Sony releases the Holy Grail: A flexible e-ink screen - <AUTHOR> http://techgeekforever.wordpress.com/2014/03/28/sony-releases-the-holy-grail-a-flexible-e-ink-screen/ <comment><USER2> Meanwhile, today I get an email from Sony saying that their Reader store closed on March 20, and that it has ceded its customers to Kobo, which spawned from Canada's Chapters Indigo. [0]

While this tech may be notable, Sony continues to have a fatally misaligned device/content strategy.

[0] [http://www.kobobooks.com/SonyMigrate](http://www.kobobooks.com/SonyMigrate)

<comment><USER3> What is wrong with just offering a reader without forcing its users to also buy the books from the same source?

I own a Sony reader and I actually enjoy that it is not tightly bundled with a bookstore.

<comment><USER2> Sure - and I think Sony e-readers were even among the first to allow side- loading of non-DRM ebooks.

The problem is the economics. There just haven't been financially successful examples of standalone readers, and Sony has been no exception.

Amazon can offer cheap Kindles because they can sell ebooks onto the devices directly and make money from content. Apple can charge more for their books because people are bought-in to their iPad investment, and because competitors have to pay Apple 30% to sell directly on to an iOS device.

Sony, meanwhile, continues to fail to bring an integrated value proposition to the market. Everything with them involves friction, compared to the competition. Last time I was at CES, I couldn't even find a Sony reader in their booth.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> As I've been reading the coverage of this product throughout the day, the price seems to be the biggest drawback everyone focuses on, and I agree that $1100 is overpriced for what this product is offering. I got the sense from several articles that $1100 would be way overpriced for _any_ e-reader.

Because of the huge number of PDF files in larger paper sizes that I have, I'd happily pay $1500 for this if in addition to it's features it: 1. wasn't made by Sony, 2. was color (to about early 1990s Newspaper quality), 3. was unlocked (different OS could be installed, etc)

<comment><USER5> It's a premium price that's partly for early adopters to show off, but when you can read and write Japanese on it (as shown in the product video) the deal is basically made. Lawyers will flock to this in droves, not least because it will be a deductible business expense. The color will be irrelevant to them and the Sony brand will actually be an asset, because they're less concerned about Sony's cool factor than the fact they're in no danger of going out of business.

I know, it's not the most hacker-friendly analysis, but this really is something innovative and will help teh technology towards becoming ubiquitous.

<comment><USER6> > when you can read and write Japanese on it the deal is basically made

Why is this the deal maker? I do not read/write japanese so maybe I am missing something obvious.[^1] Is writing/reading japanese with pen/pencil and paper difficult? Is there something that differentiates Japanese reading/writing from Korean? Have there been other tablets that worked with western scripts but not Japanese?

[^1]: I am assuming we are not talking about handwriting recognition.

<comment><USER6> Downvoted for asking a legitimate question. Who does that? I could care less about the karma but in light of the pending comments change this is very troublesome.

<comment><USER5> I gave you an extra upvote. I hate it when that happens and thought your question was entirely legitimate - my original comment was a bit vague.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Not really, I've played with one an the enclosure is pretty rigid. It flexes but it's not like you can fold it and half and then smooth it out. I'm still waiting on that. Also the resolution leaves something to be desired at that size.

<comment><USER8> Would the best analogy be something like a 5.25" floppy, where it wiggles a bit but bending it into a U-shape would wreck it?

<comment><USER7> This is much thicker than that. No, if I remember correctly it's really more like a large, thin hardback, like a children's book. Sorry I can't be more specific, I only held it for a few moments, and they could easily have altered the design or simply had an old prototype out.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> This technology is really cool, too bad it seems like there wasn't much thought put into making an appealing product out of it. Just imagine how much more you could do with a flexible display, rather than just reading PDFs and writing notes. From the video, the UI looks mediocre, and this is just a guess, but I wouldn't expect the software to be great. It feels like Sony just wrapped up a really cool hardware prototype in a shell and decided to sell it, but the whole thing lacks any sort of polish. I can't wait for someone who cares about the details of a product to get a hold of flexible e-ink screens.

</comment><comment><USER10> Attach it to a keyboard. Screen is big enough to code at the beach.

Isn't what I wanted Mirasol to be, but looks like a damn fine refinement of e-ink.

<comment><USER11> sand in the keyboard though...

<comment><USER12> Hook up one of those new projected keyboards, and I think it'll be ready.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I don't understand why a flexible e-ink screen is desirable if its cost doesn't approach that of paper – and it's safe to say it won't for a very long time. If it's (relatively) expensive, you want to reuse it, and so it will need a rigid enclosure. Apart from bending around shallow radiuses for gently curved displays and the like, am I having a failure of imagination?

<comment><USER5> Imagine you already deal with a great amount of paper by necessity. You can put it in a binder, bend it out of the way to get at physical documents behind it, use it as a live index to other things and so on. It would be perfect for lawyers in court, where you don't necessarily wish to have a laptop on the table r a device that you hold up, but you do have to deal with massive amounts of paper and would like an electronic tool that substituted/integrated as seamlessly as possible into that environment.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> This is just an initial release/prototype. Pretty sure it will improve with time. Glad to see Sony breaking new ground and also glad that e-ink technology is improving.

<comment><USER15> No, it's being offered for sale....

<comment><USER16> So is the Rift

<comment> nezza-_- The Rift _devkit_.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> It does not matter how much it costs now. Simple facts that it is possible and technology to produce it exists are important. Within a few years economy of scale and technology optimizations will bring flexible e-ink at affordable price.

<comment><USER12> This, technology always starts out expensive and impractical. Through mass production and refinement, it becomes practical and useful. Now that it's confirmed possible and somewhat practical, more funding and research is likely to be directed toward it.

<comment><USER18> It's funny, almost every argument against this e-reader I've read here today I also read when sony released it's first e-reader, well in advance of the kindle. I bought it anyway and had no regrets.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Still in major need of a refresh rate boost. Especially with stylus input. It would be near-impossible to write at a reasonable speed when the screen takes so long to refresh.

<comment><USER20> I was pretty upset with it's performance as a writing pad, having 100ms response times, maybe even higher. Even if I didn't have 3 week battery, I'd prefer <35ms draw times so it feels 1-to-1 with the input.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> 1200×1600 greyscale and 13.3" is great, but I feel that 'flexible' is a lower priority than 'not $1100'.

<comment><USER22> that is only if you haven't broken a few e-ink screens already :)

As soon as I saw this I thought "no way anyone sensible is buying this, it will break in a week".

Factoring this in, a rigid screen would have probably meant "unsellable".

<comment><USER23> Use a case? Include a free fake leather case with every purchase?

I've had zero problems with my Kindle screens, but I've never dropped them.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> This looks awesome. I love the ability to write on e-ink. But is flexibility a feature or a bug of paper? What is the benefit of a non-rigid e-ink display for these types of use cases?

<comment><USER25> > But is flexibility a feature or a bug of paper?

This is interesting. I hadn't thought of it from this perspective. If perhaps, down the line of course, you could roll it up like a taquito then you could put it in your pocket.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> I actually want/need a digital sketchpad, and while I do read/annotate PDFs, this is not what I would do the majority of the time.

If this device would be hackable (run linux on it), I would find so many use cases for it that I could justify the price in a heartbeat.

Somehow, being a device from Sony, I expect this reader to be a piece of junk software-wise, to the point that I wouldn't be surprised that you need to convert the PDF into something else and use custom clients just to exchange files.

I hope I will be wrong.

<comment><USER27> If you want a cheap digital sketchpad, look at the Boogie Board LCD slates. They're nowhere near as good as a proper graphics tablet, but you can draw and save stuff on them. High end model is around $100, other models more like $30.

<comment><USER26> I really want an e-ink screen, otherwise paper is still a better option for me. Price is not really an issue if the screen delivers.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> This might be very useful for reading academic papers, because most of the time people scribble notes while reading.

It's funny how having solved the battery problem (3 weeks on one charge), they still can't solve the speed problem (1 sec to refresh the page).

</comment><comment><USER12> Wow, that's cool as hell. Even though it's $1100, it's new technology, and subsequent iterations will likely be much cheaper (and will probably have support for color).

</comment><comment><USER29> Is there a source for this that isn't blogspam?

