Why Windows 8 will suck - <AUTHOR> http://orclev.tumblr.com/post/18555141412/why-windows-8-will-suck

<comment><USER2> Windows 8 sucks for different reasons than the alternating suck release strategy. Windows 8 is primarily a tablet OS. On the desktop side, that OS UI is bolted onto the underpinnings of Windows 7. It would be as if Apple forced Mac OS users to interact with the all their Max OS apps through the iOS UI primarily.

Additionally, 'metro apps' as they are known are basically tablet apps. Windows 8 on tablets is Windows 8 in name only and this seems purposely designed to confuse people into thinking it is more functional than it actually is. No existing Windows desktop apps will work on it at all. If you buy a Windows 8 tablet, none of your Windows software will work on it. Your existing copy of Microsoft Office, Photoshop, etc, none of it will work on Windows 8 tablets.

On the desktop, using the metro interface and metro apps is incredibly clunky, because you are using things designed for touch with a keyboard and mouse. It takes longer to get at things and switching between running apps isn't anywhere nears as convenient.

In the end, Windows 8 doesn't know what the hell it is yet. Either way, it's definitely not ready for prime time.

</comment><comment><USER3> I'm unsure if this is trolling or not or if I lost my sense of humor. Anyway, I can simply not buy that Windows 95 sucked or was a half way-house of old and new tech where Windows 98 was a major technical step forward in comparison. And of course, the author very conveniently forgot Windows 2000.

<comment><USER4> I don't think it's trolling based on the following point. As a purely intellectual exorcize, the article bases an argument on an unproven stated fact -- that version "x" of Windows sucked or didn't suck followed by a version that reversed the trend. While the merits of why an OS will or won't be "good" may seem completely subjective to me, unit sales data as a percentage of in-use computers around the world would provide a nice starting point for debate. Windows 95 (for me) was a watershed OS that has influenced how we use MS OS's _to_this_day_. I just don't have sales figures to support my claim, therefore mine is just an opinion -- like the original article.

<comment><USER5> The author also omitted certain releases (and fessed up to said omissions) to better support his claim. You can't fit the data to the hypothesis. I stopped reading. This is a novelty. Move along.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Even if Microsoft has pursued the Alternating Suckiness Strategy in the past, it's questionable that they can continue doing so.

The other operating systems, Android, iOS, Mac, Linux, are increasingly becoming viable alternatives for a great many people, simply because the OS has become increasingly irrelevant to the question of "Can I run this program/ open this file".

Microsoft cannot afford to give people another reason not to stick with their platform.

<comment><USER7> >Microsoft cannot afford to give people another reason not to stick with their platform.

Microsoft isn't going anywhere - they have the business segment locked down tight. The reasons for which are out of the scope of this discussion- but there are still companies out there writing ActiveX apps for IE6. Them upgrading to 8 is irrelevant because they're still on XP fer chrissakes.

I can see them taking the RIM tack if they continue down this road (namely making every other release distasteful for one reason or another and pissing more people off) - disregard the wants of consumers and sell a primarily business-focused product which consumers can also use, if they wish.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Windows 98 was just awful. I still remember having to re-boot that sucker 10 times a day.

<comment><USER9> Windows 98SE, however, was awesome and a VERY different beast from plain Windows 98. It was an entirely new release and it should really be on the list.

<comment><USER10> Similarly, Vista Service Packs made Vista much, much better, as did improved 3rd party drivers.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Adding Windows 2000 into his list would change the entire article.

<comment><AUTHOR> Windows 2000 was targeted at businesses and servers. It's specifically excluded as this is talking about the consumer releases that get bundled with new computers. Likewise the NT releases and any of the server releases are also excluded.

<comment><USER12> Nearly every nerd I knew in 2000-2 had Win2k on their PC. I can recall of two holdouts specifically, and both because they perceived to have a performance advantage in some game by sticking with Win98.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I recommend not buying into this narrative. 7 really was not that much different from Vista, but people persist in this perception that Vista was an abomination whereas 7 is somehow incredible.

The truth is, Windows has a huge obligation to legacy and backward compatibility, and MS has to pay homage to that instead of breaking with the past and starting something new. That's not to say that if they _did_ do that the results would be any good, but they can't even try at this point. They are attempting to sorta-kinda do that with the Metro experience stuff, but I think this approach is ultimately doomed. Computing is changing, rapidly, and a mish-mash of old and new probably won't work very well.

I hope I am wrong about this.

<comment><USER14> Windows back-compatibility support has its limits these days. The advertised vehicle for old enterprise XP apps that you just can't upgrade is "Windows XP Mode" (duckduckgo it), which is XP itself running under Virtual PC. (Yes, "well behaved" XP apps are supposed to be able to run on Windows 7 natively, but the mere existence of this other thing is a concession that many apps of interest are not that well behaved.)

The same strategy could be used to maintain back-compatibility across much more drastic transitions, if they were of a mood to make them.</comment></comment>


Ubuntu users on sale (privacy?) - <AUTHOR> http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.os.openbsd.misc/219461

<comment><USER2> That's just standard address selling/marketing and common since decades. Data is split by region, age groups or interests. Have a look on [http://shop.schober.com/](http://shop.schober.com/) for example. Sadly everyday business in offline marketing.

This one happens to be more targeted, maybe crawling on mailing lists. The data might have been acquired legally (e.g. buyers of certain Linux software which agreed to some terms of service) or illegally.</comment>


The Subscription Model Takeover Is Nearly Complete - <AUTHOR> https://www.theringer.com/tech/2018/6/21/17488220/moviepass-amc-subscription-model <comment><USER2> who would actually buy subscription to see movies in the theater? I might go the movies 3 times a year....maybe. Who is going to the movies 3 times a month?</comment>


Intel Expecting Apple to Transition to Custom ARM-Based Chips Starting in 2020 - <AUTHOR> https://www.macrumors.com/2019/02/21/apple-custom-arm-based-chips-2020/ <comment><USER2> For my work laptop, I don't care if my laptop is running an Intel or Apple chip, but for my home laptop, I regularly dual boot to Windows for gaming. Without an Intel chip, I'll stop buying Apple laptops for home use.

<comment><USER3> Should be possible for Apple to support this via virtualization. Do you just use boot camp and run it natively?

<comment><USER4> Virtualization is relatively fast because the cpu instructions aren't actually being emulated. No one is going to be gaming on an X86 emulator, at least not for anything released in the past decade and a half or so.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Whatever the last version of macOS is that supports Intel, I will be on it for a very, very, very, very long time...

<comment><USER5> Why, exactly?

<comment><USER4> I wrote a comment and deleted it. There are ways Apple could make this work. But I highly suspect ARM macOS is going to be significantly more restricted and locked down. I doubt we'll be able to disable SIP, for instance.

The overall direction macOS is moving is not positive. The article mentions Apple wanting developers to be able to publish one app for both macOS and iOS. I'm all for developer's lives being easier, but Apple's initial marzipan apps are really, really bad. I don't want to use touch-first interfaces on a desktop...

Also, I run Windows VM's, dual boot, do video encoding tasks that see huge benefits from a proper desktop x86 chip, etc.</comment></comment></comment>


Anti-Surveillance Clothing Line To Thwart Cell Tracking and Drones - <AUTHOR> http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/01/11/stealth_wear_adam_harvey_s_clothing_line_safeguards_against_surveillance.html

<comment><USER2> Heat doesn't just disappear. This looks interesting, but sounds like it would be a sauna if worn for any appreciable amount of time.</comment>


Ask Yc: What is your Favorite Keyboard? - <AUTHOR>

Let's get right to the point.  What is your Favorite Keyboard? <comment><USER2> my fav: searchyc.com

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=185743>

My real fav: the keyboards on apple and toshiba laptops, just cause that's what i'm used to. And the latest gen Apple wired KB

</comment><comment><USER3> ErgoLogic <http://www.emailbattles.com/2006/04/24/other_aadehidhca_ia/>

Although it's been solid as a rock, I dread the day when my keyboard breaks, because I know of no similar replacement.

</comment><comment><USER4> Dell SK-8115 - <http://www.pacificgeek.com/productimages/xl/J4628.jpg>

Nothing beats a slick compact design that dosent take up as much room as those riced up versions.

</comment><comment><USER5> I thought we weren't supposed to have religious or political content on HN. :-)

</comment><comment><USER6> The classic IBM/Lexmark/Unicomp buckling-spring keyboards. I especially like the PS/1 version without the number pad.

</comment><comment><USER7> One without someone else's food crumbs and skin flakes in it.

One that's designed to be washed in the dishwasher.

</comment><comment><USER8> Happy Hacker Keyboard Professional.

One of the most amazing keyboards ever made.

</comment><comment><USER9> My silver Apple wireless.

</comment><comment><USER10> Kinesis Advantage Pro.

