Why Apple Wants Its Software to Be Free  - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-10-22/why-apple-wants-its-software-to-be-free

<comment><USER2> The author doesn't understand Apple. Apple doesn't view software and hardware separately. Coincidentally, I just wrote about this, but I'll copy and paste here because it seems relevant.

A friend of mine recently asked me how Apple expected to continue making any money while giving away software that Microsoft charges $200 for. Understanding how Apple can give away their software and still make money comes in understanding Apple's business. Apple pundits frequently circle back to the point that Apple is a "hardware" company. As it turns out, they are wrong. Apple is a "devices" company. What is unique about Apple is their view that a device is made up of hardware & software, and that these two are inseparable. Apple believes this is the best view if you want to deliver a superior experience to the users of your products.

If you look at Apple as a hardware company — which I believe is a mistake — they make better margins than any of their competitors. Following that flawed line of thinking, what they're doing now is using that extra profit to subsidize the software side. This viewpoint only holds if you view the hardware and software sides of the business as separate entities though.

Apple has combined the two. You're not buying hardware or software, you're buying a device. What good is a microwave without the software that connects the buttons to the timer, microwave generator, etc? Thats how Apple views their devices. By making Mavericks and iWork free, theyre expanding their notion of the "post PC world". They're not just talking about iOS devices, theyre talking about their entire line up.

If youre wondering why Apples "PC" sales continue to grow while everyone else is sinking, I think youve found your answer.

[http://www.bradlanders.com/2013/10/23/apples-greater- vision-...](http://www.bradlanders.com/2013/10/23/apples-greater-vision-of- the-post-pc-world/)

<comment><USER3> 1\. My impression was that Apple has had a couple flat/lower year to year quarters in lap and desktops. Their chart of iPad sales shows slowing/maturing of that market segment.

2\. Apple sells experiences. If it were selling devices, then software updates for older devices (other than bugs and security/safety) would make no sense.

3\. Giving away iWork and iLife is an interesting move that starts building a moat of out-of-the-box productivity software and somewhat incentivizes new sales without totally pissing off previous software purchasers (thru iTunes rebates) and acts as a stronger introduction to their cloud services. It'll be interesting to see if that strategy works enough to continue development on iWork (which I enjoy using although acknowledge is a not widely used product).

<comment><USER4> > If it were selling devices, then software updates for older devices (other > than bugs and security/safety) would make no sense.

On the other hand, I am more likely to buy an expensive device, knowing that updates will be available. In my mind, updates help the device retain its usefulness and value.

<comment><USER3> For the buyer, it's a gamble isn't it? Things could start going down the tubes OS8/9 style (or iOS 4 on 3G) but generally updates bring a bounty of new features and compatibility with services and software. If you are saying you will pay X amount more for a device for Y software upgrades, I wonder what's the difference (profit) between your X/Y and the cost of producing Y? It might actually be negative if the strategic value of software-ecology maintenance was high enough to the producer.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I think this guy completely misses the most important point. Apple sees how much fragmentation hurts Windows and Android and they want to avoid it.

Imagine if as a developer you only have to worry about a single platform? Imagine if as a distributor you only have to worry about releasing a single package? It makes things much easier for everyone and allows efforts to be on quality rather than compatibility.

<comment><USER6> _Imagine if as a developer you only have to worry about a single platform?_

Actually, this was one of my first reaction as a developer. I developed and maintain a scientific software package (treebank search) that I maintain for Windows (>= XP), OS X (>= 10.7), and Linux (latest Ubuntu LTS).

My first reaction after hearing that Mavericks is free was: great, if most people will upgrade, I am freed of supporting the legacy OS X versions.

Hopefully they can bring things to the point where, like iOS, practically everyone will run the latest version. Of course, this would require smooth transitions.

<comment><USER7> > My first reaction after hearing that Mavericks is free was: great, if most > people will upgrade, I am freed of supporting the legacy OS X versions.

And if software developers cease to support older OS versions, those people with old computers that cannot upgrade have a stronger incentive for buying new hardware.

<comment><USER8> Nah, that's a very minor consideration at best.

"Cease to support older OS versions" means that new versions of applications won't run on older operating systems. It doesn't mean that older versions of applications suddenly stop working. If you're running an old OS on old hardware, running an old application is fine. In fact, it's preferable, because it was written with the capabilities of that hardware in mind.

<comment><USER9> Also, Apple is going to keep offering older versions of apps in the App Store, for machines that can't run Mavericks.

[http://www.macrumors.com/2013/10/22/previous-versions- coming...](http://www.macrumors.com/2013/10/22/previous-versions-coming-to- mac-app-store-for-users-of-older-macs/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> > By going free, Apple has acknowledged something that's been true in the > industry for years: Software is a means to sell hardware.

What? How has this _" been true in the industry for years"_? Maybe its true for smart phones & tablets, that too for just the OS, but how does he go from there to all software and all hardware?

<comment><USER11> This is actually basic economics - reduce the price of your complementary goods.

Thus, Apple wants to drive the software cost to zero, to increase sales of hardware (this includes apps).

Google wants to drive the software and hardware cost to zero, to increase ad viewing.

Amazon wants to drive the software and hardware cost to zero to sell more content.

<comment><USER12> As Joel Spolsky said: "commoditize your complements".

[http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/StrategyLetterV.html](http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/StrategyLetterV.html)

<comment><USER13> I'm not sure if that includes the complements that you yourself produce. At least that's not what Joel argues.

There are business models (eg, razors & razor blades) where you commoditize one to sell the other, but commoditizing complements that someone else now makes at razor thin margins is the coup.

<comment><USER12> I think it can be both.

For example, in the Apple context, they commoditize software (including operating systems, mobile apps, and desktop apps) in order to make their platform attractive and appealing, and then make their money through high profit margins on hardware sales. An operating system is a special case of software, since it's so much more intimate with the Apple-designed and controlled hardware than most (any?) other applications.

In this case, creating their own software is a cost that makes money indirectly, by making their hardware and their platform more attractive. And certainly, more apps and cheaper apps (commodity) available for Apple computers (non-commodity) is good for Apple, whether those apps come from Apple themselves or from external developers. (Obviously having both is good for different reasons - in house, you have more control; external apps create a developer base with lock-in).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Disagree. It's about selling apps, not hardware.

What holds Apple back is user OS adoption. With iOS updates being free, users can get the latest apps, and Apple doesn't need to worry too much about backwards compatibility. OS X didn't have that luxury until today. With the free play, Apple is giving their customers zero reason to stay on older versions. They want to see 90 percent adoption rates in 6 months. Why? The App Store ecosystem. The more users on the App Store, the more developers will build apps, the more revenue it will generate for both.

<comment><USER15> If it was just about apps, why wouldn't they release OS X for all x86* architectures instead of just their hardware? Then projects such as hackintosh/osx86 would be irrelevant.

