Laconic History of the World - <AUTHOR> http://hugepic.io/d2012641f/3.00/57.89/9.67 <comment><USER2> I think this map highlights some fundamental flaw with wikipedia or what we highlight in history or something similar to this.

Or possibly it's a perfect example of what is wrong with summarising a complicated entity. I hope in the future that people will move away from the Top Ten things about X or the 5 things you need to know about Y.

This map is ignorance presenting as a summary.

(Yes I know it's meant to be a cute map)

<comment><USER3> It'd probably be better if it used a better measure than raw term frequency in the articles. For example, most of Europe is "War". If it used something like inverse document frequency (tf-idf) to rank the terms, it might get more distinct words for each country.

<comment><USER4> That might be so if your goal is to hilight what sets the countries apart.

The author of the map chose for 'history of __' as the topic. And when doing that with countries it is not surprising to find that countries are defined by war, nobility, imperialism and rivalry.

We like to think countries are formed because of their people, and their culture, but in reality countries are formed because of their resources, defendability and their interested parties.

If there is one thing that defines borders in europe, it is war, and this map shows that quite laconically :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This would be an amazing demonstration of cultural relativism.

You used the "en.wikipedia.org" site for the source. Good. Now put a loop around the whole thing, and after you're done making the English-"history-of ____" map (which you have just done), repeat with the French - "history of___ map", and so forth for every language that has entries (some may be blank for some countries).

Next, you can take your 40-80 or whatever maps (whichever languages you decided to complete this for), and translate them via automated translation into English.

So, we get "the different language Wikipedia's different views of the world", with English (untranslated) being only the first source, and additional sources both native and translated directly into English.

For example, while for Russia, "soviet" won out from the English-language

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Russia>

going from [http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%98%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%80%...](http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%98%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%8F_%D0%A0%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%81%D0%B8%D0%B8) (by clicking "Russian" on the interwiki link on the left) I would be interested in what the most common word is on THAT page :).

This would be an awesome example of cultural relativism.

<comment> guard-of-terra Just did that. The most common word with a meaning seems to be СССР (USSR) the next one (barring country name) is война (war).

No surprises here.

In case of Russian language doing it properly is noticeably harder because Russian is an inflected language.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Eh... I'm from Malta. Representative or not, I'm thinking "a" or "I" might be the only words which fit there...

Reminds me of a department manager who insisted everybody place a push pin on a world map he hung up in the office, to show where everybody was originally from. I obliterated my own country in so doing. After that most people assumed I was born on a cruise ship or something...

<comment><USER7> Nice place though. I live on an island as well, but you'd think we ran half the planet the way the government go on (UK).

<comment><USER8> To be fair, you _did_ run half the planet not too long ago...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I was puzzled by this, particularly by the number of countries that were marked with "war". So, I did what any programmer might do, I wrote some code to check it out. Here it is:

<https://gist.github.com/4416107>

I just threw it together quickly. It's got some warts (not the best code for grabbing data from Wikipedia). Of course, feel free to do with it as you wish.

I only sampled a couple dozen countries or so. It seems that the author of the graphic decided to take a little license here and there rather than making strict use of the word with the most usage.

For example, if I didn't screw-up the code, in Canada the most frequent words are:

        [ 143] books
        [ 118] canadian
        [  95] british
        [  82] war

However, the author decided to use "british".

In Argentina:

        [  53] president
        [  50] argentine
        [  47] war
        [  46] military

Yet he used "war"

Brazil:

        [  28] military
        [  22] portuguese
        [  19] portugal
        [  16] first
        [  15] war

The choice was "military"

Saudi Arabia:

        [ 114] saudi
        [  76] arabia
        [  37] king
        [  31] oil
        [  28] arab

Chosen: "oil"

I am not passing judgement at all, just pointing out what I learned from a very limited test. At some level It would be interesting to see data for all countries. At the same time, a better metric than single-page word frequency would probably be more interesting than this. For example: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tf%E2%80%93idf>

<comment><USER10> "books" appears 3 times on <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Canada>

<comment><USER9> Ah, yes. I didn't do a full cleanup job before processing and you caught one of those words. If you open that page with Chrome and do a "View Source" you'll see that "books" actually appears 597 times in a whole pile of links on the page. Some of them got through.

If you only search what a human can see, yeah, it's somewhere in the order of 3 to 5 times.

I might have a look at the code and see why the full <a> tag contents are not being removed. Funny enough, that's the only bit of code I did not write. I got lazy and grabbed something right out of the PHP manual pages. Lesson learned.

<comment><USER11> Using a text-mode browser to render HTML to text, strip off headers, and avoid summarizing links (lynx works great for this) might be a fast route to cleaner results.

You'd probably also want to exclude the "See also" and "References" sections.

For Canada, not excluding stopwords ("the", "of", "and", etc.) or the country name itself, I get:

         1      869 the
         2      449 of
         3      326 and
         4      288 in
         5      214 to
         6      142 a
         7      135 canada
         8      106 was
         9       87 by
        10       72 as
        11       71 british
        12       70 with
        13       69 s
        14       62 war
        15       61 on
        16       53 canadian
        17       52 from
        18       49 for
        19       44 were
        20       42 new

Which still puts "british" on top.

<comment><USER9> Yup, in case you missed it, I posted updated code that really cleans-up the scraped page data very well. With the new code "british" is on top of the Canada list. It was a fun little exercise. There are some issues accessing Wikipedia this way but no big deal for a quick little test.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Here's a writeup by the author about it: [http://www.flickr.com/photos/omnitarian/8288065763/sizes/o/i...](http://www.flickr.com/photos/omnitarian/8288065763/sizes/o/in/photostream/)

</comment><comment><USER13> The funny thing is, if there was a laconic (in the original sense) history of the world, the theme would be similar.

</comment><comment><USER14> It's interesting how Nicaragua is "defined" by a family name (Somoza). Other family names I see include Kim for North Korea and Khaan for Mongolia. They're all analogous to Dynasty for China.

</comment><comment><USER15> Much of the world seems to have been shaped by "war" and colonialism.

Only "eponymous" label is for Hungary. The country correctly self-identifies in term-frequency ;-)

Most poetic definitions:

New Zealand: Maori.

North Korea: Kim.

Saudi Arabia: Oil.

Somalia: Government .. LOL!

<comment><USER16> It's funny that apart from a few regions...

* Bessarabia (an old name for the region where current day Moldova is)

* Moravia (an important region in Czech republic)

* Transsylvania (central Romania)

...most of those with country names are actually not in the countries themselves:

* Hungary in Slovakia

* Iraq in Kuwait

* India in Pakistan

* Ethiopia in Eritrea

* Albanian in Kosovo

* And of course British, Frech, Portuguese, Spanish and Soviet all over the place.

Also interesting is Sweden, though our history certainly was defined by war we are only two years away from reaching 200 years of no war.

<comment><USER17> 'No war' for Sweden is only defined in terms of not declaring war on another country; Sweden has still sent soldiers to Congo, Afghanistan and Libya to take part in military action in more recent times: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Swedish_wars>

<comment><USER18> There is a big difference between being at war and sending peace keeping troops. Defining the use of military in an area to prevent further violence and war as being at war is very wrong.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> I can't help but mention my own typographic world map - <http://www.vladstudio.com/wallpaper/?typographic_world_map>

<comment><USER20> It is pretty cool, but seriously, do I really need a $9.99 account to download a single wallpaper? That's not cool.

<comment><USER19> That's what many people say - but on the other way, that's how I make my living! And surprisingly, it works (it's not $9.99 per wallpaper, as you might think - it's for entire account, unlocking everything I have to offer).

<comment><USER20> Yes I thought you might say that. But I personally feel like this is a psychological issue - I am quite unwilling to pay 9.99 for an account, to get access to all the stuff you make(no offense, I think your art is great). I like this wallpaper, I want it now,and I would be more than happy to pay a single-time fee for it - 1.99,2.99 or even 4.99 - that would be psychologically easier to stomach than getting an entire account made,which I don't want or need.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> I'd love to see the results for other text queries. E.g. use the cuisine of X range of articles as a source. Maybe filter the results to only include actual foodstuffs. The typography is completely custom, though, so there's no way to automate the process.