</comment><comment><USER11> Apple's latest wired keyboard +1</comment>


Jeffrey Epstein's autopsy more consistent with homicide than suicide - <AUTHOR> https://www.foxnews.com/us/forensic-pathologist-jeffrey-epstein-homicide-suicide <comment><USER2> So both guards fell asleep. Epstein was placed in a cell alone, despite the earlier suicide watch. Both cameras malfunctioned. The autopsy is more consistent with homicide than suicide. Nobody knows where his money came from. He was seemingly collecting blackmail material on the rich and powerful. And there is known evidence of higher powers trying to stop the case going forward in the courts. The entire thing reeks of an intelligence operation by a state actor. Which state?

I'm not much of a fan of conspiracy theories, usually Occams Razor is right. But it's not a natural law, and sometimes the conspiracy theory is actually going to be the truth. This case is extremely suspicious, I think he was most likely murdered.

</comment><comment><USER3> Every year, the slur "conspiracy theorist" become less & less plausible, and more & more likely a meme inserted by conspirators.

Vegas is what flipped me.

</comment><comment><USER4> Nothing to see here, move along.

</comment><comment><USER5> No frickin kidding</comment>


Converting devices to USB Type-C [video] - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-vFtiDYiIw <comment><USER2> It's a great DIY channel, I really like his no thrills and friendly style of presenting. And he has come up with some brilliant upcycling ideas.

</comment><comment><USER3> Great DIY video</comment>


Adobe: 7 million people attempt to download Flash each month - <AUTHOR> http://macenstein.com/default/2010/02/adobe-7-million-people-attempt-to-download-flash-each-month-to-their-iphones/

<comment><USER2> 7 million people each month get redirected to Adobe's passive-aggressive appeal stating that they _"could totally provide Flash for the iPhone, if only Apple would let us"_ , because they browsed to a mouse/keyboard-dependent Flash game, or a page festooned with flash ads.

Meanwhile, Adobe has not delivered a full Flash player for Android or WebOS. I'd heard that there's one packaged for Maemo as a normal NPAPI plugin built for ARM, but Nokia+Mozilla won't ship it because it sucks.

<comment><USER3> Love it or hate it, flash still counts for a lot of the entertainment sector's web functionality. Apple should admit that many of it's users miss that and will continue do so with even greater poignancy when the iPad ships.

This will rage on until HTML5 is able to replicate and improve on every function of flash.

<comment><USER4> Which it doesn't for things like access to audio/video inputs (i.e. microphones and webcams). Though I have to admit that I find the prospect of configuring those through a Chrome or Firefox preferences interface more compelling than doing so through Flash.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> " _7 million people attempt to download Flash each month to their iPhones_ "

I find that extremely hard to believe.

<comment><USER3> It's more likely 7 million users per month hitting a page with flash on it is somehow being translated into an attempt to download.

<comment><USER6> Probably counting the redirects to <http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer> (which look like this: [http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/02/adobe-engages-apple-in- pa...](http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/02/adobe-engages-apple-in-passive- aggressive-warfare-with-iphones/) on mobile Safari).

Imagining a non-tech-savvy, new iPhone user presented with the idea of mobile internet for the first time, I just tried going to Hulu right now -- there's a pretty clear message on the home page that you need to "install Flash," which leads to the afore-linked page. I don't think 7 million is all that unreasonable.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> From the article: I'm not positive whether 7 million attempts directly translates into 7 million iPhone/iPod touch users it's entirely possible it's just ONE GUY who really doesn't get it

</comment><comment><USER8> That statistic would be more impressive if their download site worked properly. I've been stuck without Flash for a while now because I use Linux on a 64-bit machine, but the Flash 10.1 beta page has only dead links (<http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashplayer10/>).

<comment><USER9> Did you read the article? It's about iPhone/iPod download attempts.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I regularly fail to install flash on computers at libraries or even on my home computers. The installer is extremely buggy.

<comment><USER11> Sometimes I try to make a sandwich, and drop the meat on the floor. Then I'm sad.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> original article:

 _The company told me today that in December, there were more than 7 million attempts to download Flash from Adobe.com from iPhones and iPod Touches_

</comment><comment><USER13> 7M windows users like me who had to reformat their HD because of a virus.

Just happened to me last week.

<comment><USER3> Read the article. It's about iPhone users attempting to download it.

Assuming there's no smoke and mirrors (unlikely) it would be the best piece of leverage so far in this increasingly pathetic squabble.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> This could be 7 billion and it wouldn't change anything.

<comment><USER14> Sorry if I've offended.

My point was meant to be that regardless of how many iPhone users are attempting to download Flash, Apple is not going to change its stance unless Adobe addresses the performance issues within Flash. And even then Apple may not change. . . .</comment></comment>


Tools for digital publishers built by The Washington Post - <AUTHOR> https://www.arcpublishing.com/ <comment><USER2> What makes this different from the other publisher-based tools already on the market / available?

<comment><USER3> Jeff Bezos isn't actively profiting from the surveillance of (potentially un-)published articles with their tools? But in all seriousness, after everything that Amazon has done with respect to enabling and profiting from surveillance, and the lengths to which they will go to imaginatively cooperate with the police, I can't imagine why any publisher of potentially sensitive work - i.e., journalism - would want to use a platform built by a company owned by the same person to store any information of material value before publishing. And even for publicly published works, storing it here might be setting it in a data format that is more amenable for computational investigation.</comment></comment>


Stephen Wolfram's 60th Birthday AMA IRL - <AUTHOR> https://www.twitch.tv/stephen_wolfram <comment><USER2> [https://www.twitch.tv/videos/474114788](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/474114788)

Birthday AMA - is very interesting - both the discussion of computational intelligence as part of language design at the start but especially the wide range of questions asked and answered.

The live CEOing vids are also an interesting insight for those interested in how wolfram and mathematica are developed.

</comment><comment><USER3> Kappa</comment>


What Happens If Health-Care Workers Stop Showing Up? - <AUTHOR> https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/were-failing-doctors/608662 <comment><AUTHOR> I know a lot of doctors and some other healthcare workers. This question isn't getting enough play in the media, particularly because many hospitals aren't doing enough to protect workers. I know a resident whose program director ordered her to keep working even though she has COVID-19 symptoms, including dry cough and loss of taste, but she can't get tested for COVID-19, so she's continuing to work because she's afraid of what will happen if she doesn't. Other doctors are bringing their own personal protection equipment (PPE) into work and horror stories about hospital administrators ordering them to remove unapproved PPE are being spread through Facebook groups.

And that's separate from simple incompetence, like not getting tents set up, not separating respiratory distress patients from other patients, and so on. Healthcare workers are not only putting themselves at risk, but also their families and patients.</comment>


Ask HN: Relationship Product Manager - Developers - <AUTHOR>

Could some developers active here on HN, explain which is the best way for us, product managers, to communicate a request to you guys so that there is absolutely no room for equivocation?
Example:
I had a request for one my developers (he does some graphic design and CSS) to do a simple page with 3 boxes inside. the boxes needed to be designed. Nothing fancy.
I even, as a product manager, did a full explanatory mockup (in Balsamiq which I highly recommend btw) to make the developer life easier.
What do I get in return? The page fully coded. The boxes? Copy and paste from the Balsamiq mockup. (WTF? I'm not sure if to cry, laugh or kill someone)
Please don't tell me that I really need to explain to every developer that if something is for a website that is fully branded, with high end design, and I come along and show something that looks like a 5 year old draw it, nobody will at least ask: does this makes sense? Is this guy nuts to want to include this design on the site?
Do you guys really think like you code?
P.S: As a product manager (and this might not be the case for everyone) please developers, take an active roll in the product itself. Make yourself heard in the design, marketing, features, etc. It helps a lot and it helps the product. You are the most active users of the site and we need your feedback.
Please forgive my english as is not my native tongue. <comment><USER2> I think you do need to explain this to the developer. I doubt you'll find some magic solution here, and talking to the developers is basically what being PM is all about. Communicating with people is as central to a PM as code is to a developer.

If after explaining he keeps repeating the same mistake, perhaps the problem's with him. If you find this happens with more than one developer, perhaps the problem is with you. You might decide to change the process - pass the mockup to a designer first, and then the designer's output to the developer.</comment>


Ask HN: Is the web ready to require JavaScript? - <AUTHOR>

Until now, I have considered it an absolute requirement that websites will work even if the browser doesn't support JavaScript. Graceful degradation, progressive enhancement, and so on. The only exceptions have been sites specially targeted for iPads or similar cases.
But now, people I work with are making the claim that JavaScript can become a forced requirement for all future websites. In this world, if you're without JavaScript, you might only get a minimal, unstyled skeleton page via HTTP, so that search engines can index the URL and social sites can share it. Or even a blank page, if those things are handle by APIs.
The majority of the UI is then to be implemented with Backbone/Spine, Underscore templates and similar technologies. It will be fully HTML5 compliant, elegant and accessible, but it just won't work without JavaScript.
My question is, do you think the web is ready for this transition? Are there compelling reasons, other than just "historical principles", for this not to happen? Can we consider JavaScriptless users an increasingly ignoreable relic like IE6 users? Are there other key points to consider - are we throwing out some baby with the bath water? <comment><USER2> The web is human-accessible content hosted at stable linkable URLs. If you send fragments of ad hoc data and rely on just one piece of code that might be able to reassemble them into something usable on a couple out of all browsers, that's not a useful contribution to the web, it's merely a client/server app which tunnels yet another nondisclosed protocol over HTTP. Somehow we ended up with a new crop of devs who don't see how terrible client/server was (your data is trapped in a silo, there's only one app capable of doing anything with it, it sucks, and you can't fix it) or why the web was such an improvement, so they're abandoning it and we're all going to take a huge step backwards.

