Open Source Needs a New UI - <AUTHOR> http://blog.cobychapple.com/blog/2011/12/07/open-source-needs-a-new-ui/ <comment><USER2> To see what's wrong with UIs, we need look no further than X. Consider the myriad of UIs which run on X, many of which aren't compatible with one another: starting with Athena, through Motif widgets, through competing Gnome and KDE, GNUStep, and so on. There must be dozens of major toolkits historically.

What caused this mess? Openness and the hacker nature did.

A UI needs a bully: someone who says that you _will_ do text fields _this way_ , and if you don't like it, tough. Consistency is absolutely crucial in a successful UI. In Windows, the bully is Microsoft. In OS X the bully is Apple. Open systems by their very nature don't have a single dictator.

A UI also needs a bully to force simpler designs. X is replete with applications that have every single possible configuration option. It's part of the tradition. The problem is that this makes the applications extraordinarily unfriendly to the 99% of the population who want to get work done, in favor of the 1% hackers who like to tweak. It's a rare X application which doesn't suffer from this malady: indeed X does itself. There's no one to tell these application designers that their propeller-hats are screwed on too tight.

I don't know if there is a way to fix this. Simplicity and consistency are the two most important features of a UI, and the open nature of Linux, X, etc. simply run against them. When a bully arrives to the Linux world (such as Google in Android) you start seeing quality again. Without it, you wind up with Maemo.

<comment><USER3> > Consider the myriad of UIs which run on X, many of which aren't compatible > with one another

If you are referring to window toolkits, they are all compatible in the sense that you can run different ones side-by-side. If you are referring to window managers, you only need one. If you are referring to a consistent look, the two major ones (GTK and Qt) each have themes which render their widgets in the other toolkit (GTK-Qt and QGtkStyle, respectively). I can vouch for GTK-Qt. It works.

<comment><USER4> Totally agree, UI's do not need to be overseen by an overlord of design. I can right now start up a KDE app or a Gnome app and they happily co-exist. Try to pull of something like that on oh Windows, Mac or Android. At least I don't think I've ever seen anything like that on those OS's.

<comment><USER5> Something like running a Win32 app, a .Net Winforms app, a Java app and wxPython app concurrently?

<comment><USER4> Good points. Even Gtk apps now that you jog my memory.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I think a large source of the UX quality gap for _volunteer_ -driven Open Source products is the grossly underestimated _cost_ of getting good UX. I submit (without proof) that volunteer Open Source efforts are great at competing on easily quantified dimensions (foos per cycle, feature parity) and not-as-great at competing on dimensions that take anything other than free time and a computer to evaluate.

It's very expensive to truly evaluate UX quality of complex products, except at a bare minimum level of "can users do what they want without being harassed". Measuring UX quality means finding the common appeal in a potentially large and heterogeneous group (as a heuristic: the more heterogeneous the audience's tastes, the less satisfying volunteer-based solutions tend to be). To find the common appeal in a large heterogeneous group you have to _interact with a lot of people_ and _measure them repeatedly_ because people's tastes for complex products is not something that can be well-modeled by point-in-time measurements (e.g. it took me a few weeks to discover my MacBook's 4-finger touchpad gestures).

Apache is an excellent competitor in the web server market (very narrow, highly technical audience). GIMP has a decent, but not huge following (somewhat broader audience, but still specialists). Open/Libre Office, GNUmeric, and GNUcash are not going to replace their commercial competitors any time soon.

<comment><USER7> > To find the common appeal in a large heterogeneous group you have to > interact with a lot of people and measure them repeatedly because people's > tastes for complex products is not something that can be well-modeled

 _Or_ you could just go out and hire a good designer. Your comment just illustrates the problem why a lot of computer geeks don't get taste: they assume it's something you go out and measure.

Any good designer will tell you: you do not measure taste and design for two simple reasons: (1) public taste is constantly changing, and (2) as soon as you can measure something, it's outdated. I call it the Heisenberg uncertainty of taste. If you go to the trouble of polling 10 million people, you will be 3 years behind; measuring the opinion of 100 million individuals will set you back 6 years behind the curve or maybe more.

The kind of minimalistic web design that is commonly seen right now and which Facebook, Apple, Google, and others use was hot among the designer circles about seven years ago. If you tried measuring public taste at that time, you would get a result sheet listing PHP.net as "the" design to copy. You don't measure good design, you _define_ it by producing something that's good and usable in some basic aspects yet not seen before and interesting in others.

<comment><USER6> I think this is largely unfalsifiable. I have not seen evidence that designers, on average, know what people will want in advance. You absolutely _need_ a designer to interpret what people tell you about their experiences with a prototype, but I don't think you can tell a designer "I'm building a tractor for your garden. Tell me how it should work." and expect an a priori good design from it.

I'm open to being disproven on this matter, and I'm obviously biased toward empiricism, so if you have suggestions on references I'd be appreciative.

<comment><USER7> > I have not seen evidence that designers, on average, know what people will > want in advance.

Of course designers do not have magical powers and cannot predict future. However, one often can make a good guess about the future based on knowing who is widely imitated. Widely imitated people are influencers, and whatever they like will often be liked a few years from now. All great designers have a mental list of such influencers and they likely will never share it with you because that list is literally the source of their success.

Also, if you are really great designer, you can directly make future happen without having to imitate others. I had a chat with one former roommate of mine who was going to a wedding when he asked me about my opinion on his shoes. The shoes were way too clubby (i.e. completely inappropriate for a wedding) and I was frankly horrified, telling him that I would never in a million years be seen at a wedding wearing that type of shoes. Next day, he shows me a very fell-fitted suit looking completely dapper yet still wearing those completely inappropriate shoes because he could not get a pair of shoes that fit on time (Saturday was right around the corner). Seeing his new outfit, I changed my opinion on the shoes and asked my roommate this question: "Do you know what happens when one item you are wearing is wrong and out-of- place but everything else about your outfit is completely and utterly awesome?" He responded, "Hmmm, no one notices?" I said, "No, you're wrong. That one out-of-place item becomes the new trend."

<comment><USER6> I think we are in agreement but coming at it from different viewpoints.

As you say, designers do not have magical powers to predict the future. In a situation where you can't predict the future you have to make your best guess (designers help here), find out how good that guess was (interacting with lots of people happens here), and make your next guess (again, designers help here). Having a good designer doesn't eliminate the potentially expensive middle part where you need to find out how a large heterogeneous audience reacts to your current best guess.

<comment><USER7> > Having a good designer doesn't eliminate the potentially expensive middle > part where you need to find out how a large heterogeneous audience reacts to > your current best guess.

I absolutely agree. When trying to appeal to a large audience I would definitely do both -- if I had the money that is. Which part is more important (mass appeal or trendiness) depends on the kind of business you are doing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I agree that UI in FOSS is often terrible, but as munaf mentions below, developers are becoming more design-minded and it's slowly changing.

It's hard to get designers to contribute to FOSS, I don't know why. A lot of developers simply don't care or do care but don't know enough about design to do a great job (I fall in the latter category but I think I'm quickly improving).

The recent trend is that FOSS projects _want_ to have good UI, but they need help. Designers don't need be involved with a specific FOSS project, they can for example create beautiful icons and openly release them.

Toolkits such as Bootstrap by Twitter and Foundation by ZURB have been a big help.

<comment><USER9> I think what's tough is that FOSS design generally ends up as design by committee, with a tendency towards introducing more configurability (and thus more complexity) as a means of appeasing everyone when dissension arises.

From an engineering standpoint, that's part of what makes FOSS great. From a design standpoint, that sounds like a gig from hell.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Yes, we know. Since you're a designer why not offer your time to some open source project you use instead of just offering your criticism.

<comment><AUTHOR> You mean like I did for <http://mentoring.is> (as discussed here: [http://blog.cobychapple.com/blog/2011/09/18/a-distributed- me...](http://blog.cobychapple.com/blog/2011/09/18/a-distributed-mentoring- movement/))?

<comment><USER10> No, I don't think so... isn't that just a page that says "hey, contact me if you want me to mentor you"?

I meant reaching out to an open source project that you use in an effort to become a contributor.

<comment><AUTHOR> Point taken.

FWIW, helping with the mentoring.is page (albeit a small project) is what got me started about this whole topic. I've been talking with a couple of mentors (who are heavily involved in open source themselves) about how I can contribute to some of my favourite projects, and it's definitely something I plan to do as I get free time.

<comment><USER11> It can be hard to get some people in the open source community to accept that "shiny stuff" is also crucial to a project.

For example, I organized and developed the <http://www.thisisthecountdown.com> event for the recent Ubuntu release as a volunteer project. While the response was mostly well received, there were very harsh remarks by some people directed at the site.

<comment><AUTHOR> Nice design! Can I ask where you got that header background image from?

<comment><USER11> The background was adapted from a NASA photo but I can't seem to find the original photo at the moment. In the weeks before the release, the site had a countdown timer with the original image as the background. You can see some of the stages of the Ubuntu ARG on google images: <http://goo.gl/eGjTT>

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> I've been thinking about this situation myself this last month and wanted to help give back to the OSS community as a designer/front-end developer - but I didn't know where to start.

I'm considering building a simple matchmaking site that lets open source project developers request for design/front-end help and for designers/front- enders to offer up their time as well.

Would anyone be interested in this if I built it or has this already been done?

<comment><USER13> Great idea. Haven't heard of this being done.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I think this has a lot to do with not having to sell anything to anyone. OSS projects are, in general, less concerned with converting users than commercial software -- you like our project join us and use it else 'meh'. While, it would be nice to have a shinny surface on oss projects, I think it is unnecessary.

As someone who recently (for work) switched from using Linux boxes to a MacBook Pro, I would generally take the less shiny functionality over the pretty pictures any day. (\ _cough\_ keyboard shortcut to lock screen \ _cough\_ ) :)

<comment><USER15> Ctrl+Shift+Eject.

to turn off the screen. To lock it, set your laptop to it to lock after 5 secs and then use the above.

