Busting Cactus Smugglers in the American West - <AUTHOR> http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/02/cactus-thieves/470070/?single_page=true <comment><USER2> Simply amazing, part of the reason I keep reading here is that things I would never suspect just appear.

So knowing that people do come here and go elsewhere for cacti we can assume other types of plants are susceptible as well. Also based on this knowledge, is there any danger to purposefully spreading certain lines to other parts of the world? Surely there are similar environments which might become home to a transplanted variety, the danger is that its no invasive or dangerous to other specie.

<comment><USER3> > So knowing that people do come here and go elsewhere for cacti we can assume > other types of plants are susceptible as well

Yes, absolutely. Animals make the news more (rhinos, lions etc), but the plant groups of cacti, orchids and bromeliads are very desirable to certain collectors.

A $500 fine — and presumably a ban on returning to the USA — doesn't seem like much deterrent. That's not covered a fraction of the cost of the investigation, and is very small compared to the black-market value of the plants.

<comment><USER4> Agreed on the fine. I wish the article had said something about what happens beyond the fine ... will these people be barred from entering the country? Is there a list that will help people keep them out of other countries?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> > dug up eight saguaros from federal land in daylight, then sold them for > $2,000 apiece, two of them he shipped to Austria.

Saguaros are amazingly heavy (people have been killed by the "arms" landing on them) - I'm sort of impressed that the buyers could afford to ship something that large and awkward.

<comment><USER6> As for those arms, here's another fun fact:

Saguaros with arms are much more desirable and valuable than ones without them. So if you have a saguaro in your yard and it has no arms (or not enough), it's pretty easy to make it grow one: just get an axe and whack it really hard! It'll grow an arm where you chopped it with the axe. (However, it'll take a while to grow: these cacti are _very_ slow growing.)

Full-grown saguaros are thousands of pounds heavy, and can exceed 10,000 pounds for really old and large ones.

For the ones shipped, I imagine they got smaller, younger ones. I'm not sure how you'd ship a mature one intercontinentally without it dying.

And honestly, digging them up from Federal land isn't that bad; there was an incident a few years ago in Arizona where the government happily destroyed _thousands_ of such cacti, simply because they were in the way of some power line. You'd think they could have sold them, and let the cactus sellers come take them and transplant them: there's a huge demand for them in the developed areas, but they're very expensive due to the limited supply since wild ones (on Federal and state land) are off-limits. But nope, they just got some machine in there and ground them all up. A lot of people were pissed about that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Seems awfully silly to ban cactus propagation in order to preserve cacti from extinction. Cows and wheat are in no danger of extinction; a healthy trade in cacti would enhance the survivability of each species.

<comment><USER3> There may only be a few known plants, and it's likely there's already some in a botanic garden — professionally cared for and available for research, rather than stuffed in a suitcase then hidden in a shed. Several of the cacti mentioned are available commercially, but that's not good enough for these collectors.

(Incidentally, collectors also steal plants from botanic gardens.)

> Cows and wheat are in no danger of extinction

Not necessarily. There's very little genetic diversity in domesticated species, which leaves them susceptible to disease and intolerant of changes to climate etc. The "crop wild relatives" are essential if some disease does appear — as it did for bananas — and threaten to wipe out the domesticated breed/variety.

<comment><USER8> When you say "limited genetic diversity" in reference to a mammal like a cow I am inclined to agree. They reproduce sexually and can gain or lose traits.

But I am unsure if you can have a 'wild relative' of a banana as my understanding is every single instance of the plant is just a clone. I might have it wrong however, the plant might be able to undergo sexual reproduction but is propagated by humans cloning it.

For example, consider Pando. Apparently the plant could theoretically reproduce sexually but hasn't in thousands of years. No one is even sure if it could be induced.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pando_(tree)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pando_\(tree\))

<comment><USER3> There's crazy genetics happening here, which I certainly don't understand enough to explain — I'm not a botanist, I just write software for them.

But wild bananas do have seeds. There's a picture of the seeds of _Musa balbisiana_ [1], one of the ancestors of cultivated bananas.

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

<comment><USER8> I agree completely that the wild bananas have seeds. But do domesticated ones even have the structures to pollinate?

In any case, with modern tech. we could probably redomesticate bananas in a few years. I'm less bothered by the food implications of bananas dying off than the economic ones. Bananas are big business for some equatorial countries. An upset in the economy usually precedes an upset in the government.

<comment><USER9> _But do domesticated ones even have the structures to pollinate?_

Yes, the seeds in Cavendish bananas are rare but viable.

There was a Canadian documentary a few years ago that featured a Honduran banana breeder: [http://modernfarmer.com/2015/05/review-the-fruit- hunters/](http://modernfarmer.com/2015/05/review-the-fruit-hunters/)

And here's a recent PBS segment that covers just banana breeding: [http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/inside-the-fight-to-save- the-...](http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/inside-the-fight-to-save-the-bananas- we-know-and-love/)

<comment><USER8> That is interesting. If I find a Cavendish with seeds and I plant them, do the fruits of that plant also have seeds?</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


The Private Islands Inside National Parks - <AUTHOR> http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/09/swiss-cheese-national-park/405865/?single_page=true <comment><USER2> National parks are fantastic and extremely valuable. This fund has probably provided enormous long-term value. I do take issue with these statements though:

> The Land and Water Conservation Fund isn't taxpayer-funded. Since 1964, the > government has redirected money from offshore oil and gas drilling (plus a > couple other sources of income) into the fund...

> It's striking to see how much land has been added by the program, at no cost > to taxpayers.

In reality, government revenue is fungible. If this fund didn't exist, that revenue would go toward other government expenses. So saying that it's funded by X revenue and therefore costs nothing to taxpayers is just mental accounting.

<comment><USER3> There's a word for that mental accounting: _hypothecation_.

<comment><USER4> Similar (kind of) concept but hypothecation is about collateral, not mental accounting, unless it has a second, different meaning too?

<comment><USER3> Yes, there's a second meaning in relation to taxes / revenue where a particular tax or revenue source is notionally allocated to a particular set of spending.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Acadia ([http://npmaps.com/wp-content/uploads/acadia- map.jpg](http://npmaps.com/wp-content/uploads/acadia-map.jpg)) has always been an example of this for me, both in how many private lands like this exist in National Parks, and of the striking difference between the east coast and the west in land ownership and attitude. It's dotted with and surrounded by private land, despite being a natural wonder in the class of Yosemite or Yellowstone in grandeur and uniqueness. At certain points, you drive over bridges that cross golf courses, and you can't help but wonder whether this Disneyland nature park isn't also inextricable from its web of humanity and history.

The west is still wild, and it's a human wonder that we've managed to keep it that way. I'm glad for public land. Its value to our society is truly immeasurable.

<comment><USER6> "The west is still wild, and it's a human wonder that we've managed to keep it that way. I'm glad for public land. Its value to our society is truly immeasurable."

So true - I remember what a shock it was when I moved from New Mexico to Texas. I thought, "Texas is huge, it's going to be great to live there with all that open space." Then I got there and found out that they had sold off every square inch of their state to private parties. The first week I was there, a coworker told me how excited he was to have found a great "hunting lease", and I was like "What the hell is a hunting lease?!?" He tells me you have to PAY people if you want to go out for deer season or whatever. I was shocked by it, literally. I have lived most of my life in various states where there are huge tracts of land that are just "yours" to go out in and do whatever the heck you want. It was really sad to see a place that large, with virtually no public land open for recreation.

I do prefer National Forests and Wilderness areas over Parks though - I like the idea of wild, untamed places where you can just head out into the brush for a week and sometimes not even see another soul. New Mexico was great for that, you could spend a week out in Gila wilderness and never see another person.

I'm glad to see that California is still like that in a lot of places - I was just up in the Mojave desert a few weeks back, and I felt like I was the first person that had ever set foot there. It's fun trying to imagine what it must have been like to be the very first people that wandered around out there.

<comment><USER7> I was surprised travelling across the US at a cultural difference - here in Australia, a 'national part' is a non-developed or little-developed area of land for everyone, free to enter, usually with campgrounds. In the US, a 'national park' is often a non-trivial payment to enter, with airconditioned visitors centers, good roads, staff _everywhere_ , and sometimes even hotels and restaurants... Not all national parks are like that, but the first few I visited were. Bit of a shock.

I learned later in my trip about 'public lands' in the US, which were (basically) unmaintained and free for all to use, which was closer to national parks back home.

<comment><USER8> National Parks in the US have to meet four specific criteria to be granted the designation:

1) It is an outstanding example of a particular type of resource.

2) It possesses exceptional value or quality in illustrating or interpreting the natural or cultural themes of our Nation's heritage.

3) It offers superlative opportunities for recreation, for public use and enjoyment, or for scientific study.

