Apple just gave out my Apple ID password because someone asked - <AUTHOR> http://blog.karppinen.fi/2008/07/apple-just-gave-out-my-apple-i.html

<comment><USER2> Incredible. Someone should probably get fired for this - not the poor sod who changed the account details, but probably the person in charge of customer service processes for .mac. That's just... appalling.

I also look forward to seeing Apple's response (or to hearing comments from any Appleistas on this site?).

</comment><comment><USER3> If that's a an accurate account of what happened, that really is just unacceptable.

<comment><USER4> It's a good example of why some of us don't trust cloud computing/storing your data online with any random company.

If the very well funded Apple can screw up this badly, just think what most places could manage.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Apple just works. Even when you ask for someone's password.

<comment><USER6> ... now eagerly awaiting a Mac vs PC parody of this event.

Anyone got good suggestions?

<comment><USER7> Mac: Hi, I'm a Mac.

PC: (Standing behind windows firewall pictured here: <http://obligement.free.fr/images/windows_firewall.jpg>) Welcome, commercial viewer #3113452. Please enter your password.

Mac: PC, what's going on? We're just doing a commercial.

PC: You can't be too safe these days, with viruses and hackers all around the internet.

Mac: Well, yes, actually. You CAN be too safe.

PC: What do you mean?

Mac: Well, with our new MobileMe (.mac) service, you don't need passwords. It's all part of our new "Mac Experience" program.

PC: Really? That doesn't sound very secure.

Mac: Actually, it's very secure. You see, in order to log in to your MobileMe service, all you need to do is contact customer service. By giving out passwords through customer service, we add an extra level of security through a human interface. That makes it nearly impossible to make a mistake.

PC: Sounds good. (As he steps around the "firewall") I thought this whole password-security thing sounded silly.

On screen: MobileMe, you could be anyone.

End

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I can't imagine anyone acting upon that email. It made no sense whatsoever. Might as well as "password, please give me at email@example.com"

That's ridiculous.

<comment><USER9> Although, in their defense, what do you think most _legitimate_ support emails from actual customers look like? This can't have been far off.

But still, their security process has a hole big enough to drive a truck through.

<comment><USER8> True enough. But yeah, definitely should've been a followup, one without the password to the account.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Kudos to Apple Support - they responded to that grammatical marvel of an email so fast!

The poor guy probably will probably need to spend weeks undoing their mess... Can't wait for Apple's response.

</comment><comment><USER11> It's pretty clear that our 'personal' information just isn't so personal anymore, so I think that it's a good idea for companies that use verification questions to be very careful to determine that the verification questions that they use for password reset or identification purposes contain truly 'private' information. It's scary when I call up a bank and I can get full access to my account by just giving my account number and my mother's maiden name. Isn't that information in a database somewhere? If I'm on facebook and my mom is on facebook, how hard is it to figure that out? Genealogy websites would probably also be a great help to dig up this info.

My other favorite verification questions are "Where were you born?" and "What's your birthday?". Hm... these are also Facebook profile questions, and they're also not so hard to dig up.

I thought that my social security number was private at least, but last week (no joke) I got a letter in the mail from UPenn saying that a university researcher's laptop containing my social security number had gone missing. fun fun.

My recommendation for web developers would be to rely on users having control of their email accounts and to not allow for "security questions." And if there is a problem with someone's email account being hacked, speak with the customer and use your common sense to resolve the situation. You can always just suspend the account pending the outcome of your 'investigation'. But please please don't outsource this 'investigation' task to people who lack communication skills and/or common sense. (e.g. PayPal, eTrade, Citibank & Dell)

</comment><comment><USER7> Absolutely unacceptable. If anything, the reset password instructions should have been sent, and nothing else.

On the other hand, Apple now has an incredible PR/customer relations opportunity. Could you imagine if Apple cam back to him with free products, free .mac (mobileme) subscription, and a team of people to help re-secure his information? If that happened to me I would feel that they did their part in restoring my confidence. I doubt this is an exploitable loophole in account security as much as it is simply a fluke or blunder on behalf of one man in a customer support center.

</comment><comment><USER12> _am forget my password of mac,did you give me password on new email marko.[redacted]@yahoo.com_

My response, even if I were a paid customer service rep, would have been: "What?"

Seriously, "did" instead of "could"? No capital letters? No space between the comma and "did"? Etc. etc. etc. The mail just doesn't make any sense. Reading it makes me want to cry.

<comment><USER13> > did you give me password on new email marko.[redacted]@yahoo.com

The reply was probably: "Yes I did. Apple thanks you for your business"

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> The password was given out, or the password was changed? Encryption, people...

</comment><comment><USER15> Hmm, and I thought I was clever when I put that my "mother's maiden name" (or whatever asinine question they ask) was a GUID. Apparently there's an easy workaround to my security..

</comment><comment><USER16> Disappointment #2 is storing the passwords in plain text.

<comment><USER17> Where do you see any indication that passwords are stored in plain text?

The password reset options I see just give you a way to change the password, not retrieve your existing password.

<comment><USER16> I'm assuming that the writer wasn't making things up when he said that .mac support gave someone his password.

<comment><USER17> His password was changed, so I would assume .mac support gave the guy a link to reset the password.

<comment><USER16> I hope so.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I bet that redacted portion of the email address is Karppinen

<comment><USER10> He mentions in the post that it was a name other than his own:

"Did it not occur to you at all that someone at "marko.[redacted]@yahoo.com" was not actually me? For example, because the names didn't match?"</comment></comment>


Show HN: Event Horizon with AWS DynamoDB (CQRS/ES in Go) - <AUTHOR> http://github.com/looplab/eventhorizon <comment><AUTHOR> I have now added some very early support for using AWS DynamoDB as an event store, which could be a very nice use case. Any thought on this?

(I have previously posted about Event Horizon from the user maxpersson, but I got married and had to change my username.)

<comment><USER2> It appears you've implemented the push-based model for reacting to events. How would I read all of the events back from the event store in order of how they happened if I wanted to use a pull-based model for reacting to events?</comment></comment>


Play with Palantir's software that the government uses to track terrorists - <AUTHOR> https://www.optradestop.com

<comment><AUTHOR> It takes a few minutes to get into it, but it's very interesting and from what I understand exactly what the actual product is like.</comment>


Housing, startup incubation, hackerspace, coworking, and more for $10 a day - <AUTHOR>

What do you guys think of Project Inspire Us? <comment><USER2> What else is in Jackson, Mississippi?

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> www.projectinspireus.com offers an overview of the 30,000 square foot dome with pictures and video.

<comment><USER3> I saw this in another submission last night... Is this for real? For some reason the only location information I was able to locate on their website was "the intersection between I-94 and US-127". A bit of googling leads me to Jackson, Michigan. Wikipedia @ <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson,_Michigan> . Which apparently is also known by such charming nicknames like The Rose City, Prison City, and Jack Town. Also, why a dome instead of a more traditional structure - just for the 'lulz' ? Or is there some economical/environmental advantage to dome structures?

It sounds like a cool idea - though the pure Mac lab kinda sucks, why not Windows and Linux machines as well? Can anyone provide any more info about this place?

<comment><USER4> This is in Michigan, a pretty good place in terms of cost,

Go to Grand Rapids, Mi and you can get a membership at theworkfactory.com for 24/7 office space for $275 a month, rent a NICE loft apartment a block away for $1000 a month www.616lofts.com or live in a basic place for $500 a month, while being across the street from the 3rd best beer bar in the world hopcat.com

The state also has some big incentives for raising capital, mostly because the current gov is a former VC. . For a seedround under $1mm, they'll do a $250k convertable note <http://www.michiganadvantage.org/E-and-I-Access-to-Capital/>

IF you raise over $700k there is a 50% match up to $500k. [http://www.michiganadvantage.org/Pure-Michigan-Venture- Match...](http://www.michiganadvantage.org/Pure-Michigan-Venture-Match-Fund/)

There is more, but they REALLY want startups in the state and costs are very low here in town. You can BUY an office building for the yearly cost (or less) to rent in SV or NYC.

<comment><USER5> Michigan is doing a lot for entrepreneurs, especially in Detroit. Dan Gilbert of Quicken is going above and beyond to join the effort. With the likes of DVP, and Bizdom, Detroit is quickly becoming a tech industry.

<comment><AUTHOR> Michigan is great because you have Detroit and Chicago in close proximity. Detroit was once a great city, the state has an extraordinary history. Because of the depression in Detroit it has caused property to go down to pennies on the dollar. We now have Chicago as tech area and Detroit is heading in that directon. Michigan is great for agriculture because of all the tillable land and for tourism because its a pretty great place to do outdoorsy things like hiking, snow mobiling, water sports, etc. It has all 4 seasons so there is a lot to see and do. Michigan's Governor is a venture capitalist and former tech CEO.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


ASCAP running racket against small coffee shops. - <AUTHOR> http://techdirt.com/articles/20100518/2341299481.shtml

<comment><USER2> First, there's a more detailed report here:

[http://www.viewnews.com/2010/VIEW- May-18-Tue-2010/Henderson/...](http://www.viewnews.com/2010/VIEW- May-18-Tue-2010/Henderson/35878176.html)

Second, I don't understand giving in to these threats. The ASCAP cannot shut down a business.

Third, I think he has a legitimate claim that this not just felt like extortion but was extortion. You cannot ask someone to pay for services which they are not making use of.

</comment><comment><USER3> In Britain, you need a PRS license to play music in any public place. PRS enforce this obsessively, to the point that offices have to pay unless their employees only use headphones. Mechanics have to pay if they let the public into their workshop. An accountant was told that they had to pay because their radio was audible on the street through their open window.

</comment><comment><USER4> I worked for a hardware company that paid $12 per cpu sold to Microsoft, just in case it should ever run something Microsoft wrote! So stranger things have happened.

