IRC Logger with fluid web interface, search function, and live streaming (2019) - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/whitequark/irclogger <comment><USER2> I think it would be better to merge the days together into one long page essentially.. possibly 'jump' to specific days if needed. And a way to hide all the joins/parts/nickchanges

<comment><USER3> Joins and parts are hidden by default, there's a checkbox to show them. Nick changes are shown by default so you know if someone changes identity, which is sometimes important context.

Personally, I am glad the days are different pages, it makes it easy to tell if there's any new messages since last I looked at a glance because I don't have to look at date stamps. The only real downside is sometimes I've missed the occasional 23:55 time stamp message because I thought I saw everything in the previous day.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Sorry I just kinda found this funny since it's basically becomes an IRC client that you can't chat in.

<comment><USER5> Do not hesitate to support its developer.[0,1]

[0] [https://twitter.com/whitequark/status/1250519176055328775](https://twitter.com/whitequark/status/1250519176055328775)

[1] [https://www.patreon.com/whitequark](https://www.patreon.com/whitequark)

</comment></comment><comment> globular-toast An IRC log viewer was one of my first real projects back in early 2000s. It consisted of a Python script to parse the log files and load them into a mySQL database and a PHP frontend to view. I learnt more than I ever wanted to know about character encoding.

</comment><comment><USER6> This is great, I've wanted to write one myself for a while - but does anyone know if I can plug in my years of ZNC logs? Or does it require the specific log format its own logger produces (which basically means it can never be backwards-looking)

</comment><comment><USER7> As long as the logs are kept private.

Making them public without the permission of all the participants has both ethical and legal implications.

<comment><USER8> It would certainly be courteous to inform users that logging for display on a public website is happening. That said, when I'm in an IRC channel I expect everyone is logging actively and I have no control over where those logs will end up. I guess I view it as speaking in public.

It'd be cool if irclogger would skip logging channels with +s/+p. Obviously it's up to the service runner which channels are added to the config, but it would let individual channels decide to opt-out (or even opt-out for a certain amount of time by setting/unsetting it.)

<comment><USER9> > I guess I view it as speaking in public.

100% this. IRC chat has no right to privacy as far as I'm concerned. If anyone can join without an explicit invite that has an expectation of privacy, those rights don't exist.

<comment><USER10> I would see it more like a conversation in a public place / at a convention. Sure, anyone can join the conversation and listen in. I would still be unpleasantly surprised if someone posted a recording on a website.

<comment><USER11> Most IRC clients are logging the conversation by default, and everyone knows it. Even if they werent; you're speaking in public.

<comment><USER12> But there's a difference between recording and publishing. We know that everyone is recording, but publishing the logs isn't as common and can be surprising.

<comment><USER11> It's speaking in public. Common or surprising isn't legally relevent. And since it's the internet; it can't be. It's one reason why sovergn groups of humans are so fantastic.

<comment><USER13> Not legally relevant doesn't mean not relevant.

And freenode does have a clear policy on public logging, requiring you to disclose that you are logging beforehand or get permission before publishing. [0]

[0] [https://freenode.net/policies#public- logging](https://freenode.net/policies#public-logging)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I ended up on Amazon adding "A machine made this book" to my shopping list.

</comment><comment><USER15> I love IRC logs, I find them extremely helpful for diagnosing and working through technical issues that someone has faced before.

It's like a step-by-step guide to solving your problem.

Unfortunately, all of the IRC logs I used to browse went offline with GDPR. GDPR, California's privacy act, etc. are all well-meaning but IMO poorly implemented.

<comment><USER16> Most of the "GDPR violations" are not actually GDPR violations. People get stressed out and worried when actually there is no legal problem. I think for the case of the GDPR it would count as publically available information (or the analogous legal construct).

<comment><USER17> GDPR has a chilling effect[0] on the web. If a lawyer comes claiming a GDPR violation, how many independent web developers have the money and time to fight it in court?

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

<comment><USER18> Atleast in germany it has already been established that a legal person cannot sue other legal persons over the GDPR. This implies that legal persons can also not sue a natural person over it.

The main authority is the GDPR agency of the country, they will push the court cases, if they become necessary. So far, my communication with my local one has been very pleasant and they're generally happy to help me either understand or discuss if something is a violation and how I would go about fixing it. They don't want to sue you or slap a fine on you the first thing in the morning if it's possible to simply work with you.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> IRC loggers, the solution to a self-created problem</comment>


iMac Pro Appears to Include A10 Fusion Chip for Always-On 'Hey Siri' - <AUTHOR> https://www.macrumors.com/2017/11/19/imac-pro-a10-chip-hey-siri/ <comment><USER2> Please stop saying that Apple is secretly recording your conversations for nefarious purposes with Hey Siri. It's been around for 2 years and there has been nothing world-ending found about the feature.

A reminder about how Hey Siri privacy works: [https://techcrunch.com/2015/09/11/apple-addresses-privacy- qu...](https://techcrunch.com/2015/09/11/apple-addresses-privacy-questions- about-hey-siri-and-live-photo-features/)

> In no case is the device recording what the user says or sending that > information to Apple before the feature is triggered," says Apple.

> Instead, audio from the microphone is continuously compared against the > model, or pattern, of your personal way of saying 'Hey Siri' that you > recorded during setup of the feature. Hey Siri requires a match to both the > 'general' Hey Siri model (how your iPhone thinks the words sound) and the > 'personalized' model of how you say it. This is to prevent other people's > voices from triggering your phone's Hey Siri feature by accident.

> Until that match happens, no audio is ever sent off of your iPhone. All of > that listening and processing happens locally.

<comment><USER3> Well I'm not an idiot. Things like Siri do not exist to help me or improve my life like the marketing and Apple fans proclaim.

It exists to sell me shit and make people money.

Not nefarious, I accept capitalism. But at least let me turn it off.

<comment><USER4> You can turn it off by going to Settings -> Siri & Search -> Listen for "Hey Siri".

It's not silently enabled by default. You choose on or off when setting up the device.