</comment><comment><USER22> I would bet that if you did this same things with many history books, similar words would come up, but I do not think that it is a fair summary.

It would be more interesting to see the most searched Google queries coming from these countries (assuming that many use Google). Finland is Ilta Sanomat (The Evening News), for example: <http://www.google.com/zeitgeist/2012/#the- world>

Unfortunately, Antarctica is not represented in Google Zeitgeist, nor are many others, but perhaps you could contact Google for that data.

<comment><USER20> perhaps you could contact google

you could contact google

could contact google

contact google

I don't think anyone has ever found a way to do it, other than through a court order or by applying for a job.

<comment><USER23> Spend enough on Adwords or google appss and you get a dedicated rep. Buy a nexus and you get a 24/7 phone number. Post something about google virtually anywhere on the Internet and Matt Cutts will probably reply to it.

Stop spreading this nonsense meme.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> As confronting as it is, most of these seem to me spot on. Most of European history is indeed about war. Most of the African and Asian history that is written about is indeed about who colonized what.

It's a great map: it provides an easily digestible visualization of the limitations of history writing.

</comment><comment><USER25> Don't be fooled. Slovenia is most certainly not one huge party.

</comment><comment><USER26> The comments seem to prove why the map is useful. What would you like your countries word to be? Work to that end. Or find a word you like and emigrate.

</comment><comment><USER27> It flooded my browser history with 1000+ entries.

<comment><USER28> It seems like when you scroll or zoom the browser URL is rewritten. The URL corresponds with the current view of the image.

Decent idea, terrible implementation.

</comment></comment><comment><USER29> This is hilarious. Also it's a bit ironic that Pakistan is represented by the word "India".

</comment><comment><USER30> Ohhh, there is party in Slovenia.

</comment><comment><USER31> It's quite ironic that Pakistan is represented by the word 'India'.

<comment><USER32> How? India and Pakistan were the same country till 1947.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> A truly good summary of our planetary civilisation to date. Thankfully we can shape the future to look different.

</comment><comment><USER34> I don't think this always works so well. The word for Egypt is 'Period'. The design, however, is great.

<comment><USER24> That would be because it has a long, long history that's traditionally divided into many periods.

So it makes sense :-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> So, war is one of the most common words on most countries wikipedia pages. Illuminating.

</comment><comment><USER36> How is Slovenia defined by "party" and the rest of ex-yugoslavia as "Yugoslavia"?

This confuses me greatly.

</comment><comment><USER37> French ? And the other one is Government ?

C'mon there are many funnier and truer word i can think of

<comment><USER37> Ah. Saw the title. Understood.

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> Any chance of getting this on a poster or something? Would look cool on a wall.

</comment><comment><USER39> Worth a look at the home page. Many fascinating images and maps there.

</comment><comment><USER40> Maybe this should be called 'Humanity represented by a few words'?

</comment><comment><USER41> No Cyprus :)?

</comment><comment><USER42> Empire!

</comment><comment> yo-devil Nepal is no longer a kingdom.

</comment><comment><USER43> war in Spain? why?

</comment><comment><USER44> This is offensive. The entry for Eritrea labels it Ethiopia, the country that has attempted to occupy it for centuries.

<comment><USER45> I noticed Taiwan is labeled with China which I think many Taiwanese would take offense to. China would certainly be happy with this label though.

<comment><USER46> Mainland China would most definitely not be happy with this label. The government that was exiled to what we call Taiwan considers themselves to be the legitimate government of China. The mainland government considers them to be illegitimate. This tension still exists politically and culturally.

I have had many Taiwanese friends young and old and most of them prefer themselves and their culture to be referred to as Chinese.

I have also had some young (mainland) Chinese friends and they, too, are still very aware of the situation. Even though some of them have Taiwanese friends themselves, they still look with disdain on Taiwan/RoC as a political entity.

<comment><USER45> I visited China about a year ago and was on a train when a local started talking to me. He asked why I was there and what cities I've seen, mainly small talk. I had lived in Taiwan for about a year prior so when he told me I should live in China I said, "well, I lived in Taiwan for a year". His face went cold and his tone became somewhat ominous. His response was "Taiwan _IS_ China" and in a threatening manner said "RIGHT?". That really made an impression on me. The Taiwanese people don't consider themselves part of China, but would someday like to see the ROC regain control of continental China. When they think of China they think of the People's Republic of China, the communist China.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Debug 34: Sexism in tech - <AUTHOR> http://www.imore.com/debug-34-sexism-tech

<comment><USER2> The section, somewhere near the middle of the podcast, where each panelist describes the random harassment they've had to put up with should be prescribed listening for all guys in tech — especially those who go to a conferences.

</comment><comment><USER3> There needs to be a transcript. I can't possibly go through the entire 1 hour 52 minutes.

Is there a transcript available?

<comment><USER2> On the page. Under the heading 'Transcript'. :)</comment></comment>


Meshworm Robot - recreating worm locomotion with muscle wire - <AUTHOR> http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2408356,00.asp

<comment><AUTHOR> Liked the video of them smashing the robots with a hammer at the end there. Seems to be a pretty durable mechanism.</comment>


Type a domain. (alpha alpha alpha) - <AUTHOR> http://www.typeadomain.com <comment><USER2> Was daily quota (1000 requests per day) for .com whois lookup lifted?</comment>


The art of getting stuff done without bossing around - <AUTHOR> http://blog.idonethis.com/post/32871546788/getting-stuff-done-without-any-bossing-around

<comment><USER2> > _Peter Thiel said PayPal once rejected a top-notch engineering candidate > because he said during an interview that he liked to play "hoops," and a > PayPal engineer does not play basketball, much less "hoops."_

> _Carwoo is a company that's a little weird, so they ask every interviewee > how weird she thinks she is on a scale of 1 to 5. There is a right answer. > 3-4 is the sweet spot a weird person who is self-aware._

I'm sorry, but these are just bizarre. Company culture is great, but this just sounds cultish and even cargo-cultish.

It strikes me almost as strange that we have anti-discrimination laws for hiring practices concerning races, sexual orientations, religions, etc... but companies are free to discriminate against people who play "hoops" (or don't), or are either insufficiently self-identified "weird", or overly self- identified "weird".

Well you just can't legislate against human stupidity...

<comment><USER3> Personally I think these laws are likely fundamentally flawed anyway, as hiring is subjective.

<comment><USER4> Just because hiring is subjective doesn't mean everyone is equally subjective with respect to race/gender/etc.

I mean, aesthetics are subjective too but most people prefer not to have poo on a pedestal in their living room.

You can find strong and widespread biases (e.g., against fecal art) even in a subjective domain.

<comment><USER3> Not what I mean. I am thinking in terms of proving discrimination etc.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> The danger of OKR's/PKI's and other "measurements" is that it's easy to do management-by-numbers. Management-by-numbers is to great management as paint- by-numbers is to great painting.

</comment><comment><USER6> _At the end of every week, month, and quarter, individuals measure themselves against their OKRs to evaluate performance._

Lee Iacoca used the same technique when rising through Ford's managerial ranks. He met with his direct reports quarterly, reviewed their progress over the past 3 months, and set objectives for their next 3 months. Then both schedule the next review and sign all the paperwork. He required that his direct reports have the same quarterly reviews their subordinates, recursing down the chain.

This, Iacoca's autobiography says, not only makes sure both sides know what was agreed to, but gets them talking to one another, and at least communicating on progress. Managers need to be part of the team too -- their role is to remove roadblocks preventing the the team from shipping.

</comment><comment><USER7> At Linux kernel, they just write code, test and send patches.)

<comment><USER8> Do they get paid to do that? If no one got paid, there would be almost no need for performance reviews.

<comment><USER9> Because if you don't get paid in $$$, you're free to do shoddy work...?