<comment><USER14> HOLY CRAP!! Thank you! ... Wow, I must be retarded or not have looked hard enough as the second google result now shows that. :D Anyway Mucho gracias.

<comment><USER16> Haven't you heard? Mac OS X is intuitive.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Generally, I agree with the article. But I've been seeing a lot of projects that lead me to believe developers are becoming more design-minded. Many new JS libraries, for example, are beautifully presented.

My hunch has always been that GitHub is setting a trend for OSS developers to present content to each other in a clean and pretty way. Hopefully that extends to the apps they create.

<comment><USER18> +1 for GitHub... I think they are doing some good.. and would love to see that as a standard for UI design of open-source projects to follow. Though am not sure..

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Perhaps there is a difficulty in getting designers involved with open source software projects. As a freelance web developer you could overhaul a few of the promotional websites for the software you use and find poorly promoted. Perhaps better tools are needed to make it easier for designers to contribute - maybe this could be addressed in someoway by someone like Github.

</comment><comment><USER15> A very fair point and I think this is mostly because we, as an industry/society, have only recently begun to pay attention to UX.

I'm not going to buy arguments that say good software has (needs) enterprise backing. Open software, more often than not, follows well established industry trends. UX is only just becoming a trend.

The same arguments that ten years ago applied to open software can today be applied to good UX. Thats that. Thats all there is to it.

Give it time, it'll happen. Better yet, MAKE it happen...be the first one to revamp Cyberduck's interface.

</comment><comment><USER20> Some investment in good UI is certainly nice. But it may not be clear to non- programmers just how much work good UIs can be (so it should be no surprise if volunteer projects don't spend the time).

There are some fairly obvious tasks, like artwork and putting some thought into what the behaviors should be. There are less obvious things like the fact that _huge_ side effects often pop up.

How much time will you spend on artwork? Every version of Mac OS X looks different, so your custom widget may have 4 different looks and you just know you'll need a 5th next year. Maybe it's a cross-platform program. Maybe the entire thing needs to change depending on where in the world it will be used. And this doesn't even begin to look into issues with programming images (e.g. tracking the mouse inside odd shapes or figuring out how to render things at different window sizes).

Setting UI behavior is also deceptively simple. It can take a very long time to be sure that you've thought of everything even if you're reproducing a variation of UI that's pretty standard already. You often interact with existing things, e.g. a window manager or mouse event system, and you can be seriously screwed if you find a deficiency in a dependency.

What about when your entire framework breaks because you need a customization? (This seems to happen in Cocoa all the time.) For example, guess what: customizable toolbars and resize-from-any-edge come "for free" in standard windows but they are _completely_ unavailable for custom windows. Some changes can look simple on paper and explode when you actually try to implement them. Nothing ruins a weekend like discovering that a simple change would break all kinds of tangentially-related UI elements that were already working. So what do you do...recreate half the OS yourself just so one piece of UI can be a little more interesting or appropriate to a task?

</comment><comment><USER21> "most of these sites look stuck in a much older paradigm of thinking about web design"

This needs some explanation. The vim site looks dated, but clearly I'm not enough of an insidery web guy to know why some of these sites are stuck in a much older paradigm.

In fact, I'm kind of lost on the purpose of the entire rant. UI is important? Is that the takeway? Why even write an article about that?

<comment><USER22> If the vim site is outdated, so is Amazon's. (Okay, Amazon's less so, but I think the taste issue is more from the tabular layout than the lack of gradients or rollovers. Just my thoughts though.) vim itself has a fantastic UX.

As for the rant, I think people need to be reminded of such obvious things quite often. "What does you in is not failure to apply some high-level, intricate, complicated technique. It's overlooking the basics. Not keeping your eye on the ball." -Jerry Cleaver

<comment><USER23> The Amazon site is just hideous on so many different levels. Just awful. As well as looking not great it's hard to use and some aspects (search) are broken.

The Vim site looks a bit dated, but it serves its purpose. I can't really comment without seeing someone do a makeover. When I'm looking for information I prefer a bunch of nicely marked up text rather than snippets of text scattered over various shiny image heavy pages.

The Vim website even tells people how to get involved with making it better - (<http://vimonline.sourceforge.net/>)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> I couldn't help but notice that most (all?) of the projects he listed as good examples are open-source projects funded by companies.

Magento, Firefox, Wordpress, PhoneGap; even jQTouch is maintained by an individual who does mobile consulting for a living. In this case, it's not a group of volunteers who are pitching in for a project, then someone putting together a website. The websites (and projects) in all of those cases are marketing a product that the creator of the website is making money off of (whether directly, though search revenue, consulting, etc).

</comment><comment><USER25> I've always wondered why designers don't point to open source as a portfolio like some developers do.

As a developer, I would imagine that there aren't many better ways to land a job at a tech company than designing a logo or brand identity for a cool open source project. There is no shortage of projects on github that don't even have something as simple as a logo or an About page. To me, seeing a portfolio of tech-related material sure beats 25 brochure-style sites for a local winery or wedding photographer.

<comment><USER26> "designing a logo or brand identity for a cool open source project. "

a logo or a brand does not a good UI make.

What you need is indepth research and intuition into what a user "feels" at home with - especially with programs targeted at the non-technical user. This is an amazingly difficult skill to acquire, and thus, is worth lots of money. I don't see a good UX designer volunteering their time for an OS project, when there are many a profitable opportunities out there for them to exploit their skills.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Fortunately there are designers out there who are willing to help with OSS projects. Cappuccino is a great example of this. Sofa has made 3 versions of Aristo (our theme) for us; they also helped design many other open source apps.

Even though Sofa is no longer around, there are many very good designers out there willing to help work on open source projects. You just have to ask.

</comment><comment><USER28> There is an obvious reason for this, most of the well designed projects have financial backing (a company that consults around the product/library) and as such have the resources. They want the platform/app to succeed because they finically benefit.

Good UX is good for business.

</comment><comment><USER29> This reminds me of what David Siegel (creator of Gnome Do & Docky) said once at a Ubuntu Developer Summit. Each open source project should have a design advocate whose sole role is constantly make sure that as much though goes into usability as the code.

</comment><comment><USER30> Designers live in a different world. Unlike many developers, they depend on proprietary tools (Adobe) and don't interface directly with open source software in a contributive or decision making capacity.

</comment><comment><USER31> Unfortunately, the better UI doesn't mean a better product. Working with Magento for example has been a pain in different ways. It sure does look pretty though even when you're debugging things! ;-)

</comment><comment><USER32> On the topic of visual design and UX, these are two (not quite orthogonal) different domains. The area in which they meet, design that helps UX and UX that doesn't look off putting, is usually missed. IMO, software used by professionals can get away with poor graphic design as long as it provides high functionality and efficiency. For software intended for beginners or occasional users the graphic design needs to be stronger to encourage the user to keep trying!

</comment><comment><USER33> I made an effort with <http://apiaxle.com>. Very much a work in progress...

<comment><USER34> Looks pretty good. I am a UI/UX designer and would love to help out for free to boost my portfolio. A few ideas.. Center large gear image on icon, move smaller to right a bit and reduce in size. Smooth out banding a bit on metal texture. Change button text from "Try it Now" to something like "Download Now", "Learn More", "Get Started" or a combination of the above. Current button seems like free trial and might scare some users off vs being free. Email in my profile if you want to talk more!

<comment><USER33> Thanks, schraeds. The idea was that people would pay for my support/development so I would like people to suspect a certain degree of 'commercialness' which is why I chose 'try it now'.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> It's all about time. You're writing an open-source project - I know SOME lucky folks get paid to do it, but not most - and you have to just get the damned thing working. Once you do, you have to go back to your job, or whatever else feeds your face. The UX has to wait. And wait. And wait.

<comment><USER36> I don't think this is really the core issue. If you're not getting paid to work on an open source project, chances are you're doing it just because you simply love _programming_. You probably aren't an expert designer, and, more pertinently, you're probably more than happy with what you have.

In my experience, building a UI makes you blind to its shortcomings. There are methods and procedures around this, but if you just love programming, chances are you don't know them. I found this out myself when I saw my dad struggle to use even a simple chess game I designed. When you've made something, you naturally know it inside-out; nobody else is going to have nearly that much experience with it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> Right now, GNOME is probably the last example you should cite as "getting it right" if you're trying to convince open source developers of something. GNOME's UI decisions of late are not particularly popular with the crowd you need to convince.

<comment><AUTHOR> I realise it hasn't been popular, and I'm not the biggest fan either, but my point isn't about what's popular amongst open source developers. Also, if developers need to be _convinced_ of the need for good design I think that's a good example of the problem right there.

<comment><USER37> You don't need to convince them of the need for good design, you need to convince them that what they're doing now _isn't_ good design, and that they should do something different.

I'm saying, citing the project they think is an example of _bad_ design isn't going to help, your opinion will carry less weight.</comment></comment></comment>


What if the World Were to have 100 People? - <AUTHOR> http://100people.org/statistics_100stats.php?section=statistics

<comment><USER2> A popular variant of this list also includes:

 _59% of the entire world's wealth would be in the hands of only 6 people and all 6 would be citizens of the United States_

</comment><comment><USER3> Only 1 person would have a college degree and 1 person would have a computer? That seems ridiculously low.

<comment><USER4> Not really.. are you only thinking of people your age? Most of the world was from a different generation than you. When my father was going to college less than 25% were doing that - in the US. Think of what that would look like for the rest of the world.

Even today in the US something like 1/4 people don't have a high school diploma.</comment></comment>


Mac OS X Lion: This Is Not the Future We Were Hoping For - <AUTHOR> http://gizmodo.com/5819418/mac-os-x-lion-this-is-not-the-future-we-were-hoping-for

<comment><USER2> From the end of the article: "But overall, it doesn't feel like a must-have upgrade to me." Except that Apple does not really fix many bugs in previous version of their software unless they are security issues or really huge problems that a lot of people complain about loudly. Upgrading is usually the right choice and for 29 bucks it's not going to hurt the pocket book.</comment>


Mark Zuckerberg called Trump, said he was putting Facebook in difficult position - <AUTHOR> https://www.axios.com/trump-protests-riots-4ab7f1e1-1498-433b-8b80-cedf3cc1ae96.html <comment><USER2> Correction for the title, Trump actually called Zuckerberg and not the other way around:

> Later that day, Trump phoned Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. During the call, > Zuckerberg "expressed concerns about the tone and the rhetoric," according > to a source familiar with the call.