</comment><comment><USER5> Maybe we need to have an "Everybody Play SESAC Music Day"</comment>


Question for Contractors: How are you paid? - <AUTHOR> I'm working as an independent consultant/contractor. I've worked with a few clients. They always have their own system in place (e.g. Zenefits). I'm starting to work for some smaller clients (startup size) who have never paid a contractor before.
What service do you recommend I point them to? Or do you just give them bank account information and ask for a transfer?
PS. My clients and I are in the US. <comment><USER2> direct deposit seems to work fine for me

<comment><AUTHOR> You just give them your bank info?

<comment><USER2> yep</comment></comment></comment>


Stuxnet: Anatomy of a Computer Virus - <AUTHOR> http://vimeo.com/25118844

<comment><AUTHOR> The video has a lot of FUD, but is a pretty awesome info graphic and nice breakdown of Stuxnet.</comment>


Even in Straitened Times, Portugal Loves Its Bimby Cooking Robots - <AUTHOR> http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304403804579262630205737984 <comment><USER2> I looked into the device a little further. I wouldn't call it "robotic" as the article is pushing, but it is an innovative piece of kitchen technology, speeding and simplifying many labor-intensive tasks. It's also quite expensive, so it isn't likely to become a universal kitchen item anytime soon.</comment>


Data Compression Explained   - <AUTHOR> http://mattmahoney.net/dc/dce.html

<comment><USER2> This is awesome, thank you for posting, it's saved to my "read later" list!</comment>


Application Security in a DevOps Environment - <AUTHOR> https://eng.lyft.com/application-security-in-a-devops-environment-53092f8a6048 <comment><USER3> I feel security programs are all about small nuances and there is plethora of generic advice out there. So, though this is good generic advice overall but I would have loved to see some more details.

> With this freedom, teams have the responsibility of securing their services, > and ensuring security issues are fixed within an established timeframe.

How does the security team ensure that security bugs are being addressed. Individual engineering teams sometimes do not have visibility into the whole system and may think of an issue as low severity but combined with another bug in another system and its now a sev:high (SSRF type of things.) With individualized team dashboards, how does the security team handle this.

> The Security Team is currently rolling out metrics to our service dashboards > tracking out of date patches, with an alarm to page the team when security > patches are left unapplied. Giving the teams visibility into the risks lets > them prioritize and schedule their patching, instead of relying on the > security team to monitor patch levels.

How is the compliance to security policies ensured ? What if a team does not want to patch or the patch breaks their existing tools. A key element is these faced paced dev->deploy environments is exceptions. How are those handled and tracked ?

<comment><USER4> It varies widely from company to company. It depends on how dangerous of a bug it is as well as the exploitability; this determines the remediation period. Usually, very severe bugs like heartbleed or front facing deserialization are fixed within 1-7 days, whereas a CSRF in some random POST call could be 90/180 days depending on how a company treats less severe bugs.

You have a security guy assigned to keep track of bugs and is notified after the remediation window has passed. It's usually assigned to the person that found it because they are able to easily understand the issue and then verify the fix. They will confirm it has been fixed for all the machines it was found on, then close the ticket out. However, often bugs that are considered unlikely to be exploited will be kicked back, and long chains of emails between the security guys saying "Please fix this bug! I'm just trying to do my job", and developers saying "We have 0 dev cycles and a release coming up, not a high priority! Can't you just close it?"

This email thread goes on for weeks/months, and the security guys push the redemption period to help developers meet their deadline. It gets pushed back so many times that the security guys get sick of reporting it because they know it's a low severity issue, but still is a problem none the less. They push it up the chain of command and force the PM of the project sign off on the risk associated with what could happen if exploited, they almost always have it fixed immediately then it's closed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I am constantly confounded by the fact that there isnt a devops-as-a-service unicorn that doesnt exist.

A company who provides DOPsaaS based on supporting all these companies.

We IT/OPs people are the glue that holds these visions to profitability - <USER2> more power than we acknowledge

<comment><USER6> [ed: TL;DR Is your service more difficult to deploy to _production_ with all best practices, real security, redundancies and backup - than it is to build? Then you're not doing devops.]

I don't think there's great consensus on what devops means. According to Wikipedia[w] the original definition was:

"DevOps is a set of practices intended to reduce the time between committing a change to a system and the change being placed into normal production, while ensuring high quality."

Which is a bit of a non-definition if you ask me. You can have that with traditional good system administration.

I see it as two things: the change from how a service or product is viewed, to a more holistic, system oriented view: the acceptance that "the system" consists of the interaction of code, configuration, infrastructure and users (along with changing/evolving requirements, because: humans).

And that one entity needs to own the entire process; the devops team. That team might change a bit in composition; but it means that rather than write some "application" and ship it to the customer on a floppy disk - most useful software is a _process_ more than it is a _product_.

The other part (which is connected) is that as software delivery is a continuous process, it becomes natural to incorporate/inform "development" from the ops side (12-factor apps, plan for dev/stage/prod deploys, make a program/service that is easy to monitor, test, run and manage -- not "hexedit configuration in this zip of executable and config data and run it with magic_jar_executable, make sure to restart it after it's written 48mb to disk"). And vice-versa: be more explicit in treating administration as a traditional software project; version control, tests, immutable deployment states with snapshot / rollback support.

There's another group that seem to think "write software and throw it over the wall to the admins" is a perfectly sound model; all you need is better admins.

And to be clear: bad admins is a bad idea we/they _will_ break your fool-proof single fat jar/single fat c++/go executable with resources baked in.

And good sys admins can work.magic with your broken software.

But it's not devops when the two groups are on different teams, doing different things - throwing rocks, insults and build artifacts over the wall at each other.

That still just "dev" and "ops" \-- apart.

[w] [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DevOps](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DevOps)

<comment><USER7> Good comment - I am a DevOps lead and have spent time thinking about this. PErsonally, I try to promote Dev/Ops - the slash is important - you still have dev and you still have ops but there must be a culture of co-operation and flexibiltiy on both sides. IT is very much a people problem rather than a technical thing

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> This is a great post, and specifically what we preach to our customers. Having data that is exportable, respects the developers' time, and accurate is immensely important, and specifically what we focus on. We get flak sometimes for focusing too much on developers and not enough on security engineers, but we really do think that's the future.

If you agreed with this post, or if you're interested in chatting about DAST for web applications or APIs (launching next month, actually thorough scanning of APIs that isn't just throwing a webapp scanner against it), feel free to reach out. I'd love to chat.</comment>


How to Invent the Future II – Alan Kay - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIR6Rmhm3To <comment><USER2> I'm a bit skeptical of his implication that Xerox Parc created the computer industry in the sense that it wouldn't have happened otherwise. By investing millions in advanced systems they were able to invent the stuff a few years ahead of hackers with less resources but it seems to me most of it would have happened anyhow when the hardware got cheap enough.

Similarly with the modern rush towards AI, everyone pretty much can see it's going to happen but the likes of DeepMind with millions in funding and many of the brightest will probably get there first but progress there will happen with or without them.

<comment><USER3> Everything would have happened eventually. But it's the first to invent that counts... And, Xerox PARC is responsible for inventing the core tenets of computing. Yes, there would have been a Facebook eventually even without Mark Zuckerberg!

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> This is part of the Stanford start-up course [https://blog.ycombinator.com/author/y-combinator/](https://blog.ycombinator.com/author/y-combinator/)</comment>


Scientists Claim Brain Memory Code Cracked - 6 bit bytes - <AUTHOR> http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120309103701.htm

<comment><USER2> Once again misleading title. They did some modeling that shows that it might be possible to use CaMK2 to store information on microtubule lattices. That's purely simulations that show possible interactions between two proteins. No experiments were performed and they did not set out to break the brain code. There are no experiments that show information encoding in microtubules. CaMK2 is known to be involved in plasticity (in spine shape modifications via actin dynamics), but microtubules are assumed to be in the dendritic shafts only thus isolated from phosphorylated CaMK2. It would be worth to investigate further though.

</comment><comment><USER3> As is often the case, a Reddit comment is more illuminating than the article:

[http://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/qqg5y/scientists_cl...](http://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/qqg5y/scientists_claim_brain_memory_code_cracked/c3zns04)

</comment><comment><USER4> FTFA: Hameroff, senior author on the study, said "...We MAY have a GLIMPSE of the brain's biomolecular code for memory."

I know Hacker News prefers the original headline, but there has to be an exception for ScienceDaily, PhysOrg, and any other blog that tries to write linkbait summaries of peer-reviewed research articles.

This is the dingding step of the eternally true <http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1174>

</comment><comment><USER5> Extremely exciting! It's in PLoS, so the paper should be freely available as well.

Interesting that it's 6 dimensional, this figure shows up often in the brain: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_cell>

</comment><comment><USER6> The full article text is at [http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fj...](http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pcbi.1002421) (yay PLoS!) -- read the inline Abstract and Author Summary to get a better description than the sciencedaily spam.

Sadly, nobody can crack the thought process of whoever designed sciencedaily.com (three equal width columns? 10% content and 90% blogvomit?).

<comment><USER7> Why hasn't sciencedaily.com or physorg been banned from HN yet? Anybody know?

Incidentally, I've flagged so many physorg submissions that the flag link has been disabled for my account.

<comment><USER6> If it's any consolation, my flag link vanished a long time ago after I went on a "purge all the self-promotional infidels" jihad last year.

I consider it a badge of honor to have restricted features but still have a working account. They care enough to limit us, but they don't want us completely gone.

I'm torn on the subject of sciencedaily. Without the linkbait-y headline, I doubt this paper would have any attention here. They should turn into a HN- like site with links to articles, then give each link a short (under 100 words) lay person description not just copy/pasted from the article (maybe even with linkbait conclusions). Sometimes you have to bend the truth (i.e. marketing) if you want people to get excited about your work.

<comment><USER8> _> I consider it a badge of honor to have restricted features but still have a working account. They care enough to limit us, but they don't want us completely gone._

Hey, that's a nice way of looking at it.. I lost my flag link during "bitcoin week" last summer.

<comment><USER9> I lost mine recently too. I'd been trying to keep the number of political stories down as they very rarely have any useful discussion.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> The headline of the submission seems misleading. It sounds like scientists have theorized a plausible model for how the brain stores information, not that they actually tested this in vivo.