Crap work has costs that far exceed the amount spent employing the person who produced it.</comment></comment></comment>


Drowning Doesn't Look Like Drowning (2010) - <AUTHOR> http://mariovittone.com/2010/05/154/?resubmit=hn <comment><USER2> When I trained lifeguards this was the most important lesson, bar none.

I personally have never seen IDR look like 'climbing a ladder' (hands are usually out sideways, though I'm not doubting other's more comprehensive experience). But head tilted right back, so the mouth is the highest point of the body, and only the face visible, that's been the key. The nasty thing is that, in an outdoor environment where the water isn't transparent, this means that drowning people are very difficult to spot. Most of my years spent lifeguarding were hours spent counting and memorising people: 28 people in this section, two leaving, three boys with blonde hair horseplaying, twelve girls kicking up splashes, watch for the dark haired girl in green who is bouncing along not swimming, careful of the four people the splashes are obscuring...

<comment><AUTHOR> There is a series of videos on Youtube with examples from some big pool.

I thought, now I know what to look for, how hard can it be?

Turns out, very.

I watched twenty videos or so. Not once did I see the guy in trouble before the lifeguard blew the whistle and jumped in. Usually not even after watching him the first few meters swim (and thus limiting the possible area to watch).

<comment><USER3> Here is one video [1] from the channel I believe you are referring to.

[1] [https://youtu.be/4sFuULOY5ik](https://youtu.be/4sFuULOY5ik)

<comment><USER2> Watch the lifeguard during this. She's covering her area, but stops sweeping it a few seconds into the vid, she looks down, checks back towards the middle, looks away, checks back. She begins to move into space to enter as soon as the kid's ring flips and is in the water as soon as he goes vertical. An excellent bit of guarding, totally exemplary. I'd be very surprised if she didn't mentally note him as a high risk a while before this.

<comment><USER4> I've just watched a number of videos from that series. The #1 thing to look for in that pool is tube flips, most of which can be predicted by looking at who is monkeying around with their tube in some strange way.

That said, I can't spot anything nearly as fast as the guards do. And the I replay the video, knowing just who to watch and sometimes I'm surprised at how long they've been in the water when the guard finds them.

I can't really see the "ladder climbing" referenced elsewhere, but the style of "swimming" that goes on during drowning does stand out after you've seen a few. There were a few times where I thought the person was still swimming at first, especially the kids trying to swim back to their tube and failing, but even then you can sort of see a change in their behavior when instinct takes over and their body just starts jerking around.

EDIT: Here's a good example of what I mean. Watch how their swimming suddenly changes when they start drowning and their arms begin thrashing. I actually found this one before the guard whistled: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXFgOBjk860](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXFgOBjk860)

<comment><USER5> I watched about 30 of those videos and enjoyed the challenge. Like a moving Where's Waldo.

I agree about the tube flips. It was almost always a kid in a tube that leans over too far and then gets dumped out. Once I knew what to look for, I usually saw it about a second or two before the lifeguard. I was very focused, and it helps to know that the drowning is _going_ to occur in the next few seconds. I would be very stressed out working as life guard, having to do this search all day for real!

In a couple of videos, the victim was a parent with child that left their tube and was struggling to both swim and hold their child above water. There was one tricky case where two people were swimming to get the same tube, and the one who got there second, thus losing the tube, started drowning. I was surprised that this person could switch from swimming to drowning so quickly.

It was also scary to see people in the pool next to the drowning victims not react at all. Validated the article.

<comment><USER2> > was struggling to both swim and hold their child above water

Rescuing active drowning victims (this kind of drowning) is very dangerous, for that reason. The victim won't just hold you, they'll _climb_ you. And keep climbing until their head and shoulders are out of the water. Because your combined bodies have finite buoyancy this means you go down. The victim doesn't have to be big to push you under. It is nothing to do with strength at all, and nothing to do with how strong a swimmer you are. I defy any strong swimmer to tread water for more than a couple of seconds with a 6 year old on their shoulders.

So a lifeguard without a flotation device has to approach victims very differently. Normally from behind, where they can't be climbed. Their aim is to get the victims head _only just_ above the water. The victim is panicked, and won't like that one bit. Some of the rescues in the video aren't that great for that reason: the lifeguard doesn't keep the buoy between them and the victim, putting them one slip of the buoy away from a possible double drowning.

I've heard LGTIs tell students that in extreme cases they should wait for the victim to go passive (lose consciousness) before a rescue, if they can't approach safely. I'd never teach that, because it is unnecessarily callous and easy to misinterpret. But as a rescuer you do have to be prepared to swim down to get the victim to release you. Being safe around a drowning person is hard, and most lifeguard trainees _massively_ overrate their swimming power in that situation. That's why there are so many multiple drownings.

> I was surprised that this person could switch from swimming to drowning so > quickly.

That's a really good point. It is surprising how folks you mark as being 'okay swimmers' can change immediately something goes wrong. I think it is the power of that instinct. I don't know how many people gradually get into difficulty, then begin drowning. It's rare, I think. More common something in their brain switches from 'in control' to 'panic' and the body takes over.

<comment><USER6> > Rescuing active drowning victims (this kind of drowning) is very dangerous, > for that reason. The victim won't just hold you, they'll climb you.

My only save as a lifeguard was a double for this very reason: the drowning kid's older brother jumped in to save him, and they both went under as the younger one scrambled for air.

"Good thing I jumped in after you, huh?" said the older brother, after I dragged them to the side. I wanted to punch him.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I was a lifeguard from the age of 16-22, indoor and outdoor, I learned to swim starting at age 4. Not once did a person drown at the facilities I worked, my watch or not. I probably rescued ~100 people in that span of time.

When you're around a pool that much, its almost instinctual. You can immediately spot weak swimmers, even on busy days. You develop the ability to "group" people, both by proximity and in terms of strength. Also, 95% of life- guarding is preventive. You can spot a problem before it actually becomes a problem, much the same way one might do while driving.

To this day whenever I'm at a pool or ocean, I'm scanning the water. I don't even realize I'm doing it most of the time. I'll be at a pool and ask a child to stop running, out of sheer habit. I'll see teenagers tossing a little kid up in the air in water too shallow, and ask them to stop, and sheepishly realize I don't work there. Ironically they always listen.

<comment><USER6> > Also, 95% of life-guarding is preventive.

I remember this well: sitting in a chair, scanning the pool, and every 20 seconds yelling, "Walk, please!" I was a living reminder to slow the heck down.

I'm pretty sure it was one of my most important tasks, though. The only serious injury I ever witnessed (a skull fracture) happened when someone was running on deck.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I'm a lousy swimmer, but when I was an active duty Marine I had to swim qual every year.

One year during swim qual I was doing the last bit, basically get from point A to point B in helmet, camies, and boots. Since it didn't matter how we got from point A to point B, I always did a sad approximation of a backstroke.

This particular year, as I was approaching point B, a safety swimmer started yelling at me to hurry. As I crossed point B, I felt his arms go under my armpits and he rapidly pulled me toward the side of the pool, where he and a corpsman (e.g. Navy nurse) pulled me up on the side of the pool, such that I was sitting with my feet in the pool. At which point the corpsman started giving me the Heimlich maneuver, and a rather significant amount of water started coming out of me.

I had been struggling slightly more than normal, and to a point, I knew I was gradually sinking, but I was so focused on finishing that I genuinely didn't even realize I was taking in water. It was only as I was on the side of the pool and watched as water came out, with each of the corpsman's compressions that I realized what had happened. Thankfully the safety swimmer and corpsman realized!

</comment><comment><USER9> > of the approximately 750 children who will drown next year, about 375 of > them will do so within 25 yards of a parent or other adult. In ten percent > of those drownings, the adult will actually watch them do it, having no idea > it is happening.

I wonder how a parent or adult could ever forgive themselves. Tragic.

