Show HN: Neural Network Visualizer Classifying Handwriting – D3/Redux - <AUTHOR> http://nn-mnist.sennabaum.com <comment><USER2> Just a note: Logistic regression on raw pixels already gets you 88% accuracy. Nearest-neighbors on raw pixels gets you 95% accuracy.

You should not draw too much conclusion from a network with accuracy < 97%, because you probably just have bad hyperparameters (except for conclusions about which hyperparameters you need to tune).

<comment><USER3> do you have a source for these? ta

<comment><USER2> [https://www.google.com/#q=mnist](https://www.google.com/#q=mnist)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> There is a considerable lag when I drag and release the slider. I assume you are doing some intense computation, but perhaps allow the UI to be responsive while you are doing so?

<comment><AUTHOR> That's a good point. I tried some light optimizations using ShouldComponentUpdate in React, but I believe the bottleneck is a synchronous blocking call in the D3 rendering process. Larger networks write up 25,000 SVG elements, and I was not sure how to significantly improve rendering speed. Someone suggested Canvas with D3 could speed rendering up?

<comment><USER5> If possible, send it off to a web worker? That free's up the UI thread

Edit: So it's the rendering that's hard on the CPU. Canvas would probably improve performance. Also, the graphic is so simple and there doesn't seem to be any event listeners on the edges themselves, that converting should be trivial :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Hmm, that sounds like a promising idea...

<comment><USER6> For the most part you're not doing live animations, statically drawing on a 3 canvases would give you what you want (without huge overhead of DOM nodes and simplicity of 2D canvas painting). Web workers aren't going to do much since most of your lag is coming from way too much DOM (causing layout, repaints to take forever).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> > Most networks gained a large percentage of their final accuracy in just one > epoch. And it usually was the case that a higher accuracy in the first epoch > meant a higher final accuracy.

This sounds to me like learning was just crawling to local optimum not actually exploring or making any breakthrough in understanding of the domain.

</comment><comment><USER8> Can anyone explain how the "floats" that are the output of the last layer correspond to the individual digits?

<comment><AUTHOR> The largest float in the output layer (while the graph is yellow) is the activation. The largest activation in the final layer is the network's "guess". The guess is the index of the last layer, which corresponds to a particular digit.

<comment><USER8> Awesome, I just flipped that switch at the top and can see how it calculates the individual handwritten inputs. Great demo!

So I guess during training you're telling it that correct answers should be 1 and the incorrect answers should be 0.

Do the encoding choices that you make regarding the input / output of a neural network influence its performance at all? Maybe for MNIST the way you have it is the most common approach?

<comment><AUTHOR> Usually the number of nodes in the input and output layers don't affect things all that much. They are relatively set based on the problem. The number of nodes in the hidden layers, the number of hidden layers, and various other parameters such as cost and activation functions, are mostly what you use to tune performance.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Too slow; didn't wait to load.

Has anyone tried training a neural network on anything that isn't the NIST digits? I've seen that one so done to death and a dearth of other examples that I'm starting to get skeptical that it would work on any other cases.

Or is it that the data is expensive and the data "scientist" is cheap?

<comment><USER10> I basically only see to-do list apps for new frameworks. So therefore frameworks can only make to-do lists.

<comment><USER11> Clever, hah - also loving your equally clever username.</comment></comment></comment>


Samsung reportedly recruits ex-HP VP for PC business; considers buying webOS - <AUTHOR> http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20110829PD210.html

<comment><USER2> I'd like to see this.

Palm had good software and terrible hardware. Samsung has good hardware and terrible software.

webOS has too much promise to be killed off by HP.

<comment><USER3> Do you mean that you think they would use WebOS to replace Android as the OS for their phones?

I'm not sure why they would want to replace android. The only downside I can see of android is potential patent liability. With android, much of the OS development is outsourced and Samsung can spend their software resources making their version of improvements to android that they like. Thus going with android seems it would have more leverage for Samsung.

If they buy WebOS, they own the whole enchilada and their software resources have to be spread over an entire OS. On the other hand, since WebOS is essentially a web app running in a browser, of all the possible Phone operating systems they could buy, WebOS is the one that makes the most sense-- has the most leverage. They could presumably run it on linux and webkit and thus enjoy some leverage since others help improve linux and webkit.

If the idea is to buy WebOS to avoid patent liability, I think that would be a mistake. Apple didn't sue Palm, but I think this is only because Palm was not a threat in the marketplace. Apple seems, when there are multiple infringers, to focus on the ones that seem to be the bigger marketplace threat. (success there would then allow them to settle with Palm relatively cheaply in terms of legal costs anyway.) I'm not certain that WebOS infringes on Apple patents, but I don't think it is obvious that it doesn't either.

<comment><USER4> Why replace?

For all I care most phones today are ~identical~. Hell, I think HTC is well- known for putting out nearly identical devices with different operating systems for quite some time.

Offer both versions. Bonus points: Allow me to flash my phone to move from one OS to the other.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Aw man.. Someone's really playing with my expectations here. Timeline:

Whoa, Palm is back and has a really slick operating system.

Oh - the device is crap and the distribution sucks. Hope they make it and can improve it.

Second batch of devices sucks even more in terms of availability. Hang in there Palm!

HP bought Palm? Cooool. Now _they_ are certainly going to come up with good hardware, everywhere?

What? An huuuuge announcement for devices 6 month early? Like 'You know these WebOS devices from Palm? That you couldn't get anywhere? Well, we're going to bring out NEW devices. No, you cannot get them anywhere for half a year'.

Announcing that HP won't continue to create WebOS devices.

And now these rumors about Samsung (there were previous rumors about Samsung thinking about a WebOS license agreement). I really, really want to believe that now, finally, this is real and going to fix ~everything~. But - I kind of gave up on the idea of having a decent WebOS handset already.. Or did I?

</comment><comment><USER5> Bada, WebOS, Android, Windows? I'd think these are too many operating systems to support for Samsung.

<comment><USER6> 2 would be there's and the other 2 are from a third party. Maybe they are hedging their bets and don't feel completely safe being dependent on Microsoft or Google. If Apple has proven anything it's that being vertically integrated works and works well.

Even Samsung is not immune from the pricing pressure of cheaper Chinese OEMs using stock Android. If they can find any advantage in owning WebOS why not go for it.

<comment><USER7> You forgot Apples OSes, and various other OSes too. Samsung are massive and are in all sorts of markets.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2938470>

This was discussed yesterday as well, although the DigiTimes link is the original source of the rumor. Keep in mind DigiTimes also originated the refuted rumor that Samsung would buy HP's PC business.

And here's my comment on the issue: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2939477>

</comment><comment><USER9> I wonder if Samsung would try to support Meego? I imagine Elop will want to bury Megoo in a deep hole. He must know he will look like a prat if Meego takes off and WM7 flops.And Samsung probably want to own something, but it could be an option.

</comment><comment><USER10> That would be the closest thing possible to a three-man race.</comment>


Ask HN: Sites like HN in other languages? (2019) - <AUTHOR> This was asked seven years ago (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3734303) but I thought it would be good to ask HN if you know any sites like HN in other languages. Like Gambe.ro, that just popped on Show HN. <comment><USER2> Check out dou.ua, Ukrainian Web site with articles and reviews on both Russian and Ukrainian</comment>


Wide IDE framework - <AUTHOR> http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/551885/How-to-create-a-VS-2012-like-application-Wide-IDE Wide is a set of modules that can help in building VS 2012 like applications quickly. Like every modular PRISM application, modules can participate in building the IDE along with adding new functionality to the application. <comment><USER2> Good job and a nice article!</comment>


Ask HN: Advice for a directionless developer - <AUTHOR>

Recently I've found myself plowing through development book after development book without any clear vision or direction.  As a freelance developer, I've worked on many small-scale projects, but I find that when I'm lacking the structure resulting from having a client or boss, my pursuits tend to be scattered and ultimately unproductive.<p>Has anyone felt like this before?  How did you manage to hunker down with a single project or toolset without direction coming from above? <comment><USER2> When you don't have a client, you should find a customer. It boils down to what your motivation is though. Not everybody wants to invest their time on a side project.. but if that's okay for you:

 _1\. Pick a problem that you 're passionate about and try to solve it in a better way. 2\. Give it to a few people, ask them to tell you how to make it better. 3\. Go back to step 1_

Development isn't an end in itself. There are only so many books you can read - the real learning comes when you refer to a book/resource while you're trying product something tangible.

<comment><USER3> Finding a good problem to work on is the hard part

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I was in a similar situation. I read book after book, doing some small stuff. Now I switched from this book-first approach to problem-first. If you don't know what to choose, read articles, talk to people, books are too time- consuming, focused to start with. When you find an interesting problem (for me it's now reactive driver for Github in Scala, just started on it), you start coding, find appropriate books, other people solutions etc. I've found I learn way more and feel more engaged when I keep focusing on solving a problem.

</comment><comment><USER5> You could be suffering from burn-out. I have been there quite a few times. Not a pleasant time.

Assuming that you don't have a gig and don't really need one...

So why not take some time out? Do anything that doesn't require sitting in front of some electronic gadget. Personally, I take long walks, bike rides, etc. The more physical the better.

