Silicon Valley Observation: the Problem with VCs Goes Beyond the Market - <AUTHOR> http://siliconangle.net/ver2/2009/10/09/silicon-valley-observation-the-problem-with-vcs-goes-beyond-the-market/ <comment><USER2> He started out like he was about to say something but then he drowned himself in silicon valley business speak. See:

"With quality people at the center of the Real-time equation, the new model for venture development is about being open and leveraging data for real time decision making to rapidly invest and build ventures. It's a speed game. It's a big opportunity. No one has cracked the code on this yet."

Hmmm ...

<comment><AUTHOR> When you're talking about business, sometimes it's appropriate to talk in business-speak.

It is true, though - with innovation outpacing business much of the time, there is truth to that. The landscapes of tech shift daily, and I don't see many VCs with their fingers on the pulse of those shifts. Some, but not many.

<comment><USER3> "Business speak" as a term doesn't mean the useful business speak of increasing revenues, lowering costs, serving customers, pressuring suppliers, etc. It means things like "leveraging data," "strategic synergies," etc.</comment></comment></comment>


Hard figure losses: 6 months running StrikeSapphire Bitcoin casino. - <AUTHOR> http://www.casinomeister.com/forums/blogs/jstrike/286-how-start-casino-lose-money.html

<comment><USER2> That's a sad story. Keep at it!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. It's not that sad, is it? I'm not unhappy about it. It's probably the hardest project I can think of trying to start...and I didn't expect instant success.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: Why is HN not mobile friendly yet? - <AUTHOR> I know this gets asked all the time, but to me, the more the question is asked, the more meaningful the lack of response is.
Why isn't HN updated for viewing on a mobile?
- I would wager a vast number of users use their mobile to view the site (or at least want to) - The change required is tiny; I'm sure even I'm this thread someone will be able to propose the optimal change to make. - Varied screen sizes are not going to go away so the change needs to be made at some point - It seems fundamentally against the ethos of a company like YC to not adapt to the changing needs of their user base
I'm sure there are more, but I think that is enough.
Can someome explain to me (and the others asking) why this hasn't already been done and, more importantly if this will ever happen? <comment><USER2> Yes, it will happen. Yes, we're working on it. The reasons it's taking so long are: (1) the change required is not tiny; and (2) everyone working on it has many other things to do, most of which are more pressing.

That doesn't make it a low priority (it's a high priority), but it means we have to do it as a background process.

<comment><AUTHOR> I know that you must be sick writing that response, and I'm sure I'm missing the complexity somewhere, but it's been put off for years now.

Maybe the conflict is that you want to do everything in a big step; making vote buttons etc more accessible, but there are some quick changes (I mean maybe 2 lines added to the style sheet which surely is one file?) that would make a vast improvement at least to our ability to use HN on our phones.

If you guys are lacking time, I'm sure that there are some companies out there who would love the kudos of some pro bono work.

<comment><USER3> If only there were some way to make source code accessible to the general public, and to allow people to... i don't know, "request" various changes be... "pulled" into the codebase?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> > _The change required is tiny; I 'm sure even I'm this thread someone will be > able to propose the optimal change to make. _

Apparently, it's not tiny, which was the response that came up the last time.

...the last time was about two years ago: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7330107](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7330107)

They did roll out a tiny mobile fix in March: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9206427](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9206427)

<comment><USER5> The site would be dramatically more mobile friendly with the addition of 2 css rules: textarea { width: 100%; } table { width: 100%; }

So it doesn't seem like the problem is completely insoluble.

</comment></comment><comment> d--b Maybe, YC is trying to teach you something about product building. Something like: "we don't make our site mobile friendly because the content is so good that people still use it on their phone even if they have to zoom in a little. The day when people stop coming to hacker news or apply to YC because it's not mobile friendly, then we might do something about it. Otherwise it's just a waste of time and money for us." In other words: don't rush into building everything people ask you to do, they might not really need it.

It's probably not what they intend to do... But still worth thinking about ;)

<comment><USER6> In general, this is a very valuable lesson in software. it's easy to wish but often a wish is very different than a need. with limited resource, each move much gain you some real advantage, like in chess.

In this particular case, I am bit more reserved : why not ask a (well-known) contractor ? I am pretty sure pg just have to ask to get tens of high caliber lisp hacker proposals.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I've found this site as one of the easier to use ones on mobile?

<comment><USER8> Exactly. As far as I'm concerned, HN IS (!!!) mobile friendly. I'm so sick of the garbage mobile formatting that is ubiquitous these days. Give me a clean desktop version any day. Pinch to zoom FTW. 2009 was way easier to browse on the iPhone than 2015, what happened? Granted, there is an occasional gem but they are the rare exception. Perhaps bump the frontsize up a bit, but I don't see how HN could really be mobile 'optimized' in a good way.

<comment><USER9> Have my upvote for your opinion.

Problem is, that you're basically "forced" to produce a mobile site by Google, otherwise you'll be way down in the SERPs :(

I never understood the point of mobile sites - i'm perfectly capable of pinching my screen, in case something is unreadable (which isn't too much, given retina screens and all that...)

<comment><USER8> Just expounding... Take for example epicurious.com: super useful reference I've used for over a DECADE. I had no problems using it on my mobile/tablet devices, ever.. Until the mobile rewrite earlier this year. Rendered almost USELESS! If there was only an 'old version' button...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> In the meanwhile, this is super mobile and tablet-friendly: [http://cheeaun.github.io/hackerweb/](http://cheeaun.github.io/hackerweb/) I've been using it for more than a year now and I nearly never visit it Hacker News directly on mobile.

<comment><USER11> Have a look at this too - [http://hn.premii.com/](http://hn.premii.com/)

<comment><USER12> There is also an Android app by this premii person, and it re-directs all links through its own domain. Very annoying and actually borderline malicious.

<comment><USER13> Speaking of Android, after looking through the available apps I decided to release my own as open source. It's lightweight and has a focus on usability, check it out :)

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co.adrianblan....](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co.adrianblan.cheddar)

<comment><USER14> I'm counting at least 12 HN apps on Google Play. What does your own has that the others don't?

<comment><USER13> Trust me I've tried them all, and I still felt that I needed to develop my own out of necessity. I'm studying interaction design, so something which is usable is really important to me.

I would argue that every app I used had minor issues which evolved into major issues over time. Poor visual design, visibility and readabilty, too cluttered or unintuitive, etc. I set out for the app to do one thing, and excel at it without issues.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I use [http://cheeaun.github.io/hackerweb/](http://cheeaun.github.io/hackerweb/)

Some time ago Hackernews was mobile ready for a short time, there were a lot of complaints (I can't find the thread at the moment). I guess the HN philosophy is to keep it as basic and simple as possible and leave the rest to 3rd parties.

</comment><comment><USER16> I miss easy navigation features of a desktop browser when opening HN website in mobile browsers.

My flow is - I go through the submissions in a page, and when I like one, most of the time I open the story and its comments page both - in separate tabs. I read the story first and the switch to the next tab to read the comments. When I have completed all the tabs, I go to the next HN page. In mobile it's pretty cumbersome to navigate among tabs.

I seldom use the mobile site, I find the HN reader app by premii[1] the best suited for me.

[1] [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.premii.hn](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.premii.hn)

</comment><comment><USER17> [http://ihackernews.com/](http://ihackernews.com/) is a suitable alternative that's mobile friendly.

</comment><comment><USER18> with a few css media query rules it would be usable. I always wonder the same.

</comment><comment><USER19> Anytime they try to make changes there are hundreds of complaints about those changes.

Many people on mobile only want a bit more separation between the vote buttons. That would make accidental downvotes harder, and would encourage upvoting.

Personally, I'd like text that was a bit larger and text that reflowed, but I know other people might hate that.

</comment><comment><USER20> I wonder if mobile web is really ready. I think on mobile, people prefer the fullness that comes with native apps, including UI features like back/undo on Android, which is maybe why 37 Signals, once a staunch advocate of mobile web apps, decided to release native versions of their app after a few years. In default mobile browsers, the back button is not the same thing as "undo" in Android.

</comment><comment><USER21> I'd be happy to help with this, and I'm surely not the only one. Then again, I'm sure that lack of bandwidth isn't the reason.

</comment><comment><USER19> One change that could be made is to wrap very long unbroken lines.

Visiting /comments when someone has left a post with a very long unbroken line will break the site.

Browsers are oddly broken for mobile. Here's what text entry looks like on Chrome for iOS - [http://imgur.com/gjLdS6A](http://imgur.com/gjLdS6A)

</comment><comment><USER22> The change should be done in the browser. It's just dumb that we don't have reflow in Firefox mobile. Chrome seems to do it fine (but lack of adblock makes it my non default browser).

News.yc is a simple, easy site. Browsers should just work on it.

<comment><USER23> Making a one-column text-only website work on mobile is trivial with a meta tag and a few lines of CSS.

<comment><USER19> There are two columns: one for the text and one for the vote buttons. Does that affect your version?

(What are those few lines of CSS btw?)

<comment><USER23> On such a simple site it's enough to set max-width on the whole body and maybe adjust a few elements such as the comment input box.

These max-widths etc. can be different based on available screen width: [https://css-tricks.com/css-media-queries/](https://css-tricks.com/css-media- queries/)

The meta tag can be used to set viewport width to device screen width. Without it, the mobile browser doesn't know what minimum screen width the webpage requires, so it assumes 800px (or 1024px), because rendering a random website with viewport width of 240px is not a good idea even in 2015.