</comment><comment><USER3> Blame twitter for that. They started didn't start with trump. They started one with the government that regulates them.</comment>


Show HN: A Social Network for Remote Workers - <AUTHOR> https://reworkin.com/ <comment><USER2> Nothing about what happens to our data? Im will assume the worst.</comment>


Show HN: Prof – Self-contained C/C++ profiler library for Linux - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/cyrus-and/prof

<comment><USER2> Should I be able to simply #include "prof.h" and use it? I tried the first example, but I'm getting this error:

# prof.h:274: PROF error (Invalid argument) Aborted (core dumped)

running through gdb gives me: Starting program: /home/john/Documents/c++/tmp/prof/a # prof.h:274: PROF error (Invalid argument)

Program received signal SIGABRT, Aborted. 0x00007ffff7745cc9 in __GI_raise (sig=sig@entry=6) at ../nptl/sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux/raise.c:56 56 ../nptl/sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux/raise.c: No such file or directory.

On Ubuntu 14.04, gcc 4.8.4.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, including "prof.h" is enough, but you can try using different events, by default Prof uses `PERF_COUNT_HW_REF_CPU_CYCLES`. For example try defining before #include "prof.h":

#define PROF_EVENT_LIST PROF_EVENT_HW(CPU_CYCLES)

or

#define PROF_EVENT_LIST PROF_EVENT_SW(CPU_CLOCK)

Which kernel version are you running? Are you running this from a virtual machine?

Feel free to open an issue ([https://github.com/cyrus- and/prof/issues](https://github.com/cyrus-and/prof/issues)) with these information if you can't manage to make it work.</comment></comment>


How many people are you currently focused on? - <AUTHOR> I'm wondering whether there is a number of people you can focus you attention on, or care about at the same time.<p>Is it true ? Do you have a number of people you care about currently does this number fluctuate a lot ? <comment><USER2> 4

</comment><comment><USER3> less than 5</comment>


Incremental GC now in Firefox 16 - <AUTHOR> https://blog.mozilla.org/dmandelin/2012/07/20/incremental-gc-now-in-firefox-aurora/

<comment><USER2> I see announcements like this and I get excited, finally some real change is coming to Firefox. But when I rush out, breathlessly get the latest Aurora update, and test it out on my site I see the same memory usage with my app ~200-400MB used, same occasionally-jerky javascript performance, etc.

My untrained eye cannot see any improvement, but I still see the 200-400MB used where Chrome uses only 60-80MB. Maybe the frame rate is a tad smoother in this build?

I dunno. Maybe it's the object model FF uses and the memory use is never going to change. My app should NOT take that much memory to run...

I feel the urge to blame myself. Maybe if I had time, I could refactor my code and use Web Workers to fork off parts of my process that aren't touching the DOM. Maybe THAT would make my mozzie run like Chrome?

I just wish there were a magic tweak I could do to my app - that one line of code where I went astray - to unleash it on FF, but there's no silver bullet. I think the limitations I see every day in FF are architectural.

</comment><comment><USER3> Try about:memory for FF14 vs. FF15. You should see a big difference.

I find that overall, mem usage has gone down for me and initial load is a lot faster.</comment>


Rental America: Why the poor pay $4,150 for a $1,500 sofa - <AUTHOR> http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/storyline/wp/2014/10/16/she-bought-a-sofa-on-installment-payments-now-its-straining-her-life/?hpid=z1 <comment><USER4> While this particular example applies largely to the poor, you could write a similar article about the vast majority of Americans.

How about "Why engineers in the Bay Area pay 1 million for a 600k condo" or "Why smart people pay 400k for a 150k education."

Fundamentally, the high price of the couch is really a reflection of the risk made in the "loan." Americans are too leveraged and don't save enough across the board. If credit were harder to come by, and the majority of loans were made with the expectation that the borrow would actually pay off the loan, you wouldn't end up with 4k couches. Also, I would imagine the apparent need to keep up with the Joneses would be diminished because fewer people would be driving the proverbial rent-to-own Mercedes.

<comment><USER5> Non-poor people don't pay nearly as much interest as poor people, and as such, generally wouldn't even pay $4,150 for a $1,500 sofa even if they did decide to take out a loan to pay for it.

That's actually kind of the point of the whole article - that poor folks are unlike other people in that they have no way of mitigating their risk in the form of lump payments to creditors.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> You know, I hate to sound elitist or conceited or whatever word you may want to use to describe the following statement, but it's true: there is a huge element to these decisions that goes beyond education and background. At the end of the day, it boils down to plain old reasoning ability.

I have a friend who is pretty well educated in a non stem field and is decently successful (lower middle class).

We both drive the same car that is currently worth 9k (a car which he shouldn't have gotten either, but I digress).

We spent an hour the other day debating why he shouldn't buy a brand new 22k car that will save him 900 per year on gas.

For the life of me I just couldn't get him to see why the best decision financially was to drive his current car into the ground.

His argument was literally, in 10 years my new car will be worth more than yours. I was dumbfounded - I could not get him to see that it was coming at a cost of an additional 13k up front. He said it in a "haha got you! - <USER2> forgot about that!" kind of way.

I just gave up.

At what point do we just admit that no matter the education level, no matter the background, some actors in the economy just won't make the most prudent choice?

<comment><USER7> Are you sure the best decision financially is to drive the current car into the ground? We don't have enough context toy make an informed decision. But saving 1000+ a year in gas (that continues to go up) to have a brand new, relatively maintenance free car for the next several years isn't necessarily a horrible decision

<comment><USER8> It is incredibly difficult to beat the "drive it in to the ground" strategy on a strict fiscal basis alone. Even a $22k car will come with a ~$400/month car payment. That's $4,800/year in car repairs; which is a _lot_ of repairs. That's almost 1370 gallons of gas (at around ~$3.50/gallon). You can drive 34,250 miles on that amount of gas if your current car averages around 25 MPG (not hard if you already own a compact car). It really only starts making sense when the older car requires so many repairs that it becomes unreliable. At that point, it starts making you late to work, or causes inconveniences that are untenable.

There are lots of reasons to buy a new car. I drive a new car every three years, so I lease. Fiscally, the decision to drive a new car every three years is about the worst decision you can make. I make that decision in the light of day though. I'm able to afford it, and we still maintain a household savings rate of 30%. Yes, I could increase that savings percentage even more by paying cash for a car and driving it in to the ground, but I choose not to. I choose the luxury of a new car in spite of its fiscal downsides.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I think all the people comparing this to buying house are kind of off base (though maybe less so in the Bay Area).

In most of the USA housing is a choice between spending $500 to $1500 a month and building equity or spending the same amount while not building equity. Obviously building equity is typically better even at a loss than spending the same amount for nothing assuming you don't plan to move frequently, etc.

This is in no way, shape, or form comparable to a couch. A shelter _must_ be had. A couch is 100% a luxury, and there are loads of substitute goods, like bean bag chairs, or just plain cushions on the floor. Not to mention that all of them are mostly worthless used (unlike a house).

</comment><comment><USER10> This is somewhat similar to how nearly all of the middle-class buy houses... by the time they finish paying off their mortgage they've spent twice as much as the original list price. At least with homes, there is a chance for property to increase in value.

<comment><USER4> The home itself is fundamentally a depreciating asset as well. I think theres a reasonable argument to be made that the perception of real estate as an asset with increasing value is largely inflated by 30 years of increased leverage, decreasing interest rates, longer loan terms and decreased lending standards. Back in the 1950s, the average loan-to-value on a home was about 50%. Somehow it has since become standard to leverage yourself 5:1 on a home purchase, which for any other asset class would be kind of nuts!

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> This may sound offensive, but is buying a $1500 sofa really a good decision if you're "poor"? I don't consider myself poor, and I bought a $500 sofa, it's pretty nice and has worked well for many years. I also have a lot of good used furniture that I've bought for almost nothing off Craigslist.

<comment><USER12> I don't understand how it's really "financially ignorant" to pay high interest rates for the benefit of deferring costs over time? If your credit isn't great, it takes a _long_ damn time to repair. These rental outfits both help rebuild that credit and provide a valuable service, imo.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> A better question would be "why the poor buy a $1500 sofa"?

<comment> FLUX-YOU >Normal families have sofas, she says, and you'll do what it takes to feel normal.

<comment><USER13> Seriously? I don't consider myself poor by any standard, but I'll also think 5 times before buying a 1500 sofa. It's just stupidly expensive.

<comment> FLUX-YOU I think that headline is misleading. In the article, they say it was $1500 for a sofa and loveseat, which isn't bad if the material and construction is high quality (who knows, Ashley Furniture is probably crap next to actual craftsmanship).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> The truth is, almost everybody ends up financing something and paying a lot more for it in the end than the sticker price. The trick is figuring out how to either avoid financing if possible, or minimizing the extra that you pay when you have to.

Even when you aren't explicitly financing something, people throw away huge sums of money all the time when there are cheaper alternatives. For example, how many of us pay rent for housing?

For non-optional things like shelter, this is harder to navigate. What makes people scratch their heads about a sofa is that strictly speaking, you can get by without a sofa. It's an optional purchase. It sucks not to have one, but there's no "sofa" in Maslow's Hierarchy of needs. My parents in law come from a culture where sitting furniture is a completely optional item for example (Korea) and most people sit _and_ sleep on the floor perfectly fine.

I remember when I was first married, my wife and I were really desperately poor, for at least a year we didn't have any furniture _at all_. Even after we stopped being poor I don't think we bought a sofa for the first 4-5 years of our marriage and then it was a triple discount coupon holiday sale sofa. 10 years later we still have that sofa and have no plans to get rid of it any time soon.

