Telemetry, Now on Windows 7 and 8 - <AUTHOR> http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2015/08/30/windows-10-spying-on-windows-7-and-windows-8/?utm_campaign=yahootix&partner=yahootix <comment><USER3> To play devils advocate here: when it's their own startup project, everybody is totally into analytics and data driven design. Heck, we even usually defer our analytics to a third party (Mixpanel, Google Analytics) that will allow them to form personal profiles aggregated over multiple vendors.

But when Microsoft wants to do the same kind of analytics we all swear by, then the big outrage starts and everybody is all up in arms.

Personally, I'm against tracking and I fought the powers that be in order to not get analytics into our products, but that's a battle I lost. So now I really feel like I'm in no position to complain about MS doing analytics when even my own stuff does it.

<comment><USER4> Well it's easy enough to block Mixpanel, GA, etc. But details seem to be unclear on exactly how you block everything Windows does. During the technical preview, I noted that even the group policy settings to disable things like web search simply did not work - all my searches were still sent off.

MS has had Customer Improvement Programs for quite a while, but most of them were opt-in. The shift to not offering opt-out and making things deliberately vague and confusing is what people are upset about.

Also, just because many startups do bad things doesn't excuse Microsoft. Especially due to Microsoft's size and influence, "if you don't like it, don't use it" doesn't always apply like it might to startups.

<comment><USER5> > many startups do bad things

I'm sorry, do you think startups are morally obligated to not know how people use their services? Care to justify that position?

<comment><USER4> I view the increasing stance that people should be free with their privacy to be "bad". Third party analytics increase the perception that it's normal, common, OK, to-be-expected, etc. that your activity with one party should be liberally shared with others. Adding GA is probably a fairly minor offense, but I wouldn't call it a good or neutral thing, so it must be slightly bad eh? (I use GA; I don't like to, but it makes economic sense).

Startups do much worse though. See, for instance, apps that try to get every permission. Even if they don't use them, the fact that they ask for such permissions again instills that this is acceptable behaviour in society.

What you said, "know how people use their services" can be OK. A site doing its own analytics on data that users wouldn't reasonably expect to be private is fine (the user is already using the site, and it's fair to believe the site knows what they;re doing). Anything more invasive (in-app: web or otherwise) should get clear consent first. It's hard to give consent for e.g. GA - <USER2> that even a thing?

Windows "phoning home" for analytics introduces a new level of data collection. And most of the harm here is because MS has done so in a vague way, apparently with a broken opt-out (going off my Win10 usage and what others have said they've seen with the final release).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> It's getting more and more tiresome having to read every single KB article for every single Win update to ensure Microsoft are not trying to pull this.

I avoided these updates already but I spent 30 minutes doing the research. I may soon have to "opt-out" of Windows altogether as it is beginning to take more of my time dodging the privacy bullets than I want to spend.

<comment><USER7> Instead of opting out of Windows, why not just opt out of the customer experience improvement program?

It's not hard. Instead of "yes", choose "no".

<comment><USER4> So long as there are clear and working implementations of opt-out, you're right. Recently people were saying that even with the Windows 10 options turned off, Windows was still making connections and even sending data when search was initiated.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Fortunately, the article lists the exact KB numbers for the updates in question, so if you don't want this "feature" to be backported to your OS, you can go ahead and disable those updates. At least for the time being, you can opt out of specific updates on Windows 7.

My Linux migration is almost complete... I only have a couple of apps that I need Windows for anymore, and I'm planning to build a new PC early next year that will be powerful enough to run them in a VM without discomfort. Five years ago, I told myself that Windows 7 would be the last proprietary OS that I'd ever use on bare metal. It looks like I'll be able to keep that vow :)

<comment><USER9> It's surprisingly easy to switch, even if you dive right into the deep end like I did. Although I've been using Linux for years on all of my other computers.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Time to seriously consider moving to Linux.

I just need a way to host a Visual Studio / IIS windows instance inside a Linux window manager... is that even possible?

<comment><USER11> Run Windows in a VM, try it under Wine, or use Microsoft's cloud version of Visual Studio. Not sure about IIS for that one though.

Better yet, stop rewarding a company that treats its users like pests and switch to open languages and servers.

<comment><USER12> Nice thought but not practical if he's developing for clients on those platforms.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Anyone know good tools for monitoring inbound and outbound connections on Linux? I'm starting to treat programs running on my machine in more an adverse manner and would like to make sure these sort of problems are not happening on Linux as well.

<comment><USER11> Wireshark. Run it on a separate machine to be sure you see everything.

<comment><USER14> But what about the ever growing number of TLS connections?

<comment><USER15> You can still see the source and destination though of course.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Please edit the link to get rid of the tracking parameters in the query string.

</comment><comment><USER7> Just choose "No, I don't want to participate in the customer experience improvement program".

But that would spoil the fun of these "spying" stories on Forbes and the like.

Funny how Forbes hides the site navigation behind a hamburger menu even for desktop browsers. And scrolling down loads new content and auto-switches you to a different URL. It's so clunky and awful, one can only guess at the design decisions behind such a cluster-f __k. Suddenly the content at the top is not there and you 're on a new page, just from scrolling down a bit. I guess this is another example of mobile first gone wrong.

<comment><USER17> _> Just choose "No, I don't want to participate in the customer experience improvement program"._

Have you read [http://arstechnica.com/information- technology/2015/08/even-w...](http://arstechnica.com/information- technology/2015/08/even-when-told-not-to-windows-10-just-cant-stop-talking-to- microsoft/) and [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10037753](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10037753) ?

Anecdotally, i recently experienced this issue [http://superuser.com/a/891516](http://superuser.com/a/891516) despite being already opted out of the customer experience improvement program.

<comment><USER7> This thread is about Win 7 and 8. The first two articles you link to are about Windows 10.

The stack exchange link you mention looks isolated to that user's CPU issue. So isolated, he answers his own question. Comments under the answer from someone else suggests that opting out of CEI solved the issue for that user.

So, as already mentioned, opting out of CEI is all it takes to not worry about MS spying on Win7/8 users. Windows 10 might have issues, but that's another matter.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I think they have always existed on Win8 at least. The hosts file bypass if true makes me feel bad I think.

</comment><comment><USER9> Ask a guy who switched fully to Linux a week ago anything.

<comment><USER18> As a Windows 10 insider and switched to Cinnamon Linux Mint - so much happier. I do miss gaming sometimes but I end up having more time to work or read now too. So it's a net benefit.

<comment><USER19> I did the same a week ago - First tried Mint Rafaela with Cinnamon and this week I got free time to tryout Arch. Turns out their wiki is amazing and with a little google-fu I managed to install GNOME and any other application I might need.

I honestly don't miss anything from Windows. I used to game a lot but that changed and the few games I still play can either be accessed with Play on Linux or have their own port.

And what's even funnier is that most of apps nowadays have a web version (Skype, Spotify) so I really avoid meddling with emulating Windows for a good while.

