.39 trillion GDP....

<comment><USER17> Months ago, I saw an analysis done by a European financial firm. The burden of the tariffs is 83% paid by China. This is very well aligned with his example.

The burden we do pay isn't so bad. It can substitute for other taxes. We used to do this in a big way, funding the country without an income tax. The local employment is pretty good too. Those industrial jobs, for example steelworkers, are reducing income inequality.

<comment><USER20> So we are creating those jobs at a cost of $900K per job. Tariffs are hardly ever a good way to create jobs.

[https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/05/07/trumps- st...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/05/07/trumps-steel- tariffs-cost-us-consumers-every-job-created-experts-say/)

<comment><USER17> If that supposed $900K comes from Jeff Bezos, owner of the Washington Post, I'm OK with it. In that case, he alone is worth a hundred thousand jobs. I can see why his newspaper might be complaining.

<comment><USER20> No, the $900K it costs the economy per job. So you are doubting the number because it's from the "liberal media"?

In that case what about Forbes?

[https://www.forbes.com/sites/ikebrannon/2018/07/02/steel- tar...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/ikebrannon/2018/07/02/steel-tariffs-are- not-creating-american-jobs-at-least-not-in-missouri/#5c4ff4c7457b)

<comment><USER17> There are far bigger reasons to doubt it, so the "liberal media" issue is moot. Not that "liberal media" isn't a fine reason, but Jeff Bezos is literally the owner of the Washington Post. He also runs Amazon, shipping lots of Chinese goods. His bias is obvious.

This isn't even a political conflict along the liberal/non-liberal axis though, so Forbes doesn't change a thing. I'm sure you've heard of the uniparty, demipublicans, republicrats, and so on. The leaders of multinational corporations have a globalist mindset. Aside from desiring regulatory capture to suppress competition, they also have a libertarian mindset. Very few media sources and very few politicians break from either mindset by much, except some hot air from some politicians. Politicians don't last long if they anger the large multinational corporations.

There is almost nobody with interests aligned with the American worker. Of the few who are, many would admit to loving the tariffs only if somebody like Bernie Sanders had imposed them. Generally, all of those with a big voice (media and politicians) would gladly wipe out American jobs in exchange for greater profit. This is short-term thinking, ignoring the slow collapse of the nation and the changing balance of world power.

<comment><USER20> So there should be some studies somewhere that say the best way to brings jobs to America that in aggregate is beneficial is to impose tariffs and protectionism is to spend money on industries retraining workers?

Are you also in favor of laws in some states that don't allow people to pump their own gas to save jobs?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> China is playing the old game, negotiation and negotiation and negotiation, never intend to make any change. They can even make promise to make changes after long long long negotiations and never do anything. And then when someone finally decide to do something about it, they will ask for a new round of negotiation and negotiation and negotiation.

Xi will stay in power may be in next 20 years, and he knows US will have general election in every 4 years. Trump gets the idea: [https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/11261065400150712...](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1126106540015071232)

<comment><USER2> Incorrect. The tariffs are costing Chinese businesses and the government greatly. There is some other benefit to this that isn't explained by negotiation tactics. Although I cannot rule out a total misread of Trump by China, due to poor analysis, intelligence or misinformation.

<comment><USER22> Yeah, I guess the same tactic didn't work for North Korea, right? Oh, wait..

<comment><USER12> North Korea doesn't have an economy dependent on exports to the US consumer market. Not a good comparison.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> > Trump said on Wednesday that China is mistaken if it hopes to negotiate > trade later with a Democratic presidential administration.

What is that supposed to mean? That there won't be another administration in the future is how it sounds.

<comment><USER11> Oh quit the fear mongering. He clearly states in the tweet they're referencing that the hope is the next administration will be a democrat, and they are trying to hold out for that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> In the long perspective the Chinese market is the larger one with more people. Currently it makes sense for the US to be protectionist, in the long run the US market is smaller and Chinese companies will benefit from the larger Chinese market.

This played out over 50y with the fragmented European market vs. the larger homogeneous US market. Starting in the US was (is) much more beneficial than starting in Europe (the language and culture issue here will never go away even when policy is more and more unified).</comment>


Slug: GPU-Centered Font Rendering and Text Layout Library - <AUTHOR> http://sluglibrary.com/ <comment><USER2> This reminds me of Pathfinder:

[http://pcwalton.github.io/blog/2017/02/14/pathfinder/](http://pcwalton.github.io/blog/2017/02/14/pathfinder/)

How is it different/similar?