<comment><USER10> You don't. Not ever. 27 years later, you will still think about it... every... day. And you would do anything, give up anything you have and anything you've ever done for the chance to undo it.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Previously: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1492835](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1492835)

</comment><comment><USER11> This website cycles through a series of videos. You will see a different scene depending on when you opened the link. For that reason, not all of the comments here refer the same particular incident. Even so, they all depict the common characteristics of someone drowning, followed by a lifeguard who quickly spots this and acts to save the child. Sometimes you can see the rescued child's face and the panic is obvious.

At first viewing, it is not always obvious why the lifeguard acted, but on repeat viewing the signs of drowning become very obvious: head persistently under the water, arms held out to the side, body rigid, jerky movements, and remaining in one spot rather than swimming about. Sometimes it is possible to mark them as being at risk before they get into difficulty.

Everybody should learn how recognize these symptoms.

</comment><comment><USER12> Serious question: why didn't we evolve a more effective instinctive drowning response than the one we currently have? For instance I learned how to tread water the first or second time I entered a pool and cannot remember a time when I would drown if placed in deep water, even though I took a long time to learn how to swim.

<comment><USER13> that's a good question. in my experience drowning often looks like a person standing straight up and down with their legs straight and still and their arms reached out wide to their sides. head tilted back to try and get their mouth above the surface. they kind of look like they are trying to fly to up to bird mom for a bite of food.

its ridiculous looking and absolutely terrible as a self preservation technique.

i'd be willing to bet if many people trying to save themselves kicked their legs a couple times they'd have a much better chance at survival on their own. but they don't, they forget about their legs and try to fly.

one guy i jumped in after went about a foot or two under water, stretched his arms out and flapped them up and down. his down stroke was never enough to bring his head above the water and his up stroke was enough to undo the little his down stroke did. he looked like a fishing bobber bouncing up and down under the surface as a fish nibbled off the bait. i had been watching that particular guy as he waited in line for a diving board, got to the front of the line, climbed up the couple steps, looked around then got back down. he did that 2 or 3 times before he got the courage to actually jump. when i noticed him doing it i did a quick chirp over to the guard in the boat and gave him a sign that signaled i was watching someone and would likely be going in after them.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Real drowning is a quiet, terrifying event.

In waves it can happen almost invisibly. Remembering who you've seen where, and when, is challenging but critical.

</comment><comment><USER15> why does this get posted periodically? is it in order to remind people who are running startups that they may be going under but that it might not always be immediately obvious, especially to the untrained eye?

<comment><AUTHOR> It fits neatly into the guidelines, as it is not only important, but also highly useful and interesting information (I didn't know about IDR before). And well written.

You are simply mistaken if you think this is "Startup News".

<comment><USER15> Yup, agree, and thank you for the clarification.</comment></comment></comment>


Earth's sixth mass extinction event already under way, scientists warn - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jul/10/earths-sixth-mass-extinction-event-already-underway-scientists-warn <comment><USER2> When it will come down to the last 1000 people on this planet, 400 will be arguing about whether or not humans really have a bad impact on this planet; 50 will be trying to lord it over the rest, using another gullible 150 as muscle; 200 will be looking for ways to turn a profit out of the situation; and the rest will weeping somewhere in a corner.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W33HRc1A6c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W33HRc1A6c)

<comment><USER3> <humour> I belong to the group of 400! </humour>

If we look at WP [0] there were way more than five extinctions in the past, but each extinction is preceded by an explosion of new life forms, and that is what define many "geologic periods":

* Great Oxygenation Event: Multicellular life forms emerge.

* End-Ediacaran extinction led to the Cambrian explosion: Animal phyla appears

* Cambrian–Ordovician extinction event led to the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event: Pelagic life forms colonize reefs and shallow waters.

* Ordovician–Silurian extinction events led to Silurian period which saw multi-cellular life moving to earth, not only on sea. On sea, fishes and sharks were now thriving.

* Plants thrived in Devonian after most Silurian life disappeared in another "extinction".

* etc, etc

[0] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_event#List_of_extin...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_event#List_of_extinction_events)

(edited)

<comment><USER2> Yep, I think that was George Carlins' point in the linked video. The planet will be fine, it's the people that are fucked.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Makes me want to cry.

<comment><USER5> To think this article is from 2016...

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I can't hold my laugh when I see this kind of article AND repercussion. The funniest part is that most people who believe it downplay religious thoughts and dogmas but is this any different? This is a genesis flood fairytale from any angle I see it.

<comment><USER7> Really you find people dedicating their life to submitting work to peer review... funny?

Can't wait to see your contradicting research, comprehensive enough you might get a nobel prize.

To be clear, the process here is the opposite of dogma.

<comment><USER8> It's almost like Scientists, even with dedicating their lives to research, can be wrong.

Would you have sided with the majority of the Mathematics community who have "dedicated their life to submitting work to peer review" in the 19th century when they were trying to force Cantor out of academia for his creation of the "evil and nonintellectual" Set Theory, which contradicted what they had known about Maths at that time?

<comment><USER7> Obviously they can be wrong, and you can prove that by submitting real research, not by vacuously dismissing it as false without doing the legwork which Cantor did.

<comment><USER6> Ironically the same can be said about your dismissal of religious knowledge as guesswork. I bet you didn't prove it wrong submitting real research, just vacuously dismissed it like the guy before you.

<comment><USER9> I just have faith that gp is correct.... that is all that is really needed right? \s

<comment><USER6> Yeah, this is real science, not that religious stuff /s</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Why we work? - <AUTHOR> http://alistapart.com/column/why-we-work

<comment><USER2> Depending on where you live, ~1/3 of the answer is "to fund people who don't work".</comment>


LulzSec: We Hacked the U.S. Senate - <AUTHOR> http://mashable.com/2011/06/14/lulzsec-us-senate-attack/

<comment><USER2> The second comment there (and the people agreeing with it) are the real problem. They actually think things are more secure if nobody talks about them being insecure. They're more worried about troublesome security issues than the safety of their own information.

So I'm going to solve their problems: If it ever comes to a point that internet services are too hard to use because of the necessary security measures, I will happily create a low-security site of the same type. You can give me your info and money and I will happily hold it on my insecure site so that it's easy for you (and everyone else) to access.

Problem solved.

</comment><comment><USER3> Hacking US Senate website != Hacking the US Senate (period)

That's the real lulz!

</comment><comment><USER4> They also asked Bernacke(FED Resrve Chairman) to resign via anonymous..

</comment><comment><USER5> Is this the beginning of world war 3?

So the past couple of weeks I can remember the following sites getting pwned:

All Sony sites. GMail. The I.M.F. Citibank Pron.com Nintendo Epic Games Senate.gov

From all the high profile services hacked one can start making the following hypothesis:

> There's a major hole in the linux kernel or OS and they're just having so > much fun with it.

> They have infiltrated all of these organizations and have people from within > opening the doors

> They are the X-Men of hacking

> They're the Chinese government X-Men of hacking

> Or security on all of these websites really sucks

(Keep adding your hypothesis)

<comment><USER6> What is Gmail doing on that list? The only news I've seen mentioning them has been a spear-headed phishing attack directed at a small subset of their users. People falling for scams is no fault of the software provider.

<comment><USER7> [2010] [http://articles.cnn.com/2010-01-23/opinion/schneier.google.h...](http://articles.cnn.com/2010-01-23/opinion/schneier.google.hacking_1_chinese- hackers-access-system-google)</comment></comment></comment>


Lost and found simplified - <AUTHOR> http://www.rewardtag.com

<comment><AUTHOR> Just a simple web app up. I was tinkering with grails so I thought I'll use that for my latest project. The idea is simple, you put the sticker on your device. If someone finds it, we manage the return process you just pay for shipping and and give the person a reward.