My point is, browsers should be doing what the website code tells them to do. Websites that display nicely on desktop computers usually display fairly nicely on mobile as well. But HN shows 20-30 words per line on desktop, which is... suboptimal for readability, so it's only expected that mobile browsers produce similar results.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> I'm not sure about HN's reason, but I've found the Boreal app for iOS to be a great responsive solution for reading HN. The dev's are responsive and their app has me here more often now because of it.

</comment><comment><USER25> Hacker News(YC) is a fully featured free app for iOS. It allows for commenting, upvoting and submitting news. Not sure about Android though. Not sure what %age of junta use the web version on mobile?

</comment><comment><USER26> If you're on iOS and want an app I would suggest Akepa. Amazing app.

</comment><comment><USER27> There is a ton of HN apps on Android, but all I want is the ability to post comments, post stories, and possibly support the Android share API so I can just send URLs to HN directly from Chrome.

<comment><USER28> "Yarn for Hacker News" can both comment and post from Android devices. And using the browser share bottun, you can post stories to HN. Also can open comment links from other apps. It's very useful, but only hope it would be able to change font size. [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=au.com.timmutt...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=au.com.timmutton.yarn)

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> I have installed UC Browser on my android just for HN. Double tap for zoom and the text adjusts to the width.

Older versions of android stock browser used to act this way, but latest chrome on android does not.

</comment><comment><USER30> There's a few mobile-friendly versions of Hacker News, using the API. I prefer [http://hn.premii.com](http://hn.premii.com)

</comment><comment><USER31> Thanks for the boreal reference. Finally an app that can actually login an post comments. Beautiful app so far. Though I can't find the reply to comment option.

<comment><USER31> My bad, found it. Swipe left on a comment to reply. Nice.

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> I asked a long time ago about open-sourcing the front-end, and was brushed off. It'd get done a lot faster if you allowed experienced users to help.

</comment><comment><USER33> HN is written in an obscure variant of Lisp, perhaps that is the problem? There's been practically zero development since the site was created.

</comment><comment><USER34> Because its not made for mobile? It demands we sit at our Desktops and Start workstation and explore!

</comment><comment> Squir-Rel Responsive design to adjust column width might be useful.

</comment><comment><USER35> there's (at least one) great app.</comment>


Artistic fork() bomb implementation - <AUTHOR> http://www.digitalcraft.org/?artikel_id=292

<comment><USER2> My wife made me a T shirt with this thing on it.

This is as old as the shell, although most implementations I've seen use a '_' for the function name instead of the colon. Maybe the update is more smilified for modern eyes? Meh.

</comment><comment><USER3> I recall an infosec researcher used to have this as their signature. I'm not sure how to get google to help me find it though...

[http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&as_qdr=all...](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&as_qdr=all&q=%3A%28%29%7B+%3A%7C%3A%26+%7D%3B%3A&btnG=Search)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> If you're impatient, scroll down to the "Chaos" section and follow the instructions. Don't do it on your critical production machine. :)

<comment><USER4> Hopefully your production machine has set limits on the number of processes a user can create.

Still, it is a pretty fork bomb.</comment></comment>


Sweet.js – Hygienic Macros for JavaScript - <AUTHOR> https://www.sweetjs.org/ <comment><USER2> The last thing the JS community needs is macros IMO. From what I've seen in other languages, macros are difficult to maintain and document, and they add syntax constructs to languages that aren't supported by code highlighters. The difference between this and babel, is documentation. Babel is working off of a specification of how the language should work, whereas I doubt someone will document their macros as well as TC39 does the JS syntax

<comment><USER3> Every language benefits from macros, and certainly JS.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Coming from a Scheme background, if there's one thing I can't believe we live without in Javascript, it's macros. Hell even C has macros... I've looked at Sweet.js a few times to add support for macros to the Linode Manager. Between m4, the gcc preprocessor, and something native, this seemed like the easiest potential sell. However, I've been turned off by how complicated this looks compared to any of the other options and I'm not sure it actually even supports the feature I want: allow some code to show up in "development" mode but for that code to not even exist in the compiled output of "production" mode. (The other feature that's just as important though is being able to wrap shared code up in a single function that gets compiled in at compile time, but I think Sweet.js supports that.)

<comment><USER5> Who uses m4? It has been around forever, but I have never really seen it used except in autoconf. When I looked at it (a long time ago) it struck me as really tricky and confusing, even more than lisp macros (but maybe on a par with TeX). However, this was just a first impression -- I didn't go too deep.

<comment><USER6> I once learned a lot about m4; more than twenty years ago. I remember all the features it has, like redefining the delimiters for macros, diversions, for loops and all that jazz.

So it's not due to lack of familiarity that I won't use it; it is simply atrocious.

Recently I needed a preprocessor (featuring just simple if/ifdef/elif/endif) in a Linux distro build system (Yocto). I didn't want to add anything new.

To avoid inflicting m4 on myself and everyone who has to interact with this in the future, I wrote a simple awk script wrapped around cpp.

The tiny awk script implements this pipeline, which involves encoding and decoding the input so that cpp never sees the syntax of the file:

      this is our                1                         1             this is our
      original                   2                         2  --> [dec]  original
      @ifdef FOO    --[enc]-->   #ifdef FOO  --[cpp]-->    6             file
      input                      4
      @endif                     #endif
      file                       6

this works with nearly any textual input. Your input can contain broken C tokens and comments and whatnot.

I switched the # to @ to remind people that this isn't the C preprocessor, and because # is a comment character in the preprocessed language, which could look confusing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The in-the-wild code I've seen that uses Sweet.js has been atrocious. Of course I'm not saying that this is necessarily the case. I'd love to see some real world examples whter this is used effectively.

<comment><USER8> Separately, could you point to some examples of the bad Sweet code you've seen? If it's anything like C macro misuse, it'll at the very least be educational to see just how badly one can shoot oneself in the foot.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> We were looking into sweetjs for adding cross-module contracts to the graphistry stack, but nixed the project when it became too much to generate code that passed our basic linters. TS largely scratches that itch, so we've been moving to that. I'm still hopeful though :)

</comment><comment><USER10> I personally prefer MetaScript [1] as it's comment based so JavaScript highlighters/linters don't have issues with it.

It is also essentially JavaScript so no special syntax had to be learned.

[1] [https://github.com/dcodeIO/MetaScript](https://github.com/dcodeIO/MetaScript)

</comment><comment><USER11> this is already covered in basically any AST transform systems (babylon, acorn, TS...)

<comment><USER12> I believe that Babel lacks custom infix operators whilst Sweet.js provides them.

<comment><USER8> You're absolutely right; Babel's parser is very much hand-coded, and adding syntax requires deep knowledge of the internals. Not impossible, but not for the faint of heart. My dreams of having the safe navigation operator from Coffeescript (a?.b?.c) must yet remain unfulfilled...

[https://github.com/babel/babylon/blob/master/src/parser/expr...](https://github.com/babel/babylon/blob/master/src/parser/expression.js#L461)

<comment><USER13> > My dreams of having the safe navigation operator from Coffeescript (a?.b?.c) > must yet remain unfulfilled...

Not for long: [https://github.com/babel/babel/pull/5813](https://github.com/babel/babel/pull/5813)

<comment><USER8> You just made my day :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Can someone please explain macros, in an easy to grasp way?

<comment><USER15> Say you're creating a programming language and you know everyone is going to love it and use it. You add some nice features like if statements, switch statements, and for loops which allow the people that use your language to decide when certain code runs and shortens the syntax for common patterns.

Five years down the line your language is losing popularity fast, because all the hip new languages have an "unless" statement which is the opposite of an if statement. They have for-each loops, cond statements, and their if/else statements return values, so you can write less code to do those common patterns in those new languages than your language.

You rewind time 5 years using a time machine and this time, when you create your langauge, you add all those cool features, only to realize in another 10 years your language has lost popularity because there's a new set features they want, lambdas, argument piping, etc.

So this time when you go back in time, you add macros to your language. Macros are bits of code that allow people using your language to write code that produces more code. Now, you don't even have to write an unless statement, you can let the community write one for you and release it as a package. Anyone at any time can effectively add features to the language in their own project.

That sounds fantastic, and it often is, but macros need to not be abused. If a developer writes a bunch of code using lots of his own macros in your language, anyone reading that code later is going to be very confused seeing that many language features that aren't in the language docs, because that random developer wrote them himself. Functions are much more explicit than macros, so if you can write whatever you're trying to write as a function instead of a macro, you'll be better off. For every success story of a language becoming easier to use because of macros, there's another story of a different language becoming frighteningly complicated due to macro abuse.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> What would hygienic mean in this context?

<comment><USER17> Not C macro-like source code manipulation as dummy string but as more smart structure like AST.

</comment></comment><comment> d--b Also known as: 'how to build your own javascript dialect that you won't be able to hire for'</comment>


Predictions for 2010 - <AUTHOR> http://sites.google.com/site/yacoset/Home/predictions-for-2010

<comment><USER2> "...after it's discovered that the entire banking industry is held together with Visual Basic 6 and Excel macros."

This is truer than anyone here would like to admit...

<comment><USER3> Insurance and healthcare information systems too.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I was disappointed at first to see that the predictions for 2010 from (google.com) were actually some guy's sites.google.com site with "funny" fake predictions. I decided to humor the guy and I wasn't completely disappointed. #3 made me laugh.

