Apple recovered 2,204 pounds of gold from broken iPhones last year - <AUTHOR> http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/15/technology/apple-gold-recycling/index.html <comment><USER2> Thanks, in part, to LIAM[1]

Something that we just started seeing in robotics at the beginning of 2015, dedicated disassembly robots. They should be able to replace much of the disassembly done in places like China or Ghana where containers of old electronics have been dumped. In terms of a project that helps the world I would totally invest in such robots.

[1] (Warning its Mashable) [http://mashable.com/2016/03/21/apple-liam- recycling-robot/#f...](http://mashable.com/2016/03/21/apple-liam-recycling- robot/#f8vMQz9f4qqR)

</comment><comment><USER3> > Copper is super-cheap, but it moves electrons too slowly for some of the > most important computing tasks.

Just garbage reporting.

<comment><USER4> For those who haven't had a physics class, that's garbage because silver is somewhat more conductive than copper, which is slightly more conductive than gold.

The main benefit of gold is that it's more stable than copper, so it's a good material for connector contact surfaces, but the bulk of the contact should be something else like copper or steel, depending on the relative importance of electrical or mechanical properties.

<comment><USER5> By more stable you mean it doesn't oxidize right?

<comment><USER6> Yeah, gold is the best for contacts because, as you surmised, it stays clean of oxidation.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Or 1000 kilograms for the rest of the world.

<comment><USER8> Or simply, one tonne. In fact I'd guess that the engineers, thinking in SI units, told the PR people that 'we recovered a tonne', rounding to that figure for them because it sounds neat. Then the PR people converted to pounds for older readers, which comes out as the very precise sounding 2,204. So the figure is probably rounded but then presented as being much more precise than it is.

<comment><USER9> I don't understand this whole "tonne" thing. Why overload a word that already has two other conflicting meanings (the imperial short ton and the imperial long ton) when you already have a word that is more canonical and completely unambiguous in "Megagram"? Plus it just sounds cool.

<comment><USER10> It's only a problem in the US. The Commonwealth ton is only 1.6% larger than the tonne, so the distinction is usually insignificant. Most of the world has no knowledge of either the short or long ton.

Likewise, confusion between "mills" (millimetres) and "mils" (thousandths of an inch) are an exclusively American problem.

The American adherence to customary units is a constant annoyance for electronics engineers - an 0603 resistor could measure 0.6mm x 0.3mm or ~1.5mm x ~0.76mm

<comment><USER11> Sadly also a Canadian problem. We're nominally a metric country, but we're very much a hybrid. When we went to metric, many things still stayed in customary units, but with metric names. I'll likely never ask someone to go get me 454g of sugar from the grocery store, it'll be a pound. Your 2x4 is going to be 8 feet long. You're going to use 1/2" bolts. My generation does consistently use litres and celsius though!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> 2204 / 90,000,000 (total e-waste) = 0.002%

Also, the gold was not just from iPhones. Macs and iPads are included in that number. What a weird non-story. It would be interesting to know the cost of the recycling program to know if the materials recovered paid for the program.

<comment><USER13> 61 out 90 million pounds of e-waste were recyclable materials. I think that's a more interesting number.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Would be equally interesting to know how much it cost them to recover that much gold from that many devices.

<comment><USER15> it is a profitable venture there are companies that recover precious metals from computer equipment

<comment><USER16> Hobbyists too.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhuwO8AjM7k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhuwO8AjM7k)

<comment><USER17> but at the scale he is doing it, he looses money

<comment><USER18> That's what a "hobby" is: a money-losing activity.

A "business" is a money-making hobby.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> That's about $40 million to save you a Google search.

<comment><USER20> But how much did it cost them to recover that $40 million is gold?

<comment><USER21> As efficient and economically scaled as Apple's supply chain operations are, I'm guessing significantly less than $40 million.

<comment><USER22> Also, it's not as if gold is the only benefit produce from their recycling process.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Notably, to me, they have recovered 4x as much steel as aluminum, suggesting to me that a significant part of their recycling operation is on non-Apple PCs and or quite old Apple equipment since the bulk of their current products (for in some cases 10 years) are composed of aluminum.

</comment><comment><USER24> I knew of an assembly worker at HP Labs whose job including trimming off gold flash. It was a small amount but she threw it in her desk drawer. After a few years she sold the collection for a lot of money. She was caught and had to pay it back.

</comment><comment><USER25> I remember back when i did film photography, some people used to recover the silver from the solutions used to print onto paper (you know, from a negative).

</comment><comment><USER26> This is what 1 tonne (2204 LBS) of gold looks like - [http://demonocracy.info/infographics/world/gold/images/demon...](http://demonocracy.info/infographics/world/gold/images/demonocracy- gold-1_ton.jpg)

<comment><USER27> Yeah, I did some calculating and surprisingly, 1 tonne of gold is somewhat smaller than a 2' cube.

[https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=1+tonne+of+gold+in+cub...](https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=1+tonne+of+gold+in+cubic+inches)

<comment><USER18> Close to 1.3ft per side, or a 18" diameter sphere

A gallon of gold is 75lbs, almost 10x as dense as water, and worth about $3million

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> What parts of Apple's devices contain gold?

<comment><USER29> Gold is found on printed circuit boards and components, typically used to electroplate connectors, so that they won't fail due to corrosion.

<comment><USER30> I wish they made those tiny little round white stickers they have inside Apple products out of gold [1]. They keep getting wet and voiding my warranty.

[1] [http://www.ebay.com/itm/10x-Water-Damage-Warranty-Sensor- Ind...](http://www.ebay.com/itm/10x-Water-Damage-Warranty-Sensor-Indicator- Sticker-for-Apple- iPhone-3G-3GS-4-4G-/151115840004?hash=item232f34ba04:g:cHMAAOxydlFS8XuQ)

<comment><USER31> I'm not sure if sarcasm or not, but that's the point. If they got wet enough to 'trip', then enlighten damage could have been done to internal components to void your warranty anyway.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> It's funny how these recycling stories always talk about gold, but the real money is in the chips.

</comment><comment><USER33> Title should include iPads and iMacs.

</comment><comment><USER34> Step 1: design iPhones to be not repairable.

Step 2: determine it costs too much to repair "broken" iPhones (see step 1).

Step 3: Burn the whole lot down for precious metals.

What an enormous win for the environment and recycling! There are plenty of companies that will already do step 3, but pretty much nobody other than Apple has the opportunity to do something about the vastly more important step 2.

<comment><USER35> iPhones are VERY repairable. Source: I run a repair shop and iPhones are most of our business.

You want to talk about phones that are not repairable? Let's talk about ANY HTC phone. They're total crap to repair.

The worst, though, are the cheap MetroPCS and Cricket Android phones--the ones you've probably never heard of but that we get calls about every day, like HTC Desires, Samsung Galaxy Core Primes, and a whole line of tiny LG phones with odd model numbers. THOSE phones are completely unrepairable--not because we can't get the parts, but because the repair, which runs $80 or so to fix a broken screen, is almost twice what it costs to just buy a new phone.

These phones are unabashedly sold to poor and even to homeless people, who then get the choice of desperately trying to continue using them when they inevitably break, or ponying up another $50 to buy a new one. It's a way, way worse model than iPhones, and one the HN community probably isn't familiar with (I didn't know anything about this until I started running a repair store.) It's a pretty disgusting market.

<comment><USER36> I agree, even as a major iOS detractor, that recent iPhones are amazingly repairable, while there's an opposite trend for many (most?) high-end Android phones these days.

But is it really "disgusting" that a phone is cheaper to replace than repair because it is extremely cheap to begin with? Following that argument, they would solve the problem by raising the price of the new phone.

