HTC sold 15,000 $800 Vive virtual reality headsets in 10 minutes - <AUTHOR> http://venturebeat.com/2016/02/29/htc-sold-15000-800-vive-virtual-reality-headsets-in-10-minutes/#labnol <comment><USER2> I ordered one. Now I need to get a new 1000+ € Windows computer as well.

VR lust is insane. The money could be better spent, I'm not sure if I'll have much time to play with it anyway. I just can't help it -- this is the system I've been waiting for since I was 10 years old.

(To be fair, I have a personal company to which I can expense all sorts of gadgets and subtract the VAT, so the impulse buy treshold is much less. If I were an employee, I would have thought harder about it.)

<comment><USER3> Could it be better spent? I'm not an impulsive tech buyer (rocking a 3 year old iPhone at the moment) but I think that every so often, being an early adopter show-off is completely worth the early adopter premium, on top of the personal enjoyment of experiencing a polished breakthrough technology.

With the first gen iPhone, it was really delightful to show dozens of people _the future_. Likewise, I have a strong inkling that the friends/family I show VR to will have their minds blown in a way that will be great fun to watch, providing them and me a lot more pleasure than if we were to wait a few years.

<comment><USER4> The 1st gen iPhone didn't even have 3g, was that really worth it?

<comment><USER5> Yes. Yes it was.

People can wax lyrical all day about how there was nothing technically sophisticated about the phone, but the day the iPhone came out was the day the average user started caring about that sophistication.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Not a bad start for a technology that should have costed less. People complain that this is way too expensive, but every new thing costs a lot even if it is "just a bunch of sensors with a display".

The more interesting question is if VR can fill more than some niches?

<comment><USER7> It's early days. But ubiquitous augmented reality seems inevitable.

<comment><USER8> Why? Do you have any data points why this is inevitable?

<comment><USER7> Nothing profound. Just a sense that there is no real impediment to the progression of technology from today's clunky form factor to something unobtrusive.

You don't have to look beyond the spread of the cell phone to see that there would be a huge demand for an "immersive iphone".

<comment><USER9> Google glasses failed not just for technological reasons. There are lots of people who are just not keen to wear glasses, or watches for that matter. I doubt we will see a future where everyone is walking with a giant cooking pot on their head.

I can see some common usage, like working in a plane. You can face a giant spreadsheet that you only can see. For 3d modelling this will be certainly useful.

Is it going to change significantly our way of life like mobile phones did? I can't see how.

<comment><USER7> You're likely to look back with a bit of a chuckle about not having seen it coming. Just my guess of course, i've been wrong before.

Google glasses were still way too clunky; ubiquity may not happen in earnest until the technology comes as contact lenses. That's still science fiction, but far from impossible. And many of us wear glasses already, so wearing something discrete that doesn't look as ridiculous as google glasses did, would already be embraced.

There is a huge opportunity for such tech to change our life as much as the cell phone. Discrete heads up display with instructions for new objects, forgotten names, dates, places etc.. Beautiful, personalized artwork and decor at the office and home. The list is endless.

<comment><USER9> I am sure that models in 10 years will not be these huge plastic pieces but they will nevertheless cover the eyes to overlay anything useful. I don't like wearing glasses or anything else on my head. I don't think that will change.

<comment><USER10> > I don't like wearing glasses or anything else on my head. I don't think that > will change.

As you get older, you will likely develop presbyopia, and, at some point, get comfortable with glasses.

And for the 30-40% (in Europe+USA [1]) of people who (unlike you) are already near-sighted and are thus already wearing glasses anyway (unless they have contact lenses), VR glasses shouldn't be a problem.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myopia#Epidemiology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myopia#Epidemiology)

<comment><USER9> I was wearing glasses for years when I decided I'd rather not see perfectly and not have to wear them. I only do when driving now. Which is why I am less than excited with the perspective of having to carry more stuff on my head.

And I am sure that many people will.

I am not saying that VR headsets won't be useful. I can see a future when your laptop will basically just be a keyboard, and your VR headset your screen. Doesn't mean you will wear it all the time though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> That's $12 million in 10 minutes. Impressive!

I wonder how many headsets they will sell in the first year, but seeing how much interest there is, I won't be surprised if they sell more than 1 million.

<comment><USER12> I hope they can sell more but the technology is still too new for ordinary consumer. Developers may need to find out more possibilities and functions for it first.

<comment><USER13> Simple: pornography

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> What else do we need to use a VR device? Do they cost a lot? e.g. Film Cameras were not expensive but films were. PS4 is not expensive but the games are. (to me)

<comment><USER14> You need a mean computer.

Otherwise, lots of free room if you want to enjoy room scale VR.

If you want to really enjoy driving games, you want a good steering wheel. If you want to enjoy flying games, you need a good stick. Those two can get up to $200 each.

<comment><USER15> Controllers. People are still experimenting with control schemes, I expect to see lots of different options come out before things settle down.

Software. VR is a niche market, so prices may need to be high to recoup R&D until volume is there.

According to reviews, this is awesome. [http://www.virtuix.com/](http://www.virtuix.com/) $699, plus extras.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I'm not really interested in this technology, but I hope HTC manages to stay afloat. And make a true successor of HTC One M7, which I still use to this day.

</comment><comment><USER17> Are headsets the only path to VR right now? I could see this vastly altering the gaming market, where very few experiences are shared unless a network is involved. But I don't see VR being a paradigm shift on the order of the smartphone unless you can easily share the experience with someone who walks in the room and asks what you're doing. These bulky headsets don't afford that.

<comment><USER18> I own a developer kit (DK2) Rift and AFAIK all games mirror what the wearer is seeing onto the primary monitor. Which is good for sharing an individual's experience, but doesn't do much for group experiences.

I'm pretty excited for more asymmetrical games and experiences along the lines of [http://www.keeptalkinggame.com/](http://www.keeptalkinggame.com/) (which is hilariously fun). I don't own a WiiU, but I've heard it has some pretty good asymmetrical examples as well.

<comment><USER19> The SDKs are starting to support "Direct Mode," which puts the contents only on the HMD, not mirrored onto the primary. That may or may not be optional, and may or may not have a performance hit if you turn it off.

I think something like livestreaming to a Chromecast would be cool.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Are they stil available or actually sold out now?

<comment><USER21> They're still available

<comment><USER22> Are they still available in the same shipping window? I read of some people no longer seeing "Ships in April", but May. I have not seen any confirmation of this from anywhere credible.

<comment><USER20> Still not too bad I guess. I wonder what their total sales dos the day were like.

<comment><USER22> sales *for the day?

I'm curious about that too. The first 4 hours / day seems like a more relevant metric. I was ready when the countdown hit 0, and it took 55 minutes before I could manage to pre-order one.

<comment><USER20> I hear you. I spent ten minutes trying to find the order page. I naively thought it would just show up when the countdown hit 0.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


1 Billion Dollar High School - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/26/business/26prep.html?_r=1&ex=1359003600&en=0fd0874e75738926&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all <comment><USER2> I graduated from a private high school in 2004, The McCallie School, in Chattanooga, TN. I was able to go because I had attended the academic camp(I know, I know. But hey, my mother wanted to keep me busy, and it was better than Bible camp) they hosted over the summer; from spending that time with them, they apparently were interested enough to offer my mom a financial aid deal for me to attend high school there.

Before McCallie, I had always gone to public school in a tiny Georgia town(Hiawassee), so switching to McCallie was a big deal, and a big change. There were definitely some of the things the NYTimes article describes: lots of money went toward athletics and athletic facilities(the US women Olympics crew team trained there), there were children from families of the ridiculously wealthy(most of whom were very nice, polite, and never snobbish), and by the time I was graduating there was a huge new dining hall/conference facility that had been finished, and plans for a state-of-the-art dorm building underway.

But I don't think McCallie misspent their money on those things, at least not in relation to how they spent on other things. Athletics never over-shadowed academics. Most of the teachers I had at McCallie were better than most I've had in college, and I don't know of any public school where I would have been able to receive 5 semesters worth of credit for English classes my senior year. McCallie had a great music program, and didn't skimp on funding for art classes either.

While I was a student, I never thought about the size of McCallie's endowment or how it was used, possibly because I never saw any indication it was being misspent. Now, Wikipedia tells me McCallie's endowment is ~$60 million, and that 85.7% of their expenditures in 2007 went toward program expenses. That sounds pretty good to me.

More importantly, the stats on McCallie's own site confirm what I saw among the student body: <http://mccallie.org/Internet/Default.aspx?pid=336> Almost 20% of students receive financial aid, and there are 55 students receiving merit scholarships this year. At a school where the total enrollment is just over 900, that's a lot of kids who would find their abilities wasted in public schools being given great opportunities.

Sure, "never let schooling get in the way of your education," and other Mark Twain wisdom. But not all prep schools are just comfy surroundings and a well- known name for rich kids to pad their college applications with. Some of them are really great tools that give, and encourage seeking out, a great education.

<comment><USER3> The disturbing part here is that prep schools actually are _good_. If they were extravagant wastes of money, they would be irrelevant.

The reason we have public education is that we're trying to give everyone an equal footing to start out in life. This goal is unachievable, but anything that further stretches the distance between the children of the poor and the children of the rich raises alarm bells for me.

I wish I had a good suggestion as to what to do about it.

<comment><USER4> _children of the rich_

I think it's clear that these schools are using their endowments to pick up smart, but (relatively) poor kids. To a lot of people, that's no comfort, as a cognitive aristocracy is no better than a financial aristocracy. The strategy at the ivies has been to filter for both the very smart and the very rich. This gives _aptitude_ access to _capital_.

If this article was about a high-end public school that got its budget from seized money (eg property taxes), then rest assured that the private-school- educated NYTs editors would have suggested some forceful "fixes" for the "problem".

