How To Reduce Image Size With WebP Automagically - <AUTHOR> http://blog.netdna.com/developer/how-to-reduce-image-size-with-webp-automagically/ <comment><USER2> As much as I like WebP, the numbers given in this article are misleading. The original image is indeed 52 kb. If you like optimizing PNGs, you can recompress it (losslessly, obviously) to ~49 kb. Now the same image in WebP is 35 kb, _not_ 11 kb. The only way for WebP to make it a 11 kb image is to compress it in _lossy_ mode.

Granted, even at 11 kb the image looks really good and there are no visible artifacts but when you put the original image and the lossy version side-by- side, you can see that some tones are slightly off and gradients/shades are slightly different.

<comment><USER3> Lossy plus alpha isn't cheating, its a legitimate gap in the market. It's also the feature that prompted Mozilla to look at the format again.

<comment><USER4> We had lossy RGBA many years ago with JNG (a simple PNG/JPG mashup format), but Mozilla killed the format along with MNG. The reason was that the MNG lib added about 100kB to the installer. They suggested to use Flash instead. (Yes, seriously.)

With JNG those massive parallax websites could be ~1MB instead of ~5MB.

<comment><USER3> A minority browser giving up on a fringe image format is hardly first degree murder. More like giving up on CPR after it clearly wasn't helping.

But lossy + alpha was a good idea then and it still is now.

<comment><USER4> "Minority browser"? What's that supposed to mean? Anything other than Chrome? Or, if we go back a few years, anything other than IE?

In case you didn't know, there are 3 very important browsers: Chrome, Firefox, and IE. Right now, Firefox got around 20%, IE around 30%, and Chrome around 40%.

There are also a few countries where Firefox is the most popular one. For example, in Germany it currently got around 45%.

>a fringe image format

Was PNG any different? People usually don't randomly start to use some image format if it isn't supported by any browser.

Also, ripping two images out of one file and splicing them together requires very little code. In a high-level language it's maybe 50 lines of code. There are many games which do that. It's very simple and it saves typically around 80%.

<comment><USER5> I don't know why the GP said "minority browser", but to be fair to them, it appears that Mozilla removed MNG and JNG in 2003[1], when that certainly was a fair description of the Mozilla Suite and Phoenix/Firebird/Firefox marketshare.

Interesting to see Hixie in there advocating for MNG (or, rather, for a format with 8-bit alpha and animation that's not Flash).

[1] <https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=195280>

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> > But with CDN Connect's automatic image re-encoding, this 52kb PNG shrunk to > a 11kb WebP image. That's a 78% size reduction! Just imagine this image was > referenced on every page of your site, and you had handfuls of similar > images to download. The potential bandwidth savings and performance > improvements are enormous.

What utter garbage. Does CDN Connect want us to believe browsers don't cache images? Sure, that's a savings.. of about 41kb total. Not 41kb per page, just 41kb overall, because my browser's only going to download the image once.

<comment><USER7> At the time, 40-60% of Yahoo page views were done with an empty cache: [http://www.yuiblog.com/blog/2007/01/04/performance- research-...](http://www.yuiblog.com/blog/2007/01/04/performance-research- part-2/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Neat. Though for my own sanity, I'd probably use a file extension like .image for URLs that return different content type based on the Accept header. (And leave .png and .webp untouched so I have the option to use those explicitly)

<comment><USER9> In URLs, and especially user-visible URLs, file suffixes _at all_ should be considered an only occasionally necessary evil. They're ugly, redundant, brittle, and generally a headache.

TBL wrote about this in 1998: <http://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/URI.html#remove>

<comment><USER10> Though probably do transmit a "Content-Disposition: inline; filename=foo.jpg" header. Otherwise, the OSes that infer media type from extension will get confused when the user goes to save the file and it appears extensionless.

(That might be called a browser bug, actually; it'd sure be nice if browsers on these OSes could take the observed media type and tack on an extension to extensionless files on Save As to ensure they'll be viewed by the OS to have that same media type. Or it might be called an OS bug: why the heck don't filesystems have a required media-type metadata field for files yet!? ;)

<comment><USER11> it is neither the OS' nor browsers responsibility to launch correct application for a file. There are launchers that examine file headers (no need to dup it on filesystem) and keep track of your application preferences for a given mime type. They may be called file manager, shell or something similar and responsibility lies there. 8.3 file naming is a historical baggage and nothing more.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> FWIW, pngquant compresses the png to 18kb without any visible (to me) artifact.

If you are not using pngq/pngquant and the likes to compress alpha png I advise you to try them out.

<comment><USER13> I just tested pngquant vs webp on a corpora of 1000 png images.

WebP beat pngquant by a factor of 2.36 (I hope to release the full report and data set soon.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I was one month ahead of HN :-) <https://twitter.com/michrome/status/312133258450182144>

</comment><comment><USER15> Huge pain point!!!! Waste to much time resizing images.</comment>


How I Read the New York Times - <AUTHOR> http://andrewacove.posterous.com/how-i-read-the-new-york-times

<comment><USER2> Or you could get over it, create an account, sign in once, and then never worry again.

<comment><USER3> You do realize that if this was any other website you (or others making this comment) would be up in arms all over the internet over it, including these very HN comments?

Is this really the same HackerNews community that goes ape shit over the smallest usability no-nos on random Joe's website, but is perfectly fine with NYT practically stonewalling their entire website behind a login screen?

<comment><USER4> I'm not perfectly fine with it - I just decided it was worth it many years ago and never thought about it since. The value of the NYT is, to me, obvious and enormous. Some new random webapp cannot make that claim.

<comment><AUTHOR> I guess the value for me isn't. A lot of the time, I don't go through the effort to read it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Try my small project <http://viewtext.org>

<comment><USER6> Holy crap, you add full article text to RSS feeds? My hero!

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> One way you can do this same thing, just simpler, is append "<http://google.com/url?q=> before the NYTimes URL. You still have to click through the Google XSRF prevention page, but it's a lot simpler and doesn't depend on the Googlebot having hit the page yet.

<comment><USER6> In Chrome a Google search is in the right-click menu after selecting the article title text. Four clicks and no typing beats URL hacking, and Googlebot is so fast these days that it's always seen the page before I got there, and it's always the first hit for the full article title (even without quotes).

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> or use <http://www.nytimes.com/chrome/>

</comment><comment><USER9> <http://www.bugmenot.com/>

</comment><comment><USER10> RefControl extension: set HTTP Referer to news.google.com or similar.

</comment><comment><USER11> Right click, open in Incognito works if you are using Chrome.</comment>


HowsMyUX.com - a new startup to help developers find designers - <AUTHOR>

I'm the cofounder of HowsMyUX.com, a new beta being announced today. It exists to help independent developers find great designers for short, one-off projects. It was inspired by a problem I personally faced recently, and hopefully there are others who'll find it useful as well. I was building a new iPad app, and started the project with just 2 devs and no designers. I thought I had a handle on cool, simple and elegant UI design, but had a nagging feeling that a real designer could help make major improvements in the app. Problem was, I didn't have the resources to hire a fulltime designer yet, didn't know anyone in my personal networks who had experience with the niche, and I couldn't trust the people I was finding on Craigslist and LinkedIn.
So I decided to launch a site that would help developers like me find the right designer efficiently, and thus answer the question: "How's my UX?". It has similarities to sites like eLance and 99Designs where designers "bid" on projects submitted by developers. Developers get to pick the designer based on reviews for past work, as well as demonstrable knowledge. A couple ways I plan to differentiate from those sites is a narrower focus on mobile UX, as well as fixed prices for each project. I have some other ideas that will be hugely beneficial for designers, but I don't want to discuss them publicly yet.
Any thoughts on this? I'd love to hear your opinion on whether there's a practical use for this, or is the premise fundamentally flawed somewhere? Anything you share is hugely appreciated and valuable.
Btw, we're 2 cofounders currently, looking for a 3rd (ideally a designer). If you're interested, please contact us.
Thanks,
-Mel
http://howsmyux.com <comment><USER2> I think developers have a real problem in finding __good designers __(and not photoshop experts). Similarly designers have a real problem in finding good clients, clients who understand that sometimes what they want may not be what's best for them. But, as in any partnership/collaboration/relationship both parties will have to give up some of their ego for things to work out.

If you want to attract professional designers don't focus on the eLance/99Designs bidding model.

</comment><comment><USER3> clickable: <http://howsmyux.com>

While I'm a bit skeptical about your idea, I do think there exists potential for a middle ground between job-centric sites (e.g. elance, odesk, 99designs) and network-centric sites (e.g. forrst). Good luck!

</comment><comment><USER4> I think this is an awesome idea. I hope it works. I'd use it extensively.

</comment><comment><USER4> I think NDA's will be particularly important here.</comment>


The Nth Fibonacci Number in O(log N) - <AUTHOR> http://kukuruku.co/hub/algorithms/the-nth-fibonacci-number-in-olog-n <comment><USER2> It's easy to compute things quickly if you pretend that you can do arbitary- precision arithmetic in constant time. Want a quadrillion digits of Pi? Easy, just use the Brent–Salamin AGM algorithm and you'll get them in about 500 arithmetic operations. NP-complete problems? No problem at all, rephrase them as subset-sum problems and use the polynomial-integer-operations dynamic programming algorithm. I don't _think_ you can solve PSPACE in a polynomial number of integer operations, but I can't see how to prove it immediately.

In "real" terms, computing the Nth fibonacci number takes O(M(N)) = O(N log N 2^(O(log* N))) operations.

<comment><USER3> Out of curiosity, what line of work are you in given that you can seemingly pull this stuff from memory? All I read was "lorem ipsum..." until you got to Big O.

<comment><USER4> It's Colin Percival: author of tarsnap, former BSD security officer and considered something of an authority on crytography. I presume his maths skills are therefore suitably well polished to be able to pull this stuff from memory.

<comment><USER5> I want to dispel the rumor that this is magic. This is standard material in undergrad algorithms classes. See, for example, Jeff Erickson's algorithms notes here[1]. It's literally the first page of the chapter on dynamic programming.

[1] [http://web.engr.illinois.edu/~jeffe/teaching/algorithms/note...](http://web.engr.illinois.edu/~jeffe/teaching/algorithms/notes/05-dynprog.pdf)

<comment><USER6> Yeah, but "kids these days" only want to know Java or Angular.js and bawl at the first sight of math.