4) It retains a high degree of integrity as a true, accurate, and relatively unspoiled example of the resource.

In the whole USA there are 59 such sites. But there are also national forests, national monuments, national seashores, national reserves, national historic sites, national historic landmarks, and other similar designations.

Our state forests system sound similar to what you mentioned from Australia. We had a couple of pretty huge ones near where I grew up:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rothrock_State_Forest](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rothrock_State_Forest), [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bald_Eagle_State_Forest](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bald_Eagle_State_Forest), [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sproul_State_Forest](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sproul_State_Forest)

Reference for National Park requirements, I only found an old link: [http://web.archive.org/web/20000301003832/http://www.nps.gov...](http://web.archive.org/web/20000301003832/http://www.nps.gov/legacy/criteria.html))

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I was just visiting Glacier National Park last month and the stories surrounding private landowners inside the boundaries of the park are pretty colorful.

[http://missoulian.com/lifestyles/territory/private-land- insi...](http://missoulian.com/lifestyles/territory/private-land-inside- glacier-national-park-passes-through-generations- of/article_94751fc6-6a9c-11df-b66f-001cc4c002e0.html)

[http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and- regional/montana/g...](http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and- regional/montana/glacier-national-park-buys-acres-of-private-land-inside- boundaries/article_4f769d99-b8ae-5af7-9859-617c23657610.html)

[http://news.heartland.org/newspaper- article/2002/11/01/promi...](http://news.heartland.org/newspaper- article/2002/11/01/promises-promises-promises)

[http://landrights.org/mt/glac/mcfarland.htm](http://landrights.org/mt/glac/mcfarland.htm)

For example.

<comment><USER10> I was in Grand Teton a few months ago. It has 110 private inholdings[1] and our guide talked a length about them. You drive by a few of them on the road north of Jackson Hole. Just the drive-by made me think that these must be some of the most desirable properties in the US.

There were also interesting stories regarding the formation of the park [2]. An interesting story, for sure, but it also helps illuminate why there are inholdings in the park in the first place.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Teton_National_Park](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Teton_National_Park) [2] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_River_Land_Company](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_River_Land_Company)

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I'm surprised (but pleased) that the federal government hasn't simply used eminent domain to seize all of the private land within national parks.

The idealistic side of me wants to believe that it's because these people aren't interfering with the purpose of the park(s), and so there is no reason to force them out. But the cynical side of me says that it's more likely that the individuals who own this land are so rich that taking action against them would be impracticable politically.

<comment><USER12> Not everyone owns a luxury resort. Most of the landowners probably aren't that rich. They just happened to own some rural land when the surrounding area was declared a national park, and most rural land isn't particularly valuable.

As for the government, why waste time and money on a politically unpopular move (eminent domain) when they have no immediate use for that land? Since most rural land is cheap, buying might be cheaper than the cost of a potential lawsuit.

Sooner or later, landowners will die and their descendents will want to move somewhere else. The government, on the other hand, can afford to wait for years, decades, even centuries.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> The national parks are a success that is indescribable in its value and enormity.

We should be doing the same with some of the coastal waters. Those areas need to ban all fishing and motorized boats. At the least, they will serve as reservoirs of wildlife that can repopulate the rest of the overfished areas.

<comment><USER14> Why do you think the national parks are a great evil?

<comment><USER15> He thinks the opposite.

<comment><USER16> Enormity means great evil.

<comment><USER17> That is its first definition, not its only one. It is regularly used to simply mean immense.

<comment><USER14> "Gay" is regularly used to mean "stupid" but we would call out someone on HN that uses it that way.

<comment><USER18> This is stupid...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> They're pretty interesting. The inholdings I've encountered are in the Los Padres National Forest in central California. It's strange to be hiking miles and miles into the wilderness and then come across a homestead complete with a house, barns, fences, horses, mules, and orchards.

This one and others I've seen in the area have been privately owned for many, many years.

<comment><USER19> National Forests are another story altogether. There are many, many parcels of private land inside them. Some NFs are more private than they are public.

Here's a longtime favorite spot of mine, in the middle of a National Monument. I was driving offroad through this area and stumbled upon this massive, 200+ acre field that had been cleared of cedar. There was a for-sale sign and they wanted around $2,500,000 for this plot. My dream homesite if I had the cash: [https://goo.gl/maps/5iKAg](https://goo.gl/maps/5iKAg)

<comment><USER9> That's pretty neat, though I'd probably prefer trees on a good part of mine.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I was surprised this past summer to see even Cape Lookout National Seashore in North Carolina has an occasional odd private house, for example on Long Point Island. It's a park with almost no presence on the continental U.S. and almost entirely on Outer Bank islands and feels like being on the edge of the world. Kayaking past two such houses sound-side was rather unexpected!

</comment><comment><USER21> In the UK our approach to national parks is quite different, due to our history and population density. Most of the land inside them is privately held and they contain hamlets, villages, towns and lots of farmland. I'm not sure about other parks but the Peak District contains many quarries and factories too.

<comment><USER22> We also have a different approach to private land though; within reason you can walk all over private agricultural land, and there are often rights of way through other private land which might otherwise block a walking route.</comment></comment>


Zuckerberg Says Twitter Is Wrong to Fact-Check Trump - <AUTHOR> https://www.newsweek.com/zuckerberg-says-twitter-wrong-fact-check-trump-1506958 <comment><USER2> Ay carumba. Like many who have been posting about this, I really struggle with his attitude here.

I frequently have a knee-jerk emotional response to Zuck's commentary on this topic, but even taking a step back and assessing logically I have a fairly critical take:

1) If a founder is going to oppose corporate arbitration of "truth" of content on the basis that the venue for that content is a platform, then it's essential that the same policies be uniformly applied across the platform itself. If policies aren't uniform, then the venue isn't really a platform. But Facebook routinely arbitrates content on the basis of "accuracy" or "realness" to progress the business: [https://www.reuters.com/article/us- vietnam-facebook-exclusiv...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-vietnam- facebook-exclusive/exclusive-facebook-agreed-to-censor-posts-after-vietnam- slowed-traffic-sources-idUSKCN2232JX). Why should policies be different domestically?

2) His reference to "private companies" and the inference that such companies shouldn't arbitrate content because they're private implies that public companies, by nature of being public, are somehow better equipped to arbitrate content (because the market can then respond to their arbitration through the stock price?). That attitude draws a logical relationship between share price and "rightness" that rubs me the wrong way.

I think I have to reserve judgment until the entire interview is released, since this is a snippet cut to hype the segment.</comment>


How to use interfaces in Go - grey-area http://jordanorelli.tumblr.com/post/32665860244/how-to-use-interfaces-in-go

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the post, it's very informative. I believe it would bode the go community well to publish guidelines/best practices on exposing reusable types/interfaces for re-use. Some libraries I come across simply make it very hard to extend minor behavior without a. modifying the library, b. copying the code from the library and not using the library or c. requires elaborate workarounds that requires creating a new type and passing in the old one (composition) and re-implementing the old types' interface and simply calling the old type to change the behavior of a single method via closures.

Perhaps I'm still very new to go, but I find the hardest part of writing go is reusing external libraries that don't exactly do what you require.</comment>


How can a 16 year old get a job in programming? - <AUTHOR> I tried freelancing on guru.com for a half a year and managed to get a couple of projects and happen to get those jobs by lying about being a college graduate despite not even finishing highschool (yet).
However, looking through sites such as indeed.ca, every single programming position is asked for a college degree and lying about it simply wouldn't as far as I can imagine..
How can I, as a 16 year old, get programming-related work?
I often see people suggesting going around the local town to look for work but I live in a city next to the capital, there are almost no businesses here; everybody works for the gov.
Any advice?
Bonus Question: If you were a recruiter, what would it take a 16 year old candidate to get hired? <comment><USER2> It all depends on the kind of work you are looking for.

Most companies aren't going to hire your every day average teenager, even one who can demonstrate that they may or may not know whats required for the position,(No offense).

Most of the companies are looking for (like you said) someone with certificates, so you are correct in assuming you can't lie your way through it.

In regards to your main question "How can I, as a 16 year old, get programming-related work?" there are a couple avenues you can take.

The first being exactly as you said, hit the pavement, and hand out resumes detailing what your strengths and weaknesses are, what languages you are proficient in etc... You never know what might come up, I know for a fact you wont get a job if you don't go actively looking for one. The IT industry is very large, but more and more people are becoming much more Savvy, so anything out of the norm you are decent at could be a large help.

The second avenue I would suggest, speaking from personal experience, is app development. I get around 5-6 calls a week asking if my business does app development (Both local and international) everyone is tied to their smartphones, from checking e-mails, to becoming an aspiring Pokemon trainer, the fact is, smartphones are now a heavy part of every day life. Companies are doing their best to market things to the younger generations, which includes app development. It's a pretty large market, and quite a few colleagues of mine have profited quite nicely from app development.