<comment><USER5> I went to Exeter and Yale and found it the opposite. Yale was smarter and the students weren't quite as well off.

<comment><USER4> What is "it"? What is "it" the opposite of? You're getting a lot of upmods for a very badly constructed sentence.

(EDIT: I guess I sound like a jerk. I'm just wondering actually...)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> The problem I see with my public school is that it glorifies the accomplishments that happen in some academic areas while it de-emphasizes other ares. If there are a lot of Intel semifinalists or high SAT scores, its all over the news, but if nothing big happens, they don't say a word.

It's understandable of course, a school's a business too and it needs money. But the problem is that the school didn't even do anything, it was all the students or their parents.

This is the main difference I see between public and private schooling. Yeah private schools weed out the really smart and really rich but most importantly they gather the kids that actually want to go to that school specifically while public schools just gather the kids that happen to be in the area.

I want to form a startup but my school is offering no help whatsoever on creating a business or in any other way. They probably don't believe I have the ability to make news headlines and promote the school so whatever potential I have is being wasted. One the other side, if I do make news headlines for some reason, they will probably be all over me saying how they helped support me the whole way. Sad isn't it?

</comment><comment><USER5> Exeter's actually worse than the article says. Shortly after I graduated in 2002 they tore up up perfectly functional squash courts and replaced them with new ones. The old courts weren't as big as the new prep school official size, so they spent millions of dollars just to add another foot to the court. The money for the project was donated by the father of a girl on the squash team. He wanted the money to go to bigger squash courts and nothing else. It's his money, so he can do what he wants with it. But I can make a long, long list of more worthy causes, and it's a shame that bigger squash courts is the best he could do. Prep schools and colleges manage to own a portion of your identity, and they are incredibly effective at getting alums to donate money back to them.

<comment><USER7> I actually think the article did a great job of accurately showing the two sides of exeter. Dwelling on how much money they spend on squash courts or football stadiums gives the wrong impression and just perpetuates the common criticism that exeter is elitist. The reality is far from the truth and the article was pretty accurate in demonstrating that.

<comment><USER5> My point was not about elitism ( your right, Exeter is much less elitist than some people think ). My point was that from my experience, the vast majority of Exeter's recent spending has had no impact on the quality of the education. The old student center, science building, and squash courts were more than adequate. The $100+ million spent on the new ones is just over the top. It's a shame that donors couldn't find a better use of their money.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I went to Andover (a frighteningly long time ago). They've recently announced a commitment to go to a "need-blind" admissions policy this year-- meaning that every qualified student will be admitted without consideration of his or her family's financial situation.

<comment><USER9> They may be admitted, but they won't actually go :) They'll get a package with a punishing amount of loans.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> I don't think students need great art programs, excellent music programs, or anything else. Smart kids need a way to live together and away from their parents, without having to stress about how they will feed themselves, dress themselves, or stay employed at a crappy job trying to get some sort of decent clothing and food (or support their parents--not just with money, by the way, but maybe translating things all the time or other tasks). And not be around students who aren't quite there yet... otherwise, these students, the educators, and the students still trying to get to a balance on life all start wasting their own time.

</comment><comment><USER10> I wish all schools were this good. There is no reason public schools couldn't be like this.

I mean come on, if anyone has seen what a public school looks like recently, it's sickening. But I guess the schools in other countries are in more need of the tax money than our own.

<comment><USER11> I went to a public school that was on par with some private schools. It was funded by real-estate taxes (wealthy area). I had a long discussion about whether wealthy parents make the difference in making their children's education a priority - and we concluded that it is the parent's involvement in their children's education that is important (over money)</comment></comment>


ATTN: The user "msgbeepa" Is a Spammer Submitting Paid Posts Do Not Upvote - <AUTHOR>

<comment><USER2> Just looks like a lame self-promoter, not a spammer per se. I echo pg's comment but if something comes along that's actually worth reading, I don't think anything sinister will happen if you upmod it.

</comment><comment><USER3> If anything worth reading came along, I'm not sure how you'd find it on that site... They need to make the content blink or something. Or jitter, that'd work.

</comment><comment><USER4> It's not like anyone upvotes her now.

<comment><AUTHOR> It does generate _some_ amount of ad revenue from the clicks. Just bothers me, perhaps it shouldn't. I don't mean to blow it out of proportion.</comment></comment>


Jazz.Computer - <AUTHOR> http://jazz.computer

<comment><USER2> Stops loading here around 20%... perhaps missing these resources?

[http://jazz.computer/build/updown.js.map](http://jazz.computer/build/updown.js.map) [http://jazz.computer/build/0.js.map](http://jazz.computer/build/0.js.map)

</comment><comment><USER3> Love it!

Running it on Chrome and switching to another tab causes a great effect. Not sure whether it's built in to the site or a consequence of some kind of throttling.</comment>


Show HN: My homemade budgeting site I use all the time - <AUTHOR> http://pocketloot.com

<comment><USER2> Congrats on the launch. Good name too.

I jimmied up my own personal financial system called the No Budget Budget: <https://leanpub.com/nobudgetbudget> (it's the only system that I've been able to stick to because its not really budgeting).

What's Pocketloot's secret sauce?

<comment><AUTHOR> What it does for me is rather than tracking every expense I track how much money is left in my account. So I can be pretty disorganized but still stick to a budget.

<comment><USER2> Ah, okay. I didn't quite get that visiting the site. You need a name that will reflect that, and a tagline that has snap to it.

I do freelance copywriting and if you'd like some free copywriting to help you shape your message, let me know. I'll leave my email in my profile.

<comment><AUTHOR> Absolutely! Thanks for the offer.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


A Productivity Framework for Developers - <AUTHOR> I am a developer and I always feel that I can increase my productivity.
So I am building a desktop app to increase productivity of developers. Need your suggestions on what features can be added to the app?
Share where you waste most of your time while coding.
What stops you being more productive? What tools you currently use to increase productivity?
#collaboration #opensource #productivity <comment><USER2> I think one of the keys is having solid blocks of time, if I have an hour or two without interruptions I can get a lot done.

It's the stopping and starting, people coming by, checking email, getting a text message.

I've been using the tab snooze chrome plugin to snooze gmail so it's only in my tabs every hour or so.

Blocking news and social sites in your hosts file, helps in case you wander over to a time waster of a URL. Mine redirect to Trello.com to remind me to focus.

Also listening to up tempo music with few lyrics helps, listening to a track on repeat can really focus my attention.

I also use the pomodoro method with the Tomato Ticker osx app.

That seems to help focusing on lots of small tasks, if a task is longer than 25 minutes and I'm plugged in I just keep going.

Also sometimes a goal is nice for larger chunks of work, get this knocked out and then get that game you've been wanting, lunch at your favorite restaurant, or take the afternoon off etc.

Most of these are handled by various apps but if you could integrate them together that would be a plus.

<comment><AUTHOR> Solid blocks of time, blocking distractions, music, pomodore, rewards for achieving goals. That sounds a lot insightful. I'm onto integrating the same. Thanks buddy.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I'm not exactly sure what you are trying to build, it sounds a little vague.

But I can tell you which application has helped my productivity the most - Slack. Communication is the biggest roadblock for my developer experience. Unclear specs, asymmetric expectations, etc. Slack has significantly improved the ease and speed I can get feedback from teammates / product owners.

<comment><AUTHOR> Getting feedback faster certainly helps keep the momentum. I have faced this problem too. A clear, contextual and faster communication loop helps. Thanks @ruler88

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> My suggestion is to use it to increase the productivity of two people (you, and perhaps a friend or colleague) and then share your findings.

</comment><comment><USER5> What are you building it in?

<comment><AUTHOR> You mean the tech stack?

<comment><USER5> yes

<comment><AUTHOR> We're writing most of the code in low level language i.e. C++. For building UI cross platform we have tried electron but not satisfied with it and thinking on alternatives like JAVAFX or may be QT/GTK+.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Verizon offers free iPhone 6 with trade-in, 2-year contract - <AUTHOR> http://www.cnet.com/news/verizon-offers-free-iphone-6-with-trade-in-2-year-contract/

<comment><USER2> Yeah, and for those of us that are grandfathered into unlimited data, we'd lose our unlimited contract while upgrading. I'll stick with my 4S so I don't get squeezed per gig.

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't understand this argument. Verizon can take away unlimited data at any moment (and most likely will at some point).

<comment><USER3> I lost my unlimited data plan when I upgraded and got a subsidized iPhone. Ultimately I decided that it makes more fiscal sense to get subsidized phones and pay for upgrading from my 2GB plan to 4GB or 6GB on the months when I go over.

Verizon makes it easy to increase your monthly data allowance for a month as long as you request it before the billing period is over. It automatically reverts back to your base plan for the next month.

They even send you an SMS as you approach your limit. It's as simple as a call or chat through their terrible website requesting a one month increase.</comment></comment></comment>


Your Code Sucks - <AUTHOR> http://www.targetprocess.com/blog/2014/03/your-code-sucks.html

<comment><USER2> Great post! "Try and fail, learn from your experience" is a good motto.</comment>


A Radical Option For Yahoo: Out-Open Google - <AUTHOR> http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/08/a-radical-option-for-yahoo-out-open-google/

<comment><USER2> Network TV is in the process of being killed by vertical entertainment as both cable TV and online video make gains in quality. If Yahoo! beat Google in the vertical search market, it could certainly change the outlook for the embroiled company.</comment>


The History of American Surveillance - <AUTHOR> https://www.revealnews.org/article/the-secret-history-of-american-surveillance/ <comment><USER2> The BBC says that phone calls were also first tracked in Iraq in 2005 during the surge, and that this technique was then brought to the US in 2006; that would be somehow similar with the story of the Philippines as playground for new surveillance techniques.