<comment><USER7> Psh, who wants to learn Java?

<comment><USER8> I think "know" over "learn" used by the grandparent is important there; probably they were made to _learn_ it for coursework, they want to be allowed to continue only having to _know_ that much and not learn further.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> In Python:

        def fib(n):
            import math
            r5 = math.sqrt(5)
            x = pow((1 + r5) / 2, n)
            x -= pow((1 - r5) / 2, n)
            return x / r5

      $ python fib.py 4
      3.0

      $ python fib.py 5
      5.0

      $ python fib.py 50
      12586269025.0

      $ python fib.py 5000
      OverflowError: (34, 'Result too large')

So we add arbitrary precision. Uglier, but supports any n:

        def fib(n):
            from math import sqrt
            from decimal import Decimal
            r5 = Decimal(sqrt(5))
            x = pow((1 + r5) / 2, n)
            x -= pow((1 - r5) / 2, n)
            return x / r5

      $ python fib.py 4
      3.000000000000000242931577139

      $ python fib.py 5
      5.000000000000000607328942851

      $ python fib.py 50000
      1.077773489309106593392984005E+10449

      $ python fib.py 50309230
      8.147201098193506535089177522E+10514006

Or does it?

      $ python fib.py 50309230390
      decimal.Overflow: above Emax

This was fun. Computing fib(50309230390) is left as an exercise for the reader.

Wolfram alpha verifies this is correct for Fib 50,000: [http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=Fib+50000](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=Fib+50000)

<comment><USER10> This shows nothing but one's ability to code-up a math formula. The blog post goes into much detail about how to solve the problem using matrices and memoization.

Edit: Looks like sillysaurus3 edited his comment.

<comment><USER9> I wasn't trying to one-up anyone. I thought it was interesting, so I figured others might find it interesting too. In particular, it was surprising to find that there's a closed-form solution for the Fibonacci sequence. Sorry.

<comment><USER11> Don't be sorry! I found your comment very interesting and was also surprised to find that there exists a closed-form solution.

<comment><USER9> The whole book is pretty fascinating, "Mathematics for Computer Science" by Lehman and Leighton: [http://www.cs.princeton.edu/courses/archive/spring10/cos433/...](http://www.cs.princeton.edu/courses/archive/spring10/cos433/mathcs.pdf)

The formula came from section 17.3.2, which goes into detail about how to derive it.

<comment><USER11> Thanks. I like the way they introduce what a proof is in chapter 1, I feel like they have a good, subtle sense of humor. I don't have a mathematical background so it might be a tough read for me, but it seems like a great resource.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> An issue here is that the the nth Fibonacci number has O(N) bits, so once you move into arbitrary arithmetic calculations your +'s and *'s will become O(N) and O(N logN) respectively.

</comment><comment><USER13> Factoring into powers of 2 seems to me like an unnecessary complication. It's possible to calculate an arbitrary power in O(log N) time without memoization.

      def __get_matrix_power(self, M, p):
        if p == 1:
          return M
        if p % 2 == 1: # odd power
          return self.__multiply_matrices(M, self.__get_matrix_power(M, p - 1))
        else: # even power
          K = self.__get_matrix_power(M, int(p/2))
          return self.__multiply_matrices(K, K)

<comment><USER14> Also working on pairs of consecutive fibonacci numbers (f_n, f_(n+1)) instead of the matrix [[f_(n+1) f_n] [f_n f_(n-1)]] makes this much simpler.

      def fib(n):
        def fib2(n):
          # returns (f_n, f_(n+1))
          if n == 0:
            return 0, 1
          if n % 2:
            a, b = fib2(n-1)
            return b, a+b
          a, b = fib2(n//2)
          return b*a + a*(b-a), a*a + b*b
        return fib2(n)[0]

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> As mentioned, the actual number has O(N) bits and thus can't actually be computed in O(log N) time. So if you just want an approximation, you may as well use Binet's formula. [1]

 _However_ , one thing this algorithm can do that Binet's formula can't is compute the N-th Fibonacci number modulo some constant M in O(log N) time. So you could very efficiently compute, say, the last 12 digits of F_123456789. A lot of programming contests (TopCoder, Google Code Jam, etc.) will ask for the answer modulo some constant to take advantage of this trick.

[1] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci_number#Closed- form_ex...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci_number#Closed- form_expression)

<comment><USER16> A really neat observation here is that Binet's formula and the matrix exponentiation trick are arguably the same thing.

How so? You can think of the operations of Binet's formula as happening in the field Q(sqrt{5}). Since sqrt{5} is a square root, every element of this field has a unique representation of the form a + b sqrt{5} with a and b rational, and so the field can be said to have dimension 2 over the rationals. When you squint at how the field operations work in this representation, you'll find that you end up doing something that looks very similar to the 2x2 matrix multiplications trick; with a bit of rearrangement, it's the same thing - except that the matrix multiplication trick is usually derived via dynamic programming, and Binet's formula is usually derived via power series.

The fact that things often fit together so nicely is perhaps the most beautiful aspect of mathematics.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> I remember there is an equation that could get the Nth fibonacci number directly. (Maybe in the exercises of Concrete Mathematics by Knuth).

<comment><USER18> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci_number#Closed- form_e...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci_number#Closed- form_expression)

If ever there was a way to impress an interviewer it is to bust out this baby when asked to make a fibonacci function.

<comment><USER19> Personally, I think the matrix powers method is more impressive. You're using the matrix as a state engine to get to whatever state you intend to reach. That has more applications than just the closed form, which a lot of people know about, and you most likely just happened to memorize.

Don't get me wrong, it'd still be impressive "Woah, he memorized this!" but seeing someone do the matrix trick would be even more impressive, to me.

<comment><USER20> The closed form is just the diagonalized version of the matrix power, though.

<comment><USER19> I honestly didn't know that until it was mentioned in another part of this thread. My point was that someone can memorize the formula. Chances are, they'll see the matrix form and actually know how to use that in other situations.

Now, if you derived the formula on the board from the matrix, that'd be incredibly impressive. The idea here is how the person's brain thinks. When I see them write an equation on the board, I think "Oh, they memorized it" when I see them step through the process of creating a matrix and doing matrix multiplication, I think "Wow, they /really/ know their stuff". If they just threw up the matrix and couldn't explain it, I wouldn't be as impressed. Same as if they wrote the equation and couldn't explain it.

At the end of the day, if they could explain either approach, I'd be impressed, I think the matrix form just lends itself to more likely be in a way that the person can explain it

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I wrote about this last December:

[http://blog.richardkiss.com/?p=398](http://blog.richardkiss.com/?p=398)

The matrix math is easier, and the Python code is about a dozen lines.

</comment><comment><USER22> This brings back some memories. I remember talking about the different ways of calculating the Fibonacci numbers in an old comp.lang.java usenet thread about recursion, memoization and dynamic programming from 2007,

[http://coding.derkeiler.com/Archive/Java/comp.lang.java.prog...](http://coding.derkeiler.com/Archive/Java/comp.lang.java.programmer/2007-10/msg01792.html)

The thread discusses the exponential, linear and logarithmic algorithms.</comment>


Ask HN: Is there no place for people, who are average at something? - <AUTHOR> For applying to a company or college or anything, everyone need best people from the crowd. And that's logical. But what happens to people who are average at something? Do they have no chance in anything? or Do they just have to get better at what they are doing? <comment><USER2> Most companies _say_ they need the best people. In practice:

1\. Most companies deliberately choose not to pay at the top of industry pay range, instead aiming for 70th percentile or 50th percentile or whatever.

2\. Majority of programmers are employed. By definition more programmers are average than "the best". So in practice most companies hire average programmers and it's just fine.

3\. "Average" is a misleading concept. Programming (or any job) has a wide variety of skills, and is basically a group effort. Most programmers have strengths in some skills, weaknesses in others, and that's OK, because they work as a team with other people.

So, don't worry about it.

</comment><comment><USER3> 1\. Most people drastically overestimate the talents and abilities of other people 2\. Most people drastically underestimate their own

Be that as it may, the best ways for an "average" or even below average people to reach the above-average arena:

1\. Education 2\. Experience 3\. Combining two different skills or knowledge bases or passions to create scarcity. Example, I have a friend who is an average web designer. He uses pagebuikdwrs and wouldn't know what to with an API if it was punching him in the nose. He is also passionate about cigars. So he targets cigar shops as client s. Competitors pitch more complex and pretty designs and Stripe integration and such. He walks in and says "wow, looks like you got a box of Cigar X! How exciting, those will sell fast since there were only 200 boxes produced. Really interested to see what Maker Y did with that new leaf for the wrapper. Should be a nice smooth taste and slow draw compared to their other release..." who do you think wins the business?

*I obviously know nothing about cigar lingo but that's not the point.

<comment><USER4> > 1\. Most people drastically overestimate the talents and abilities of other > people 2. Most people drastically underestimate their own

Ehm, sorry, what's your source for that claim? (c.f. the Dunning-Kruger effect [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect))

<comment><USER5> His gut flora

</comment></comment></comment><comment> maze-le Most people are average, thats kind of the meaning of average. I consider myself an average programmer advancing on an average career path and had plenty of recruiters contact me with interesting opportunities recently. Sure its not Google or Facebook, but so what, I wouln't like to work for a mega coorporation like that anyway. If you doubt yourself because you consider yourself average, consider that the constant talk of excellence, highest skilled people and so forth is mostly HR PR bullshit. Sure, there are extremeley talented people out there, but they are pretty rare.

Interesting video, that touches the issue: "The myth of the genius programmer"[0].

[0]: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SARbwvhupQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SARbwvhupQ)

</comment><comment><USER6> You'll find average everywhere - that is rather the thing about average after all. Every startup or small company that claims to recruit the best is usually more about not recruiting the mediocre. Or canning them as quickly as possible once identified - recruitment is a very imprecise art after all. Regardless of what hoops and whiteboard games take place.

Everyone is average at some things, even most things, on average (sorry)! Equally everyone has some things they can excel at and be above average - those are the things to focus on and develop. And subsequently highlight.

Mediocrity seems to survive better the larger the company and especially so in the huge consultancies. You might think of a huge corporation as where the mediocre can go to hide.

</comment><comment><USER7> Sure. That place is called "corporations".