<comment><USER3> Yeah I'm sure it will be just as easy as it was on win10 ;)

<comment><USER4> I'm not sure what you're getting at. Neither "Hey Siri" nor Siri itself is enabled by default. It takes 3 seconds to disable if you ever change your mind. To imply otherwise is either ignorant or disingenuous.

<comment><USER3> We'll see how deeply embedded it is in the OS. Disabling Cortana didn't shut down Cortana.

I'm also looking forward to packet inspection.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This is huge. While it starts with just powering things like boot security and Hey Siri, I guarantee you this is the first step toward Apple getting rid of Intel on the Mac.

How much longer before they release MB/MBPs with the same chip, doing the same thing? How much longer after that before we see SDKs released for writings apps that run on Mac, but are completely executed within the ARM processor? I think this is coming far sooner than many people think.

<comment><USER6> Here is what I think will occur : New Macbook Pro (not a refresh) will probably have this chip in but it will be probably only be used initially for iOS emulator for developers. The next release of macOS will probably have iOS apps that you can run on a mac. Then they will replace the Macbook Air line in to a Macbook Arm as a new product launch at the beginning of 2019.

<comment><USER7> > it will be probably only be used initially for iOS emulator for developers

This is quite a large technical undertaking, with a very small pay-off given the tiny percentage of users who develop on their Mac for iOS devices. I can't see this being something that happens until x86 CPUs have been removed entirely.

<comment><USER8> At the rate Apple is increasing its iPhone SKUs every year, it won't be long until all iOS app companies will need to purchase like 20 different-generation iPhones. I think they'll need the emulator eventually.

<comment><USER9> Not sure why is this being downvoted. Apple is currently selling 8 models across 4 lines (6s, 7, 8, X and SE), and the iPhone 6 line is still being sold by carriers. This is pretty much the first time when 8 primary models are available from Apple + at least 2 models are still being sold.

If the model trend continues to grow as it has been since the iPhone 6, there might be actually a need for device model emulation for development...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Will be interesting to see if native iOS apps will be able to run for development or regular use. This is a good sign for the convergence of the Mac and "i" products.

For fun here's the "transitions" talk Steve Jobs gave announcing the switch from PowerPC to Intel processors. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghdTqnYnFyg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghdTqnYnFyg)

<comment><USER10> Every iOS app already runs natively on Intel. Adding an ARM co-processor to the Mac doesn't change that situation.

<comment><USER11> It's possible to compile iOS apps for x86 if you have the source, but this x86 version is not included in what's shipped to the app store.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Having an embedded iOS computer take over most "firmware" features would definitely simplify things for Apple. The strings found that hint at the A10 being in charge make it sound like this could possibly even solve the Intel ME issues, if the iOS part absorbs roles traditionally given to the Intel chipset.

</comment><comment><USER13> Steven Sinofsky had an interesting tweetstorm throwing a bit of cold water on the notion that this was a sign that Macs were moving to ARM.

[https://twitter.com/stevesi/status/932116692620079104](https://twitter.com/stevesi/status/932116692620079104)

<comment><USER14> > 12/ Or do you allow cross-compilation? Then the access to underlying system > undermines "iOS" walled approach. Only "certified apps" isn't so interesting > to most people.

I don't get this point. How does ARM translate to "walled garden"? I see no reason to tie ARM and the walled garden-approach together, just because that's the way it is on mobile. Non-certified apps would work just fine on OSX if the developers build for ARM.

Assumption 1: Most interesting OSX apps are active ones, where the authors have the source code, and are thus able to cross-compile and publish ARM binaries.

Assumption 2: Due to volume (and using an indenpendent foundry) the A11 chip is at least 10x cheaper than an Intel CPU.

I'd _love_ to see a Macbook with 10xA11s, for a total of 20 high-performance cores, even if it can only run non-legacy apps ("legacy" meaning apps that depend on x86 code somehow).

Does anyone know how much space the four inefficient cores on the A11 take up? Perhaps the A11 volume is just so large that Apple can spit them out at a cost so low that it doesn't matter if four of the cores remain unused? I don't think they'd be of much use in a Macbook -- at least not the 40 of them that would be available in a 10xA11 setup.

<comment><USER15> > Does anyone know how much space the four inefficient cores on the A11 take > up?

Have a look at the die photo at [0]. Not much.

[0]: [http://techinsights.com/about- techinsights/overview/blog/app...](http://techinsights.com/about- techinsights/overview/blog/apple-iphone-8-teardown/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I wonder if macOS will be able to run userspace code on this. Apple's ARM chips are pretty fast, so this could be extra 50% of computing power for the iMac.

From software side they've already done similar things in the past (fat binaries, Rosetta).

<comment><USER17> This new iMac pro, in its 'low end' configuration, has 8 cores ([https://www.apple.com/lae/imac-pro/specs/](https://www.apple.com/lae/imac- pro/specs/)), possibly of the new "Purley" kind ([http://bgr.com/2017/07/12/imac-pro-2017-specs-intel-xeon- pur...](http://bgr.com/2017/07/12/imac-pro-2017-specs-intel-xeon-purley- chip/))

A single A10 will not add 50% of computing power, even ignoring its GPU.

<comment><USER14> True, but the A10 is much cheaper than any Intel CPU, so Apple could develop a multi-socket ARM motherboard to increase the number of ARM cores, to make performance compatible with Intel's (perhaps at lower cost, since Apple can get cheap A11s using the high volume of iPhone 8/X).

Also, according to Geekbench, the single-thread performance of the 2.4 GHz A11 is 70%[1] of the 3.7 GHz i7-8700K. I'm guessing Apple could bring the A11 even closer to the i7 by increasing the clock frequency, which may not make sense for mobile devices (because of disproportionally higher power consumption).

So, again according to the Geekbench figures, four A11s (at mobile clock frequency) is 50% faster than a 6-core i7-8700K[1].