<comment><USER16> Increased support burden, by several orders of magnitude. People blaming the OS for hardware deficiencies. Etc.

I'm not seeing any upside for Apple if they did this.

<comment><USER14> Exactly.

This is also the reason they released Mav for Macs going back to 2008. To reduce the support burden of previous OSs

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> The fragmentation issue in Mac OS X [1] is the hurdle that has been holding me off from writing apps for Macs. According to [1] (published about half a year ago), the Mac OS X market share breakdown:

26.8% Mountain Lion 10.8

28.0% Lion 10.7

35.1% Snow Leopard 10.6

10.0% Leopard 10.5 and Tiger 10.4

If we assume that half of the macs running Snow Leopard (10.6) are pre-2007 and ineligible for 10.9, we have about 72.3% macs that can upgrade to the free Mavericks, which is great news for Mac App developers.

[1] [http://www.zdnet.com/ad-network-os-x-is-becoming- fragmented-...](http://www.zdnet.com/ad-network-os-x-is-becoming- fragmented-7000013426/)

<comment><USER18> > _The fragmentation issue in Mac OS X [1] is the hurdle that has been holding > me off from writing apps for Macs._

Doesn't seem to be doing much damage to Mac software houses/indies...

> _According to [1] (published about half a year ago), the Mac OS X market > share breakdown: Mountain Lion 10.8 26.8% Lion 10.7 28% Snow Leopard 10.6 > 35.1% Leopard and lower 10%_

So just target Lion and above, that's 54%, which might sound small, but it's tens of millions of users. Mac software houses thrived in 2005 with 1/4 the user base that what that 54% represents.

That said, I highly doubt SL is 35% still.

<comment><USER17> _So just target Lion and above, that 's 54%, which might sound small, but it's tens of millions of users. Mac software houses thrived in 2005 with 1/4 the user base that what that 54% represents._

That's true. Though it's still way better to support 72% in one API than 54% in two slightly different APIs.

 _That said, I highly doubt SL is 35% still._

I think you're right. Those 32bit Intel iMacs are probably on their last legs at this moment. In one year, I predict Mavericks may have 80% or even higher market share, comparable to its remote cousin iOS7's share on iOS devices.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Because why charge peanuts for an operative system, if you can charge $3000+ for a machine?

<comment><USER20> Well I don't think that is entirely fair. To get to that price you have to take the most expensive mac product, then add tax. I just bought the highest end MacBook pro today with the student discount and it only cost a little over 2k. Which if I wanted another computer of comparable hardware quality (aluminum vs. plastic), screen resolution, and weight and dimensions I would be hard-pressed to find a comparable PC for that much cheaper. And that is disregarding the crappy support of most PC manufacturers. So I wouldn't say their prices for hardware are even that crazy, a MacBook quality laptop that only ran windows or Linux could still sell for 80-90% of the price.

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> The real reason is the fear of fragmentation- This becomes more and more critical for mobile and personal devices. Utility Software updates in future will be seamless(transaction free)

</comment><comment><USER13> I think with Apple, you kind of need to consider their aesthetic. I don't think they like selling anything cheaply. The last few OS upgrades were cheap. iWork is cheaper than MS Office (because it is often an optional extra with office being mandatory) and (ironically) being in the iOS market means that they have an €8.99 version of iWork anchoring he price. Overall software sales are not big money makers for Apple.

OTOH, you they can simplify a bunch of things by making OSX upgrades cheaper. Users no longer need to worry about OS updates (eg time their purchase). They can sell macs as "ready to go with all the software you need" for creative or office workers. A new mac will be easier to get used to. Developers can target a single OS version, this includes Apple. Apple can release features relying on new OS features.

It's just simpler. Apple have an aesthetic preference for simpler. For the cost of whatever revenue these software sales were bringing in they get to improve and simplify the mac ownership experience. They get to differentiate themselves from PCs in one more difficult to quantify way. This is another thing they like. You don't have to buy antivirus & Office or worry about Windows upgrades.

Financially it's probably a wash. Slightly better mac sales or increased pricing power will more or less make up for lost revenue.

</comment><comment><USER22> It's also a response to google docs. Introducing collaboration on iWork is a good first step to address to the shift towards shared docs. I imagine we'll see that expand significantly in the future.

<comment><USER23> I just wish they'd gone ahead and made iWork free across the board (or perhaps for Mavericks users), rather than only with the purchase of a new device.

<comment><USER24> This likely has to do with GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles).

iOS updates used to cost a nominal amount of money because new features have to have new revenues. (Why? Imagine you are selling a physical good, and promised a 1 year warranty - you have to reserve some revenue to cover the costs of honoring that warranty. If you didn't it would artificially inflate profits now by hiding future liabilities.)

So what Apple does to get around this is reserve a bit of revenue from each new iPhone and realizes it on the balance sheet to cover the ongoing costs of iOS updates. I imagine this is what they are going to do with Macs too to cover OS X costs, and if this is correct it will likely be mentioned at next week's conference call.

<comment><USER25> I think the GAAP part of it is that Apple has to be consistent with their previous revenue recognition strategies.

GAAP itself doesn't force similar companies to recognize revenues in the same fashion that Apple did with the iPhone, i.e., you can make a phone and provide software updates that provide new features for free.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> From the title, it almost sounds as if their software is going to be free software. Just giving out proprietary software without charge doesn't make them free (free as in freedom for users).

</comment><comment><USER27> Apple hasn't been charging for iOS or the software that ran the first iPod. It's included in the cost of the device, just like the cost of the embedded code in your Keurig is factored into the overall cost of the device.

Software isn't where Apple makes their money. It never was. They NEED software to make their hardware do anything but that's all they ever should have considered. The many years of rivalry with other OS makers was stupid and costly. They weren't really in competition.

You get a free copy of OSX with every Apple computer but charging for OSX upgrades only makes the job of keeping all that hardware running smoothly more difficult. It generates avoidable support calls and support is a huge cost.

If the software (they have to write anyway) is free and hundreds (or thousands) of bug fixes are always just a free download away then everyone benefits. Apple can stop focusing on feature parity with other operating systems and focus on what makes their devices better for their users.

</comment><comment><USER28> At today's Apple, both software and hardware are means to sell 3rd party software. They earn so much on their ecosystem that it's more profitable to give OS updates for free and provide more unified and less fragmented ecosystem to both users and 3rd party developers.

Lowering prices for next generations of their hardware is also a sign that they really want to put their foot in as many users' doors as possible. I think they rarely lowered hardware prices just couple years ago, before they had this massive revenue stream called App Store.

</comment><comment><USER29> Man, this brings back memories of MacOS 7.x, the last versions that could be downloaded free of charge. Only 20 years later, it again costs nothing. Nice.