[http://www.bbc.com/news/world-22804547](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-22804547)

looks like a pattern: the trick is introduced in some far away colony where judicial oversight is weaker, in the colonies it turns out to be a big success; the success story is then used to sell the same trick at home.

<comment><USER3> Sounds like exactly what Noam Chomsky described in Manufactured Consent. Same tools perfected in war and brought back and used at home.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I wouldn't mind seeing sources for some of the theories posited here. For example, I searched briefly for other sites that mention William Howard Taft's use of blackmail and wasn't able to find any. It wasn't an exhaustive search, to be sure, but the lack of information reduces credibility in my eyes.

<comment><USER5> He was overseeing America's counterinsurgency operations in the Phillipines. Of course there was blackmail involved.

        MacArthur declared martial law and implemented General Order 100, a
        Civil War-era directive on the law of war that, among other tough
        provisions, subjected combatants not in uniform, and their supporters,
        to execution. This program forced civilians to take sides and served
        to increasingly isolate guerillas from popular support.

        The United States employed collective punishments that involved
        families and communities.22 Municipal officials or principales were
        held responsible for events that occurred in their towns. Prisoners
        were held until they—or family or friends—provided information,
        weapons, or both. Crops, buildings, and other property could be
        confiscated or destroyed as punishment.  General Order 100 lifted some
        restrictions on courts, resulting in more prisoners being executed.

        When General Order 100 was implemented, it was proclaimed in English,
        Spanish, and Tagalog. It clarified that civic works were a secondary
        priority to "punitive measures against those who continued to
        resist."29 Over time, information operations convinced an increasing
        number of Filipinos that their interests were best served by the
        American administration and not the principales

        The weapon collection policy also merits a mention. When implemented
        in 1899, a 30-peso bounty was initially a dismal failure, with only a
        few dozen weapons turned in nationwide. By 1901, when coupled with
        other successful pacification policies, it was common for hundreds of
        rifles to be surrendered by disbanding insurgent groups. The lesson is
        that any given tactic, technique, or procedure employed in isolation
        may fail, but as part of a comprehensive mix of carrots and sticks can
        be part of an effective program.

<comment><USER6> Source, Lessons from a Successful Counterinsurgency: The Philippines, 1899-1902, by Timothy K. Deady

[http://strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pubs/parameters/Ar...](http://strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pubs/parameters/Articles/05spring/deady.pdf)</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: I have a pretty good idea, but don't want to patent it - <AUTHOR>

Like a lot of people here on HN, I'm very much against software patents. I have a pretty good idea (or so I think), but don't want to go and patent it. I want others to use my idea without restrictions.<p>My main question is, how can I stop someone from stealing my idea, requesting a patent and then force others to pay a license fee to use this idea?!? <comment><USER2> A commonly repeated opinion in startupland is that an idea alone isn't worth very much, and it all comes down to execution.

Jeff Atwood has a nice writeup on [http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2010/01/cultivate-teams- not...](http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2010/01/cultivate-teams-not- ideas.html)

Also, for the cost of an EU+US patent you can probably make a very good start on the actual product, beating your ripoffers by time instead of court.

To avoid _someone else_ patenting it, prove that you had the idea before their patent was filed. I've heard of people doing this by writing it down in a letter and mailing it to themselves. The postal stamp works as a date.

Better, however, is to ditch stealth mode altogether, start blogging from the start. This may get you copycats, but probably also customers.

<comment><AUTHOR> Well, it's not an actual product, it's a method to do something faster. I want to develop a demo and publish it on my blog, but want the idea to remain free.

<comment><USER3> Simply publishing it on your blog describing how it works will stop it being patented as it will be the Prior Art. If you develop any code for you demo you can than choose to license that code under an open source license, BSD if you don't mind people selling something built with your code and GPL if you want anything people make with your code to remain free.

It is worth reading up about all the different licenses to get an idea of which one most closely matches your ideals.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> You just need to publish it publicly to establish prior art.

See <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prior_art>

<comment><USER5> This, but keep in mind that if you reveal how it works or it's obvious how it's working you'll open _yourself_ up to patent trolls, who will almost always have an earlier patent similar or broad enough to sell to a jury. Sometimes it's best to keep the idea a trade secret.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> How much does a patent process typically cost?

</comment><comment><USER7> Patent it and never charge anyone for it :).

<comment><AUTHOR> But that will cost me money ;-)

<comment><USER6> Then license it to recover the costs.</comment></comment></comment>


Freakonomics: Read this if you believe in Peak Oil - <AUTHOR> http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/25/read-this-if-you-believe-in-peak-oil/ related link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/25/opinion/25lynch.html?_r=1 <comment><USER2> There are only two possibilities here:

1\. The more oil we extract, the less oil is left in the ground

2\. The oil supply is infinite

I know which my money's on...

<comment><AUTHOR> I'd amend #2 to say that the supply of oil is effectively infinite as a result of substitutes. We will never extract the last drop of oil because it will be too expensive to do - and as it gets more expensive, the incentives for alternatives rises (as has been the case for every form of historical fuel source - it's probably a good thing for us and whales that we don't depend on whale blubber for light anymore).

<comment><USER3> I agree, but that doesn't really refute the possible gloom-and-doom scenarios proffered by the Peak Oil crowd. Whether or not we slowly wean off oil or experience a chaotic shift depends on the particulars of just how expensive it becomes to extract more oil over time, and how much global demand rises. I believe in the power of the market as much as anyone, but it's not a given that the market will find a cheap, easy alternative to fossil fuels within the timeframe that we may need them.

<comment><AUTHOR> We already have (though it is a fossil fuel) - natural gas ([http://paul.kedrosky.com/archives/2009/08/the_grand_energ.ht...](http://paul.kedrosky.com/archives/2009/08/the_grand_energ.html)) - the equivalent of between 80-120 years of equivalent oil consumption (if we switched everything including consumer vehicles over). Conversion of existing vehicles while not cheap, is still viable and not difficult.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is so familiar. Smart economists tell us that something which seems so unsustainable is in fact sustainable. Remember when we heard that home prices had never declined on a year over year basis and that the extreme price appreciation from 2000-2005 was somehow rational? This argument feels exactly the same.

</comment><comment><USER5> I was hoping to find an intelligent rebuttal of Peak Oil, but it reads more like a hatchet job than anything else.</comment>


Is my $20,000 worth of Paypal gone? - <AUTHOR> 	I had $20,000 worth of paypal 12years ago after doing an omline service since paypal initially doesnot work in my country Nigeria, it was easy for them to give me an account balance of $20,000 hoping it will be useless to me,only for me to try to log in and my access was denied, has the funds in my account and my account subsequently deleted, i tried to log in several time s to no avail. Pls i need urgent advise and help as to this regards <comment><USER2> Start by calling them, I doubt you'll find support here.

</comment><comment><USER3> Give me your login and I'll check for you!</comment>


Optimizing A* for grid maps - <AUTHOR> http://simblob.blogspot.com/2015/02/optimizing-for-grid-maps.html

<comment><USER2> Take a look at Mikko Minonen's excellent open source Detour and Recast libraries:

[https://github.com/memononen/recastnavigation](https://github.com/memononen/recastnavigation)

He does automatic graph construction from dense data. Recast can generate this dense data automatically by populating a graph at voxel centers based on the level geometry, but it can also accept a tile-grid at that point.

It is a terrific system, and if you want to learn about how robust pathfinding should be done in games, you can do much worse that find out how it works.

<comment><USER3> Seconded, Recast+Detour is terrific.

You can feed it raw tris, the same stuff you would send to the graphics card to render, and get out a high quality, extremely fast navigation mesh.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Related to this idea is the "Jump Point Search" algorithm, an optimization of A* which does this sort of straight-line optimization for exactly this use case.

[http://zerowidth.com/2013/05/05/jump-point-search- explained....](http://zerowidth.com/2013/05/05/jump-point-search- explained.html)

</comment><comment><USER5> > Navigation meshes, visibility graphs, and hierarchical approaches are all > worth a look.

Navigation meshes in particular are worth consideration. There is a great reference here [1] from Epic Games about navigation meshes, and why they made the switch from a traditional node-based graph to them for the Unreal Engine. Although for most simple cases, a graph is much easier to conceptualize and implement.

[1] [https://udn.epicgames.com/Three/NavigationMeshReference.html](https://udn.epicgames.com/Three/NavigationMeshReference.html)

<comment><USER6> Navmeshs are pretty common these days. My perspective is that they're much more common for high end games than any other technique (nodes, grids, ...), but that might just be because we use them at work.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> This was basically what a lot of Quake era bots did to improve their AI. In order to find their way around a map, they precomputed paths. Later bots, when put in a map that wasn't precomputed, they would build a similar mapping on the fly, pruning "symmetrical" nodes and therefore reducing their path finding. When the not would discover the location of an item, it would graft that new branch back into the graph.

</comment><comment><USER8> I've been thinking about doing this for procedurally generated dungeon maps. Basically, randomly add some subset of grid squares, then work out naive as- the-crow-flies connectivity between the closest neighbors to generate the sparse graph.

For straightforward corridor and room maps, each corridor/room object just becomes a node.

</comment><comment><USER9> I attempted the recent MIT AI competition, but stumbled at the point where I wanted to build something like the post suggests, except that the map is not initially discovered. :( if anyone could point me to a method for constructing such a graph through discovery, that would be great.