Then follow up Karterk's suggestion either find a project you are passionate about and really want to solve or find a customer.</comment>


Ask HN: If you could work for any company, which would you choose and why? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> At this second, I'd have to say that Microsoft is incredibly appealing to me.

Why? Microsoft has somehow turned its image around after being loathed by developers and users alike forever. None of it was a fluke either. They became a far more developer friendly, open-source friendly company, and they've also done a ton of things no one would have believed 10-15 years ago.

Linux on Windows? A browser based on Chromium? OSS collaboration and support? Providing the best damn code editor on Earth for the price of 'on the house'? These are all insane when you consider Microsoft of the past, and these are just a few things they've done to win back developers. They're doing the same thing in the Xbox division and Azure.

They're heading in a positive direction while it seems like everyone else is going to the dark side. I hope the trend continues because I'm really enjoying seeing Microsoft using their resources for this sort of thing. Not to mention, they're making cool shit like xCloud and Hololens.

It just seems like a really great place to be currently.

</comment><comment><USER3> _which would you choose?_

Fogbeam Labs

 _why?_

Because it's my company, and by virtue of that I get closer to being able to "call my own shots". I also stand to reap more a substantial share of the rewards if we are successful, unlike working for a salary, which amounts to peanuts, somewhere else.

Sadly, we're not at a point of making money yet, so I still have to do the dayjob thing for now. But our time is coming...

</comment><comment><USER4> I've been thinking about creating a company, or foundation, around the idea of owning your own data. You'd have a hardware device like a powerful tablet always connected at home, and use a "generic" third party to do backups and enable pocking holes at NAT. You'd use this to store your music and listen it from anywhere, to run your email, instant messages, storing your photos, streaming movies from your downloaded collection...

I'd love to be working in that project, however it does not exist yet and I haven't found enough interested people.

<comment><USER5> FWIW, I'm focused on the photos bit for now. You can read more about it here: [https://photostructure.com/about/introducing- photostructure/](https://photostructure.com/about/introducing-photostructure/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> RAD Game Tools. I'm following the owner and some of the employees and these guys seem to really take writing software seriously (probably in part because in their domain, if they sell crappy annoying middleware, their clients will just not buy it - the purchases are not driven by MBAs). Also, the people that work there are absolutely top-notch technically. Thirdly, what they work on is interesting and challenging.

</comment><comment><USER7> Qualtrics

</comment><comment><USER8> rentec</comment>


Mobile Payment Platform Wars: LevelUp, Paydiant, PayPal, & More - <AUTHOR> http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2013/03/04/mobile-payment-platform-war-levelup-paydiant-paypal-more/ <comment><USER2> Like the article's author, I'm a neo-Luddite. (Love that phrase.) I will be swiping my card(s) for the foreseeable future. The perceived time savings of mobile payments is not worth it to me. I have little retail/brand loyalty unless it's based on perceived quality/value of the product/service. And I hate it when I'm the target of aggressive marketing.</comment>


Startup Sheet – All must-have startup tools and services in one place - <AUTHOR> http://www.startupsheet.com/

<comment><AUTHOR> I made this little website for young entrepreneurs to get started. Comments and feedback are more than welcome!

</comment><comment><USER2> Can't live without Stack Overflow ;)</comment>


PhpStorm 7.0 final release is here - <AUTHOR> http://blog.jetbrains.com/phpstorm/2013/10/phpstorm-7-0-released-php-5-5-vagrant-ssh-console-debugger-config-validation-drupal-frameworks-more/

<comment><USER3> I've been using PhpStorm for a few years now. After going through several time-wasting periods of trying out every IDE I could get my hands on to see what I liked, I ended up and have stayed with PhpStorm because it is hands down the most feature-full, fast, stable and up-to-date IDE for PHP (and HTML/JS!) development.

It also does not hurt that they're going on a Vagrant rampage and have been showing off my app, [https://puphpet.com](https://puphpet.com) :)

<comment><USER4> I always remember the name as "PHPuppet" :(

<comment><USER5> I always pronounce it "PU PHP Pet." Which I guess is logical because elephants.

<comment><USER3> I recently decided the correct pronunciation is "puff-et"... like "elephpant"!

<comment><USER6> That's how I pronounce it too, also love that tool. Much love <3

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> My one year subscription expires in December, so I was really hoping they'd get version 7 out before it runs out.

My favorite feature is the static code analysis that allows for autocomplete but also shows errors in the code, like functions not available in a class, unused variables, etc. When I use PHPStorm I always find problems in my co- workers code that wouldn't be obvious without code analysis.

</comment><comment><USER8> Just as I was going to install PhpStorm 6 on my new machine at work, cool.

Most people in my team are not convinced PhpStorm brings anything valuable compared to NetBeans, Eclipse, Sublime2 or even vim. Maybe I will try once again with version 7 :)

<comment> V-2 I only briefly used Eclipse, so I can't comment on that one. I used NetBeans for a few months though. PHPStorm has much superior refactoring, it beats NB hands down. This by itself was for me enough of a reason to switch.

I also had some issues with NetBeans being inresponsive, or some functionalities breaking for no clear reason (like "go to definition" wouldn't work anymore) etc.

My working copy was on a mounted drive - which sucks, but it didn't depend on me - and whenever NB had a problem saving some file, it would make it look as if the file was saved anyway, and I ended up losing changes.

On the top of that, its SVN integration (I've switched to Git since, but I never looked back at NetBeans, so I can't compare) was ridiculously slow.

It just feels buggy.

<comment><USER9> What's so good about PhpStorm's refactoring? Can you give an example?

<comment> V-2 I can't remember exactly anymore what NetBeans has and has not, anyway PHPStorm allows you to generate getters and setters, or to extract a fragment of code into a separate method - the latter one is extremely helpful for refactoring poorly written spaghetti code. This function is quite intelligent, so it takes care of all the local variables and creates a proper method signature (so that the newly created method would take all the variables used by the code as arguments), etc.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Every time I try a full fledged IDE I always fall back to a text editor like sublime-text. Some habits are hard to break.

<comment> V-2 I can refactor a chunk of messy script into a separate method with PHPStorm, it's just one command. Good luck with Sublime :) IDEs were invented for a reason. To each his own, but I lost count of how many times I fixed bugs (of the sort that I could broadly classify as typos) made by colleagues who choose to code in Sublime, Commodo, Notepad++ and the like.

I really like Sublime when I need to search for something in a code base though. It also has very pleasant, slick feeling to it.

<comment><USER11> The idea that you need to click on GUI buttons to get anything done is regressive to the extreme.

<comment> V-2 Actually PHPStorm is so good with keyboard shortcuts that it offers a few default sets ("keymaps") out of the box to choose from.

Eg. I'm used to Visual Studio shortcuts scheme - I can switch to it straight away (IDE Settings -> Keymap -> Keymaps). There's also Emacs, NetBeans, Eclipse etc. So you don't even need adjusting your habits or wasting time for manual customization.

I don't want to sell you this stuff (not associated with JetBrains in any way), but it's solid, so why make bones about it

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> How are the fonts with Ubuntu (Linux)? Last time I used it a year ago they were terrible.

<comment><USER13> I think they look good, I've been looking at them for hundreds of hours without complaining. Screenshot: [http://i.imgur.com/sPmh5qd.png](http://i.imgur.com/sPmh5qd.png)

<comment><USER14> I wouldn't consider this "looking good". Last time I checked you still had to put great amount of work to get them to look halfway decent [1].

[1] Screenshot from OSX: [https://www.dropbox.com/s/a4bwc3txkq71otd/Screenshot%202013-...](https://www.dropbox.com/s/a4bwc3txkq71otd/Screenshot%202013-10-22%2016.21.29.PNG)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I'm a huge fan of PhpStorm. However, I'm wondering what's the purpose of having vagrant in an IDE?

Vagrant is easy to work already, just 'vagrant up' and you're away. What problem does the IDE solve? And looking at the interface, the 'halt' button is too close to the 'destroy' button. Might have an accidental click there...

It would be cool if they had an interface such as WAMP Server, where you can select the php versions, php extensions, start / stop services, log files, v-host configs, etc, all from one menu. Now that would be very useful.

<comment><USER16> > _just 'vagrant up' and you're away_

No, it's

1) Switch to the console

2) Vagrant up

3) Wait for the results

4) Switch back

Instead of one key press and watching it run in the bottom console while you're writing the code.

<comment><USER17> My only problem with terminal and vagrant built into the IDE, is I have multiple monitors and enjoy separation. I usually fullscreen my IDE/editor in one monitor, maximizing each file's viewport to the best I can, and then have _multiple_ terminals on another monitor.

Can I "pop-out" the terminal/vagrant windows in this IDE and put them on another monitor?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Strange that pyCharm does have a community edition ([http://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/download/index.html](http://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/download/index.html)) but phpStorm doesn't ([http://www.jetbrains.com/phpstorm/download/index.html](http://www.jetbrains.com/phpstorm/download/index.html))

<comment><USER19> PyCharm Community Edition does not include all the web features - <USER2> available in Professional edition (and other features too). That would be quite strange to have PhpStorm Community Edition without support for web technologies (without PHP too)

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Anyone here used PhpEd and then switched to PhpStorm in the last few years?