</comment><comment><USER11> The most interesting bit for me is the estimate for total capacity, which is ~10^19 bits.

That's about 2^63 bits, 2^60 8-bit bytes, 1 exabyte, or (probably) the sum of all Google data centers, in one brain.

<comment><USER12> Which means in a couple decades it will fit on a thumbdrive.

<comment><USER13> Except it will actually be a _thumb_ drive

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> FTA: _[S]ynaptic components are short-lived while memories last lifetimes. This suggests synaptic information is encoded and hard-wired at a deeper, finer-grained molecular scale._

It suggests nothing of the sort. It just as easily could mean that memories are stored at a shallower, coarser-grained scale. Raindrops are short-lived, yet rivers last thousands of years. Does that mean we can't model hydrodynamics without accounting for quantum mechanics in the H2O molecule?

</comment><comment><USER15> Wow! Unclear if this is fact but 2 things surprised me.

\- I wasn't convinced it would be base 2.

\- I thought if it was, base 8 made more intuitive sense.

The former mistaken opinion was a caution against viewing the world as computable. The latter was not heeding the caution.

Mother nature works in mysterious ways.

</comment><comment><USER16> Pretty cool. I cant wait for bio-hardware to become the norm. The day of a laptop that has never ending storage that self heals (assuming there are no nasty laptop eating viruses/bacteria around) could be very handy.

<comment><USER17> Or what if, instead of connecting biochemical to hardware, you connect hardware to your biochemical body. Add wifi and you're connected to everything, anytime you want.

<comment><USER18> Exactly - you just need to think "What's the square root of 459683" this queries the internet returns the result and the answer is instantly relayed to your mind. Just imagine you could think (open the garage door) and it would happen.

<comment><USER16> after some of the days i feel we all go though, it concerns me that people might know how many times i wanted to stab someone...

lets shelve this, we're already failing at online privacy...this wont help...unless i can think "this is a private thought" and it actually be private haha

<comment><USER17> I'd say everything is private by default and we actively have to make something public. Like sand boxing. Oh man, never mind.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> It would be significantly more interesting if they were 6 _qubit_ bytes.

<comment><USER20> I was just about to comment upon the inclusion of Hameroff in the author list. Penrose and Hameroff are pushing a notion that the brain utilizes quantum coherence to perform computation inside these microtubules, resulting in human consciousness.

There is very little evidence for this conjecture, but Penrose and Hameroff are convinced. Make sure to keep Hameroff's bias in mind when reading this paper...

<comment><USER21> Regarding bias, I read somewhere that Numenta claims that the can built conciousness.. however regardless of that it's still quite interesting to see progress in Neural Networks.

They say: They found the key for a new learning algorithm that automatically finds patterns in streams of data and predicts what is likely to occur next.

more <http://t.co/cVXRj0F6> and <http://t.co/seWjurbW>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> So my brain uses base64 encoding? Didn't see that coming.</comment>


Where Are Amazon's Data Centers? - <AUTHOR> http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/01/amazon-web-services-data-center/423147/?single_page=true <comment><USER2> AWS publishes this openly for customer direct connect circuit orders or co- location in the same facility as AWS:

[http://docs.aws.amazon.com/directconnect/latest/UserGuide/Co...](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/directconnect/latest/UserGuide/Colocation.html)

<comment><USER3> These are not necessarily AWS DCs. These are well known "meet me" locations where many carriers and ISPs exchange traffic, generally with colo companies at the same spot for obvious reasons. AWS will meet you there, but isn't necessarily there.</comment></comment>


No Brakes: Risk and the adolescent brain - <AUTHOR> http://www.slate.com/id/2243435/

<comment><AUTHOR> "There are powerful forces--such as the brain's reaction to the presence of peers as a potent prompt and reward for sensation-seeking--that can move an adolescent to select risky behavior as the 'right' choice. Urging kids to 'Just Say No' to drugs, for instance, has been ineffective because it misses key factors leading to drug use."</comment>


Ask YC: MacBook alternative? - <AUTHOR>

I might be replacing my MacBook with a regular x86 running Linux. It's simply beginning to piss me off that it breaks all the time. Crappy build quality.
But I really like the size–13.3"–and the look. A lot of regular laptops are basically freakin' bloated. Same price range as the regular MacBook.
Any alternatives? I know of the Vaios. <comment><USER2> ThinkPad X series are more robust the Macbook from my experience, we use them on the field for on-site data processing. Conditions are harsh, basically the is no care but heat and bumps but the ThinkPads just keep going. I was forced to switch to a Macbook from an X60 but still missing it.

<comment><USER3> ThinkPads are/were nice. I've been a bit concerned about reduced quality since Lenovo took over from IBM, though admittedly I haven't seen any problems with the newer Lenovo machines I've had to work with that would justify such concerns.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Dell XPS M1330 preloaded with Ubuntu. No hassles of installation at least. In any case whatever notebook you choose, do a bit of research to find out that the wireless card works properly under linux. I have had decent experience with Intel's wifi cards since drivers are open source and hence included in most distros. Wifi is the number one annoyance on most notebooks.

edit : I wud advice to look for "Centrino" branded stuff. That usually works out of the box. But YMMV.

<comment><USER5> I had an Inspiron 1420 that I believe packs the same graphics card as the M1330 currently ships with and had a pretty awful experience trying to get Linux (or Windows, for that matter) to drive it well. It was very choppy. I believe it was an 8400M GS.

<comment><USER6> I have a coworker with the Dell 1420 laptop that's preloaded with Ubuntu, and he hasn't had a lick of trouble. I also installed Xubuntu on my Inspiron 1750 multimedia laptop, and once I hooked it up to my router, the Hardware Drivers utility downloaded scripts and everything basically got installed for me.

<comment><USER5> Your coworker's 'top may not have had the discrete GPU mine had; I've heard that the integrated chip works great.

<comment><USER7> I have the same GPU and it works fine.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I'll put in another vote for the Thinkpads. Not only are they bulletproof, but nominally _everything_ in them works under Linux, which is, even today, rare for a lot of laptops.

</comment><comment><USER5> I've heard really scary things concerning Sony and the applicability of *nix drivers. I'd be really weary about buying a Vaio.

</comment><comment><USER9> Another vote for the ThinkPads. X60-series models are dirt cheap right now, and pretty much impossible to beat on the combo of cost, performance, portability, and ruggedness.

My recent-model MacBook Pro has a wonderful display panel, good discrete GPU, and a decent-enough keyboard, but it's big, heavy, throws off tons of heat, and lasts _at best_ four hours on a battery. My old ThinkPad X41, on the other hand, despite being almost five years old, beats it in basically every category other than screen size/brightness and raw CPU/GPU power.

T-series units are even sturdier and definitely keep up in CPU/GPU specs, but there's just something about a 3-pound laptop that pretty much removes the excuse to not have it with you all the time. (That may or may not be a good thing for your lifestyle, of course.)

</comment><comment><USER10> I work on two laptops, depending on the project: a MacBook Pro, and an X-series ThinkPad. Both are great. Granted, I'd be on the MBP all the time if it weren't for historical reasons, but I have no complaints at all about the ThinkPad. If you don't want to use a Mac, it's the best alternative I know of.

I had to use someone else's VAIO for a few hours recently, and it sucked. The keyboard is lousy, and has a horrible layout if you're used to Fn and Ctrl keys in the places where Apple and IBM (Lenovo) put them (and you don't properly swap Caps Lock and Ctrl). I ended up plugging in an external keyboard to be able to get anything done. In addition, the whole thing looked and felt gimmicky.

</comment><comment><USER11> Ubuntu's installer is actually a Live DVD, so it's zero risk to take one into BestBuy, drop it into a laptop and reboot. If it comes up you're in good shape, if not, pop it out and try the next one.

<comment><USER12> WiFi is the tricky bit. Just be sure to check that the wireless adapter is detected. Intel wireless chipsets are open, and so have _excellent_ support in Linux. All of the "includes Linux" laptops from Lenovo and Dell have an Intel WiFi card rather than one of the lesser models (thus, the same model from Dell or Lenovo running Windows will not necessarily provide "drop Linux on it later" capability, unless you plan to replace the WiFi adapter with the Intel version--it does seem to be a replaceable component in the Dell and Lenovo models in question, though).

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I have beat up my Macbook over the last 2 years - I carried it back and forth to work for a year. I also have dropped it quite a few times.

So far so good for me - no problems. Perhaps wait a few months for the aluminum macbooks?

<comment><USER14> And I've babied mine for the last six months. Now the top case is breaking off in pieces and the trackpad button sticks. As always seems to be the case with hardware: YMMV.

<comment><AUTHOR> I am encountering exactly the same issues. Already had it replaced once, two months later the same happens. My optical drive went nuts as well. So, during the nine months I have had a MacBook, so far it spent almost two months at repairs -- unless I pay $200 upfront, a simple repair takes two weeks.

Rip. Off.

<comment><USER13> Where is that at? I get mine back within 48 hours or something like that from the Toronto store - but usually it is much quicker.

<comment><AUTHOR> Denmark. There are no official Apple stores, so it's this company Humac handling all Apple business, which results in a tedious process, e.g. they can't perform simple fixes in the store, because they are not allowed to buy spare parts from Apple until they actually have the computer.

So, it's not directly Apples fault, but still, they should hire somebody else to do it. When your job is your computer two weeks without it is a very, very long time.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I've been running a Dell Inspiron 6400. If you buy it with a warranty, second LCD, etc.. and know how to talk to the salespeople, you can get it loaded up with all kinds of hardware upgrades for cheap, ESPECIALLY if you buy the 3 year warranty, and it will still be cheaper than a Macbook Pro.

I'm dual booting XP (for my music stuff) and Hardy on it (for my programming stuff) without a hitch, it has 1680x1050 resolution (screen real estate that the macbooks just can't compete with), swanky compiz effects to rival osx's and if anything on my machine goes wrong within the 3 years after purchasing, dell will fix it within 5 days. ANYTHING. (Used it once. Got my laptop back 3 days after I mailed it in!) The warranty alone is the main selling point for these machines.