<comment><USER10> Not a solution but a starting point: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D*](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D*)

I used this for a similar problem in my computer science studies. We had a map with an unknown layout of fields, each with a different travel cost and had to drive a tour of multiple flags in the fastest way possible. It worked quite well.</comment></comment>


Ericsson, Apple Settle Patent Dispute - <AUTHOR> http://www.wsj.com/articles/ericsson-apple-settle-patent-dispute-1450700464 <comment><USER2> HN Feature that might be helpful: you can click the "web" link underneath the article title that will launch a web search for the article. Clicking through from the search results will normally let you read an article without the paywall.

<comment><USER3> In Chrome, you can also drag-select any text, right-click and select "Search Google for ..."

<comment> 2Pacalypse- Or drag-select text to the New Tab button. It will open a new tab and search your selected text (unless it's an URL, in which case it will open it).

<comment><USER4> On Linux you can also just select text and middle click on New Tab button.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Ericsson actually made the world's first full touchscreen smartphone in 2000, seven years before the iPhone:

[http://www.gsmhistory.com/ericsson-r380/](http://www.gsmhistory.com/ericsson-r380/)

This model R380 had a plastic flip in front of the touch screen. With the flip closed, it looked like an average chunky Ericsson phone (the keys on the flip pressed the touchscreen). With the flip open, it became essentially a widescreen PDA with mobile data access (although browsing the Internet on GSM data sure wasn't fast or cheap).

The successor model P800 had a color screen and was more pocketable. It was so far ahead of its time that "Steve Jobs was heard raving about it" [1].

Patents aside (I'm not qualified to comment), it's not quite so far-fetched that Apple's iPhone project does actually have a spiritual debt to Ericsson.

[1] [http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/04/sony_ericsson_p990i_...](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/04/sony_ericsson_p990i_review/)

<comment><USER6> Everyone stands on the shoulders of those who came before. Furthermore if you have a good idea the odds are extremely high that someone else has had the same idea. "Inventions" are almost never worth the name. Things generally follow a natural progression (at least in technology):

1\. Some wild-eyed visionaries (sometimes from academia) come up with crazy visions of what computing might be like in the future. This vision is usually highly impractical, requiring vastly more compute power or vastly cheaper components than exist. Further the software is the quality you'd expect from academic professors (garbage) and barely works for a few minor demos. This is the pre-prototype phase.

2\. Someone brings a more realistic version to market. Sometimes the first to market fails badly because they arrive too soon. The product is too limited or the market isn't ready yet.

3\. Finally someone brings a version of the invention to market that is a sellable product.

What matters is execution.

Ericsson had a touch screen phone? So what. In high-school in the late 90s I had a PocketPC predating the Ericsson phone; it was fucking obvious back then that they'd add a cellular radio to it as soon as it became practical (I know, I carried a Windows Mobile phone for a while). They were all garbage. They took no risks. They didn't have the animation or feedback systems that made iOS so pleasant to use. None of them even pretended to offer a real web browser - it was WAP if anything. Everything before the iPhone was qualitatively and quantitatively inferior, even if it happened to have a janky plastic touch screen. They sure as hell weren't running slimmed down desktop operating systems with fully-featured frameworks. They ran whatever software your carrier deigned to offer at vastly inflated prices.

There's a good reason the engineers at Blackberry thought the iPhone was a faked demo. There's a good reason Apple waltz in and completely upended and transformed the cellular industry.

Of course this all ignores that Apple had the Newton because it doesn't matter who had something first. It matters who can productize that thing and sell it to customers for money.

<comment><USER7> > They didn't have the animation or feedback systems that made iOS so pleasant > to use.

Yay, glitter is the only thing that matters!

> None of them even pretended to offer a real web browser - it was WAP if > anything.

Worked fine from what I remember.

> Everything before the iPhone was qualitatively and quantitatively inferior, > even if it happened to have a janky plastic touch screen.

At least it wasn't the capacitive junk that all of them are now.

> They sure as hell weren't running slimmed down desktop operating systems > with fully-featured frameworks.

iOS is definitely not a desktop OS. Where are the files? Multi-user support? Terminal?

> They ran whatever software your carrier deigned to offer at vastly inflated > prices.

As opposed to whatever software Apple deigns to offer at vastly inflated prices?

<comment><USER8> >> They didn't have the animation or feedback systems that made iOS so pleasant to use.

> _Yay, glitter is the only thing that matters!_

That's not what that statement says at all. Modes of interaction need refining. Apple have been doing it for a while. When it was released, it was leaps and bounds ahead of the competition.

>> None of them even pretended to offer a real web browser - it was WAP if anything.

> _Worked fine from what I remember._

Confirmation bias in full right there. WAP was/is terrible.

>> Everything before the iPhone was qualitatively and quantitatively inferior, even if it happened to have a janky plastic touch screen.

> _At least it wasn 't the capacitive junk that all of them are now._

You are probably the only individual alive that is going to argue for resistive, probably because Apple...

>> They sure as hell weren't running slimmed down desktop operating systems with fully-featured frameworks.

> _iOS is definitely not a desktop OS. Where are the files? Multi-user > support? Terminal?_

So the early versions of Windows/Mac OS/Amiga etc weren't desktop OS's? Now you are being ridiculous.

>> They ran whatever software your carrier deigned to offer at vastly inflated prices.

> _As opposed to whatever software Apple deigns to offer at vastly inflated > prices?_

Really? Arguably, Apple sell software at a low price to attract users to it's hardware!

<comment><USER7> >>> Everything before the iPhone was qualitatively and quantitatively inferior, even if it happened to have a janky plastic touch screen.

>>At least it wasn't the capacitive junk that all of them are now.

>You are probably the only individual alive that is going to argue for resistive, probably because Apple...

Have you ever used a resistive screen? But of course, who would ever use a stylus to hit ridiculously small targets without having to zoom in...

>>> They sure as hell weren't running slimmed down desktop operating systems with fully-featured frameworks.

>>iOS is definitely not a desktop OS. Where are the files? Multi-user support? Terminal?

>So the early versions of Windows/Mac OS/Amiga etc weren't desktop OS's? Now you are being ridiculous.

Why does it matter that it's based on something that's ran on a desktop machine, if all the features that define _modern_ desktop OSes are hidden/removed? Other than that it's just a form factor and a meaningless label.

>>> They ran whatever software your carrier deigned to offer at vastly inflated prices.

>>As opposed to whatever software Apple deigns to offer at vastly inflated prices?

>Really? Arguably, Apple sell software at a low price to attract users to it's hardware!

They sell an arbitrary pick of software at a ridiculous markup. But of course, that's great when Apple does it, and terrible when anyone else does!

<comment><USER8> Yes I've owned Newtons, Palm Pilots/Handsprings, Treos and XDA/SPVs all at launch. All had resistive screens, all were universally awful. The stupid styluses were rubbish.

You are confusing what is merely a paradigm (in this case WIMP) with what _you_ think is a modern OS. Tell me, why do I need file system access? Do I really need to manually file away thing in this day and age? Why can I see MP3 files when I'm trying to open JPGs? A phone is a _personal device_ , why does it need multi-user access? Why does it need terminal access, a relic of the pre GUI era? Any counter argument that you come up with I can pretty much guarantee will be an edge case.

Are you referring to the 30%? Go to any other retailer and see if you get that deal. Approval is arbitrary? Perhaps, but it does keep the malware count down. You do know that Google do it to, right? So do Microsoft. Other than that, running your own content delivery and payment system isn't cheap, and neither is managing it, but hey, you keep clutching at those straw men...

<comment><USER7> > Yes I've owned Newtons, Palm Pilots/Handsprings, Treos and XDA/SPVs all at > launch. All had resistive screens, all were universally awful. The stupid > styluses were rubbish.

I haven't tried any of those in particular, but they're all from pretty far before The Capaciting.

> You are confusing what is merely a paradigm (in this case WIMP) with what > you think is a modern OS.

A modern _desktop_ OS, which I'd define as following WIMP. If you have another definition then I'd be very interested. iOS (and Android!) might be remotely based on desktop OSes, but with all the defining features stripped out it's not really a useful or applicable label anymore.

> Tell me, why do I need file system access? Do I really need to manually file > away thing in this day and age? Why can I see MP3 files when I'm trying to > open JPGs?

Because files are a very useful abstraction if you use more than one application, or for moving between them. I don't want to use Okular in particular, I'm just trying to read this document. I should be able to take a piece of data, and the OS should find something that can open it.

> A phone is a personal device, why does it need multi-user access?

It was just an example of something that _could_ be used to differentiate it from something that wasn't "based on a desktop OS". I'm still very curious about where you got that from in the first place, btw.

> Why does it need terminal access, a relic of the pre GUI era? Any counter > argument that you come up with I can pretty much guarantee will be an edge > case.

Because the terminal programs already exist, and nobody has bothered to make a GUI equivalent. For example, I would use my old N900 to repartition SD cards when needed, just like I could on my desktop machine. Niche? Sure, but it was useful to have the escape hatch when needed.

> Are you referring to the 30%? Go to any other retailer and see if you get > that deal.

Why should I have to go through a retailer at all?

> Approval is arbitrary? Perhaps, but it does keep the malware count down. You > do know that Google do it to, right? So do Microsoft. Other than that, > running your own content delivery and payment system isn't cheap, and > neither is managing it, but hey, you keep clutching at those straw men...

As opposed to when service providers ran it? Besides, just because all of them do it, that doesn't mean it's the right thing to do.

<comment><USER8> The last resistive screen I tries was in 2011 and it was still vastly inferior to capacitive. Please display art to the contrary.

 _Your_ definition of a modern desktop OS is just that, _your_ definition. iOS and Android _weren 't designed to be desktop OS's_. The were designed specifically for touch. A modern interface is going to be somewhere in between and, IMHO, closer to Android/iOS.

You still haven't explained _why_ an exposed filesystem is necessary. Apps are aware of what files they can or cannot open and should display only those. Layers of nested directories are completely unnecessary and from experience supporting end users, confusing.