<comment><USER15> [http://www.worldox.com/news/sony-digital-paper- worldox](http://www.worldox.com/news/sony-digital-paper-worldox) and [http://www.sony.com/digitalpaper](http://www.sony.com/digitalpaper)

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> wait, this device is literally flexible as in bendable like paper? that's what the article makes it sound like, but it doesn't seem to be true based on the product page:

[http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/cat-digitalpaper/cat- digitalpap...](http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/cat-digitalpaper/cat- digitalpapersub/product-DPTS1/)

<comment> shawn-furyan I think that it's the display that's flexible, not the device. I suppose that you could potentially do a Chromecast style computer in a kind of bump enclosure at the bottom of the back of the display to retain flexibility (though I don't think that there's enough detail to determine if there are other issues with such an approach). They however seem to be using a traditional rigid enclosure for the prototype.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> At $8.95 apiece, $1100 can buy you 122 mass-market paperbacks. I certainly hope that someone can bring that retail price down a fair chunk, or this tech is not going far.

<comment><USER32> This is not meant for reading paperbacks. A kindle paperwhite, at $120, is a far better choice for that.

This is for reading and annotating documents, and generally replacing paper in an office or academic setting. Given then number of research papers I've printed out (thousands and thousands of pages), I can see a huge use for this. It may still not be cost effective, but is still much more environmentally friendly and saves the hassle of keeping track of all of that paper.

The paperless office has been an idea for several decades, but without devices like this that allow easy reading and annotation, we haven't been able to get there.

<comment><USER31> For research papers... maybe 50 pages including technical graphics? With a monochrome laser printer, we'll give a very high estimate of $0.10 per page, or $5 per paper. That's still 220 papers to break even, at least, and only one person can use it at a time, unlike the printer, which can be shared for the whole office.

My home printer is over 10 years old, and I still don't think I have spent more than $800 on it during that time, including consumables.

And I would recommend the Kobo Glo/Aura over the Paperwhite for paperbacks. The MicroSD card slot alone is worth it.

<comment><USER33> > For research papers... maybe 50 pages including technical graphics? With a > monochrome laser printer, we'll give a very high estimate of $0.10 per page, > or $5 per paper. That's still 220 papers to break even

Okay, so, yes, its cheaper to print paper than to carry a letter-sized, write- on-it, ereader.

OTOH, its a _lot_ more convenient to carry one ereader if you have a lot of stuff to view than it is to carry a stack of books/research papers/etc.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> How exactly is this a MVP?</comment>


Ask HN: A guy asked why "write the same 1000 times". How to proceed? - <AUTHOR> Hi!
I'm a developer and I created some time ago a library called Jimple - a dependency injection container for NodeJS using ES6.
Now, another developer created a issue in Jimple's repository asking "Why to make hundred the same things in NPM ?" and "why to write the same 1000 times?".
Well, I made an answer, sent as comment and closed the issue with some views I have about the opensource community and how great it is today because of these views, however, I think some other opinions is nice to:
1. Make a bigger and better discussion about that subject; 2. Explain to people how the opensource community works; 3. Explain to people why the way it works now is not so bad as it seems;
The issue is here: https://github.com/fjorgemota/jimple/issues/7 - remember that my comment reflect MY opinions about that subject.
What you think about that?
Thanks, at all. :)
PS: this is my first post at Hacker News, and I think that it's a great place to discussions like that. I have not found other discussion related to that subject and I know that my english is really poor..Sorry about that. <comment><USER2> > What you think about that?

There are plenty of interesting ideas that could use development (e.g. topic map engine or log storage, from top of my mind), because they either have only one open source implementation or are only implemented for one platform (Java) that often is a deal breaker. Publishing _yet another_ tiny library that is not different in any meaningful way from its competition is just pointless. (Just writing, on the other hand, is a good learning exercise. But one doesn't need to publish everything he's ever written.)

And there's the thing about porting things to a different language. It rarely leads to pretty results, mainly because the author structures the code in the way that is idiomatic for the _original_ language, not the target. Unless it's a really big library, retaining original structure is unimportant.</comment>


Pebble releases SDK 2.0 with accelerometer and JavaScript APIs - <AUTHOR> https://developer.getpebble.com/blog/2013/11/06/A-New-Era-of-Apps/

<comment><USER2> Biggest wins (in my opinion):

\- Persistent storage of up to 4K of data on the watch per app. Storage is a key/value dictionary. No single value may exceed 256 bytes. (Keys are 32 bit integers.)

\- New JavaScript framework. Allows running of custom js in a sandbox on the Official Pebble Iphone app

      * Supports communicating (bi-directional at all times) between a Watch App and an Android/iPhone javascript companion app.
      * Supports HTML5 local storage (on the iPhone)
      * Supports location APIs (via HTML5 navigaor.geolocation)
      * Supports web requests (JavaScript's XMLHttpRequest())
      * Supports sending a simple title/text notification to the watch
      * Supports opening a webview on the phone inside the Official Pebble App and the ability to pass a string message back to the JavaScript app when the view is subsequently closed.

</comment><comment><USER3> We'll also start hosting weekly open labs where developers can come hack with us and get help on projects at Pebble HQ starting in early December. Stay tuned to the blog for more details!

<comment><USER4> That's awesome. I got my Pebble on Kickstarter, but I've been too busy with school and work to work on a project. SDK2 is just the pick-me-up I need, and I'm really interseted in lab hours too.

I just created a hello-world project on cloudpebble.net, but my initial build is failing:

      ../src/main.c:1:23: fatal error: pebble_os.h: No such file or directory
      compilation terminated.
      Waf: Leaving directory `/tmp/tmpIc8vSE/build'
      Build failed

<comment><USER3> In the latest build, you no longer need to #include all of the individual files, #include <pebble.h> is all you need

<comment><USER4> Awesome, thank you. I think that the cloudpebble.net template for SDK2 needs to be updated. I created this thing like 15 minutes ago: now build errors, from a newly created project, with the pebble_. _\\.h files replaced with pebble.h are:

      ../src/main.c:6:1: note: #pragma message:

         *** PBL_APP_INFO has been replaced with appinfo.json
         Try updating your project with `pebble convert-project`
         Visit our developer guides to learn more about appinfo.json:
         http://developer.getpebble.com/2/guides/creating-pebble-watchapps.html

      ../src/main.c:10:0: error: ignoring #pragma GCC error [-Werror=unknown-pragmas]
      ../src/main.c:15:18: error: unknown type name 'AppContextRef'
      ../src/main.c: In function 'pbl_main':
      ../src/main.c:24:3: error: unknown type name 'PebbleAppHandlers'
      ../src/main.c:25:5: error: field name not in record or union initializer
      ../src/main.c:25:5: error: (near initialization for 'handlers')
      ../src/main.c:25:22: error: 'handle_init' undeclared (first use in this function)
      ../src/main.c:25:22: note: each undeclared identifier is reported only once for each function it appears in
      ../src/main.c:27:3: error: too many arguments to function 'app_event_loop'

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Doesn't look like it's actually released yet (RC4)

[https://developer.getpebble.com/2/](https://developer.getpebble.com/2/)

Pebble SDK 2.0 is currently in BETA and intended for developers only.

SDK 2.0 will be released later this year as an over-the-air update to all Pebble users.

<comment><USER3> Fixed

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> And now I'm going to buy one.

</comment><comment><USER7> Darn, just as mine started getting garbled graphics every day. Time to RMA :)

<comment><USER8> I was having similar problems as well. I sent them some emails about it, but they kept asking for more pictures and I just got frustrated with the process. It doesn't happen all of the time and I'm not really doing anything crazy with the watch, so I've just been kind of dealing with it.

<comment><USER9> my RMA process was similar - a barrage of tests + pictures with a week or two for every response (or lack there of). Luckily, after a month of this i got the replacement, but terribly frustrating nonetheless.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> When will the Pebble2 come out?

</comment><comment> hidden-markov Can it run MongoDB?</comment>


Ask HN: Matasano Crypto Challenge - <AUTHOR>

Used to be available here : http://matasano.com/articles/crypto-challenges/ is no more :( <comment><USER2> Our admin moved servers, and I wrote this page quickly and outside of version control, so it didn't move with the server. This wasn't deliberate.