I've really enjoyed using PhpEd myself, but sometimes it gets annoying that it has its own debugger (not XDebug) and that seems to cause issues with typical tools like PHPUnit and some of the features they have (like code coverage tests).

<comment><USER21> I switched to Intellij from PhpED a few years ago for a few reasons.

\- Better support. Sometimes PhpEd would rarely give updates about what they were working on or what they were doing. My subscription ran out and I was not going to take a chance on "what ifs" when Intellij had all features I needed.

\- More features. There were and probably still are lots of things PhpStorm/Intellij has that PhpEd does not.

\- Intellij has support for more languages and PHP was only part of the work I did and even less of it now.

\- Better JavaScript support (support for lots of JS frameworks built in. Missing a library locally for JS? It tells you. Also syntax highlight and error/lint check support for TypeScript and CoffeeScript

PhpEd was nice and I'm sure it's gotten better, but it at the time, it seemed like they were always a step or two behind the PHP and HTML5 updates so you could never count on using the latest features.

One advantage PhpEd always had on Intellij is that PhpEd is native (delphi code). Thus PhpEd always started up faster and there was a little less latency when clicking on menus or something, but it's not that noticeable and Intellij performs better than other Java Apps.

<comment><USER20> Thanks for the reply! For a while there (I started using PhpEd in 2008 or so) the updates were coming fairly slowly but they have seemed to ramp up lately which has been nice (version 11 of PhpEd seems to be due out fairly soon but I'm not sure which features will be coming).

The main open source project I work with (Joomla) seems to use PhpStorm almost exclusively now that we have a free open source license we can use. I tried it briefly last year, but with the latest round of updates it seems like it'll be worth taking a closer look at again :-).

I have liked the native speed of PhpEd, but one thing that I think that has held me back from switching to another platform has been the lack of Mac support it has so maybe switching to PhpStorm will make that transition more of a possibility down the road.

<comment><USER21> PhpEd worked well over Wine when I used it, but only tried that on Linux. Worth a try on OSX though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> It's lack of support for the Open JDK somewhat kills it for me (I run Linux): [https://www.jetbrains.com/phpstorm/webhelp/system- requiremen...](https://www.jetbrains.com/phpstorm/webhelp/system-requirements- and-installation.html)

<comment><USER23> It runs fine in OpenJDK, at least in my case.

(ArchLinux x86_64 [https://www.archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/jre7-openjdk...](https://www.archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/jre7-openjdk/))

Anyway, you can always download Java from the Oracle Downloads website and put it somewhere in your home directory and just define these variables in ~/.bashrc:

export JAVA_HOME="/home/username/Software/Java/jdkx.y.z_w/"

export JRE_HOME="$JAVA_HOME/jre"

export JDK_HOME="$JAVA_HOME"

export PHP_STORM_HOME="/home/username/Software/PHP/PhpStorm-x.y/"

export PATH="$PATH:$JAVA_HOME/bin:$PHP_STORM_HOME/bin"

. ~/.bashrc

phpstorm.sh > /dev/null 2>&1 &

echo "Enjoy the ride"

<comment><USER22> I'll try it on Fedora on the Open JDK and see how it goes. Right now I'm using Sublime and love it, but many of my colleagues are encouraging me to try PHPStorm.

<comment><USER22> Well I can confirm that it does appear to work on Fedora 19 using the Open JDK, but it is slow on my machine (i7 with 8GB of RAM and an SSD). In fairness though it does make it clear with this warning message when you run it that this is to be expected:

"./phpstorm.sh WARNING: You are launching the IDE using OpenJDK Java runtime.

             ITS KNOWN TO HAVE PERFORMANCE AND GRAPHICS ISSUES!
             SWITCH TO THE ORACLE(SUN) JDK BEFORE REPORTING PROBLEMS!

NOTE: If you have both Oracle (Sun) JDK and OpenJDK installed please validate either WEBIDE_JDK, JDK_HOME, or JAVA_HOME environment variable points to valid Oracle (Sun) JDK installation. See [http://ow.ly/6TuKQ](http://ow.ly/6TuKQ) for more info on switching default JDK."

So yeah, I guess they weren't kidding in their list of requirements. Oracle JDK or suffer a degraded performance.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Awesome VCS integration, super fast and symbol navigation is amazing. I stuck with Netbeans for over two years, it was decent, and then the newer versions (7.3) started crashing on my large PHP project. Switched to phpStorm and never looked back.

</comment><comment><USER25> I've started using WebStorm for the last 6 months... it's sick for anything js/node/coffee/mv*.

Also started messing with RubyMine. It's nice to have all your keyboard shortcuts standardized across IDE's.

<comment><USER26> Wait till you try intellij idea: java, php, ruby, python, go, js, node, coffee, etc all in one.

<comment><USER27> Just to reiterate myself - IMO, PHPStorm, PyCharm etc. are slightly more featureful and more coherent for their respective languages than IDEA + plugin.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> I use PyCharm, which has most all of WebStorm in it. I'm a huge fan of JetBrains cross-platform dev tools. I still use other text-editors often for one-off edits, but most my big team projects get edited with PyCharm.

</comment><comment><USER29> PHPStorm is cool. Haven't looked back after switching to it almost an year ago. Worth the money. Plus, they offer discounted licenses for students and open source projects!

</comment><comment><USER30> Sweet! I like that I can upgrade for free with my license bought a few months back. Looking forward to trying the Vagrant and SSH stuff.

</comment><comment><USER31> php 5.5 support listed as a feature annoys me.

I am a paying user _) and when I reported that php 5.5 was not recognized as php 5.4 or better I felt I was just brushed off. So, for the moment I cannot use the built in server features.

_ ) Technically I bought Idea and downloaded the php plugins.

<comment><USER27> Did you file a bug for it?

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I've been trying PhpStorm for a while and to be honest I don't see the benefits compared to Netbeans.

</comment><comment><USER32> Everything JetBrains makes is just pure awesome. Any suggestion for a full blown Javascript IDE?

</comment><comment><USER26> Any word on when the new python and php plugins hit intellij idea?

<comment><USER33> They will "hit" only curret IDEA 13 EAP+ Both are quite up to date there and are update often - i.e. PS7's php plugin version will be out in a hour.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> The best IDE imo. The only extra thing I add is the Symfony2 skin. Here is a link to it: [https://github.com/cordoval/Symfony2Colors/blob/master/READM...](https://github.com/cordoval/Symfony2Colors/blob/master/README.md)

<comment><USER35> Symfony2 plugin is also nice.

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> Its a great IDE, but they don't accept bitcoin so their loss</comment>


SpaceX set to launch 'used rocket' - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-39437407 <comment><USER2> As usual, /r/SpaceX is a treasure trove of information about this launch.

[https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/62aqi7/rspacex_ses1...](https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/62aqi7/rspacex_ses10_official_launch_discussion_updates/)

[https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/](https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/)

Here's the SpaceX press kit:

[http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/finalses10presskit....](http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/finalses10presskit.pdf)

<comment><USER3> I'm always amazed at how different /r/SpaceX and /r/Tesla are from the rest of Reddit.

<comment><USER4> People often lump different subreddits together too much. /r/gaming and /r/games are both ostensibly about video games but their content and culture are very different from each other.

<comment><USER5> I find the difference between r/golang and r/node quite marked.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Could anybody here comment on the differences between spacex's engine, and the engines on the space shuttle?

I was under the impression that SpaceX was trying to make the first re-usable rocket stage, but I've recently found out that that isn't true. The space shuttle already holds that title.

I'm also kindof curious why they decided to go with a vertical-landing-design, instead of putting some wings on it and having it glide home like the shuttle did. Is that a weight-concern? Aerodynamics, mabye, but couldn't the wings be articulated in the same way that the landing legs are right now?

(I will admit some ignorance in this field. I'm definitely a fan, but I'm definitely not a historian or a rocket scientist)

<comment><USER7> The engines have minor differences, namely that the space shuttle used fully closed cycle engines while the falcon 9 does not. All this means though is that the efficiency is slightly lower because some of the propellant is burned and the combustion product dumped overboard to power the turbo pumps that push the rest of the propellant into the main combustion chamber. While this reduces efficiency, this makes the engine somewhat easier to design and I believe the next gen spacex engines will have this feature.

The vertical landing design is actually really smart because it allows a relatively un-aerodynamic object to get back to the ground without adding heavy wings and fairings. Rockets don't actually like having fins when they go up since the dynamic pressures get to be extremely high. Rather, they opt for gimbaled engines to steer (this also helps when there's no atmosphere to steer with). The only downside to this approach is that some of the fuel has to be retained for the return trip, though this is a relatively small fraction. The other huge issue you have to deal with when gliding back is having some sort of landing gear in addition to the control surfaces. You can put wheels on it but that's a lot of weight and if you land it horizontally, without the pressure of the propellant keeping the body rigid, it will most likely crumple.

<comment><USER8> F9 FT can launch ~ 5.3 metric tons to GTO with landing, or ~ 8 metric tons without. I'm not sure if I'd call that a relatively small penalty. It does allow SpaceX to launch most GTO satellites. I expect Block 5 will do a bit better.