Money's great, it can almost instantly eliminate all sorts of inconveniences, and easy access to more money than you can effectively manage is a real problem. Even relatively smart people, given absolutely free money (like lottery winners) don't know how to deal with it.

</comment><comment><USER15> Old discussion on HN: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8471786](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8471786)

<comment><USER16> 'old discussion' says it was posted '5 hours ago' heh

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> This is a poor example of a real phenomenon.

I was raised in a family of four with an anual income around $14,000 a year. Today, I'm an engineer with a base salary in the six figures. I can tell you first hand, wealth gives you not just the ability to do more but the ability to make the money you do have go further.

It's not the $4,000 sofas that strain poor people to the financial limit. It's the hot water heater you have to put on a credit card instead of paying cash. It's the groceries you pay twice as much for because you can't afford them in bulk. It's the overdraft fees that make a $100 mistake into a $500 one. It's the nickle and dime medical bills because you can't afford to address the root cause of an affliction.

<comment><USER18> Well, sure, but buying sofas and iPads at a 200%+ markup certainly can't help.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> This should really be titled "why the financially ignorant pay $4,150 for a $1,500" \- you see this lack of financial smarts pretty much across the wealth spectrum from sofas to McMansions.

</comment><comment><USER20> What is stopping an entrant going in at 50% APR rates, and competing with these guys on the weekly price?

Or is the cost of doing business where 9/10 people default (mostly because you charged them too much) just that high?

<comment><USER21> Do you think an ethical pay day loan business could exist? I tend to think anyone with ethics wouldn't touch the industry in the first place.

> mostly because you charged them too much

Why don't you think both parties share the blame?

<comment><USER20> I think there's a difference between charging 30-40% APR (double what a crappy bank charges for a credit card, approx) and charging 4000% APR like Wonga.

Also note we're talking about different but related businesses - <USER3> overcharging for payday loans is one thing, ludicrously overcharging for hire- purchase is another. The second is less risky, assuming people don't trash their own furniture/possessions.

Finally, no, I am not certain an ethical payday loans business can exist, but I am certain an ethical loans business can exist. It's all a matter of gradually finding a limit, where people stop ranting about how unethical it is.

(to clarify - I am not actually a populist ethicist, I was merely speaking in practical terms.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Most will turn up their noses for buying a sofa this way, and yet most folks here will happily suffer just as shocking a cost in order to buy a house.

<comment><USER23> Which is particularly ironic when you consider that the cost of the house typically exceeds the cost of the furniture several times over.

<comment><USER24> Unlike a couch though, you need a place to live. Is it cheaper to continue renting until you can afford to buy outright? I thought the answer was no.

<comment><USER14> Correct

[http://assayviaessay.blogspot.com/2014/04/rent-or- buy.html](http://assayviaessay.blogspot.com/2014/04/rent-or-buy.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Off topic, but since there are a couple of "why would someone poor buy a $1500 sofa" I thought I would link to a really great article discussing this: [http://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/why-do-poor-people- waste-m...](http://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/why-do-poor-people-waste-money- on-luxury-goods)

You can substitute sofa with iphone, designer clothes, BMW, etc.

</comment><comment><USER26> This reminds of HBO comedian John Oliver talking about payday loans.

I kept thinking about this and got very emotional over it. So I came up with a quote: Wealth is a beauty nurtured in savings so keep the choices you make on how much you use limited to your priority needs.

</comment><comment><USER27> [https://hn.algolia.com/?q=rental+america#!/story/forever/0/r...](https://hn.algolia.com/?q=rental+america#!/story/forever/0/rental%20america)

</comment><comment><USER28> Perhaps the issue concerns why anyone would purchase a $1,500 sofa.

</comment><comment><USER29> I wish the government or charities helped these people out by educating them about the various ways they can be frugal and the typical ways they get fleeced by holding free seminars and giving out flyers/books.

Perhaps the tips in Reddit's /r/frugal can be made into a book and freely distributed to such people?

There's an immense amount of money being spent on such folks, much of it from taxpayer dollars and it still isn't very effective at lifting them from the vicious cycle of poverty.

<comment><USER30> Something like these?

[http://www.mymoney.gov](http://www.mymoney.gov)

[http://www.pfeg.org/](http://www.pfeg.org/)

[http://www.financialliteracy.gov.au/](http://www.financialliteracy.gov.au/)

[http://www.condusef.gob.mx/Revista/index.php/usuario- intelig...](http://www.condusef.gob.mx/Revista/index.php/usuario- inteligente/educacion-financiera)

[http://www.finanzasparatodos.es/](http://www.finanzasparatodos.es/)

Most of the governments have financial education programs in place. They just don't seem to be that effective. My guess is that the answer to this has to come from the private sector. A company that somehow creates the incentives for these people to save instead of borrowing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> Why did this get reposted/ why was the previous hidden?</comment>


Show HN: Web API Authentication with SSH Public Keys - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/teddziuba/pqauth

<comment><USER2> We need to implement something along these lines to secure our API. This is interesting, but I need help understanding why the server can't just provide a random session_key after successful authentication? As long as that session_key is valid on the API then do I care about GUIDs and Public Keys? What is the "Needham-Schroeder-Lowe Public-Key Protocol" portion of this providing?

</comment><comment><USER3> This is great.</comment>


California's generation of electricity from coal drops dramatically - <AUTHOR> http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-california-coal-20160512-snap-story.html <comment><USER2> The LA Times' title for this article is wrong. California does not generate electricity from coal, however, California uses a lot of electricity generated from coal. As the article notes near the end, California uses electricity from coal generated out of state.

According to SNL, "at times, as much as 50% of Southern California's electricity still comes from coal-fired plants, Steve Homer, director of project management for the Southern California Public Power Authority, or SCPPA, told SNL Energy." [https://www.snl.com/InteractiveX/Article.aspx?cdid=A-3411331...](https://www.snl.com/InteractiveX/Article.aspx?cdid=A-34113318-14128)

This really is a reminder that the writers of articles frequently do not write the headlines. That's a big reason why titles of articles are frequently misleading.

<comment><USER3> According to the same source:

> In 2014, less than 5% of California's total energy demand was served by coal > and petroleum coke-fired plants, nearly all of it from plants outside the > state

Which is followed by what you quoted:

> At times...

So, according to that source, out of state coal consumption can range from 5% to 50%. It doesn't say exactly _when_ the 50% figure was hit, or why.

<comment><USER4> Stocks versus flows. You integrate power over time to get energy. 5% of the energy comes from coal but up to 50% of the power. That means that much of the time the use of coal power has to be less than 5%. Probably but not necessarily much less.

<comment><USER5> Can you elaborate? I can't remember that month of Physics when we learned how equations relating to power.

<comment><USER4> Power is the rate at which energy is flowing. You can get the same amount of energy by either a large amount of power for a short time or a small amount of power for a short time. A way you could have up to 50% coal power but only 5% coal energy is if you use 0% coal for power 90% of the time but 10% of the time use 50% coal power.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Work in the industry at the moment. The US sells lots of coal to China, where it is burned with far less regulation than it would be in the US. The coal plants I work on are secretive to the point where they do not want their name even in technical publications. Instead we say e.g. "a large coal-fired plant in the Midwest..."

<comment><USER7> Coal imports to China are dropping quickly:

[http://reneweconomy.com.au/2016/new-china-energy-data- coal-i...](http://reneweconomy.com.au/2016/new-china-energy-data-coal-imports- down-a-further-10-30570)

[http://www.reuters.com/article/china-economy-trade-coal- idUS...](http://www.reuters.com/article/china-economy-trade-coal- idUSL3N14X1TC20160113)

[http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-13/china- coal...](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-13/china-coal-imports- crash-as-economy-slows-amid-clean-power-shift)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Pounds of CO2 emitted per million British thermal units (Btu) of energy for various fuels:

Coal 228.6 - 205.7

Diesel fuel and heating oil 161.3

Gasoline 157.2

Propane 139.0

Natural gas 117.0

[https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=73&t=11](https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=73&t=11)

<comment><USER9> Does this include the CO2 emitted in the process of extracting and refining diesel/gasoline? Depending on the source of the oil (Canadian Tar sands vs Saudi Arabia), its carbon footprint can vary drastically.

<comment><USER10> All of the fuels listed in the grandparent have extracting and refining costs which depend on the source.

<comment><USER9> That is true - but I believe that extraction and refining is a much bigger contributor to oil's footprint, compared to coal's. It is also far more variable.

To turn a barrel of tar sands oil into gasoline, for example, adds another ~230 pounds of CO2 to the atmosphere - in addition to the emissions from burning it. That's ~40 pounds/million BTU.

It almost costs us more energy to mine and refine tar sands oil, then we get out of burning it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Before California pats itself on the back too much here -- people should realize that the switch to natural gas has largely been driven by fracking, which has made natural gas more cost competitive.

<comment><USER12> Also, before California pats itself on the back too much here, they have been blocking nuclear and hydro for decades, both of which would have reduced their use coal.

<comment><USER13> Just how much undeveloped hydro potential do you figure for California?

The state's not water-rich to start with. Dams have significant impacts, and virtually all major waterways are already heavily managed.

Nuclear faces safety, fuel, and disposal challenges. The latter for the nex million years.

Fuel availability is ~80 years at present usage, 6 if the world relied solely on uranium-based fission.

Systemic risks of nuclear are distinctly non-negligible, and are not technologically addressable: they concern management, organisation, politics, war, economic stability, and far more.

Solar and wind fare far better on all counts.

<comment><USER12> [http://www.mercurynews.com/drought/ci_29826659/drain- hetch-h...](http://www.mercurynews.com/drought/ci_29826659/drain-hetch-hetchy- reservoir-california-yosemite-water)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Isn't this last year's news? Here's energy use by state from last July:

[https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/power- plant...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/power-plants/)

A few states use almost zero coal.

<comment><USER15> And the chart shows that despite falling since 2008, 2015 levels were nearly 50% down from 2014. So the decrease is accelerating.

<comment><USER14> In the article from July 2015, coal was less than 1%. What is left to accelerate?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Ultimately it is good news, although the number of agendas present when reporting energy news is amazing sometimes.