Having said that: we're making an announcement about the crypto challenges today (all good stuff). If you were already in the challenges, you'll get it; otherwise, you may need to wait a month or so.

<comment><USER2> Of course, this is exactly what I would say if I had been NSL'd.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> [http://web.archive.org/web/20140213141638/http://www.matasan...](http://web.archive.org/web/20140213141638/http://www.matasano.com/articles/crypto- challenges/)

<comment><AUTHOR> yes, but does the challenge-rsp-challenge thing still work ?</comment></comment>


Attacking a co-hosted VM: A hacker, a hammer and two memory modules - <AUTHOR> https://thisissecurity.stormshield.com/2017/10/19/attacking-co-hosted-vm-hacker-hammer-two-memory-modules/ <comment><USER2> VMware has been disabling their inter-VM memory deduplication (TPS) since 6.0 to avoid exactly these kinds of attacks. You can of course re-enable it, if you want, and I've seen situations where its value far outpaced the potential risk.

It also looks like ECC greatly reduces the potential for this to be exploited.

</comment><comment><USER3> Doesn't this enable ksm, instead of disabling it like the article suggests?

      echo 1 > /sys/kernel/mm/ksm/run

<comment><USER4> I think you're right. From the documentation [1]:

      set 0 to stop ksmd from running but keep merged pages,
      set 1 to run ksmd e.g. "echo 1 > /sys/kernel/mm/ksm/run",
      set 2 to stop ksmd and unmerge all pages currently merged,
          but leave mergeable areas registered for next run
      Default: 0 (must be changed to 1 to activate KSM,
                 except if CONFIG_SYSFS is disabled)

[1] [https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/vm/ksm.txt](https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/vm/ksm.txt)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Is ECC memory enough to counter this?

<comment><USER6> Similarly, is doubling the DRAM refresh rate still sufficient?

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Wouldn't the VM software itself using ASLR and running the VM in jails, such as firejail for Linux, reduce the risks?

</comment><comment><USER8> I hate this scroll jacking nonsense so much

<comment><USER9> I mostly browse in Safari Reader mode. No highjacking, popup, dickbar, etc. Looks and reads a lot better too.

<comment><USER10> As soon as grey-on-white shows up, I tap the reader mode button. Firefox, Safari, Chrome (via Just Read).

If that doesn't take care of it, they can't have wanted me to read it.

<comment><USER11> I hit the "DT" icon I put next to my address bar. Doesn't work on all elements but if they're using <p> properly it'll make the text nice and dark

[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/darken- text/kmonkh...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/darken- text/kmonkhbnghcmlhgbmlpagpapfomioidg?hl=en-US)

Definitely going to give that Just Read extension a go

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> TL;DR - Host on a VM, get hacked sooner or later.

<comment><USER13> That's not what the article says. The article says that with a specific attack, one can change memory bits in running applications to which one should not have access. This application could be a VM, or any other type of application.

<comment><USER14> I think the point of GP is rather that VPS shared hosting is ubiquitous, i.e. "host on a shared machine, get hacked sooner or later".

<comment><USER15> I don't think that is a valid conclusion.

This is a pretty sophisticated attack requiring a lot of stuff to fall into place (such as being provisioned on the same machine as the target), and even though it is technically quite impressive I doubt it is a frequent enough occurrence that you could conclude that if you host on a shared machine you're going to get hacked sooner or later.

The chances of being hacked through some simpler and more direct vector are a lot larger.

<comment><USER12> You're assuming targeted hacking. I'm not - lots of people hunt for machines to add to their botnets.

<comment><USER15> Yes, and even in that case the best approach would be to pluck the low hanging fruit, of which there is plenty.

Even botnet operators are aiming for the best ROI they can get.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> All of this stuff coming to light and all while organisations are moving sensitive data into the cloud. Ouch.

<comment><USER17> On-premise, with or without VMs, does not safe you from rowhammer, however. That's just another use case, and not really surprising. Since you can modify RAM, there aren't borders really.

<comment><USER18> True, but at least in the general case you control your adjacent VMs.

<comment><USER16> Exactly, its easy to get a VM on any of the major platforms and poke around to see what might be going on in the same host as you.

<comment><USER12> At least one of the big hosters even lets you have VMs for free for a couple of days (you get your money back if you cancel). That's more than enough time for an automated process to check out tons of VMs (to add to your botnet) for free.</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment>


Opportunities In The Patent-Free Zone  - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/01/opportunities-in-the-patent-free-zone/

<comment><AUTHOR> Take the iPhone as an example: it has over 1000 patents; yet Apple does not apply for patent protection in countries like Peru, Ghana, or Ecuador, or, for that matter, in most of the developing world. So entrepreneurs could use these patent filings to gain information to make an iPhone-like device that solves the unique problems of these countries. Apple has so far received 3287 U.S.-issued patents and has 1767 applications pending: a total of 5054 (for all of its products). Yet it has filed for only about 300 patents in China and has been issued 19. In India, it has filed only 38 patent applications and has received four patents. In Mexico it has filed for 109 and received 59 patents. So even India, China, and Mexico are wide-open fields</comment>


What are the most useful chrome extensions? - <AUTHOR>

<comment><USER2> AdBlock: [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/adblock/gighmmpiob...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/adblock/gighmmpiobklfepjocnamgkkbiglidom)

Image Search: [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/search-by-image- by...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/search-by-image-by- google/dajedkncpodkggklbegccjpmnglmnflm)

Hacker News Infinite Scroll: [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hn- infinite-scroll...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hn-infinite- scroll/kbagbhbmimllhhacbcpongdfenlgdfai)

</comment><comment><USER3> Fireplug, useful to 'get credit' for what you read (think _check-in_ via Foursquare. Track topics you've been reading, how you stack up against other readers, discover content recommended by other 'experts'..

<[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/fireplug/mcdpcejkg...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/fireplug/mcdpcejkgajkhcfceeffmmacnenfpepp) ></comment>


Ask HN: Database Design Templates (or Best Practice Examples) - <AUTHOR> Is there any resource on the internet that shows templates or example of how to design database's for common business functions:
Such as: approvals, billing, user management, double-entry accounting, etc etc.
I realize that businesses and business processes are unique to individual businesses. But there are certain operations or functions that are done basically the same no matter what type of business you are running.
Thanks in advance. <comment><USER2> Have a look at this one: [http://www.databaseanswers.org/data_models/](http://www.databaseanswers.org/data_models/)

<comment><USER3> I think those are a nice start for some MVP system but any one probably would need more fleshing out, especially if you want to make a competitive product.

i.e. in a few of the library datanases, book identifcation using ISBN, ISBNs can change by revision also does not adequately handle tracking multiple copies. But I can see these can give you a glimpse of what datasets you will be concerning yourself with.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> What kind of database? Flat file, column store, graph, relational, document? Will it need to provide realtime information? Will it need to be distributed? Which is more important: consistency or availability?

My point being that "database design" is non-trivial to the point that "cut and paste" is at the application level not the schema level.

Good luck.

</comment><comment><USER5> In terms of data warehousing-the data warehouse toolkit (kimball) book is an excellent resource. It covers models for many business areas and also talks about the transactional models the are coming from.</comment>


HTML5 color palette tool - <AUTHOR> http://color.hailpixel.com/ <comment><USER2> This is great - saved to my bookmark bar. One suggestion, add a save feature which creates a shortlink so people can share pre-made swatches.

<comment><USER3> What's the value of a short link? One of the best parts of this is that if you can read the URL you can get the color hex values.

Send someone the URL and they don't even need to open the link to start using the color values.

<comment><USER2> Aha, when I first posted my comment a few days ago the site didn't seem to have that feature of putting the hex colors in the URL. It's perfect now, you can share links. Exactly what I wanted!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Devin (hailpixel) was my TA for one of my classes at Georgia Tech. He has some other really cool stuff on the labs portion of his website <http://lab.hailpixel.com/>

<comment><USER5> His personal website [0] is delightful.

[0]: <http://hailpixel.com/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> Nice idea, but the back button does not work correctly. It adds columns to the display. I am using Firefox 18.0.1 on Ubuntu 12.10.

