Software Engineering ≠ Computer Science - <AUTHOR> http://www.ddj.com/hpc-high-performance-computing/217701907

<comment><USER3> It's good to hear this argument once in a while - and I think it deserves to be extended to most things that are not formal figments of human thought.

In other words - can someone please forward this to the humanities department? Tell them it's OK to stop formalizing literature, politics, ethics, and the other messy fields of human endeavour. It turns out that things change regularly and generally applicable advice is much more helpful than obscure formalism founded on obsolete assumptions.

(Also: To those who say the above goes double for the economists: take it easy on the economists. They do get real results, it _does_ work (mostly) - <USER2> realize their job is much more difficult than, say, that of physicists. Physicists have merely to understand and model the crazy phenomena that make up our world. They are lucky in that these phenomena tend to co-operate by not changing very often. For the economists, things are not so easy - so take pity on them.)

<comment><USER4> reminds me of a joke:

      a farmer has a bunch of chickens that aren't laying eggs, so he asks a physicist for help.
      the physicist leaves, does some calculations, etc etc, and comes back with the following answer.
      "well I've solved your problem, but it only works for spherical eggs in a void"

I'm sure that economists have much the same issue. All of their theories work just fine with rational humans in a vacuum.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Wait...you're telling me techne and episteme aren't the same? And that it's hard to reconcile craft and science using the tools of science alone? Whatever will we _do_?

As a fun aside, Connell's misunderstanding of the Church-Turing thesis is cute (though perhaps a little insulting to all of those computer architecture researchers in CS departments!). "All computing hardware is equivalent". I see -- I didn't realize that my 8bit 2-register CPU with 4KB of memory can do _anything_ my 64bit 32-register CPU with 4GB of memory can do. But of course it can, because the lambda calculus can express any effectively computable function. Right, I see that now.

</comment><comment><USER6> I believe that the difference between Software Engineering and Computer Science is not in human activity (mind you, Computer Scientists are affected by that discipline: how about reading papers and such? Reading and understanding heavy math is never an easy thing).

The differences are in scope and expectation of audience.

Usually, a paper of Computer Science deals with a limited and well-defined problem, while even the simplest program from Software Engineering must work on an infinite set of requirements, from security to ease of use. Plus, many of a program's requirements are in perpetual war with each other. Therefore, Software Engineering is slippery: sometimes, such and such requirements dominant, some other times, those other requirements are important.

Secondly, Computer Scientists demand a certain level of intelligence, effort, and knowledge from their audience (aka readers of their papers). Software Engineers have no such luxury: Just look at how they are screamed at just because a button is put at the wrong position. Plus, many computer users have come to expect that they are stupid and have absolute right to remain as stupid and ignorant as possible. Remember, computer programs are complex. Hiding away the complexity of the program, having an attractive interface, while still being correct, secure, and efficient must be satisfied at the exact same time. That's extremely difficult (if not impossible).

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I do not agree with the thesis stated that "software engineering is slippery because humans are unpredictable". Maybe it is harder because it deals with humans, but good and solid research is possible, just look at areas like information retrieval.

<comment><USER7> The field of "human sciences" is slippery. Economics, as a mere example, aims to be a "real science" and there is "good and solid research" but, nonetheless, the results are under our eyes. I will not try to ask why this happens, many epistemologists have tried to.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> This is a great article but only states the facts. The problem seems almost intractable, the Mythical Month asserts it in the No Magic Silver Bullet essay, in particular the following:

"there is no single development, in either technology or management technique, which by itself promises even one order-of-magnitude [tenfold] improvement within a decade in productivity, in reliability, in simplicity."

My own experience over the last few years is that tools and method have improved but complexity and user expectation has risen to meet or exceed that this aligns with Brooks' thinking.

</comment><comment><USER9> I fundamentally agree with the author, even though I'd frame it differently. I vastly prefer living as a Software Engineer than my days studying Computer Science, because it's not all sterile, formal, and rigorous, but is open to more complex analysis, more open-ended, and always with new things to learn. It appeals to a different mind-set, to be sure, and our traditional educational path has a serious mis-match for people who want to be Software Engineers, but I like dealing with the real world cases and the human element.

<comment><USER10> > vastly prefer living as a Software Engineer than my days studying Computer > Science, because it's not all sterile, formal, and rigorous, but is open to > more complex analysis, more open-ended, and always with new things to learn.

I would slightly beg to differ. Computer Science as a science is filled with interesting problems, is open ended, and will never be short on things to learn. It is however different in kind than the problems and things to learn that Software Engineering focuses on. It is more akin to mathematics (some would say perhaps correctly that pure computer science in this sense is a form of mathematics).

>our traditional educational path has a serious mis-match for people who want to be Software Engineers

This I agree with. Computer science as taught in most universities is a strange mismatch of hard theory and practical skills in coding, but very little in terms of some things that a practical software engineer must have such as gathering requirements and working on teams of programmers.

I think it might be wise to split software engineering into a separate (but closely related) degree.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> _Software engineering will never be a rigorous discipline with proven results, because it involves human activity._

That is utter nonsense, and that's easy to prove: A car's appeal often has little to do with its capabilities and everything to do with its brand associations. No-one drives a Maserati for its reliability or its ample luggage space! There are few consumer products where the "human factor" is more important than in the auto industry. Yet is designing and building cars not engineering?

<comment><USER12> Designing and building cars is engineering, but it's not a science. It's not a "rigorous discipline with proven results" in the way that, say, physics is.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Just in case we didn't have enough metaphors, Software Engineering is to Computer Science as Cooking is to Baking.

They are very different fields...and going through school there was very little to be learned about the art of Software Engineering. Most people, I suspect, have to learn it on the job.

</comment><comment><USER14> This is the same argument as the long running feud between the 2 famous billiards players Willie Mosconi and Minnesota Fats. Willie was world champion and had won many tournaments. Fats never won any championships, but won a small fortune playing for money. When they played each other, Willie creamed Fats, to which Fats responded, "Big deal, how much money did he win?"

Computer science is Willie. Software engineering is Fats. It may not be elegant and precise, but it gets the job done and earns lunch.

<comment><USER15> That comparison makes no sense to me. Software engineering is to computer science as mechanical engineering is to physics. They're not in a competition.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> This reminds me of C.P.Snow's infamous "The Two Cultures" essay:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Two_Cultures></comment>


Show HN: An open source note-taking app that respects your privacy - <AUTHOR> http://www.janusnotes.com

<comment><AUTHOR> For iOS (Universal) and OS X (10.7+). Synchronizes notes via dropbox, and encrypts the text of the notes with RNCryptor. Sources (MIT licensed) are on [https://github.com/ilTofa/janusnotes](https://github.com/ilTofa/janusnotes)

<comment><USER3> no criticism intended, just to help a good project, here are some fixes to the english: _in_ this version; or _take_ a voice; register [no from] here; to _also share_ ; _tap the_ Prefs; _Do_ the same; dropbox [no so] to avoid; _keep_ your data as safe; data _are_ safe; _we_ have no access to anything _other_ than; no idea [no on] how.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you very much, fixed. :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> If the creator shared this, I give you full marks! I like this app, it is simple and it encrypts my stuff, so all is well.

But I have a Feature Request: In a further version, it should be possible to organize notebooks into folders(like Evernote)and my move from Evernote shall be complete!

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm thinking about tags (an often requested feature). The tags availability could allow a folders/notebooks-like UI (not unlike the Gmail tags show as folders in IMAP clients).

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Ahh very nice. I have a similar one that is waiting on review in the app store right now haha. Very cool. Mine's going to be called Onions, but it's not out yet. Mine also doesn't have pictures, dropbox, or anything else yet - <USER2> notes.

www.onions.io

</comment><comment><USER6> Great idea, but it's too bad there's even a need for this in the first place. I'm curious why Dropbox's own client has text editing facilities on Andriod, but not on ios.

</comment><comment><USER7> Is the privacy focus the result of some other note taking app's failure, a reassurance for those concerned about it, or a response to NSA things?

Something else maybe?

<comment><AUTHOR> Basically it started as a personal need/itch to scratch. Also, I'm old enough to remember when my data were my data, applications were my applications and no other entities were interested in what I do/write/see. ;) The NSA things helped my decision to do this, but I was thinking about the program from before.

I decided to open source the code after a review on the App Store (probably the US one) that basically said: "Who are you and why should I trust you". This comment hit a button inside me (and was fundamentally true).

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> As someone with the same name. I approve.

</comment><comment><USER9> I'm impressed actually.

</comment><comment><USER10> vim + TrueCrypt

<comment><USER11> iOS</comment></comment>


Is it news that Google goes encrypted? - <AUTHOR>

<comment><USER2> I've been using the Encrypted Google as my homepage for a while now, and honestly, I don't notice any difference compared to the regular search. Granted, I am not a big fan of Google Instant, so I am biased but nohting's really changed as far as results for me. They may be a second or two slower and the auto-fill doesn't always work but those are compromises that I can live with.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1485515> by vog 178 days ago

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> This was discussed almost 6 months ago but it seems that is a real option today. How would that could affect the search experience from the point of view of the normal user? And how could that affect the overall efficiency and speed of Google search in a let us say global scale?</comment>


Ask HN: How do you (or your parents) organize family photos? - <AUTHOR>

Juts had this problem:
My mom: "I want to go through all our family photos and select few photos to print and make a physical album."
Currently, our family photos are scattered across our phones, digital cameras, and old backup dropbox account I made few years back.
Is there a good way for her to somehow go through all those photos and somehow sort them?
(my mom is not tech savvy. she doesn't know how to close a tab on a browser. that concept just goes over her head. so does the concept of filesystem, or file/directory for that matter.) <comment><USER2> I have this issue too. It's kinda several problems in one. Photos spread out between various homes in the family, different devices etc.