It would be interesting to find alternative uses for coal that weren't polluting. A more enlightened civilization might use the revenue from that alternate use to fund re-education and social support for people too old to learn new skills other than coal production. In that way you could humanely "close out" the era of coal use on the people whose lives were intimately tied to its existence.

<comment><USER17> But wouldn't letting markets allocate labor resources be a more optimal solution? Private investment can handle the re-training challenges.

<comment><USER16> In the small case I'm all for it, but when systemic changes are made to the economy I think it would be reasonable to consider helping the translation by redirecting some capital toward that realignment. The existing method of using transfer payments from the new growth to sustain the displaced resources as you wait for them to reallocate takes to long and is itself inefficient.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> _EIA estimates that U.S. coal production in April was 46 million short tons (MMst), a 6 MMst (12%) decrease from the previous month and 29 MMst (38%) lower than in April 2015. Forecast coal production is expected to decrease by 150 MMst (17%) in 2016, which would be the largest decline in terms of both tons and percentage since data collection started in 1949._ -U.S Energy Information Administration ( [https://www.eia.gov/forecasts/steo/report/coal.cfm](https://www.eia.gov/forecasts/steo/report/coal.cfm) )

Coal consumption, 90% of which is in electricity generation, is down nationally.

It appears solar and natural gas are out competing coal: [https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.cf...](https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.cfm?t=epmt_1_1)

</comment><comment><USER18> There go the jobs in the middle of my home state.

... to another profession, as is how structural unemployment works in general.

</comment><comment><USER19> Does the desire for natural gas mean they are finally going to stop burning it all off and destroying the climate in North Dakota to get to the oil?

[http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-dakota-gas- flaring-20140...](http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-dakota-gas- flaring-20140717-story.html)

[http://www.npr.org/2014/01/30/265396179/much-of-north- dakota...](http://www.npr.org/2014/01/30/265396179/much-of-north-dakota-s- natural-gas-is-going-up-in-flames)

[http://www.climatecentral.org/news/north-dakota-gas- flaring-...](http://www.climatecentral.org/news/north-dakota-gas-flaring- doubles-pumping-co2-into-air-17212)

</comment><comment><USER20> The same has happened in the UK I've noticed. Currently 500MW but previously today 150MW. [http://gridwatch.templar.co.uk](http://gridwatch.templar.co.uk)</comment>


Typora: A truly minimal markdown editor - <AUTHOR> https://typora.io/ <comment><USER2> Also check out the near-identical open source clone, marktext. Typora will no longer be free once out of beta.

[https://github.com/marktext/marktext](https://github.com/marktext/marktext)

<comment><USER3> Also, here it is a list with even more alternatives [https://www.saashub.com/typora-alternatives](https://www.saashub.com/typora- alternatives)

<comment><USER4> I also love the _AlternativeTo_ as a resource for alternatives:

[https://alternativeto.net/software/typora/](https://alternativeto.net/software/typora/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Due to the bugs in Apple Notes on macOS 10.15 and iOS 13, I just spent some time evaluating as many note taking apps for Mac as possible. I ended up picking [https://ia.net/writer](https://ia.net/writer)

Typora was interesting but it was very buggy, and doesn't handle tags which are important for notes.

My main criteria were an open file format, ideally editing plain text files on disk using Markdown as the formatting. This ruled out apps like OneNote, InkDrop, Standard Notes and others.

If you don't mind about having a proprietary database so long as the data can be exported to Markdown, [https://bear.app](https://bear.app) is my favourite so long as you're on an Apple device.

I will also be interested in [https://nvultra.com/](https://nvultra.com/) once it comes out of private beta.

I published my full writeup today at [https://davidmytton.blog/the-best-note- taking-apps-for-mac-m...](https://davidmytton.blog/the-best-note-taking-apps- for-mac-markdown-open-format-cross-platform/)

<comment><USER6> After reading your review, lack of tags and "Electron" were you biggest complaints against Typora. Typora is not a notes manger, and reviewing it for what it's not trying to be, is unfair. As for electron, despite the perception of being a hog, Typora's resource usage is about 150MB in RAM and 0.5% CPU when idle. I think your modern MacBook pro can trivially handle that.

In my opinion, Typora's advantages are:

1\. WYSIWYG markdown. I don't believe iAWriter is WYSIWYG. While that's ok for developers, Typora is more widely usable.

2\. Extensions: from Mermaid, LateX, sequence diagrams to code highlighting, to export to ePub (via Pandoc), Typora is a lot more versatile

3\. Saves files as text (.md) and assets, easily searchable via OS. Highly portable

4\. Cross platform (Mac, Windows, Linux)

<comment><USER7> > Typora is not a notes manger, and reviewing it for what it's not trying to > be, is unfair.

From the site:

"Typora provides both file tree panel and articles (file list) panel, allows you to manage your files easily."

<comment><USER6> Yes - a feature of the editor is that it shows a file list panel for the directory the .md file is in. I'm not seeing that as "We're a notes app"

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Most features can be covered by a few VSCode extensions like these:

[https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=yzhang.m...](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=yzhang.markdown- all-in-one)

[https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=mushan.v...](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=mushan.vscode- paste-image)

Other code editors probably have similar extensions and syncing the notes could be done with Dropbox/git/whatever...

I am also surprised how well [https://tabnine.com/](https://tabnine.com/) works with auto-completion for arbitrary notes.

<comment> VvR-Ox Yes this is nice but you can't really compare it to a standalone app like Typora / MarkText besides how it handles the content.

Some people don't need the 1k features VS Code gives you but some really good, minimalist editor to write MD with latex, images etc. I would not install an IDE to achieve this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Are most of you using dedicated markdown editors?

What about using your code editor's markdown plugin and real time preview in a browser?

For example with Vim, one of the plugins launches a browser and then you get a real time preview while you type in Vim. The nice thing is you can tell it to use a specific CSS file so you can get a 100% copy of GitHub's README styles. It even syncs your cursor if you want that behavior.

I demo'd the above set up here: [https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/writing-and- previewing-markdo...](https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/writing-and-previewing- markdown-in-real-time-with-vim-8)

<comment><USER10> In my opinion, markdown is a document format not unlike Rich Text Format (RTF). I want a program to read it, style it and let me edit it the way it's intended to be read. I don't want to see the code unless the program is getting in my way. I'm sure everybody's come across a text editor that insists you meant to indent that next bullet point and gets very stubborn when you want to do something different. That's what I like about Typora. I don't have to think about the code until I want to do something the program doesn't want me to do. When that happens, I can switch to code view and make it do exactly what I want it to do. Then I switch back WYSIWG mode and keep going.

<comment><USER9> If you use a live preview plugin with your code editor you can choose not to look at the code and focus on the rendering of it in a browser.

<comment><USER10> Why would I do that when I can edit the rendered version directly?

<comment><USER9> One benefit I guess is you don't need a dedicated program and you can continue using your code editor. You also have full control of what the render looks like (which is helpful for GitHub READMEs).

Also with Vim (I can't speak for other editors) it has the option of concealing the markdown characters themselves so it looks more like a rendering of it. I don't use that personally but if you prefer not seeing the noise of backticks for code blocks or double asterisks for bold you can hide it.

<comment><USER10> You don't seem to be getting the point. Vim is for code. Typora is for documents. They are different tools tailored specifically for different jobs. You wouldn't use microsoft word to write code, would you?

If you like vim and want to use it for markdown, that's great. I personally like a more specialized tool. Then again, I'm also a writer and spend more time in that mode than most programmers. If you spend all your time programming and only occasionally need to write a markdown document, then I can see the appeal of the setup you're describing.

<comment><USER9> I spend about 50% of my time programming and 50% writing. I often deal with 300,000+ word markdown files because part of what I do for a living is write technical courses. I've written about a million words of markdown over the last ~5 years.

<comment><USER10> ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ different strokes for different folks, man. Most of what I write is fiction. Some of that fiction also serves as functional requirement documents. :D

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> After trying nearly every markdown editor out there (Mou, Byword, Macdown, iA Writer, and Caret, to name a few), I found Typora. I've been using it for the past year and find it delightful - it does everything that I want a markdown editor to do, in an elegant and intuitive way. I'm not tied to the company in any way, just really love the software (and hope it succeeds). I'll happily pay to support it when it comes out of beta.

</comment><comment><USER12> I tried about every noteworthy Markdown editor in recent years. Typora is the one I am still using. Great work. I hope they don't ask for a subscription fee, but one time payment, once out of beta.

<comment><USER13> Yeah agreed. I remember trying around 15 different dedicated editors and Typora was the first one to really grab my attention. I've been using it ever since. I don't usually buy much software, but would be happy to buy Typora if it was a one time payment.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Using this since at least two years and it constantly got better and expanded. The one thing that I still love this for is that it starts quick and it is a incredible way to explain markdown to beginners.

One thing that could improve is the update mechanism which sometimes distrafts you from writing at startup, but that is really a tiny nitpick.

</comment><comment><USER15> Beautiful editor, one of my favorites, and surprisingly free and multi- platform: works in Mac OS, Windows and Linux.

<comment><USER16> Free now, but out of beta, will have some type of pricing model, accd to the site. Just saying.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> I think this is one of the only wysiwyg editors for markdown with latex support. Have been using it for the past half year and it works like a charm!

</comment><comment><USER18> I have used Boostnote and Remarkable, on Ubuntu. After using Boostnote for a while, it started to bug me because it's slow load time (it's an Electron app), so I searched for something native and found Remarkable, which is simple and really fast. It just lacks some of the organization features that Boostnote offers.

<comment><USER19> I liked Remarkable initially. But its development has stopped with bugs outstanding. One is that typing with live-preview enabled jumps the viewport to the top. Typora seems nicer.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Is there any JavaScript-free WYSIWYG Markdown editor?

<comment><USER21> On Linux I found Ghostwriter¹. It's working really fine, I use it for all my personal writings.

There is also a port² on Windows but it seems less reliable, I've seen it crash a few times, I still have to report it or try to fix it.