<comment><USER9> I think both views are essentially correct. It is a relatively small fraction of the fuel load, but thanks to the impact of the rocket equation, that relatively small fraction translates (as you are pointing out) to a sizable difference in payload to a given orbit.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> It is interesting that they are confident enough to launch it with a commercial payload instead of doing a test flight with a dummy second stage.

<comment><USER11> The static fire yesterday was enough proof for SpaceX that everything is working as expected. After that the major undetected flaws will show up some time from launch through MECO :D

SpaceX will no doubt discover new failure modes that nobody has thought of up till now (and thus were not looking for, and thus did not detect).

<comment><USER12> In a static fire the rocket is "tied down" to the ground. Do you know how the stress profile presented by this differs from a real launch?

<comment><USER11> Vastly different, but the most likely point of failure is the moving parts, as tested in the static fire.

Other parts that failed had been successfully used in flight so a "dummy launch" would have provided no certainty other than "everything worked this time."

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> Fingers crossed. In theory it shouldn't be any more dangerous than a first- time rocket, given that they've examined every inch of it and deemed it flawless. If it weren't flawless, obviously they wouldn't be trying to fly it. So we're just hoping there isn't some unanticipated source of entropy, so to speak. As always.

<comment><USER14> Not to be pedantic, but it's not possible to inspect an entire rocket for all defects because so many of them are microscopic and internal (not on the surface of a solid part). These can be analyzed and predicted with fatigue models in aggregate with varying levels of certainty. This comprises the fascinating field of fatigue analysis.

<comment><USER15> While you're correct, you're not pedantic enough. Using X-rays to validate the most critical engine parts has been done for literally years and is a relatively boring and old part of "rocket science". Don't expect SpaceX to spend some serious cash on this and techniques such as this (MRI and sonic / ultrasound tech comes to mind).

Source: a good friend of mine is a structural engineer for Aerospace Corporation (a rocket scientist if you will) and I'm an avid r/SpaceX reader.

<comment><USER16> Uh, you meant "Don't expect SpaceX _not_ to ...", or "Expect SpaceX to ...", right? I had a negation parse error.

<comment><USER15> Well played sir, well played, and yes! :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I'm pretty stoked we are staying right next to Jeti park on spring break and are planning on watching this launch tonight from the beach. We've got to see one other Delta IV launch, but really looking forward to seeing this one. We just missed OCSILY heading out to landing zone, but I got a good view of the parking spot and unloading area.

</comment><comment><USER18> The BBC article doesn't use the word "today" anywhere in the text, nor does it provide a date. Does "X set to do Y later" in journalism-speak mean "later today" instead of "later somewhen"? Is this another idiosyncrasy like using commas instead of "and"?

<comment><USER19> In Britain, you commonly use it in that form. For example, we might say "want to do X later?".

Perhaps it's just British?

<comment><USER20> I feel like it's a little different when you speaking to someone versus in a news article. I could read the article tomorrow and be very confused, but I won't hear you say those words tomorrow unless you actually mean tomorrow.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> Looks like SpaceX is going to sell the rocket:

[https://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/for/6067287590.html](https://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/for/6067287590.html)

</comment><comment><USER22> The incumbents said it couldn't be done...

<comment><USER23> It's pretty common for people to make a hard problem out to be much more difficult than it actually is if they have a track record of failing to tackle it. The reality is that the problem is not that terribly difficult, all things considered. That's not to diminish SpaceX's achievement, what they've done is genius. But their genius is primarily in avoiding falling into the common trap of optimizing an expendable rocket to the detriment of any hope of easy and beneficial reuse of part of it. And indeed the most logical optimizations of expendable rockets tend to push the design in precisely that direction, so it takes a considerable amount of sticktoitiveness to avoid that pitfall. Additionally, they figured out how to do reusable R&D very effectively and cheaply (by using commercial launches to subsidize most of the costs).

Together this has led them to success, but any space-faring nation or organization with a few billion dollars sitting around could have achieved the same thing, they just didn't have the courage or foresight to do so. Indeed, Blue Origin will probably follow along and reproduce the same achievement in orbital rocketry within the next 5 or 10 years or so. And I expect others to follow as well, once a model that can be easily copied has become established and its advantages proven.

<comment><USER24> I guess the fact that it hasn't been done so far is in part due to lack of technology (bot materials and processing power) and the lack of necessity. Space programs have been purely national affairs for a long time and cost for the rather few launches was not really an issue. Even more so when the launcher was developed off ICBMs where development costs were already paid for with a military budget.

And, well, as long as no cheaper competitor comes along it doesn't matter if launch prices are high since whoever _needs_ to launch something just _has_ to pay them.

<comment><USER25> Well it was done. The Space Shuttle was this exact idea. The problem was just that it did not work and nobody wanted to try it again.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> Hello,

If this launch is successful, how much money SpaceX would have saved by using a 'used rocket' instead of a new one?

<comment><USER24> No one knows for now, as refurbishment costs are a big unknown (and I don't think SpaceX will release those numbers at this point). The cost of the first stage is a significant part of the overall rocket cost, though, considering it's the largest part, and it has 90 % of the engines (each of which costs about a million already).

Since they took four months to refurbish this stage it may have cost quite a bit to do so for now. But they're learning and Block 5 to debut later this year will have lots of changes based on what they learned.

<comment><USER27> In fact optimizing the Falcon 9 for first stage re-use has lead it down a very different development path from most modern launchers.

On an expendable architecture the priority is saving weight on the second stage, because every kilogram saved there saves many kilograms for the first stage. So pound for pound the second stage usually costs more than the first stage. Also the cheapest way to build a first stage is with one or just a few big engines. Both these optimization criteria are reversed for a re-usable design. In the Falcon 9 the first stage is re-used while the second stage isn't, so that's the stage you want to spend your money on. Also a few big engines can't be throttled low enough or gimbaled precisely enough for a landing burn. Even the using just one of the relatively small engines in the Falcon 9 can't be throttled low enough to hover. Hence the Falcon 9 has many smaller engines to give it a much greater range of thrust settings and better attitude control.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> reusability is the key to commodity rockets. look at the car and how depreciation works, people will own a rockets after 5 owners for a ridiculously cheap price. at that point fuel will be the number one cost issue and the fuel source will charge.

<comment><USER29> Expect used rockets to be about as comparable to used cars as used cars are comparable to used chewing gum.

<comment><USER28> you're right, it'll be companies buying used rockets.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> methane fuel is what we desperately need now, methane is the number one danger to our atmosphere and burning it is the most ecofriendly way of disposing of it.

<comment><USER27> I'm pretty sure any methane fuel they use will be manufactured for the purpose rather than extracted from the atmosphere. That means there's bound to be some leakage.

<comment><USER28> leakage is happenening here [http://siberiantimes.com/ecology/casestudy/news/n0681-now- th...](http://siberiantimes.com/ecology/casestudy/news/n0681-now-the-proof- permafrost-bubbles-are-leaking-methane-200-times-above-the-norm/)

we could extract this before it get's into the atmosphere.

<comment><USER27> The Russians happen to have a shiny new launch complex in Siberia. Just saying.

<comment><USER28> smart move

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> When you launch single-use rockets every next one is more advanced and reliable than the previous one. It includes some of the error corrections that were found during previous launches. This is an often ignored point.

I highly doubt that reusable rockets would be economically viable at our current state of material technology. We need better materials for the engines and the tanks to make them reusable. Even airplanes have to be retired when they still look new just because they've been through multiple pressurization/depressurization cycles and accumulated microfissures. Of course they are not even close to the levels of stress sustained by rockets.

<comment><USER31> I think your point is weakened a bit by the fact that SpaceX is both the only company flying a rocket designed for re-usability, as well as the company that is iterating their design far faster than any of their competitors.

SpaceX has had trouble getting approved for Air Force launches in the past because they "tweak" the design of Falcon 9 too often. They had to commit to NASA to fly seven launches of a "fixed" design (what SpaceX is calling "Block 5") before they will be allowed to fly crewed missions (for NASA).</comment></comment>


Chelsea Manning files to run for U.S. Senate in Maryland - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md-politics/chelsea-manning-files-to-run-for-us-senate-in-maryland/2018/01/13/6439f0d0-f88c-11e7-beb6-c8d48830c54d_story.html?utm_term=.13458559e889 <comment><USER2> She's running in a primary challenge against an established Democrat who has been active in Maryland politics since the 1960s and has never lost an election.

On top of that, polling suggests that a majority of Americans, including just under 50% of Democrats, opposed clemency for Manning.

This is not going to end well. If she's serious about a career as an elected official, this is not the right way to go about it. I suspect she does not expect to win and this is really an attempt to gain national recognition as an activist.

<comment><USER3> I think that she is running and knows that she will lose but use the opportunity to push ideas that her opponent will adopt. Sort of like a sacrifice fly but in politics. The Green party I think has done this in the past.

<comment><USER4> For the duration of the campaign, maybe, and then only if Manning is an actual electoral threat and people agree with the positions she has on important issues.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> She has no experience, a felony conviction for violating the Espionage Act, and a dishonorable discharge.

Maryland is home to a huge number of defense and intelligence workers. According to Wikipedia, Fort Meade (which is the headquarters of the NSA) is the state's biggest employer.

I'm not hopeful.