<comment><USER35> You have to put yourself in the shoes of the poor or homeless person who walks through the door of our repair shop. They don't have enough money to buy a computer. So their entire life is on that phone: photos, contacts, documents, email. They've applied to jobs through that phone. Everything is centered around that item.

Then it breaks. And since the software is usually so crappy on it, there's no consistent way for them to have backed it up. Sometimes the contacts are on the SIM card--sometimes not. Sometimes they've backed up to the Google cloud; sometimes they didn't understand what that was, so they just hit "skip" when it asked them to set up that account.

So when that phone breaks, they've lost EVERYTHING. Now I know there are some folks on HN, because I've been around here long enough, who would say "They should just learn how to back it up!" And to that I would say, who is teaching them? Can you? These people are sometimes barely literate, often only with a high school education (or less.) We can't expect them to understand what a "Google cloud" is. And heck, even as technical people, many of us don't back up stuff properly, especially personal items.

So when that phone breaks, they've lost a lot. Personal photos of their kids. Important contacts. The calendar that reminded them where that job interview next week was.

Many of these same folks would be far better served buying a used iPhone 4S, which is $55 to fix when a screen breaks. But the difference between $50 for a Cricket HTC Desire and a $100 iPhone 4 could be a week or two--a week or two during which they cannot survive without their phone. That's why I say it's a disgusting market.

<comment><USER37> I worked at a now deceased photo-sharing startup, and the stats were so bad. Most photos never left the device, meaning people had all of these important life moments in only one place. Lose or break your iPhone? All of baby's first whatevers, gone forever. Pictures of your mom's last weeks? Gone to the ether.

The part where I will disagree with you slightly is this wasn't just a problem of the barely literate, or even technical people overlooking backups. When we did user studies it was essentially everyone that came in - none of them had off-device backups, or knew how to share. The number of people for which "sharing photos" meant holding up the phone with a picture on the screen while the other person took a picture of the phone was depressing. The sharing UI was totally opaque to them. I see this on Instagram today, where people take pictures of the display on a DSLR in order to share the photos.

I apologize for the rant. I acknowledge this is a religious hobby-horse for me. At the aforementioned startup one of the stats that killed me was the average views of a picture once taken was essentially 0 - pictures go to SD cards to die. No better for phones. At the time Facebook was getting three or four Flickrs a week, and the stats were still pretty grim. We have to better serve customers, but I don't know what that looks like. Verizon offers a cloud-like service for contacts and photos (I have this on my Samsung U365 flip phone), but it's a pain to set up and unclear when it will cost you extra.

Bonus story: smart guy I worked with bought a really nice new camera, they default picture size was too big (too many pixels, too large files) to attach to emails, so he did the obvious thing: set the default resolution of the camera to something low enough to fit. WHY OH WHY BUY A 5 MEGAPIXEL CAMERA THEN SET THE DEFAULT RESOLUTION TO VGA? Because resizing everything was a PITA. Another unhappy customer experience. We (the industry) need to enable our customers, not frustrate them.

<comment><USER18> A good camera has a good lens for capturing light and color. Megapixels rarely matter. A bad lens makes bad pixels all the way up to VGA pixel size.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


ShowHN: Today is day 1 of our open design project - <AUTHOR> http://blog.getblimp.com/2013/11/lonely-tasks/

<comment><USER2> Sounds awesome, can't wait to see this implemented.</comment>


Novel 3D printing method blossoms from botanical inspiration - <AUTHOR> http://wyss.harvard.edu/viewpressrelease/239 <comment><USER2> The name "4D printing" is misleading. Though, I'm not sure what I was expecting anyway.

<comment><USER3> An actual 4D printer could be trivial though. Just like the 3D printer discretize the height in several layers, the 4D printer would slice the fourth dimension in several hyper-layers and print a 3D object for each slice. We already have the software to create 3D slices out of 4D objects.

The trick will be to reassemble the slices into a 4D object :-)

Just looking at these cross sections could be interesting. Also printing the same object at different resolutions along the fourth dimension could be insightful.

<comment><USER4> There's more than one dimension- any real parameter is considered a dimension in this context.

In this case, as the PR specifically says, the fourth dimension is time: they are encoding a temporal path within the object.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> It's amazing that all plant behavior is actually governed by chemical reactions applied to "cleverly" constructed structures.

I suppose the next step would be desinging a structure that responds independently to two or more types of stimuli at the same time.

For example, a leaf-like object that bends in the Y direction in response to humidity and in the Z direction in response to light.

<comment><USER6> > It's amazing that all plant behavior is actually governed by chemical > reactions applied to "cleverly" constructed structures.

Unless I'm missing something, this describes all behavior above the subatomic level, plant or otherwise.

<comment><USER5> Animal behavior is governed by brain activity, which is electrical. (Yes, there is some chemistry involved too, but it's secondary).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Pretty sure that printing a 2D or 3D model that is responsive to external changes is not a new thing; recall a material that takes two forms based on an electric charge.

<comment><USER8> "Novel method" doesn't mean something similar has never been done, it means it has never been done this way.

 _By aligning cellulose fibrils during printing, the hydrogel composite ink is encoded with anisotropic swelling and stiffness, which can be patterned to produce intricate shape changes. The anisotropic nature of the cellulose fibrils gives rise to varied directional properties that can be predicted and controlled._</comment></comment>


Why Windows 7 Won't Save Microsoft - <AUTHOR> http://www.theatlanticwire.com/opinions/view/opinion/Why-Windows-7-Wont-Save-Microsoft-1258

<comment><USER2> I was actually quite keen on Windows 7 until a critical update a couple of weeks back totally borked my system. I tried every recovery and rollback tool I could find without success. Rather than reinstall W7 again I figured I'd try Ubuntu (for about the 4th or 5th time) and I'm very pleased that I did. Last night I upgraded to the Karmic beta and everything - hardware and software - is smooth as silk. I've kept Windows XP on a VirtualBox drive for the odd time I need to use Office or Adobe products, but I can't see myself going back to Windows Anything as my primary OS. They almost had me.

<comment><USER3> I had a similar experience... I have tried to switch for the last few years, unsuccessfully. Until a month ago which I installed 9.04 and it pretty smooth. The only reason that I boot my laptop on Windows is Photoshop.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Does Microsoft need saving? I don't think they are going to announce bankruptcy any time soon.

</comment><comment><USER5> One thing that always intrigues me about the Mac Parallels argument is why doesn't Microsoft kill that excuse? Apple doesn't allow me as a PC user to run their OS, why does Microsoft allow Mac users to run theirs?

<comment><USER6> Maybe because Mac users running Parallels or VMWare Fusion must buy retail copies of Windows, which are more expensive than OEM versions? Or perhaps because keeping Mac users dependent on Windows software helps keep market share high?

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Since Windows 7 requires XP users to backup everything, reformat our disks, reinstall all our applications from CDs, and apply all patches, I think I'll pass. Maybe I should finally pass on MS completely.

<comment><USER8> How did you make it from 3.1 to 95, or 98 to XP?

<comment><USER9> 3.1 required you to do those things regardless of whether you upgraded or not :)</comment></comment></comment>


Kenya's Ushahidi reportedly covering its executives accused of sexual harassment - <AUTHOR> http://techmoran.com/kenyas-ushahidi-reportedly-covering-executives-accused-sexual-harassment/ <comment><USER2> Even social impact companies are affected?</comment>


Show HN: Image Optimization is broken, so we built Piio.co - <AUTHOR> https://blog.piio.co/2018/02/23/image-optimization-is-broken-so-we-built-piio/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hello Hackers, I've been working on web development for the last 14 years and I think something is broken with image optimization. That's why we build Piio, to make it extremely easy for anyone to make their site run as fast as possible and stop worrying about images.

Piio will take care of everything, we automate the resizing, cropping, image optimization, compression and CDN integration, providing also specific images for different devices and browsers.