[1] [https://browser.geekbench.com/ios_devices/52](https://browser.geekbench.com/ios_devices/52) [https://browser.geekbench.com/processors/2062](https://browser.geekbench.com/processors/2062)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I'm worried this is going to be some kind of TouchBar-and-Siri type useless gimmick instead of something that genuinely makes this a good useful machine.

</comment><comment><USER19> The last thing I want is to talk to my turned off computer... Comedy sketches of the past are becoming reality, and will be propelled by "Apple can't do no wrong" crowd.

</comment><comment><USER20> I wonder if it'll shut off if, like me, you turn off Siri.

I'm glad they're trying this first in Macs that're expected to always be plugged in, rather than laptops.

</comment><comment><USER21> Could handle Face ID, etc. Possibly offload video encoding/transcoding? The A10 can handle 4K HEVC. Not sure what the point would be with dedicated graphics doing the same.

<comment><USER22> Article mentions secure enclave so FaceID is very likely. It doesn't make much ergonomic sense to put fingerprint reader like you do on macbook.

<comment><USER23> External keyboard with touchbar and touchid might be interesting (but hard to make wireless, unless with some cool new wireless charging mechanism).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Makes perfect sense for them to do this for Siri and Security. Otherwise they'd end up with two separate implementations.

</comment><comment><USER25> Crazy how HN flips out over the Intel ME then turns around and applauds this.

<comment><USER26> Strange, I didn't see in the article any suggestions that this chip had full access to all data flowing throughout the computer. Almost as though it's not at all similar in any way to the Intel ME discussions.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Apple did it before and they will succeed again. Fat binaries.

</comment><comment><USER28> Always-on Siri is a very creepy feature, and who even needs it in a "Pro" workstation?

</comment><comment><USER29> >the chip will enable support for "Hey Siri" functionality, potentially even when the iMac Pro is turned off.

Intel ME wasn't bad enough... so Apple builds a second backdoor you can't remove, with the explicit purpose of bugging your room?

No thanks.

<comment><USER30> This is such a ridiculous statement...literally anything could be a backdoor why would it be one of the most expensive components ?

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> Mac development has lost some momentum, so maybe unique hardware help push things forward. On the other hand, the ever-controversial touchbar was unique hardware.</comment>


Reverse Engineered Nintendo Switch App REST API - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/ZekeSnider/NintendoSwitchRESTAPI <comment><USER2> I wonder if anyone has reversed the Mario maker 2 API

<comment><USER3> This would be an interesting project, especially to archive levels, who knows what will be left in a few years of the current levels.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Is this your work? I'm wondering, if the app did use cert pinning, how would you mitm it on your own device?

<comment><USER5> > I reverse-engineered using mitmproxy. It was quite easy as the app does not > use cert-pinning at all.

If the app used cert-pinning you'd probably do the RE work on android, where you can more easily install a modified APK with cert pinning disabled.

<comment><USER6> I've tried various times to get around a cert pinning thing for work, curious as to what you'd recommend as the best method to go about doing this on android. RE the APK or some kind of rooted phone based debugery?

<comment> xkcd-sucks For me, the fastest way involves using apktool to decompile it, then simply reading the API code. Or insert a log statement, recompile, run on phone w adb log - requires minimal Android code fluency

<comment><USER4> Does this usually work? I just unzipped an apk once and saw it was all javascript but I assumed other apps would be minified.

<comment> xkcd-sucks Java/Android is basically gibberish to me as is - Maybe it is obfuscated sometimes. But strings themselves (API endpoints) have to be present some way or another.

There is also something called "smali" which is an intermediate representation - You can edit it following something like [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/31101740/method-to- add-a...](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/31101740/method-to-add-a-trace- in-smali).

Finally, there are occasionally native ARM libs included in the jar - You can get these with tool "retdec" or just run strings on it to find interesting stuff

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> how many tokens are there?

</comment><comment><USER8> > _Visit authorization link in browser. This page is an HTML page which loads > the auth flow which you would normally see first when logging into the app. > Follow through the flow by logging in with an account. I currently have no > idea how this URL is generated. I recommend signing out of the Switch app, > then sign back in and open the sign flow link in Safari. You can then open > it on your computer and follow from there._

I was surprised when I read this paragraph because the owner of the repository is a Full Stack Web Developer at Square. One would expect a web developer at such an important company to know what OAuth is [1]… but then I saw the last time the README file was updated was over 3 years ago on Jul 30, 2017. He joined Square on October 2018 hopefully knowing what OAuth is but forgot to update the repository.

[1] [https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6749](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6749)

<comment><USER9> OAuth is not even a real standard at this point, at best it's a concept. Practically every company is using a different implementation; so even if we assume that Nintendo is using "OAuth," it's not safe to assume anything about their implementation of it.</comment></comment>


Narcissistic Number - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissistic_number

<comment><USER2> I thought, maybe this Narcisstic number thing is explained on the YouTube channel of Numberphile, and well it is [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aMtJ-V26Z4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aMtJ-V26Z4)

For me, this is way more clear and better to watch, then reading the Wikipedia page

<comment><USER3> The examples seemed clear enough; I understood what they were in about 30 seconds, vs. a nearly 3 minute video.</comment></comment>


The Web 2.0 Disaster - Blog/Twitter/Maps about the San Diego Fires - <AUTHOR> http://paul.kedrosky.com/archives/2007/10/23/the_web_20_disa.html

<comment><USER2> <http://disastr.org>

I know I've discussed this here before, but this is _exactly_ the kind of scenario that the system would handle - 300,000 displaced people in an area with massive network connectivity, trying to figure out where to go.

These Web 2.0 sites are showing the outline of what is possible, but they don't have the granularity (i.e. individual people looking for help) that could be managed with a dedicated system.

The shelter, by the way, just came up on Wired. So, c'mon, somebody bite - tell me why your mapping tech and my shelter design couldn't work for the next fire season.

[http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/multimedia/2007/10/ga...](http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/multimedia/2007/10/gallery_instant_housing?slide=8&slideView=6)

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> I found it very interesting that the newspaper decided to use blogging software instead of their own website to publish updates. The blog model is very good for this kind of always changing, always updating, live news coverage - much better than the traditional "front page" newspaper front page model.