<comment><USER6> _Maryland is home to a huge number of defense and intelligence workers._

This was the first thing that came to my mind when I saw the headline, it's like that common line thrown at stand-up comedians (note: This is not me calling Chelsea Manning a 'joke' or making light of her situation and what she went through): know your room. That constituency does NOT seem like one that will vote for this particular candidate.

Nonetheless, I commend her willingness to step up to the plate, I can see a lot of valuable conversations coming out of the race.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> This is awesome. Whether or not you believe her actions were good for the country (I believe they were), this is a good example for all counties about how committed we are as a nation to democracy.

The framers designed our government to overthrow itself every few years, and I believe it was intentional that we could elect somebody who has been tried and convicted of crimes to represent us as citizens, if we wish to do so. I'm not a resident of Maryland, and will not be in a position to evaluate and vote on the candidates, but I do think the fact that this race is possible is something we can take real pride in.

<comment><USER8> > The framers designed our government to overthrow itself every few years

At the risk of being pedantic...

Peaceful and systematic replacement is not the same phenomenon as overthrow.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Personal/political opinions about this aside (helllll yeaaa!) its odd that she'd file and then just be silent on social media all day. Did she/her-team not expect this public record to get noticed till next week? Where is the website? Was this a very last minute decision?

</comment><comment><USER10> Wouldn't she have trouble getting a security clearance? I'm under the impression that many Senators receive secure briefings.

<comment><USER11> She would have trouble getting one, but she doesn't need one. Only a few senators are given access to every classified program. Most senators can request specific accesses if their work/committee requires it, but aren't given access to everything by default- the DoD would need a good reason to deny the clearance, and Manning's case probably counts as a good reason. Even if Manning won she would be a junior senator and not put on any important defense related committees so she wouldn't have a need for a clearance most of the time.

<comment><USER12> Security clearance doesn't work that way you still need to be given specific access to compartmentalized information, pretty much anything that is codeword or higher has to be individually read into.

Basically you can have 2 people with the same base clearance but they would have completely different access to information. The security clearance doesn't even give you access to information by having it, it simply means that you have passed the risk assessment which means you can be cleared to handle classified information and you would handle it in a legal and responsible manner, which regardless what you think about Manning that is clearly not the case.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I think she's a good person and the way she was treated by pretty much everyone from Wikileaks to Adrian lamo to the media and the military and court system was horrific.

But none of that qualifies her for public office and I think it's a mistake for her to run. If she even comes close to winning, she's going to be raked over the coals again by her opponents and the media.

</comment><comment><USER14> Has a convicted felon ever been elected as a U.S. senator before?

<comment><USER15> Tons of congressman have DUI and assault charges, so I assume yes.

I'm more curious do you have to pass a background check to be a representative?

<comment><USER16> I've never heard of a background check for an elected representative.

It is a bit strange that someone who can't vote (a felon) could be elected and then vote on our behalf.

<comment><USER17> Is someone with a presidential pardon still considered a felon? I know the pardon does not erase the conviction, but since a pardon seems to erase the most significant consequences, does it erase all consequences?

<comment><USER18> A pardon erases prison time, it does not erase any fines resulting from said crime, and also is admitting guilt to the crime[1]. One of the biggest things a pardon does as a result of that (like a guilty plea does as well) is open you up to civil suits. Also, accepting a pardon prevents you from pleading the 5th on any further or follow up charges related to said crime. It is a pretty slippery slope actually. Your question is an interesting one, but one better suited for a Constitutional law scholar such as Professor Lawrence Tribe (runs the constitutional law program at Harvard).

[1] Burdick vs United States: [https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=392852811788210...](https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=3928528117882105076)

<comment><USER19> That is the usual interpretation of that case, but not the only one.

[https://medium.com/@brendanlilly/are-presidential-pardons- an...](https://medium.com/@brendanlilly/are-presidential-pardons-an-admission- of-guilt-d931ce3223f4)</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: how to decently ditch a job - <AUTHOR>

Longtime user here, you know the drill.
Long story short: I took on a project I thought I would like, for a client I've got to be friends with, and which am competent for. 4 weeks later I've barely scratched at it, which is going to cause problems for him (competitive entry deadline) and raise the expense. I am an asshole.
Why? I've been moving away from that area of work, I agreed to do it for too little money which I don't need anyway, and the project arrived to me months late and with stuff missing. I should have said no, but I'm not good at that.
Mitigating factors: I have had some medical and domestic problems, which are genuine concerens. But they are not big obstacles, more like this project was the obstacle to the momentum I had going to deal with the other issues. The more I felt it was a distraction from ym important goals, the less I wanted to work on it, the less I wanted to work the more time I spent perfecting irrelevant marginal aspects (ie sharpening my tools because I'm gonna start on this any time now...), the longer that has gone one the more embarrassed I felt to pick up the phone and beg off.
I am late, the work is not done, I have let someone down, I am largely to blame and have made the situation worse by failing to deal with it. Although it will be hideously unpleasant, I am going to just admit this was what happened rather than cook up an excuse...external problems exist, but the failure to cope is all mine.
My question is short: what should I say besides 'sorry'?
The obvious answer would be to commit to done and have daily checkins or something, but I already loathe even thinking about this project although that is no fault of the originator, it's because of how it makes me feel about myself. I feel strongly that I should terminate my involvement, for both our sakes. In past tight corners I have gritted my teeth and pulled through, and been mad with myself afterwards for limping over a finish line. <comment><USER2> Just say you need to move on. The longer you wait the worse it gets. Let them know without going into excruciating detail that it's better FOR BOTH OF YOU (be sure to emphasize the benefits of not relying on someone who doesn't want to be there). In the long run the client/friend will respect you more for being honest and saving them from someone who will do sub-par work.

And as someone who would similarly struggle with this type of problem, I can definitely say you should rehearse what you want to say beforehand and stick to that.

Best of luck!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. Nobody will go bust or anything, but a letdown is worse than if I had rejected him in the first place.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Can you find somebody else who would do a better job than you? It sounds like you have a responsibility to your friend, one which you took on yourself. This means do everything you can to get the job done, even if you're not the one personally hands-on doing the work.

If you bail, it would be a deserved ding on your credibility, I'm sure you would agree.</comment>


Looks like someone put "On Lisp" in HTML - <AUTHOR> http://www.bookshelf.jp/texi/onlisp/onlisp.html <comment><USER2> I "borrowed" a bound copy from my advisor. He seems to have forgotten this fact. I'm hoping to keep it that way.

</comment><comment><USER3> This has been around for a while. I remember referring to it something like three years ago. Cool, though!

</comment><comment><USER4> Would be nice if PG could let us know when, if ever, it's going to be republished :)</comment>


Scaling Out MySQL - <AUTHOR> http://natishalom.typepad.com/nati_shaloms_blog/2008/03/scaling-out-mys.html <comment><USER2> From the article:

1\. Scale your database through database clustering

2\. Scale your application, while leaving your existing database untouched by front-ending the database with In-Memory-Data-Grid (IMDG) or caching technologies. The database acts as a persistence store in the background. I refer to this approach as Persistence as a Service (PaaS).

Correct me if I am wrong but don't databases handle option 2 by themselves. In fact, isn't one of the primary purposes of a database that applications on top of them do _not_ have to concern themselves with things like caching?

This reminds of another article where it pointed out two of the biggest mistakes with databases and one of them was the tendency to treat it like a dumb storage engine. This seems to be a classic case of that.</comment>


Vimdeck - Vim as a presentation tool - <AUTHOR> https://coderbits.com/posts/WJroMQ

<comment><USER2> My fear with this is that it will be less "bullet proof" than creating a PDF slidedeck. With this I'll have to worry about getting the fontsize correct on the projector, which means I have to worry about getting a terminal set up on whichever computer I may be using for a presentation (hopefully my own, but I can't count on that) and (in the case that it isn't my own) I have to worry about networking too.

With a PDF slidedeck I can have the PDF on my computer, on the network, and on a flashdrive, I don't have to worry about presentation software compatibility or installing Gvim+plugins or putty, I don't have to worry about font-size, etc.

If I could be absolutely sure that the presentation was going to be given from my computer, then I think this would be great.

<comment><USER3> To be honest, when I made Vimdeck, it was mostly just-for-fun. I never really expected that other people would seriously consider using it for their presentations.

Now that I've seen how many people are interested in it, though, I might spend some time adding more features to it to make it a more viable option.

As you pointed out, there's not a great way to take this format and use it on someone else's machine.

First, I'd like to point out that all Vimdeck is doing is generating files into a directory and opening them with VIM. There are a few VIM plugins as dependencies. Like markdown syntax highlighting, and SyntaxRange, but it's entirely possible that I could allow the users to bundle their presentation as a zip file, put it on a flash drive and open it on any other computer (most have VIM already installed).

There's no Gvim necessary. Just a couple of plugins and the dynamically generated VIM script. Seems plausible to be able to bundle all that into a machine-agnostic format. VIM already runs everywhere.

And as far as the font size goes, you're right. There's no way around it. You're going to have to increase/decrease the font size immediately before the presentation to get it just right. But there's often a chance for speakers to test that their slides work in the current environment any ways.