<comment><USER20> Skype and Spotify also have native ports :-)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Surely one would need to agree to new terms of service, or can Microsoft just change the terms as they see fit?

<comment><USER22> They're pushed as updates to the existing customer experience program. To see if you've already opted in, enter "customer experience" into the start menu search bar, it'll pull up the dialog.

Just like under Windows 10, if you are not opted in to the customer experience program, none of the data is collected or sent.

I do not know if the default was to opt in or out. I opted in when I went to Windows 8, with the hopes of being another data point showing someone completely avoiding everything Metro.

<comment><USER23> The default is opt-out. I just opened "Customer Experience" for the first time ever on a Windows machine, and it was set to "Yes, send information to Microsoft". You can turn it off, but whether that actually stops communications someone else will have to check.

<comment><USER24> To avoid confusion, what you describe is opt-out ;).

[http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-difference-between- opt-i...](http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-difference-between-opt-in-and- opt-out.htm)

<comment><USER23> Right. Thanks. Fixed parent post.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I doubt this is the case, but it's an excellent response if users were actually postponing updates due to privacy concerns. Burn the existing houses. Most users aren't going to ditch Windows, but could easily stay on 7.

</comment><comment><USER25> I really don't care. Don't have time to care.

For years, I've run Windows on licenses other people paid for. I do the work that needs to be done, and then I shut those Windows machines off. Professionally, and that means CAD, PLM and related tech, Windows is where it's at for the very vast majority of users.

Personally, I run Linux from time to time, and Mac OS for most casual Internet use. My embedded projects are on Linux or Mac OS now, and I've moved to an open software stack for all of that activity. Haven't purchased personal software, other than a phone app or two, in a very long time.

What bothers me is I don't care. I know I should, but I struggle with a few things here:

1\. Everybody is gathering data.

They are doing it because they know they will have gathered the things needed to answer hard questions in the future they won't even know they will be asking. Not to mention the ones they know they will be asking.

Seems to me there is a lot of value potential inherent in all of that activity. We are likely to benefit overall. Question is whether the benefit will be outweighed by abuses. I don't know.

(And I'm still not sure I care)

2\. I'm on a startup type project now, and I'm first in line to suggest we gather data. I want to gather that data because I know serious value can be understood and delivered by doing that and value added is the best way to make a nice profit. There isn't any reason to abuse anybody, but security is a liability and trust issue to deal with. Hope it all balances out. I'll be doing my part in all of that, and the intent is good.

(and I do care very much about how that all plays out)

3\. With all this going on, how meaningful is it to me? Does anyone even care about me, beyond the obvious revenue potential I may have?

I should care more about this, but I just don't anymore.

In the end, for the few things I may do that I may see somebody potentially caring about, why not just do those on an older machine, well trusted, running open stuff?

And I care about that. Those are getting harder to find. Maybe I'll stock up and keep a cache for that purpose.

Overall, "we" and I mean ordinary people, seem to be losing. General purpose computing may well continue to exist. Still seems like it might go away for an awful lot of people, but maybe not. This is a worry.

But maybe it isn't such a worry. Maybe, just maybe, the compromise is more data logging.

Maybe the end game is we really can't take general purpose computing away. So we don't, but the compromise is that we log the shit out of people in the hopes that we can catch the baddies and or keep them from doing too many things we don't want them to be doing.

(and "we" there is in the most general sense as people for lack of desire to define that more precisely)

If so, fine! I get to keep general purpose computers and if I really want to, I can probably keep some future activity off the grid well enough to not worry beyond that.

If not?

Well, maybe then I'll care a lot more. I'm just time and energy conflicted right now. None of this makes me happy, and I wonder for my kids, who are growing up with so many intrusive norms I can't even hardly relate.

But I have stuff I want to do and I feel very tired of fighting over it.

And I think that's selfish, and I'm sorry.

</comment><comment><USER26> And your ISP has all your online information anyways.

</comment><comment><USER27> First things first.

Go to window firewall and make sure incoming and outgoing connections default to blocked for anything without a rule.

Windows by default lets all outgoing traffic through.

Then create rules explicitly allowing the programs that need to access the internet. Private is like your ISP, Public is like wifi or a vpn (they both fall under the same category).

There aren't that many programs that need the internet, not much should break. Your web browsers, maybe steam, maybe a torrent client, maybe a VPN etc.

You can change your torrent client to only go through your VPN by making it only go through Public networks. Then if you aren't connected to your VPN, your torrent traffic doesn't make it out.

I'm not sure if telemetry skirts these rules, but it is a very good start.

<comment><USER28> Its already known that Windows 10 (and now presumably earlier ones because of the Telemetry update), ignore the firewall (or, alternatively, have hidden rules on it) when talking to specific Microsoft servers.

<comment><USER27> Is it? Is there somewhere to read more?</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: MPW Shell - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/ksherlock/mpw-shell <comment><AUTHOR> Today is the 30th birthday for Macintosh Programmer's Workshop. This is a re- implementation of the MPW Shell. Why? Well, a few years ago, I wrote an emulator/compatibility layer[1] to run MPW Tools on OS X. That works great except for Make. Since MPW was single threaded, Make generated a shell script instead of running subcommands directly. So to effectively use MPW Make, you need a full shell. And from there, being interactive isn't too much more work.

1\. [https://github.com/ksherlock/mpw](https://github.com/ksherlock/mpw)</comment>


The Gallery of Regrettable Food - <AUTHOR> http://www.lileks.com/institute/gallery/ <comment><USER2> I found this page a couple of years ago and was horrified and delighted by it. If you like/hate this content, you might also enjoy 70's dinner party @70s_party on twitter

[https://twitter.com/70s_party](https://twitter.com/70s_party)

</comment><comment><USER3> My grandma used to make 7-up cake. Kind of miss it.

</comment><comment><USER4> No idea why this is here but man I'm glad it is, the descriptions are hilariously on point

<comment><USER5> Exotic websites like this always remind me of geocities and the early days of the Internet.

<comment><USER6> Why? Because it does not look like todays medium.com blogs or default-skinned github.io pages? Twitter or Facebook posts? Having indiviually looking web sites _is_ the internet. Sadly, most people today don't even actually use the internet anymore.

<comment><USER7> I think part of it is not just the look, but also the content. The 'old' internet wasn't as concerned with how to monetize content, it was just people sharing stuff they like/dislike. Certainly, that still exists, but you can imagine BuzzFeed et al. turning this content into "10 real foods that will disgust you, number 7 will blow your mind".

<comment><USER6> It feels awkward that it is called "exotic". This exposes the common understanding of todays web as a set of services, that everyone is supposed and used to consume, while anything out of that scope is not regarded as normal. This is the opposite of what it should be.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Input is hard – Deadzones - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/@_Gaeel_/input-is-hard-deadzones-73426e9608d3#.onka64e92 <comment><USER2> Anybody tried a sigmoid curve of some sort? You get high granularity at the low inputs where you're more likely to want it, a mostly-linear bit in the middle and saturated output on the high end.</comment>


Code Hard or Go Home - <AUTHOR> http://hypercritical.co/2013/04/12/code-hard-or-go-home <comment><USER2> I disagree with Android part. Other companies do not "contribute" to android. They put stuff on top of Android. It's not good for Google. They can use all Google work without giving a dime to Google(Amazon, Barnes & Noble and even Samsung).