<comment><USER5> I personally thought these were hilarious (esp #1).

You bring up a good (if slightly offtopic) point. There should be something to differentiate sites.google.com pages from those officially published by Google. Just add the "sites." so we know the difference.

<comment><USER6> This has been asked for again and again. Apparently whoever maintains this site is busy with something more important. Huff.

<comment><USER7> This is done manually by pg for subdomains on many other sites; this is just one he missed. You could point it out to him by email if you want.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> 17\. Inane shite will still make it to the Hacker News front page.

<comment><USER9> Thats not a prediction, it happened in 2009.

<comment><USER10> "All this has happened before, and all this will happen again."

<comment><USER11> 18\. Anthropologists find genetic and archeological evidence that ancestral man once flew between the stars and listened to Lenny Kravitz. A huge post-hoc revision in a popular sci-fi series replaces "All along the watchtower" with "Are you gonna go my way?" and comes out better for some weird reason.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> "8. The TARP bailout is extended to Microsoft after it's discovered that the entire banking industry is held together with Visual Basic 6 and Excel macros."

That second part is eerily accurate.

<comment><USER13> I would have added "Microsoft then gives the money back after realizing that accepting it requires them to support VB6 in perpetuity."

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> _"Somebody then does the obvious and ... gets one bunch of monkeys to write code and uses the second bunch to test it. A reasonably good clone of Windows 7 is banged out over 8 months with a budget of about $4,000"_ My favourite line.

</comment><comment><USER15> "XML will continue to be a better choice than JSON or YAML for the same reason that McDonalds is a better choice than Arby's or Hardees"

I'm not quite sure what he's driving at here...

<comment><USER16> That they all kinda suck?

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> The sad fact is I'd actually buy an OS/2 Phone.

(It's true. More than a decade after the @#%$ that was Windows '95 beat us and I still can't let it go)

</comment><comment><USER13> This is probably more accurate than most predictions you'll read elsewhere.

For what it's worth, the author of this is clawrencewenham on HN, a consistent source of good content.

<comment><USER18> Not sure this is correct procedure, exposing the privacy of a HN fellow. I personally would have second thoughts posting that.

<comment><USER13> He's posted several of his own articles before and acknowledged them as such (which is the only reason I know it's his!). I just wanted to make sure he gets proper credit.

cf. <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=754119>

<comment><USER18> Ah, good to know :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I liked most of it except for the blind Windows hate on the last one. I especially liked the XML one.

</comment><comment><USER20> The (google.com) ending is a little misleading since it's just someone's hosted site on sites.google.com. It's not google's opinion, but it would be a lot funnier if it was.

</comment><comment><USER21> 17\. Friendster revives to become the number one social network for gerbils.

</comment><comment><USER22> #14 is funny

</comment><comment><USER23> Lame humor.</comment>


College and Business Will Never be the Same - <AUTHOR> http://steveblank.com/2011/02/15/college-and-business-will-never-be-the-same/

<comment><USER2> The flexible economy has been a threat to skill-building in many areas.

The energy industry, for instance, is facing a shortage of skilled welders. It takes ten years of experience welding full-time to become the kind of welder who can be depended on to weld natural gas pipeline segments or the primary loop of a nuclear reactor.

These days, careers are so unstable that in ten years, somebody might get shoved through job training 2 or 3 different times, never get good at anything, and then we find that in our quest for short-term gain and the delusion of compound interest, we don't have people with the skills we need to keep our economy going.

<comment><USER3> I can't help but think that you could manufacture robots to perform the kind of delicate welding that you use as examples.

<comment><USER4> Precise, repeatable welding of carefully prepared, identical structures, in a hygienic, controlled environment. Get a Robot.

Upside-down, lying in mud, your arms up in a noble-gas manifold, welding titanium. Get a Man.

<comment><USER5> Total agreement, it always amazes me how many people believe that something that works in a factory will actually work in the field. It is unlikely that a robot will be invented in the next 10 or 20 years that is as capable of field work as a trained human. Skilled labor might not be academic, but it requires a thinking mind.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Counterpoint: Teaching yourself how to become a domain expert is a life-skill of the 21st century. Colleges should teach you how to become a domain expert by teaching you the skills to do so, and giving you the opportunity to do so in a specific domain.

"I'm good at collaborating but can't actually make anything" seems to be the result of the system Blank discussed. You just can't replace 3 years of domain expertise building with 1.5 and assume nothing will change.

Expect for the occasional project/elective during undergrad, I would leave the learning of how to collaborate to post-collegiate studies. Learning how to learn is the goal of college.

<comment><USER2> Sure, but no matter how you slice it, you need to put 10,000 hours in to become an expert in something. That's a lot.

<comment><USER5> Has there actually been any rigorous study of the 10,000 hour figure? I really don't believe it or the Gladwell's book because it discounts actual talent. It seems like the great a way to keep someone from finding their actual talent, much like giving awards for participation and having no "winners".

<comment><USER2> I don't know about rigorous studies, but it seems like common sense to me (though you might get that 10k down to 5k or 3k in some situations)

Most people take at least 5 years to get a PhD, pro athletes take at least that long to get established, even Justin Bieber worked really hard at making music when he was a little kid. 10k hours is also roughly the timescale involved with children learning language.

You can certainly see people who seem come out of the blue, like Sylvester Stallone's success with Rocky, you usually find that there was a lot of hard work in the background. Stallone was playing bit parts, writing scripts, and lifting weights for a few years before he got his break. Certainly his acting, writing, directing, and bodybuilding progressed considerably after he got big.

<comment><USER5> I really not sure it is common sense. I believe you have to have some talent or any amount of practice isn't going to help. I could spend 10,000 hours trying to sing, but it is not going to help, I just don't have that type of voice. I don't discount people's hard work at improving a talent, but I don't think the hours get you there. The all-it-takes-is-10,000-hours vibe of the book seems to be incorrect.

<comment><USER2> Sure, natural talent helps, but you need natural talent + 10k hours to get world class performance. There's no shortcut, unless you count being in the right place at the right time and having no competition.

<comment><USER5> I don't think natural talent "helps", I truly believe it is a prerequisite.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> The trend of focused education has arisen in tandem with ever increasing numbers of people entering the workforce. In that light, it's hard to argue that specialization isn't hard - not only is it difficult to train people to be generalists, it's also difficult to hire them, and why bother if you're just looking for a disposable entry level warm-body? The kind of general savvy required to interact well with across disciplines isn't _that_ hard to cultivate, and many top schools do, but it's probably not feasible for the sort that attend trade schools like the one mentioned.

Not only would this be a strained approach for most students at such a school, but it would detract from the number one goal of trade schools: providing students with skills that can immediately secure a job. As mentioned earlier, generalists are more difficult to hire... giving a solid credential indicating that someone has base level design skills is much easier for the graduate to sell than "Sure, I can do design a fabric for you. Then I can market it and set up logistical channels to get worldwide distribution and ... all based on my time at X university!"

</comment><comment><USER8> This is essential, I've seen way too many designers who couldn't understand the dynamic medium they were designing for (web or desktop), and far more developers who either forewent UX completely, or micro-managed the designer into irrelevance.

There are broad-area programs out there, however they're generally lacking in any functional depth. I graduated in a "marketing communications" program that spanned design, business, marketing and web development. Unfortunately, coming from a semi-autodidactic background I found it to be truly superficial. It was painful to know the proper way to build a site, versus the default dreamweaver snippets taught. The same for design, and I can only assume the business component too. However, the upside is still important: flexibility in approach and thinking, meaning graduates won't think to fix a solution in the only way they were trained (nee: "when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.)

Blank's recommendation of both broad-area and foundation is better, and could be seen to stem from the "a-words" around here: art school. The broad-area art degree requires the student to learn both a core discipline, along with a wide variety of other art areas.

</comment><comment><USER9> Just moments ago I finished studying for a quiz on Wednesday over jellyfish and earthworms. I'm trying to figure out why I need to be able to dissect and name parts of small and microscopic organisms instead of writing my report for my Environmental Techniques class. One of the few classes that I actually feel will prepare me for my future career because of the experience I will gain in writing scientific reports vs. essays. I will have also spent time using field equipment that I will most certainly use again in just a few years. I feel that only 10 out of the 25 classes I have to take will directly help my coming career but there is no other way for what I want to do.

I believe college degree plans contain large amounts of fluff that do not advance a students needs to get into the job field. It used to be that a student took college courses to make them a better person. But I've seen over the years in my own school years that teachers no longer seem to care or bother. My biology teacher is a self identified lazy ass that frankly hates teaching freshman biology, my geology teacher speaks exactly from the notes, and in the only class I care about, Geographic Information systems (a computer class) I know more about computers than the teacher does.

</comment><comment><USER10> Interesting thinking, but no matter how well intentioned, I can't get Einstein's quote out of my head:

"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."

The problem with formal education's applicability to the business world isn't with the quantity, quality, or breadth or its theory, it's with it's _lack of practice_. Every time I return to my alma mater to discuss my business with my professors, I come away with the same reaction, "They just don't get it." It's hard to understand that which you have never done.

Formal education doesn't need to improve it's delivery of theory, it needs to combine it with real-world practice _before graduation_. A single internship usually trumps all curriculum gyrations.

Two years of theory followed by two years of practice backed by theory would make a much more effective B.S. Are there any educator's that think outside the box enough to make that happen?