As a wedding photographer we use Zenfolio for our customers and often create our own galleries to share with friends & family.

Most albums now are photo books instead of prints in an album. I've used Cewe - good books but software is a pain.

It would be nice to have them all together. A simple iPad app connected up to Dropbox might work. Easy to navigate but then the print ordering is a whole other issue.

</comment><comment><USER3> install google picasa, collect all photo's in a single folder.</comment>


Apple suspends Siri response grading in response to privacy concerns - <AUTHOR> https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/01/apple-suspends-siri-response-grading-in-response-to-privacy-concerns/ <comment><USER2> So far, most of the comments here are a good example of both why this happened and why it will happen again.

When people complained that putting microphones in your home 24/7 was creepy, the response was "that's nonsense, Siri is not sending anything unless you specifically ask for it". When it turned out that it _does_ send things you didn't intend, the response was "well, it's not like anyone is listening anyway". Now that we know someone _is_ listening, the response is "it's no big deal, because they don't care and ultimately is good for you".

Just because most people don't understand the implications of what they agree to, it doesn't mean they don't care. And the levity with which the tech community disregards other people's privacy concerns seems to me one of the reasons why everything everywhere is spying on us nowadays.

We really need mandatory ethics courses in CS.

<comment><USER3> Minor point: While I do agree that ethics course should be a part of CS curricula, wouldn't managers be the ones who likely pushed for the pattern you're remarking upon? (Ie ethics classes would be more useful for them?)

<comment><USER4> Tangentially related: The Technical University of Berlin is considered to have one of Germany's best departments of philosophy.

The reason: after World War 2, the university was located in the British- controlled sector, and their administration made philosophy mandatory for all students.

Because never again should young people be given the power of an engineering/science education without any regard to the ethical implications of the possibilities.

<comment><USER5> > have one of Germany's best departments of philosophy.

So what? Philosophy has barely anything to do with ethics. You can study philosophers that can argue for complete opposite sides of the same point at hand, so it does not give you any indication as to what is right or wrong.

And Germany has a pretty poor record so far in terms of privacy protections/provisions, so I am not sure there is any indication that post-WW2 or post-RDA experiences have had much impact.

<comment><USER6> An education should not hand you a canned answer to what is "right" or "wrong", it should do almost the opposite. Learning to evaluate well founded opposing arguments is certainly more useful than being force fed moralist dogma du jour.

<comment><USER5> You can't evaluate arguments in a vacuum. You need a value system to do that, and Philosophy doesn't give you any, it's merely the art of debating.

<comment><USER6> Calling it "merely the art of debating" implies it lacks actual substance. I think philosophy concerns itself with _what_ you debate about, not _how_ you do it.

Besides, nothing outside of dogma can "give you" a value system, but philosophy does present candidates. It's up to you to choose your own, the hope being that this is better than unquestioned inheritance of values.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> People have really bad intuitions around privacy. The predominant mental model is that there is a single, motivated adversary who is uniquely interested in attacking them. In reality, privacy almost always involves large, impersonal systems ingesting masses of data to either increase profits or commit crimes.

It may sound bad that some random person is hearing your sex sounds but that person has heard a thousand other equally anonymous sex sounds and truly could not give less of a shit that the sound is of someone having sex. Similarly with leaking financial information, anyone capable & willing to defraud people based on this information has much better ways of generating ROI than hoping on the one snippet of information in a million that could lead to a breach.

It's similar to that time it was revealed a bunch of iOS apps were screen recording users using the app. Having worked at companies that collected that data, the _only_ conceivable use we had for it was to help diagnose bugs for individual users having issues with the app. Every other question we wanted answered, it was much easier to use aggregated data collated specifically for that purpose. A bunch of videos of people tapping the screen was less than useless for that. And yet when I told people about that, in general, they refused to believe me and believed there must be some super secret nefarious reason we were collecting such "invasive" information.

<comment><USER8> > People have really bad intuitions around privacy.

> Having worked at companies that collected that data [...]

No, you just have a different personal definition of privacy. The fact that _you_ think _your_ use of _my_ data is innocuous doesn't mean you are not violating my privacy. If your use was really, trully unobjectionable you'd be fine with getting clear and explicit consent.

Somehow, I don't think an honest consent prompt like _" Can our app silently record your screen and send it to us?"_ would get you the results you want.

<comment><USER9> > If your use was really, trully unobjectionable you'd be fine with getting > clear and explicit consent.

This ignores human nature: requiring people to make a decision, any decision, is a friction point that will lose users. Something like "we'd like to increment a counter when our app crashes, we won't log anything else than that single bit".

So first of all, you'll have people who will claim that you could be lying, and they'll opt out, or not install your app, or whatever. Fine. But now all the people who truly didn't and don't actually care will have to make a decision. And making choices takes effort. So some people will just refuse to make a choice, and you'll lose users.

Consider the other side of this: I'm from the US but currently in Europe. GDPR requires explicit consent for the various trackers, it has defaults. I don't change them. I don't want to think about them. I don't care enough. And it's just effort I have to expend before I actually get to the stuff I'm interested in. Like a government mandated paywall (think the "we use cookies..." but more extreme, with checkboxes to decide which cookies they can store).

Even as someone who truly actually doesn't care, and is happy to, in the abstract, give explicit consent to all the tracking these sites do, I don't want to have to explicitly consent, because its work to do something I don't care about.

I expect, though I'm by no means certain, that most people who aren't on HN are in that bucket. And that means that requiring explicit consent for otherwise innocuous things is just bad for business with little gain, and it numbs people for explicit consent on actually important things.

<comment><USER8> > requiring people to make a decision, any decision, is a friction point that > will lose users

One could argue that's a good thing.

> you'll have people who will claim that you could be lying

That's not a claim, that's a fact. You _could_ very well be lying and I wouldn't know as I don't have access to the internals of your company.

> But now all the people who truly didn't and don't actually care will have to > make a decision. And making choices takes effort.

The horror!

> So some people will just refuse to make a choice, and you'll lose users.

Good, people shouldn't blindly sign up to services they don't understand just because it's a new shiny thing.

> I don't change them. I don't want to think about them. I don't care enough.

Good for you. I'm also in Europe and I think GDPR is fine and I _do_ change the cookie settings instead of just clicking through.

> And it's just effort I have to expend before I actually get to the stuff I'm > interested in. Like a government mandated paywall

Music to my ears.

> requiring explicit consent for otherwise innocuous things is just bad for > business with little gain

I couldn't care less about what's good or bad for a data collecting business, I care about the people whose data will inevitably be leaked by said business in a future breach.

<comment><USER9> > One could argue that's a good thing.

Then you should make that argument. If you think it's a good thing, put in the effort of saying why. Don't force me to imagine why it might be so.

> That's not a claim, that's a fact.

Sure. But asking for explicit consent for the innocuous thing: logging a bit and nothing else, doesn't change the fact that the company could be lying. Nothing is gained. If they're lying about logging the bit, they might be lying if you opt out. Obviously it's far easier to figure out what is being sent than what is being being logged serverside, but you'd still need to verify that independently. If you don't trust the group providing the service, unless its verifiably trustless (not communicating at all or client-side encrypted with minimal side channels), you shouldn't use the service. Otherwise, you're still trusting the service provider.

> The horror!

Yes. Making people expend mental energy on otherwise unimportant/irrelevant decisions is anti-user.

> Good, people shouldn't blindly sign up to services they don't understand > just because it's a new shiny thing.

My point is a lot of people do understand and just don't give a shit. Getting in the way of those people is anti-user.

> Music to my ears.

Again, anti-user.

> I care about the people whose data will inevitably be leaked

I'm talking about innocuous things. Things where being leaked isn't a problem: truly anonymous or aggregated data that can't be used to identify or tied back to an individual user or group. You're saying users should still need to opt in to those kinds of tracking. That's anti-user. It obfuscates actually harmful tracking.

To phrase it another way, there's PII and not-PII. Are you suggesting that tracking of non-PII need explicit user consent? Even if revealing non-PII, by definition, can't be tied to an individual user?

>by said business in a future breach.

Recently, we've seen leaks of PII from CapitolOne and Equifax. Click boxes on websites don't help when the data being leaked is banking information that (for capone) has to be stored tied to an identity and can only be opted out of by not using the products in question (credit cards, banks), or isn't gotten from the user at all (equifax).

How does clicky-consent boxes on their websites help with that?

<comment><USER10> > Making people expend mental energy on otherwise unimportant/irrelevant > decisions is anti-user.

Then don't ask them and let them explicitly toggle the option to share information. That isn't anti-user. Your privacy invasions are anti-user.

<comment><USER9> > Then don't ask them and let them explicitly toggle the option to share > information.

Is incrementing a counter if an app crashes a privacy invasion?

<comment><USER10> Yes, because you get a bunch of meta information when any device of mine uses my internet connection to connect to your servers to increase that counter. If you save that information or not, you created a trail.

I expect from any app that it doesn't establish any connections per default to be honest. You can have that as an option that I can enable if I feel like it.

<comment><USER9> Ok, so what if the app is internet connected and has to communicate with some central server? Think a non-p2p messaging app, or an app for a bank/<some internet thing like youtube or facebook or reddit>?

<comment><USER10> Then it is obviously allowed to do that for that specific purpose. If you want your flag to be packaged into the data stream, it has to be some option that says "send additional diagnostic data".