<comment><USER7> That's simply because the developer included the sharp symbol in the hash :)

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Can I just reiterate, I didn't make this, this isn't a Show HN - just thought it was great and posted it here. Looking at the site, it looks like <http://twitter.com/hailpixel> is responsible - best direct questions and comments at him :-)

</comment><comment><USER8> I don't know who copied who: <http://color.aurlien.net/>

<comment><USER9> That's like saying Goodfellas was copied from Godfather II. Yeah, they both had De Niro and kinda dealt with the same themes, but they're totally different.

I like the hailpixel version much better.

<comment><USER8> haha, good point. Anyway I just remembered this one as soon as I saw hailpixel. I like hailpixel too, here some thoughts about it: \- copy code to clipboard \- edit previous selected colors

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> This is damn cool. Im just curious as to why the developer, and a lot of developers, dont fully utilize css to handle positioning? Example, when the window resizes, some JS runs. If the colors' containers were percentage-based, the percentage would only need to change when one is added or removed, not when the window is resized. It makes me feel like people dont fully understand how to make certain layouts work without JS (I'm sure this dev does).

<comment><USER11> That is a much smarter way of doing it! This was a weekend hack that I threw together. If I readdress the app, I'll probably rewrite the layout to work that way. Thanks for the suggestion!

<comment><USER10> I try to approach layout with css being "~free" and JS having a substantially higher cost. Not saying that I dont use JS to assist in laying things out, I just look for a css-first solution

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> This is just amazing. I'm going to use this next time I have to design an app. I've always used photoshop to choose what colors I should use in a project and I always end up playing with it for hours, not because I like it, but because I can never find the right colors. With your tool I instantly see what I need!

</comment><comment> jack-r-abbit Cool idea. I really love to concept for being able to pick various colors and see how they work together. One nice feature would be to be able to adjust a color once it has been added to the palette so you can further refine your selections without adding new ones and removing the old ones. But that is a minor thing.

I am getting a scroll bar that doesn't seem necessary. And it acts in a nonsensical manner. When scrolled all the way up, the upper left corner is #000000 and the lower right corner is #FCFCFC. If I scroll all the way down, my lower right corner gets to #FFFAFB and never reaches #FFFFFF. Plus, while scrolled all the way down, the top left is still #000000.

<comment> marco-fiset The scrollbar is used for saturation, click the question mark on the bottom left to see the instructions.

<comment> jack-r-abbit I guess I just don't understand why I can't get to #FFFFFF. Or even close to it unless I scroll.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I usual use <http://colorschemedesigner.com/> with its color circle and matching color sugestions

</comment><comment><USER14> It's not meant for this but a nice side effect is it sure helps calm me down to find a nice color and stare at it for a bit.

</comment><comment><USER15> This just great. This would would be great to the ColourLovers gang :P

Please implement a click on old colours for further ajustments.

</comment><comment><USER16> Pretty cool, but just made me remember the king: <http://0to255.com/>

</comment><comment><USER17> How about always using the whole screen for color selection, instead of the area of the currently selected color? This way a certain color will always be in the same spot on the screen, regardless of how many colors you created, and you can make several variations of a color more easily.

</comment><comment><USER18> cool concept, but not as useful as <https://kuler.adobe.com/> (unfortunately needs flash)

<comment><USER19> With the greatest respect, _unfortunately needs flash_ negates the 'not as useful as...' comment.

<comment><USER20> So true, that's why I use Adobe Color Lava and Palettes Pro on my iPad. [1] [2]

This site is very convenient though, I'll definitely be using it.

[1] <http://www.photoshop.com/products/mobile/colorlava>

[2] <http://www.maddysoft.com/iphone/products.php#palettes>

<comment><USER21> True? We've gone from requiring a browser plugin to requiring an iOS tablet in your examples? leeoniya is correct, this is not as useful as Kuler, despite being an interesting concept. Requiring particular software (Flash, iOS, Windows, HTML5, etc) does not make a tool less useful; perhaps less accessible to some. I'll wager that even this experiment doesn't work on all browsers like Kuler does.

<comment><USER20> _"We've gone from requiring a browser plugin to requiring an iOS tablet in your examples?"_

iOS is one of the major platforms that has no Flash support. That's why I listed alternatives to Kuler for iOS. I wasn't suggesting you should get a tablet just to create color palettes.

 _"I'll wager that even this experiment doesn't work on all browsers like Kuler does."_

Kuler doesn't, that's the problem. It requires the Flash plugin, which isn't available for all browsers (let's not even discuss performance, stability or security).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> After I clicked, new columns were continually added as fast as my browser could render them. Blackberry 9900

</comment><comment><USER23> It would be cool if you added functionality so you could rearrange the columns.

</comment><comment><USER24> Neat. How do I add grays?

<comment><USER20> Scrolling changes the saturation. Scroll all the way up to get grayscales.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> Is there anyone who find the white colour place?

</comment><comment><USER26> hi ! i am a designer .. and i really really appreciate it ! very useful ! (and better than the other tools i know !! : )

</comment><comment><USER27> Really cool stuff! Thanks for sharing.

</comment><comment><USER28> Love it, any code license info?

</comment><comment><USER29> this is f'n awesome

</comment><comment><USER30> this is so damn cool!

</comment><comment><USER31> very beautiful</comment>


It's Now Clear None of the Supposed Benefits of Killing Net Neutrality Are Real - <AUTHOR> https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/gyab5m/its-now-clear-none-of-the-supposed-benefits-of-killing-net-neutrality-are-real <comment><USER2> The public has the same attention span of a goldfish. The rules were never going to work the way everyone assumed.

[https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/09/net-neutrality-fcc- per...](https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/09/net-neutrality-fcc-perils-and- promise)

[http://time.com/82409/wheeler-net-neutrality/](http://time.com/82409/wheeler- net-neutrality/)

[https://www.politico.com/story/2015/02/tom-wheeler-net- neutr...](https://www.politico.com/story/2015/02/tom-wheeler-net- neutrality-114785) [http://time.com/74703/net-neutrality-fcc-rules-plan- angers-a...](http://time.com/74703/net-neutrality-fcc-rules-plan-angers- advocates/)

But then 2016 and suddenly we got hit with an MIB neurolizer and Wheeler was the hero we all wanted, not the shill the lobbyists bought.

<comment><USER3> Except...there was actually a difference between the perceptions of his tenure and his actual tenure...

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Isn't is also clear, in fact more clear, that none of the doomsday scenarios of killing net neutrality were real either?

<comment><USER5> Because states were threatening local versions of NN. But many lawmakers want to take away states rights for that.

<comment><USER6> >Because states were threatening local versions of NN.

Not even a little bit. Do you really believe that?

It's because those scenarios were just as outlandish and uninformed as those against net neutrality.

Premium tweets were never going to be a thing, blocking Netflix unless you pay extra wasn't going to be a thing. It was just drivel.

I honestly feel like half these things started as satire, but the larger public (that has no idea how this stuff works ) adopted it as their rhetoric.

<comment><USER5> Re: _It 's because those scenarios were just as outlandish and uninformed as those against net neutrality._

Both "sides" often exaggerate their points; that's politics 101. That doesn't mean that all of their predictions will be entirely wrong.

Re: _blocking Netflix unless you pay extra wasn 't going to be a thing_

How do you know they wouldn't eventually do that? If they have competing content, it would be profitable for them to charge more for competitor content. Do I need to make a spreadsheet for you to show you why? Why would they otherwise skip profits?

<comment><USER6> > Why would they otherwise skip profits?

If all you had to do to make profits was impose whatever outlandish pricing models pop into your head, everyone would do it and internet would cost infinity dollars.

No one would actually pay this. There'd be mass outrage and as much as the memes like to imply Ajit Pai works for Comcast, the FCC would easily be forced to step in (no blanket net neutrality law doesn't mean the FCC isn't allowed to step in when needed).

It's in the best interests of the ISP to not do egregious things that force the FCCs hand or stir up public outrage.

<comment><USER5> Re: _" If all you had to do to make profits was impose whatever outlandish pricing models pop into your head, everyone would do it and internet would cost infinity dollars."_

No, because everybody can and do make short cat videos such that they are a dime a dozen, and thus can rarely demand a premium. But sitcoms are social events such that everyone wants to see what everyone is talking about, giving them the ability to charge a premium over garage-made sitcoms. Nor can Joe YouTube form his own regional sports team; franchises such as NFL would sue. (A few break-out YouTube stars can charge or add more ads due to this social networking premium.)