In regards to your "Bonus Question"

If I was a recruiter, short of you being some programming god, I wouldn't even look at someone without certifications. I know it sounds like a A-hole of a thing, but, in my situation at least, I have quite a few large clients, that work very closely with my employees, and it's always an easier sell if you can say "Oh, well John here has 8 certificates, 2 jackrabbits, and a small pony" as opposed to "Here's Bob, he's 16, and he's got a bitchin' haircut"

To sum it up, don't loose faith, and keep your feet on the pavement, eventually something will come up, whether is be coding for a small "mom and pop" operation, or something larger, word spreads quickly if you're good at what you do.

That's just my 2 cents.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the so direct.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> No one will pay you to do something you have not done before.

But it's fairly easy to find programming work if you have done something similar in the past.

Pick a project that you like and develop it. Make it open source. Research what companies work on that niche and use the same tech stack and contact them about an internship.

Also ask your parents, teachers, or any other adult that knows you and see if they know someone who may hire you.

</comment><comment><USER4> A degree. You need a degree. You might be able to get away with it in magical SV but not elsewhere.</comment>


Show HN: MoveGroove - High Performance Music (StartupWeekend Hamilton)) - <AUTHOR>

We're a small group competing at a local StartupWeekend (http://startupweekend.org) and were hoping to get feedback on our app idea.
We're very close on a working prototype for android, using accelerometer data to determine music that would match a user's intensity level.
Most of us are hackers, working away at code and design/copy is admittedly a weak point. We're also working on our market validation at the moment.
Our website is at http://movegroove.github.com.
Any and all feedback is appreciated! Thanks for your time. <comment><USER2> It sounds like a good idea ! Waiting to test your app!</comment>


Show HN: Hacker Daily, a daily podcast for Hacker News readers - <AUTHOR> http://hackerdaily.co/? <comment><AUTHOR> Hi HN, We got a great response to our initial post about Hacker Daily last week, and we're back with our first episodes.

Everything is a work-in-progress... we're calling it the "minimum viable podcast." We hope to make it better every day, with your help. We'd love to hear your feedback. Thanks!

<comment><USER2> Thank you so much for this podcast.

My only feedback at this point is that the less editorial you add the better IMHO and you seem to be adding more as the days go on. :)

It's fine when prefixed with "personally" or "I wonder if..." etc. Indeed, those bits are quite interesting, but without that it comes across as a little lecturing or even patronising. I usually agree with your politics, but I like to make my own mind up. It's very easy to get people's opinions on the news, etc. on that whole Twitter thing.

<comment><USER2> (Compare to, for example, [http://www.daemonology.net/hn- daily/.](http://www.daemonology.net/hn-daily/.). literally zero editorial.)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Stick a play button or mp3 link for the latest podcast on the landing page; it might help your bounce rate. (instead of me having to subscribe via something or navigate the RSS)

<comment><USER4> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16852394](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16852394)

<comment><USER5> You might be interest in the Podlove project: [https://podlove.org/](https://podlove.org/)

Here is an example that shows their player in action: [http://omegataupodcast.net/279-microgravity-research-at- zarm...](http://omegataupodcast.net/279-microgravity-research-at-zarm-drop- tower/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> This is fantastic!

A couple of years ago I wanted to start a "summary" service for Hacker News submissions (and comments!), but I never found enough time to build something meaningful.

At least, the podcast is some (better?) version of what I wanted to build. I'm so happy someone is doing it.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks, we really appreciate it!

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Great work guys! I listened to the Friday episode and have some feedback for you.

It's great that you guys treat it like a real news segment and have a neutral stance on each post. But don't be afraid to give your own opinion on the subject. Steve Gibson from the Security Now podcast is an outgoing character that is not afraid to speak up on new topics.

To me, what the _community_ writes in the discussion is generally more interesting than the article itself, this probably deserves more time. Tangents and arguments are always fun.

Hope you guys keep making these, it's a monumental task to do a podcast everyday, but well worth it in the end!

<comment><USER8> _It 's great that you guys treat it like a real news segment and have a neutral stance on each post. But don't be afraid to give your own opinion on the subject._

+1

I'm not saying throw away the current format, I like the digest, it'd just be more interesting if I could hear your input.

Here's an idea: how about you have an extra, slightly longer, weekly review and discuss between you the most important topics of the week?

Anyway good effort, I'll be sure checking you daily

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> If it takes off, you could do a free 5 minute intro feed + a paid 1 hr detailed feed (which might be enough to satisfy the HN craving while commuting/doing chores/etc.).

I'd recommend trying out assigning numbers to the stories (eg. 1 of 10) as they are introduced to give more separation between stories / comments. Or maybe one voice does the story summary and the other the comments. Without paying close attention it seems to all blend together.

</comment><comment><USER10> For those who don't have time for a 10 minute podcast every day, "Hacker News Daily" lists top 10 ranked stories from HN every day: [http://www.daemonology.net/hn-daily/](http://www.daemonology.net/hn-daily/) Obviously, it will not be as curated or opinionated as the podcast.

<comment><USER11> Have you checked [https://news.ycombinator.com/front](https://news.ycombinator.com/front)?

Compares pretty well with HN Daily with respect to content but also offers more articles (because it's HN, naturally).

E.g., everything on HND for 16 April [1] can be found on the first pages of HN/front for 15 April [2] and 16 April [3].

[1] [http://www.daemonology.net/hn- daily/2018-04-16.html](http://www.daemonology.net/hn-daily/2018-04-16.html)

[2] [https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2018-04-15](https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2018-04-15)

[3] [https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2018-04-16](https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2018-04-16)

<comment><USER12> I set up Hacker News Daily long before /front?day= was added to HN. :-)

I agree that it's not really necessary now.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> This is great! It'll really help to catch up and get a summary. I like that there's a sound in between two items. That's thoughtful. I'd appreciate if the description links back to articles/discussions on HN or elsewhere.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! I tried putting links to the original articles in the extended description; some players may not show that. Or maybe I messed it up. :)

<comment><USER13> I checked in an another player I use. You were right. It's an issue with my player. Thanks!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> What kind of mic are you using? It sounds a bit echoey, maybe too far from your face.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback— the setup we have is less than ideal. We're both using a Blue Snowball mic, and I'm recording in the supply closet of my shared office (finding quiet space in NYC is hard, especially with kids at home!)

Going to try switching to a dynamic mic with a tighter pickup pattern, but the one I tried on Amazon from CAD was faulty (crazy buzzing around 1khz), so waiting for the next delivery...

<comment><USER15> For what you're doing, a dynamic is a good call--they'll eat the bounce off the walls. Don't worry about a tight pickup pattern so long as it is generally cardioid; with dynamic mics' general falloff, a wide cardioid pattern is not going to hurt you much. Consider the AT2005USB or ATR2100USB; both microphones are USB/XLR so later on you don't have to dump them if you want to get fancier and they sound very good for the price.

Feel free to e-mail me if you'd like to chat about this; I do a little bit of audio wizardry on the side (and I'm building an open-source podcast serving platform at the moment, as it happens, so I've spent time in the weeds--maybe it'd be a good option for your hosting).

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the detailed comment! I just ordered the ATR2100USB and will give it a shot. I'll follow up with you re: hosting... it's something we're interested in and don't know that much about. Thanks again!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> To give a listen before deciding to subscribe: [https://hackerdaily.simplecast.fm/](https://hackerdaily.simplecast.fm/)

<comment><USER16> Thank you for this. I was looking for a way to listen without subscribing or downloading some new app or using itunes :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Thanks for doing this. Exactly what I wanted to make my long daily commute productive.

</comment><comment><USER18> Looks interesting, but how do I subscribe? I'm used to just adding the feed URL to my podcast app (Pocket Casts). Clicking the Google Play button opens Play Music with a message saying that the podcast isn't available.

<comment><AUTHOR> Sorry about that! The feed is here: [https://rss.simplecast.com/podcasts/5271/rss](https://rss.simplecast.com/podcasts/5271/rss)

[EDIT] Updated the site w/ the RSS feed link in the header. Thanks for pointing this out.

<comment><USER18> Thanks! I've subscribed!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> This looks great. Will you be offering any of your own commentary about the items?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! We're still experimenting with the format but we'll throw in some commentary here and there. If folks like it, we can certainly do more. :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> I've been enjoying Tech meme podcast - [https://news.techmeme.com/180306/podcast](https://news.techmeme.com/180306/podcast)

</comment><comment><USER21> Good luck with this! My morning commute is hungry for more podcasts!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! We'd love to hear your feedback as we go. :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Amazing idea! I'll definitely be tuning in - good luck guys!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you! We'd love to hear your feedback as we go.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Reddit world news has a bot that does like a 5-7 sentence summary of articles. Would be cool if you could run that on the articles and read it. Nice to hear a human voice.

