Ask HN: Do you still buy/read technical books? - <AUTHOR> If you decide to learn new skills (e.g python) or about a subject (e.g. ML) do you still rely on technical books for it?
I find myself looking more and more for alternative sources, but it could be just me, not finding a page of code written in a book all that useful.
Note: this is not about the quality of the content, but about the appropriateness of the medium nowadays. <comment><USER2> Books are often the only way to get a really good big picture overview of a subject, because of their scale and editorial process.

* Blog posts tend to be too short, so you only get some details or a really vague outline. A book can do both big picture and relevant details.

* Documentation is usually written by someone who knows the system too well, so too often it leaves out a lot of things that the author thinks are obvious but aren't obvious to readers.

</comment><comment><USER3> Yes, I still occasionally buy tech books, but only for kicking off learning a new skill. I can read a book in an evening and get the big picture of how things work as well as the underlying philosophy of how the small pieces work. Hopefully I've also gotten at least one person's view of the best practices for that tech.

After that I try to build something. When I'm done with the first play project I rarely return to the book.

</comment><comment><USER4> For theory, absolutely.

Its still hard to beat the Dragon books for compiler theory, and SICP, Lisp In Small Pieces and others are still some of the best for PLT.

New skills tends to be different, because the technology is new, theoretical underpinnings haven't been researched well enough to be expanded out into a book.

I'd never get a book on jQuery, because I don't need the theoretical underpinning, just the documentation. A basic understanding of the implementation is enough.

However, I would pick up a book on Dot, the Typed Calculus being explored with Scala in the Dotty compiler. Because I'd be learning the mathematics of type safety, and using types to more effeciently generate machine code. However, learning to use Scala would be incidental to that experience.

</comment><comment><USER5> I use technical books as a medium much different than a quickstart or tutorial for a library / framework / etc.

Last year I bought a Safari Books Online Subscription [1]. It's something like ~$400 but usually goes half price on Black Friday. The core is virtually every O'Reilly book and many from other technical publishers too.

I've bought a couple technical eBooks or paperbacks this year, but for the most part this subscription has replaced that. It's also nice to not accumulate physical clutter for when 2+ years from now that book about hot JavaScript frameworks today will be ancient.

[1]: [https://www.safaribooksonline.com/](https://www.safaribooksonline.com/)

</comment><comment><USER6> Books are most useful for matters that don't change very much, which would probably include most academic subjects. Programming language books are good when they're more general in nature (e.g. John Resig's JS book) but are less useful when learning, say, a specific library. In the latter case, online materials seem to be a better guide.

</comment><comment><USER7> Not as often but I still buy technical books. Last book I bought was, Head First Android.

I enjoy reading books but most technical books I skim through in a couple of days. However, that gives me enough big picture ideas that when I am actually working on a problem, I know what keywords to type in Google.

<comment><USER5> I feel like a lot of people don't take the Head First series seriously, but honestly I'm a fan.

Sure they are pretty light and big picture but I've come to realize I enjoy building that foundation and figuring out the details myself rather than having an exhaustive tome tell me everything.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I rely on technical books on certain subjects. For instance, I would get a technical book on compiler design patterns because those are pretty timeless. On the other hand, I have stopped buying books that are new programming language specific because the languages tend to change and make the book obsolete. I've experienced this with a RoR/Ruby book I bought that wouldn't even work with the newest version of RoR at the time. The book was useless.

</comment><comment><USER9> I still read tech books but not in paper since last summer when I signed up to Safari Books Online.

I usually start building new skills with MOOCs, which also help me discover books that will help me later as a reference after the course ends. In this case I prefer paper books, not online ones.

</comment><comment><USER10> I buy them in PDF form and read them when I do cardio at the gym.

<comment><USER5> Tried this once and my eyes can't handle trying to read while moving. Maybe it's the astigmatism.

<comment><USER11> I find the recumbent bicycle is the steadiest way to do reading and cardio at the same time.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> All the time. Not particularly for a specific technology, especially in fast- moving domains like web dev, but for more broad practice and theory, the concepts are more timeless. Think Code Complete, or The Art of Unit Testing, or Working Effectively with Legacy Code, or Peopleware.

I'm also a fan of the Syncfusion Succinctly series[1]. They are short, quick overviews of a particular tech, that you can pretty easily go through in a evening and make a good jumping off point for digging deeper.

[1] [https://www.syncfusion.com/resources/techportal/ebooks](https://www.syncfusion.com/resources/techportal/ebooks)

<comment><USER5> Two more similar ones that come to mind are _The Pragmatic Programmer_ [1] and _Pragmatic Thinking and Learning_ [2].

[1]: [https://pragprog.com/book/tpp/the-pragmatic- programmer](https://pragprog.com/book/tpp/the-pragmatic-programmer)

[2]: [https://pragprog.com/book/ahptl/pragmatic-thinking-and- learn...](https://pragprog.com/book/ahptl/pragmatic-thinking-and-learning)</comment></comment>


Zebra - A UI component library based on HTML5 canvas - <AUTHOR> http://www.zebkit.com/

<comment><USER2> Pretty much yeah: [http://caniuse.com/#search=canvas](http://caniuse.com/#search=canvas)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks -- edited title based on your response.</comment></comment>


Announcing TypeScript 2.9 - <AUTHOR> https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/typescript/2018/05/31/announcing-typescript-2-9/ <comment><USER2> Is there a roadmap to support CLR backend. I would love to use it with .NET Core backend.</comment>


You All Have No Business Writing - <AUTHOR> http://zacjszewczyk.com/Structure/You%20All%20Have%20No%20Business%20Writing.htm <comment><USER2> I like your site, man.

You should check out contributing to <http://sthgnw.com> \- I think it fits with your content style nicely.</comment>


Product Design at Mozilla - <AUTHOR> https://air.mozilla.org/product-design-at-mozilla/

<comment><USER2> Congratulations to the Product design team at Mozilla. I loved what they've done with 'Junior', the browser on the iPad. For people who want to dive into the video for the demo, go to approx. 31mins.; otherwise, here's a summary of the stand out features:

a. Full screen browsing. No URL/address bar eating up screen real-estate.

b. Two translucent buttons on the sides, very close to where one would grip the iPad (easy access with the thumbs). These two buttons are the "<" (back) and "+". "+" allows you to access other fullscreen sites currently active in the browser and add new ones.

c. Party trick, drag on the buttons (again possible comfortably with the thumbs) mentioned above to expose "forward", "print" etc. Beautifully done, looks slick.

</comment><comment><USER3> Great, a new browser for the iPad. Not so great: encoding the video demo in a format that doesn't work in Safari on the iPad.

<comment><USER4> They provided it in an open format, it's not their fault if Safari doesn't support it.

<comment><USER3> I bet this is a very effective way for them to reach their target audience, not at all a huge waste of time and money. Next, they should release some whitepapers about their new iOS browser in ODF format and a podcast in Ogg Vorbis, that will really get the word out there.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> "What are we doing to make sure that the ones working to disrupt Mozilla's products is Mozilla itself"

Stop. Just stop it. All my users are sick of re-learning an app they've been using for years already. Every time they face relearning the FF interface means it's just that much easier to try something else -- and they do. Huge exodus to chrome(ium).

</comment><comment><USER6> That is interesting, but Mozilla needs to focus on making its browser consume less memory and CPU when idle. These are the things that are killing its marketshare and leading users to switch to alternatives. Every time I see initiatives like the password account manager, iOS apps that use web view, a browser based editor and what not I just scratch my head because Firefox marketshare is plummeting and the old refrain "just wait until the next version" was tired since 3.0. Instead the general response is to get defensive and list new features. Yeah and are those new features stopping the user drain? Nope. Firefox is a sluggish memory sucking heap of software that drains resources even when it isn't being used.

I love and cherish Firefox as a product and a brand, because you have achieved a lot in your past. But now you are failing and it is depressing to see this happen.

<comment><USER7> Firefox 13, when not overwhelmed by add-ons is the memory champion right now. Seriously, check it out. Download Firefox 13, create a new profile clean from crapware, load up a couple dozen tabs and surf around for a day. Do the same in IE and Chrome. Firefox wins. Firefox 15, just around the corner, has world- beating memory usage and it uses less RAM than any other browser, even when you've got "leaky extensions" installed because we've prevented extensions from causing Firefox leaks.

<comment><USER6> I always run the latest Firefox and the only extensions I have are Xmarks, 1password, Firebug and Webdeveloper.

<comment><USER8> Firebug is most likely the culprit [1]. Firefox 15 will have a general fix for the kind of memory leaks such as the one caused by Firebug (affectionately called "Hueyfix" after its inventor Kyle Huey by some) [2].

[1] <https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=669730> [2] <https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=695480>

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> "The best way to predict the future is to invent it."

Sorry guys, I won't believe that you will define the future of browsers in any way—significant innovations in this space have always been presented by other parties the last years.

<comment><USER8> This is probably why so many features from Mozilla end up in other browsers:

-Notification bar in pretty much all browsers.

-Doorhanger panels

-Download pane which Safari managed to release first (unfortunately a common pattern)

-HTML5 video which Mozilla implemented first

-Do not track

-AwesomeBar which now all other browsers emulate with different degrees of success.

-Firebug which set the standard for web development tools.

And so on, and so on. The other browsers also contribute great innovations to the browser space and this is a great situation for the end user, but I don't really like how Mozilla is kept getting downplayed.

<comment><USER10> "-HTML5 video which Mozilla implemented first"

I worked on the Mozilla HTML video implementation. Opera came up with the original proposal and presented a first experimental implementation. We started implementing this to be compatible.

Apple then presented their much more complicated proposal which was integrated with the Opera one and became HTML 5 video, along with feedback from other implementers, including Mozilla.

So it's a bit more complicated than "Mozilla implemented first".