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I'm genuinely concerned about data privacy, but I'm kinda surprised about the outcry about all of this. I guess it's relatively common knowledge for hacker news readers that all of these systems need to have human intervention to improve, but I feel like all this could have been avoided by just explaining that this was how the service was able to improve... I'm sure more steps could be taken to anonymise data from the people doing the transcripts, but I feel the best part of this is to improve the wake word detection to reduce the false positive rate.

<comment><USER12> I mostly agree, however, there are some issues I'm foreseeing. I've done some NLP work myself and have had access to very private information because of it. The team we were working with were all highly educated and well paid. Because of this, we were aware of the implications of the data we were working with, so at one point, in one of our randomly selected data sets, we found data that was from a public figure and removed it to avoid any possibility of a conflict of interest.

Where my concern is, is that a lot of annotating work is now being done by low wage, low education workers and because of the increasing demand of annotated data sets this group is increasing. Also, because this work is increasingly getting outsourced, there is less direct control of who is doing the work and therefore the chance that a bad apple slips through is bigger. That's what's scaring me going forward.

<comment><USER13> i'd wager that in most cases "low wage, low education" workers have much better morals than your "highly educated well paid" team.

<comment><USER14> The problem isn't a single-value metric of morals, whatever that may be, the problem is that one group is bored and not invested in the project while the other has far more exciting things to do than wondering who they might be listening to.

<comment><USER12> Thanks, that is exactly what concerns me.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Protip: When you use Google's handwriting recognition, all the texts you write are visible to people who have opted in to train the neural networks. I've already received tons of names, phone numbers and even something that resemble passwords.

<comment><USER16> Hearing about this for the first time.

Mind linking to more info on how people opt in to help train Google's NN for handwriting recognition?

My searches turned up this TC article (from 3 years ago): [https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/29/googles-new-app- crowdsourc...](https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/29/googles-new-app-crowdsource- asks-users-to-help-with-translation-transcription-more/)

Thanks

<comment><USER17> From what I remember, the crowdsource app is exactly what is used for community sources.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> [https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/02/google-ordered-to-halt- hum...](https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/02/google-ordered-to-halt-human-review- of-voice-ai-recordings-over-privacy-risks/)

</comment><comment><USER19> My guess is that this whole story arc was planned from Day 1. They knew they'd need to do this, and they'd get caught, so they just tried to tag as much stuff as they could before the shit hit the PR fan.

</comment><comment><USER20> So, Amazon, Google and now Apple have been "caught" doing this. Is Microsoft's Cortana doing it also on it's voice commands?

Also, wouldn't it make sense for EVERYONE to just use their own users to gauge if the voice is working as intended? Like, once in a while get a random "was this correct?" from the people using it, instead of strangers determining it.

</comment><comment><USER21> The biggest problem of all is _Apple_ , a company which constantly brags about its privacy stand, is that doing this without explicitly telling its user.

One of the thing with Tim Cook's Apple is the smell of Hypocrisy. I am giving Apple's the benefits of doubt, and they will need to explain this better.

</comment><comment><USER22> ugh, techcrunch seems to automatically swap pages on you if you scroll down. What an awful ui decision

</comment><comment><USER23> Too little, too late. Siri was already disabled on my Macs, I now disabled it on all my iOS devices.

<comment><USER24> I just don't enable 'hey Siri'. I use Siri but summon it by mashing the power button. Siri is useful and I feel comfortable with its explicitly summoned mode.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> I actually think they should collect this data. Siri doesn't understand basic things from me.

<comment><USER26> Can't it be opt-in?

<comment><USER27> > Additionally, as part of a future software update, users will have the > ability to choose to participate in grading

<comment><USER28> That could mean opt-out.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> On the one hand it sucks because clearly the quality might be lowered. On the other hand if Apple invests on Siri doing its thing mostly on the device like Mycroft does that would be worthwhile.

</comment><comment><USER30> End users should be the ones grading Siri's responses anyway.

</comment><comment><USER31> Can anyone give insight into how grading is specifically used? Are the results used for ML training?

<comment><USER32> Well, it isn't anymore apparently.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> How about we start treating these sorts of freeform data with the highest security and privacy they deserve? If it might contain HIPAA data, treat it as you would HIPAA data. If it might contain military secrets, treat it as you would under top secret clearance. If it might contain personal data, treat it as you would under GDPR. When it's always on for a huge portion of the population, treat it like it's likely enough to contain data that should be held under a really high standard. Don't treat it under the average case standard.

If your users are usually saying "Hello, i am unhappy I spent two hours on hold" but a few thousand data points say "hello, my name is john doe. I have HIV, I live at 123 Main Street and my social security number is 987654321" treat the whole dataset as the latter case. Maybe we should even pass regulations along those lines.

</comment><comment><USER13> yes, make something that doesn't work correctly even worse. at this point why have siri in the first place? and how long will it take for them to fix it? 6 months?

</comment><comment><USER33> Siri is already useless when comparing to Google Assistant. And they want to handicap themselves even more. Apple will lose AI fight to Google in the end. Some people probably will value privacy over convenience, but that's certainly not me or majority.

<comment><USER34> Are people really using these assistants for anything more than making the device do something? Because in my experience Siri will set reminders, timers etc. just fine and will find the song you are listening just fine and will call someone just fine.

The other stuff feels like a gimmick to me or more like stuff that some middle-level manager spawned to get a nice bonus.

Using a voice assistant "AI" usually feels like trying to make a really stupid person do something for you. It will accomplish 90% of the thing that I am trying to do for %75 of the times and then it will completely miss the point. Okay, maybe with Google it is like %85 of the time but when it misses the point still misses the point completely.

<comment><USER35> The day when you can just say "lights on, 50%" and the assistant in the next room understands you don't mean it is when we will have the right amount of universal compatibility.

Until we can derive decisions based on who is speaking and where they "are" - I think it'll always be clunky.

"Hey Alexa tell Hue to set light scene livingroom to 80%" is cool that it exists for those who really need the solution but its not easier or cool for sure but we're so far from that.

<comment><USER36> I listen to the Twit podcast, which is usually very good. One thing they do, however, is to stop themselves from saying the word Alexa, and if someone accidentally does so, they beep it out.

Why? Because they don't want to set off any so-called smart speakers.

I'd argue that going so low as to change the way we speak just to accommodate these devices is quite terrible, and if you have to watch what you say so that a smart speaker don't misunderstand you, then it's not very smart.

Their listeners shouldn't complain that their hosts use the word Alexa. They should complain to the vendors that their products are garbage.

I wouldn't use one of those even if they weren't garbage, but at least I wouldn't be infuriated every time I hear someone on the podcast stop themselves from saying the name of the product that's the topic of their discussion.

<comment><USER37> In our house we refer to Alexa as "Alesto" when we're discussing her.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


DeployButton is the simplest and fastest way to get code on your server - <AUTHOR> http://deploybutton.com/ <comment><USER2> (I am one of the site's creators)

Thanks for the overwhelming response - making the front page of HackerNews unexpectedly. DeployButton was our entry to RailsRumble this year, and it's a solution we created because we wanted something like this for ourselves for our own startup, Lizi.

Over the next few weeks, we'll be updating a few key issues that have been raised in these comments, including the ones about security.

We don't immediately accept that enterprises will jump to use DeployButton, but for a series of smaller consultancies, the security features we will offer will be more than enough.

Thanks again for the support - Sometimes I wish there was a "Whoops, we're not ready for HackerNews yet, don't taze me bro" break-the-glass button that puts us back on after a month's time.

<comment><USER3> Hey yakshaving,

I like the idea and you've got an interesting internal page, but your front page ("What if deploying your code...") is literally unusable on an iPhone and probably on other mobile platforms -- the button is not visible, nothing is clickable, and it can't be scrolled or resized. You might want to rethink that so as to capture the people who are browsing HN / TechCrunch / whatever while surfing on the bus on the go.

<comment><USER2> Thanks a lot - I DID notice that -- For the first time after a friend pointed out that we were on HackerNews and I was in line waiting to eat a delicious veggie burrito. We opened the link in horror to notice that our catch splash page was unusable on mobile.

Sorry about this, a fix for this is coming too! From what I understand, we're not allowed to check in or "deploy" until the competition (judging) is complete, but its now on our list.

Thanks so much for your support!

<comment><USER4> It's not just mobile - I can't do anything with it on my netbook, either.

<comment><USER2> Hmm - really, that's odd. What browser/OS and netbook are you using? Any chance you can send me a screenshot?

email@example.com

<comment><USER4> It's Firefox on Ubuntu 12.04 on an Asus Eee 1005P. I _think_ it's just a vertical resolution problem - comparing on another screen it looked like the big red button was just cut off, and without the scroll bar working there was nothing I could do on the front page.

Checking again, I see that there's a four or five pixel strip of red bottom center that is actually clickable, but it's not exactly obvious. Screenshot here: <http://imgur.com/JWcaP>

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Hey guys, thanks for the feedback. As you may already know, this was built for the 48hour Rails Rumble hackathon. So it will definitely have quirks and there's a ton of stuff we had to cut (like collab git access instead of full oauth which i believe would have solved most security concerns).

Dropbox let us set things up nicely, where we opt for only a single folder (Apps/DeployButton) and we can only see stuff you place directly inside.

The main appeal of DeployButton for me was to have a service I could easily connect to Campfire/Hipchat to script out deployments from there. It's not that deploying is "hard", it's that it's tedious and I believe should always done as a collaborative experience instead of solo.

More feedback greatly appreciated. Site and workers are already overloaded (we didnt anticipate an HN post). So apologies in advance.