</comment><comment><USER24> man, I hate being that guy, but no https?

Super interested in this podcast though

<comment><USER25> sorry! we're still working out the logistics of running the podcast but we'll switch the site over to https as soon as possible

<comment><USER24> No worries, Let's Encrypt makes it really easy if you haven't used them before. Since you have input forms and links to app stores it might be a good idea.

<comment><USER26> These are the people that I will allocate time to listen to, while they "perfect" their "minimum viabable podcast".

<comment><USER27> We've banned this account for repeatedly violating the site guidelines.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Added, awesome, definitely keen. Good luck and hopefully the inevitable negativity of the internet isn't too bitter!

</comment><comment><USER29> Subscribed! Good luck with the project.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you! We'd love to hear your feedback as we go. :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> Does anyone remember Buzz Out Loud?

<comment><USER31> Yeah, I loved that show. If your a fan of Tom Merrit, he has another daily show called DTNS (Daily Tech News Show) which is pretty good as well.

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> I need this. I spend so much time a day driving that it would be perfect!

</comment><comment><USER33> the background music in the Tuesday April 17th episode is way too loud, and a bit disturbing

edit: ah, it's only in the intro..

Nice job!</comment>


Dark Knight Director Shuns Digital Effects for the Real Thing - <AUTHOR> http://www.wired.com/entertainment/hollywood/magazine/16-07/ff_darknight <comment><USER2> While we are trying to draw parallels, I've got one:

You can eat too much of your own dog food.

Lucas loves his ILM, and rightfully so, but that doesn't necessitate CGI fire on the torches in the new Indy movie. Just because you have a lot of cool software and talented people doesn't mean you NEED to use them.

</comment><comment><USER3> This reminds me of the CineFX 100th anniversary issue. It was organized as a series of interviews with visual effects professionals, and the running theme basically came down to, "Do it right in the camera, don't fix it in post."

It's actually also appropriate here, because one of the reasons that the visual effects guys pointed out is that doing it right up front costs a LOT less than "fixing it in post" and takes a lot less time.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> i submitted this because i kind of think its insightful and has parallels in the world of startups and tech. thoughts?

<comment><USER4> Extravagance in movies seems to pay off more than splurging does in startups. I am guessing because it builds hype and thats what sells tickets.

<comment><USER5> If you're spending lots of money on a never-seen-before shot, that ends up on screen, and the moviegoer benefits from it; the product gets better, more people go and see it, and that pays. If you spend a lot of money on first- class flights and Cuban cigars for founders and staff, it doesn't - from my experience - make the product better. So there's a difference.

The cigars tasted nice, though.</comment></comment></comment>


California voters to weigh splitting into three states - <AUTHOR> https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44471277 <comment> crooked-v I find myself really annoyed that it's not "North California", "South California", and "West California", to match the patterns of existing states.</comment>


Verizon go90 burned over $200M trying to catch the eye of millennials - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessinsider.com/inside-verizon-go90-an-video-app-mix-between-youtube-and-netflix-2017-3 <comment><USER2> The Verizon brand is toxic enough that even without hearing what this has to offer I have a negative opinion on it. For example, I've been so soured on the Verizon apps that get installed to my phone without my permission (pre- installed apps on Android) it makes me incredibly hesitant to even look at adding another app to watch TV offerings I don't know about.

<comment><USER3> Similarly, Verizon has the best coverage in my area and has begun unlimited plans. Regardless, I have such a negative impression of the company from all the stories I've heard over the years that I'd really only switch if I had no other option. Even then I'd be hesitant.

<comment><USER4> Honest question - why is their reputation so toxic?

Comcast, I get. Their business model inspires hatred. They lure you with teaser rates on internet/cable then jack up the price 100%+ after the first year, banking on their local monopoly and their customers' unwillingness to sit on the phone for an hour to jump through hoops and reduce that price to "just" a 20% increase.

I've never had a problem with Verizon, though. In fact my experience has been modestly positive. Their cell coverage is good and consistent (no unwanted apps on my iPhone). When I lived back East, we were quite happy Verizon FIOS came to our neighborhood and gave us a superior alternative to Comcast. Are they behaving like Comcast in other areas without alternative internet providers?

<comment><USER5> _Honest question - why is their reputation so toxic?_

For me it goes back to when they'd disable some Bluetooth functionality on the phones they sold (and you _had_ to buy their phones to use them on the Verizon network) so that they could sell you more services. Transfer those photos off your phone? The Verizon Photos Transfer Service will be an additional $5/month. People with, for example, the exact same phone only with an "AT&T" logo had the full functionality. And other stuff that I've forgotten.

That was such a blatant example of rent seeking that I've been content to do without Verizon's services since.

<comment><USER6> Agreed, it's easy to forget (~10 years ago) how anti-consumer and rent-seeking Verizon's behavior consistently was.

Their phones didn't use J2ME apps, only the proprietary Qualcomm BREW, and apps could only come from their own app store (Get It Now). On WinMo/BlackBerry smartphones with GPS, only Verizon's own $5/month map/navigation app could use the GPS hardware. The list went on and on

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I remember seeing ads for this around my neighborhood that were essentially baffling. Very trendy, but with zero communication about what go90 actually purported to do.

Google "go90 ads" and you'll see what I mean. Bright colors and slogans like "To watch, cut & share all the awesome" and "Brace yourself, entertainment is coming" which mean, effectively, nothing.

("Ooh, I love entertainment. Along with content it's one of my favorite things to experience.")

Also, "go90" is a terrible name.

<comment><USER8> If I recall the first TV ad they did was [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjLYPMmZfwY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjLYPMmZfwY), which is the only one I saw -- but I saw it a lot on late-night television; probably Comedy Central or Adult Swim.

The ads were problematic in the sense that they were essentially context-free, and while "us millennials" are enticed by shows we want to stream, we're also very cautious and skeptical of heavily advertised services at a late hour.

In me, the garish palette of the ads and the name evoked MTV-style advertising of the mid-1990s, when I was much younger, and bombarded with sketchy ads for polyphonic ringtones, J2ME games, and other services for brick cellphones on late-night television: an association that made me more wary than anything else, especially since the offered content appeared decidedly second-tier.

<comment><USER7> I don't generally think Hacker News is the place to post memes, but this ad is the marketing embodiment of this "30 Rock" clip: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ele_dj3ud38](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ele_dj3ud38)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> > Beyond the operation's length, its nature was haphazard and confusing, > according to members of the team. Partway through the metadata project, all > the team's contracts were supposed to end, but it was clear the job wasn't > complete. Management asked part of the team to stay on but pretended > everyone was getting the ax.

> "We all had to act like we were all leaving," one former contractor said. > "They asked us not to say anything."

Sounds like someone _very_ inexperienced calling the shots. Also asleep at the wheel. I really don't think version 3.0 is going to solve the root problems with this project.

</comment><comment><USER10> What the don't realize is not only do they have to create something interesting and useful, they have to overcome the negative associations people have with Verizon as a brand.

Instead of a making it a Verizon thing, it should have been a separate entity owned by Verizon but not visibly associated with it. Make a faux-startup thing, with a separate app name which skips every other vowel and such and start from there.

I distrust and dislike Verizon. Had their pricey FIOS service for a year and despite having a high bandwidth they kept throttling Youtube videos. So I switched to a regular cable provide, pays half as much, have less advertised bandwidth but much better experience. Their billing was a mess. They took a deposit initially to avoid running a credit check on me with the idea of returning it back. It was a pain to get that deposit back. Now they are sending a salesperson to my door every 3 or 4 months with "special deals" trying to convince me to go back to them (since they already installed their on-premises equipment).

<comment><USER11> > Had their pricey FIOS service for a year and despite having a high bandwidth > they kept throttling Youtube videos.

They weren't directly throttling things, they just let their peering connections max out until things broke.

[https://arstechnica.com/information- technology/2013/06/veriz...](https://arstechnica.com/information- technology/2013/06/verizon-bandwidth-provider-blame-each-other-for-slow- netflix-streaming/)

> He said he believes that Verizon's decision to limit Netflix bandwidth is > due to Verizon wanting customers to use its own streaming video services, > such as Redbox Instant.

I'm not sure if anything has really changed in 4 years.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I remember the Go90 ads that looked exactly like the MTV "M" ad that ran in 1981. It was cool at the time but now it just looks dated.

As a Generation X-er I remember that as a betrayal, when a few years later the 60+ Sumner Redstone decided that we couldn't watch music videos anymore, MTV stopped showing music videos and became yet another whistlestop in a vast wasteland of reality television.