<comment><USER8> Mea culpa, I didn't want to steal the thunder from the great guys at Opera. From my end user perspective I only remember Opera supporting the <video> tag in a version which was released almost a year after Firefox 3.5 [1].

[1] <http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/introduction-html5-video/></comment></comment></comment></comment>


SolrCloud, Jepsen, and Flaky Networks - <AUTHOR> http://lucidworks.com/blog/call-maybe-solrcloud-jepsen-flaky-networks/

<comment><USER2> It's amazing how much the Jepsen posts have raised the bar around distributed database testing. "Passes Jepsen" seems to be rapidly becoming required for open-source distributed databases. It's a great improvement, and I hope Kyle is really proud of the influence he has had. A big part of the success is that the writing itself was engaging, entertaining and accessible without being patronizing.

Having said that, Jepsen is far from a full exercise of all of the safety properties of a distributed database. There are many kinds of bugs (both protocol bugs and implementation bugs) that wouldn't be detected by these kinds of tests. Passing Jepsen is necessary, but not sufficient. Even without covering truly Byzantine behaviors, real-world networks have many failure modes that Jepsen doesn't address.

</comment><comment><USER3> And @aphyr's twitter response:

So I'm delighted by [http://lucidworks.com/blog/call-maybe-solrcloud-jepsen- flaky...](http://lucidworks.com/blog/call-maybe-solrcloud-jepsen-flaky- networks/) … but tbh "may get a successful response for a document that is lost" is actually a CP failure.

\-- [https://twitter.com/aphyr/status/542820272626491392](https://twitter.com/aphyr/status/542820272626491392)

<comment><AUTHOR> @aphyr Wanna repeat how impressed I am with @Lucidworks testing of SolrCloud and how well it behaved. Solid work all round. :)

[https://twitter.com/aphyr/status/543547826756530176](https://twitter.com/aphyr/status/543547826756530176)

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Here's the original Jepsen post on ElasticSearch for reference: [http://aphyr.com/posts/317-call-me-maybe- elasticsearch](http://aphyr.com/posts/317-call-me-maybe-elasticsearch)

</comment><comment><USER4> I'm out of the loop. They are using Carly Rae Jespen's marketing images in the background to promote their open source network testing tool?

<comment><USER5> It's a reference to Aphyr's blog series on partitions in distributed application - [http://aphyr.com/posts/281-call-me-maybe-carly-rae-jepsen- an...](http://aphyr.com/posts/281-call-me-maybe-carly-rae-jepsen-and-the- perils-of-network-partitions). It's a great series and seems to have raised the level of discussion around distributed apps.

The whole set (in reverse chronological order) is available at [http://aphyr.com/tags/jepsen](http://aphyr.com/tags/jepsen)</comment></comment>


Show HN: Tinyplate – A lightweight dashboard powered by Bootstrap - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/scottwoodall/tinyplate

<comment><USER2> This is EXACTLY what I started doing yesterday for the @Ehesp Responsive- Dashboard project. Glad you got it done before I got anywhere with it. Very useful to small one-off projects!</comment>


Google Wants To Be Your Alarm Clock - <AUTHOR> http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/04/google_wants_to_1.html

<comment><USER2> So this is an article about an April fools joke, a day after April fools...?</comment>


Pokemon Direct: Sun and Moon Announced to Celebrate 20th Anniversary - <AUTHOR> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qBHfd2NtJs&feature=youtu.be <comment><AUTHOR> I know this isn't exactly relevant - but - for me and probably many others, games like Pokemon, and software like Gameshark/Gamegenie were my first introduction to software. So, this is a really meaningful announcement to me, and it probably set me off on my career in software engineering.

Congratulations Pokemon! Thanks for continuing to bring out the kid in me!</comment>


Homeland Security Wants to Subpoena Us Over a Clearly Hyperbolic Comment - <AUTHOR> https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160506/10324634363/homeland-security-wants-to-subpoena-us-over-clearly-hyperbolic-techdirt-comment.shtml <comment><USER2> > We have told Homeland Security that we're willing to receive the subpoena > and review it, but that based on what we know, we have serious First > Amendment concerns about the request itself. Multiple Supreme Court cases, > including Rankin v. McPherson and Watts v. United States have made it clear > that people have a First Amendment right to say that they hope the President > gets shot, let alone a law enforcement agent. It may be rude and > uncomfortable, but if it is not an indication of a "true threat," then it is > protected. And, as such, the idea of disclosing any information about > someone who was clearly engaged in rhetorical hyperbole in an internet > forum, likely leading to federal agents showing up at his or her door, is > quite troubling to us.

This is a huge abuse by Homeland Security. There is clear-cut precedent here protecting such speech. Hope the lawyers get this quashed.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> My apologies. The is the URL link to the main artile:

[https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160506/10324634363/homel...](https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160506/10324634363/homeland- security-wants-to-subpoena-us-over-clearly-hyperbolic-techdirt-comment.shtml)

<comment><USER3> OK, changed from [https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160506/10324634363/homel...](https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160506/10324634363/homeland- security-wants-to-subpoena-us-over-clearly-hyperbolic-techdirt- comment.shtml#c709).

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This links to a comment instead the main article.</comment>


Ask HN : Review My Web App - <AUTHOR>

www.blabify.com  --- This is a live blogging application, and I will be the first to admit it is a bit rough around the edges in some places, but I could not think of a better place to find some brutal honesty to help improve the app. <comment><USER2> Ditto on the 'Create Blog' / 'Sign in' confusion.

Actually, on the whole you have way too much administrative debris in there. I actually bothered to sign up, and it took 3 or 4 steps before I could actually do anything useful. Most people are not going to deal with that.

Here's my advice:

1\. Let people create an event and start writing without signing up. If you must, make them give you an email before publishing it to the public, but let me drop in and demo it before I commit.

2\. Get rid of the separate create event/invite/add steps and consolidate them into one app that lets you start blogging before setting a title, start date, tags, etc. Content is king-- the rest is just icing. Also, for the love of god, don't make any of those fields required, and don't have a text box I can only fill using a calendar picker.

3\. De-emphasize the invite page drastically. The way it jumps up after blog creation makes me feel like you want to harvest my address book to spam people or something. Put it in the sidebar and make it AJAX, or whatever. Also, I had to look for a bit to find the link to skip past it and start editing.

4\. When you post something, it shows up at the bottom of the page. The entire first screen is just title + metadata. This is dumb. Make the metadata smaller, at the top if you must, and put the commentary front and center. Also, consider inline editing.

5\. Your graphics/JS on the edit page could use some polish -- seemed a little glitchy in Safari. Not a big deal.

6\. This might seem like nitpicking, but have somebody do some copy editing for you. Aside from some grammatical/spelling/spacing errors, the front text seems pretty awkwardly written to me. Good copy is important. In your case, why not get rid of it entirely and just put an event stream or blog posting form in there?

</comment><comment><USER3> Well the first thing is when I go to your site, it looks more like a blog then a application I can download. I would re-structure the page so it makes it more clear.

When I click "Create Blog" it takes me to sign in .. but does not ask me if I haven't registered yet, confusing

Haven't tried out the app yet, but hopefully those two suggestions help for getting people to signup :)

<comment><USER4> An application you can download? Maybe I missed something, but it looks like a CMS for live content, not a desktop app.

<comment><USER3> Er, That's a typo on my part. I simply meant "an application I can use online" .. :)

Bah can't edit my previous post, owell!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Besides the sign up/sign in confusion, I would recommend checking out why your sign up emails go to spam. I signed up and it went straight into my Gmail spam folder - I haven't had this happen in quite awhile, so it may be the way you are sending it vs. other web apps since those usually land in my inbox.

Your button styles are really messed up when you create a post on a live blog - when you hover over a button the style changes, also the Start/Stop buttons weren't exactly clear (maybe they should be at the top and colored, green/red).

I also didn't get why there was a sports category thing right in the middle of the live blog creation, with only 2 sports listed. I think you should just get a bunch of categories together and categorize each live blog, ie. Internet/Technology, Sports, Entertainment, etc.

Also, embed? I was looking around and have yet to see a way to embed these live blogs onto my site. If I'm hosting a live blog, I'd like it to be able to post it onto my own blog within a post or on a page.

The design could also use a refresh, I agree with some of the other commenters when they say it looks like a blog when you first visit the site.

</comment><comment><USER6> 1\. Too much meta-data at the top of the live blogs.

2\. The listing is kind of boring, and the 4 digit time is confusing at first, I would prefer "8:32pm".

3\. email@example.com? Use your own domain, looks better.

4\. "Create Live Blog" wants me to login? If a user isn't logged in, send that link to the register page, and dump the "Create Account" link altogether.

5\. Personally, I hate the design, its just not inviting for me. And the fact its not customizable means I'm far less likely to invite people to read my live blog.

6\. I cannot delete live blogs?

7\. The "My Account" / user page looks highly unfinished.

8\. Why do I need to see the "What is Blabify?" panel everywhere, when I have already signed up and logged in?

.

OK I'll refrain from re-factoring the above, they are raw thoughts as I was using your site! ;)

Like the idea and concept a lot, but I think you have a lot of work to do to make it more user friendly and appealing. Good luck! ;)

<comment><USER7> to 2.: Well, not everyone lives in 2-digit-time-countries ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> It's a nice idea. The design is cool. But you could change the design for the blog pages. Coz these blog pages shouldn't be focusing more on the site and should focus on the content posted by the users.

On the blog pages, Just move the event details to the right above the _what is blabify_ thing. So then you would get the space to move the user content to the top. Also take the way Blogger presents blogs as an example for blog pages. On the blog pages just remove the big logo and the big nav links and create a small navigation bar with those links (like the one you see on Ning networks or Blogger blogs). This could help user interface nicely.