</comment><comment><USER3> Well, I live in San Diego and I didn't use any of this stuff. My first thought when this became a big problem was not to look for mashups.

I didn't even know the Union-Tribune was blogging, I didn't see a link anywhere on the home page because I just came there looking for updates to their map.

The map itself is pretty interesting because it makes heavy use of GIS data, which is orthogonal to Web 2.0 cutesyness.</comment>


U.S. loses AAA credit rating from S&P  - <AUTHOR> http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/06/us-usa-debt-downgrade-idUSTRE7746VF20110806

<comment><USER2> This will certainly have a small impact but it isn't THAT big a deal. Some things to consider.

1\. S&P Has 27 different ratings between AAA and D (there are + and - intermediaries so you have AA+, AA, AA- and so on). So put in human terms if the U.S. were a person this would mean a 21 point drop in their FICO score from 850 to 829 (Both of which are fantastic scores)

2\. Regardless of what the ratings agencies say interest rates are always negotiable. If you really think individual banks are going to bully the U.S. Government into paying dramatically higher interest rates you're crazy.

3\. The world still needs the U.S. economy so no one wants to see it tank. Everyone is acutely aware of what a rise in interest rates on the U.S. consumer would do and no one wants that.

4\. Everyone knows S&P's demands to keep the credit rating high were unrealistic. Cut $4 trillion from the Debt in the next decade? At our current rates the U.S. will have a debt of $23 trillion by 2015. So effectively S&P was asking for a more than 50% cut in Government Debt (The added $9 trillion + $4 trillion in cuts). There's no way that could happen (as much as I personally would like to see it)

So basically this is S&P expressing its displeasure with U.S. policy. Definitely something to note but not something to put too much worry into

</comment><comment><USER3> More discussion here: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2852380></comment>


New front gearbox design for bicycle - <AUTHOR> http://www.efneo.com/advantages/ More info: http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/crank-based-gearbox-in-development-35979/<p>http://www.efneo.com/how-efneo-gearbox-works/ <comment><USER2> As a former bicycle mechanic and salesman, and someone who is still very tuned into the industry, I'd give this a zero percent chance of actually being successful.

There are three big issues with this design. First of all, you're going to be looking at a seriously increased Q factor trying to fit three different speeds into that gearbox (as opposed to Truvativ's two). The Q factor is the amount of distance between your feet. If you lie down on your back and make a pedaling motion, the natural positioning of your feet is one banana apart. Bikes, to have sufficient stiffness in the bottom bracket region, space your feet two banana's apart or more. Graeme Obree (<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graeme_Obree>) figured that out, and when he designed Old Faithful he added a very narrow Q factor, which was a big piece of his success. A huge benefit of carbon fiber is its ability to add stiffness in the BB area by overbuilding without increasing Q factor (or weight all that much), hence the BB30 standard. Truvativ's two-speed front crank is already very widely spaced, and trying to fit more in is going to cause problems. Remember, to balance out the pedal stroke, you have to compensate on the left pedal (I see this is designed to work with existing tech, but it'll feel strange unless you get a longer left pedal spindle), so every increase in distance on the right side is doubled.

Secondly, no part on the bike gets worn out quite like bottom brackets (not including "wear" parts like chains, cassettes/freewheels, tires, etc.). Powerful riders (and not necessarily racers, I know plenty of everyday commuters who fit this bill) tear BB's to shreds. I am a racer, but I'm also a lightly built climber, and I tear through them pretty regularly. Putting a gear box in the BB shell is going to subject it to a hell of a lot of torque, and it'll be difficult for it to stay dialed in and functional with the power output of many riders. The extra mass could also make it uncomfortable to stand up and power out of the saddle. Trek, Pinarello, and a few other companies already reinforce the non-drive side of some of their bikes to even out the extra weight from the chainrings and front derailleur. All the extra mass from a gear box will expound this.

And lastly, internally geared systems are a bitch to maintain, and it's one of the reasons why you will be hard pressed to find a shop which will overhaul your vintage three-speed hub. The newer internally geared systems (like Shimano Alfine and Nexus) are a lot easier to work on, but Shimano spent decades perfecting that stuff. This system is not going to be easy to work on to start, and good shop owners don't sell products their mechanics can't fix easily. It's just not a good proposition.

All in all, a cool idea, but to me far too many issues for it to ever be accepted. As that bikeradar article puts it, no need to reinvent the wheel. Internal hubs and derailleurs (the latter especially) get the job done quite well.

<comment><USER3> Came here to say this. Internally-geared rear hubs are great for certain mountain bikes, where derailleurs just won't work because there is too much mud. But for everyone else, a well-adjusted derailleur system will be fine. (Yes, you have to pedal forward to change gears. If you're stopped at a light, press the front brake and move the pedals forward. Or remember to downshift as you're braking.)

I've thrown a chain twice in recent memory: once when I was climbing on a chain where I disregarded the rule against breaking the chain without replacing the pin with a master pin (that you break off after driving in), and once when I was trying a new kind of lube on the chain (that worked more like glue than lube). A well-maintained derailleur system is very light and very efficient, and with a bit of practice, easy to use.

<comment><USER4> Mud always comes up in these discussions but isn't a real problem. You can get mud, water, sand, branches, snow, grass, gravel or entire bushes into your gears and hardly notice it. Sometimes it feels like the whole forest just wants to go into your gears but in some magical way it _always_ falls out again. The more i think about it the more amazing i think it is, the amount of punishment the powertrain takes is quite remarkable and even though the components are so small and precise they don't take much damage.

The only real problem with derailleurs in the forest is when they get hit by a rock, a think branch or the ground. Anything else that doesn't actually bend the derailleur is a non issue. In very very rare occasions something might jam the chain but no changes in the gear are going to fix that. And of course the mud will slowly wear and tear things down by grinding but that's not an issue of the actual gear but more of the cogs and chain.