I can't think of a better price/quality ratio than the Dells

</comment><comment><USER16> Work provides me with a Thinkpad T60 and I couldn't be happier with it. I would never buy a different notebook again, not even a Macbook.

</comment><comment><USER17> The HP Mini Note is a pretty awesome little machine. Decent horsepower for every day needs. Small form factor. Solid build with an aluminum case. High 1280 x 768 resolution display. Easily drop in a larger battery. Has Linux installed out of the box (though I would swap out for an Ubuntu spin off, Xubuntu maybe).

Plut it's cheap. Search YouTube for some nice reviews and comparisons.

[http://www.buy.com/prod/hp-mini-note-2133-pc- via-c7-m-ulv-1-...](http://www.buy.com/prod/hp-mini-note-2133-pc- via-c7-m-ulv-1-2ghz-128kb-l2-1gb-ddr2-sdram-120gb/q/loc/101/207873474.html)

</comment><comment><USER18> The last thread

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=197182>

You can get used to pretty much anything, except Sony's. I, and friends have had reasonable experiences with Toshiba satellites. They score tolerably well on the 4 deal killers: display, keyboard, fan noise and heat. The best thing is that Costco and Target sell them with 90-day return policies (restocking fee at Target). Besides these criteria, i look for at least 4 or 5 intelligent reviews on amazon.

read the 5-star sony reviews on Amazon, many of them say: my Vaio's great, except for bloatware, and poor reliability, keyboard, battery life and customer support/service. Sony's customer service pretty much guarantees you'll never buy another sony if you have to contact them.

Computer repair people will tell you to stay away from vaios, Takes a ridiculous amount of work to replace e.g. harddrive, it's almost as if they're designed to be impossible to service/replace. Any other laptop, should take 45 seconds. i also had a horrible experience trying unsuccessfully to upgrade Windows on a Vaio a couple years back. You too when you have to resinstall O/S and can't find the media. Sony really pisses me off

I would caution to stay away from firs tproduction runs of a new generation of apple laptops. Witness people cooking eggs on the early 2006 MBP's, and MB airs throttled down to one core

</comment><comment><USER19> My Eee PC has pretty well replaced my MacBook as my portable. It's smaller than what you're looking at, though there are larger models out now like the Eee PC 1000. Linux is already on them, no Windows Tax necessary if you buy a Linux preinstall. Dev tools install easily, or you can get a different distro that already has what you want, there are several that are tuned for Eee's.

A large part of the reason my Eee goes with me rather than my MacBook is that it's a lot more robust than the MacBook. I can treat the Eee pretty much the same way I would treat a book when I take it with me. It's a solid little chunk, and it cost about 1/4 what my MacBook cost.

</comment><comment><USER18> FYI: Last time my powerbook logic board replaced (3 weeks ago, 2nd time in 4 months!) they told me to not flex the chassis / logic board. So i got a rigid case (Brenthaven) and try to only use it on tables now.

also, if it's the same thing failing over and over, talk to a manager at apple store about getting a replacement. They can look up repair history, verify that it's a looper.

</comment><comment><USER20> Asustek- they are the primary contract manufacturer for the MacBook, and they make their own systems (Asus).

Their website is a pain to get information from, as they rely on their reseller partners (like me) to sell their products.

Full Disclosure: I sell Ausus products, and therefore might be biased. But then, I wouldn't be selling their products if I didn't like them!

<comment><USER20> By the way, Asus pre installs Linux on their Eee PC's, and you can install it on pretty much any of their systems.

The Eee PC's are small, low cost systems.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Lenovo has the X300 (13" widescreen) which is a bit pricey. They're also releasing soon the X200 (12" widescreen), which I don't know the price of. I've had good luck with ThinkPads in the past (X22, 240), so I may wait for the X200, but am thinking strongly about the IdeaPad U110.

I've also had good luck with Fujitsu Lifebooks, and might give them another shot.

</comment><comment><USER22> I picked up my Dell XPS M1330 on sale for $500 (with 3gb of RAM, nVidia video card, etc). Definitely can't complain.

</comment><comment><USER23> Dell:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=197364>

The customer service is what convinced me that I'd get another one in the future. I paid a bit extra for it, but then again, this computer _is_ my business, so it makes sense.

</comment><comment><USER24> I went through the same search recently. Had it narrowed to a Thinkpad (T or X), M1330, and a Latitude D630. I did lots of reading and hands on comparisons, and I ended up going with the D630. Could not be happier. It is extremely rugged, on par with a Thinkpad, and the battery life is unparalleled.

</comment><comment><USER25> Anyone have experience with the machines from System76? I've been looking at their new Darter Ultra laptop:

[http://system76.com/product_info.php?cPath=28&products_i...](http://system76.com/product_info.php?cPath=28&products_id=76)

</comment><comment><USER26> Dell's vostro (business) line is very nice if you don't want to shell out for XPS. I got a 14", which they don't make any more but I think is the sweet spot for screen size, personally. Build quality is extremely solid and design is nondescript, which fits my style.

</comment><comment><USER27> One more vote for thinkpad ... I always wanted a macbook but when I saw the Thinkpad it was instantly like "Wow this is it ! How could I overlook it for so long ". Specially I liked the Thinkpad's keyboard much over thinkpad's

</comment><comment><USER28> Love my thinkpad, but is miss my ibook, dead after 5 years of faithful service. I had a real aversion to any laptop not made by apple but this the t61 has been a great laptop since I got it a month or so ago.

</comment><comment><USER29> The Vaios are insanely sweet - but really expensive. Personally, I have a Panasonic CF-W4. I like it but often experience issues with the low amount of memory (512MB).

</comment><comment><USER30> I have heard many good things about ThinkPads, but never used them.

Having said that, I would only ever buy a MacBook. :)

<comment><USER31> I've only ever used Thinkpads (from T20 to T61) and now am on MBP. The TPs are definitely built sturdier. I used to carry them in a very flimsy backpack and all of the TPs weathered that fine. That being said, after I bought my MBP, I bought a nice backpack to protect it. And obviously, the difference is in the software.

I think the major diff between a TP and MBP is like the diff between a Jeep Wrangler and a Porsche. Just depends on what you need it for and your OS preferences.

<comment><USER32> I'd say more like a Lexus and a Porsche. The Jeep Wrangler would be eMachines.

<comment><USER31> That would be a Geo Metro. I love Wranglers, but for entirely different reasons than I love Porsches.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> can't go wrong with this mate:

[http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xps...](http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xpsnb_m1330?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&~oid=us~en~29~linux_4~~)

</comment><comment><USER34> We have the same build quality problems. So we just buy spares. MacBooks are dirt cheap!

<comment><USER35> Can I have some of your dirt?

For me (and I'm guessing for most others), MacBooks cost the majority of a paycheck... Certainly not cheap enough to buy _spares_.

<comment><USER34> Sure, I guess? Come work for us? Companies buy their employees laptops. Macbooks are cheaper than comparable Lenovos or Dells.

<comment><USER36> They're comparable in the US, but in every other coutnry there's a massive premium on Apple hardware compared to non-Apple. Check out the prices on apple.co.uk or apple.com.au.

<comment><USER34> That sucks. Here, they're essentially disposable. Compared to salary and overhead, you can probably buy 2 MacBooks per team member and not even notice it.

If a MacBook cost 3x as much, I would definitely have issues over the build quality. My MacBook is currently duct taped together.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> I would recommend the VAIOs. I am looking at the new Z series myself.

<comment><USER38> I have friends at Sony. Sony issues Thinkpads to its own staff. I would be very surprised if Apple did the same.

<comment><USER39> Just curious, can I ask where?

(I've been at Sony for nearly nine years and almost all laptops I've seen have been VAIOs).

<comment><USER38> NYC

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> X200 or X300

</comment><comment><USER27> Errata : .... over macbook's.

</comment><comment><USER41> How has it broken? Consider getting a MacBook pro or air... Slightly better build quality.

You won't find anything better from other manufacturers IMHO.

<comment><AUTHOR> They are simply too expensive for my non-budget.</comment></comment>


Why 3 equal co-founders might not be a great idea - <AUTHOR> http://www.foundread.com/view/dangers-of-a <comment><USER2> While having the right cofounders substantially increases your chances of success compared to going solo, having the wrong cofounders can do just the opposite.

Tricky to find the right ones, critical but tricky.

</comment><comment><USER3> This seems to me to be a pretty special case. I would hope that in the same situation, I would realize that giving 2/3 of a company to a casual friend and her friend (that I don't know) means losing control.

In a situation where you have 3 good friends, I would expect that to work out well, because any 2-sided disputes could be resolved democratically without much fuss.

</comment><comment><USER4> _consider keeping a controlling voting interest in the company_

Not sure why this would ever be in question. Giving 1/3 of a company to a stranger is frankly inconceivable to me.

Well, on the bright side, they're working for _you_ now, since you still own a large chunk of it.</comment>


Show HN: Theprice.cloud – Compare Prices of AWS, Google Cloud and Azure - <AUTHOR> http://theprice.cloud/ <comment><USER2> Cloudureka - [https://magic.cloudureka.com/#!/compare](https://magic.cloudureka.com/#!/compare) \- does it for AWS, Google, Azure, DigitalOcean and Exoscale. Catch here is that it compares with the real cloud cost, assimilates details from your cloud and recommends clouds with better ROI.

(Disclaimer: I'm one of the founders of Cloudureka)

</comment><comment><USER3> [https://www.cloudorado.com/](https://www.cloudorado.com/) provides more details and more providers though...

<comment><AUTHOR> The idea behind [http://theprice.cloud](http://theprice.cloud) is to be a simple and straightforward tool to compare 3 major public cloud providers (AWS, GCP, Azure), especially in areas that other tools usually miss, for example, egress network traffic and object storage.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Currently, it supports simple comparison of:

1) Network traffic egress to the internet

2) Object Storage

</comment><comment><USER4> Does it uses providers API to fetch the pricing?