Live blogging. This can be done thru twitter, blogger, or any other service or app. Try and be a bit different. When people have those guys out there, why do you think they will consider you? Directing my thought this way automatically gives me an idea. You could create a feature for users to auto-post to their respective services once they post on your service. This would also save time to those who have use other services. (And might be a killer feature).

 _"0844 : tes2"_

what's that 0844?

Nice idea. Good luck!

P.S: I see Kiva ads already(?)

</comment><comment><USER9> The actual 'liveblog' content is too low on the page - in fact, on my 1280x800 resolution, it's not even visible until I scroll down. When I visit a site, I want the main content to be the first thing I see and anything else should be secondary.

Neat idea though. I thought of a similar idea a few months back but, as ever, never got around to making it. I do wonder if having a desktop application is actually necessary though.

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for all the input..thanks especially to those who went thru the 'pain' of signing up and creating a liveblog. The feedback has been very helpful. I'll go back to the drawing board and will come up with something better, thanks to all of you.

@SingAlong , the kiva ads are for "charity"

</comment><comment><USER10> The 'create account' and 'create live blog' -- its confusing as to whats the difference between the two. Do I need to create an account or can I create a new liveblog without creating an account.

additionally, the site doesnt work well with chrome - few broken elements.

</comment><comment><USER11> Minor thing: use something like email@example.com instead of email@example.com under "Have something to day?".

</comment><comment><USER12> I tried signing up for the service, the website said it would send me an email, and I never got it.

</comment><comment><USER13> Needs a demo, or a video demo.</comment>


Kay Jewelers accused of swapping diamonds with fakes - <AUTHOR> http://wreg.com/2016/05/26/kay-jewelers-accused-of-swapping-diamonds-with-fakes/ <comment><USER2> > Diamonds are supposed to be forever

Not really, just the one of the best marketing slogans / strategies of the last century.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QbHRLpYc-0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QbHRLpYc-0)</comment>


Kevin Mitnick's business card is a lock picking set - <AUTHOR> http://www.flickr.com/photos/ranh/106709219/ <comment><USER2> In California, carrying a lockpick set (or anything whose primary purpose might be for picking locks) can get you in trouble if you're not a locksmith -- possibly a lot of trouble, depending on the officer's mood.

I had read some conflicting information on this, so I checked with a local locksmith that I trust. He said that intention doesn't matter, merely carrying it is against the law.

I don't think it should be this way, but it's worth mentioning to anyone thinking that this is a good idea.

<comment><USER3> If you think this law is outrageous, you should check into the CA knife laws. They are extremely broad and vague. You pretty much can't carry any knife at all, depending on the officer's mood that day. I guess one should just try to stay out of trouble, be courteous, and avoid the ire of law enforcement.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I've used them to try to pick locks. They don't work too well, as they're made of cheap metal instead of the spring steel used to make real lock picks. They could probably work on a filing cabinet or a kwikset door knob, but they're mostly just for looks.

<comment><USER5> They're chemical etched thin sheet steel, probably already as heavy and expensive as you want to hand out as biz cards. The originals were tested at least once. I like their design a bit better:

<http://www.jenimattson.com/index.php?id=melvin#identity>

<comment><USER4> Mitnick's cards have been around for several years... I got one from him at a conference in KC (where he also autographed The Art of Deception and The Art of Intrusion for me). It was quite a while ago. Many others (including melvin and TOOOL) have also put together similar snap-apart credit-card lock picks. The problems are that they're too short to really get a good feel with, and they're made of crap metal that doesn't lend itself well to picking real locks.

When I'm picking locks, the pick is a long lever, and my fingertips function as the fulcrum. The other end of that lever rests neatly in the web of my thumb and forefinger, which is at least two inches away from said fulcrum. It is back there where I feel what's going on deep inside the lock, sight unseen. The length of the lever (lock pick) amplifies anything felt by the end of the pick. You just can't get that kind of feedback with lock picks that fit within the dimensions of a business card.

<comment><USER5> Your technical comments are fair but here's the history: fiveish years back a friend of ours (Divide) got some metal cards and Melvin liked them but wanted something a little different. Jeni, Mel and I came up with the lock picks. Kevin's cards are a derivative with the picks shortened to fit more contact info. If you wanted to build a more robust version you could use thicker steel and replace the chemical etching with laser. I think a simple cipher machine or something like that would be a cool next step.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Sticky headers with just CSS - <AUTHOR> https://advent2017.digitpaint.nl/21/ <comment><USER2> Not working on Safari (Version 11.0.2 (13604.4.7.1.3)).

<comment><AUTHOR> Is that on iOS or on Mac?

<comment><USER2> Under macOS.</comment></comment></comment>


Nutella: How the world went nuts for a hazelnut spread - <AUTHOR> http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27438001

<comment><USER2> Nutella is awesome--it tastes great, is shelf-stable, long-lasting and packs in very good calorie density.

That being said, it is only 11% nuts by mass. And 92% of its calorie content is from either fat or sugar. "Hazzlenut Spread" is a misleading description for what it is. It is a palm-oil and sugar based (ie, synthetic) cake frosting, that is only "flavored with" cocoa power and hazlenut flour. It is <not> a "nut butter" or "nut spread".

That should be somewhat self-evident from reading this history of the product --it was a war-time substitute. (It lacks the protein of a true nut butter, which is a shame from a health-perspective.)

<comment><AUTHOR> Great insight.

I really like the taste of Nutella, but it is extremely sweet - which may have something to do with its popularity. Hershey's and Jif have released similar products (hazelnut spread) recently too. I think there may be more consumer demand for a more nutritious chocolate/nut spread as you suggest.

Interestingly, Nutella doesn't do well in warmer temperatures. So their ability to reach new markets in warmer climates (C./S. America, South/SE Asia, Africa) may be somewhat limited until they figure this out.</comment></comment>


Getting around iPhone SDK rule 3.3.1 - <AUTHOR> http://hobogenics.tumblr.com/post/519119869/getting-around-iphone-sdk-rule-3-3-1

<comment><USER2> I've been thinking along similar lines, and there are pros and cons.

On the one hand, you get cross-platform portability; once you have an iPhone app written to comply with 3.3.1, there's nothing Apple can do about you porting it elsewhere (or, at least, they haven't tried anything yet).

On the other hand, you have to write in a C derivative. It's pretty clear that tools like Unity and Lua have productivity benefits, and you lose these. I think most programmers are complaining more about the loss of freedom and productivity than the loss of cross-platform benefits, which are more of a happy byproduct of working at a higher level of abstraction.

So it doesn't really get around 3.3.1 completely.

</comment><comment><USER3> Seems like this would always be a step behind what is current. I think mono suffers from this... it's always a game of catch up.

</comment><comment><USER4> If someone builds a clone of Cocoa Touch that runs on another platform, Apple will find a way to nuke it from orbit.

<comment><USER3> It it possible to write C/C++ apps for Android?

<comment><USER4> More or less yes, using the NDK.</comment></comment></comment>


News Blog about Recent Discoveries in Conway's Game of Life - <AUTHOR> http://pentadecathlon.com/lifeNews/index.php <comment><AUTHOR> This is a must see site for anyone interested in Conway's Game of Life or just interested in logic. If you have never seen Conway's Game of Life in action before, then I recommend that you download Golly:

<http://golly.sourceforge.net/>

It comes with sample mechanisms. There are some amazing Turing Machines, complex communication devices and other amazing constructions all made using the Game of Life.

Pentadecathlon does a great job listing all the latest discoveries and innovations in the Game of Life, and even has RLE downloads of complicated mechanisms.

</comment><comment><USER2> Excellent site! As an exercise of a new computer platform I used to write a simple life implementation. Its been a while since I paid any attention to wat was going on, thanks for posting this.

Do anyone know anything similar for 3d Life? I used to subscribe to a newsletter from Carter Bays covering new stuff in the field.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm sure you will be surprised by some of the amazing new innovations. Some of them I can't imagine how they were developed.

I don't know anything about 3D life.</comment></comment>


Harvard attempts to trademark phrases like "Lessons learned" - <AUTHOR> http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/08/01/dear_old_hahvahd_is_much_more_than_a_name/

<comment><USER2> Oxford called about some prior art. They have evidence that Harvard has copies of it's top secret word list codenamed 'OED'

</comment><comment><USER3> "Since we're spending so much time and money to promote this phrase, we just want to make sure someone doesn't say we can't use it."

That seems like a reasonable argument. Also, IANAL but if I'm not mistaken just because somebody has a trademark for something doesn't mean that it's necessary enforceable.

<comment><USER4> It sounds like a reasonable argument, but it also gives them the right to turn around and tell someone else they can't use it and for some of these really common expressions that's just not right.

Also if they're already using it and someone else tries to trade mark it and prevent them from doing so I would expect Harvard can come up with an expert witness or two and put a stop to it.

So I'm afraid the argument seems reasonable, but doesn't hold water.</comment></comment>


How to Ace a Google Interview - <AUTHOR> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204552304577112522982505222.html

<comment><USER2> _Google's quirky interviewing works for Google. But other companies need to understand why it works at the tech giant_

I am going to go out on a limb here and say that it is not working for Google the proof is in the lack of marketable products coming out of Google. While the people that work at Google are brilliant the hiring practice filters for a certain type of prejudiced brilliance. In fact by it design it favors left brained individuals with analytical minds. Put simply Google filters out the very people that could turn cool tech into cool products.

Their is no doubt in my mind that a person like Miyamoto, Land, or Jobs would be filtered out of Google's hiring process by it's very bias towards a particular preconceived notion of brilliance. Put simply it's the hubris of brilliant people making the assumption that the definition of brilliance is the characteristics that make them brilliant. The reality is that yes, there are tough problems to solve, but not every day is filled with complex riddles. Sometimes less tangible brilliance is required and these practices leave a company devoid of those individuals.