Re: _" No one would actually pay this."_ \- Historically people have and do pay a premium when they have no other realistic choice. Sorry, but the long history of oligopolies and monopolies shows you are wrong.

Re: _" It's in the best interests of the ISP to not do egregious things that force the FCCs hand or stir up public outrage."_

Too many CEO's think short-term: get mine _now_ , the future is somebody else's problem. The cable industry has a customer satisfaction record second worse of ALL industries, just behind airlines. It took crying babies and lost luggage to not be 1st.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Disbanding regulations when companies are that much dug in to a market where there can't reasonably be any competition speaks of extremely anti-taxpayer corporatism, especially when these companies are receiving tax money from the government. I'm leaning towards thinking that the FCC is due some sort of investigation into its activities...

I'm usually not a fan of regulation but it really needs to be said that when huge companies that are often bigger than a lot of the world's government basically come to own huge chunks of critical infrastructure, what other bargaining chip does the average tax payer have to have their interests represented?

That being said, the article mentioning that Verizon is cutting 10k people from its media arm is disingenuous. It has nothing to do with net neutrality, it's a case of large companies misjudging the market for VP-funded, artificially grown blog companies. It has nothing to do with anyone's infrastructure. A multi-national with multiple arms in multiple lines of business will make decisions independent of its own arms and dependent on the market.

</comment><comment><USER8> It seems premature to claim that it's "clear". It's only been a year. We're talking about the major providers, who can only be expected to move so fast, either to expand things or to fall apart. Neither the best nor the worst cases materialized.

I'd say it's sufficient to leave the burden of proof on those who demanded the change, to at least defend the notion that great improvements are coming. At the very least a risk occurred without any payoff. But it seems to me that there is still plenty of time for both the risks and rewards to materialize.

</comment><comment><USER4> Shouldn't those who said the world would end with the killing of net neutrality be asked why the world has not ended, also why there has been no noticeable change? If you are reading this now, your action proves that all the claims of those who predicted disaster were nonsense and... dare I say, fear-mongering.

</comment><comment><USER9> LOL. Follow the money.

People only want a change if it benefits them in some way. Who hated Network Neutrality? What was in it for them?

Call me 'old and cynical' if you like. The older I have become, the more cynical I have become. It was warranted.

</comment><comment><USER5> Making oligopolies even _more_ "oligopolic" rarely improves the lives of consumers. Almost any economist not in the back pockets of large corporations will agree with this assessment.

</comment><comment><USER10> As far as I can tell, Ajit Pai is simply a talking ass.

<comment><USER11> My reaction exactly...

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> It was always clear</comment>


Show HN: Ruby static type checker – proof of concept - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/stereobooster/diamondback-ruby/tree/master/examples <comment><USER2> If you're interested in this, you might also be interested in the Crystal language.

> Crystal's syntax is heavily inspired by Ruby's, so it feels natural to read > and easy to write, and has the added benefit of a lower learning curve for > experienced Ruby devs.

> Crystal is statically type checked, so any type errors will be caught early > by the compiler rather than fail on runtime. Moreover, and to keep the > language clean, Crystal has built-in type inference, so most type > annotations are unneeded.

[https://crystal-lang.org](https://crystal-lang.org)

<comment><AUTHOR> Crystal is not Ruby. Please do not advertise it as a drop in replacement. [https://github.com/crystal- lang/crystal/issues/4731#issuecom...](https://github.com/crystal- lang/crystal/issues/4731#issuecomment-318486278)

Imagine you have a big ruby project in production and you want to add static type checking. You won't be able to use Crystal for it, while the idea behind Diamondback Ruby is to be able to integrate it gradually.

<comment><USER3> Crystal is closer to Ruby in many aspects than e.g. Rust or Haskell or Nim. It might be an easier step into the land of static typing for someone acquainted to Ruby.

It's not a static type checker for Ruby, though.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Another interesting project is RDL: [https://github.com/plum- umd/rdl](https://github.com/plum-umd/rdl)

Both Diamondback and RDL come out of UMD. I'm curious what drives this research there. From what I can tell, Ruby is barely touched otherwise by academia.

<comment><USER5> From what I could gather from this talk at Strangeloop, RDL seems like an evolution or expansion of Diamondback: [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=buY54I7mEjA](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=buY54I7mEjA) (See ~21:30ish for discussion of the various attempts along the way.)

Was a really interesting and well-done talk, IMO. I am not a type system geek, but thought it was fascinating to hear all of the tradeoffs that go into designing a system like this.

<comment><AUTHOR> RDL and Diamondback have a different approach. Diamondback works with given code without modification and able to find (some) errors, RDL needs code modification. See this issue [https://github.com/plum- umd/rdl/issues/33#issuecomment-31707...](https://github.com/plum- umd/rdl/issues/33#issuecomment-317079792)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'm incredibly impressed. @stereo, can you speak a bit to your ambitions? Have you talked with any ruby-core team about integrating what you're doing?

<comment><AUTHOR> This rather tends to be a middle ground solution while we do not have an idea how to do types right in Ruby. Let me remind you that whole Ruby core team struggles with this question. But this thing can work with original source code without modification or with type annotations in comments, so it intentionally stays out of Ruby syntax.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Ruby's standard library has a dRuby which is a distributed object system for Ruby [1]. I used it once almost 10 years ago.

I guess that the number of Ruby developers knowing about the two drubies is more or less the same, but maybe DRuby is not the most fortunate choice for a name.

[1] [https://ruby-doc.org/stdlib-2.4.2/libdoc/drb/rdoc/DRb.html](https://ruby- doc.org/stdlib-2.4.2/libdoc/drb/rdoc/DRb.html)

</comment><comment><USER8> Perhaps this went completely over my head somehow?

I'm not seeing why this is needed, other than people who find comfort in static typing think Ruby is broken without it.

I've been programming with Ruby every day for 5+ years, and it performs and debugs just fine without static typing.

My summary opinion is if static typing makes you happy go for it. Please don't try to force it into Ruby as a feature of the language, however, as it's current model of dynamic typing is one of it's best features.

<comment><USER9> Optional static verification is becoming the norm in dynamic languages, Ruby has _several_ libraries for it already. (This one seems different from other ruby ones I've seen in that it type checks vanilla Ruby rather than requiring annotations for type checking.)

This is a good thing for dynamic language adoption, because it means that organizations that evolve to where static typing is more important (larger teams and code bases, basically) don't have to either do a ground up rewrite or forgo it's benefits.

</comment></comment><comment> ainar-g So far, the author writes, it only supports 1.8 and not all of standard library. But if it ever supports 2.4 + Rails, that would be enormous.

<comment><AUTHOR> > it only supports 1.8

Yes, it is because this is a fork of a project started in 2009 (and not maintained afterward). I spent a couple of evenings trying to resurrect it and see what this thing is capable of. There is a lot of things to do to make this really usable. But I was able to get it to the point to run examples (those examples are the same in ruby 2.4).

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> Although this might not be a direct comparison, based on how things go in the Ruby community, personally I feel dry-types & dry-struct ([https://speakerdeck.com/flashgordon/typed- ruby](https://speakerdeck.com/flashgordon/typed-ruby)) might be a better solution for typing. Yes it doesn't solve every problem, but for the business logic side of problem, this can be a decent solution.

<comment><AUTHOR> But those are for dynamic typing. I was looking for static typing

<comment><USER10> Personally I feel we might never get static typing for Ruby anytime soon, at least it won't be widely adopted in the community, so I'd settle on dynamic typing like this.

After all, Crystal is already quite good as a Ruby+static typing solution

<comment><AUTHOR> Again Crystal is not Ruby. [https://github.com/crystal- lang/crystal/issues/4731#issuecom...](https://github.com/crystal- lang/crystal/issues/4731#issuecomment-318486278)

> we might never get static typing for Ruby anytime soon

Yes we will not get type declarations as a part of Ruby syntax anytime soon, but this doesn't mean we can not have static type checking right now</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Twitter Shadowbans Briefing and FAQ - <AUTHOR> http://www.scifiwright.com/2016/02/twitter-meets-orwell-an-faq-by-daddy-warpig/ <comment><USER2> I'd like to know if anybody has considered the possiblity of a technical error, and submitted a bug (does twitter have a public bug tracker or a contact for bugs?).