</comment><comment><USER5> You should add DigitalOcean</comment>


Mathematicians Prove Conjecture on Big Prime Number Gaps - <AUTHOR> https://www.quantamagazine.org/20141210-prime-gap-grows-after-decades-long-lull/

<comment><USER2> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8731040](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8731040)</comment>


Self-Assembling Table - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/2015/04/mit-self-assembly-lab-wood-skin/?mbid=social_fb <comment><USER2> I'm sure this material can be put to good use somehow but I doubt that it will be able to compete with IKEA's way of doing "flat packed furniture". It constrains design and it solves a problem that's not really a problem. Is assembling a piece of IKEA furniture that difficult? I don't think so.

</comment><comment><USER3> I wonder how the table reacts when pushed from the side. It is supposed to be fine to put pressure on -- they say you can stand on it -- but what happens when you drag the table?

</comment><comment><USER4> They push the concept of "self-assembly" a bit...

<comment><USER5> What is the threshold?

<comment><USER4> Well it isn't assembling itself, is it? It's just being folded by a human into shape. It's basically clever origami.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Great. But can we first get a self-leveling table? I'm sure there are lots of starbucks/coffeebean customers who would like a self-leveling table.

</comment><comment><USER7> I heard Skylar Tibbits (Director of MIT's Self-Assembly Lab) speak at the 2013 EmTech conference. One of few presentations that has left on the edge of my seat/mouth agape. [http://www2.technologyreview.com/emtech/13/video/day2/](http://www2.technologyreview.com/emtech/13/video/day2/)

</comment><comment><USER8> Clever, but I'm holding out for Roombots for my self-assembling furniture needs:

[http://biorob.epfl.ch/roombots](http://biorob.epfl.ch/roombots)</comment>


How I Survived on $250 For An Entire Summer in Silicon Valley - <AUTHOR> http://ben-lang.tumblr.com/post/10414403950/how-i-survived-on-250-for-an-entire-summer-in-silicon

<comment><USER2> Equally annoyed and impressed by your frugalness. Kudos.</comment>


The bug that hides from breakpoints - <AUTHOR> http://drewdevault.com/2014/02/02/The-worst-bugs.html <comment><USER2> Having worked with embedded systems before, I've seen my fair share of bugs like this and it's almost certainly one related to timing/race conditions with external events. Looks like this one is no exception. An instruction trace (or a logic analyser logging the data/address buses) is _extremely_ useful, since you can mentally execute the code that it's tracing and see where it went wrong. Configure it to start/stop logging at the appropriate points and you won't have millions of instructions to look through. Binary search is very helpful.

In my experience the _truly insanely irritating_ Heisenbugs are those that involve physical phenomena like marginal logic levels/crosstalk/noise, and in that case even attaching (or in one case removing) the extra debugging hardware can cause it to disappear.

<comment><USER3> Once, while _writing_ a new program-loader-and-debugger/"bios" for a Z80 clone, I had a particularly nasty heisenbug.

The problem was my new code "usually" worked. About 25% of the time it would simply fail to do anything (it worked perfectly the other 75% - "umm... aren't computers supposed to be deterministic?") Of course, every single time I did _anything_ to try extract any useful information from the device, it would work 100% of the time. Even tossing a quick 2-byte sequence to flip an I/O pin made the problem completely go away.

The problem was, of course, that the hardware wasn't quote done rebooting, and needed to be left alone a _tiny_ bit longer after hitting the RST pin. About 8 cycles longer than when the hardware engineers assured me it would be "completely safe". Any time I added debug code, it simply worked as the needed delay, and was solved by a _very_ carefully documented sequence of NOOPs.

What made this particularly infuriating, though, was it's seemingly arbitrary sensitivity to when the real code was started. Depending on how much you padded with NOOPs, several behaviors were observed.

        #NOOP | Behavior
        </comment></comment><comment></comment><comment>---
          0   | original 75/25 ok/fail split
          1   | always failed
          2   | always worked
          3   | always worked
          4   | worked ~95% of the time
          5   | ~80/20 ok/fail split
          6   | ~50/50 ok/fail split (not a lot of data)
          7   | *almost* always worked (I think I saw it fail once)
          8+  | always worked

Of course, the various stuff I would add for debugging tended to line up with the cases when it DID work.

 _sigh_

I miss working with that chip. Z80 assembly is kind of fun. Well, except for when my boss told me my new loader had to work on our slowest 4Mhz part. Receiving a program over a 115kbaud serial line, verifying CRC-8, and writing it to flash is pretty hard when you have to do it less than ~100 clocks/byte....

<comment><USER4> Reminds me of the Read-Modify-Write procedure on a lot of PIC devices. Our teacher taught us to randomly place NOP instructions until it worked; we all thought he was crazy until we realized what he was working around.

(The _actual_ solution was to write to the LATx registers instead of PORTx)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> The canonical "bug that hides from breakpoints" was used for copy protection in some early pc games it involved writing code into the instruction stream but not executing it because that location was already in the prefetch buffer. Try an single step through there or set a breakpoint and the debugger would see the written code not the original

</comment><comment><USER6> I never thought I'd see my blog on HN. Hope you liked this post.

FWIW, this is my first venture into kernels, and I've made a lot of mistakes. In fact, this project is on the fourth rewrite and its followers are desperately trying to convince me to leave the known cruft in place in favor of a more timely release. I would love to hear your feedback, though, because I want to polish this as much as possible in the future.

</comment><comment><USER7>
        The debugging described by this blog post took approximately three weeks.

I now have a new standard for "hard to debug" bugs.

<comment><USER8> Try 30 years, while being attacked by some of the best demo scene coders out there...

[http://www.linusakesson.net/scene/safevsp/index.php](http://www.linusakesson.net/scene/safevsp/index.php)

I found out about this from [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5314959](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5314959) but the original article has disappeared. Although I think the one above I found via Google gives a reasonable account.

Also, the demo on youtube gives an explanation in the scrolling top line:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXcA4OWx0vo](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXcA4OWx0vo)

<comment><USER2> From my experience demoscene coders are mainly software people (and they are _amazingly_ knowledgeable at that), and while most of then likely understand how CPUs work at the logical level, won't be as familiar with the analogue nature of hardware and electronics.

The original article just moved here: [http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=61024#c637759](http://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=61024#c637759)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> One of the worst embedded bugs I ever had the displeasure of looking into was on a data streaming device developed by a contractor. One of the I/O processes would lockup after something like 6 or 7 days of continuously running without error. My boss and I (the only programmers) scoured the codebase for any possible condition that looked like it might maybe somehow could cause a lockup and added debugging outputs. We ran multiple devices in parallel in an attempt to increase the likely hood of the bug occurring.

The weeks kept rolling by without progress and there was more and more pressure to ship the thing. We ended up writing code that would detect the lockup and perform a soft reset. Luckily there were only a few instances where resetting would cause a perceivable problem but it still hurts to know that you shipped incorrect software.

</comment><comment><USER10> I believe this feat is only possible thanks to an effort to crack 512 bit RSA signatures used to sign the firmwares. Is this only the case on newer calculators like the TI 83+ SE or did even the earlier calculators use RSA?

<comment><USER11> Depends what you mean by "newer". The TI-89 is considerably older than the TI-83+ and it also uses RSA. All of the TI calculators with updatable firmware (i.e. all the ones with flash memory instead of ROM) use RSA and have now had their keys factored [note]. Here's the comprehensive list:

[http://db48x.net/TI-keys/keys.shtml](http://db48x.net/TI-keys/keys.shtml)

[note] apart from the very newest ARM-based TI Nspire, which is a completely different generation.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Yeah, mechanical switches are complicated in a microprocessor context, and sometimes debouncing causes more problems than it solves

And debugging things in embedded contexts is very complicated

</comment><comment><USER13> I've taken to calling them _heisenbugs_.

<comment><USER14> You're a little late to the party, then.[1]

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

<comment><USER15> Hey nice annotation number on a 1 line response. /cringe

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Would using a higher level language (C?) have prevented this problem?

<comment><USER17> i was going to say something similar. since the problem appears, essentially, to be that threaded programs are difficult to write, perhaps some certain language or library with a model of concurrency other than threads would've prevented the problem. but then since this is an embedded system, compiling the entire program down from anything other than C incur too much performance overhead, depending on the toolchain. plus, the article mentions a legacy codebase.

although i have very limited experience with embedded systems, there are points here that i think apply just as well to web programming:

* concurrency is a fundamentally difficult problem that we've yet to find a really great answer to for all domains. just the other day, there was an article about how threads are better than node-style async, but this article is a good description of the kind of difficulties threaded programming presents, so much so that the first and second rules of thread programming, imo, are both "don't use threads."

* since different languages are suited to different problem domains, it seems like the thing to do is rather than choose a "low/high level" language (quotes b/c the distinction is actually for implementations, not languages; don't forget that lisp used to run on bare metal) for an entire program (and deal with the ensuing tradeoffs of performance vs. code clarity, etc.), it ought to be more common practice to write in multiple languages.

so probably not C, but perhaps lua would've helped?

<comment><USER18> > compiling the entire program down from anything other than C incur too much > performance overhead

On a system with 32KB ram, I think the biggest concern is the size of the final generated binary. Writing things in C or assembly will allow you to optimize for a smaller resulting image. Using higher level languages with libraries and what not, can considerably add to the generated output, and with a 32KB maximum size, that's a very real concern.

And here I thought I was having troubles when I was hacking Android and needed to keep the recovery-kernel for my particular tablet below 5MB. The luxuries of modern day computing, eh? :)</comment></comment></comment>


Why All Printers Suck, Even the Best Ones - <AUTHOR> http://thewirecutter.com/2016/04/why-all-printers-suck-even-the-best-ones/ <comment><USER3> According to Alan Kay, the first laser printer developed at PARC printed 600 dpi at one page per second. (Think about that! The very first one was that powerful.) The catch was, it operated synchronously and couldn't go any _slower_ than one page per second either. The Alto didn't have enough memory for a single page at that resolution and the printer wouldn't allow for any buffering, so they had to get clever and added special hardware to the Alto that solved the problem. But I'm not sure how it solved the problem.