I think Google will scape form this Android situation with just not working on Android anymore. They can easily make a lightweight Linux that runs Webkit on top it (Chrome OS mobile?) and make a pure web app ecosystem and discontinue Android development. This will KILL Amazon and other abusers.

<comment><USER3> Since Amazon and others have already forked Android, it actually doesn't matter what Google does. Amazon and the rest can go on for years with what they currently have.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> very nicely written article, seems like 10x (or is it like 100x) difference between goog's contributions, and everyone else's creates a _very_ asymmetric playing field for everyone else.

other notable stuff from the article: "... can't just mine for more resources and build new developer barracks." and most importantly, "... And as a wise man once said, you come at the king, you best not miss."</comment>


Ask HN: Modern GUI VIM-like editor? - <AUTHOR>

I very like VIM editor, its concept is just awesome and when you get used to it your efficiency becomes over 9^1000. But VIM has issues:
1. Single threaded. Stuff like CtrlP or NeoComplCache are running in foreground and you can't do anything until they finish.
2. Lacks API.
3. Very IMHO: vim-script is not an example of good design.
4. No real UI.
5. No embedded console.
6. Plugins don't play nice with each other.
7. Speed.
8. Mixed modes.
Mr. Moolenar and thousands of commiters created a brilliant piece of software, just the problem is that it needs to adopt new features, its time to move on: real GUI, at least some general rework on vim-script, or even completely replacing it (bold), multithreading, centralized plugin repository, better error handling (read error reporting), etc...
One can of course say that VIM stays VIM even in 3013. But I have a hope that once VIM will adopt all those features.
Until then I'm looking for some alternative with support of modes, text objects, navigation...
What I've seen so far:
1. SublimeText2 "vintage mode". Loud. Next fetish after TextMate. To be honest I wasn't impressed that much + it costs money. Money that I wouldn't pay for it. Very limited and inconvinient VIM mode. Not an option.
2. Editra. Slow. VIM with 60(!) plugins is faster than core Editra. Looks like Python2 + wxPython is not the fastest thing one can imagine.
3. Various Aptanta, NetBeans, Eclipse and etc... VIM-emulators. That requires lots of polishing. Also they're slow. Sometimes even slower then Editra.
4. Gedit + ViGedit. Dead long time ago, but looked promising.
Do you know some other alternatives?
P.S. This is a shortened version, full text didn't fit. See here: https://gist.github.com/naquad/5762173 <comment><USER2> Yeah, they are all relatively slow. Sometimes editors more based on a single coding language like C++ for instance Code::Blocks are better?

You could always google some other ones and search through lists of them: [http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/05/07/35-useful- source-...](http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/05/07/35-useful-source-code- editors-reviewed/)

But regardless the answer will be relatively the same. They are all not super great. Personally I used Notepad++ in many cases not because it's most featured but because it gets the job done and it's quick.

I've also coded stuff in regular notepad before even running it into a syntax checking program if I am writing a really free-hand quick development that I know most of what I will need to write. In any case this is never that great of an idea; once you run the code into any syntax checker you'll still probably have to re-run through the code.

However, a community effort to build something nearly as feature-full as vim but with speed would be great.

</comment><comment><USER3> 1 & 4\. It would be nice if there was a great way to make those curses like popups work better but that's just a limitation due to the environment. After all remember vim runs anywhere without needing x or some gui.

5\. Maybe you have something specific in mind as far as the console goes but !cmd works for me (I use vim on Linux).

8\. Mixed modes is an issue? Vim is good at what it does because of all the things that are possible due to modes.

</comment><comment><USER4> You want a GUI with an embedded console?</comment>


Ask HN: Laptop Suggestions? - <AUTHOR>

Hey Hacker News, I am in the market for a new laptop and have a few ideas but want to hear your guys suggestions or forewarnings about whats out there. I'd like to keep it in the $500 range but a little more (if it's worth it) is ok.
It's main use will be for all my dev work and a little graphic design here and there. I won't be doing a whole lot of gaming and will most likely be putting a Linux OS (in addition to whatever it comes pre-installed with) on it a somepoint.
Any suggestions? Thanks and Happy Holidays! <comment><USER2> I use a lenovo T530 and it does quite well under Linux. But it was not $500, even with a significant discount. Think pads are known for being good for Linux.

However, you might want to get a brand like clevo or sager, where you can build your own system.

I know there is a suggest a Laptop sub reddit, where they may be able to point you to a good setup.

You also could look for a used system, or one with a bad hd you can replace.

Best of luck, sorry I couldn't help more.

</comment><comment><USER3> Go with a Lenovo as someone else recommended, or get an Asus G46VW; sadly twice your budget, but it's of amazing quality.

</comment><comment><USER4> A (not so much of a suggestion) different take. Why not get a mac mini if portability is not too much of a requirement. Its priced around $600 and will serve you really well for years to come.

You can also run VM on it without worrying about battery obviously.

</comment><comment><USER2> Oh, I recall someone who used a arm android tablet with a keyboard as a thin client to a always online desktop pc. Or you can boot linux directly on a chrome book. You could explore those.

</comment><comment><USER5> LENOVO THINKPAD - clear and simple choice.

<http://www.lenovo.com/products/us/laptop/thinkpad/>

<comment><AUTHOR> Lenovo Thinkpad Edge430 looks like a great deal.

<comment><USER6> How good of a display are you expecting? With the exception of some IPS options and the 15" TN panels, ThinkPad displays are often average to below- average. If you have an external monitor you'll be using for your graphic design, then this isn't as important.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Hmm... that's a tough price range. The two laptops I bought in that range (Gateway MT6729 and HP dv6700, i think) were bought in 2008 and are long gone. They lasted all of 2 years max, so I would consider them to be of low quality. And that's the problem with ~$500 machines.

I don't use MacBooks anymore because they make it difficult for me to get a Linux distro on them, but I have had two and they lasted considerably longer. Unfortunately, there seems to be a high correlation with increase in price and increase in quality.

So it's not pretty, but I have had good luck with a thinkpad once upon a time (at a higher price point). So in the end, here is my tangible recommendation: [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834310...](http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834310605)

<comment><AUTHOR> The laptop I have now..or had..is an HP Dv7. I missed the recall date on the Motherboard problems and it just recently died on me. It lasted about 2 years but I'd like to avoid HP's if I can. I added the last part about linux distro because its why I tend to avoid Macs (the price too), but what about running a VM instead of dual-boot?

Anyway, thanks for the suggestions!