<comment><USER11> At my school, almost all CS students do internships during the summer. By sophomore year almost everyone has an internship with a tech company lined up for the summer. My school may be is an outlier, however.

<comment><USER12> At my school, getting your Master's or Bachelor's degree requires a certain number of weeks (12? I can't remember) of work related to your field of study, which means that almost everyone gets a summer job or two in the industry.

However, you can do this at the end of your education, which renders it less useful. Forcing people to take it in the middle of their education would be a lot more useful, but on the other hand it would suck if the job market tanked and a lot of students couldn't continue their studies based on some external cause.

<comment><USER13> I went to school at RIT where almost all students were required to have several co-ops (paid internships, basically).

For a Computer Science, you had to have 4, which means an entire year of work. (The CS program was a 5 year program: 4 years of school interspersed with a year of work).

Many people would get coops at Apple, IBM, Google, Microsoft, etc.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I sense a deeper contradiction at work. It's clear, despite how many time the word entrepreneur is bandied about in the essay, that the school still see its main mission as preparing students to be future employees. And, the U.S. still fails miserably to draw a distinction between trade education and liberal arts education.

If a person is entrepreneurial minded, then the real world sand-box this program is trying to create, will only annoy them, especially when considering the tuition costs. On the other hand, if the person isn't entrepreneurial minded enough, why should they be in that type of program to begin with? They should be pursuing trade or pure studies, depending on their capacity and inclination.

</comment><comment><USER15> TL;DR: This person likes diagrams.

</comment><comment><USER16> Is it just me, or does Steve always seem to over-complicate things so much?

It's not that I don't agree with his point, but I think the problem here is much simpler: feedback loops.

We can argue what sort of feedback is appropriate -- whether colleges should be judged for the amount of value they bring to life, or whether they should be judged by the job prospects of the graduates, etc. But the sad fact is that in most criteria, many people think that the product is mis-aligned with the needs of the customers. This is because there is no feedback loop for colleges to evaluate when they are doing something wrong and thereby correct it. Without a loop in place, all the theorizing in the world isn't going to make a better college, just a prettier org chart.

I think there's a difference between saying something that's probably true and that we can probably agree with and actually observing the results to changes in an organization. The first thing doesn't have much of a quality criteria except for our concurrence. The second always produces results we don't like and makes us challenge our assumptions. That's why feedback loops always beat theory work.

<comment><USER14> I'm not sure the feedback is transparent for higher education. For instance, the consumer might not always be the student. It could be the government, faculty, or industry.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: What is the best SCM software for a small team? - <AUTHOR>

Just 2 developers...is something like git always better or if there are only 2 people working on something is a central repository OK? <comment><USER2> Regardless of team size, the best tool is the one your team members are productive with.

If you believe the HN hype the whole world runs on rails apps developed on GitHub. Reality is a little different

</comment><comment><USER3> Use git and a free bitbucket.org account (free private repositories for unto 5 users...)

</comment><comment><USER4> Gtihub would be your best bet. code.google.com also support git projects.

</comment><comment><USER5> git, but if you come from svn and have no clue about git, run mercurial as it has a similar ui.

</comment><comment><USER6> Try mercurial

</comment><comment><USER7> __</comment>


GameStop: We Can Stay Open During Lockdowns Because We're 'Essential Retail' - <AUTHOR> https://kotaku.com/gamestop-we-can-stay-open-during-lockdowns-because-wer-1842415962 <comment><USER2> GameStop is going out of business. This is a last ditch attempt to fend that off. And I would hope that any cop in an area with lockdowns in place would simply say, "Nice piece of paper. You're closing."

<comment><USER3> I have no love for GameStop, but I really liked Thinkgeek, which got bought by GameStop. GameStop already ruined it AFAICT so I don't mind if GameStop goes out of business...

<comment><USER4> ThinkGeek will be the asset to emerge from the ashes of GameStop.

It was a smart acquisition by GS executives. Unfortunately, they weren't smart enough to manage the brand as well as they should have. The parent company should have inverted to become ThinkGeek immediately after the acquisition because it's pretty obvious to even layman that the retail market for video games is dead within a generation or so, while the market for pop-culture tchotchkes is evergreen.

<comment><USER5> What even remains of ThinkGeek, apart from name recognition? At least before the GameStop acquisition they sold some unique products. Now, as far as I can tell, they just sell the same fandom merch you can get anywhere.

<comment><USER6> Had GameStop management not neutered it, there would still be lots of unique things going on.

Turning an already online platform for truly cool items, into a side counter in only a few core stores, just goes to show how truly clueless GS management really is.

Yeah, I'm bitter. Wife and I gifted each other lots of TG stuff over the years.

<comment><USER7> Let's band together and buy it in liquidation :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> These executives are showing their true selves in this crisis and it is absolutely disgusting. From Elon Musk to Jeff Bezos, these are not idols, they are parasites on our society.

<comment><USER9> I probably missed a few news cycles, but what Musk and Bezos do you would class as disgusting during this crisis?

I heard Tesla is going to produce ventilators?

<comment><USER10> I used to be Elon's fanboy until very recently, but I can't really explain his recent coronavirus tweets, saying that the panic is dumb, children don't get it, or that it'll all be over by April. He's the last person on the planet I'd suspect of not getting the basic math behind the infection, or the basic facts of it.

<comment><USER11> > I used to be Elon's fanboy until very recently, but I can't really explain > his recent coronavirus tweets, saying that the panic is dumb, children don't > get it, or that it'll all be over by April. He's the last person on the > planet I'd suspect of not getting the basic math behind the infection, or > the basic facts of it.

Hasn't he always been overconfident in his opinions and often acts like those who disagree with him are wrong (and sometimes even bad), even those who arguably know better than him?

<comment><USER10> In the past, he was usually right.

<comment><USER11> He's wrong a lot, in big ways. For instance, here's an article I quickly googled:

[https://analyticsindiamag.com/the-many-failed-predictions- pr...](https://analyticsindiamag.com/the-many-failed-predictions-promises-by- elon-musk/)

I think Musk is more often wrong than not, but a lot of people focus so much on when he's been right that they forget all the rest and form a false impression.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> And modern people wonder how the witch-hunts happened in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. The mob-like response to this is sad and deranged...

Many companies will go out of business as a direct response to these closings. Millions of people will lose jobs. Before throwing out insults, consider that GameStop probably _has_ to try and stay open, or they'll go extinct.

Considering that a retail employee that sells video games isn't exactly an in- demand profession, you're also looking at the livelihoods of 16,000 full-time and 23-45,000 part-time people. Corporations aren't just faceless bogeymen.

<comment><USER13> Excuse me, but let's stop this line of thinking right now.

No business has a right to do whatever it thinks it must to survive. Tobacco companies don't get to do whatever they think they must to survive.

If a restaurant is in trouble, it doesn't get to tell its employees to speed up service by not washing their hands, nor does it get to hire employees under the table for cash to avoid payroll taxes or minimum wage, nor does it get to serve slaughtered horse to save money on beef.

Companies do not have an inalienable right to existence. If they cannot make money while being good members of society, they must close or be forcibly closed.

<comment><USER14> "While being good members of society" is an argument often used to justify suppression of free speech and other authoritarian tactics.

<comment><USER15> I'm pretty sure free speech being used the justify making society worse is the bigger more real danger we experience in the present day.

<comment><USER14> I strongly disagree. Free speech is fundamental to any society that respects individuals, their freedoms/agency, and letting ideas compete. If anything, the most alarming trend is people railing against free speech without any understanding of what it's like to live in suppressed societies.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Tin-Foil-Theory: They are trying to keep open to today for the release of DOOM Eternal and Animal Crossing.

<comment><USER17> That's my foil-free theory; those are two _very_ large releases! Regardless of sales, not being able to fulfill all the customer preorders would probably tank their remaining brand confidence irrevocably.

<comment><USER18> And with a shared fanbase. Somehow DOOM and Animal Crossing go together.

<comment><USER16> I got Doom Eternal for myself, Animal Crossing for my wife. All online though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> At least working at a GameStop in 2020 is pretty close self isolating.

TBH I don't quite understand the outlash against some business deciding to stay open. A GameStop doesn't take more than 1 or 2 people to run, especially right now, and transactions are pretty simple and inovlve minimal contact. And they have a point about selling products people may want during this time.

As far as I know, Walmart will still sell video games despite only being exempted because they sell food & essential supplies. It's probably more dangerous to have to go to a Walmart either food or video games compared to going to a GameStop given the # of people typically at Wallmart.

<comment><USER20> Since things started shutting down here in WA, and I'm kind of house-bound due to recent surgery, I've managed to not only buy video games but an entire console (finally bought that Switch), all without leaving my house. And, no, of course I didn't buy it from GameStop. They're still in business?

Frankly, this comes off as pathetic regardless, they can do what they want. But essential? I can't download groceries, but name me a game platform that requires physical media.

<comment><USER19> I mean having stuff shipped to your house just shifts the exposure from you to workers. Is Amazon essential? Amazon suspended some non-essential shipments (to them not customers) but they could get by with even fewer employees should they decide to only ship essential goods.

While of course I don't think GameStop _really_ needs to be open. - I am more curious if people's attitudes will change in 2-4 weeks of self isolating. I think there's a certain excitement/anxiety to this at first especially among those where self isolating means working from home to semi-vaction. Eventually, I think a lot of people's commitment to self isolating/distancing will waver.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> In a sense, this rings true in this pandemic, right? Many people are relying on video games for entertainment while confined to their homes.