What do you think about this?</comment>


Still seeking proof readers/commenters ... - <AUTHOR>

Hi,
A couple of months ago I asked what people would first like to see in a series about the P vs NP question:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1674804
I got some good responses, and set about writing the series.  It turned out not as easy to modularise as I'd hoped, so I've basically written most of it.
Here I asked for proof-readers:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1891084
Of course, I'm really asking for early reactions to make sure I've got the level right and haven't missed anything important.
I've had no responses at all.  8-(
Perhaps it's because I asked too much.  The idea of getting you to send me the MD5 was so I could put you in the password DB and you could access the wiki, currently only open to registered users.  Then you could comment there, or in email, and once the page was ready, I would open it to world read access.
But perhaps that was too much.
So, email me if you'd like to read this advanced first draft.  Comments also welcome.  Obviously. <comment><AUTHOR> Clickables:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1674804> <\- original poll

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1891084> <\- Instructions for registering.

</comment><comment><USER2> Why not just submit it to HN or Reddit Programming. I'm sure you'd get more than enough help making it better!

I think you've introduced too many barriers to helping you. The first rule of getting help is to make it easy for someone to help you.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's what I figured. The idea was to get a small group of interested people working collaboratively on the wiki to make it better. I guess that was too much to hope for.

I'll just submit it as it stands.</comment></comment>


Show HN: Reddit news subreddits turned into a website - <AUTHOR> http://www.fastnews.me/worldnews <comment><USER2> 1 column is much easier to process than 3. There's a reason HN, Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, etc are organized the way they are.

<comment><AUTHOR> I see your point

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Nice work! Just an observation the layout is very crowded, maybe have an option for a HN style or Reddit style, just smaller text lists with a lot smaller font size.

<comment><AUTHOR> I could do something about making the layout customizable, so you could have either one article per row or three per row. Did you see the font sizes big on mobile?

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> source: [https://github.com/SalmaanP/news_website](https://github.com/SalmaanP/news_website)

[https://github.com/SalmaanP/news_backend](https://github.com/SalmaanP/news_backend)

</comment><comment><USER4> I like this I will use it for a while

<comment><AUTHOR> hearing that makes me happy</comment></comment>


How We Built a Serverless Progressive Web App with Cloudflare Workers - <AUTHOR> https://medium.com/krayx/how-we-built-a-serverless-progressive-web-app-with-cloudflare-workers-f917cca7bbd8 <comment><USER2> But what about loss of data?

<comment><AUTHOR> Everything is stored inside your Google Drive. So as long as Google doesn't loose its data, you're data will be save. You can even go back in time, since Google keeps older versions.</comment></comment>


Tom Osborne's Story in His Own Words (2004) - <AUTHOR> http://www.hp9825.com/html/osborne_s_story.html <comment><USER2> This is Hacker News, not Husker News!

Oh, wait… Never mind.</comment>


Hummingbird: Real Time Web Traffic Visualization - <AUTHOR> http://mnutt.github.com/hummingbird/

<comment><USER2> Pretty neat! I wish it was access log based though. Using the access logs means being able to see anomalous activity such as spikes in particular status codes, performance issues, that sort of thing. I do have a project I could use as the base for that, but I suspect I might be one of the few people who cares about that sort of info.

<comment><USER3> Unfortunately, it's not log based. Just like Google Analytics, you insert a little script in, when request comes in, the script will update MongoDB in the backend.

Though, your need are not unusual, I guess. So, publish it.

<comment><USER4> I'm interested as well and may contribute

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Don't miss the video <http://vimeo.com/11613517>

<comment><USER6> And the presentation at MongoSF: <http://www.10gen.com/event_mongosf_10apr30#gilt>

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Nice...I used to work with Michael Nutt at Limewire...very talented developer

</comment><comment><USER8> Very cool technology demo, but I can't think of any scenario where you'd actually need this "realtimeness". I'm constantly annoyed by the 24h you have to wait for google analytics, though.

<comment><USER9> You don't actually have to wait, you just have to manually select the date from the date picker.

<comment><USER10> It's still not real-time: updates are about hourly.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> That looks promising. Is anyone familiar with a self hosted solution like this?

Also: What is the tracking pixel gif for if it's using websockets?

<comment><USER12> The tracking pixel is for tracking the stats from the web requests, the websocket is for updating the actual admin interface (from what I understand).

<comment><USER13> I can double confirm it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Nice, but it's using WebSockets so that means it only supports tracking clients with recent webkit based browsers (no IE, no Firefox, no Opera). Unless it uses some kind of emulation - I couldn't find anything about this in the docs.

<comment><USER13> I don't think that they use web socket for tracking. They use it only for showing the realtime stats.

Edit: check out the client tracking js. No web socket is used.

<comment><USER14> You are right indeed. Thanks for pointing this out.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Will anyone turn this into a web service?

<comment><USER13> chartbeat.com

<comment><USER15> I'd love to use the free trial but I'm hesitant to go for one of those credit- card-required trials.

Chartbeat should be so essential that if I forget to put in my CC info and the trial runs out, I notice it immediately and update payment info.

With this system, even if Chartbeat ends up being useless for me, I could simply forget it even exists and still get charged.

<comment><USER16> This is what credit card statements are for. (And ChartBeat is pretty darn cheap.)

<comment><USER15> I'm not knocking the price and I'm definitely not rendering judgement as to whether or not it's worth paying for.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Everyone should get the opportunity to program, but school is a waste of time - <AUTHOR> http://www.philliphaydon.com/2013/03/everyone-should-get-the-opportunity-to-learn-to-program-but-school-is-a-waste-of-time <comment><USER2> I hate these articles that argue for drastic changes in schooling without the deep analysis those changes deserve. It takes a certain kind of arrogance to go from "I wasn't good at X" to "X is useless; let's get rid of it."

I also struggled in high school because I couldn't choose my own curriculum (as do a lot of people), but what school reinforced in me is the concept that not everything in life is easy - successful people can turn a challenge into something constructive. I could go on about all the benefits of a standardized, well-rounded education, but every time one of these articles pops up a lot of people do that for me :)

<comment><USER3> "I could go on about all the benefits of a standardized"

I could just as easily go on about the detrimental effect of standardized education. The executive summary is this: societies do not advance when everyone thinks the same way as everyone else.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> People are welcome to their cynical, paranoid opinions but there are good educators (not just teachers) out there. Phillip's data set is approximately one point yet, from this, he concludes the whole system needs to be scrapped?

It's popular to dump on education but for anyone to conclude that the entire system is unusable and needs to be destroyed is silly. For some people, like myself, I fit right into the education system as it exists.

The holy grail of education is a system that is agile enough to cater to the myriad learning styles and goals of students. This isn't a novel idea but obviously the challenge is in implementation.

Everyone's entitled to their two minute hate but it'd be a much more interesting article if he posed some solutions. It would also show he's more than an armchair quarterback with an axe to grind against an old english teacher.

</comment><comment><USER5> This is a reoccurring theme on HN and in the programming subculture in general: rowdy kid drops out of school, gets written off by well-meaning adults, learns to program, goes on to start a highly successful tech business, and then writes a blog post railing against the school system.

While I totally agree that the schooling system is outdated and primarily a way to socialize children, what programmers tend to forget is that we have a very special profession that has both low barriers of entry and high pay. Literally anyone who has access to a computer can learn to program. This is not the case in most professions! While aspiring programmers can tinker around with Linux in their spare time, an aspiring doctor can't tinker with a cadaver without being in school. As programmers we are extremely lucky that all the tools we could ever need are free and on the web.

<comment><AUTHOR> I think the only reason we see this in the programming subculture is because it's mostly programmers who are here reading these discussions and writing these blog posts.

I used to go to school with a guy who dropped out of school at 15, having failed year 11, get a job working outside, did a part-time course, ended up in an apprenticeship, worked a few years, started his own business, sold it, he's 28 now and owns his own house without a mortgage...

Put him in front of a computer and the most he can do is use facebook and play video games.

That's a single case, but there's millions of people just like him, and there's millions of people who are missing out on having a good life because we told them they aren't intelligent enough to go to university simply because they weren't good at one thing at school.

<comment><USER6> And for every million like him there are a hundred or two hundred million who are not as driven, motivated, talented.