Piio integrates directly into your HTML, you don't need to change your image hosting or anything about your technology and it also works with all the JS frameworks.

We love feedback, so let us know your thoughts about this :)</comment>


MacBooks are outdated, underpowered and overpriced - <AUTHOR> http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/is-apple-giving-up-on-the-mac/ <comment><USER2> I don't need a ton more "innovation" (touchscreen on a laptop is a gimmick IMHO) in my macbook and it's plenty fast for what I do (run 2 external + laptop screen, 1-2 IDEs, chat, email, chrome, firefox, sequel pro, etc) but I think I'll go to the 15" next for the real graphics card and the ability to run 3 external monitors. All that said it pains me that Apple has not made any real improvements in quite some time. I was thinking about this the other day, I normally update every 2 years and I passed that mark 4 months ago but I really don't feel like I'm being held back in any way... Also they cap the RAM to 16GB (which I have) and since I can't add/replace it I don't really want to buy again unless the RAM can go up to 24/32.

<comment><USER3> From my prospective pretty much all their promoted "strengths" were gimmicks. Of all things, only MacBook Air's weight can be undoubtedly counted as something valuable considering that it's a portable device.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> As an Apple fan (but not a loyalist), I tend to agree. Over time, the lust for their products is starting to wane...

The lack of GPU power for the price is ludicrous. I love the OS and the design of the hardware, but it's such a trade off for graphics power. The CPUs don't seem to be all that bad, but probably could be better as well for the price.

They are _too_ focused on thinness/lightness. I'd rather have a slightly thicker iMac or Macbook and higher-end parts.

Integrated GPUs (while much better than they used to be) have really overtaken Apple's lineup and it's disappointing, not to mention the inability to easily upgrade anything (not just an Apple problem, though)

<comment><USER5> > They are too focused on thinness/lightness. I'd rather have a slightly > thicker iMac or Macbook and higher-end parts.

And more USB ports. I would like more than two, especially in the 15".

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> > _Apple's computers need to go on a diet_

Yeah, not really. They are still among the thinnest/lightest on the market (and doubly so if one counts thinness AND durability, due to the unibody construction).

Of course Apple WILL make them thinner/lighter in future revisions, but I for one, and many others, wish they didn't -- and instead just used the space for moar battery and such.

> _But six years is a very long time. The current Air is behind its > competitors in every category. It's more expensive than an entry-level Asus > Zenbook UX305CA or Dell XPS 13, yet behind in looks, size, weight, keyboard > quality, and display resolution._

And then it lists the MAIN category that counts in a notebook: battery life as a pro for the Air. Not to mention that it being behind in "looks" and "keyboard quality" is BS. For display resolution it's true -- it should have been Retinized or dropped by now.

> _The Pro is almost as disappointing. It has a competitive display, and the > massive battery Apple stuffs inside both the 13-inch and 15-inch models > gives the Pro an edge in battery life. But both systems are larger and > heavier than competitors. The 13-inch Pro feels like a brick next to a Dell > XPS 13._

The XPS weight less and is smaller (less bevel), but quite bulkier in height. Moreover, worse touchpad (no multi-touch/pressure either), no magsafe, plasticky and cheap looking (complete with "intel inside" sticker, as if we care), no thunderbolt (for video/audio/graphics pros or quick storage and other expansions), etc.

But most importantly, one was released just last month, the other is an older model, and all signs say that the MacBook/Pro line is pending update (it's slightly past the usual update cycle, the inventory is low in retail channels, which usually signals an update, and Intel is having new processors out).

<comment><USER7> Agree with you about the construction. A little over two years ago, I bought a Sony Vaio laptop for about $800. It was powerful enough, but I used it for about 5 months and had to go out and buy something else. It was heavy, the hinges started getting loose and creaking/showing wear. You had to really bang on the keyboard while typing, the entire thing was HEAVY, the trackpad would randomly freak out, and it was basically unusable without a mouse.

I went out and bought a $900 11" Macbook Air a few months later, and it was an absolute pleasure to use in comparison.

Now, I rarely use the Sony laptop -- the keys have started falling off (I gave up reattaching the 'z' key), the screen is "floppy," and I dread trying to right-click on things with the trackpad, but it's now a dedicated dev environment for my job, on days that I work from home. In comparison, my Macbook Air has gotten far more abuse. I toss it around, carry it in my purse, I've lost it under couch cushions -- it has a dent on the bottom from who- knows-where, but it still feels as nice to use as it did on Day 1.

The only time I've run into performance problems is when I'm running Eclipse + Tomcat + heavy MySQL load + some random Python scripts chugging away + ten billion tabs in Chrome. The baseline model 11" air is a little sluggish then :-p But really, I'd rather upgrade to a more expensive model, or pause execution on some things, or clean up my processes, and/or just offload processing to an EC2 instance than ever have to buy another crappy-feeling plastic laptop. It just makes an unbelievable amount of difference in day-to- day use that I don't think people give enough consideration to.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> My 2004 Corolla is outdated, underpowered, and was "overpriced". It has 250,000 miles, and we use it every day without worrying about breakdowns. Likewise, I use my 2009 MacBook Pro every day without worrying about breakdowns [1]. Quality comes with a steep up-front price that pays you back with a long tail of value.

[1] The native Apple hardware has failed exactly once in the MacBook's lifetime (SATA cable)

<comment><USER3> They may happen to be reliable because you just take better care of pricey things (but that's not to say that it isn't their merit to turn you into a careful person).

<comment><USER8> True, except I've dropped the MacBook about ten times over its lifetime. I've been more careful with it lately. ;-)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> >underpowered

I still don't get this. Underpowered compared to what? The lastest CPU model? Well, that's to be expected every 6 mounths or so. But from a user's point of view? No so much to be honest.

I can see how latest CPU might give some advantages to those who are dependent on computations, but other than this... no. RAM is the the only thing I've updated in the last 2 year (need all these VMs, IDEs, browser etc). Never saw CPU usage going >80%

<comment><USER10> In terms of raw computational power, e.g. MFLOPS, there is a plausible case regarding GPU's. The article mentions this in passing as more of a "shiny new" gripe than a "GPU's are the future of computing".

Since more people are more motivated by "shiny new" than are limited by the GPU throughput, I'm not surprised at the author's approach or convinced that from a business standpoint GPU performance is critical for Mac marketing. My only point is that there _tends_ to be a technical difference in regard to GPU computational power at similar price points. I'm not saying that this is necessarily important.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I tend to dismiss these sorts of overtly negative articles out of hand. While it's true that Apple could probably follow Intel's roadmap more closely, it's been years since they have promoted their platform using "speeds and feeds." Windows OEMs have no choice but to differentiate that way.

As a user, I care less about having the most recent hardware (which will be outdated in 6 months anyway); my focus is on purchasing something reliable, and as many others have mentioned, these days most laptops are "fast enough."

<comment><USER12> Indeed I think specs are one of the most poor ways to differentiate yourself right now in the laptop space.

The way to differentiate yourself is to get your users to stop thinking about their laptops at all. Make it work the right way. Make using it intuitive and easy. Make it reliable and secure.

The less people notice it the happier they will be.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> For more than three years I've been using my mid-2012 Macbook Air 11" (8GB RAM, 512GB SSD upgrade, my first Mac ever, with external monitor) as my only machine. Never had a problem. The size is perfect for an airline seat-back tray. The keyboard and trackpad Just Work. I very much prefer the Mac OS after decades of Windows experience. These days I grumble when I have to do tech support for my wife on her Windows 10 state-of-the-art ultrabook.

<comment><USER14> I have a similar MBA I've been using for years and I love it. They are also quite easy to repair- I've broken the keyboard and damaged the power board but replaced both myself relatively easily!