\</comment><comment>-

Edit to reply to the comments below: A lot of good replies, thank you. I've largely been on the "doom and gloom" side of this COVID-19 debate, so I'm surprised by the other angrier replies, but here's my thinking:

\- People that download games aren't going to GameStop anyway.

\- As some comments pointed out, you can't download consoles. You also can't have anything shipped to you if you don't have a credit card.

\- GameStop transactions don't require close personal contact (unlike e.g. tattoos or massages).

\- GameStop must discourage congregation of groups in their stores. I imagine very low foot traffic.

\- GameStop must provide staff with appropriate cleaning tools. If they can't, then they should not remain open.

\- I do really like the idea to transform the store into a local delivery service, or to offer pick up only.

\- I have no connection to GameStop nor have I been to one in over a decade.

<comment><USER22> You can download digital games. There aren't many people who buy modern consoles and PC games who need physical copies.

And then other retailers like Target will remain open because they sell medicine and food — and physical video games.

There is no reason for GameStop to remain open.

<comment><USER23> Hell, I can get any game I want off Amazon, too. It'll just show up on my doorstep a few days later.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> This is reprehensible. Under no reasonable definition are they essential retail, and they are putting human lives in danger.

</comment><comment><USER25> Wait... GameStop stays open but my local library has to close? This really is the end times.

</comment><comment><USER26> Apparently from their corporate call they're concerned that closing now would be permanent for them.

<comment><USER27> Good. Failing businesses should fail. That's Capitalism. And that's exactly why we need social safety nets for their employees.

<comment><USER28> The problem is that failing now empowers Wal-Mart, Amazon, and Steam. There are no small chains that can seize the opportunity to fill the void. We're going to end up with defacto monopolies I think; maybe only Walmart for people to get new physical games.

<comment><USER29> I don't think Gamestop really qualifies as a small chain. Besides, the retail market for games will be dead here before too long, everything's going digital. It won't be Steam and Amazon, it'll be Steam and Sony and Microsoft and Epic.

Actually I think at this point there are more competitors in the digital space than physical...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> Here's a crazy idea:

In order to speed up this quarantine, we should ask for "herd immunity volunteers" who basically volunteer to get infected (healthy young adults only). They would go into their own quarantine until they are no longer infected in which case they can be released into society, and since they are now immune, may be suited for certain jobs that require contact with infected.

<comment><USER31> Yes, we should do this and send them to the essential jobs to keep society afloat, like working at a GameStop store.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Different people will have different needs and circumstances. What's essential shouldn't be dictated centrally - I think that's too draconian. Instead focus on the parameters - reduce max gathering size, require businesses to implement max customer limits, cleaning procedures, and queueing procedures that include distancing. We don't need to be perfect about this, just good enough.

In the case of GameStop - mental health matters to people, and games are an important outlet especially if they live alone. The alternative is that they will violate guidance on gatherings. And GameStop also sells equipment you can use to work from home. I don't think it's just groceries or healthcare that should be allowed to operate. People who fear what's coming next might want to shop camping/outdoors stores, or maybe they need to get their car fixed up if they need to leave, or whatever else. I understand the logic behind it, but I feel a blanket rule banning most businesses from operating isn't the right move.

</comment><comment><USER32> When does their stock hit a price of 0? Currently trading @ 3.95~

<comment><USER33> when they close for covid19.

standard catch 22.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> Hopefully there's a class-action lawsuit on behalf of any employees who become sick as a result of this decision.

But then, this company is clearly on its way out. I'd be very suspicious at the moment that the execs are finding ways to funnel remaining funds to their golden parachutes before they declare bankruptcy.

<comment><USER35> I'm assuming you meant, "against Gamestop by any employees who become sick.." ?

<comment><USER34> Edited to clarify. Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER36> Someone with a bit more knowledge, but isn't this basically correct, despite how moronic it sounds. Yesterday I was looking at California's critical sector list[1] and it seems stores like GameStop would be covered as critical infrastructure at a first glance.

And it listed the following:

        Retail (e.g., retail centers and districts, shopping malls).[2]

[1] [https://www.cisa.gov/critical-infrastructure- sectors](https://www.cisa.gov/critical-infrastructure-sectors)

[2] [https://www.cisa.gov/commercial-facilities- sector](https://www.cisa.gov/commercial-facilities-sector)

<comment><USER37> In PA, the governor published a spreadsheet that covers all infrastructure sectors and sub-categories with a clear "Yes" or "No" cell to indicate whether they were permitted to stay open. This is specific to COVID-19, however. The CISA guidelines seem very general and not even cognizant of this type of situation (even if you go to the section about COVID-19). California should (if it doesn't) have its own plan that is possibly informed by CISA but enacted by its governor.

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> Same crap from EBGames here in Canada:

[https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2020/03/18/toronto- employee...](https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2020/03/18/toronto-employees- are-being-told-to-work-in-the-face-of-covid-19-and-theyre-angry-and- scared.html)

</comment><comment><USER39> False. There's always Steam and Xbox Live.

Otherwise, I would argue that video games are necessary for the lockdown.

</comment><comment><USER40> HN post for vice's version of this story: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22631264](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22631264)

</comment><comment><USER41> Considering shorting that stock...no way this ends well

</comment><comment><USER42> The government does not have the legal authority to quarantine people that that are not sick. Thus they have no legal basis to shut down gamestop. Gamestop is calling their bluff.

<comment><USER15> The government is legal authority.

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> gaming the system?</comment>


Jonathan Schwartz's on Sun's ticker symbol change to JAVA - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan/entry/better_is_always_different <comment><USER2> > Am I worried that the Java platform may not last forever (should you put it > on your license plate :-) ? No. It's the single most pervasive technology > Sun has ever invented - and the most valuable brand we've ever built. It's > one of the few technologies that may outlast the century.

I have nightmares about this sort of thing.

</comment><comment><USER3> If he wants to improve Sun's performance, he needs to change some of their fundamentals. He won't change anything by changing a superficiality. The fact they're pushing this silliness so hard and the fact that he's writing so much about it shows how deeply flawed Sun really is.

</comment><comment><USER4> A friend of mine joked that they should have changed the symbol to DTRC</comment>


How I stopped worrying and learned to love the Mongo Shell  - <AUTHOR> http://blog.mongohq.com/how-i-stopped-worrying-and-learned-to-love-the-mongo-shell/

<comment><USER2> I highly recommend augmenting the shell with mongo hacker [http://tylerbrock.github.io/mongo-hacker/](http://tylerbrock.github.io/mongo- hacker/)

Internally we use a modified version that sorts object keys before displaying, and recognises various time fields from our schema showing the values in localtime.</comment>


Ways to break your systems code using volatile (2010) - <AUTHOR> https://blog.regehr.org/archives/28 <comment><USER2> This should say 2010. I believe much of it is out of date, as C11 _does_ have a memory model, and _does_ provide both atomics and barriers. Many, if not most, uses of volatile should probably be replaced by atomics.

[https://en.cppreference.com/w/c/atomic](https://en.cppreference.com/w/c/atomic)

<comment><USER3> Many projects are stuck in C99, or even C89...

<comment><USER4> And many projects aren't. It is still better to label a title correctly.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> In terms of "Using volatile too much" I found a comment along the lines of "Not sure why this has to be volatile, but it doesn't work without it" and the answer was "There is a race condition and volatile slows down one path enough to make it go away."

Yuck.

</comment><comment><USER6> You really should just use volatile for device drivers when accessing IO space with side-effects. Do not use volatile to build your own synchronization primitives.

<comment><USER7> What do you think about signal handlers?

Atomics may be implemented with locks, which makes them unsuitable for signal handlers. The only guaranteed lock-free type is `std::atomic_flag` which is not very useful.

`volatile sig_atomic_t` still seems like the better choice for signals.

<comment><USER8> If the architecture is so broken that atomic load and stores need to use locks, I can't see how would sig_atomic_t would ever be implementable.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I think the title and parts of the article are misleading. Using volatile will _never_ make a correct program incorrect. It cannot "break" a correct implementation.

It should not be overused, because as the article mentions it makes for slower and more confusing code, but it's not quite something to be afraid of either.

It is slower to use volatile, and bad form

</comment><comment><USER10> That note at the end about Linux is missing a link to the Documentation/volatile-considered-harmful.txt document. Basically, don't use volatile. Here, with your choice of formatting:

[https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/Documentation/...](https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/Documentation/process/volatile- considered-harmful.rst)

[https://www.mjmwired.net/kernel/Documentation/volatile- consi...](https://www.mjmwired.net/kernel/Documentation/volatile-considered- harmful.txt)

[https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/process/volatile- cons...](https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/process/volatile-considered- harmful.html)

<comment><USER11> Neat how inline assembly is one of the valid use cases. I'm given to understand that essential parts of the Linux kernel can't actually be implemented in pure C and that some assembly is required.

<comment><USER12> Isn't that the case for most (all?) operating systems?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> The entire section on declarations can also be fixed by always binding type modifiers and quantifiers to the left. Rewriting the examples:

        int* p;                              // pointer to int
        int volatile* p_to_vol;              // pointer to volatile int
        int* volatile vol_p;                 // volatile pointer to int
        int volatile* volatile vol_p_to_vol; // volatile pointer to volatile int

This method always starts with the most basic type, then adds modifiers sequentially. The modifier binds to everything left of it.