I agree from the description that it reads quiet scary, but such things could be caused by bugs. Twitter has a distributed system behind it that's much more complex than the simple user interface suggests, and weird things happen in big, distributed systems.

</comment><comment><USER3> Is there a reliable source or evidence backing this up? Google searches bring up a Breitbart article, a few conservative/fringe blogs linking back to it, and a post on Reddit's GamerGate subforum.

<comment><USER4> That's probably all you're going to get for now, or possibly ever. Twitter's last major change to their moderation and banning policy (forcing people to delete tweets in order to reactivate their account) wasn't announced until several weeks after GamerGate encountered it, and that was a lot harder to conceal than shadowbanning.</comment></comment>


The Thermodynamics Behind the Mac Pro - <AUTHOR> https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/a30170910/apple-mac-pro/ <comment><USER2> The Mac Pro is grossly overpriced, thought this piece captured it well. [https://pilky.me/the-mac-pro/](https://pilky.me/the-mac-pro/)

It's also timed poorly because right now Ryzen is the hot new CPU, and much cheaper too! Apple are missing out, and unlike the author I think making a Ryzen Mac would be easy for Apple, Mac OS already runs on them (hackintosh).

<comment><USER3> What does that have to do with the article or its subject?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I wonder what the server/rack version of this will look like inside. I'm guessing fairly similar.

It's interesting to see desktop machines move back to the BTX model of thermal design, with the CPU fan attached to the case at the front and positively pressurizing the case.

In my opinion this is how more or less ATX should have been designed, with a wind-tunnel concept, and standardized CPU cooler position.

</comment><comment><USER5> "For the Pro computer, that new case design helps the new Pro get "about 20 percent more airflow" compared to the Power Mac G5 that precedes it."

I lost any respect for the writer with that sentence.

<comment><USER6> " _Please don 't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something._"

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


Hackers Claim They Can Read Encrypted WhatsApp and Snapchat Messages - <AUTHOR> http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevemorgan/2016/05/14/hackers-claim-they-can-read-encrypted-whatsapp-messages-and-snapchat-messages-too/ <comment><USER2> > A tiny app written by McAfee's team was downloaded onto two brand new > Android phones which were used for the message exchange.

Does this mean they installed malware on the devices before the messages were exchanged?

<comment><USER3> Yes, but no root is required, as research firm's CEO said.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> > John McAfee supplied a screen shot from his team's server. They removed all > pixels which could identify the server.

I'm curious about this. How would someone identify the server using pixels in the screenshot?

<comment><USER5> At a guess I would suggest "pixels" is the journalist's interpretation of "information". So really it will have had the EXIF meta data stripped out.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> > When asked who was to responsible for the vulnerability, McAfee was quick to > say WhatsApp should not be blamed, and the problem is with Google. He claims > to have discovered a serious design flaw within the Android operating system > that allowed his team to access virtually everything happening within all > Android devices.

F __king clickbait. "Android" is not so trendy this month.

</comment><comment><USER6> If I'm reading this correctly, a keylogger or screen reader on each device would achieve the same result which wouldn't be as much 'reading encrypted messages' as it would be 'reading unencrypted information on a compromised device'.

<comment><USER5> Or the app that gets installed manages to access WhatsApp's and Snapchat's private keys on the device. Or compromises a system library that those apps use to generate the user's keys when they're installed. They would be more interesting attacks.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> End to end encryption means from the moment you press send to the moment the receiver views the message.

So they could listen to the keyboard and the screen to 'read' the message before it is sent.

Nothing new here.</comment>


Track impact on UK universities, EU funding and international collaboration - <AUTHOR> https://wizdom.ai/dashboards/leave-or-remain-impact-on-uk-research <comment><AUTHOR> [https://blog.colwiz.com/2016/06/23/leave-or-remain-impact- on...](https://blog.colwiz.com/2016/06/23/leave-or-remain-impact-on-uk- universities-eu-funding-and-international-collaboration/)</comment>


Comparing DBA Productivity: An Oracle/DB2 Task Complexity Study - <AUTHOR> http://www.channeldb2.com/video/comparing-dba-productivity-an <comment><USER2> there have been a few studies by Oracle that use some questionable to put it mildly methodologies. This one uses standardized and accepted methodology.</comment>


GoGeo – High Performance Maps Platform - <AUTHOR> http://gogeo.io/

<comment><USER2> Signups don't count as Show HNs: [https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html). There needs to be something for people to play with.</comment>


I Hate the News (2006) - <AUTHOR> http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/hatethenews <comment><USER2> I recently moved countries, and in the process, sort of stopped caring or reading about politics.

The way I see it, politics back home doesn't effect me, and I can't do anything about local politics as I can't vote.

It really is liberating to not give a shit about politics, to put it bluntly. It's one less source of stress in my life.

<comment><USER3> I felt like that when I heard the UK was going to vote on leaving the EU. I'd not followed UK news for a while and was so out of the loop that the vote was even happening surprised me.

I didn't get round to renewing my postal vote as I thought it didn't really effect me anymore anyway - my new life in the Netherlands was what mattered.

Then Leave won, and Brexit was going to happen. I remember waking up to the news and feeling horrified. Then in the coming days I felt a sense of shock: actually Brexit did effect me, of course. I would lose my right to work and stay freely here in the Netherlands, my home of 8 years. Where I had a family with 4 kids.

The point is I now believe every citizen should remain at least minimally informed and involved on politics "back home" and locally. I vote every chance I get now. And I still regret not voting in Brexit.

<comment><USER4> I think a voting guide would be more useful in a situation like this that explains the issues at stake on the ballot. If more people used a voting guide instead of the news, I doubt Brexit would have gone through.

<comment><USER3> Yes. In the Netherlands we have "stemwijzer" even for local elections, it works fairly well.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Aaron got it all right he just missed one important thing. News is a product and you buy it, so what is it selling you if the content itself is so unimportant?

The answer is news sells an emotion. Mostly it sells outrage and worldview confirmation. Its basically the exact same thing as a social feed only you select it instead of it tailoring to you.

The notable exception are people who use the headlines to make investment decisions.

<comment><USER6> Does the economist do this? That paper has biases but certainly doesn't appeal to emotion. It does provide worldview support which all other papers also do.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> 2 weeks ago I read "Amusing ourselves to death: Public discourse in the age of show business" by Neil Postman. It's written in '85 and covers how the emergence of print, telegraphy, television (and now the internet and social media) has changed the way we experience and consume news.

"The medium shapes the message" is was it all comes down to. Modern news is show business. It needs to be packaged as show business or nobody will watch/read/listen to it.

As long as the incentive is to generate ad clicks and ad views, news media will prioritize sensational topics and optimize the format for ad delivery instead of optimizing for knowledge retention.

<comment><USER8> Orgy porgy is the new Orange. It was just a question of time that the news' focus on the most recent, the most dabbling and the most infuriating will have it basically eradicate itself.

I once read a book where a certain Japanese man could swallow his nose. A different page in the book refuted that it was the Japanese man and stated it was instead his brother who could actually do this nose swallowing. Yet another page retold the initial story again, refuting the story around it being his brother. This is just like reading the news or opening the bible on whatever page.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Lots of respect to the man Swartz. Not a big fan of news (mainly the cable) myself but the absence of it is pretty terrifying as well. Whatever is left of little accountability will pretty much vanish.

I'd argue that the problem isn't the news, per se, but the fact that news is a business, with a primary motive of maximizing profit and not necessarily 'informing' the public objectively. But on the other extreme, state run media that do not have the same objective of making profit are even worse.

We'll pretty much have to live with it :)

<comment><USER10> > but the absence of it is pretty terrifying as well. Whatever is left of > little accountability will pretty much vanish.

Did you read the article? It critiques the fast-paced nature of the news and the choice of topics, it doesn't call for abolishing the news.

> But on the other extreme, state run media that do not have the same > objective of making profit are even worse.

Incorrect. For instance, here in Australia, we have a state run media channel, the ABC (abc.net.au), and the quality of the news and reporting is much better than the commercial news.

