How many pieces can a puzzle have? - <AUTHOR> https://gottwurfelt.com/2020/08/17/how-many-pieces-can-a-puzzle-have/ <comment><USER2> Of course the _most_ interesting jigsaw puzzles don't follow this constraint. Take for example Yuu Asaka's amazing _Jigsaw puzzle 19_, which consists of 19 pieces – and they are all corner pieces!

[https://www.puzzlemaster.ca/browse/novelty/packing/12838-jig...](https://www.puzzlemaster.ca/browse/novelty/packing/12838-jigsaw- puzzle-19)

<comment><USER3> Nice but _super_ simple, the tips are unique which makes it easy to solve. Still, very original.

<comment><USER4> not _so_ simple. If you want to "spoiler" the solution, you can find the mr. puzzle video on youtube[0].

btw: the are 4 similar jigsaw solved by mr. puzzle, you can find here[1], here[2] and here[3]

[0] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPearqSivSc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPearqSivSc)

[1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7xJePIvYbA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7xJePIvYbA)

[2] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-clIQ0NS6o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-clIQ0NS6o)

[3] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9Hl0zMMwLw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9Hl0zMMwLw)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Somewhat related — we recently purchased and have enjoyed a couple of circular puzzles from a small puzzle maker in the PNW — Bewilderness Puzzles[0].

I highly recommend the Mars puzzle in particular[1].

They also _smell_ wonderful. Like fresh cut wood.

[0] [https://bewilderness-puzzles.com/](https://bewilderness-puzzles.com/)

[1] [https://bewilderness-puzzles.com/collections/circular- puzzle...](https://bewilderness-puzzles.com/collections/circular- puzzles/products/mars-wooden-puzzle-266-pieces-round-jigsaw-with-crazy-alien- cut-pattern-for-grown-up-puzzle-lovers-original-artwork-by-erin-darling)

<comment><USER6> We did this moon puzzle [0] towards the start of quarantine and it was _super_ hard. Part of it was the same-ness of all the featureless grey. It was slow going.

[0]: [https://fourpointpuzzles.com/products/the- moon](https://fourpointpuzzles.com/products/the-moon)

<comment><USER5> Wow, 1,000 pieces for that is intense. The Mars one we got was tough for similar reasons, but didn't take too long since it is so much smaller.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> > My 7 yo pointed out that our 300 piece puzzle actually contains 18 x 18 = > 324 pieces and I just don't know what to believe anymore.

Did they actually count the pieces? In my experience, puzzles are rarely/never simply exact columns and rows of pieces such that you can count the outside edge pieces and multiply to get the number of pieces. Instead there are pieces of all sorts of shapes that create interesting patterns within the puzzle which could result in a number much smaller than multiplying the outside pieces might indicate.

<comment><USER8> > In my experience, puzzles are rarely/never simply exact columns and rows

In my experience, they exactly are.

Of course, there are plenty of "unconventional" ones too, but the majority has rigid row/column layout.

<comment><USER7> My kids are working on a puzzle right now. I walked over and took a picture of a part of the puzzle:

[https://imgur.com/rUrTPC3](https://imgur.com/rUrTPC3)

This is just a random puzzle and not something I hand picked to make a point. As you can see the pieces are no where near a rigid row/column layout. In my experience this is the norm.

<comment><USER9> Who is the manufacturer? I don't think I've ever seen a non-grid jigsaw puzzle before.

<comment><USER7> Bits and Pieces.

But we have hundreds of puzzles from tons of manufacturers. Other than the puzzles for little kids, all of our puzzles are non-grids.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Somewhat related, but I thoroughly enjoy my infinite galaxy jigsaw puzzle:

[https://n-e-r-v-o-u-s.com/shop/product.php?code=346](https://n-e-r-v-o- u-s.com/shop/product.php?code=346)

Edit: To clarify it relates to the title, rather than the content of the article. :D

<comment><USER11> I love that site. I'm currently working on the earth one. The spherical nature of the content means you have to wrangle with map projection stuff--which I thought I understood, but dealing with it in a puzzling setting is a whole new animal.

Highly recommended.

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> A related question I once thought of: What's the minimum number of pieces you need to assemble to form a "skeleton" of a puzzle - such that every other piece fits directly to one of the skeleton pieces?

For an 9x4 puzzle I came up with the following pattern - a skeleton that uses 15 of 36 pieces:

        -X—-X—-X-
        -X—-X—-X-
        XXXXXXXXX
        —————————

It would be interesting to see if that's optimal, and if the optimal solution is different for different puzzle sizes.

<comment><USER13> An (obvious?) iterative improvement on this solution is to just take the first two rows and mirror it for the bottom two, for a solution of 4x3=12 pieces.

        -X--X--X-
        -X--X--X-
        -X--X--X-
        -X--X--X-

The naive lower bound on a solution is N/5, based on the maximum covering a piece might have (of course, that's not tight, due to literal corner cases). Heuristically, we might expect an optimal solution to look like E[1/K]≈8.6, where K is defined as the number of neighbors a square has.

Attempting to manually reduce the overlaps, I came up with

        -X--X--X-
        ---X-X---
        X</comment></comment><comment>-X
        --X-X-X--

for 10.

(Of course, the puzzle may be underspecified, since if you also require that your skeleton forms a connected component, then neither of these solutions count.)

edit: And, one more manual tiling (10 again) which exhibits better periodicity:

        --X---X--
        X---X---X
        --X---X--
        X---X---X

<comment><USER14> That's an interesting answer! Your final layout looked oddly familiar to me, and it finally occurred to me: The problem of finding a skeleton puzzle was very similar to finding an optimal layout for a sugarcane farm in Minecraft, that my high school friends and I experimented with years ago. Each square of sugarcane needs to be connected to at least one square of water, and the most efficient farm is the one requiring the least amount of space for water. [https://i.imgur.com/T5yh9.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/T5yh9.jpg)

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> I had thought I had read somewhere about the challenges of designing a unique and valid puzzle (so that pieces couldn't fit together that shouldn't fit together) with the note that puzzle manufacturers apparently made new puzzle piece grids for each puzzle. I was pretty sure it was on kottke, and instead I found the exact opposite of that, with a link to the following project of mixing pieces together from puzzles to create surreal artwork: [https://puzzlemontage.crevado.com](https://puzzlemontage.crevado.com)

<comment><USER15> I think this is the article that was referenced by the blog post I read. It implies that new cutters are made for each puzzle (which is contradicted by the above). [https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/business/coronavirus- jigs...](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/business/coronavirus-jigsaw- puzzles.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> The middle part is a bit too heady for me but I'm fascinated by this sentence in the conclusion: "I assume that you wouldn't actually see a 999-piece puzzle because the lawyers would claim calling that 1000 was false advertising."

My soul wants to hope that nobody would be as crazy as to sue a puzzle company for having 999 pieces instead of an even 1000 but my mind is saying "duh, of course they would".

Wonder what the situation is like for those new types of puzzles that are circular or have irregular shapes. Those are probably easier to make into an even, pretty number but I feel like there would still be exceptions.

<comment><USER17> Call me strange but I've actually counted the pieces to a few of my kids puzzles and the 100 and 200 piece puzzles never have exactly that number. And it wasn't off-by-one either. I always figured it make sense that the box advertises an 'around'-number as an indication of difficulty. (For the Why?: When puzzling together the key is to not overdo with the helping, so there is some time at hand for other brain activities.)

<comment><USER18> I wasted a lot of time as a kid looking for missing pieces (and recounting them several times to begin with) in a 2000 puzzle that didn't have that many pieces. I wish they had an exact number in the fine print.

<comment><USER19> The last puzzle I solved actually had a small table with the advertised and actual number of pieces.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> The grid for jigsaw pieces is normally not square, at least when I used to solve them. Something like 3:2 was more typical.

If you can vary the aspect ratio of the average piece between 2:3 and 3:2, or even just pick one of the extremes so you can rotate the grid, a lot more numbers are possible. 1000 can be an almost-square grid.

None of this has anything to do with the mathematical content which is really the point of the blog post, but it's where my mind went when he claimed certain numbers make for bad jigsaw sizes.

<comment><USER21> He was allowing for aspect ratios all the way out to 2:1 (which seems too long and skinny to me).

<comment><USER22> That's for the entire puzzle. I think they meant that the pieces themselves have closer to 3:2 aspect ratios.

<comment><USER21> Oops, I misread.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> I was hoping this would be about how difficulty scales with piece count (I doubt it's linear), and what a practical limit for piece count would be in terms of the time to solve it. If I had to guess, it would be n^2.

Anecdotally, my grandma finds 500 piece puzzles a lot harder than 300.

<comment><USER24> Hmm, would it have to do with information density? If you had a puzzle that was a simple gradient, you could easily locate the region a piece belonged to despite the number of pieces. If the puzzle was blank, the difficulty would ramp up much quicker.

</comment></comment><comment><USER25> Seems weird that they wouldn't put the exact number on the box. Feel like that'd seem more interesting than a bunch of zeros. Are people more likely to buy a box saying 1000 than 1008?