<comment><USER3> Ah yes, the derailleur thing sounds like the real issue that internal gearing aims to fix.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Another article about that system: [http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/crank-based-gearbox- in...](http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/crank-based-gearbox-in- development-35979/)

</comment><comment><USER5> What's the target market for this product? (Another way to ask this question would be, which subforum at bikeforums would be interested in this?[1]) I fit into the commuting, road biking, touring, and classic bikes sections, and want no part of this product.

As a 30 mile a day bike commuter, I want relatively few failure points as possible in my machine since I don't want my shifters to go bonkers on me as I'm going home at 9pm in sub 40 degrees weather (I'm going to be replacing my STI shifters with barend shifters soon). If I were a city commuter, I'd probably going for a simple fixed gear or similar set up, and certainly don't want a bike that would be a magnet for thieves. As either type of commuter, this component is out of my price range.

As a road race style cyclist, my front derailer is of high enough quality that I have literally _zero_ problems shifting from small ring to big ring or vice versa. I never have a situation where I need to shift the front gear while stationary, since any adjustment I need will be small enough to be covered by moving up or down in the cassette. Thus the "shift front gear while stationary" benefit is a moot point for me. As for weight, the Shimano Dura Ace components that you'd go up against don't add up to 1kg when looking at crankset + BB cup + front derailer [2], so I don't really see a weight advantage either.

If I'm on a tour, there is _no_ way I want a complex gear system that can break down and leave me stranded. I'm going to go for a barend or downtube shifter setup.

As a classic bike aficionado, I have negative interest in this product.

That being said, jrockway has a good point that this may come in handy for mountain biking because of the mud issue, or cyclocross for similar reasons. Maybe these segments could make sense for this product?

[1] <http://www.bikeforums.net/forum.php> [2] <http://www.totalcycling.com/component-weights.html>

<comment><USER6> Dura ace is a competitor to this? When it's all said and done, it's going to be too expensive for most commuters and maybe that makes it like "durachi" but if it has any market it will be for the suburban super commuter buyers.

Put a belt pully on it and if its reliable maybe you'll see it on some of the $1500+ super commuter bikes. The nexus, roloff and alfine are all remarkably reliable, just pricy.. The appeal isn't weight, it's durable purpose built commuter stuff. Maybe some downhill honks will like it but I've seen a whole lot of those guys just riding single speeds any more

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Would people from outside the bike industry please stop trying to reinvent the wheel?

There's a much better internal gearbox already available. The three-speed planetary gearhub has been in production since 1936 and continues to work brilliantly, essentially unchanged since. It's cheap, light, phenomenally reliable and highly efficient. They're ubiquitous on European utility bicycles, because they will run for years without any sort of maintenance or adjustment. You can have one in a variety of ratios, with a coaster brake, roller brake or disc mounts, or even with a standard cassette spline, allowing you to use any derailleur system in addition to the internal gearhub. At the expense of some efficiency and durability you can have eight speeds built into your rear hub; At the expense of about €1000 you can have a 14-speed Rohloff, as favoured by most round-the-world cyclists.

People from non-cycling cultures seem convinced that the key impediment to widespread cycling is technical and tend to jump on any supposed "innovation". The truth is that cycling development is primarily a social issue and requires no new bicycle technologies or special infrastructure. It is for this reason that the promotion of cycling is both much easier and much harder than most believe.

</comment><comment><USER8> This is a gimmick. It's gimmick engineering, really.

I'm a commuter by bike. I want something that can still work after driving it through winter without constant maintenance. But the only thing coming out of that industry is gimmicks. It's a market designed around either enthusiasts that spend every second refining their subtle creations, never getting to ride them, or parents who need a cheap bike for their kids to demolish and consume.

<comment><USER9> > _This is a gimmick. It's gimmick engineering, really._

Is it a gimmick (I dunno)? Their apparent goal, a more robust and less finicky alternative to front-derailleurs, seems pretty much in tune with what you want...

> _It's a market designed around either enthusiasts...or parents..._

Look outside the U.S. for very different approaches, e.g. Japan, where bikes are ridden by _everybody_ (bike mode-share is an order of magnitude greater than even bike-friendly cities in the U.S., and far more evenly distributed amongst sub-populations), and generally not fetishized (there's an enthusiast market, but it's very small by comparison).

I agree that the U.S. market historically resembles your description, but that's started to change in recent years as the overwhelming obsession with automobiles has cooled, and we start to enter the "post auto age" (very slowly in the U.S. of course!). American biking culture is still very influenced by older patterns, but this is changing too.

<comment><USER10> A significant aspect of the Japanese market is the prevalence of $1,200 electric bicycles, which now appears to be at around 30% of bikes seen around in Tokyo. Automatic gear shifters on standard bikes are fairly common too. Also pertinent is the fact that Japanese tend not to repair their own bicycles - not even a puncture. Rear brakes are typically not user serviceable anyway. So I suggest they should try to ride the EB wave in Asia to market this system at first.

<comment><USER9> > _A significant aspect of the Japanese market is the prevalence of $1,200 > electric bicycles, which now appears to be at around 30% of bikes seen > around in Tokyo_

Electric bikes are a somewhat popular niche lately, but there's absolutely no chance they account for anywhere even _near_ 30% of the bikes in use in Tokyo. The number of bikes, and biking population, in/around Tokyo is _immense_ , and the vast majority of them are not electric (nor new, nor particularly fancy). Even amongst the recently popular small-wheel-two-kid-seat bikes, most don't seem to be electric.

But you're absolutely right that the Japanese bike market would be a good one to target; it's very big, more upscale than many other countries, and oriented around practicality.

<comment><USER10> Perhaps my observation is skewed by the fact that I see so many mothers dropping kids at the houikuen (nursery) are using them. Also at my suburban station bike park, I estimate 30% are eb. If you count bikes in use, as I do, rather than those static outside a mansion, you get into the 30% ballpark in my neighbourhood. I am not sure whether this new gear tech suits EB, but it seems it might be good for them to ride the eb trend , which is large and growing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Could see it used if you ran it to a fixed hub in the back. You could have multiple rations while keeping cleaner lines and all. But you would still have shift hardware....