</comment><comment><USER14>
      > "Side note: although at first glance this code looks like it fails to account for the case where TCNT1 overflows from 65535 to 0 during the timing run, it actually works properly for all durations between 0 and 65535 ticks."

From example 1, ignoring device and setup-specifics what to do when TCNT1 overflows, it actually works properly for _all_ ticks, both "first" and "second" are unsigned (therefore behaviour is defined), and the delta between them both is always between 0 and 65535, no matter what values they may have, and also correct in all cases.

E.g.:

      timeDelta = timeStampNow - timeStampLast = 0 - 65535 = 1

<comment><USER15> But if the duration is > 65535 ticks, the calculated duration will be wrong, no? There is no mechanism to count how many times TCNT1 overflows, so it will be incorrect if the duration of what you are timing exceeds 65535 ticks.

<comment><USER14> That is correct, yes. I had erroneously understood that the author meant "all durations between 0 and 65535 ticks" as "any duration between the device's 0th and 65535th tick", my bad... Also makes this entire thread obsolete, but FWIW, one shouldn't be attempting to measure a duration that can't even be contained in the variable's bit width. Some workarounds would be to add more bits, slow down the tickrate or add overflow counters.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I've never had to use volatile in code. This was all very interesting!

For issue #5, a possible solution not mentioned could be to write inline assembly, no? It would keep the array non-volatile and should be portable.

<comment><USER17> Inline assembly is basically the definition of non-portable.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> volatile should only be used for accessing MMIO registers in device drivers; that's it.

<comment><USER7> There's definitely more uses. For example, shared memory between processes: you should mark it volatile.

C++ atomics are no good here, because they are not guaranteed to be lock free or address free.

<comment><USER18> Shared memory is way outside the scope of standard C or C++. It's implementation-defined. It's inconsistent to insist on the weakest definition of atomics allowed by the C/C++ standard(s) and simultaneous invoke one of the weirdest implementation-defined mechanisms defined by POSIX. If your implementation provides shared memory of some kind, it's up to your implementation to define some sort of reasonable semantics.

In POSIX' case, it's up to POSIX operating systems to define reasonable semantics on the memory, using constructs like PTHREAD_PROCESS_SHARED and "robust" pthread mutexes.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Volatile seems quite sufficient for a PleaseExitThread boolean.

</comment><comment><USER20> Edit: Looks like the slides had an inaccuracy (see replies). Huh, looks like I learned something today :)

I think a good way of summarizing volatile is this slide from my parallel architectures class [1]:

        > Class exercise: describe everything that might occur during the
        > execution of this statement
        >     volatile int x = 10
        >
        > 1. Write to memory
        >
        > Now describe everything that might occur during the execution of
        > this statement
        >     int x = 10
        >
        > 1.  Virtual address to physical address conversion (TLB lookup)
        > 2.  TLB miss
        > 3.  TLB update (might involve OS)
        > 4.  OS may need to swap in page to get the appropriate page
        >     table (load from disk to physical address)
        > 5.  Cache lookup (tag check)
        > 6.  Determine line not in cache (need to generate BusRdX)
        > 7.  Arbitrate for bus
        > 8.  Win bus, place address, command on bus
        > 9.  All caches perform snoop (e.g., invalidate their local
        >     copies of the relevant line)
        > 10. Another cache or memory decides it must respond (let's
        >     assume it's memory)
        > 11. Memory request sent to memory controller
        > 12. Memory controller is itself a scheduler
        > 13. Memory controller checks active row in DRAM row buffer.
        >     (May > need to activate new DRAM row. Let's assume it does.)
        > 14. DRAM reads values into row buffer
        > 15. Memory arbitrates for data bus
        > 16. Memory wins bus
        > 17. Memory puts data on bus
        > 18. Requesting cache grabs data, updates cache line and tags,
        >     moves line into exclusive state
        > 19. Processor is notified data exists
        > 20. Instruction proceeds
        > * This list is certainly not complete, it's just
        >   what I came up with off the top of my head.

It's also worth mentioning that this assumes a uniprocessor model, so out-of- order execution is still possible which leads to complications in any sort of multithreaded or networked system (See #5, 6, 7, 8 in the OP article).

I think a lot of the confusion stems from the illusion that a uniprocessor + in-order execution model implies to programmers who have never dealt with system-level code. I think in the future, performant software will require a bit more understanding of the underlying hardware on the part of your average software developer -- especially when you care about any sort of parallelism. It doesn't help that almost all common CS curriculum ignores parallelism until the 3rd year or more.

[1] [http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~418/lectures/12_snoopimpl.pdf](http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~418/lectures/12_snoopimpl.pdf) \- the last 2 slides

<comment><USER21> I don't get this, most likely due to my ignorance, but I thought volatile doesn't necessarily force anything to RAM, it can just push it out so cache coherence handles the rest, between cores (and perhaps peripherals). MESI can do the work without actually hitting memory.

if you want to force actually to ram then perhaps you'd need a memory barrier.

This is not my area though. Wrong? Right?

<comment><USER22> What happens with this code?

        volatile int x;
        int          y;
        int          z;

        x = 10;
        x = 20;
        y = x;
        z = x;

Answer:

        the constant 10 is written to x
        the constant 20 is written to x
        the contents of x is read and written into y
        the contents of x is read and written into z

Now, what happens with this code?

        int x;
        int y;
        int z;

        x = 10;
        x = 20;
        y = x;
        z = x;

One answer is the same as the above. Another valid answer is:

        the constant 20 is written to x
        the constant 20 is written to y
        the constant 20 is written to z

Why? Because x is not used between the two assignments, so the first will never be seen. Also, x is not used between it's assignment and the assignment to y, so the compiler can do constant propagation.

All volatile does it tell the compiler "all writes _must_ happen, and no caching of reads".

<comment><USER21> Understood but we're talking about different things I think (though this is very much not my area).

You're saying volatile is acting as a kind of memory barrier instruction _for the compiler_ \- got it. But I'm saying I understand that at the CPU level, just considering x86 instructions, writes don't have to be forced to RAM, despite a common assumption that they are; they can remain in caches. See johntb86's reply confirming this.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Ironically volatile is just as bad in Java for different reasons. Frequently used for "lock free" synchronization, its usually actually worse than using locks because it can't be cached between cores. The variable is always loaded from main memory, which is usually much worse than holding a lock mutex in registers.

<comment><USER24> The standard pattern for working with atomics in java (volatiles are of limited use without atomic field updaters or varhandles) is to read it into a local variable, operate on that and only write it back to the volatile once you're done.

That has many benefits, among them the ability to store its value in registers.

<comment><USER23> For primitives Java uses special CPU instructions. In the Atomic* package. It's not recommended for plain objects.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Err...volatile just tells the compiler not to cache the value in a register, that's it. If you don't understand volatile you really, really are not the kind of programmer who should even think about using it.

<comment><USER26> This is my understanding of volatile as well: volatile just forces read/write to memory. What a read/write to memory entails is a different story. What happens with no volatile is again another story. If my understanding is wrong, someone please enlighten me.

<comment><USER27> "Forcing read/write to memory" is very different from "not caching the value in a register". Optimizations can involve not just caching values in registers, but also reordering operations, calculating things at compile-time and so on.

For a trivial example, see this code:

        int f() {
            int sum = 0;
            for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) sum += i;
            return sum;
        }

As you can see from [1], a smart compiler will calculate the sum at compile time and make the function simply return the resulting number (i.e., no loop is generated).

If you make "sum" volatile, the compiler is forced to do the loop[2].

[1] [https://godbolt.org/z/3sX5mU](https://godbolt.org/z/3sX5mU)

[2] [https://godbolt.org/z/F5CiDJ](https://godbolt.org/z/F5CiDJ)</comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Where to find a good mathematician to work as a consultant? - <AUTHOR>

I am currently working on a project/algorithm which is quite challenging, and I am considering to hire a good mathematician as a consultant, to double check the progress I am making and possibly to help to refine the algorithm.<p>Do you guys have any suggestions regarding where I can find one? You can reach me here: daniel AT kubic.com.br <comment><USER2> Perhaps ColinWright[1], a prolific HN user who is a mathematician, may have some referrals for you.

[1] [https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=ColinWright](https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=ColinWright)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the recommendation.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> I can recommend John Cook [1], and I am also available [2]. [1] [http://www.johndcook.com/blog/consulting/](http://www.johndcook.com/blog/consulting/) [2] firstname.lastname@example.com

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks a lot. I'll get in touch.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> In what area of Mathematics? Or are you looking for a Theoretical Computer Scientist?

<comment><AUTHOR> Theoretical Computer Scientist could help. The area is combinatorics.</comment></comment>


Ten Rules for using Google Talk at Work - Part 1 of 2 - <AUTHOR> http://blog.ditoweb.com/2011/04/ten-rules-for-using-google-talk-at-work.html

<comment><USER2> Mine it's always set to busy so people only message me if it's important.</comment>


What a Russian Smile Means - <AUTHOR> http://nautil.us/issue/61/coordinates/what-a-russian-smile-means <comment><USER2> Alternative hypothesis (but not necessarily mutually exclusive) is that more diverse societies use smiling as a form of non-verbal communication and social bonding.