<comment><USER13> My grandparents tend to watch _a lot_ of reality TV. On the History Channel, Discovery Channel, all the channels that used to have interesting, educational content like documentaries.

I've noticed it's the same kind of show (mostly): someone lives in a harsh environment or otherwise away from civilization.

I think they're...living vicariously through it? They love the outdoors, hunting and fishing, etc. They are a bit too old and tired day-to-day to go and do the things they always have loved, but they get something out of watching others brave the elements.

<comment><USER14> This has always been the case, popular shows and movies always tend to reflect the culture at the time. During the 50's and 60's, the bad guy in every movie was Russian. Vampire and plague movies became popular during the recession to ride the general feeling of unease and lack of control. Now with only a specific demographic watching TV nowadays, of course shows will reflect that group more than others.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> This sounds like something out of SiliconValley the tv show. Specifically the aquihiring of startups and churning through the tech teams and hoping the next aquihired team builds better tech, when the problem is likely not tech in the first place.

</comment><comment><USER16> I'm a millennial and this is the first I've even heard of it, which doesn't bode well for them.

</comment><comment><USER17> If they keep assuming that millennials are frivolous consumers, they're going to keep losing money.

<comment><USER18> Given the popularity of frivolous media, ain't most people just frivolous consumers?

<comment><USER17> Totally. It's just that the notion that millenials are more frivolous because they don't buy cars and big houses seems so predominant in people's minds.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Sometimes you have to spend $200 million to get a 2000 word "news story" about your product.

</comment><comment><USER20> Strange, I'm from Canada and I've never heard of go90. Is it another American only service?

Edit: yep, "US only", two years after launching... we're one of the best consumers of Netflix like services because of silly licensing deals. Netflix made a big deal about launching their streaming service in Canada and did it promptly.

</comment><comment><USER21> I remember applying to Verizon when I was still in school. I had to give up because their application kept throwing readable database errors and wouldn't let me continue to the subsequent pages. Weeks later, one of their recruiters contacted me and asked if I wanted to finish my application. I said no.

</comment><comment><USER22> I don't understand the logic of the original vision at all. You have Netflix for Hollywood and TV, Youtube for more independent stuff, Crunchyroll for anime, Amazon maybe for stragglers, and Twitch for livestreams. And Hulu was there. And so on.

There isn't room for another general purpose video platform icon on someone's home screen. That's not a great strategy.

It was a mistake to not find the niche like live sports from the very beginning and building the campaign/strategy around that. Then drive that wedge open.

</comment><comment><USER23> As a soccer fan, the service is great as it has live La Liga games for free. They have some Mythbusters episodes too. The original content they try to push looks awful though.

</comment><comment> irq-1 Why didn't they make a video calling app and go after Skype? They're a phone company making a video centric, mobile app. Make it open and everywhere with easy no/low cost usage... oh, right, it's Verizon. They have to own it all and monopolize it from hardware to software to network to content to...

</comment><comment><USER24> Success is simple Verizon. Deliver me good phone, text, and data, at reasonable rates. You are not doing that now. Extra services are meaningless if your not competitive on your core offerings.

<comment><USER25> ISPs fear being dumb pipes. They want "additional revenue channels" like selling profiles on their subscribers to advertisers, or better yet, vertically integrating with advertisers. Look at everything ISPs do and how badly they don't want to be water or power or sewer companies like they should be, especially given how few choices there are in a given physical location (for wired ISPs). With this FCC chair and political climate, however, I doubt we'll see change any time soon.</comment></comment>


Galileo-enabled devices - <AUTHOR> https://www.usegalileo.eu/ <comment><USER2> It mentions iPhones but not iPads, which should be compatible with Galileo too.

However, it's not clear how Apple devices make the choice/switch of which system to use. They seem to be able to use Glonass too.</comment>


We had to pivot and it sucks - <AUTHOR> We had to pivot our product at ductllc.com after receiving constant feedback from advisors and our users that we should focus on what was working and get rid of the other features that was more non-sense.
It kind of sucks after putting all that development effort into the other features but I am starting to warm up to the idea.
Wondering if anyone else had to go through the same? <comment><USER2> Well, that's sort of the name of the game with startups.

It also speaks to though that perhaps getting new feature in front of your users sooner should be a goal. For instance, you can quickly make mockups with something like InvisionApp.com and then throw those in front of some users for feedback. If it's not working you can shelf it. That way you don't spend development efforts on features that your users don't find useful.

</comment><comment><USER3> Just a heads up that your submissions read like ads for your companies (Duct and Pital). They might better be placed in/part of the "show" feature of HN.

<comment><AUTHOR> This wasn't for that purpose. But the other ones were so thank you very much! Thats helpful. Did not know that was a thing.</comment></comment>


Why I (Still) Code - <AUTHOR> http://continuations.com/post/178777693/why-i-still-code <comment><USER2> _"Sixth, it never gets dull. There are always shiny new toys to play with."_

I wish I had that perspective. Instead, I find myself growing weary trying to keep abreast of all the shiny new toys, and feel like it gets in the way of accomplishing or mastering new things.

</comment><comment><USER3> You know, these sound like the same reasons I left grad school (Sociology) to go back to coding. I'm much happier building things that other people can use.

</comment><comment><USER4> Albert is awesome.

</comment><comment><USER5> _...coding combines several other things that I really love. There is a bit of math, a bit of writing, a bit of puzzle solving, etc..._

That's what does it for me.

</comment><comment><USER6> Nice domain name!

<comment><USER7> He is a lisp user.

<comment><USER8> Beware, VCs are all Schemers

<comment><USER9> Groan, but I gave you a bump up anyway.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Autonomous Robots Invade Retail Warehouses  - <AUTHOR> http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/01/retailrobots.html <comment><USER2> Interestingly, these robots aren't that smart. It just goes to show how much you can build by engineering a whole system, and not expecting a single robot to be that intelligent.

For example, the vision system is essentially built with fiducials (markers like QR codes) on the trays.

These robots could do nothing in your basement. I'm not saying this is bad - it's actually awesome to see more real robotics companies selling products. My point is that I really look forward to robots that can perceive their environment better and manipulate objects in it with dexterity. That will really knock your socks off.

<comment><USER3> Amen. Proper computer vision would revolutionise .. well, an awful lot of things. Let's just hope it doesn't turn out like Manna, though .. <http://www.marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm>

<comment><USER4> I think this scenario is highly unlikely because society will not allow robots to make mistakes. A robot pilot might fly perfectly 99.999% of the time. 100 times better than human pilots but the first time a robot plane crashes, people will go nuts and adopt a "ban them all" mentality. With a human pilot, they just shrug and say "pilot error". People make mistakes. Robots aren't allowed to.

<comment><USER5> I think this is due to a sense of control and fear of the unknown. People shrug it off because they think they could conceivably do better, or have helped the situation. But, the higher the barrier to entry the less accepting people are of error. Look at the discrepancy between about of airline deaths and car deaths, and the respective fear it engenders in people. Just about everyone knows about driving a car, but very few know what it is like to fly a plane.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> These guys are a local company out in Boston, and I know a few fellow students who have interned with them. The beauty of the system, as many people mentioned, lies in the simplicity of it. It has two uncommon traits for robotics - reliability and affordability.

Another neat feature of the system that is not clearly shown is that when the shelf is brought to the employee to have the item picked, a laser pointer mounted at the human station points to the item on the shelf to be picked. Quite impressive!

</comment><comment><USER7> Demo of the robots: <http://www.kivasystems.com/demo/index.html>

</comment><comment><USER8> not new. I spent a couple weeks in a HallMark warehouse in the mid to late 90s. The actual warehouse was about 4 football fields with shelves about 60 feet high. Automatic pickers running on rails would go along the aisles and up the shelving to grab boxes, and deposit them on conveyors. The conveyors read the bar codes(they were talking about rfid at the time) and delivered them to the proper loading dock. No one was actually in the warehouse and they had to turn up the lights to give us a tour. All run off of two three crappy tower servers.

<comment><USER9> I would like to point out that it is a novel solution because it uses what works well from a robot standpoint and what works well from a human one. The robots do the sorting, moving heavy things etc. The humans take the huge assortment of different items and package them. It also minimizes what changes you need to make to the warehouse so it should be a quick and cheep to retro fit.

While some warehouses specialize others hold 100,000+ types of items that are not in boxes ready to ship. These items range in shapes and sizes and can be grouped to save on shipping costs etc. Think a Ford warehouse that holds every part ever made over the last 10 years or Amazon.com not Netflix.

So yes, human costs are higher, but they should be (~15 seconds a box and 20$ / hour) > 15c a package which could be far less than the savings from grouping items. And the system should be far more fault tolerant than robots moving on fixed tracks that need to pickup a wide range of box sizes vs the same shelf system every time.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> The meat:

 _the robots, which look like massive orange Roombas, [...] locate the stack of shelves with the needed product on it, slide beneath the stack to pick it up and then find their own routes from the stacks of stuff to human operators. And they manage to find just the right time to get themselves recharged for five minutes out of every hour. [...]