They might say otherwise and of course they can't really say: "If you're average at anything come join us." but not only is it very unlikely that the majority in a 10,000+ employee company is above average, big corporations - traditionally at least - optimise for mediocrity and consistency rather than excellence and creativity.

</comment><comment><USER8> Average at what? Tests? Scores? GPA? Coding? How do we know the difference? You can be successful without being #1 at school. In fact, there are more successful people in life than top students. Plus, most of the top students aren't that successful in life. That applies to schools, companies, sports, etc.

<comment><USER9> Yeah, it's funny. I recently attended a school reunion and a few of the real high fliers actually ended up doing OK but not in line with expectations. On the other hand there were the low fliers who never stood out who went on to do amazing things!

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> It's fine to be average, see other comments

If you want to raise above, you have three options:

1\. Become very good in one particular skill 2\. Become good at multiple skills 3\. Choose a niche or something new where due to lack of competition you are already very good

1\. is hard, especially in popular, well paid areas 2\. + 3. are much easier to accomplish.

</comment><comment><USER11> Often times one can be average at two different things, but the combined skills make them above average.

A classic example is someone who is an average engineer and an average salesperson. This type of person is highly sought after and can make serious bank.

</comment><comment><USER12> Average could mean "average of all people on the planet", which, for any given activity, means "not very good".

But average could also mean "average of all people _who engage in that activity_ ", which is _good enough_. For example, if I'm average for a professional computer programmer, then I'm good enough to be a professional computer programmer. In fact, half of them are worse than me!

Then there's the distinction between "average" and "average _at X_ ". I can be a very average person in almost every area, but still exceptional at one thing. (I only need one. Two is a bonus, but one's enough.)

</comment><comment><USER13> Everyone is average, at some point. Some folks forget that.

The key is, to "human" well, and work to improve your life. Small bits at a time. This goes for vocation, as well as character.

Don't be content to _remain_ average.

</comment><comment><USER14> Well, actually it's more like there are not that many average people. Let me explain...

When you hear that an average family earns $50k/year, what (I think) is really happening is that many earn under $25k and few earn over 100k.

I think same thing applies to individual people.

I used to work as CNC machinist, and most of my coworkers were either really good or ok enough to not get fired.

I as a developer now feel I'm below average, and I've met many like myself. Then there are really good devs out there I get inspired by.

Just my 2c.

<comment><USER15> average income is typically a median, with 50% of people following above and below the median. it's specifically used because outliers can't throw it off.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> A Freemason told me the Freemasons are for average people in all walks of life.

A possibly no-more-helpful contribution: Harvey Pekar's classic "Average is dumb!" American Splendor cover:

[http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_-qF6CbJo2vY/TD0odctqvYI/AAAAAAAAI7...](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_-qF6CbJo2vY/TD0odctqvYI/AAAAAAAAI7E/66xdIb3qvNs/s1600/American+Splendor+%232.jpg)

</comment><comment><USER9> I'm average. I've had no problem building a successful career. I've had some great jobs and a successful freelancing business too. Stop worrying about "being average" \- you are almost certainly above average anyway, and get down to some hard work! :)

</comment><comment><USER17> What's best . I always had this issue when I work with someone, in the initial weeks I find him/her best and smart but as time goes buy I just see them as average or below average just putting up a facade or may it's me - I just suck at judging people. So the point is best is very misleading thing to look for and very referential

</comment><comment><USER18> There are projects that need bodies in seats and that's a pond average people can be big fish in.

You're describing niches. Look at nature, it's a field of niches (among other things).</comment>


Intel Fortran now 20% faster than C, fastest language on Shootout - <AUTHOR> http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/u64q/which-programming-languages-are-fastest.php <comment><USER2> Intel Fortran vs gcc ???

How about Intel Fortran vs. Intel C ? How about gcc C vs. gcc Fortran ?

Hyper-optimized compiler for Intel architecture beats compiler designed to be portable to many, many target architectures? Not very shocking.

<comment><USER3> This. ICC is known to beat gcc usually.

<comment><USER4> Yeah, I'd suspect that better use of SSE instructions is the big win for number crunching.

<comment><USER5> [https://alioth.debian.org/forum/forum.php?thread_id=14867...](https://alioth.debian.org/forum/forum.php?thread_id=14867&forum_id=999&group_id=30402)

<comment><USER4> Cool. Yeah, seems like it's better inlining and use of XMM registers more than the SSE instructions themselves.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Most of Fortran's gain is on mandelbrot, but it sucks on binary-trees (10x slower than C). It also tends to use 2x more memory (with a 23x outlier on fannkuch): [http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/u64q/benchmark.php?test=al...](http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/u64q/benchmark.php?test=all&lang=ifc&lang2=gcc)

<comment><USER7> binary-trees is rough to beat C on. It involves allocating and traversing some pretty gigantic data structures, and the C code is optimized by using region- style allocation to avoid all of the individual calls to free (or garbage collections in a GC'd language). From the CPU usage, it also looks like they also haven't parallelized the Fortan version yet, though even at ideal speedup it'll still lose.

I've been doing some tuning work on our parallel dialect of ML, and many of the C programs are fairly well-optimized, though mandelbrot still has some room for improvement.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> This is a really terribly done study, with a misleading title to boot.

First, even if we take the conclusion as given, "Fortran" isn't faster than "C". The median of one set of programs, compiled with one Fortran compiler with one set of options and run on one processor, is faster than the median of another set of programs compiled with one C compiler with one set of one and run on that processor. This tells us approximately nothing.

If you only expand your consideration to include the _whole distribution_ of programs they tested, GCC actually looks better than iFort (eg. there is a single program which ran 2x faster with iFort, but multiple programs ran more than 2x slower). Median is a spectacularly poor choice of metric, especially with so few samples in the distribution.

But also: Intel also makes a C compiler. Why wasn't that used? How were these benchmark programs chosen? Etc.

This study says close to nothing about "Fortran" and "C", or about any of the other languages involved.

<comment><USER9> _This study says close to nothing about "Fortran" and "C", or about any of the other languages involved._

Sorry, but I disagree here. It's one of the best resources out there for getting numbers on the relative performance of languages, despite the pitfalls. The implementations of popular languages are well tuned (sometimes extremely so), the used compilers and settings are quite sane, and the benchmark programs are fairly well distributed in functionality.

The median is a reasonable choice because it's less sensitive to outliers and was probably chosen for that reason. "Spectacularly poor metric" seems to be an opinion, not a fact.

I admit it would have been better to compare Intel C with Intel Fortran. Why wasn't this done? Perhaps some of the submitted programs don't compile correctly with Intel C, or perhaps Intel C doesn't actually perform well on them. Who knows.

But to say that this is a "terribly done study" because of that is doing it injustice.

<comment><USER8> The median really is a spectacularly bad choice when there are so few data points, and especially when thinking about performance. If A and B get 3x faster, but C gets 3x slower, then your overall workload gets slower, even though the "median performance improvement" is 3x. Obviously the effect is magnified with only 3 data points, but the number of points used in the examples on that page is not so much greater as to eliminate this effect.

Adding to this is that significant slowdowns, the "outliers" that you're keen to disregard, tend to dwarf performance improvements that the median might show (because of the multiplicative nature of these values: if A/fortran is 10x faster than A/C, and B/fortran is 10x slower than B/C, then A+B/fortran is 5x slower than A+B/C).

What's _really_ right is to show the complete distribution of speedups and slowdowns (as one of the detail pages on that site does). If you look at the actual distribution for the comparison of C and Fortran in question, C actually comes out looking much better than Fortran does (which shows precisely how misleading using the median can be).

If you must to boil it down to a single number, there are several choices better than the median. I would be happier with a mean, despite its imperfections.

<comment><USER10> Mean would be a better choice if a typical real-world application were split approximately equally between each of these tasks. Which is of course patently untrue, particularly so because writing number-crunching code in Fortran does not prevent you from writing your hash-table code in something else (note how the best C binary-trees code is actually calling an external library).

Comparison of medians is nice because it shows that for approximately half of fairly diverse tasks one language is faster than another, which imo is a much more interesting statistic.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> With Fortran this is expected, since for language semantics the compiler can perform more assumptions compared to C, resulting into more optimizations.

<comment><USER9> For the shootout, all the source code is visible to the compiler (though at least GCC needs to be told so with a flag). So I don't think there's much more assumptions that can be made.

<comment><USER12> AFAIK GCC doesn't add "restrict" to pointers by itself. Fortran semantics mean that pointers are "restrict" by default.

<comment><USER9> How does this matter when the compiler can see all the source code? It can see what the pointers are pointing to and determine if there is aliasing.

Feel free to point out the source code in the shootout where this would somehow not be the case. Shouldn't be hard to find if you focus on the benchmarks where Fortran beats C heavily.

Additionally, the argument about restrict is flawed because it can be added to the C code too, so it can't be an advantage of Fortran.

<comment><USER13> It is impossible write a compiler that reads a C source code and for every point in program decides if two names visible from that point cannot alias each other. You cannot do that even under assumption that every code path may be visited.

<comment><USER9> I agree it is impossible in the general case (it's obviously impossible when input data controls program flow, for example). But I don't think that has much meaning for the benchmarks under consideration, which, by the way, one would expect to sidestep the obvious pitfalls here.

The impossibility of solving aliasing in the general case doesn't stop C compiler writers from implementing alias analysis.

<comment><USER14> I assume xyzzyz was referring to the undecidability of the halting problem, not just user input. Comparisons to the halting problem are often made inappropriately, as would be the case here, since the compiler doesn't need to answer whether an arbitrary program contains aliasing, but only identify programs that admit arguments (often simple ones) demonstrating that they don't alias. It's still undecidable, though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> These reports are worse than useless. Any person with good understanding of computing knows that implementation plays a huge part in it. Why people wasting their time comparing speed of different programming languages while they should focus on different implementations. I guess the latter one is difficult so people all try to avoid it, and the first one is just so easy to do and everybody is doing it.

<comment><USER16> That fact stands out immensely. The Scala code and java code should be equal as the first can be written exactly like the second. Don't even see Clojure. Hate to see what times they get there.

<comment><USER17> Clojure is there but where is clang?