<comment><USER9> I believe you're confusing updates and upgrades. Apple OS updates have always been free. Also, the Mac OS X 10.1 upgrade was free.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> Apple doesn't want all software to be free. They want all the devices on the same platform to then have ALL the apps available to them. That 30% cut is a much bigger piece of pie than selling a $30 OS</comment>


To Catch a Rapist - <AUTHOR> http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/01/10/magazine/to-catch-a-rapist.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share&referer=https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FdXZ8PEZoEF <comment><USER2> [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10847966](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10847966)</comment>


UICloud – User interface design database - <AUTHOR> http://ui-cloud.com <comment><USER2> Anyone have something similar for game UIs?

<comment><USER3> +1 ,THIS would be great idea.

Also allow short videos.Today UI interfactions are often "dynamic".A UI can look poor when seen as a still,but be quite awesome when seen in action.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The only comment on the top rated UI kit:

       can you drop me a mail with your contact details
       [...]. Would like to discuss about designing a website

Astonishing how much people don't read.

<comment><USER5> What exactly did that user "not read"? I found the comment you mentioned but I didn't come across anything that would suggest against this behavior.

<comment><USER6> I think he's getting at the fact that this is more of a resource repository and not a place to sell your designs. Still kind of a stretch to say he mis- read however.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Honest question: What are these sites actually _for_?

I mean, they look all swishy as a static image, but real user interfaces are written with code and mark-up and standard controls. None of the themes I looked at seemed to come as anything more flexible than PSD files. So apart from visual designers showing off their Photoshop skills, who actually uses these for anything?

</comment><comment><USER8> Reminds me of Unheap [http://www.unheap.com/](http://www.unheap.com/) But I like it how a majority of the plugins here do not use javascript where as Unheap are all jQuery plugins

</comment><comment><USER9> Would be nice to see it evolve into working implementations.js that could be actively used, instead of just gawked at ..

</comment><comment><USER10> This is impressive list of components/bits&pieces</comment>


Ask HN: Which Lisp/Scheme and why and how to learn? - <AUTHOR>

Since starting to read HN, the idea has entered my consciousness that there's something of value to be learned in the Lisp family of programming languages.  I am primarily a Python programmer now with experience in BASIC, Pascal, Perl, PHP, R, etc but no Lisps.  My programming needs are for web apps and for (non-graphical) simulation models.  I'm a Windows and Linux user so cross-platform is important.  Which Lisp/Scheme variant(s) would be valuable for me to try to learn and use?  And what's the best way to learn? <comment><USER2> I'm currently using Racket ( [http://racket-lang.org/](http://racket- lang.org/) ), it's a Scheme dialect. It supports Windows, Linux and OSX. It has a nice IDE with support for macro expansion. And it has a lot of packages ("batteries included") and is usually faster than Python.

It also has a web server ( [http://docs.racket-lang.org/web- server/](http://docs.racket-lang.org/web-server/) ). I'm using it for a small site, with a few hundreds users.

<comment><USER3> I'll second Racket but for somewhat different reasons.

1\. Like Python, the Racket community is oriented toward teaching people to learn Racket. This is something it inherits directly from Scheme's creation in part as a teaching language and four decades of use as one. [This is in contrast to Common Lisp, which tends to be more oriented toward practical professional programming].

This means that the Racket community is attentive to the onboarding process and sensitive to the fact that people come to it with widely varying levels of technical sophistication and familiarity with programming.

2\. The core of the Racket contributors are in academia and this provides both stability to the core language's roadmap [e.g. Felleisen has been working on Racket and it's predecessor for several decades], and contributions from the edges of computer science to both Racket's libraries and core [i.e. Felleisen's graduate students have been working on Racket and its predecessor for several decades].

This means that Racket as an ecosystem is both big, and has canonical libraries for a lot of the non-core functions a programmer might wish to use.

3\. However, one of the Downsides of Racket is a lack of IDE options. Dr. Racket doesn't really compare to big iron grade IDE's like Eclipse, IntelliJ, or Visual Studio. It's more like a top of the line Huffy than something you'd choose for a double century.

That's not to say that Emacs isn't an option, or that a more traditional Lisp development approach aren't alternatives - for the former see Geiser [1], for the latter see the Systems Programming with Racket Tutorial [2].

4\. The other alternatives are Clojure and Common Lisp. Both communities are targeted more at the professional programmer than at onboarding a population with diverse levels of technical expertise and objectives. You sort of have to dive into the middle.

Clojure's community being newer has much more of a "web 2.0" vibe. Being focused on leveraging popular virtual machines [JVM, javascript, CLR] and having a single celebrity spokesmodel, there is also more of a tendency of the community to get behind tools, libraries and methods as canonical and to make these available in a more contemporary fashion.

On the other hand, Common Lisp has decades of really smart saavy developers creating efficient tooling and well written documentation for it. There's a lot out there. The community is just more diverse and the resources often require access through "web 1.0" style interfaces. The community shows its heritage in the "pre-internet".

One of the great positives is that the Common Lisp community has a greater willingness to go deeply intellectual on programming and general. It doesn't have marketing brochures.

[1]: [http://www.nongnu.org/geiser/](http://www.nongnu.org/geiser/)

[2]: [http://docs.racket-lang.org/more/index.html](http://docs.racket- lang.org/more/index.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I don't have a lot of advice about LISP proper, but Scheme ... ah, Scheme is near and dear to my heart. But which one? Look for a standard one that is current. The usual suspects are Chicken, Guile, Gambit, Racket, Chez (Petite Chez) (am I missing any?). I prefer Chicken or Petite Chez because I'm currently going through "The Reasoned Schemer" and those two seem to work best with the code from the book.

But my ultimate suggestion for a LISP is Clojure. Runs on the JVM, has good Java interop (and a huge community of open source software) and has nice syntax to boot (I love the use of [, {, etc. instead of just ( for the syntax to differentiate different data structures).

</comment><comment><USER5> I would say the easiest to learn is Common Lisp because of the amazing debugger + conditions/restarts. If you make a mistake, instead of aborting the program like most programming languages would, Common Lisp will give you a list of _restarts_ which let you specify how to continue executing (change variable values, return a new value instead, etc).

To learn it I would recommend _COMMON LISP: A Gentle Introduction to Symbolic Computation_ to get a good foundation. After reading that, I would suggest _ANSI Common Lisp_ , which introduces some of the more advanced features and gives some pretty good examples of what you can do with Lisp (writing a DSL for generating HTML is one of them). Then I would recommend _On Lisp_ which gives all kinds of crazy things you can do with Lisp (embedded Prolog, DSL for parsing English, and many other cool things).

There are many other great books out there which you may way want to look at. _Land of Lisp_ and _Practical Common Lisp_ are both good introductory books, but I find that they introduce too much too fast and it makes it difficult to get very far in them. _Paradigms of AI Programming_ is probably one of the best programming books out there, but there is a lot of advanced material in it.

</comment><comment><USER6> Common Lisp (any implementation, you may start with ccl, clisp, sbcl, but the other implementations are useful in specific (deployment) situations, like abcl on JVM, ecl to be embedded in C/C++ applications, etc).