I'm not saying text-only ASCII-art-ridden presentations are the best way to present information. But depending on the crowd and the speaker, it might be worth it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Looks cool. I've used something similar called vroom[1] once, and it worked quite well. But as soon as I realised I want to show a live webpage (or an image), I had to switch to a browser, and then it was easier to just switch to a markdown to html presentation tool instead (I picked remark[2] which I would recommend).

That said, I think it's important to focus on the core points of the presentation and not get distracted by graphics and layouts. It makes your presentations way better.

[1][http://search.cpan.org/~ingy/Vroom-0.23/lib/Vroom.pm](http://search.cpan.org/~ingy/Vroom-0.23/lib/Vroom.pm) [2][https://github.com/gnab/remark](https://github.com/gnab/remark)

</comment><comment><USER5> Even though I really love my vim, i think sometimes it's ok to just go with LibreOffice or PowerPoint. nice job though!

<comment><USER6> I agree. I am a vim fanboy, but I don't see myself using this. Presentation is about how best you can convey an idea, and I don't see this being flexible enough to help me do that.

<comment><USER7> The only upside I can see, is that if you are updating very often a presentation while collaborating with someone else, it is easy to keep it under git.

<comment><USER8> There are other tools that let you write slides in MarkDown, which is then compiled to HTML to be rendered in a browser: [https://github.com/search?q=markdown+slides&type=Repositorie...](https://github.com/search?q=markdown+slides&type=Repositories&ref=searchresults)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Related: I also made a vim-based presentation tool, called git-slides [1]. The main difference between Vimdeck and git-slides is that vimdeck generates slides out of a simpler format (Markdown), while git-slides displays one WYSIWYG slide for each commit in your git history.

[1] [https://github.com/gelisam/git-slides](https://github.com/gelisam/git- slides)

</comment><comment><USER10> Nice work on vimdeck. I like the idea. I ran into a problem while using this gem because it didn't automatically install the required dependencies while installing the vimdeck gem, so I submitted a pull request for the fix.

</comment><comment> ah- Looks great, you should totally make a short presentation showing it using [http://shelr.tv/](http://shelr.tv/) or one of these ttyrec to gif converters.

</comment><comment><USER11> I don't see myself firing up vim on a projector and doing an entire presentation that way, but this sounds like it could potentially be useful as a tool for explaining things to team members (it's not uncommon to huddle around a text editor anyway). Terminal meets whiteboard.

</comment><comment><USER12> Was doing a little presentation on hacker culture at my office and I used vim instead of ppt. That was part of the things I wanted to say.

I didn't use buffers however, I just used a custom page breaks and a search trick like "search and jump ten lines below".

</comment><comment><USER13> What's the equivalent for emacs?

<comment><USER14> AuCTeX+LaTeX+Beamer

<comment><USER15> Yes, and then use doc-present:

[https://github.com/dengste/doc-present](https://github.com/dengste/doc- present)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Related: [https://github.com/fxn/tkn](https://github.com/fxn/tkn) is a terminal-based presentation tool. Slides are written in Ruby, includes a few types of slides and even supports images if you're using iTerm2.

</comment><comment><USER17> Also checkout [https://wiki.gnome.org/Pinpoint](https://wiki.gnome.org/Pinpoint), I just discovered this from a project manager at work...

</comment><comment><USER18> Cool project. Was actually thinking about this as I'm currently working on my first ever presentation. Decided to go with reveal.js. Gonna keep an eye on this.

<comment><USER19> If you're looking at reveal.js, and you like ruby, check out reveal-ck: [https://github.com/jedcn/reveal-ck](https://github.com/jedcn/reveal-ck). Write your slides in slim, haml, or ruby itself. Example of how to do everything in reveal.js but in slim here: [https://github.com/jedcn/reveal-ck- template](https://github.com/jedcn/reveal-ck-template). General introduction in the README, more info here: [http://jedcn.com/posts/reveal- ck](http://jedcn.com/posts/reveal-ck).

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> Incorporating LaTeX for formatting would make this amazing - a WYSIWYM.

<comment><USER21> Just curious, why would you want something to write LaTeX for output constrained to fixed-width, low resolution output? (I've seen LaTeX used for presentations to great effect in the past, but always generated to PDF or something similar).

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> This + screen sharing over ssh. Watch out WebEx!</comment>


Ask HN: Is this patent valid even though there is prior art around the world? - <AUTHOR> This year, a patent was granted for a laundromat service using a mobile app (number US10168678B2 [0]). Prior to this patent's filing, there were similar apps in other parts that allowed users to do the same using a mobile app by scanning a QR code. Why was this patent granted in the US? Is it valid even though prior art exists?<p>One example of prior art is LaundroSmart's YouTube video dated Sep 30, 2013 [1].<p>[0] https://patents.google.com/patent/US10168678B2/en?oq=patent+No.+10%2c168%2c678<p>[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-L2J-H6fY0 <comment><USER2> You ask if the patent is valid; Concisely, if it has been granted, then yes, it is valid.

The question of whether it should have been granted in the first place is much more complex and, now granted, irrelevant unless/until it is challenged in some way.

It should be noted that even seemingly obvious prior art may not actually invalidate a patent, even with judicial review, because the aspects of a patent that make it "novel" can be subtle. For example, pharmaceutical companies frequently gain extra patent extra for a drug by patenting an "extended release" version. It would seem therefore that an "extended release" drug is now an obvious innovation, and not patent-able. However, the specific mechanisms by which a given chemical compound can be made to extent its release often vary significantly.

That said, patents that follow the pattern of "doing mundane task X, but with a computer" have often been held as obvious and therefore not eligible to receive a patent. This particular patent may follow that pattern. Though again, there may be subtle aspects of novelty here that aren't apparent from a cursory review.

<comment><USER3> If I understand correctly, they're claiming using a Bluetooth beacon workflow as their novelty, but they also mention the QR code scanning workflow as an alternative implementation. This last workflow is exactly the one shown in the linked video (dated 2013).

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> [https://patentpandas.org/resources/prior- art](https://patentpandas.org/resources/prior-art)

I believe they have to pay the expenses if they sue and you prove there is prior art.

</comment><comment><USER5> _In some implementations, the code may be a scannable code such as a one- dimensional barcode, two-dimensional (e.g., matrix) barcode, scannable alphanumeric code, and so forth. The code may be arranged according to any suitable format, such as a version of the Universal Product Code (UPC), the Quick Response (QR) code, and so forth. In such instances, the user may use their user device to capture an image of the code or otherwise scan the code, e.g., using a camera or other image capture component. The scannable code may be decoded to retrieve information that uniquely identifies the laundry machine._

Interesting. Many vending machines/services in Asia (through WeChat payments) and other on-demand rentals (such as Bird and Lime) use QR codes to initialize a pay-per-use transaction. The so-called implementation described in this patent is just a particular use case of this technology.</comment>


How picture-sharing works today - <AUTHOR> http://scripting.com/stories/2010/11/22/howPicturesharingWorksToda.html <comment><USER2> My android phone has picasa under share, and there probably is a flickr application to share photos (probably an Iphone one as well).</comment>


This Internet provider pledges to put your privacy first. Always. - <AUTHOR> http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57412225-281/this-internet-provider-pledges-to-put-your-privacy-first-always/

<comment><USER2> I like the idea, and I especially like the idea of a 501c3 (which subsidizes the added costs over commercial baseline) coupled with a commercial company (which charges normal rates for service.

You can go a reasonably long way with just best practice privacy policy (requiring court orders, keeping minimal records, locking down configs, obfuscating IPs, not intentionally compromising privacy), but there are a couple issues. One, a lot of big ISPs (from what I've read) are only profitable due to selling clickstreams or other privacy-invading things. So a privacy-protecting ISP will cost more for the same service (or, will offer crappier bandwidth).

Second, once you move beyond this level of security, you're trying to defeat traffic analysis, and then targeted attacks. Targeted attacks are probably out of scope (and really expensive to defend against), but defending against traffic analysis usually requires burning a lot of bandwidth, or scheduling or routing communications in strange ways (which adds latency in various ways). This makes things REALLY expensive, and especially for wireless systems, uses up the finite spectrum capacity.

Ultimately the best way to really protect privacy is to structure applications to be message based, tolerant of latency on the order of hours, and basically non-interactive. This is the opposite of how ~everything is done on the web -- email is probably the only widely deployed application which works like this, and that's why email has the best anti-traffic-analysis systems out there (mixmaster/mixminion remailers).

Plus, there's a big problem with declaring yourself " _the_ ISP for people who want to be anonymous" -- it self-selects, especially if it's a small pool of users due to higher cost, into a great target. Either the organization itself is evil and secretly monitoring, or just becomes a hacker/government target (which could involve monitoring on the perimeter/upstream). The best model is some combination of making privacy protection a default feature of protocols, having a bunch of different vendors (which may advertise better privacy) to choose from, and having technical systems which can provably protect your secrets against various kinds of threats.

It's a bunch of medium and hard problems. The biggest problem is that 99.99% of users totally don't care, though.

</comment><comment><USER3> I don't think too much about whether this endeavor would be successful. It's more important to me that _someone makes a stand_ and is able to convince other like-minded people to join him for a principle.

I'm just glad to see that he decided to be more courageous than most of us and believed that he should be doing the right thing instead of the easy thing by refusing to hand over his client's information.