<comment><USER26> I think because it's not about the actual number of pieces. The piece ranks being rounded turns them into an approximate difficulty rating that is easily understood. It also (roughly) shows the size of the puzzle and the amount of time it would take to complete.

</comment></comment><comment><USER27> Puzzles are a great way to pass that Corona time at home.

</comment><comment><USER28> The number theory aspects here are interesting. In practice, a puzzle that slightly cheats the grid might also be interesting.

<comment><USER29> My wife is Japanese and our kids had a lot of puzzle with very weird shapes, like this.

[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=f5XdPqMJVQM](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=f5XdPqMJVQM)

I don't know if this is a specific Japanese style, but I never saw puzzle like this "in the west".

This one has a frame, but they also make some without (pieces that interlock like our puzzle), still with those weird shapes.

I really love them:)

<comment><USER30> My family has a collection of home-made jigsaw puzzles (literally made by a guy cutting up a wood-backed picture with a jigsaw) which look similar in terms of shape to that (but more pieces, 500 or so). I think they are much more interesting to solve, especially since the contours often follow the shapes in the image, which adds some twists in the difficulty. I would also be interested in finding a way to buy such puzzles nowadays (especially since they would in priciple be easy to produce through laser-cutting).

<comment><USER28> Might be a nice business idea!

If you want to go overboard, you can probably use some machine learning to decide on the curves for an arbitrary input image.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> The author incorrectly assumes: \- completely rectangular \- all columns/rows have the same 'length'

Go try a pre-1950s 'pasttime puzzle' (wood). Most are rectangular, but certainly not some absurd same-length rows and columns.

</comment><comment><USER32> just realised if you want "squarish" piece you can't really have a rectangular puzzle with a prime number of pieces without resorting to tricks

</comment><comment><USER33> Just realized that in a 2d puzzle you have only 4 corner pieces, but in a higher-dimensional (say, 20d) puzzle, almost all pieces would be corner pieces.

<comment><USER34> Why? Are you not missing the "interior"?

<comment><USER35> I agree, don't think it works out. Consider a 3x3...x3 puzzle (with N dimensions). There are 2^N corners but 3^N pieces so the corner-to-piece ratio decreases exponentially in N.

However, what does "corner" mean in an N dimensional puzzle? I was taking it to mean that it has N sides without pegs or holes. But if you took it to mean at least 2 sides without pegs or wholes, then indeed the ratio would increase (I think there are 3^N - 2^N - 1 of those) with N. But I think this is the less-satisfactory way to generalize "corner" pieces and these really should be thought of as edge pieces.

<comment><USER36> Ah, this is a nice point, it does work for the number of edge pieces. In this case (3x3x...x3) every piece but one is an edge piece!

More generally, with k pieces on a side, there are k^N pieces total, and (k-2)^N internal pieces, so in the limit, the ratio of internal to total is (1-2/k)^N -> e^{-2N/k}.

So if the number of dimensions gets to be bigger the grid size, almost all pieces are "edge" (i.e. outer) pieces. Even if N=k/2, something like 70% of the pieces are edge pieces.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER37> You see this in product packaging too: Domino sugar cubes come 198 to a box. This yields a much more pleasing and practical box than 200.

<comment><USER38> Is the box labelled "Almost 200 pieces"?

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> Stupid question: why does a puzzle follow a grid?

<comment><USER11> They don't always, but the obvious/boring thing to do is to start with a shape that tiles the plane, like rectangles or hexagons. A Penrose tiling might be an interesting approach to take.

I discovered these a few years back: [https://n-e-r-v-o- u-s.com/shop/](https://n-e-r-v-o-u-s.com/shop/) and I really dig 'em. They might be using a grid in some cases--but if so it's pretty hard to tell.

I'm working on my fourth. It's hard to worry about the apocalypse when the complexity of the puzzle requires your whole brain to make progress.

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> Ah, but how many sequences of 3 evenly spaced numbers does the sequence have?</comment>


Ask HN: Do you listen to radio? Will it survive? - <AUTHOR>

Yesterday I was without any technology other than radio, and I just turned it on to see what I could get. I was pleasantly surprised, with many stations in several languages with good music I had not heard before, and interesting programmes on diverse topics.<p>Do you still listen to radio? Do you think radio has a future as it stands now? Television broadcast over airwaves is dead or dying, and many broadcasters have shut down. Why hasn't the same happened to radio yet? <comment><USER2> I think of the radio similar to television. For example, I can have any tv show and movie at my finger tips, but sometimes it's nice just to turn on the tv. There's something enjoyable about letting someone else make the choice. It's the same reason you might have a DVD library collecting dust, but you get excited when one of your DVD's appears on television. You just push a button, no decision of which movie to watch, and no taking time to setup a DVD.

It's similar with the radio. Any song or album is available online, but sometimes I just want to listen to music, without finding a new playlist every hour, or switching songs constantly. Music streaming services online have this covered to some extent, but there's something comforting about a box that's sole purpose is to play music, and that's where the radio comes in.

Imagine if you had a box next to you, and all it had was a volume knob and 8 buttons, each for a different genre of music. You push classic rock, and it just starts playing a non-stop stream. Get bored with it? Switch to electronic. Your only choice is which genre, and how loud. No sign-up, no advertisements, no accounts to manage, no downtime, no social media, etc.

<comment><USER3> I've always thought it would be nice to write a program that auto-generates a TV programming schedule by time of day. The first problem that's prevented me from doing it is that my TV shows aren't divided up for commercial breaks, which is half of the appeal.

ToonamiAftermath is the prototype for exactly what I'd like to do. TV shows with commercial breaks and bumpers, streamed 24/7 constantly. I haven't been able to figure out how they (he?) was able to pull it off, other than cutting files and making each day's playlist by hand.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> I listen to many hours of radio every day.

I listen to BBC Radio 4; 4 extra; 6 music; and the World Service. I also listen to podcasts of some international stations. (Not as much now that "this american life" is available on 4extra).

People might be interested in the archive of content on the BBC websites. "In Our Time" is especially good.

<comment><USER5> I listen to Radio 4 in the mornings as I get ready for work, and then Radio 4 (mostly) podcasts on my commute.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I listen to NPR, but the podcast versions of NPR shows are rapidly replacing the FM version of NPR for me.

<comment><USER7> Have you tried the iTunes Radio NPR stream?

[https://itunes.apple.com/us/station/npr-news-and- culture/idr...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/station/npr-news-and- culture/idra.840950253)

<comment><USER6> I haven't. Though, the reason I like podcasts though is I can pick what shows I want to listen to and when to listen to them.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> The radio (in it's traditional sense) has no chance of survival. It's only lifeline is people listening to it in cars but even that won't last. If I'm in the mood for listening to music I can pick my own songs or use a service that creates customized playlists and listen to them _without_ sitting through 10 minutes of ads every three songs. The whole idea of radio stations is old- fashioned and if it was pitched today it would be laughed at by every VC in the room. Maybe I'm being too harsh on it, but that's just my opinion that I've formed over many years of trying to find something good on the radio in the car.

</comment><comment><USER9> Radio serves the purpose of being one of the only freely available wireless com networks. For this reason I think radio will be around for a while (will almost definitely out live cable television).

</comment><comment><USER10> Listening to the radio - that's what cars are for.

Mind (in this context) I have the misfortune to live in the UK where music radio stations seem to think that their output should be constant banal chatter from a "DJ" with just the occasional tune slung in when they run out of things to jabber about.

I am always glad when I visit the USA and can find so many music stations - ones that actually play music.

</comment><comment><USER11> Comedy on Radio4 is the only thing I seek out. Other than that it fills the quiet, or the noise of transport. Radio is cheap, and the lines between internet and traditional radio are blurred much more so than with TV (for one, there's no difference - FM is about 96kps and internet radio is around that for 3G and more for wifi).

</comment><comment><USER12> Only in my car on my rather short commute. I only take in about 30 minutes of the programs/songs in a session.

It still seems very natural to me to listen in the car. Flipping it on at home seems a bit odd to me though.

</comment><comment><USER13> Radio has a lock on the _people in cars_ market, and I don't see how that could change.

Radio also has much lower costs than TV.

</comment><comment><USER14> Listen to radio everyday. Never on an actual radio, though.