</comment><comment><USER6> This looks awesome. My concern though is giving a 3rd party access to my sites. There's not a lot of info regarding terms, security, data handling etc.

<comment><USER7> Second that, it looks like maybe a cool gimmick for a personal site or small project but you are crazy if you would use it for anything important. Not to say the slick front-end wouldn't be useful, you should release the source code.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> "It's built with simplicity and power in mind -- The simplicity for a non- technical user to be given the reigns to deploy from a master branch to a "staging" server… or to a production server after any tests have passed."

I'm sure there's good reasoning behind wanting to give a non-technical user the rights to deploy code to servers, but I'm afraid I can't seem to conceive of them right now. Can you elaborate why you would want someone without the requisite technical skills deploying code?

<comment><USER9> Copy changes. "Knobs" (configuration parameter changes that affect product- level behavior, things a product manager could decide about.)

Sure you can abstract copy from your codebase or markup, but that's not trivial or necessarily a benefit.

<comment><USER10> Why on earth would you put your copy and configuration in your code base, and not in a CMS (for copy) or a database (for configuration)?

<comment><USER9> Because that's a lot of extra work and our product manager at our small startup is competent enough to change e.g. the number of a constant in a knobs.py without wrecking things.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Great. Now make a big blue button to write the app for me as well, and a green one to send me all the money.

<comment><USER2> Clever. When we create that one, I'll password protect it and make sure it stays off HackerNews ;-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> What does this do that running a Jenkins server couldn't do?

<comment><USER13> make it easy

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> How is this different from just using Heroku's Command Line Tools, which are also just a "one command" deploy?

Honest question - I'm wondering what I'm missing.

</comment><comment><USER15> I never realized deploying code was so complicated

<comment><USER16> Releases are easy if you don't stop to think about what could go wrong.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> I said the same thing last time a company came along that did deployments. Why would I trust a 3rd party rights to my whole system. Sell the product as software I can install and I'd think about it, until then I wouldn't even sign up.

</comment><comment><USER18> It looks pretty awesome, but Linode is not listed in the deploy option.

And yeah, security would be an issue for me. I would most likely set up a user just for DeployButton.

<comment><USER19> I'm not sure what you're seeing, but Linode is right under Heroku on the right side "your web server" list.

<comment><USER18> Yeah, but when I try to set up a deploy button...

<http://imgur.com/PEACn>

<comment><USER20> SSH is what you're looking for.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I was thinking about something like this, but not just for deployment but for server/service provisioning. Simplified chef-server as a service.

</comment><comment><USER22> If you use .NET, check out <http://www.octopusdeploy.com> (finally something..)

</comment><comment><USER23> That has to be the slickest bikeshed I've seen all day...

These kids need mentoring bad. Someone steer them to a _worthwhile_ project please.

<comment><USER2> Thanks, I'm sure you mean that with the best intentions and not to be a troll. I'd love to hear your ideas to build a useful tool that we could 1) use for ourselves on our own startup (<http://lizi.ai>) during a Rails competition as a way to have a quick creative diversion :)

All that aside, I'd love to hear your worthwhile project ideas, Moe! firstname.lastname@example.com

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> This site doesn't work at all in mobile Safari

<comment><USER2> Thanks David! We found that out after deploying for the competition (RailsRumble 2012). We can't quite fix it now, but it should be changed after the judging.

I appreciate the support and heads up!

<comment><USER25> There's at least a bit of irony that you can't deploy a fix right now.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Very cool site! I think aTech Media's DeployHQ.com has been doing something similar. :) Does this differ in any way?

</comment><comment><USER27> I don't usually deploy but when I do, I appreciate original website design. You got an upvote.

<comment><USER2> Thanks for the props, Flyinglizard!

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> This would be a nice and simple way to get ahold of people's login credentials. Oh wait.

</comment><comment><USER29> What's wrong with `git pull`, `svn update` etc?

<comment><USER30> +1. This button looks like a too much pimp to be useful. And let's coin that term: TMPTBU!

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> How can I choose a custom port for SFTP/SSH?

</comment><comment><USER32> No mobile site.

</comment><comment><USER33> Deploying code is trivial.

What about databases?

What about multiple code/DB versions and rollbacks?

What about rolling out to one data center and directing 1% of the traffic there?

What about fast P2P deployments?

<comment><USER5> Luckily great tools have been built for this. We use Opscode Chef and it's life changing. After an admittedly painful learning hump, we're able to completely power our sysadmin via code.

DeployButton is just the trigger button, not the missile :)

<comment><USER34> There's a market for the missile, not the button.

<comment><USER35> People also sell buttons.

<comment><USER36> Link? I'm all out of buttons.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> All of this and all of what rorrr mentioned should be a primary thought. I always hope people say, "duh, that's obvious" but I've worked too many places where ramp up on a project is a hodge podge of copy pasted scripts, years-old info on a wiki and "good luck, take a few weeks to get setup".

At the very least, all of my projects can be developed on in a live testing environment after one step after check out and it works everywhere the toolchain works. It lowers barrier of entry for developers and for users that want or need to build from source.

</comment><comment><USER38> Nice job. Great graphics. Check out my team's app.

<http://the-glimmer-twins.r12.railsrumble.com/>

<comment><USER39> While this is a kind of spammish comment I tried it. My name appears in the list with other 2, I clicked play but nothing happened.</comment></comment>


Git-based fabric deploys are awesome - <AUTHOR> http://dan.bravender.us/2012/5/11/git-based_fabric_deploys_are_awesome.html

<comment><USER2>
      One other valid problem I've heard raised about git-based
      deploys is that you can end up with cruft in your working
      copy that sticks around like .pyc files where the
      original .py file is deleted and there is the chance that
      this file could still be imported even though the
      original .py was deleted.

I'm shocked. If a py file is modified, the pyc is rebuilt. So we know it's poking at the original source file. Why not fail to import if the original source is missing?

Maybe this behavior is meant to support binary-only distribution of Python applications, but there really should be an option to override this behavior.

Edit: Did a bit more research and found this:

(1) <http://docs.python.org/release/1.5.1p1/tut/node43.html>

      It is possible to have a file called "spam.pyc" without
      a module "spam.py" in the same module. This can be used
      to distribute a library of Python code in a form that is
      moderately hard to reverse engineer.

Makes sense.

(2) <http://docs.python.org/using/cmdline.html#cmdoption-B>

      If given, Python won't try to write .pyc or .pyo files
      on the import of source modules.

So you can mitigate that behavior by removing existing pyc files and using "-B".

<comment><USER3> When I ran into this problem I simply added a post-checkout hook that deletes *.pyc files within the git root.

<comment><USER4> Same here. Is there a downside to this approach that I'm missing?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> " Packages are, of course, a legitimate way to push out changes but the downside of deploying with packages is that it takes time to build them and upload them"

Hopefully your CI server is building them. Packages (whether native or otherwise) come in quite handy for loads of reasons. Native package managers mature? and have fantastic tools available

<comment><USER5> I find it interesting that this comment has been given some points, and it's actually the draft of the comment I was trying to write on my phone, but gave up on (Hacker News doesn't work very well on my phone). Here's what I meant to say:

Packages do take time to build, but your CI server should be doing that. For most kinds of deployments, you can rely on unix's copy-on-write filesystem by installing the package and then restarting you process manager (ie: supervisor or apache). This means your program is only down between restarts (assuming you have no migrations to apply). The outage due to a deployment is then typically a couple of seconds, assuming your program is quick to start up. This is a sufficiently short downtime period for many situations.

There are lots of additional benefits with using packages, especially native ones, like dpkg/deb. You can add specific dependencies onto the package (for example python 2.7), which will be checked at install time. Multiple language programs are often handled better. The program is easily un-installable. If your CI server is building the package, you can download it for manual testing (for example, for UAT).

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> > Why anyone would want to write a billion line init script now that upstart > exists is beyond me. Perhaps they don't know about upstart. It could also be > that they are stuck on CentOS or RedHat. My heart goes out to you if that's > the case. I know how that feels.

RHEL/CentOS 6 uses Upstart (and the next major version will use systemd).

<comment><USER7> 1) Because a billion-line init script is a gross exaggeration.

2) What do you do if you have 1,000 servers and your upstart script has to change? Fabric is nice to have in situations like that.

<comment><USER8> If you have 1000 servers and you're using Fabric to modify your init scripts, then I weep for you.

Well before you get to that level you should be using configuration management software (cfengine, puppet, et al.) to handle your servers.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> > we got sick of waiting for the packages to build and upload

I don't get it. What did they do, that took longer than git commit / git push? It's not like you're compiling anything in python and when you do have deps to compile, they would take that time on deployment anyway.

</comment><comment><USER10> Been doing this for a while, came with another bonus: I no longer have a single ftp server running anywhere on my servers now, using codebasehq.com as my repo / deployment source ... works extremely well.

</comment><comment><USER11> The pattern that I've seen fairly often (and use myself) is to git pull into a "working copy" on the deployment target, but do a git archive/symlink to actually build the copy that's served (before doing the service restart).

That gives you a more atomic process and several points to back out gracefully if something goes wrong, without having to worry about *.pyc files or any similar cruft.</comment>


Top reasons why IT projects fail - <AUTHOR> http://www.jonathanhui.com/top-reasons-why-it-projects-fail

<comment><USER2> Hubris is another good one.</comment>


Copycats - <AUTHOR> http://mattgemmell.com/2011/11/27/copycats/ <comment><USER2> I stopped reading when I got to the 6x2 Android vs iOS comparison. In order:

The first one appears to make the argument that since the background images are similar colors, Android copied. But they're both nature scenes (one day, one night) and the sky really only comes in shades of blue... The author could be talking about the icon shape (square) but that's even more ridiculous since that's been the standard in desktop OSes for more than a decade.