The retina macbook pros on the other hand are literally glued together and aren't user serviceable.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I can totally agree on this.

About a month ago, I was buying a new ultrabook, and MacBook Air was an obvious choice. Obvious, until I saw it's price. It's way too overpriced for what it offers. The battery life is fine, but other than that, nothing. I mean, c'mon, 4gb of RAM and an Intel Core i5 processor is sufficient for a modern day laptop? MacBook Pro is not better in any aspect, as well.

Finally, I ended up with a Dell Latitude (E7250) with 16gb of RAM and a lot better i7 processor, for about twice less money. And guess what, the battery also holds roughly 9 hours, but RAM processing power difference is huge, especially in my line of work. I could even install a Hackintosh on my machine and get all of the OSX goodness for half the price.

<comment><USER11> Half as much for the Latitude? I checked the Apple/Dell stores, and while the MBA i7 upgrade has a slower clock speed and is limited to 8GB RAM, it's also less expensive ($1750 vs. ~$2000; [http://imgur.com/a/ELQm6](http://imgur.com/a/ELQm6)).

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> It seems a little pointless posting this just two months before WWDC, the event Apple used for its major laptop launches in 2012 and 2013.

</comment><comment><USER17> I have a 16Gig 512 SSD Macbook pro and its faster than ever, since I have upgraded. As far as touchscreen on laptops is concerned; Steve Jobs mentioned that its not ergonomically correct. And I agree, I don't know how much long I can lift my fingers and touch the screen everytime I have to navigate. Apple has added lot of gestures on its track pad which is awesome.

<comment><USER18> I would say using laptops for long period of time is also pain in the ass.

That's why many people use external monitor, keyboard and mouse.

My wife uses her touchscreen laptop for web browsing at the couch. Using laptop at your lap is quite bad, but touch screen makes it a lot of better.

<comment><USER19> I've been using laptops exclusively for the last six years, I move around too much to go back to a Desktop computer.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> This article came out a couple of months before WWDC - which is widely expected to include the announcement of new Macbooks, and likely also a Mac Pro update.

The 5K iMac is recent, a good value, and includes cutting-edge hardware from the time it was introduced. I expect Apple will continue to invest in new Mac development, as Macs are both profitable and important halo products.

</comment><comment><USER21> This isn't new. Apple's Mac update cycle has been slow for some years now. I'm a long-time Apple user, but when I went laptop shopping a couple of years ago I ended up ordering something else instead, because I could get a lot more for less money.

</comment><comment><USER22> Still best in resale value and, believe it or not, they just work. And to sell outdated hardware for extra price is very good for Apple's business, isn't it? APPL stock to sell, anyone?

</comment><comment><USER18> Also 2000 EUR iMacs are shipping with 5400rpm HDD.

I use 2013 MacBook Air and want to upgrade to MacBook Pro, but at the moment I can't justify buying new Mac. All new Macs are outdated at the moment.

</comment><comment><USER23> No touchscreen is a sign of age.

<comment><USER6> Touchscreens are a BS feature for laptops. Our hands where not made to be used a pointers held at those angles. Nobody uses their Wintel laptops that way either, even when they have the feature.

Now if you're talking about detachable screens, that could be the case. But there are tablets for that, that are even more convenient and specialized to long term use in that way.

<comment><USER2> Agreed, I watch these stupid MS commercials where they are using the touchscreen on the laptop and it's SOOO gimmicky. No one really does that. I completely agree on the detachable screen though, of course at that point get an iPad Pro (for certain workloads)....

<comment><USER23> I have a touchscreen Toshiba Radius and by far use the touchscreen more than I ever expected to. In fact, it's rare that I use the trackpad any more.

I'm writing this comment on my 8-month-old MacBookPro11,5 with 16 gigs of ram and 1TB SSD drive. I've had 3 brand new MacBook Pros from 2011, 2013, and 2015. The lack of continued innovation on this platform is really starting to show its age.

<comment><USER2> Interesting, I really don't see myself reaching up 6-8 inches to touch the screen when I can do it faster (and with less finger smudges) from the trackpad but maybe I'm wrong, I love my iPad but I still just don't feel like I would like it on a laptop.

<comment><USER24> I am a developer, I use the touchscreen sparcely. I use mainly for zooming in and out pdf documents. IMHO tochscreen are a valuable adition to the set of interfaces , to be used for determined gestures in some apps. Also , if you are into mobile dev , you can test the touch functionality on the device emulator.

<comment><USER6> > _I am a developer, I use the touchscreen sparcely. I use mainly for zooming > in and out pdf documents._

Yeah, but on a Mac laptop you can do it more conveniently, from the multi- touch trackpad too.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Wi-Fi passwords from airports around the world in one brilliant map (2016) - <AUTHOR> https://mashable.com/2016/10/06/airport-wifi-map/ <comment><USER2> Can someone make a safe auto detect device location X known password to make connection seamless? Either request permission to connect to a new network, or automatically connect to the best available?

</comment><comment><USER3> Seems likely to be inaccurate - British Airways for example changes it's passwords regularly and the one cited in the Heathrow lounge is already obsolete.</comment>


Redesigned MacBook Pro keyboard uses new method for repelling dust, says iFixit - <AUTHOR> https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/13/17570538/apple-macbook-pro-keyboard-design-patent-dust-dirt-liquid-resistant-ifixit <comment><USER2> I wonder if my late 2016 15" inch has had 4 top cases will be eligible/compatible with this redesign.</comment>


AMD Ryzen 3000 Can't Tell Time Properly So Its Benchmarks Are Skewed - <AUTHOR> https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-ryzen-clock-bug-benchmark-scores,6312.html <comment><USER2> This title is very misleading since the issue is how Windows handles time, which has nothing to do with Ryzen other than the fact that Microsoft hasn't fixed its internal time source for AMD hardware. The article says it worked fine with Windows 7, so it's just a lack of a bugfix for Windows' new tickless kernel. The title mentions nothing about Windows, yet that's where the bug seems to lie.</comment>


Dammit – should I give up on open source in government - <AUTHOR> http://www.mikadosoftware.com/articles/dammit <comment><USER2> The response to that is surely very simple.

"Since government has absolutely no faith in community development we have loaded the contract with sufficient margin to employ lots of people who will specifically maintain the code used in the project.

Which is precisely what any closed source developer has to do.

But by supporting this bid the government will make government maintained code available for free to any other enterprise that wants to use it and gain the benefit of any development they may choose to do to that code.

This eliminates duplication across the economy and makes the economy more efficient overall.

PS. I hope you none of you are using Android phones"

<comment><USER3> Exactly this, though word it more nicely and in such a way that the benefits obviously accrue to _them_ , rather than the more abstract "economy". They want to treat it exactly the same as a commercial offering, so you should too. Just note that the licence you endeavour to develop the software under lends them additional flexibility to, for example, hire other support workers outside of your contract.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> GitHub is full of abandoned open source projects. It's a valid concern.

I'm not the sort of person who bids for government contracts, but to speculate, perhaps answering this question would mean deciding on which Linux distro to use and figuring out which maintenance contract they should buy. If the other software they'll be using is supported as part of the Linux distro, maybe that's enough?

</comment><comment><USER5> Government work does not attract bright, creative people. It attracts people who want security, and this tends to result in bureaucracy, a lot of process and rules, and very little thinking or risk taking. Anything that doesn't fit "we've always done it this way" will be viewed with fear.

<comment><USER6> Did you have to go to a special shop to buy a brush that broad? There are plenty of bright, creative people who work in government

<comment><USER7> My perspective from working as a DoD and FedGov contractor is that while the idea of working for the government appeals to very many talented people, the actual experience of working for the government will ultimately push them to the private sector.

There are many reasons, but the simplest is that the government just doesn't pay terribly well and tends to promote based on seniority rather than ability.