<comment><USER5> clang is waiting for someone like you, who wants to spend their time building language implementations on the LLVM toolchain and measuring program runtimes -

[http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/demo2/which-programming- la...](http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/demo2/which-programming-languages- are-fastest.php?llvmgcc=on&clang=on&java=on&ghc=on&csharp=on&fsharp=on)

<http://shootout.alioth.debian.org/help.php#llvm>

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Fortran was designed to munch numbers. As most programs are written by people who will not spend much time getting that last 3x of performance out, a language like Fortran makes sense for the number crunchers. Its easier to screw up in C. These kinds of tests are not all that great, as the code is optimized. Its un-optimized code that matters, since that powers the world.

</comment><comment><USER19> FWIW, This Developer's Life has an interesting interview with a fortran programmer this month: <http://thisdeveloperslife.com/post/2-0-7-dinosaurs>

</comment><comment><USER20> Is there some reason that gfortran from the GCC project is not on the list of compilers for this language shootout? Instead only the branded "Intel Fortran" compiler shows up. Hmm.

</comment><comment><USER21> Fortran's always been faster than C

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> You have to hit F5 to reload page, since otherwise the old page will be displayed from browser cache. Probably something wrong with page cache expiration settings.</comment>


ShowHN (weekend project) : Ready.js - prepare your js for production - <AUTHOR>

You can find it on GitHub at http://github.com/dsimard/ready.js
Ready.js does 4 things :

  * Check if your javascript are valid with jslint.
  * Optimize and minify your javascript with Closure Compiler.
  * Watch your javascript files for jslint while you're coding.
  * Create an aggregated file of all your javascripts.
 It's written in node.js but can be used in any kind of project (rails, django, plain HTML). <comment><AUTHOR> clickable : <http://github.com/dsimard/ready.js></comment>


What 18th-Century Paris Sounded Like - <AUTHOR> http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/what-18th-century-paris-sounded-180960724/?no-ist <comment><USER2> The linked article (in French) contains actual 3D reconstruction with the sound scape [https://news.cnrs.fr/articles/sound-18th-century- paris](https://news.cnrs.fr/articles/sound-18th-century-paris)

<comment><USER3> Oh my gosh is this one of the coolest things I heard and see in a while. PLEASE whoever you all are, do Byzantium next. I would love to see what Constantinople and Hagia Sophia were like in the 500s

<comment><USER4> Sort of related, Stanford's Icons of Sound[1] project has digitally reconstructed the acoustics of the Hagia Sophia (present day) as basically the world's most grandiose reverb plugin. You can hear an example here [2] (need to skip around to hear the actual examples). The singers were recorded in a regular room and then post-processed with an acoustic model of the Hagia Sophia.

[1] [http://iconsofsound.stanford.edu/index.html](http://iconsofsound.stanford.edu/index.html)

[2] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsLgLNgA- _Q](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsLgLNgA-_Q)

<comment><USER5> Sounds absolutely incredible. Any idea if they've released the impulses? I couldn't find anything on the IoS site.

<comment><USER4> Indeed! No IRs have been released that Im aware of.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The map of Paris mentioned in this article reminded me of French relief maps of XVIII century, that can be seen today in Museum of Fine Arts in Lille. They were captured by Prussians in 1815 and moved to Germany. Some were even used in WWI by Germans. [http://www.fortified- places.com/reliefs/beauxarts.html](http://www.fortified- places.com/reliefs/beauxarts.html)

</comment><comment><USER7> Reminds me of recently being in a bazaar in a foreign country, taking some photos then using the voice recorder on my phone to capture the soundscape. The two types of media remain separate. Does anyone know of a simple way to intergrate media and post it online (with the ease of, let's say, Imgur)?

<comment><USER8> Wouldn't sound + image just be a video? So, YouTube or something similar?

<comment><USER9> Talking about youtube, I don't know how supported is the 3D video thing; but it fits the "virtual tourism" part neatly.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> This was fantastic; it's quieter than I would have expected.

Not Really Related: There are a few MMORPGs that have "soundscapes" in big cities that sound much like this. Guild Wars 2 in the human city is one that comes to mind.

</comment><comment><USER11> One thing that caught my eye was the strange phrase trop va qui dure, which I was having trouble translating (I'm not a native speaker). I felt better when I looked at the Wikipedia page which said that the origin of the name remains mysterious.

[https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rue_Trop-Va-Qui- Dure](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rue_Trop-Va-Qui-Dure)

The road was also called the Road Along the Seine and Misery Valley. It disappeared in 1813 when they demolished the Grand Châtelet.

You can still see traces on modern Paris--places like the Rue St. Denis. There are also remnants of the Grand Châtelet in place names, like the shopping center (more like a mall) called Châtelet - Les Halles not far from its namesake.

</comment><comment><USER12> Ironically I don't think I ever experienced ASMR from those videos, but this one is doing it.

<comment><USER13> Same

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Direct link to video: [https://youtu.be/YP__1eHeyo4](https://youtu.be/YP__1eHeyo4)

</comment><comment><USER15> Listening to the video linked by @mynegation, I was expecting louder traffic sounds (horseshoe on cobblestone, carriage wheels on cobblestone, creaking of carriages). In the summertime we visit an area with many Amish farmsteads nearby and I can hear their carriages coming from a few hundred yards/meters away.

</comment><comment><USER16> It is the smell I would like to experience

</comment><comment><USER17> Too bad there was little to no talking

the human voice is an important sound</comment>


Ask HN: What is a typical cap during a pre-seed round? - <AUTHOR> What is a typical cap during a pre-seed round? <comment><USER2> Pre-seeed? Friends and family or seed rounds are typically unpriced. It's convertible debt, with a discount and floor / ceiling on an eventual qualified / priced round.

</comment><comment><USER3> The smarter entrepreneurs and angels are using non-equity instruments like SAFE's or old school Convertible notes and letting later money set valuation.

<comment><AUTHOR> Many (most?) safe's also have caps...</comment></comment>


Website asking for Amazon employees horror stories - <AUTHOR> http://www.thestranger.com/news/feature/2016/02/03/23517717/an-anonymous-website-is-asking-for-amazon-employees-horror-stories <comment><USER2> This is really helpful and matches stories that I've heard (I'm in Seattle). The immediacy slips away and I find myself applying for interesting AWS jobs, but reminders like this make me press their "Withdraw from All Jobs" button. Better me pressing it now, than it being pressed for me later.</comment>


Ask HN: Which service do you use for sharing images + other files? - <AUTHOR>

I use either http://ge.tt/ or imgur.com <comment><USER2> cl.ly</comment>


Unbridled Entrepreneurism - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/26/unbridled-entrepreneurism/ <comment><USER2> I worry that all this start-up cheerleading is going to attract the wrong kind of crowd. It will also attract more of the _right_ kind of crowd, but it will also be time to start watching out (a little more carefully) for clueless wannabes and hucksters.

I guess anyone who was working in IT in the 90s will know that already though.

Note, I don't think it's really a bubble (though if things keep growing there will be). There's more money coming in from consumers, and less opportunities elsewhere, so software is hot. But like any successful ecosystem, it will attract predators and scavengers eventually (though hopefully things are still OK).</comment>


Ask HN: Open source Stack Overflow equivalent? - <AUTHOR>

Is there an open source version of a stack overflow/Q&A software (that's fairly decent)?  If not, somebody should build it. <comment><USER2> I'll build one this weekend.

</comment><comment><USER3> Django implementation: <http://github.com/rickross/osqa/>

Rails/MongoMapper implementation: <http://gitorious.org/shapado>

</comment><comment><USER4> [http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/5558/am-i-allowed- to...](http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/5558/am-i-allowed-to-make-a- stackoverflow-clone)

</comment><comment><USER5> [http://discovermagazine.com/2007/dec/long-live-closed- source...](http://discovermagazine.com/2007/dec/long-live-closed-source- software/article_print)</comment>


The Next Mainstream Programming Language: a game developer's perspective - <AUTHOR> http://www.st.cs.uni-saarland.de/edu/seminare/2005/advanced-fp/docs/sweeny.pdf

<comment><USER2> I'm pretty sure this is old and well known, but here are some highlights. This is from the founder of Epic Games, which makes Unreal Engine, which runs tons of modern games. Thus, it's from someone doing real-world work with high performance requirements.

Here are some highlights:

\- "Gladly sacrifice 10% perf for 10% higher productivity"

\- "Never use assembly language"

\- 50% of bugs are array indices, null pointers, integer overflow, uninitialized vars

\- Suggests dependent types to solve array bounds issues

\- 90% of integers are array indices, 80% could be dependently-typed

\- For loops: "40% are functional comprehensions, 50% are functional folds"

\- Gameplay code is hard to make concurrent - thousands of mutable objects, updated tens of times per second, each update touches many other objects

\- Suggests transactional memory: 2-4X perf overhead is acceptable if code can scale to many threads

\- "Garbage collection should be the only option"

\- "Syntax requirement: Must not scare away mainstream programmers"

<comment><USER3> This question has been bugging me in my mind ever since I first saw this presentation back in 2005:

What integer value in a game gets so big that it can potentially overflow a 64 bit integer?

I've literally been thinking about this question for years and I can't think of a single case. Bignums are pretty much only used in scientific computations and the only thing in a game that would come close to this would be encryption, in which case the programmers would know what they are doing and wouldn't mistakenly used fixed size integers.

(Of course back in the day integer overflow bugs in games were everywhere, one awesome example being level number 256 in pacman)

<comment><USER4> _What integer value in a game gets so big that it can potentially overflow a 64 bit integer?_

2^64 meters is only around 1900 lightyears, which is woefully insufficient for a galaxy-scale RTS.

<comment><USER5> But a game that uses integer meters for coordinates has galaxy-scale problems of another kind.

<comment><USER6> I've tried to write a space game, and let me tell you, 32 bit floating point is _woefully_ inadequate. Unfortunately, most 3D hardware at the time was built around 32 bit floats. Those only give you about 1 in 100,000 resolution. I had to create scaled-down "billboards" for nearby celestial objects and park them 1000's of kilometers away. (When they were actually 10's or 100's of kilometers away.)

Even 64 bits wouldn't allow for a naive implementation of a realistically scaled space game. There would still have to be a lot of optimization tricks played.

EDIT: I realize that the parents posts are talking about Integers, but you can't send those directly to the GPU!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Was I the only one surprised by the Haskell praise? Sure, I love Haskell, but I didn't realize it catered so well to game developer.

He _does_ point out a few of the downfalls of Haskell, but there seems to be some positive element there.

<comment><USER8> I thought everyone liked Haskell...