¹ [https://wereturtle.github.io/ghostwriter/](https://wereturtle.github.io/ghostwriter/)

² [https://github.com/michelolvera/vs- ghostwriter](https://github.com/michelolvera/vs-ghostwriter)

<comment><USER20> Ghostwriter depend on QtWebKit/QtWebEngine, so is not JavaScript-free.

> HTML preview has been ported from QtWebKit to QtWebEngine (Chromium).

<comment><USER21> Yeah the HTML preview is using QtWebEngine, but not the text editor part.

I suppose there is a way to deactivate Javascript execution in QtWebEngine but I don't know enough about it. But given that Markdown allows inline HTML and JavaScript, I don't see how you could have an accurate WYSIWYG representation if you don't have a Javascript engine available somewhere.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I'm happier with retext ([https://github.com/retext- project/retext](https://github.com/retext-project/retext)). Fully open- sourced, live preview, and taking ~50% less resources than Typora to deliver the same features. If I'm not using vim, I'm in live preview mode in retext.

</comment><comment><USER23> LaTeX coverage is as much as I need, and it renders to SVG when exporting as HTML. You've got yourself one more user!

</comment><comment><USER24> You can't beat a plain texteditor or html form in terms of minimalism. Seems like the wrong point to highlight

<comment> VvR-Ox Then you did not understand the main feature of Typora & Co:

_real WYSIWYG_ writing MD in various flavors. Don't try to tell anyone a plain editor could even begin to compete - it is about MD being applied while you type and then quickly getting out of your way.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> Has anyone found a decent solution to real time rendering of ReStructruedText ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReStructuredText](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReStructuredText))?

</comment><comment><USER26> Hard to say that it is "truly minimal" when it uses Electron. There was a time when 75MB of memory usage would have been considered absolutely massive for an application with similar functionality.

Nice UI though.

<comment><USER27> There was also a time when vi was considered a memory hog with crazy feature creep.

<comment><USER28> I don't remember that at all. Are you sure you're not thinking of emacs?

<comment><USER27> Nope, definitely vi. I have a vintage book about Unix written ca. 1980, and the author's concern was that "vi's code segment will fill up most of the main memory of a large PDP-11, leaving you little space for the text you're editing". They considered their university's heavily modified fork of ed (the standard text editor, remember?) to be a better choice.

<comment><USER29> FWIW, by 1988 the shared servers on UC campuses were sufficiently provisioned to happily run vi, compiler toolchains, and MUDs for several hundred concurrent users.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Wow! WordPerfect reimagined.

</comment><comment><USER16> I keep coming back to simplenote ([https://app.simplenote.com/](https://app.simplenote.com/)) each time I try one of these "minimal markdown editors". Works on every platform I've tried, open source, and maintained. I enjoy seeing folks making improvements to the minimal model, but I personally haven't found any life-changing enough to switch. Keep recommending options, though, I'm looking forward to seeing what folks create!

</comment><comment><USER31> I use it to make quit drafts, real nice to instantly have markdown markup. would tip this to people who start wqrint in markdown

</comment><comment><USER32> It's OK but not that astonishing. Still prefer to write in the default notepad because it just werks

</comment><comment><USER33> Been using Typora for almost two years. Really like it. Use cases might be a bit limited.

Using Notion.so on work.

</comment><comment><USER34> I like the WYSIWYG and there's a handful of useful features, good job!</comment>


U.S. Cyberattack Hurt Iran's Ability to Target Oil Tankers, Officials Say - <AUTHOR> https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/28/us/politics/us-iran-cyber-attack.html <comment><USER2> I feel we are being fed a line here. I think it's unlikely that access to such important military computing infrastructure woud have been blown to stop Iran hijacking foreign flagged oil tankers.

Either the story is a cover for the real purpose of the operation (most likely), or the story is wildly overblown.

<comment><USER3> I actually thought it was just an article that tried to again make it seem like Iran was behind the previous attacks, despite there being no evidence. The owner of one tank said that the us statement that it was Iran was full of lies and didn't match any of the facts.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> How does the US know that they don't just have offline backups?

</comment><comment><USER5> In terms of testing out new gear is:

Iran:USA::Ukraine:Russia ?</comment>


Weird Keyboards, Programmable Keyboards - <AUTHOR> https://blog.gboards.ca/2020/01/weird-keyboards-programmable-keyboards.html?m=1 <comment><USER2> I am currently building an ultimate programmable keyboard. It will have 40% ortholinear layout but also an overpowered MCU (STM32L4 with lots of flash and memory) that will be able to run a complicated controller.

The reason is I want steno at work where I can't have any custom software running. I want to be able to lug around small high quality mechanical keyboard that will have my entire input method programmed in with no need for external software. Also I am fed up solving problems even if I have access to OS. Not all software wants to play nice, etc.

It will have sd card slot for additional storage for mappings, steno library, etc.

Currently it is functional basic keyboard (ie. works as a normal USB HID keyboard, no extra features) on a prototype board. My next step is to design PCB, backplate and enclosure and have them manufactured. I do assembly myself.

Once I have functional keyboard I will work on V2 that will have all the features I wanted.

Possible extra features:

\- trackpoint (if I can find the part that will make it possible). I was thinking one in place where you normally have J so you don't have to move your hands at all to use your mouse. Mouse buttons would probably be programmed some way on left hand.

\- small OLED display for statuses, maybe for editing steno dictionary, etc.

\- RGB LED under each key to be used from the controller for whatever reason (not just for nice patterns but for actual useful stuff).

<comment><USER3> This is the best idea I have read in ages, "the computer is an extension of my keyboard". If the keyboard had an onboard macro editor, it would be perfect.

<comment><USER4> Hello, this was called a terminal back in the day :) I noticed that the Gergo keyboard from the original post has a small screen, like a real terminal would.

<comment><USER3> I think rather than a dumb terminal, the idea was to create an I/O unit which would house user shortcuts and memory to handle the mental clutter of clipboard history, snippets, and browser bookmarks without depending on the host computer system which could be difficult to use due to locked down policies by the IT department. Such an idea as "unclose window" and "restore last browser tab" if unfeasible on a terminal. Also, a cloud connected keyboard would store information retrievable across host machines using a biometric ID to secure the data such as using fingerprints which, again, is difficult for an even a power user to manipulate with given the standard security practices in IT departments these days. Of course the I/O device would have to be as potable as needed, while the host machines could be locked to a desk.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I've been using the Dvorak keyboard layout since 2009/2010\. Back then I had a TypeMatrix 2030 USB. I stuck with TypeMatrix most of the time between then and... December 2017!

In December 2017, I bought an ErgoDox EZ Shine.

I immediatelly created a custom layout for my ErgoDox EZ Shine. A layout that was heavily inspired by the key placement on my previous keyboard, the TypeMatrix 2030 USB.

Over time I've made some small adjustments to the layout, occasionally removing bindings that have been sitting unused.

Here is my layout in its current form: [https://configure.ergodox- ez.com/ergodox-ez/layouts/PBKjJ/zb...](https://configure.ergodox- ez.com/ergodox-ez/layouts/PBKjJ/zbdla/0)

I found the featured article interesting. I agree that the ErgoDox EZ is a bit bigger than is probably necessary, and as a consequence of that, some of the keys are not so easy to reach.

I like the two-button chording idea a lot. And I think the smaller keyboard size that his ideas make possible seem quite appealing. At my desk at home I use the ErgoDox EZ always, but when I am on the go I often use the builtin keyboard of my MacBook Air even when I have the ErgoDox EZ with me in my backpack or luggage.

What I would love to see some day is someone create a customized MacBook Air aluminum casing that would put something like the programable keyboard of the OP into it in place of the keyboard that Apple is shipping. And maybe make said custom keyboard embedding adjustable in multiple directions and angles if possible. Would maybe be difficult, but that to me would be the dream.

<comment><USER6> An alternative to your last sentence seems to be the Nuphy mechanical keyboard: [https://nuphy.com/](https://nuphy.com/)

It is nowhere as elegant as actually replacing the builtin keyboard, it just sits on top of it using magnets. But it is a product that actually exists.

<comment><USER5> Ooh, that's neat! :)

Yeah something like that, but with programable keys placed ortholinearly and with a split and middle buttons and thumb clusters like in the OP (which in turn are similar to ErgoDox EZ that I like a lot).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> A user tipped me off that this was re-posted again after it didn't get much traction last time. If you have any questions let me know and I'll try answering them :)

Needless to say, it's been a few months since this was posted and I've doubled down on the usefulness of chords/combos and overloaded layouts with GergoPlex. Compared to the Gergo I was using before, the ergonomic gains are immense :)

(And Mods, can you remove the mobile bit on the link?)

</comment><comment><USER8> The first keyboard he referred to was the original IBM "clicky" keyboard (aka Buckling Spring keyboard) which is still available new. The right to manufacture it has been sold to a company called Unicomp. [1] They've ditched the legacy connector and now it will work with USB.

I personally own one of these and I love it. It causes less carpel tunnel problems for me because the keys travel more and they don't bottom out quite abruptly.

The only downside is that it is very noisy. If you can type at 80 wpm like me and you work in an open cube environment, you'll make your cube neighbors crazy. I no longer work in a shared office so nobody cares and I enjoy the clicky sound.

[1] [https://www.pckeyboard.com/](https://www.pckeyboard.com/)

<comment><USER9> I have two of the Unicomp EnduraPro and it's been my favorite keyboard for years. I'm one of probably 8 people in the world that like the Thinkpad's Trackpoint, and this keyboard gives you that. During normal operations, I don't have to move my hands off the keyboard.

The company is also rather responsive. I once dumped a large cup of soda right onto the keyboard. It was out of warranty but they repaired it for a rather reasonable amount.