<comment><USER7> VMs are always an option, but I'm also an efficiency maniac, so running two OS's and the decrease in battery life that comes with that bothers me.</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: Discover.io - Business Discovery Network - <AUTHOR> http://beta.discover.io/channel?code=HN01

<comment><AUTHOR> If you have 5 minutes, I'd like some criticism.</comment>


Joomla 3.3.3 Released - <AUTHOR> http://www.joomla.org/announcements/release-news/5557-joomla-3-3-3-released.html

<comment><AUTHOR> Check this release directly on a Terminal.com Container! at [https://terminal.com/tiny/MO3qmBrMRI](https://terminal.com/tiny/MO3qmBrMRI) It has everything your need to deploy this new Joomla version in matter of seconds.</comment>


CrunchPad Inc. Formed With 14 Employees In Singapore - <AUTHOR> http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2009/07/06/story2.html?b=1246852800^1855381 <comment><USER4> I have to applaud Michael Arrington for going out of his comfort zone and taking on a sizeable project that is not guaranteed to be successful but if fairly successful, will make a small impact on the tech industry, rather than just reporting on it (like he does now).

</comment><comment><USER5> Here's some pics - [http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/04/09/crunchtablet-hits- the-n...](http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/04/09/crunchtablet-hits-the-net-a- little-early/)

Here's the original post from TC that got this started - [http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/21/we-want-a-dead- simple-w...](http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/21/we-want-a-dead-simple-web- tablet-help-us-build-it/)

I wonder if they are still planning to keep the hardware design specs open- source - that would be pretty cool

 _Edit: here is a video demo - <USER2> cool![http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/04/09/crunchtablet-hits- the-n...](http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/04/09/crunchtablet-hits-the-net-a- little-early/*)

</comment><comment><USER6> I hope that it's successful enough that he can come out with a 2.0 with a PixelQi screen.

</comment><comment><USER7> light and thin touchscreen pdf reader / web browser with durable battery and wifi is something I always wanted - I like where this is going.

</comment><comment><USER8> I think Arrington is vastly overestimating the number of people who will actually buy a CrunchPad. It will cost more than $300, be too big to be portable, but too crippled (no keyboard, no OS, no file storage, etc.) to be anything more than a toy.

<comment><USER9> he has more than 3.2 million people subscribing to the techcrunch rss feed, so the actual number of people who read techcrunch is huge. And the crunchpad will profit from the network effect.

people said the same thing about ipod, iphone and other apple products, as long as you have a following, you can sell anything at any price

<comment><USER10> I doubt the kind of following Apple has - people spending thousands of dollars on its products, sticking with them even when their market share was marginal etc - is comparable to people regularly reading a blog.

So far, other "A list" web celebs ventures have shown that, after the initial hype, they succeed or fail based on their product's worth.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> The problem is price. The estimate keeps going up. I think it's over $300 now.

<comment><USER12> Even if it is less than $300, how much less? I can have netbook for less than $400...

I like the idea of CrunchPad, but still for the future I am thinking about paying more and buy a netbook with touchscreen - then the only advantage of CrunchPad I can think of is a shorter boot time.

Still, all the best to CrunchPad!

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> Really like the [obvious?] crunchpad product. I really expect a new generation of products cloning iPhones, Kindles because Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia are sleeping under its comfort zones. Cheers to ASUS too!

</comment><comment><USER14> It's sure to be as successful as seesmic.

<comment><USER15> Your remark fails to consider that most successful entrepreneurs experience failure in their lifetime. It's part of the game.

<comment><USER14> Agreed, however, I think everyone could see instantly that seesmic was a dud. As most can see that the Crunchpad is a dud. IMHO the idea of the Crunchpad is something that has already been tried many many times before, with the net result that there simply isn't a large market for such devices.

<comment><USER16> I think the point is that for every wildly successful company out there, there was surely an early group of naysayers who could see instantly that it was a dud.

Arrington might fail here, but you have to give the guy a lot of credit for how he has moved forward on this thing.

<comment><USER14> Yup. Credit for moving forward with a bad idea that is sure to fail.

Wake up. It's half a laptop. - no keyboard, no protection for the screen - <USER3> way to stand the screen up so you can view it - etc etc etc

It's about the same price as a netbook :/

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Apple buys parts in bulk so they can get huge discounts. if Arrington can't do the same, he won't profit from this.

<comment><USER18> Why is this comment downvotted so much? I happen to believe that it's the key to the question. People just don't realize the buying power of Apple.

If you can build the CrunchPad for $200, you'd have a huge success. If you build it for $500, it's dead on arrival. If it has the next gen CPU, it's a success. If it runs with last year low power CPU, it's dead.

Plus you need great software on top of course, but the hardware can kill you.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> I doubt TechCrunch has the expertise to make this thing as good as say, the Kindle. I know people who work at Amazon, and that company has really good engineers. I can't imagine TechCrunch does.

Arrington is just a Jeff Bezos wannabe, but he's missing the point. He thinks hardware+media=money. But it needs to be good hardware!

<comment><USER20> The Kindle is vastly more complex than the Crunchpad. EInk, DRM store, mobile network hardware, all sorts.

The crunchpad is basically a laptop without a keyboard, a touch screen and some custom Linux software. It's really not that complex. Most of it is just assembling components and writing some relatively straightforward software, unless I'm missing something?

Say what you like about him, but Arrington is doggedly going after this thing...</comment></comment>


A Rule of Thumb: Pricing Should Be Simple - <AUTHOR> http://daringfireball.net/2011/03/pricing_should_be_simple

<comment><USER3> I absolutely agree with this-

I've been in negotiations with a CDN for the last week. They refused to send me real numbers, or give me a test file.. It was "Let's set this up, and a third party source will verify".

What's the price?

It depends on you, and what your needs will be in 9 months, and the phase of the moon, and my mood and and and.

They ended up quoting me three different prices, each going UP because they forgot they gave me the more basic price earlier.

Eventually, I decided to go with a competitor- Went to their website, click, click, done. CDN is up, I'm rocking in 20 minutes.

Would I have been happier at CDN A? Maybe. But I'm not going to dick around in sales meetings for 2 weeks to find out.

<comment><USER4> Did you try telling them you're going with a competitor? That might change their tune.

<comment><USER3> They made themselves not worth it by their process.

By the time I went got ahold of the Sales rep again, and had him return an email, I would have been done with the project with their competition.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I definitely agree that pricing should be simple, but it isn't everything. It's also important that the pricing reflects the value of the options.

I worked on a project for a large SW company, and even though they had a simple pricing plan, one of their products wasn't taking off. But when we did some shopping and called in to their reps, none of them could clearly articulate why I would want to buy the higher tier product compared to the middle tier, and they even seemed the same on the website. The pricing was simple, but I had no idea what I would be getting in addition if I spent more money.

Contrast this to the iPad example, where I know exactly what I'm paying for. Every $100 increases my storage, and another $130 gets me 3G. It's very clear. I think cell phone plans are a great example of pricing that's complex, but easy to understand because the value is clearly communicated (every $X gets me X minutes). It's easier to make these decisions if I know what I'm paying for.