The second one shows Gmail on the left, which looks the same as the Gmail web interface, and the iOS mail app on the right. The only similarities are the colors and the layout. The colors: Gmail had them long, long before iOS was ever released. The layout: Outlook did it first in the early 2000s.

The third: Two keyboards, both with white keys and a similar color background. However, other than the (standardized) QWERTY layout, the button placement is entirely different. Further, the Android one shows off Swype, something not present in iOS.

The fourth: Apparently the Android tablet calendar interface (I dunno, I don't have an Android tablet) paired against... I don't know. It looks like a third- party web app. It's definitely not a calendar.

The fifth: A third-party chat client paired against the iOS Facebook app. Neither of those are written by Google, Samsung, or Apple. Both are third- party. Fail.

The sixth: Uh, they're both black devices with an LCD screen? Them and every other smartphone on the market. Hint: RIM did black smartphones first, in the 90s.

<comment><USER3> You missed the point and should have kept reading.

The author is arguing that even though there's prior art for most of those things, and some of those are just too archetipal today, the SII would be radically different without the iPhone, given that the chances of this likeness being by pure chance are astronomically small. Whether you believe this is true or not is up to you.

<comment><USER4> The article contains a false choice between random chance and copying. There are many other ways it could have happened, such as multiple simultaneous invention, aesthetic choices that are in fact constricted by physical analogs, conventions, and prior customer experience. If you believe that the iPhone has hit a local maximum for design, why not believe that other manufacturers are hillclimbing toward them with the same algorithm?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> "Copies never, ever achieve the success of the thing they copied."

Windows blatantly copied the Macintosh but in pure financial terms was a much greater success. Still, you need to bring some insight into the market besides "leveraging" your competitor's design. In Microsoft's case, they realized that by commoditizing hardware they could achieve immense market penetration.

<comment><USER6> See also: Disney.

<comment><USER7> "Good artist copy, great artists steal" Anyone?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> The "copied" ui elements are actually neither copied nor random. They are conventional elements predating both OSes. Such as the tab coloring in the spreadsheet which is from manila folders, the mail reading vertical panes from Outlook, the icons from Windows, and the keyboard, which is from the typewriter.

And that is where I stopped.

</comment><comment><USER8> "Copies never, ever achieve the success of the thing they copied."

LMFAO. Suggested reading: Copycats: How Smart Companies Use Imitation to Gain a Strategic Edge [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1422126730?ie=UTF8&link...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1422126730?ie=UTF8&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1422126730)

<comment><USER9> There should also be a guide on how to copy without losing face, if only because losing face tends to cheapen your brand. Look how Apple copied from Xerox -- the underlying idea for the GUI was the same but the whole "look" was completely redone and customized, to the extent that lead even many smart people to believe that it was actually Apple who invented that interface. What Samsung's doing, on the other hand, is nothing less than slavish imitation -- they not only borrow the underlying idea, but also not even bother to make the product appear different on the surface (or they assume that by churning out products look similar enough to Apple's they can save in the marketing/design department, thinking along the lines of "oh hey, Apple's look/style is already 'in', so why bother inventing another one?"). There's copying, and then there's copying.

The first kind of imitation is due to one being forced to choose what's the absolute best out there. The second kind of imitation is simply due to one being cheap and trying to save bucks on design. That's a huge difference. A lot of people mix up these two ways of copying. However, the distinction between the two is precisely what is captured by the quote, "good artists copy, great artists steal." Stealing is done in a shy and low-key way so that nobody would notice, while copying, on the other hand, is blatant, slavish imitation. One has to know how to steal.

Sorry, I have no pity for those who slavishly imitate, though I do have a certain admiration for those who know well how to steal.

<comment><USER10> > Look how Apple copied from Xerox -- the underlying idea for the GUI was the > same but the whole "look" was completely redone and customized, to the > extent that lead even many smart people to believe that it was actually > Apple who invented that interface.

I think it's not unfair to say that while Xerox invented WIMP as a concept, it was Apple who invented it as a consumer product. (After all, Apple didn't only customize it but considerably extended and brought their own ideas.)

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_graphical_user_i...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_graphical_user_interface#Apple_Lisa_and_Macintosh_.28and_later.2C_the_Apple_IIgs.29)

[http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&s...](http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=On_Xerox,_Apple_and_Progress.txt&topic=Software%20Design&sortOrder=Sort%20by%20Date)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I'm soooo tired of this discussion. Could please the whole gadget industry sue itself to hell. It's stupid. The arrangement of some buttons is not "innovation". Development of new wireless technologies (like UMTS, etc.) is innovation!

One thing i am really sick of: Go to the next walmart or what have you... Look at ALL the electronic devices. ALL! Now what do you see when you compare televisions, dishwashers, washingmachines, DECT telephones, receivers, every f __king device looks the same, and for decades no sh*t has been given.

Really, i hope that Apple, HTC, Samsung, all of them sue each other into non- operation, let them not sell a device at all. Because somehow all of them copy from eachother (look at iOS5 notifications, as a counter example). It's a rather trivial design decision, not some livechanging invention!

Why is it that with all those new gadgets everyones first reaction is "oh fuck, i've seen this on device X before, it's copied, that's bad!"?! For about every of those design decisions prior art has been found anyway, it's NOT like Apple reinvented the whole electronic world with some "perfectly" aligned buttons.

<comment><USER12> Have you ever seen and used phones prior 2007?

<comment><USER11> Sure, and since you may have done too, you may remember that there was no such fuss about a phone looking like another, which is the point of my comment.

I also don't see how the "slide to unlock" stuff can be patented and sued on, there are (not only from Apple of course) sooo much stupid trivial patents, it's just sickening.

Hopefully someday the sue each other into "check mate", make no money and the world/countries see that the whole patent system has to be reworked from the ground.

<comment><USER12> Phones were ugly, they were not other phones knock-offs. They were WAY different: Nokia phones were slide phones, Samsung phones were different (similar to Motorola but way thicker)

They were not lookalikes, maybe sometimes vaguely similar, nothing more.

Also, just see the thumbnail image to recall how phones were in 2007: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uW-E496FXg>

<comment><USER11> uhm.. yes.. first you say "WAY different", but then "..similar to Motorola.." and "..sometimes vaguely similar.."..

So what now.. the samsung doesn't look exactly like the iphone either, only similar (woohoo it consists mainly of a touch screen!).. Same thing for pretty much every electronic device as i said in the other post..

Asi said, this whole discussion is just stupid. Someone who can't tell the difference between phones and tablets wouldn't be alte to tell the difference between televisions or cars or whatever.. Only that for all other products nobody cares.

<comment><USER12> You do remember that a Samsung lawyer could not tell the difference between a Tab and ad iPad in a court, right? (thankfully a second lawyer got it right)

<comment><USER13> I would bet that same lawyer couldn't have told you the make of any LCD TV at Best Buy if you removed their names either. Should all the flat panel TV manufacturers sue each other for copying because they all do shiny black flat devices with the same aspect ratio operated by a remote control? Or perchance they all settled on what works best for a flat panel TV design.

I did have a smart phone before 97, an HTC Apache in 95. It was a flat rectangle with a large touchscreen in the middle. So goes the evolution of hardware towards a common structure that works best.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> > _Think of all the iconic products and designs that endure, and remain > incredibly successful, while dozens of also-ran knock-offs appear, wither > and die on a monthly basis._

Bluuuh. "Think of all the X" just invites the availability heuristic. You immediately think of the products that became huge successes and introduced something new into the mainstream. Successful but boring products don't come to mind because they're boring, and the failed but novel products don't come to mind because you never heard of them. Averaged over the whole industry, I would guess that new products need a fairly small amount of originality, and adding more is correlated with failure.

If you want to be the best in your area, by all means go the extra mile to understand the problem deeply. But if you want to be good enough in 20 different areas, your best bet is to be a copycat in all of them, because originality is expensive and risky and your resources are not infinite.

</comment><comment><USER15> There is one more reason that copying works is that people become disaffected with the original for whatever reason: poor customer service; failure at a crucial moment; finding out the price point of the original was not the best deal, etc. During the mid to late 1990's McAfee software made serious bank on this model.

</comment><comment><USER16> Good artists copy. Great artists steal.

Steve Jobs: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW0DUg63lqU>

<comment><USER17> I think a lot of people miss the point of this statement. He's saying, good artists are inspired by the idea and want to copy it, while great artists understand the underlying concept and produce something genuinely original by stealing that concept.

For example, that HP Envy copies Apple's design, while the Macbook Pro, steals the underlying concept of the Macbook Air and reforms it in the context of a professional laptop. (Unibody was an innovation created for the Air.) Android is a copy, while Windows Phone 7 is an attempt to come up with something new by stealing the concept.

<comment><USER18> Could you provide an example outside of apple products, to make your distinction clearer? With the examples given, the difference is colored by my feelings about the companies involved.

<comment><USER19> The example that sticks out in my mind are the Sony NEX-series cameras. These are cameras with sensors far larger than most point and shoots, but also do not have the bulk of SLRs - high performance at a pocketable size. Sony's entry into this market came after the extremely innovative and disruptive launch of the Micro-Four Thirds format by Panasonic, Olympus, et al, which were the first products in the category.