For a personal, single user device, multi user support isn't particularly useful. I suppose a "guest" mode might be. The question stems from this comment

> _iOS is definitely not a desktop OS. Where are the files? _Multi-user > support?_ Terminal?_

As I said, terminals are an edge case and are ill-suited to the mobile form factor.

You don't have to go through a retailer - the choice here is to not develop for Apple. Also, consider the costs of what Apple/Google provide and ask whether it offers _value_ to you, a consideration that arguments like this rarely (if ever) take into account. FYI, bricks and mortar vendors and those prior to the App Store we asking for between 70% and 90%.

Ah, the "moral imperative"...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> The entire patent system has become so absurd. You know what protects your profits? Delivering actual value to customers. It's something you can't patent, and you can't simply corner the market on. You have to fight for it every day and anybody can take those customers from you without recourse.

<comment><USER10> Without patent system, what would stop someone from just cloning the IPhone and coming out with a lower cost version which doesn't factor in all the r&d that apple put into the development of the phone?

<comment><USER11> a giant head start, brand, trade secrets (hardware and software), strategic supplier & manufacturer relationships, strategic partnerships (app developers & carriers)

<comment><USER12> Yes, which is why Apple has such a market share lead over Android.

Being the "first mover" is more often than not a disadvantage, and being one entails taking huge risks. ("Copycats" by Oded Shenkar is supposed to be a good book about this. Google "first mover fast follower" and "copycat innovation" to find additional relevant references. )

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Is there another source than wsj? Not because of the paywall, but because I can't find the 0.5% number in here:

 _Ericsson said that under the agreement it will be paid an undisclosed amount by Apple, along with ongoing royalties over seven years._ ... _Details of the contract are confidential_ ... _Including the new settlement and business with other licensees, Ericsson estimates its revenue from intellectual property rights will be [around]$1.53 billion_

What was the estimation of revenue before the settlement? It could have been $1.52 billion or $1 million.

EDIT:

From the Verge article[1]: _but an estimate by investment bank ABG Sundal Collier pointed out by Reuters has Apple paying out 0.5 percent of its iPad and iPhone revenue._

[1] [http://www.theverge.com/2015/12/21/10633084/apple- ericsson-p...](http://www.theverge.com/2015/12/21/10633084/apple-ericsson- patent-deal-iphone-ipad-revenue)

</comment><comment><USER14> And here's a non-paywall link! [http://www.foxbusiness.com/industries/2015/12/21/ericsson- si...](http://www.foxbusiness.com/industries/2015/12/21/ericsson-signs-patent- deal-with-apple/)

</comment><comment><USER15> _" In January, Apple, which is based in Cupertino, Calif., filed a lawsuit in a U.S. district court seeking a ruling that it wasn't infringing on seven of Ericsson's patents._"

For those curious, I believe that these are the 7 patents in question:

1\. 6445917 - _Mobile station measurements with event-based reporting_ [1]

2\. 6985474 - _Random access in a mobile telecommunications system_ [2]

3\. 7660417 - _Enhanced security design for cryptography in mobile communication systems_ [3]

4\. 8023990 - _Uplink scheduling in a cellular system_ [4]

5\. 8036150 - _Method and a device for improved status reports_ [5]

6\. 8169992 - _Uplink scrambling during random access_ [6]

7\. 8214710 - _Methods and apparatus for processing error control messages in a wireless communication system_ [7]

[1] [https://patents.google.com/patent/US6445917B1/en](https://patents.google.com/patent/US6445917B1/en)

[2] [https://patents.google.com/patent/US6985474B2/en](https://patents.google.com/patent/US6985474B2/en)

[3] [https://patents.google.com/patent/US7660417B2/en](https://patents.google.com/patent/US7660417B2/en)

[4] [https://patents.google.com/patent/US8023990B2/en](https://patents.google.com/patent/US8023990B2/en)

[5] [https://patents.google.com/patent/US8036150B2/en](https://patents.google.com/patent/US8036150B2/en)

[6] [https://patents.google.com/patent/US8169992B2/en](https://patents.google.com/patent/US8169992B2/en)

[7] [https://patents.google.com/patent/US8214710B2/en](https://patents.google.com/patent/US8214710B2/en)

<comment><USER16> I'm not a big fan of patent trolling but I do like to see apple get a taste of their own medicine after what happened with samsung.

<comment><USER17> Schadenfreude may amuse, but what we have here is not even a casino. It is a massive negative-sum (to the non-lawyer participants) game where winning usually turns on procedural points having nothing relevant to do with the actual conflict. (If you disagree, then kindly explain the Eastern District Court of Texas.)

The result is this huge coercion machine that pretty much randomly chews up small companies and rewards attorneys and (somewhat randomly) large ones.

<comment><USER18> > _It is a massive negative-sum (to the non-lawyer participants)_

To be fair, in this case Ericsson is a practicing entity and they probably have a salaried legal staff, so your specific criticisms don't really apply here.

More just general patent criticisms: ease of acquisition, non-specificity, valuation on market and legal leverage instead of marginal value, (if any of the above patents are software patents) software patents in general, etc

<comment><USER17> > Ericsson is a practicing entity and they probably have a salaried legal > staff

I didn't say anything about NPEs.

Ericsson may have a stable of in-house patent litigators; it is one enterprise where that probably makes economic sense (I know Google has their own IP litigators). But most patent litigation that makes it to trial is handled by specialist firms.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Better article without the paywall: [http://www.rcrwireless.com/20151221/business/ericsson-and- ap...](http://www.rcrwireless.com/20151221/business/ericsson-and-apple-settle- patent-dispute-tag17). This is for Ericsson's LTE patents. The number is big because Apple rejected an FRAND license and so willful infringement was on the table.

</comment><comment><USER20> Full unrestricted WSJ article: [https://www.google.com/webhp?#q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsj.com%2Fa...](https://www.google.com/webhp?#q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsj.com%2Farticles%2Fericsson- apple-settle-patent-dispute-1450700464&btnI=I)

</comment><comment><USER21> It's frustrating that sales of a _product_ can somehow be up for grabs over disputes in a mere _component_ of that product.

No matter how good your idea or, ahem, sorry, "intellectual property" is, if you don't know HOW to turn it into a multi-billion dollar product or you don't have the means to do so, WHY should you be able to sledgehammer your way into lots of money when somebody else becomes successful? If anything, years of inaction on your "idea" proves that the idea has NOT been worth all that much to you.

Meanwhile, there could be literally thousands of unique components in an iPad, the products of tens of thousands of brilliant minds, many of whom get virtually nothing. Heck, I give more credit to the tertiary industries such as the people delivering the iPhone packages to my door, than I do to any owner of a patent for a product that they didn't build.

<comment><USER22> I couldn't disagree with you more.

If you don't know HOW to build a multi-billion dollar product without stealing prior work that isn't yours, WHY should you be able to sledgehammer your way into lots of money by preventing somebody else from getting paid for what they did?

Furthermore, a current lack of sufficient resources to pursue an idea does not mean that you never intend to do anything with it. The poster seems to think that the arbitrary amount of "a few years" discredits any prior work, as if it doesn't take people much longer periods of time to get their life in order and bring their life's work and ideas to fruition.

<comment><USER21> One big reason is because the whole _world_ runs on prior work. We have cities full of things built before we were born. We are only able to do what we do now because of massive amounts of work by millions of people who probably did not foresee what all their efforts would lead to. Should we be forever obliged to funnel millions of dollars to the estates of the dead because they contributed (like _so many others_ ) to the success of today's products?

The current system unreasonably rewards _arbitrary_ subsets of the total group of people responsible for making useful things. It also manages to include essentially middlemen in the rewarded set.

<comment><USER22> Something of a straw man when speaking of paying off people who are long dead, versus people are were actively trying to get their products to market at the same time as you.

You also assume that there is an alternative to having arbitrary subsets. We're dealing with the law, which is almost by definition an imperfect compromise that we put up with simply because it's better than the alternative.

Kind of like how some people are arbitrarily thrown in jail, under the same legal system. Without rambling, I feel like you are just assuming an impossible and nonexistent counterfactual.

Furthermore, in this case, we aren't talking about paying off the guy who set up the sewer system 100 years ago, we're talking about paying off the people who had a patent 7 years before you, and you decided to say "screw them" and use it anyways. As if Apple didn't know it was violating those patents? Come on. Why should companies be allowed to operate outside of the system we, as a society, set up?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> As it comes up for every WSJ article, scroll to the top of this page and click the "web" link. It's there to allow you to bypass the paywall for sources which allow Google search traffic.

</comment><comment><USER24> > This agreement ends investigations before the U.S. International Trade > Commission, lawsuits pending in the U.S. courts for the Eastern District of > Texas ...

Eastern District of Texas? Shocking!

</comment><comment><USER25> Considering Ericsson revenue/profit was on the order of 30/1.3 billion USD in 2014, and the iPhone only revenue will be somewhere between 100 and 150 billion for 2015 only and going up, this is great news for Ericsson.

<comment><USER26> Just to be clear: it's _Apple 's_ iPhone revenue that's on the order of $100-150B for 2015. So Ericsson would be getting something like $500M or so.

<comment><USER27> Given that there was a license agreement on the same technology earlier, I think it is a reasonable guess that about a third of Ericsson's profits came from Apple in 2014.

<comment><USER25> That's not a very useful way to look at it. (1) If Ericsson overall costs were just 4% bigger, you would be saying: "10000% of Ericsson profits came from Apple", (2) R&D that led to those patents likely had staggering costs, which may or may not have been fully amortized. It's not just the engineer salaries of those who filed the patents either, likely the whole company structure, buildings and all, were instrumental in getting those technologies developed. So while the cashflow is mostly free, it is not pure profit.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Every company can negotiate the terms themselves, unlike H,.264 where there is a patent pool with MPEG, can a clear set prices.