<comment><USER6> You really think that your cell phone plan is "easy to understand"? What's your monthly bill going to be this month? I'll bet if you guessed each month in advance you'd _never_ get it right. My bill's usually within about 10% of what I expect... until it's not and I get the pleasure of spending an hour on hold trying to figure out what changed without my say-so. This fuzziness means I'll _never_ be comfortable buying anything from a cell provider, and so I'll never sign up for the $3 roadside assistance, or the $10 replacement warranty, or whatever.

OTOH, when I click "buy" on that 99¢ app I know I'll be billed exactly $1.07 (sales tax), not a cent more or less. A

Apple's completely nailed making me comfortable buying stuff from them. AT&T and Verizon haven't. Guess who gets my disposable income and who doesn't?

<comment><USER7> > when I click "buy" on that 99¢ app I know I'll be billed exactly $1.07 > (sales tax), not a cent more or less.

Coming from a country that always includes (for consumers) tax in the advertised price I find it amusing that "99 cents becomes $1.07" is considered simple. :)

<comment><USER6> Indeed - it's pretty silly that in the US apps cost anywhere from 99¢ to $1.10 depending on where your credit card's billing zip code points to. But I can hardly hold Apple responsible for the US's lame sales tax system, and at least Apple doesn't add a $1-$2 "wetlands recovery fee" to my monthly bill.

That's not a joke. AT&T does.

<comment><USER8> I'm glad sales tax is broken out like that, it reminds people how expensive the government is... imagine if people had to write a check for income tax and not have it automatically deducted each pay period.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> My old economics professor likes to use Scott Adams' term: a confusopoly. ([http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/03/is_paul_krugman_click- worth....](http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/03/is_paul_krugman_click-worth.html))

The pricing is supposed to be complicated, so you don't pay much attention to it.

<comment><USER10> Dilbert Link: [http://search.dilbert.com/search?w=confusopoly&x=0&y...](http://search.dilbert.com/search?w=confusopoly&x=0&y=0)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Another agreement. My pet peeve. Real-estate agents should put a price on houses they are trying to sell. I'll either buy, or I won't. Who wants to pay for building reports and lawyers before an auction just to turn up and realize they can't afford the property? Agents underestimate sale price to get people to come to auctions. And what's with silent auctions, and all their other BS. Ask for what you want by putting a price on whatever your selling.

</comment><comment><USER12> As someone who works on the pricing system for a distribution company - <USER2> article may apply to retail, but it definitely does not apply to everything. Our suppliers try to screw us at every turn by making us deal with complex cost side, so we have to have an incredibly dynamic and flexible system to deal with an international customer base.

</comment><comment><USER13> Although the point about simple pricing might have been an overwrought Apple- specific intro, the real point is: dayum, what was NYT thinking with this weird, expensive pricing structure? And not even a discount for getting both subplans together?

<comment><USER14> Wait... You're complaining that _Gruber_ is putting an Apple angle on one of his articles? Do you also complain that water is wet darnit?

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> So, first he talks about how simplicity of pricing is key. Then he describes how an Apple Ipad, with about a dozen different prices depending on what you want, is simply priced. Then he describes how the New York Times, which has only one price that most people will ever care about ($15 for unlimited web access), is unsimply priced.

True brilliance.

<comment><USER16> Well, the iPad's pricing is relatively simple to figure out: $499, plus $100 for every storage increase after that. If you want 3G, that's $130 extra.

The New York Times, on the other hand, seems less logical. The website+smartphone app is $15/4 weeks, the website+tablet app is $20, all three is $35, so the website is worth... nothing? Or, you could go with the home delivery option, which would cost you $455 (all digital access) -$304.20 (daily delivery in NY) = $150.80 less per year, even though they have to print all that paper.

<comment><USER17> More importantly the iPad's pricing is normal. The Nook, the Kindle, and the Xoom all come in different versions. People expect to pay different amounts for different hardware.

Nobody's doing what the NYT is doing. Netflix and Hulu are given as examples of content producers that have a simple pricing scheme over multiple devices. Lots of people use those services. The NYT pricing not only violates expectations for online content, it doesn't even seem typical for newspapers. Paying per 4 weeks instead of per month? Who has ever done that?

<comment><USER16> Yes, exactly. Perhaps the 4 weeks approach is to link it with the existing home delivery system (which is also calculated by week), but it sounds strange in practice.

I guess we'll see how it turns out, though. Maybe most customers won't actually mind these irregularities.

<comment><USER18> Actually, my guess is the every-four-weeks bit is to goose revenue.

With monthly, you're getting paid 12 times a year. With every four weeks, you get paid 13 times.

It's a nifty little sales trick. Most people (including me) automatically round four weeks up to a month before thinking about it.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Stopwatch with only CSS3 - No javascript - <AUTHOR> http://thecodeplayer.com/walkthrough/make-a-stopwatch-using-css3-without-images-or-javascript <comment><USER2> One of the very first things typed is:

        <!-- Lets load up prefixfree first -->
        <script src="http://thecodeplayer.com/uploads/js/prefixfree.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
        <!-- You can download it from http://leaverou.github.com/prefixfree/ -->

Granted all it does is add the vendor based prefixes to certain CSS3 attributes, but this particular demo does in fact use Javascript.

<comment><USER3> This javascript code doesn't add any functionality to the demo, so no – this demo does not use Javascript.

<comment><USER4> you and parent comment saw the same javascript, really said the same thing, and still came to different conclusions.

How so? You both are right. It uses javascript (as parent said) but doesnt use javascript to the animation (as you said).

This nitpicking is ruining the internet commenting for me. And yes, I see the irony in my comment.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Lovely stuff, but I'm mostly impressed with the website that's used to demonstrate it - I love the live-coding playback feature!

</comment><comment><USER6> Now that we have YET ANOTHER Turing-complete language in my display-and- rendering application, where's my button to switch off CSS?

<comment><USER7> Firefox > View > Page Style > No Style

Safari > Develop > Disable Styles

Opera > View > Style > User Mode

It doesn't look like Chrome has an option by default, and I don't have IE on hand to test.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> This is very impressive work - it's amazing to see what can be done with CSS these days.

But it's not very usable as a stopwatch.

A real stopwatch has a single start/stop button that triggers when pressed.

This stopwatch has separate mouse-driven buttons for start and stop, and they trigger when released. That makes it impossible to measure a very short time, and awkward to start and stop at precise moments.

It would also be nice if there were keyboard shortcuts for stop/start/reset - and those keyboard shortcuts should also trigger on keydown. (You could make a minor improvement on physical stopwatches by supporting both a single key for stop/start and two separate keys. The single key is convenient and familiar, but being able to use separate keys would make it easy to time very short events. This of course works only with the keyboard and not with mouse-driven buttons.)

Can all that be done in CSS? I suspect not - and if not, then why go to extra work to achieve a pure CSS implementation that's less usable? You could do it more easily with JavaScript, make it compatible with more browsers, and provide a better user experience too.