</comment><comment><USER15> I think that radio advertisements work better than TV ads for the reason that they're pretty geographically targeted. It's a good way to advertise when you want to reach a city-sized area but not target a whole state or region. As long as the ads work, and people keep listening, the business model should be sustainable. Also, how else are you going to tune in to Rush Limbaugh?</comment>


Apple: We have never worked with any government agency create a backdoor - <AUTHOR> http://www.imore.com/apple-reaffirms-never-worked-any-government-agency-backdoor-product-service <comment><USER2> Me: I don't believe you. #PRISM #DROPOUTJEEP

</comment><comment><USER3> The researcher's response to Apple's statement: [http://www.zdziarski.com/blog/?p=3447](http://www.zdziarski.com/blog/?p=3447)</comment>


How to defend your website with ZIP bombs (2017) - <AUTHOR> https://blog.haschek.at/post/f2fda <comment><USER2> I find the idea quite funny.</comment>


Ask HN: How to Deal with Companies Ignoring Responsible Disclosure Terms? - <AUTHOR> I have followed the responsible disclosure model to make companies aware of security vulnerabilities in their software. Some of these includes being able to view private user information. As part of the process I request companies to alert their users that their data may have been breached. If companies do not follow this request, what should I do? <comment><USER2> Do companies actually fix the bug/vuln you identify? If so, I'm amazed that they even do that, and I would accept that as a "good enough" win.

Regarding disclosure, although this sounds like a lame position, I would wait for the courts to decide. There are a lot of cases winding their way through the Circuit Courts in the US that will give us a framework for disclosing and when to do it regardless of The actions of any Federal agency.

If they don't agree to fix the bug, by all means "name and shame". Document all your interactions with them though.

Also if it's medical data remember HIPAA has a breach notice that applies in all 50 states so there is that.

Also also, after the bug has been fixed there is nothing to stop you from writing a blog post and letting the "media" pick it up naturally as part of the news cycle.

NOTE: I have CISSP and CASP so I think that means something</comment>


Chinese Hackers in the Back Office - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/12/technology/the-chinese-hackers-in-the-back-office.html <comment><USER2> I couldn't help reading this as a submarine [0] for Area 1.

0 - [http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html](http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html)

<comment><USER3> Agreed. I wish I better understood how a PR firm manages to place an article that is so clearly an advertisement, like this, with such a major news outlet, without it setting off the editor's spidey-sense.

<comment><USER2> It's not a bad story, and writers are busy. It's tough to get a good scoop. Much easier if someone just hands it to you.

<comment><USER4> She's been working with a few security firms for over a year doing research into a few threat groups. I think this was a better story than a simple network tap at a datacenter. In that sense, it probably was handed to her simply because it was different and more relatable.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> PR puff in the NY Times, with such a dire headline is more than a little disappointing. Seeing it here is downright annoying.</comment>


Designers speculate about what Apple's self-driving iCar might look like - <AUTHOR> http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3199316/Could-iCar-Designers-speculate-Apple-s-self-driving-vehicle-look-like-s-revealed-computer-giant-working-technology.html <comment><AUTHOR> seems like the birth of an industry</comment>


Indian Internet company valuations - Stop Blowing Our Bubbles - <AUTHOR> http://www.tehelka.com/story_main50.asp?filename=Ws020811OPINION.asp

<comment><USER2> 1 billion dollar for Flipkart is insane. No USP, minimal recognition, and a lack of focus that drives me crazy. I used to frequent them a lot. Back when they had books as their primary focus. But now they are peddling mobile phones, and everything under the sun with books as an afterthought. Don't get me wrong, they still are the best online book retailer in India and I use them a lot, but if any body on this forum has a better idea, count me in as your first customer.

<comment><USER3> > _But now they are peddling mobile phones, and everything under the sun with > books as an afterthought._

So... like Amazon?

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Here is how I think about this. Amazon's market cap is about 96 billion. Having a valuation of 1 billion would imply that FlipKart is, as of today, worth about 1/100 of the whole of Amazon (in every country, across all products including the Kindle and the AWS product line). I don't see it _as of today_ (but am willing to be educated).

Due Disclosure: I have used FlipKart and I do like it. But that is because the alternatives in India are non existent or horrendous. With Amazon coming to India next year, that will change.

And it is not all doom and gloom for FlipKart. I suspect being overvalued is good when you are trading equity for money. All they need to do is to find a strategy to counter Amazon to survive and thrive. They don't have to beat Amazon on every measure to have a succesful business. They'll have to pull off an Intuit vs Microsoft style defence. I hope they do. From all I know, they are bright people. They've crushed their local competition (Infibeam say[1]) with superior execution.

Competition is awesome. Good for us customers. The local bubble is (imo) just a reflection of the global bubble.

[1] Trivia: I was having dinner the other day with an Infibeam ex employee and asked him why FlipKart won so convincingly over his ex employer and he said "FlipKart is run by engineers. Infibeam is run by managers. Why are you surprised?".

<comment><USER5> How can you say flipkart crushes infibeam? If Google trends is any indicator, they are running neck in neck.

[http://trends.google.com/websites?q=Infibeam.com%2C+flipkart...](http://trends.google.com/websites?q=Infibeam.com%2C+flipkart.com&geo=all&date=all&sort=0)

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I will agree with the author may be on MakeMyTrip, but not on FlipKart. They may be a copy of Amazon. But for India it works very well. They can get US published books in India, in a matter of 10 days or so. Amazon takes some 30 days. I am a big fan and everybody I know also is. They execute super good. Totally agree on Rediff. It is like Yahoo of India. Difficult to say what it is.

And lastly don't we all know, bubbles are _never predicted_ , but always _explained_ with the benefit of _hindsight_.

</comment><comment><USER7> This post [http://bechalis.blogspot.com/2011/08/i-dont-care-about-e- com...](http://bechalis.blogspot.com/2011/08/i-dont-care-about-e-commerce- bubble-in.html) absolutely nails why the e-commerce scenario is different this time from a customer's point of view. Obviously, it is not at a massive scale yet, but you can see the momentum that is building now.

The valuation maybe over the top, but the fact is that in India we are reaching a stage where expanding into large tracts of our market can't be done on the cheap. And I am not talking about spending on marketing here. Most of us take putting together the logistics and supply chain on a pan-India level as trivial. It is unbelievably hard and that at least some of the new breed of companies are getting it right is a significant differentiator from anything else we have seen so far.

Also, compared to where we are otherwise headed with the ad-based online business in India (which has not shown growth worth speaking about since forever), give me a bubble any day.

</comment><comment><USER8> After reading the news, did google search of Indian retail market and online retail market valuation and found following articles:

Retail Market to grow by $900 billion by 2014: Source PwC [http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-02-03/news...](http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-02-03/news/28431090_1_retail- sales-retail-sector-multinational-retailers)

Online Retail Market worth 7000 crore INR ($203 million) [http://www.commodityonline.com/news/Indias-online-retail- ind...](http://www.commodityonline.com/news/Indias-online-retail-industry-to- be-worth-Rs-7000-cr-by-2015-40481-3-1.html)

By looking at this market valuations, availability of good players (Flipkart, Infibeam...) in online retail market and Amazon is coming next year, what are you thoughts?

I fill the valuation is bit more but still fare and not that much high comparing how the company is doing and they have potential to grow. And also market has those many opportunities available.

</comment><comment><USER9> According to wikipedia, flipkart was funded by founders with Rs 4 lakh and broke even in 2008, I don't understand how it is loss making. It is certainly not worth $1 billion now, but so was facebook when it was funded by MS. I don't think any body would be so stupid in making decisions as described by the author.

<comment><USER10> there is a huge difference between breaking even to an initial investment and making losses on a day to day basis. Sure they may have recovered their initial investment - but if the difference between their expenses and their income is negative - they are loss making. It's basic economics.

As for comparing flipkart to facebook... I dont really know where to start on that comparison!

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> Once Proper logistics is set up imagine how much profits it can make. because every book sold is minus the show room,lights and other infrastructure costs?</comment>


Nikola, a Static Site and Blog Generator in Python - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/ralsina/nikola

<comment><AUTHOR> I have been using Pelican for while but this project seems more complete and active</comment>


Ask HN: Who is using Kubernetes or Docker in production and how has it been? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> I worked at a company where they started using kubernetes very early on. It was a mess, we configured it and provisioned with CoreOS and Ansible. it was suck a Mess.

Then I moved to another company and we used ECS and it worked and did the job but 3 months ago i started learning kubernetes on my own. From provisioning a cluster to deploying workloads and i can tell you that Kubernetes is great. It is not that complicated to install and to extend and support. The kubernetes documentation is really all you need. I am using kubernetes and find that things are easier to manage than when we had to provision instances with puppet or chef . Everything is a container and we can deploy containers or roll them back with ease.

The problem with Kubernetes is not kubernetes itself, I think the problem is that developers should spend time learning docker and how to create and package docker containers with their applications and setup CI/CD pipelines to deploy such containers into kubernetes. the challenge is . that many developers are not using docker for local development and don't know best practices on how to develop containers. but it would take a couple of more years to resolve these issues. Kubernetes is great . Also i got to preview EKS and their setup is a bit of a mess and pricy

Learn to provision your own clusters . Would be my advice.

</comment><comment><USER3> Docker is two things: there are Docker images, which are like deployable virtual machine images that contain a system bundled up with a minimal environment. It's a powerful tool that is indispensable in a microservices architecture.