<comment><USER4> Interesting story. Do you have any source for that?

<comment><USER3> He visited YC last week and told the story.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Not the best article I've ever read - yes, Printers can be a PITA, but I think that's inevitable because they are complex electromechanical devices which are required to be very cheap. And in many cases almost disposable - <USER2> which is a real crime. Got given a Laserjet 400Pro the other day, purely because it had a label stuck in the paper path so had been written off. I've fixed it (zero cost other than time), but I'd be surprised if I could get £30 for it, despite it working perfectly. Printers must be a serious environmental nightmare.

As for being happy, I must be the exception to the rule. I have a Laserjet 4000 here which has been sat on my home network since I was given it as part of a load of IT gear I was given in 2000. It has a page count of over 70k (it was the low mileage one of the two printers I was given at about 40k when I got it - the other already had 130k on it!), and just works. All I've ever had to to do it in 16 years of reasonably heavy use is to put paper in it, change the toner once (got 3 new toners with it as well!), and buy a new paper tray because the rollers were worn (£6). It's connected to my Ubuntu server and works on Google Cloud print as well as a locally shared Windows printer. Its only downside is the high (18W) standby consumption, but like my ageing central heating boiler, I'm not going to change it just because of that.

</comment><comment><USER6> I very occasionally need to print things - sometimes photos (hence a laser printer is not suitable

1\. I buy a printer

2\. I use the printer. Great

3\. Several months pass...

4\. The printer head is clogged. Occasionally I can fix it by running the cleaning cycle. Sometimes I can take it to a shop to be cleared. GOTO 2

5\. Sometimes I throw the printer away. GOTO 1

I'm rather sick of this cycle. Surely I can't be the only person that wants a photo printer that can cope with being used intermittently?

What am I doing wrong?

EDIT: I just saw this from the article: "...though these printers automatically perform periodic purges to keep their nozzles clean and ready to print"

Seems like maybe I need to keep it powered on all the time so it can clean itself. I never knew this.

Can anyone confirm if this will solve my problem reliably?

<comment><USER7> > What am I doing wrong?

Buying inkjet printers. They typically don't last well without frequent use and maintenance. Get a decent laser printer and it will last a good long time (presuming it's a good unit to start with).

<comment><USER8> Laser will not print photographs.

<comment><USER9> If you commonly need a printer but rarely print photos, you're much better off getting a laser printer and going to a print center for the odd photograph. Same deal if you rarely print at all, except you may just want to skip the laser and go to the print shop for documents as well.

Lasers are relatively cheap (you can get a decent B&W laser for $100) and don't mind either significant usage or staying in storage for a long time.

Inkjet are only suitable if you're frequently printing color (and regularly print pictures, if you're printing color but not photographs, get a color laser instead), and then you're probably better off getting a genuine photo printer.

<comment><USER6> I like the immediacy of printing from home.

But it looks like I'm out of luck. Laser printers suck at photos. Inkjets clog up or dry out if not used regularly.

And any alternative tech (is dye-sub still a thing?) is prohibitively expensive.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> The big mistake is getting SOHO hardware.

An used enterprise oriented printer is 100x better than any SOHO oriented printer.

Same when it comes to WiFi hardware. An $80 WiFi access point from Ubiquiti beats the pants off a fancy $200 router, as that kind of thing always seems to overheat and kick off all the WiFi connections or have some quirky opinions about ARP that will cause it to kick all the wireless and wired devices off because it doesn't like how some other device rolls -- and they don't get called to account because people assume that the softphone doesn't work because the softphone sucks, or that windows SMB sharing doesn't work because windows sucks, or their ISP sucks, or the FBI is parked across the road and messing with their WiFi with a massive directional antenna, etc.

</comment><comment><USER11> Someone needs to do a Dyson on printers. Everyone knows they are all shit, and I think a lot of people would be ready to spend money on a decent small office one.

The whole industry is backwards and creating huge amounts of waste. All printers I've pretty much ever seen are flimsy plastic pieces of crap with nonsensical control panels that look ugly as hell.

<comment><USER12> > Someone needs to do a Dyson on printers. Everyone knows they are all shit, > and I think a lot of people would be ready to spend money on a decent small > office one.

Maybe? Most people I know almost never print stuff anymore. It's almost worth it to buy cheap, use rarely when necessary and that's the end of it.

3+ years ago? Hell yeah give me a nice printer that's a little pricy and I'll buy it. I'm just not convinced there is a market for that today outside of business and there are many good but expensive printers for business.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> So I did what they recommended and bought a cheap b/w laser printer, namely the Brother HL-L2340DW.

Since that day, printing doesn't suck anymore, and my old Canon Pixma sits unused.

<comment><USER14> I bought it too. Very happy to not have clogged ink jets anymore, but the networking / software / UI is garbage. I just connect via USB to my laptop rather than waste time trying to fix the wifi connection each time it stops working.

<comment><USER15> I have a Brother laser printer, and the wifi is indeed hot garbage. However, since the printer sits near the wifi router, I was able to run a wire to it, and it's been 100% reliable ever since. As an added bonus, as long as it has a network connection, it still makes itself available for wireless print (via AirPrint) and zero configuration print services on OS X, Linux, and Windows.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I've owned a Dell Color Laser 1320c for 8 years.

[http://www.amazon.com/Dell-Color-Laser- Printer-1320c/dp/B001...](http://www.amazon.com/Dell-Color-Laser- Printer-1320c/dp/B0012WWNAK)

I had to buy a new toner cartridge once, which cost about 70 EUR. It gets frequent usage. It just sits on my home network and prints. I don't think it has ever had a paper jam.

Every single ink jet printer I had beforehand was an overpriced rip-off.

This Dell one has been awesome, and it only costs $112 on Amazon at the moment. Bargain.

<comment><USER17> Same here with a Dell 1760nw (colour laser) - it connects to wifi and prints from Windows, Linux and OS X without issue, cost less than £100 new, no paper jams, and I haven't had to open the spare toner that was included with it yet.

Ink jets have all been an unreliable waste of money and time but I'd say this one doesn't suck...

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> I've had a HP LaserJet 1020 since 2005, when I paid around $100 for it. A refurbished one today costs $200+, which means it actually went up in value. It is small, fast, and works on third party cartridges that I pay 10-20$ for. Besides dusting it once in a while, I've done zero maintenance. It runs on Linux without any problems.

This printer is probably one of my favorite pieces of technology for the above reasons. I should add I print around 10-20 pages per day.

</comment><comment><USER19> Still using an HP LaserJet 1200 I bought in 1999.

Uses the 75X toner cartridge, which is still in production. Costs about $50 for ~5000 sheets worth of printing (which is about 5 to 6 years). Has a USB port, so it's networked through an Apple Airport Express. 600dpi, and does envelopes just as well. The drivers are the old school LaserJet/JetDirect drivers, so they'll likely be supported until the heat death of the universe.

Way back, I used to see these things in the field that have printed 15-20 times as many pages without even needing a replacement anything. I think 300-500K sheets is when they needed basic servicing.

I think I paid $600 in 1999. Not cheap, but 17 years of foolproof dead reliable service and not even needing to install/configure drivers has made it worth every cent.

</comment><comment><USER20> Its all our fault: when buying a printer, we usually just go for the cheapest one, no matter what it might cost in the future. Just like when buying an airline ticket we (usually) buy the cheapest one, not taking in account future expenses.

A company offering an actual-priced printer, with actual-priced ink would go out of business fast: almost nobody would buy the expensive, unsubsidized printers.

<comment><USER21> The reason I buy a cheap piece of shit is because there is little difference between it and the expensive piece of shit.

I currently have a $60 printer which does just fine. Previously I had a >$200 fancy HP printer, but I got rid of it when I found out it would "expire" my ink. As someone that prints maybe a handful of concert tickets a year, that is bullshit.

<comment><USER22> All inkjet printers "expire" their ink.

Either you leave it plugged in, and it occasionally does a nozzle cleaning operation, using up ink each time, or you leave it unplugged, and it gets clogged if you don't use it regularly.

Granted, it does take longer than 6 months to empty an ink jet cartridge just through cleaning, but for an infrequently used printer, cleaning will use up a significant portion of your ink.

<comment><USER21> Everything I've ever read put it in the realm of around one to two years, not 6 months. In my case, I didn't even own the printer for a year before it pulled that one on me, and I purchased additional ink for it. That's just shady practice on HP's part.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> I stopped hating my printer after I bought a Brother laser printer for $100.

<comment><USER24> I feel like a bot but the auto tl:dr of this thread is

just buy a damn laser printer.

Sincerely, a fellow Brother laser printer owner

<comment><USER25> We did that with the 3040CN. After 30,000 pages, it wanted us to replace "some" mechanical parts (drums, I think?) which were as expensive as the printer itself… as was each pack of toners.

Now we're running a Ricoh gel printer. Higher print quality, more features (duplex for free), cheap ink that doesn't dry out, comparable price for the printer itself, and less/no parts to replace regularly. And no half-assed "you need this undocumented 32 bit binary" wannabe CUPS driver like with Brother. Single PPD file, done.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> This is a crappy, click-bait article and the advice it gives is bad.

First, the politics of ink management, which is probably half the article, have very little to do with the title, especially the "even the best ones" part. If you plan and budget to pay for the authorised ink (and you should plan your consumables and price them in when buying anything that uses consumables), printers generally won't suck, especially the best ones. TANSTAAFL.

Second, the most important point isn't being made: If your needs are such that you think you need a cheap inkjet colour printer, think again. If you need to print a lot, get a real, big mid-to-high-end colour laser printer (and/or a mid-to-high-end specialised photo printer). You'll make up the initial cost on a more sensible consumables approach. However, chances are heavily in favour of you not actually needing this. Mail-order your photo prints or go to the pharmacy. Have the occasional colour prints done at a copy shop (and if it's for a client meeting, have them finish the product professionally for you while they're at it). It's much more expensive per copy, but probably not by much at the end of the day.