What is it about Americans that make them believe that things that work perfectly well in many other countries (publicly funded television, gun control, universal healthcare) are impossible?

<comment><USER9> > What is it about Americans that make them believe that things that work > perfectly well in many other countries (publicly funded television, gun > control, universal healthcare) are impossible?

What gave you the impression that I am an American? I, unfortunately, am one who had to endure the non stop propaganda perpetuated through state run media in my country.

> reporting is much better than the commercial news

How do you decide it is 'much better'? Could it be that you just happen to agree with it? (or not). Since you mentioned America, there are lots of people in America who take Fox News as sole source of truth. And perhaps equally large group who regard MSNBC as such.

And it's pretty interesting to observe that you pulled the conversation right into politically charged topics of healthcare and gun, when I was merely pointing out that news is indeed valuable, and there is always bound to be this friction between the profit oriented but free of government influence vs state run media.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Getting off the daily news cycle is like getting rid of sugar, it reduces the craving for more of it pretty quickly once your system has adjusted.

I've found that an ok compromise is the Wikipedia current events section: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Current_events)

I don't read it daily and I don't follow to the sources typically, but they make a decent job of filtering out all the clickbait and categorizing ongoing events etc. That way I know what's going on rather than just reading about it on social media without context.

The only thing I'm missing is filters and the option to group and aggregate for weekly reading, maybe I'll just script that at some point, should be simple enough.

<comment><USER12> This is fine, but I want to be an informed voter. My vote, political and environmental donations, and my investment all are related to news. Wouldn't I be abdicating my duty to be an informed citizen by tuning out? How could a democracy function if the majority of voters did this?

<comment><USER13> Potentially but news, or more specifically 24h/daily news, isn't the only way to be informed, and arguably isn't a very good way to do it.

What are the things you're looking for when deciding on people or issues to vote on and does a catalog of events related to those people and issues really capture it?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Most news media seems optimised for power users, people who want to read 100 stories a day and have all the context to place them correctly. These are the power users, but, by definition, there are a few. This is the equivalent of everyone who wants to do photography being forced to use an SLR because phones don't have cameras. Or sports cars being the only type of car that exists, when most people just want to get to the office or the supermarket.

How might we optimise a newspaper for the majority rather than the power- users?

\- Reduce it to one page, printing only the most important stories. In today's hurried times, that's all many people have time for. Or keep it the same length as today's newspapers, but publish it only weekly. Or a mobile app where each story fits in one screen. Condense it down to the most important facts.

\- Give users the context. If a minister was accused of taking money from companies X and Y and he says that he didn't take money from X, say, "The minister didn't respond to allegations that he took money from Y". The majority of readers wouldn't know that unless it's pointed out to them.

\- Don't report news that's likely to be irrelevant a quarter from now, like the stock market going up 0.5%, or that Apple is going to launch cheaper iPads tomorrow.

\- Report hyperlocal news, like your neighbor 50m away being burgled, not a politician two states away choosing to side with someone else. We all care more about our neighborhood. Tell me air pollution levels in my neighborhood, or a few km away, not 2000 km away in Delhi. We all care about our immediate environment more. In a way, this is the only kind of news people got before technology like the press, telephone or radio was invented. It's odd that in today's world, I'm more connected to what's happening far away than in my neighborhood.

\- Quality over quantity: Don't print rumors, unconfirmed news, news without fact-checking it and waiting for the dust to settle. Write well so that readers feel that the writer cares, rather than filler to write 100 words by 11AM, and who gives a damn what those words are.

<comment><USER15> This is gold. Are journalists typically aware of these improvement suggestions or are they just on the hamster wheel?

<comment><USER16> Neither. Most of these are baseless critiques, in my opinion.

The Economist has a section at the beginning of each issue that gives you a one paragraph or less overview of important events that happened that week. Many people also only read the Sunday edition of the paper instead of the daily publications.

I don't know why the person you're replying to suggest that the news is usually contextless. Pretty much any article I read from WaPo or NYT has all of the context you need towards the end of the article after stating the most recent or relevant facts.

Reporting hyperlocal news is just not feasible in today's media climate. It's very hard to run a successful local news organization because you have to compete with all of the big players.

Most of the news I read does not report on rumors or unconfirmed news, either.

I somewhat agree that news that isn't relevant a quarter from now probably isn't important but it's important to someone. Sure, I don't care if the stock market went down .5% but many people do care about daily fluctuations of their investments or have jobs in the finance sector. Also, why choose a quarter as your time scale? Why not a week, a month, a year, a decade? Who is to say whether yearly stock market fluctuations are actually news worthy?

<comment><USER14> A para a week is too little.

Maybe news articles in your country have context, but often not in mine. Here's one example: [http://bangaloremirror.indiatimes.com/bangalore/civic/rejuve...](http://bangaloremirror.indiatimes.com/bangalore/civic/rejuvenation- work-starts-at-sompura-lake/articleshow/63086169.cms) This doesn't give Bangaloreans the wider context: amidst all the talk of lake restoration, have there been any results yet? Has the inflow of garbage stopped, or is there even a plan to? What's the scope of the efforts? To restore lakes to the state they were in 30 years ago, or only to stop further decline? Is there any plan to reclaim any of land that has already been encroached for years? And so on.

Hyperlocal news may not be feasible today, but since there's an umnet need, it's only a matter of time before someone figures out the right business model.

"It might be important to someone" is an excuse to publish any and all news, which is exactly how the media ended up in today's situation.

As for why choose a quarter as a timescale, you can choose some other timescale. Focus on essence of the argument rather than picking nits.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> > _Some people agree with me on a small scale [...] because they think these > are aberrations; that underneath all this, the news is worth saving. I > simply go one step further: I think none of it is worthwhile._

I'll be one of those people to agree "on a small scale", but I'll go one (smaller) step further. I don't think these few are aberrations, I think the vast majority of news is not worthwhile. News worth reading is the exception.

> _Let us look at the front page of today's New York Times, the gold standard > in news._

Is it? Really?

I'm not sure if this is entirely true in general but good local news seems often well worth reading for me. If it's politics, reportage on short term decisions made by local councils will affect my daily life, and are somewhat "within reach". If it's entertainment or otherwise, it's likely about something I could realistically engage with in person, or become involved in, etc.

Quite a lot of local news has certain quality issues, but there are really great exceptions here in my experience.

</comment><comment><USER18> Past discussions:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224858](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224858)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5051902](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5051902)

</comment><comment><USER19> I'll reiterate my idea here that perhaps somebody should try to build a news site only with news that are "actionable", that is, there is something you can do based on the information.

Examples of such news: In-advance information about meetups, protests. Information about culture events that are to happen. Information about new laws coming into effect, or things mandated by government to a date.

<comment><USER20> This would be an interesting feature, at least.

Upcoming votes; "Contact your Representative;" "Commercials should not be louder than the main program as of April 8, 2018. Call this number if otherwise."

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> I am mostly disturbed by this essay and a lot of the comments. Reading the news is a difficult act indeed. You need to read between the lines, understand that a lot of things are opinion based and that there are a lot of opinions depending on how you look at a problem. But just because it is difficult and quite imperfect is it a reason why we should stop doing it? How else can we fight inequality, injustice and problems of the world. I understand tat Aaron's point is not to do ignore problems, and his history obviously bring nothing but respect but in an era where "Fake News" is being shouted everywhere, I fear that the message of this essay is a dangerous one. By disregarding news because of it's limits/imperfections, we expose ourselves to much bigger problems. I force myself to read the news everyday because I think it is my civic duty.

<comment><USER6> Books are at least a bit better, though still flawed, and aaronsw iirc regrets to this in this essay. (It's been a few years since I last read it)

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> The author argue for something patently false (reading the news never did anyone any good) instead of some likely true but more pedestrian claim (e.g. most of us would be better off if we read news less frequently) with the goal of drawing attention.

Don't we call this clickbait?

<comment><USER23> It probably helps to know who the author is/was (note that I have not read the article yet): [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz)

<comment><USER24> Seems more of a hindrance than a help.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> While I tend to agree with the article, I would note that news media does not scale well. Your local community news website will likely have more pertinent information for you, personally, than the NYT, so it's a bit unfair to compare their utility equally.