People who are successful despite being uneducated are outliers. Stories like OP (and Bill Gates and countless others) are stories. Anecdotes. Single data points that are meaningless without context. Deciding to forego an education based on such stories is a risky game.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> "Schooling in general is a waste of time because it caters to this idea that life evolves around English, Math, Art, Science and General Knowledge. But real life doesn't, and these things don't help children figure out what they are good at or enjoy."

Sorry to nitpick, but how can life not evolve around General Knowledge which, ostensibly, includes all knowledge. Agree with the sentiment, disagree with the argument.

"The greatest disservice to a cause is to defend it with poor arguments." -- Some Famous Guy Dead Guy Who Couldn't Program

<comment><AUTHOR> Maybe generalizing like that is bad.

Take English for example: In school we used to analyze poems from World War 1 / 2, and we had to explain why the poet used this word, that sentence, this style, etc.

The truth is, there's no English Answer. The person wrote what he felt, what he smelt, saw, heard, etc. He felt that those words and sentences best described the what he wanted to say.

Yet we butcher these poems on speculation and assumptions. We don't learn anything from this in my opinion. The entire process of analyzing books/poems/movies in English class is silly.

With math we are forced to learn how to measure the volume of a triangle... Sure there may be some time in life where you might put this to use, but MOST people would never need to know this type of math, we need to instill general maths but we need to de-emphasize math and allow kids to focus on things they are interested in and allow them to be creative and learn to their full potential, if that means they want to go learn advanced math! By all means let them!

<comment><USER8> "Yet we butcher these poems on speculation and assumptions. We don't learn anything from this in my opinion. The entire process of analyzing books/poems/movies in English class is silly."

I have conversations with people (adults) who clearly never had to do these things (or any other similar study of the written word). It's like having a conversation with a child; they miss puns, subtext, irony, sarcasm, struggle to consider more than one conflicting opinion at a time, struggle to interpret beyond the purely literal and struggle to communicate their own thoughts to others. An inability to communicate beyond such a low level is crippling.

<comment><USER9> Interestingly, I have come across at least a couple of people who took great pride in being extremely literal about what they are saying.

One person explained that he did not want to be misunderstood and thus will always speak literally. (He, unfortunately, seemed to expect other people do this too. Which didnt happen all that often. Ergo misunderstandings)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> barry-cotter School is not about education, it is about childcare and about indoctrination and socialisation. Some education occurs but that's not what school is _for_.School is for getting people to do as they're told, when they're told to, for inuring people to being ranked and judged.

<http://www.cantrip.org/gatto.html>

<comment><USER10> What utter crap. Would you rather go back to the time when only the children of the wealthy would be educated by private tutors and the children of the poor (who couldn't afford to have their children educated to even basic standards) went into work as soon as they were able? Without school how do _those_ kids get an education? Their parents are probably working all hours to make ends meet so they won't be able to provide the basic numeracy and literacy skills a child needs to function in society.

<comment><USER11> The problem is, just because they sit there all day long doesn't mean these kids are getting an education (in American schools). My wife is a teacher, it's 80% babysitting and discipline.

<comment> barry-cotter 20% actual education time is damned good. Getting children to sit still for twenty minutes is hard, getting them to listen as well is appallingly difficult. And after twenty minutes you may be talking but they're not listening. Even with motivated adults 20 minutes is about the limit of how long a lecture csn hold one's attention.

<comment><USER3> "Even with motivated adults 20 minutes is about the limit of how long a lecture csn hold one's attention."

A _lecture_ is not the only way to educate people. Yes, _lectures_ are boring, but _discussions_ are not and in college and grad school I have been in discussions that went long past the scheduled end time for a class. There is no reason that could happen in high schools as well.

Yes, things are different below a certain age. Most people who hated school talk about how much they hated high school and perhaps middle school. There is a period of time where people start to want to think independently, but where our education system is based on teaching everyone to think the same things. Compliance and conformity are the goals in American schools; education is secondary, mostly a side-effect of teaching compliance.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Santayana said "[even] In the best schools, most time is wasted...", but frankly I don't think that anyone has come up with a better system.

<comment> barry-cotter Montessori and Steiner schools. The general level of math and science education among their graduates is lower than in normal schools but the children don't receive so much training in what it is to be someone else's minion.

School time isn't wasted unless you think school is for educating children. They get all the education they need and there's childcare and socialisation in first and second place.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I couldn't agree more.

<comment><USER14> I couldn't agree less. If you can't write a proper essay, then you can't write a paper on the new algorithm you invented, you can't write legible documentation for the library you wrote, and you can't argue effectively about the merits of one technology vs. another (change out the terminology for whatever communication is required in your field).

Basic math (up to and including algebra and geometry) is used all the time in every day activities. You don't have to be a math whiz and remember every last formula... but remembering that it's possible to figure out the third side of a triangle when you have the other sides and the angle between them, or being able to figure out what the original price of an item was if it's $60 now and is marked down 20% from its original price.

Knowing history and social studies can help you understand the way the world works on a macro level, which is useful for figuring out if that new startup idea is going to be successful or just sit on the shelf with the rest of the bad ideas.

Real life _does_ revolve around math, history, English, and science. Perhaps the author is smart enough that he picked this stuff up without doing any of the work, so he failed the classes but learned what he needed to anyway. But that doesn't mean you don't need to learn it.

Should we try to help people who don't do well in traditional school environments? Definitely. But that doesn't mean we throw out traditional schooling. There's a basic level of knowledge that everyone should have to be a productive member of society. And you _have_ to test kids, otherwise you can't know if they're actually learning anything. But that doesn't mean we should be shaming kids who don't test well. We should be helping them learn, and changing how we test so that we are testing the knowledge rather than raw fact regurgitation.

Now, if you're talking college, I can agree a lot more. Taking literature in college when you're in a CS program is more than dumb, it's a huge waste of time and money. College should be about teaching you skills for a career. For STEM careers, that doesn't mean reading Shakespeare.... but it might mean statistics and probability. The time wasted on a shakespeare class could be better spent taking a class on compilers or assembly.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm not suggesting we don't teach kids Math/English, I still think that is important, but the approach we take by shoving kids the same age in the same class doesn't work.

Some kids learn faster than others, we shouldn't hold some kids back simply because they are years younger than other kids. If a 7yo is racing through maths and enjoys it, put him with kids of his skill level, when you put a 7yo who is already years ahead in math, with kids his own age learning what he already knows, he messes around out of boredom.

Just because a few kids work well in a traditional environment doesn't mean we should hold those kids back, but we do. And likewise slower learning kids who could be exceptional at subjects are rushed through school and declared 'slow' or we blame the parents or homework etc for their lack of apparent intelligence.

<comment><USER14> You're not wrong... but doing that right, over an entire population is really hard. I think there is some attempt to do this in many schools. Kids skip grades, kids stay back. There's honors programs and remedial programs.

Honestly, I think the main reason we aren't doing better educating our kids is because no one wants to pay for it. Education is expensive. Rigorous testing of methodologies and re-educating teachers is expensive. We pay our teachers a pittance... I don't know how anyone expects education to be great when we aren't trying to attract brilliant people with high salaries.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: How do you filter Hacker News? - <AUTHOR>

I just glanced at my RSS Reader stats and was a bit horrified to see that I am sent over 100 items per day from Hacker News. Many of those items are duplicate or dead stories that still make it into the RSS feed. I would love a lightweight version of the Hacker News feed that only shows items above a certain threshold (say, 20 points).<p>I can't believe everyone here does this filtering manually. What do you do to separate the wheat from the chaff? <comment><USER2> I have come to the conclusion that RSS is definitely not the optimal way to interact with HN.

If I have only a minute, I check the front page to see what the big stories are. If I have more than a minute, I check the "new page" and try to do my bit by upvoting anything interesting (maybe 3-4 stories) and answer any "Ask HNs" that are in danger of languishing. If I have even more time, I'll read the comments on the front page and, a la xkcd, make sure nobody is wrong on the internet :-)

In fact, I spend relatively little time actually reading original submissions, unless I am multitasking with something else.