Third, get a wifi-networked Brother laser printer. They are cheap and solid and the original toner is reasonably enough priced that I've never been seriously tempted by third-party alternatives.

</comment><comment><USER27> Never tells you the "why" directly, it is easier to extract money out of you on ink/toner in small increments than it is to get you to put out up front.

Now that a majority of the ink jet patents have expired I hope that someone can come up with a reasonably durable open source inkjet printer where anyone can make the proper ink for it.

</comment><comment><USER28> What about USB cables that are not included and you know this only after bringing the box home? )

<comment><USER29> No no. PC World - an overpriced chain here in the UK keeps USB cables by the checkout, and in a "would you like fries with that" manner tries to upsell every printer purchase with a USB cable.

It's a very long time since I was in one of their stores, but those cables were typically £20-£25 for an unbranded with a wholesale of about 50p.

<comment><USER30> High street electrical retailers make almost nothing on entry-level products. A few years ago, a PC World manager told me that their gross profit on a £300 laptop was about £9; The £45 accessories bundle offered with it earned them £30. Without the upsold accessories and support packages, they don't have a business model.

</comment></comment></comment><comment> awinter-py Aha -- the other shoe drops for freemium models. Reversing your 'natural' cost model to boost sales (printer costs more to make so should cost more to sell) starts an arms race with the consumer and rival ink-makers.

The printers rejecting alien print cartridges reminds me of brood parasitism with birds [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brood_parasite](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brood_parasite). Birds who co-evolve in environments where this is a problem develop defenses.

</comment><comment><USER31> I have a perfectly working color laser printer from HP and they decided not to have drivers that work with Windows 10. Why are drivers still a thing in the Windows world?

Any printer that supports AirPrint (almost any wireless printer) will at least give you a base level of functionality without printer specific drivers required. The only reason that I'm keeping the printer is because it still works with my iOS devices and I'm getting a Mac eventually.

</comment><comment><USER32> I bought a color laser printer - OKI C301DN and compared to all my previous inkjets it`s a god-sent. With inkjets I had many problems with clogged heads and electronics going bad. I guess it is partially a consequence of me not printing regularly and using non-OEM ink.

But not with the OKI, it just works, always. I feel a little bad for using cheap Chinese toner but the discrepancy in price towards the OEM ones is just too large.

</comment><comment><USER33> Personally I also blame printer-hardware renewal. How many new models do you need ?

Using a website that has models/prices listed there are 466 new printers since 03/06/2015 with 25 brands coming down to an average of 18 new printer models per brand.

Anyone knows why printer brands don't just make a few good models and keep them for a long while ? (I suspect this problem is not limited to the printer business.)

<comment><USER34> It's more difficult to track poor product quality based on consumer reviews if the products are 'refreshed' with new models every year.

I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if the internal components are mostly the same between models.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> I am still using an HP all in one printer from 2006. It has an Ethernet port and it works with the latest macbook pros.

When my wife was doing her second degree, I used some of those ink injectors to save on ink. They worked fine, but now I usually just end up buying the HP brand.

I think a printer that is 10 years old and still works fine says something about the technology.

</comment><comment><USER34> Many thousand pages later my Brother B&W laser printer is still going strong.

Inkjet is only reliable if the printer is used and calibrated regularly. Even large scale plotters are switching to solid ink (ie wax ball).

This is largely a 'solved' problem but most consumers will still gravitate toward lower price tags and purchase cheap throwaway inkjet printers.

</comment><comment><USER36> "And the LCD screens on these printers tend to be small and hard to navigate."

Why would you need to navigate an LCD screen on a black and white laser printer? Most low end lasers don't even have an LCD. You use the included utility on your computer which tells you everything you need to know about toner level, pages printed, ECO mode, etc.

<comment><USER37> Or, even better, the printer has a built in web interface which means you don't have to install any vendor supplied "utilities" (which are usually bloated and often come with unwanted crapware).

<comment> ju-st For my HP Officejet printer you have to find the "enterprise software" package on their support website; this installs only the necessary drivers without any crapware.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> Is this 1995? My printer just works even though I don't give it any attention whatsoever. Yeah you wanna print that 200 pages things after not even dusting me off for seven month? Sure, here it comes, no hick-ups expected. Its a Brother B/W laser printer, cheapest model. It rocks!

</comment><comment><USER39> The world need an open-hardware, fixable printer. Something rock solid, you can buy in a kit, a buy pieces to fix it. Ink should be in bottles to allow competition on the prices.

Or as someone else has suggestion, a Dyson printer

</comment><comment><USER40> My reconditioned HP LJ 5N (total cost to me so far: £50 including delivery) is actually pretty good, assuming you don't want or need colour printing.</comment>


Google Mashup Editor - <AUTHOR> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_mashup_editor.php <comment><USER2> Google Mashup Editor vs Yahoo Pipes: [http://www.nilkanth.com/archives/2007/07/06/google-mashup- ed...](http://www.nilkanth.com/archives/2007/07/06/google-mashup-editor-vs- yahoo-pipes/)</comment>


How To Generate Procedural Racetracks Without Noise - <AUTHOR> http://bordeen.blogspot.com/2013/12/how-to-generate-procedural-racetracks.html

<comment><USER2> A simpler implementation off the top of my head, although I can not verify immediately how good the results would be:

Instead of generating a convex hull, use polar coordinates and generate points in a circle or ellipse with a random radius modifier (since these tracks don't have overlaps this method should work fine). You can pretty easily control the spacing and delta in the radius and theta, and then just use Bezier curves from there which should not have weird cusps that the author describes if your spacing is correct. With a few modifiers (like using Manhattan distance for the radial measurement) you can make some variations like more "square" tracks although this would introduce (potentially) new complications.

That said, the author's implementation works great regardless of complexity and would probably fair better with more complex track types.

<comment><USER3> I find it really funny that your suggestion is best implemented with Perlin noise.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I love stuff like this. I wrote an Android game[0] that has terrain that's procedurally generated using a very simple algorithm. Discovering other content-generation algorithms which give nice, random but realistic-looking results gets me buzzed as hell.

[0] [https://github.com/bitwize/rboots- android/](https://github.com/bitwize/rboots-android/)

<comment><USER5> I really do enjoy reading about terrain generation algorithms, I've been playing with perlin noise but haven't managed to make anything that looks realistic yet. I don't know whether you'd judge my tried and true method as realistic but I threw together a gallery for my progress on the last Ludum Dare, the gallery moves past world generation pretty quickly though.[1] The source is up on github.[2]

[1] [http://imgur.com/gallery/13k1R](http://imgur.com/gallery/13k1R) [2] [https://github.com/Lockyy/YOGO-Moment-of- Interaction](https://github.com/Lockyy/YOGO-Moment-of-Interaction)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> You may also enjoy reading [http://procworld.blogspot.fr/](http://procworld.blogspot.fr/) for some interesting posts about procedural terrain, vegetation and architecture generation. I found the visual results are quite impressive.

</comment><comment><USER7> I think this is a great example of how well-studied algorithms crop up in (potentially) unexpected places, i.e. convex hull.

Often in day-to-day work algorithms aren't immediately useful. But when they are, they _really_ make a difference.

</comment><comment><USER8> I love this, and I think I'd enjoy driving those tracks.

I'm surprised that there are not more "design your own track" racing games. It feels like that kind of user customisation is popular, and sharing tracks would be very popular.

<comment><USER9> The TrackMania series has strong support for designing your own tracks.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Great post!

It might be a good idea to look at the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euler_spiral](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euler_spiral) to make the curves more "realistic" or convenient to drive through. If this would be desirable of course depends on the type of game.

</comment><comment><USER11> This is quite interesting, although I wonder if it's possible to also generate non-looping race tracks. Noise would be great. For example, touge tracks in the mountains of Japan where you start at the top, and descend with very twisty roads.

[http://initiald.sega.jp/ind5/img/course/happo.jpg](http://initiald.sega.jp/ind5/img/course/happo.jpg)

<comment><USER12> Non-looping tracks would probably be easier because you could generate the track as you go. Roll a dice and see if the next piece of track will go left right or straight. You don't have to worry about ending up at a predefined point.

<comment><USER13> Not only that, I think you could be creative and make physically impossible overlapping tracks, just like games like Portal 2 or The Stanley Parable have impossible architecture. As long as this doesn't happen often, you might not even realize this is happening.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> > _From this defined retangle, generate a collection of random points inside > it_

That immediately defeats the "Without Noise" requirement.

<comment><USER15> Noise in this context refers to perlin/simplex noise, not the use of rand()

<comment><USER16> If you sample it sparsely enough, though, you might as well use rand. There wouldn't really be any gain from using a noise function in this application, however.

I think it was worth pointing out in the context of this post, though, as he took the time to directly address the part of his audience who apparently seems to think all "procedural" content should descend from a noise function, which is probably common with beginners. Often a simple random number generator will do just fine.

<comment><USER15> That misses the point completely.

You can trivially create a race track by following a route of a certain height in a perlin noise map. No algorithm needed at all. All you need is 2d perlin noise and a single if block:

        for x, y in range():
            if lower < perlin[x][y] < higher:
                map[x][y] = brown
            else:
                map[x][y] = green

The author just decided to take a different approach.

<comment><USER16> This algorithm is not sufficient. There's no requirement for the contour line to be simple, connected, or even closed within the domain you specify (the higher the frequency the more likely it will be closed, but the more likely it won't be connected).

One approach would be to then walk the line from the start and connect neighboring points that aren't too close to previous points and don't cause a turn tighter than some given angle (non-simple curves should only happen if you're unlucky enough to run into a saddle point of your desired value), but that solution starts looking a whole lot like taking the convex hull of clusters of random points...you could have just taken fewer points and then smoothed the curve that fits around them :)</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


One of LLVM's Top Contributors Quits Development Over CoC, Outreach Program - <AUTHOR> https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=LLVM-Rafael-Espindola <comment><USER2> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16980841](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16980841)

<comment><USER3> Was gonna post this given that it had gotten "flagged" for whatever reason.