<comment><AUTHOR> I think the web can still be human-accessible content hosted at stable linkable URLs. But now the question is, can we require the user-agent to support JavaScript in order to show the content, like we already require it to support HTML.

<comment><USER2> If your documents are complete (no js-generated extra requests to get actual content) but your default rendering is flaky without trusting your js, I consider that shoddy work but not an existential threat to the web.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Less than 1% has JavaScript turned off. The answer to your question is the same as to if a website should support Netscape 3.

I would say the answer depends on what the target audience is, what kind of site it is, and how much time it will save.

<comment><USER4> Right, when I was with Marriott we did extensive research of the subject. The numbers just don't add up. Now that I am on my own, I recommend to my clients that they take full advantage of the tools at hand. Butchering the development model to support less that 1% (it was a little higher when I was there around 1.5%) just cannot be justified. Further it is cheaper to build a clean modern code base and then route the non-JS traffic to a site built independent of the modern code base that supports non-JS client. The reality was that the business case could not be made to even spend the development effort to build out a non-JS site. It would have literally been cheaper to send ever non-JS user a new computer with a modern browser, than it would have been to spend the development effort to build the site. Graceful degradation to non-JS creates more complexity and increases the overall effort, when quantified that money is almost always better spent on a better returning effort like an IOS app or further features on the JS enabled site. Now days it is hard to make the numbers work to support a non-JS site. Personally, even if I had no other features to implement, I would spend the money saved from removing the complexity of graceful degradation, on color blind testing, site reader software testing for the blind or internationalization. All of which have better business cases than non-JS support.

While I am on the subject my group (the web) made the business case that having JSP and Javascript was redundant and added to the complexity and therefore the cost of development and maintenance. We where able to successfully transition away from back-end web frameworks two a pure JS/HTML/CSS front end. In doing so we where able to simplify our development model, which increased our defect resolution time as well as our new feature development time.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I think it's funny how many commenters assume that people whose user agents don't support JavaScript are "relics" or need "a new computer with a modern browser". In my experience, people who use NoScript, for example, are much better equipped (technologically, etc.) than those who don't.

That said, people whose user agents don't support JavaScript get a big fat warning message after they log in to any of the web apps I've recently worked on.

</comment><comment><USER6> I wouldn't mind (and do intend to, even for a school website) having so much javascript on a page that it looks different, even broken without it, but I wouldn't load the content with javascript like Twitter do, that's too far (and may well always be). Mostly because I want to support screenreaders, or curl/wget.

</comment><comment> saiko-chriskun what kind of browser nowadays don't support javascript? I don't know about you but the idea just sounds totally foreign to me. I'm too busy worrying about what HTML5 features modern browsers support :P.

<comment><USER7> Well the main issue isn't that browsers don't support Javascript, but that some people disable running scripts or have plugins like noscript that disallow scripting.

<comment><USER4> Even with the disables ones added in, the business case is just not there: [http://developer.yahoo.com/blogs/ydn/posts/2010/10/how- many-...](http://developer.yahoo.com/blogs/ydn/posts/2010/10/how-many-users- have-javascript-disabled/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> In either case, your app should be written as a service which can be access by many different "clients" if necessary. Then you can go all hog wild with a WebGL version of your app, and someone else (an intern) can come in later and write a Web 1.0 version of the client-side.

</comment><comment><USER9> Please, if you're able to make the call, do not require JavaScript in the browser. Fall back gracefully and make the UI work without any JS.

<comment><USER10> Why? I'm not sure I understand your view.</comment></comment>


Developer Testing - <AUTHOR> https://henrikwarne.com/2017/08/20/developer-testing/ <comment><USER2> Thanks for posting! Having spent a few years in the world of test, this resonates loud and clear with me.

With maybe the sole exception of a README (and that's a big MAYBE), I can't think of a more useful artifact to ship with software than a test suite.

At worst, a test suite can be ignored; at best, it's a living record of a system's runtime interaction with the real world.

<comment><USER3> At worst it can make everyone complacent and over-confident about the code/application</comment></comment>


An OpenAPI proxy that only allows data that matches your swagger.json - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/EXXETA/openapi-cop <comment><USER2> [https://lexi-lambda.github.io/blog/2019/11/05/parse-don-t- va...](https://lexi-lambda.github.io/blog/2019/11/05/parse-don-t-validate/)

<comment><USER3> How do you see this as relevant to a REST API?

Many people would need additional tooling to parse JSON into a structured type, especially in dynamic languages where unstructured data types are the norm. And even if you do that, you're still going to have to validate the data and tell the client where they might have messed up the formatting.

Parsing is a totally fine, low-cost, low-risk way to validate chunks of JSON before trying to parse them -- or _not_ trying to parse them, if that's your choice. People who use TypeScript on the server side, for example, will only need to validate.

<comment><USER4> > Many people would need additional tooling to parse JSON into a structured > type, especially in dynamic languages where unstructured data types are the > norm.

Well, there's your first issue. Specifying your formats is a good idea, regardless of language. And this is completely possible in dynamic languages too, see for example Python's Marshmallow.[0]

> And even if you do that, you're still going to have to validate the data and > tell the client where they might have messed up the formatting.

The point is that you should take the opportunity to encode this validation in your types. A validated email address is no longer a `String`, it's an `Email`, with different valid operations. Or for an extreme example, you (hopefully) wouldn't try do time calculations directly on RFC 3339 strings.

This doesn't have to happen at exactly the same time as parsing the JSON AST, it's completely sensible to go JSON -> JSON AST -> Model.

[0]: [https://marshmallow.readthedocs.io/en/stable/](https://marshmallow.readthedocs.io/en/stable/)

<comment><USER3> OK, I understand what you're saying. OpenAPI can be used for what you're describing. I just don't really understand the false dichotomy between validation and parsing. OpenAPI can be used for both depending on the language, and if you're writing docs, you might as well write them in OpenAPI format and get a validator for free.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Isn't REST just a glorified SOAP at this point?

Predefined schema, generate classes from schema, interact with it via HTTP.

<comment><USER3> Yes. Schemas are useful. What alternative do you propose? The only other option I can imagine is sending the schema along with the object, in which case you should just be using XML instead of JSON.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I've found OpenAPI is very poor for more dynamic resource-based APIs where the mechanics of interactions between the resources is standard but the resources themselves differ, e.g. a JSONAPI API. Does anyone know of tooling that more accurately fits that use case? I have hand rolled (well, generated) JSON Schemas in the past and published those, but that felt unsatisfying and too ad hoc.

<comment><USER7> I don't know a tool for it, but I often find from experience that dynamic API's are usually not the right tool for the job. However if it is required and you have a declarative API, it will make the process much easier I would imagine.

EDIT: `declarative API` as in some kind of proxy layer which you can better isolate.</comment></comment>


Top Single-Board Computers Introduced this Year - <AUTHOR> https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1332763&_mc=RSS_EET_EDT&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter <comment><USER2> I hate when sites split 'top #' lists across # pages (for more ad impressions), so here's the list:

1\. Raspberry Pi Zero W -- $10

2\. Asus Tinker Board -- $54.99

3\. Marvell Espressobin -- $79.99

4\. 96Boards HiKey 960 -- $239.99

5\. PINE64 Rock64 -- $24.95

6\. Orange Pi R1 -- $13.90

7\. MYIR MYS-6ULX -- $24.80

8\. LeMaker Banana Pi Pro -- $47.99

9\. LattePanda -- $209

10\. Sparkfun BBC micro:bit -- $17.50

<comment><USER3> Is there a name for this dark pattern?

<comment><USER4> carousel of sadness

<comment> King-Aaron I'm definitely going to use this in my future endeavours.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Every time I load a page on this website, Safari asks me "This form is not secure. Are you sure you want to submit it?" in a modal.

Very annoying.

<comment><USER6> The same thing is happening in Firefox.

<comment><USER7> Not with uMatrix.

Maybe some sort of ad network dark pattern?