Definitely an enthusiast product looking for a problem.

</comment><comment><USER12> This reminded me of the Rohloff Speedhub (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rohloff_Speedhub>).</comment>


Latest photos of Sandy coming from New-Yorkers - <AUTHOR> http://teleportd.com/capsule/7ac2a487407161c49fd77b832d765b4df7552d3c

<comment><USER2> Wooah! No wonder EC2 & Amazon are preparing for the worth!

</comment><comment><USER3> Was wondering when this one would show up!</comment>


Ask HN: What are the tricks to remember stuff you don't always use? - <AUTHOR>

For instance, I don't always use some vim commands, but when I do, it is because I remember them. So it all comes down to this vicious cycle: in order to use something more often, you need to remember it, but in order to remember it, you need to use it more often. How do you break it? Do you have any special tricks? <comment><USER2> I've been using Evernote to handle a lot of that. Between the web version of Evernote, apps for Android, iPhone, and iPad. It is always available. Not just for coding or IT either. I started using it for recipes as it is so ubiquitous.

<comment><USER3> I second Evernote. While I don't use it for this particular problem, I use it for TONS of other things. I can't even tell you how many apps this single app has replaced for me.

<comment><USER4> I third Evernote. I keep a single note for each largish task or smallish project and add points for each new thing I solve. It's great to come back to 6 months down the track...I remember doing this before, but how did I fix it then?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> Not sure what OS you're on, but I use Mac OS X's Sticky Notes to remember commands that I don't use often. I use a single note for each tool and I write down the commands along with a brief description. So all I have to do is bring up my notes, find the tool I'm using and browse for the command.

I'm sure there are more elegant or geeky solutions out there, but this works for me.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm on Linux and macosx interchangeably. The problem with sticky notes (and I tried them both on paper and computer desktop) is that you have to remember to look at them. I just don't. I was thinking maybe an app that displays growl notification every ten minutes with the next note could be a deal breaker. Of course, it would have to do this when I'm not busy writing code, so as not to distract, but rather when I'm chatting or reading emails. Do you know any such app?

<comment><USER3> Hmm... GeekTool for OS X might be able to work for something like that. Or you could always go the super lo-fi route and create a folder of images and set them to rotate as your desktop background.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Cheat sheets. There are some free cheat sheet makers on the web.</comment>


A scientific accident that could change the world - <AUTHOR> http://io9.com/5987086/meet-the-scientific-accident-that-could-change-the-world <comment><USER2> Conspicuously missing is any mention of energy density. Who cares about power density. That's juste how fast it can discharge. We don't need capacitors that can discharge faster. All capacitors are already much better than batteries with respect to power. We need capacitors that can store more energy. Capacitors typically suck at that and this article doesn't give any indication that these new ones are better.

<comment><USER3> In the comments they mention about 1/4 the energy density of a lithium ion battery, so yes they don't compete on that measure. But full charging can happen in a minute or two, and you could top up a charge in seconds. Perhaps public areas would have inductive chargers on the wall; you'd just walk over and hold your phone or tablet up to it for a few seconds. Airline tray tables could have an inductive charger built in.

Higher energy densities aren't without issues, as Boeing found out with their 787. A battery like that is basically an explosive and it can be tricky to manage.

<comment><USER4> Your inductive charging tray tables are terrible for my magnetic tapes and floppy disks. Also, where does it get its energy from? It's much more efficient to walk around with wearable solar panels or to embed them directly into the devices. It may not work well on the north pole half the time but batteries aren't very conductive in those environments, anyway.

<comment><USER5> When was the last time you walked around with a magnetic tape or floppy disc?

Now - what happens if you put your wallet full of credit cards on it?

<comment><USER6> To be honest, magnetic strips on credit cards are redundant in a fair proportion of the world as well, especially Europe, although with a notable exception of the US which seems to be seriously lagging behind in this area. I live in the UK and it has easily been over 6 years since I have been anywhere where the magnetic strip has been read rather than using chip & pin (EMV).

<comment><USER7> I visited the UK late last year and can confirm that your card readers can still read the magnetic stripes on our outdated American credit cards if they absolutely have to.

<comment><USER8> Unfortunately both types die with exposure to magnetic fields - I accidentally too mine into an MRI scanner. This may not Oruro at a lower field strength with the chip type however.

<comment><USER4> SYNTAX ERROR UNEXPECTED TO... Oh, :s/Oruro/occur/

<comment><USER8> Wow. That was a bad one, sorry, and I can't edit it. It was supposed to say: Unfortunately both types die with exposure to magnetic fields - I accidentally took mine into an MRI scanner. This may not occur at a lower field strength with the chip-type card however.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I really don't want to come across as nit picky but is this one time when changing a linkbait headline to something more descriptive would help - on the iPhone this page did not render thE actual text for a full half hour (subjective) and I spent all that time with my brain whirring but not in gear - it was a little frustrating

A headline like "DVD Graphene sheets store charge super fast in lab" would have helped me shift the various articles into my own working memory whilst the page loaded.

Downvote with comments please

(And I seem to get the general idea that Graphene will be big, but this is unlikely to be the killer app)

<comment><USER10> I agree with you, the title could have been a little more descriptive. I have seen the same video posted here and on Reddit multiple times in the past few months. Although I don't mind it being posted again, since there is always a group of people who haven't seen it, a descriptive title could have prevented me from getting overly interested about this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Am I the only one to think "hey, I could try this at home?" 1) prepare carbon slurry 2) pour on dvd 3) etch with LightScribe DVD drive... 4) Peel of graphene layer ...?

I wonder what, exactly, goes into the carbon slurry and if it's necessary to etch a particular pattern with the LightScribe.

<comment><USER12> I wondered about the etching process too. It might not be at all like a normal R/W pattern for a DVD. They could conceivably be scanning radially, or using a very slow revolution, or (is this possible?) re-tuning the beam's frequency. Not insurmountable, but might require low-level re-writing of the driver, depending.