For me personally I ask two questions when I hire and they have served me well, I ask show me something that you have built and show me the routine that you are most proud of in that code base. Passion and creativity as well as other less tangible brilliance will be displayed in talking with someone about what they have built.

<comment><USER3> Bravo!

My encounter with the Google hiring process involved being asked to regurgitate from memory constants from C standard headers. That was enlightening as to the sort of skills valued by the ubermenchen.

<comment><USER2> Right there are people that just don't solve problems by memorization, for me personally, I don't answer questions on the spot. I reflect, I have to understand the need for the problem in the first place before I can even begin to solve it. Due to this I also lock up when someone asks me a memorization question. You can ask me something as simple as "hey what was that guys name?" I can know the person for a decade and by the very nature of being asked to recall it on the spot will cause me to blank. It's not the way my mind works. As such I generally decline to do quizzes for interviews, because I don't think they increase the the odds of hiring talent and worse they can cause a company to damage itself via a bias for a particular personality type.

If a person brings in a working application and shows me that they have delivered and can walk me through logic that they have created, then I can get a feel for a variate of traits that that person posses, further, they can't BS their way through it, they can't grab code off the net and show it and competently tell me what they did. A person that walks through my door and shows me that they have delivered to production a working application instantly scores much higher than an individual that knows obscure language nuances that we all know on this board are hardly ever uses and if you do you a) look it up and b) wrap it behind an API so that future programmers are not having to deal with the obscurity. Many times developers, especially younger developers mistake cleverness for elegance, testing for cleverness does not guarantee that you will have elegant solutions.

On a related note to this subject, there is a quote from Einstein that I really like:

 _Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid._

The premise is that most everybody does have something that they excel at, but that we as humans judge intelligence and productivity in our own image. As such we discount the intelligence of others due to the fact that it is alien to our own. For some that discounting can have a profound effect on those individuals ability to excel.</comment></comment></comment>


Peloton ending software updates for bikes with the first generation of monitor - <AUTHOR> https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/30/20746919/peloton-first-generation-bike-monitor-screen-stop-updates <comment><USER2> This comment (not my comment) on the verge says it all:

> Alternatively you could spend these THOUSANDS of dollars on a REAL BIKE. A > real bike even allows you to get to places too!

> As a cycling fan, I cannot personally understand why ANYBODY would buy this > product. You could buy a very decent road bike PLUS a basic turbo trainer > (for indoor training if you're really so bothered about that) for less than > the cost of this dumb exercise bike. Or you could buy a very decent road > bike plus a basic exercise bike, if you'd rather do that. Either of those > two combinations is less than the cost of this dumb overpriced live- > streaming exercise bike.

> You could even get a gym membership and take spin classes if you really want > an instructor. My gym membership costs $27 a month and spin classes are > free. So that means I could pay for the gym for SEVEN YEARS for the cost of > this bike. Oh wait, and you've got to pay the subscription for this exercise > bike too, at $39 a month. The bike plus two years of the subscription costs > the same amount as nearly TEN YEARS of my gym membership. And the gym has > weights too. And all the free spin classes I could want.

> Why do people spend money on overpriced gimmicks? I guess I'll never know. > Personally I would recommend getting a real bike. Cycling is great, you get > to see the outdoors, you can ride with your buddies which is sociable > (rather than being cooped up in your home, staring at some stranger who is > paid to fake happiness), you get to visit new places, etc. And you cannot > recreate proper cycling on any form of exercise bike. Bike handling, moving > the bike side to side when you're climbing up a hill, etc. If you really > want to take part in classes though, get a gym membership and go do spin > classes there. You'll meet real life people! Yes, real people! And for > significantly less money!</comment>


Cost of California bullet train system rises to $77.3B, take 5 years more - <AUTHOR> http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-bullet-train-cost-increase-20180309-story.html <comment><USER2> I know this project is costing a fortune but I'm a proponent of it. The connection of so many cities will eventually be a boon for California.

The red line in Los Angeles had a similar history with cost overruns and extreme costs but now it's a vital part of the Los Angeles transportation system. I see the same happening to this system.

We marvel at the Roman aqueducts not because of their costs but at the fact that they were built in the first place. Similarly, we will say the same thing about the bullet train.

<comment><USER3> I don't think anyone is opposed to having a high-speed rail line. What people are opposed to is the insane cost, the schedule delays, and the poor output. If you compared this to high speed rail in Japan or China - it would come out looking horrible for California on every meaningful metric.

Regarding your point about Rome - I'm not an expert, but I'd bet the aqueducts provide a valuable service. What are your estimates for how many passengers would need to ride the rail in order to make it worthwhile, and your estimates for how long it would take to serve that many passengers?

Think about the huge amounts of money and the value of the rail (delayed by when you could get that value) and then compare that to other ways you could use that money - for example by leaving it in the hands of the taxpayers.

<comment><USER4> Actually, it's not as bad as you think. The Shanghai-Beijing line had a final budget of around $35bn for an 810-mile service. California is looking to spend $78bn for a 520-mile service. That means a cost-per-mile of $150m for California vs. $43m for China - in other words, California's system is around 3.5 times as expensive as China's.

Honestly, given the difference in land values and regulation, that doesn't seem entirely unreasonable.

<comment><USER5> It's actually better than that. The Shanghai-Beijing line cost ~$40 billion in 2018 dollars. The cost estimates for the California line are in year of expenditure dollars, which means the $78+ billion is amounts that are spent from 2008 until completion in 2033.

The dollars spent early in the project cost more because of inflation, and along the same lines, the dollars spent later in the project cost less because of inflation.

For instance, if we spend half of the $80 billion in the last 5 years of the project, that's something like $30 billion in 2018 dollars even though it's $40 billion in 2028 to 2033 dollars.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Man this must be a hey-day for property lawyers in the valley.

You could just sorta guarantee this would happen -- the nimbyism in California is like full-tilt. I'd suspect the costs will go up even more from here and the time to completion will be even longer than this

It's a shame we can't have nice things here.

</comment><comment><USER7> That's almost the cost of the $100 billion international space station.

And it's not even a maglev. A maglev would've been way cooler.

<comment><USER5> It's probably going to be more than the US contribution of $50 billion in 1994 ($85 billion in 2018 dollars), but I think it would have to exceed $200 billion in real dollars to match the total real cost of the ISS.

[https://www.space.com/9435-international-space-station- worth...](https://www.space.com/9435-international-space-station- worth-100-billion.html)

Still, at > 2 times the real original estimated cost, it's a good example of why we should go high instead of low when it comes to estimates.

I'm also curious how much it would cost to build out the same capacity via airport construction/expansion. If we're at more than double the cost running rail lines through the central valley, imagine how much building another LAX, SFO, SAN, etc... would be.

<comment><USER8> > Still, at > 2 times the real original estimated cost, it's a good example of > why we should go high instead of low when it comes to estimates.

It's also a good example of why no one goes high when it comes to estimates.

The realized cost is now to a point where it'd be politically unpalatable to approve the project. But since it's already in process, approving the incremental funds is essentially inevitable and won't cause much political backlash.

These estimates aren't low by accident. They're generally as optimistic as possible while still being in the realm of marginally plausible (even if wildly improbable). Once the ball gets approved and rolling, the momentum alone is usually enough to hurdle past objections as estimates meet reality, while diffusing responsibility (and therefore repercussions) along the way.

<comment><USER5> After looking at it some more, there's a relatively simple explanation. The initial cost estimate was $40 billion in 2008 (voters approved $9.95 billion in bonds).

[https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_1A,_High- Spee...](https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_1A,_High- Speed_Rail_Act_\(2008\))

The thing the LA Times and others are leaving out is that the CA high speed rail authority estimates are in year of expenditure dollars, not 2008 dollars or current dollars.

[http://www.hsr.ca.gov/docs/about/business_plans/DRAFT_2016_B...](http://www.hsr.ca.gov/docs/about/business_plans/DRAFT_2016_Business_Plan_0201816.pdf)

So what they're estimating is that by the time the line between socal and norcal is complete, around 2033, we'll have spent $77+ billion (up to $98 billion).

That's not $77-$98+ billion in 2008 dollars, it's $77-$98 billion in 2008 through 2033 dollars, depending on when those dollars are spent.

For instance, if we spend most of the money near the end of the project, and the total cost is ~$80 billion, that corresponds to $50+ billion in 2008 dollars. It's still higher than the initial estimate, but it's not nearly as high as going from $40 billion in 2008 dollars to $77+ billion in 2008 dollars.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Honestly, how long will it take for this to be a good investment? My guess is more than 50 years. Will we need a bullet train in 50 years? Probably not. Anyone that wants to go anywhere will be able to step inside a pod, take a nap, and wake up wherever they want to be. Such a waste of resources...

</comment><comment><USER10> In other news, China will have about 28,000 miles of high-speed rail by 2030.

</comment><comment><USER11> When I was in kindergarten, there was a proposed (Washington) metro station down the street. Metro put up a sign, "Coming soon...". Twenty years later the sign fell down. The station was eventually built. The first time I used it, I took my daughter, who was just about to start kindergarten. Now, I live in northern CA, just a mile from where the proposed bullet train will run. When people talk about the impact, I tell them, that's our children's problem, and reference the above story.

</comment><comment><USER12> I'm all for this train, but if it costs this much to build and even more to maintain, and it's not even the newest train technologies, then it's probably just doomed to fail.

</comment><comment><USER13> Just did some quick calculations, for the bullet train connecting beijing and shanghai which is about twice the length of the cal bullet train system, the chinese spent about $30B

<comment><USER14> Oddly that makes it sound not so bad; given the property and environmental issues and the high cost of labor I'd have expected a larger multiplier.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> This reminds me of the aerospace industry adage (F-22 / F-35 related), that if you extrapolate the continuing growth curve of fifth generation air superiority aircraft acquisition costs, in 75 years from now the USAF will be able to afford to purchase a single fighter and it will cost $9.5 billion.