[http://cliki.net/](http://cliki.net/) [http://cliki.net/Getting+Started](http://cliki.net/Getting+Started)

</comment><comment><USER7> I've been working my way through SICP the last few weeks using mit-scheme, but the other night I installed Racket. They have pretty good documentation, as well as a few tutorials to get you started.</comment>


Show HN: Ultimate TicTacToe for Android (random Multiplayer/AI) - <AUTHOR> http://expertino.com/tictactoe/

<comment><USER2> Guys, you should do something with the design, because the game is actually quite fun to play...

What is the strategy of the AI?

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, design lacks a bit, next weekend then :)

The AI is more or less a little bit more intelligent than just a random walk, trying to 1) win if possible 2) at least not to loose 3) set a random point.

We lack a little bit of ideas about where to look for a strategy, anybody any ideas (books to recommend?)</comment></comment>


UK Covid-19 vaccine candidate mouse study results - <AUTHOR> https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.22.055608v1.full <comment><AUTHOR> Full title: Self-amplifying RNA SARS-CoV-2 lipid nanoparticle vaccine induces equivalent preclinical antibody titers and viral neutralization to recovered COVID-19 patients

</comment><comment><USER2> Note that this is not the vaccine made by the Jenner Institute and currently in Phase 1. These are preclinical data of a different vaccine candidate.</comment>


Need 3,000 more Sigs Now for Force TSA to Follow Law - <AUTHOR> https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/require-transportation-security-administration-follow-law/tffCTwDd

<comment><USER2> Need 3,000 more signatures to force the White House to write a response about why they won't be forcing the TSA to follow the law.

</comment><comment><USER3> Disingenuous title (and poor grammar as well) -- the response to this petition won't necessarily consist of any legislative change.</comment>


Five surprising outcomes of the 2008 financial crisis - <AUTHOR> https://www.ft.com/content/73e3ae2a-b1ca-11e8-8d14-6f049d06439c <comment><USER2> Paywalled.</comment>


BestBuy has stopped selling cds CDs and it is freaking out consumers - <AUTHOR> http://www.businessinsider.com/best-buy-pulling-cds-from-stores-reaction-2018-2 <comment><AUTHOR> First they came for our punch cards, then they took our floppy disks, then VHS, and now our CDs. What's next? Memory cards are going away too? ;)

<comment><USER2> I really hope not. Google's been trying that. I'd rather not put all my stuff on their "cloud".

Disclaimer: I actually use Nexus phones with no SD slot, but my camera has a Micro SD slot and I can't see a benefit to something any smaller than that at the moment.</comment></comment>


Google Releases First Developer Resources For Project Ara - <AUTHOR> http://www.projectara.com/agreement

<comment><USER2> Let's take a closer look at the details of Project Ara: [http://www.dazeinfo.com/2014/04/02/google-inc-goog- project-a...](http://www.dazeinfo.com/2014/04/02/google-inc-goog-project-ara- modular-smartphones-price-launch-date/) Ara will have a Google branded endoskeleton but the rest of the components (modules) will be licensed out to third-party manufacturers. The endoskeleton will be available in three different size configurations – Mini (between 4.0 – 4.5 inches), Medium (4.5 – 5.0 inches) and Jumbo (5.0 inches and beyond).

</comment><comment><USER3> Sooo... is this going to be completely open source or just open source and under control by google?

The terms seem to say under control by google.

</comment><comment><USER4> It's about time they did.</comment>


If the Dollar Stopped Being the Preeminent Reserve Currency - <AUTHOR> http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/if-the-dollar-stopped-being-the-preeminent-reserve-currency-it-would-mean-more-jobs-and-growth <comment><USER2> This is a great article, but it doesn't also talk about how imports would become relatively more expensive as the dollar lost buying power. We import most things these days so it could end up being pretty traumatic in terms of quality of living for those already employed.</comment>


Yuil is now 4hoursearch.com - <AUTHOR> http://www.4hoursearch.com/

<comment><USER2> <http://www.4hoursearch.com/search?q=%E7%99%BE%E5%BA%A6>

      Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "/base/python_lib/versions/1/google/appengine/ext/webapp/__init__.py", line 499, in __call__
        handler.get(*groups)
      File "/base/data/home/apps/yoolsearch/1.209/search.py", line 37, in get
        result = search(query, count=10)
      File "/base/data/home/apps/yoolsearch/1.209/yos/boss/ysearch.py", line 41, in search
        url = SEARCH_API_URL % (vertical, version, quote_plus(command), start, count, lang, region, filter, dimensions) + params(more)
      File "/base/python_dist/lib/python2.5/urllib.py", line 1213, in quote_plus
        return quote(s, safe)
      File "/base/python_dist/lib/python2.5/urllib.py", line 1205, in quote
        res = map(safe_map.__getitem__, s)
      KeyError: u'\u767e'

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> And the source code is available for download...

<comment><USER3> Do you know why it changed? Did they get some kind of cease and desist from Cuil?

<comment><USER4> This is neat idea to market, First create a CUIL clone in terms of appearance.Second bring it down, so people who missed it (including me) want to see it and Then relaunch it again with a new name :-) ....

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Not really a fan of the name, 4 hour search makes me think it'll take 4 hours to get search results. I would have kept yuil in the actual name, i.e. of the top of my head I looked and

YUILSEEK.COM is available!

USEYUIL.COM is available!

YOURYUIL.COM is available!

CUILYUIL.COM is available!

SEARCHYUIL.COM is available!

</comment><comment> cypress-hill it was funny on cuil's first day, now its just stupid</comment>


What happens to water if it's not allowed to expand when frozen? - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.howstuffworks.com/2010/04/27/what-happens-to-water-if-its-not-allowed-to-expand-when-frozen/

<comment><USER2> Water is not the only substance that expands when frozen.

The following elements expand when frozen: Gallium, Germanium and Plutonium.

There is also a wide range of molecules that expand when frozen. What's really less well known about water is it expands right before it freezes (4C - 0C) which significantly inhibits lakes from freezing in the winter by creating a large boundary layer.

<comment><USER3> The converse, negative thermal expansion ceramics like zirconium tungstate, are fascinating materials; they shrink when you heat them.

It's all to do with low-frequency vibrational modes, but if I started talking about mode Gruneisen parameters I'd start boring the arse off all of you and, what's worse, giving myself flashbacks...

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Wow I did not know there were actually different types of ice. There is even an ice IX which is unfortunately (well, actually, fortunately) not nearly as cool and destructive as the ice-9 imagined by Kurt Vonnegut.

</comment><comment><USER3> As one of a handful of mineralogists on Hacker News (and I suspect that Timetric's pretty much cornered _that_ market), I'm delighted to see phase diagrams on here!