<comment><USER13> >(is this possible?) re-tuning the beam's frequency.

No. DVD burners simply use a 630nm or 650nm red laser diode. It can not be re- tuned more than a few nm, by regulating the temperature of the diode.

You _could_ replace the diode, but that is more effort than it's worth, and there's not much else to replace it with. If you wanted more power you might use a different diode, but the diodes are almost always buried really far in there and you would have to replace the electronics as well.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I don't know much about the technology of this, but I used to play with capacitors during my teenage years and if this works even half as advertised it would be truly life altering. We could have "hybrid" solutions of a capacitor combined with a battery with the capacitor acting as a buffer to improve battery life.

<comment><USER15> Hybrid solutions are hypothetically very nice, but as I understand it in reality the large battery banks associated with a gas-tank-like range, and the relatively minor amount of power the motors can actually put out, means that short-term power density isn't actually much of a problem.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Using Graphene to build supercapacitors is not a new idea as this video suggests. Here is an article from 2.5 years ago in PhysicsWorld describing another team doing almost the same thing:

[http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2010/nov/26/graphen...](http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2010/nov/26/graphene- supercapacitor-breaks-storage-record)

</comment><comment><USER17> I'm not a scientist. I can't not say anything how this could be a revolution but if you want learn the basics about Graphene. Start with this video on youtube: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX8ClPVkD1g> and then to this <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXmVnHgwOZs> or just search it on youtube. This helps me a lot to understand. Have fun.

<comment><USER18> Nice videos. Thank you sir.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> Well, the graphene seems easy enough to manufacture. What are the obstacles to start using this technology right now? What is still missing?

<comment><USER20> In my inexpert knowledge I can see a few problems, while they have probably seen potential, they have yet to prove it can scale. Then there is getting manufacturers of devices to buy in to super capacitors and even worse getting battery life obsessed consumers to accept 1/4 the life as current Li Ion batteries is better because it has nearly instantaneous recharge times.

<comment><USER21> In my experience, the reason people are obssessed with battery life is that when it runs out (which it does), then you are pretty much screwed until you can plug it in for the night.

I think that vendors could easily sell devices with a smaller capacity if they can charge in seconds. This seems like a benefit that is very clear, easy to explain, and understandable to a typical consumer, and it provides a near perfect solution to one of the major inconveniences of current phones. And, that inconvenience happens to be what people currently look to long battery life to mitigate.

<comment><USER22> I think the vendors could already charge the batteries faster. A Tesla supercharger charges 40/85kWh in LiIon battery capacity in 30 minutes (from empty, it gets harder to push charge in as they get full). They use off the shelf batteries.

But the dirty little secret is of course that it's not necessary. You need one day of battery life, then people get home and charge it by their nightstand. Similar with the Tesla, it has enough range to get through five times the average American commute, and the majority of people just charge at home when they sleep.

Bandaging peoples irrational fears might simply not be a very viable business model.

<comment> mark-r > Bandaging peoples irrational fears might simply not be a very viable > business model.

Are you kidding? It's one of the best business models ever.

In this case I think you have it backwards. Instant charging isn't bandaging a fear, because you rightly make the point that the fear of running out of power is already covered by ensuring the device has sufficient capacity for the worst case. Indeed it will create a new fear: forgetting or not being in a position to top off the charge when necessary.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> I'd love to see this technology being incorporated into Tesla's batteries. With super-fast and long lasting charges their cars might become viable in countries where charging stations are either incredibly rare or nonexistent.

<comment><USER24> I searched a little, but the information is confusing. The superchargers (apparently) use 90kW/480V=~190A. I want to highlight this: 190A!!!

A usual home connection can handle only up to ~10A, so 190A is a lot of current. To handle this you must use very thick wires. To charge faster you need move voltage or handle more current, probably you will need even thicker wires and to be careful with the safety measures.

Additionally, this experiment use only in a tiny lab sample. To increase the size and make a big model for a car, a lot of technical details will appear, for example how to handle all the heat that the battery produces during the charge / discharge cycles.

<comment><USER25> A typical new house in the US is wired for a 200A 240V circuit, or about 48kW.

By contrast the energy flux of a garden-variety gas pump is in the tens of megawatts.

<comment><USER8> Is that at the fuse box or the power point on the wall? Sorry if this is a silly question, it's just that here in NZ it's nowhere near that at the wall as the fuses are 10 amp ish.

<comment><USER24> The 200A are at the fuse box (in new houses, old houses may have less).

The wall sockets usually have 110V-15/20A connections. But there are some especial sockets with 240V-30/50A for special applications, like clothes dryers and electric ovens.

<comment><USER8> In our old house some genius used paper clips instead of fused wire in the (very old) fuse box. Not sure how I didn't die when I draped and extension lead in a puddle and got a shock. After I recovered I looked in the fuse box to see why the fuse didn't blow and found one fat paper clip over the gap. I'm not sure what current the box took, but I'm sure glad it wasn't 200Amps.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> I wrote this last time too: Having a better conducting, higher surface area electrode is a huge step. BUT it doesn't really change the fact that a carbon based supercapacitor requires an electrolyte to form the double layer, and all existing electrolytes have a breakdown voltage below 5V. What we need is a better electrolyte. In calculating energy storage in a capacitor, the energy increases exponentially with voltage, while linearly with capacitance.

</comment><comment> dj-doppelganger Hi - 1st post on Haker news. Please be nice :)

Aren't debates over energy density of super conductors v. Li-Ion batteries missing the important point, relative cost?

E.g. If the energy density is 1/4 lower but the cost is 1/40th as much then electric cars get ALOT more viable. Can anyone guess at the relative cost?

<comment><USER27> How important that point is depends on how much range affects viability as opposed to the cost of the vehicle itself. Electric cars are rather expensive I guess, but few people are going to make the switch to cheaper cars if they only have a range of 20km.