</comment><comment><USER16> I would consider this project a success if they can build a functioning high- speed rail line from Fresno to San Jose. Connecting the Central Valley to Silicon Valley - or the fifth largest city to the third largest city in CA - would bring tremendous benefits. If this portion of the project can be proved out, building out to SF and even Sacramento is feasible. I'm not sure it's ever going to be economically feasible to tunnel through the mountains to SoCal.

</comment><comment><USER17> tl;dr - Since in California all construction requires an absurd amount of licenses, approvals, environmental studies, etc., and because local residents can sue for almost anything, the cost has skyrocketed.

Isn't this what eminent domain was created for? Shouldn't California state have the ability to make things happen for its own rail projects?

<comment><USER18> You'd feel differently if it was _YOUR_ land being seized.

<comment><USER19> Seized but you are paid market value for it. That's fair.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I'm left wondering: how much would a hyperloop cost to span the same distance? At 2 or 3 times the speed?

They've already started it? Never too late to stop a disaster. It'll be $150B by the time it's finished.

<comment><USER21> Is there hyperloop? No.</comment></comment>


NSFW: Don't bullshit a reformed bullshitter - <AUTHOR> http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/08/nsfw-dont-bullshit-a-reformed-bullshitter-the-off-the-record-gravy-train-stops-here/ <comment><USER2> Honestly, there are more important things to life than to be posting random diatribes on a somewhat professional blog. I'm not sure why I read that story (or even the background stories he referenced--hey, its saturday), but after getting a gist of the situation, I have to say to everyone involved: "Get over it. Don't let these personal rants further pollute what otherwise could be a great technology blog." Ah, now I understand people's disgust for TC.

<comment><USER3> More important things in life, or at least more important things for this community. The top two stories right now are two dudes complaining on their blog. One giving the same old tired reasons why Apple is turning sour, and the other telling a personal vendetta that I don't give a shit about. Sometimes I don't understand this community. There's a few stories on the front page that deserve to be much higher than these two.

<comment><USER4> I regularly visit the "new" page in attempt to upvote stories (sometimes flag them) I feel will make the home page a better place. I encourage other to do the same.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> 1 line summary: Reporter/columnist decides he will not honor the privacy request of 'off-the-record' disclosures if he discovers that the source was lying to him.

However, who determines that the source was lying? If the journo in question _thinks_ he was lying to? This would discourage any insider from talking to him anonymously

<comment><USER6> He's not a reporter/columnist. He works for TechCrunch. Did you seriously think he'd go to jail to protect sources? Look at all the other journalistic ethics they've declared "irrelevant".

<comment><USER7> Although I'm not a huge fan of Paul Carr, he did work for the Guardian, and now for the Telegraph, so I wouldn't judge him by TC association alone.

<comment><USER6> I took the word "irrelevant" and its association to actual journalism from _his own post_.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> Since I can't "down vote" is it possible to not see stories from certain domain like techcrunch? YN doesn't get updated at the same rate as other social media sites like reddit and more than half the time there are 2-3 articles from TC. This is seriously annoying since there is not way I can prevent this annoyance from showing up on my YN.

<comment><USER9> May be this might help : <http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/25039>

<comment><USER8> Thanks. I don't use GS, but I might have to start using it - will give it a shot.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I don't see what he is so pissed about. Yeah he was lied to but he found out and didn't publish the bad information. Isn't that what journalism is all about, verifying facts?

<comment><USER6> He's pissed that he didn't have this week's magnet for page views, and he took action by further demonstrating how TechCrunch is an inadequate substitute for real journalism.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> This is what bothers me about this: He points out that journalists have a name for one type of sourcing (presumably to indicate that he knows something about journalism). He then mocks them for being irrelevant.

After this, he goes on about his own struggle with sourcing in today's age. He invents his own (probably not unique) rule for anonymous sourcing and announces it and says he's going to spread the word. The "Techcrunch House Rule" for anonymous sourcing I guess.

Aren't these the issues that journalists deal with all the time? That's why they made those rules; the same reason he just made one. His smugness drives me crazy. It's like watching a wannabe physicist mock Newton and then declare that he's discovered this special kind of thing that pulls objects downward.

</comment><comment><USER12> He assumed that people were telling the truth, let alone their shady affiliation or desire to stay anonymous. Gee, I wonder what they teach in journalism class.

</comment><comment><USER13> Honestly, I don't get this.

Can someone please help me get out of my ignorance?.

NSFW for me is "not save for work", it doesn't make sense to me.

About the story, I don't understand why this is the second "hot" history. Is it because it is from techcrunch or something, and HNews needs to post every single history there?

<comment><USER14> "NSFW" is the name of his column: <http://www.techcrunch.com/author/paul/>

Apparently it's supposed to be edgy or something.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> So he's been writing for how long? And just now he's learning the pitfalls of off-the-record covered in Journalism 101?

</comment><comment><USER16> This will just drive away sources.

</comment><comment><USER17> It's easy to pose all macho and righteous on this issue. But there's a reason journalists protect sources; on balance it helps them do their job, even with the reality some sources abuse the confidence to dissemble.

And what happens when Carr mistakenly believes a source lied, burns them, but then discovers the source was telling the truth? The betrayal of confidence and repercussions for the source may be irreversible.

Arrignton made a similar pledge that TC would promise to respect embargoes, but then break them. How many embargoes has TC broken since?

</comment><comment><USER18> I'm just curious: what's the NSFW label for? I don't see any material that seems to warrant it.

<comment><USER19> There's swearing.

<comment><USER20> I thought not-safe-for-work was that guy's column's name.</comment></comment></comment>


Retail Frenzy: Prices on the Web Change Hourly - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/01/business/online-retailers-rush-to-adjust-prices-in-real-time.html?pagewanted=all

<comment><USER2> My startup* actually builds a Products API that provides constantly updated price histories for products sold across the major e-commerce sites (amazon, bestbuy, walmart,etc.. ).

We noticed a three-fold jump in the number of pricing points we collected during the Thanksgiving weekend. Some products actually changed prices in 10-minute intervals.

*Shameless plug: We just launched in closed beta and we have a pretty liberal free plan. Invite link: <https://www.semantics3.com/signup?code=ramanujan> Drop me a note and I would be most glad to bump up your free quota.

</comment><comment><USER3> How about a SaaS company where I can drop my Amazon/Target and BestBuy account and have it scan (and lock in) the best possible price for me? It would be quite the answer to all those dynamic algorithm driven prices. A alogo to fight their algo and capture the lowest possible offer.

<comment><USER4> I like this concept (in fact, it's one I've been playing around with in my head for a while) but there are 2 major blocking-points you'll have with user- adoption:

1) People won't want to give their amazon credentials out to what may simply be a fly-by-night startup. Until you get some semblance of reputability, you'll have a hard time with UA.

2) Amazon could very easily write in a feature like "buy when < N dollars" and completely invalidate your startup.

Anyone have any ideas as to how to combat these issues? Would the general HN populace be interested in a service like this for say, either 10$ a month or X% of what you saved as a result of using the service?

<comment><USER3> I would definitely like a percentage of a sale (with a min/max amount) instead of the $X a/month.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Interesting business here. Anyone know if there are companies who provide this service (price-scanning, recommendation, and adjustment according to a set of business rules) to non-huge retailers?

Amazon, Walmart and Target have the resources to develop this internally, but I wonder if smaller guys might be willing to buy in to a system that lets them compete on a similar playing field...

<comment><USER6> You could have problems with competing services using your services.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Until September 2008, Amazon actually had a post-order price-match guarantee, where they'd refund the difference between what you paid and the new price, if the item dropped in price within 30 days after you ordered it. Seems they're taking full advantage of the pricing flexibility they gained by dropping the guarantee.

<comment><USER8> Maybe that is only in the US. I can remember being refunded within the last year, here in the UK, under that policy.

<comment><USER7> Was it a pre-order? They still have a price-drop guarantee for pre-orders, if the price drops between when you place the order and when the product becomes actually available. That's the only guarantee I can still find mentioned on either the .com or the .co.uk pages.

<comment><USER8> I think it was a pre-order. That makes sense, then.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Looks like the techniques of the world of High Frequency Trading are migrating into the wider universe. Except now the customers may benefit if the prices are lowered by someone who wouldn't sell at that price (by, say, showing that the product is in stock, but showing an error when you try to add it to your cart) in an attempt to make their competitors' algorithms follow the price drop, in order to deplete the stocks of goods in the process.</comment>


Voice Synthesis for in-the-Wild Speakers via a Phonological Loop - <AUTHOR> https://ytaigman.github.io/loop/ <comment><USER2> I still think emphasis on a word or syllable is important here as there is far more information than you realize being conveyed with inflection.

Consider:

 _I_ am going to eat the ham sandwich = Me, no one else

I _am_ going to eat the ham sandwich = Nothing can stop me

I am _going_ to eat the ham sandwich = On my way; got distracted

I am going _to_ eat the ham sandwich = In case you doubt my intent

I am going to _eat_ the ham sandwich = I will not be juggling it

I am going to eat _the_ ham sandwich = The ultimate ham sandwich will be mine

I am going to eat the _ham_ sandwich = Not turkey, not roast beef

I am going to eat the ham _sandwich_ = Between two slices of bread is what I do

<comment><USER3> This made me chuckle, and it's a great illustration of how much meaning is changed by different emphasis. However, I would read the _to_ example like this:

I am going _to_ eat the ham sandwich = The sandwich is the reason I am going (to the party, or wherever...)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Similar in quality to Lyrebird

[https://soundcloud.com/user-535691776/dialog](https://soundcloud.com/user-535691776/dialog)

Google WaveNet sounds almost perfect in comparison:

[https://deepmind.com/blog/wavenet-generative-model-raw- audio...](https://deepmind.com/blog/wavenet-generative-model-raw-audio/)

<comment><USER5> Some of the generated speech clips are unsettlingly robotic while WaveNet sounds passable, but it's the piano compositions that I found unnerving. I can't explain how but randomly generated music sounds so hollow and cold.