<comment><USER8> On the other hand, government employment can be very attractive for two reasons.

1\. Subject area. If you want to work on pure science or on making the world a better place, then a career in a government research lab would be far more compatible with your dreams than work in the private sector would be.

2\. Secure employment + good medical benefits. If you are supporting a family and have limited savings, then a lower-paying government job that won't terminate you unless you personally do something egregious becomes more attractive than a higher-paying private sector job that might terminate you tomorrow for reasons outside your knowledge or control. Doubly so if you know you (or your dependent) have an expensive medical issue that might affect you in a few years - knowledge that you _will_ have a paycheck and you _will_ have medical coverage can feel far more secure than hoping that you won't be between private sector jobs and Congress won't gut Obamacare.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Sadly I have seen both sides of govt contracting, open stacks and proprietary, and I feel like the passionate such as yourself lose regardless. I hope you keep up the good fight. O'Reilly has a whole OSS in gov conf in DC and I hope your ilk make even a little headway.

My two cents.

</comment><comment><USER10> I wonder if a portion is simply not a figurative allergy.

"Government" is a concept that stands or falls by control, regulation and ownership, or lack thereoff.

All characteristics that naturally go the opposite direction compared to the inherit nature off open source or it's ideal envisionment.

More realistically, one can't deny the power money (profit) has to motivate and maintain a service. In practise this tends to almost naturally lead to a company wanting to hold rights to their products "secrets" and/or try to sell for as much as they can get away with.

</comment><comment><USER11> Imagine your job is to implement a new software-based process. Something goes wrong. The server is down. Who do you call?

This is why open source is treated like a leper: there is no one to call or the support is so disparate that it's hopeless.

Solve the problems that lead them to making those decisions.

<comment><USER12> Now imagine that the company you bought the software from no longer exists. You're correct about one of the issues with FLOSS adoption, but you're framing it wrong: any software can have support issues. The biggest advantage of FLOSS that the government has written and shared is that they can get competitive bids for maintenance contracts, rather than being stuck with one vendor.

<comment><USER13> "They can get competitive bids instead of be stuck with a single vendor" can be translated as "they have to go through a complicated months long process to find a contractor instead of dial a 1-800 number and get the patch in two weeks."

<comment><USER12> They already had to go through the months-long process to get that 1-800 number in the first place (unless of course they "just choose IBM"). FLOSS doesn't short-ciruit that, it just shifts it to a different phase of procurement.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Guide To Flirting [pdf]  - <AUTHOR> http://www.sirc.org/publik/flirt2.pdf

<comment><USER2> The title should have been "A report on.." rather than "A guide to.."

Am curious to know if this game would have the observer effect. I would guess that a lot to flirting lies in the fact that such "signals" are natural. If someone manages to study them and lay it out as steps, and many end up following it, wouldn't there be a shift in the trend?

i.e., If I know how you play the game to your advantage, I will adopt a different strategy.

</comment><comment><USER3> Nothing new here. Basically women tend to send mixed signals and men tend to misinterpret those signals. Oh, and if you want to increase your success rate then having a shared interest with whoever you're trying to flirt with is a good idea.

</comment><comment><USER4> I prefer the Three C's to the SAS (Sociability,Alcohol,Shared Interest):

Conversation friendliness, Continuity, Community

<http://www.thetaoofdating.com/sample1.php>

</comment><comment><USER5> Is this just a scientific study, or will I gain anything useful for daily life? This is a looong article.

<comment><USER6> It's not a scientific study, it's a summary of a lot of studies, but you will probably not gain anything. Nearly everything it says is completely obvious. It doesn't say how to flirt effectively. It explains when flirting is acceptable.</comment></comment>


Datos IO 2.0: Cloud Mobility and Cloud Data Protection for the Multi-Cloud Era - <AUTHOR> https://finance.yahoo.com/news/datos-io-unveils-latest-application-130000533.html <comment><USER2> This is great solution!</comment>


The dirty secret of ec2: it cannot currently be made HA (highly available) - <AUTHOR> http://www.wisegeek.com/how-effective-is-ip-takeover-at-amazon-ec2.htm

<comment><USER2> Surely this can be mitigated in software outside Amazon's services?

Very low TTL/expiry values in DNS and name servers outside the cloud would get you the right result via a different route. At the cost of having to pay close attention to your DNS service, of course.

<comment><AUTHOR> i dont think dns can solve the problem. dns info is cached in all sorts of places including at isps all over the internet. if your server (or cluster of servers) in ec2 goes down, and your dns server redirects to a different IP, the old IP will still be cached. this is far from a highly availalble system.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> This is true, but most people don't care. Worse is better.

<comment><AUTHOR> i think amazon knows that high-availability is important to some clients, and i wouldnt be surprised if they release a load-balancing service.

<comment><USER4> Given recent moves towards enterprise offerings, that's almost certainly going to happen (or they'll just partner with Sun or Platform)</comment></comment></comment>


Beta of the YouTube of Podcasts - <AUTHOR> https://www.lisny.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hi all, I'm building Lisny, a podcast app that focuses on podcasts discovery. it's in beta now.

Lisny have an easy to use interface and recommendations of episodes of podcasts.

More info: [https://www.lisny.com/](https://www.lisny.com/)

Can you give a try and tell me your suggestion to improve it?

I will iterate on it (I'm full-time on Lisny). Thank's</comment>


Show HN: Turtle – Share and discover dev and startup tools - <AUTHOR> https://turtle.community/ <comment><AUTHOR> Hi HN, I am one of the creators of Turtle. There are many tools which are extremely useful for developers but it is sometimes hard to find them. Usually they are shared between colleagues, you discover them on some insider blogs or they are shared in these huge lists of dev resources.

We wanted to make this discovery/sharing process as easy as possible and create a place where you can easily collect them but also have a stream, which is configurable based on your interests.

</comment><comment><USER2> Are the tools curated by you ? How can one submit new tools ?

<comment><USER3> There are a ton of websites which are self-curated tool lists. We wanted to build a community around sharing and discovering tools instead, i.e. anybody can share tools without friction.

Just log in and post your link. You can also use our browser extensions [1, 2] and post your discovery on Turtle via shortcut CTRL+Space.

[1] [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/turtle/aoegflcmicj...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/turtle/aoegflcmicjlmcmfmglmjabldobanaei)

[2] [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/turtle- networ...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/turtle-network/)</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Technical books that are must read for a developer with SAAS product? - <AUTHOR> This is a life or death situation, have wasted the past 5hours surfing the internet to find the perfect book.
I have read a lot of non-fiction books during my commute. Now trying an experiment to read technical books. I started with Elements of Programming Interviews to learn about algorithms but it looks like I will never see these problems in my daily life.
I am an embedded software developer, and have a few saas products on the side.
Considering, Head First into Design Patterns, or Operating Systems Concepts by Tanenbaum next but I am open to any other book that will give me a technical braingasm.
SOME RULES: The book should not be a reference book like the art of computer programming or CLRS. It should be beginner friendly considering I am a self taught developer. It can be of a particular niche, i.e. something about ai, blockchain, OS, functional programming. It should be something that improves me as a developer. Something that changed your mindset about programming, or software development
thanks, do let me know if you want me to refine my question... <comment><USER2> No books are a must read.

<comment><AUTHOR> ok, then how about books that you would recommend to someone like me....or the book that you have recommended the most...

<comment><USER2> I think you're already thinking too much about software, it would be good if you read about other topics to expand your mind and make you a better programmer.

<comment><AUTHOR> I have read other topics see the sub text in the question. But the question was a general question to ask about technical books that I might not know about...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> why is this post not appearing in the ask section....</comment>


Nginx as a WebSockets Proxy - <AUTHOR> http://nginx.com/blog/websocket-nginx/

<comment><USER2> I use Nginx as a WebSockets reverse proxy sitting in front of my golang apps. It's never given me problems and has been quite painless. Note, as pointed out in this article, you need nginx >= 1.3 for this functionality.