<comment><USER8> Yep. I believe the idea is to trick the browser into believing that you're interacting with the third-party site so that they get first-party treatment with respect to cookies and such.

I'm not sure if it's still true, but at one point, submitting a form (even via JavaScript) counted and let the site store cookies.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> It's also worth considering Xilinx Zync (FPGA with an ARM Cortex A9 in the package) boards. EG Digilent's: [http://store.digilentinc.com/fpga- programmable-logic/by-tech...](http://store.digilentinc.com/fpga-programmable- logic/by-technology/zynq/)

Not cheap without the 50% educational discount, but very powerful for some workloads. Then again if you have one of those workloads you probably are already using an FPGA...

</comment><comment><USER10> [http://linuxgizmos.com/category/boards/](http://linuxgizmos.com/category/boards/)

</comment><comment><USER11> Not introduced this year, but I'd add Odroid C2 to your list for consideration.

<comment><USER12> and the MC1, which is a XU4 married to a SATA bridge.

From my POV, the Top 10 was disappointing and boring. AFAIC, there's no SBC competing with the XU4 in terms of perf/$. I'd hope to see something even better than the XU4 or C2.

<comment><USER13> Have you seen the Khadas VIM2 Basic? iirc it's $75 somewhere (there recently was a $50 deal; maybe there will be another). It has 8 1.5GHz Cortex-A53s, so in theory it's 2.5X as fast as a Raspberry Pi 3 (4 1.2GHz Cortex-A53s) for CPU-bound tasks with sufficient parallelism. YMMV.

<comment><USER12> Thank you Scott for the pointer - here I thought I knew them all. This clearly belongs in the above list.

I'm particularly interested in the 3 GB RAM but the description is ambiguous, still I'll check it out.

<comment><USER12> (Reply as I can't edit my comment anymore).

I missed the bottom: Basic @ $90 = 2 GiB, Pro @ $120 = 3 GiB.

That price is high and I was specifically talking about !/$ so this unfortunately doesn't really change the landscape.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Aside from the pi, does the software stack work on any of these boards? Forgive me if I'm on outdated info but last I checked:

Espressobin hard crashes over 1G ram, was that fixed?

Tinker board software released / OS stability usage? I'm guessing no graphics still?

HiKey seems to have lots of Linaro support, no idea on actual usage.

Heard good things above ROCK64 but heard software was very poor initially, not sure if that fixed.

The rest sound doomed to old kernels and the dustbin. Speaking from experience of working with SBCs for the past 5 years and testing tens if not hundreds of platforms.

<comment><USER15> For a lot of them it seems that the more they vary from a Pi the harder it becomes to maintain a decent OS foundation. The Orange Pis and Pine64 boards are fairly well supported by Armbian (provided you are willing to live on the bleeding edge if you are running more recent chips like the Allwinner H5) but as you go further afield you have to be very comfortable doing OS builds yourself and a lot of the board features that look cool are only supported by an ancient and buggy vendor OS release.

Always check forums for the boards and your target OS to see what OS you can expect to run with any stability and do not assume it will ever get any better or be updated beyond where it is right now...

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Kinda surprised the Nvidia TK/TX didn't make this list.

<comment><USER17> I'm also surprised TX2 is not there, 1.5 TFLOPs, FP16, at around 7-10 Watts. Likely to be top in both TFLOP/Watt and TFLOP.

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> There is no mention of any Single-Board Computers which have Intel x86-64 CPUs. What are the most popular Intel CPU based Single-board computers?

<comment><USER19> I would say UP[1]. The base board (up or up core) are Quad-core atom and the up squared has a Quad-core Pentium version available.

1: [http://www.up-board.org](http://www.up-board.org)

<comment><USER18> Thanks for the information.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Firefox is dinging me about data being sent insecurely. Probably some tracker on the site, but I'm not a web dev.

</comment><comment><USER21> How are they measuring top?

I feel like there are really too many to judge. I for one am a fan of the ODROID C2 and HC1.

</comment><comment><USER22> If anyone knows of a board designed to work with power-over-ethernet, let me know.

<comment><USER15> There are a lot of simple PoE splitters out there that can split your PoE line into standard RJ45 data and a DC barrel connector of various flavours.</comment></comment>


The Recurring Revenue For Consultants Bootcamp - <AUTHOR> http://recurringrevenueforconsultants.com/

<comment><AUTHOR> The latest offering from Patrick McKenzie and Brennan Dunn.

I find it interesting that these two product evangelists are launching a bootcamp instead of another product. Although I suppose it's product-like in that they could run the camp every year without much additional work, or even train others to run it for them.

And in any case it certainly won't hurt their street cred, which will of course help their next product launches.</comment>


State of Rust Web Frameworks - <AUTHOR> https://dev.to/readredready/state-of-rust-web-frameworks-server-3g42 <comment><USER2> IIRC current actix-web is actually not based on Actix proper anymore.</comment>


Ask HN: Anyone around Chantily, Virginia/Wash DC area? - <AUTHOR>

I first want to say sorry for the bit of off topic question here.
I am going for an interview up in the Chantilly, VA area for a very well known and respected company.  Looking for a few hackers to hang out with on Sunday the 20th.  This Sunday.  I am a foot in the door to getting the position and my HR rep has assured me if I don't screw the person to person interview, I am the new hire.  So anyone willing to hang out?  Hack a little, tour the city with me?  You can find me at spoiledtechie [attt] g mail...
Thanks for understanding that I will know no one in the area and thats why I am posting to HN... <comment><USER2> There is a DC/Nova Hacker News group on meetup.com. <http://www.meetup.com/Hacker-News-NOVA-DC/>

I would be interesting in meeting up, but this weekend is the High Holidays and can't really do much else.

</comment><comment><USER3> Yeah, the various nerd meetups around here never seem to get much traction. Not sure why that is. Maybe too many of us family guys.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Seems like that group is MIA... Not having a meetup since June.... Sad really.

</comment><comment><USER4> I am ~25 mins north of DC but will unfortunately be out of town this Sunday.</comment>


Show HN: Qraving.com - <AUTHOR>

Hi, We are officially launched in pilot mode, with a couple local venues, but someone in the St. Louis area might get some use out of our app, and hopefully the rest of the world in a few short weeks.  It is iphone only right now, but we will have the droid up and running in a week or so.
This all started for us over a few drinks at a local bar's happy hour, our group was trying to decide where to go next, not having any ideas, and hearing someone blurt out "everyone knows that we are either going to X Y or Z, so lets just pick one and be on our way" just wasn't good enough.
This got the gears turning, we really wanted a better way to choose between X, Y or Z, without having to navigate to 3 or 4 different facebook pages/twitter accounts/websites to get the information that would decide the best option and Qraving was born.  We decided to come up with an app that would get us exactly the info we wanted, with direct content from the owners or waitstaff of the establishments.  But....everyone also loves free stuff.  So we built in a QR code based loyalty program.  Owners are given a login to a backend, and 2 QR codes upon signup;  one QR is put on any traditional or digital advertising allowing someone with our app to scan it, and add the venue to their favorites;  the other allows the waitstaff to allow the patron to receive a point towards whatever loyalty program the owner would like to offer (come in X times and receive Y, or buy W item off the menu and get Z).   If anyone has any questions, comments, or suggestions, feel free to contact us: email@example.com
Thanks! <comment><USER2> I think this is a beautiful way of capitlising on free technology (QR codes). It's helpful, and can work really well.

I had an idea similarly, but it seems many bars in my town don't really like innovation...

I hope you for the best!

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> clickable link:

<http://qraving.com></comment>


Duverger's law: single-choice voting tends toward a two-party system - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duverger%27s_law <comment><AUTHOR> So why isn't the American public demanding _proportional representation_ in national elections? Especially in an election cycle as toxic as 2016?

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

Even in an election with all sincere voters (where strategic voting is magically prohibited), this law holds: [https://www.rochester.edu/college/faculty/markfey/papers/Exi...](https://www.rochester.edu/college/faculty/markfey/papers/Exit3.pdf)</comment>


Support 0 AD - Open source real-time strategy game - <AUTHOR> http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/support-0-a-d-an-open-source-strategy-game

<comment><USER2> Previous discussion (it got 532 points just a month ago): [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6339917](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6339917)

GitHub mirror of the source: [https://github.com/0ad/0ad](https://github.com/0ad/0ad)

<comment><AUTHOR> The thing I'm having a hard time understanding is with so many fans of Age of Empires out there and so much seeming visibility why people don't seem to be donating?

I've downloaded the Alpha version of the game and when I compare it to some successful IndieGoGo campaigns ([http://blog.indiegogo.com/2012/12/top12.html](http://blog.indiegogo.com/2012/12/top12.html)) it just makes me wonder if these guys seem to have a great concept and great game but they're just terrible at publicity?

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> It's good that they use flexible funding and will get their funds regardless if the goal is reached or not. Very ambitious goal indeed.