I had assumed the problem was being able to use it when we liked.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> From 2005, so you'll have to add a zero onto the end of stats like _"Current GPUs are 16-wide to 48-wide!"_

Wonder if this is still true: _"Factoid: C# exposes more than 10 integer-like data types, none of which are those defined by (Pythagoras, 500BC)."_

<comment><USER10> 9 primitive types: [http://msdn.microsoft.com/en- us/library/exx3b86w(VS.100).asp...](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en- us/library/exx3b86w\(VS.100\).aspx)

System.Numerics.BigInteger: [http://msdn.microsoft.com/en- us/library/system.numerics.bigi...](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en- us/library/system.numerics.biginteger.aspx)

I'm sure there are more.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Old but useful -- and nice to read it again from 2010 perspective.

</comment><comment><USER12> That was a good (if old) presentation. I worked for a few years in the entertainment industry (Nintendo U64 and PC games, virtual reality projects for Disney and SAIC) and it is an experience that I can recommend to any computer scientist because there are so many interesting problems to solve. Anyway, if you can take a few years off from whatever career path you are on, you will enjoy the experience.

</comment><comment><USER13> Off topic, but it always surprises me how someone with all this knowledge can ..well, use Comic Sans for the presentation. While I understand that it's about games and that Comic Sans is supposed to be perceived as a "fun" font, this is really an odd choice.</comment>


Show HN: Rofocus – Chrome extension that plays ambient sounds to help you focus - <AUTHOR> https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/rofocus-increase-your-foc/olomkelphccokjjidpagjpihlnemlpng/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hi HN! Been spending the last week or so hacking away at this side project. I'm hoping it might be useful to some!

I'm really big into ambient sounds when working (e.g. listening to sounds of cafés / rain / etc) and I find that they help me focus, since they don't distract me as much as music. I typically use a number of sites (e.g. brain.fm) or find a youtube playlist. Though, I thought this experience could be improved upon + I wanted to learn how to make a Chrome extension, so I made this.

If you have a moment to try it out, I'd love some feedback! Do you see it being helpful? What's it missing?

This was meant to be a small project to get a bit of a break and scratch my itch to design/code something, but I ended up getting really into it and can see this growing into something bigger (e.g. a productivity suite of tools) - any ideas on where I could take this would be awesome too!

P.S. made a quick landing page that has more details too - feel free to have a look here: [https://rofocus.com](https://rofocus.com)

Thanks!

<comment><USER2> Interesting project. What's the source for the ambient music?

<comment><AUTHOR> Hey! I purchased most of the tracks.</comment></comment></comment>


I can do better: I will pay $10,000 for you to build your side-project/MVP - <AUTHOR>

Proposition HN: I will pay $10,000 for you to build your side-project/MVP
Premise 1:
Investors/Incubators over-estimate their ability to pick good ideas/startups.
Premise 2:
An MVP built by a lone, but talented techie is almost as likely to turn into something 'successful' as a startup on angellist that has: 4 founders, 9 advisors, 13 press releases, 600 followers, etc
Premise 3:
Most freelancers will not build and/or follow-through with their ideas, because they perceive their opportunity cost to be too high.
Premise 4:
HackerNews has a decent number of talented freelancers with good ideas.
Based on these premises, I present The Proposition [Version 1.0]:
I'll pay you $5000 to build the MVP of that idea you've been kicking around in your head for the last year. Once you're done (ideally within 2 months), you can go back to earning your full potential. At this point, I'll take over and spend an additional $5000 to acquire enough users/customers for us to evaluate the project's likelihood of success. We split the resulting company 50-50, as equal co-founders. <comment><USER2> Did you want people to e-mail you their ideas? E-mail you an introduction and their background/skills/etc? Shouldn't you put your contact info somewhere? Are you associated with hmexx or just one upping him?

</comment><comment><USER3> I only see $8,000. Where does the other $2,000 come in? How would one contact you?</comment>


Show HN: Esell.io – Sell your products directly on social media sites and blogs - <AUTHOR> http://www.esell.io/

<comment><USER2> Hi Kolev,

It depends on what type of online retailer you are. We developed esell.io for people who are occasionally selling something they create on their own websites, blogs or social media sites.

Considering these small online retailers it really is "only 5%" compared to the fees of eBay or Amazon or most of the marketplaces. It's "only 5%" if you compare it to the cost of developing and opening your own e-commerce website. Or even if you compare it to a monthly subscription fee of some other e-commerce platforms.

And you're right - this will not work for high-volume low-margin online retailers.

</comment><comment><USER3> "Only" 5% fee? When you have 15-25% markup (I think more than that is criminal), "only 5%" is blood sucking.</comment>


Nintendo SPACEWORLD '97 - <AUTHOR> http://www.nintendo.co.jp/n12/ Set encoding to Shift_JIs for ungarbled characters.
There are actually videos of some pages!
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/n12/sw64soft/sw6405.html <comment><AUTHOR> Set encoding to Shift_JIS for ungarbled characters.

There are actually videos of some pages.

<http://www.nintendo.co.jp/n12/sw64soft/sw6405.html></comment>


In the debate between religion and science, wonder is what the doctor ordered - <AUTHOR> http://nautil.us/issue/43/heroes/a-prescription-for-awe <comment><USER2> from the article:

> _Our tour of the Oxford University Museum helped us see the strength of a > tradition of natural theology that enabled a generation of clerical > naturalists to integrate their discoveries in historical geology with their > deepest beliefs about God, nature, and humankind. In the end, it's true, > they failed to secure this synthesis—but only because a rising generation, > unable to see the God of nature revealed in the rocks and fossils quite as > clearly as their predecessors had done, aspired instead to be free from what > they took to be the meddling influence of the clergy in matters scientific._

To be scientific the theory must be falsifiable, i.e. there must be an experiment that you can that can prove that the theory is false.

How do you distinguish using fossils which god is the real one? Zeus or Jupiter?</comment>


Show HN: Find the Right Bible Verse by Topic or KeyWord using BibleBooklet App - <AUTHOR> https://appstore.com/biblebooklet<p>Find the perfect Bible insight from over 200 Topics. Search by keyword like 'Anxiety' or 'Depression' to get relevant verses. Share verses easily on Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter or text. <comment><USER2> Is "how to own a slave?" one of the topics? Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, etc. And of course Luke 12:47-48, where Jesus condones slave beatings. The Bible is practically a slave owner's manual.

<comment><USER3> Religious flamewar is not welcome on HN and will get you banned. Please review [https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html) and do not post like this again.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> There's nothing technically novel here, this post feels like some kind of techno-proselytizing.</comment>


Show HN: Clubhouse – Simple, scalable project management for software teams - <AUTHOR> https://clubhouse.io <comment><USER2> Hey HN, just wanted to let you know that if you want to give Clubhouse a try, you can use this link for a $100 credit: [https://clubhouse.io/signup?referral=hn](https://clubhouse.io/signup?referral=hn)

(I'm a co-founder, also happy to answer any questions.)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Hi all, would be great to chat about why we built Clubhouse and what we're trying to do. Looking forward to your feedback.</comment>


Why Finders Are Losers (or The Startup World's Dirty Little Secret) - <AUTHOR> http://startuplawyer.com/startup-issues/why-finders-are-losers <comment><USER2> It's pretty funny to read an article written by someone in a $500 per hour and thirty-percent-of-the-award profession denigrate those who work in a six- percent-only-upon-success profession.</comment>


Airport Made Fence Holes for Planespotting Photographers - <AUTHOR> https://petapixel.com/2019/05/22/this-airport-made-fence-holes-for-planespotting-photographers/ <comment><USER2> Scroll to the end for a frightening contrast with the TSA poster of a terrorist photographer:

 _Don 't let our planes get into the wrong hands. If you question it, report it. Call local law enforcement. Report to your airport manager._

And you know he's a terrorist because he is pointing a telephoto lens at an airplane!

<comment><USER3> At London trainstations, police asks you to notify them if you're a train spotter. That way they won't bother you (unless you start taking pictures of the infrastructure instead of trains) and you can help them reporting suspicious behaviour (as someone waiting for trains most of the time).

It's all about communication. If people see the police as their partner, they'll be happy to help them do their job (at least in the UK).

<comment><USER4> Why would taking pictures of the infrastructure be illegal?

<comment><USER5> It's why we can't have good things. Someone will abuse the privilege.

Just earlier we had a post about people pulling the emergency brakes on NYC subway cars. For decades it was fine. Suddenly people are causing some chaos.

That's about it. People will exploit weaknesses and we all lose.

<comment><USER6> I don't think they'll remove emergency brakes. I think they'll beef up CCTV and enhance patrols so they can respond quickly next time it happens.

<comment><USER7> So everyone now is surveilled en masse and patrolled by agents of the state, great solution. Is that really what we want?

<comment><USER6> In the article I read, the suspect exited the carriage and went down an employees only tunnel. Those sorts of tunnels seem like a place it's OK to put CCTV, since the general public doesn't even use them.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Zurich airport had this for (literally) decades.

They also put a page together specifically for plane spotters.[1]

[1] [https://www.zurich-airport.com/passengers-and- visitors/shopp...](https://www.zurich-airport.com/passengers-and- visitors/shopping-and-attractions/excursions-at-the-airport/highlights-for- spotter#_ga=2.248049351.1341392730.1558589679-783662582.1558589679)

<comment><USER9> They built a little hill so spotters can overlook the runway and fences from a higher position. There's also an old MI-8 next to it that was converted to a snack bar, it's pretty sweet to hang out for the day.

<comment><USER10> Whatever happened to observation decks open to the public? Tegel has one, and I remember one in Frankfurt

Looking at this they seem somewhat of a german specialty, but now with entry fees at bigger locations.

[https://eu.usatoday.com/story/travel/columnist/hobica/2013/1...](https://eu.usatoday.com/story/travel/columnist/hobica/2013/11/19/airport- observation-deck-plane-spotting/3628587/)

<comment><USER11> RDU (between Raleigh and Durham, NC) has one: [https://www.rdu.com/observation-park/](https://www.rdu.com/observation-park/)

<comment><USER12> also conveniently the best spot to wait to pick up an arrival (as they like to keep traffic flowing outside the terminal)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Not a new idea, Tokyo Narita has had holes, benches, vending machines etc for ages [https://www.narita-airport.jp/en/fun/view/](https://www.narita- airport.jp/en/fun/view/) The only thing they could possibly do more are cabins for the cold in winter. Still low cost and makes the airport's position on photography clear, friendly...