<comment><USER3> Same here, running a Go WebSocket server behind nginx, absolutely flawless. It allows me to tie all kinds of languages and frameworks together seamlessly.

Even though I could do it with Go, I let nginx do the SSL termination. It's more flexible and I can share the SSL cache with for example a PHP/node.js/... app. Using nginx for the plain file serving part of the app is also a dream.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is nothing new, nginx had support for WebSockets for a long time and the post itself adds little to nothing to the nginx docs on WebSockets.</comment>


Supercell to sell 51% of shares to GungHo and Softbank for $1.5B - <AUTHOR> http://www.arcticstartup.com/2013/10/15/supercell-to-sell-51-of-shares-to-gungho-and-softbank-for-1-5b <comment><USER2> Gotta love PR fluff:

"will accelerate Supercell towards [the] goal of being the first truly global games company"

As opposed to, say, Nintendo having accomplished that nearly three decades ago.

<comment><USER3> I think they are referring to the possibility of reaching ALL markets including Africa, South-east Asia, etc. NES was a big hit, but only in Japan, North America and Europe.

<comment><USER4> NES had some fierce competition from SEGA's Master System in developing markets, but it still sold incredibly well (one reason for it being the ease of producing pirate cartridges, which flooded these markets).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> What does Mr. Son see here that I don't?

Supercell is a rockstar game development house right now. But history has shown time and time again that App development houses have a shelf life. To a lay person such as me, the averages tend to show an invariable downward spiral of DAUs with the chance of a new hit game seemingly minimal.

So why go plunk such a gargantuan amount???

<comment><USER6> Perhaps, because it was not one's own money, but money lent by bank to a corporation for a purchase of a stake. They call it a strategic investment, I suppose.

Now everyone will get their bonuses and kickbacks, and when the stock/valuation plunges (what could possibly go wrong with Zinga?) that would be someone else's problem.

Business as usual.)

<comment><USER7> I get the feeling that your comment is (purposely) so content-free that you could apply it to virtually any transaction by a suitably large company. This suggests to me that it has very little signal for this discussion, since it evinces absolutely no knowledge of either of the companies at issue or any attempt to rectify that.

For example: will Softbank require a $1.2 billion bank loan to make this purchase? That's possible (they do 100% of their borrowing in a country where money is, essentially, free for the asking) but unlikely, because they're sitting on over $14 billion in cash and cash equivalents and they hold the vast majority of it in a country where, as mentioned, money is free for the asking.

See page 106 in their annual report, or some other page at some other link if you would prefer the English version:

[http://www.softbank.co.jp/ja/design_set/data/irinfo/library/...](http://www.softbank.co.jp/ja/design_set/data/irinfo/library/annual_reports/pdf/2013/softbank_annual_report_2013_008.pdf)

If for some reason they wanted to borrow money, they'd probably finance with bonds, not bank loans. There's a "why" here but I just got told by the flight attendant to turn off my iPad -- ask me later if you care.

<comment><USER6> It is not about technical details but how a deal with such inflated valuation that it is obvious even for a layman could occur in principle.

I am most probably wrong about how exactly they did raise money, but this, it seems tome, is of second importance.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Our app worth algorithm valued Supercell on iOS as worth $1,486,676,112: [https://sensortower.com/ios/publisher/supercell/488106216](https://sensortower.com/ios/publisher/supercell/488106216)

1B of that being in Clash of Clans

Interesting to see them exit -- Clash of Clans hadn't showed signs of slowing down, especially given that they recently released on Android.

<comment><USER9> curious. how do you estimate how much an app is worth? Are you discounting future cash flows? If the total networth of Supercell is at 1.5B then selling it at 1.5B for 51% is not a bad deal (assuming that its value does not increase)

Big contrast to Gungho (the purchaser) and Rovio, which is worth $455,438,581 and $145,714,888.

<comment><USER8> We have models about revenue, user growth, user amounts, etc -- all valued per country, etc that we combine to make the estimation. Larger apps make this estimation a lot easier than indie apps, too. You can click through on each app and see more detailed info.

Rovio hasn't been a major player in terms of being a top grossing app recently -- they get good downloads and have brand presence, but in the age of IAP based free to play revenue (24 top grossing apps out of top 25 are free: [https://sensortower.com/ios/rankings/top/iphone/us/all- categ...](https://sensortower.com/ios/rankings/top/iphone/us/all-categories)) Rovio's app based model isn't as sticky as long term freemium titles with long term progression. Not to say that Rovio isn't doing great in other parts of it's business!

<comment><USER9> Very impressive how accurate the valuations are. I agree that Rovio's business model isn't as great as CoC and other game publishers.

Think the valuation on Gungho is significantly off though. Gungho made 763 million the first half of 2013, compared to 455 million ([http://www.pocketgamer.biz/r/PG.Biz/GungHo+Online+news/news....](http://www.pocketgamer.biz/r/PG.Biz/GungHo+Online+news/news.asp?c=52683))

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Nobody's mentioned what's pushing firms like Softbank to look for bold overseas acquisitions.

Japan has a major government debt crisis looming, and the only way out for the Japanese government is to print Yen plus financial repression. Large, profitable Japanese firms like Softbank are desperate to insulate themselves from this (and maybe even profit from it) while they still can. Converting Yen to overseas capital looks like a smart move at the moment.

</comment><comment><USER11> the absolute crazy part? all of that was built by supporting only one platform - iOS. they just released their first android game.

what a homogenous environment with easy payment built-in can achieve. even after Apple's big bad cut on in-app payments, etc.

if you're launching a new app take note.

</comment><comment><USER12> > The founder of Softbank, Masayoshi Son, shared with Paananen that he has a > 300 year vision for reshaping entertainment, and a plan of how to implement > it.

With $1.5B in the bank, he can spend $5M a year for 300 years without going bankrupt. Nice runway!

<comment><USER13> Alas, I think death and taxes will both stop him there.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> What it is that makes Finland to produce these start-ups like Supercell or Rovio?

<comment><AUTHOR> Cold dark winters with nothing else to do than play or make computer games.

<comment><USER4> I guess that makes game companies the new rock bands.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> 'According to the latest information, Softbank put in 80% of the funding, or $1.2 billion while GungHo put in the remaining $300 000.'

They are missing some zeros there.

<comment><USER16> Fixed now.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> I think they need some big investors like this to keep going on. Hopefully they are allowed to work on projects they want in the future. We'll see

<comment><USER18> Actually it's quite a surprise to me. They are one of the most profitable entertainment companies ever. I'm not sure what they need the money for, they had hundreds of millions coming in each month from revenue on a team of under a 100 people.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Cash out before the crash out :)</comment>


Ask HN: site that shows what software tools, equipment people use daily? - <AUTHOR>

I remember seeing a site (or blog) where each entry was an interview with a person in the tech industry telling you the software and hardware they use daily.  I lost the bookmark- anyone know what I'm talking about? <comment><USER2> usesthis.com?

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


New Processors Present Problems, Payoff - <AUTHOR> http://news.wired.com/dynamic/stories/T/TOO_FAST_COMPUTERS <comment><USER2> Isn't this old news? I thought everyone knew that we were moving towards more processors instead of faster processors.

One quote that I didn't particularly like, "You can imagine a scenario where people stop buying laptops and PCs because we can't figure this out." Yeah, I'm sure _that_ is going to happen. All it means is that new ambitious groups of people have a good chance of entering the market against entrenched competitors who do not go with a parallel design.

They also mention, "...operating systems like Windows XP and Vista already work with the multicore chips out now," as if Windows is the only one that does. Linux and BSD systems (among others) have been working with multiple processors since long before Windows even considered the idea of having multiple users.