See, e.g., [https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/05/why- amer...](https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/05/why-americans- smile-so-much/524967/)

The above discusses immigration and language difficulties, but I grew up in the Deep South (where blacks and whites live in much closer proximity than in the North, but in segregated social worlds) and it makes more sense to me that smiling is less about overcoming spoken language hurdles and more about coming across as non-threatening in social contexts where people are naturally uncertain of each other's disposition. I think it's why Southerners emphasize pleasantries so much--as a mechanism to reinforce normative behavior and, specifically, minimize hostilities. Thus, in the U.S. and especially in the Deep South lack of smiling implies hostility, particularly if there's a racial or class divide. It's less obvious today but in more violent times a missing smile was often quite deliberate and strongly communicative.

I have a suspicion that a more common and more cross-cultural non- communicative signal is the head nod. Most women are oblivious to this signal but among men (certainly American men) it seems almost instinctual. And I'm pretty sure it operates as a non-hostility signal. It's less common today but if you try it you'll be surprised at how quickly and immediate the response is; surprising precisely because it's so uncommon. Most women I've tried it with were oblivious or unresponsive, but men almost universally respond in kind, smile, or otherwise respond (e.g. quickly lock eyes). I've tried it in a few other countries and gotten similar responses.

Women should try it out, too; I think most men would respond similarly, though there's always the risk a male might perceive something sexual. I think as we become a more gender equal society it would be useful for women to adopt some of the mechanisms men have used to navigate the social world, just as we encourage men to adopt some of women's tools (e.g. more active listening). A strong society requires strong social bonds. Empathy within a large, diverse society doesn't just magically happen; and without empathy civilization degenerates.</comment>


A pandemic side-effect: Weather forecasts may become less accurate - <AUTHOR> https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/weather-forecasts-covid-19-1.5518313 <comment><AUTHOR> Fewer data points from planes:

> _" We have gone from about 200,000 tracking globally daily to floating > around 60 or 70,000. That is about a 70 per cent reduction in the number of > flights circulating the planet and it can have an effect on the flight-level > data."_

<comment><USER2> Ha! I think that you've just saved me the trouble of reading the article, and in a concise five words, too! Thanks.</comment></comment>


China used alternative medicine to treat 96% of Covid-19 cases - <AUTHOR> http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-03/17/c_138887920.htm <comment><USER2> Too bad the article doesn't describe exactly what Chinese Traditional Medicine was used.

<comment><USER3> As the article states, "all TCM prescriptions have shown very good clinical effects", so it doesn't matter which prescription you use, they all work about the same. Of course that means the effect is unlikely to be due to any active ingredient, but rather due to the medicine being labeled "traditional" and the psychological effect that has.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Misleading should be removed</comment>


Americans would receive $2k a month under House Democrats' plan - <AUTHOR> https://www.businessinsider.com/americans-would-receive-2000-a-month-under-house-democrats-plan-2020-4 <comment><USER2> That would cost $420 billion a month, if my calculations are correct...

<comment><USER3> Probably a lot less: 141 million tax filers * 92% under 130k * 2000 = ~$260 billion

<comment><USER2> OK, that's less but still crazy expensive over 6 months.

There are going long term consequences to what is happening.</comment></comment></comment>


How to *really* use Minecraft to teach people of *all ages* programming - <AUTHOR> http://computercraftedu.com/

<comment><AUTHOR> ComputerCraft, a Minecraft mod, adds Turtles to the game. Turtles are a LUA- programmable block with an API about as sophisticated as the player's.

Now, after two year's work- ComputerCraftEdu- an in-game GUI programming environment for LUA.

Why am I excited about this?

First, Minecraft's inherent appeal drives interest in a virtual world with many semi-tedious automatable tasks, providing terrific incentive to learn. The biggest problem with teaching programming is helping people find their internal motivation to code- It's torture to have to memorize syntax and constructs in the abstract. People need to see their efforts affect their lives, and this does it. Don't laugh. Minecraft is a big part of many of our lives :)

Second, that burden of understanding syntax? Greatly eased by ComputerCraftEdu. The graphical environment is smart and well done here. I don't exactly have the vocabulary to describe it, but it's like CCedu helps you visualize the structure and potential of the code itself- It doesn't just hide the syntax in GUI elements.

And finally, and most importantly in my mind, this environment is, by far, the best way to share the magical feeling of _composition_ and _automation_ with people. It naturally encourages you to build modules from reusable functions. And feels like magic. Starting from the most basic tasks, like observing the world in front of you, and understanding movement, you build and compose functions into reactive, task-completing systems.

You might even find moments of self-discovery as CCedu give you motivation to analyze your own actions, and then you might get the feeling of The Creator once you've built your own minions to replicate the work and decisions you'd make. This is where I think CC really shines, because it can (re)infect people of any age, of any level of burn out, with the true joy of coding.

You can tell I'm excited. This is going to change a lot of lives.</comment>


Driving New York to San Francisco - <AUTHOR> http://david.weebly.com/1/post/2008/01/driving-new-york-to-san-francisco.html <comment><AUTHOR> Although the trip was from New York to San Francisco, I ended up buying the camera and started taking pictures in State College, PA. I used 3 circle stickers on the roof of my car to mark the position for a tripod, and kept the camera attached to the tripod the whole way. I also ended up getting very good at pacing out the same spot in the front of the car :)

I ended up stopping about once every 40 miles or so, although I did some night driving and there was a fair bit of rain, so I wasn't able to get 100% of the pictures taken.

The parts where I took pictures of me jumping were in Nevada, absolutely gorgeous setting.

<comment><USER2> Nice - fun to watch.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Cool, on my drive from Seattle to San Diego last summer I had just gotten an auto power cord for my laptop, so I decided to make use of it. I recorded one frame every 30 seconds of the entire drive:

<http://youtube.com/watch?v=r4W7ZNmZ9VY>

<comment><USER4> Nice. Seems to be a bit of a genre on youtube, here's a nicely done one: [http://youtube.com/watch?v=pxCUlvEkQDg&feature=related](http://youtube.com/watch?v=pxCUlvEkQDg&feature=related)

<comment><USER3> Excellent! Way better than mine.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I plan to do this in June (moving home to SF after graduation). My video will show me getting laid in every state I visit. We'll see who gets more views.

</comment><comment><USER6> oh dear. this brings back painful memories. a couple years ago i drove from cali to illinois. starting out it was all nice and beautiful in cali. all this lush green and drizzling rain. then i crossed the mountains into nevada. well everything went to shit there and it never got better. 3 days of dry, repetitive terrain

in short, if you live in california, stay there

<comment><AUTHOR> i was quite impressed with nevada, not so much with wyoming: got stranded there for 3 days due to a total white out, and thought i was going to end up in the ditch for sure. turns out that traveling 80 in early January isn't the best of ideas.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> wow, didn't expect that to be good but it was. I like the bit where you are flying in the air with the mountain in the background :)

</comment><comment><USER8> cool, but I was really hoping for a cannonball run attempt...</comment>


WebVR Experiments - <AUTHOR> https://www.blog.google/products/google-vr/come-play-webvr-experiments/ <comment><USER2> Although pretty cool - I am not convinced that the browser is the right medium for this but I am happy to be proven wrong!

While the web is an amazing platform and I do wish it grows beyond what any app store and I think that we need to fundamentally rethink some parts of it to make it better and allow more streamlined clients to operate on top of it.

Luckily WebVR is just a client API which should not be hard to mirror in streamlined clients but I do not see yet the adoption of such approach and I think that will be awesome in terms of performance and in order to make it more portable/emendable into all kinds of devices.

That being said, having a VR experience provided on a web site like Amazon, Google, Facebook or Youtube could be interesting but I am not sure if the adoption will be wide and I do not think this is due to the technology itself but the fact that VR obstructs your entire view - it is immersive for sure - but you need to be comfortable to use it where you are sitting and most people are out and about and not exactly in their safe surroundings of their home.

This is why AR in my opinion will have a much wider adoption.

<comment><USER3> Much easier to do VR with a smartphone than AR, and given that for most people in the world their only computing device is their phone, this seems to be the fastest way to introduce VR to the widest audience possible.

That's why browser-based VR also makes a lot of sense, because all those phones have browsers and writing a VR app just means targeting the widest and most mature platforms out there.

A Cardboard experience won't match a mature HMD but that's alright. It allows people who wouldn't have any VR at least some rudimentary experience.

<comment><USER4> >Much easier to do VR with a smartphone than AR

Why? Processing?

I cut out a hole for my phone's camera in my cardboard, was hoping to have the ability to "minimize" VR like minimizing a window and seeing your desktop background except it would be the camera so you could see someone without taking off your headset.

<comment><USER5> The "minimizing" VR world to show real-world is one that I want as well.

With AR in general, one would want to place virtual objects onto particular real-world locations. This requires depth-vision and mapping this into a (simplified) 3d-world. For interactive use it needs to be done real-time, requiring quite a lot of compute. The single camera available on standard smartphones is not enough hardware for this.

Maybe we will get stereo-cameras by standard. The megapixel race is over, the high-FPS/slowmo fight is happening now, maybe stereo/depth/3d will be next.

<comment><USER4> I'm not sure if lytro (can't quite recall the name) but the technology that captures a photo at various depths of field, if you had that for 360, and captured sound, you could travel around a spot/zoom/focus on things. I want that.

I get your point about one camera versus 2. It's probably cost maybe? Why they use spinning LiDAR's versus phased array (non-spinning). Though even if it phased you'd still need something that was like 360 anyway to get around.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This has the potential to have two, maybe even three times as many users as VRML.