So what is there to prevent company x paying for 1% of of the whole sale price, while another company only paying 0.1%?

Some speculated Apple is now paying a much smaller %. Which is fine by me because they are like the ONLY player on the market selling premium smartphone. And the total amount will likely still be much larger then other players.

I thought the system using % is kind of unfair, Anyone knows why the telecom industry is doing such practice?

<comment><USER29> I'm not sure what you're using to decide apple is the only one making 'primium' devices but everyone in my family is using a $700+ non-apple phone. So it can't be price.

And premium feature set is subjective at best.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> Actual, actual article sitting behind the paywall for people like me who are paywall avoiding-inept:

[https://archive.is/wrIyX](https://archive.is/wrIyX)

</comment><comment><USER31> The patent system would be a lot better if it didn't protect "obvious" technologies (which in general is pretty much all of the useful technology).

One of the largest problems with the patent system is large corporations try to position themselves as the go-between on some obvious and useful technology. It's not about protecting real innovation to them, it's about stifling competition.

None of the major corporations (technology or otherwise) are innocent here as far as I can tell.

</comment><comment><USER32> I wonder how much Ericsson is paying Apple for _their_ portfolio, though. These patent deals usually imply reciprocity, including licensing fee reciprocity.

<comment><USER33> I'd guess not much, unless Apple has a bunch of cell-tower patents lying around. Ericsson divested from the handset business after pulling out of the SonyEricsson joint venture.

<comment><USER6> Apple isn't stupid... the only way to protect yourself from the patent minefield in cellular/mobile is to make sure you are involved deeply in the standards process and creating your own cellular radios, etc. Then you too can have a huge portfolio of patents to make sure none of the other large players can hassle you.

<comment><USER33> I hope you're also assuming Ericsson isn't stupid either. Ericsson have several (compounding) advantages: since it's their core-competence, they have more people working on RF tech, they also have been in the game for longer[1] which allowed them to get the low hanging fruits and time to get their tech into more standards. I'd guess Ericson has more cellular patents by at least an order of magnitude; likely more.

1\. Ericsson has been in the telecoms business since 1876

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> Does anyone know if all (or a majority of) android device makers have licensing agreements in place with Ericsson for said patents?

</comment><comment><USER9> To get around the paywall just paste the link into google search and click the link to the article from there.

<comment><USER35> If you're logged in, just click the 'web' link under the headline on the comments page.

<comment><USER36> It would be nice if this link also appeared when you are not logged in.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> Non-paywall source?

<comment><USER38> Copy and paste this bookmarlet into your toolbar: javascript:location.href='[https://www.google.com/webhp?#q='](https://www.google.com/webhp?#q=') \+ encodeURIComponent(location.href) + '&btnI=I'

Basically, it allows you to go to a site as if you came from Google. This avoids most paywalls.

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> It would be interesting to know how much Apple knowingly copied and how much is just coincidence.

<comment><USER40> > Mr. Alfalahi described the agreement with Apple as "quite broad" and > covering a number of patents that are necessary for 2G, 3G and 4G > technologies to work, such as the LTE technology that enables fast video > downloads on smartphones.

It was basically a licensing agreement that went poorly and delved into IP lawsuits. It wasn't about Apple copying anyone.

</comment></comment><comment><USER41> Gross. Standards should be open. One if the most expensive pieces of a mobile phone is the wireless chipset. That shouldn't cost more than the cpu/gpu. We live in a silly world.

<comment><USER24> This is pretty gross: "Ericsson has more than 100 patent licensing agreements and holds about 37,000 patents for mobile communication."

<comment><USER42> The expectation at HN is that anything that's standardized is a cheap commodity. Normally that's sensible as standards standardize already existing methods of solving a common problem. However, this case is different as the standard is also the development. I don't know the details, but Ericsson is widely regarded as the technology leader in telecommunications. I'd guess that Ericsson has put a lot of work into all the mobile networking technologies that are standardized and that they expect to get paid for that work.

<comment><USER41> I'd be more sympathetic if there weren't laws requiring adherence to standards.

<comment><USER43> So you just lobby that a meta-law is generated that disallows creating laws that requires adherence to a standards containing patents.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER44> Will it teach Apple to avoid patent trolling themselves, or they'll never learn?

<comment><USER40> What? Apple and Ericsson were having a disagreement over licensing fees. There was no trolling.

<comment><USER44> Was it a hardware patent? All software patents aggression is basically patent trolling.

<comment><USER45> What's special about hardware patents?

<comment><USER44> Hardware patents can be valid.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Vote up if you're rejected but will still proceed - <AUTHOR>

<comment><USER2> Hi guys. Sorry about the news.

I suggest joining my YC alum startup, Xobni, instead. Sometimes great hackers _joinup_ instead of _startup_. That is what Paul Buchheit did : <http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.com/2007/03/looking-for-co-founder-try- attending.html>

send resumes: <http://www.xobni.com/jobs.php>

<comment><USER3> Sorry I couldn't resist to reply. I just checked xobni job page and was surprised that they're looking for someone with C# knowledge. I assume they're building something based on ASP.NET ? (or at least .NET technology)

So right now the list of startup companies that use .NET has grown to 2 in YCombinator? Xobni and Loopt (arguably one of the most successful YCombinator investment).

PG, any thought on that?

<comment><USER4> And consider that they their products thus far are outlook-based. MS does a lot of the work for you if you use their tools and language.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> My business partner and I applied back in the spring of 2005 and were passed over. It wasn't all that surprising to me, based on the number of applicants that the SFP had received.

In retrospect I'm a little relieved. At the time, our company was not really in the state to make a run for a M&A; or IPO exit, nor did it need to. It was only after doing more research that I realized that our company mostly needed customers, not investors.

We've spent the last two years setting up the necessary infrastructure for us to support our customers. It looks like 2007 may be our year. It's been two years and we are still proceeding.

</comment><comment><USER6> Yes, but we're taking a break on the original idea for about a week or so. The yCombinator rejection gave us another product idea; we want to push a minimal version of that out and see how it goes before returning to our original idea.

</comment><comment><USER7> today was an odd day ...

it started out with my site (neurokinetikz.com) winning a webby award

<http://webbyawards.com/webbys/current_honorees.php?category_id=48>

and then ended with a rejection email from YC

odd indeed ...

c'est la vie ;)

<comment><USER8> I spent a couple dozen seconds on your site and had no clue what it was about. You need to focus your pitch and make it more obvious for "old" folks like myself. You lost me as a viewer very quickly.

PS: Lose the obnoxious, animated, poorly incorporated wrt background color GIFs... they gave me a headache.

PPS: Also, lose the first page: you'll get better SEO results & it won't look like it's 1997. ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Reddit has made me wary of vote polls, so I won't vote up. But we are still going to do our thing. I'm looking at the silver lining of not getting in. Moving really sucks ;)

<comment><AUTHOR> Well, I voted you up even though I disagree with your belief about not voting up.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I knew I was a long shot. I had two strikes against me in that I'm a single founder and I'm more interested in building a company I want to work for than in becoming rich at it -- so my interests and investors' interests don't line up.

Of course I'm still proceeding -- Y Combinator money was a means to an end, and not an end in itself.

</comment><comment><USER11> we didn't get in but will keep going; the only frustrating part of our rejection is that ycomb didn't even look at our demo (they would have had to login to do so).

<comment><USER12> Our team had a similar experience. It seems they didnt even look at the parts which didnt require logging in.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> The rejection from Y did hurt for a few minutes but then it is actually a blessing. It helped our team to re-evaluate ourselves. Our background is in medicine. We lack the technology part yet understand the 'gaps' in medicine that technology is needed. It's like Steve Case and his dive into medicine with revolutionhealth.

Anyways, going to give it a go for another program but this time using our strength - medicine. Any hacker out there want to give it a shot with us in the other program application, we have some great ideas that combines the internet, medicine, health insurance etc. Tired of hiring programmers, we need a real partner who can program since my programming ability is still newbish.

Give me an e-mail ;)

<comment><USER14> ping me - theoutlander at gmail ... i dont have urs

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> Of course, my thing is already started, the YC thing was just a last minute deal, I only found out about it a couple of weeks before the deadline. People are interested in what I'm doing, interest is building, and I have a lot of ideas to continue improving it.

I'll still be looking for some cash, though, because development would go a lot faster if I didn't have to work to pay the bills, and it would help me compete against anybody who might be out there to compete against me.

</comment><comment><USER16> I would hope that you would continue working! yCombinator isn't the end all be all, it's not really even what matters. Just make something that you feel has value and hopefully other people will too. I think Paul is a very intelligent guy and I love reading his views on stuff but if you stop working on a startup just because you didn't get his blessing into yComb then you're giving him WAY too much credit.

</comment><comment><USER17> We have been telling this from first, YC or not, we will go for it. We are still in the race to make it happen and go live

<comment><USER18> I think it's important to be flexible though. If an idea does not seem to be getting much traction, you might consider moving on to your next idea.

<comment><USER17> Not really dude, we believe that wasnt the criteria for rejection. We believe in our idea and we will implement that and will go live. Then we will do a soul search depending on how the world reacts

<comment><USER18> Well, yes, you would probably want to see how the world reacts before giving up.

<comment><AUTHOR> If you honestly think PG rejected people based on their idea, I think you're wrong. That's probably the last criteria he used. So, work on the idea. I would reject 90% of submissions, too, if I was running something like this.