<comment><USER14> I was just thinking about Narita and then I saw your post come up. I've spent a lot of time there, I used to fly through Narita and I had to wait six or seven hours for my next flight. My body was at night time biologically, and after a long flight it was a very hard wait. Until the time I found that open air view deck. Fresh air, daylight, all of it made it easier. And I noticed the photo-friendly fence too. Gave me something to do.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> In my hometown we actually put a park on airport property with a great view of both of our runways. It has a raised "tower" that streams a live feed of the local ATC. Benches, picnic tables, shaded areas, it's honestly one of my favorite spots locally.

Video (city government quality): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReeLuUh8qB4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReeLuUh8qB4)

</comment><comment><USER16> Also an example of design for safety or prevention through design. It is much easier for them to monitor 10 whitelisted spots and mark everything else as a blacklist.

<comment><USER17> Actually the design of the fence is wrong, every gap should be big enough for a camera lens. If they don't want people in some areas they need a solid wall or dense vegetation.

A few decades ago someone decided chain link fences should be at a 2" hole size which worked well for keeping tennis and other balls going astray. In other applications they just use the standard stuff. Nobody had cameras in 1941 or whenever it was this fencing became popular, so 2" holes have persisted, QWERTY style.

You would need a different machine for making a 10cm hole size but it would be cheaper.

<comment><USER18> Perhaps they chose a hole size that's hard to fit a shoe into, to make climbing over difficult?

Of course, dense vegetation would be even better, as you say.

<comment><USER17> True, that is probably the reason why 2" is the hole size. It has been a while since I have bypassed a fence and it would be negligent to have something that worked as good as a ladder!

Normally you find an area that can be lifted up and you can expect barbed wire at the top, climbing is out the question though.

I would go for the bigger holes if it was my fence just so people don't vandalise it by lifting it or cutting the wire.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I wish more airports embraced planespotting! I enjoy planespotting at SFO regularly- I go to Bayfront park and get decent views of traffic departing/arriving the 28s (longest runways).

<comment><USER20> The best is Frankfurt, where you can actually go out onto the roof of the terminal without needing a ticket. It costs a small fee and you need to pass through a metal detector, but it beats sitting in a parking lot trying to get a view of the traffic.

<comment><USER21> The best is a house near an airport. I just look out my back window. So far the interesting ones have been the An-225, the Piaggio P.180 Avanti, the E-4B, the F-35A, the F-22, the V-22, the CH-47, the A-10, the B-25, the B-2, powered parachutes, Air Force One, Trump Force One, and all the teen series fighters. We didn't see it fly, but the YAL-1 also seems to have visited.

When I lived in previous houses: the Goodyear blimp, the Space Shuttle (up and down)

I bet you never get the Space Shuttle in Frankfurt.

<comment><USER22> Isn't that brutally loud? I used to have relatives living in the flight path of Frankfurt airport and for a little while it was fun to watch the planes but the noise got old very quickly.

<comment><USER21> Usually it isn't.

The Goodyear blimp was a weird buzzing noise, not that loud.

The Space Shuttle launch was at some distance, otherwise the brutally loud noise would have killed me by ripping my internal organs loose. I had about 30 miles of safety margin, giving a house-shaking rumble. Landings were quiet except for a BOOM BOOM as the shockwave passed over. That would rattle the windows.

The An-225's six engines got me running to the window, though more for the oddity of the sound. At the time, that was the world's largest operational aircraft.

The V-22 is another one that sounds really weird, but it isn't actually loud.

All the fighter jets are loud. We get lots of them for about 3 days per year, during an airshow. Four or even six of the Blue Angels or the Thunderbirds making a turn around my house is quite noisy. Otherwise, the rare fighter jet flies through maybe once or twice a year.

The most awful noise was actually not on my list, because it isn't interesting. Delta likes to fly a decently large jet (probably 737-NG, 717, MD-80, or MD-90) at around 6:55 AM.

<comment><USER23> > The An-225's six engines got me running to the window, though more for the > oddity of the sound. At the time, that was the world's largest operational > aircraft.

So jealous. I'd love to see one of these things in the metal, let alone see / hear it taking off and landing.

<comment><USER21> I'm about 2.8 miles (4.5 km) off the end of the runway, and about 1000 feet (300 m) off the centerline. Arrivals usually have gear down, while departures usually do not.

I saw the An-225 departing. I heard it, felt that the sound wasn't typical, and ran to the window. I spotted the six engines and the distinctive H-tail just in time. That was a jolt. I see that and, well, there can be only one plane. It's that one, unique in the world.

It turns out that my local airport (MLB) sometimes does maintenance for the An-225. I'm not sure why this would be done in the USA at all, but we do have a 10,000-foot runway and huge hangars that I suspect were built for the Convair B-36 Peacemaker. The An-225 has probably been here more times than I know. Maybe I could see it often if there were some way to get notified in advance. Maybe there is even a predictable schedule.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Minneapolis (MSP) has a decent viewing area. No holes in the fence, but most spotters just stand on the tables or benches. The location is the best part since it is essentially in the center of the airfield.

[https://goo.gl/maps/3UnYMTtBo77va5qu7](https://goo.gl/maps/3UnYMTtBo77va5qu7)

</comment><comment><USER25> I recently discovered jetphotos.com and I have to wonder if airports doing things like this help that and similar sites due to convenient positioning, or if it makes all the photos 'the same' and thus quickly loses most of it's usefulness?

Not a plane spotter myself... My 18-55mm Nikon lense can barely see straight.

</comment><comment><USER26> Reminds me of [https://www.pinterest.com/pin/252342385347648601/](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/252342385347648601/)

</comment><comment><USER27> Interesting that the uppermost photo depicts what is decidedly not a hole in the fence. Great idea otherwise!

<comment><USER28> If you scroll down to the second photo it has the hole cut out. I think the first image was an installation shot.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> I'm pretty sure Australia has done this for 40+ years.

<comment><USER30> We don't have holes at ours (BNE/YBBN) but there is an area with free car parking and a concrete pad on a raised area where you get a pretty good view, and can put a ladder to get an unobstructed view. If there's a really interesting aircraft movement you often get six or seven people with ladders and a whole bunch of others around.

<comment><USER31> Same at Sydney Airport (SYD/YSSY). There's even a guide with a map:

[https://www.sydneyairport.com.au/corporate/sustainability/co...](https://www.sydneyairport.com.au/corporate/sustainability/community/aviation- enthusiasts)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> If that's the height at which they are placed, isn't it a bit low for most shooters?</comment>


FreeBSD OpenSSH Hole? - <AUTHOR> http://article.gmane.org/gmane.os.openbsd.tech/35731

<comment><USER2> >Sometimes I feel a bit sorry for them (and for him), but then the next minute I don't feel sorry because there's damn good reasons they won't be told about what I found.

This is hard to believe, is this the leader of the OpenBSD project saying he won't tell anyone at FreeBSD if he finds a hole that affects every FreeBSD installation? Or am I misunderstanding that message?

<comment><USER3> Here's some previous, from de Raadt, Dec 2013:

"Basically, it is 10 years of FreeBSD stupidity. They don't know a thing about security. They even ignore relevant research in all fields, not just from us, but from everyone."

[http://www.itwire.com/business-it-news/open- source/62641-cry...](http://www.itwire.com/business-it-news/open- source/62641-crypto-freebsd-playing-catch-up-says-de-raadt)

<comment><USER2> He might think they're stupid, that's not hard to believe. What's hard to believe is that he's altruistic enough to work on a huge open source project, but not enough to inform someone else of a hole that would affect a lot of people.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Context-free mailing list drama (starring Theo de Raadt)? Seems perfectly flagworthy.

</comment><comment><USER5> See this e-mail from Bob Beck (of the OpenBSD Foundation):

[http://article.gmane.org/gmane.os.openbsd.tech/35728](http://article.gmane.org/gmane.os.openbsd.tech/35728)

There is no security hole, he says.

<comment><USER6> This mail dates earlier than the OP linked. See [http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.os.openbsd.tech/35722/](http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.os.openbsd.tech/35722/) for a threaded view.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> No, just someone crumpy about lack of funding.

<comment><USER8> yeah, I'd be grumpy too if everyone uses your SSH implementation and can't even be arse'd to buy a friggin' CD or a t-shirt...then pooh-pooh the entire OpenBSD project, probably over that very SSH implementation.

don't let reality hurt your tender sensibilities ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Theo is Sloppy Mo: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnXZB9SkS44](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnXZB9SkS44)</comment>


The torture centre and the 'hooded men' - <AUTHOR> http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/the-torture-centre-and-the-hooded-men-1.2296152

<comment><USER2> Torturers walk among us. That's a stain on all of us.

<comment><USER3> And that stain is deep in the heart of how the US, UK, and others respond to "the enemy".</comment></comment>


Tesla Driver Appeared to Be 'Fully Sleeping' for at Least 30 Miles on Freeway - <AUTHOR> https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Sleeping-Driver-405-Freeway-Los-Angeles-Tesla-Autopilot-511237312.html <comment><USER2> I can't help but shake the feeling that people trying to record the sleeping driver with their cellphone might be more likely to cause an accident than the person sleeping with autopilot.

<comment><USER3> How do you reckon that?

I mean, both the text and video make it clear that a passenger recorded the video, and pointed out that the sleeping driver appears to have jimmied the Tesla to bypass Tesla's checks for an attentive driver.

I simply don't see how you can draw your conclusion based on the information given.

<comment><USER2> > both the text and video make it clear that a passenger recorded the video

Guess I missed that part</comment></comment></comment>


"Shielded in a cloak of ignorance and enthusiasm we're arrogant enough to think we can change the world and not yet jaded enough to understand the odds against us doing so" - Peter Nixey on Startups - <AUTHOR> http://www.webkitchen.co.uk/2006/03/startup.html <comment><USER2> _'... The biggest danger in committing one or more years of your life to a startup is not that you won't be as rich as you could be, but that if things go wrong you will have to re-enter the employment market with no observable career progression and the stigma of a failed business behind you. ...'_

An observable cultural difference b/w Anglo cultures in the UK and Australia and the States. Not so in the US where you, _'fail to success'_ (by observation). An important point to consider why there are less _startups_. It's not for the lack of talent, but ultra-conservative business culture.</comment>


Show HN: Kill Analytics - <AUTHOR> https://hello-kill.github.io/ <comment><USER2> This seems pretty neat, but is it even legal? At what point does something like this become an actual crime (unauthorized computer access)? Sending fake data seems like automated hacking.