<comment><USER4> For me at least, flex funding is a big warning sign. If the target goal is not met, it's not clear how the funds will be used (AFAICT there's no restriction) -- it could just line the founders' pockets with no progress on the project

<comment><USER5> It's open source software with clear funding goals. ($40K gives us 2 guys for 6 months, $60K gives us 2 guys for 9 months etc.) Each dollar donated gives us more developer time, and I'm confident they'll linearly interpolate. The game is playable now, so there's no risk of non-delivery, but by donating you can make it better.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I downloaded this after seeing it on HN last time and played for a good 2 hours (something I haven't done in years).. then it crashed on me and I realized I'd been playing for 2 hours when I really should've been doing more productive things. I'll chip in so as not to get reminded of real work next time and I can just keep playing.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> There are only 10 days left in the IndieGogo campaign. For anyone that loved to play Age of Empires, this seems a worthy successor and there is a substantial portion of the game built already.</comment>


Ask HN: Best online video courses to learn basic math? - <AUTHOR> Hey everyone! I want to understand the fundamentals of math, mostly out of curiosity and for AI/ML learning. So I probably want to start with calculus, linear algebra, probability/statistics.
I can't commit to it with extreme intensity and put a huge amount of time/energy into it, I'm just looking for something with a low barrier to entry to get started and begin gradually making some progress (and have some fun learning).
I know about Khan Academy and 3blue1brown, they're pretty great, but I'm wondering if there's more good stuff out there.
Can you recommend some good courses? (can be free or paid) <comment><USER2> Sorry, you can't learn math by watching videos. It's like trying to get fit by reading books. I recommend the answers found in these threads [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17075261](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17075261) and [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16562173](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16562173) aj7's answer is on the mark imho.

</comment><comment><USER3> These videos are not full blown math course, but will definitely give you base to develop your own math intuition: [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYO_jab_esuFRV4b17AJtAw](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYO_jab_esuFRV4b17AJtAw)

</comment><comment><USER4> This free book is good, but assumes you've done calculus like Stewart's calculus book or something similar [https://infinitedescent.xyz](https://infinitedescent.xyz)

Really the only way to learn is get a beginners book like Stewart, Apostol or Hoffman &Kunze and do the exercises once a day for an hour or less. In a month you'll have done so many exercises you'll begin to understand basics.

</comment><comment><USER5> I don't have any videos but Paul's online math notes [http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/](http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/) got me through my undergrad basic math

Make sure you are doing exercises in addition to watching videos/reading as homework is how most people learn math.

</comment><comment><USER6> I recommend Professor Leonard. I found him very good at explaining things. Check out his playlists.

[https://www.youtube.com/user/professorleonard57/playlists?vi...](https://www.youtube.com/user/professorleonard57/playlists?view=1&shelf_id=0&sort=dd)

</comment><comment><USER7> [https://betterexplained.com/](https://betterexplained.com/) \- has some great guides and a bunch of different ways to think about things. Site is primarily text, but he offers video courses too.

</comment><comment><USER8> I really enjoy [http://patrickjmt.com/](http://patrickjmt.com/)</comment>


The Last Resort, Robert De Niro's Forgotten '90s Adventure Game - <AUTHOR> http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/exploring-the-last-resort-robert-de-niros-forgotten-90s-adventure-game <comment><USER2> I loved this game. One of the more satisfying computer games I remember playing in the 90s.

I have no idea how I got it, I almost certainly didn't buy it. I'm guessing the CD-Rom came free with our family Gateway 2000 desktop.

<comment><USER3> Yes, I had a copy that came with a Gateway 2000 that was purchased around 96/97.

Also came with MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries, SPQR, & Deadlock.

<comment><USER4> Oh, cow boxes. Unfortunately, my last memory of Gateway was after they'd declined to physical stores and a sales rep sold my mother a machine without an AGP slot as "perfect for gaming" as a surprise Christmas gift.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I remember picking this game up from the budget bin at my local toy store as a kid. It came in a beautiful retail box full of weird goodies, that was normally reserved for premium games 10x the price. The game itself looked gorgeous as well. I was probably still too immature and definitely understood too little English to appreciate the story and humor at the time, but I remember it being weird as hell.

It's a shame there is no easy way to play these old games on a modern iPad/iPhone. Seems like such an appropriate platform for the art form and gameplay.

<comment><USER6> I'm almost certain games like this could be played through DOSBox on iOS (the DOSPad project, for example) ..

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> _The game has never been re-released to run on modern machines, making it incredibly difficult, if not nearly impossible, to play now._

You can play it by setting up windows 3 in DOSbox

<comment><USER8> Funny how memories express themselves in reality. I was just thinking of this game the other day, and how unique the experience of playing it was as a young adult. Very interesting to read the back story behind its making all of these years later.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Even at launch time review, the critic was more concerned about trashing Myst than the game to be reviewed:

[http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/nine- review/1900-2543940/](http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/nine- review/1900-2543940/)

</comment><comment><USER10> > Even with names like De Niro, Tyler, and Cher involved it is only rarely > referenced.

I find that a happy thought - they weren't able to throw celebrity at a game and make it popular.

<comment><USER11> It can also be an unhappy thought: sometimes a great offbeat work can't reach the BS consuming masses, even when you throw celebrity and money to market it, because they just want more of the same plastic crap...

Then you realize that it's not necessarily the celebrities that help shallow crap sell, but the other way around: people want shallow crap and create celebrities of those who make it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I think my favorite part of that game was Cher as the voice of the fortune- telling machine. The whole part of the fortune telling machine was to allow you to save your in-game progress in exchange for coins.

Probably the first game ever that hired a celebrity to narrate the "Save Your Progress" feature.</comment>


You'll Never Guess What's Actually in Your Supplements… - <AUTHOR> http://blog.exoprotein.com/youll-never-guess-whats-actually-supplements/

<comment><USER2> A supplement company trashing other supplement companies.

</comment><comment><USER3> the trainers hate him?</comment>


Examining Microsoft Edge Browser Performance - <AUTHOR> http://www.anandtech.com/show/9458/examining-microsoft-edge-browser-performance <comment><USER2> Benchmarks are good but the overall experience is what matters the most. I'm really impressed by the startup time of Edge. I type some query in the Cortana search bar and press Enter, it launches Edge extremely fast. So far I really love the performance.

However to make it my main browser I'm still waiting for adblocking extensions. I browse with a few tabs opened, one of them start randomly playing an ad video, at least it shows the sound icon on the tab so I know which one to kill.

I also noticed a few UI problems: When pressing the back button with "Ctrl" on, it does not open the last page in a new tab. Surprisingly, I use this feature very often on Chrome & Firefox. Sometimes when opening a new tab, the focus is not in the address/search bar, forcing me to click on it (or pressing Tab until I get it)

<comment><USER3> I don't have edge, but opening last closed tab can also be triggered via ctrl+shift+t. Perhaps they have that shortcut enabled?

<comment> liviu- He means opening the previous page history-wise in a new tab.

<comment><USER4> I didn't even realize that WAS a feature. Neat. I use Control-Shift-t VERY often, but never thought about this one.

<comment><USER5> You can also click the back button with the middle mouse button. I use it very often.

<comment><USER6> i always pressed back, middle clicked the link i had just clicked ... /facepalm

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> What I'd like to see are benchmarks that involve visiting some sample of sites out of the Alexa top 100 and performing standard tasks (reading Gmail, finding a certain thing on Amazon.com, etc.) I know that's dependent on things like network conditions, so you'd have to run it a lot of times to get meaningful results, but it'd still provide a more meaningful result than a lot of synthetic benchmarks.

<comment><USER8> I agree that major improvements are needed. SunSpider, Octane, and Kraken are all pure JavaScript benchmarks, very microbenchmarky (look at bitwise-and in the SunSpider suite). Oort Online is a benchmark of WebGL performance—WebGL is definitely worth benchmarking, but how common is it in people's daily browsing? HTML5Test tests whether a bunch of "HTML5" features are sorta present, not whether they actually work or anything—it encourages broken implementations that support just enough to pass the test.

The state of browser benchmarking is pretty bad. Right now the common suites of benchmarks overwhelmingly focus on what is _easy to measure_ , not what reflects real-world perception of browser performance.

<comment><USER7> It feels to me like current benchmarks all measure execution time, not user time. Let's say you go from a reasonably sized web page to another, and then hit the back button. How long to load the previous page? Right click on a link and select open in new tab. How long does it take to open a new tab? It's definitely part of the user's perception of the browser's speed, but I don't think stuff like SunSpider and Octane even tries to measure it.

<comment><USER8> Heavily related to this, one key insight that I think has been neglected is that JavaScript benchmarks do a bad job of measuring cold code. Most code on the Web is cold, because much Web browsing consists of fresh page loads. Heavily optimizing JITs are exactly what you _don 't_ want for cold code: time spent compiling is time you could have been spending running the code. But benchmarks consist of running the same code repeatedly in a long-running loop, which encourages development of sophisticated, highly-optimizing JITs that spend a lot of time in up-front compilation, which end up being totally pointless for JS whose sole purpose is to run once to place an ad somewhere on the page.