Overall, I wasn't impressed with the reporting. I think it's partly uninformed (failing to recognize the history and present-day of SMP systems and programs), sensationalist (declaring impending doom when there's really no chance of it), and quite late (I thought people had been considering SMP for a while now).

I'm also disappointed in the guy they're quoting (David Patterson from Berkeley), who appears to be out of touch with what is going on in the software world. He says, "We need to get some Manhattan Projects going here - somebody could solve this problem, and whoever solves this problem could have this gigantic advantage on everybody else." From my perspective, Erlang and several functional languages already "solve this problem" quite well, and there is a slew of multi-processor programs out there already which seem to be doing quite fine.

Am I missing something here?

<comment> mark-t I had the same feelings about this being old news. Also, it doesn't actually tell me anything useful.

I don't think having the problem solved in Erlang and functional languages is even close to enough, though. No offense, but there just aren't a lot of people using them. I think something like <http://threadingbuildingblocks.org/> (Intel's open source C++ threading building blocks library) would be more along the lines of a real solution.

</comment></comment><comment> mark-t The link above redirects me to an Associated Press page. [http://news.wired.com/dynamic/stories/T/TOO_FAST_COMPUTERS?S...](http://news.wired.com/dynamic/stories/T/TOO_FAST_COMPUTERS?SITE=WIRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT) works for me, though. Perhaps I'll comment after I read it, but I thought I should add this for now.</comment>


Ubuntu Linux heads to smartphones, tablets, and smart TVs. - <AUTHOR> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-source/ubuntu-linux-heads-to-smartphones-tablets-and-smart-tvs/9834

<comment><AUTHOR> The issue I see here is that Ubuntu doesn't have a coherent development platform like Android or iOS. That said it would allow even more flexibility than Android, but would that mean it would fail for having too much choice? Ubuntu phone anyone?

<comment><USER2> I'm not sure how this would work.. They would really need full compatibility with android for this to make any sense or they will be fighting an uphill battle for adoption.

Most of the desktop apps shipped with current ubuntu would work very badly on a tablet. I really can't imagine Unity working on a smartphone at all without some major changes.

Do canonical really have the rescources to work on this many fronts?

<comment><AUTHOR> There are android emulators for Ubuntu, or you could run the entire android stack along side all the usual Ubuntu software. How the average punter would respond to this is less clear.</comment></comment></comment>


Why are ethics seasonal and trending downwards? - <AUTHOR> http://www.google.com/trends?q=ethics&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0

<comment><USER2> Remember the disclaimer that /. has for its polls?

        This whole thing is wildly inaccurate. [...] If you're using these numbers to do anything important, you're insane.

Yeah, that one. That's very much applicable here.

<comment><AUTHOR> If there wasn't enough data point though it'd be flat and therefore meaningless. I'm still wondering what makes it so darn seasonal...

<comment><USER3> Perhaps the collective mood is higher during summer months?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'd bet that the seasonality is due to the typical academic year. The searches slow down over the summer, plus drop off during the winter recess.</comment>


Feedback Noise - <AUTHOR> https://docs.sendwithses.com/random-stuff/feedback-noise <comment><USER2> From the title I was hoping for proposed or implemented solutions to audio feedback detection and suppression.

<comment><USER3> The first video conference system that figures that one out will make a mint!

<comment><USER4> Echo cancelation has been a thing for a while.</comment></comment></comment>


A Map of the Geographical Structure of Wikipedia Links - <AUTHOR> http://olihb.com/2013/01/27/a-map-of-the-geographical-structure-of-wikipedia-links/

<comment><AUTHOR> Author here. What I find really interesting about this map is that the articles seem connected at a local level instead of internationally.

When you think about it, it makes a lot of sense because usually article will say: "this city is near this other city".</comment>


Secret menus: Fast food 'hacks' for in-the-know customers - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-28990400

<comment><USER2> An article about fast food secret menus with no mention of the In-N-Out Animal Style burger?

Blasphemy.

<comment><USER3> It's on BBC and In-N-Out is famously only in the western US. Why In-N-Out doesn't expand is the truly inexplicable thing.

<comment><USER4> I remember reading some pamphlet they had 20-some years ago about this, they had one (or two?) distribution centers for all their stores and wanted to keep the quality at a very high level. I assume they feel they can't expand and keep things the same. Then again, maybe the owners are just content with the way things have been going and see no reason to expand.

<comment><USER5> I mean, they're in Dallas and Austin now. They're definitely expanding quite a bit.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Starbucks: there's a "short" cup available.

If "tall" is more than you actually want (remember, one standard serving of coffee is about 5 fl oz), ask for a "short". It's cheaper, about half the stores have the cups, and those that don't may offer you a "tall" at the "short" price.

</comment><comment><USER7> Here's the real secret: they'll make whatever you order. Want your Wendys fries placed in a potato boat with cheese sauce poured over them? Just ask.

New employees may be confused or not sure how to ring it up, but most will know how to ring up individual items.

<comment><USER8> > Here's the real secret: they'll make whatever you order.

I'm shocked by how totally un-known this is. Reminds me of ordering pizza with one menu between 10 people; everybody wanted to have a look at the menu because they didn't know if their preferred combination of toppings was on the pre-set list... even when their preferred toppings was "pepperoni" x_x

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> No mention of the "broke Mac": McDouble plus Mac sauce.

Pushes a two McDouble meal past the 1000-calorie mark. Used to be free, but they wised up and started charging thirty cents per.

Not really a hack, I guess, but one of the best menu mods ever.

<comment><USER10> I used to get the "Big Cheeseburger" from Jack In The Box when it was $0.99 and before they charged for lettuce and tomato... was way cheaper than adding cheese to a Jumbo Jack.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> One of these dates back to 2006 ...

[http://consumerist.com/2010/06/10/meet-the-mcgangbang-the- ch...](http://consumerist.com/2010/06/10/meet-the-mcgangbang-the-chicken- sandwich-between-two-burgers/)

</comment><comment><USER12> Best 'hack' I know of at BK is to ask for the fries with 'no salt' \- that means they have to cook up a fresh batch just for you. :)

<comment><USER13> The last I heard about this 'hack' was a fast food employee claiming that it's stupid, because (1) the fries turn over so fast that they're basically just as fresh anyway, (2) you're stalling the line and creating headaches for everyone, and (3) the salt doesn't stick properly if you apply it yourself after the fries have cooled, so your fries will taste bad.

<comment><USER12> if i really don't want salt (or want as little salt as possible), it's good.

Unless you're going there right at 12:15 or so, almost every BK I've ever been in is generally slow most of the time. Airport and turnpike locations are exceptions.

source: i used to work at bk.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> The perfect In-n-Out meal:

\- Protein style double double (lettuce wrapped)

\- Well done fries

\- Root beer float</comment>


82% of Intellectual Ventures' patents now searchable - <AUTHOR> http://patents.intven.com/finder

<comment><USER2> More info on this "innovative" company:

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_Ventures#Controversy</comment>


Ask HN: Why are strong OOP fundamentals important? - <AUTHOR> I've personally seen that being strong in certain fundamentals is important – understanding things like testing, SOLID, Code Smell, design patterns, etc.<p>But I've never been on a team where I've thought, "If only that person had a better understanding of inheritance/encapsulation/polymorphism than s/he would be more productive." I'm not questioning whether these form the philosophical foundation of OOP, but can anyone please provide an example of how they practically affect an individual's ability to contribute? <comment><USER2> For starters, if they have a good understanding of the fundamentals they'll recognize that SOLID & "design patterns" are built on top of them. Both of those practices are about when & how to use the fundamentals.</comment>


Donald Glover Can't Save You - <AUTHOR> https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/03/05/donald-glover-cant-save-you <comment><USER2> I'm trying to imagine someone in entertainment who is as talented and multifaceted as Donald right now and no one comes to mind. He's a great writer and performer of comedy. Pretty good actor (I'm definitely interested in seeing him pull off Lando). His music has been hit or miss but his last album was a revelation. Atlanta is very smart and very funny. I just hope he doesn't burn himself out.