Then there's Docker Swarm, which is a system for deploying, distributing, running, and connecting Docker images into a cohesive system. It's conceptually awesome, but in usage it's horrible. The commands are unintuitive, the configuration is difficult and poorly documented, the logging sucks, the networking is confusing, and it does evil unexpected things that punch holes in your firewall without the slightest warning or safety net. It frequently implodes for no obvious reason, is difficult to debug due to the horrible logging, fills up your filesystem because it doesn't clean up after itself, and is a complete nightmare to maintain.

I haven't used Kubernetes yet, but by all accounts it's a superior container environment. We're about to switch to it at work. We'll still create Docker images, because that part is great. But we'll deploy those Docker images in Kubernetes. Despite not having used it yet, it can't possibly be worse than Docker swarm.

</comment><comment><USER4> We've been in a self-hosted mesos/marathon cluster since mid/late 2014.

Today it's an absolute pleasure to use in a dev team of 5.

We had to address quite a few things over the years to make it that way, particularly in the early days - docker, mesos, and marathon's tooling in particular were quite weak at the time. Some of the big ones: How do you centralize configuration properly across DCs and environments? How do you properly CI/CD? Log and metric at scale? How do we proxy traffic from the edge to containers in a way that doesn't involve bothering an ops guy every time we shuffle things about, pre-k8s? What if we need to churn faster than what marathon is built for?

Once we worked through those, it became pretty changing as a developer. I don't think I would enjoy going back to the pre-container life - things just take so much longer to get done.

We're just doing our first k8s project now. Our existing solutions handle a lot of the big bang it would bring into any other team's lives, but certain things (managed persistent volumes, making stateful containers practical) mean I will be writing less chef recipes. I definitely appreciate that.

</comment><comment><USER5> I was a very early kubernetes adopter and moved to production very very fast, as of now I been using k8s in prod for about 3 years. it was not easy, we needed to create some tooling around it to have a decent workflow for all of engineering for it.

but now is a total delight the amount of automation and guesswork for engineers is minimal they have everything at reach either from a ui or a CLI tool.

I would say the biggest downside to kubernetes is that at first there appears to be a lot of magic to deploy it, official docs recommend tools that hide all of the details about how k8s work and what each component actually do. so it took a while to figure it all out. k8s is still missing some things for high available production deployments like Multi DC and Multiple regions, you will have to do a lot on your own for deployments like that.

</comment><comment><USER6> We had to move one end-user facing service from a proprietary (distributed) on-premise data centers solution running rented/hosted. We set up a number of criteria for evaluating cloud vendors as well as on-premise and semi-hybrid solutions. We had been following Kubernetes since some time back, and the platform had matured considerably, so we decided to continue our further cloud vendor evaluations by using Kubernetes.

At the end, the Kubernetes solution neutralized the choice of cloud vendor, at least from a software release and management point of view. From a security, availability, latency and a few other aspects the choice of cloud provider became less of an issue/equal challenge.

We have faced a few minor challenges when using Kubernetes. The knowledge barrier; The problem, as well as the beauty of Kubernetes, is that it takes on quite a comprehensive view of network management, service discovery, DNS management, deployments, container orchestrations, secrets management, system administration and much more. We use this as an opportunity for learning more than we see problems. But several roles (in the enterprise) need to come together on a pull request for a change, rather than having tickets and side projects. Switching to new features, like RBAC, TLS policy for AWS ELBs and generally keeping up with new features is another. The mostly excellent documentation has helped a lot.

Using Kubernetes, we noticed that latency of using the service was slashed to 50-80%, depending on the location of the end-user. This, however, we attributed more to the ability to roll out in more regions and auto-scaling. Of course k8s is not alone in supporting this, but it really comes out of the box.

A second effect we noticed was that by integrating the releases via Kubernetes, we reduced the time from the point of being ready in system test, to be passing our Release Readiness Check (yes we are an enterprise), and have user acceptance test environments and production environments being provisioned using about 15% of the manpower of our previous processes, and having releases being available in minutes and not in days (weeks), with enhanced visibility and maintainability. As an example, having the possibility to easy tear down or upgrade projects, with the right security and scale at all times (and no lingering volumes, load balancer pools or firewall rules)

For us, Kubernetes has brought a higher predictability of releases, and monitorability of the total solution. We did also switch a solution from one cloud provider to another, and might switch back. For the move we needed some labeling of services and management (referencing) of certificates.</comment>


The Unfortunate Fallout of Campus Postmodernism - <AUTHOR> https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-unfortunate-fallout-of-campus-postmodernism/ <comment><USER2> "Students are being taught by these postmodern professors that there is no truth, that science and empirical facts are tools of oppression by the white patriarchy, and that nearly everyone in America is racist and bigoted, including their own professors, most of whom are liberals or progressives devoted to fighting these social ills."

What's the source for this? Why should I take this article more seriously than a random screed on social media?

<comment><USER3> [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_wars#Postmodernism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_wars#Postmodernism)

<comment><USER4> Also: [https://www.britannica.com/topic/postmodernism- philosophy](https://www.britannica.com/topic/postmodernism-philosophy)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> I find myself thinking how much technology has had an influence on polarisation of viewpoints, particularly political ones (conservative vs liberal).

There is a correlation between young adults coming of age in the era of "Recommended for you" playlists and "People who bought this also bought" recommendations. I feel that these algorithms followed for long enough cause you to end up in one extreme or another.

We have young students who are exposed to a single viewpoint for such a long time that it becomes part of their identity. Either for the right or the left.

Now at university these two sides sometimes clash. Neither side is willing to hear the other argument as listening to them will invalidate a core part of their identity.

This all seems to be a side effect of technology companies trying to maximise profit. The longer a user stays on the site the more money they make (ads, products, etc).

As techies, how can we be socially responsible while also profiting? Is it possible as a public company?

<comment><USER6> Eh, conservatives have been making this complaint for ages. It's really not new. Take the Vietnam war and civil rights protests of the 60s and 70s for example. Tech has changed some dynamics, but in this case, it hasn't introduced something completely new.

<comment><USER5> Could you clarify what the complaint is they're making? I'm confused.

<comment><USER7> I think, but don't know for sure, they are arguing that "elite, progressive professors are indoctrinating our kids." Limbaugh has been making this claim since '89 at least when I first heard it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Richard Spencer held a rally at UF last week, and they had to arrest 3 of his supporters for firing shots at protesters. I don't have much sympathy for this "college kids are overreacting" argument these days.

<comment> aaron-lebo Spencer and his ilk are just going where they know they'll get attention and reactions. They feed off each other.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> "In response, an angry mob of 50 students disrupted his biology class, surrounded him, called him a racist and insisted that he resign."

Students have been doing that for thousands of years. This isn't about racism or post-modernism. This is about longstanding mob dynamics. Communists in pre- revolution Russia and asia. Religious zealots in Scotland. Romans in their ancient senate. This is simply a group of young people storming an office to shout down an established member of an older generation. Once discovered, this power feeds upon itself. It may be how revolutions start but more often than not the young people get older/bored or things burn out as the movement grows and internal power structures destroy themselves. You cannot stop the movement by arguing its politics because those politics are beside the point. You stop them by redirecting their energy towards something new, something more cool than yesterday's politics.

<comment><USER9> This is why we have to ban welfare for anyone with any sort of post-secondary education. Nothing deradicalizes someone like a job and nothing radicalizes someone like too much free time.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> This is a fine opinion piece but for learning anything substantive on this subject it's absolutely devoid of any facts or sourcing for any of its claims. Also seems woefully, out of touch given recent profiles on Milo Yiannopoulos and the arrest of three white supremacists on attempted murder charges for firing guns on student protesters following a campus speech.

It's possible the situation is slightly more nuanced then "college students hate facts/white people".

</comment><comment><USER11> The author should tread carefully... I think the crisis of irreproducibility and the publishing bubble extends to the heart of scientific disciplines as well.

Like a lot of things in life, reality is probably more complex than the postmodern humanities scholars or the realist scientific scholars would suggest. There is some level of reality underlying discourse, but it's also filtered through social processes at every step.

</comment><comment><USER12> > Students are being taught by these postmodern professors that there is no > truth, that science and empirical facts are tools of oppression by the white > patriarchy

Oh brother. Here we go again with another rant that cherry-picks a few instances and pads them out with Orwell quotes and shrill claims like this. I'm a current college student, and compared to my experience and the experiences of my peers, the author is describing another reality. Very "kids these days, get off my lawn".

</comment><comment><USER13> Performative criticism of the devoted humanitarians for the sake of social flagging oneself as a centrist is the problem.

<comment> aaron-lebo Devoted humanitarians don't commit acts of violence or intimidate other people through it.

<comment><USER13> I think they do those exact things when up against fascists. The people they're fighting are those who espouse racial superiorities and commit acts of cultural and physical violence to intimidate the populations of people they've chosen to see as inferior.

Appeals to the centrist middle are only meaningful insofar as that same center is willing to act to protect the people being targeted by hate speech. If the center is frozen by its own obsolete sense of propriety in the face of this socially destabilizing hatred then I think it is not unreasonable to see a small group take the call to action on themselves.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> Much better article on postmodernism in USA.