It's easy to forget that JavaScript is still primarily a scripting language used to perform high-level application tasks. It's awesome that JS has gone so far low-level, and we should continue to push it as far as it can, but I think the bread and butter that users care about is not so much heavy number crunching but rather quick cold code that needs to run once or twice and get out of the way.

<comment><USER9> > Heavily optimizing JITs are exactly what you don't want for cold code: time > spent compiling is time you could have been spending running the code.

I agree with your overall point of cold cold performance being paramount. But I don't think this follows. A heavily optimizing JIT can have very good cold- code performance if the JIT is especially fast and/or it makes especially good decisions about when to JIT.

The important trait is short break-even time: how long after JIT-ting some code that you break even on the investment of JITting time.

When all I knew was the JVM I assumed that JIT-compiling inherently had a long warm-up / break-even time. Now that I've experienced LuaJIT I know this isn't true. I haven't benchmarked the major JIT-ting JS engines but they seem pretty good at this too?

<comment><USER8> By "a heavily optimizing JIT" I mean "the specific mode of a larger JIT- enabled engine that compiles slowly but emits good code". So IonMonkey, Crankshaft, SpeculativeJIT/FTL are all JITs that live inside a larger engine that switches between them as needed. In JS land we usually call the individual modes "JITs" even though they may (or may not) share a bunch of code.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Running on a 7 year old HTPC with 2gb ram edge feels extremely smooth compared to chrome.

They should do benchmarks on lower end systems, such as atom based tablets.

<comment><USER11> I've also been fairly impressed with Edge on a low-spec machine. Realistically, once there is extension support and I can get an ad-blocker (ideally uBlock, and since it's rumored to be easy to port Chrome extensions I'm hopeful) I would have no issues using Edge as my daily browser.

<comment><USER12> I run exactly zero extension and used an ad-blocker for maybe 1 month in my whole lifetime.

With that being said, I am genuinely curious how these 2 things are necessary for you to consider a browser. Are there extensions that I don't have that is crazy for me not to have?

<comment><USER13> I'm genuinely curious how anyone can spend any significant amount of time reading on the web and _not_ use an ad-blocker. Even mostly-benign animated sidebar ads are too distracting for me.

<comment><USER14> Not going to non-standard site ? I never ever go to site which its developer put ads every where he/she liked.

I have very restricted list of sites which I think are good enough my attention and time.

p.s. and I spend 7 8 hour a day sitting and reading material and documents from net.

p.s-2. And I am okey with standard ads.Site owners has right to make living to, and I think using ads-blocker is selfish act.

<comment><USER11> > Site owners has right to make living to

Site owners have the right to make a living. They do not have a right to waste my bandwidth, damage my hearing, or compromise my security.

> I think using ads-blocker is selfish act

Perhaps, but it's a reaction to the considerably more selfish trend in advertising.

<comment><USER14> Did you even read whole comment?

<comment><USER11> I did.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> No amount of speed matters until you have extensions. Without uBlock, it'll just be an ad filled mess.

<comment><USER16> That's not really true. I don't use ad blockers, but I still care about my browser speed.

<comment><USER17> I am curious why you do not, have you tried? Life is bliss.

<comment><USER18> You may also want a website you a reading to stay in business and proffit from their work.

I think ad blocking days are numbered, the more mainstream it becomes the more likley the ad networks are to respond.

<comment><USER19> How would ad networks respond to that? I can't think of any technically possible way for them to do that (except somehow getting operating systems to build in some crazy DRM scheme).

<comment><USER20> Sure there is, you start making the distinction between ads and regular content impossible. If all of the images on the site and all of the ads all map to something like www.sitename.com/resource/somekindofhash, then how would you tell programmatically whats an ad? You could even assign each visitor a mapping seed, so that caching still works. Blocking would have to be done on a user-by-user basis, turning this into a MAD-scenario, where some users just start blocking EVERYTHING that isn't textual or generated.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> As great as Edge is in the benchmarks, the engine beneath seems to be solid, the browser is shipping in a half-completed state. The lack of support for extensions I think is going to do more harm than good. I don't get the rush to release Edge, wouldn't it have been better for Microsoft to just hold off a couple of more months until the browser was ready feature wise?

I haven't been using the Windows 10 development builds, so I have yet to use Edge. As a front-end developer, I am excited we are getting a browser that seemingly supports all of the essentials (and prefixless too).

<comment><USER22> My guess is, they figure that most non-tech people will continue using IE 11 if Edge was not shipped with Windows 10 rather than moving to Edge when Edge shipped.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> I'm excited to try out Edge, from what I've read it looks like a great browser but the key feature in Chrome that keeps me from switching is the shared history. I use Chrome on my Android phone and tablet, and on my desktop and laptop so all of my browsing history and currently open tabs can be accessed from any device. I rely on this day-to-day, particularly the "Recent Tabs" option from other devices.

Until another browser implements that (and supports Android phone / tablets), or I can find a third-party service that seamlessly offers the same options, I can't see myself switching from Chrome any time soon.

<comment><USER24> I agree that "recent tabs from other devices" is very handy. IE11 does have that, so I guess Edge will too (at least eventually). This doesn't help you since you probably don't want to trade your Android phone/tablet for Windows phones/tablets.

If you insist on Android devices, Firefox also has the "recent tabs from other devices" feature. The feature is so useful it made me switch from Chrome to Firefox in fact: I used to use Chrome on my laptop and when I bought an Android tablet I used Chrome on it to share tabs between devices, but then Android Chrome introduced some change that made MathJax render incorrectly, so I switched to Android Firefox on the tablet; this in turn made me switch to Firefox on my laptop, to be able to share tabs again.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> I wonder how much the Edge's performance will affect the average person's decision to use it or not. Browsers one up each other all the time and I'm sure Google's next major Chrome update will show improvements over the Edge.

Renaming your browser won't change peoples' memory of Internet Explorer, even if Microsoft built Edge from the ground up. The average person is still going to be thinking IE when they see it.

Without extensions, I personally am not leaving Chrome - even if it's a resource hog. But it is nice to see how Microsoft is changing their behavior. Competition between products is always a good thing.

<comment> liviu- >Renaming your browser won't change peoples' memory of Internet Explorer, even if Microsoft built Edge from the ground up. The average person is still going to be thinking IE when they see it.

Maybe I'm underestimating how culturally aware the average person is, but I doubt most people will care to make this connection between IE and Edge.

<comment><USER25> How could they not?

You upgrade your OS or buy a new computer, and you see a new application ( that you didn't install ) and you ( presumably ) can't uninstall it. Wouldn't any rational person assume it's a pre-installed application? Wouldn't it make sense to believe that the OS developer created it?

There's an old joke about IE when people purchase a new computer: It's the browser I use to install another browser. What are people going to think when they don't see IE anymore and they see a new browser?

Everyone will know the Edge is Microsoft's new browser, and everyone knows that Microsoft's previous browser was IE.

<comment><USER26> > Everyone

In my experience, you're dramatically overestimating how many people really understand what a browser is, what IE is, or can disambiguate between Chrome and Google.

<comment><USER25> "Everyone" wasn't the literal everyone, "everyone" is the group of people that buy a Windows OS and install another browser. Those people know what a browser is.

<comment><USER26> Maybe I misunderstood, but I was replying to your overall message about:

> I wonder how much the Edge's performance will affect the average person's > decision to use it or not.

About half of people using Windows continue using IE right now. So, "everyone" and "average" definitely refer to a lot of people who have absolutely no idea what any of us are talking about in this entire page of comments. It's so easy to underestimate how little truly "average" folks understand or care about these nuances in the real world outside of a few tech bubble areas.

<comment><USER27> I have an excellent example of this. Despite having both Chrome and Firefox installed on my home desktop computer, my wife continues to use IE 11. Even with her own profile for Chrome, and using an Android phone with Chrome, she still sticks with IE for some odd reason.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> I think the most interesting feature is the ask cortana feature, [http://www.thewindowsclub.com/enable-cortana-in-edge- browser](http://www.thewindowsclub.com/enable-cortana-in-edge-browser), it performs reasonably well on most queries and is pretty fast. Especially useful when reading articles where you have no clue about some of the people mentioned or phrases and expressions being thrown around.. Highlight the phrase and hit the ask cortana option in the menu.

<comment><USER29> So funny, what's old is new again. I remember Encarta Factfinder back in the day did something similar. Of course, it didn't have any NLP, but the core of the idea is there.