But far from being a "me too" or a ripoff, Sony took the core concept and advanced it further. They put an even larger sensor into the machine without increasing the bulk, engineered a ground-breaking new viewfinder (generations ahead of anything Panasonic and Olympus had), and put focus into the camera's software that is unprecedented - focus peaking, touch-to-focus, etc.

Sony looked at a disruptive entry in the market, distilled it down to its core, and took it further than the incumbents. That is IMHO the difference between "copying" and "stealing".</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Scientists discover why we never forget how to ride a bicycle - <AUTHOR> http://www.abdn.ac.uk/mediareleases/release.php?id=1889

<comment><USER2> This as atrocious reporting.

First of all, you DO forget how to ride a bicycle. Anyone whose gone for more than a decade without riding on and tried to take it back up should be able to attest to that.

Secondly, this research doesn't seem to have anything to do with retaining memories; just how they are formed.</comment>


Sony's touchscreen projector technology feels like the future of interactivity - <AUTHOR> http://www.theverge.com/2017/3/12/14899804/sony-touchscreen-projector-display-prototype-sxsw-2017 <comment><USER2> i saw a demo of a projector+camera based system like this in the 90s! the system was capable of projecting results of hand-written calculations onto the paper in real time and fill-in hand-drawn diagrams</comment>


Everybody rejoice: BitC is back - <AUTHOR> http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/3860

<comment><USER2> For those who, like me, have no idea what BitC is:

<http://www.bitc-lang.org/>

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitC>

</comment><comment><USER3> Interesting, and from the mailing list, he has said he wants to targtet the CLI or JVM, too. Very cool.

But I am concerned, why is he leaving Microsoft? Was it only a temporary position? I would just think that doing something inside of MS would offer a much larger potential for impact (see, for instance, F#).

<comment><USER4> His comments make it sound as if Microsoft was somehow preventing him from working on it.

<comment><USER5> I'm sure that was only in the sense that he wanted a clean, legal separation of his Microsoft work and the work on BitC.</comment></comment></comment>


Moore's law may be running out of steam, but chip costs will continue to fall - <AUTHOR> http://www.economist.com/news/technology-quarterly/21662644-chipmaking-moores-law-may-be-running-out-steam-chip-costs-will-continue <comment><AUTHOR> It looks like the business of chips is transitioning from a capital intensive industry to a design intensive industry. That could Harold a new wave of silicon startups in the valley.

<comment><USER2> Where do you think the capital has been going all this time?

<comment><AUTHOR> Custom built photolithography hardware.

Even with design documents of a 10nm chip and 20 people that understood them, I would need to spend a few billion dollars to build the manufacturing facility.

However, if 28nm becomes something of an industry standard, then Intel can't dominate the field just by being the only people that can build the facilities. The lithography and chip manufacturing could become standardized and all of the profit would flow to the people doing tricky things to design SOC. And that design work is much less capital intensive (compared to having to build your own manufacturing facility). That means people with more time and skill than money (ie founders) will be able to compete.

<comment><USER3> The manufacturing may be standardized, but designer's productivity is still stuck in 2nd gear.

Go ask a design manager about a smartphone baseband processor design costs. They are rising exponentially _unless_ you have a great SOC design flow & a ready-to-use IP library.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Skyfall and Solace are hoaxes - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/bcantrill/status/955515841218600960 <comment><AUTHOR> We -- like most, I imagine -- didn't take this too seriously. On the other hand, the original site was quite explicit (claiming that it had disclosed information to chip and OS vendors), and given the highly asymmetric disclosure of Spectre and Meltdown from Intel, we did spend (waste) time verifying that this was a hoax; this was no more a "social experiment" than yelling "fire!" in a crowded theater.

</comment><comment><USER2> Come _on_. Names are a necessity, even in research: call them "Speculative execution vulnerabilities One and Two" and everybody will get confused.

Of course there is no real need for logos, but then again, if the guys who find these bugs have some in-house art team, what's the big deal?

And by the way:

> If these particular vulnerabilities hadn't been given catchy names by the > researchers that discovered them, would anyone have batted an eyelid ?

Maybe I'm the only one, but when they told me "Look, this process can read inside the memory space of any other process, without authorization" I batted my eyelids all the way, regardless of names.

</comment><comment><USER3> The entire post on [https://skyfallattack.com/](https://skyfallattack.com/) comes off as preachy and defensive.

> Skyfall and Solace aren't hoaxes as such, but more of a social experiment

"social experiment" is a defendable position, but saying that this wasn't a hoax is just incorrect. The site was a falsehood deliberately fabricated to masquerade as the truth.

A few people got interested in the possibility of an attack, which is understandable given the current climate, but I doubt that anyone took this website seriously, more as just something to keep an eye on.

</comment><comment><USER4> No kidding.

It was pretty obvious from the beginning.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16175707](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16175707)</comment>


Ask HN: Boss fired me. How to warn former employer about him? - <AUTHOR>

I just got fired by my manager of 6 months at a Rails dev job I had had for 1.5 years.
For background, the person who managed me for the first year gave me nothing but glowing reviews. The former department head gave me a raise and approval to work remotely when I said I was having trouble making ends meet where I was living at the time. So I'm pretty sure I wasn't the problem. I was, however, the only employee working for the manager who fired me. So it was my word against his. He admitted that he was resentful of the fact that I had gotten approval to work remotely, and he and I routinely disagreed about the technical aspects of the work. In spite of that, I did everything he asked me to do to the best of my ability.
The organization (which shall remain nameless) is doing great work that I truly wish to see succeed. But the manager who fired me is a toxic individual who should not be in charge of anyone or anything. How do I effectively warn the organization about him now that he has fired me?
They have obviously already decided to take my former manager's word over mine in authorizing my termination. And if I go into the exit interview railing against him, the HR folks who will interview me probably won't take that very seriously.
So what would you do to convince this organization that the manager is the problem? <comment><USER2> I'm guessing if asked, your former manager would have a very different story to tell.

Effectively you are asking "how can I get the person who fired me in trouble?" I would step back and analyze your own motivations. Odds are, the situation is more complex than you would like to admit, even to yourself.

As for advice, try to figure out what lessons you can learn from the entire situation. Try to understand what really happened. Try to put yourself in your former managers shoes. Don't keep living in the past, and stop entertaining impotent revenge fantasies about 'warning the organization' about your former manager.

<comment><USER3> _Effectively you are asking "how can I get the person who fired me in trouble?"_

I did get more the impression that he was worried about the problematic boss causing more unnecessary trouble at the company. He seemed to wish his ex- employer the best and was trying to find a way to raise the issue with them that he thinks he was unfairly laid off by this individual boss.

<comment><USER4> That's true, but the grandparent's point is important also - most people seldom fully understand their own motivations, and most people have trouble seeing themselves as outsiders see them. It's a pain to fire someone, and then you have to go find a replacement, so even if the manager didn't like him, the manager probably thought there was a real reason to fire him. Even if the manager was wrong.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> > So what would you do to convince this organization that the manager is the > problem?

If you could do that you would still be working there. They are going to have to find out for themselves.

The best thing you can do is not burn your bridges. Depart and remain on friendly terms with the company. This is one of those times when there is nothing more you can do. It may be painful because you want the company to succeed but you have to accept this and move on.

<comment><USER6> Also, anything you say about your former manager can be written off as sour grapes. So yeah, they had to choose and they did. : shrug :

I dunno where you live, but if you're near SF, Scribd is always hiring good rails devs. So are a ton of places in the valley; start with <http://yclist.com/> and you should do pretty well for yourself.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> OK, so you have been fired. Being fired is a traumatic experience, and you want someone to blame.

Playing the devi's advocate, maybe the manager and you just didn't mesh well? Maybe he was miffed at having 1 report, who wasn't even in the building? There's lots of reasons that aren't really the fault of some satanic manager, or the employee.

I'd make that case in the exit interview - you and the manager just clashed. He should have worked out a transfer for you, as you had proven to be an asset for the org (with your technical skills - which had been shown to be good, and ability to work with your old manager). I'd just keep going back this point - it was a team problem (between you and the manager), which the manager should have escalated. Since he was obviously partly to blame (two people don't clash just because one of them is wrong), he should have gotten _his_ boss in to deal with it, or gone to another third party. He clearly wasn't competent to sort out the team, and resorted to sacking you, rather doing what _any_ employee should do in such a situation - calling in _his_ boss to sort things out.

</comment><comment><USER8> Since they've decided to let you go instead of him, it's unlikely they will take anything you have to say seriously, until you back it up with similar reviews by other people he has managed or interacted with.

Although the other comments mention letting it go, I would suggest not to. The only thing needed for evil to succeed is for good people to do nothing about it.

If you work hard enough bringing out proofs of his toxicity - even to the employees and the future people who will work under him, I can say for granted something is bound to happen to him. I know this because I have done so with reasonable success in the past. Here's my story, if you're interested.

I joined a startup I was excited as hell about, and had the happiest times of my life for the first 1 year. It was a win-win - they loved me and I loved them. However, once it went profitable, the founders ( 8-10 years our seniors ) began hiring their college buddies as VP this, VP that.

It was around this time that the people I had worked with to build the entire system from scratch had started quitting. I should have taken the hint, but I stayed on.

When they hired a 'CTO' from their college who had dubious credentials at best, I should have known better than to stay. VPs with 0 management chops are still okay, but a CTO with no vision is a suicidal move. To make matters worse, I was put under direct management by him. He had no new ideas, and was quick to shoot down through intimidation any new work I tried working on as 'too optimistic'. Deep down, I knew that was not the problem - deep down he resented the fact that I was the go-to guy for the problems the newer employees faced, and try as he did, he couldn't solve problems to save his life. He resented having to come to me whenever something crashed, and there were instances of crashes he didn't even tell me about, and I only came to know of them through other employees who thought I should know.