[https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/how- ame...](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/how-america-lost- its-mind/534231/)

</comment><comment><USER15> Can someone explain to me why this was flagged?

<comment><USER16> There are two levels to answering questions like this. The purely mechanical is that enough HN members clicked the "flag" link to cross the "[flagged]" tag threshold. The second level answer is to speculate why those members chose to click "flag". That's tougher, though in my experience one of the reasons is because some members observe that unfortunately some topics are difficult to constructively discuss on HN, regardless of the importance of the topic. I think the current discussion is a pretty good example of that, in generating more heat than light. Note that this doesn't mean these topics shouldn't be discussed, just that there are likely better places (both online and off) to do so.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> Ok but... While reading that, did you at any point wonder the ethnicity, gender and approximate age of the author? Because I was less than surprised when I saw him at the end of the article.

<comment> aaron-lebo The sum of identity politics: ignore valid points because of who said them. Sounds like prejudice, which you are probably against.

<comment><USER18> On one hand you're right, ad hominem filtering on the basis of demography is self-limiting.

On the other, it's ironic because the author is a specifically controversial character: [https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Michael_Shermer#Accusations_of...](https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Michael_Shermer#Accusations_of_sexual_misconduct)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> The dissident right holds that this is a good thing - we can't get segregation and a very comprehensive freedom of association from Constitutional conservatives, but progressive leftists are more than happy to do the legwork to erode protections around the 'protected classes'.

But it's something we see playing out across the anglo world - left learning "right thinkers" break down some boundry and hand the keys to people who lean right. Obama took the imperial Presidency to new heights and now Trump gets to reap the rewards. Trump really wouldn't have been possible without Obama.

The sad irony is that leftists need the rule of law and impartial justice much more than right wingers.

<comment><USER19> > Obama took the imperial Presidency to new heights

By what criteria?

<comment><USER9> [http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/443799/obamas- imperial-...](http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/443799/obamas-imperial- presidency)

<comment><USER19> My fault; I should have said "by what quantifiable critera as compared to previous presidents".

Woolly opinion pieces mean nothing.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Ask HN: Working in the U.K.? - <AUTHOR> Hi,
I'm considering working in London for the next few years and am wondering how easy/difficult it would be to land a job and also what the process is like.
My background is in analytics, strategy and software engineering.
I'm also curious about how differences in the interview process, work culture, etc.
Does anyone have any thoughts? <comment><USER2> Generally you should be fine as the banking industry is awesome in London. Culturally you should be fine (assuming you're American) - people are pretty friendly.

Only words of caution are to see how Brexit affects the industry there. It may become less attractive in the coming years, and we're about to experience inflation etc which will affect your pay and quality of life.

Flats are super expensive in London. If you head up to Scotland as you mentioned in a comment then you'll get far more bang for your buck. As a Scot I'll vouch for us being extremely friendly! Culturally different to England but you won't have any issues fitting in.

On the whole though, the UK is great fun and very friendly!

<comment><USER3> Well, most of the north is culturally different to the SE. :)

For the OP, I agree with this - look North - the people get friendlier. Even though you'll be paid less you'll have much more money in your pocket to enjoy after housing and travel. I'll even agree that the Scots are extremely friendly - half my friends are Scots!

<comment><USER2> Very true re cultural difference between the North and SE. I was just thinking from a purely Scots perspective :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> For differences, it might help to tell people where you are coming from

<comment><AUTHOR> Sure. I'm coming from banking (credit cards) by I've also been in insurance, forex and consulting.

I've been a web developer, full stack BI guy and a strategy consultant.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Which sectors are you targeting? Banking, startups, media, energy? Also, getting hired may not be your biggest challenge. The London accommodation market is difficult. Apartments in desirable or even just acceptable areas are outrageously expensive, and get snapped up quick. If you're not a high earner you'll have to settle for a rough area or commuting in from dormitory towns.

<comment><AUTHOR> Which sectors are big in London and Glasgow? Wouldn't mind startups either.

I see. Any sites you'd recommend for me to learn about housing in London?

<comment><USER5> rightmove.co.uk I lived in a scuzzy part of North London from 97-99 (N15), then a nice area (N8). Looking at rents on rightmove now, you need to pay ~1500GBP/month for an apartment in N8. All decent areas will be similar or more. Cheaper areas carry a higher risk of street crime. I left London in 2010 after three burglaries in the same year, and a knifepoint mugging.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I'm an American who moved to London 3 months ago. I got a job at a fintech scale-up[1]. I am really enjoying it so far. My wife and I are in the middle of writing a retrospective on the process, but here are some tips:

Click on my profile and Email me. I'd be happy to skype/hangouts/appear.in videochat with you.

Getting a job & Visa:

\</comment><comment></comment><comment></comment><comment>---

\- Get an account at [https://calendly.com](https://calendly.com) so when setting up interviews, you can avoid: 1) A bunch of back-and-forth emails slowing the process. 2) Double-booking yourself. 3) Missing an interview due to incorrect timezones.

\- Change your location on LinkedIn to the UK, but specify in your bio you are not currently in the UK. Recruiters will start reaching out to you.

\- Try to coordinate things so you only have to fly out once. I stayed in a hotel paid for by one company for a couple of days, then an Airbnb for another week.

\- Most interview processes are pretty similar to the ones in the US. Whiteboard algorithms questions are common. As is hackerrank. If you think they are silly, you should interview with GoCardless[2].

\- Probably the most annoying thing is the visa process. If you are from a country like Canada or Australia, things are easier because you can perhaps get a Tier-5 visa. I'll assume you need a Tier-2 visa because that is what I got. \- Your company will need to be on the register of sponsors[3]. \- Unless you will be doing a job on the Shortage Occupations List[4]. They will need to perform a labour market test for a month. Web Dev is not on that list. \- You and everyone in your party need to have "certified maintenance". That is either a certain amount[5] of money (945 GBP) in the bank or your sponsor will need to tick a box on your certificate. In order to verify that you have this money, you'll need 3-months worth of statements on official bank letterhead or with an official bank stamp. Bank of America policy is that branches should not have these, but some of them still do. Having them notarized at the bank also might work. \- After the company gets the certificate of sponsorship, you'll need to fill out a long web form and book an appointment at a biometric center. After the appointment, you take the documents from the biometric center along with the other supporting documents for your application and send them in. Application processing times can be found at [https://www.gov.uk/visa-processing-times](https://www.gov.uk/visa-processing- times)

Moving over here:

\</comment><comment></comment><comment>-----

\- When you do the move, give names to your pieces of luggage. "Snorlax" is a lot easier to keep track of in your head than "The blue dumpy one that keeps falling over"

\- Buy a Fujitsu Scansnap to digitize your documents[6]

\- Buy a small transformer[7] to step down from 240v->120v before you fly over.

\- To find a flat, you can use websites like rightmove.co.uk, reddit.com/r/London_homes/ gumtree.com/flats-and-houses-for-rent and you can work with a letting agency. Many letting agencies do not respond to email, so you'll need to call them or walk in in-person. Black Katz is an exception and they are nice people. Avoid Foxtons.

\- To rent a flat in the UK, you will need a UK bank account. If you have an Android phone, the easiest way to do this is via [https://www.monese.com/](https://www.monese.com/). Otherwise, you will need a UK address. Some banks such as Lloyds allow you to use your place of employment as a correspondence address for this.

\- For transferring money from USD or other currencies, use Transferwise.

\- Your credit score will not carry over to the UK. Consequently, you will likely need to pay 6 months of rent up front, along with the rental fees. Negotiate your relocation package accordingly.

[1] GoCardless. 100ish people and agile, but they've already found their revenue model, so the word start-up is a bit of a stretch.

[2] For the UX and Core Payments teams, the process is similar to [https://gocardless.com/blog/redesigning-the-devops- interview...](https://gocardless.com/blog/redesigning-the-devops-interview- process/) but swap the DevOps specific questions for Web Dev questions.

[3] [https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachm...](https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/561841/2016-10-21_Tier_2_5_Register_of_Sponsors.pdf)

[4] [https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachm...](https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/486107/Shortage_Occupation_List_- _November_2015.pdf)

[5] [https://www.gov.uk/tier-2-general/eligibility](https://www.gov.uk/tier-2-general/eligibility)

[6] [https://www.amazon.com/Fujitsu-ScanSnap-S1300i-PC- MAC/dp/B00...](https://www.amazon.com/Fujitsu-ScanSnap-S1300i-PC- MAC/dp/B008F05ND6)

[7] [https://www.amazon.com/EnergyPal-Charging- ETCS04-Internation...](https://www.amazon.com/EnergyPal-Charging- ETCS04-International-Protector/dp/B016CHUPB8)

<comment><AUTHOR> Wow. Incredible tips. Thanks for all the detailed information - I'll be sifting through it later tonight. And thanks for the offer to connect - I'd love to get your thoughts on managing the transition for both you and your wife.

<comment><USER6> Can you pop me an email with a calendly link and I can pick a time for us to chat? My address is in my username at mit dot edu.