[http://www.activewin.com/reviews/software/apps/ms/encarta/20...](http://www.activewin.com/reviews/software/apps/ms/encarta/2002_dvd/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> These benchmark articles frustrate me because I rarely feel they tell me anything. What do the benchmarks actually measure? When one tested product benchmarks as better/worse than another, what specifically is happening to make it better or worse? I feel like a good technical reporter ought to be able to dig deeper, do some investigation and provide real insight.

</comment><comment><USER31> Edge is not ready for prime time. I have a desktop app that does the OAuth dance redirecting to localhost. Edge didn't respond correctly, whereas Firefox, Chrome and even IE handle it OK. Even if I make IE the default browser, control is still handed over to Edge.

</comment><comment><USER32> I started using Chrome because it is fast in startup, load. But its not the case anymore. Still I am using Chrome coz of awesome developer tools and Chrome extensions.

</comment><comment> liviu- Are they really going the completely disregard Linux users?

<comment> TD-Linux Why would you expect that they wouldn't?

<comment> liviu- Cause a) recently they've been showing more interest in developing for different platforms (OneNote, Visual Studio Code); b) the other major browsers have a Linux release; c) IE had a release for Linux at some point; and d) there is a market of people that might use their product.

<comment><USER33> They had a version for _Unix_. It probably ran on Linux through a compatibility layer but it was not designed for any Linux distro.

And that was a long time ago when they were competing with Netscape. It was easy for them to do that because the original IE was mostly a branded version of Spyglass's Mosaic which was designed from the beginning to run on Unix and Windows.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spyglass,_Inc](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spyglass,_Inc).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> This is all I need to switch:

1\. Actually work (strangely, current IE can't accomplish this on some of my machines)

2\. Tree Style Tabs

3\. Support for popular ad-blockers

4\. Easy on memory (including ability to unload a tab and _actually_ release that memory, something FF can't seem to figure out)

5\. Don't constantly take a 45 second timeout with lots of tabs open (like Firefox)

</comment><comment><USER35> Something about the icons used in Edge feel unfamiliar to me. The back, forward, and refresh arrows even feel alien. I think they have deviated away from recognizable icons for the rest of the toolbar too. Something just doesn't feel right

</comment><comment><USER36> What matters is HTML5 compatibility which is lacking.

</comment><comment><USER37> If Edge is not on approximate feature parity with Chrome (it isn't), then the benchmark is meaningless.

<comment><USER38> This depends entirely on what you want your browser to do.

I personally use my browser to, well... browse the internet?

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> I'm worried about a few things:

Where will Edge take us? Is Edge replacing IE, or is it parallel?

I feel like this is going to cause confusion. Why did they choose a modern evolution of the Internet Explorer logo (Blue "e" with an orbit)? Everyone is going to expect that this is the new Internet Explorer. ActiveX plugins don't work - are you using Internet Explorer? "Yes! The blue e!" Eek.

If IE is going to co-exist alongside Edge, I feel that we will just be forced to support _another_ new browser.

Obligatory XKCD: [https://xkcd.com/927/](https://xkcd.com/927/)

<comment><USER39> Edge is replacing IE and is the default browser for Windows 10. IE is included in Windows 10, but it is buried in the Windows Accessories folder in the Start menu. The current version of IE is 11 and that will be the last. Microsoft will support IE until Jan 2016.

<comment><USER40> > Microsoft will support IE until Jan 2016.

Uh... [1]

        Beginning January 12, 2016, the following operating systems
        and browser version combinations will be supported:

        Windows Vista SP2         Internet Explorer 9
        Windows Server 2008 SP2   Internet Explorer 9
        ...

        After January 12, 2016, only the most recent version of Internet
        Explorer available for a supported operating system will receive
        technical support and security updates.

They go on to talk about how Windows 7's Enterprise Mode will be supported until 2020 so you can still keep IE kicking around well beyond 2016.

[1] [http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2014/08/07/stay-up-to- dat...](http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2014/08/07/stay-up-to-date-with- internet-explorer.aspx)

<comment><USER39> Ah, you are correct. I mixed up the dates with IE 10 for some reason.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER41> Still can't calculate height or fire mouseLeave events correctly.

<comment><USER42> That's hard to believe. Can you give us an example? Also mouseleave is an event IE invented and is non standard. How would it not work on IE?

</comment></comment><comment><USER43> Microsoft are coming out swinging at Google with their latest browser and Operating System. Their Cortana search feature is impressive, and very well integrated.

Even Windows 10 isn't shying away with a search field located in the main task bar. These features are there to try and chip away at Google's search dominance.

It will be interesting to see if it works. If Microsoft makes a browser people want to use, Chrome will be in trouble. Chrome might end up like Google Maps on iOS.

While many seem to be welcoming a 'new Microsoft' with their open source efforts, it seems they still don't shy away from trying to kill off competitors by leveraging their Operating System monopoly.

<comment><USER44> Why _wouldn 't_ you do it?

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> I definitely will be one of who which will switch from chrome to edge(or any other viable competitor) very soon. The ridiculous path chrome team have chosen for their path is enough for me already.I have said this so many times, I don't want another OS on top of my OS.I just want a Browser , not an application-platform which uses my 3 GB of ram for apps and extension.Even when I delete all app and extension there is certain amount of overhead.

Chrome team can offer two distinct version , lightweight without extension and app support and super fast start time , and complete version.

Chrome turned to new JVM recently.just instead of java you developer should use Javascript.

I know this is google policy to push people to net (because it means more profit for google) but I don't want some company dictate what should I do. and at least with edge I have super fast load time and lightweight browser.

<comment><USER45> Yep, same reason I'm gonna switch to IE

</comment></comment><comment><USER46> Benchmarks are largely useless, everyone makes up their own and none of them translate into how it FEELS to use a browser IMHO. Great they made some stride but so did every other browser also they don't have extensions yet and won't at launch which is a nonstarter.

I used it VERY briefly in a WIn 10 VM (not to use it, just to go download some tools) and wanted to pull my hair out. Little things here and there that were a constant reminder that microsoft just is bad at browsers. Sure they can piece together something that can access the web but it's not an enjoyable experience. I had to go and download chrome because apparently browsing around online, having multiple tabs open, and downloading files was a little too much for Edge to handle. I'd say it was the number of ads on the sites I was going to but I went to the same sites in Chrome without an adblocker (Vanilla Chrome) and it handled it without a sweat. This is by no means a complete test but I really wanted to try Edge and it felt like it was actively working against me and unable to deal with websites that I might have to go to from time to time that are covered in ads.

We will see what Win 10 ships with and what Edge looks like after extension support is added but I'm not holding my breath for the IE/Edge team to put out anything beginning to look like a real browser. Lastly no cross platform support? Fuck off, don't expect me to test for it at all. And no, VM's are not acceptable for testing. Don't misunderstand me Apple sucks with Safari and their lack of browser choice (and engines) on iOS almost as much but at least webkit is sane. Not to mention you can test webkit on Windows but I do agree it's not the same as Safari. That said Safari is a LOT closer to FF/Chrome than IE/Edge is to FF/Chrome which reduces needed testing substantially.</comment>


MegaBots calls it a day, puts fighting robot up for sale on eBay - <AUTHOR> https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/24/megabots-calls-it-a-day-puts-fighting-robot-up-for-sale-on-ebay/ <comment><USER2> Those giant robots are years away from having the mobility needed for entertaining combat. I feel like we peaked with BattleBots nearly 20 years ago, early on before the spinning doom meta took over. There was fun stuff like that bot that had a net in a giftwrapped box, basically begging for a spinbot to tear into it and get paralyzed. Young me has a lot of nostalgia for that, but the new season they tried was not great.

<comment><USER3> What kind of advances do we need to make for robots of this size to have the kind mobility that people would generally expect?

<comment><USER4> Financing.

MegaBots was founded by a couple of controls engineers who had done the math and figured they could make a real bipedal walking mecha with current technology, if only someone else would fund it.

Not that much money materialized, also falling on your face hurts when your face started 15 feet in the air, so the current gen went with a tracked base instead. But the tech can be done, we just need to get the pilots out and the money raised.

<comment><USER5> There's no market. You can build it, but so far, they don't come.

Honda's Asimo. Boston Dynamics's Atlas. Schaft's humanoid (probably the best one to date). Deere's legged logging machine. All never got beyond a few prototypes. None of them work well enough to do anything useful.

I used to work on this stuff, back in the 1990s. I have two patents in that area. (The big insight is that legs are for traction control - you can mess with the contact normal in useful ways. As soon as you get off flat terrain, traction control dominates the problem.)

I could never see a market for legged machines. Too expensive for toys. Not useful enough for much else. Boston Dynamics has gone from sugar daddy to sugar daddy for decades - first DARPA, then Google, then Softbank. Today, they finally launched a product, their cute little all-electric Spot robot.[1] No price given.

[1] [https://www.bostondynamics.com/spot](https://www.bostondynamics.com/spot)

<comment><USER6> 2019 Atlas...