I brought this into light at several meetings with the founders, the people who i had worked with since the beginning to build this system almost from scratch, and then rebuild it. However, the founders seemed more interested in reliving their college life than chiding the 'CTO' about his misadventures.

This left a bad taste in my mouth, and I quit - but not before humiliating the 'CTO' at every public gathering with the team that we had, during my notice period - to the point that he stopped organizing these meetings. I was supported by the employees who knew who was to blame.

Soon after I left, two of these 'VP's were let go, and the 'CTO' had to make amends to accomodate several whims of the employees. They perhaps can't let the CTO go because he has had sexual harrassment charges against him, and wouldn't be hired anywhere else. This was probably the reason he went jobless for 2 years before the startup was founded.

I wish the startup succeeds, but I also wish he is not there to reap the benefits of the success he so doesn't deserve.

The point is - I could have just rolled over and taken it, and simply quit - but like I mentioned before - " The only thing needed for evil to succeed is for good people to do nothing about it."

So let it go, but not before you've done him enough harm so that he knows better than to mess with anyone else like he messed with you.

</comment><comment><USER9> It is usually better to post these using a throwaway account. You say you have been a Rails dev at a nameless organization for 1.5 years. Your account is 1.3 years old, and you list your employer in your profile. So I can reasonably assume that the employer your profile is the organization in question?

</comment><comment><USER10> I'd tell HR the reason you think you're being fired and why it's wrong. Be very specific about it (name the project, circumstances, dates if possible). Try not be angry. Be as reasonable and fair-minded as possible but don't sell yourself short. Then go out for a nice dinner, sleep in late, and find more interesting work.

If you stay in the industry, you'll probably run across your old colleagues at other companies. And if you want to work for that company again, you can check back in a year or so. That manager will probably be gone.

</comment><comment><USER11> Were you laid off, or were you terminated with cause? If you were just laid off, then the number one thing I would do is ensure that your performance reviews are all good and that nothing has been changed, or that he didn't add something improper to your reviews.

Contact HR and ask for a copy of your performance reviews, and then leave it at that. If you can leave with severance, collect unemployment, and have a good performance review, I guess that's about all you can do.

If you are being terminated with cause, then in many states, including CA, they need to have given you warnings about your performance, otherwise they can't terminate you with cause. You can probably approach HR about this, and if they don't give you severance, you could probably approach a lawyer.

Bottom line though, as someone else said, he lost and you won. It sucks, but there's nothing you can do about it. It's a hard lesson but probably something you'll learn in the future, which is don't bicker with your boss. Have professional discussions, but if you find yourself constantly disagreeing with him, you need to have more common sense about it and find yourself a new position, either in a different group or a different company.

</comment><comment><USER12> > what would you do to convince this organization that the manager is the > problem

Nothing. It's over. Move on. They'll eventually figure it out on their own, and there's little you can and nothing you should do to expedite that process.

</comment><comment><USER13> As people are saying, "it's over here."

On the other hand, are you in an at-will employment state? Did the company properly document non-performance? You may wish to talk to an employment attorney about the circumstances of leaving.

It's possible you could preserve some rep in the company if you have strong allies and a memorable story, but it's unlikely. You're gone, the guy/gal who fired you is still around, and has unlimited airtime.

Get revenge by making more money in a better situation. Or, go punch out a better competitor for a product you've been working on, (provided you're legally allowed.)

</comment><comment><USER14> You got laid off/fired. It's over. He won; you lost.

Trying to get even with him at this stage is not worth the effort. You don't owe the company anything; just take your severance and move on. Doing anything negative at this stage will only serve to burn bridges and make you appear as a disgruntled employee.

Right now you're probably pissed, and rightfully so. But once you've had the perspective of time, you will realize that it's best to just close the door on this chapter of your life and move on to bigger, better things.

</comment><comment><USER15> During the exit interview, don't take the charges against you too personally. Find out whether there is anything at all that is actually your fault and resolve to do better at it next time. Prove to HR that they were wrong because you came across as a most reasonable person. Obviously, tell them you are shocked and dismayed and you disagreed with their overall assessment. But you see the futility of trying to convince them they may have a bigger problem with your boss, and you wish them good luck and the very best.

</comment><comment><USER16> Exit interviews are effective if they are correlated over time. If you really care, send a letter to the chairman of the board. However, unless you have significant stock in the company, it is no longer your concern. Move on. I would use the previous manager as you reference, btw ;-)

</comment><comment><USER17> I can understand your frustration. I've been there and from my experience; anger is a wasted emotion thats worth channeling towards developing new skills, building new projects or just getting fit. Don't waste your time, it's not worth it. Learn to roll with the punches, you'll be happier. If nothing else, go out a class act. re: exit interview.

</comment><comment><USER18> The dominant advice in this thread is absolutely correct, assuming you worked for a typical company. No longer your problem, move on without burning your bridges.

That said, 'the organization (which shall remain nameless) is doing great work that I truly wish to see succeed' doesn't sound like a regular business. I'd bet money you worked for a non-profit or some other cause-based organization, and the work itself was personally meaningful to you.

In this case I'd politely state my concerns to the people in your exit interview - not railing against the man, but just stating that you believe your termination wasn't the correct decision, was a setback for your organization's goals, and for the sake of the organization you hope they'll pay close attention to your former manager's performance in the future. You should also state that you don't have any ill will for the organization and that you'd be happy to work with them in the future should the situation be different. Don't get emotional - you're an experienced Rails developer, you're not going to suffer any economic hardship here. Just express regret about the damage to the organization and its potential.

Unless your firing's going to kill babies or something, I wouldn't do anything further than that by going outside regular procedures, despite your inclinations. We live in a litigious society and cause-driven people (no offense to you personally) are usually pretty touchy. You don't need the hassle.

</comment><comment><USER19> The HR folk are there to do the exit interview, summarize the information, and provide a report to senior management. It's senior management that will evaluate and take action, if any. How you can help is to provide a written statement, in advance. This will be forwarded with the HR department's summary. If there is concern raised, your prior boss's supervisor will be notified and will have both the HR department's assessment and your written statement.

</comment><comment><USER20> Same thing happened to me, my employer terminated my contract although he stated that the quality of my work was excellent. The official reason was that I forgot to add an item to the Outlook agenda. Pure BS.

At first, I was angry, confused, wanting revenge. Maybe if I'd tell the BoD about what happened, they could help me. Then I realized that this would not get me anywhere. Yes, life is unfair sometimes, but I'm absolutely certain that everybody gets what he deserves in life. The A-holes will get their share.

Then, it suddenly dawned on me. Terminating my contract is not just another problem, it's a huge opportunity. The Dalai Lama once said 'Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck'. I've been working on my startup for a little over a year now, always working on it besides my full time job and family life. With the severance pay from my job I will be able to work on it full-time! Sure, money is going to be a bit tight for a while, but we'll find a way to make it work.

As far as your question goes: it's not your task to convince them they hired a lemon. It's the task of the organization to constantly evaluate their employees, including your boss.

</comment><comment><USER21> Just walk away from this. Focus your energies on getting another gig right now. Whatever happens at your earlier place of work is not your concern anymore. as long as you are happy and your conscience tells you that you put your heart to it, you are good. Sure, there is the feeling of hurt, and of being done in, but it's an opportunity as well.

Remember, the talent-less are political, by nature. Also remember, karma usually comes full circle.

</comment><comment><USER22> Do absolutely nothing. Move on. It's like an auto accident. Plenty of reasons to feel anger. No reasons to act on those feelings.

</comment><comment><USER23> That's a pretty tough question to answer. I agree with some of the comments below (well the ones I read) that anything you say about your manager that's sour will look poorly on you. My opinion would be to express that you loved the company and former head dev manager. Don't leave a sour taste in their mouth and be the "bigger" person about this. If you are truly an awesome dev, you will find great work and they'll respect you more than your previous company. Good luck to you.

</comment><comment><USER24> > _"he and I routinely disagreed about the technical aspects of the work"_

When everything is a point of contention between a person and their boss, there are often few pleasant options...and when you are not showing up onsite, it is difficult to have allies [and hard to avoid self documenting the grounds for dismissal].

On the other hand, there is no reason to leap to conclusions about the exit interview.

</comment><comment><USER25> You could ask HR to explain the difference in feedback. Frame it as "I don't understand how my feedback could've changed so drastically. I didn't do anything different, after all."

If the only variable is a change of manager, logically it's kinda a no-brainer what happened.

</comment><comment><USER26> Our site "Spottiness.com" may serve you well, in particular the "Blackspot" section. We help people communicate anonymously and allow targets to respond. If your anonymity is paramount, you should be careful with your writing style and other clues.

</comment><comment><USER27> I'd take most of the advice put forth here and add this- don't do the exit interview. Nothing good will come of it, and it only helps your employer because you are likely to acknowledge some kind of acceptance that you weren't perfect.

</comment><comment><USER28> A similar thing happened to me twice (though I was never fired, but rather let go with nice severance packages). Glowing reviews for a year / year and a half, then out of nowhere they would let me go.

I learned a few things

1) Every time you are let go, it's an opportunity to find a much better job (whatever that means - more money, better location, startup). And this had been true EVERY SINGLE TIME. Every time I was let go, I increased my salary by 20-40%, and built more and more connections with interesting people.

2) There's no such thing as job security. Nobody owes you anything. You can be fired/let go for any reason, or without any reason, legally in most states.