<comment><USER9> There's a reason it's called a demo. No one is actually suggesting that you use this as a proper stopwatch. Everybody already understands the limitations you specified.

<comment><USER8> And an impressive demo it is.

But I'm fairly certain that not everybody understands the limitations I mentioned. You and I and hopefully most of the folks here, sure. But spend some time on the css-discuss mailing list [1] for an eye-opener.

Many of the members of that list seem to favor CSS-only solutions even when the user experience is inferior to what you could achieve with a sensible blend of CSS and JavaScript. And they're not just talking demos, they put this stuff into production.

I don't understand that point of view at all. I want the best solution for the user, and I'll use whatever tools are necessary to build it.

[1]: <http://www.css-discuss.org/>

<comment><USER9> Well, in the situation you are describing I most certainly agree. CSS-only solutions tend to be quite lacking in real-world terms. But this was a demo and I saw no indication it was anything other than that. If you were meaning to aim your comment to people that think the way you describe then I apologize, but I didn't get that from your comment.

<comment><USER8> No apology needed! I appreciate your pointing out that the intent of my comment was unclear. That is valuable feedback indeed.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> At first my inner neckbeard scoffed and proclaimed why? I looked at the source and realized I don't know jack about CSS3 and how easy something like this is to implement in less than ~150 lines of code was like ramming a sock down my inner neckbeard's throat.

<comment><USER11> I can't see the code because the account has been suspended. My inner neckbeard is shouting "Stop turning everything into a jack of all trades! Can't cascading style sheets just be really good at styling?"

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> This is very interesting, but I wonder if it falls under the domain of things that CSS should do, in a real app you probably shouldn't CSS so much. (This is not an affirmation rather a question!).

Even so I think it is a great proof of concept and the font style was cool idea.

<comment><USER13> My initial reaction was the same. But after I reviewed the code and saw how the magic worked, then I thought there was nothing wrong using the CSS this way: mainly the new feature of animation is utilized.

<comment><USER12> My point is that, this is indeed a cool concept, well written and does well what it intended.

The problem I see, it that at one point you my start using CSS for something that will eventually (without you prior knowledge) grow bigger and more complex outside of the realms/possiblilies of CSS, now you will have to re- write.

Call me a purist, but when you start using CSS for more that styling, you might want to re-evaluate.

That said, again, I think this example is awesome for showing the new feature of the CSS language.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Maybe I'll be the only one to say it, but this doesn't work with NoScript. Maybe this actually is a JS free Stopwatch, but the site doesn't work without JS enabled. Perhaps the title of this should be changed, or relinked to a JS free version?

<comment><USER15> It uses prefix-free, which is a script, in order to be cleaner-looking code. As the author says:

> The JS used is prefixfree - just to make the length and size of the tutorial > short and easy. No images or JS are used in the stopwatch logic/display.

It would be trivial to make a new -really- JS free version, but it wouldn't be so easy to understand. It could be non-js in production, it just isn't for teaching purposes, so I am happy to accept it as a 'non-js' stopwatch.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> All I get is a screen saying Account Suspended.

<comment><USER17> bandwidth overage after posting on HN i guess?

<comment><USER16> Yeah. I think so. People should consider being prepared for massive traffic if you post on HN.

<comment><USER18> What about the people who have no idea that somebody else is posting their content to HN?

<comment><USER17> get a good host that has some bandwidth overage contingency in place to keep your site from going down. unless of course you don't really want traffic on your site.

<comment><USER18> It was a rhetorical question, basically. Almost nobody knows whether or not their commodity web host can stand up to an HN-like traffic surge until they actually _get_ an HN-like traffic surge.

The alternative is to pay what might seem like a ton of money for something that they aren't going to need 364 days out of the year.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Kudos for the effort. I'm always impressed by how much time some developers invest in these CSS3-only experiments.

</comment><comment><USER20> Coral cached version is working: [http://thecodeplayer.com.nyud.net/walkthrough/make-a- stopwat...](http://thecodeplayer.com.nyud.net/walkthrough/make-a-stopwatch- using-css3-without-images-or-javascript)

</comment><comment><USER21> The page just got suspended in the middle of my page loading, half of the page loaded, CSS was not loaded. I refreshed the page and here's Account Suspended page.

<comment><USER22> Working for me now.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Well, it might be cool for the first several times, to demonstrate turing- completeness of CSS3, but are there any practical advantages over using js?

<comment><USER24> How does this demonstrate that CSS is Turing complete? I really doubt you as much power to simulate a stopwatch as a Turing machine has.

<comment><USER23> I should have put it as "programmability", and I not only address this particular post, but the tendency in general.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Is this the gist for it on GitHub?

Perhaps somebody could deploy to their host?

<https://gist.github.com/2224365>

</comment><comment><USER26> Impressive. Not one single line of Javascript being used on the suspend page, hahaha. Hacker News ddos strikes again.

</comment><comment><USER27> [Edit]

Back up! Seeing what people do with CSS is like watching MacGyver - it might be the wrong tool for the job but it's always impressive. Look, I built a gun with some rubber tubing, a rotten egg, and a duck!

<comment><USER28> Cloudflare is just the CDN in front of the site, it's not the web host. The source IP (direct.thecodeplayer.com) is in ServInt's netblock (<http://www.servint.net/>).

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> Doesn't work very well when zooming.</comment>


On behalf of all engineers - <AUTHOR> http://blog.davidstancu.me/post/129217244524/on-behalf-of-all-engineers <comment><USER2> I appreciate the effort and kudos on being proactive, but this is not an effective way of talking to someone whose mind you are hoping to change. This will be read in a positive light only by people who already agree with the author and are already upset about the situation.

In the very first paragraph, the author mocks the people he's talking to ("Much to my surprise, this was not a satire article on The Onion"). Then he resorts to hyperbole ("inexplicably horrifying"), diverges from the topic at hand to get in a jab at someone else ("as much as I like to criticize our New York Police Department"), resorts to sarcasm ("Congratulations"), insults the people he's talking to ("such a severe lapse of applicable common sense"), and finally basically blames them for the downfall of a whole country ("Reading news stories like this makes me quite ashamed to be an American; I want to love my country and all that it stands for, but as long as this is the new precedent that we are setting, I can no longer do so.").

This style of writing is great for riling up people who already agree with you, but it's not effective at reaching people who don't. If you want to reach someone, you need to respect them, listen, assume honesty and good intentions, focus on the issue not the individual, and all the other aphorisms you've heard about dealing with other people. It does no good to put the person you are trying to persuade on the defensive.

Or in one sentence: You catch more flies with honey.

<comment><USER3> You are right, but it is so difficult to not be angry about what happened. I have some growing to do. I am the author of this. I feel very strongly about things like this, and I think harsh criticism is warranted, although it is a bit too ad hominem.