<comment><AUTHOR> Absolutely.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Webinar-How Blokable uses Mender for OTA updates for scalable housing creation - <AUTHOR> https://mender.io/blog/webinar-or-how-blokable-uses-mender-for-ota-updates-for-scalable-housing-creation <comment><USER2> I work on Mender daily and should know most of the technical aspects :), but it was very interesting to hear how Mender is providing value in a real life project and the reasoning behind why Mender was chosen as OTA solution for the BlokSense Platform.</comment>


After all these years, we still can't easily vertical align in HTML? - <AUTHOR> This is really just an example of one of many things I am perplexed by as a web developer. It is quite astonishing to me that in year 2016, after over 20+ years of web advancements, we still can't easily do things like vertically align HTML elements. I'm sure there are justifiable reasons but I'm still baffled nevertheless. <comment><USER2> Flexbox...?

Even if the web moves forwards, there are still some clients that may be behind. If you have the luxury of only supporting evergreen browsers, then flexbox could be your solution.

[http://flexboxin5.com/](http://flexboxin5.com/)</comment>


Alibaba Chairman CEO Jack Ma's Letter to Employees Before IPO - <AUTHOR> http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-07/alibaba-chairman-ceo-jack-ma-s-letter-to-employees-before-ipo.html

<comment><USER2> Does anyone know the significance of 102 years?

<comment><USER2> Nevermind, found the answer:

"Fifteen years ago, Alibaba's 18 founders were determined to set up a global Internet company originated by Chinese people, with hopes it would become one of the world's top 10 Internet companies, a company which will exist for 102 years," he said—a lifespan which would mean it lives across three different centuries.</comment></comment>


Fraudsters Used AI to Mimic CEO's Voice in Unusual Cybercrime Case - <AUTHOR> https://www.wsj.com/articles/fraudsters-use-ai-to-mimic-ceos-voice-in-unusual-cybercrime-case-11567157402?mod=rsswn <comment><USER2> "Unusual" the first of many. Once crimes like this become slightly more commonplace and start hurting the rich people you're going to see investment in an AI arms race unlike anything we've seen since the cold war. Defeating adversarial techniques and creating AI to identify other AI is going to be a huge business making what we are seeing now look like a drop in the bucket.

<comment><USER3> Eventually it will be indistinguishable from reality. Not looking forward to a time where anyone who gets recorded doing something wrong claims it's a deepfake.

<comment><USER4> Can we all collectively find a way to authenticate videos as they are recorded? Official videos are "easy": store the hash and length in a public blockchain. Gives it a verified timestamp as well as being "signed" by the official wallet. Then videos can be hashed later to verify that it's untouched.

But, security cameras?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> This story is really sketchy, how did they ever confirm that AI was involved unless they caught the perpetrator?

</comment><comment><USER6> So we're going to have to start signing our voice mails with our private keys now?

</comment><comment><USER7> Anyone have a non-paywalled link?

<comment><USER8> No.

And the "web" link Gogle referrer doesn't work.</comment></comment>


AirPods get stuck in low-quality 16 kHz audio mode when starting a VM - <AUTHOR> https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2018/airpods-get-stuck-low-quality-16-khz-audio-mode-when-starting-vm <comment><USER3> I will also repeat what has been said about twelve times thus far: Enabling microphone makes Bluetooth headsets turn into pure shit.

Guess what 5.0 finally allows as per spec? You can use any codec you want for telephony mode, including 44.1 stereo + 44.1 mono SBC.

Guess what Apple does not implement, and guess what every 5.0 headset I've seen so far also does not implement? Sigh. Bluetooth is 20 years old this year, and is still a fucking unmitigated trainwreck of unusabilty.

<comment><USER4> Interesting. On Windows 10, it shows a in/out "Headset (AirPods Hands-Free)" and an out only "Headphones (AirPods Audio)." So this transition would be very easy for the user to see. However, I've as yet been unable to get a straight answer on what profile the "Headphones" mode is actually using.

<comment><USER3> A2DP SBC.

Apple products that implement AAC over A2DP only do so on iOS devices (and in only limited cases), and also do not implement anything else (such as any form of AptX, or LDAC).

<comment><USER5> you can tell macOS to use AAC using an Apple tool called "Bluetooth Explorer". Also, Macs equipped with a T2 chip default to using AAC even without the manual intervention.

You can check what codec is used by alt-clicking the bluetooth icon in your menu bar and hovering over your headphones. There will a an "Active Codec" entry that shows which one is used (during playback).

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I have tried to read the BlueTooth specs a few times, never really getting anywhere, and am amazed that it all (mostly) works given the _immense_ complexity in those standards[1]. Thus I'm not surprised that bugs like this can occur.

[1] The BT5 core spec is freely downloadable. It is a 25MB PDF with over 2800 pages. That's just the core, there are other specifications that layer on top of it.

<comment><USER7> I'm curious, to people here who are technically familiar with the standard, do you think this complexity is justified, or is it a case of an over-engineered protocol?

<comment><USER8> It has 20 years of organic growth and includes a lot of lessons learned from the initial underspecification. Lots of profiles were specified but never used (video delivery, over bluetooth, anyone?). Many were not fully thought through and had to be revised (often in nasty ways to remain backwards-compatible). Sadly backwards compatibility makes it worse and worse every year. If you go and write a stack that complies with the spec 100%, you'll find that it works with maybe 50% of devices out there.

BT 4.0 was a chance to start over, and it will help a lot, in time... BT 5.1 will likely finally bring stereo audio over BT LE, with a cleaner spec than A2DP is. But once again, until all the EDR (classic) devices out there are trashed, BT classic remains a huge pain in everyone's rear and a mandatory thing to support. How soon is that? More than 10 years from now! Why? Cars are a major BT use case and many still ship with BT 2.1 car kits. People do not replace cars as easily as headphones.

source: i work on this currently

<comment><USER9> If BT 4 is better, shouldn't BT 4 devices like the AirPods connected to BT 4 devices like modern Mac computers not have these types of weird problems? :/

<comment><USER10> In my case, AirPods + MB Pro 2013, BT just disconnects for no reason sometimes, other times it refuses to connect. And it's Apples to Apples. Considering the hefty price tag for both devices, the fact that they often fail to produce sound is shameful.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> You may find value in this Mac app that disables the microphone input channel on AirPods as part of pairing them, which should in theory permanently resolve your issue:

[https://c-command.com/toothfairy/](https://c-command.com/toothfairy/)

(Note that I neither know how they're doing it nor have I tried to reverse engineer it. Works well for me in non-VMWare scenarios!)

<comment><USER12> I have Toothfairy and it is amazing as a quicker way to connect my AirPods to my Mac, but I've tried that option for disabling input and it didn't seem to work for me unfortunately. Still absolutely worth the $3 for the other features though.

<comment><USER13> The only time I've seen the input switching not work is if there's another app that keeps forcibly changing the input back to the AirPods. Some games and virtual environments do that. If you contact firstname.lastname@example.com, I can look into what the issue might be on your Mac.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> I only skimmed the article but I didn't see Bluetooth profiles mentioned:

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Bluetooth_profiles](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Bluetooth_profiles)

It's likely switching from A2DP to HSP because the microphone is activated.

This is very common with Bluetooth headsets and it's what still makes me choose corded headsets to this day.

Newest Bluetooth reviews are supposed to have more bandwidth for high quality audio but I'm stuck with (not so) old speakers and car.

If you need wireless, it's better to go with one of those 2.4GHz receivers but they require a small USB adapter. Not really a solution for AirPods.

<comment><AUTHOR> I know that's what happens, but the bug is that it _stays_ in that mode even after the VM has relinquished its claim on the microphone.

Note that this only started happening in this particular scenario after 10.14. It happens in other scenarios from time to time (that is, it stays in HSP even after the app requesting mic use is quit).

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> It's likely because the microphone/input channel is being activated - <USER2> the low-quality audio codec.

<comment><USER16> Yup, this seems to happen whenever AirPods convinces itself that it needs to use its microphone, which seems to necessitate degrading the audio quality.

<comment><USER12> Doesn't happen on iOS though, which leads me to think it must be a limitation of the Bluetooth hardware in Macs but not in iPhones and iPads?

<comment><USER16> I have seen this happen when using Siri or calling people on iOS.

<comment><USER12> All of my iOS devices are rather new, perhaps it depends on which one. I've used Siri, made calls, and spoke in channels on Discord without having it happen on my iPhones 7 and XS, and 2018 iPad. In comparison, my Macs are a 2013 Macbook Pro (running Mojave) and a Hackintosh desktop (still on High Sierra).

<comment><USER16> I'm using an iPhone SE, so it might be that it doesn't have the necessary features to support this?

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> Happens to my Bose QC35s quite often. Part of the issue is that the mic cannot be enabled when full quality audio is active. I guess this is a bandwidth limitation.

My issue stems from pulse audio saying that high quality mode is not available though. Common problem though. Not exclusive to AirPods.