Any worker (sometimes called "pickers" in the industry jargon) can ask for anything from anywhere in the warehouse and ship it out.

"Every worker has random access to every product in the warehouse," Wurman said. [...]

As the robots pick up loads of products and put them back, they adjust the warehouse for greater efficiency. [...]

"We find that it's two to four times more efficient [than the average warehouse]," said Wurman. [...]

they know where they are by using a simple and cheap grid system that's stuck onto the floor of the warehouse.

That allows warehouse operators to switch off the lights and climate controls in the large areas of the warehouse that are patrolled solely by robots, cutting energy costs by as much as 50 percent over a standard warehouse. One marketing trick the company uses is to bring people out to the center of a warehouse and switch out the lights: The robots keep working around the people, cruising around in the dark._

</comment><comment><USER11> Between their demo and the youtube video in the wired article, Kiva couldn't ask for better PR.

It really is an interesting system. No RF technology used as far as I could tell. Simple solutions combine to make an efficient reliable scalable system. I'd love to talk to the programmers that got to build this system, what fun!

</comment><comment> patrickg-zill First we had "lights out" datacenters, now we have "lights out" warehouses.

<comment><USER12> We've had "lights out" manufacturing centers for decades now. There's a lot more automation out there than most people realize.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> _Warehouses run by Gap, as well as Zappos and Staples now use autonomous robots to pluck products from their shelves and send them to you_

I'm surprised Amazon isn't on that list... anyone care to hypothesize why?

<comment><USER14> Amazon is eating their own dogfood. They have been beta testing a product called "Actual Turk". With Actual Turk, people show up at a defined location and perform menial tasks for a few cents each.

Any product you order from an Amazon warehouse has been picked and packed by an Actual Turk over the last 3 months. In between product pick/pack jobs Actual Turks also perform other jobs on demand, such as making hand-shadow puppets in front of a webcam, reading bedtime stories to children over the phone, or seeking out specimens to ship to a child for their school rock- collection project.

This offering was also alpha-tested in front of many Home Depot locations in the Southwest.

<comment><USER15> ... but seriously, I heard they use(d) Segways; that was their level of automation for a while (maybe still).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> This is like Google for blue-collar workers. I love being able to think of something and have it appear magically, and this should let people that work with their hands do the same.

Ironically, taking the time and cost out of finding parts should make more room for creativity in manufacturing and distribution jobs.

<comment><USER15> Really? Or, more, make room for more no-jobs.

<comment><USER16> My comment wasn't meant to apply to every business, but the most creative and enlightened ones would definitely take advantage of this and thrive (Zappos is a case in point).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> If you look 0:21 in the video (scroll down), the robot at the top looks like it's stuck searching for a waypoint.

<comment><USER18> Looking at the other videos, it would appear the robots spin in circles in order to lift up the racks.. so I'd suspect that's what's happening there

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> We've been wanting to do this where I'm at for a while. While I hate to put human beings out of work, they really do make too many mistakes for shipping things perfectly.

<comment><USER20> > While I hate to put human beings out of work

That's understandable, but think that these people will probably find more fulfilling and productive jobs. As long as the layoffs are gradual, they will have time to retrain and find other jobs. Of course, if their skillsets are really obsolete and many are laid off at once, this can lead to structural unemployment. Eastern European countries went through that after the fall of communism. The transition was not pretty.

But smaller layoffs and career changes are just the cost of technical progress. Have a look at the Industrial revolution [1] and Luddites [2].

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution> [2] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite>

Also, here's my first law : "Anything that can be automatized WILL be automatized, whatever the costs."

<comment><USER21> > Also, here's my first law : "Anything that can be automatized WILL be > automatized, whatever the costs."

The point of automation is greater efficiency and efficacy, not some fetish with robots. Your "law" probably does not hold.

<comment><USER22> It does hold, because humans aren't as specialized as a robot designed specifically for the job.

<comment><USER10> _It does hold, because humans aren't as specialized as a robot_

That humans are not as specialized as specialized robots was not contested. What about the "whatever the costs" part?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> My friend Tom is a python hacker and works there, I pointed out the thread... maybe he'll chime in.</comment>


Netflix's lost year: The inside story of the price-hike train wreck - <AUTHOR> http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57468798-93/netflixs-lost-year-the-inside-story-of-the-price-hike-train-wreck/?tag=readMore

<comment><USER2> Crap streaming selection is the real reason that spinning off the DVD business couldn't work. Most of the good movies are DVD-only. If all titles were available in both forms, consumers would have been a lot more comfortable with the change.

The moral of the story is that success teaches us little.

</comment><comment><USER3> tl;dr: In 2011, Netflix raised prices for their combined dvd + streaming service, then shortly thereafter decided to split dvd off as a company named qwikster. Subscribers didn't like the price hike or the inconvenience of split companies and separate movie lists, etc. The change was walked back, but netflix lost roughly 800k subscribers (of 23.6mm in the us in april '11 [1]) or 3% and 77% of their stock price. The reporter claims this mostly happened because four key executives who had been at netflix basically from the beginning and whom the ceo Reed trusted and listened to had left the company and there was nobody left that he trusted enough to seriously consider their opinions.

\</comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment>--

I think the reporting is interesting. I'd just assumed this whole thing was basically blunt negotiations between the studios and netflix over streaming rights, and that the studios had wanted to get paid per subscriber, whether that subscriber wanted dvds or streaming or both. Netflix can basically buy dvds and do whatever they want because of the doctrine of first sale, but if the studios don't license content they can't do a damn thing.

What's also interesting is I've heard a lot of grumping about netflix from an employees' perspectives. People seem to get randomly fired. This jibes with what happened with qwikster. Reed had already started staffing qwikster up so employees that agreed to switch or had been hired basically got dicked. This lost them one of the key executives that had built dvd fulfillment and customer service.

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netflix></comment>


Creating a Simple World with Three.js - <AUTHOR> http://blog.chewbonga.com/entry/54e67133e5c87a2d7653d185

<comment><USER2> Is there a demo to save downloading/building it?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, forgot to mention that: [http://chewbonga.com/simple-world- threejs/](http://chewbonga.com/simple-world-threejs/)</comment></comment>


A $43,859.00 Refurbished Mac Pro - <AUTHOR> https://www.apple.com/shop/product/G0ZKLLL/A/Refurbished-Mac-Pro-25GHz-28-core-Intel-Xeon-W-Two-Radeon-Pro-Vega-II-Duo-Apple-Afterburner?fnode=ddfef9711ebff9c3686c9d8f2b8b376582fd30d4098d53e076f89d582c7f243d30713b75d2986d1204478d10b2181062178feb9bfca3146a54bb295793b48a78f5d960bb139b07d4d00f1fa74cfa0b53 <comment><USER2> I'm reminded of the time someone actually put the "you could build an identical PC cheaper yourself" to the test back in 2013.

[https://www.extremetech.com/computing/173695-apples-new- over...](https://www.extremetech.com/computing/173695-apples-new- overpriced-10000-mac-pro-is-2000-cheaper-than-the-equivalent-windows-pc)

While I'm sure AMD's latest high-core count chips may be giving us new cheaper options, high priced Macs have typically been reasonably priced for their specs.

More recently when the 27" 5K iMacs came out, I looked at the price of a 27" 5K IPS DCI-P3 monitor on Dell... it was only $100 less than the iMac, despite the Mac having a full computer in it, in addition to the display. People still complained that they were expensive.

<comment><USER3> Because you're looking at manufacturers that primarily cater to enterprise. There is a big difference if you look at MSI or Acer for monitors generally and build your own PC.

<comment><USER4> Except typical MSI and Acer monitors are not remotely on par with the professional monitors mentioned prior. MSI and Acer's professional monitors that are approximately the same specification, amazingly, cost approximately the same price.

<comment><USER3> Yes they are. Once you look at the actual specs beyond the name brand, you can get much better deal. Dell and Apple monitors are also going to usually be higher response time and lower hz as well, so worse performance for more money.

<comment><USER4> Response time and frequency are not the metrics that are most important for professional monitors. Colour accuracy, colour space and panel uniformity are the important metrics.

Sony can sell 1080p, 60hz monitors with 5ms response time for $3k because their colour accuracy, colour space support and panel uniformity are unparalleled outside of that price bracket.