<comment><USER3> Pathfinder tessellates edges into microtriangles, computes signed trapezoidal areas in the fragment shader, and then accumulates those areas using a compute shader. I assume that this would make Pathfinder a "tessellating" algorithm in the language of this article as opposed to a "non-tessellating" one.

By contrast, I can't verify from source, but it appears that Slug does all the work in a fragment shader. If so, this would make its closest relative the Will Dobbie vector texture approach [1].

I considered the Dobbie technique but rejected it because it's very slow, asymptotically so even: it's O(height ∗ width ∗ number of curves), with a high constant factor as Newton-Raphson or de Casteljau subdivision (note that the quadratic formula is an alternative if all you care about is TrueType) has to be repeated over and over again for every pixel/subsample in the scene. I don't know how any non-tessellating algorithm can avoid this asymptotic problem, since if you defer all the work to the fragment shader then you have no choice but to run your expensive shader on a conservative cover area instead of only the areas that need to be expensive (i.e. edges, or curves if you're doing Loop Blinn). By contrast, traditional scanline rendering on the CPU is O(height ∗ number of curves), not counting the blitting, and forward differencing can make the work needed to be done for each curve on the scanline extremely cheap. For this reason, every non-tessellating algorithm I've seen is significantly outperformed by typical CPU renderers in practice.

This is not to say that non-tessellating text renderers such as what Slug seems to be are worthless: they may be useful to avoid costly CPU/GPU synchronization if the size of the text to render is not known by the CPU, for example if it depends on the result of vertex shading for a scene.

My further work on Pathfinder, should it pan out, ought to allow for more precise tessellation without significant performance cost, exploiting the fact that the shape of the traditional CPU scanline rendering algorithm can be adapted to generate triangulations on-the-fly through monotone polygon decomposition. My colleague Nical Silva's Lyon [2] shows how this idea can work, though I'm still working on adapting the technique to efficiently handle curves and high quality Levien-style antialiasing. This would eliminate the compute shader step, allowing Pathfinder to easily composite into 2D and 3D scenes as Slug can do without sacrificing performance. Bear in mind that this work is highly experimental and unfinished.

[1]: [http://wdobbie.com/post/gpu-text-rendering-with-vector- textu...](http://wdobbie.com/post/gpu-text-rendering-with-vector-textures/)

[2]: [https://github.com/nical/lyon](https://github.com/nical/lyon)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Just in case anyone is interested, this was first implemented by the original author, Eric Lengyel, as part of his proprietary game engine, Tombstone Engine:

[http://tombstoneengine.com/wiki/index.php?title=Release_Note...](http://tombstoneengine.com/wiki/index.php?title=Release_Notes_for_Version_2.0)

<comment><USER5> He's also the author of "Mathematics for 3D Game Programming and Computer Graphics", which is a nice book that covers a lot of the fundamental topics and is a useful book to have in your library for reference if you do any 3d graphics, game or physics programming. It doesn't go too deep into the subjects, but it's a nice to have anyway.

He has done lots of work on the field, so there are quite a few contributions he has made.

[http://mathfor3dgameprogramming.com/](http://mathfor3dgameprogramming.com/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> The open source world needs something like this for the next generation of GUI toolkits. Text is a huge limitation.

<comment><USER7> It sounds like loop-blinn font rendering, which is well known. It helps too if you have a lib for getting outlines from a ttf.

<comment><USER8> Well known, but also covered under patent so not widely used(although it is a really nifty technique).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> How are fonts rendered in in GPU-accelerated 2D (as opposed to in 3D).

Also, would a custom UI like the Letterpress game (which as I understand it used a custom OpenGL UI), use a similar technique to this? I'm unclear how subpixel rendering works in the 3D context.

<comment><USER10> Modern accelerated 2D graphics is exactly the same as 3D but with an orthographic projection always looking in the same direction.

<comment><USER11> As additional note, the type of old style plain 2D hardware acceleration (GDI, Xlib, ...) is gone for several years now.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I'm confused. Is this an invite to request a license for something that I know almost nothing about, even from reading the web site?