[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_sBBaNYex3E](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_sBBaNYex3E)

<comment><USER5> That's very nice. They finally got a more general control model. That's progress. The first flip from that crowd was two decades ago. Now they have a way of generating and following more complex motions. "80% success", they write, so there's a ways to go yet.

I wonder what they use for actuators. What you want for running and gymnastics is a spring with adjustable spring constant, zero point, and damping. A pneumatic cylinder can do that, and can store energy briefly between motions. Humans, when running, recover about 60%-70% of energy from stride to stride. (Cheetahs, 90%. That's how they run so fast.) Hydraulics can't do that very well, although there have been some attempts with hydraulic accumulators. There have been attempts to do this mechanically, with two motors and a spring, but they're bulky. Direct drive electric motors can do it, but if you have a gear train, the inertia of the motor is multiplied by the reduction ratio and you lose the ability to absorb shock loads. Also tend to break gear teeth. ("You cannot strip the teeth of a magnetic field" \- early electric locomotive selling point.) I once thought that direct drive linear motors [1] were going to be the answer, but those never got popular. (Aura, the main company in that field, had some nice technology and a big financial scandal. Their web site looks like a placeholder now. It's one of those areas where hard problem + limited demand -> no products.)

There's a hack called a 'series elastic actuator', which is a powered screw jack with a stiff spring on the end, used to fake more general springs. When absorbing energy, the motor runs fast to back off the screw jack and unload the stiff spring. This recovers no energy; it uses power when absorbing energy. It's used in research robots where battery life isn't an issue.

It took Boston Dynamics about $120 million to get to the "legged squad support system", the militarized Big Dog. No idea how much it took to get to a usable Atlas.

It's good that they're still trying. The question is how much patience and money Softbank has left.

I wish Schaft had made it. They were a University of Tokyo spinoff, bought by Google and dumped by Google. They used small liquid-cooled motors, so they could run the motors much harder than usually done. Like Tesla's motors, but far smaller.

[1] [http://www.aurasystems.com/actuators.html](http://www.aurasystems.com/actuators.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I'm not trying to be too much of an ass... but is anyone really surprised? The whole thing seemed like a gag from the beginning. Was it really taken seriously? Reading that it has problems with soft dirt is kind of sad too. Plus, it took them $2.5m for just the robot? I hope that's incorrect in the article and those funds include business expenses too. Because that's really bad management... wait, it all makes more sense now.

<comment><USER8> I'm surprised this was a company. I thought it was some one off build for a bit of fun.

<comment><USER7> Right? I kind of feel like I'm taking crazy pills finding out this was meant as a serious company.

<comment><USER9> At least it wasn't VC-funded.

Can't wait for the RFS for "giant robots"

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I do want to say I met Matt Oehrlein at a maker-space in Ferndale, MI before he went on to create MegaBots. The guy is crazy talented with his hands, as well as a super personable and kind person.

I'm sure he'll have some more cool and fun endeavors in the future. Will be keeping a lookout for his name!

<comment><USER4> You should know that makerspace is not bankrupt, actually alive and well after 10 years, and expanding (having signed the lease on the other half of the building, and raising funds to build it out) right now!

Come on back for a visit, you'll find a welcoming community and tons of creative stuff going on.

<comment><USER10> I wish I lived there! Was a really cool space.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> one of my favorites from their FAQ in the eBay listing:

 _Third, Eagle Prime has a lot of hydraulic hoses and connectors. During the course of operation, it will usually spring a hydraulic leak maybe every 4 hours or so of driving and crushing. So far, every leak we've been able to fix with a standard set of large wrenches and a replacement o-ring. I'll include a bunch_

<comment><USER11> Another gem: > The giant cannon may or may not work since we used it as a battering ram in the fight with japan, but it should be repairable.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Amused that it is listed as pre owned on eBay

<comment><USER13> > Seller Notes: "A few dings and dents from engaging in close-quarters nation- > on-nation combat for technological supremacy with Japan's most famous giant > robot."

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> ebay link has some shots of the cockpit.

[https://www.ebay.com/itm/133181448480](https://www.ebay.com/itm/133181448480)

15 tons!

<comment><USER15> 15 tons? What do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt.

<comment><USER16> Giant robot don't you call me 'cause I can't go

I owe my funds to the company bank

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> "So we're selling the assets of the company to pay back the bank as much as possible, before we file the final bankruptcy paperwork."

I thought when bankruptcy is inevitable, you'd want to wait for the final judgment before liquidating.

</comment><comment><USER18> I guess the market is in small robots, e.g. the micromouse competitions: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16003683](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16003683)

YouTube doesn't even like robot fights: [https://www.independent.co.uk/life- style/gadgets-and-tech/ne...](https://www.independent.co.uk/life- style/gadgets-and-tech/news/youtube-robot-combat-videos-animal- cruelty-a9071576.html)

</comment><comment><USER6> Have you seen the 2019 Atlas... brilliantly scary!

[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_sBBaNYex3E](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_sBBaNYex3E)

<comment><USER19> The slight wear on its body makes it look even more impressive.

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> It would have been better with no humans inside the robots, so the fight could be more violent.

<comment><USER21> More violent fights would ruin their already-awful profit margin. Since they don't want to smash up the robots anyway, may as well put a human in there

<comment><USER20> BattleBots is more entertaining to watch.

They tried to add some excitement with commentary, but it didn't work.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Wow, I cannot believe I'm seriously considering bidding on this thing :-).</comment>


The anatomy of a WordPress theme (Infographic) - <AUTHOR> http://yoast.com/wordpress-theme-anatomy/

<comment><USER2> Notice the link at the end of the infographic. Boosting with backlinks is fun. I never used infographics for SEO, but that sure does seem to work for link/keyword juice on these types of sites.

<comment><USER3> I was all set to give this post props for it's helpful infographic til I too saw the cheezy ad plug. Even worse, it's not "powered by" or "brought to you by"... it's "This infographic was created by". Disappointing. Though this shouldn't impact my judgement of the value or utility of the infographic in imparting information... it just does.

<comment><USER4> I had the same reaction, and I know Yoast! Seems out of character.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> FWIW - I made "the simplest possible Wordpress theme" in an effort to understand what the bare minimum Wordpress theme requires (to get into their theme directory). You can see it here: <http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/simplest>

</comment><comment><USER6> Ugh, there's a tide of spam that slowly erodes HN usability. It pains me to say it, but it's almost on every site.

I am not sure if an idea of a power user simply deleting this type of content, banning/warning the submitter helps. Mods on Reddit cause as much havoc as they fix.

I would gladly pay a small fee for a clean non-spammy HN. Let that fund be used for a couple part time mods.

</comment><comment><USER7> This proves that sufficiently advanced spam really is indistinguishable from content:

[http://lesswrong.com/lw/28r/is_google_paperclipping_the_web_...](http://lesswrong.com/lw/28r/is_google_paperclipping_the_web_the_perils_of/)

</comment><comment><USER8> Wordpress, despite it's "n00b"-y feeling, makes it really really ridiculously easy to get your MVP out the door. Simple account management, simple CMS'ing, and well documented enough so you can spend your time on your business and not your framework.

Groupon's MVP was an WP blog and we used it for <http://playlookit.com>

<comment><USER4> Thank you -- I really appreciate that.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Here's another that's been sitting in my bookmarks: How to Build a Custom WordPress Theme from Scratch - [http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/tutorials/how-to- build-a...](http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/tutorials/how-to-build-a- custom-wordpress-theme-from-scratch)

</comment><comment><USER10> It's not really the real anatomy of a Wordpress theme until you've included the spending 90% of your time fixing the thing to work properly in IE, although to be fair that seems to be quite a large part of web design in general.

</comment><comment><USER11> Excellent graphic describing wordpress theme file structure.

It would be very interesting to know if other CMS's share a similar file structure. How does this compare to Drupal or Joomla for example?

<comment><USER12> As someone who works with both Wordpress and Drupal, let me just say that theming Wordpress feels easy and fun where Drupal feels too complex and very hard to grasp because there are so many aspects of the system that can be themed and each part does theming differently. Start using Drupal with CCK and views and you will know what I mean, you will know and weep :(

<comment><USER13> Agreed. For all the complaining people do about wordpress, it has one of the best theming design.

I was using "liquid" the other day, and it's not as flexible as wordpress in my opinion.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> My first impression was how disturbed I was to see the enormous ad "sidebar" coyly nestled on the right.

Then again, I think that's a fair observation.

</comment><comment><USER15> That's a lot more insightful than some of the tutorials I've seen. Thanks!

</comment><comment><USER16> spam, check the link at the bottom

<comment><USER17> So having a harmless backlink invalidates the good content?

This is not spam at all, this is just great SEO/business. Yoast gets traffic to their site without having to create the content, CreditLoans gets a good quality backlink in return for creating the content. Everyone are happy.</comment></comment>