More recently, I picked up the Ultimate Hacking Keyboard[1]. It was a bit of a gamble because it's a smaller keyboard making use of layers (mod, mouse, and function). However I adapted to it in pretty short order. On a full keyboard, you do end up moving your hands to the arrow keys or the function keys. On this keyboard, you almost never move your hands. It's got a nice tacticle feel and it's quieter than the model M. With the mouse layer, I can keep my hands on the home row almost as much as with the EnduraPro. There is a bit of awkwardness with the default keymap in vim. The Mod layer's arrow keys almost, but not quite, match up with vim's cursor movement keys, so I sometimes confuse my muscle memory (and vim) when bouncing in and out of insert mode. I should probably remap the arrow keys, but that's really my only complaint about it so far.

[1]: [https://ultimatehackingkeyboard.com/](https://ultimatehackingkeyboard.com/)

I do have UHK's trackpoint and key cluster addons on preorder, just waiting on them to ship.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I used to be a specialized keyboard fanatic. Ultimately, what cured me of this "need" was learning how to type in braille code, which uses 8 keys plus a spacebar. Thanks to accessibility advancements, and especially on mobile devices, I can carry around a mini braille display and efficiently control everything I could ever imagine to need, without specialized keys. But, it requires learning a certain combination of keys (as in commands) to do what you want. I can also efficiently take notes in very advanced math using a braille display plus a Raspberry Pi (see: [http://liblouis.org/](http://liblouis.org/)), that none of my friends can do efficiently, digitally. There is a really cool braille notetaker that is integrated with Android, that allows for taking notes in various braille codes (such as for math), but it is obscenely expensive, and is not as well supported as the liblouis package. See: [https://store.humanware.com/hus/blindness-braillenote- touch-...](https://store.humanware.com/hus/blindness-braillenote-touch- plus-32.html)

For the sighted (I am sighted, although I have a functional visual impairment which affects my ability to read standard text), probably the way to go is to use a BraillePen: [http://braillepen.com/braillepens/](http://braillepen.com/braillepens/)

You do need an actual refreshable braille display to do this without audio feedback (via headphones in public).

Usually you have to make a compromise between the amount of braille cells and portability. My usual go to device is the HIMS Braille Edge 40. On the go, I use a Handy Tech Actilino, which has 16 cells and is ergonomic and has an auto-scroll reading feature.

</comment><comment><USER11> Ever since I was a teenager I've wanted a one-handed keyboard that I could use while walking around. Of course, at the time, I also had visions of a battery- powered desktop in a backpack and a head-mounted display.

I recall the FrogPad and other chording keyboards that I can't recall the name of, especially one that had switched _surrounding_ each finger giving 3 or 4 switches to each finger without moving the finger position.

Anyway, even though I never got a google glass, the dream lives on. Except today the input interface that I would choose that's just out of reach is a subvocalization interface.

<comment><USER12> 'Twiddler' is presumably the other one you're thinking of.

<comment><USER13> I tried using it with emacs, with hilarious results..

It is -much- harder than you'd think.

<comment><USER12> I've been gradually working on an emacs-centric layout for it: [https://gitlab.com/emacsomancer/m-x- tabspace](https://gitlab.com/emacsomancer/m-x-tabspace)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> For my windows desktop, I have a StreamDeck [0] plugged into it. It's a 15 key board, where each key is an LCD screen.

It's designed for streamers (twitch/youtube), but has a few features that make it more general purpose. It can change layouts based on the active application, the actions can be bound to keypresses, and it has an SDK [1]. It's pretty neat (although the hardware feels cheap, and the SDK is pretty awful to use).

I've been tempted recently to look into hardware like the Loupedeck CT [2] as a more "premium" alternative, (and I like the idea of using the the dials for strange axes - scrolling tabs in a web browser/samples in a sampling profiler) but their documentation is hidden, and it's almost 3x the price of the stream deck.

[0] [https://www.elgato.com/en/gaming/stream- deck](https://www.elgato.com/en/gaming/stream-deck)

[1] [https://developer.elgato.com/documentation/stream- deck/sdk/o...](https://developer.elgato.com/documentation/stream- deck/sdk/overview/)

[2] [https://loupedeck.com/en/products/loupedeck- ct?skip=true](https://loupedeck.com/en/products/loupedeck-ct?skip=true)

</comment><comment><USER15> Been using a Gergo for well over a year now. I think I might own the first one that was made with the low-profile Kailh Choc switches.

I can't imagine going back to anything else. The low profile, combined with custom key layout (workman, modifiers on homerows, etc) has done wonders for my RSI. Of course, tho "wow, what's that"-factor is also fun.

<comment><USER16> Modifiers on home row has been the killer feature for me. Do you have all four modifies on each side?

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> "But the ErgoDox suffers on massive flaw, the thumb cluster is horrible for the outer thumb keys, half the buttons on the cluster are unusable/reachable and it's got this giant top."

Never used an ErgoDox. How do others find the thumb cluster?

<comment><USER18> I find the thumb clusters perfectly sized and positioned. I can easily hit the bottom four keys on each cluster and can reach up to the top two without issues. I suspect this depends strongly on the size and flexibility of your hands.

<comment><USER19> I have fairly large hands and _could_ hit all of the thumb keys. But I only use 2 so that I don't have any reach or large movements when typing. I agree that it depends on hand size and your preference. Regardless, it has been an awesome keyboard for me due to customizing layout/layers.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I feel like a bit of a weirdo here - I love having a full sized, standard layout keyboard. It makes me move my hands, which helps with RSI-type strains on my hands. It allows me to use the same muscle memory no matter what keyboard I find myself at (I currently have four, two of which are heavily used). And I can find any rarely-used key by touch.

That said, I love the idea of a sub-30g actuation force for a key. More of those, switch companies! And I appreciate that more and more choices are available for people who aren't me. :)

<comment><USER21> I'm pretty hype to try the Keychron K1: [https://www.keychron.com/](https://www.keychron.com/)

I think the "tenkeyless" layout is great: it's "full keyboard" size including the separated arrows block and correctly spaced F keys, it's just missing the numpad section that I rarely use.

It's also the "chiclet" style keys like a laptop keyboard, but with "low profile" switches that I'm hoping will feel good but be less painful than full-on cherry/gaming switches. I grew up on Model-M's, I used to love hammering away, but I guess I'm one of the weirdos that grew to love the feel of chiclet, where I can tell if I've pressed a key but don't need to press it so hard. But most chiclet keyboards are too low-quality with not quite enough travel. Balancing act.

<comment><USER20> Great, a new keyboard rabbit hole to go down. :D

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> My Gergoplex got shipped recently and I'm excited to try it out. I'm especially interested in trying out how the chording might work out.

<comment><AUTHOR> I've had a GergoPlex for a couple months now and love it. It takes some getting use to of course, but I frequently find myself trying to chord on my 60% board and wish I had QMK on it so I could mirror the layouts.

Few tips you may find useful,

\- Practice with it daily. My typing on it the first week was really bad, but with a couple hours a day my WPM went up and now with alphanumerics it's quick. I also do "learn to type" websites to use the lessons to cover the entire board and force myself to do things I'm not doing as frequently day-to- day.

\- Print out a copy of the keyboard layout ([https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rRS_TOYuIQQ/XhRERox3moI/AAAAAAABE...](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rRS_TOYuIQQ/XhRERox3moI/AAAAAAABEB0/uTThutO8H9o8HK- sdNgzOKC1-gIdyEFoACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Capture.png)) and annotate it as you make changes to the QMK layout. I keep it on the desk and use it for reference when learning where the characters are and frequently update it when I change it to better suit my personal layout. There's also [http://www.keyboard-layout- editor.com/](http://www.keyboard-layout-editor.com/) to generate one.

\- Use lighter switches if you can. They work better for chording, and take some getting use too, but your typing speed will increase and they work out much better on a smaller board like this.

The only negative I have with the board, since it's so low-profile and light is that it will move a bit and sometimes the board will rock. You can get the gHeavy case for this, but it's quite expensive. I'm waiting for the day that the GergoPlex sleeve is available which should help with the overall stability of the board, [https://www.hidtech.ca/?product=gergoplex- sleeve](https://www.hidtech.ca/?product=gergoplex-sleeve).

<comment><USER23> I made this app for myself to help me learn my ergodox layout. It's an always on, on top app. One could easily repurpose it for their keyboard

[https://github.com/farzd/keydox](https://github.com/farzd/keydox)

<comment><AUTHOR> This is super awesome, thank you for linking it and going to try and replace the paper layout I have with it tonight.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Wow! I got an original Kinesis Advantage about 12 years ago and loved everything but how bulky it is. I even wrote to them asking if they were going to release a slimmer one at some point. This custom world is new to me though and has me thinking about flex PCBs and 3D printing to get that Kinesis curve feel with exactly my own layout preference... exciting!

<comment><USER25> Google 'dactyl' and 'dactyl manuform'. It's relatively cheap to get the cases 3D printed. Most people are hand-wiring the switches rather than trying to make flex PCBs.

<comment><USER26> I've been looking into getting the Dactyl Manuform for a few months now, but haven't found any experience reports about it. Do you use it, and recommend it?

<comment><USER25> Not yet -- ask me in two weeks!

I found enough reports on Reddit that I figured it was worth trying, and I used a Kinesis Advantage for a long time.

If you haven't used a Kinesis, I would recommend buying or borrowing one first. The price of a KA vs. a from-scratch Dactyl [Manuform] is similar, but the KA doesn't need assembly and is easy to resell if you don't like it.

At this point I have a ton of keyboard parts lying around, I've used QMK a lot, and I have strong preferences for certain switches (which I already own), so the cost is just the 3D prints and assembly time (also low, because I've built a few keyboards from scratch before.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> I really gotta get myself a Georgi and properly learn stenography some day (or rather, some year). You can only get so far by using Plover on a keyboard without N-key rollover after all.

I _really_ like my HHKB, but I feel like a more ergonomic chording keyboard (like the Georgi) will be beneficial for my fingers and hands in the long run.

</comment><comment><USER28> Is there open designs available for inexpensive DIY one hand keyboard? The accessibility keyboards are prohibitively expensive[1].