<comment><USER6> Note that WaveNet was not trained "in the wild" (like, on celebs) but rather on a speech style dataset

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Mix this with AI creating video from audio ([http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech- talk/robotics/artificial-intel...](http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech- talk/robotics/artificial-intelligence/ai-creates-fake-obama)) and you can make anyone say anything.

</comment><comment><USER8> Coming soon, audio ads with your friend's voices.

<comment><USER9> Or your own :(

<comment><USER10> Isn't this scary ?

<comment><USER11> With how much people hate the sound of their own voices, I think that would backfire on the advertiser.

<comment><USER12> Subvocalisation. Your own voice speaking quietly in the background to something else. Ideal for consumer indoctrination.

<comment><USER13> The voice we hear in our head and the one everyone else hear is starkly different.

<comment><USER14> The voice I 'hear' in my head and the one I actually hear when talking is starkly different.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> To me this is very exciting. I'm already working on my own home digital assistant modeled as NeNe Leaks from the Real Housewives to add personality to otherwise boring conversations with a robot. I've been looking at various style transfer techniques, and having something a bit more plug & play will help me focus on the more unique parts. I predict that we'll see more celebrity voices used as conversational interfaces become more common.

Part of the complexity is going from 'context-free phonemes' to actually modeling personality. Having some way for the voice to know how to embed emotion, and ideally contextually from the sentences themselves. NeNe is an interesting example as she adds so many non-verbal sounds to her dialog (bleeps and bloops and eye rolls that she translates into affected speech). That's part of what makes her NeNe, and a big part of the entertaining value. Pursuing that is what will bring style transfer to the next level... total personality emulation. I fantasize about basic animatronics that can move her head side to side, twirl, and literally give eye rolls.

If anyone wants to work on this with me, give me a ping @azinman on twitter. I've currently been thinking about this as an open source project, but still holding out options as I continue development. I've got a ton more ideas she's integrating into with my bleeding edge smart home, far more than just personality emulation (including what I believe to be a breakthrough in passive context-sensing.. the real key to making the smart home actually smart).

<comment><USER16> What language are you working in? I've been working in Powershell out of convenience, but am looking to port my speech bot to Node.

<comment><USER15> I'm working in Go right now, but probably will end up with a mix of various things. What's nice about Go is that it's very portable, faster than Python, nicer RAM/storage usage than Node (not needing a JIT and all), and I can cross compile binaries and distribute them to Raspberry Pis or whatever.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> There are too many example to do fraud with this to list here.

One example: Not too long ago I still did the rather more important banking stuff with a quick phone call (couldn't be done entirely online).

<comment><USER18> Would certainly make the phishing scheme where _" fake CEO sends real CFO an email request to send a bank wire"_ more successful. Send the email, follow up with a voice mail.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> For some reason this page gives Firefox a fit, and that is with multiprocessing enabled...

</comment><comment><USER19> Anyone else having trouble with the audio samples?

</comment><comment><USER20> I'm waiting for the code samples :)

Thanks</comment>


Introducing Amazon Coins - <AUTHOR> http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1781498&highlight= <comment><USER2> It'll be interesting to see if this fails like all of the many other general purpose micropayment solutions that have been offered in the past.

I don't think that any micropayment system will take root unless it deals with the mental cost of transactions (a term coined by Clay Shirky).</comment>


Elon Musk's Tunnel Under LA - <AUTHOR> https://www.wired.com/2017/01/inside-tunnel-elon-musk-already-digging-los-angeles/ <comment><AUTHOR> I was at the announcement. . . How fast is tunneling currently? How could he improve it by 5x to 10x?</comment>


Ask HN: Should we ban free shipping? - <AUTHOR> Most people on HN seem to support net neutrality. But what about delivery neutrality?
If Netflix can't provide free streaming by paying to send you packets, then Amazon shouldn't be able to provide free shipping by paying to send you packages.
Think about how unfair this is to small businesses who can't negotiate such deals with shipping companies, and have to charge their customers more for delivery. Surely, they won't stand a chance against Amazon if this continues.
Given that most of you want to ban free streaming, would you also want to ban free shipping? <comment><USER2> When it comes to the internet, I've _already paid_ my ISP for the delivery of those packets.

If package delivery was something I'd already paid my Package Delivery Provider (PDP) for. Packed Delivery Neutrality would mean:

\- I wouldn't want them picking and choosing who I got my packages from.

\- If my PSP also sold goods, I wouldn't want them purposely slowing down packages come from a competitor.

<comment><AUTHOR> I'm only paying my ISP so much money because there are no other options (thanks to net neutrality). If there were cheaper subsidized options, I would highly consider them.

What if I only order stuff from Amazon and don't want to pay a PDP for delivery from other stores? Should the government make that illegal?

<comment><USER3> > I'm only paying my ISP so much money because there are no other options > (thanks to net neutrality).

No. This is thanks to you living under a monopoly, which seems to be a natural equilibrium state for infrastructure. Net neutrality has nothing to do with monopoly holder extracting as much as they can get away with. You would see exactly the same if you were getting your water from mostly unregulated private company.

<comment><AUTHOR> Then why the hell are we fighting for net neutrality when the real problem is that ISPs are monopolies? Net neutrality won't do anything to fix that.

<comment><USER4> Neutrality is a fix for a monopoly. Monopolies won't get fixed because of the geographical scale and the politics involved.

The UK 'unbundled' its internet about 15 years ago, where each (usually around 10 in urban areas) ISP has equal access to the line between a local exchange and the end user. They also buy bandwidth on the big pipes between the local exchanges and the internet, or lays their own pipes. It's the true fix, where neutrality is a realistic fix (that you might need either way).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Do I get a point for spotting the straw man?

<comment><AUTHOR> Don't net neutrality advocates precisely want to prevent Netflix from subsidizing access to their sevice through some ISPs?

<comment><USER6> This is like paying to have a package shipped and amazon raising prices because the shippers charge amazon for picking up the package.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Yes ! Even more, we could ban everything produced by private companies. Once unfair competition gone, maybe our governments will be able to finally launch new services

</comment><comment><USER8> Small businesses can offer free shipping, they just have to build it into their prices, the way AMZN does.

</comment><comment><USER9> B-but it's called neutrality that means it's neutral right?</comment>


How I make a substantial income flipping items from thrift stores. - <AUTHOR> http://goodwillmoney.blogspot.com/

<comment><USER2> Nice. I had quite a thrift-store clothing collection in high school. Wish I hadn't given them back to good will. My favorite was an official Waste Management t-shirt, worn by some WM employee. That and a shirt that said "hugs not drugs". I'll make a fun hour or two of it tomorrow with my iPhone, seeing if I can spot any 10x arbitrages.

</comment><comment><USER3> Nice. Sent this to my gf's little sister (she's 17 and there aren't a ton of teen jobs floating around where she lives)</comment>


Show HN: I built a bot to automatically apply to jobs - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/jmopr/job-hunter <comment><USER2> For every recruiter complaining that this is a spammy spray-and-pray approach, there are a dozen engineers spammed daily on LinkedIn with irrelevant blanket offers. If anything, this little bot is a delightful and humorous response to both recruiter spam and automated resume filters.

<comment><USER3> Sounds like a bit of an exaggeration. I'd love to see an actual profile that literally gets spammed daily with "job offers". I might want to borrow a few things from such a profile! I've never once gotten an unsolicited job offer (in other words, reply back and the job is yours, sight unseen) out of the blue on any platform, LinkedIn or otherwise. Maybe the occasional recruiter contact, but come on.

<comment><USER4> I get emails most days (5 out of 7) from recruiters. They're mostly bots, but if you put your resume on the wrong site, you get on a series of lists, and can't get off of them.

<comment><USER5> Agreed. I also made the mistake of uploading a resume with a phone number to Dice, and for about a month I was getting at least one cold-call per day.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> When I'm reviewing an application, the most important thing to me is the cover letter and the specificity in it. If you don't state why you want to work at the company, how you think you could grow being a part of it, or even mention the company by name explicitly, I ignore the rest of the application.

Spray and fire might work if you don't actually care about your job, but this really seems like spam to me.

<comment><USER7> Interesting. I've interviewed hundreds of people, and hired dozens of software engineers and similar positions, and I can't remember a single time a cover letter has made a difference. I rarely even read them.

That's not to say I endorse this spray and pray approach - just that the cover letter isn't really the issue for me.

<comment> bjelkeman-again I am the opposite. I have interviewed and subsequently hired very good people primarily on the first contact, which is often a cover letter.

The CV also mattered, but in the end, both are just a vehicle to get an interview.

<comment><USER8> To be clear, a cold-application cover letter? First contact, yeah, but I've mostly seen it with handshakes, networking, or the type of letter that also namedrops an internal referral.

<comment> bjelkeman-again Not sure if we are talking about the same thing. I primarily tried to say that I think the cover letter matters to me. One was so compelling I jumped at the opportunity to talk to the person. Now a very appreciated colleague of mine.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> So I built this because I'm a recent bootcamp grad & I've found that it's really hard to get my foot in the door. I'd really love feedback on how I can improve this.

Here is an example of a page that gets link in my automated cover letter to an employer: [http://job- diana.herokuapp.com/users/jobs/07c5807d0d927dcd09...](http://job- diana.herokuapp.com/users/jobs/07c5807d0d927dcd0980f86024e5208b)

<comment><USER9> The biggest problem I've had with Indeed is a lot of applications disappear quickly. If I were you I would try to reply back quickly if someone contacts you as a result of this bot (once you get a few replies, you could make yourself a script for that part as well).