3) If you're truly good, it's their loss. It's extremely hard to find competent developers within a given budget.

4) After this happened a couple of times, I shifted to contractor work, it's more money, and you expect your project to end. It might feel scary the first time, but don't be afraid, you're in IT, there are TONS of jobs out there.

5) Unless you're climbing the corporate ladder, do not participate in the office politics, or at least make fun of it. Yeah, you will probably not get promoted to a director or a CTO, but who cares? Do you want to develop things, or become a manager? Office politics is usually ugly, I've seen so much backstabbing in the industry among manager types and crappy developers, it's not funny. I've seen one shitty developer taking a code of a much smarter one, showing it off to the clueless director, showering him with gifts, and getting all kinds of raises and promotions. You can't fight it if higher management doesn't understand what's going on. All you can do is move on.

6) Most people are good, don't take it too personally, shit happens.

7) If you ever want to be in charge, start your own company.

<comment><USER29> +1 well said

<comment><USER30> Welcome to HN. Don't take the downvotes too personally — we aggressively self- regulate to avoid an atmosphere of content-lite comments.</comment></comment></comment>


Chronotherapy to repair sleep disorders - <AUTHOR> http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/19/sleeping-or-not-by-the-wrong-clock/ <comment><USER2> I suffer from chronic insomnia due to disabling anxiety and recently started using a Phillips goLITE BLU ([http://www.amazon.com/Philips-goLITE-BLU- Therapy-Device/dp/B...](http://www.amazon.com/Philips-goLITE-BLU-Therapy- Device/dp/B001I45XL8/) ; note there is another SKU for outside the US power plugs), a very cool 6x10 array of blue LEDs, which has made a tremendous difference. I clearly need to do some fine tuning but I'm now able to on almost all nights get the 8 hours I need.

If you have insomnia or an internal clock that's just plain wrong for your external needs, be sure to check out light therapy.

</comment><comment><USER3> Lately i've seen several posts related to sleep issues. Is that a common problem around here or something? I've had a horrible time getting to sleep for years.</comment>


Proteins of interest to Hacker News, and software to make your own - <AUTHOR> https://serotiny.bio/notes/proteins/ <comment><AUTHOR> I've been collecting here socially interesting proteins and trying to better describe them in both plain language and in a computationally accessible form. We've also made software to help peer into, manipulate, and build your own proteins.</comment>


Tips for Gamifying Your Mobile App - <AUTHOR> http://www.codenameone.com/3/post/2013/03/5-tips-for-gamifying-your-mobile-app.html

<comment><USER2> This approach seems heavy-handed. The crucial aspect of gamification this post mostly misses out on is the challenge-to-reward ratio. You can't just give users points and badges and level them up for every action they take, that gets old fast. The user needs to feel they are accomplishing things, or the feedback will not be rewarding and engaging. And it should be a user accomplishment, not your accomplishment. Downloading the app is an accomplishment for you, but not for the user, they just pressed a button. Giving them a trophy will cause a lot of eyes to roll.

Gamification can be used to promote your marketing efforts, but this should be a secondary function. If your app is used for task management or exercise tracking, reward users for their real-world accomplishments, and have some secondary rewards for getting others users on-board. If your app is used for listening to podcasts, don't give them a "Playlist Creator" badge, nobody cares about that.

I'm also not sure how well gamification is going to address the problem of "users don't use many apps for very long and in fact only 25% of the apps survive after 3 months." How often do people play full-fledged video games for longer than three months? In the long run, motivation from gameplay is a gimmick, and I don't see a lot of people caring about their level or trophy collection on some app enough to change whether or not they continue using it. In fact if the gamification managed to give the user a lot of reward early-on, but doesn't manage to keep it up (which is really hard to do—again, think about video games growing tiresome) the user could actually be pushed away from continued use. The proposed solution compounds the problem.

</comment><comment><USER3> 1 tip for making a good app: gamify as little as possible.

Users don't want to feel rewarded for something that's probably wasting their time. They want to know that the action itself is useful. If your app can't do that, how will you retain users? I guess there are still a lot of people are willing to use pointless apps that track which Wikipedia articles they read and give them a gold star, but most people aren't.

</comment><comment><USER4> Interesting article, I need to work on that in our apps too.</comment>


A Guide to Demo Day Pitches - <AUTHOR> http://themacro.com/articles/2016/07/guide-to-demo-day-pitches/ <comment><USER2> duplicate of [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12160168](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12160168)</comment>


The headaches of removing GPL code from your desktop app code - <AUTHOR> http://blog.milkingthegnu.org/2008/03/gpl-workarounds.html

<comment><USER2> I have to wonder how one would build a software product that is 40% GPL code, and not understand the implications (I know this is a hypothetical story, but it's just not believable). Ten years ago, sure. But Open Source and its viral licenses are pretty well understood at this point.

This feels like FUD to me.

<comment><USER3> "This feels like FUD to me."

It had that feel to it. And of course, it's impossible for a company to release GPL code and hit the big-time. Teh GPL will kill your business!

[Edit: and the name of his site implies a less-than-helpful relationship to GNU software.]

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> _smacks forehead_

Because, of course, just because something is provided for you gratis and libre means that it isn't without value.

"The headaches from removing pirated libraries from your desktop app code?"

</comment><comment><USER5> Licence your desktop app under the GPL. Headache gone.

<comment><USER6> That doesn't exactly work when your revenue comes from selling shrink-wrap software or games.

<comment><USER7> Yes it does. The people buying shrink-wrap software don't typically go online and compile from source. The users that are capable of compiling their own version (and supplying their own artwork) based on GPL source code are likely to just use (or develop) free alternatives to commercial software. So releasing your software under the GPL, even when you're in the business of selling said software is not exactly a bad idea.

<comment><USER8> Someone can make a website called Compiled<x>.com and charge $25 (undercutting company) per download of the compiled product legally.

<comment><USER2> And then I can make one called CheapCompiled<x>.com and charge $10 per download, undercutting both...and then some jackass gets the great idea to make a bittorrent of it...and then it gets included in the next Fedora release...and then some jerk decides to fix the worst bugs and forks off Super<x> and starts a project at Google code...and then the damned thing has 20 million users who aren't paying us a fuckin' dime.

Actually none of these things sounds all that bad to me. But I also understand the GPL license and its relation to business extremely well. (My company sells a dual-licensed product that has a GPL variant, and we actually like the "and then the damned thing has 20 million users" aspect of Open Source.)</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Chrome Will Drop SPDY Support on May 15 - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2016/02/11/chrome-will-drop-spdy-support-on-may-15/ <comment><USER2> > The Chrome team also today announced that Chrome will stop supporting the > TLS protocol extension NPN on May 15.

That'a a funny coincidence. Just today I noticed my HTTP/2-enabled Nginx server doesn't support ALPN because the distro (Debian 8) comes with OpenSSL 1.0.1. (ALPN was added in 1.0.2) I spent about 15 minutes researching a solution before I decided it wasn't worth the time since all the browsers still supported NPN.</comment>


How Apple could improve inter-app linking in iOS 7 - <AUTHOR> http://www.andydev.co.uk/blog/ios-7-inter-app-linking/

<comment><USER2> How about we stop trying to implement stupid url based methods and apple just makes us a damn api to share data between apps..

<comment><AUTHOR> That would be the ideal addition to iOS 7. The URL based one I mentioned would go someway to give you this functionality although it requires the app getting the data to implement the functionality. Fingers crossed are crossed for Apple to announce something to improve this in June.</comment></comment>


Don't Drown in Documentation - <AUTHOR> https://dev.to/grappleshark/enough-with-documentation <comment><USER2> Funniest bit of satirical writing I've seen in years.</comment>


Show HN: QuickBoost.club curated video highlights of inspiring people - <AUTHOR> http://quickboost.club/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hi,

I'm building a small platform of curated video highlights of inspiring people. It's in very early stages though. I like to watch videos where I usually learn a lot, but I tend to forget things that I like after a short time. This platform aims to help me with this problem. I can document those thing now easily and and get the highlights as video snippets (I use this currently as a new-Tab page in chrome. So every time I open a new tab, I get a new video snippet). I plan to build collections for certain topics and open it up for everyone to document and share their highlights.

I would love to know if this could be a helpful tool for you as well.

Thanks, Sascha

<comment><USER2> Hi Sascha,

Great concept and a nice start! What is the current process for highlighting parts of videos you like?

Feel free to contact me through my details on my HN profile.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Completely off topic, sorry.

How does having these new TLDs affect SEO ?

<comment><AUTHOR> To be honest: I have no idea. I'm not even sure if I keep this URL.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> nice idea and execution! well done.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you!</comment></comment>


HD5: Top 5 Hacker Events This Week - <AUTHOR> http://thestartupdigest.com/2010/06/22/hd5/ We've been trying out this new post called the HD5 using the data from StartupDigest to list and rank the top 5 events from all of the cities and categories we cover.<p>Here are the hacker focused events, let me know what you think! <comment><USER2> They have a pretty good email campaign you can subscribe to. I use them for the Toronto one and found some pretty great events.</comment>


The Brainfuck Programming Language - <AUTHOR> http://www.muppetlabs.com/~breadbox/bf/ <comment><USER2> Brainfuck is almost 20 years old, and extremely well-known. Is this really worth a submission?

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> well... I didn't know about it. Am I supposed to know everything? just thought I should share.

</comment><comment><USER3> Oh come on seriously? Brainfuck?

If you really have to post up esoteric languages from the distant past, do INTERCAL which at least is too much of a pain in the ass to have been implemented by everyone.</comment>