<comment><USER3> I'd argue that Jamie Foxx is a more talented actor + musician... just not a stand-up comedian.

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

<edit>

Anthony Hopkins ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Hopkins](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Hopkins)) is up there, too. I had no idea he was a musician until seeing this video popup somewhere: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M57Fi19vcSI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M57Fi19vcSI)

<comment><USER4> Jamie Foxx has done plenty of stand-up: [https://www.google.com/search?q=jamie+foxx+stand+up](https://www.google.com/search?q=jamie+foxx+stand+up)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> My wife and I are watching the TV show _Community_ together, and Donald Glover is great in it. Fantastic timing. It's not a _challenging_ role he's playing, but he's so charming and fun. (Plus, the show-runner on Community was Dan Harmon, co-creator of Rick & Morty, so the humor has that dark, meta, highly creative edge to it.)

<comment><USER6> It's amazing how steeply Community dropped in quality after Harmon left.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I like his work. I hope many more of his ideas are realized.

</comment><comment><USER8> Weird. I never read these kinds of articles. I always assumed they were just promotional material for whatever the subject has lined up. I came away liking Donald Glover less. His outlook on the world is pretty negative for someone who has been as successful as he has.

<comment><USER9> >His outlook on the world is pretty negative for someone who has been as successful as he has.

If anything shouldn't that make us pay more attention to his outlook? The "I've seen the top and the world still sucks" point of view is pretty compelling to me.

<comment><USER10> Or he is just depressive and his outlook says more about that than his station in life.

<comment><USER9> Possibly, but I'd rather not dismiss peoples' perspectives on the basis of unfounded assumptions about their mental health.

<comment><USER10> He's talked about dealing with depression extensively. E.g. [http://people.com/tv/donald-glover-i-didnt-want-to-lie- about...](http://people.com/tv/donald-glover-i-didnt-want-to-lie-about-my- feelings-anymore/)

<comment><USER9> Actually he deliberately avoids calling it depression, granted what he describes sounds a lot like depression.

>"Glover, 30, says he has been feeling down of late – though he shies away from describing his current state as depressed. 'If I'm depressed, everybody's depressed,' he says. 'I don't think those feelings are that different from what everybody's feeling. Most people just don't tell everybody.'"

In any case, I have a hard time with the idea that we should dismiss somebody's critique of the world because they're upset about the world.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: What do you think of startup collecting data about scam/fraud/dispute? - <AUTHOR> As an entrepreneur and occasional seller, I knew many risks associated with online buying/selling. Although there are different measures to protect buyers if there were any wrongdoing or fraud, small and medium sellers are at disadvantage and often, they must write off the loss or pass it on to the next customers.<p>I believe the best way to balance out the table is collecting enough data so the risk can be evaluated in the future. My concern is whether people will appreciate the existence of such database and if there are other entrepreneurs out there currently doing the same thing or interested in such project? <comment><USER2> Probably pretty valuable which is why Stripe is doing it for their customers: [https://stripe.com/docs/radar](https://stripe.com/docs/radar)

I am not sure how viable this would be as a standalone product though.

<comment><AUTHOR> Agree, that's why it must reach beyond online trading activities. One person can have many cards and emails, but not so many faces or names or real affiliations, so we're going to target that. I knew it's very difficult in the past but with the current environment, I think it's doable.</comment></comment>


Cybersecurity's Human Factor: Lessons from the Pentagon - <AUTHOR> https://hbr.org/2015/09/cybersecuritys-human-factor-lessons-from-the-pentagon

<comment><USER2> None of the lessons presented here are necessarily incorrect, but it's very interesting the way this article is attempting to assert a rigid military approach to security in the private sector.

The most creative and effective organizations nowadays are arguably the ones in which traditional rules and protocols are eschewed for newer more fluid processes (agile/rapid iteration instead of waterfall, flatter hierarchies instead of top-down authority, reward for creativity and experimentation rather than pipelined design and production, and so on).

I'd argue that this article is suggesting that large institutions are the ones that need to adopt this rigid approach to security - but they're already likely struggling to attract tech/security talent, and this kind of environment isn't going to foster it (or maybe I misunderstand those talent pools).

In addition, some of the suggested guidance basically eliminates any kind of opportunity for fun or exploration during the job - which might be possible for some small subset of extremely dedicated operations engineers and security staff, but isn't going to work for the other 90% of day-to-day employees.

I'm wondering if there's some kind of disconnect or incorrect perception of the world of IT from the author(s) here. Or it may be a bid/attempt to build some kind of reputation for authority in the area.

<comment><USER3> I think you're missing the point. The author is advocating for a well defined set of policies and procedures and users that understand and follow them. The point of this is to create an environment where the security people get the info they need (from users) to do their jobs and the infrastructure (including users and policies) are set up in a way that lets them do their jobs.

Big companies have a more to lose and deeper pockets so they're more likely to give big paychecks to security people. Regardless, few organizations pay anyone in support roles well, security is no different.

The main point is that you need users who aren't afraid to say "hey WTF is this?" and a system that can back that up by evaluating $this and taking appropriate action across the entire network.

Speed is key but the waterfall/agile models are way too simple to apply at a high level. The workflow bears more resemblance to this: [http://franklinstreetwebserver.com/wp- content/uploads/2010/0...](http://franklinstreetwebserver.com/wp- content/uploads/2010/04/Afghanistan-powerpoint-graphic.jpeg) because you've got a different path of actions taken for each event and making the decisions at each point as quickly as possible is key but there's often so many moving parts that a very rigid set of procedures is needed to ensure consistency.

If someone's workstation crypyo-walls a network share there's how many different moving parts involved in the cleanup?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I stopped reading after the first paragraph:

> From September 2014 to June 2015 alone, it repelled more than 30 million > known malicious attacks at the boundaries of its networks.

Someone told them about SSHGuard and pf, I presume?</comment>


'Shell knew': oil giant's 1991 film warned of climate change danger - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/feb/28/shell-knew-oil-giants-1991-film-warned-climate-change-danger <comment><USER2> There are those that knowingly misinform about climate change for financial or ideological benefit and those that genuinly believe the misinformation.</comment>


Cuban Street NET members protest to his network alive - <AUTHOR> https://twitter.com/tank6b/status/1160184139934523399 <comment><AUTHOR> The Cuban goverment put a new law that renders all the network illegal.

More context on the Cuban Street Net

[https://youtu.be/lEplzHraw3c](https://youtu.be/lEplzHraw3c)</comment>


V lang source code is released - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/vlang/v<p>(I posted as Text because somehow github links are recognized as `dead links` on HN) <comment><USER2> The GitHub link has been posted a few times, but it never got traction:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20248950](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20248950) (4 points, 8 hours ago, 0 comments)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20250990](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20250990) (6 points, 1 minute after your post, 0 comments)

EDIT: The second link now has (35 points, 8 comments, still 1 minute after your post)

</comment><comment><USER3> I looked at the examples and saw ":=" as the assignment operator. That brought back memories of my first Algol programming class back in 1969.</comment>


Many firms hit by major cyber-attacks - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-40416611 <comment><USER2> [https://cloudtweaks.com/2017/06/cloud-migration- cyberwar/](https://cloudtweaks.com/2017/06/cloud-migration-cyberwar/) Implications for cloud adoption highlighted

</comment><comment><USER3> Discussion here: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14645452](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14645452)</comment>