Don't get me wrong. I like this. I think that tracking and pervasive analytics are a net loss for society.

<comment><USER3> I don't see how it's illegal.. there's no unauthorized access. The analytics servers open a port for the browser to send data to. This extension sends data to it.

It's the servers problem that it trusts the data that the frontend sends to it.

<comment><USER4> At least in US courts, this line of reasoning does not save the defendant in a hacking case IIRC.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> \- A chrome extension

\- Sends fake data through chrome (a google arm)

\- To google analytics (a google arm)

\- To ruin googles data (its core business)

You tell me whether that's going to work at scale.

<comment><USER6> Yeah, the Chrome store policies ([https://developer.chrome.com/webstore/program_policies](https://developer.chrome.com/webstore/program_policies)) do include a note that almost certainly kills this:

"We don't allow content that harms or interferes with the operation of the networks, servers, or other infrastructure of Google or any third-parties."

I think Chrome Extension distribution outside the Chrome store is more or less blocked, so that's that.

A FireFox version would probably be fine though, assuming this doesn't actually break any laws (IANAL, but I'd be surprised).

Alternatively, you could build exactly the same thing as a standalone program on your computer that does this as a local proxy, or even by building something like pi-hole ([https://pi-hole.net/](https://pi-hole.net/)), to automatically break analytics data from everybody on your network.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Mirror: [https://web.archive.org/web/20161024140001/https://hello- kil...](https://web.archive.org/web/20161024140001/https://hello- kill.github.io/)

</comment><comment><USER7> This is a really cool idea! I do find it a bit ironic that it's a Chrome extension though (because Chrome is made by Google, probably the biggest threat to privacy in human history). If it were a Firefox extension, I'd use it.</comment>


Ask HN: What website project are you working on? - <AUTHOR>

So many news posts, so few people talking about what they are doing. What website are you working right now? <comment><USER2> I just finished building this for a client: <http://sftheaterbuzz.org/>

It's a little sad because there are no reviews yet...but I don't think he's had time to promote it yet.

<comment><USER3> I like this site. Question: I can't tell from the source if you are using a CMS of any kind or if this is custom developed in Django or similar. Care to reveal what you used?

<comment><USER2> It's all custom Django, good guess on that one. I do use my fair share of external Django apps though. Ignoring the built in Django apps, My INSTALLED_APPS list has 10 unmodified external reusable apps, and 11 internal apps, which include ones I built myself and a few reusable apps I had to modify.

Thanks to everyone for the positive comments.

<comment><USER4> A minor tip: create a 404.html that matches the look of the site. Right now you're serving the one from the Django admin :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Just in my spare time, but working on a subway/train route finder for the Tokyo trains

<http://trains.jp/>

There are others out there, but trying to make one that is super easy to use. Still very much a work in progress, but any feedback would be appreciated!

<comment><USER6> How on earth did you nail that domain name? .jp must be virgin lands!

<comment><USER5> A little - tho most of the good ones are taken. Just lucky I think - it was previously registered, but lapsed.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'm working on an app to track work orders for a client. Not exactly riveting, but it's my first real gig and it feels really good to get paid to program.

</comment><comment><USER8> <http://woodgears.ca> <http://chartgame.com>

<comment><USER9> <http://woodgears.ca/marbleadd/index.html>

Awesome!

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Still working hard on <http://xp-dev.com/>

Just opened up sign-ups for a new platform release which is going to begin next week:

[http://www.xp-dev.com/blogs/view/704/xp-dev-com- version-40-b...](http://www.xp-dev.com/blogs/view/704/xp-dev-com- version-40-beta-testing/)

<comment><USER11> This is the site where the GS employee uploaded his "stolen" code, right?

<comment><USER10> yeah..

some more details (if you want to know):

[http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aSDx...](http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aSDxSdMlPTXU)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Interactive map of United States midcontinent onshore oil and natural gas wells: <http://hydrocarbon.search.eser.org/>

Used for identifying infill drilling locations.

Updated daily with new well locations.

Working on adding Canada, shale plays, and Gulf of Mexico offshore wells.

Using Memcached on Amazon EC2 + openlayers + Google WGS84 tiles.

</comment><comment><USER13> Just finished building an iPhone app that is awaiting Apple's approval now: <http://www.pinglater.com/>

We're doing a 1 day web app event this weekend, so I'll be able to share more about everyone's apps soon!

</comment><comment><USER14> <http://mancalatime.com> where you can play your friends online over the internet.

Good or Evil db - in "private" beta you can use this link if you're really interested.

<http://goodorevildb.com/do/register?key=chestermcgester>

And then a bizarre jython app that I will probably open source. Yeah, I know I should concentrate on just one thing. Oh well.

</comment><comment><USER15> Working on <http://www.beachionary.com/> a social guide for beaches and organizing summer holidays. It's the middle of the summer and still on private alpha though :|

</comment><comment><USER16> My 1st ever site! =) <http://www.ComoEstaEso.com>

Check it out tomorrow during daylight!

<comment><USER17> JAJAJAJAJAJAJA JAJAJA -elguason

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> Module called Boost for Drupal. <http://drupal.org/project/boost> In short it's a poormans-squid/poormans-varnish; it creates a html cache for dynamic pages. It's fairly sophisticated, going to have it support the caching of AJAX JSON in the near future; among other things.

</comment><comment><USER19> After years of writing Manufacturing, Retail and Financial Backend/Middleware, I'm working on the following exclusively (for better or worse).

Maintaining Version 2.x & Building the All New Version (3.0) of <http://www.inkedmag.com>

Continuing the build of Version 2.x of <http://www.surfacemag.com>

and soon to be working on a brand new Version 2.x of <http://www.tokion.com> (currently a simple set of splash pages)

All for publishers in NYC. I do so wish they would acquire a technical journal, or some form of academics research journal(s). Fashion & Sub Cultures are interesting for those in said cultures but it doesn't mean that I wouldn't find more scholarly/research minded content/environments more interesting.

</comment><comment><USER20> I'm working on two things right now ( <http://web2.0collage.com> & <http://pcfspam.com> ) I'm hoping to wrap up the first (a lot of it was an experiment into how to do basic PR) and get started on the second after exams.

</comment><comment><USER21> A little gardening website - <http://gardenobserver.com>

Trying to track late blight on tomatoes. <http://gardenobserver.com/report/map>. Anyone having pest problems in their gardens? Hook me up!

</comment><comment><USER22> I'm working on <http://www.getpersonas.com>, trying to make it better for the community. Small release tomorrow!

Also working on <http://www.mozilla.com/mobile>, got some updates for a future release.

<comment><USER9> Getpersonas is pretty. It pleases my eyes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> <http://tweeteorites.com/>

It tracks your friends' favorites on Twitter, and suggests interesting people for you to follow based on favorites and your social network structure.

<comment><USER24> This is cool :) Really clean design!

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> <http://socialfact.com> \-- collaborative thinking and blogging

</comment><comment><USER26> Building a noise filter for Twitter: <http://www.philtro.com>

<comment><USER27> Very very interesting.

If it's not supposed to be secret, how does it work? Does it look for similarity of what you like or does it weight people in your feed and just skip x% of tweets from heavy low-value tweeters?

<comment><USER28> My instant thought is it simply trains a naive Bayes or similar spam classification algorithm on the tweets you label ;)

<comment><USER26> Actually, that's _exactly_ what I did in the early stages of the project. Once I started getting some traction earlier this year, it made sense to start putting some real effort into building a much better engine.

Today, that's still one of the methods we employ but it's certainly not enough to make solid recommendations or wrap IP around... so, I've built a team of people much smarter than me to help take this thing to the next level. :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> Got energized again to work on my Web service-backed iPhone app <http://istockplay.com>

Does this count?

I'll admit that, right now, it's little more than a tech demo for my iPhone libraries:

<http://github.com/costan/zergsupport> \- iPhone-side

<http://github.com/costan/imobile> \- Rails server-side

</comment><comment><USER30> Still working nights and weekends on <http://www.genlighten.com>, our "Etsy for Genealogy Document Retrieval" app.

<comment><USER31> would be interested in talking to you about an upcoming project. nice job!

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> Playing with Google App Engine (& hence Python), very nice platform for quickly putting together small web apps:

<http://rmmbr.appspot.com/> \- SMS notes (reminders etc) to your inbox

<http://therealurl.appspot.com/> \- send a URL, get a JSON response with the unshortened version + page title

</comment><comment><USER33> Just launched Merecal, a site for tracking upcoming and new releases in books, movies, music and video games. It uses your favorite artists, authors, actors, directors, publishers, etc. to notify you when the releases you're likely to care about become available for pre-order or actually release.

<http://merecal.com/>

<comment><USER9> Very useful, well done.

Hope you don't live in North Carolina.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> Working on the site for the club I'm in at school: <http://urbangaming.org>

Not much info on there but the new site will be up in exactly 1 week so stay tuned. You can check out our Facebook page for more info: <http://facebook.com/urbangaming>

</comment><comment><USER35> <http://www.whichishotter.com>

Simple site for me to learn Rails. Took the "solve a problem" idea to "which of these two [X] look better?" (for outfits, haircuts...whatever). Get a crowd to vote to get more opinions. The initial people are uploading some unexpected things though.

</comment><comment><USER36> Just launched our latest version of SchoolRack a few days ago. It connects teachers with their students and parents. Lets them upload files, create discussion boards, create homework assignments, etc...

<http://schoolrack.com>

</comment><comment><USER37> Working on <http://www.ratemystudentrental.com> and a new tool that stemmed from our internal systems, <http://www.leadnuke.com>

</comment><comment><USER38> I, with my partners, am working on <http://www.snapact.com/> in the midst of creating a better API in order to create more clients for more platforms. Fun and exciting (to me) stuff.

</comment><comment><USER39> <http://www.you-compete.com>

</comment><comment><USER40> working on the beta version of Leftos (LEssons For The Opposite Sex) <http://leftos.com> \-- an online dating/relationship advice social network. Building this for a client.

<comment><USER41> Did you build that on a framework or do it from scratch?