This stuff is utterly fascinating. OK, I'm biased, I did my doctoral thesis on diffusion networks in silica glass, but things like the ortho/clinopyroxene or feldspar systems - <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feldspar> \- are just really beautiful.

(I mean, look at it! [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Albite_- _Crete_(Kriti)_Isl...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Albite_- _Crete_\(Kriti\)_Island,_Greece.jpg). Not as spectacular as APoD, OK, but I don't regret my time in science.)

</comment><comment><USER5> The difference between the types of ice is similar to the difference between graphite and diamond: same atoms, different arrangement and different crystal structures that are thermodynamically favored at different pressures.

Tangentially related: I've heard that if you want to freeze someone with cryogenics, you need to drop the temperature very quickly to far below normal freezing, so that you get a different type of ice crystal. I'm not entirely sure what the difference is (I'm not even sure this is 100% true), but I suspect whatever harm you're avoiding is related to why frozen food doesn't taste as good. If a chemist, biologist, or cryogenist could correct me, I'd love to hear the details.

<comment><USER6> Alton Brown's explanation on Good Eats of how to get good frozen strawberries effectively said that if you freeze them slowly, you get jagged ice crystals which slice membranes and cause them to turn to mush when you defrost. If you do it quickly it creates smaller, smoother crystals that leave the structure intact.

<comment><USER7> Yes- larger crystals + expansion --> puncture and break cell walls --> not good when you're defrosted. Tangentially, this is why ice cream cooled with liquid nitrogen is so smooth

<comment><USER8> ok, where can I try ice cream cooled with liquid nitrogen?

<comment><USER9> The Fat Duck in Bray, run by Heston Blumenthal -- <http://www.thefatduck.co.uk/>

Heston is awesome. We just did a series on TV where we made, amongst other things, edible wallpaper as the desert course, so all these celebs were licking the walls...

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Great video, but maybe they should have been wearing lab coats. They look like wallstreet CEOs in those suits.

<comment><USER11> At my office, we're doing "fancy Friday", which is like casual Friday, but, you know, fancy. I've started taking it pretty seriously.

People have noted that when I wear a nice suit, I look far more authoritative. My wife joked that I needed to put a lab coat on over the suit, pin on a police badge, and carry a clipboard. Then everyone would be convinced of my authority.

<comment><USER12> Pretty much as the Milgram experiment found out - <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment>.

All it takes is a lab coat to be perceived as an "authority figure" by most people - with distressing results.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> In the phase diagram on Wikipedia, which is more precise, shows a negative slope on the transition frozen-liquid, unlike the sketched version on the second video, which, I guess, is for all other elements. On such a negative slope, if the temperature increases the transition will continue to occur if the pressure decreases.

Isn't this negative slope well in accordance with the fact that water expands when freezing?

</comment><comment><USER14> Ah, now I understand that glaciers actually are made of a different kind of ice!

I've seen glacier ice on numerous occasions, and it has a very blue tinge, unlike normal ice. I now understand that that is probably one of the other ices that is formed at a very high pressure.

<comment><USER15> No, glacier ice is blue for the same reason the ocean is blue; ice absorbs similar wavelengths to liquid water.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> If you put it in container that it can't possibly break, will it not freeze completely?

<comment><USER17> You can try this at home with a bottle of beer. Put it in the freezer, forget about it (happens to me all the time) and open it. It freezes instantly.

<comment><USER18> This has to do with dissolved gasses which escape on opening changing the freezing point, not the inability of water to destroy an aluminum can. Freezing water fractures solid rock, creates pot holes in roads, and has no problem breaking a thin aluminum shell.

<comment><USER17> Interesting, thanks. That won't stop me from putting beer in the freezer though.

<comment><USER19> Gp ahead, just don't do it with beer bottles. It takes quite an effort to remove all the little shards of broken glass and the fridge smells like beer :)

<comment><USER17> I've never had that happen, but wouldn't the cap come off first?

<comment><USER20> Apparently not; I've had a bottle of soda 'sploding in my freezer. I'm guessing that since the bottle's neck is so slim the water there freezes first, effectively "plugging" the bottle.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> "There was a sound like that of the gentle closing of a portal as big as the sky, the great door of heaven being closed softly."

<comment><USER21> For our next chat we will be discussing the endochronic properties of resublimated thiotimoline...

<comment><USER22> (Downvote? Really?) <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiotimoline>

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Wouldn't the pipe be much more brittle when the co2 was poured on it?

<comment><USER24> I believe that's true. However, at my parents' cabin in the Rocky Mountains, the pipes still blow if they aren't drained properly (they're at surface level). It's only happened twice that I can remember, but it's quite impressive to see a steel pipe with a crack running the entire length.

<comment><USER25> Also note the solution is not to insulate exterior pipes as said in the video: insulation without a heat source simply delays the freezing. No, you have to put heat tape around the pipes. Or drain them. Running water is also not a solution - now instead of your pipes freezing, your drain will freeze. My friend the plumber was always gleeful when the newsmen would pass along that old urban legend: a long, profitable night for him, replacing drainpipes in mobile homes!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> This is why bricks are not allowed to have bubbles, if some water gets stuck in those in rain and in winter if it freezes we get cracks

<comment><USER27> A lot of normal building brick is pretty porous, if not protected from getting really wet just before a freeze you get spalling, where the face of the brick flakes off. Brick that is too non-porous on the other hand, like sewer brick, forms relatively weak mortar bonds, which is why it is rarely used in buildings.</comment></comment>


Ask HN: HN but for cars? - <AUTHOR> Does anyone have recommendations for a site  similar to HN for car news?<p>Thanks <comment><USER2> Depends on what you mean by 'car news'.

For industry, I like autoline's reports, although well in the pocket, they seem somewhat objective. Not really an interactive thing afaik, but seems to be decent.

For tinkering, enthusiast, and racing, I know many. Grassrootsmotorsports seems like the best marque agnostic forum, but they lean heavy on the lower cost cars. They have a race series that requires a budget (exl safety) of about 2000$ with unique challenges each year. Like lemons, but a bit more laid back.

But the real answer, is finding the niche YOU like. There are few high quality generalist car forums. So much of the topic is brand, segment, or use- specific, it is highly fractured.

</comment><comment><USER3> Jaguar Forums (I think that's the site name) is analogous to HN but of course solely for Jaguars, because they break down so impressively and catasrophically and often :)

</comment><comment><USER4> Reddit has a cars subreddit.</comment>


Any examples of writing/authors who write with algorithmic style – like code? - <AUTHOR> i.e. have you found any inordinately clear algorithms / design patterns used in english writing? perhaps similar to how many programmers have clear patterns to how they write code<p>(e.g they use naming conventions, declare vars at top of scope, refactor reused code into standalone method etc.)<p>any examples of this from 'great' writers? <comment><USER2> Not algorithms — but you can detect linguistic structures that writers use like crutches. Some examples:

-Shakespeare and hendiadys (e.g. "sound and fury", "quick and dead"). Hendiadys are obliquely related words joined by "and" to reinforce one another. They often sound better than the adjective-ized versions, like "furious sound" or "quickly dead".