For example, with Google, Google AdSense was the glue that made everything work (profitability, great product, many users, good reputation, ability to have free food.) You might say their demo and pagerank was actually important, but they couldn't even sell that for $1 million dollars. Heck, even right now, nobody would buy their original technology as Yahoo! and MSN must have already surpassed the original PageRank in quality.

<comment><USER17> yep vlad. As i told you, we know why we were rejected. so its not the idea

<comment><USER18> I think what's important is to do some preliminary user testing to see if people can even understand what the application is all about.

Of course, if you are trying to keep your idea secret, then this could be difficult to do.

<comment><USER17> Well its ok. We would dare to go ahead and see how users take our model

<comment><USER14> mukund, why don't u ping me: theoutlander at gmail....

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Will definitely proceed because I believe in my idea. I just need to make enough time to work on it, which means finding funding so I can do it full- time...

It was a very nice rejection letter, though. And, I'm consoled by the fact that they at least looked at the website - at least there was access from a Bay Area IP...

</comment><comment><USER20> We submitted way late - literally last minute - but we'll still be proceeding. It's okay, since we thought up of a few more interesting ideas, and a few that would be easier to start first before working on our really big ambitious one. It's amazing how many ideas you can come up when you really sit down and think about it.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I just want to say that there are as many comments as there are votes. This is great! I think we have likely exceeded the number of teams which will have been selected at the end. Those just starting now have months of time to get going. Let's have tons of demos up by June 1st, when YC probably starts!

<comment><USER13> We should have a section to list demos that are up or going to be up so that we can support one another.

Maybe someone can put up something that the audience on here can go on and evaluate what everyone is doing. Perhaps make it 'invite' only to avoid trolls.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> Just to share a little story. I am "stuck" in a foreign country for some strange reasons; one of them is to avoid folks squaking at me for this crazy endeavour. YC would be a good excuse to fly back; it passes off as a job interview of sorts.

I am destined to piss off the older people. Shrug.

<comment><USER22> Where? I am currently in Thailand.

<comment><USER21> japan. on traveler's visa. very, very random story.

<comment><USER23> Really? Philippines here, I got rejected too but it's cool, After much evaluation on my part. My start up needs customers more than investors at this point. And yeah living in the Philippines I have the advantage of lower expenses all across the board. :-)

<comment><USER21> I dunno about the Philippines, but I do know that user preferences in the Eastern hemisphere are very different from those in the West. And if you are developing for a Western audience, you may very well be in the wrong place.

<comment><USER24> Cause the only way to know anything about your customers is to look out the door?

I assume they are american expats...

... or maybe they are developing a product for the 5/6th of the world that isn't America.

<comment><USER21> or they share a similar very very random story.

I presented to a bunch of devs 2 months ago, and despite being senior IT developers, they never heard of digg or delicious. It's not a big deal, but it's hard to get your point across.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> For us, this was just a small step towards seeking out more funding. While it would have been faster and easier to develop and launch with some money coming in (read, one less contract job necessary to get through the summer) that's no reason not to do it anymore.

</comment><comment><USER26> I'm not sure. Without someone to pay my living expenses, I can't work on it full time. So I'm deciding between moonlighting it, or taking a job with another startup.

<comment><USER27> Yes, you can! Save enough for six months to a year in basic living expenses -- that's your seed fund. While you save, keep moonlighting on your project. Your seed-fund will empower you to make the right decision when the time comes (i. e.: When your project gets traction). And you can always do consulting gigs if you need more money.

<comment><USER26> Well, I just finished working out the terms of the job offer from said other startup and I'm insufferably pleased with my negotiating :-). I probably won't have time for side-projects while I'm there, but even if I don't get rich with them I'll probably walk away with enough savings to set out on my own afterwards.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> I'm starting a startup hub in the SF bay area: <http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=11808>

</comment><comment><USER12> Did y combinator even take much of a look at the demo's?

<comment><USER14> No, I think they have been very busy ... besides, the idea has to sound promising to waste time looking at a demo...

<comment><USER29> They looked at my demo. I still got rejected thought. A better question is how many demos they looked at that still got rejected.</comment></comment></comment>


Performance Impact of Functional Programming in Java - <AUTHOR> https://www.beyondjava.net/functional-programming-java-performance-impact <comment><USER2> > Creating a new object is always expensive. Lambda functions are basically > anonymous inner functions. So using a functional algorithm always creates > zillions of objects, adding a lot of pressure on the garbage collector.

If that is true, it means to me, that the compiler is too stupid to transform the code into something, which does not create the same objects over and over again.</comment>


Awesome jQuery File Upload - <AUTHOR> http://blueimp.github.com/jQuery-File-Upload/

<comment><USER2> Yet another nice stab at the problem. But every time I look through a component like this, it simply does not work. The corner cases kill you with end user complaints.

No fault of the engineer: THIS NEEDS TO GET BUILT INTO THE DAMN BROWSER.

Yes. Upload. With an actual progress bar. Built into the app you sit in all day. Imagine that.

Sending messages to a PHP server script so you can have the server tell you how many bytes were sent? Even the dumbest terminals knew how to show a bytes uploaded count with XMODEM in 1977.

Google Music installs a friggin client app to hash and upload your songs. DropBox still can't get drag and drop working and STILL limits files to 150MB if you upload via HTTP.

This is such a basic scenario I simply don't understand why it hasn't been solved. And don't even get me started on the Upload Straight to Amazon S3 via Flash/Silverlight doodads. Nobody can seem to get those working reliably either.

<comment><USER3> How hard would it be to use the FTP protocol for uploads? A couple of browsers have support native... I'll look into that.

Edit: yeah, could probably be done with a java applet, possibly hidden. Not sure if it would get all the benefits you're looking for, but I do know the FTP protocol gives upload progress (at least).

<comment><USER4> For commodity uploading, FTP has firewall problems for too many people. Uploads need to be on port 80.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> We have been using this in production for well over a year. About 300,000 files have been uploaded via this system. It is quite robust and reliable. The only notable bugs are that drag n drop doesn't work on IE and that Safari/Win has a bug with multi-select. Neither are bugs with the uploader but rather browser limitations.

I highly recommend it. We made it our default uploader, replacing both a java applet and Yui uploader. the drag and drop is awesome, as are the hooks for custom ui, pre-flighting, and error handling.

Alan

<comment><USER6> Alan, just curious...how do you store your files once uploaded?

<comment><USER5> We store them on the local server until we can push them to s3. I am hoping to update the uploader to allow posting to s3 upload pre-auth'd urls.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I implemented this in two Rails apps over the last 8 months and its pretty great.

On the first we used it to replace a flash based solution that was causing problems with the Flash 10 release. I had to hack the plugin to handle a case that it wasn't specifically designed to handle in the first one (probably just due to my unfamiliarity with the plugin at that point) and in the second one I had to add all sorts of advanced functionality to an older version of the plugin (v4), which we had used in building the app, initially.

My advice is to make sure to start small (single file upload) and build up, instead of just trying to port your solution over, you might also run into issues with Firefox 3 and all of IE if you go too custom, so keep that in mind.

It really is a great piece of software, _detailed_ version specific documentation and FAQs, and the author blueimp is most helpful and quick in responding to issues on github. I remember a thread with him that went on for days, delving into specific lines of code and why they were written that way and at every point I kept thinking

"Okay, he's either going to cuss me out or stop responding at this point"

but he just kept helping out. Truly exemplary attitude, I can only hope to have half that much patience.

</comment><comment><USER8> I'm amazed that file upload wasn't fixed with HTML5: we shouldn't need piles of elaborate hacks to provide attractive, functional uploads, especially when it's such a vital part of most web applications.

I ended up taking the brutally simple approach of "upload a zip file" to one client, which worked at least!

</comment><comment><USER9> We've been using a version of this for Picplum since about October I want to say. We used something else before but didn't quite like the code. This has been solid for us. Take a look at how we designed our uploader: <https://www.picplum.com>

edit: forgot we made a screencast last month <http://blog.picplum.com/how-to- send-photo-prints-60-seconds/>

</comment><comment><USER10> How does this compare to Plupload? (the industry standard)

<comment><USER11> I'm wondering the same thing... Has anyone also used Plupload? I can't really find anything to say this would be better but I haven't used it yet. (<http://plupload.com>)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Wow! My only feedback is to explain the 'check all' checkbox. It seems to be floating now, without any explanation. Aside from that minor issue, this is fantastic.

Thanks for sharing this.

</comment><comment><USER13> I actually found this uploader quite hard to implement with the dependencies and templates. While it works great as is, customizing it was so painful that I tore it out of my project.

<comment><USER14> Did you try using the Basic plugin? Worked for me with little customization.

I almost didn't use the plugin until I found out I didn't need bootstrap and an entire user interface.

<comment><USER13> I had some advanced requirements and couldn't just throw it into my app in its most basic form. All the requirements for javascript includes blew my mind. I agree with another poster that something like this should be built into the browser.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> This needs an awesome progress bar - <http://swapped.cc/uploader> \- saw this on reddit few weeks ago

</comment><comment><USER16> Nice! Like everyone else, I had a stab at the same problem. Not nearly as slick but might be interesting: <http://www.thebitflow.com/journal.php#photo_upload> (github: <https://github.com/jaimz/file_upload>)

<comment><USER17> I'm a big fan of Plupload - <http://www.plupload.com/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> _444 issues?!_ That's a new record.

Nevertheless, this is the sleekest approach to file upload I've seen.

<comment><USER19> Unfortunately, from the sample that I chose, none of them were actually bug reports.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> I moved to this project after a horrible experience trying to mash together two different projects (one for drag and drop, and one for opening a file dialog on any button click). I was able to replace weeks of frustration in about 45 minutes, and haven't looked back since. I highly recommend it.

</comment><comment><USER21> Great job! Also, thanks for the pointer to Glyphicons. I'd been looking for just that sort of icon set.