</comment></comment><comment><USER28> (semi-serious) Title should be "Meet _another_ scientific accident that could change the world"

</comment><comment><USER29> I don't quite understand the maths behind all this but it certainly sound positive overall. It normally takes a while for things to get to the consumer but how long do we think it'll take to get to us or cars? Will it even get to consumers?

</comment><comment><USER30> Diamonds are carbon based but you can't use them to grow vegetables.

<comment><USER31> Not with that attitude, just put them in a 100% oxygen environment and heat with an arc furnace and Bob's your uncle you got CO2.

</comment></comment><comment><USER32> Anyone else remember when this was posted a few months ago? (I wish my account was named pepperidge farm, just for occasions like this.)

<comment><USER33> This comment feels like its one step away from just being the word "repost". I really like browsing reddit but please leave these types of comments there. Hacker News is not reddit.

<comment><USER32> Yeah, I don't understand the down votes honestly. We've seen this - not just a few months ago.

Why is it ok to post again? Should I have provided the HN link?

<comment><USER34> It's more that your comment didn't add anything to the conversation.

If you'd said "You can find the previous conversation at XXX" then you'd be contributing. As it is you just added noise.

<comment><USER33> Thanks for elaborating for me. The key point is adding to the conversation. Novelty accounts tend to be the realm of Reddit but one of my favorites is the one that says "Anyone looking for more information..." and goes on to list past posts of a link. That's infinitely better than simply "Repost"</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: What books an Entrepreneur should read? - <AUTHOR>

This topic is purposely too general. Because, I don't want to miss out books like "Guerrilla Marketing", which gave an overview of marketing in 3 days for me. There were books about Behavioral economics I finished, which were so helpful, eventhough it doesn't have immediate effect on my business.<p>So, the general  question is, what books were useful to you in building your business. <comment><USER2> In no particular order:

 _The Art of the Start_ \- Guy Kawasaki

 _The Four Steps to the Epiphany_ \- Steve Blank

 _The Lean Startup_ \- Eric Ries

 _Blue Ocean Strategy_ \- W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne

 _Crossing the Chasm_ \- Geoffrey Moore

 _The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing_ \- Al Ries & Jack Trout

 _Positioning_ \- Al Ries & Jack Trout

 _Repositioning_ \- Jack Trout (with Steve Rivkin)

 _Differentiate or Die_ \- Jack Trout (with Steve Rivkin)

</comment><comment><USER3> I don't think there is an specific list that fits all entrepreneurs, but this is the list that has helped me a lot on getting things up and running:

* The Lean Startup

* Start Small, Stay Small: A Developer's Guide to Launching a Startup.

* Startup@Cloud: 33 tips for running your company using cloud-based software.

</comment><comment><USER4> <http://hustletips.tumblr.com> \- Not a book, but sound advice and a quick read.

</comment><comment><USER5> The Magic of Thinking Big - Dr. David J. Schwartz

</comment><comment><USER6> I would also add:

Rework

It's not how good you are, it's how good you want to be

Thank You Economy

</comment><comment><USER7> The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business - Josh Kaufman</comment>


Interactive Timeline of Edward Snowden's NSA Revelations - <AUTHOR> http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/multimedia/timeline-edward-snowden-revelations.html

<comment><USER2> I've been following this closely, but I learned some things in this presentation.</comment>


The leap second: Because our clocks are more accurate than the Earth - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/04/the-leap-second-because-our-clocks-are-more-accurate-than-the-earth/ <comment><USER2> great article. I'm opposed to the leap second because it likely will cause many bugs in computer systems. Our ancestors will probably be living on other planets (or will figure out a better time system), so who cares if their high noon doesn't match up with the zenith (heck it doesn't even except for one line of longitude for each time zone).</comment>


One way to fight the opioid epidemic? Medical marijuana - <AUTHOR> http://www.vox.com/2016/1/20/10800248/medical-marijuana-opioids-heroin <comment><USER2> I think I might begin using this perspective in advertisements. thanks. :)</comment>


Advances in OpenBSD packages [pdf] - <AUTHOR> https://www.openbsd.org/papers/eurobsdcon_2018_https.pdf <comment><USER2> These are the slides for one of the OpenBSD talks that happened this past weekend at EuroBSDCon 2018, in Bucharest, Romania. Unfortunately there was no video recorded this year.

[https://2018.eurobsdcon.org/talks- speakers/#MarcEspie](https://2018.eurobsdcon.org/talks-speakers/#MarcEspie)

Marc Espie has presented his work on the ports tree infrastructure & package tools at nearly every recent EuroBSDcon, past papers for those including all other talks are up on the OpenBSD events page:

[https://www.openbsd.org/events.html](https://www.openbsd.org/events.html)

Personally, I wish I had been able to see Todd Mortimer's talk on Sunday, "Removing ROP Gadgets from OpenBSD"

[https://2018.eurobsdcon.org/talks- speakers/#ToddMortimer](https://2018.eurobsdcon.org/talks- speakers/#ToddMortimer)

[https://www.openbsd.org/papers/eurobsdcon2018-rop.pdf](https://www.openbsd.org/papers/eurobsdcon2018-rop.pdf)

And also Bob Beck's update on unveil(2):

[https://2018.eurobsdcon.org/talks- speakers/#BobBeck](https://2018.eurobsdcon.org/talks-speakers/#BobBeck)

[https://www.openbsd.org/papers/eurobsdcon2018-unveil/](https://www.openbsd.org/papers/eurobsdcon2018-unveil/)</comment>


Facebook Questions Goes Where Quora Can't - <AUTHOR> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/facebook_questions_goes_where_quora_cant.php?sms_ss=hackernews&at_xt=4d8c09a3f9c3c177%2C0 <comment><USER2> The fact that you're getting advice from people you know rather than strangers and spammers seems like a huge advantage, but I don't think they've nailed the right QA model yet. This seems more awkward and harder to search than something like Yelp.

What we really need is something more like Yelp or Quora with answers custom- weighted by FB network distance.</comment>