</comment><comment><USER14> I see Aaron's point, but I wonder that if I take his advice and stop keeping myself informed, I will miss something, and not even know about it.

For example, I read about opinionated software years ago, and when I started my startup, I chose to take that approach. If I'd missed that, and my app turns out to not be great for any single use-case, and fails, how would I know that that happened because I didn't read enough to make a better decision?

These things seep into your way of thinking, and it's hard to know what thought or article had what result.

Having said that, I do think I overdose on news, but it's hard to know what's the right balance.

<comment><USER26> Some article about development a approach is not news. Also, hackernews is largely composed of non-news information, else I wouldn't be here ;)

<comment><USER14> That was just an example. Instead of picking nits, focus on the real point being made, namely that if you miss some insight or perspective that later causes you to make bad decisions later on, you won't know that if you'd up more, you wouldn't be in the situation you're in.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> If the events on the news are outside your sphere of influence, it seems like you'd be better off getting the news once a month. Or a year after things happen. At least the facts will be more sorted.

</comment><comment><USER28> I love knowing what's going on.

It gives me a sense of the meanderings and movements of large scale entities like corporations and governments and the side effects their decisions.

Wars in Syria tell me about the relations between countries. The Flint water crisis tells me about the failures of small government or even worse the economic state of Michigan.

Data breaches and environmental disaster tell me of the negligence and leadership decisions of large corporations.

The news is endlessly intriguing.

<comment><USER29> You don't really know what's going on. You only know what you're told, and there's many ways to interpret the source data.

You really can't have a good sense of corporations and governments unless you work specifically for a particular company or government and know the inner workings and side effects of what's happening. And if that's the case, you don't need to read the news to learn about it.

You don't know much about the wars nor the relations between countries. You never get to sit in on leader meetings or see first hand what's happening and not happening.

You think you know something about Michigan because you learned about the Flint water crisis. But do you really know what failures took place or the economic state of all of Michigan? What about all of the other crises in America you didn't hear about, simply because the news chose to make you care about Flint and not another crisis?

Data breaches and environmental disasters are often reported in a way that makes corporations seem negligent when other information is left out. This is why there's so much "debate" and "different opinion" on such matters. There's no right answer, yet the news does a good job of presenting a singular narrative.

The news is definitely endlessly intriguing, just like a drug. The worst part about it is you only ever have a very small fraction of the totality of what's going on. Every time we hear about Trump, we're not hearing about local politicians who arguably have a greater impact on our lives.

You can't really be informed about most topics, and it's less likely to be informed the more we focus on matters outside of our local proximity, depending on journalists to translate events with inevitable inaccuracy.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> David Mitchell (of Peep Show and various other UK shows) wrote something similar but with a humorous bent, starting with a commentary on Erik Hagerman. [https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/25/good-r...](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/25/good- reasons-for-ignoring-the-news-david-mitchell-trump-erik-hagerman)

<comment><USER11> Was publishing it in the Guardian part of the humor?

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> I've deep respect for Aaron Shwartz. It was nice reading his essay first thing in the morning.

I still feel that some millionaire should have had stepped forward & paid all his legal dues. He was doing good work.

</comment><comment><USER32> The same is true for hacker news which imo produces lots of fmo leading to stress without providing real insight most of the times.

</comment><comment><USER33> At the risk of sounding callous and uncaring, I will be blunt - I am wary of mental health advice that comes from a person who killed himself at age 26.

I admire Aaron for his technical ability, his unique perspective, his writing, his courage and passion. I sympathize with persecution he dealt with towards the end of his life, and I think that the prosecution against him was unjust. I find myself agreeing with most of his writing that I've encountered.

On the topic of following the news, I am tempted to agree with him as well. However, I wonder if keeping up with the news reinforces the idea that the world can be a scary place, and that if we stray too far outside of the bounds of normal human behavior, we might face hardship. One could argue that that idea is detrimental to human society as a whole, but I think it is generally has a net positive effect on a particular person's mental wellbeing.

<comment><USER34> It could be argued that Aaron was in the prime position to dish out mental health advice, being a sufferer of mental illness. Compare that to mental health professionals who, while educated and more knowledgeable than your average joe about mental health, might not have first-hand insight on practical coping strategies that actually work (as opposed to some of the "let's talk about it -- we're out of time, here's a script").

<comment><USER16> I don't think that would be a very convincing argument. At best, he would know strategies that helped him personally. A mental health professional would know strategies that help many people cope and have some idea of how to match different strategies to different people and situations.

First hand experience is valuable but the idea that it can't be translated effectively into second/third hand experience by trained professionals is misguided.

<comment><USER34> It is not that it cannot be translated into knowledge by professionals, it's that they'll never be able to comprehend what exactly is going on unless they've also suffered from mental illness. I can tell you how to catch a fish, because I've read all of the books on catching fish. I've watched fishing tournaments, and I've even helped people get into fishing. But I've never fished before. I won't be able to tell you how to really work the line. I can fill in the gaps, but it's usually not as effective as first-hand account.

There's also the other side that most trained professionals are not equipped to handle serious cases. The lack of literature on quality-of-life increasing treatments for serious illnesses (major depressives, schizophrenics, etc.) is another factor. Most professionals get their information second-hand from textbooks and their education. Then secondly, from practice. Where as the first-hand experience of mental illness is the primary source of practical guidelines for those who suffer from them.

There's also the statistic that around 60% of people with mental illness don't get or stop getting treatment. With schizophrenics and more serious sufferers being on the tail end of that.

<comment><USER16> >It is not that it cannot be translated into knowledge by professionals, it's that they'll never be able to comprehend what exactly is going on unless they've also suffered from mental illness.

This sentence reads to me like "It's not that professionals can't effectively use other peoples first hand experience , it's that they can't effectively use other peoples first hand experience".

They don't need to know exactly what's going on. It's impossible for anyone to ever know exactly what is going on in another person's mind. Psychology as a profession is completely useless if that's the bar for it being useful.

I apologize if my response comes off as aggressive, but I strongly believe that propagating the idea that mental health professionals can't really help people is dangerous for those that would benefit from their help.

<comment><USER34> >This sentence reads to me like "It's not that professionals can't effectively use other peoples first hand experience , it's that they can't effectively use other peoples first hand experience".

It was reinforcing the point you were disagreeing with. They can make use of it, but not efficient use of it.

>They don't need to know exactly what's going on. It's impossible for anyone to ever know exactly what is going on in another person's mind. Psychology as a profession is completely useless if that's the bar for it being useful.

To use anecdotes: I've seen assistance from friend's and loved ones, who've experienced first-hand the illness, to have a more profound effect on the quality-of-life and recovery of the person suffering, than the average medical professional (psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors, etc. ranked in their own groups). There are some astounding medical professionals out there that will definitely be very helpful in getting someone "back on track," but in my experience, they're never covered under your average joe's insurance. That leaves the bulk of available professionals' quality to be lack-luster, and arguably, a waste of time -- even detrimental in some specific cases.

The bar for doctor involvement and vested interest is nearing the ground, in the U.S.A. Unless surgery or extremely specialized treatment is needed (chemotherapy, gene therapy, etc.), you'll almost always get better care doing the research and treatment yourself.

>I apologize if my response comes off as aggressive, but I strongly believe that propagating the idea that mental health professionals can't really help people is dangerous for those that would benefit from their help.

And I believe if you don't first become aware of shortcomings, you'll never be able to fix problems. And mental health treatment, as an industry, has a lot of problems.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> Typo: Swartz

</comment><comment><USER36> The world would be a drastically better place to live if Aaron Swartz were still in it.

<comment><USER36> I'm getting downvoted for this. That's how far HN has fallen, folks.

<comment><USER37> Would you please stop posting unsubstantive comments to HN? We've already asked you several times. And this one breaks the site guidelines outright.

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

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> please edit, his last name is Swartz

<comment><USER18> Actually, the name should likely just be removed. The title is "I Hate the News".

<comment><USER37> Ok, we've done that. (Submitted title was "I Hate the News by Aaron Shwartz (2006)".)

We tend to take author names out of titles because HN works better when the emphasis is on content rather than personalities. It stays on personalities anyhow when a famous person is in the mix, but this tactic compensates a bit.

Plus in Aaron's case the author name is already encoded in the domain name.</comment></comment></comment>