I'm trying to see how many people go with existing frameworks for this sort of thing.

<comment><USER40> built completely from scratch, no framework.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> This week, at <http://hubpages.com> we rolled out a table capsule that fits in nicely with our hubtool, our user interface for designing wikipedia-like articles.

</comment><comment><USER43> <http://confess2.me/> a personal project i whipped up in a weekend as a learning exercise (and a blatant rip off of similar sites out there)

</comment><comment><USER44> Working on a new homepage for <http://shoptalkapp.com>, since you helpful HN reviewers pointed out last week that it is lacking. :)

</comment><comment><USER45> <http://www.vivapixel.com> \- Photo and video hosting/sharing site.

Currently working on simple posting to tumblr and posterous

</comment><comment><USER46> fun little text editor called WHOAD (sort of like woah dude or word heuristic occurrence analysis diagram). Trying it in flex v.s. the jquery version I currently have.

</comment><comment><USER47> Just wrapping up new home and pricing page for our photo sales app: <http://www.nextproof.com/pricing/>

</comment><comment><USER48> probably going to do a One Day App on saturday, thinking of using our short url as the domain. <http://post.ly/1WGW>

</comment><comment><USER49> I'm a cubicle-dweller by day, but in my nights and weekends I'm building:

<http://www.familymatic.com>

</comment><comment><USER50> <http://www.twiddla.com/>

Mostly working on the social interface around the pricing model, trying to get the subscription process smoothed out. It's a fun little puzzle, trying to get people from "this is cool" to "I should sign up for this" to "I should pay money for this".

After that, there are a couple new big pieces in the works...

</comment><comment><USER51> <http://taskulus.com>. It's barely working right now and mainly for testing deployment and such

</comment><comment><USER52> We just did a "Review my app" here on HN. <http://flooha.com>

It's a place where open source developers can upload their add-ons (and apps in the future) and users can add their software to their website just by clicking. We hope to bring a much bigger, immediate, and organized user base to open source developers.

</comment><comment><USER53> <http://tshirtthis.com/> \- rss to headline tshirts on demand - not yet in beta

<comment><USER54> Not sure if I understand this. The title of each RSS item can be purchased as a tshirt?

Also, how do you get the tshirts printed? Do you do it yourself or outsource to another company? (curious for my own tshirt needs)

<comment><USER53> Rss feed titles in a specific font & a logo. We have a special arrangement with a facility that does this.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER55> <http://www.mybroadwaydreams.com> small joomla project i'm working on for a broadway foundation

<http://www.v2interactive.net> working onmy design firms webpage in joomla to meet web 2.0 standards

</comment><comment><USER56> When I have time after work. <http://leaguesmart.com>

<comment><USER49> Many years ago (just as the web was taking off) I was the database guy for a local soccer association. I always liked the idea of abstracting all that out to a general purpose application but never acted on it. Good luck!

</comment></comment><comment><USER57> <http://analytics4i.appspot.com> Google Analytics web interface for the iPhone.

Feature list is still very short and I'm having some trouble with OAuth on GAE.

</comment><comment><USER58> I'm working on <http://www.mosambe.com> a place where people and companies network to find better opertunities.

Feedback is highly appriciated.

Thanks :)

</comment><comment><USER59> <http://benchcoach.com>

</comment><comment><USER60> <http://www.flowdock.com/>, real-time communication & collaboration app for teams. Still work to do before open beta.

</comment><comment><USER61> I just created <http://stonertweets.com> for a client. This is to build buzz around a community and help promote a movie.

</comment><comment><USER62> <http://shutterscouts.com> \-- an idea management and weather forecasting service for (landscape) photographers.

</comment><comment><USER63> I've been working on <http://totdo.com> a very simple todo manager. Pronounced TooTeeDoo :). It's in beta of course.

</comment><comment><USER64> url sharing and personal archiving framework

<http://urls.matthewm.boedicker.org/>

</comment><comment><USER65> <http://send2twitter.com> \- a very simple but efficient email-to-twitter gateway using oauth.

</comment><comment><USER66> Completing a redesign of <http://www.localphone.com/> — a VoIP start-up I work for.

</comment><comment><USER67> working on <http://mosambe.com> :)

It will hopefully get some traction soon.

</comment><comment><USER68> <http://webgeek.io/> \- Shipped one day ago..

</comment><comment><USER69> <http://www.rockdex.com>

</comment><comment><USER70> some awesomeness that lets companies make money whenever people go to their competitor's websites. there is no site at all and no user interaction</comment>


Getting Started in Star Lisp (1991) [pdf] - <AUTHOR> http://people.csail.mit.edu/bradley/cm5docs/nov06/GettingStartedinStarLisp.pdf <comment><USER2> I wonder if it would be possible to build starlisp-simulator on a modern platform and thereby "emulate" / simulate a CM...

The Wikipedia page says it was ported to CL in '01, but the links are old/dead.

EDIT: aha. [https://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/project/ai- repository/ai/lang/...](https://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/project/ai- repository/ai/lang/lisp/impl/starlisp/)

</comment><comment><USER3> CM-2 was a magnificent machine I had the honor of getting some access to in my late high school years.

<comment><USER4> I used Star Lisp to prototype code before running it on the simpler SIMD CM-1. Good times.

<comment><USER5> CM-2 was also SIMD, but with different hardware (in particular, it had an actual hardware FPU associated with each group of 32 bit-serial processors). CM-5 was the MIMD version (nodes were SPARCs with a custom vector processor add-on).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> A somewhat related article about the rise and fall of Thinking Machines: [https://www.inc.com/magazine/19950915/2622.html](https://www.inc.com/magazine/19950915/2622.html)

</comment><comment><USER7> star lisp and to a lesser extent c star was pretty convenient if you had a problem that looked like that. i wonder if there is a useful gpu analog.

</comment><comment><USER8> This looks like the predecessor to starlogo!</comment>


Soda Sugar Comparisons - <AUTHOR> https://xkcd.com/1793/ <comment><USER2> In a couple decades people are going to look back at the 1990's/2000's as a savage time - large tracts of the earth desperately poisoning themselves daily and being totally unconcerned by it.

According to the CDC[1] Diabetes incidence in the US has increased from roughly 2.5% to 7% since 1990.

The numbers are:

* 1980 - 2.54%

* 1990 - 2.52%

* 2000 - 4.40%

* 2010 - 6.95%

Unless legislation similar to that applied to cigarettes is introduced this train is going keep speeding further out of control. At least there are now increasing numbers of advocacy groups trying to make progress on the legislative side of things[2].

[1] [https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/statistics/slides/long_term_tre...](https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/statistics/slides/long_term_trends.pdf) [2] [https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/17/upshot/soda-tax-passes- in...](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/17/upshot/soda-tax-passes-in- philadelphia-advocates-ask-whos-next.html?_r=0)

<comment><USER3> A big difference is that drinking soda has no effect on the person next to you. Another difference is that drinking soda occasionally likely has as much effect on your overall health as occasionally eating ice cream or a candy bar, which is to say, not that much. Another difference is that sugar and caffeine is much less of an addictive substance than nicotine.

To equate ingesting sugar with inhaling (and exhaling) carcinogens is pretty unhelpful.

Of course, there is more of a sliding scale, where a population en masse ingesting way too much sugar combined with a sedentary lifestyle can be a bigger health crisis than cigarettes, but that has much more to do with culture than the actual fact of the food itself.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> These comparisons are actually pretty weak. Their effect on me as a reader is significantly dampened when you look at the duration of time required to consume the edibles on the right hand side.

A week to consume a bottle of frosting? Considering how much frosting is on a single slice of cake I'm really not bothered by this.

Four gallons of Skittles over 6 months? I guess if you're snacking regularly, just as regularly as you're drinking soda, that's not really a whole lot.

What makes it seem the most reasonable is consuming an entire 20-foot candy counter in 3 years. 3 years. Really? If you said a 20-foot candy counter in 3 months, my eyebrows might raise slightly.

</comment><comment><USER5> I know we all love XKCD, but there's really no reason for a weeks-old cartoon to be on HN IMHO.</comment>


2010: the year SEO isn't important anymore? - <AUTHOR> http://scobleizer.com/2009/12/16/2010-the-year-seo-isnt-important-anymore/ <comment><USER2> No. SEO is, and will continue to be, just as important. It's just getting harder, because of all of the reasons mentioned.</comment>


What goes on in the mind of 'trolls' - <AUTHOR> http://www.cnn.com/2017/07/05/opinions/what-goes-on-in-the-mind-of-trolls-filipovic/index.html <comment><USER2> Interesting how all anonymous trolls are apparently men.</comment>


SpaceX plans 'grasshopper' vertical takeoff/land vehicle - <AUTHOR> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/09/27/grasshopper_spacex/

<comment><AUTHOR> This was a nice bit of sleuthing to get an insight into some of SpaceX's plans. The described vehicle, 1 engine at 122,000 lbs thrust, F9 fuel tank, sounds a bit under powered until you multiply the thrust by 6. Which is to say if you operated it where there was 1/6th Earths gravity you could put down, and return, some decent payload.

I'm thinking Moonshot here.</comment>


Ask HN: What's a lightweight web pkg for photos for family to view? - <AUTHOR> PS I'm using apache on a Debian web server <comment><USER2> [http://koken.me/](http://koken.me/) might not be very lightweight (MySQL needed), but the installation and administration are very easy.</comment>


Making music with the Altair 8800 - <AUTHOR> http://www.giorgiosancristoforo.net/2015/02/16/music-with-the-first-pc-ever-the-ultimate-8-bit-machine/

<comment><USER2> Interestingly, first real use the Homebrew Computer Club came up with for the Altair 8800 was making music: [http://startup.nmnaturalhistory.org/gallery/story.php?ii=46](http://startup.nmnaturalhistory.org/gallery/story.php?ii=46)

Never realised "Fool on the Hill" was the first tune demonstrated, had thought it was "Daisy".

<comment><USER3> Two friends at work each bought an Altair. One was able to get the Daisy playing program to work and one couldn't. I shortly thereafter bought an Intercept Junior, a PDP-8 simulator. Good times.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> How many original Altair 8800's were made? Shouldn't there be enough around that one could just buy it, if so inclined?

</comment><comment><USER5> It would be cool to see some sort of MIDI controller on the Altair so it could talk directly to synths instead of using a macbook as a synth.</comment>