</comment><comment><USER3> I check a few times a day, as my schedule permits and try to up vote interesting submissions. If a large crowd only looked at stories after they were highly ranked, how would any stories ever get highly ranked?

</comment><comment><USER4> Shameless self-plug, but I love this greasemonkey script I built and still use it across 3 machines. Pretty much you enter your tags/watchwords and it does a string match. It's very simple (I taught myself jQuery to write it) but I can't live without it.

<http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/65211>

</comment><comment><USER5> I was having the same issue so I created a simple site that polls the site every 2 minutes and attributes points according to where in the top 30 a story was located and maintains the rankings for every day.

It is ridiculously simple, but I find I have a much better experience with HN content while using it and the top benefit is that I can afford to miss a day or two and still manage to not miss anything. Check it out! It may (or may not) prove to be useful for you too. Also, no ads or similar annoying stuff. :)

<http://hnrecap.com>

P.S. It is currently a bit messed up (stories are entered multiple times in the table) because of how (poorly!) I handled articles that make it across many days in the hour that it took me to code it. I will fix that ASAP and add support to view the recap for past dates and search the site.

</comment><comment><USER6> When I'm busy, I usually skim through the front page and click on links with titles that are very relevant and interesting to me (things that are related to programming languages I use, etc). If I notice a story has been getting a lot of upvotes and I keep reading the title because it persists on the front page (for a day or two), then I will finally read the content. Throughout the day, I look through new submissions and vote up as necessary.

</comment><comment><USER7> If I have time to check an rss reader, I don't mind the cost for opening HN, it's a fast loading page and the scoring metrics help filter great stories. So I'm a manual filterer

If I were to automate filtering here, I'd scrape the first page once a day

</comment><comment><USER8> I skip the RSS reader for HN and use the Twitter feed. The rest of the time I'll check in on the main page occasionally.

<http://twitter.com/newsycombinator>

<comment><USER9> I've found the Twitter feed useful to get the most highly ranked articles, but every few days I'll take a quick 5 minute break from coding to look through some of the new posts.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I don't check HN at all when working on anything that I own myself.

</comment><comment><USER11> I just log in and scan the posts when I take a coffee break. Quick and easy for me.

</comment><comment><USER12> I don't. I just glimpse the list and click on whatever I like.</comment>


The best Present and Future alternatives to the iPad - <AUTHOR> http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/02/ipass-the-best-present-and-future-alternatives-to-the-apple-ipa/

<comment><USER2> Back in 2004 I got my first Tablet PC, compaq t1000. Later I ditched it and got myself a Sony VGN-UX90PS. My experience after 6 years of tablets: they suck. The interface is terrible to use starting from XP-Tablet Edition, to Windows 7. It is just like a laptop, but too small, to complicated. The iPad will not have the same fault. But I believe, for Apples success the interface will matter much less than the kick-ass content 3rd party developers provide. If I could have all Iphone/Ipad programs on my windows tablet, I would not switch.

</comment><comment><USER3> Let me sum them up for you: there isn't any.

Just like the iPhone when it appeared, there really is no rival to the experience iPad offers, to its hardware+software+touch combo.

The closest it MAY come, could be Android, someday. Again, just like with the iPhone.

<comment> PG-13 The iPhone was huge because it was such a huge leap and unexpected departure from previous phones. It created awe and generated desire from the moment it was unveiled. It was obvious to those who get tech that the iPhone would be huge.

People who underestimated the iPhone are now overcompensating by being bullish on the iPad because they fail to understand that these are not the same thing. The unveiling of the iPad did not engender any of the feelings of awe that iPhone's did. Apple unveiled the worst tablet device they possibly could have. It was completely predictable. Every usage we've seen of the iPad has involved someone contorting his body to accommodate the device.

The iPhone offered a users things they didn't think were possible with a phone, and these were things they clearly wanted. The iPad offers users nothing they can't do using a laptop. It is an attempt at forcing a style of usage onto users that is clearly undesirable.

People will try to hype this thing and pretend they like it for as long as possible, but one can only sustain a lie for so long. This will be the end of the aura that Apple has been building for the past decade. It is clear as night and day.

<comment><USER4> I don't know if it will be a hit or not, but I started becoming uncomfortable when the biggest touted "feature" in the keynote appeared to be the number of people's credit cards that Apple had on file. That didn't sound like a typical Steve "bicycle for the mind" Jobs thing to repeatedly dwell on. Certainly doesn't excite me as a gadget consumer.

<comment><USER5> I watched the keynote and can't say that I heard it repeatedly dwelled upon. Where was it mentioned?

<comment><USER4> Screenshot of slide:

[http://obamapacman.com/2010/01/official-steve-jobs-apple- ipa...](http://obamapacman.com/2010/01/official-steve-jobs-apple-ipad-keynote- video/90-24-over-125-million-itunes-accounts-with-credit-cards-ipad-keynote- official-steve-jobs-apple-ipad-keynote-video/)

<comment><USER5> They mentioned it in one slide, did they mention it anywhere else? That was my point.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Anyone who compares the iPad with a netbook, arguing the netbook has a faster CPU, better price or whatever, simply does not get it.

<comment><USER7> "You just don't get it" is the new "magical", isn't it.

<comment><USER6> Let me put it this way: How do you think Apple has become as big and successful as it is today, despite always releasing products that are technically inferior (ie. Mhz/megapixel/megawhatever) and often more expensive than the competition? Could there me more to a product than the hardware specs?

<comment><USER8> How many people pre-ordered one of these without ever touching or seeing one?

Oh right, lots. That's how Apple became big again. People buying stuff sight unseen.

<comment><USER9> And how many of those people have an iPhone and were able to do the extrapolation: "This multitouch is great with the Apps and the App store. What if we could have a bigger screen with that?"

I was posting that idea _well_ before the iPad was anything more than a rumor.

<comment><USER8> You are right, the presence of good product in the marketplace tends to feed on itself.

However, I think a good argument could be made that the first generation or so of iPods were sold sight unseen to a public with a fairly large number of mp3 players in the same marketplace. Few people remember that the original iPod was _supposed_ to be a driver of consumers to the Macintosh platform. For a pretty long time you couldn't use one on any other platform other than a Macintosh.

iPhones sold well because the competition in the marketplace wasn't really all that great. Palm hadn't really done anything interesting in the years prior and Windows mobile has always been a joke. But remember the long lines of people trying to buy up a dozen or so iPhones _at the original price_ sight unseen? I remember one lady standing outside a store with a stack of cash trying to buy phones off of people who got one for 2x the original purchase price.

And exactly like those two items, the iPad has people lined up getting as many as possible because their iPhones are so awesome. Even though the logic of blowing up a phone app onto a tablet makes little sense, and the iPad actually demonstrates a reduction in capability over the iPhone (no camera, seriously?).

I'd wager that it'll be just enough that people will slurp up the next version that'll have a camera and USB even though they already own the original.

The problem that people have is not that the iPad is a good product or not, it's that people are buying it without having any idea what it's like beyond "it's a bigger iPhone". If some other vendor had come out with _exactly_ the same product, they wouldn't have flocked to it, because it's sight unseen. But stick an Apple logo on it, and have Jobs sit in a chair fiddling with it for 5 minutes, and it's sold out before it even hits the stores.

<comment><USER9> Well, from what I can tell, this is as slick or slicker than every other tablet, and no one else can match the App Store iTunes ecosystem.

As I said before, extra screen real estate has a nonlinear effect on UIs. It's far more than a bigger iPhone already, and this is just a start.

<comment><USER8> I wholeheartedly agree that the execution of the iPad is superior to other tablets.

I'm just not sure it's been demonstrated yet that tablet computing is a "good idea" (TM).

<comment><USER9> The success of the Kindle gets you 1/4th of the way there. I think Apple has a chance for a game changer with this.

<comment><USER8> honest question, do you think that Apple wouldn't have built the iPad if not for the Kindle?