I would also try to make sure you don't needlessly send multiple applications to the same company.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> This commit is hilarious. [https://github.com/jmopr/job- hunter/commit/e31b36ea21946a2f2...](https://github.com/jmopr/job- hunter/commit/e31b36ea21946a2f2af8db9a7cfbb8d26059d8d0)

</comment><comment><USER11> I am guessing this only works with the "Apply via Indeed" jobs. Yesterday I was applying for jobs and extremely frustrated by how many corporations require you to create an account on their platform and jump through many hoops just to apply for a job. No thanks!

<comment><USER12> Now that's a job for a bot. By now, someone should have a bot that's smart enough to figure out how to sign up with an arbitrary site. The comment spam crowd seems to have that technology.

The next step in automatic job applications is something that customizes your resume, based on what the job ad is asking.

There's a startup in this.

<comment><USER13> That's what I really, really hate about Taleo and iCIMS and Silk Road and Jobvite and so on. They allow their customers to customize the application process with arbitrary fields and click-through agreements, so you can't just write a simple shell script to apply to all jobs that use that system. The login is the least part of the process.

I heard that comment spam is often farmed to places with low cost of labor, not necessarily automated.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> This is the best possible way to burn bridges. The companies that take spammy applications aren't the companies you want to work at.

<comment><USER15> If I collated all the "companies that X aren't the companies you want to work for" advice and followed it all, I would be unemployed.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Dude this is cool but I would actually reduce your use of the word "actually" by like a hundred percent. It actually makes you sound like you either don't know what you're talking about or like you're overcompensating.

</comment><comment><USER17> This is awesome, I wonder if and how this could grow to be used by academic institutions to help support their alum to apply to jobs.

</comment><comment><USER18> As someone with experience around a recruiter - never put your real phone number or email out on the web. It will be found. Whether it's industrious sales-hungry recruiters or the sourcing agencies full of geeks on Google and Exalead... it will be found.

</comment><comment><USER19> Will the recruiter actually take this seriously? From a recruiter standpoint, when someone applies - the applicant is required to understand, interpret and apply accordingly.

</comment><comment> nikki-9696 The fact that this sort of thing is a thing is very sad. I'm so glad I have a network and have gotten my jobs through word of mouth and in-person introductions.

<comment><USER20> It's made by a bootcamp graduate, not everyone is in such a luxurious position

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> This is awesome, I am curious if iterated how higher institution's career center's could utilize this to help their alum attain jobs.

</comment><comment><USER21> Now someone needs to do this for dating sites ;<).

<comment><USER22> "You're less interesting in person" ;_;

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> If I were a hiring manager, I would straight-out reject anybody who was using this, resume and candidate unseen (assuming I found out). If a person applies to 100 jobs at once, it's unlikely they're going to want my position and I'm better off spending my time talking to other people.

<comment><USER24> >"It's unlikely they're going to want my position"

Well you just discounted a potentially great employee. They implemented a solution to help apply for jobs. The application process can be absolutely draining - especially when you're 25 applications deep with zero response.

What's the harm in reaching out to the candidate? If they aren't interested, they'll decline the interview.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> I guess it works since you made on HN frontpage.

</comment><comment><USER26> Nice, what bootcamp did you go to?

I went to App Academy and got my current job by building a bot that logs into LinkedIn and applies to jobs.</comment>


Adoptive Couple V. Baby Girl - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adoptive_Couple_v._Baby_Girl <comment><USER2> From sotomayer's dissent:

>there was nothing to prevent the grandparents from filing a petition to adopt the child.

This strongly suggests that the goal of the statute was purely to keep indian children indian. If the parents don't want to do so? Perhaps the grandparents will. If the mother doesn't want to? Perhaps the father will.

That said, it is clear that the most likely alternative to adoption in similar situations is for the mother to raise the child, which would also result in the child not being indian. Notably, the father presented no intention to stop this, until it was determined the child would be adopted. I wonder: why did Brown decide to seek custody when he found out about the adoption?</comment>


I'm that guy who quit his job. Here's a web-app I made. - <AUTHOR>

http://nwtronix.com/life/index.html
It's been done in a very short period of time to scratch my own itch: a usable life expectancy calculator, preferably one where you don't have to fill ALL THE FIELDS.
I had first mockups in Illustrator and JS engine done within two days. Another four days were spent on slacking off and bringing design + functionality together.
It uses jQuery UI too.
What do you guys think? <comment><USER2> Good start. Go from there. Also see:

[http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=life+expectancy+male+bo...](http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=life+expectancy+male+born+1980)

</comment><comment><USER3> This has potential, but only if you ask more specific questions about specific diseases one has.

</comment><comment><USER4> So I'm going to live till I'm at least 68 or possibly 80 ... too loose and broad a set of generalisations.

Anyone today in the west can be pretty sure of living to at least 68 (barring accidents) and possibly as much as 80 if you don't have heart disease and clogged arteries or are not morbidly obese. I've seen recent data suggest that people who are _slightly_ overweight and are still comfortable (i.e. they are not restricted by it) actually seem to live longer on average.

I could have guessed this much myself.</comment>


Show HN: News/YC - HN Reader for iOS - <AUTHOR> http://subvertapps.com/HN/

<comment><USER2> Okay, a few thoughts on the design:

\- Hidden side menus are a great solution when you've got a lot of items to display, otherwise use a tab bar. I know sliding deck menus are stylish and all, but tab bars are always going to be faster to use if you have five or less options.

\- I'm seeing a lot of sub-44pt controls here. Things like the 'go to comments' bar and some of the sidebar buttons are hard to hit due to their small size.

\- The navigation bar here is far too prominent for something that displays such little information. You should really stick to a 44pt navigation bar with a title that actually adds context to what's being displayed.

Otherwise it's a nice looking app, congratulations on launching it!

<comment><USER3> Came by to say some of the same. I like side menu, its on a button and are options that need to up all the time. The comments 'mini nav bar' functionality could all be on the actual nav bar. 44 + x is too much real estate to constantly waste... you could have it disappear on scrolldown like safari does.

<comment><AUTHOR> Gonna' implement the scroll-down on the next release. That's a great idea.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> It's pretty good. A few user interface issues:

\- The "Go To Comments" and "Return To Stories" buttons aren't styled as buttons, so it's not immediately obvious that they do anything.

\- The gray bar at the top underneath the orange should really be transparent I think, it makes the top bar feel very thick and a bit clunky.

\- There should be some indication that an article is loading when the UIWebView pops up. Users might not have Wifi, and it could be some time before any part of the page is rendered.

\- I think the modal UIWebView should probably rise up past the top navigation bar. When you're reading an article there really isn't much need for it to be there, and every extra pixel is precious on a phone.

Nice app though overall.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the comments, maybe icons would work better to make it obvious what they do. I'll play with that.

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Okay, so I originally made this app for myself cause I didn't like the UI on other HN readers. In that vein, I probably didn't add some stuff that people would like in a HN client, so I want your opinions on what to include/remove/improve in v1.1 - don't hold back. I personally couldn't stand the design on the other similar apps and I want people to enjoy reading HN on their iPhones/iPods.

And yes, there's an iPad version in the works too!

\-----

And if anybody is wondering, review time was at 5 days for this one.

<comment><USER5>
      > Okay, so I originally made this app for myself cause
      > I didn't like the UI on other HN readers

I was thinking about creating HN reader myself for exactly the same reason. Tried out about 10 different readers was not satisfied with either of them (sorry, that includes this app too :( ). However there is an web app which gets UI right: <http://hackerwebapp.com> — and that's what I am using. And if I ever will do my own native HN reader it will basically have UI stolen from HackerWeb :)

<comment><USER6> Seriously, I really hope that some iOS devs would steal the UI from it too :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Nice job, here are my suggestions:

1\. Top orange bar is way too thick, especially since it stays fixed and does not "scroll away" after paging down. We don't all have iPhone5's.

2\. I agree with others who have suggested making it somewhat easier to hit the "go to comments" and close story buttons.

3\. Sharing! Would like to be able to copy link to clipboard, post to fb/twitter, send to instapaper/readability/pinboard/delicious and last but not least, email.

Looking forward to v1.1 !

</comment><comment><USER8> Nice, I like it a lot. I tend to read HN on my phone and this could be a real improvement. A few questions:

\- How does voting work?

\- How do I login?

\- How do I get to page 2?

\- Returning to the article list may be clearer with a back arrow

\- I'd love to see landscape mode

<comment><AUTHOR> 1\. Yep working on it right now (landscape mode)

2\. Unfortunately I haven't figured out how to get to Page(n) with the api I'm using for this: <http://hndroidapi.appspot.com/> \- if anyone uses this for their own and knows, hook a brother up! Edit: Also, this API doesn't allow for logging in / upvoting. I'd love to have this in there though. Anybody know any other APIs that allow this consistently?

3\. Duly noted.

Thanks for the feedback, I hope you like it. Hopefully in less than a week I can have a solid v1.1 submitted to focus on everybody's issues/complaints.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> 1\. The dark theme doesn't sit well with me. Particularly, the grey on dark grey is grating.

2\. The buttons on the sidebar are atrocious.

3\. The header bar is much too thick.

4\. The font is inordinately small. This might be an idiosyncrasy of mine, but I think a larger font would be preferable.

5\. This incorporates all of the intangibles that are significant but difficult to articulate: the app doesn't feel like an app. Rather, it feels like a webpage both aesthetically and functionally. I'm not sure how to describe it, but the app doesn't _feel_ right.