<comment><USER4> Though the odds are stacked against him, I hope it at least sets a precedent for other companies to follow. I'd pay for an ISP that promised this with reasonable speeds - though I doubt his project will be able to gain traction outside of the launching market.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I would love to see this as a Kickstarter project. This is the kind of movement that I feel could really benefit from having a community behind it, and I for one would love to be a part of that community. Shoot, I'd even offer to donate my services to help see it become a reality.

<comment><USER6> The fellow in the article said on Reddit that Kickstarter won't allow his project, but he's started one on an alternative site.

[http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/s479x/this_inter...](http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/s479x/this_internet_provider_pledges_to_put_your/c4b00yj)

<http://www.indiegogo.com/calyx>

<comment><USER7> I would love to see this guy succeed, but can anyone enlighten me as to why Kickstarter won't allow his project to be funded?

His pseudo-kickstart page is unlikely to generate anywhere near the amount of funding it would on the KS site. I'm wondering why they wouldn't allow it to be funded there.

Is there something dubious about this project that the typical tech blog cheerleaders are ignoring, or is there some reason this kind of project is not allowed on Kickstarter in general?

<comment><USER8> > This project's goal is to raise funds for my nonprofit organization, Calyx > Institute, which will launch a privacy-focused Internet Service Provider and > mobile phone service using end-to-end encryption technology.

<http://www.indiegogo.com/calyx>

\--

> A project is not open-ended. Starting a business, for example, does not > qualify as a project. No charity or cause funding.

<http://www.kickstarter.com/help/guidelines>

<comment><USER9> I don't really see it that way. The startup cost for a new business is a one- time, finite "project" (in my mind) that would adhere to the concept of Kickstarter well.

The problem Kickstarter has with this project (and, similarly, when I tried to do the same thing) is that it's not an "artistic" endeavor. That is to say, they don't allow small business projects, unless you plan on producing a short story or documentary about the process as you do it. (Here's an entrepreneur who used this exact loophole: <http://kck.st/rtglLo>)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> The authorities will simply obtain details from credit card companies and other financial institutions to get lists of all of Calyx's customers. All of their customers will be treated with suspicion. Being a customer of Calyx may even become probable cause.

I don't like this, but this is what I think will happen.

<comment><USER11> _"The authorities will simply obtain details from credit card companies and other financial institutions to get lists of all of Calyx's customers."_

Not if they accept bitcoin, or some other anonymous currency.

<comment><USER10> Bitcoin is not anonymous. It's the opposite. Every transaction is public. And how do you propose to obtain the bitcoin in the first place?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Isn't a large problem with ISP's the last mile, fiber or cable, which is very expensive? This is purely wireless? I have a 15Mb cable connection for $50 month (after taxes). FIOS is $30 more. Will he partner with these physical carriers or purely go wireless?

<comment><USER13> Yes, it seems he plans to be entirely wireless. It was compared in the article to Clear's 4G WiMAX service augmented with ubiquitous encryption.

<comment><USER14> He could also piggyback over existing copper/fiber owned by the large telcos. It's allowed by law even.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competitive_local_exchange_carr...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competitive_local_exchange_carrier)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> You need licensed spectrum to run a facilities-based cell phone service. Any good ideas on how this guy is gonna acquire some?

<comment><USER16> He doesn't necessarily need to -- Calyx could operate as an MVNO of one of the major mobile networks.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> > "Merrill has formed an advisory board with members including Sascha Meinrath > from the New America Foundation; _former NSA technical director Brian Snow_ > ; and Jacob Appelbaum from the Tor Project."

I find that interesting. Indication of dissension in the ranks of the NSA over how far to take domestic surveillance?

<comment><USER18> _former_ NSA technical director. AFAIK he's been "former" for quite a few years now.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Is there any way we can contribute to or sign up for notifications on this?

<comment><USER20> The fundraising site allows one to contribute any amount, so you could contribute $1 and would then be "a contributor" and presumably would receive status updates.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Wow, only 6 days and this link is already broken.

</comment><comment> excuse-me So? They still have your credit card details to pay for the service, your cell phone location, the recipient of each email and the web pages you visited.

The actual contents of the emails is pretty much irrelevant- I'm pretty sure that international terrorists probably use code.

I'm also pretty sure that having one of these accounts and a series of logs showing your access to online gambling or movie sharing sites or banks in the Caymans is going to trip the same alarm bells.

<comment><USER21> I want Calyx to succeed. I really do.

But you said it: there's still too much identifying information left on the table.

There's another angle that threatens Calyx, too: they're just one rider on a "must-pass" bill away from being shut down and tied up in court. Or worse, made to _silently_ monitor your traffic after all their publicity about their privacy.

National Security Letters make it clear: the gag orders mean even if Nick Merrill wanted to tell you his company had been compromised, he wouldn't be able to.

There does seem to be a technical workaround, known as a "canary," where Nick Merrill posts a daily message far and wide signed from an air-gapped physically-secure private key that basically says, "Today is 11/Apr/2012. Under penalty of perjury, I have not been served with any legal threats."

Thus, the day the "canary" stops appearing, it becomes obvious what has happened; it seems that our current legal climate probably cannot compel him to _commit_ perjury, and his _inaction_ in posting his "canary" does not constitute a violation of any gag order; ironically, he conforms to it and by so doing alerts his customers to the problem.

Problems with this approach include:

• All the sites he has been using for the canary could get shut down simultaneously a la Megaupload

• Compromise of his private key

• Dwindling interest by his customers in checking multiple sits every day, even if the process can be mostly automated

<comment><USER22> _"Today is 11/Apr/2012. Under penalty of perjury, I have not been served with any legal threats."_

Under penalty of perjury is a meaningless phrase unless a court or other authorized body is requiring that statement of you. Look: under penalty of perjury, I am Chief Justice John Roberts of the United States Supreme Court.

Well, I'm not Chief Justice John Roberts. I lied about that. Am I in danger of going to jail for contempt of court? No, because nobody with judicial or administrative power required me to make a truthful declaration. Rather I made a statement I wanted you to believe and attached a common legal incantation to it - little different from a religious expression, such as 'God strike me dead if I lie.' In earlier times when people had little understanding of science, the sheer randomness of the world was attributed to mysterious divine provenance, and of course every so often these beliefs are validated in such dramatic fashion that the story is repeated (<http://members.tm.net/lapointe/Lawyers3.htm> for example, from 1988).

An awful lot of hackers I've met seem to think that law is strictly a matter of form, that if you say certain words in a certain order legal validity (and thus, truth-value of some sort) automatically attaches to them. This is not how law works, this is how magic works - and it's a good example of Arthur C. Clarke's comment that 'any sufficiently advanced form of technology is indistinguishable from magic.' Legal conventions are a form of social technology, and can not be taken at face value this way, any more than nontechnologists can foretell the future from blinkenlights.

<comment><USER23> It's the same notion that compels people to write "I don't own this song" under the youtube uploads of albums, as if mentioning copyright issues absolves you from them.

That being said, there are magic words that you can say that have very strong legal weight. For example, attaching a GPL licence to a piece of code you wrote has significant legal ramifications.

It's clear that "Under penalty of perjury" doesn't accomplish the intention of giving a canary message greater legal weight. I am, however, curious if there are some other "magic words" that could exist in a canary message which would help to signify its validity. For example, making it illegal for someone to fake the canary message.

<comment><USER22> I actually don't know if the government could require you to falsely affirm the nonexistence of a legal investigation as part of a gag order - in other words, if you simply stopped publishing your canary message, whether you could be required to do so. Perhaps the failure to comply with such a request would qualify as an obstruction of justice if therre were a colorable risk of it impeding a lawful investigation by tipping off the subject of the investigation; law enforcement officers with an appropriate warrant or authority could require an explanation of how the canary mechanism worked, in the same way that they could require you hand over keys to one's safe, say. There's no right to silence for non-defendants such as material witnesses.

<comment><USER21> First, thanks for adding good insights into what would (and would not) stand in court.

Would a 5th Amendment right (not witnessing against herself / self- incrimination) protect the owner of the ISP against a charge of obstruction of justice?

i.e. Owner of ISP refuses to post the canary after a gag order. She is not named as a defendant in the investigation. But she can defend herself against obstruction of justice charges: plead the 5th, and thus she is not compelled to falsely affirm the canary.

It's not clear this would work, either, but there might be some pretty solid precedents that could be used in this way.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Good idea but you cant trust anyone but yourself. The United States is a prison from now on.</comment>


CapLearn: Speech Recognition for Humans - <AUTHOR> http://www.caplearn.org <comment><AUTHOR> I had a lot of trouble understanding spoken Spanish when first arriving in Colombia. This tool provides deliberate practice for speech recognition. It's what I wish I had at the time.</comment>


Kernel Comment: Btrfs too fast? - <AUTHOR> http://www.h-online.com/open/features/Kernel-Comment-Btrfs-too-fast-1473538.html

<comment><USER2> The article may raise some generally interesting points, but the logic seems completely flawed.