<comment><USER9> No. I think the iPhone multitouch (truly intuitive interface advance) plus the App Store (walled garden combining a significant degree of safety and convenience with usefully harnessed market forces) pointed the way to this. By mentioning the Kindle, I was replying to your comment.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> No matter how good the iPad may be or _is_ , it doesn't replace my laptop! Good try though.

<comment><USER11> I think that's the point. Apple wants you to buy a Macbook _and_ an iPad.

The advantage of the iPad that most of these alternatives lack is that it's light enough to hold in one hand while reading or viewing content.

<comment><USER10> I think the MacBook Pro 15" is pretty light already, I'm already content with it. If I were to get an iPad, it would be like a downgrade, at least that's how I would feel about it.

<comment><USER5> I would never be able to replace my laptop with an iPad, simply because I'm a software developer. But I'd certainly buy it as a portable mail, web browsing, movie and ebook device, which just happens to fill all of my parents computing needs.

So while it's not going to be my main device, I certainly see it as being a competitor to the traditional laptop for a MOST people.

Most of all, I think Apple has managed to get the "magic" right once again. I never told my parents that they should buy iPhones, but they did after trying mine, and they are very happy (I'd never thought that my mother would start browsing the web and sending emails, but it's happened thanks to the iPhone).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Yet, I'm standing here outside the Boston apple store waiting in line, MacBook pro in my bag, checking my news on my iPhone. Honestly, the real reason I'm getting an iPad today is because I thought I would enjoy playing with it, not because it would replace any of my netbooks/laptops/smart phones.

</comment><comment><USER13> The current iPad is just a start. Just like the original iPod was a start and the original iPhone was a start. Apple is already hard at work rolling a bigger snowball with the iPad foundation.

</comment><comment><USER14> The iPad and other tablets will always be made a specification lower than a laptop. Why? So consumers spend more $$ buying the full range of products on the line.

</comment><comment><USER15> I want something that can replace my phone and laptop, I think this could probably be accomplished by a tablet you could fit in either a shoulder sling or a large pocket, coupled with a bluetooth headset.

Of course you wouldn't want to be talking into the thing, but as a platform for handling calls I can't see why a tablet shouldn't be able to act as the brain for a bt headset.

This way I could just have the tablet + a powerful desktop at home for "real work".

<comment><USER4> That seems like exactly the kind of thing that Apple wouldn't do because it's too geeky and niche and distracts from the product vision even though the hardware and software are probably all there already.

Then again, I'm kind of shocked that you can get a physical keyboard for the iPad, so we shouldn't rule anything out. I'd expect this feature first from someone else though.

<comment><USER15> Which is why I'm interested in alternatives to the iPad, because yeah, I agree with you, this is something Apple would not do.

Even if they would, I don't buy apple ever anyway.</comment></comment></comment>


Linear algebra for game developers  - <AUTHOR> http://blog.wolfire.com/2009/07/linear-algebra-for-game-developers-part-1/ <comment><USER2> I've just re-read what I've said, and while I'm going to leave it as written, I'd ask please not to take it the wrong way. My background is in pure math, so my understanding and expectation is different from most people here.

So ...

I'm surprised to see this sort of thing described as "Linear Algebra" because to me it's just utterly basic vectors, pretty much the first 20 minutes of the Linear Algebra course I did. I've always been confused in the past when people have said that learning linear algebra is critical to games and similar, but if this is what they meant, the confusion is largely cleared.

So I'd ask the HN community:

* Is this what you all mean by Linear Algebra?

* What other topics do you want to know about?

Many thanks in advance, I always welcome the opportunity to learn, even when painful at the time.

<comment><USER3> This is an awesome thread.

Since you asked:

Give me the shortest path in Khan videos, reading assignments, and exercises to LLL lattice reduction starting at "the first 20 minutes of a linear algebra class".

(You asked! Lattice basis reduction is used in several practical RSA attacks).

<comment><USER2> OK, I really don't know much about the LLL since it was invented at the time I was studying LinAlg and never got as far as our course work. It was being used by Conway, Norton and Parker when I was doing my PhD, so I heard something of it, but never implemented it, as I was working in a different area.

However ...

Here's (some/most of) my understanding.

We're working in R^n, and suppose you have n linearly independent vectors b_1 to b_n with integer coefficients in the obvious basis. These vectors span R^n, but you need to use real numbers as coefficients to do that. If you only take linear combinations using integer coefficients then you get a lattice in R^n.

Exercise: Prove that (1,5) and (2,3) are linearly independent in R^2

Exercise: plot a portion of the lattice spanned by (1,5) and (2,3) in R^2.

The same lattice might also be spanned by different vectors, and in particular, you may be able to find a collection of shorter vectors that span the same space.

Exercise: Find two shorter vectors v1 and v2 that span the same lattice as the one above.

The new vectors must also be in the same lattice, and so must be representable as an integer linear combination of the original vectors.

Exercise: Represent v1 and v2 as linear combinations of (1,5) and (2,3)

Basically LLL consists of a measurement of how well you're doing so far, and a way of replacing one of your existing vectors with a linear combination so as to make your collection improve.

I'll stop there - ask more questions if anything is unclear.

<comment><USER3> I understood much of this! :)

So then my next question is, relative to the whole of linear algebra, how advanced/deep/engaged-with-the-field is the LLL algorithm? Is this first- course-in-linear-algebra stuff? Is this "barely linear algebra" stuff?

<comment><USER2> As I understand it, the actual algorithm is very straight-forward. There were several clever things that had to come together to have it work:

* Define some concept of how good you can expect things to get

* Find some way of improving what you've got

* Prove that you get to within some distance of "the best"

* Prove that it terminates in polynomial time.

I've not see the details of the proofs - they're likely to be mildly difficult, with a very nasty details. But I don't think they're especially deep. The _really_ deep bit was getting the exact formulation right to make it work.

Things like the spectral theorems, diagonalization, eigenvalues and eigenvectors, these are all deeper results that have far-reaching implications. For example, the reason that when you tap the rim of a coffee- cup you get two different notes, blends of those notes, and no other notes is to do with eigenvectors.

Similarly for why Fourier transforms work (in part) the way they do. The reasons that the Sine and Cosine functions form an infinite-dimensional basis for the linear space of non-pathological functions, for example, let us then deal with frequency space as a dual space of function space.

These are deeper.

<comment><USER4> Your coffee cup example - if math were taught more that way rather than a dry list of mechanical actions I think less people would dread it. I have nothing but hatred and horrible memories towards my grade school maths education.

I can only study this stuff in my spare time so my knowledge is very patchy. But when I see stuff like eigenvectors I associate them towards a much more powerful concept of invariance - which I see everywhere. Recursion, programming, Machine Learning, dynamical systems, physics. And I feel on the edge of an epiphany but do not have sufficient knowledge to fully grasp it.

But it makes me think that all these things that appear over and over again in different guises, the subject is taught far too inefficiently. I feel there is a much simpler way to teach maths and have it flow and be holistic rather than a replay of history: disjointed and disconnected.

<comment><USER2> This is one of the reasons I'm creating a web site intended to show the connections between topics, and through that, how wide-spread the applications of the mathematical ideas are. Math should be taught with connections, applications, examples, demonstrations and, above all, by knowledgeable and enthusiastic teachers. Most high-school teachers don't know more than they have to teach, don't know the connections between topics, and don't have time to deviate from the prescribed curriculum.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Very nice.

Linear algebra really is the bread & butter of game programming.

Showing the theory alongside examples of how it's actually used to make games 'do stuff' should be very helpful to those getting started. I could have really used a simple set of examples like this when I was first getting a sprite to flit about the screen.

Keep them coming :)

</comment><comment><USER6> I would recommend following this blog if you like to see impressive progress and tech that no other game can show (from what i've seen)

</comment><comment><USER7> If people are interested in learning about vectors in a visual programming environment, then I highly recommend this tutorial on 2D vectors by Daniel Shiffman (of processing fame) <http://processing.org/learning/pvector/>

</comment><comment><USER8> Ah, I missed you by 8 hours in posting this.</comment>