<comment><USER18> Meh, its not really a bandwidth limitation on modern Bluetooth devices, only that it negotiates a different Bluetooth profle. The high quality stereo audio mode (A2DP) has no support for microphones in the spec and is usually highly buffered, so it switches over to the headset profile (HSP). This mode is designed for compatibility all the way back to your old Motorola Razr flip phone, so it doesn't exactly have the highest quality audio options.

If we were to really look at it as a pure bandwidth concept, Bluetooth has plenty of bandwidth to handle high-quality, low-latency, compressed audio streams between two devices. There just isn't a profile written into the spec to handle it, so there's no standard way of negotiating that between a headset and a device.

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

<comment><USER19> >(A2DP) [...] is usually highly buffered, so it switches over to the headset profile (HSP).

Thanks for this information. That explains why it is reasonable to drop the audio quality.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Headphone jack?

Honestly I just hate Bluetooth. I've had it work really well. Been completely pleased. But I've also seen a never-ending raft of this crap. I just don't want to bother. I'll take the wire thanks

<comment><AUTHOR> I prefer wires in almost every situation (just upgraded to a 16 port switch because I have enough wired devices in the house for it now), especially for audio... but in this case I'm in meetings a lot, I listen to songs sometimes in between, and I move around my office quite a bit. I struggled with a decent USB headset for a while, but after five or so times almost breaking my computer from moving my arm and catching the cord (thus yanking the computer off the desk), I started a journey down the path of many different Bluetooth options.

<comment><USER20> Yeah. I have some bluetooth gear. I so very rarely use it, but like you, there are times, right?

I just do not expect much. If it pairs and does anything, cool. Get it done, ditch it quick. When it works well? Total fucking bonus!

I have that gear due to a couple well meant gifts. Like most things, it goes in my road bag. I have a very wide variety of bits in there accumulated over 20 some years. Can handle a ton of odd scenarios. Built it up one fucked scenario at a time. (Like a lot of us probably have)

Edit: New venture, and it is more service related. I am building up a new bag. Lots of new tools instead of bits of tech. Fun!

Every time I go to trim the fat, something comes up. Last time it was some poor tech, early in his career setting up the demo from hell for a trade show. They stuck the guy with some low grade monitor. The combination of the product graphics sub system, it's OS and that screen just would not play well with digital video, which he was equipped for.

Tech support told him analog VGA... the look on his face was hilarious! He thought he was doomed. I went to my room, got the cable and gave it to him.

"WTF?"

I said, "this is how it starts brother, good luck, and keep the cable."

(Yeah, I did replace that one. It is not over yet where analog video is concerned. Soon though. Soon, I keep saying...)

That road bag goes to shows and other engagements where who knows? Worth carrying it.

A lighter version exists in my back pack. Mostly adapters, other bits. Lean and mean. I am mobile enough to warrant some kit or other.

Blutooth has saved my ass a few times. Both kits have a couple basic Blutooth devices, and some USB ones too.

To me, it is like that VGA cable, or odd gender changer, or dongle, USB device, world power brick with tips, etc. An option, and sometimes a welcome one, but not a daily driver.

My dailies are super simple, very robust, ultra low hassle. I just do not have the time and energy. Save that for the tough gigs.

<comment><USER21> I'll be very sad when analog video dies - I've just been fighting with getting the Nintendo Switch to output via an unofficial dock (because the official one is too big to travel with).

<comment><USER22> You're game, trying to use an unofficial Dock. There's a heavy risk of your Switch entering a boot loop, effectively becoming bricked.

<comment><USER21> Uh,yes, apparently I've been very lucky. I've stopped now.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I figured I'd ask this here: my AirPods have never been what I'd call "perfect", and I'm trying to figure out whether these are fundamental issues with AirPods or if I have a bad pair. Is it normal for AirPods to ignore double taps on them 50% of the time (it's worse if I try to use Siri, which almost never works, and better if I try to play/pause but still not great)? My AirPods also take up to thirty seconds to switch between devices. Is this normal? Everyone I have met raves about their AirPods but for me they have simply been "passable", at the level I'd expect from any other Bluetooth headphones.

<comment><USER23> I also find them to be incredibly slow to connect to my iPhone — frequently necessitating going into system preferences->Bluetooth on the iPhone and clicking on the AirPods before the connection finally happens ... it's a complete mystery to me whether they will be connected when I pull my phone out and put them on at any given time (seems worse with Xs than before - though Xs seems worse generally in all network connectivity experiences for me than previous phones ...)

I find them passable as well — but frequently annoying - though I do like the design and fit a lot...

<comment><USER24> Can you use the play widget on the control center? That's how I pair mine whenever they are acting iffy. Simply 3D Touch the music/play widget. Click on the little triangle on the top right and select your AirPods. That works for me 100% of the time.

<comment><AUTHOR> Ditto. Fast and easy, never had an issue on iPhone or iPad from control center. Have only had weird issues from time to time on the Mac.

<comment><USER16> How long does it take you to pair? I use the control center widget almost exclusively and it takes a while to connect.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> A dozen comments that this happens because the microphone is turned on, but nobody is asking why vagrant is turning the microphone on?

<comment><USER26> Vagrant is using VirtualBox under the hood, and presumably the default VB config is to let the VM use two-way audio, so it preemptively opens both the output and mic channel in case the VM needs it.

<comment><USER25> I have so many questions, but will not ask them because I don't think I'll like the answers.

<comment><USER21> THe answer is better defaults. Raise a bug report.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER27> The same with Bose QC35 II while running StarCraft II on macOS

</comment><comment><USER28> I figure the audience is right on this site, so here's my question: for someone used to pretty decent over the ear and in-ear headphones (Sennheiser, AKG, Etymotic), are AirPods passable at least, or total trash like Apple's wired earbuds? What's the quality differential?

This is the thing I don't get about Apple. They sell $1.1K phone and include these crappy $3 earbuds in the box. Can they do better? At their production volumes and profit margins, I have no doubt. Even Samsung includes a decent pair of AKGs.

<comment><USER29> They're about the same as the normal earbuds but still way better than 3 dollar earbuds. I use them not for the quality but for the convenience when making phonecalls. Unfortunately the battery life on them is abysmal two years later. Barely lasts 10 minutes after daily use.

<comment><USER30> Never heard this before. Mine are 1yo with intensive use & easily still last hours. 2 years is a really short lifetime

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Yep, happens any time the AirPods mic is activated on MacOS, has been that way since launch as far as I know. Doesn't happen on iOS. I can only assume it has something to do with the Bluetooth hardware or they would have fixed it by now.

<comment><AUTHOR> But it usually goes back once the mic is no longer being used. And I've had it happen a few times where I take a 'continuity phone call' from my iPhone on my Mac. The AirPods switch to the low-quality call mode, I have my conversation, I hang up, and the audio quality still stays switched until I do the Audio MIDI workaround or reboot.

Most of the time that doesn't happen, though—when I hang up the audio goes back to normal mode (48 kHz). So it seems to be a weird bug with the switching that I've only ever seen on the Mac (works perfect on iOS).

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> They are probably getting paired with a device capable of receiving audio input (the VM itself?) and the bluetooth profile jumps from A2DP to HSP.

</comment><comment><USER32> Similarly there's a bug when starting the iOS simulator with certain permissions that does this to ALL Bluetooth headsets.

<comment><USER33> Go to the Hardware menu, Audio Input, and select "Built-in Microphone" as the input. Then input will never use your BT headphones.

</comment></comment><comment><USER34> I've found that if I ever do a Facetime call on my 2015 ESC Macbook pro, my Airpods use the same terrible quality audio channel. Very frustrating to say the least!

</comment><comment><USER35> This happened to me in Windows on my bose qc35's when I started GTA5

</comment><comment><USER36> I recently ran across similar issues while developing a web app, [https://rap.coach](https://rap.coach) , that features simultaneous audio playback and recording. A lot of people are saying that Bluetooth headsets have to go into a super-low quality mode when both playback and recording are enabled, but based on my testing it appears to be a software issue.

The issue appears when I use Rap Coach with Chrome on Android, but doesn't happen in Firefox on Android. It is very frustrating, getting better control over the audio hardware is one of the main reasons I'm going to end up building app store versions of this thing.

</comment><comment><USER37> I've seen the same issue, and (at least in my case) it seems to be from audio being enabled on the VM and that getting passed through by Virtual Box. Something like this for your own box should solve the root cause: [https://github.com/palantirnet/the- vagrant/pull/60](https://github.com/palantirnet/the-vagrant/pull/60)

</comment><comment><USER38> This happens for any bluetooth headphones on Mac. It usually means that mic was turned on.

</comment><comment><USER39> Honestly coreaudiod is a hot mess. Every time I plug in a usb audio adapter it puts balance at 100% left channel and max volume. killall coreaudiod fixes it. I miss when Macs worked reliably.

<comment><USER40> I've run into this issue since owning my first Mac, circa 7 years ago. So while I don't agree with your over generalization, I do agree that this is very bad and should be fixed once and for all!