<comment><USER2> To clarify, my intention wasn't to say that the criticism wasn't warranted, just that it wasn't the right way to phrase it as a letter _to_ the people involved. In a blog post directed to a general audience, it wouldn't come off as harshly, but if I imagine the principal of this school opening it and reading it... it's a different story.

And maybe I read it wrong and you weren't actually sending this letter and that was just a stylistic choice, but my impression was that you had actually sent (or were planning to send) this letter to the people involved, and that's where I say kudos on actually doing something about it instead of just reading about it as most people will do; I just want to try to increase the chances of them responding how we would hope they would respond.

Finally, thank you for the reply and for receiving my comment in the spirit in which it was intended.

<comment><USER3> I realize that the people to whom this is intended to will be upset, but that was what I was aiming for. I don't want to hurt feelings, but I think that if you do something shitty, that feeling shitty for it is somewhat warranted. I am just pointing it out. I like hearing feedback and I wish that I could be less abrasive. Seeing the kid wearing a NASA shirt (which I have) in handcuffs made my eyes well up. That is not OK.

As for the whole "proud to be an American" bit, I am just being honest. I feel ashamed that this is where we are in 2015, reprimanding a young man for furthering his education...that kind of behavior starts a very ugly snowballing of worse and worse things to come if it is not corrected.

I did send this message to them. I wonder if they will ever reply. I think that the POTUS invitation speaks volumes about the magnitude of what has happened. Thank you for your feedback. I really do appreciate it :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> "Similarly, as much as I like to criticize our New York Police Department, upon having my bag searched on the subway they understood that an electronics project is not a bomb. Unfortunately - there is one variable that I did not account for - I am white and have religious beliefs in accordance with that of the general population. What if I wasn't?"

Well, you've got your answer. I've had Arduino kits pulled out of my bag and seriously questioned. Part of white privilege is that we are usually believed when we claim it's just a science project.

</comment><comment><USER5> You should write Hollywood; it is their electronics profiling that has everyone but engineers thinking that every homemade clock is a bomb. Why? Because every homemade clock we ever see (we only see them on TV) IS a bomb!

<comment><USER5> To be fair, though, I'm sure this incident will be a TV episode within 2 years.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> In case the author of this letter sees this comment: the articles I've seen spell his name "Ahmed." It's spelled "Amed" a few times in the letter

<comment><USER3> You're in luck; I made the changes. My coworker let me know that this ended up on here, which is kind of surprising.

Thanks!

<comment><AUTHOR> You tweeted it. I submitted it. :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Thanks for sharing the contact information.

School- @IrvingISD

City- @thecityofirving

Chief of police- firstname.lastname@example.com

</comment><comment><USER8> Thank you for sharing this.

</comment><comment><USER9> He's 14, not 12.

</comment><comment><USER10> A real engineer probably will not say "on behalf of all engineers", nobody in this case is 100% innocent, plus don't jump into conclusion too fast at this internet age until you do know the stories from both sides fully.

<comment> lloyd-christmas A real engineer probably will not say "A real engineer probably will not say 'on behalf of all engineers'"

<comment><USER10> the keyword is "probably" here, you seem missed that :)

<comment> lloyd-christmas Missed it? I said it twice :)</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Webflow – Ecommerce - <AUTHOR> https://webflow.com/ecommerce <comment><USER2> It's finally time to start paying attention to webflow. The thing with webflow is that as a developer you want to be able to commit to one platform that solves most of your client issue without having to reinvent the wheel. Webflow, until now, was missing e-commerce... which for me at least was a deal breaker. Hopefully they will keep pushing to grow it because most small/medium clients I work with, that want a site, want e-store.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Hey everyone! We wanted to show you the launch page for Webflow Ecommerce that we built using Lottie Web and Webflow IX2. It was our first time using Lottie Web, and we were really stoked to try it on a Webflow site. Let us know what you think of the intro hero animation. That was the part built in Lottie.

<comment><USER3> I think that if it's loading, you shouldn't be able to scroll. Ended up half way down the site when it loaded.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The first time I've heard of Webflow but I'm intrigued.

In working with clients on building websites, I see there's massive demand for easy ways to set up e-commerce and selling stuff online, and the existing solutions don't quite cut it yet.

I know there's Shopify, Wordpress + WooCommerce and other solutions, but nothing seems to provide the power and flexibility along with the ease of setup that users are clamoring for.

Looks like this ticks off multiple requirement boxes that most of my clients have asked for in the past. All the best! If this works well and takes off, I might start recommending it.

</comment><comment><USER5> TL;DR.

Basically a landing page with a signup button, clicking which you are encouraged to share it widely on social media so that you qualify for early beta access.

</comment><comment><USER6> Is there no way for me to read about what this is without signing up for a beta? That's the impression I get from the website, at least.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yup, there's a blog post on what Webflow Ecommerce is here: [https://webflow.com/blog/the-future-of-ecommerce-is- almost-h...](https://webflow.com/blog/the-future-of-ecommerce-is-almost-here)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Very interesting. Does or will Webflow eCommerce provide a developer API for 3P integrations, like for a fulfillment provider?

<comment><AUTHOR> 3rd party integrations will be a large part of the offering. There will be APIs and webhooks that Webflow will provide, quite similar to the ones available for the Webflow CMS API right now: [https://developers.webflow.com/](https://developers.webflow.com/)

<comment><USER7> Sounds great. I'd love to get in touch with you guys regarding the APIs for eCommerce stuff as soon as you have them remotely ready. You can find my email in my profile.</comment></comment></comment>


A Legal Manual for an Apocalyptic New York - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/15/nyregion/15doomsday.html

<comment><AUTHOR> And the text itself: [http://www.nycourts.gov/whatsnew/pdf/PublicHealthLegalManual...](http://www.nycourts.gov/whatsnew/pdf/PublicHealthLegalManual.pdf)</comment>


Microsoft employee installs Chrome mid-presentation because Edge keeps crashing - <AUTHOR> https://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2017/10/30/microsoft-engineer-chrome-edge-google/ <comment><USER2> Certainly he wasn't going to stop and troubleshoot the problem when a 3 minute install would work as a temporary solution but it is funny.

</comment><comment><USER3> Settle down everyone - Google products have just as many bugs. :)

<comment><USER4> Where's your evidence?

<comment><USER5> There is supposed to be... evidence?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Interesting where he's saying that the Edge browser on their machines is locked down, which was causing the crash.

Maybe it's quite a known issue anyway. "Yeah, I know, I know...", he said in response to something.

</comment><comment><USER7> It's a good thing he wasn't running Windows 10 S: [https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/10/15609706/google-chrome- wi...](https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/10/15609706/google-chrome- windows-10-s-app-restrictions)

</comment><comment><USER8> MS authentication still took longer than installing chrome, lol. Log in with no password, come to some weird state where you never know what to choose, log in again with password, wait for 2-factor, and bingo!

</comment><comment><USER9> I thought it was funny how he typed in "chromr" into the Start Menu. I feel like I've done that a hundred times. One thing I like about Spotlight is how it corrects typos like that.