Couple of facts/opinions as reported by the article:

\- no big distribution uses btrfs as a default, although some are going in that direction

\- normal users have no exposure to btrfs, because it's not the default

\- bugs are still found in btrfs

\- oracle should not release fsck tool, because it's not tested

This does not compute. It makes no sense whatsoever. Software in early versions has bugs. That's a universal fact. No standard user jumps to new software if there are existing alternatives. Of course it's not a default, but how do they imagine the testing is going to work if the only way to use the system is to compile it yourself from some obscure branch? Who is going to be happy to test the file system for which an early version of the repair tool exists, but is hidden in some obscure location? Where do the field testers and community come from if the access to the latest version is not as easy as possible?

I can't grasp what is he complaining about really... That the option to use the not throughout tested filesystem (even though he starts with saying that won't ever find all bugs) is exposed to users? That's the field testing, he's so keen to see happening. That's exactly what will make the file system more stable. If he doesn't want to use the experimental features, he should not use experimental features!

He also seems to have some bias in what a complete file system provides... "Btrfs isn't even fully developed yet, because the developers are still working to integrate RAID-5 support, more efficient compression algorithms and various other improvements". Well - once developers go into integrating compression as an out of the box option and start working on a built-in RAID support, I believe the file system is complete. These are very interesting, but completely optional features.

I couldn't disagree more with this article.</comment>


Why would Apple 'whack-a-mole-UI' its Refurbished store? - <AUTHOR> Until recently, looking for a refurbished 15" Macbook Pro in the Apple Refurbished Store was simple... you'd click '15" Macbook Pro' and see a list of all available units with the key specs right in the list, so you could simply scan the list for the RAM and drive size you need (as well as the release year and graphics chipset).
No longer.
Today, you see a pretty-but-useless gallery of 29 photos with cpu speed and price... but NOT the two specs you probably care about MOST in the non-upgradable world that is Apple today (eg, RAM and Drive capacity).
You have to click each and every one of those 29 thumbnails to see if it has, say, a 512GB drive and 16GB RAM.
Is there any useful business purpose served by turning a single-click, easy-to-shop list of specs into a 29-click whack-a-mole shopping experience? <comment><USER2> apple.com/feedback</comment>


Hacker: Technical innovator, or cyber terrorist? - <AUTHOR>

I'm putting it out there. In the past 5-10 years hacker started to get used to describe people repurposing hardware, or crafting their own inventions from basic parts. Or, commonly in software, where one can 'hack' together something relatively quickly, usually using existing parts: recombination. This term, used in this way, is creeping into mainstream media, which is pretty cool.
Outside of the IT circle, to 95% of the population, a "hacker" is someone who breaks into things, stealing credit card information and wreaking untold havoc on civic infrastructure. Journalists seem to be in an awkward space where they have a term to describe two vastly different things, either: a) a buzzword in the case of hardware tinkerers and b) a scareword in the case of software breaching. This is potentially leading people to think electronics enthusiasts are taking down the power grid, and that people who breach large corporate databases are now building homemade UAV's to do their work.
As an example (of which there are not few):
Car hackers use laptop to control standard car
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23443215
"Two security experts in the US have demonstrated taking control of two popular models of car, while someone else was driving them, using a laptop."
In actual fact, they're using the diagnostic port on the car, it's not like some unscrupulous hacker can suddenly take over any car just because it was driving past.
This weekend I'll take my mother for a drive, I imagined my mother quizzing me in the idle chatter as I drive: "Scary world. Have you seen that they can hack into and take control of your car now?"
sigh
So I finally decided to raise the question I have around this:
Do we worry about the risk of homebrew technical innovation being inextricably linked to cyber theft and terrorism?
What can we do to prevent/help/avoid it? <comment><USER2> > Do we worry about the risk of homebrew technical innovation being > inextricably linked to cyber theft and terrorism?

Absolutely. But it's definitely a double standard based on associations. It's the whole freedom fighter/terrorist coin argument. If you're against the status quo, you're a cyber terrorist who deserves no trial and bullet to the brain. If you're defending the status quo you're a security specialist and you're the beacon of light in a dark world.

So if you are a "hacker", this won't define what people think of you necessarily. It depends on what you do with that power.

Things you should not do, unless you do want to be labeled a cyber terrorist:

* Changing the parameters of a companies URL that might compromise security, then posting that information to the public.

* Downloading copyright protected material.

* Creating porn sites.

* Posting extremist/terrorist/anarchist ideas on the internet.

* Creating a shortcut or bypass that cuts into the profits of a monopolistic company.

If you avoid these things, and hide the fact that you understand computers at an intermediate level, you should be fine.

<comment><AUTHOR> My question was somewhat rhetorical, and more to provide the jumping off point for discussion. Perhaps I'll amend. Also, you've used the label "Cyber Terrorist" and the point is that "Hacker" is used interchangeably to describe both the "Cyber Terrorist" and the "Technical Innovator". I'm sure most of us here are capable of avoiding the Cyber Terrorist label, but Cyber Terrorists still exist.</comment></comment>


How to create UI framework agnostic Website/Application - <AUTHOR>

I started using UI framework when I was first introduced to skeleton to help with responsive behavior and stuff. Then I moved to Bootstrap as I felt it offered little more than skeleton. Now I  like Zurb's Foundation and its features. Though what stops me from easily (or relatively easily) switching across different framework is I add the framework specific styles to the code itself, like css class, btn, row, spanX etc. Now every time i like to change the framework I need to go to the code and modify every single instance. I build the applications mostly on Rails and Node.js. Is there any tool/ approach out there that spare me from having to modify the source code, one that will allow me keep the styling information mark up separate so that I only change those when I make a switch? Appreciate your inputs. <comment><USER2> Frameworks are designed to help you get going quickly. Typically you want to choose one that has good structure and not base it too much off the UI components. The end result should be that you are customizing it to really fit your brand so make sure you are choosing one that will be easy to do that with. The reason being is if you are using Bootstrap or Zurb theres a 90% chance if I visit it I will be able to tell which one it is. That is TERRIBLE! Users can tell when things are just rehashed junk and want a unique branded experience. So I guess to me the best solution is to stop choosing a new one each time but build off of one and slowly deprecate it to make the experience your own branded one. If you want to switch to a new framework test it out on your next project but keep the principles the same.

If you are start working heavily with Javascript this same type of thought will really hold true. You dont want to couple your users experience too much based on one specific framework.

</comment><comment><USER3> Maybe stop changing frameworks? At least in a given project...</comment>


Why Websites Don't matter - <AUTHOR> http://gillin.com/blog/2009/07/why-websites-don%E2%80%99t-matter/

<comment><USER2> Good thing they don't matter - this one doesn't seem to be working. :/</comment>


How to Get the Respect You Deserve at Work - <AUTHOR> http://artofmanliness.com/2011/01/03/how-to-get-the-respect-you-deserve-at-work/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheArtOfManliness+%28The+Art+of+Manliness%29&utm_content=Google+Reader <comment><USER2> reat others with respect. The golden rule, "Do unto others what you would like others to do unto you", always holds true. If you cannot respect other people, do not expect them to esteem you. You harvest whatever you planted and this is a universal law.</comment>


A blog in pure Org/Lisp - <AUTHOR> https://ambrevar.xyz/blog-architecture/ <comment><USER2> Org-mode and Magit are the killer apps in emacs, for me.

I also extensively use org-mode to publish static sites and, well, organize essentially everything in work and my private life.

Learning org-mode is quite a valuable activity, in my opinion and experience.

</comment><comment><USER3> Seems like quite the salvo of articles about org mode blogging lately.

<comment><USER4> Was thinking the same. Probably it doesn't make a particularly good image of Emacs/Lisp users.

I happen to tweak Emacs and write Clojure for a living, but thankfully I left the 'meta' trap behind years ago. My blog in on Medium.

<comment><USER5> Heh. Emacs/lisp users always make posts like: "look at this great [thing] to completely simplify [thing]" while simultaneously posting 82 steps to get it all working and automated :)

<comment><USER6> Isn't that what so much of what programming is about? Invest all the work once up-front so that the next iterations are trivial?

<comment><USER7> The trap is when you invest all the work up front.... and the next() call immediately returns StopIteration

Which seems to happen quite often when people customize their software, especially up-front, instead of over time. I suppose you could describe it as waterfall-style customization

<comment><USER8> This probably goes in waves for many people. When you just start, you're tempted to do all the clever little things you see online, and may end up being a bit lost.

Once you've learned a bit more, it becomes second nature to a) make the tweaks you need and b) filter out those you don't.

I, for one, enjoy the ability to adapt my editing/workflow as my needs evolve.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Uber, Lyft, Sidecar Put Driver Recruiting In High Gear - <AUTHOR> http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Uber-Lyft-Sidecar-put-driver-recruiting-in-high-5190676.php#photo-3413339

<comment><AUTHOR> Summary:

 _> "I was driving for Lyft in November when I picked up two attractive women," said the driver, who declined to give his name because he fears repercussions from the apps. "Like anybody, we started chatting, but they were sort of awkward. I knew something was up when they didn't tell me clearly where they wanted to go."

After a few minutes, the women dropped the pretense. They said they were from Uber and made a mouthwatering offer to switch to UberX: If he signed up for the service, Uber wouldn't skim its usual 15 percent off fares for the rest of the year. Plus, he could land a $500 bonus for picking up 20 passengers, and for simply checking out the company's headquarters he would receive a $50 gas card - and a free lunch._</comment>