Seriously though, has everybody forgotten VRML? It's weird to see the last VR hype cycle repeating itself in such detail.

<comment><USER7> You can only consider WebVR similar to VRML if you know nothing about it. Despite the name VRML wasn't really about VR. It was about 3D for the web. VRML failed but 3D for the web has been solved. WebGL works great today: [https://email@example.com,-86.191051,22963938m...](https://firstname.lastname@example.com,-86.191051,22963938m/data=!3m1!1e3)

<comment><USER8> > Despite the name VRML wasn't really about VR.

Sure it was about VR, even though it didn't require the (then extraordinarily expensive) goggles and gloves; it was about a declarative means of specifying VR content. That the common clients for it were limited to fishtank interaction with monitor, mouse, and keyboard is irrelevant to what it was about.

> VRML failed but 3D for the web has been solved.

WebGL doesn't actually solve the problem VRML existed to solve (though it underlies many modern solutions, like X3DOM implementations.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Viewing this on a beefy desktop, running Linux-Chrome, I'm seeing ~18 FPS, with very frequent freezes and frame skips. (Especially on the ping-pong demo.)

I don't have my cardboard on hand, but this sounds headache-inducing in VR.

<comment><USER10> I had the same experience when I saw my first online streaming video many many years ago.

<comment><USER9> Your first streaming video was probably unwatchable. The problem with VR is that for a lot of people 'unwatchable' means serious headaches and nausea.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Wow, using Chrome on Win10, I tried to select the text "Daydream ready phones" to search for it.

Unable to select text after bringing up the right-click context menu.

This counteracts how I browse the internet for more information on a topic I've just read about. Try it, try to select some text in the article then right-click it and see it happen.

</comment><comment><USER12> Slightly OT: Peak and decline of VR related search queries on Google Trends:

[https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=vr,psvr,oculus,ht...](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=vr,psvr,oculus,htc%20vive,gear%20vr)

<comment><USER13> The problems with VR are much higher-level than anyone wants to admit. Nobody wants to wear a headset on their face. They'll try it for the novelty, but they have a hard time doing it very long, or mustering up the motivation to do it frequently.

VR won't hit critical mass until movie-style "holograms" are implemented (check out the video game in _Her_ for an interesting example [0]), just as tablets didn't catch on until they looked and functioned just like the thin slates that had been dreamed of in sci-fi.

[0; NSFW] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7MgbMI5zhw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7MgbMI5zhw) Example pulled from YouTube. Very NSFW language.

<comment><USER14> I'm waiting for 6DoF High-Def HDR Mobile VR.

And any AR headset that can pass the bar of "functional but also not looking weird"

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Awesome. I remember last year going through all of the chrome experiments [1] on my smart mirror and being absolutely stunned. Regardless on your views of VR, platform, form factor, etc.. these are just cool. Does anyone know what controllers are used with android phones (for the ping pong game)?

[https://www.chromeexperiments.com/](https://www.chromeexperiments.com/)

<comment><USER16> I assume it supports the Daydream VR controller.

<comment><USER17> I have the daydream, and it looks like it doesn't use the controller for anything other than "clicking". Your head movements are still used for all of the controls.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Cool. Now we wait until someone builds this one: [http://memory- alpha.wikia.com/wiki/The_Game_(episode)](http://memory- alpha.wikia.com/wiki/The_Game_\(episode\))

</comment><comment><USER19> I haven't tried playing it yet, but Mr Nom Nom looks adorable; one of those creative games that stirs my inner child. Etter studios shared some info about its development [1], and open sourced the code that procedurally generates the characters using threejs [2]

[1] [http://etterstudio.com/en/mrnomnom.php](http://etterstudio.com/en/mrnomnom.php)

[2] [https://github.com/etterstudio/mrnomnom/](https://github.com/etterstudio/mrnomnom/)

</comment><comment><USER4> Cool tried a couple out on my Nexus 4. Spot the bot was the one out of four that "fully worked" it was a little laggy. Also I don't have friends ha.

Anyway the forest one the head tracking wasn't working for me. Should report that bug on GitHub

One of them headset not found. I think it's that NFC tag or "magnet?" on the cardboard cover.

Thanks for posting this I heard about webvr in a pod cast and open source code! Want to be Ed from Cowboy Bebop and dive into the web.

</comment><comment><USER20> Cool, good to see some colorful WebVR stuff coming out of Google Experiments. Hopefully that means WebVR will be making from Chromium to Chrome soon =)

</comment><comment><USER21> I'm excited for the day that I can put on VR through my phone or computer and shop Amazon with hand gestures and voice. Or look through all the pictures and videos I have stored and fly through memories.

I know we're still a far way away, but this is definitely a step in the right direction - great job Google!

<comment><USER22> /s? FTFY

Maybe you weren't joking. That's the even more scary thing.

Personally I like to hop on my bicycle and meet real people in the real world.

I don't even know what to think about VR at this point. :/

<comment><USER23> Now this is the mindset that I don't understand. Why can't you like both VR and real life? People made this same complaint for computers, the internet, gaming, and so on. But all of these technologies can augment your socialization.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> That is a funny domain. Why it exists?

<comment><USER25> Top Level Domains have been available for sale for some time now. Google purchased .google, and registered a blog domain under that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> I have a vive and what I don't understand is why I need to use chromium or nightly firefox to view this content when it is out on official mobile builds. Does anyone know why this hasn't made it into official desktop builds yet?

<comment><USER27> It could still be quite buggy with Oculus and Vive hardware. They have only enabled WebVR in "Cardboard" mode on mobile which has a much smaller surface area.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> It would be awesome to have a Chrome version with GearVR integration.

<comment><USER29> There's actually a couple of Chromium-based browsers on there, Samsung Internet for GearVR which has been out and quite popular for 360 video watching (Youtube.. etc.), and Oculus just came out with theirs.</comment></comment>


More Slaves Today Than At Any Time In Human History - <AUTHOR> http://www.alternet.org/world/142171/there_are_more_slaves_today_than_at_any_time_in_human_history/?page=1

<comment><USER2> _Is that raw numbers or as a percentage of the population?_

He never answers this question. In terms of raw numbers, if the percentage stayed constant, you would expect to see a higher total number of slaves because the world population is constantly growing.

He also uses a much looser definition of slavery, including those who work for "no pay beyond subsistence". People falling into this category surely existed throughout history, along with the more obvious shackled slaves.

</comment><comment><USER3> I think anyone focusing on whether there's actually more today than at any time in history is missing the point. This is not a contest. It's 27 million people's lives.</comment>


HHS Open Sources Covid-19 Data - <AUTHOR> https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/20/coronavirus-hhs-hospital-data-373269 <comment><AUTHOR> Looks like the data available [https://healthdata.gov/dataset/covid-19-state- and-county-pol...](https://healthdata.gov/dataset/covid-19-state-and-county- policy-orders) & [https://healthdata.gov/dataset/covid-19-reported-patient- imp...](https://healthdata.gov/dataset/covid-19-reported-patient-impact-and- hospital-capacity-state)</comment>


Show HN: The future of dating → no swipes, no online chats - <AUTHOR> We're the new kid on the dating scene, but with a different approach: an app with no swipes and no online chats at all. It's called SingleSpot.
We're responding to the current dating-app fatigue by focusing on real-life interactions: our app shows you singles currently in bars and cafés around you. And that's all it does. The rest is on you ;-)
The goal is to make dating social and authentic again, by removing all virtual interactions and keeping just the right amount of technology.
→ Short intro video: https://youtu.be/rWuDLKnzXYY
→ Website: https://singlespotapp.com/
→ App Store: https://apple.co/2UPXCNq
→ Google Play: https://bit.ly/2uk71kW
Thanks,
The SingleSpot team <comment><USER2> Sounds very old-school! It's hard to believe that it took this long for someone to come up with an approach to dating that uses just the right amount of tech. I would imagine many other web services could improve their site by considering: "How much tech is the right amount of tech?"

</comment><comment><USER3> I can see this working for a section of society but not all, a lot many people are working class and will find it difficult to use this compared to swiping, chatting, building up some repo and finally meeting .</comment>


Show HN: Simple tool to share your goals/resolutions - <AUTHOR> http://achievistapp.com <comment><AUTHOR> Releasing public beta today, just wanted to share/feedback :-)</comment>


Show HN: My Product Landing Page for SMS Marketing - <AUTHOR>

Hi All.
I realize that SMS marketing is a crowded field, however, I believe there are still some opportunities with the right product.  With that being said, I wanted to test the interest before building the product with a landing page.
As this is my first Show HN, would love to hear some feedback as to what changes may be needed, what works, what doesn't work.  Since there's no product yet, there's no screenshots I can show so its more about the messaging and gauging interest.
I've reached out to 2000+ local businesses whose revenue is driven by foot traffic by postal mail and going to test adwords.
Link is: http://dealora.com <comment><USER2> Nice landing page but (and I know you didn't ask for this) I would stay as far away from the deals space (especially SMS based) as you possibly can.

I was part of a startup that PAID people to receive texts with deals in them and people still really disliked giving out their mobile details.

Just a heads up!

<comment><AUTHOR> Good point. The product won't deal with daily deals at all.

<comment><USER2> Fair enough - it does mention coupons etc though which personally I throw into together with the daily deals stuff.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Clickable link: [http://dealora.com](http://dealora.com)

</comment><comment><USER3> The landing page looks fantastic man, I wish the best of luck with this veture :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks!</comment></comment>