Consider [https://pro.sony/en_AU/products/broadcastpromonitors/lmd-a24...](https://pro.sony/en_AU/products/broadcastpromonitors/lmd-a240-v3.0#ProductSpecificationsBlock- lmd-a240-v3-0) and [https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1029229-REG/sony_lmda...](https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1029229-REG/sony_lmda240_lmd_a240_24_lcd_production.html/overview) , Sony doesn't even list the pixel response time because it's not important for the market.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Going through Apple's buy site, the previous owner maxed out _every single configuration_ except for storage (2TB not 8TB) and then skimped on purchasing a Magic Trackpad, opting solely for a Magic Mouse 2. If they were going to spend all this, they should have gone all in!

Pretax cost as configured: $51,999 Cost fully maxed out: $53,948

BTW, this refurbished Mac Pro represents a savings of 15% off of $51,999.

<comment><USER6> We don't know if the previous owner got the trackpad or not. For example, if there were a problem with the computer and it was swapped for a new one, Apple probably wouldn't ask for the Magic Trackpad. Or even if it was returned, I imagine those two products have different pools of stock.

<comment><USER7> Or prefers a mouse for desktop (like me)

<comment><USER8> I do too _for most stuff_ , but I decided to try out a Magic Trackpad for a while and now I actually keep both on my desk. Having full gestures available right next to (or in my case directly above) the mouse makes for a surprisingly pleasant experience in macOS.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> It was terrifying to click this link and have it open up in the Apple Store app, with my payment info already available, and a big blue "Add to Bag" button under my thumb.

<comment><USER10> The bank would immediately decline a $43,000 purchase on my card. Not only is this way over my debit card's daily anti-fraud limit, it also exceeds my bank balance. I would recommend keeping a small balance in any account used for online purchasing.

<comment><USER11> I never purchase items with a debit card. A credit card always beats a debit card if you are able to pay it off every month.

If there's a wrong transaction with a credit card, the company will 99.99% of the time immediately take your side, and all you have to do is click dispute, and the money is instantly credited to your account.

With a debit card, in the past I have had to go through a week or so long process to get fradulent charges removed.

Plus other benefits, there are perks like automatically extended warranty on purchases like this one (amex), and all sorts of discounts.

<comment><USER12> I purchased something with a credit card, and returned it, but it was "lost" in shipping even though they signed for it. It took a while to notice, then it took a while to investigate and then a specified time period had elapsed and my cc company wouldn't reverse the charge. I cancelled the card.

<comment><USER11> I'll stop blanket recommending credit cards now.

Amex it is.

<comment><USER12> Ha, it was amex. Yes, credit card are better than debit cards but I thought I would have more options.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Might look outlandish to everyday consumers but it's not unreasonable in my line of work (VFX, 3D, real-time graphics) to require this kind of specs.

<comment><USER14> I'm pretty sure you could escape for under 10k if you built this yourself in a PC.

<comment><USER15> The two video cards alone cost $10k.

<comment><USER14> It seems like they're maybe Apple-exclusive so it's possibly they're drastically marked up. The Titan RTX is $2500 apiece and seems somewhat comparable.

<comment><USER16> The Titan RTX is a consumer GPU, not a workstation GPU. The cards are designed for different workloads, so are not really comparable.

<comment><USER17> What parts of the chip do they burn off for the consumer version?

<comment><USER18> It has ecc memory, more memory, and the design allows for 4 stacked together, making it ideal for deep learning workflows.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> If I'm not mistaken, this was roughly the price point of an SGI Indigo II workstation — in 1995 dollars. Seems to be targeting a similar niche. Machines like the Onyx were even more, if I remember correctly — could be north of $100k. A license to something like Alias PowerAnimator was another ten to fifteen grand.

</comment><comment><USER20> >> Afterburner is a hardware accelerator card built with an FPGA, or programmable ASIC. With over a million logic cells, it can process up to 6.3 billion pixels per second.

Interesting -- didn't realize FPGAs were commonly used in graphics development flows. Does anyone know what software is used to customize the FPGA to accelerate tasks in macOS?

<comment><USER21> Doesn't really count as 'an FPGA', how it's implemented is really a minor detail. Lots of consumer and prosumer hardware out there is based on FPGAs, but programming it isn't something you're allowed to do. At least two pieces of hardware hooked up to my PC are powered by FPGAs.

Part of the logic here is that if you're only gonna sell 20000 units, it's probably better to just slap an FPGA in there than build out a fully custom board with a bunch of dedicated chips. The FPGA is easier to update after release, too.

<comment><USER22> I'm interested. What are the two pieces of hardware you are talking about ?

<comment><USER21> Video capture hardware and audio interface

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Personally I do not need this, and I imagine most people don't. But I wonder what Apple's return policy on this machine was, and what happened?

Did someone buy this and then not find it good enough?

Did someone want to test it and then get their money back?

Was something broken?

This is an expensive machine, comparable in price to a nice, new car. I'd want a history report if I were buying this.

<comment><USER24> Maybe they just ran their compute then sent it back. Like leaving the tag tucked into the fancy shirt you only need to wear once.

<comment><USER25> I'm imagining someone on the white board comparing time to solution with various setups while taking into account shipping time

<comment><USER26> "Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway." — Andy Tanenbaum

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> It's only 500GB away from being able to load the entirety of the SSD's contents into RAM.

Of course, I say "only" when that difference alone is nearly 16× the amount of RAM I have in this here Threadripper rig on which I'm typing this comment.

<comment><USER28> This reminded me of running Linux on RAM and being amazed at the speed.

Knoppix, damn small Linux, puppy Linux, slax, and a few, even older, firewalls and router distros that existed (exist?)

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> For that price, I could buy nearly 3 of those $15,000 first-gen Apple watches!

 _Note: for anyone wondering why it 's so expensive, look at the amount of RAM it has_

</comment><comment><USER30> When I create an EMR cluster with 10 nodes with 16 cores each. I get 10 cpu nodes with 1.3 terabytes of RAM. Costs $10 per hour! I use it to run Spark to process and analyse data. Amazon has the option to have GPU based nodes too! If I run it for a whole month then it'd cost me around $7.5K. Running it for 6 months will cost the same as this machine. Although not an Apple to apple comparison. This seems like a reasonably priced machine, especially for Machine Learning/Data science folks (Only if it had nVidia GPU) :D. For someone who needs that kind of power, it's not overpriced. Especially for the quality of hardware you get.

</comment><comment><USER31> For reference, the new version of that model would be $51,599.

[https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/mac- pro/tower#](https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/mac-pro/tower#)

</comment><comment><USER32> I'm going to go out on a limb here and predict you'd still get those beach ball spinners even with this setup.

<comment><USER33> It's definitely a machine optimized more for throughput than latency. Though 1.5TB of RAM can go a long way toward hiding storage latency for some workloads.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> "Quality products at great prices"

Express delivery to my location is an additional $8.

<comment><USER35> But at least there's a power cord already included in the box. And a mouse.

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> Doesn't even include the wheels!

</comment><comment><USER37> Remember that app when the App Store was still new - it was $1000 and was just named something simple like "I'm rich". This sort of reminds of that

<comment><USER38> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Rich](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Rich)

<comment><USER37> Thanks good memories

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> New, this configuration would be $51,599.00 before tax.

EDIT: Ninja'd like 5 times over. I see I wasn't the only one that rushed to figure out what kind of discount the buyer is getting on this.

</comment><comment><USER40> A 5$ option

[https://www.amazon.com/Professional-Grater-Stainless- Parmesa...](https://www.amazon.com/Professional-Grater-Stainless-Parmesan- Vegetables/dp/B01FNR4REY?ref_=s9_apbd_otopr_hd_bw_b16yl3&pf_rd_r=8NJMKDMJ86ZV1P5ADYSC&pf_rd_p=ad3c712d-5c2c-577a-914b-076ea6d01c50&pf_rd_s=merchandised- search-11&pf_rd_t=BROWSE&pf_rd_i=16439861)

</comment><comment><USER41> Apple has a very generous return policy. There are so many refurb Mac pros due to return for incompatible peripherals or whatever reason it was returned.

</comment><comment><USER42> Why buy an expensive new/refurbished Mac now if there are completely new models with ARM available in a couple of years? I'd wait 1 year or so for Intel Macs' prices to drop to half or lower, because Apple will not be able to sell them anymore, and then buy and install Linux on them.

<comment><USER43> One reason is that you might need a machine now, as opposed to in a couple of years.

<comment><USER42> That's the beauty of Macs: they are (or were) reliable for at least a decade, unless Apple decides to drop software support for them. Waiting was never a problem for Macs. It's the architecture transitions that kills them.

The new Mac Pro is not even shipped, it's basically obsolete now. Or in two years, if Apple keeps their _promise_.

<comment><USER43> The new Mac Pro has indeed shipped. It was released in December 2019, and people started receiving them months ago. And "it's basically obsolete now" stands in apparent contradiction to "they are reliable for at least a decade, unless Apple decides to drop software support for them", which Apple has made clear they're not looking to do with the transition to Apple Silicon.