-Shakespeare and the personification of abstract nouns (e.g. "The better part of valour is discretion" or "the very heart of loss") With this technique, you attribute properties to the word itself — giving valour "parts" or loss a "heart". Another example: "Give me that man / That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him." — that abstract noun "passion" becomes a slaveowner. A lot of Shakespeare's quotable quotes are set up like this. Which makes sense — "John's passion" doesn't lend to universal soundbites, while capital-P "passion" doing the action, is something everyone can identify with.

-At a simpler level, you can look at someone like Mary Karr, who heavily relies on similes ("she had a butt like two bulldogs in a bag"). The "algorithm" here is basically powering-up any description, with a comparison joined by like/as/than

</comment><comment><USER3> There is a rather obscure book titled "If Hemingway Wrote Javascript" by Angus Croll [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21487480-if-hemingway- wr...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21487480-if-hemingway-wrote- javascript) that contains literary reviews and source code in a variety of programming languages.

It's hard to describe this book; look at an excerpt at [https://blog.honeypot.io/if-hemingway-wrote- javascript/](https://blog.honeypot.io/if-hemingway-wrote-javascript/). The source code actually runs and really does capture the writing style and idioms of the purported writers. I remember a factorial program by "Richard Feynman" that used numeric approximations that was just brilliant.

</comment><comment><USER4> Yes, there's a book called 'The Pyramid Principle', written by Barbara Minto. It's the foundation for good practices in management consulting, and your hear about it a lot in business writing. It reads very much like a graph-algorithms book.

Two of most famous principles from it are:

1\. The Pyramid Principle, which points out that people tend to write like you write a proof, first the supporting arguments leading up to the key point. The principle is a way to 'flip' paragraphs.

2\. The SCQA Principle: This is exploiting the idea that the way we think is to try to slot facts into a narrative, and that we're naturally wired to like a certain narrative that's in the form of Situation-Complication-Question- Answer.</comment>


Linux is Most Used OS in Microsoft Azure - <AUTHOR> https://build5nines.com/linux-is-most-used-os-in-microsoft-azure-over-50-percent-fo-vm <comment><USER2> Between Azure customers running more Linux than anything else, Windows coming with a Linux subsystem, and Microsoft being a platinum member of the Linux foundation, this is CLEARLY not Balmer's Microsoft anymore!</comment>


Why Go's design is a disservice to intelligent programmers - <AUTHOR> http://nomad.so/2015/03/why-gos-design-is-a-disservice-to-intelligent-programmers/ <comment><USER2> There are some good points in there, but it doesn't help his case that he writes some of the Go examples in an unnecessarily contrived way. The first snippet can be rewritten as:

      import (
        "io"
        "log"
        "os"
      )

      func main() {
        var (
          r io.Reader
          err error
        )

        if len(os.Args) > 1 {
          r, err = os.Open(os.Args[1])
        } else {
          r = os.Stdin
        }

        if err == nil {
          err = io.Copy(os.Stdout, r)
        }
        if err != nil {
          log.Fatal(err)
        }
      }

EDIT: One more quip:

> I've always thought that the developers at Google are hand picked from the > brightest and best on Earth. Surely they can handle something a little more > complicated?

The point of Go is to ask if they really really have to. In my experience, there is much value to be found when colleagues can jump into your code for a drive-by contribution and start being productive on the first day.

</comment><comment><USER3> You can try for more runtime type safety (except it's still unityped), if you also use generic function call. Still ugly however, but at least usage is somewhat sane (even if compiler still won't inform you about errors).

        package main

        import (
            "fmt"
            "reflect"
        )

        func Reduce(array interface{}, initial interface{}, callback interface{}) interface{} {
            arr := reflect.ValueOf(array)
            memo := reflect.ValueOf(initial)
            f := reflect.ValueOf(callback)

            for i := 0; i < arr.Len(); i++ {
                memo = f.Call([]reflect.Value{memo, arr.Index(i)})[0]
            }

            return memo
        }

        func main() {

            list := []int{1, 2, 3, 4, 5}

            result := Reduce(list, 0, func(initial int, value int) int {
                return initial + value
            })

            fmt.Println(result)
        }

</comment><comment><USER4> Needs a (2015) suffix, and also see previous discussion: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9266184](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9266184)

</comment><comment><USER5> The design philosophy of Go is all about practicality - it's about helping programmers write programs quickly and easily with the least friction from the language. In my opinion it excels at that. For my money it's the easiest language to crank out real programs productively and enjoyably. And that's what really matters to me when I'm programming.</comment>


Scale API (S16) helps engineers outsource microtasks - <AUTHOR> https://www.wsj.com/articles/scale-helps-engineers-outsource-microtasks-1495452603?hn=1 <comment><USER2> This looks interesting. But I was hoping the website would explain more about how it works. How do you hire qualified taskers? How do you ensure you have enough of them? Are you paying them well and are you complying to employment laws (I don't to participate in immoral/illegal setups)? What are good instructions and what are not? How much creativity can I expect from a tasker (some tasks, such as prosecting, require a bit more thinking and creativity if you want accurate results)? Some taks require a bit of domain knowledge (e.g. knowledge of my own products), how do I ensure good results? These are just some of the questions that immediately pop up to me. I was disappointed by the lack of an FAQ section.

</comment><comment><USER3> I went through their recruitment process last fall for a summer internship, and I can confirm: Their developer-focused approach is definitely what make them stand out.

There is a reason Stripe succeeded where many ( _many_ ) other payment companies tried and failed.

Combining great UI/UX and a developer-centric experience can go a long way into ensuring your business is future-proof, especially when your core service is an API :).

</comment><comment><USER4> SE Daily podcast about the company: [https://softwareengineeringdaily.com/2016/12/16/scale-api- wi...](https://softwareengineeringdaily.com/2016/12/16/scale-api-with-lucy- guo-and-alexandr-wang/)

</comment><comment><USER5> Such a rad idea. Good luck! Also, design looks a lot like Stripe... :p

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks Travis, appreciate it!

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> intresting, i did part of my phd on crowdsourcing and quality control and checks of the results is still an open problem. people tend to cheat a lot.

</comment><comment><USER7> I noticed you show a list of top earners...humans doing the tasks. Just monthly earnings shown though. Are the leaderboard people working an abnormal amount of hours, or are they just doing well due to accuracy?

</comment><comment><USER8> One of the most promising companies among the whole S16 batch. Congatz!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thank you Stepan :) Means a lot

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Great team, solid concept!

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks Jon! :)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> [https://www.scaleapi.com/](https://www.scaleapi.com/) Non-paywall link

<comment><USER11> As far as I know, there isn't a consistent one. The _Wall Street Journal_ recently increased the level of protection their paywall provides. Some have reported success using the "web" link in an private browsing window.