</comment><comment><USER22> We've been using this at work. It's very, very slick. Even things like cross- domain uploads using Iframe transport are handled quite transparently. Massive time saver and quite well documented as well.

</comment><comment><USER23> Valums Ajax Upload is also pretty nifty. <http://valums.com/ajax-upload/>

</comment><comment><USER24> Been using this in production for about 6 months and it is the Cadillac. Pretty good documentation, too.

</comment><comment><USER25> Very nice. I will surely use it in my projects! Thanks for this amazing plugin! :D Cheers!

</comment><comment><USER26> Anyone know what browsers this works in? Does it degrade gracefully in older browsers?

<comment><USER27> That's covered here: [https://github.com/blueimp/jQuery-File- Upload/wiki/Browser-s...](https://github.com/blueimp/jQuery-File- Upload/wiki/Browser-support)

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> This is awesome..I have been using this since 1 year..and my users love this.

</comment><comment><USER29> I've been waiting for something like this, good job!

</comment><comment><USER30> This is wonderful. I love the feel of interface.

</comment><comment><USER31> Hmm, this doesn't seem to upload direct to S3?

</comment><comment><USER32> Sweet... Really awesome...

</comment><comment><USER33> This is really nice. Well done!</comment>


TLA+ in Practice and Theory, Part 3: The Temporal Logic of Actions - <AUTHOR> https://pron.github.io/posts/tlaplus_part3 <comment><USER2> Hah, the tidbit about Lamport having a different view from Hoare/Milner about revealing the control state is really spot-on. Coming from a mostly process- algebra-oriented background (CSP, CCS and the like), TLA+ can sound both familiar and alien.

Thank you for the series!

<comment><AUTHOR> As I will discuss in part 4, the algebraic approach most similar to TLA is Ralph-Johan Back's and Joakim von Wright's refinement calculus/algebra. However, AFAIK, it doesn't (yet?) handle concurrent algorithms, whereas in TLA concurrent and sequential algorithms are formally indistinguishable (they are only distinguishable by how a reader informally interprets the formula; see the mention of "processes are in the eye of the beholder" in the post).

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Very well written! I think more CS educations should devote more time to mathematical logic and its usefulness in CS. :)

</comment><comment><USER4> I tried to _quickly_ grep what 1st part is about and then 3rd, but failed. Can someone please summarize these documents?

Edit: oh, there is wikipedia article on TLA+.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TLA%2B](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TLA%2B)

<comment><AUTHOR> As the author, let me summarize. TLA+ is a language (not a programming language!) that allows you to describe software systems mathematically and reason about them, meaning, write which properties you claim they have (e.g., every user request will get a response) and verify that they indeed satisfy those properties. TLA+ is used by Amazon to help design their AWS services. This series is a deep dive into the mathematical theory and design principles of TLA+.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Great series! Thanks so much for writing it!

Noticed a few typos: "there exits"; "adding more states so to it"; "many possible future"; "talking about expression". In note 14, the asterisks are being lost, with the text between them italicized. Note 15 is immediately followed by a comma splice; maybe you wanted "so" after the comma? Note 16 is also screwed up.

(Calling it a night. Will continue at some point. Would love to chat further; email in profile.)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! Fixed. A good place to discuss this at length (or note additional mistakes) is the Reddit link at the very bottom of the post.</comment></comment>


RepRap replicates itself - <AUTHOR> http://reprap.org/bin/view/Main/WebHome

<comment><USER2> This is so cool.

 _what the RepRap team are doing is to develop and to give away the designs for a much cheaper machine with the novel capability of being able to self- copy (material costs are about €400). That way it's accessible to small communities in the developing world as well as individuals in the developed world. Following the principles of the Free Software Movement we are distributing the RepRap machine at no cost to everyone under the GNU General Public Licence. So, if you have a RepRap machine, you can make another and give it to a friend..._

Open-source hardware in itself is interesting, but viral machines? Too cool.

It reminds me of the olden days of bringing empty cassettes to a friend's place to copy some of their music.

</comment><comment><USER3> "But it can't make steel rods, so it's not a true replicator."

... who cares about steel rods. However:

"The next version of RepRap will be able to make its own electric circuitry - a technology we have already proved experimentally - though not its electronic chips. After that we'll look to doing transistors with it, and so on..."

But... it can't make electric circuits?

So now the extended phenotype includes the brain and vital organs too? Basically, all it can make without externally manufactured materials is the plastic joints?

I'll tell you what it can make without any extra help: overblown, undeserved hype.

<comment><USER4> They are iterating. Mock it while you can. It's a good time to say things about how this will never be more than a hobbyist's toy. What they have so far _is_ impressive, and the hype is not undeserved, especially down the road when people realize its significance.

<comment><USER3> Fine. I have a blog, and I have every intention to write books at some point in my life (and even some concrete options to do so in the near future). I fully intend to keep on iterating until I am a famous author.

Would you not find it dishonest if I introduced myself as a famous author today, rather than 30 years from now when I've actually done it?

<comment><USER5> The distinction is that anyone (and lots of people) have blogs. So having a blog is itself unremarkable.

So regardless of how their accomplishment is being presented, they did actually do something of great merit.

I guess the headline is unfortunate because rather than celebrating the technical advancement of hobbyists who share their ideas with the general public, we're having semantic arguments over whether this accomplishment fits a particular connotation of the word "replicate".

<comment><AUTHOR> Sorry, I went for the link-bait-headline instead of a serious one.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> 1st step towards von Neumann Probes! ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von_Neumann_probe#Von_Neumann_p...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von_Neumann_probe#Von_Neumann_probes))</comment>


Making Highrise faster with memcached - <AUTHOR> http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1506-making-highrise-faster-with-memcached

<comment><USER2> A lot of the time, memcached won't make things faster: it's meant to make things more scalable. On small sites, memcached won't increase your speed, but when you start getting lots of users, it's wonderful!

Memcached allows for O(1) lookups. Your database server probably uses b-tree indexes which are great, but they're log(n) lookups. If you aren't dealing with a large number of hits per second, your database will do very well. Once you start getting a lot of lookups per second n * log(n) starts looking a good bit slower than n * 1.

Memcached also allows you to scale effortlessly simply by adding servers. Databases can do replication, but only to a point. Remember, even in multi- master replication schemes, every write must be done on every server. Memcached shards your data so that the writes are only done on one server and the load is distributed and knows where to read based on the hash. And every time you're able to read from memcached, you're lowering the load on the piece that is less easily scaled - your database. So, even non-cached loads should get better simply because some of the lookups that would have gone to the database are now hitting memcached.

<comment><USER3> _Memcached allows for O(1) lookups. Your database server probably uses b-tree indexes which are great, but they're log(n) lookups._

A B-tree lookup also requires reading from the harddrive, which can require a _lot_ more time than reading from memory.

<comment><USER2> Why? There's no reason that a b-tree must be stored on a hard drive. In fact, there's no reason why MySQL can't exist entirely in memory for read purposes (clearly you want writes written to the disk). I'm not going to comment on configuring specific databases, but there's nothing about b-tree data structures that means you couldn't create an entirely in-memory data store that used b-tree indexes.

The difference between disk and memory storage is MemcacheDB and memcached. RDBMS love to leave stuff in memory if they can and that makes the reads skip the harddrive.

<comment><USER3> You are technically correct. My words were imprecise -- indexing into a B-tree does not _require_ accessing the harddrive. But it is a rather large _possibility_ , and it's something to be aware of. From Wikipedia ( <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-tree> ):

 _"B-trees have substantial advantages over alternative implementations when node access times far exceed access times within nodes. This usually occurs when most nodes are in secondary storage such as hard drives. By maximizing the number of child nodes within each internal node, the height of the tree decreases, balancing occurs less often, and efficiency increases. Usually this value is set such that each node takes up a full disk block or an analogous size in secondary storage. While 2-3 B-trees might be useful in main memory, and are certainly easier to explain, if the node sizes are tuned to the size of a disk block, the result might be a 257-513 B-tree (where the sizes are related to larger powers of 2)."_

So yes, "there's no reason that a b-tree must be stored on a hard drive". There's also no reason why a car couldn't also have a built-in toaster. :) As far as in-memory data structures go, there are better choices than B-trees. Why use a suboptimal data structure?

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> _People are not going to feel the difference between a page rendered in 50ms and one rendered in 100ms._

I don't think that every 50ms difference is unimportant, but the difference between a 50ms render time and 100ms render time may be unimportant. Anyone have a feel for what the maximum render time is for a page to feel fast?

<comment><USER5> One thing they're missing here is that optimization is also about optimizing resources, not just the speed of an individual request/response cycle. If each request takes 50% less time, the app has 100% more resources to handle other requests. So even though the individual users don't feel a difference, the app as a whole is much more efficient.</comment></comment>


Show HN: HTML5 MMORPG – almost 7 years in the making - <AUTHOR> https://data.mo.ee/index2.html?hackernews=1 <comment><USER2> I like the game and it is very impressive from a development perspective, but the amount of chat moderation combined with the slow (by design, probably) pace of the game made me stop playing. Might pick it up again, however.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you for trying! We do offer different public chat channels that have different rules, channel 18 has quite relaxed rules compared to other channels. If you are willing to spend 5$ once you can get your own private channel where you can decide the rules and invite who you like and make them moderators etc.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Do you mind sharing the technology stack used? It's very inspiring.

<comment><AUTHOR> Frontend is mostly custom made things, but we do use handlebars templates for views.

Backend is node.js based.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Looks like that was a lot of work. Will try more later.

<comment><AUTHOR> It has been, we are still very actively doing updates. Small team of 2 people.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Very reminiscent of RuneScape.</comment>