Reliability doesn't necessarily play a role here at all. For some users, the trash can Mac Pro did not meet their needs. The 2019 Mac Pro is a completely different beast. The last machine I'd argue that was comparable was the 1st generation, which no longer supported the most recent versions of macOS.

<comment><USER42> Would you still buy software for "the beast" knowing that software support will be dropped anyway? I did that once, being naïve enough to believe that Rosetta (powerpc on intel) will be there forever as an option in MacOSX. Man was I dumb. Apple literally burnt $15k worth of hardware and software in front of my eyes when they announced to drop PowerPC and then Rosetta later. No. Screw that. Don't buy news Mac now. Don't make the same mistakes.

<comment><USER43> The economics may not make sense for you, but they may make sense for others for the work they're doing. If having a fast $10K machine now will allow someone to make $500K over the next two years, that's money well spent. If that's not the business another is in, it may not be. And both are fine.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER44> Even if you needed these specs and macOS, you could easily save thousands by buying the RAM yourself. You could save even more with by using the W5700X GPU (or even off-the-shelf 5700 XT).

</comment><comment><USER45> What does this do that a much cheaper computer doesn't?

<comment><USER46> You are color grading a $200 million movie and want to apply various tweaks to the video and see the effect in real time. With a regular PC you have to render and then view... with something like this you could render in real time at 8k.

<comment><USER45> In which case 50k seems like a pretty reasonable price.

It's surprising that there are enough of those kinds of use cases to justify an entire production of a product like this. Something about the depth of certain markets being way bigger than they appear.

<comment><USER47> There are a _lot_ of production studios around the world, of which only a fraction produce movies that end up in theaters or sold on Amazon or iTunes.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER48> My last Mac Pro cost $3499. I did professional video work on it for 8 years. And now I can't justify / afford one. What a world.

</comment><comment><USER49> I like it that it has stainless steel with feet.

</comment><comment><USER50> I wonder if the number of people who would are willing and able buy a refurbished Mac Pro is higher or lower than the number of people who are willing and able to buy a used Bugatti.

It seems that once you have the kind of money to be getting those items, you would want to get it new and customized exactly how you want it.

<comment><USER51> A Bugatti is bought as a status symbol. This Mac Pro was bought for high end video editing. They were willing to pay $50k because it's for editing multimillion dollar projects. They'll probably be paying thousands of dollars per day for this editing work. The refurbished one does the job just as well as the new one.

</comment></comment><comment><USER52> It seems to me the ECC ram, maxed out is really the driving factor of the cost.

</comment><comment><USER53> If a single SKU costs 50k, what are the development costs?

Insane.

</comment><comment><USER54> Seems pretty pricey given the specs. How much would it cost to put together a new Linux box with the same/functionally equivalent components?

<comment><USER55> $5k max

<comment><USER56> Can you even buy half the ram for that cost?

> 1.5 TB DDR4 ECC Ram

<comment><USER57> No, that much RAM is over 10k alone.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER58> When did Apple stop making the "trash can" style Mac Pros? This link is surprising to me.

</comment><comment><USER59> What is the cheapest desktop you can build with 1.5 TB of ddr4 ram?

<comment><USER60> It's pretty standard to have 8 slots [1] on motherboards and rarely 16 slots [2]

64 gig DDR4 modules cost ~$300 [3] 128 gig DDR4 server modules can cost as little as ~$800 [4]

8x64 = 0.5 TB of DDR4 ram = 8 _300 = $2,400 16x128 = 1.5 TB of DDR4 ram = 16_ 800 = $12,800

[1] [https://www.amazon.com/TRX40-AORUS-PRO-Fins-Array- Motherboar...](https://www.amazon.com/TRX40-AORUS-PRO-Fins-Array- Motherboard/dp/B081JCCGQR/?tag=li-org-main-20) [2] [https://hothardware.com/news/gigabyte-mz31-amd- epyc-7000-mot...](https://hothardware.com/news/gigabyte-mz31-amd- epyc-7000-motherboard-16-dimm-slots) [3] [https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?N=100007611%20601275379](https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?N=100007611%20601275379) [4] [https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?N=100007952%20601324426](https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?N=100007952%20601324426)

<comment><USER61> That's just the RAM cost, though. The threadripper TRX40 platform supports 256GB max RAM, and the epyc you linked tops out at 1TB. Just finding a cpu and mobo that will host 1.5 TB is a multi-thousand dollar expense all on its own.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER62> No wheels ??? :).

</comment><comment><USER63> That is a ripoff, not even the wheels are interluded.

</comment><comment><USER64> I wonder what's the price for a new one

<comment> crooked-v For this configuration, $51,599.

</comment></comment><comment><USER65> -1 doesn't have $700 wheels

</comment><comment><USER66> i would go for a 48-core dell poweredge r820 with 1.5TB of ram for 7k on ebay, albeit missing the GPU cards

</comment><comment><USER67> Apple's prices are starting to get out of control.

<comment><USER67> Ok. I learned my lesson... don't make fun of Apple on HN.</comment></comment>


Math in JavaScript: Broken Irrational Numbers - <AUTHOR> http://ecc-comp.blogspot.com/2016/06/math-in-javascript-broken-irrational.html <comment><USER2> You don't need to summon irrational numbers to get _wrong_ results.

For example: 0.3-(3*0.1) is non-zero, no irrational numbers involved.

The reason for this is that 1/3 cannot be precisely represented in decimal but (maybe somewhat surprisingly) it can be in binary, hence the correct result for 1/3 + 1/3 + 1/3 = 1. On the other hand 1/10 or 0.1 has no precise representation in binary and is round. The rounding adds up and you get wrong results.

This also has nothing to do with Javascript but is a consequence of the way numbers are represented in a computer. Most programming languages deal with numbers roughly the same way and will be affected by this types of problems. Some try to hide their shady slopes though. Microsoft Excel has some heuristics that fudges the results for simple formulas, so you get different result depending on the heuristic.

For a more detailed explanation see the classic " What Every Programmer Should Know About Floating-Point Arithmetic" [1]

[1] [http://www.phys.uconn.edu/~rozman/Courses/P2200_14F/download...](http://www.phys.uconn.edu/~rozman/Courses/P2200_14F/downloads/floating- point-guide-2014-11-03.pdf)

<comment><USER3> > The reason for this is that 1/3 cannot be precisely represented in decimal > but (maybe somewhat surprisingly) it can be in binary, hence the correct > result for 1/3 + 1/3 + 1/3 = 1.

1/3 cannot be precisely represented in (finite) binary. Its representation is 0.0̅1̅.

<comment><USER3> (This was meant to be appended as an edit to the above, but between the time I started typing it into the update text area and the time I hit the "update" button the comment aged enough to not allow updates, so I'll add it as a reply)

In general, a necessary (but not sufficient) condition for the representation of n/m to be precisely represented in base b is that there exists some integer r in [1, m-1] such that rb = 0 mod m. If you work out the representation of n/m using the classic division algorithm, the algorithm terminates iff you hit such an r after one of the subtraction steps. The step on which you hit that r will have produced the next to less digit of the result, and then the algorithm will product one more digit and terminate.

When m is a prime (such as m = 3), then (r, m) = 1, and so rb = 0 mod m is only possible if b = 0 mod m. If b = 0 mod m then all r are suitable, and n/m has at most one digit after the radix point.</comment></comment></comment>


Installing Visual Studio Code on Linux (Ubuntu) - <AUTHOR> http://jochen.kirstaetter.name/blog/linux/install-visual-studio-code-on-linux-ubuntu.html

<comment><AUTHOR> Linux users are currently confronted with some lack of comfort compared to their Windows and Mac OS X friends. Although there are several and in my opinion easy ways to increase the user experience in using Visual Studio Code under Linux I'm a bit concerned whether Microsoft is keeping it on par to the other systems. Right now, installation takes some manual steps, there are essential parts missing in order to provide an excellent first contact and other editor features like automatic updates aren't yet available for the Linux variation compared to Windows and Mac OS X.</comment>


Did anyone ever wonder why Satoshi Nakamoto used a GMX mail account? - <AUTHOR>

I know those were very common in Germany before Gmail became more popular, but I have never known anyone outside of Germany to use GMX. <comment><USER2> Hi-- Rufus Jones. Pleased to make your acquaintance. I live outside of Germany-- in fact, I live outside of Boston. There was a 3-year period when you couldn't pick up a computer magazine without finding a 1-page or 2-page spread on 1&1 Media, which is why they have 13 million accounts.

I have mine because they're less annoying than MS, Yahoo or Google, and I really don't need more for LivingSocial or Groupon,

</comment><comment><USER3> they used to be big globally when it was hard to find a free pop3/imap enabled account. post-gmail it's not that big a feature anymore.</comment>