Edit to add: I had forgotten about the hack my sibling mentioned. Thanks, 'ayw!

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Hoe do you become one of the humans behind this engine? I am looking to earn some $$ after my day job.

<comment><USER13> Looks like you can sign up here [[https://www.remotasks.com/](https://www.remotasks.com/)] to be a contractor for Scale API

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Cool concept - what sorts of tasks are you hoping to do in the future?

<comment><AUTHOR> Right now we're very focused on image, audio, and video applications. In the near future, it will include transcription, captions, object detection, and feature detection. We plan on adding features around NLP and language applications as well, since that's an area with a ton of interesting work.

In general, we hope to tackle anything that humans are better than machines at and would make sense as APIs.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> TL;DR: It's the same as Amazon Mechanical Turk, but aims for higher quality by screening the people performing the tasks.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm Alex, CEO of Scale. We definitely hope to solve many of the same problems as MTurk, and think it's a brilliant idea.

Our main focuses for our product are around high quality, ease-of-use, and reliability. In our experience, MTurk exhibits none of those.

It requires a lot of work to get truly high quality results, and virtually impossible above a certain quality threshold. MTurk promises no SLAs and forces the customer to do a lot of work such as price discovery, building UIs, and quality control, not to mention how difficult to use their API is. Our philosophy is handle all of that complexity for the developer.

We've been inspired by our own experiences using easy-to-use APIs like Stripe, Twilio, SendGrid, etc., and wanted to build a similar experience for human intelligence. Hope that helps!

<comment><USER16> How would you compare yourself to CrowdFlower or CrowdSource?

<comment><AUTHOR> We're approaching the problem differently than both of those companies, and over time I think the difference will be more and more apparent.

Scale is vertically focused, currently focusing on image annotations and audio transcription. This allows us to provide extremely high accuracy and an ever- improving developer experience by investing heavily in tooling, automation, and screening. It's very difficult to do that as a more generic crowdsourcing service.

We're also entirely developer-focused as a company. Our users are engineers, and we have a singular focus to provide the best experience in using Scale to build more complex products.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Glittering Blue - <AUTHOR> https://glittering.blue/ <comment><USER2> I made this, and I'm happy to answer questions. (And to politely ignore contentious remarks about how I characterized GOES-R.)

<comment><USER3> Thanks! This was increadable to watch over and over again. I'm so used to highly compressed video, that the detail in this was staggering.

Is there a good public reasonably live feed of this data? I found the 800x800 8 bit pngs, and I found information on the restricted access full sized 103 gigabyte per day feed.

<comment><USER2> _Is there a good public reasonably live feed of this data?_

Right here: [http://himawari8.nict.go.jp](http://himawari8.nict.go.jp)

<comment><USER4> Any reason why we don't have several of these at all points?; or do we and I just do not know about it? - p.s. love the site, thank you

<comment><USER5> _Europe's weather authorities are extremely stingy with their nearest equivalent data – their attitude is that the observations are for science or for money, not for silly websites._

Feel free to provide an email address for us to complain.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> From the about page:

> "Europe's weather authorities are extremely stingy with their nearest > equivalent data – their attitude is that the observations are for science or > for money, not for silly websites."

What a terrible attitude we have here. We don't even have the climate change excuse because that attitude doesn't exist here. I did a bit of Googling, it seems that Eumetsat is the agency responsible:

[http://www.eumetsat.int/website/home/AboutUs/index.html](http://www.eumetsat.int/website/home/AboutUs/index.html)

If anyone is interested in drafting a letter with me, asking why our taxpayers' money is being used and the benefits not shared openly, please get in touch. Email in my profile.

<comment><USER7> In the US we have NOAA for weather. I found about about them when they were being sued by some private forecasters (accuweather I think) for giving away forecast data on the web. (We used to have a weather band radio which would just broadcast the forecast).

The government site [1] is ad free and is very accurate and free from local hype. To the local media snow = ratings. (I bike a lot so I'm a weather watcher). My main complaint is their use of ALL CAPS in the detailed weather discussion[2]

Getting a stream of data from NOAA wasn't so easy for global locations, hourly so when my company needed it we paid weather underground which has a lat/long -> json weather condition api.[3] its was free for developers and small sites and its fun to play around with.

[0][http://graphical.weather.gov/xml/rest.php](http://graphical.weather.gov/xml/rest.php) [1][http://www.weather.gov](http://www.weather.gov) [2][http://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=BOX&issuedby=BO...](http://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=BOX&issuedby=BOX&product=AFD&format=CI&version=1&glossary=1&highlight=off) [3][http://www.wunderground.com/weather/api/](http://www.wunderground.com/weather/api/)

<comment><USER8> You can get limited data from NOAA (METAR) through ADDS: [https://aviationweather.gov/adds/dataserver](https://aviationweather.gov/adds/dataserver)

Here's an example for Moscow: [https://aviationweather.gov/adds/dataserver_current/httppara...](https://aviationweather.gov/adds/dataserver_current/httpparam?dataSource=metars&requestType=retrieve&format=xml&stationString=UUEE&hoursBeforeNow=2)

If you need forecasts, NDFD appears to have both SOAP and REST services that are updated hourly: [http://graphical.weather.gov/xml/rest.php](http://graphical.weather.gov/xml/rest.php)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Be sure to read the (long) explanation and more details linked in the page: [https://glittering.blue/about](https://glittering.blue/about)

</comment><comment><USER10> Reading the about page really makes me hope that private efforts to launch mini/nano satellites actually works out. It would be supremely awesome to have easily accessible data & imagery of our planet, rather than have it locked up due to politics and bureaucracy.

<comment><USER11> > Reading the about page really makes me hope that private efforts to launch > mini/nano satellites actually works out

That sounds like a good idea, but it gives me Kessler Syndrome anxiety. We already have a bit of space debris on our hands

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I made a script that sets the latest image from Himawari-8 as your desktop background - new picture of Earth every 10 mins!

[https://gist.github.com/jarmitage/5042bfe20aa54b3d8dc8](https://gist.github.com/jarmitage/5042bfe20aa54b3d8dc8)

</comment><comment><USER13> Not a massive issue, but in Chrome if you scroll so that the credits/about link is over the Earth, you can no longer click it.

Adding a z-index property set to 1 in the CSS fixes it for me in Chrome.

<comment><USER2> Done. Thank you!

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> Black screen except for "Loading 0%" in the corner on Android.

<comment><USER15> Black screen here, too (although the loading text went from 0 to 100%) on Firefox 44 on Windows 7.

<comment><USER16> I had the same problem on FF44 and Win7, but it worked fine on Chrome on Windows and OSX, worth firing up Chrome to check out, IMHO.

<comment><USER2> Sorry. If there's one thing I've learned from this project, it's that video support is hard.

I'm happy to take advice (preferably in the form of ffmpeg flags).