<comment><USER2> There's also this one that was killed:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16981420](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16981420)

Seems like HN really doesn't want to discuss this topic.

<comment><USER4> Were it not for another tech news site, I'd have no idea that it had happened.

Seems a bit crazy to try to disappear news about this sort of thing to me.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Amazon is said to be building home robots - <AUTHOR> https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-23/amazon-is-said-to-be-working-on-another-big-bet-home-robots <comment><USER2> Never trust anonymous sources with over the top promises.

In 2010, I was an intern at Google working on a team doing the very early prototypes of touch screen stuff for ChromeOS. I was in the room the first time we scrolled the screen with a finger (initially, the wrong way). That same week, a bunch of tech blogs with "insider information" announced we'd have a consumer ChromeOS tablet by the end of the month. Spoiler: they were 8 years ahead of themselves.

<comment><USER3> Bloomberg isn't a tech blog.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> As much as my inner kid (and probably outer adult) is grinning at the thought of having a real personal house robot, the idea of it being more mobile Alexa than Giskard takes away some of the appeal.

<comment><USER5> Wake up in the middle of the night with your Amazon robot standing over you, laughing.

<comment><USER6> I'd be more worried that my Amazon robot figured out how to order batteries, nuts and bolts on my Amazon tablet.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> It's probably not top secret if its on bloomberg.

<comment><USER8> Yeah, you have got to love their sense of irony.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Trying to work through the algorithmic burden. Would a home robot's navigation software be more or less complex than a self driving car? No lane markers, stop signs/lights. Environment changes constantly with doors open/closing, pets, humans moving around, stuff on the floor. It would be more like apples- to-apples if we were talking about a self-driving off-road vehicle.

Not to mention, the auto is doing something useful simply by moving. Perhaps a security robot in the home could be valuable by simply moving, but otherwise, it needs an additional layer of application. Interacting with humans, manipulating objects which it would have to identify, ...

<comment><USER10> A part of the burden of cars is the table stakes though... cars can potentially kill people. A home robot worst-case is a potential pooptastrophe [0] (I guess.. unless people can trip on it and fall down stairs).

[0] [https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation- now/2016/08/15/po...](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation- now/2016/08/15/pooptastrophe-man-details-night-his-roomba-ran-over-dog- poop/88667704/)

<comment><USER11> Depends on the robot. A mere vacuum cleaner is as you describe, but a fully general household bot could turn a gas hob on without igniting it, combine unsafe combinations of bleach when cleaning the bathroom, fail to recognise when food has expired before cooking it, mistake bleach for a drink when serving dinner, mistake the owner's fingers for carrot or a sausage when making dinner, or lock one or more doors in an open position overnight.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I think it will come as RAAS or Robots As A Service. The features or enhancements will be enabled by service provider. There will be monthly fee plans based on how many functions calls are invoked on it.

<comment><USER13> Connect a robot up to Mechanical Turk and you've got a winner!

<comment><USER14> Basically, globalizing the domestic worker market. That's... both brilliant and disturbing.

<comment><USER15> This has to be a Black Mirror episode

<comment><USER13> There was a film called 'Sleep Dealer' which dealt with the potential for remote-controlling of robots.

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

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Why does the robot move around the house? Mobile robots are non-trivial. Doing a mobile robot for an incremental publicity or novelty gain is a net-loss. Moving robustly in a cluttered space is an unsolved problem in robotics so to attempt it you need a really really good reason.

I think the project would be a blast to work on and I certainly think research in this area should be supported, but I would love to know what they want to accomplish that couldn't be done by selling 2 or 3x additional static devices for less.

<comment><USER17> I want a robot that travels around the house to clean up after my tornado kids. Maybe a little bit at night, very quietly, and definitely during the day, while they're at school.

I also would appreciate robots that empty the dishwasher; move the laundry from the washing machine to the dryer, and then put the dry items into closets and chests of drawers; wash windows; clean ovens and fridges; and so on. Basically furthering domestic robots that free us from routine labor, just as the current, limited robots have done for us (I tell my daughters the washing machines are simple robots, and we should expect better in the near future).

<comment><USER18> Absolutely. A clothes folding and sorting robot would be #1 in terms of time saving, as that feels like 80% of the housework I do.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I think Amazon is uniquely positioned to come out with the first broadly applicable consumer house robot. To me, I would buy one if it could move around the house and handle some daily chores like taking the dishes/trash out, laundry, and the always classic getting me a beer. That would require 1: the ability to move around my house, 2 the ability to accept and interpret commands, and 3 the ability to recognize objects visually and how to interact with them.

Amazon has 1 partially solved with kiva, 2 with Alexa, leaving the big problem as 3. Amazon is well aware of 3 though because that is their main problem blocking them from automating hundreds of thousands of jobs in their warehouses. They even hold competitions for it: [https://www.wired.com/story/grasping-robots-compete-to- rule-...](https://www.wired.com/story/grasping-robots-compete-to-rule-amazons- warehouses/)

With all of that potential labor savings in solving that problem, and the possibility of a home robot using the same technology, I doubt anyone spends more R&D on this problem.

<comment><USER20> Kiva is not quite what you seem to think it is. Those robots navigate in specially constructed, human-free, spaces with QR codes on the floor to keep them positioned right. It is a highly developed system, but not one designed for anything remotely like a human home.

And I would separate your #3 into two items: recognizing household objects (a very significant bit of work), and then interacting with individual objects. Single instances of each of those are tasks that whole companies are devoted to. General-case systems are just not in the cards at this point.

</comment></comment><comment> gene-h I'd be surprised if they didn't have some project on home robots. While I would like to see Amazon have a program for making robots that do useful tasks like dishes they are probably going to make something more like an echo on wheels. The technology needed to do this is fairly mature. Robot vacuums have been on the market for years, robot vacuums with SLAM have also been on the market for years. They aren't perfect and can't operate in a very cluttered room, but this is probably acceptable for an 'echo on wheels' application.

In my opinion this is a bit creepy. Now one would be putting an Amazon device capable of sensing and actuation in their home. And not just sensing, enough sensing to map a house and perhaps keep track of where people are. If the robot does image recognition, so one can say hold up an empty box to buy more on amazon, that's even creepier. As the only practical means of doing this would be to send images to amazon's servers.

</comment><comment><USER21> This is not at all surprising and been surprised we do NOT see Amazon trying to play in the SDC space like Google is doing.

SDC - Self Driving Cars

Really SDC is much more of a software thing and surprising we have not seen other big tech playing in the SDC space. Some rumors on Apple but not shown anything.

</comment><comment><USER22> This is just an aside but why do websites (and browsers) still auto-play video content in this day and age? I thought we ended that disturbing trend..

</comment><comment><USER23> Wonder what they're using for the motor motion control software? eg g2core, TinyG, GRBL, or something custom

</comment><comment><USER24> Is it just an Alexa that cleans floors? I can't imagine what other tasks this could perform.

<comment><USER25> Ordering stuff for you on Amazon.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> Of course they do..

</comment><comment><USER27> Unlike the ones they've already built that mechanically turn their paychecks into dozens of little brown boxes?</comment>


TcpKali – Fast multi-core TCP and WebSockets load generator - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/machinezone/tcpkali <comment><USER2> One minor nit about the projects use of autoconf / automake. Projects should _please_ check the generated files into git. Sure, they're auto-generated. But 90% of the time when they're not in git, I discover that I have a different version of autoconf, and I can't even build "configure" in order to build the project.

The cost of a few more bytes in git is more than outweighed by the benefits of allowing people to _use_ your software.

<comment><USER3> This is inherently wrong. Auto-generated files should NEVER be in git.

However, they _should_ be in the stable release tarball.

<comment><USER4> How am I supposed to contribute to your project if the files required to build it are in one place (the tarball) but patches have to be made in another (the git repo)?

If your best practices require you to make potential users and contributors jump through hoops, then maybe those best practices are a bit shit.

<comment><USER5> I do not understand this debate. The project should decide on which autotools version to use and everyone contributing should make sure everything can be generated and installed with roughly the following:

> autoreconf -ivf

> ./configure

> make

> sudo make install

<comment><USER3> Well, not only that, autoconf and automake files themselves can set a minimum version.

For the problem case of "my version was old, but still executed, and produced a build system that wouldn't build", this has already been handled for a long long time.

But yeah, either autoreconf or explicit autogen.sh works.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> TcpKali mascot is an example of great visual identity for open source projects: kawaii-touched fearsome ancient god zapping servers. It's both memorable visual symbol and an apt metaphor for core feature (load generation).

RJ-45 connectors with a skull hanging from the neck and a latte cup are just cherries on top.

<comment><USER7> To give credit where the credit is due: the mascot was created by a great graphical designer - Tatyana Alexandrova ([https://twitter.com/Alextanya](https://twitter.com/Alextanya))

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Surprised to see the name and image in the site. If you're wondering about the name and the image there, "Kali" is the Hindu goddess and the image depicts her. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali)

<comment><USER9> Yes, I initially thought this was a part of the pen-testing linux distribution[0] also named Kali.

[0] [https://www.kali.org/](https://www.kali.org/)

<comment><USER10> My association with this name is the IPX over Internet app that was around in the 90s to play things like Doom over the internet. Strange :)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali_%28software%29](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali_%28software%29)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Is there a way to specify a sequence of messages every connection should send? Preferably even let it randomize it (want to load test a game with real input, not just set up the connection).

<comment><USER12> -m 'foo' -m 'bar' is one way. \--message-file <filename1> \--message-file <filename2> is another way.

You can randomize input somewhat by using \\{connection.id % 100} expressions right in the -m and within the files.

But yes, tcpkali can do simple randomizations, but does not support full-blown scripting. For that, consider using [http://github.com/machinezone/mzbench](http://github.com/machinezone/mzbench) or other alternatives.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> What is the best way to prevent tools like this from ddossing a simple sockets.io server?

<comment><USER14> Put a haproxy in front that does the rate-limiting and connection tracking.</comment></comment>