It's clear that it is a library that renders text. But what is it? E.g. a C++ library?

</comment><comment><USER13> Flagged for big fat title typo; this is called "Slug"!

<comment><USER14> Thanks for pointing that out! But please don't flag stories because of titles. Flagging is for things that don't belong on HN in the first place.

When you notice a typo or solecism that wants correcting, email us at email@example.com. We don't see all the comments that get posted, but we do see all our emails and will usually fix things right away.</comment></comment>


Radiology screen share using HTML5 - <AUTHOR> http://www.claripacs.com

<comment><AUTHOR> Hi, I'm one of the creators of this web site. Claripacs screen share lets you show another radiologist or doctor a CT or MRI in real time on the web. Unlike other screen share software, you can temporarily disconnect from the screen share to explore the images on your own, before rejoining the screen share. Many people can join a single screen share, so it can be used in conferences as well as one-on-one consults.

Incidentally, the screen share works by streaming URLs that encode the current series/image number, brightness/contrast, zoom, annotations, split screen layout, etc. When a study is first loaded, the images are preloaded to enable fast scrolling through a study. We use 16-bit grayscale images with lossless compression, to get the best image quality.

</comment><comment><USER2> you can guide a surgeon remotely !

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes! Surgeons and other doctors get a text-only report from radiologists, but it's very helpful for them to actually see what we're talking about. That's one of the reasons we created ClariPACS.</comment></comment>


The Joke-Publication of the Paxos Algorithm - <AUTHOR> http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/lamport/pubs/pubs.html#lamport-paxos

<comment><USER2> _Buridan 's Principle_[1] is even better.

"My problems in trying to publish this paper and [22] are part of a long tradition. According to one story I've heard (but haven't verified), someone at G. E. discovered the phenomenon in computer circuits in the early 60s, but was unable to convince his managers that there was a problem. He published a short note about it, for which he was fired. Charles Molnar, one of the pioneers in the study of the problem, reported the following in a lecture given on February 11, 1992, at HP Corporate Engineering in Palo Alto, California:

"'One reviewer made a marvelous comment in rejecting one of the early papers, saying that if this problem really existed it would be so important that everybody knowledgeable in the field would have to know about it, and "I'm an expert and I don't know about it, so therefore it must not exist."'"

[1] [http://research.microsoft.com/en- us/um/people/lamport/pubs/p...](http://research.microsoft.com/en- us/um/people/lamport/pubs/pubs.html#buridan)

</comment><comment><USER3> How does Paxos compare to the Bitcoin protocol? I've seen claims that Bitcoin is the first practical solution to the Byzantine Generals Problem (e.g. from Marc Andreessen recently), but it seems like Paxos is a better solution. (Handles network partition, avoids arbitrary rollback, finite time to reach consensus.)

Does anyone have a semi-rigorous explanation of what Bitcoin actually accomplishes with BGP?

<comment><USER4> At first I was annoyed by this comment, but then I realized, I was taken by a very clever joke!

Hats off to you sir!

<comment><USER5> Indeed, I went through all of the stages of grief in about 12 seconds, and then laughed

<comment><USER6> What's the joke?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Reading, and understanding, an algorithm is hard at the best of times. Adding a funny story makes it triply so. I'm currently trying to read a Haskell paper where the authors seem more interested in impressing us with their shakespeare allusions than actually explaining the thing and I'm starting to wish the journal had rejected it.

The dry style of journals evolved that way for a reason.

<comment><USER2> " _The dry style of journals evolved that way for a reason._ "

Because neither the authors of most scientific papers nor the editors of most scientific journals and conference proceedings can _write_ well?

Now, _Paxos_ and the _Byzantine Generals_ thing are probably examples of Lamport going too far in the other, impressed-with-his-own-wittiness direction, but I've had many more problems understanding papers in the dry style, where gibberish seems to be accepted if it's in the right form. (And I'm looking at you, Flaviu Cristian.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> That's crazy, I had to implement a distributed system a few years ago, after some research I decided on using the Paxos algorithm. Never during my implementation or research I noticed that the whole Greek backstory thing was a joke.

Now when I reread the wiki article, I realise I must have read over one crucial word in the summary:

"The Paxos protocol was first published in 1989 and named after a _fictional_ legislative consensus system used on the Paxos island in Greece"</comment>