</comment><comment><USER10> Evidence you should never rest on your laurels -- 90% market share to 9% -- and that on what was obviously the most important platform the world has ever seen, the internet.

</comment><comment><USER11> The fun thing is that this was already a month old presentation by the time this was posted.

</comment><comment><USER12> This is amazing... Chrome FTW.

</comment><comment><USER13> He unchecked "send diagnostics" because he didn't want to help google. What the fuck

<comment><USER14> it's a joke

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Poor demo skills. You could easily switch to slides for a moment while you do what you have to do and whilst some in the audience might notice it would certainly be more professional to keep the emphasis on the main message which doesn't appear to be about demoing Edge anyway. It would also make for a less embarrassing video to put on the web.

<comment><USER16> He made a sympathetic move in a stressful situation and the audience got a few giggles out of it, come on.

<comment><USER15> Have you any training or experience in demo skills? I worked in presales for several years. What I am describing is standard stuff for handling this type of situation. Downvotes for literally describing the way that you are taught on a demo training course to handle this exact type of situation, wow HN so smart.

Edit: also anyone demonstrating software that values their career should have backup screenshots and video. I would probably have gone straight to video at that point. Audience barely notice and it's generally only a salty few that will quibble about it not being live, and I expect a video would communicate the message perfectly well.

<comment><USER17> As a customer I would prefer a live demo. Usually a video demo, unless it has to be video (time-lapse etc) will not get my attention and I will ignore it. No way I'm buying something without a live demo.

<comment><USER15> You would buy something purely on the strength of a demo? If so I hate to break it to you but there's often a lot of smoke and mirrors behind live demos, indeed if the demo jock is good enough you might not even know you are watching a video. In my experience most reasonable audiences are aware of Murphy's law and forgiving of it. My original point was that according to the training I received there are better ways to handle this type of situation. I don't think you've refuted that point.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


In 1942, British Motored 2k Miles to Attack an Italian Airfield - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/angry-planet/in-1942-a-british-desert-force-motored-2-000-miles-to-attack-an-italian-airfield-a9dc6a65dfc7 <comment><USER2> Interesting story. But why did it cost the author $200 to make it??? I'd reckon there are fifty books and as many YouTube videos about the subject.</comment>


End-To-End Encrypted Kafka with Proxy Re-Encryption - <AUTHOR> https://nucypher.com/2017/06/13/nucypher-kafka-open-source/ <comment><USER2> Awesome! Any idea of which latency impact one would see on a fairly modern system by using this?

<comment><USER3> I think, the biggest latency hit will be from re-encrypting a symmetric key which encrypts messages, once in a while. This will result in occasional delays of ~0.25 ms (that's how much one operation with elliptic curve crypto takes).

The other bottleneck will be from the block cipher, when you actually encrypt/decrypt messages. Our open source version currently doesn't use AES-NI for that, so limited by performance of unaccelerated AES256 (few hundred k messages per second). This impact can be made negligible when using AES-NI (will come soon).

When using granular encryption, the performance bottleneck will shift to parsing messages (avro, for example), and will be limited by the performance of the parser.

<comment><USER2> Excellent answer, do you have a timeline for the AES-NI support?

I was previously really impressed by how it improved my IPSec performance.

<comment><AUTHOR> We'll likely ship AES-NI support this quarter!</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Squid-like drone an underwater bomb made to attack warships, alone or in a swarm - <AUTHOR> https://taskandpurpose.com/sea-hunting-autonomous-reconnaissance-drone-vide <comment><USER2> really cool as a concept, but AFAIK torpedoes need huge amount of explosives [0] since ships are very tough targets, being in a swarm would not help since you need to concentrate the energy to one place.

[0] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torpedo#Use_by_various_navies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torpedo#Use_by_various_navies)</comment>


Ask HN: Good Cheaper Alternatives to Apple Thunderbolt Display? - <AUTHOR> It's time to change my 8 year old monitor. I use a chinese make monitor that is really good, but sadly doesn't have HDMI or thunderbolt/USB options.
Looking for a 4k, 27inch monitor, with at least HDMI/USB-C connectivity.
Apple displays are great, but they are expensive. Any alternatives you would recommend?
(P.S. Not looking for Ultrawide monitors) <comment><USER2> This is a vague ask. And it's also a lazy ask because you haven't put the effort into telling us what you want.

Whar connectivity do you need? What size and resolution? Do you want ultrawide? Are you coding, doing design work, or gaming? What's your budget?

<comment><AUTHOR> Sorry, I added more details now. Looking for a 4k, 27inch monitor, with HDMI/USB-C connectivity.

Looking for something in sub $500 range.

<comment><AUTHOR> For coding, audio production, watching Netflix.

<comment><USER2> Lenovo Thinkvision P27U

[https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/accessories-and- monitors/monito...](https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/accessories-and- monitors/monitors/professional/P27u-10A16270UP0-27-inch-Monitor-HDMI- CD/p/61CBGAR1US)

HP Z27

[https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-4k-monitors/](https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-4k-monitors/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> It depends on what you want but you might want to look at this recent thread:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22154887](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22154887)

I love my ultrawide monitor.

</comment><comment><USER4> [https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-4k-monitors/](https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-4k-monitors/)</comment>


SoundCloud needs more money, or it may sell at a firesale price - <AUTHOR> http://www.recode.net/2017/3/10/14887806/soundcloud-sale-investment <comment><USER2> SoundCloud is great but I never saw how they could effectively monetize the platform.</comment>


Forecasting Elections with Dirty Data - <AUTHOR> http://messymatters.com/biasedpolls/

<comment><AUTHOR> Summary: Y'know how online polls are unscientific? You can science that shit up with a statistical technique affectionately called "Mr. P".

Article gives a famous example of a magazine in 1936 doing a massive poll of its readers and botching their prediction because the readers were a biased sample. (Duh.) But the authors took a massive poll on Xbox and, by adjusting the responses, predicted the election outcome accurately. They even nailed predictions for demographics (like retirement-age women) who are pretty much completely unrepresented on Xbox.</comment>


Help a CS Freshman on Systems Programming? - <AUTHOR> Hello everyone, I'm Ove, a CS freshman.
I've tried everything, web, desktop etc but my true interest is into kernel/device-driver level programming and I want to make a living out of it later.
Now help me to decide what should I focus more on? I know C, C++/Rust is a must but what else? Teachers are suggesting to dive into Competitive programming, would that be a great investment for systems programming? Thanks in advanced. <comment><USER2> Learning kernel internals will help you deeply understand the core concepts of systems (e.g., hardware architecture, compiler optimizations, process abstractions, security layers, etc.). Having developed deep understanding of the foundational concepts, you can easily and quickly learn any high-level language (e.g., Python, Rust, etc.) and even see their limitations in terms of performance/security. Low-level systems programming is a niche area, so you can easily find a job or get into consulting business. My two cents.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. How much Competitive Programming will help, what're your thoughts on this?</comment></comment>