<comment><AUTHOR> I appreciate your criticism, there will be a light theme option in 1.1

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> I like HackerNode more because:

1\. It contains more columns than only "FrontPage", such as "Jobs" and "Comments"; 2\. The UI seems more concise. Although there are not indent between comments, the text is much clearer.

However, neither of these apps can be used to add comments. So I can only come back to my computer and add this comment on the web page.

<comment><USER11> Hacker Node is really awful to use, though. Half the stories go to 404s, because it percent-encodes hashes and actually sends them to the server, and trying to select a story involves poking around on the screen until you finally hit the right (tiny) part of the title.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> Why I like this so far:

\- It's the closest Alien Blue:Reddit that I've seen for HN

\- Opening web pages within the app is much more comfortable than the standard way of doing so, which is terrible in my opinion

Great work!

<comment><AUTHOR> I'd lie if I said I wasn't inspired by Alien Blue, it's by far my favorite and most-used app on my iPhone. Thanks for the kind words!

<comment><USER12> The only thing that threw me off was the loading of web pages. There does not seem to be anything to let the user know that the web page is loading. Granted, most of the users of this app (being HN regulars) would probably assume that a page is loading, but if I didn't notice it the first time around, then maybe others did not either. An activity indicator may help in this situation. Also, the minus sign (left of "Go to Comments") makes me feel that the view should minimize upon click, which would cause the horizontal minus sign to rotate to become vertical. I can elaborate on any of these thoughts if they don't make enough sense.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> It looks good. I'll download it when I'm home later. This could all be solved with about 50-100 lines inside a media query though... Come on HN!

</comment><comment><USER14> In China, downloaded this and it does not populate content. Just endlessly searches for it (spinning loading wheel).

<comment><AUTHOR> Hmm, try removing from working memory (don't delete the app!) and reopening to see if that fixes it. May be having a hard time loading the site.

<comment><USER15> Since the API you're using is hosted on App Engine, it won't be accessible from China. App Engine is blocked by the Great Firewall.

<comment><AUTHOR> Damn, thanks for the heads up.

<comment><USER14> lots of HN readers in China -- would be great to be able to use this! looks nice and headed in the right direction.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Very clean UI. Would love to see indication of what articles I've already read.

<comment><AUTHOR> Great idea. Would adding a "hide read" feature be something anybody else is interested in?

<comment><USER17> YES! But I would strongly prefer to get the voting/commenting part working first. I come to HN to participate in the discourse, not just read web pages.

One thing I would say is it would be nice to have a "Reader"/"Instapaper" mode for articles. I haven't looked at iOS APIs in a while, so I don't know if Apple is exposing that functionality or not (my guess is no); but maybe Instapaper or one of the clones would be willing to do some kind of partnership. I would pay for that upgrade on my iPhone.

Overall, I really like this and can easily see myself pulling it out in the mgrocery line. Yeah, there are some minor nits, but I think others have covered those well enough. And I love the dark coloring, too.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER2> I'd say that name is just a little too similar to chpwn's HN client, news:yc.

</comment><comment><USER18> Would be nice if it could support iOS 5.1.1.

<comment><USER19> iOS 6 adds a lot of goodies for devs. I find it hard to blame devs of apps that move to 6.0. A jailbreak sure would be nice! =) Wait for 6.1 (remember 6.1 beta 4 expires soon!).

</comment></comment><comment><USER20> There was a Hacker News reader for iOS and then it stopped loading news and gave errors. So I found one called Hacker Node that worked better. Which one of this, I don't see a link to the App Store just an image.

<comment><AUTHOR> Clickable link: [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/news- yc/id592893508?ls=1&...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/news- yc/id592893508?ls=1&mt=8)

<comment><USER20> Good but there is no option to share the links like Hacker Node offers. I like to email links to myself to look over later on so I can focus on them more.</comment></comment></comment>


IPod Touch case claims to add voice call and text messaging to Touch  - <AUTHOR> http://ynzal.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=79&products_id=924

<comment><AUTHOR> Ran across this link. It doesn't seem to be available in the US but it's still interesting.

Quoted

"Buying the Peel 520 plus a 32 GB Ipod Touch would save you roughly 50% than buying a 16GB iPhone 4. Thus, you even get twice the capacity than an iPhone 4, meaning you have more space to download your favorite applications, movies, picture, music and more. "</comment>


Show HN: My Thursday-afternoon project: Notey - <AUTHOR> http://notey.heroku.com/

<comment><USER2> Could you perhaps drop the "do you _really_ wanna delete the note?" dialog?

I'd prefer if you just deleted the note and gave me an instant way of getting it back (if I made a mistake).

Similar to how you delete emails in Gmail: it moves them to Trash and _then_ announces "the e-mail's been deleted, click here to undo".

Other than that, I really like it.

<comment><AUTHOR> That's definitely a much better way of doing it - I'll have a go. Little bit trickier, though - which is why I haven't yet :)

<comment><USER2> That's true -- most of these little usability tweaks are harder to do than just slam a message box to the page.

But it makes the result much better.

Another idea: you can just not delete the notes at all and have some separate "archive" page where you'd keep them all.

<comment><AUTHOR> I've added an "undo" button - it was much easier than I thought :)

<comment><USER2> Just tried it. Awesome.

Maybe the fade out after you do undo takes too long. But I love it.

<comment><AUTHOR> The undo button fades out slowly - but it stays there so you can undo multiple notes :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> YALF - Yet another login form

<comment><USER4> Any way to drop the login until the users has experienced the product

<comment><USER5> Warning! These notes are unsaved, click _create_account_ to save your notes.

<comment><AUTHOR> I've added this now :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I think of 100 cool things to do with this, which merely means you've done a good job putting it together.

One little nit-pick which is more just a technical note is that you shouldn't plop the same javascript into the note elements for each note. The note div (and all siblings there of) should share the same code and event listener using their position in the dom or their ID to identify them.

It doesn't necessarily change the functionality but one thing I've learned in working with large web applications with a lot of javascript is the least you have embedded into the page, the better.

<comment><AUTHOR> Good idea :) It's only a quick hack so far, that sort of stuff will definitely be moved out of there!

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> To OSX users I highly recommend a note taking application called Notational Velocity. If you have a simplenote account you may use it to centrally store (optionally encrypted) the notes database in the cloud.

Interface is spot on. Very keyboard oriented and hacker friendly.

Notation Velocity: <http://notational.net/> / <http://github.com/scrod/nv>

<comment><USER8> Notational Velocity is great.

Quite some time ago I wrote a little web-based note taking app, trying to make it as much like NV as I could -- I really liked NV, but wanted to be able to access my notes from multiple locations. I still use it myself all the time, though I never really polished it or shared it widely.

<http://pi-guy.net/webnotes/>

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> I wrote something like this a few months ago, with the idea being that the OSX dashboard stickies could be replaced with something synced remotely and shared with other people. I got it to the point where the dashboard (or web interface) would sync, but I didn't polish the UI enough to make it presentable. Worth looking into if you want to keep developing this.

</comment><comment><USER10> why do you need an email address?

Also, it would be cool to be able to just start adding notes to a blank page without signing up - then have the option to sign up and save it.

Nice app though :)

<comment><AUTHOR> There's a click-to-create-a-dummy-account link - but I know what you mean :) I cloned the login from another app without really thinking about it too much; it's one of those apps that could really do with OpenID.

Great idea on the sign-up-to-save, though - thanks!

<comment><USER10> Ah cool I missed that sorry - maybe pop it on the login page too? :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Cool little app. Check formatting on long notes-- I notice that if the note text exceeds the box, text gets hidden under the save button while typing. Also, after closing a long note, the box does not expand to accomodate a long note, and the text spills across the boundary of the note box.

</comment><comment><USER12> Looks nice. I've noticed that sometimes when I click to create a new note a previously created note gets the loading gif and a new note is not created. When I click again, a new note is created. I'm using Chrome 5.0.342.5 dev on Windows.

</comment><comment><USER13> The link to set up a dummy account sent me back to the login screen with now way to login. Or does the dummy account link just make me dumb?

</comment><comment><USER14> On another note, I noticed (through my awesome skills of deduction) that you're using heroku. How are you finding that? Is it easy to use?

<comment><USER15> I'm not the author of this, but I've been deploying things on Heroku for a while, and I can't say a single bad thing about it.

The only issues I've had relate to my clumsy use of git.

My sites have had at least 99.9% uptime (apparently, I've never noticed them down), and forgetting about sysadmining is awesome.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> That's awesome. I was thinking about the same thing yesterday! My only feature request would be sharing between multiple users.

</comment><comment><USER17> very cool app, I just don't know if I'd keep my window open (in my slew of open tabs) and be able to find it again, to the point where its useful.

<comment><USER18> If you're using Firefox try App Tabs. It pins a favicon sized tab to the left of the tab bar.

<https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/47734></comment></comment>


Show HN: Write code, earn Bitcoins - <AUTHOR> http://signup.codeforbitcoins.com/

<comment><USER2> "Code for money", essentially. Or?

<comment><AUTHOR> In simple terms yes, however the dynamics of the Bitcoin market are a little different at the moment. Many people have paper wealth in Bitcoins that can't be easily converted into another currency. So would be better to just purchase services with Bitcoin rather than converting to and from other currencies.</comment></comment>


Teaching Real World Programming - <AUTHOR> http://blogs.msdn.com/b/alfredth/archive/2010/11/02/teaching-real-world-programming.aspx

<comment><USER2> Do you think this could work electronically? I would love to volunteer in this way, but I don't think any school in New Orleans has a program like this. Actually, I don't think any school in New Orleans (high school or college) even teaches programming any more.

<comment><AUTHOR> It might. I can imagine using some online conferencing tools like LiveMeeting (the one I know most about) or even sending code and doing Skype conversations. You'd be surprised at how few high schools teach programming BTW. Very sad.</comment></comment>