<comment><USER17> What were your ffmpeg flags to begin with?

<comment><USER2> It's based on the example for 2-pass encoding, with tweaks for things like QuickTime support: [https://gist.github.com/celoyd/90cc919105248a2ddc95](https://gist.github.com/celoyd/90cc919105248a2ddc95)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> The Earth looks so .. crisp and clean from afar.

Mesmerizing.

</comment><comment><USER19> > The moon does appear occasionally, dimly – it's made of rock about as dark > as asphalt.

That's what I've always found fascinating in discussions about what's the true color of the moon. I know the fact, and I still have trouble picturing an asphalt moon. No-one I told that believed me.

<comment><USER20> So is it freshly-poured asphalt black or well-worn asphalt grey? How can its color be compared to something on earth? Doesn't the (lack of) atmosphere have some effect?

<comment><USER2> Well-worn gray: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albedo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albedo)

It's a loose comparison, since both asphalt and the moon's surface vary. Plus, there are tricky things like specular reflection and the opposition effect.

 _How can its color be compared to something on earth? Doesn 't the (lack of) atmosphere have some effect?_

You can hold a moon rock up against something on Earth. Or you can look at Earth and the moon from a distance with the same sensor, which is what Himawari-8 is doing.

The atmosphere does affect things: A huge plain of moon rocks on Earth's surface would look bluer (hazier) than the moon would in the same picture from Himawari-8 (or an Apollo Hasselblad, etc.). And a moon rock in sunlight on Earth will look slightly yellower than one in the same light on the moon. But your eyes are constantly adapting to the surrounding illumination. Color perception is really complicated.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER21> If you have any problem with loading the page, here is the direct link to the MP4: [https://s3.amazonaws.com/hi8/v/2015-08-03.mp4](https://s3.amazonaws.com/hi8/v/2015-08-03.mp4)

</comment><comment><USER22> From the FAQ:

 _What's the light-colored border in the water around some continents?

Several things. The turquoise in the tropics ... is shallow water – we're seeing bright sand under a relatively thin layer of ocean. Around China, it's air pollution from coal power ..._

</comment><comment><USER23> On firefox, all I see is a part of a sphere (earth?) that gets somewhat illuminated. Laoding stops at 10% .... nothing else happens. What is is supposed to do?

<comment><USER24> It's supposed to load to 100% (zing!)

Seriously though, works fine in FF here, and shows a beautifully rendered loop of the earth.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> OH! It's summer in the Northern Hemisphere on that picture. That's why the day seems so damn short if you're watching Australia.

<comment><USER26> ...and why there is no night at the north pole.

This cannot be mid summer though, because a larger area to the north should be continuously illuminated then -- the part above the arctic circle.

Living north of the arctic circle makes nice summers, reading in bed without any lamp, but sucks at winter.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> The New York Times published an interactive about this new satellite in July: [http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/07/10/science/An- Ima...](http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/07/10/science/An-Image-of- Earth-Every-Ten-Minutes.html)

</comment><comment><USER28> I also get a loading 0%. OSX Chrome.

From the page src:

// [Not like piano music.]([http://achewood.com/index.php?date=11082002](http://achewood.com/index.php?date=11082002))

I'm intrigued but don't understand the comic.

</comment><comment><USER29> Himawari 8 is some 35K kilometers away from Earth (moon is 380K km). It doesn't appear that far away just by looking at the satellite pictures.

</comment><comment><USER30> Beautiful + fascinating + mesmerizing.

</comment><comment><USER31> This makes me want to play KSP. ;-)

</comment><comment><USER26> Oh! So the sun IS really rotating around the Earth. The church was right all along then...

<comment><USER32> I wonder how has he hacked God's webcam.

<comment><USER33> [https://www.shodan.io/](https://www.shodan.io/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> Very cool. But, you forgot to model the lightning :) Especially visible at night.

<comment><USER35> And you forgot to read the "about" page. :) It's not a rendering, it's pictures of the planet.

</comment></comment><comment><USER36> This is why I love the internet. Thank you for making this!

</comment><comment><USER37> on the about page:

"My friend believes Earth is flat and people never landed on the moon. How do I use this video to convince them otherwise?"

unfortunately, the answer is 100% true.

<comment><USER38> No, its him being a smart ass. He has never received that email but it allows him to straw man any opponents. Because @!#!$$!@ love science!

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> Nice work, sir.

</comment><comment><USER40> the hurricanes are really cool looking

</comment><comment><USER41> I think mucker's excellent comment deserves to be listed under yours:

> to say you won't discuss contentious remarks after being pointedly > contentious is really, pathetically bad form. If you dish it out, be > prepared to take it.

<comment><USER2> I think they're just responding to my joke with a joke ;)

<comment><USER38> I didn't find it a joke and the votes indicate others took it seriously (down votes are serious).

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> Avoid the about page, it's unnecessarily loaded with flame bait political commentary.

<comment><USER43> I thought the about page was rather good and the political points interesting.

tl;dr he argues we can get this data from a Japanese satellite rather than US ones because the climate denial folk have blocked funding.

In linked material:

>[the House of Representatives, led by Republicans] slashed Earth science funding by $260 million and added extra money for planetary science that the agency did not ask for. For example, nasa requested $30 million for a robotic mission to Jupiter's icy moon, Europa, but the House gave it $140 million.

</comment></comment><comment><USER38> Nice stuff...except for the about page.

"but our federal science budget is controlled by climate denialists who dishonestly impede Earth observation because environmental science embarrasses them."

Uh no. The House voted not to spend money on a Vice Presidents dream of a beautiful 38 million dollar picture. Now you can argue that it has merit, but even the NY Times ([http://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/01/science/politics-keeps- a-s...](http://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/01/science/politics-keeps-a-satellite- earthbound.html)) leaves that question, quite rightfully, hanging.

And to say you won't discuss contentious remarks after being pointedly contentious is really, pathetically bad form. If you dish it out, be prepared to take it.

<comment><USER2> Casual readers may not get your reference – the idea for DSCOVR literally came to Al Gore in a dream. I still think this is hilarious.

One can indeed argue that DSCOVR has merit, and people including climate scientists do. (Though arguably it's really too early to judge either way until there's time for publications to come out of its data.) Earth's radiation budget is surprisingly underdetermined, considering its importance.

But it's certainly a fair criticism of DSCOVR _as launched_ that it's not state-of-the-art. That's because it was delayed for reasons of politics, only loosely disguised as reasons of science.

The only places I'd push back on your remarks are:

1\. The "Uh no", which is unsubstantiated (perhaps just facetious, but I'm sensitive because I supported my point relatively laboriously, with the links); and

2\. the idea that the NYT should refrain from pointing out political interference in science funding.

<comment><USER44> 38 million was loose change, even in 1998. We spent far more teaching abstinence (with little to no effect) to school children that year.</comment></comment></comment>