[1][https://needgap.com/problems/96-one-hand-keyboard- keyboard-a...](https://needgap.com/problems/96-one-hand-keyboard-keyboard- accessibility)

<comment><USER29> Not what you're asking but used one-handed Maltron keyboards can often be had for little money on ebay UK. There's one for 45 Pounds at the moment. Bit clunky and creaky though.

Personally I'd get a Kinesis Advantage with a footswitch. Use one half of they keyboard as is, and the footswitch to change the layout.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> Unrelated thought: I just find it astonishing that it's 2020, we have plug- and-play hardware of every kind, I can wirelessly connect my phone to my car and it just works, and yet every time I reinstall an operating system I have to manually tell it which symbols are printed on my keyboard.

<comment><USER31> Technically, you are not telling it what symbols are printed on the keyboard, but which symbols you prefer to type. Because you can setup different symbols than those printed, which many people make use of.

But sure, having some default-value returned by the keyboard would be sweet, but probabvly also more problematic than helpful.

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> [https://shop.keyboard.io/](https://shop.keyboard.io/) Makes great stuff! I have serial number: 32 of their Model 1 that I purchased on kick started years ago.

The firmware is all open source and audrino too so hack away!

<comment><USER33> Yep, these are awesome! I'm typing on #82 of the first model01 run and it's the first keyboard I can mash on all day without fatigue. I've tried a happy hacker keyboard a maltron, one of the microsoft ergo keyboards, several corsairs and the model01 has bested them all from my experience. For me the killer app was being able to remap the large function buttons (under the meaty part of both thumbs) to the enter and shift keys. Those changes coupled with having the escape key activated with an index finger seriously changed my life. From what I'm reading in the other comments there are other keyboards that might allow the same type of mods but I honestly stopped looking once I got this one. Yeah, I'm a total fanboy, and it should be said that there are folks who were not able to get used to the layout, but for me it was worth the investment.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> Non-mobile link: [https://blog.gboards.ca/2020/01/weird-keyboards- programmable...](https://blog.gboards.ca/2020/01/weird-keyboards-programmable- keyboards.html)

</comment><comment><USER35> I picked up an interesting keyboard for $2 at the thrift shop the other day.

[https://www.prehkeytec.com/products/programmable- keyboards/m...](https://www.prehkeytec.com/products/programmable- keyboards/mci-3100/)

It's a highly programmable and customizable keyboard with a built in magnetic stripe reader. It's got a bunch of extra buttons, several keysets that can be easily saved and swapped. It might be originally a POS keyboard, but it makes a damn fine programming/gaming keyboard.

I'm pretty sure unless you pick it up used, you'll have trouble getting one though. they won't sell it unless you're a commercial entity. If you ever see one of these in a thrift shop or something, grab it up, it's worth it.

</comment><comment><USER36> I just got the last few parts to build a Gergo. I wish I had gotten choc switches for it, but maybe if I ever build another one.

</comment><comment><USER37> I'm interested in ErgoDox, but find it suspicious that the keyboard doesn't have dedicated row with functional keys (F1-F12). If there are owners - what's your approach? Some modifier keys?

<comment><USER38> Pretty much any keyboard without dedicated function keys, you press Fn+number. ErgoDox has similar, except fully configurable. I believe I have F11 and F12 on somemodifier+shift+1 and 2, too. (I personally use function keys so rarely I can't even remember how to type them on my ErgoDox.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> I have a Gergo and a Ginni. A fan of the Gergo (the Ginni is fun), if I needed to go back to an office I'd get a second one

</comment><comment><USER40> off-topic: dark mode makes me physically ill. is there a way in css to disable it for this page (i've unsuccessfully tried some obvious things with color and background, but i'm a backend dev and my FE/css is out of date)

<comment><USER41> This JS snippet brute forces everything to have a white background and black text. Should be able to paste it into your browser's dev console.

        var el = document.querySelectorAll('*');
        for(var i=0;i<el.length;i++){
          el[i].style.backgroundColor = '#FFF';
          el[i].style.color = '#000';
        }

If you don't mind sharing, why does it make you physically ill? I've heard of people not liking it, but this is the first I've heard of an actual medical issue and I'd like to be aware of it when designing things.

<comment><USER40> funny - i never thought about using js, even though when i'm doing webapps, that's how i generate all my html and css. thanks ! and looks like google's official high-contrast extension will do this (i've been wary of using random extensions that do this since they get access to everything)

it's a form of photosensitivity, maybe similar to [this form of epilepsy]([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosensitive_epilepsy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosensitive_epilepsy)). i also don't do great with 3D movies and if I don't have something concrete to focus on ~50 feet in front of me, I'm prone to motion sickness)

while i'm reading the dark mode text i'm generally ok, but when i look away i get scrolling almost-horizontal light-and-dark bars in my vision and extreme nausea for a few minutes, milder auras, cramping and nausea for several hours and don't feel "myself" for about a day. i've never been in a situation where it happened and I couldn't walk away (i'll either lay down or sit facing a blank wall) but I'm guessing I'd get what doctors diagnose as a concussion (i've had several triggered by similar things without evidence of impact)

i haven't gotten a medical diagnosis, but assume it's a combo of being capable of extreme focus (both intellectual and athletic) and being prone to electrolyte imbalance

on my best days, I can handle dark mode for a few minutes without symptoms. and over time I've had more and more "best" days (mostly through managing electrolytes) so possible that i'll eventually not have to worry about it

I appreciate both the query and the intent to act on the info :) Not only for this particular set of symptoms, but more generally - visual designers have wide audiences and it must make for an interesting and at times frustrating set of trade-offs

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> Just wish these shipped with MX-compatible switches. My best-feeling caps are MX, and there's not a whole lot out there that's compatible with these newfangled switches.

<comment><USER7> Some do, take a look at the Ready options for Gergo that can be built with 35g Kailh Box Pro Reds. For GergoPlex and a few others I went with Kailh Choc only due to sizing differnces in the caps, using a hybrid footprint means that chording is much harder (and seeing as vertical chording on MX caps is iffy at best, it makes sense).

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> My ideal would be a Dactyl with palm buttons.

</comment><comment><USER44> Wish I could have a Blackberry-style keyboard for my iPhone, just that I can have the entire screen to see what I just typed.

Anyone?

<comment><USER45> Someone tried to make a snap on keyboard for iPhone on kickstarter but got sued the bejezos by BlackBerry. Yesterday I sold my last Blackberry keyone running android. The're quiting for real this time.

<comment><USER7> Eh, we'll see, I'm hoping we get some news in August after the TCL contract ends officially but I'm not holding my breath.

I'm still dailying my Key2 and have a UniHertz Titan setup ready to go for when it dies. It's not perfect, but it beats typing on glass :)</comment></comment></comment>


How It Works...The Computer (1971) - <AUTHOR> http://davidguy.brinkster.net/computer/

<comment><USER2> Hi, I am a traveler from the future!

My telephone is more powerful than all the computers of your world put together.

I use this power to run a program that simulates a lighter on the screen of my phone.

<comment><USER3> Hi, I'm from superfuture and I can simulate the world of your time in my phone, except I'm still paying 40c per minute for phone calls.

<comment><USER4> And 10c per text message...while the actual cost to the operators has approached zero.

<comment><USER5> Actually in the superfuture the cost is negative; advertising based on the context of recent text messages causes the operator to make a small amount of money (about $.005) per message sent.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I had this book as a 5-6 year old in the mid 80s. It's easy, now, to underestimate the importance of short, high level books like these on the imagination of children.

Is there anything similar today? (That, ideally, is not 99% software or content creation focused, as most introductory computing books I've seen recently are.)

</comment><comment><USER7> Found a copy of this at my Grans house, about a month ago. She had just picked it up at a church book club to learn more about how her (Windows 3.0) computer works :) If only we can get her to upgrade..... alas. She found it very understandable and definitely a good intro to old school computing.

</comment><comment><USER8> I actually inherited this book from my grandfather. It's actually quite a nice book, and for the times, seems like a introduction.

I remember being pretty impressed by punch-cards for some time after I read the book--my attempts to find one at school were met with some quizzical looks though.

</comment><comment><USER9> The first mechanical calculator was actually designed by Da Vinci not Pascal. <http://aleembawany.com/articles/history-of-computers/>

</comment><comment><USER10> I'm pretty sure I can remember this from the early '70 (I was born in '65) - for some reason the bit about Analog and Digital computers stuck in my brain....

<comment><USER11> There is an interesting parallel between the 'bleeding edge' of digital computing and analog computing in the form of propagation networks.

Analog computing never really went away, each and every opamp is essentially an minimal analog computer.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Hehe, I have a 1984 book about computers, with a ZX Spectrum on the front cover. Got it from my dad. It's not in English, though.</comment>


Scientists find way to make water freeze at boiling temperatures - <AUTHOR> http://newatlas.com/water-weird-freezing-mit/46665/ <comment><USER2> This reminds me of an experiment my physics teacher did in gr.12. The way he explained it was that water would boil when there was a temperature delta, so he boiled some water in a test tube, to eliminate most of the air in the tube, and then plugged it and removed it from the heat. Let it cool down and then put it on ice. It looked like full rolling boil. I've never tried it again since.

<comment><USER3> The boiling point depends on pressure. It sounds like he reduced the pressure in the testtube be getting the air out and letting the water vapor condense- then the liquid boiled. Clever.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I wonder if the forced phase-change the confinement causes applies to other contexts? Could we use a similar trick to force superconductive materials into their low-temperature superconductive phase at higher temperatures?

<comment><USER5> Yes, somehow.

What they technically did is raise the chemical potential, mu, of the gas phase (the phase with the lowest mu wins). TL/DR, but I'm not too impressed from a theoretical POV.

The problem to replicate this is "what do you do to raise the mu of the non super-conducting phase?". That's not trivial as many things raise the mu of the super conducting phase instead, like applied magnetic fields.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> [http://www1.lsbu.ac.uk/water/water_phase_diagram.html](http://www1.lsbu.ac.uk/water/water_phase_diagram.html)

Looks like plenty of ranges where boiling water can freeze with a pressure change.

</comment><comment><USER7> Actual article [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13061282](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13061282)</comment>