</comment></comment><comment><USER41> To be fair, I've seen this happen with all my bluetooth headsets not just AirPods. The issue eventually fixes itself after the VM guest boots into an OS.

</comment><comment><USER24> This happens to me on Parallels 10. But it only happens for like 5 seconds. Then it jumps back to normal sounding experience.

It's Parallels 10 booting up a Windows 7 VM.

</comment><comment><USER42> Did weird stuff like this happen with wired headphones?

<comment><USER43> It's definitely a Bluetooth audio thing. I can hear mine shift into a lower quality audio when I use them for conference calls. (There's a limited amount of bandwidth and it has to make room for bidirectional audio.)

<comment><USER44> As someone else pointed out it is not actually bandwidth problem. Reason behind this is that high quality audio streaming profile A2DP is one-way only and once mic is needed, profile is changed to bidirectional but low quality HSP. My workaround for conference calls is to use my MacBook's internal microphone instead of one of my Bluetooth headset.

<comment><USER43> I suspect that the underlying reason that the profile switch happens, though, is because of bandwidth limits. That's what Sennheiser is telling their customers, at least.

[https://sennheiseruk.happyfox.com/kb/article/175-different-b...](https://sennheiseruk.happyfox.com/kb/article/175-different- bluetooth-profiles-a2dp-vs-hsp/)

The real answer may be more subtle than that. Maybe there is just enough bandwidth, but using it would have an adverse effect on latency, which bidirectional use cases are more sensitive to.

Either way, the profiles were designed within constraints. They're not arbitrary.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> Bluetooth works fine on my Linux desktop (ASUS mainboard) with Bluetooth dongle.

</comment><comment><USER46> Discovers a secret "Vaporwave Mode", calls it a bug, not a feature. Heretic!

</comment><comment><USER47> Back patting myself for sticking to wired, passive earphones. I ain't got no time for debugging yet another piece of crap on top of my WiFi router, my NAS, my HTPC, and other misc. equipment that should have just f_cking worked...</comment>


Show HN: TestFront helps you create end-to-end tests with no code - <AUTHOR> https://www.testfront.io <comment><AUTHOR> This is a soft, absolute minimum viable product "launch". Mostly looking for some feedback and validation.

I'll probably repost if/when Chrome Web Store approves the extension, especially since I've gotten zero feedback (so far).

I created TestFront to solve some pain points for me when creating end-to-end and/or UI tests. Awesome tools like Cypress are still too tedious for me and take way too long.

TestFront is free and open source, MIT licensed. Check the issues on GitHub (notably the high priority ones) for what's next on the agenda. Issues will be prioritized based on user feedback so feel free to give issues a thumbs up or thumbs down and/or create issues of your own: [https://github.com/testfront- io/testfront-devtools/issues?q=...](https://github.com/testfront-io/testfront- devtools/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+sort%3Acreated-asc)

I did a short screen recording yesterday, covering every user join/login/update possibility in under 4 minutes: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifkaptIYeL8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifkaptIYeL8)

You can probably watch it at 2x speed to get the idea. At the end, you'll see me commit the tests I made to the [https://github.com/testfront-io/starter- kit-app](https://github.com/testfront-io/starter-kit-app) repository, which you can clone and run yourself to get an idea for how easy it is. (Note that for the API, I used the `serverless-dynamodb` branch of `starter-kit-api` for easier installation and data resets, but the `express-postgresql` branch should work roughly the same.)</comment>


Dichronauts - <AUTHOR> http://www.gregegan.net/DICHRONAUTS/DICHRONAUTS.html <comment><USER2> I recently read Greg Egan's previous trilogy set in an alternate-physics universe, the _Orthogonal_ trilogy, and it was excellent. (In _Orthogonal_ , time is a space-like dimension, and relativity, optics, and chemistry change accordingly.)

Not only does Egan invent weird universes and let the reader follow the math involved to whatever extent they want, he also tells great stories in the universes he invents.

 _Orthogonal_ tells of a society's quest through deep space, searching for a way to survive and save their home planet, using technology they have to invent along the way. (The characters can speak in diagrams, with which they explain the science to each other and to the reader.) It builds up to include some plot twists that are only made possible by the strange nature of time and space.

 _Dichronauts_ seems to be an iteration on this formula (now there are two time-like dimensions), which sounds more bewildering and constraining to the plot, but I trust Egan to do it well.

</comment><comment><USER3> Exciting! Egan is one of my favorite authors; he has an incredible imagination, and is one of few sci-fi authors who often puts an extensive list of citations in at the end of his books. No doubt the physics in this book are very carefully thought out. Looks like there are descriptions of the alternative spacetime he's using at the bottom of the page, so I'll have to give those a read!

</comment><comment><USER4> Neat. I noticed that the summary for this popped up on Egan's site a few months back, but there wasn't nearly enough detail for me to wrap my head around the premise. Gonna take another look at it now.

For anyone who finds this interesting, you might want to check out Christopher Priest's _Inverted World_ , which is based on a vaguely similar premise. (Although much more closely tied to the "real world", and not nearly as mathematically rigorous.)

<comment><USER4> Just posting a follow-up comment to say that the interactive simulation is really the highlight of this set of pages. I was expecting a trivial demo widget, along the lines of the animated GIFs in the article, but it's actually a full 3D rigid-body simulation.

Playing around with blocks and ramps in a browser does a great job of taking the mathematical analysis given in the article, and making it at least somewhat intuitively understandable. But on the other hand, it doesn't exactly make a convincing case that a world built according to these rules could ever be stable!

[http://gregegan.customer.netspace.net.au/DICHRONAUTS/02/Inte...](http://gregegan.customer.netspace.net.au/DICHRONAUTS/02/Interactive.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> I've just come here to say that I came here after literally finishing _Permutation City_ around two hours back. It was great.

I can't wait to try Schild's Ladder -- differential geometry, yay!

</comment><comment><USER6> Is it 'Into Darkness' that has the idea of a space where you can only move forwards, not sideways? This sounds like that mixed with the rigorous alternative physics of the Clockwork Rocket series.

That is, it sounds fun, for quite difficult values of fun.

</comment><comment><USER7> I've always been really disappointed in Egan's work. He's been praised to the stars, so my expectations were kind of high. But when I actually read his work, I found it to be pretty shallow and dry, with cardboard characters, like much hard scifi. He kind of reminds me of Vernor Vinge, for whom I'd also had high hopes, as both authors deal with the singularity a lot -- an idea I really find compelling. Unfortunately, I find their execution to be pretty weak, and even their ideas are mediocre.

<comment><USER8> > _with cardboard characters, like much hard scifi_

I think a lot of sci-fi fans (myself included) don't pay much attention to that because, well, it's not why we read sci-fi. People are boring. Cool science and weird technologies and interplanetary-scale politics are fun. For every story you'd like to tell to make a character "deep", there's a _whole genre_ dealing with it in real-world settings already. Troubled teenagers? Sure, there's a section on Amazon just for that. People in love? Every other book is about this. Etc.

Just my 2¢.

<comment><USER9> I dunno, man. SF exists as a lens to say something about people. The whiz-bang technology is...I want to say "wank", but I don't mean it pejoratively. That stuff just doesn't _mean_ much. I have great admiration for folks like Robert Forward as _people_ , but...once you take away the technology, they're not saying much. It's potboiler stuff. And that's fine, but I look at that, and then I look at somebody like Spider Robinson, whose inclusion in _Analog_ got Ben Bova no end of shitty emails, and...he's actually sayin' stuff. Like, you don't have to agree with it, but there's something, once you put the book down, that you can take away.

I don't care how hard your SF is: it is always and without exception about what technology does _to people_ \--otherwise it's an engineering manual for something that doesn't exist. A lot of the "greats" of hard SF never got that. (Forward, again, comes to mind.) I have a more charitable opinion of Egan than the OP does, to be sure, but I have a _strong_ reaction to the notion that the human element of this should ever, ever be played down. Everything, ultimately, is about people. We miss that at our peril.

This is why most of Heinlein (the tail end of his career notwithstanding--we all know it gets weird, let it lie) still holds up so well despite so much of technology and society having changed in the interim. Even books that weren't trying to be hard SF (his juveniles, which IMO are some of his weakest books, tended towards this) had engineering and mathematical verisimilitude, but it was a concern set well behind the characters who had _stuff to do and learn and grow through_. (Most of the time. Lookin' at you, _Red Planet_.)

<comment><USER3> > The whiz-bang technology is wank

Egan is good because nothing in his books is "whiz-bang". He's not writing about turboencabulators or laser guns; he's writing about worlds in which nature itself is fundamentally different, and in a much more fulfilling way than you would find in a fantasy book (because you know Egan's worlds are at least as mathematically viable as our own).

I disagree that SF exists to say something about people. Authors like Egan use it to say something about the universe itself, which is a much more vast and beautiful topic than the everyday goings-on of humans. Perhaps your focus is too anthropocentric to enjoy it.</comment></comment></comment></comment>